Buckle Up: Another Extended Campaign Into The Middle East

[response to] September 16th's Middle East Forum with the International Relations Council

Earlier this week, our club (known off-the-web as the Israeli Culture Club) hosted its second installment in our 2014 Spring Middle East Forum Series, this time with cosponsorship by the International Relations Council. The IR Council is similar to our pro-Israel group in that we are relatively new to Colgate’s campus, and we both strive to analyze and interact with the global political sphere that often does not otherwise reach Hamilton, New York.

The layout of our discussion on Tuesday was very relaxed and open to any direction, and as a result it was interesting and telling to see what current events and themes emerged after 60 minutes of deliberation.

The first point of focus was in regards to President Obama’s decision to employ airstrikes as a key strategy in combatting the Islamic State. While most event attendees agreed that these US-led airstrikes were indeed appropriate and essential in stopping the immediate spread of ISIS, many also expressed concern that these airstrikes will be counter-productive in the long-term in that they will only play into the narrative that America and the West is the undeniable adversary to all Arabs. The propaganda war, both in print and online, is fundamental to this debate.

Take this tweet for example:

The propaganda war is very much alive and active, and therefore in this context (as many argued on Tuesday), the implemented strategies and policies the United States and Its allies undertake simply do not matter. The only way for America to effectively combat the Arab Narrative of Western "imperialism" would be to simply vacate involvement in the region....which our conversation ventured into next and where I will go into detail below.

The question of "How to fix the Middle East?" was presented to Tuesday's participants. The conversation was not as generic as one may think, in that those of us breaking down the answer attempted to get to the true roots of the conflicts. My opinion is that at this juncture in time, it is impossible to justly and impartially allow for the many different ethnicities of the Middle East to determine their own political futures, isolated from foreign involvement. In a utopian world, we would (a) be able to go back in time and reverse the many short-term political maneuvers of the British and French during/post WWI that have resulted in this chaos, or (b) be able to withdraw all Western involvement in the region and allow for a natural and untainted process of [hopefully] democratization of the region.

Since I do not think a time machine has been built yet (although I wouldn't doubt that the Technion is close), and the other option of abandoning the Middle East would simply result in a political vacuum only to be filled by extremist groups like ISIS or superpowers like Russia or China, I will have to echo this post's predecessor in Max Kurzner by stating that the United States and the Free World have no other option but to confront the Islamic State militarily and politically. 

I would hope that in my next post, I will be able to discuss other Middle Eastern topics besides ISIS, but we may as well call this what it is: war. And we may as well distinguish that the threat from ISIS will not be easily fought and won. The American public should buckle up and be prepared for another extended campaign in the region.

Until next time Blogosphere,

AB