How Do We Get Out of the Middle East?

By Alec B.

Since Osama bin Laden died two weeks ago, everyone from Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to American director Michael Moore has asked for American troops to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan. But is it time? The U.S. has spent ten years and lost thousands of lives. Was it all for just one man? Since 9/11, terrorism has struck dozens of countries and put the U.S. in a tough spot.  How can the United States get out? We have been involved with Middle Eastern politics since the early Cold War, taking an interest in the Islamic countries like Iran and the former chaos-infected Afghanistan. On the other end of the spectrum, we have countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that have found oil and have done extremely well. 

The way to get out of the Middle East is to balance the Iranian power and their nuclear ambitions from threatening our close allies Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, U.A.E. and Qatar. We can do this by giving our allies new weapons and better, more efficient ways of combating what seems like a mini Cold War: autocrats and ayatollah-imam leadership on one side and the wealthy pro-west nations empowered by the American war machine and weapons on the other. But will they have to fight? The revolts in Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia have left questions in Tehran. Will violence have to be used to return to democracy?

When the government of Tunisia fell to democracy as a result of simple protests, Egypt followed. The fall of these once semi- autocratic nations has brought about a new train of thought in the Middle East. Before the revolutions, the process to get a new leader was to shoot, take the capital and enact a coup d’état until the rest of the country surrendered. That process has been effective in Middle Eastern politics for the past century.  It seems a new idea is in play. The effect of picketing outside city hall seems to have more of an impact than using violence and extremism to get what you want. If this is how the Middle East plays out, is the U.S. even needed? Or wanted? 

Americans across the nation cheered and chanted about the death of the Islamic extremist Osama bin Laden. According to intelligence officials and closed door sessions with Leon Panetta, the head of the C.I.A, no one wants to step up to the plate as leader of Al Qaeda. Even Mullah Omar, the head of the Afghan Taliban, seems quiet. After 10 years of combat, all it took was one man’s death.  It’ll be interesting to see what happens now.

The Crisis in the Middle East

By Charlotte Z.

We all heard about the historic crisis that took place in Egypt a few months ago. The riots in Egypt forced their leader of the last 30 years, Hosni Mubarak, to step down. Although the rioting has ceased in Egypt, many other countries, such as Libya, Syria and Bahrain are revolting against their own leaders. The Egyptians have always hated the dictatorship, but it took them 30 years to finally protest for democracy. They were inspired to protest because of their anger over rising taxes, by the fact that Mubarak wanted his son to succeed him, and finally, the man who set himself on fire in Tunisia moved them. Then, a young girl made a YouTube video telling Egypt that she was going to hold a rally against the government, and she asked others to join her. 

The pro-democracy Egyptians were not satisfied when Hosni Mubarak decided he would resign in September, because they wanted him to step down immediately. On the other hand, western nations hoped Mubarak would stay in power because they were afraid of losing an important ally. The country most concerned was Israel. Mubarak was corrupt, but under his power he maintained the 1978 peace treaty with Israel. It is vital that Egypt keep their peace treaty with Israel. Thomas Friedman from the New York Times interviewed a man from Tel Aviv who said, “Well, everything we thought for the last 30 years is no longer relevant.” I fear that people in the Muslim Brotherhood who will not want to negotiate with the United States or Israel will replace him and his empty cabinet once an election is held. Also, Egypt is the Arab country that gets the most aid from the United States because of the peace treaty, but I don’t think that the Egyptian people realized this as they rallied in the streets. If they decide to cancel the peace treaty with Israel, it means that the United States may stop sending as much aid to Egypt. On the other hand, I think that if Mubarak had stayed longer, as he had said, Egypt would have resorted to bloodshed and violence. 

I am glad that the Egyptian government didn’t turn to the violent means that Libyan leadership did.  I think that the situation in Egypt is too complicated to just decide whether or not we wanted Mubarak to stay or go. I think that if there were someone moderate poised to lead, I would have fully wanted Mubarak to go. Unfortunately, it is unclear who will lead.

I am interested to see what is going to happen in the future, now that Mubarak has stepped down. Since Mubarak stepped down, it seems as though nothing has changed in Egypt. I wonder who is going to take over as president, whether or not Egypt will become a democracy, what party will fill the empty cabinet seats, and what effect it is going to have on relations with Israel. 

I hope that the rest of the Middle East will move towards peaceful democracies, and I am interested to see how these changes will affect the rest of the world.