Friday, August 25, 2006
A Winnable War on Terror
In an Aug 21st press conference at the Center Briefing Room, President Bush reiterated for the hundredth time America's core objective for entering the war in Iraq:
"The United States of America must understand it's in our interests that we help this democracy succeed. As a matter of fact, it's in our interests that we help reformers across the Middle East achieve their objectives." http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060821.html
Yet, I wonder to myself whether such a noble vision of peace and democracy is even conceivable in the Middle East. The Middle East is far from a region hospitable to the clarion call of freedom, liberty, and justice. Perhaps the Bush Administration should treat the Mid East for what it actually is: a region continually on the verge of breakdown, a patient in need of emergency care. Democracy-building should be the key policy of some future administration capable of first restoring at least some semblance of order.
My suggestion for the Bush team would be to direct their resources towards a region long neglected and easily winnable: Central Asia.
In the War of Ideas against Islamic extremism, Kazakhstan stands out as an oil-rich, secular Muslim regime forging its way towards greater democracy by its own volition. Together with Georgia, Kazakhstan unabashedly advocates for American interests in the anti-US Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Yet the US has neglected to repay this kindness by not embracing a plan to build a trans-continental oil pipeline from Kazakhstan to Europe bypassing Gazprom. The pipeline would enrich our friends like the Kazakhs, Turks, and Georgians, while loosening Russia's tight grip on Europe's economy.
Note to Bush: Here's a battle against extremism and terrorism that we can actually win.
In an Aug 21st press conference at the Center Briefing Room, President Bush reiterated for the hundredth time America's core objective for entering the war in Iraq:
"The United States of America must understand it's in our interests that we help this democracy succeed. As a matter of fact, it's in our interests that we help reformers across the Middle East achieve their objectives." http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060821.html
Yet, I wonder to myself whether such a noble vision of peace and democracy is even conceivable in the Middle East. The Middle East is far from a region hospitable to the clarion call of freedom, liberty, and justice. Perhaps the Bush Administration should treat the Mid East for what it actually is: a region continually on the verge of breakdown, a patient in need of emergency care. Democracy-building should be the key policy of some future administration capable of first restoring at least some semblance of order.
My suggestion for the Bush team would be to direct their resources towards a region long neglected and easily winnable: Central Asia.
In the War of Ideas against Islamic extremism, Kazakhstan stands out as an oil-rich, secular Muslim regime forging its way towards greater democracy by its own volition. Together with Georgia, Kazakhstan unabashedly advocates for American interests in the anti-US Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Yet the US has neglected to repay this kindness by not embracing a plan to build a trans-continental oil pipeline from Kazakhstan to Europe bypassing Gazprom. The pipeline would enrich our friends like the Kazakhs, Turks, and Georgians, while loosening Russia's tight grip on Europe's economy.
Note to Bush: Here's a battle against extremism and terrorism that we can actually win.
# posted by Jonathan Noble @ 12:46 PM 
