Commentary: America can't solve Mideast's problems

We are one tough nation, full of testosterone and ready to tangle. You can see it in recent policing events in Ferguson and New York City; in America's far higher rates of incarceration, murder, gun ownership and capital punishment as compared with other industrialized nations; in our violence against women, violence against children, violent films, violent TV, violent football and violent rap songs; in the broken, rough, impersonal and visually violent nature of most of our inner cities; and especially in the broken lives of many of our own people.

Being tough, we put inordinate faith in the ability of our military to solve our foreign problems and indeed to solve everybody else's problems. There are times when force is called for, but America is far too quick to jump into confrontation and then into military action in dealing with the world.

This John Wayne style of foreign policy didn't work out so well in Iraq. Following the attack on New York City by Islamic terrorists, I had supported our effort to destroy Al Quida, defeat the Taliban and restore Afghanistan to some semblance of civilization. But the gratuitous and endless American war on Iraq sapped us of the manpower, money and will to do much about Afghanistan. Today, neither Afghanstan nor Iraq are better off or less dangerous than they were before the attack on New York City. These misbegotten military adventures did. however, teach many of us a valuable lesson about the futility of war as an all-purpose foreign policy tool. In fact, war itself is often the primary enemy.

Today, Amerians have a well-founded uneasiness, and little agreement, about foreign ventures. We are certainly uneasy about putting U.S. boots on the ground in dangerous places, but we also don't want to see Islamic State terrorists claiming Syria and Iraq, or Russia claiming the Crimean peninsula, or China claiming the South China Sea, or Iran getting nuclear weapons, or a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, and so forth. And so the Obama administration talks tough about terrorists, Assad's Syria, Iran and Russia, but engages only the Islamic State militarily and then using only American air power.

Virtually the only voices of dissent from administration policy come from the hawkish likes of John McCain and others who want to throw U.S. military power, including boots on whatever ground is involved, at every foreign problem. More dovish voices are seldom heard, or at any rate seldom listened to, at least until the hawkish solutions are tried and found wanting.

My take is that American policies, including Obama's policies, are far too aggressive. We are too involved militarily in the Mideast and elsewhere, too little involved diplomatically and too little involved with humanitarian assistance. We cannot solve every problem of the world with a big military stick. We will necessarily have serious disagreements with many nations, but this doesn't mean we should send in the Marines, or levy sanctions, every time there's a dispute.

Whatever is ailing the Muslim world, if that ailment is to be solved, the primary effort is going to have to come from the Muslim world itself, not from the U.S. Despite the world's unfortunate thirst for Mideast oil, the problems of Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism and governance in these nations are regional. If nations such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Afghanistan, and factions such as the Syrian rebels, the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shiites, want to solve the tangled mess they've gotten themselves into, they must take the leadership in doing just that. Afghanistan and Iraq show that outside efforts to grab the leadership and intervene militarily only make matters worse. Islamic terrorism is obviously a threat not only to the Mideast but also to the rest of the world, but American leadership in trying to solve this problem is only making matters worse for everybody.

Secretary of State John Kerry is trying to organize an American-led coalition of nations to fight the Islamic State. This is a prescription for endless war and little resolution of Mideastern problems. Kerry's diplomatic outreach is a good thing, but it should be directed toward discussing with other nations how they intend to solve their own problems, and how we might help with humanitarian, financial and technical assistance. We should help, but we should not lead. In particular, we should not lead a war on the Islamic State or anybody else in the Mideast, for the problem in the Mideast has always been war itself.

ART HOBSON IS A PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF PHYSICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS.

Commentary on 12/14/2014

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