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President Donald Trump’s return to the Middle East this week, the first since his first-term 2017 visit, will take place amidst great turmoil. It is a region that bears little resemblance to the Middle East of 2017, and it appears, at least from media reporting this past week, that the Trump Administration has some understanding of this reality.
Syria has been over-run and is now controlled by the same al-Qaeda that the U.S. government supposedly spent 20 years fighting in the “war on terror.” Violence against religious and ethnic minorities has, predictably, exploded under the “rule” of a self-proclaimed Syrian president who until very recently was on the U.S. “most wanted” terrorist list.
After the October 7, 2023, Hamas raid, Gaza has been reduced to rubble and turned into a humanitarian catastrophe. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and perhaps another million face starvation. U.S. bombs and financial aid have facilitated the utter destruction of Gaza.
Iran has made peace with Saudi Arabia thanks to Chinese mediation and is deepening its ties with the Kingdom. Thus, the U.S. has little leverage in talks with the two former enemies.
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Israel is conducting military operations against several countries in the region simultaneously as the world increasingly condemns its aggression against its neighbors.
After tearing up the JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran in his first term, President Trump is pushing for a new deal with Iran while threatening to attack if negotiations do not produce the results he demands.
Massively increased U.S. military action against the Houthis in Yemen starting in March did not result in their capitulation to U.S. demands. Despite attempting to put the best spin on things, it is clear that the U.S. retreated from the region in the face of a series of successful Yemeni actions in defense of their homeland.
Former president Joe Biden and then Trump launched attacks against Yemen on behalf of Israel, but in the end the U.S. president wisely removed American military assets from the area and called off the bombing.
In short, President Trump will be wading into a minefield this week, but it is a peril that the U.S. government has largely brought upon itself. Decades of U.S. interventionism, from at least the 2003 Iraq war, have not produced the peaceful transformation of the region, as promised by the neocons and their mentor, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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From the unnecessary Iraq war – based on lies – to the destruction of Libya and Syria and countless other interventions, the Middle East is a basket case. And it turns out none of it actually helped Israel at all!
Having ignited the tinder box of the region with U.S. backing, Israel has now found itself friendless in a region increasingly hostile to its policies and even its very existence. Now there are indications that the Trump Administration is tiring of this entangling alliance as the MAGA base looks more warily on foreign interventionism.
The lesson that President Trump should take with him is that to a large degree it has been U.S. interventionism in the Middle East that has produced these poisoned fruits. His wise military disengagement from the Houthis in Yemen should serve as a U.S. model for the region. Ties forged by trade and friendship produce peace and prosperity and are far preferable to endless neocon war cries.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Ron Paul is a former U.S. Congressman from Texas and the leader of the pro-liberty, pro-free market movement in the United States. His weekly column – reprinted with permission – can be found here.
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4 comments
To answer the question in the title: Arabs, Jews, and sand.
You usually find what you are looking for, and he is looking for more bribes like the 400 million he got from Qatar, the 2 billion his son-in-law got from Saudi Arabia, the promise of a Trump Hotel in Syria, and all the meme coin purchases he has been getting from foreign nationals. This is the most corrupt government in history. I think America is doomed. Everything is about making the Trump family richer and they will screw the country to do it.
You are correct, but I don’t think a case for the Biden, Obama, Bush, or Clinton, administrations being honest could be made with a straight face.
More grift.