Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Does anyone else get the feeling we're way over our heads in the Middle East?

By "we", I mean Americans and this Friedman column takes a look at our historical political initiatives there.

The Bush team, by contrast, in eight years has managed to put America in the unique position in the Middle East where it is “not liked, not feared and not respected,” writes Aaron David Miller, a former Mideast negotiator under both Republican and Democratic administrations, in his provocative new book on the peace process, titled “The Much Too Promised Land.”

“We stumbled for eight years under Bill Clinton over how to make peace in the Middle East, and then we stumbled for eight years under George Bush over how to make war there,” said Mr. Miller, and the result is “an America that is trapped in a region which it cannot fix and it cannot abandon.”

In general, when I read commentary on the Middle East (which, I'll admit, is not nearly as often as I read about domestic policy, but I try to stay informed) -- most of the article is spent explaining how things work and why, with very little concrete advice on how to proceed. Sometimes I get the feeling even the author isn't certain of the knowledge he or she is relying on. Makes me wish I had taken a Middle Eastern history course in college, or something to help me understand this whole situation better. I want to muse on this some more, but in the meantime, if anyone has any resources they'd like to recommend, I welcome it.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Man, going to Tom Friedman for insight into the Middle East is like asking for driving directions from a blind man.

Melinda said...

Haha thus the request for other sources and the line "Sometimes I get the feeling even the author isn't certain of the knowledge he or she is relying on."

I'd hardly go to Friedman as the definitive source on the Middle East - but considering he gets more exposure than most scholars of the subject, I'm glad he brings it up from time to time. What I really need a good starting point, a general source of reliable historical/religious/social information. Any ideas?