Iraq has become that toasty vegetable that one wants to get stuck holding. Democrats and Republicans alike are jumping ship. Not even Arab countries want anything to do with it. Mohammed al-Naqbi, head of the Gulf Negotiations Center (I have no idea what that is), was quoted recently as saying,"Iraq is your problem, not the problem of the Arabs"
We can no longer dispute that Iraq is anything but a debacle. One thing is certain, though...Iraq is most certainly an Arab problem, if not more so than a U.S. one.
Turkey already faces a problem dealing with rebel Kurds waging a guerilla war, one they are incapable of fighting because the rebels slip across the Iraq border into the Kurdish north. The Kurds have been largely ignored as the U.S. has been preoccupied with securing Baghdad and hostile regions like the Anbar province. They are only concerned with establishing a Kurdish nation, and this includes helping their rebel countrymen in Turkey. They have no interest in saving Iraq.
Although bad, the sectarian violence (also known as a civil war) is not yet all out. In the event the U.S. leaves, it would become a full scale civil war, complete with refugees fleeing across borders. With unemployment between 15% and 20% and its regime under attack, can Saudi Arabia really cope with an influx of refugees?
Do Saudi Arabia and Jordan really want Iran in control next door?
For all these reasons and many more, the Iraq problem is an Arab problem.
1 comment:
Perhaps by "problem" he meant "responsibilty." I hope so, because he has to realize that Iraq in its current state is one of the biggest crises the Middle East has faced in years, for all the reasons you outlined in your post and more.
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