Middle East Solution? Ignore It

The only option: "backward societies must be left alone"
By J. Kelman,  Newser User
Posted May 1, 2007 10:05 PM CDT
Middle East Solution? Ignore It
Iranian women chant slogans under a portrait of Iran's supreme...   (Getty Images (by Event))

As experts scramble to respond to escalating crises in the Middle East, think-tanker Edward Luttwack has a novel solution—leave 'em be. The strategic implications of the Arab-Israeli crisis ended with the Cold War, he argues, and local regimes don't control oil supplies—oil companies do.

Besides, none of the countries is nearly as well-armed as we presume. It's time, he asserts, to "recognise that backward societies must be left alone." He hopes to start with Iran, a country he views, if anything, as a minor threat. Iran, he says, is like a modern-day Mussolini: fooling the world into thinking it's far mightier than it is. (More Middle East stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X