US National
Interest and Mideast Mess
The US military
is involved in perpetual police work and nation building in and around the
Mideast. It is past time to question
whether this military involvement is in the US national interest.
The US Congress gives
military aid to Israel in exchange for lobby spending. Israel spends about one tenth of its national
income on its military and should pay its own military bill. There is no good reason for US taxpayers to
support Israel’s military.
With
jet travel to the “Holy Land” the tourism stakes in the Mideast have become
substantial. At the turn of the 20th
century the area was mostly abandoned. Most
of the people in Israel and Palestine have migrated there since World War II.
The
present uneasy borders were drawn to split ethnic groups into different nations
following two world wars. The locals
should decide their own borders. For an
example of how well foreign drawn borders work, take a look at maps of Central
and Eastern Europe in the 1960s and 2000s.