March 21, 2006: "Why do they hate
us?"
The News:
- U.S.
furious over Israel's demolition of East Jerusalem homes,
Haaretz, March 22,
2009
- PA:
Israel to freeze demolition of 91 houses in East Jerusalem,
Ma'an News Agency, March 22, 2009
- State
will not evacuate Ofra residents, Jerusalem Post, March
22, 2009
- Hamas
chief hails Obama approach, BBC Marc 22, 2009
- Sunni
Fighters Say Iraq Didn’t Keep Job Promises , NYT March
24, 2009
- Palestinian
Official Killed in Lebanon, NYT March 24, 2009
Two years ago:
- Don’t ‘Pack Up,’ Bush Says
After 4 Years of War, NYT, March 20, 2007
- ABC Polls,
March 20, 2007 -
ebbing
hopes for Iraq
- Iran’s Operative in the
White House, NYT op-ed (Kristof), March 20, 2007
- U.S. and Israel
Disagree on Palestinian Contacts , NYT, March 19, 2007
- Taming Leviathan,
The Economist, March 15, 2007
- Israel
'must halt' Jerusalem dig , BBC News, March 14, 2007
- Choosing Israel, Not the
Hamptons NYT March 9, 2007
- Joseph Lelyveld,
"Jimmy Carter and
Apartheid," New York Review of Books, March 29, 2007
- 'What Has Happened to
Dick Cheney?' by Jim Hoagland, Washington Post, March
8, 2007
- Robert Looney,
introduction
to special issue on Iraq, Strategic Insights, March 200
- What is to be done?
- Iraq
- Palestine
- "War on Terror" - Al Qaeda
- nuclear proliferation - Iran
- democracy building - Iraq and beyond?
- economic issues - oil and trade
US hegemony?
- Richard
Haas, President, Council on Foreign
Relations: [his latest book, War
of Necessity, War of Choice (May
2009) is strongly recommended!)
- "It is one of history’s ironies that the
first war in Iraq, a war of necessity, marked the beginning of
the American era in the Middle East and the second Iraq war, a
war of choice, has precipitated its end."
- Albert Hourani: “[He] who rules the Near
East rules the world; and he who has interests in the world is
bound to concern himself with the Near East.”
- New (post "super-power"?) Era
- continued US influence as one of a
number of big powers: EU, Russia, China, India
- rise of Iran
- Israel the only nuclear power in the
region, but diminished by summer 2006 conflict with
Hizbollah
- peace process? Haas sees diminished US
credibility
- continuing Iraqi sectarian
violence
- militias in Iraq, Lebanon,
Palestine...
- oil - prices more likely to go up than
down - $100/barrel?
- terrorism on the increase, failed
states?
- Islamic radicalism
- authoritarian regimes more Islamic vs
Islamist opposition - diminished chances for democratic
reform
- Muslim grievances
- US policies favoring Israel before Sept. 11,
2001 (note Mayor Rudy Giuliani's refusal of $10 million gift to
the city after 911 by Prince Walid ibn Talal (Saudi royal family
businessman) - and much more afterward: Ariel Sharon "man of
peace" (President Bush)?
- US support for Saudi ruling family - Usama Bin
Laden's grievance resulting from US military buildup in
Saudi
Arabia in 1990. Muslims vs.
"Saudi-America"!!
- US occupation of Iraq: colonialism again!
Recall the British colonial legacies: Iraq 1916-32....until
revolution of 1958; Egypt 1882-1922...until 1954, then reinvasion
of 1956, foiled by President Eisenhower.
- Al-Jazeera: US troops in Iraq, Israeli troops
in West Bank (Palestine) - US complicity with Israeli
occupation
- What to do in Iraq?
- Iraq
Study Group (James Baker, Lee
Hamilton)
- regional and external track:
diplomacy! - Right upfront: cannot launch a successful diplo
unless also US "deals directly with the Arab-Israeli conflict
and regional instability."
- internal: benchmarks and orderly US troop
withdrawal
- Zbigniew
Brzezinski (Jimmy Carter's NSC
Advisor)
- 1. The United States should reaffirm
explicitly and unambiguously its determination to leave Iraq in
a reasonably short period of time
- 2. The United States should announce that
it is undertaking talks with the Iraqi leaders to jointly set
with them a date by which U.S. military disengagement should be
completed, and the resulting setting of such a date should be
announced as a joint decision. In the meantime, the U.S. should
avoid military escalation.
- 3. The United States should issue jointly
with appropriate Iraqi leaders, or perhaps let the Iraqi
leaders issue, an invitation to all neighbors of Iraq (and
perhaps some other Muslim countries such as Egypt, Morocco,
Algeria, and Pakistan) to engage in a dialogue regarding how
best to enhance stability in Iraq in conjunction with U.S.
military disengagement and to participate eventually in a
conference regarding regional stability.
- 4. Concurrently, the United States should
activate a credible and energetic effort to finally reach an
Israeli-Palestinian peace, making it clear in the process as to
what the basic parameters of such a final accommodation ought
to involve.
-
Main page | classes
| syllabus
March 24, 2009
- Department
of Government, College
of Liberal Arts, University of Texas at
Austin.Questions, Comments, and
Suggestions to chenry@mail.utexas.edu
