Middle East Peace

How Peace In The Middle East Can Be Achieved

By Roy D. Follendore III

A reader recently wrote: I'm writing a paper for a political science class, I am currently taking. I am proving there are other ways to resolve the problems that exist between the U.S. and Iraq. I read your article on other solutions to war, but I didn't really see any alternate solutions given. Can you please clarify your thoughts on a solution that will provide peace?

February 3, 2003

Answering this question is of course difficult. Over the past two years I have been writing essays about thoughts, problems, and issues. I have not been writing as much about potential solutions. Solutions for peace is problematic because it depends on resources. As you might imagine, I have given this question quite a bit of careful consideration. I am convinced it is possible that America has the ability to influence opportunities for peace, not only in Iraq but within the Middle East.

War is no solution to peace and war is also not a substitute for peace. In spite of this, at this moment, American troops, ships and aircraft are staged on the borders of Iraq on the brink of war. This means that establishing and maintaining Peace within the Middle East at this moment is unlikely. If Peace is to be possible, we must first involve the problem of immediately finding viable ways for our President to economically and morally back out of his decision to go to war.

However, this particular answer may sum up the beginning of a solution to the question of how we might prevent this particular war, but this does not answer the question of a solution that will provide peace in the region. The reason for the problems we face with Iraq is symptomatic of the greater problem of establishing and maintaining peace within the Middle East. Iraq and the Middle East are intrinsically linked problems that are connected through a common culture.

When we speak about a solution for achieving peace, we must face the risk that there may not be a solution. There may be no solution to be found because it must come to existence though our approach. Peace is much like true love in that it can not simply be searched for and found. It must be approached and with the proper balance and sensitivity, discovered. With this in mind, peace in the Middle East is a complex discovery process that can only be obtained if we approach the peace with balance...

1. ...by openly challenging and taking on issues with the intent of making more difficult definitions of words, messages of media and rhetoric that makes coming to terms with war easy.

2. ...through the elimination of the issue of oil as a potential future American justification for war.

3. ...by the elimination of the horrible Palestinian and Kurdish refugee conditions by the act of doing the right, moral, and just thing.

4. ...through creative UN sanctions that can be sustained because they benefit Iraqi and her neighbors involvement.

5. ...through continued involvement in long-term medical, educational, informational, and cultural programs that respect traditional cultures.

6. ...through the empowerment of trusted diplomats who are given the task of communicating consistent formal recognition that peace and human rights remains the primary American diplomatic objective.

7. ...by taking and holding the moral high ground of maintaining Peace through the universal encouragement of human, civil and constitutional rights in all of our foreign decisions.

8. ...by nourishing, carefully cultivating and maintaining our constant and consistent faith in the goodwill of our fellow man, even as we continue to remain vigilant of imminent attack to our nation and to our allies.

Each of these approaches have an impact on the other. They reinforce each other. We should be willing to perform each and all of these activities because the awful alternative is nothing short of American imperial domination.

With respect to the immediate diplomatic situation in Iraq, since we possess such powerful weapons, are not willing to give them up, and in the past have indiscriminately used them, we Americans must remember that we have set the precedent such that the simple possession of weapons of mass destruction by a sovereign state is not enough for justification of a full-scale war.

.