Matthew Duss: WikiLeaks and the Failed Bush Doctrine
[Matthew Duss is a research associate with the Center for American Progress Action Fund, and a blogger at CAPAF’s Wonk Room.]
Some time between Saturday evening and Monday morning, it suddenly became important to U.S. hawks that we take seriously what Arab leaders have been saying about instability in the Middle East.
I refer, of course, to the comments from Arab leaders, released as part of the WikiLeaks cable dump, urging the United States to more aggressively curb Iranian power and influence in the region.
Unsurprisingly, these cables have bolstered neoconservative calls for a U.S. military strike on Iran. Leaving aside the irony that neoconservatives are citing as justification for another war the concerns of the same Arab authoritarians they wanted overthrown in 2003, it's quite interesting to note when and on what subjects Arab leaders are to be believed.
For years, we've been told by conservative Middle East "experts" that, despite public pleading, Arab leaders were really not concerned about the destabilizing effects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Hudson Institute's Lee Smith exemplified this thinking when he wrote recently that taking Arabs seriously on the Israeli-Palestinian issue "would ignore the fact that interested parties do not always disclose the entire truth of their situation, especially when they have a stake in doing otherwise." (Will similar skepticism be applied to Arab leaders' comments on Iran? What a silly question.)
It's worth noting that the cables do, in fact, establish that Arab leaders continue to be highly concerned about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Cables from meetings with the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia all urge the U.S. to move the peace process forward in order to douse [this source of resentment and extremism.
Notwithstanding hawks' predictable attempts to selectively interpret the cables as an argument for a return to a neoconservative approach to the region, the leaked cables offer an opportunity to assess Middle East security in the wake of the neoconservative-inspired Bush Doctrine.
The conclusions? Nothing good...
Read entire article at American Prospect
Some time between Saturday evening and Monday morning, it suddenly became important to U.S. hawks that we take seriously what Arab leaders have been saying about instability in the Middle East.
I refer, of course, to the comments from Arab leaders, released as part of the WikiLeaks cable dump, urging the United States to more aggressively curb Iranian power and influence in the region.
Unsurprisingly, these cables have bolstered neoconservative calls for a U.S. military strike on Iran. Leaving aside the irony that neoconservatives are citing as justification for another war the concerns of the same Arab authoritarians they wanted overthrown in 2003, it's quite interesting to note when and on what subjects Arab leaders are to be believed.
For years, we've been told by conservative Middle East "experts" that, despite public pleading, Arab leaders were really not concerned about the destabilizing effects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Hudson Institute's Lee Smith exemplified this thinking when he wrote recently that taking Arabs seriously on the Israeli-Palestinian issue "would ignore the fact that interested parties do not always disclose the entire truth of their situation, especially when they have a stake in doing otherwise." (Will similar skepticism be applied to Arab leaders' comments on Iran? What a silly question.)
It's worth noting that the cables do, in fact, establish that Arab leaders continue to be highly concerned about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Cables from meetings with the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia all urge the U.S. to move the peace process forward in order to douse [this source of resentment and extremism.
Notwithstanding hawks' predictable attempts to selectively interpret the cables as an argument for a return to a neoconservative approach to the region, the leaked cables offer an opportunity to assess Middle East security in the wake of the neoconservative-inspired Bush Doctrine.
The conclusions? Nothing good...