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Is peace at hand in the Mideast?
The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 11/21/2006 12:17 PM | Opinion
The victory of the Democrats over the Republicans in the recent midterm elections in the United States means that, in the near future, the Democrats will control both the House and the Senate for the first time in 12 years; 12 years that have seen U.S. foreign policy become harsher, especially in the Middle East.
During this period, a number of important events took place, such as the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the invasion of Afghanistan by U.S.-led coalition forces, and finally the forced removal of president Saddam Hussein of Iraq that eventually costs the Republicans in the polls.
The harsher U.S. foreign policy, especially in the Middle East including Afghanistan, has in fact emboldened terrorist fighting against U.S. interests. The first incident was in late 2000 in Kenya, when the U.S. Embassy there was bombed. Then there was the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The U.S. government accused the one-time U.S. supported fighter, Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, whose terror organization al-Qaeda backed the Taliban regime in Afghanistan but in the '80s fought against the former Soviet Union occupation in that country, of masterminding the bombings.
Since then, the war on terror has dominated U.S. policy, with President George W Bush telling other countries they were ""either with us or against us"".
Supported by the dominant Republican Congress, he then led an invasion by coalition forces to topple the Taliban and hunt for Osama bin Laden. However, unsuccessful with his efforts to arrest Osama, under the pretext of finding weapons of mass destruction developed by Saddam Hussein, he led yet another invasion, this time of Iraq in 2003. This of course couldn't go ahead without the support of the U.S. Congress.
With Democrats now controlling the U.S. House and Senate, U.S. foreign policy, especially in the Middle East, is likely to change. This includes the unreserved U.S. support of Israel's unchecked and arbitrary actions in the occupied Palestinian territories.
M. RUSDI
Jakarta
