The Middle East

We have very few allies in the Middle East.  The one indisputable ally is Israel.  It gets sketchy after that. Jordan and Egypt seem to be a good neighbors.

We do have some serious enemies in the Middle East and a lot of problem countries that have cost a lot of US tax dollars. At the top of the list of Arab countries we need to close down is Iran, the top terror supporter since 1979. 

The problematic Arab countries include Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen, these countries are broken. Saudi Arabia (home of the 9/11 terrorists and Qatar are rumored to be ISIS funders. Pakistan was an ally, but they sheltered Osama bin Laden.  Kuwait and United Arab Emirates seem unaffected.  Turkey may be moving toward Islamic extremism and away from being a “Western-friendly” country.

We in the US must admit that we cannot change any country with a long history of tribalism. We do need to promote the development of a free market private sector economy and citizen property ownership in all countries.

African countries are also host countries to terrorism and there are limitations to US options.  The US appears to be moving to a position that asserts that sovereign nations need to fix their own problems. This is a change from the notion that “if we broke it, we own it”.  This is a necessary move, because the US cannot afford to “own it”. Our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were unfortunate.  Our support of the Arab Spring was also unfortunate.  Our support of Iran was unfortunate.  Our support of the Refugee Resettlement Program was a disaster.

We in the US are sure to be exporters of oil, coal and natural gas and will compete with these Arab countries and with all countries like Russia, Mexico and Venezuela.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader