Iraq and Afghanistan

In an Op-Ed today, Zbigniew Brezezinski develops the outlines of a strategy that might help us escape from the traps that recent policy has allowed the United states to fall into in the Middle East. It is not too striking an effort, but nevertheless it offers many more useful ideas than either candidate has yet offered. He begins by expressing his fear that some elements of the Bush Administration are tempted by the idea of developing a “Holy Alliance” against Islam. This would include the Christians, Orthodox Russia under Putin, India with its Hindu-Muslim struggle, and Israel with its Jewish-Christian connection. They might even hope on other bases to entice China and Japan into the Alliance. He sees this as a dangerous approach that offers many dangers and few gains. He is happy that Kerry and his people would not follow this route, but feels they do not have enough ideas of their own to find a way out. Without more reason to do so than Kerry has put forward, he believes that our European allies will remain unwilling to help Kerry obtain his objectives in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Brezezinski would have a new administration get together with our European allies to develop a “Grand Alliance” that would embrace the Middle East and its problems by taking on in collaboration with moderate Middle Eastern countries the three major challenges that we face in the region: Israel-Palestine, Iraq, and a restless Iran. We should begin with a joint statement of the European Union and the United States on Israel-Palestine. It would outline a solution and include a commitment to international peacekeeping to help with the aftermath. Second, the European Union would make a major financial commitment to the recovery of Iraq and commit a significant military force so that the United States might be able to reduce the size of the American presence. It might be possible in this context to get some moderate Muslim states to also commit forces. Third, the United States and the European Union would open exploratory discussions with Iran on regional security, including questions of nuclear proliferation, Iraq, and Afghanistan. This should be combined with a carrot of normalizing relations with the West. He believes that our European allies would find it difficult to stay out of the projected Grand Alliance because of the dangers they see in allowing the United States to continue to go it alone. They fear as much as he does that we might just decide to unilaterally withdraw from Iraq, or lash out again by attacking Iran.