Sebastian Junger on Middle East Turmoil, and the Role of the U.S.

Comment by Diana M on June 24, 2011 at 2:15am

The piece was excellent on several levels, from the heartfelt description of Tim's funeral to the well thought out argument for Western intervention. I agree that we need to provide guidance to the developing democracies of the Middle East.  As an Egyptian-American I'm hopeful that Western involvement will lead to a real functioning democracy in Egypt.  However, as Sebastian points out, "Support for the Shah of Iran brought us Khomeini; support for the Saudi sheiks helped legitimize bin Laden; support for Mubarak empowered the Muslim Brotherhood. In the end they all helped bring us the tragedy of September 11." So, the question, in my mind is, what are we going to do different that doesn't lead to another Khomeini, bin Laden, or Mubarak? How do we engage without guiding ourselves into another September 11?  I don't have an answer but I'm definitely interested in hearing others thoughts on how we can or should modify our involvement so as to not end up in the same situation. Or is there even really anything we can do different?  In the past we lent our support with the believe we were doing the right thing for the interests at that time. Is it inevitable that we support the best thing for the present but a mistake for the future?

Comment by Sebastian Junger on June 28, 2011 at 5:07pm

Hi Diana - 

 

Thank you for reading my piece and asking questions. I certainly dont have all the answers, but I can tell you that throughout the Cold War we consistently violated our most sacred democratic principles by backing dictators in Africa, South and Central America and the Middle East. These men routinely killed and tortured their own citizens and denied them open elections in order to retain their grip on power. The men you see falling from power now - Mubarak, Saleh, Bin Ali - were all favored allies of the United States. Thankfully we are changing our approach and actually advocating for other countries the same democratic freedoms that our soldiers have fought and died for in so many wars. However this turns out, it has the advantage of being ethical and principled - which our Cold War strategy certainly was not. Roger Cohen wrote an amazing article about the changes in the Arab World in the latest issue of the International Herald Tribune Magazine entitled 'The Die-hards of Darna.' It speaks to this issue far more eloquently than I ever could; I suggest you look it up.

 

Best wishes,

 

Sebastian

Comment by Brits Armymom on July 1, 2011 at 8:41pm

I have not been able to read the article. but deeply fear that we don't know whom we are supporting in Libya and it may well be al qaeda.   If the Muslim Brotherhood emerges victorious in Egypt, Israel will suffer and Egyptian revolutionaries will be vanquished.  If the U.S. aligns with the Muslim Brotherhood, democracy will suffer. 

I'll look forward to the VF article.

Comment by Ross Harris on July 5, 2011 at 10:38am

Here is the article Sebastian mentions below. Published in the NY Times on 6/22/2011. Thanks!

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