Home » Politics & Society » Middle East Politics » Arms Control - Middle East Style

Arms Control - Middle East Style

© lawhawk

The Middle East has long been one of the most heavily armed regions in the world. Not only have Arab countries armed themselves against Israel, but against each other. Every few years, a charismatic leader of one of the countries will try to catapult himself to the top of the totem pole by making some grandiose gesture or saber rattling to hopefully sway public opinion at home and abroad. In the past, this has included Egyptian President Gamel Nasser who sought to bring together the Arab World under his control to attack Israel and Saddam Hussein of Iraq who tried to sway Palestinian opinion by attacking Israel with Scud missiles while attacking Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991.

Now, we have Saddam Hussein trying to reassert himself and his country by refusing to allow US arms inspectors to search for sites that could contain weapons of mass destruction. Iraq has been hamstrung by the UN Embargo that prevents the import of weapons and limits the amount of petroleum that can be sold on the open market in order to limit the ability of Iraq to rebuild its military. While it is admirable for the UN to take such stringent measures to prevent the rebuilding of the Iraqi military machine, it has not done nearly enough to limit the influx of weapons into the region.

While regional arms control is an important issue by itself, there is a deeper message that Iraq is sending to other countries of the region that needs to be heeded. Iraq, by trying to prevent the US arms inspectors from entering Iraq, Hussein is sending a message to the region that the US really can't control what goes on there and that if Iraq can really thwart what the Americans want, other countries in the region can do far more. The US for its part, needs to show that it can be both flexible and rigid with its arms control policy. There are no easy ways for the US to deal with this, but Iraq's actions foreshadow bad things where the peace process is concerned.

If the US can't maintain a consistent policy and presence in Iraq under UN auspices, what can Israel and the Palestinian Authority look forward to should things get to a point where the US is needed to smooth things through by having a force on the ground. This needs to be addressed by both the diplomatic corps and by the military since a US military presence in the region appears to be the primary way that the US can influence events there.

The copyright of the article Arms Control - Middle East Style in Middle East Politics is owned by . Permission to republish Arms Control - Middle East Style in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.