Syria’s victory in remaining still standing – still on its feet, as it were – amid the ruins of all that has been visited upon her, marks effectively the demise of the Bush Doctrine in the Middle East (of ‘the New Middle East’). It signals the beginning of the end – not just of the political ‘regime change’ project, but also of the Sunni jihadi project which has been used as the coercive tool for bringing into being a ‘New Middle East.’
Just as the region has reached a geopolitical inflection point, however, so too, has Sunni Islam. Wahhabi-inspired Islam has taken a major hit. It is now widely discredited amongst Sunnis, and reviled by just about everyone else.
Just to be clear how linked were the two projects:
In the wake of the first Gulf War (1990-91), General Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, recalled: ‘In 1991, [Paul Wolfowitz] was the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy … And I had gone to see him (…)
‘And I said, ‘Mr. Secretary, you must be pretty happy with the performance of the troops in Desert Storm.’
‘And he said: ‘Yeah, but not really, because the truth is we should have gotten rid of Saddam Hussein, and we didn’t … But one thing we did learn is that we can use our military in the region? – ?in the Middle East? – ?and the Soviets won’t stop us. And we’ve got about 5 or 10 years to clean up those old Soviet client regimes? – ?Syria, Iran, Iraq? – ?before the next great superpower comes on, to challenge us.”
This post was published at 21st Century Wire on SEPTEMBER 12, 2017.
Follow on Twitter
Recent Comments