Obama UN Speech on Mideast Talks "Filled with Empty Words"

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When you lose the Democracy Now! wackaloons, it's all over but for the crying in your beer.

 

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Granny says dat's how the cookie crumbles...

How one 'cookie' got U.S. trapped in Middle East
June 25, 2011 - David A. Lake is the Gerri-Ann and Gary E. Jacobs Professor of Social Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of "Hierarchy in International Relations" and "Entangling Relations: American Foreign Policy in its Century."

One of my favorite children's books is "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." Laura Numeroff's entertaining tale recounts the series of requests and events that follow from giving an adorable little rodent a treat. This first act of kindness leads to a request for a glass of milk, then a straw, a napkin, and mirror to inspect his milk mustache, and so on, until -- guess what? -- the mouse wants another cookie. This chain of never-ending demands and unforeseen consequences is an apt description of U.S. policy towards the Middle East.

The United States has long wanted the "cookie" of a base of operations in the Middle East. After World War II, the United States built a globe-spanning network of military bases from which to project power to deter the Soviet Union and, equally, to intervene in regional conflicts. This produced massive military bases in Western Europe, extended into Eastern Europe after 1989, and similar outposts in the Pacific, including Japan, the Philippines, and various U.S. possessions.

The principal gap in this world-wide network was the Middle East. Seeking to fill this hole has been a primary goal of American policy for decades. Such a physical presence in the region would allow Washington to stabilize the region, protect friends and allied countries, prop up pro-American regimes, and preserve the flow of oil.

This quest for bases in the Middle East leads, first, to our unshakeable commitment to Israel, a fiercely independent state that would never permit actual deployments of U.S. forces on its territory but with whom we have deep security cooperation and understandings that can be activated in crises. This deep tie, in turn, alienates potential Arab allies in the rest of the region.

More How one 'cookie' got U.S. trapped in Middle East - CNN.com