[Mb-civic] Lessons Of Mideast Empires - Jim Hoagland - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Lessons Of Mideast Empires

By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, July 17, 2005; Page B07

Americans felt free to debate whether they wanted to be directly 
involved in the conflicts of the greater Middle East as recently as 
1967. Talk about the good old days.

<>A national addiction to oil imports has ended that freedom or at least 
that illusion. A unilateral and increasingly lonely commitment to help 
Israel survive in a sea of hostility has also led the United States to 
create a national history in a region it once let others sort out.<>

When Britain announced the end of its "East of Suez" presence in 1967 
and urged Washington to fill the vacuum, U.S. policymakers agonized and 
resisted. Until June of that same year, Israel depended more on France 
for military hardware and nuclear cooperation than on Washington. Iraq 
nestled in the Soviet sphere of influence while Iran prospered under an 
American-backed ruler.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/15/AR2005071501616.html?nav=hcmodule 

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