Middle East: No Going Back

The United States does have a counter-terrorism strategy, and regime change in Iraq was integral to it.

The World Today Updated 21 October 2020 6 minute READ

Rosemary Hollis

Former Director, Olive Tree Israeli-Palestinian Scholarship Programme, City, University of London

So the problem is not, as US Senator Bob Graham claimed in May, that Washington has been deflected from fighting terrorism by its Iraq adventure. The problem is that the logic of the US strategy is based on an ahistorical and selective reading of the Middle East. Worse still, the Americans have been found wanting in the execution of their own game plan.

The US strategy involves remaking the Middle East and as such it does represent a coherent response to the threat posed by Al Qaeda, because the latter also envisages remaking the region.

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