The US role in Mideast travails
Extremists' rise can be traced in part to Bush policy, analysts say.
By Howard LaFranchi | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the June 18, 2007 edition
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WASHINGTON - When Israel blasted southern Lebanon last summer in response to rocket attacks by the Islamist group Hizbullah, President Bush spoke of a "clarifying moment" in the Middle East. People everywhere, he said, would be able to grasp the dangers posed by "groups of terrorists trying to stop the advance of democracy" in Lebanon, Iraq, or the Palestinian territories.
Almost a year later, however, much of the Middle East seems only further down the path of radicalization and chaos, as events of the past week demonstrate – starting with the violent seizure of control of the Gaza Strip by Hamas. For a growing number of analysts, if the past year has brought any clarity, it is that US policy has largely backfired and added to the region's downward spiral of violence and economic troubles.
"The drift toward empowerment of the region's more radical forces is not the sole responsibility of US policy, but it has been a contributing factor that really kicked in with the abandonment of the [Israeli-Palestinian] peace process," says Daniel Levy, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, a public-policy institute in Washington.
Recent events leave little doubt that extremist elements are making headway while the region's more moderate – and pro-Western – options are under attack:
• The prospect of two warring Palestinian enclaves has arisen after a week of intense internecine fighting. Hamas, listed by the United States as a terrorist organization, seized control of Gaza and banished the rival Fatah organization of President Mahmoud Abbas to the West Bank. Now Gaza is a potential breeding ground for Al Qaeda-style Islamic terrorists.
• In Iraq, sectarian violence flared after the repeat bombing of a revered Shiite site in the Sunni city of Samarra (although flare-ups seemed to have lessened in recent days). Still, the bombing is a setback that further challenges the Iraqi government and the US buildup of troops.
• In another indication of Lebanon's slide toward what many fear could become a civil war, a Beirut car bomb killed another prominent and pro-Western political leader. At the same time, Lebanese forces continue to attack Hizbullah strongholds in the country.
These stark events highlight the deep divisions tearing at a region the US has long considered of strategic importance to its security.
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