Adjusting our relations with the Middle East will boost our efforts

While the United States' attention is fixed squarely on the campaign against terrorism as it manifests itself in the bombing of Afghanistan, it is important to consider how this campaign refers to the overall U.S. foreign policy. The campaign against terrorism must be situated within the larger context of the United States' stance towards the rest of the world and especially the Middle East.

In its policy towards the Middle East, the United States must make a concerted effort to isolate the religious extremist movements and bolster its connections with the other Muslim groups in the area. The United States would do well to concentrate the preponderance of its efforts on three key groups: the Palestinians, Iranians and Iraqis. By manipulating our relations with all three we can mitigate the hostility of Muslims toward the United States, successfully draw other major nations, such as Egypt, to our cause and ultimately isolate Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, allowing us to destroy them.

A significant source of Muslim anger stems from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. U.S. support of Israel necessarily alienates Palestinians who feel that the land of Israel is their rightful territory. Justifiably or not, they see the state of Israel as an occupying force that denies them their right to an independent state. Thus to them, U.S. support of Israel implies acceptance of Israeli oppression of Palestine. Furthermore, Palestinian casualties in the recent conflict have far outnumbered Israeli casualties, making Israel seem murderous in addition to oppressive in Muslim eyes. It is now even more important that we make a concerted effort to mitigate the violence and bring the two sides to the negotiating table. It is not important whether or not we succeed in brokering a successful peace agreement, but rather that we show the Muslim world that, while we support Israel, we do not support it at the expense of the Palestinians. Furthermore, once the two sides have achieved a cease-fire there will be no more Palestinian casualties to compare to U.S. casualties. Moderate Muslims will no longer be able to say that they feel for our loss but still be able to point to policies that hurt their people.

In this same vein it would be wise for the United States to ease many of the sanctions placed on Iraq. We must still ensure that Saddam Hussein is unable to acquire the technology required to create chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. However, we must also be sure that our sanctions are narrowly tailored to achieve this goal without imposing undue suffering upon the Iraqi people. While we may have liberated Kuwait and while the sanctions may be in part to protect the Middle East from Iraqi dominion, Muslim states find it difficult to accept sanctions that cause suffering to other Muslims. To ease our sanctions at this time would help convince those states that we are not fighting Islam but only its more radical elements. It might be claimed, especially by the Bush administration, that we ought to oust Saddam Hussein from power. However, such an action would be detrimental to our future security, as a known danger is better than an unknown one. To remove Saddam might allow fundamentalist groups to seize control, groups that are far less predictable in their behavior than Saddam. For all of Saddam's blustering, he is committed to preserving his own power at any and all costs, making him relatively averse to risk (the same principle applies to Muammar Qadhafi, who after nearly being killed by U.S. war planes in 1986 receded from the international limelight lest the United States try again and succeed).

The third country the United States would do well to reach out to is Iran. Iran is a long-time supporter of terrorist activities against Israel and the United States. However, there appears to be an overwhelming trend towards moderation and away from isolated fanaticism. The New York Times reported on Sunday that Iran's President Mohammad Khatami rejected bin Laden's version of Islam and his extremism.

Furthermore, Pres-ident Khatami made these remarks at the United Nations in New York just a short while after bin Laden denounced the organization and claimed Muslim leaders cooperating with it to be infidels. President Khatami's bold move was no doubt intended in part to isolate the extremist leadership within his own country, especially the religious leaders who might praise the attacks. The United States would do well to aid Khatami in his endeavor.

Should the United States pursue the policies outlined, it would reduce many of the grievances the Muslim world has toward our country. In this way, nations such as Pakistan and Egypt, which are crucial to our efforts to destroy terrorism, would be much more willing to cooperate with the United States. Thus bin Laden would lose the support of most of the major Muslim nations, making it much easier for us to wage a protracted campaign to oust the Taliban if necessary. Dan Ostrow is a politics major from New York, NY. He can be reached at dtostrow@princeton.edu.