Parodite wrote:If the US govt not only removes all military presence in whatever form but also stops all economic and military aid to all countries in the region included Israel, it would be interesting to speculate on how the power map would look like. Assuming that the free market is not disturbed by government interferences like economic sanctions applied to any of the players. Maybe grosso modo not much would change? A decrease in tensions and violence is not very likely though under any circumstance. But it probably saves the US taxpayer some money in the immediate future.
Don't disagree in general. The core of MD is that western interests are NOT well served through maintainance of most of the ostensibly 'friendly' regimes in the ME and they should be allowed to fall. It's opponents can't even articulate why they oppose it!
In pont of fact, having western forces cloistered and uniformed in the ME, while paying huge rents for the privilege, is merely another form of dhimmitude, tarted up to look like a show of strength for the western rubes. If we weren't there, Islamic factions would do most of the job for us for free!
Israel serves western interests as far as I'm concerned, so we get pretty good value for the money, for now.
I expect that no regime in the ME except Israel will be capable of, or motivated to, attack(ing) anyone but themselves within a couple of years anyway: Israel problem solved!
