It should come as no surprise that successive US governments get confused on how best to handle "the situation" in the Middle East. It is very much so that they are damned if they intercede yet damned if they stand aside. Either way, the US is on a hiding to nothing and will likely be the loser in the long run.
Take, for example, the Arab foreign ministers and officials meeting in Jordan recently with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. While Arab officials recognise the dire position the Middle East is presently facing, especially in regard to the Palestine-Israel conflict, and Iraq, they called upon the US to resolve the problems there by bringing pressure to bear in appropriate places.
Yet the irony is that it is the Arab nations themselves who should be seeking solutions to these problems, not seeking help from outside, regardless of how powerful that nation might be. And that reason is simple enough: an imposed solution to Middle East problems will never work, answers must be found by and among the people themselves if they are ever to last.
With this in mind, it therefore calls into question the very purpose of bodies like the Arab League, whose Secretary-General Amr Mousa was present at the meeting in Jordan. This organisation has failed miserably to live up to expectations and is rarely if ever seen taking the initiative in resolving deep-seated problems relating to Arab issues. Instead, the Arab League is deemed to be defunct as it tends to take a back seat, preferring instead a consensus view which achieves nothing.
If Arab nations expect the US to resolve all their problems, then it will be like the sound of one hand clapping, of no sound purpose unless all nations are in unison.
