Funmurphys: the Blog

Iraq, The Middle East's Center of Gravity

Congress voted to give President Bush the authority to use force against Iraq. One of the arguments against this was that Iraq isn't the worst or only bad country around. And there is some truth to that. Let's face it, most of the governments in the middle east outside Israel are dysfunctional. Four governments stand out - Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia as terrorist supporters and exporters.

Look at a map and you'll see why taking on Iraq first makes sense - it holds the central position of those countries. We've beaten Iraq in war recently, the terrain is ideal for our Armed Forces, and occupying Iraq puts US troops on the borders of all the bad apples of the Middle East. The toughest nut to crack militarily is Iran, but it's also the government that is least secure from internal revolt, so it doesn't make sense to attack them militarily first. An attack on Syria would likely cause them attack Israel to try to bring all the Arabs in on their side and its worth noting they have the best terrorist connections. Saudi Arabia is still nominally our ally, thus hardest to move against politically.

This isn't an argument for attacking Iraq in and of itself. This is an argument for attacking Iraq IF you plan on taking military action to deal with Arab terrorism.