Middle East turmoil provides U.S with opportunity

The situation in the Middle East has been deteriorating since early this year with incessant bombings in Iraq, repeated crises on the Iranian nuclear program, frequent abductions of Israeli soldiers, the resurgence of Palestine-Israeli conflicts and military clashes between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah is approaching Syria. So, the region has been plunged into the stark and most turbulent turmoil.

The similar chaotic situation had occurred only at the beginning of the 1980s. Afterward, the situation in the region has never been so turbulent as it is today, though conflicts happened at times. The international community is, as a whole, worried about a new, all-round war that might possibly break out in the Middle East, and the US government is most worried about it. But what has puzzled people is that the United States responded to it slowly, and sent its diplomatic envoys there for manoeuvring only after the United Nations, the European Union, France and Russia.

The United States began entering the Middle East region to replace the Anglo-French forces after the Suez Canal War in 1967. But the U.S. later confronted the Soviet Union then (now again called Russia) in the cold war and they both had to be cautious and mull thrice before taking any substantial move so that the regional conflict would not be turned into another world war. And clashes in the Middle East region was relaxed to some extent with the manipulation of the two superpowers. But the United States, nevertheless, eventually established its hegemonic position when the cold war was over.

International terrorism spread all over the globe shortly after September 11 attack in 2001. Around the outbreak of the Iraq War in 2003, the United States proposed the "Great Middle East (Democratic Transformation) Project" and its hegemonic posture reached the unprecedented height strategically.

At present, turmoil in the Middle East is resultant from the continuous development of the long-term contradictions in the region on one hand and, on the other it also has something to do with the absolute hegemony of the United States. So in this sense, the turmoil in the region does not conflict with the US ultimate intention.

The Unite States, Iran, Syria, other Middle East countries, and even more Islamic militant forces are drawn into the present escalating military conflicts and the Great Middle East Project has gone into bankruptcy. Meanwhile, the U.S. can fully arouse the forces of various parties to refrain Israel's military strikes from going too disproportionate, so that Syria, Iran and other countries involved would retain restraint. Hence, a corresponding basis has been laid for the United States to "bring great disorder under heaven" into "great order and peace across the land." In other words, this provides the U.S. a great opportunity.

Meanwhile, the aspiration of the international community, big powers in particular, to overhaul and rein in the situation in the Middle East and put it in order, has reached its climax over the past two-plus decades. For the time being, the international community, including the UN, the EU, France, Russia and China, are all ready to contribute their efforts to steadily resolve the Middle East issue appropriately instead of letting the situation out of control in the region.

The conflicting parties are relatively reasonable with their calculations, as fighting a large-scale war does not conform to their original intentions. The new Israeli government had dealt harsh attacks at Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah, but the escalation of the conflict will go against the desire of the government iself. For Hezbollah, if the situation is continuing to worsen, it will definitely not have the all-out support of the Lebanese government, and the one-third of the seats it has had in the cabinet might lose the base of the people. And Hamas, too, does not want to bet on the livelihood of people. Hence, there is a fairly big room for international mediations

Bio-security, in the Middle East strewn with various types of complex contradictions, is very fragile indeed. The international community unanimously supports the effort to establish peace at the Middle East region, and it is therefore both necessary and urgent for a regional security mechanism to set up and provides the the aim of the United States with a fairly favorable international support.

"Misfortune may be an actual blessing." A resembled challenge to the U.S. has provided it with a major potential opportunity. For the next step, the United States should stop Israel, the most important and reliable ally in the Mideast region, from using its forces as disproportionate. And this constitutes a major, severe test for the U.S. to seize the opportunity and make the full use of it.

By People's Daily Online