This was originally written in September 2002 for the USF Oracle.

http://media.www.usforacle.com/2.6025/1.632481

Published: Tuesday, September 17, 2002
Updated: Thursday, September 4, 2008

America needs a revision of its foreign policy

Many of us have become captivated with President Bush’s inclination to declare war against Saddam Hussein. As an American Muslim with Arab origin, I, too, agree that Saddam presents greater harm than good. But the question is, to whom is this harm directed? It is not a harm presented predominantly to American civilians but harm presented to his own people. This is a man who has gassed his own people, tortured his own citizens, attacked his Arab neighbors and more.

If our American leadership is determined to eliminate Saddam, it must be done so in a well-structured plan beyond our imagination. It must also be diagrammed with a specific purpose, presented to American citizens and the world. For almost 10 years now, Iraq has been under stringent United Nations restrictions and embargoes. These embargoes further displaced those less fortunate and also created a further separation between the elite and the poor (i.e. Saddam and his citizens.) The ordinary Iraqi citizen is less capable, more scared and increasingly skeptical of working with any sovereign nation to oust Saddam than he was a decade ago.

If America is triumphant in toppling Saddam, are we willing to nation-build? This has been tried in Afghanistan, and President Hamid Karzai and his cabinet have already had various assassination attempts on their lives. Is American foreign policy inclined to spread its forces thin, with potential flare-ups on the rise in Africa, the Far East and more? Is America ready to promote democracy in one country where the majority of the people live below the international poverty line?

Also, if America is readily intending to promote democracy in Iraq, why has it not wanted to promote democracy in other Middle Eastern countries? The country of Egypt currently receives $2 billion a year in foreign aid, yet if any Egyptian citizen speaks up against the Egyptian president, he is sentenced to hard time in jail.

After spending two months in the Middle East this summer, I realize animosity towards Americans is at an all-time high. But the rationale is not what you might think. Arabs are currently being suppressed by their leaders in Egypt, Jordan and all over the Middle East. Both of these countries (Egypt and Jordan) are among the biggest recipients of American foreign aid. This foreign aid controls the peoples’ lives, reduces their freedoms, strengthens the dictatorships’ control and is not used for economic prosperity but rather for mental manipulation.

If America is genuinely seeking to have a more peaceful world, we must question what foreign policy of the world put us in this predicament? Do not forget that only 20 years ago, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were American allies, funded with technology, financing, intelligence and more.

As President John F. Kennedy once said, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.”

Mulham Shbeib is a USF alumnus.