Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Ralph Peters, a retired Army officer and the author of 25 books, including best-selling, prize-winning novels and influential works on strategy. He is also an opinion columnist for the New York Post and a regular contributor to Armchair General Magazine. A popular media guest, he became Fox News’ first strategic analyst in 2009. He is the author of the new book, Endless War: Middle-Eastern Islam vs. Western Civilization. His most-recent bestseller, The War After Armageddon, set in a post-nuclear-war Middle East, was released in a paperback edition on September 1st.
FP: Ralph Peters, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
I would like to talk to you today about the challenges we face in the Middle East in the post-Obama-Leaving-Iraq era.
Let’s begin with this: What did you think of Obama’s speech on Iraq? He didn’t seem to want to mention the word “victory” or to congratulate American soldiers for winning the war.
Peters: Did Obama give a speech on Iraq? Or did he give a speech about running away from Iraq as fast as his two left legs can carry him? His seeming determination to squander the peace in the wake of an authentic military victory by our troops is nothing less than stunning. Even Jimmy Carter took the responsibilities of office more seriously. It appears that our current president is determined to prove that our dead shall, indeed, have died in vain. He’s not running away from a war–the heavy combat is over, thanks to the tenacity of Obama’s predecessor and our troops. He’s fleeing from the promise of a peaceful Iraq with a future government helpful to the United States. It’s almost as if, consciously or unconsciously, Obama manifests the longing of the left for Iraq to fail after all, “proving” that Bush got it all wrong and Al Franken’s a strategic genius.
Iraq doesn’t need more US troops today–let’s be clear on that. There are enough soldiers still on-hand for the ongoing military mission (and, no matter what Monsieur Obama claims, they’re largely combat troops). What Iraq needs is energetic, engaged diplomacy to get a unified Iraqi government in and keep Iran out. If, however, our self-absorbed president does not engage personally on the political level, we may, indeed, find more of our troops back in the Gulf in the future.
The grotesque paradox in all this is that Iraq has even more strategic importance–much more–in 2010 than it did in 2003, when we deposed Saddam Hussein, the region’s K-Mart Hitler of the moment. With the looming advent of an Iranian nuclear-weapons capability–which Obama seems disinclined to prevent–the stakes have soared. If an Iran with nukes can also dominate most, if not all, of Iraq, Tehran would have direct control of the world’s second and third largest oil deposits and effective hegemony over the number one deposits–in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.
It’s a bitter paradox that, after the Left screamed, “No blood for oil,” pretending that ridding the world of Saddam was just a ploy to make a profit (do these people have any grip on reality at all?), under Obama–or in his wretched wake–we may, indeed, have to spill a great deal of blood for oil.
Look at a map of the Persian Gulf (which may well be truly Persian again, thanks). It’s a narrow, wet doorway to the world’s greatest oil concentration. The lands surrounding the Gulf form an arch, with Iraq as the keystone. It doesn’t take a brilliant strategist to get the point.
As I’ve warned for many months now, don’t worry about Obama’s ideology. That’s secondary. Worry about this administration’s unrivaled incompetence.
FP: Your thoughts on Obama’s Palestinian-Israeli “peace” talks that are underway?
Peters: Well, there will be plenty of talk, but little peace. It’s disheartening that Obama’s foreign-policy priority is an attempt to add this particular (and particularly elusive) scalp to his (tiny) collection, when the great prize of the moment is Iraq–which he’s blowing off.
Obama may be able to bring enough pressure to get a flimsy deal of some sort that lets him go into 2012 claiming he made peace. But no agreement will last. Arabs remain incapable of accepting Israel’s right to exist. Israel’s destruction is about all they have left to believe in, since they’ve failed at everything else.
But let me be brutally frank: Although I am a lifelong and determined supporter of Israel, I agree with the many Israelis who see the more aggressive “settlers” as purely destructive and monstrously selfish. While Jerusalem is, and must, remain an undivided Israeli city, settlements in locations such as Hebron are unjust and unjustified. While I believe that the Arab demand for a return to the 1967 borders is unacceptable (Hey, you lost, guys, that’s how history works.), it’s idiocy to imagine that any solution can accommodate settlers whose out-lying presence is destructive to both sides. Now, the settlements in the West Bank are not uniform. They must be judged on a case-by-case basis. But surely there’s a point at which we can agree with most Israelis that the more extreme settlers are pathological cases.
For all that, 95% or more of the responsibility for making peace remains with the Arabs, whose behavior has been self-destructive and intoxicated by atrocity over the decades. In the end, Israel wants peace. Israel’s neighbors want Jews dead or gone–preferably dead. That’s pretty clear-cut to me.
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there is another miserable factor looming besides Iran, Yemen and Somalia and that is Egypt. It appears Mubarack has less than a year to live. Can his son keep his foot on the great snake? Egypt, the home of the MUs Brotherhood, Sayyid Qtub, bin laden's second in command, Muhammad Atta, etc.,, the most populous Arab state…………….lurks.
I generally agree with Ralph Peters, but I have 2 questions here:
1. Given that the Iraqi government can't be formed because the votes split evenly between a relatively secular party and a Shiite party, how is any amount of U.S. persuasion and diplomacy going to help?
2. Generally the Israeli settlers on the West Bank (also known as Judea and Samaria) are peaceful. They don't push Arabs off their land, instead they settle on barren hillsides. They are religious, and I am not, but I can understand their motivation. Settling in Hebron, in houses that they bought (and did not take by force) should be in theory just as allowable as setting in the town of Hebron, Connecticut. The real problem with the West Bank is not that Jews want to live in the midst of Arab towns and cities, but that the Arabs don't want the Jews there, and don't want to live under a Jewish dominated government. They actually do run most of their affairs even now, but they are not a tolerant bunch, and compromise is difficult to find, especially when they are indoctrinated from both the PA and Hamas to hate Israel.
As per #1, I don't believe the differences between the two parties are irreconcilable…and my prediction is that they will eventually come to terms, probably with Maliki retaining the post of PM (even though the secular party garnered 2 more seats). The point is, with a little creative US effort, this impasse could have been cleared up months ago. But as with so many other pressing problems, Obama's attention was elsewhere.
I agree with Ralph Peters except that instead of removing the settlers I agree with Rabbi Meir Kahane, Zt"l that the Arabs should be thrown out of all of Israel.
I'd be willing to bet that if this country's military wasn't awash in political correctness, Ralph Peters would be a four-star general right now!!
Of course, as you can tell from this interview alone, the Lt.Colonel tells it like it is. And as we all know, it just wouldn't do to have someone in charge that is more worried about telling the truth to better protect us than obfuscating the facts to avoid offending adherents of a 7TH century geopolitical barbarism bent on worldwide domination.
Obama is viewed by foreign leaders as too weak to deal sternly with countries such as North Korea (and it's threats against South Korea and the U.S.), Iran with its nuclear weapons and its proxy terrorists, Pakistan and it's dealings with the Taliban and al Qaeda, China and it's threats. Is Obama so worried about appeasing the enemy that all we get are "very concerned" speeches which makes him look like a cream puff. Is America becoming a paper tiger. Is Obama just another Jimmy Carter – or worse? And his Secretary of State is just as inept with his pushing on this Israeli – Palestinian
Ralph Peters is truly a valuable national asset- more's the pity that he is not a treasured national asset. Truth cannot find its way into the halls of the Pentagon, or anywhere within the beltway, otherwise we might actually stand a chance to discharge well our generation's duty to protect and preserve civilization from the onslaught of Islamic barbarism.
Wow, I got deleted before I could post anything !!! surely a first ! Wots goin on ?
Imagine an administration with Peters as Secretary of Defense and Bolton as Secretary of State…I can dream can't I???
One has to salute Mr. Peters. He discribed Islam with the most succinct truthful phrase anyone has come up with yet …..He refered to Islam as a "Junkyard Dog Religion". Ya gotta love the guy.
American Christian Infidel
Michael Canzano
I agree with Mr. Peters that "95% or more of the responsibility for making peace remains with the Arabs, whose behavior has been self-destructive and intoxicated by atrocity over the decades. In the end, Israel wants peace. Israel’s neighbors want Jews dead or gone–preferably dead."
Abbas' last statement saying that he could not accept agreement that Israel is a Jewish state shows that there has been no change since Arafat. In addition, Abbas has no control over radical terror groups like Hamas which have to be neutralized in order for any peace agreement to be credible. Then there is the issue of the U.S. assuring Israeli security if such a peace agreement is reached. Given this administration's track record regarding Israel that is something that can not be counter on at all.
Why do we accept Arab/Muslim demands for judenrein anywhere? What happened to the notion people of any religion can live anywhere? We sure apply it to jihadi-wannabe Somali immigrants to the US or crazed Islamists in London.
I think it is the idea of Al Qaeda to start problems everywhere on the globe and then the U.S. is supposed to come in and fix the problems. Their strategy is to spread us so thin militarily and to force us to spend our national treasure until there is no more.
What are we thinking if we even consider going to Somalia or Yemen? The Saudis think we should take care of the problems in their backyard? It's like Whack-a-Mole. We keep sending our soldiers over and we lose some and while we're there they just start something somewhere else. This was their strategy even before 9-11. They take full credit for causing the Soviet Union to fail. Give the choice of Al Qaeda or the Soviets the evils are both so pronounced it would be difficult to choose, but now we have a resurgent Russia AND Al Qaeda plotting against us.
The western world must get together and work as one united front, each country saying no to shariah law and no to tolerance of inhumane brutality, instead of all this pc bickering which only uses up precious time while they use that time to build bombs and cause mayhem.
First order of business: Get the progressives, Islamists, and other backward types out of our government.
When we figure the cost of all this war into the cost of gas we must be paying an enormous amount per gallon. We need to change tactics and stand back and look at the forest instead of each individual tree. Saudi Arabia is building mosques in this country as though they were 7-11s. The more oil we buy, the more mosques and terrorist training madrassas,. All of the oil that is available to us in our own sphere, if we were to use that, would be sufficient to restrain all the Arab influence and deal them a blow. I don't think that there is a once and for all answer available to us in our lifetime. These vermin seem intent on taking over the world and forcing us to the feet of their god. We are acting in predictable American ways, we are like puppets to them. they know how to pull our strings. Let's stop all this politically correct inane bs and start acting in our own interests. If we really believe our culture is better, and I do, then let's starve theirs of our support and wee what they can do on their own. If they had to fight their own wars and actually do something for their livelihoods they might find less time, and money to make war on the rest of us.
John Bolton for President and Ralph Peters for Vice President.
It seems we need a new model for the application of force in the Middle East. If a country like Afghanistan, Yemen, or Somalia plays host to jihadists, it would seem the appropriate response would be to take out the jihadists, not to invade, takeover, and midwife a backward Muslim nation into a western style democracy. Some of these countries will not be good candidates for democracy for a century or two if ever. Why should our military forces be sent halfway around the world to occupy some god forsaken desert to hunt down a few hundred die hard jihadists, all the while being under orders not to disturb the locals who shelter the jihadists. This is using a howitzer where a sniper's rifle would do just fine. Bring the military home and unleash the CIA, special ops types, and the drones. Kill the jihadists and leave the locals to their camels. We could spend years and billions of dollars in a country like Afghanistan and leave it as we found it, a backward, barbarous, and corrupt tribal society.
Environmentalists (leftist agitators) crippling our oil fields
and exploration with discoveries in America of vast deposits,
we can develop and stay in oil for a few centuries. Why do we
allow ourselves to be destroyed piecemeal when all we need
to do is get rid ouf our leftists and then use sane business
practices to make do with what we have. If we elect enough
right thinking people in November the way back to sanity is
possible. Bolton and Peters X 1,000,000 ready to go to work,
they are here we just have to open up to the fact our politicians
are and have been all wrong…………………………….William