Who is the enemy?

A large percentage of Americans, including the far left wing, would like us to believe that Israel is the main obstacle to peace in the Middle East. They would have us believe that the Muslims fear and distrust Israel (and the Jews) more than anyone in the world. If only the United States would cease its support for the tiny state and allow the Arabs to inhabit the entire region, world peace would ensue. And, of course, Hitler would be satisfied with the Sudetenland. No, the radical Islamists want more than Israel, they want to see sharia law established throughout the region and beyond. Once we recognize who they see as their enemy then we can focus correctly on what steps are needed in the region to ensure stability. The old saw “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” may work for the six o’clock news, but certainly not in reality. One has only to consider how our aid to the Taliban in Afghanistan against the Soviets backfired on us when they no longer needed our “friendship.”

Turkey, as mentioned earlier, is the only Muslim nation in NATO. How did it get that way? At the end of World War I Turkey was the keystone of the Ottoman Empire. It took one strong leader, Kemal Ataturk, to bring Turkey into the 20th century, leaving feudalism behind. In 1924 Ataturk single-handedly did away with sharia law, the Fez, the headscarves and all the other trappings that go along with feudalism. As a result Turkey has flourished as a nation well beyond any other Muslim state. Certainly it has not been an easy road, as we’ve seen in some of the missteps that Turkey has made just in the last few years. Consider their poorly thought-out flotilla sending arms to the terrorists in Gaza. Overall however, Turkey is the best model for the others Muslim states in the region to follow.

So what do we do? We find and support those burgeoning leaders in the nations now under turmoil who adhere to Ataturk’s philosophy. Freedom of religion means more than freedom to worship as a Muslim. The overall youthful age of the populations in these countries makes it easier to sway them from the old attitudes that have kept their countries deep in the dark ages. There is no easy answer; we cannot blindly support any rebel group that rallies against their dictator. Libya, recall, is the nation that has sent the most terrorists to war against the West. 

While it would be nice to have some potential leaders to recommend, none immediately come to mind. But if we, the United States, make it clear that we will only support regimes that abandon the  hateful ways of the past, and aim to bring their countries into the 21st century in the same way that Ataturk did in 1924 in Turkey, we have a much better chance of seeing the Middle East with countries that can be peaceful partners with the West.

Jack Winnick is professor emeritus of chemical engineering at Georgia Tech, with 40 years consulting experience in the chemical, nuclear, aerospace and petroleum industries. He is the author of “East Wind,” a novel of Islamic nuclear terrorism.