It's a Regional War, Stupid

From the very beginning of the war on terror, it was obvious that the war was not just a war against Al Qaeda or Saddam Hussein, but a war to prevent the emergence of a single regional hegemon in the Middle East.  Democrats profess not to know this, and Republicans barely seem to know it.  But President Bush does, according to Michael Ledeen.   In his press conference Monday, the president said:

The fight in Iraq is part of a broader struggle that’s unfolding across the region.

The fight is, of course about the expansionary ambitions of Iran.  It has been the policy of the United States for decades to oppose the emergence of a single controlling power in the Middle East, for the obvious reason that such a hegemon would come to control all the oil in the region.

First it was Saddam Hussein who was the problem.  That is why we went to war in the first Iraq war, to prevent Saddam from moving south from Kuwait to Saudi Arabia.

Now that Saddam’s regime has been liquidated, the problem is Iran.  So whether the United States stays in Iraq or retreats, the problem is still the same.

And it’s likely that the Middle East will remain a problem until the end of the oil age.