I'd like to explore an idea I tossed off in passing yesterday. The Arabs, often nice as individuals, are collectively a mess and a problem for others in the region and beyond. Formerly, they were conquered by the Turks of the Ottoman Empire which maintained some degree of order in the region for nearly 500 years, roughly 1450 to 1915.
The European colonial powers took over the job following World War One until the devolution of colonialism following World War Two. The Arab states have been in various kinds of trouble ever since, perhaps because they've had almost no recent historical experience with self-government. Da'esh is but the latest incarnation of this nastiness.
I can imagine a Kissinger-like or Metternich-like diplomacy maven concluding for the sake of whirled peas, I mean world peace, Arabs need to be governed by an external force. They don't function well with autonomy.
My imagined puppet-master would understand "empire" isn't something Americans do particularly well. The Brits were maybe the best colonizers since the Romans, but today they are a spent force.
The occupying force needs to be local - maybe the Turks again, maybe the Persians as it was starting about 550 BCE and continuing off and on for a millennium. Whatever power takes on the job will absorb a lot of abuse, and get little praise for doing so.
I speculated yesterday that perhaps Obama was thinking along these lines. I daresay that gives him entirely too much credit. Perhaps somebody needs to hint this to Germany's Angela Merkel or Russia's Putin.
