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Source: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mesh/2008/07/is_it_over_for_america_in_the_middle_east/
Is It Over for America in the Middle East?
[Middle East Strategy at Harvard] Martin Kramer - America's era in the Middle East has only just begun. Until 2003, the U.S. was positioned off-shore, attempting to manage the region through diplomacy, aid, arms sales, and the occasional cruise missile. Since the Iraq invasion, the U.S. has immersed itself in the nitty-gritty of engineering the reconstruction of a major Arab state. The Middle East is full of what America wants and needs: dictatorships to be broken, oil to be explored and exported, a religion in need of reformation. The region is sufficiently fragmented that the U.S. will never manage to enrage everyone at once. The U.S. is likely to remain on-shore in the Middle East, overtly or behind a veil, for a long time to come. When Britain pulled up stakes, it knew the vacuum would be filled by America. If we leave, it will be filled by Iran.