What steps will you take dealing with Middle East issues if you are the U.S. President?

I would re-affirm commitments to sovereignty of peoples- Arab/Israeli/Christian/Farsi/Kurd.

And then I would find a respected pan-Islam expert to call for an Islamic conference on resolution of centuries old disputes between different Islamic factions, and Clerics to condemn terrorism and violence, and speak to them that they bring a fatwa upon themselves for being against peace and co-existence.

It depends on what my overlord bosses tell me to do. As president I am bound to do as they tell me under threat of assassination.

For better than 200 years the Middle East has been the graveyard of Western ambitions. It is the single region of the world where every Western effort to colonize the lands and plunder resources consistently ended in dismal failure. Since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the track record of the West has improved not one iota, and the reasons are embarrassingly simple. Not a single one of those Western ambitions has been envisioned or undertaken by those with even a basic knowledge of the history of the place, the customs of its peoples, and crucially, the tenets of the various sects of the prevailing religion. As a scholar of some merit, you would think it might occur to Obama to seek out those “experts” who have called it right in the past. Those who predicted the quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan along with the probable disintegration of the region—THAT’s who he should be talking and listening to.

There are two problems in the Middle East Israel and Saudi Arabia both with serious domestic implications for any US president. Firstly from the strong Zionist lobby in the US and second from the nation’s insatiable appetite for oil. Any serious hike in the price of gasoline is not going to make him popular.

It’s a no win proposition, no matter how you try to look at it. From the perspective of the majority, they do not want the US involved and we keep insisting.

They will take help when the US helps their side, because hey, free guns and money for butter too, but it does not matter what side we prop up we instantly make them a target long term because the people there simply don’t want us involved.

So, if I was president I would do what my predecessors have done and send a seemingly impressive figurehead to take moonshots at peace with whoever they can get an audience with. Former presidents, Jesse Jackson, Dr. Phil, whoever has the highest Q score for the Middle East and will take the gig.

That’s reality. If I was a short term president, not up for reelection, in a perfect world, I would start programs to set up schools in the towns where people have it rough right now. Regardless of what “side” they were on their kids could come and get a decent education, a meal, and time with other kids. If there are soldiers involved, they just make sure the school and staff is safe.

People everywhere want opportunities for their kids, it’s the best way to earn someone’s respect. It’s not a nuanced plan, or a plan that shows measurable returns immediately, but if you help enough families find something better than war, eventually we’d make some actual friends in the area instead of friends we have to pay to hang out with us.

I would stop pandering to Israel. They’re in the wrong, and they’re treating the Palestinians as bad or worse than the Nazis ever treated their ancestors. So by their own logic, the Palestinians need a homeland to protect them from oppression. If I were president, I would say that Israel needs to work out a way to acknowledge a free Palestinian state, or else lose all US support.

A lot of the problems the US has in the Middle East come from its one-sided support of Israel, which gets perceived as Zionism. And there are US politicians and pundits who have admitted they are pro-Israel because they think their Christianity means they have to be. So supporting a free Palestine and making Israel suffer real consequences for dragging its feet would help rehabilitate the image of the US for a lot of Middle Easterners. It wouldn’t solve everything, but it would be a big start.