It's been clear for some time that US Grand Strategy in the Middle East is collapsing. The failure of the current policy due to duplicity, corruption and outright incompetence on the part of US-led operations has threatened our long-term strategic objectives in that region, and strategic planners have been scrambling for some time to try to regroup and formulate an alternate policy for the Middle East.
The chaos in Iraq and Afghanistan have removed two checks on Iranian influence in the region, and so there's been worry among Sunni states -- and the West -- of a "Shi'a revival". Moreover, Israel's conflict with Hizbollah in Southern Lebanon last year really shook up the neo-cons in the administration. The emergence of Hizbollah as a populist movement in Lebanon is seen by the US as an arm of Iranian influence and a threat to US-Israeli hegemony over the region, and as such the neo-cons mean to nip this in the bud to the extent that they can.
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