Peace in the Middle East?

"Let us imagine that peace one day comes to the Middle East. What will Muslims say of the suicide bombings that they so widely endorsed?...How will they account for the celebrations that followed these "sacred explosions"?...It seems to me to be an almost axiomatic truth of human nature that no peace, should it ever be established, will survive beliefs of this sort for very long."

As the daughter of a Colonel of the US Army whose father served in Iraq and Kuwait, this is very disheartening news. Harris makes several strong arguements in support of the quotation above- in fact it is impossible not to arrive at the same conclusion once any understanding of the Muslim faith is conceived. The belief that peace can never exist in the Middle East is the logical conclusion of Harris' exercise through the complexities of the Koran and the followers of this text. This essay should move the readers to some sympathy for the soldiers and what they are dealing with in Iraq- although it is clear that not ALL Muslims believe in the 'idea of an amry of infidels occupying Baghdad' or that Americans are the 'enemies of God' (128). However, with this faith dominating the entire region the US is trying to rebuild, it cannot be too shocking that progress is going so slow. Imagine trying to defeat an enemy that blends in perfectly with the civilians- because the 'enemy army' ARE civilians- and in which each member of the oppossing army is willing to give the ultimate sacrifice- his life- by using his martyrdom to destroy anyone and anything in the persuit of attaining his reward of paradise.

The only hope, it appears, for peace in the Middle East would be to somehow corrolate democracy with Islam. Democracy is the government of choice because it does not allow for one man to run unchecked and uncontrolled by the people he governs. While many of the Muslims support this transtition to democracy, the danger lies in those select groups that may ignite the rest of the population to rebel if the economic situation is not improved and if the newly established government is not given the means to govern effectively and with authority. The current situation is the most precarious; a democracy that is still new and struggling to take hold is more prone to upheaval and coups than even a dictatorship (cite- Intro to International Relations). If a leader who highly supports the Jihad siezes control in this dangerous situation, the rest of the world will be in danger as a result of being part of the 'House of War'. It is for this purpose that the new government in Iraq must be cemented in place, given the means to succeed, and not allowed to degenerate into disorder and chaos. The chaos that will follow the failure of the US to completely succeed in Iraq will be many times greater than the chaos that exists now- this fact is made even more clear by Harris' text.