Peters: We Haven’t Had ‘Wise Forward-Looking’ Mid-East Policy’ Since Truman

EXCERPT:

PETERS: "Well after the caliphate is defeated, after ISIS has been essentially crushed as a -- as  a paramilitary organization, the Russians win, the Iranians win, Assad wins in Syria, the Shia militias win in -- in Iraq. Turkey may win temporarily. And we’re gone. I mean, they'll still take our aid money, but our influence -- and we’re being used as tools to defeat ISIS while Russia, Iran and others were crushing the opposition fighters we supported in Syria. So the fundamental problem here is just this, we, as I wrote in that column today, we have not had a wise forward-looking policy toward the Middle East since the Truman administration. We've gotten it wrong time after time. And we’re really getting this one wrong. Why? Because Washington doesn’t grip the future. It clings to the past. States design and — dysfunctional borders, artificial states create by dead Europeans for their own interest. And we insist borders can't change, we pretend Iraq and Syria will somehow magically become healthy states where everybody loves each other."