World

50-Year US Hegemony in Middle East ‘Now Being Challenged’ – Analyst

In the next few years, the US may face hostility and frustration from people in the Middle East, Scott Bennett, a former US Army psychological warfare officer and State Department counter-terrorism analyst, told Sputnik.
Sputnik
Washington is bracing for a possible new war in the Middle East, a scenario that is "dangerous" for US President Joe Biden's "re-election chances," Politico reports, citing unnamed sources.
They argued that White House officials are pondering the US response to what they fear could expand from the current war in Gaza into "a broader, protracted regional conflict.
"The US now faces further deterioration across the Middle East: the terrorist attack in [Iran’s] Kerman, the ongoing Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, the strikes in Lebanese Beirut and other threats to increase tensions in the region," Bennett said.

America currently finds itself in the situation where its 50-year hegemony in the Middle East is "being challenged," the analyst explained.

Bennett added that over the past 20 years the US “has substituted diplomacy for military interventionism, and as a result, offended and ostracized the majority, if not the totality of the Middle Eastern peoples, nations, and cultures.”

"As a result, there seems to be a kind of socio-political sourness and a growing hostility and frustration and suspicion evolving towards the US," the analyst pointed out.

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With America rendering full­­-fledged support for Israel’s war against the Palestinians in Gaza, “the environment has now become toxic,” according to Bennett.

"Consequently, we are witnessing the toxicity of this relationship beginning to drive Middle Eastern countries to seek friendship and alliances with other nations, such as Russia and its consortium of BRICS nations. This may push the US into a degree of political and military and economic irrationality—if not hysteria— which could manifest into military attacks," the analyst noted.

He suggested that the US could take action against Yemen, Iran, Beirut, Lebanon, and other countries that might enter the Gaza conflict on the side of the Palestinians, the Yemenis, the Iranians, and the Russians.

When asked how the US may respond to the current regional crises, Bennett replied that America "will react with its typical geopolitical cards, which are economic sanctions against Yemen, Iran, Lebanon, and any country that sides with them."

He did not rule out the US triggering missile strikes from “its 46 naval vessels in the vicinity of the Red Sea against Yemeni targets and possibly Iran; as well as targets in Lebanon and Syria, which may include Russian targets in the vicinity.” This could trigger a counterstrike by Yemen and Iran that could result in the sinking of many US naval vessels, as well as the destruction of American bases in Iraq and Qatar, according to the former US Army psychological warfare officer.
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Referring to the ongoing escalation in the Middle East, he pointed out that the ''current Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which the Jewish state is facilitating, has become a nightmare for the US because it is alienating the Arab and Muslim peoples in the United States and Europe and endangering American diplomatic and military targets in the vicinity.''

"In addition, the West is being branded a war criminal and seen increasingly as a hypocrite for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity by its military, economic and political support for Israel’s apparent genocide of the Palestinian people. This may be worsened by the revelations that Israel has been planning this operation, and that it indeed was not simply a response to an attack by Hamas," Bennett concluded.

On October 7, the Palestinian militant movement Hamas launched an unprecedented large-scale rocket attack attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip as its fighters breached the border and opened fire, killing civilians and military. Israel carried out retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade, and launched a ground invasion into the Strip with the stated aim of eliminating Hamas fighters and rescuing hostages. So far, over 21,800 people have been killed in Gaza as a result of the Israeli attacks, according to local officials.
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