Nationalistic Dreams of Unity in Middle East

I am in broad agreement with George Will’s argument (“It’s High Time to Bog Down in the Middle East,” Commentary Sept. 10) that a long-term deployment of American forces will serve our interests better than the alternative of a full-scale war with Iraq or the concession of the gulf region to Iraqi hegemony.

The end of the Cold War makes it easy to forget the serious problems that resulted from our failure to wean our European allies from dependence on American military power for their defense. More self-reliant nations like France tended to be more stalwart allies than those, like West Germany, in which American forces “bogged down.” Keeping this in mind, we would do well to develop means of strengthening our allies in the gulf region that rely less on an unconditional, indefinite commitment of American manpower.

GREG MARCHESE

Northridge