No Walking Away: A Warning for the US on the Mideast

JERUSALEM, Israel -- From a distance, the Middle East can seem like a very confusing place. Yet it's likely more important than ever before to know what's going on in the region.

Those with extensive experience in the Middle East can provide valuable insight for the rest of the world.

"More generally in the Middle East, what the American people need to know is that this a time of unprecedented turmoil," Sen. Tom Cotton, R-AK, told CBN News.

"Again, you have Iranian-backed proxies -- whether they are militias or state actors or terrorists groups -- that are largely in control of large swaths of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and that are going to continue to aggressively destabilize the region because Iran is going to get tens of billions of dollars to support them -- because Iran is going to get more conventional weapons and ultimately Iran is going to get nuclear weapons," he said.

Cotton says the billions in sanctions relief under the U.S.-led Iranian nuclear deal will bankroll Iranian aggression.

"That is all going to happen in almost the first day of this deal," he continued. "They're going to get the money immediately. Very soon, they'll be getting more conventional weapons.  And the nuclear umbrella they'll be developing will continue to deter often times effective push back against Iran's actions in the region."

"That's why it's so important that to stand up to them now before they get stronger, before they realize that they can confront the U.S. and our allies throughout the region," he said.  

Retired U.S. Gen. Jay Garner told CBN News America lacks a coherent Middle East policy.

"The Middle East is beginning to break apart. It's beginning to be subverted by terrorist elements like al Qaeda or like al Qaeda in the Sinai Peninsula," Garner said.

"There's no coherent U.S. policy for how you deal with the Middle East," he added. "We don't recognize the realities in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Iraq, and we're running the gamut of nuclear proliferation. And we need to have a policy and have put the resources behind the policy to correct that."

Knesset Member Michael Oren, who served as Israel's U.S. ambassador from 2009 to 2013, says Americans who think they can ignore the Middle East are kidding themselves.

"What they need to know is, this is, it's not necessarily about the West.  It's about tensions and problems and insecurities within the societies themselves," Oren told CBN News.

"The state system as devised by the Europeans, they're arbitrary borders that didn't take into consideration ethnic and religious differences," he explained. "It's not adaptable; it's not sustainable in an area of the world where people don't necessarily organize themselves along nation-state lines."

No Walking Away

"If anybody in the United States thinks that they can turn their back on the Middle East and walk away, then they are kidding themselves.  The Middle East is not like Vietnam where you can pull your troops out and go home and be pretty confident that the Viet Cong are not going to follow you to wherever you're going to, Chicago or Florida," he continued.

"The Middle East is going to come after you. The Middle East is coming to a neighborhood near you and the United States will remain deeply connected both strategically and financially to the Middle East. So there's no detaching. If the United States wants to be a player in this region, a player diplomatically, it has to be a player militarily as well," Oren concluded.