A very on-target column by Cato’s Leon Hadar argues that the United States should keep a low profile when it comes to the Middle East.

Not only is the situation pretty much an intractable civil war over long-disputed territory, but there’s no convincing rationale for why the United States should stick its neck out. In addition to sending Colin Powell in with a pair of kneepads so he can beg and plead for some kind of peace, some pundits say the U.S. should send troops into the region to help out. Hadar writes:

But those critics have still to come up with a rationale for placing the Israel/Palestine conflict at the top of U.S. foreign policy. Or, to put it differently, they should explain to the American people why a benign neglect approach toward that conflict would have an adverse affect on core U.S. national interests. In fact, raising the U.S. diplomatic and military role as part of a Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking strategy would not only harm U.S. interests, it would not help resolve the bloody dispute.

Right on the money. We have a lot to lose in the Middle East — and Sept. 11 suggested to a small extent what has already been lost — but very little to gain. The future of Israel is a worthwhile concern, and all decent people want to see an end to the bloodshed in the region, but not only does an American heavy hand heighten our country’s security risk, it delays the day of reckoning when the two parties –realizing that there’s no one to look to for salvation but each other — will work out some kind of agreement, no matter how unsatisfactory to both parties.

I have no problem with having the U.S. diplomatic corps act as an “honest broker,” but the United States should get its dogs out of the fight. Stop funding Israel, Egypt, etc., and let these two puppies fight it out until their too tired and need to lick their wounds.