By Karen Ann DeLuca, Alexandria
(File photo)

To the editor:

The national boundaries in the Middle East are mostly arbitrary lines drawn by the British and the French a century ago, and it is clear that the shotgun wedding trapped diverse populations that cannot — or will not — get along in sovereign states.

Maybe it’s time to let the long-squabbling marital partners get a divorce. They’ve been clamoring for a separation agreement for years and the domestic violence has only escalated since the Arab Spring. One hundred years is a long time to be in an arranged marriage with someone you can’t stand.

We in the West can comprehend that on a personal and political level, with separatist and/or independence movements in such places as Catalonia, Scotland and Venice. That melting pot mentality no longer seems to hold any credibility.

So I say treat the Arabs like grown-ups — let them out of those confining, crumbling cribs, give them room for self-determination and to “date and mate” as they please. Perhaps then they’ll settle down and give birth to peace and prosperity.

Maybe if the paternalistic West stops acting like a meddling mother-in-law and doesn’t re-engage, the chaos will subside and the region will stabilize. Plus, there’s the added benefit of not generating any more anti-American sentiment than already exists in the world, thus diminishing the probability of an attack on U.S. soil, which is our only real national interest in these civil wars and why we falsely cling to control and custody.

Breaking up isn’t that hard to do, and it’s the only thing that hasn’t been tried.