Left to Their Own Devices or Learning to Thrive Without America

Leaders of the Middle East may be rewriting their region's history and, in the process, busting the myths of the West as their benefactor.

The decline of American influence in the region has the locals talking - to each other. 

After years of looking abroad for answers, countries in the Middle East now appear to instead be talking to each other to find solutions following two decades defined by war and political upheaval.

Much remains unsettled and this inward search may not provide the answers most want. There are no quick fixes to Lebanon’s unprecedented economic free-fall, the plight of Afghans desperate to flee the country’s new Taliban rulers and Iran’s increasingly hard-line stance over its nuclear program.

But the diplomatic maneuvering signals a growing realization across the region that America’s interest is moving elsewhere and that now is the time for negotiations that were unthinkable just a year ago.

The UAE, even the Saudis are suddenly talking with Iran. Problems are being aired, deals - tentative to be sure - are being negotiated.   Some of the bad boys - Syria's Assad and Gadaffi's son, Seif - are returning to the fold. It's not all milk and honey.

The Mideast hasn’t rushed to embrace Taliban rule in Afghanistan and international recognition is still far off. The grinding civil war rages on in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition battles Iranian-backed rebels. In Lebanon, the Iran-Saudi rivalry threatens to tear the country apart even more as it faces what the World Bank described as the world’s worst financial crisis in 150 years.

But the talking, for now, continues. And absent a major crisis that could draw America in again, those conversations likely will be where the deals get done.

Seems it's easier to talk when you aren't sharing the room with that 800 pound gorilla.