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U.S. Mideat Policy Out-of-Whack
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
July 5, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
President Barack Obama finds himself caught between a
rock-and-a-hard-place trying to tweak U.S. Mideast policy. Watching the rise of radical Islam’s
new caliph, it was just a matter of time before some lunatic ascended to Osama
bin Laden’s thrown. His successor
64-year-old Egyptian-born physician former Muslim Brotherhood member Ayman
al-Zawahri was too old, too technical and too boring to command Bin Laden’s
charismatic mantle. Whatever one
said about Bin Laden, he had the look and creative propaganda instincts to
talk-the-talk and walk-the-walk to command al-Qadea’s extremist leadership. Al-Qaeda’s problems today, giving
way to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL], stem
directly from al-Zawhari’s age and lack of charisma. Far more mysterious and youthful,
al-Baghdadi galvanizes more youth interest in his new caliphate.
Obama hasn’t figured out the importance of linkage in U.S. foreign
policy, something the late President Ronald Reagan worked daily, with the help
of an experienced foreign policy team.
Whether Reagan actually liked Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev or not,
he at least made attempts to build rapport, keeping his enemies close at hand. Keeping Russian President Vladimir
Putin at arm’s length hasn’t helped U.S. fortunes at home or abroad. Putin’s July 4 overture, asking
Obama to improve relations, requires the president to revisit the idea of
linkage, where it’s more important for the U.S. to have Putin seeking U.S.
backing than constantly opposing everything Western. When the Western-backed anti-Russian
coup took place in Ukraine Feb. 22 while Putin hosted the Sochi Olympics, it
didn’t sit well with the Kremlin, pushing U.S.-Russian relations to a post-Cold
War low.
Obama showed no empathy for Putin when he threw his backing to
anti-al-Assad forces in Syria, including certain rebel groups with ties to
al-Qaeda and ISIL. Instead of
listening to Putin’s objections to toppling al-Assad, Obama went with
conventional anti-Russian conservatives on Capitol Hill. It was former 2012 GOP presidential
nominee former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney that said Russia was America’s No.
1 enemy—a throwback to Cold War. As
it turns out, radical Islam—the offshoot of the perpetrators of Sept. 11—are
still in reality America’s No. 1 threat. Putin tried to reason with Barack that dislodging al-Assad in Syria would open the
floodgates of more Islamic extremists, just like it did in Iraq. Sending over 300 U.S. advisors back
to Iraq after ending the war Dec. 15, 2011, doesn’t prove the GOP’s point about
prematurely ending the Iraq War—it raises new issues today.
Whatever went wrong with al-Maliki’s U.S.-backed security services after
nearly nine years of U.S. blood and treasure, it’s a whole new ballgame in Iraq,
Syria and Jordan. Al-Baghdadi’s
blitzkrieg, gobbling up large swaths of the Middle East, is a new problem for
Obama today. Pointing fingers at
former President George W. Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney is no longer
relevant. Today’s threat posed by
radical Islam’s new menace is Obama’s implacable foreign policy challenge. It’s not enough to cite polls that
indicate that respondents oppose U.S. intervention three-to-one because the
folks responding don’t understand today’s threats on U.S. national security. When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan
Oct. 7, 2001, the U.S. public got just a taste of the Taliban’s brutal form of
radical Islam. Al-Baghdadi’s new
caliphate fulfills Bid Laden’s dream of a pan-Islamic world state.
White House officials need to switch gears on ISIL and recognize that
it’s a whole new ballgame. If Obama
punts the problem to the next president, the Democratic Party will have hell to
pay. Citing polls about how jaded
the U.S. public has become to foreign intervention can’t deter a president from
his role as commander-in-chief.
Al-Baghdadis’ brand of radical Islam can’t be tolerated by any civilized
society, whether or not capitalist or communist.
Mass executions, tortures, pillaging and plundering, forced conversions,
illegal seizure of sovereign lands and expansion plans from Central Africa to
South East Asia, raise disturbing challenges.
Pointing to past problems with old or current foreign wars doesn’t change
al-Baghdadi’s current reign of terror.
With Putin sending an olive branch to the White House July 4, Obama has
the perfect opportunity to find common ground with Moscow.
Obama has the perfect opportunity to get on the same page as Moscow to
confront the latest menace to Mideast stability.
Whatever happened in the past with Afghanistan and Iraq, al-Baghdadi’s
reign of terror is a whole new ballgame.
Superpowers like the U.S. and Russia can set aside difference and focus
on coordinating strategy to confront a common enemy. Like the U.S. with Sept. 11, Putin knows the dangers of radical Islam watching Russia
subjected to unending attacks from extremists.
Ignoring the problem or pushing it off to the next president is no
substitute for a sound foreign policy that confronts threats to U.S. national
security as the come. Like Bin
Laden and the Taliban in the wake of Sept. 11, Obama can’t wait to deal with
al-Baghdadi until he reconfigures the Middle East map. Coordinating with Putin is Obama’s
best bet to put U.S. Mideast policy back on the right track.
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