Re: The Global War on Terror 5.0: Putin on the Risk
What's your take on Obama's policies in the Middle East and how effective or not effective they've been and what he could have done better/different?
The one area in which the President made a
huge foreign policy mistake, and one fervently hopes non-lethal mistake, came very early in his first term. At that time, I still had hopes that Obama would govern as he described himself during his campaign. Then came the Green Revolution in Iran.
I am sure that the US intelligence apparatus has informed both the prior and current President that, were the mullahs in Iran ever able to develop nuclear weapons, it would have a hugely destabilizing effect throughout the entire Middle East. The Saudi royal family and the mullahs of Iran have been conducting proxy Shia - Sunni wars in the Middle East for decades (and before that it was Saddam's Iraq vs the mullahs, they fought an
eight-year long war from 1980 through 1988!). If one side had nuclear weapons in that conflict, the other side would surely feel an existential threat, and purchase / develop their own instantly. The chances of Israeli entanglement in an armed conflict were this to happen would be pretty high as well.
Here were everyday Iranians saying they were tired of rule by the mullahs and wanted change, perhaps the initial germination of a popular movement that could overthrow the mullahs and replace them with a government that enjoyed broad-based popular support. The chances of that kind of Iranian government agreeing to dismantle the nuclear weapons program would be pretty high, IMHO: there are widespread reports of how miserable life is in Iran, most people surely would prefer an increase in material well-being from peaceful coexistence than a fanatical fundamentalist pursuit of destruction. They were
saying so, loudly and clearly!
And the President sat idly by and did, and said, nothing. I was shocked, almost horrified. How could he do this? I'm sure the popular movement was inspired in part by an assumption that the USA, the bastion of freedom and human rights worldwide, would at least provide moral support and covert assistance. What better way to defuse the Middle East than to have the Iranian people themselves overthrow the mullahs? You could not have dreamed a better scenario for long-term peace!
Complete, utter silence, bordering on the disinterested. I kept raging whenever he deflected or dodged a question, "what is
wrong with him? can't he see what an opportunity this is? and even beside that, has he no heart, no feeling? people are getting brutalized and he can at least provide moral suasion against it, and he says nothing at all?" A few supportive words might have made a difference, who knows? there'd be no bombing, no troops, not even any shipping of arms and munitions. Maybe rally other nations to express their outrage as well. After all, even the most cynical part of me thought, Obama
loves to make speeches, and here is a natural opening for him to make a stirring speech that could change the course of history!
Utter silence.
Indefensible as well, IMHO, no matter what perspective you examine it from, be it moral or practical.
). Is that about right?
