IT is disappointing to see President Barack Obama, a man admired so much seven years ago, turn into a weak sister on foreign policy. The damage he has caused to the Middle East through his inability to respond to the disasters in Iraq and Syria is only second to George Bush’s unnecessary and disastrous intervention in Iraq.
Obama prides himself in ignoring the Presidential “playbook” of foreign policy by turning on its head the conventional wisdom that sometimes intervention in foreign affairs is necessary to maintain global peace, or at least some measure of it. When he first promised to take military action against Syria when Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against the civilian population, then backtracked and refused to keep that promise, he stunned his inner circle that included then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden.
Of course, there is logic to the president’s case of non-intervention. He vowed to bring troops home from Iraq and end the war. And he gauged the American public mood and found it had no appetite for another war in the Middle East. Obama argues the United States is not the world’s police department. But then the United States is a global power with the resources, technology and military might that in itself demand that it conduct itself as a leader in maintaining peace.
There is no country on this planet better suited to deter foreign governments bent on slaughtering its own citizens than the US. To date, about 470,000 people have died in Syria through the actions of Assad and that should be reason enough to act. It’s not about being a global security force, but rather common decency that a country with the United States’ resources should put an end to wanton murder.
Yet here we are today with Obama in effect lecturing Middle East nations that they are not pulling their weight in the fight against murderous regimes, or even more ludicrous, giving Iran the benefit of the doubt that it would be a productive and friendly partner in the region.
In the now-infamous Atlantic magazine article by Jeffrey Goldberg, Obama said, “ ... Our Gulf partners, our traditional friends, do not have the ability to put out the flames on their own or decisively win on their own, and would mean that we have to start coming in and using our military power to settle scores.” He said Saudi Arabia must “share” the Middle East with Iran and establish a “cold peace.”
Unfortunately, Obama is speaking like a private citizen and not a diplomat or the president. He is still in office and every word he utters makes a difference. His remarks jeopardize the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States with a history that dates back more than 80 years.
He can’t deny the importance of Saudi Arabia as an ally, especially at the security level. US intelligence officials have often given Saudi security and intelligence forces credit for successfully identifying militants and potential terrorist threats. The American people deserve better. While they may not appreciate the Saudi-US partnership, they go to sleep at night safer and more comfortable with Saudi Arabia helping the US watch their backs. It’s about the collaboration of two countries, and it appears Obama has lost sight of that.
As Prince Turki Al-Fasial had previously said, there is a great deal Saudi Arabia is doing. We share military intelligence against US and Saudi foes, particularly when it involves Daesh. We have used military force alongside the US in Syria while continuing to battle the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen (which begs the question, just whose responsibility is it to maintain a “cold peace” if Iran continues to send arms and intelligence to the Houthis that is used to kill Saudis?).
Obama should also consider that not only is it a moral obligation of the United States to put an end to Assad regime’s slaughter, but also one of taking responsibility for the US’ own failures. President Bush without a doubt shares responsibility in opening Pandora’s box in Iraq that led to its collapse. Iraq is a destroyed nation. That debacle is followed by a ripple effect that saw the failed revolutions of Egypt, Syria and Libya. That’s on him. The tragedy was compounded when Obama failed to recognize the danger of Daesh, which grew from the vacuum created by Bush’s adventurism and hubris and Obama’s own inaction.
It’s insulting and counter-productive for the president of the United States to demand that Gulf nations “share” responsibility to obtain peace and to develop the ability to put out regional fires when those fires are the United States’ own making.
