Hegemon without a Plan: 'God Help the Middle East' (Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Germany)

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Hegemon without a Plan: 'God Help the Middle East' (Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Germany)

"Obama's wavering and procrastination and his back and forth between threats, retreats and interventions … has severely damaged U.S. credibility and reliability. … In Iraq, which the Americans left at the end of 2011, the U.S. is again fighting, this time on the side of Iran against the terrorist militia Islamic State. On the other hand, Islamic State was nursed at the outset by American friends in the Gulf. In the wars in Syria and Yemen, America supports Tehran's enemies. In Switzerland, the U.S. secretary of state negotiates with his Iranian counterpart over a nuclear deal that causes U.S. allies from Riyadh to Jerusalem break into cold sweats. … One requires a remarkable pair of eyes to discern a strategy in all this rather than a frantic, haphazard, event-driven mess."

By Hubert Wetzel

Translated By Stephanie Martin

April 1, 2015

Germany - Sueddeutsche Zeitung - Original Article (German)

The Middle East has produced crises and wars aplenty, and over the last 40 or 50 years the U.S. has been right in the thick of things. Most likely no American president has had to deal with the level of chaos in the region as Barack Obama today. And rarely has a president seemed less certain about what he really wanted to achieve and what he should be doing. Obama has never shown more than a cursory interest in the Middle East. This is one of the reasons that over recent years the fire of war has been able to burn its way from country to country – and today it is one of the reasons that flames are so difficult to extinguish.

Perhaps there was a flaw in his reasoning present from the beginning: Obama's idea that America could simply discard its role and associated burdens which have developed over the decades as a Middle East peacekeeping power. Although this determination was comprehensible based on the fact that America was sick of the Middle East, the Middle East was sick of America and in the Pacific the future awaited, but the hegemon's withdrawal left a void that hungry regional powers rushed to fill, with Saudi Arabia and Iran leading the way.

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Old alliances, the cornerstone of the previous order, faltered. Israel and Saudi Arabia suddenly felt ignored and even betrayed by the United States. Obama's wavering and procrastination and his back and forth between threats, retreats and interventions - always reinforced by a reluctance to concern himself with the region at all - has severely damaged U.S. credibility and reliability.

Intervene or stay out?

The result is a disaster - strategically, politically and militarily. In Iraq, which the Americans left at the end of 2011, the U.S. is fighting again, this time on the side of Iran against the terrorist militia Islamic State. On the other hand, Islamic State was nursed at the outset by American friends in the Gulf. In the wars in Syria and Yemen, America supports Tehran's enemies. In Switzerland, the U.S. secretary of state negotiates with his Iranian counterpart over a nuclear deal that causes U.S. allies from Riyadh to Jerusalem break into cold sweats.

Posted By Worldmeets.US

One requires a remarkable pair of eyes to discern a strategy in all this rather than a frantic, haphazard, event-driven mess. Nor does anyone in Washington seem to know what national interests are currently being served by Obama's policies - certainly not America's.

Of course, Obama cannot simply flip the "off" switch on wars from Syria to Libya. However, if a big, bloody, Saudi-Iran power struggle really is fueling these smaller civil wars - often in the guise of religious ones, then fighting any of these fires individually is pointless. So America must decide: intervene or stay out; support Saudi power ambitions or Iran's (neither is a partner for whom one should be proud); or just leave the region to the Arabs and Persians who are locked in struggle. Not our problem.

God help the Middle East.

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[Posted By Worldmeets.US, April 1, 2015, 8:15am]

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