Recipe For A Debacle

In December of last year I blogged about President Obama trying to limit his political exposure in the area of foreign policy which was another way of stating that President Obama was attempting to limit his exposure at ineptitude. He also appears to have failed at that.

His decision to leave Iraq and be done with the war, and the people left behind, is now showing how disastrous that can be. Civilian casualties in 2013 were greater than those in 2008 and bombings per month now average 71. (here) The weekly news cycle has reported the resurgence of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the combat gains they have accomplished in Fallujah. With a pre-determined exit date for Afghanistan already published, the Taliban simply builds strength and alliances waiting for the last troops to leave.

If American weariness with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is a justification for those nations to be left to their own devices, then what is the rational for leaving Iran in total control of the Middle East? Members of Congress and both Israel and Saudi Arabia deemed Mr. Obama’s announcement of a nuclear deal with Iran suspect. The Iranians offered their understanding very quickly after the announcement and it was already at odds to what Mr. Obama reported. Now, the other shoe has dropped with the report of a side deal between the parties to the agreement. According to the Los Angeles Times, this side agreement states no Iranian nuclear reactor will be shut down, Iran will continue to enrich uranium, the Iranian nuclear research operations will expand, and new state-of-the-art centrifuges will be allowed to come on-line. (here) If this is what the Iranians received in the bargain, then what did they originally ask for that we turned down?

Just on the surface it appears that Mr. Obama wanted a way out of any responsibility for the future of the Middle East. He will get the exact opposite. Michael Barone writes in nationalreview.com (here) about the newly released book by Robert Gates where Gates made positive statements as to how the actions of past presidents provided building blocks for the successes of later presidents. But with regard to Obama, “Gates sees Obama as out of line with the continuity he (Gates) admires in his (Obama’s) predecessors.” With regard to domestic policy this is not new. Obama acts as if he has distaste for American history and the Constitution. Now he has washed his hands of the allies and the American involvement in the Middle East but the responsibility will still be his.