Syria, ISIL Iraq and Ukraine are now Obama’s Tar Babies
[ Editor’s note: Petr Lvov gives us a good review of how Obama might pass on several ongoing and long-term wars to his successor, as George Bush (43) did to him.
His UN “go to war” speech on ISIL was so ludicrous it was hard to believe that this was the same Obama who finally withdrew troops from Iraq and wound down Afghanistan to a great degree.
He certainly must have learned in six years the limitations of air power in insurgency warfare, and to not believe that training 5000 more troops for the Jihadis was going to do anything more than torture the Syrian people with more death and destruction — compliments of the good ole’ USA.
To borrow an old phrase, Obama is “pushing a string”. We can easily see that the losses being inflicted on ISIL can be made up as they are incurred. ISIL has an endless pool of replacement manpower to pull from.
ISIL might even hire a lawyer to sue Obama for unfair trade practices… to the extent that Obama wants ISIL out of the terrorism business so that it can go back to being dominated by the US, Israeli, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, with a host of minor players. You just can’t make this stuff up.
And don’t laugh. When the British outlawed the African slave trade, two of the major slave-trading tribes hired an English lawyer to pursue the matter in court, on the ground that slavery was an “internal cultural matter” where Britain had no right to interfere. They lost the case, but learned about crooked judges and attorneys all in one shot.
The whole world is on to the fake war on terrorism scam. Obama’s plan had no mention of country sanctions against those supporting ISIL, or even putting individual supporters on the no fly list, let along confiscation of assets. On the contrary, when the Mideast Jidahis are returning home after their extended adventure vacation — learning how to be a gun-toting, head-chopping, girl-raping religious terrorist — they cannot even be arrested upon entry.
In Britain, we are told, they are “being watched”. This is how they protect us 13 years after 9-11, when what really happened has been classified in the US because it involved treasonous high-level Americans, mini-nuking the WTC’s… and of course the great “fixer for hire” — the Israelis. Obama has not lifted a finger to undo the coup we suffered on that day of terror.
We know he knows who did it, as he had access to the 2003 Sandia Labs report confirming what happened. We must never forget that whenever our government is telling us about how they are going to fight terrorism, they are really unfit to do so.
They have allowed the 9-11 perpetrators to walk around free, some of them as respected government persons. They find that too daunting a task to deal with, yet will not resign and let someone with the guts to do it take over… Jim W. Dean ]
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– First published … October 6, 2014 –
US military soldiers on
All the past wars and conflicts seem to have taught Washington nothing, since it’s no wiser than it used to be. Today the US doesn’t have the military might or financial resources to dictate its will to countries with non-Western cultures. The White House has been proved unable to shape other states along its own pattern.
Ithas failed in bringing democracy and prosperity to the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. Now its hopes are much less ambitious —it tries to prevent these countries from falling apart in order to preserve them in some form.
At the same time, Obama is stubbornly trying to shift the gears of its foreign policy. Today, the United States aims at nothing less than destroying ISIL.
The threatening statements of the US president were immediately followed by air strikes, although everyone understands – without boots on the ground there’s no elimination of the Islamic State. International players begin to understanding that in order to succeed Washington needs a more realistic strategy and a far less ambitious policy.
The US cannot stop the terrorism that spurs across the Middle East, nor it is capable of preventing the spread of the Sunni-Shiite conflict. Washington has no tools of establishing a Western-style democracy in Syria and Iraq. We can only hope that this confrontation won’t last for another decade.
In this struggle Americans seem to have no permanent friends, no permanent enemies. What are the Gulf monarchies that seem to have common interests with the US? Even though some of these countries are taking part in air strikes in Syria, all of these states aretotallyundemocratic. They have been fueling the fire in the Arab world, relying on the most violent extremists to push their agenda forward.
On the other hand, although the US has always perceived Iran asanarch enemy, the two states are now sharing a common goal – the instinction of ISIL. But Tehran is in no hurry to enter an alliance with Washington because once the latter is done with Iraq and Syria, it will be seeking the “democratization” of Iran. In turn, Russia could be a major partner of America in the new anti-terrorist coalition, but Obama believed otherwise. He has recently labelled Moscow’s actions a threat to peace and stability.
In these conditions, without an anti-terrorist coalition worth mentioning, the White House and the Gulf states have launched aerial bombardments of theISIL militants in Syria.
Obama seems to think that this step will benefit all the parties involved: conservative Arabs monarchies will demonstrate that today they’re not pro-terrorism anymore, and the United States will show that it still has the support of Arab countries, hence Washington has not embarked on a new against Arabs and Muslims.
But the air strikes policy won’t last for long. Obama has no support in the EU, except for France and the UK. A number of states, including Germany, Russia, China, Turkey and Iran oppose his actions. Arab Gulf monarchies are taking part in this operation only to prevent the Islamists from pouringacross their borders.
On top of it all, their desire to prevent Iran from joining the fight against ISIL exceeds all reasonable explanations. It is a well known fact that Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been funding Iraqi Sunnis to fight the Shiite government in Baghdad, since the latter took into account Tehran’s position. So here’s a question– what are Obama’soptions?
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Boots on the ground again?
General Dempsey
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , General Martin Dempsey insisted that it is imperative to put foots on the ground. A similar opinion was expressed by the commander of United States Central Command, General Lloyd Austin.
A former commander of the US Marine Corps General James T. Conway has bluntly stated that Obama’s strategy is doomed to failure. But the US Presidentchoses air strikes over a war.
In turn Congress has shown support to Obama’s plan, which also implies extensive training of the opposition militants in Syria. The 273-to-156, with 40% of the Democrats voting against Obama’s strategy, showed that, but for the Republicans, Obama would have been outnumbered.
The polls are showing that most Americans are supporting the war against ISIL; at the same time the vast majority of the population is not willing to support Obama’s policies, whose approval rating has hit an all time low of 34%. Americans are unhappy with President’s way of fighting the international terrorism.
How can any president be successful if he enjoys no support of his people; if he is opposed in the ranks of his own party; if he ignores the opinions of his military staff; orif he has no allies among the permanent members of the UN Security Council?
Gulf countries may believe in Obama’s good intentions, but clearly they do not believe in his ability to handle the situation. Especially when Obama has declared from the very beginning — that the fight against the ISIL militants will last for three years. Which means that he’ll be gone by the time it is over.
Air strikes, which are carried out in Syria now are nothing more than a mere escalation of the war against the Islamic State and other jihadists. But when the conflict expands, Obama will have to clarify its objectives and the means that are to be used in achieving them.
If the goal is to carry out swift strikes againstthe strategic targets – including command centers, armories, training camps, transport hubs, a certain degree of success can be achieved. But this will not lead to the destruction of ISIL. And most importantly — it will not eliminate the possibility of retaliation terrorist attacks in the United States.
Kurdish teenage girls are now our boots on the ground figthing ISIL, which the US, Israel and Gulf States birthed
But if Obama really seeks to destroy ISIL, he will not be able to achieve this without Iran and Syria. It’s basically a dead end: without these countries there’s no extinction of ISIL, but once those states are brought in, it would lead to theirconsequent strengthening.
But this turn doesn’t fit the US strategic planning and it may deter the current “partners” of the US. Washington cannot afford taking the side of the Shiites in the war between Sunnis and Shiites. Especially when Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are experiencing concerns about the rumors of a new twist in relationships between the US and Iran.
Dealing with ISIL will require billions of dollars, tens of thousands of foreign troops, years of collective efforts, political will and planning capability, which in the last few years has not been shown by either the Democrats or the Republicans.
So the US bombs have brought no political change to the situation in Syria. On the contrary — they’ve brought more uncertainty to the strategic layout. After all, the Middle East was always a puzzling region — you start doing one thing and suddenly you end up with a different result.
The United States launched a process of color revolutions in the Arab world in order to “democratize” the corrupt Arab regimes, but then they got nothingbut wars, conflicts and an unprecedented rise of terrorism. Obama wanted to tear Ukraine away from Russia in order to turn it into a “European country“, and instead he has made it a failed state with failing economy.
But since Washington has started all this mess, let it clear it up.
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Petr Lvov, Ph.D in political science, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
Jim W. Dean was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022. He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.
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