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Middle East Challenges Obamaâs âLight Footprintâ
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Critics of the Obama administration's so-called "light footprint strategy" for the Middle East say it is more about keeping distance from problems in that region. This is a reaction to the extensive involvement of the U.S. in two wars in that region and intuitively makes sense, as well as being in line with American public opinion to focus on problems at home. The shift or pivot to Asia of president Obama also comes in that context. The problem with this approach is that this ignores the fact that most of the momentum and effort for the freedom struggles throughout the Middle East from Tunisia first, then Libya, Egypt, and now Syria, comes from within. The lead role is now being taken by France and Britain, with German public opinion also lined up in support. The U.S. in forfeiting its role as a facilitator with strategies such as "no-fly-zones" is losing the opportunity to gain the goodwill in the Middle East with cost that is negligible in comparison to the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan, and comes after the huge U.S. effort to remove one dictator in Iraq. A minor followup effort is all that is required from an administration that pushed for the "surge" in Afghanistan. When history is written the investment of the Obama administration in Afghanistan may show little results, if what is considered by the media and experts as an unpopular and undemocratic government of Karzai falls in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal. There is little doubt in public opinion in the U.S. and worldwide that the movement for freedom and democracy in the Middle East and democratically elected governments will become a lasting facet of the new Middle East. It also provides huge opportunties for trade and investment as is shown by the gains made by Turkey in just 2 years. This is why the Obama adminstration policies in the Middle East show a lack of grasp of the facts showing the Middle East as opportunity more than threat for the next decade, especially in its overreaction to the Bush era policies. This happens as there is a demographic explosion of young people in the Middle East. An administration that was keen to sense the demographic changes in North America, has failed to grasp this fact and why the struggle in the Middle East flashes daily on television screens young people carrying on the struggle. A pivot to Asia means a pivot to the Far East more than Asia because India is part of the South Asian-Middle Eastern region, which presents another paradox because as China is slowing the entire South Asian-Middle Eastern region of Asia is where future growth is expected to accelerate in the next decade.
Calls for President Obama to act decisively in Libya.
03/05/2011
The March 7, 2011 Wall Street Journal editorial calls for military action in Libya to prevent the Ghadafi regime from suppressing the democracy protests inside Libya. Other calls for action from Senators McConnell, McCain, and Kerry over the weekend March 5-6. The slow and hesitant response of the Obama administration.
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A must read from soviet archives about a Soviet general making the same request McChrystal is making.
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With 110,000 troops in Afghnistan, Soviet general Akhromeyev made the request for more troops in the seventh year of a nine year Soviet Afghan conflict. The Soviets could not maintain political control outside the provincial capitals as the insurgents simply disappeared into the hills, in so vast a country, is how he put it to the Soviet Politburo. In th same manner Russian Ambassador to Kabul, Kabulov, who was the KGB chief in Kabul during the soviet Afghan conflict, says there is an "irrtitive allergy" to foreigners for Afghans in the villages and hills that makes a large foreign presence costly and dangerous approach. A must read as the US is at a similiar juncture in its version of the Afghan conflict, and bad choices could prove very costly for the country as it did for the soviets.
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Criticism of the Obama administration's hesitant response to the protests in Egypt
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Vice President Biden says "I would not call Mubarak a dictator." President Obama fails to take a clear position in support of democracy, freedom of expression and economic opportunity in Egypt.
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France and Britain lead the effort for military action to support the democracy movement in Libya-2011
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A crucial test of leadership of President Obama for the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan- 2009-2010
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Obama has to look at the unofficial reports on the ground to get the facts, and be willing to change completely with the facts, if he is to accept Vice President Biden's view and advisor Reidel's view that counterinsurgency fight is not possible without a credible and legitimate Afghan partner.
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Commander Adams who commanded the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Khost province of Afghanistan.
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Commander Adams of the 82nd Airborne says he secured Khost province with only 250 troops by befriending the tribals and building roads and a spring water syste to help 12,000 villagers. Then the tribals watched out for insurgents and IED's and reported them. He says there are only one year wars in Afghnistan and the need is for better grasp of things over there, menaning befriending the tribals and letting them do the job; not putting more Americans there which will only fuel the insurgency.
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The Obama law school type analytical processes that yielded the decision for a "surge" in Afghanistan.
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The question is whether the complexities in society, culture, language, politics and history, of a place like Afghnistan and Pakistan can be settled with charts and numbers, and Mr. Obama's law school manner analytical processes. Can this kind of logic based approach address Afghanistan and Pakistan?
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Even in the hills above Darna, near Benghazi, Libya- where Islamic anti-Ghadafi fighters reviled the West- the mood is for friendly relations and being on the same side as the U.S. and Europe. The U.S. and European support for the democracy protests and movements throughout the Arab world has created a change in the Arab world for how America is seen. Did the U.S. support of autocratic regimes in the Arab world create tensions that were released through activities that targeted America? Could this be the opportunity that would turn things around for the West and the Free World's relations with the Arab and Muslim world? Could this be the beginnings of an opportunity that can bring back much needed peaceful relations with the Arab world and Muslims in South Asia?
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U.S. leadership is needed in different ways, in Europe as it struggles with eurozone debt, in the Middle East and South Asia as it struggles to create opportunities for the fastest growing demographic in Asia, and in the Far East as the aging societies of Japan and China seek to find a way to manage the period following rapid post war growth. In the ultimate irony the U.S. finds itself making itself spending as much time and resources in recent years in a remote central Asian region that has little to do with the rest of the world.
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