Editorials & Other Articles

Tace

(6,800 posts) Thu Apr 9, 2015, 11:22 AM Apr 2015

The Collapse of the Obama Doctrine: Yemen War as an Opportunity? | Ramzy Baroud

Ramzy Baroud -- World News Trust

April 8, 2015

To suggest that U.S. policies in Yemen were a "failure" is an understatement.

It implies that the United States had at least attempted to succeed. But "succeed" at what? The U.S. drone war had no other objective aside from celebrating the elimination of whomever the U.S. hit list designates as terrorist.

But now that civil and regional wars have broken out, the degree of U.S. influence in Yemen has been exposed as limited, its war on Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- in the larger context of political, tribal and regional rivalry -- as insignificant.

The failure, if we are to utilize the term, is of course, not just American, but involves most U.S. allies, who ignored Yemen’s protracted misery -- poverty, corruption, violence and the lack of any political horizon -- until the country finally imploded. When the Houthis took over Sanaa in September, a foolish act by any account, only then did the situation in Yemen became urgent enough for intervention.

For a long time, the United States seemed invulnerable to what even Yemen analysts admit is a intricate subject to understand, let alone attempt to explain in a straightforward manner. The U.S. drones buzzed overhead independent from all of this. They "took out" whomever they suspected was an al-Qaeda affiliate. President Barack Obama was even revealed to have approved of a "secret kill list," and agreed to consider counting casualties in such a way that “essentially designates all military-aged males in a strike zone as military combatants.”

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http://worldnewstrust.com/the-collapse-of-the-obama-doctrine-yemen-war-as-an-opportunity-ramzy-baroud

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The Collapse of the Obama Doctrine: Yemen War as an Opportunity? | Ramzy Baroud (Original Post) Tace Apr 2015 OP

But the Easter pictures with the girls...And the Bob Marley bar... Doctor_J Apr 2015 #1

"Gone are the days in which U.S. policies alone dictated the course of history in the Middle East" Bill USA Apr 2015 #2

Doctor_J

(36,392 posts)

1. But the Easter pictures with the girls...And the Bob Marley bar...

Reply to Tace (Original post)

Sat Apr 11, 2015, 03:12 PM

Apr 2015

How can this be????

Bill USA

(6,436 posts)

2. "Gone are the days in which U.S. policies alone dictated the course of history in the Middle East"

Reply to Tace (Original post)

Sat Apr 11, 2015, 05:20 PM

Apr 2015

"Gone are the days in which U.S. policies alone dictated the course of history in the Middle East. The Iraq war was catastrophic at so many levels, lead amongst which was relegating direct military intervention as a way to achieve strategic and political ends. "

The only "opportunity" he seems to articulate is not an opportunity for any U.S. action but a situation where Arab rivals realize that fighting each other isn't really getting them anywhere, and they learn to live together - peacefully.

"Of course, there is a way out. Iran and its Arab rivals must understand that political scenarios where one cancels out the other are impossible to achieve. Syria has been a paramount, although tragic, example.

... Shia, Sunnis, and numerous other groups, crisscrossed, overlapped and co-existed in the Middle East for centuries. No war, no matter how destructive, and no alliance, no matter how large, can possibly change that historical inevitability. "

This is not an 'opportunity' which would mean an opening for U.S. action - but rather a hope. I certainly think it's a marvelous and halcyon hope to harbor indeed. Some would call it a dream.

I think it's quite a stretch to hypothesize a situation where Sunis and Shias lose their appetite for blowing each other and everything else up. Till everything is reduced to particles of sand (i.e. a desert). I think it's more likely we will see fighting between these groups for a long time to come - whether the U.S. is involved in the Mid-East or not (although I believe we only make things worse by getting involved.

IT is sad to think, as the author points out, that the U.S. played a critical part in the chaos we see in the Middle East today.

"Its (the US's) exasperation of Iraq’s sectarian fault lines following the 2003 invasion, leading to a massive civil war few years later, was a lesson unlearnt. ... Empowered and brutal U.S.-supported Shia government that took revenge on Sunni tribes and communities across Iraq following the war, met their match with the rise of a brutal so-called "Islamic State" in more recent years, turning Iraq, and of course, Syria, into a savage battleground."

It's interesting that the author says "a lesson unlearnt" ... What does he think a big part of the basis of "the Obama doctrine" was .. if not the realization that we cannot force the people of the Mid-East to live together peacefully, no matter how many troops we pour in there - if they aren't willing to do so? Recognizing, then that this is a fundamental realization leading to the "Obama doctrine" .. this makes the authors described "opportunity", that "Iran and its Arab rivals must understand that political scenarios where one cancels out the other are impossible to achieve" and that they have historically lived in peace in the past and could do so again - sounds quite consistent with the objective of the "Obama doctrine".

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