One of the seven deadly sins Obama committed in Syria when he had the opportunity to assist the leadership of the defectors of the Free Syrian Army, he stubbornly denied them any help even though ALL of them were groomed to be non-Islamists (Assad’s excellent vetting machine) and ALL of them were ready to fight Assad on their own if only they could get the weapons and the funds from willing Arab countries. Still, Obama refused this historic opportunity to shape Syria’s future with great American influence.
That’s the biggest tragedy of Obama’s policy on Syria. Missed opportunities that otherwise would have limited the capacity of Jihad in Syria and would have accelerated the demise of Assad, which in turn would have been less destructive to Syria and its people.
Obama, at the time, was attempting to merge the Assad regime with the opposition in the hope he can find a multilateral solution. That’s why he denied the FSA any help. This assessment, to me, reflects Obama’s lack of deep knowledge of the role Syria played in the Cold War and the real Russian intentions in the region. Obama is learning fast that to succeed locally, one must succeed globally first.
When your enemies know that Multilateralism is your goal, they would, in effect, have access to the blueprint of your war plans. That’s the part that has always baffled me. Multilateralists don’t believe in pure evil. They really think everyone is disposed to seek a solution if only given a chance. As far as we are concerned, it took the destruction of a country and its people for one person to learn a lesson he could have learned in high school.
Let writers of history write about Obama’s deficiencies as a global leader. Our job is to point to the deficient policies on Syria that Obama turned into a nightmare. We call them the seven deadly sins Obama committed in Syria.
The vicious and deadly fighting that has been raging for over a year is the result of seven deadly sins Obama committed and we must recognize.
- Failure of Multilateralism: Announcing Multilateralism as your only policy dooms it to failure, which then makes testing it a payoff day for our enemies. America must be prepared to go to war at any moment or its interests would be dangerously jeopardized. Obama’s idea of Kumbaya diplomacy started the moment he dismantled the Defense Shield in Poland without any negotiations.
- Outsourcing of US foreign Policy: Obama likes to think locally. In order to concentrate on distributing wealth, he outsourced Syria to Erdogan and al-Thani of Qatar, both pro Islamists and supporters of the MB. America will be paying a dear price in the future for this deadly mistake. Al-Thani, somehow, has convinced everyone that it’s better to support the MB and watch what they are doing than to confront them. He is over his head on this one.
- Religious Wars: Sectarian divide between Shia and Sunnis, which has become deadly and destabilizing in the Levant and the Gulf (Had Obama supported the non-Islamist leadership of the FSA with resolve, more minorities would have joined the battle against Assad, which would have cushioned the sectarian divide).
- Increased Danger to America’s Allies: Israel, America’s ally, has seen danger increase around it with the Muslim Brotherhood ascent to power in Egypt and Erdogan’s war against Israel to replace the danger Assad posed. Hezbollah may weaken, but the MB in Egypt and Syria are even more dangerous because they open large borders to possible confrontations.
- Little Big Afghanistan in Syria: Al-Qaeda is squarely planted in Syria and the Syrian people see them as the ones fighting for their survival when Obama abandoned them for a failed negotiated multilateral settlement with Putin (Anyone who believed Putin was about to drop Assad is really a fool).
- Syrian Fighters Will Ignore Any Political Solutions: Syria’s new hardened fighters are angry and won’t stop unless they exact a price from the international community for not coming to their aid but with words and small gestures. No Syrian opposition or military high command structure seen as a puppet of the US will stop them from fighting. They are the ones with the arms and they are the ones who will impose their solutions on everyone. Don’t believe what the US State Department tells us about a united and democratic Syria. That window of opportunity has closed now.
- Missed Opportunities: Had Obama helped the FSA back when they began to defect, the US would have been able to shape Syria’s future and avoid the problems Obama’s policy caused. Obama’s policies has missed several opportunities on Syria.
We really miss every President since President Reagan. Even President Clinton realized it was hopeless to negotiate with Russia on Bosnia, but this President is so stubborn, it’s backfiring almost everywhere in the Middle East.
The real fireworks are about to begin.
COMMENTS