Disastrous policies, neutral outcomes

Submitted by Dan Simon (United States), Sep 13, 2013 at 16:37

There's no doubt that the Obama adminstration's foreign policy has been hopelessly incompetent and misguided since the very beginning. But I'm not so sure that its recent forays into Middle Eastern statesmanship have been as disastrous as most commentators seem to suggest. Specifically, while the administration appears to have done (quite possibly deliberately) everything in its power to undermine American interests in the region, fate and venality seem to have conspired to mitigate the worst effects of lunatic American policies. Consider:

• American support for the Muslim Brotherhood against the Mubarak regime has resulted in a disastrously discrediting year in power for the former, leading to a coup and a restored military regime even more committed to combating Islamism (and aligning with America and Israel) than the latter.
• Repeated attempts to kick-start the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process" have only resulted in further alienation between the US and the PA, and strengthening of US-Israeli ties (outside of the administration itself, of course).
• And in Syria, American dithering and confusion have allowed the civil war to continue unchecked, sucking the resources of both Sunni and Shia Islamists throughout the region--exactly your preferred outcome.

Now, I'm not claiming that these policies, or their results, have actually been optimal for the US. But I do believe that they've been far, far less damaging than one would have expected from such confusion and ineptitude. There are still thee years to go, of course--but so far, just think how much worse things could be right now...

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