The United States and global challenges

President Obama in a press conference on August 28 stunned the audience by admitting that his administration did not yet have a strategy to deal with ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) militants. On the following hours his staff went on "damage control" and clarified that there is a strategy in place and cited the regular, if not frequent, airstrikes on ISIS positions within Iraq. These airstrikes, according to them, weakened ISIS considerably and enabled the Iraqi forces and the Peshmarga (Kurdish army) to stop further advance of ISIS. The officials further clarified that the President believed airstrikes alone would not deter the ISIS - a regional coalition would be essential. The Republicans characterised President's lack of strategy as a paradigm of weakness of his leadership - Obama is disengaged.
President Obama had conducted his presidential campaign largely on two premises: recovery of the economy from an unprecedented recession and bringing back the troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. During the past five and a half years Obama has shown little enthusiasm to get involved in major armed conflicts and the Americans by a large margin have endorsed his policy. In Libya, the US participated in the warfare as a member of small coalition and toppled Gaddafi regime. France was in the leadership. Unfortunately the lack of credible intelligence led to the death of the US Ambassador and his four colleagues in Benghazi. The circumstances that led to the killings of four Americans are still shrouded in mystery. The popular perception is had the State Department and the National Security acted in time, as demanded by former Ambassador, the tragedy could have been averted. The overthrow of Gaddafi regime has not been followed by political stability. The rebels are active even in capital Tripoli and the writ of the government does not seem to exist throughout the country.
SYRIA: The situation in Syria has been and continues to be complex. Russia's relationship with Syria dates back to mid-1950s and it has been a major supplier of arms to Damascus. Russia opposed armed intervention in Syria and favoured a peaceful solution of the crisis. The UN-mediated parleys continued for years but yielded nothing. In the meantime, resistance became fragmented and the radical Islamic elements penetrated the opposition forces. Over a million people became refugees and more than 120,000 people have been killed. Both the government troops and the resistance army share responsibility of gruesome torture and killings of opponents. The US efforts to forge a coalition to engineer "change of regime" met with opposition from Russia. US disapproval of Crimean annexation exasperated the relation between Washington and Moscow. Moscow has now taken a firm position in support of Assad regime as retaliation of US sanction. Syrian army now seems to have gained upper hand in the battle field and regained some of the towns lost to the rebels. The stalemate suggests there would be no military solution of the crisis - a reformulated UN sponsored dialogue might bring an end to the conflict.
ISIS: ISIS has been involved in the fight against Assad regime under different name. The retrenchment of support from the international community and lull in the fighting prompted ISIS to turn towards Iraq. The sectarian conducts of former Prime Minister Nur-al Maliki alienated Sunnis in Iraq. The defence forces, bureaucracy, judiciary drifted to sectarianism at the renunciation of Iraqi nationalism. ISIS seized the opportunity, championed the cause of Sunnis and invaded western Iraq. The Sunni Commanding Officers of Iraqi army defected to ISIS with their troops along with sophisticated weapons supplied by the United States. The remnants of Iraqi army could not withstand the severity of the attacks and retreated. ISIS occupied large areas popularly known as Sunni heartland and came 40 miles close to Baghdad. Baghdad sought help from the US and European countries. The US was caught by surprise; it could not have extended support to Baghdad as it would anger the Sunnis in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey. On the other hand, ISIS, branded as exponent of extremism including conversion of non-Muslims to Islam and executing those opposed, could not be given more space. US urged Maliki to pave the way for a broad-based inclusive government but Maliki refused. The resignation of Kurdish ministers unnerved Maliki and resigned. Haider al-Abadi, the New Prime Minister, promised fairness to all communities and sought national reconciliation. Both Washington and Tehran welcomed the appointment of the new leader. The US dispatched about 300 military personnel to train and assist the Iraqi army. The airstrikes on ISIS positions seemingly weakened ISIS to some extent. But the induction of American and British youths in the ISIS cohorts caused deep consternation in the US government. The recent assassination two American journalists in ISIS captivity compounds the worries of the administration.
PALESTINE: The resurgence of Israeli- Palestinian conflict in July and the role played by the US administration including replenishment of weapons to Israeli military once again positioned the US as an adversary of the Palestinians. John Kerry's failure to broker a "ceasefire" even for a short duration signals diminishing US influence in the region. Israel, despite being a recipient of US$ 3.0 billion per annum rejected Kerry's ceasefire proposal. The Palestinians have no reason to trust a US mediator who unequivocally endorsed Israeli airstrikes and ground invasion of Gaza. Some people appeared in twitter and facebook to suggest that US cannot absolve the guilt of complicity in the murder of 2,100 Palestinians, 72 per cent of whom were women and children. It is President Obama who about a year ago reminded Israel to respect the Palestinian's right to a state and said "It is unfair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of his own." On an earlier occasion, Obama promised US would not grant legitimacy of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Now the same President is opposing the Palestinians' attempt at the International Criminal Court seeking indictment of those responsible for murders of women and children in Gaza. President Abbas has proposed to challenge Israeli settlements in the International Court of Justice. In retaliation, the Israeli government declared appropriation of 400 hectares of land in the West Bank. As a friend who had invested billions in development of Israel both economically and militarily, US should advise Israel to mend fences with neighbours - its security rests with the homeless Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank. The sooner Israel accepts it, the better for world peace.
IRAN: The US government's recent sanction targeting Iranian individuals and entities, shipping and oil companies, banks and airlines would complicate the search for diplomatic solution of nuclear dispute. The latest sanctions - which Washington clarified, extensions of existing restrictions - came despite Iran's ongoing talks with the West. Iranian officials have condemned the new sanctions as a provocative move in breach of the Geneva nuclear accord between Tehran and the six world powers. President Hassan Rouhani warned that Washington's continued hostile moves have made Iranians distrustful of the US. Iran's Foreign Minister however assured that Tehran would continue the dialogue since the European countries and China haven't followed US paradigm.
UKRAINE: The annexation of Crimean peninsula by Russia in March and President Putin's resolve to come to the aid of ethnic Russians anywhere within former Soviet Union posed another challenge to the US. The rebels seeking independence in the south and eastern borders of Ukraine are being trained and armed by Russia. About 5,000 Russian troops have allegedly joined the rebels and their combined offensive resulted in the death of 79 Ukraine soldiers mid this week. Washington had earlier imposed sanction against Russia and tried to persuade its European partners to do the same. Germany, France and Britain for varying reasons opted out but disapproved Russia's meddling in Ukraine. In response to threat of a new round of US/EU sanction, Putin reminded the major powers not to lose sight of the fact that Russia is the most powerful country armed with nuclear arsenals. Obama's reaction that Ukraine is not a member of NATO indicates that US would not get involved to expel Russians out of Ukraine. It is believed that Putin has a grand design to rebuild Russia encompassing former states of Soviet Union as a parallel force of NATO; Ukraine has been the first attempt in that direction.
It is an understatement that US doesn't have a strategy to deal with international challenges. Some of its strategies appear to be irrelevant judged in context of the current situation. Regional coalition is essential to meet obvious and unforeseen threats and coalition can be built on the premises of internationally acknowledged principles i.e. promotion of civil liberties and democracy, respect for territorial integrity, non-interference on internal affairs of countries, apostasy of hegemony, etc. Embracing China, Japan, Turkey, Iran, South Africa and Brazil would make the regional coalition meaningful.
The author, a former official of
 the United Nations, lives in
the United States.
darahman.chowdhury@hotmail.com