In part because America has failed to settle on a coherent, long-term foreign policy strategy in the Middle East. America is far from victory in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan whether against ISIS, Iran, or Al Qaeda. I thought President Trump could save Obama‘s failed American Middle East policy, but he managed to make America less effective in the Middle East than President Obama did. President Obama did not agree with Turkey’s President Erdogan to set up a safe zone for Syrian refugees on the Turkish border, let the Russians run the Syrian and Middle Eastern policy, failed to check Iran’s Middle East leadership ambitions, and sat passively while Syria engaged in a bloody war. President Trump has excelled in this devolution. Donald Trump’s top senior foreign policy advisers, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton were recently in the Middle East trying to explain the American policy, particularly on Syria, while reassuring both the Arabs and the Israelis that the US is not abandoning the region as they leave Syria, but instead, they are only abandoning the Kurds in Syria. At the same time American military leaders voiced disagreement with and regret for President Trump’s plan to withdraw from Syria.President Trump announced on Twitter that America has defeated ISIS in Syria, which was America’s only reason for being there. Initially America went to Syria not because ISIS was there but because it wanted to remove the Syrian leader Assad because Assad is a bad guy; he was not ruling his country based on democratic rules and was not protecting the rights of minorities, such as Kurds, Alawites, and Greek Orthodox as well as Armenian Christians, so that they wanted to remove him and bring democracy to Syria, But they shifted the focus from toppling Assad to defeating ISIS. Assad is still in power, ISIS is still on its heels, Iran is still ruling Syria with its influence in Syria prevailing. Continue reading
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Dr. Aland Mizell is with the University of Mindanao School of Social Science, President of the MCI and a regular contributor to The Kurdistan Tribune, Kurdishaspect.com, Mindanao Times and Kurdish Media.You may email the author at:aland_mizell2@hotmail.com.Become a Member today!
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