In Iraq, Barack Obama continues to focus on maximum restraint. In the case of the Islamists of Isis, the President violates his own principles.
Follow Barack Obama in his own words, then there can be no doubt. In September last year, the American President has outlined the guidelines of its foreign policy. Obama has enacted with regard to the Middle East three occasions, when he would intervene in doubt “with all elements of our power, and military power.” First, if allies and partners of the Americans were threatened from outside. Second, if the free access to energy reserves, especially oil supplies, threatened to endangered. And thirdly, if America’s security by terrorist groups is in danger. These guidelines have since been referred to as the “Obama doctrine”. All three events exist in today’s Iraq.
* The Sunni insurgency threatens not only Iraq itself, it is also a threat to neighboring countries, primarily for the fragile Jordan, but also for Kuwait and Israel. Isis is a hybrid of religious regional administration, terrorist network, a military organization. The probability that Islamic militants infiltrate into other countries in the region that they recruit young talent there and destabilize governments, is high. The same applies to the Holy Land, the second goal of geopolitical importance of the Islamists is to get rid of the Jews, in addition to the establishment of a caliphate. A caliphate between the Euphrates and Tigris, or at least a Sunni autonomous region, which extends from eastern Syria to the north of Iraq, and in the Isis largely can act undisturbed – that would be a threat, as it has not been long.
*This threat would also energy policy impacts on the oil-rich Iraq. Isis fighters have attacked the largest oil refinery in the country and take action themselves with oil, the price of oil on world markets has risen noticeably. As part of its doctrine, Obama has pledged to guarantee “the free flow of energy from this region into the world”, even if the U.S. should no longer be dependent on oil imports due to the Frackings. The Sunni insurgency is a threat to this free flow of oil.
*The situation in Iraq is reminiscent, thirdly, in some ways to the situation in Afghanistan before September 11, 2001. The country is experiencing a power vacuum, it is marked by religious strife, and a corrupt central government, which represents only a portion of the population. Isis is a mix of Taliban and al-Qaida and already more powerful than al-Qaeda in the years after September 11. With Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a charismatic leader at its head, which combines military, political and religious abilities, he has money, paramilitary camps and sufficient recruits. In eastern Syria and northern Iraq, a liberated zone has been created, which serves as a magnet for new fighters and as a starting point for the terrorists of tomorrow. It’s only a matter of time before this zone of terror pose a danger to the U.S. and U.S. facilities in the region, but also for Europe.
Obama has been elected for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he is a president of “Retrenchments” as the tendency is called the foreign policy retreat in the United States. There are good reasons, both international and domestic. The Obama doctrine should express the longing America after pacification, they should take this policy into guidelines. But it was written to prevent interventions, not to justify new bets.
US Iraq Policy:In Washington, nothing is decided
An intervention must not be made with cruise missiles or ground troops, they can be successful even with all the power of diplomacy. But it would mean to form a regional alliance with the Kurdish Peshmerga and Sunni tribes to win over in order to isolate Isis and push back. It would prevent the Islamists have in the long run on military training camp.
There is a crucial difference between a hegemonic, sometimes imperial foreign policy, as the United States has often pursued, and a wise, moderate security policy, only then decided to intervene when the borders of one state away the security of other nations is permanently compromised.
In Washington but nothing has been decided. Obama spoke of the conflict between Sunnis and Shiites in his speech on Thursday lot, but little of Isis. He announced the deployment of military advisers, but postponed any major issues. His foreign minister, John Kerry will fly into the region until the weekend, he opened this week prefer the conference to save the oceans. It will not work as if Obama ready to consider the problem as his Iraq or the West. But if Retrenchment means to devote themselves after a decade of occupation of a country now primarily overexploited oceans and the American education market as it has done in the past few days, the U.S. president, then this is wrong, at least in this crisis. The world should not decide who rules Iraq. But it should be decided to tolerate no caliphate and no terrorist hinterland. Otherwise, the example of the failing states Iraq to observe the failure of a doctrine which may not follow their own copyright.
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