Obama's First Term May Prove Good For The Middle East
10 February 2013By Amir Taheri
Almost 68 years ago, one Valentine's Day, President
Franklin Roosevelt met Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz
Ibn Saud aboard the warship Quincy in the Suez Canal.
The meeting marked the positioning of the United
States as guarantor of stability in the Middle East.
Eleven presidents from both parties honored that
commitment with consistency. Though in appeasement
mood, even President Carter defended the policy in
1980 with a forceful statement dubbed ?the Carter
Doctrine?.
In his first term, Obama vacillated between a desire
to disengage from the Middle East and the fear of
appearing weak to his electorate. The result was a
weasel style policy that exposed America as a fickle
friend while encouraging its foes inside and outside
the region.
Obama appeared uncomfortable with the values, history
and global ambitions of his own side.
Without saying so in so many words he depicted the US
as an ?imperialist? power that, having done wrong to
others, should seek atonement.
That attitude encouraged Iran's Khomeinist regime to
speed up its race towards the nuclear threshold. When
Obama entered the White House, Iran was enriching
uranium with a few hundred centrifuges. Today, that
number is closer to 12000 in defiance of five
resolutions of the United Nations' Security Council.
The mullahs saw Obama's offer of a ?stretched hand of
friendship? as America throwing its hands up.
Fear of appearing weak, persuaded Obama to try and
prop up despots hit by the ?Arab Spring?. Days before
Hosni Mubarak bowed out; Obama's envoy to Cairo
announced declared support for ?transition led by
President Mubarak.? Even then, Obama did not side with
pro-democracy groups that had triggered the?Arab
Spring?. He regarded them with suspicion, partly
because some had benefited from the Bush
administration's ?Freedom Agenda? launched in 2003.
Since Obama claimed that whatever Bush did was wrong
he had to find new allies, and found them in the
Muslim Brotherhood.
Earlier, Obama had provoked a quarrel with the Iraqis,
using it as a pretext to terminate commitments to that
country's security and development.
Obama's ?weaselism? also manifested itself in Libya.
The US did the heavy-lifting in NATO's bombing
campaign against Gaddhafi.
But Obama's ? leading from behind? meant staying
behind, except when it came to having your ambassador
lynched by Jihadists in Benghazi.
Obama's ?weasleism? is also clear in Syria. Anxious
not to upset ?re-set? with Russia, Obama has allowed
Moscow to modulate America's policy through the UN.
The ?re-set? happened, but on Putin's terms.
Obama's other achievement is to downgrade relations
with Israel, branding Premier Netanyahu ?a coward and
a liar.? However, that did not earn him kudos from
Palestinians who remember his promise of ?a
Palestinian state? within a year of his entry into the
White House.
Thanks to Obama's first four years, the US has lost
many friends while acquiring more enemies in the
region. It has been re-imaged as an indecisive actor
incapable of using its immense resources in a coherent
manner. Increasingly, many feel that beset by
contradictions the US may have become irrelevant.
Paradoxically, Obama's first four years may prove good
for the Middle East in the long run. Obama's confusion
sapped the morale of Washington's despotic allies,
allowing speedy change in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and
Yemen. Having come to power in alliance with the US,
Islamists could no longer use xenophobic populism to
justify their probable failures.
Meanwhile, Arab countries and Turkey would have to
work out how to deal with the Iranian challenge
without an American or an American-Israeli input.
The American retreat might also force Israel and the
Palestinians to stop waiting for the American Godot to
end their conflict.
Amir Taheri was born in Ahvaz, southwest Iran,
and educated in Tehran, London and Paris. He was
Executive Editor-in-Chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran
(1972-79). In 1980-84, he was Middle East Editor for
the Sunday Times. In 1984-92, he served as member of
the Executive Board of the International Press
Institute (IPI). Between 1980 and 2004, he was a
contributor to the International Herald Tribune. He
has written for the Wall Street Journal, the New York
Post, the New York Times, the London Times, the French
magazine Politique Internationale, and the German
weekly Focus. Between 1989 and 2005, he was editorial
writer for the German daily Die Welt. Taheri has
published 11 books, some of which have been translated
into 20 languages. He has been a columnist for Asharq
Alawsat since 1987. Taheri's latest book "The Persian
Night" is published by Encounter Books in London and
New York.
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