Lee Smith, Weekly Standard: Obama Avoided Syria Action to Help Iran Negotiations
Over the weekend, the Washington Post’s editorial page editor Fred Hiatt argued that Syria may be “the most surprising of President Obama’s foreign-policy legacies: not just that he presided over a humanitarian and cultural disaster of epochal proportions, but that he soothed the American people into feeling no responsibility for the tragedy.”
Hiatt contends that Obama managed to convince the American public that doing nothing was “the smart and moral policy.” The way Obama sees it, the United States causes more problems than it solves, and besides there wasn’t much we could do anyway by backing a bunch of rag-tag rebels against Assad and his allies.
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WNU Editor: This decision to focus on Iran and to not antagonize them over Syria makes sense. For President Obama having an agreement with Iran has always been the prize .... resolving and/or taking sides in the Syrian conflict not so. One also has to wonder if having better relations with Iran is what precipitated the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. I know that there were other factors in play during this time .... but how President Obama ignored everyone who advised that it would be prudent to maintain a residual U.S. military presence in Iraq to continue training the Iraqi army, and to assist them in intelligence and counter-terrorism .... even with an improving security situation .... you have to wonder if there were other factors in play. The fact that it was during this time (if not sooner) that the "first feelers" towards Iran were being made .... as I said ... the timing ... and what happened after U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq .... you just have to wonder.
Update: Others are starting to speculate along the same line .... Drowning Syria to Keep an Iran Deal Afloat (Lina Sergie Attar, Daily Beast).
2 comments:
His objective was clear, contain the crisis to the Middle East. It was not and still is not being communicated clearly, but that is his objective. He will do whatever he needs to do to prevent the crisis from spilling over, including letting a massive humanitarian aid crisis continue and letting the Turks stay on the sidelines until enough Kurds are killed by ISIL.
It's frustrating, but it's the correct one. We are looking at an Islamic Civil War, and it's only going to be solved by the Islamic states. If we go in with a massive footprint, we will be seen as interlopers, which will make the situation worse.
It's that simple.
Maybe one of the side deals that came out of the Iran negotiations is to keep them from interfering in Syria. So maybe Syria was on their mind.
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