Tag Archives: Syria

The Final Presidential Debate: Recap

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The final presidential debate took place last night in Florida, with President Obama and Mitt Romney meeting for the final time before election day. With a focus on foreign policy, the debate went almost exactly as expected. President Obama walked away with a strong victory, but Mitt Romney did avoid the sort of hawkish tilt that has stained many Republican candidates in the past. 

horse and bayonets

It’s almost time to choose

It is much different to talk about foreign policy than to actually do anything on an international level. President Obama has taken a much softer and diplomatic approach than W Bush and many presidents before him. Obama has come under much criticism from the conservative wing for “apologizing for America.” This is nothing but selfish propaganda reflecting the fear that many conservatives feel when thinking of the world at large. Romney tried to make him look weak, and promised to restore the greatness of leadership.

It would be nothing short of impossible for Romney to lead the world as Obama has. Obama, from the sheer fact of being multiracial, compounded by his compassionate approach to every country in the world, has better united the world just by being a symbol. If there were a worldwide election, Obama would win with at least 90% of the vote. He is widely respected for his cool approach, which is extremely well marked thanks to the  glaring contrast between the “style” of W Bush.

When the conversation last night got to what each man would do regarding difficult situations in Iran and Syria, the American public got equal answers. Romney was unable to provide enough differentiation against what Obama was already doing, and his responses were nearly identical. This is not because Romney feels the same way as Obama, but because it almost never matters what the President himself thinks regarding foreign policy. Unless it’s something very big, It is almost always a decision made in the best interest of America taking all information and possibilities into account, from advisory teams comprised of foreign policy experts. Whatever Obama’s aides are saying to him now about the situations in Syria and Iran would be identical to what a President Romney’s aides would tell him.

Where the candidates did diverge was the size of America’s military. Romney has criticized Obama for wanting to “weaken” the military, and called him out for a reduced number of warships and fighter planes. Obama responded that the military has changed: we don’t have the same number of bayonets or horses, either. It is true that the role of the military is changing, but it is changing because it must.

Responding to the security challenges present in the world today, Obama has done a good job to reorient the focus of the defense department onto real threats. Beefing up cyber warfare protection, using drones to dismantle terrorist networks, and placing more emphasis on the Pacific region, are all examples of the reorientation. What Republicans refuse to understand is that the power of the United States military is still immense, and unrivaled in technological terms. It must stay this way in order to retain military dominance. Obama is the man to take us there over the next four years.

Obama At The UN Summit

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The world’s leaders gathered in New York this week at the headquarters of the United Nations to discuss the world order. Obama spoke, offering his thoughts on Iran and Syria, criticizing both of them but urging patience. Obama avers that the world can deal with Iran without the use of force, though all signs point in other directions.

urging patience for Iran

“Nobody start any shit until November 7th, OK?”

Clearly with less than two months before election day, Obama does not want to sink the USA into another foreign conflict in the Middle East. With Russia backing the Assad regime in Syria, there is little that Obama can do without the risk of igniting a giant conflict and at least some sort of cold war-type stand off with Russia. Even if the rest of the world stands with the Syrian rebels, Russia is too big an obstacle for everyone to tackle when the limping economy is what is on most people’s minds. Democracies are, after all, controlled by the people.

But the thorn in Obama’s side, Israel, has been warning that it will strike Iranian nuclear complexes in order to stunt their enrichment programs and buy more time as the Iranian regime urges the world that it is going to use the nuclear capability for civilian electricity. No one outside of Iran, and some inside Iran, want them to have a nuclear weapon. This is not necessarily because the regime has promised to annihilate Israel, but because of the way that Iran fits into the world’s terrorist networks, providing arms and funding to groups such as Hezbollah. Iran would be much more likely to give a nuclear device to a terrorist group and let them try to reach a western target. This is more dangerous, since terrorists do not need to worry about the safety of a massive population like a sovereign government does.

Either way, these will be two big issues that face the next President. If Obama is re-elected, we will surely see some sort of ramping up of the aide provided to Syrian rebels, perhaps even the coordination of humanitarian buffer zones inside the Syria borders. As with the Libyan campaign, America will probably take a back seat role with NATO calls the shots. If Russia pushes back, the world should ignore it, knowing that Putin would probably not stretch his military forces away from Russia while so many protests keep popping up at home. If Russia laments the loss of its final naval base in the Mediterranean, tough shit, they should refocus their efforts on the Arctic anyway, with the melting ice opening up a bonanza of energy exploration, they could probably use their ships up there.

If Romeny is elected President, there is no telling what he would do. He would probably begin to act even more belligerently with Iran, solidifying the Iranian people with their leader and encouraging Iranian sympathy amongst other Middle Eastern nations. The sanctions in place are crippling the Iranian economy and causing unrest among the population there, effectively separating the government’s agenda from what the people need. The further apart those two things drift, the harder it is for the Iranian government to justify what it is doing. If it reaches a tipping point, there could be large scale protests and the possibility of policy change. If Romney postures like a guy ready to punch someone, Iran can say to its people: we need this weapon to make sure this guy never comes near us. The world will become a very dangerous place.

No Turning Point: The Syrian Problem

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Daily images of massacres of Syrian civilians — women and children included — headline news outlets across the west. The civil war has been going on for over a year. Tens of thousands have died. Yet Western leaders sit on their hands and issue powerless statements. Sticks and stones will destroy cities but words will never save them. The west is hamstrung by illegitimacy. 

Syrian civil war

One if by land, two if by sea

Russia, long wont to rebuff the democratic system in favor of its current nepotistic capitalism, is not on board to remove Assad, Syria’s tyrant. They see him as their last ally in the Mediterranean, and do not want to send a signal to their population that if you rebel enough against a dictator that the world doesn’t like, they will come to your rescue. If the Russians started to fight against Putin and his regime, to the outsiders it would look eerily similar to Syria and Libya. Therefore, Russia does not even issue strong-worded statements against Assad. It is this, and China’s unwillingness to get into anyone else’s business at all, that limit what the world can do.

But the truly limiting factor is battle fatigue. America is trying its best to get out of Middle Eastern conflicts. Obama, facing stiff competition for the November election, can’t afford to risk starting a conflict that gets drawn out more than a matter of weeks. Syria is much better armed than Libya was, and is connected to nearby Iran via supply routes. European countries that would’ve taken the lead, like France under Sarkozy, have been steadily recalibrating their military budgets and thus their ambitions too. Literally no one can afford to foot the bill that air support and possible further combat operations would demand.

Every time another atrocity comes to light against the people of Syria who have endured dictatorial rule from the Assad family for their entire lives, people hope that it marks a turn in the way the greater world powers might operate. Each time this happens, no one steps up to the plate.

The Arab spring has changed the Middle East and Northern Africa for the better, and there is no reason that the world should not start to immediately help the Syria rebels. Obama is afraid of the negative outcomes of starting another war. But he shouldn’t be, just as in Libya, America could provide support while leaving the major operations to NATO. Not only would it send a clear message to Moscow that suffering people will be helped, but it would end the conversation that enables disagreement in the first place. It would be unlikely for Russia to cock their guns to be dragged into a conflict against the rest of the world over such a small friend. Putin might be crazy, but he knows a thing or two about survival.

Alas, there will probably be no major action until an unusual power steps out of its shell: Turkey. With size and strength, Turkish forces should set up humanitarian buffer zones along its border with Syria to allow the Free Syria Army to organize, and perhaps become armed. If necessary, Turkish forces could protect aid routes to different points in the country. As the Tunisians did for the fleeing Libyans and rebels, the Syria resistance needs a safe place to avoid being destroyed and to move fighting out of civilian-populated urban zones. There is too much blood on the ground to hope that this dies down by itself.