Geostrategic Media Political Commentary, Analysis, Security, Defense
The troubles in the Middle East sometimes seem to multiply by the minute as the conflict-ridden region grapples with terrorism and violence that Xinhua blamed on Obama’s “crippled” Middle Eastern policy.
According to Xinhua, “Obama should blame the political mess on no one but his crippled and cost-conscious Middle East policy.”
In short, the US president is not truly committed to tackling regional challenges. He is unwilling to provide enough help opting for a politically safe solution, like an airstrike campaign against Islamic State in Iraq.True, Americans do not want US soldiers to return to Iraq after their years-long engagement resulted in the deaths of nearly 4,500 US servicemen. However, the country’s leadership contemplated this option and voices calling for US boots on the ground are strong.
Advocates of an increased US presence in Iraq point to the fact that local security forces have been unable to offer effective resistance to IS militants. Keep in mind that they were trained by the US and they vastly outnumber the Islamic radicals. Still, in May, Islamic State seized Ramadi after the Iraqi army abandoned the city located some 80 miles from Baghdad without a fight.
Following the fall of Ramadi, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter alleged that Iraqi soldiers did not have the will to fight. But he failed to mention the “root cause for the Iraqi army’s frustratingly low level of morale,” the news agency said.Iraq has long been divided along sectarian lines. This rift has deepened dramatically following the US invasion of the country in 2003.
For instance, Iraq’s army has been reformed “by marginalizing and dismissing a large number of elite Sunni Muslim officers,” Xinhua pointed out. Shia soldiers were “understandably reluctant and unenthusiastic to defend” Ramadi, a city populated mostly by Sunnis.
According to the news agency, “Obama’s Middle East strategy is doomed to fail” because the US president is “an opportunist,” who “flinches and flip-flops” when it comes to decision-making.
“Whoever is going to succeed the Obama administration needs to know that the United State should not continue to scale back its involvement in the tumultuous Middle East at a time when he or she ought to do more to clear a mess of America’s own making,” the media outlet opined.
