Kerry makes a pointless trip

Amir Taheri:
...

For the past four years (notwithstanding Hillary Clinton’s attempts at make-believe diplomacy), the Obama administration has danced around issues in an elliptic exercise in strategic retreat. President Obama has made speeches on issues, then shunned dealing with them. US foreign policy today is shrouded in a fog of contradictions.

Kerry’s stopovers in London, Berlin, Paris and Rome are nothing but photo-ops to foster the illusion of action. The Europeans have already made it clear they expect little from the Obama administration. Several of them, notably Britain and France, are trying to fill part of the gap left by the US retreat.

The Middle Eastern capitals that Kerry is scheduled to visit are no less concerned about the American absence. The region faces three key issues.

The first is Iran’s ambition to “export” its Khomeinist revolution and project power through its nuclear project. Last week, the office of “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei published a letter to Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi inviting him to adopt the “model of Islamic development” in preference to “godless systems” marketed by Western democracies.

The second concerns the future of Syria and, because of Iran’s heavy involvement in propping up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, is linked with the first.

The third issue centers on the objective alliance that the Obama administration has forged with the Muslim Brotherhood. The prospect of a Middle East dominated by the Brotherhood’s Arab and Turkish branches terrifies the region’s democratic forces and also causes unease among Washington’s traditional allies, notably Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

Many in the region ask if Obama wants to sacrifice putative democratic partners and traditional allies at the altar of the deal it’s made with the Brotherhood.

...
The retreat is obvious to all in the region and to many of us in this country.  Kerry appears to add his hand as one of the architects of retreat and defeat in Africa and the Middle East.  Hagel will only add to the despair in the Region among those who have been our friends.

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