THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 256, October 25, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
OBAMA'S MISPLACED MIDEAST OPTIMISM
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
LIBYA, IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, IRAN, & OBAMA MYOPIA: U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S CLUELESS &
OVER-CONFIDENT STATEMENTS REGARDING THE MIDDLE EASTERN SITUATION -- OBAMA'S PHONY CLAIMS OF U.S.
FOREIGN & NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY SUCCESSES IN THE MIDDLE EAST -- HIS FAILURE TO GUARD HIS TONGUE &
EXERCISE CAUTION -- WHAT WILL PROBABLY GO WRONG IN THE ISLAMIC MIDDLE EAST -- WHY OBAMA & THE
DEMOCRATIC PARTY WILL SOON RUE THE PRESIDENT'S RASH BOASTS -- POLITICAL PROBLEMS AHEAD FOR OBAMA & THE
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS -- THE POLITICAL LEFT & THE ELECTORAL DISASTER IT IS LIKELY TO EXPERIENCE IN THE 2012
FEDERAL ELECTIONS & IN SUBSEQUENT U.S. ELECTIONS
FULL STORY:
Confidently commenting on the execution of Libya's long-time dictator, U.S. President Barack Obama stated that "the death
of Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi showed that our role in protecting the Libyan people, and helping them break free from a tyrant,
was the right thing to do." About his own decision to pull all U.S. troops from Iraq in two months' time, Obama asserted:
"In Iraq, we've succeeded in our strategy to end the war." He then drew triumphalist conclusions from these developments,
bragging that they show "The tide of war is receding" and "we've renewed American leadership in the world."
How handy: as Obama's disliked domestic policies (especially concerning health care and employment) sink his popularity,
he now claims foreign policy successes. Democratic Party flacks tout his international achievements: "Terrorists and
dictators," says one, "lacking the filibuster, have no effective defense against Barack Obama."
But the Middle East teaches caution; much will probably go wrong in Libya and Iraq. Obama, I predict, will rue his rash
boasts.
In Libya, it is unclear who will emerge dominant in the National Transitional Council attempting to rule the country. Two
figures represent the likely alternatives. Mahmoud Jibril (b. 1952; also known as Mahmoud Gebril ElWarfally) served as the
NTC's Interim Prime Minister. He earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh, where he taught
strategic planning. He has published ten books, including the well-received Imagery and Ideology in U.S. Policy Toward
Libya, 1969-1982, and founded an eponymous professional training and management consulting company.
In contrast, Abdel-Hakim Belhaj (b. 1966), Tripoli's military leader, went to Afghanistan in 1988 to fight the Soviets, served
as leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, was arrested in 2004 by the CIA, which turned him over to Qaddafi, who
jailed him until 2010.
Differences between the two could hardly be starker: one Libyan leader held a prestigious academic post in the United
States, while the other claims to have been tortured by the CIA. One wants to integrate Libya into a Western-led order, the
other dreams of a revived caliphate.
While Belhaj has stated his loyalty to the TNC under Jibril, he has also resisted its efforts to take control of the military
units. As Patrick J. McDonnell of the Los Angeles Times delicately put it, "How exactly the relationship between
the civilian leadership and the disparate military units will work remains unclear." More troubling yet, Jibril announced his
resignation on Sunday, just as the NTC Chairman called for a constitution "based on our Islamic religion." If Libya goes
Islamist, Obama would pine for Qaddafi.
In Iraq, Obama's claim about ending the war reminds one of George W. Bush's much-ridiculed "Mission Accomplished"
speech of May 1, 2003, when he prematurely announced that "In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have
prevailed" just as the real war had just begun. With U.S. forces now pulling out, Tehran can begin in earnest to take over
the country and turn it into a satrapy (the ancient Persian word for a subordinate polity).
Despite American warnings, Tehran already interferes in Iraq's politics, sponsors militias, supports terrorism, and has sent
its own forces into the country – and is preparing to do more. As Max Boot writes, the withdrawal of American troops
means that the "risks of a catastrophic failure in Iraq now rise appreciably. The Iranian Quds Force must be licking its
chops because we are now leaving Iraq essentially defenseless against its machinations." Baghdad tries to appease
Iranian threats; for example, its Chief of Staff proposed a regional security organization with Tehran.
If Iranian efforts succeed quickly, they might do significant damage to Obama's electoral prospects a year from now. "Who
lost Iraq?" could become a potent Republican battle cry. That Obama declared American efforts to stabilize Iraq a
"complete failure" already in 2007 sets him up to take the blame for that very failure.
Even if Iraq holds until the U.S. elections in 2012, I predict that, in 5-10 years, the American effort in Iraq (and, similarly, in
Afghanistan), with all those expenditures and lives lost, will have been for naught. When future analysts seek what went
wrong, they might well focus on Obama's clueless statements.
As Belhaj will likely prevail over Jibril, so will Iran over Iraq. If so, Obama and the Democrats will regret today's myopic
over-confidence.
© Daniel Pipes 2011. All rights reserved.
Originally Published in National Review Online, October 25, 2011
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes Mailing List, October 25, 2011
URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/10262/obama-mideast-optimism
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Libya, Arabs, & the Middle East
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
Page Two
Page One
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
North Africa -- The Arab States of Islamic North Africa
The Middle East & the Arabs
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is Founder and President of the Middle East Forum,
Publisher of Middle East Quarterly,
Founder of Campus Watch, Taube Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, a
signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a former
adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the U.S. Committee for a Free
Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and Technology, and a
former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the University of
Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for National Review Online, Front Page
Magazine, the New York Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and
developments in the Middle East have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington
Post, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network
television, as well as at universities and think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the
U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately
twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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