I spent the last week in the US trying to understand what the American side thinks about the political upheaval in the Middle East and its devastating outcome. I found that Americans were preoccupied with their own political problems and had their own priorities — discussing things like the environment, jobs, economy and healthy food.
In fact, in New York a popular competition was about the “ugliest dog” in town! The Middle East was rarely mentioned in the public sphere. Ditto for newspapers and TV programmes — except for factitious late-night shows, about how American heroes put down a gang of terrorists in an unknown location that looked like the Middle East.
In America, Middle East politics is an elite affair — only journalists, writers and a few politicians are interested in the subject.
Andrei Gromyko, the long-serving Soviet ambassador to the United Nations during the Cold War, who later became the foreign minister, had once remarked that the US embraced no ideology. At the time, he was probably referring to the ability of US foreign policy to adapt to changes, in contrast with the Soviet Union that adhered to certain polices with no changes. That was true a few decades ago, but not anymore.
Barack Obama and his advisers in the White House have an ideology that is widely influenced by Obama’s political background and the social setup he grew up in. It could be summed up as “idealism”.
Firstly, the utopian ideas he brought with him as a result of his upbringing and work life. He believes in the politics he preaches, even when it is not necessarily in harmony with widely-held ideas and polices of his own Democratic Party. The second is his insistence to move away from his predecessor’s politics and limit active involvement by American combat troops in foreign countries to a bare minimum. The combination of the two is an ideology in itself. Arabs in general and Gulf Arabs in particular have not come to terms with this so far. We think that at every turn there is an American trap.
Some of us see this policy is counter-productive to American interests. US withdrawal from Iraq and planned full withdrawal from Afghanistan have not made the region safer. It has become a more dangerous neighbourhood and the US in the end finds itself fighting undeclared wars on different fronts.
Although those wars are fought from the sky through unmanned drones, the situation could escalate, like what is happening in Iraq right now.
Region’s anger
All ideologies are blind and Obama’s is no exception. The drones have been used extensively in countries like Yemen to kill Al Qaida agents, but the most dangerous threat to Yemen are the Al Houthis — a Shiite fundamentalist group funded by Iran. Soon, the drones could be over their heads too.
And also in other places such as Syria and Iraq, where terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant are threatening the unity of the country and beyond. The majority in the region is dissatisfied — in fact angry — with the involvement of the US. Since there is no coherent policy adopted by the US, it is in the bad books of both sides in the Middle East.
The recent trips by US Vice-President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry to the region seemed to emphasise the impractical policies Washington is pursuing, almost reminiscent of the years leading to the disastrous war in Vietnam.
History will probably record that the starting point of Obama’s failure was when he hesitated to carry out swift action in Syria by supporting — at the very outset — the moderate opposition forces there. A few years after that failure the Middle East has plunged into what we are witnessing now. Failures start small, even in politics.
Mohammad Alrumaihi is a professor of political sociology at Kuwait University. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@rumaihi42
