Obama’s Syrian Policy Collapses

UN building

The September 2015 United Nations meeting in New York will be seen as the nadir of President Obama’s foreign policy. America’s and the West’s biggest adversaries – Russia and Iran – have joined with the Middle East’s least favored failed state, Syria, and perennially unstable Iraq to form a new relationship that will enhance autocracy and greatly accelerate the violence. Very little of this appears to have been known or anticipated by U.S. policymakers or intelligence services.

In Syria, Obama’s preference for diplomacy appears naive and irrelevant. His minimum military engagement appears feckless and an invitation to despots. Presidents Putin and Rouhani are now in charge of the outcome with America’s alleged ally and protectorate in tow. The collapse of President Assad’s government is halted and his survival for the foreseeable future assured.

Just to highlight the crisis of Obama’s foreign policy, the Taliban, mostly thought of as a southern regional force, just took an Afghan provincial capital, Kunduz, in the far north of the country. It reflects another failure of intelligence and calls to question the withdrawal policy that dominates the White House.