Published in the
Orange County Register on September 10, 2014. To access the original article,
click here.
Two
and a half years after President Barack Obama ended American military
involvement in Iraq, the United States has resumed “limited” air operations in
that country. American war planes bombed forces of the Islamic State
threatening the Kurdish enclave in the north. The White House is at a loss to
explain this tacit admission that the Obama administration’s “success” in
withdrawing American troops did not protect American interests in the area.
The
President does not know the next step to take. Speaking at a news conference,
he admitted “We don’t have a strategy yet.” The lack of planning is a surprise,
as a former Pentagon official told Fox news that the President had been given
detailed and specific intelligence about the rise of the Islamic state on
multiple occasions, and for over a year. The former official described the
information as strong and “granular” in detail.
The
President’s words may well be his foreign policy epithet. Without considering
the potential outcome, the United States stood on the side line when the Muslim
Brotherhood replaced decades-old allies in Tunisia and Egypt. Our air force flew
ninety percent of the sorties over Libya that resulted in the overthrow of the
Gadhafi regime, the eventual murder of our Ambassador, and the current
occupation of the US embassy in Tripoli.
Syria
is in flames with 150,000 dead in their civil war. That is the equivalent to
the death count of 50 World Trade Centers, or 75 Pearl Harbors. The only local
group strong enough to confront the Islamic State is the government of Syria,
the overthrow of which the US is committed. Iraq is teetering on the edge of a
total breakup. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is waiting for America’s withdrawal
to retake the country, while the Afghan government cannot choose a successor.
Russia has annexed the Crimea and has invaded eastern Ukraine with over 1,000
troops. There is shooting on the cease fire line between Armenia and
Azerbaijan. China is making territorial claims in the South China Sea that puts
it in conflict with American allies. An ebola outbreak in Africa has infected
3,000 people, killing half. The World Health Organization says the world
response to the illness has been inadequate, and the epidemic could spread.
Boko Haram is seizing territory in northern Nigeria.
American
policy is adrift. The United States remains the sole superpower in the world,
with more military and economic might than any other country. For some reason,
however, the White House is reacting to events instead of taking charge of
them.
The
creation of a national security strategy is a simple process to explain, and a
difficult process to implement. One must identify American interests in the
area. If there are no interests, the strategy should dictate that the United
States steer clear. If there are interests, however, the next step is to
identify at what point America will employ its levers of national power:
military, political, economic, and ideological. The government needs to be
clear on the ends, ways and means to be employed to safeguard the U.S.’s
interests. They must determine that implementation of that strategy has an
acceptable cost, and that the plan is sufficiently robust that it will actually
achieve US objectives. The Obama administration published a strategy in 2010.
It is time for another, one that the White House can use to protect our
interests.
James J. Coyle
is the Director of Global Education at Chapman University, and the executive
director of the Caspian Research Institute, an online think tank.
