Also, America's troubles are being compounded too, everything from the economy to the military is coming under pressure. Some people within the military are starting to feel a growing disillusionment with the "mission". The most symbolic example is that a record number of suicides are occurring in the military. Even senior members of the military are beginning to have doubts about long-established US assumptions about the region. Some believe that the US government should take a new approach to Middle Eastern affairs. One of them is Colonel Dermer, who had this to say after making a recent visit to the Middle East as a fresh retiree:
(Dermer's quote is taken from Clayton Swisher's post in Aljazeera's Middle East blog on April 12, 2010.)
After decades of one policy misstep after another we still don't seem to get the Middle East at large. We really don't. And we do not appear to be learning.I am not so sure if it is ignorance, or a collective intellectual wall that only allows us to frame things from our perspective, or hubris and timidity from those in and around power to really call things as they are.
Regardless, on my recent travels through Syria, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon, I once again viewed the effects and consequences of what my friends in the region view as the Obama Administration's continued "fundamental basic policy missteps" for reasons no one is sure of - and more importantly, are afraid to ask.
These perceptions are not boding us well. On this trip two prime examples were voiced: the vacuum after President Obama's heralded Cairo speech last year and the Mitchell Team's continued road to nowhere. Both raised expectations - an elementary mistake in and of itself - and both resulted in nothing. More troublesome, however, is the perception there are no signs of fixing what ails us.
As such, I discovered that Israel and her Arab/Palestinian neighbors have another shared view other than their fight against Islamic extremism. All are asking out loud if we are actually as incompetent as we look - or simply cunning and just playing possum until the right moment.
Their thought pattern is along the lines of what we still hear in Iraq seven years on. If the U.S. really wanted the electricity to be turned on, it would do it - period. Any thinking to the contrary, i.e. that the U.S. really CAN'T do something about what ails us - is an extremely dangerous prospect for all. No one really wants to go there, Arab or Israeli. Why? Because if the U.S. can't do it, then we - those of us that live in the region - are really in big trouble. Consequently, we will be forced to act - either by design or default- to take actions heretofore not allowed on the table. Israel vs. Iran come to mind here?
Palestinians visualize their concern by large billboard ads recently put up throughout the West Bank. The black and white ads show a shadowed caricature of the President with one line noting, "One year with Obama, so what's changed?" USG confidants in the region noted that our hubris still outweighs a willingness to challenge long held assumptions or comprehend how things are on the ground. In any case throughout my trip I heard the disturbing refrain over and over, "Is this the best America can do? Please tell us it is not."
