American power is on the decline and nowhere is this more evident than in the Middle East today. The paradox is out there for all the world to see: as revolutions in the name of democracy flourish across the world, the globe's traditional beacon of hope and freedom has been left completely out of this truly historic period. Americans have fought to end famines in Somalia, shed blood in the Balkans to stop anti-Muslim genocides, and have been the single largest donors of aid to the Palestinian people, yet despite these and many more accomplishments, the United States is sorely losing its war for the hearts and minds of the Arab and Muslim worlds.
For a plethora of reasons, the United States is increasingly seen by Middle Easterners as a hypocritical, imperialistic power, only out for its own interests. There are a number of reasons for this anti-American sentiment in the region: America's longstanding alliance with autocratic regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, its violent takeovers of Iraq and Afghanistan, its failure to sufficiently explain or defend its support for Israel, and its inability to speak out until the very last minute in support of the popular uprisings of the Arab world. This passiveness on the part of the United States is dangerous not just for its foreign policy in general but for its superpower status as a whole. America is too often finding itself playing catch up in critical areas where it should be taking the lead.
Nobody recognizes this more than the Iranians, who along with the Chinese and Russians are making every effort to create inroads in the region. But while the Chinese and Russians are doing so namely on the economic front, the Iranians are conducting a multipronged attack. Be it their backing for anti-American insurgents in Afghanistan, their support for Turkey's hardening relationship with the west, their financial and military aid to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian Territories, or their support for uprisings against US-allied countries such as Bahrain--home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet--the Iranians are quite literally muddying America's waters all over the region.
While these facts alone should be enough for the United States to make more of a concerted effort to push back, the Iranians are also steadily bringing the fight to America's backyard. A WikiLeaks report confirmed that back in 2009 Iran attempted to carry out an assassination on American soil. Iran has also been increasingly active in terrorism, arms trafficking, and other illicit activities in Latin America--most notably in Venezuela.
None of this has been lost on American allies and adversaries - particularly in the Arab world. The fact that the United States wavered and ultimately dropped its longstanding support for the Mubarak regime was a frightening wakeup call for the Saudi monarchy - a country of immeasurable import to US foreign policy. No wonder then, that when the Iranian Navy recently made its foray through the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean Sea for the first time since the fall of the Shah in 1979, it was their traditional archenemy, Saudi Arabia, which granted them permission to dock in the city of Jeddah along the way. The Saudis were sending a clear message to the US government that if they must, the will seek friends elsewhere.
What the United States lacks right now is not just a successful foreign policy - it needs any real policy at all. Be it the war in Afghanistan, the troubling relations with Pakistan, the Arab-Israeli peace process, or the current conflict in Libya, the United States is increasingly looking like a duck out of water. The Iranians, Koreans, Pakistanis, Arabs, Israelis, and Europeans are all too aware of this reality. If the United States does not act fast to shore up its reputation in the Middle East and around the world, it will soon be worrying about a lot more than just its reputation. It will find itself surrounded by states no longer willing to put their faith in American power, and who will turn to other camps for the support they desire.
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First -- Humanitarian interventions and national security interests have characterized American military power but these efforts are distinct from colonization. As the Iraq ‘experiment’ reflects – Americans are not adept at nation-building as this has never been a policy goal of ours -- and for good reason. Such ambitions hold few advantages for anyone, global or American alike.
Second -- a diverse, ambitious populace has meant Americans have earned their due. The US is a country of mixed interests as it is a nation of diverse people. Others do aspire to emulate this model. There are advantages to it – as it raises the bar on reason and argument. Countries are well aware of this particular distinction. Plus American enterprise is not just military – our innovations in technology & science; our press freedoms & journalists (who report in an unbiased capacity); and our naturally curious citizens – are poster-children for the country.
I disagree overall with Gleis’ assessment – and such aspects are not ‘soft’ as he would argue – rather, they are the crux of American power. Gleis is a cynic, & those like him will not benefit anytime soon from the admiration some Americans receive when they treat foreigners with dignity, respect -- and a
See this quote:
"What the United States lacks right now is not just a successful foreign policy - it needs any real policy at all."
Then this one:
"[The US] will find itself surrounded by states no longer willing to put their faith in American power, and who will turn to other camps for the support they desire."
Gleis points to a supposition that the Saudi monarchy will seek ties elsewhere now, as the US supported democracy in Egypt. All of this is completely cynical stuff, outlandish predictions. The Saudi monarchy is like any other enterprise that needs the United States for all the reasons I mentioned and more: most notably, that they have few friends at all. Some circumstances are so complex, that being the smartest, most compassionate, most sincere and more deliberate American in the room is far better than dealing with unreliable, and feckless neighbors as allies.
If you wanted me to elucidate our foreign policy position, the one Gleis denies we have, I have done so. We are valuable because of who we are and what we represent; and the fact that we are never shy or secretive about it. As long as we are trustworthy, deliberate, restrained and careful we will always have friends, and by extension this aids American power. Another way to describe it is to think Chinese!
The US can continue the futile exercise of trying to force relevance onto the rest of the world or it can transition to a world leader by example and assistance, rather than meddling.
The longer we continue, the worse it will end up for us.
The Chinese and Russians were forging ahead with economic coopration long before Obama came to office. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, founded in 2001, was aimed at creating an economic trading group to compete with the EU and NAFTA (or whatever the lastest American trade region is now suposed to be named).
As for the Iranians multipronged attack, the Iranians actually helped the US overthrow the Taliban in 2002/2003. These are the anti-American insurgents in Afghanistan, the same group that George Bush hosted in Texas before he was elected to the White House.
Turkey's relationship with the west soured when Paul Wolfowitz condemend the military for not overuling Tukey's political leaders (and therefore obrigating the democratic principals) when they elected not to participate in the war on Iraq based on lies. After the Isralei attack on the flotilla, things soured between Israel and Turkey and with the US unquesitioningly taking Israel's side, things became worse.
When Erdogan came to power, he implemented the radical policy of repairing relations with neighboring states like Syria and Iran. Crazy idea I know. The US meanwhile, has been obsessed with isolating Iran, yet you want to blame Iran for the souring of relations between Tukey and the US becasue Turkey has decided to for a trade agreement with them?
Bahrain is a Shia majority ruled by a Sunni minorty ruling class, propped up by the US and the Saudis. Of course Iran are going to support the Shia uprising.
"A WikiLeaks report confirmed that back in 2009 Iran attempted to carry out an assassination on American soil."
Except that the link he provides does not state this at all. There was no attempt. The so called assassin, get this...code named Reza Sadeghnia...got cold feet and rang the police. Yet we are told that Sadeghnia jhas been implicated in other assassination attempts? Does this guy always get cold feet or is he just avery bad assassin?
Of course, then there is the unamed informant (anyone remember Curveball?) that made the claim that he had been paid by Iran.
Of course, of this were true, the neocons and Fox would be all over it. The sad fact is that this story has simply gone nowhere.
Seriously Joshua, do you even botehr reading your own links?
I suspect you are dissapointed that America's unipolar momebt was so short lived, but as Gates confirmed this week, the US can not afford any more Iraq type advantures. This was supposed to be the cakewalk remember? Yet 8 years after the fact, the US still has no control over a country of 25 million that was essentially disarmed.
Obama had been a huge dissapointment on the foreign policy front, but his failure is not lack of policy, it is that he has refused (or been unable) to change the existing one.
Capitalism was almost dead 70 years ago but Stalin saved it!
"For a plethora of reasons, the United States is increasingly seen by Middle Easterners as a hypocritical, imperialistic power, only out for its own interests. There are a number of reasons for this anti-American sentiment in the region: America's longstanding alliance with autocratic regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, its violent takeovers of Iraq and Afghanistan, its failure to sufficiently explain or defend its support for Israel, and its inability to speak out until the very last minute in support of the popular uprisings of the Arab world."
Good, pithy summary. A little simplistic when it comes to Israel. In America's defense, I think we've explained over and over again that we support Israel as a beacon of light in darkness yada yada, you just can't blame the dark masses for finding the explanation a little offensive and misleading (at best). But basically a good summary.
Maybe you should have made this longer and tried to add something fresh.
Why bother when all the cliche's suffice?
Uh, that isn't just how they see us over there, that happens to be the case.
Except now we are wasting more resources than we can acquire wealth through this hegemonic attitude, and so basically toasting our own future.
The soul searching process of explanation must also include UK, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Monaco, Nauru, Tuvalu, etc. You got the picture.
It's hasn't been through lack of trying, but some policies look ugly no matter how much effort goes into dressing them up.
asset and the most reliable friend
The paucity of evidence for this assertion is made manifest by the link which leads to a story containing the following fact:
"Venezuela's ambassador to the United States is defending his country's controversial airline service to the capitals of Syria and Iran"
.....and a whole lot of unsupported conjecture including this:
"Engel, the chairman of the Western Hemisphere subcommittee, told Voice of America last week, "I am very troubled about the flights into Damascus and Caracas. I believe that Iran is the largest supporter of terrorism of any country on the face of the earth.""
....a statement for which, despite great efforts by covert agencies and the corporate media, no hard evidence exists.
We obviously have differing opinions as to what constitutes "hard evidence.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2008/05/iraq-the-elusiv.html
Iran's activities in Venezuela are mostly normal economic collaboration. In particular, Iran has built milk and corn processing plants and has also built a car company in Venezuela. Read the following:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/2491
If you want to find a terrorist country in the Middle East, you have to look no further than that little country on the Mediterranean that gets lots of aid from the US.
Very true Brewer. The same baseless claims were made about Iran supplying weapons in Iran and Afghanistan, yet no evidence, other than statements from "officials" has ever been produced.
No weapons caches in Iraq were ever traced to Iran and Robert Gates dismissed the suggestion that Iran us arming the Taliban. The likelihood that Iran would be arming anyone in Latin America is even mire remote.