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Where should Obama start the change in US policy in the Mideast?
Related to country: United States

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By HALUK ÖZDALGA*



The Bush administration is approaching its final days in dire disappointment in all areas. In international relations, it is a huge failure felt most severely in the greater Middle East, an area of direct concern for Turkey. The single most important reason for this great fiasco is the almost total domination of US President George W. Bush's foreign policy by the political program and personnel of the neoconservatives, especially after 9/11.

Due to a series of apparent policy failures and some personal scandals, their influence has declined of late, but the neocons' influence over the administration will surely continue until the very last day.

The views of the neocons, which in Europe would be more accurately called extreme right-wing, can be summed up as follows: With the end of the Cold War, the US is the sole remaining superpower, and therefore it must take on the responsibility of leading the world. In doing so, its most important and dependable tool will be its unrivalled military might. The US can and must act even before a threat is imminent, strike at and destroy its adversaries (the preemption doctrine) and intervene single-handedly in any part of the globe where it's needed (the go-it-alone doctrine).

It is frightening to see how central the worship of military power is to the neocon ideology, which purports to lead the world. According to William Kristol, a top neocon who has consulted for President Bush, a basic problem the US faces in the Mideast is how its people fail to stand in awe of US power. The American Enterprise Institute, the neocons' leading think tank, has even studied ways to foster such awe. We can remember how when the US began bombing Baghdad in March 2003, the operation was dubbed "shock and awe." It was certainly not field commanders, thrilled by the destructive power of their weapons, who coined the name; rather, it was clearly selected in conformity with the neocon understanding of how the US should lead the world.

The global war on terror, based almost solely on naked military power, has ended up inspiring present terrorists and encouraging the breeding of new ones. The same policies put the brakes on regional countries' democratization and indeed emboldened them to take a harder, more authoritarian line. Jordan's young king is now more authoritarian than his late father. Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's octogenarian president, now strikes at his opponents much harder than before. One Israeli government after another seems to have forgotten the "land-for-peace" formula, and now seeks only to get the Palestinian people on their knees. Almost everything the neocons did played right into the hands of Iranian radicals, with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad leading their strengthened ranks. And if new dictators appear in Iraq, Afghanistan or in areas of countries devastated by neocon policies, more ruthless regimes than the ones they swept aside should come as no surprise.

In brief, the present realities of the greater Middle East are a parody of the vision put forth by Bush and his circle. The region is like a geopolitical disaster zone. No major problem is moving towards resolution, but instead almost all are in worse shape than when Bush took office. Such is the region where President-elect Barack Obama will face the most challenging foreign policy issues threatening world peace.

There is every reason to expect a change in the very premise of US international policy towards less unilateral action and more multilateral cooperation; towards less military might and more diplomacy and towards fewer power-based, cowboy-style quick fixes and towards more dialogue seeking long-term solutions.

Iran

Obama favors direct talks with all of the US's adversaries. He opposes a nuclear Iran and will support all means to prevent it, but he first believes in the extensive use of diplomacy, including comprehensive sanctions. The Iran issue will probably reach a new phase during Obama's first term: Either Iran will voluntarily terminate its path towards producing nuclear weapons, or else it will face military action; otherwise, it will conduct its first nuclear test some time over the next four years and join the nuclear club.

Not even a military strike would guarantee a non-nuclear Iran. An Iran in possession of nuclear weapons could limit Turkey's strategic maneuvering room in the region and increase its dependence on the US. In that case, if it's unwilling to be a strategic hostage to another country, even a close ally, Turkey would have to make some tough decisions. Additionally, we should bear in mind that, regardless of Tehran's present regime, US-Iranian rapprochement or even cooperation can't be ruled out forever.

Iraq

On the campaign trail, Obama said that most US troops in Iraq would come home within 16 months and that this timetable could be adjusted depending on the information he gets as president, but that in any case there would be no permanent US bases on Iraqi soil. The Iraq issue was fiercely debated during the campaign, with both candidates focusing on the timing of troop withdrawals.

But for the Iraqi morass created by the US invasion, the critical issue isn't so much how long it takes to bring the troops home, but finding a way to build a viable Iraqi state. From day one of the invasion, the policy of the occupying US power has not been to promote national reconciliation among the many Iraqi groups to pave the way for a viable state, but on the contrary, to sabotage it. When the US discovered shortly after the invasion that the Iraqi people didn't greet them with flowers as some neocons had naively predicted, it first tried to cooperate with Shiite groups. As the violence escalated and the US found the country ungovernable, next it turned to Sunni groups. More recently the US changed tactics again to employ tribal leaders at the grassroots level, which has had an impact only on small areas or villages, and has even been paying warlords $360 a month for each armed insurgent they can bring in. On recent visits, Bush met with some tribal leaders to encourage them.

The most likely outcome of an eventual troop withdrawal under such circumstances is more or less clear: there will be a fight of all against all, including the various Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni factions, tribal forces, foreign jihadists mostly controlled by al-Qaeda and unruly warlords, in a liquefied medium of warfare where all parties swiftly and constantly change alliances. To avoid such a catastrophe, a comprehensive national reconciliation plan must be put into operation, supported by the United Nations and whatever countries can significantly contribute and coupled with a strong development program. US troop withdrawal should be coordinated to such a plan.

The most critical issue in our region threatening peace, one which must urgently be addressed, is clearly the Israeli-Arab conflict. More specifically, a lasting and equitable peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors on the three fronts of Palestine, Syria and Lebanon must not suffer further delays. It's hard to imagine a better issue for Obama to begin the change we need. In addition to the direct benefits it would bring to the Israeli, Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese peoples, there is no other development that could do more to reduce tensions on practically all the other thorny issues and conflicts, including the Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq problems, as well as cut support for terrorism.

One advantage Obama has is that he will take office at a moment when the Israel-Arab conflict is at a peak yet peace is close at hand. We are at one of the moments closest to peace because, in spite of many complex unresolved issues, the pillars of an equitable and lasting peace are more or less known: a unified Palestinian house embracing both Fatah and Hamas, thus forming a reliable partner for negotiations and peace; the recognition of Israel and securing its peaceful existence; the renunciation of violence; the withdrawal of Israel to the pre-1967 borders in the Golan Heights and the West Bank and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital living in peace with Israel. In fact, no less a hawk than Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently suggested that peace is possible with the pre-1967 borders and East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.

Obama's campaign statements on the issue have been balanced, not ruling out a solution as outlined above, and in a style reflecting just how crucial the issue is. US involvement is sine qua non for a lasting Arab-Israeli peace. Obama should tackle the problem as soon as he enters the White House, not wait until the waning days of his term. There is an urgent need to dispel the widespread impression that the peace process is a never-ending morass.

If Obama tackles the need for change in the Middle East, in Turkey he will find a true partner which will support and steadfastly stand by this noble venture. This would greatly expand the horizons for friendship and cooperation between the two countries.


todayszaman

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Haluk Özdalga is a member of Parliament from the AK Party.

November 9, 2008 | 11:44 PM Comments  0 comments

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