Obama’s Foreign Policy: the Missteps Before Disaster
Posted Mar 30, 2009

Obama’s Foreign Policy: the Missteps Before Disaster

by Jeff Siddiqui

The missteps begin (...again!) and disaster is there for all to see, if they would only look with the unbiased eyes of the child who first said, “I don’t see any clothes on the emperor”.

I heard with growing anticipation, the speech in which Obama extended his hand towards Iran and I recall praying, “Please God, don’t have him slap Iran, let it be a true hand of friendship!”
But it was not to be.

With stunned ears, I heard Obama tell Iran the things it must do in order to “rejoin the family of nations”, including “give up support for terrorists”.

Etiquette 101 teaches that one does not call someone ugly, dirty and smelly, if one wants a cordial or friendly relationship with them; it is not generally welcomed.

Down went the airplane of euphoria with the much-vaunted “Change” that might change US-Iran relations and ensure greater peace in the region. The drums of “War!” began their barely-interrupted low roll again.

Yesterday, I heard Obama’s policy on Pakistan and Afghanistan and my heart ka-thumped to a stop.

“Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al-Qaida is actively planning attacks on the US homeland from its safe havens in Pakistan,” Obama said.
and…“Pakistan must demonstrate its commitment to rooting out al-Qaida and the violent extremists within its borders. And we will insist that action be taken one way or another when we have intelligence about high-level terrorist targets,” he said.

Here we go again.

The US leaders fail to understand that forcing Pakistan to be violent against its own people will only force Pakistanis to favor “the enemy” in exponential numbers.

They also fail to understand that while US missile attacks, bombings and special operations against “suspects”, which often involve “collateral losses”, may sell wonderfully to unthinking American constituencies…the Right desperate to continue the battle for “Freedom” and “Democracy” and the Left desperate to believe Obama really IS the change promised in the Bible…carry massive negative and destructive consequences.

We seem to believe in the US, that force against “the enemy” and “pressure” on reluctant nations, will force the Earth to start rotating from West to East, if that be our will.

The only thing our bombing on Pakistani soil…“irregardless” of the reasons…will achieve, will be greater resentment against the US for its violent policies that seem to care nothing for the people of Pakistan; a viewpoint that will, of course affect nothing as far as the US is concerned and the people of Pakistan know it. They will therefore, focus their rage at the leaders of Pakistan, who cannot cease scraping American money into their pockets and into banks overseas, as they order more Pakistani troops to kill their own…a message also not lost on the soldiers whose loyalty or obedience may not last forever.

Like a festering sore, Pakistan’s infection will remain below surface until it bleeds its poison into the host’s bloodstream and the puss finally bursts to the surface. Thus it will be, that Pakistan will die; from greed of its own leaders, from self-inflicted wounds and from the poisoned knives of uncaring “friends”.

There is a strong school of thought that transitioned seamlessly from the Bush neo-cons to Obama “liberals”, that if Pakistan has to be destroyed, it will not be such a bad thing as long as the “homeland” (a new and frightening word…too much like “Fatherland”...that has entered the lexicon) stays safe.

We can only speculate as to the ultimate objective of such thinkers, but a weakened or dead Pakistan will be worse for the region and for the US, by orders of magnitude.

Right now, the US can help establish and strengthen an honest leadership (for which Imran Khan remains the only current viable candidate) in Pakistan, one that will seek and establish peace among tribes in Pakistan, while the US stays OUT of Pakistan and its affairs. In the short run, the Afghan resistance may find some shelter in Pakistan, but very soon, Pakistan will be strong enough that the people will force extremists and violent fanatics either out of the country or, into political oblivion. It is the only way for peace to spread through Pakistan, by helping an honest leadership and by stemming the blood-loss forced by American policy in the region.

In order to actually effect REAL change to peace in the region, the US has to stop focusing simply on Pakistan and Afghanistan; it must bring India to the table as well. Right now, even in military terms, Pakistan and Afghanistan fall under US Central Command, while India falls under the Eastern Command, which is counter-productive; the US military does not even have a uniform appraisal of the goings-on in the region.

What the US fails to understand…REFUSES to understand, is that there can be no peace in Afghanistan, unless there is peace between India and Pakistan, because each is trying hard to bring and maintain their own Afghan scoundrels in power.

KASHMIR is the key to peace in the South and Central Asian region…regardless of how much India seeks to convince the US otherwise.

Like an unthinking Pit-Bull, the US continues to attack anyone its “friends” point towards; the blood has stained the entire carnival ground and its not fun anymore, the US has to start thinking for itself and not just in this region.

If Pakistan fails, if Pakistan implodes from its own internal pressure, it will only be because of US actions. If Pakistan implodes, it will react and the explosion that will follow, will blow Pakistan into smithereens and the shrapnel will tear into anyone within its explosive proximity.

India will be in for an extremely rude awakening when the then-uncontrollable pieces of Pakistan, pierce through its own body and start raging fires throughout.

Afghanistan will certainly self-destruct, no matter how many Afghans are decimated by the “Coalition of the Willing”.

If Europe and the US think they are unsafe now, they will long for these times, after the raging fires start more fires in their bodies politic. No amount of weapons and no amount of money, will be able to help stop these fires from spreading throughout the world; fires that need not even start, if the US only applies some wisdom instead of a political sales job.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose
The more it changes….the more it’s the same thing.

Heartbreaking.