President Joe Biden needs a Middle East strategy
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Many analysts, including Steven A. Cook, who writes for Foreign Policy magazine and the writer of this article, agree that Biden has no a Middle East strategy.
Cook argues that Biden and his advisors have considered the regional problems, how they intersect with America’s interests, what resources are available to the United States, and what the costs of pursuing a variety of policies. The result is a strategy that can be described as “ruthless pragmatism.”
When running for the White House, one would have expected Biden to take a more active role in Syria, the magazine said.
Biden assailed President Trump for not understanding the geopolitical environment, making the case that Trump’s intention to withdraw American forces from Syria would advantage the Assad regime and Iran, as well as leave the Israelis dependent on the Russians for their security, according to the Foreign Policy.
“Instead of the hawkish approach to Syria that Biden signaled, he has apparently concluded that de-escalation best serves a set of geostrategic goals that are both related to the Syrian conflict and broader than the civil war,” the magazine noted.
It is based on the implicit acknowledgement that Bashar Assad has won and there is nothing anyone can do about it. The US will just stand a better chance of getting more aid to the people in Syria who need it, help the poor Lebanese, and peep the Syrians from the Iranians.
The Foreign Policy believes that toward those ends, the Biden administration was not overly critical—or critical at all—when King Abdullah of Jordan called the Syrian president or when the Emirati foreign minister visited with him in Damascus in early November.
“One need not agree with what the administration is doing in Syria, but it is clear there is an underlying strategy. Biden’s ruthless pragmatism in Syria tracks with American interests in counterterrorism, counter proliferation, Israeli security.”
There is nothing edifying or heroic about Biden’s ruthless pragmatism, but foreign policy is often about making decisions that are morally suspect. Give Biden and his team credit where credit is due, however. Unlike their critics, they are engaged in strategic thinking, the Foreign Policy concluded.