Consortium News
Exclusive:
President Obama’s Syrian strategy is getting roundly denounced as
incoherent, which – while true – is really a reflection of his failure
to fully break with neocon-style interventionism even when he realizes
the futility of the strategy, writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
The mystery of the Obama administration’s foreign policy has always been whether President Barack Obama has two separate strategies: one “above the table” waving his arms and talking tough like Official Washington’s arm-chair warriors do – and another “below the table” where he behaves as a pragmatic realist, playing footsy with foreign adversaries.
From the start, Obama surrounded himself with many hawkish advisers – such as Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Gen. David Petraeus, National Security Council aide Samantha Power, etc. – and mostly read the scripts that they wrote for him. But then he tended to drag his feet or fold his arms when it came to acting on their warmongering ideas.
Friday’s decision to tank the hapless
$500 million training program for “moderate” Syrian rebels is a case in
point. Obama joined in the hyperbolic rhetoric against Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad, lining up with the neocons and liberal interventionists
demanding “Assad must go,” but Obama has remained unenthusiastic about
their various wacky schemes for overthrowing Assad.
By Robert Parry
The mystery of the Obama administration’s foreign policy has always been whether President Barack Obama has two separate strategies: one “above the table” waving his arms and talking tough like Official Washington’s arm-chair warriors do – and another “below the table” where he behaves as a pragmatic realist, playing footsy with foreign adversaries.
From the start, Obama surrounded himself with many hawkish advisers – such as Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Gen. David Petraeus, National Security Council aide Samantha Power, etc. – and mostly read the scripts that they wrote for him. But then he tended to drag his feet or fold his arms when it came to acting on their warmongering ideas.
President
Barack Obama, with Vice President Joe Biden, attends a meeting in the
Roosevelt Room of the White House, Dec. 12, 2013. (Official White House
Photo by Pete Souza)
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