CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, September 1, 2014

A Strategy that dare not speak its name

Last week, President Obama said he has no Strategy as yet to combat ISIS in Syria. He inferred the U.S. military has yet to present him with any options. That could not possibly be true. At one time, this writer was a staff officer attached to the U.S. Air Force world-wide contingency planning command. We had a war plan for virtually every nation on earth, to include some of our allies.

For months, President Obama has been offered plans by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. All he need do is pick a plan, consult with Congress, and try to build coalition and public support for whichever plan he picks. No pick, nothing happens.

But President Obama and his key aide, Valerie Jarrett, may have a Strategy. Strategies are much grander than mere plans. They may have a Strategy that they do not dare make public. Two experts on the Middle East, Michael Ledeen and David P. Goldman, in separate articles for pjmedia.com, have written that President Obama’s chief adviser, Valerie Jarrett, wants a rapprochement between Iran (the land of her birth) and the U.S. (Rapprochement is State Department speak for: Kiss-and-Make-Up.)

Back in 2008, Candidate Obama opened a secret back channel to Iran, using former U.S. Ambassador William G. Miller to make nice-nice with the Mullahs. Since Obama took office, Jarrett has traveled to undisclosed locations in the Middle East on several occasions. Strange foreign travel for someone listed as a "domestic" policy adviser.

Recall, Valerie Jarrett was born in Iran which is Shia. She lived there for her first five years, her cradle language was Persian (Farsi), and her second language was French. A U.S./Iranian Kiss-and-Make-Up would have to include giving Iran a green light to become a nuclear power and become the big dog over the Middle East. Israel would be even more imperiled.

Syria’s dictator, Bashar Assad, receives money and troops from Iran. The U.S. would have to stop even its current pretense of opposing the Assad regime. If Ledeen and Goldman are correct, that could explain why President Obama baffled everyone by not enforcing the famous "red line" he drew to stop Assad from using chemical weapons on women and children.

If implemented, the Strategy, which dare not speak its name, would enrage the Saudis and other Sunnis world-wide. Israel would have to go on 24-hour Iron Dome Red Alert. Mr. Obama’s high-dollar Hollywood backers would cut off his cash. While it would be nice to end our 35-year conflict with Iran, the price that Iran would demand would totally collapse what little credibility U.S. foreign policy has left.

When President Obama pulled all U.S. forces out of Iraq in 2011, he created a power vacuum that is being filled by the well-funded and well-armed ISIS. Now, President Obama and Valerie Jarrett are confronted with the Sunni ISIS conquering northern Iraq and Syria and beheading an American journalist. During last week’s press conference, it is no wonder that President Obama looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He is probably being pressured by Jarrett to be nice to Iran and Assad and, at the same time, being pressured by American public opinion to save Israel. That would give anyone gray hair.

Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, is a laureate of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma University Army ROTC Wall of Fame. He was educated at the University of Oklahoma, the George Washington University, the U.S Naval War College, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University.

©2014. William Hamilton.

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