Thomas Friedman, "Obama’s Nightmare": A Recipe for Disaster

In the words of Gomer Pyle, "Surprise, surprise, surprise!" Would-be Middle East expert Thomas Friedman is back to spewing rubbish. In an op-ed entitled "Obama’s Nightmare" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/opinion/friedman-obamas-nightmare.html?_r=0), Friedman concludes:

"It’s a real long shot, but we should keep trying to work with Russia — Syria’s lawyer — to see if together we can broker a power-sharing deal inside Syria and a United Nations-led multinational force to oversee it. Otherwise, this fire will rage on and spread, as the acid from the Shiite-Sunni conflict eats away at the bonds holding the Middle East together and standing between this region and chaos."

"A real long shot"? You don't say. Consider:

• Putin is openly contemptuous of Obama, whom he considers impotent and effete.
• Obama spent much of his first term courting Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad and repeatedly sent Senator John Kerry to befriend this mass murderer, thereby alienating Syria's Sunnis.
• In 2011, in the midst of the Sunni uprising, Hillary Clinton took it upon herself to declare that "many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe [Assad is] a reformer” (see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/hillary-clintons-uncredible-statement-on-syria/2011/04/01/AFWPEYaC_blog.html), thereby further eroding Obama's credibility amongst rebel forces.
• No one will be willing to contribute troops to a multinational force intended to oversee a power-sharing deal in Syria, given that these troops will be subjected to a steady stream of casualties from Iranian and al-Qaeda backed guerrillas. This is particularly true at a time when the US and its NATO allies are withdrawing forces from an ill-fated engagement in Afghanistan.

Needless to say, no consideration is given by Friedman to the need to establish an independent nation for the some 30 million oppressed Kurds living in Syria, Iran, Iraq and Turkey, who comprise the world's largest ethnic group without their own state, and who have been historically friendly to the US.

Then, too, the fall of Assad will sever Iran's supply route to Hezbollah in Lebanon and shatter Iran's dream of hegemony over the Middle East.

Assad's demise is fraught with danger, particularly given massive Syrian stockpiles of chemical weapons, which could fall into the hands of al-Qaeda or Hezbollah. However, American ground involvement in Syria is not an option.

"Obama's nightmare"? It's in no small part of his own making.