Obama's New Cards

U.S. President Barack Obama revealed a new strategy for the war against terror during his speech last Thursday at Washington’s National Defense University: The U.S. will no longer engage in a “boundless ‘global war on terror,’” and will focus instead on “a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists.”

This means that from now on, rather than tackling the effects of terrorism — which has been his strategy so far — Obama intends to tackle the causes. In other words, the American president has realized that using conventional military measures will not resolve the problem of terrorism — a problem fueled by lies that implicate Islam. Yet, as Obama stressed, Muslims are “the most frequent victims of terrorist attacks.” His statement is in agreement with the stance taken by British Prime Minister David Cameron, who described the recent terrorist act in London as a “betrayal of Islam.”

From now on Obama will get to the root of the problem by “patiently supporting” the transition toward democracy in countries like Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, by helping end the chaos in Syria and by advocating peace between Israel and Palestine. According to Obama, “such a peace could help reshape attitudes in the region.” He admits, however, that his new strategy “is a vast and complex undertaking.” This is why he is redoubling his efforts.

While actively preparing the international peace conference dubbed “Geneva II,” to be held in Syria — which the Syrian government has just agreed to take part in — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has left Amman for Israel and Palestine in order to relaunch the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. His first stop last Thursday was Tel Aviv, where he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before talks with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader. This is Kerry’s fourth visit to the region since March, but he is not throwing in the towel.

“I know this region well enough to know that there is skepticism. In some corridors, there’s cynicism. And there are reasons for it,” admits Kerry.

In this case the international situation is rather favorable. It is a step in the right direction that China, which has not taken part in a single peacekeeping mission since it joined NATO in 1971, has just announced its readiness to take part in MINUSMA — the U.N. mission in Mali — by deploying 500 troops to the African country.

These days, all the major world powers — except Europe — are actively committed to fighting terrorism. The only exception in Europe is France, which is making a fool of itself by asking the conflicting parties in Syria to respect human rights. There are also certain Arab countries that are not fighting terrorism, but these countries have little influence on the world stage. In any case, it is not by chance that President Obama affirms that there are some countries that “cannot or will not effectively stop terrorism.”

In this “vast and complex undertaking,” the epicenter of which is the Middle East, the Israeli government is increasingly isolated. Even Turkey is changing its tactics and has recently decided to construct a “security wall” on the border with Syria. Two beliefs dictated this decision. The first is that the Syrian government will not collapse; the second is that Turkey must wage a long war against the terrorism that threatens its borders. The wall aims to prevent terrorist groups that have been ousted by the Syrian army from entering Turkish territory. By joining its military forces with Russia, the U.S. and France in the war against terror, China is giving the U.S. new cards to play!