Self-Made Catch-22

The overthrow of the balance of power in the Middle East has reached a dynamic that came unexpectedly for many. Among them is the U.S. administration. Tens of thousands of military personnel in the region between Abu Dhabi and Ankara and a worldwide spy network have not put Washington in a position to be able to respond appropriately to current developments.

In Baghdad, Riyadh and Tehran, it is shocking that the superpower does not know what it should do. Is it the flood of data that it hoarded, but no longer controls? Is it a consequence of the American hubris of wanting to interfere with every country? Probably, among other things.

In this specific case, however, a grave personal weakness of the state department, namely its leaders, comes into it. Like his predecessor Hillary Clinton, current leader John Kerry has already most deplorably failed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and in the revolutions from Tunisia to Egypt. Now they are faced with the problem that they have clearly made promises to political groups in the entire region, whose fulfillments are mutually exclusive. There is no escape from the self-made Kurd-Shiite-Sunni Catch-22 without losing. However, the admission of this is still lacking.