Restoring US credibility in the Middle East

[Elderberry]

AirForce Times by  Lt. Gen. (ret.) David A. Deptula and Ari Cicurel 12/14/2019

After 28 years of U.S. forces participating in continuous combat in the Middle East, it is not surprising that a popular consensus exists to reduce U.S. military presence in the region. President Trump used this perspective to defend his recent decision to withdraw from Syria, declaring that he is “bringing soldiers home.” However, withdrawing some number of American troops from the Middle East distracts from the larger question of how the U.S. can best achieve its strategic objectives. That question involves much more than a count of the number of pairs of U.S. soldiers’ boots on the ground.

Having a credible deterrent posture where the U.S. would neither tolerate an attack on itself nor its allies was crucial to Cold War geopolitics and has remained a vital part of American policy since.

This broke down in 1961 when Soviet Premier Khrushchev left a summit with President Kennedy thinking he could expand the Soviet Union’s nuclear capabilities without an American response. Khrushchev made the inflammatory move of putting missiles in Cuba precisely because he thought he got the full measure of Kennedy and believed him to be weak. Kennedy did not properly prepare, but he learned from his mistake, reestablishing American credibility only after both sides risked potential calamity during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

More recently, President Obama’s belief that “dropping bombs on someone to prove that you’re willing to drop bombs on someone is just about the worst reason to use force” ignored that adversaries stop fearing threats if presidents fail to use force when U.S. interest demands it. The failure to uphold the redline against Assad’s chemical weapons use in 2013 was a strategic blunder that led the Russians to reenter the region. This decision, along with Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, suggested an American retrenchment in global security interests that Russia capitalized on to move into Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, and China’s calculus that it could initiate island-building to expand military outposts in the South China Sea without any significant U.S. response.

More: https://www.airforcetimes.com/opinion/commentary/2019/12/14/restoring-us-credibility-in-the-middle-east/

[TomSea]

 Yes, totally agree. We have not lost all credibility, maybe some because of Syria but other people still want our help, we need to do that. I was just reading this morning about something and then, there is Hong Kong too where people worldwide, look to us. Shining city on a hill.

Yes, maybe use our air superiority as the article says, think outside the box.

[Absalom]

Do foreigners want our "help"??? Of course, if it's a money handout!!!
Are we a 'Shining City on a Hill' to them??? Beyond laughable.
Those seeking to immigrate here from their entrepreneurial/professional class
has declined for the past 13 years.
Guess who are crawling over each other to get here???
Third world trash w/zero skills and both hands out!!!
Assertion is too stupid for words.