Barack Obama and The Middle East

Ever since the horrific attack on the United States by al Qaeda on September 11, 2001, Afghanistan has received special attention from the United States. After the September 11 attack, President Bush responded with an invasion of Afghanistan which drove out the Taliban and al Qaeda. Then in 2003 when President Bush decided to invade Iraq, the United States’ force and involvement in Afghanistan weakened, and the Taliban was able to regain their position in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda also strengthened in Pakistan and was a threat to wreak more havoc in Afghanistan.

Therefore, when President Obama was elected in 2009, he directed attention back to the situation in Afghanistan by setting up new goals and priorities for the U.S. in its efforts in Afghanistan. President Obama wants to completely demolish the threat of al Qaeda in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan today and in the future. This plan includes helping to set up a stronger, more reliable form of government in Afghanistan that will be able to control and rule the country as well as maintain its security without the help of the United States. In accordance with his strategy, President Obama has deployed more troops to Afghanistan along with other specialists to help the government, economy, and people there. While deploying more troops to Afghanistan, it is essential to President Obama’s strategy that the civilians are protected and not killed. Shortly after becoming president, President Obama made General Stanley McChrystal the new commander of American forces in Afghanistan. General McChrystal says, “The measure of effectiveness will not be the number of enemy killed, it will be the number of Afghans shielded from violence.” The goal of President Obama’s plan is to help the people of Afghanistan, not hurt them. The trust of the people is vital as well as any potentially helpful information they can provide.

For the most part, the support of President Obama’s new priorities and the action taken has not been great. First, there are several doubts surrounding the whole operation. A major issue with President Obama’s strategy is the amount of troops sent to Afghanistan. A number of commanders have said that there are not enough troops to carry out the entire plan completely, and other nations are hesitant to help. Also, the task in Afghanistan is so great, that Chairman David Obey argues that if more progress is not being made, funding for the effort will slow and completely vanish if the fight with the Afghanistan problem appears insurmountable. Furthermore, many people want an exit plan. They want evidence that President Obama is in complete control over what is happening with the American troops in Afghanistan and assurance that the troops are not being guided indecisively. Moreover, the United States can never ensure that extremists will never be in any part of Afghanistan again. Thus, the troops should not be kept there forever or not even until every last member of the Taliban and al Qaeda has been eradicated. Finally, a poll taken in June showed that 55 percent of the American public thought that the dilemma in Afghanistan was going badly.

The main opponent to the U.S. troops in Afghanistan is the Taliban. The Taliban are normally thought of the radical Muslims, but the Taliban includes several different categories of members. For instance, there is the early Taliban which is made up of fighters who supported Mullah Omar in the Afghan civil war that took place in the mid-1990s. Also, there is the Pakistani Taliban who wants Pakistan to have control over Afghanistan. In addition, the Hizb-e-Islami is made up of Islamic radicals who fight with the Taliban against the U.S. but are more separate from it. Lastly, the Haqqani network contains the terrorists who have been making the most noise recently by taking Americans hostage. They are more closely related to al Qaeda. The Taliban has proven to be a negative influence in Afghanistan and a large opponent to the U.S. efforts. Additionally, the Taliban wants Afghanistan to be free of outside influences. They want Afghanistan to be ruled by Islamic extremists whom President Obama thinks will not do an adequate job of governing the people.

Alongside the whole situation in Afghanistan, the United States has gotten itself involved with Iran. Although Iran denies it, the United States is convinced that Iran is working on developing nuclear weapons. The U.S. has made it a priority to halt these developments and research in Iran. It is very important to the U.S. that Iran does not have nuclear weapons because Iran has grown into a large enemy of the U.S. and Israel, an ally of the U.S. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, has clearly said that he would like Israel to be completely destroyed. Moreover, Americans believe that Iran is killing American soldiers in Iraq and supplying the Iraqis with weapons with which to fight the American troops. In addition, the authorities in Iran are harshly dealing with opponents of their rule and human rights activists. The people are not allowed to safely speak out. As a result of all these problems, Iran has come to know many enemies. The U.S. is the primary opponent of Iran, especially since Iran is thought to be helping the United States’ opposition in Iraq. Moreover, Iran would be extremely dangerous if they had nuclear weapons in their hands. Their president is power hungry and wants to obliterate the U.S. and Israel. Coupled with this is the fact that if Iran possessed nuclear power, they would not be willing to cooperate or negotiate with other countries. Therefore, sanctions have been made to slow the nuclear process in Iran. In light of these sanctions, all U.S. banks and many European banks have ceased dealing with Iranian banks. These sanctions certainly have not helped the Iranian efforts to develop nuclear weapons, but it is unclear if they are actually doing a meaningful amount of damage. Iran has persevered under many sanctions in the past, and with its large amount of oil, Iran still has resources that it can use to bring in money and business. Finally, the sanctions may possibly cause the tensions between the U.S. and Iran to become even more dangerous.