DIPLOMACY AND NEGOTIATION = OBAMA SHOULD HAVE SOUGHT INSTEAD OF MILITARY FORCE

The Speech on Diplomacy That Obama Should Have Given by Phyllis Bennis on September 11, 2014

Click for Source Article by Phyllis Bennis in The Nation

USA MSM equate “doing something” with “doing something military.”

GW Bush gave a 9ll traumatized, near-paralyzed US public two options: we either go to war, or we let ‘em get away with it. 88% of people in survey chose war.

GW Bush “DO NOTHING” choice completely ignores active non-military engagement – better known as Diplomacy.

Obama said over and over again: there is no US military solution in Iraq or Syria. He’s right!

Why did Obama ignore Diplomacy and concentrate on military actions in Iraq and Syria? = Gather coalitions to fight terrorism = All we heard in his speech last night.

Obama’s 4-part strategy = #1 “degrade and destroy” ISIS with military airstrikes in Syria as well as Iraq + #2 military support to forces fighting ISIS on the ground + #3 “cut off its funding, improve our intelligence, strengthen our defenses, counter its warped ideology and stem the flow of foreign fighters.” + #4 Only one not solely military is humanitarian assistance.

Obama missed a focus on explaining to Americans and governments in the Middle East and around the world, what a political solution to the ISIS crisis would require = Kind of diplomacy needed to get it done. Obama should have spent his fifteen minutes of prime time tonight talking about diplomacy. Instead of a four-part mostly military plan, he should have outlined four key diplomatic moves.

DIPLOMACY = STEP #1 Change the political dynamics in Iraq = New ministers to run the military and the intelligence/security agencies to stop repression against Sunni Iraqis = STOP Widespread loss of jobs, attacks on communities, bombings, mass arrests, torture and extra-judicial killings against a huge swath of Sunni Iraqi society. = The Sunni people now backing ISIS as the only force capable and willing to challenge the Shiite centered government in Baghdad.

USA PROBLEM = Every bomb dropped = Many in Iraq see USA acting as the air force of the Kurds and the Shia against the Sunnis.

What’s needed in the new government is equality of Sunni representation. But even though the USA Middle Class pays MOST of the cost of the Iraqi government and BOMBS for the government (and Kurds), IRAN has more say than Washington in Baghdad.

New partnership = USA and Iran join to push Iraq for a new, inclusive approach to governing. Tehran is very worried about growing instability in their next-door neighbor resulting from the years of Shia-Dominated GOV in Baghdad. The US-Iran nuclear talks are moving forward, and this should be the moment to broaden those talks to include discussion of a real “grand bargain” between USA and Iran that includes all the regional crises.

DIPLOMACY = STEP #2 New Broad Coalition with political and diplomatic mandate. Use diplomatic power and financial pressures to undermine ISIS power. Such a coalition would be far broader and far less fragile compared to a military alliance. (Regional governments like Turkey know that supporting/joining a US-led airstrikes or other attacks on ISIS could threaten lives of forty-nine diplomats and their families now held by ISIS.

US ally Saudi Arabia + Qatar + UAE will have to be pushed hard to stop arming and financing ISIS extremists = Since OIL Monarchs depend on US arms and military protection, Washington has massive leverage to use. Turkey must cease allowing ISIS to be supplied across the Turkish border into Syria.

DIPLOMACY = STEP #3 Obama this month while Washington holds the presidency of the UN Security Council, push to restart serious international negotiations on ending the complex set of multi-faceted wars in Syria. A NEW UN envoy is NEEDED so negotiations can begin again. Everyone involved, on all sides, needs to be at the table: the Syrian regime; civil society inside Syria including nonviolent activists, women, young people and refugees; the various armed rebels; the Western-backed external opposition; and the regional and global players supporting all sides—the United States, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey, Jordan and beyond. Obama administration could also provide a chance to partner with Russia on Syria policy, building on last summer’s successful joint effort to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons, and perhaps lessen tensions over Ukraine.

DIPLOMACY = STEP #4 Finally, an arms embargo on all sides should be on the agenda. Discussion could begin tomorrow. USA must stop supplying arms TO ANTI-ASSAD Forces to have credibility in pressing Russia and Iran to end their support for the Assad regime in Damascus. Also, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and others in gulf states must stop arming ISIS and its factions. All arms supply and sales must be STOPPED by all sides. + A weapons of mass destruction–free Middle East, with no exceptions. Such a move would begin the process of inspecting and ultimately eliminating Israel’s powerful but unacknowledged nuclear arsenal, would confirm the non-military use of Iran’s nuclear power program and would end the propensity for WMD production in too many countries in the region. And it would be a fitting coda to a hard-fought and likely years-long diplomatic process.

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Phyllis Bennis says military strategies have failed; only a political and diplomatic solution will work – The Real News Network September 12, 2014

Click for Source Video Interview on The Real News Network

Phyllis Bennis, Fellow and the Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC. She is the author of Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer

BENNIS: If USA engaged seriously in negotiations and diplomacy (abandoning militarization), there would be enormous options = Role of defending peace and preventing “the scourge of war,” as the UN Charter says = USA could go to the Security Council saying this is very dangerous, and we need stability that negotiation can end the war in Iraq and Syria. This would also reinvigorate the Security Council itself, widely ignored being so much undermined by the U.S.-threatened veto the last 20 years. USA must transform itself and the Security Council into a real center of diplomatic power = A coalition for Peace. (NOBEL PEACE PRIZE justified).

BENNIS: VETTING A ARMY IS A JOKE — The argument USA makes is they will carefully vet an opposition, for example the Free Syrian Army, to create a democratic, law-abiding, internationally focused with USA training of Syrian schoolteachers and bankers, Obama called them, not Syrian soldiers — magically turned into a fighting force with USA weapons to beat ISIS(L) = ISIS(L) will just TAKE THEM via intimidation like they did to the Iraqi army. It doesn’t matter if they’re vetted or not. It’s not about political will at that point; it’s about military power and ISIS(L) will out-power those opposition forces. So the idea that the Free Syrian Army will be vetted = Are just not relevant criteria for what we’re talking about here.

BENNIS: USA humanitarian efforts, I really agree with and should be escalated to protect and provide for the needs of refugees and internally displaced people in Syria and Iraq–they need to do more. They need to give more money to the UN agencies who are absolutely overwhelmed by the flood of refugees in all the neighboring countries–in Lebanon, in Turkey, throughout the region, as well as inside Syria in particular, where there are millions of people now who have been displaced from their homes who have nowhere to go. USA should not try to take over, as they have in the past, and try to link humanitarian work with military goals.

In first months after USA attacked Afghanistan (2001), USA dropping food packages on the mountains, where many Afghans fled from the bombing for security and safety, and they had nothing to eat. USA dropped food packages wrapped in heavy-duty bright yellow plastic, so people could see them and the children would run and find them. But then the USA began dropping cluster bombs wrapped with the same bright yellow plastic wrappings and children were killed running to what they thought was food and turned out to be bombs. = USA track record on humanitarian aid is NOT GOOD when linked to military goals.