The Persians have not been happy with their Arab neighbors since the seventh century when Persia was invaded by Arab Muslim armies.
Now we have a more public confrontation between Iran and the United Arab Emirates when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, made visit to a disputed tiny island of Abu Musu which is 47 miles from the Iranian coast and claimed by UAE and Iran.
Iranian nationalism responds happily to this short of think and keeps the Iranian government in a good light with the population.
Abu Musu occupies a commanding position near the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz which see a fifth of all oil transported by ships pass through this coke point.
The Emirates have nothing to fear from Iran because the Gulf Cooperation Council, led by Saudi Arabia, will offset any precipitous move by Iran. This is not to mention the U.S. navy and air power in the region.
An excellent analysis appeared on the Washingtonpost.com (Right Turn), May 1, 2012, by Jennifer Rubin: “President Obama’s Speech In Afghanistan.”
Rubin said: “There were two reasons for President Obama to deliver a speech on the anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and sign an accord with the Afghan government for ongoing cooperation after U.S. troops leave. The first, obviously, is to grab some more of the spotlight. (Had he not ridiculously overplayed his hand by insinuating Mitt Romney would not have killed bin Laden, no one would have thought much of it.) But the second reason and the substance of the speech were more objectionable.
“Obama would have us believe with bin Laden dead we can now just ‘end’ the war. He used ‘end’ a lot in the speech. He didn’t say ‘win’ or ‘victory.’ And in fact he redefined his own mission, now saying we were only concerned about defeating al-Qaeda. His determination to root out the Taliban, which he reiterated at the onset of his Afghan surge? Airbrushed out of history.”
It is important to remember that in 2009 Obama told the cadets at West Point: “We must deny al-Qaeda a safe haven. We must reverse the Taliban’s momentum and deny it the ability to overthrow the government. And we must strengthen the capacity of Afghanistan’s security forces and government so that they can take lead responsibility for Afghanistan’s future… [W]e will pursue a military strategy that will break the Taliban’s momentum and increase Afghanistan’s capacity over the next 18 months.”
It would seem that we have a major conundrum here.
Obama said: “To build a country in America’s image, or to eradicate every vestige of the Taliban” would “require many more years, many more dollars, and most importantly, many more American lives.”
There is no mention of the other terrorist networks at work in Afghanistan and Pakistan. His focus was on bringing troops home, getting out, and quiting.
Maybe Afghanistan can survive a Taliban and Al Qaeda assault. But, I agree with Rubin that it is more likely that Afghanistan will head the way of Libya, Mali, Somalia, Yemen and others — a failed state where terrorists have free reign. It seems that Obama doesn’t understand or doesn’t care.
