Warning: readers are advised to hide the sharp objects before viewing the clip of Morning Joe's review of the Middle East today. The picture painted is one of the utter failure of US foreign policy, leaving a devastated, deadly region in its woeful wake.
We open with President Obama's "mission accomplished" moment from last year in which he called US policy in Yemen "successful." Cut to Jim Miklaszewski saying that the White House had to order US special forces out of the country, leaving us with absolutely no leverage. Then to Iraq, where two experts say Iraq as a country is finished and falling under the baleful hand of Iran's Quds forces. On to Israel, where even Richard Engel chides President Obama for the churlish way he has perpetuated his public spat with Bibi. Donny Deutsch sounds a political note, observing that many Dem-leaning Jews—including big donors—side with Bibi, thus presenting Hillary with a big challenge for 2016.
Let's add the disastrous scenario of the failed state of Libya, the persistent slaughter in Syria, and Tunisia--supposedly the last bright spot in the Arab Spring--coming under terrorist influence.
If Hillary lost the nomination in 2008 in important part because of her support for the Iraq war, how much more vulnerable is she now, given that as Secretary of State she is largely responsible for this catastrophe? And when will the MSM get around to reporting that the entire Clinton candidacy rests on this precarious house of Middle Eastern cards?
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Just six months ago, if you can imagine, President Obama said the fight against terrorism in Yemen was a success while he was discussing the assault on ISIS.
BARACK OBAMA: This counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partners forces on the ground. This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us while supporting partners on the front lines is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.
BRZEZINSKI: Let's go right to NBC News chief Pentagon correspondent, Jim Miklaszewski, Jim where do we stand as far as US military operations in Yemen right now?
JIM MIKLASZEWSKI: Mika, it's incredible that within a matter of weeks Yemen has totally unraveled. You know it's bad when 125 US military Green Berets and Navy Seals are forced to evacuate the country. Now, those 125 special forces were working at a number of different locations. They were forced to change their locations because of the increasing violence. But ultimately the Pentagon, the White House said, get them the heck out of there. They were conducting surveillance. They were conducting training missions with the Yemenis but now, quite frankly, it almost sounds the death knell, in terms of any kind of US operations within Yemen.
Here's why that's important. While everybody thinks, well, you know, that's in Yemen. Why do we care? The al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula, centered in Yemen, is considered the most immediate, viable, realistic terrorist threat to the United States. They've got the technology, the know-how, and the wherewithal to launch large-scale terrorist attacks in the United States. Primarily through their bomb technology and secreting that somehow on airplanes. They're working at that full tilt and it has US officials very concerned.
. . .
MICHAEL WEISS: What's happening in Iraq today is you're seeing the creeping takeover of the country. Not just by Iran but by Quds force, which is the elite foreign intelligence service. The man who is running the ground campaign against ISIS, Qasem Suleimani, this guy was singlehandedly responsible for about 20% of American casualties during the war. David Petraeus spoke about him as well. You have a classic kind of Karla versus George Smiley dynamic between the two of them. I just spoke to an Iraqi official who told me that the defense secretary, defense minister of the country was actually barred from entering Tikrit by the shia militias which are now running this campaign. You have seen the "Hezbollahization," if you like, of the country. Once that genie is out of the bottle you can't go back in again.
RICHARD HAASS: This is exactly right. It's almost a poisoned chalice where we're allowing or watching forces so close to Iran and the Shia militias dominate the country which is going to alienate the Sunni population and that alienation will feed the rise of ISIS in western Iraq. We have now in some ways allowed a dynamic to take place that can't succeed. I think it argues that it's time for a fundamentally different strategy in Iraq and I would say that we give up on Iraq as an intact country. We should be thinking very hard about supporting the Kurds and about supporting the --
BRZEZINSKI: Are you talking Joe Biden speak?
HAASS: This is beyond Joe Biden speak.
BRZEZINSKI: OK, I'm just saying because he said it.
HAASS: No, but he talked about it all within a single country. I think we're actually at the point where Iraq a an intact state, where the Rand Mcnally Iraq, those days are increasingly behind us. We have to be thinking about a separate Kurdish area and a separate Sunni area.
BRZEZINSKI: Wow.
. . .
MIKLASZEWSKI: Mike, I can tell you among the war planners just last week I heard for the first time that they are not optimistic but they pessimistic about the long term or immediate future there in Iraq particularly because of the growing involvement by those Shia militias backed by Iran. Here is one of the most disconcerting thing to many of the war planners here in the Pentagon, war fighters, too, is that so far we have seen no moderate Sunnis join the ISIS can never be won without participation by moderate Sunnis. And they're hedging their bets, they don't see an optimistic outcome to this either, particularly with the involve -- growing involvement of Iran there on the ground in Iraq.
. . .
BRZEZINSKI: Anyone here at the table see any value in this point in the president being conciliatory toward Netanyahu at this time? Because he's being criticized. John McCain is saying get over your tantrum. I'm not sure -- I'm not sure things have worked that well in terms of the relationship with Netanyahu as it stands and why be conciliatory? To what end?
RICHARD ENGEL: Well, you also have to engage in the art of diplomacy.
BRZEZINSKI: Yes, there is that.
ENGEL: He's forming a new government. He is the Israeli government or is going to put together a coalition and lead Israel for the next several years. So while you can have your position and your disagreements, you're going to have to also work with the US's closest ally in the region. So coming out, creating, having this big spat in public, which is what it is right now, it's become almost a tabloid story where the two men don't like each other personally and are making jabs. That might not necessarily advance the cause of broader peace in the Middle East.
. . .
BRZEZINSKI: I wasn't talking about whether or not they like each other or they're in or out. I was talking about what damage has been done. By the way, in part, by the Republican party who fed into this and fed the flames, to make sure this damage happens. And now we have a situation where the relationship is uncomfortable.
DONNY DEUTSCH: I don't think it was just the Republican party. A lot of Democrats like myself line up with Bibi and agreed with what he had to say and obviously there was a lot of grandstanding and --
BRZEZINSKI: Do you think that he was honest before and after his election about a two-state solution? No.
DEUTSCH: I think -- I think he is who he is and he's been pretty straightforward all along. And I think that the Republicans are really set up in 2016 because a lot of this country does line up where with Bibi.
BRZEZINSKI: Straightforward?
. . .
DEUTSCH: I want to just bring this back to politics for a second in 2016 and this is a big problem for the Democrats. Obviously the Jewish vote historically, predominantly Democratic. Having said that though, the conservative, the wealthy Jewish and the big donors are really, really in play now. It's very interesting what the Hillary Clintons of the world are going to have to say because they do line up right here with the Republicans in a big way and Republicans are going to use that. So this has great implications. Big implications are the safety of the world. But for the presidential campaign in 2016 this is going to be a big test for Hillary.
