Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Charting MidEast waters: Obama's challenge


Next U.S. President Will Be a Wartime Leader -Michael Eisenstadt

The next U.S. president will face unprecedented challenges and dangers in the Middle East, with few good options and precious little time to waste.

At the current reported rate of enrichment, Iran might have enough uranium by late 2009 necessary for its first bomb. Iran's progress toward acquiring nuclear weapon capabilities is already transforming the regional security environment in ways inimical to U.S. interests.

The U.S. should avoid public advances toward Iran prior to [their] June 2009 presidential elections because Iranian President Ahmadinejad might claim credit for any diplomatic progress, thus increasing his electoral prospects.

Another Arab-Israeli war is a near certainty in the next four years. The current Israeli-Hamas ceasefire is unlikely to last indefinitely, and Israel eventually will reenter Gaza to remove the rocket threat or dismantle Hamas' terror and governmental infrastructure.

In Lebanon, Hizbullah, with the help of Syria and Iran, has rebuilt its rocket forces. [T]he U.S. needs to coordinate with Israel so that the next war is much shorter, and succeeds in significantly weakening Hizbullah and undermining the interests of its Syrian and Iranian patrons.
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy)

1 comment:

LHwrites said...

This seems a reasonable course for near term action and longer term consideration.