The consequences of Bashar al-Assad’s fall from power in Syria will reverberate for years across the Middle East, but one great fact is already clear. The Obama era in Middle Eastern history has, thankfully, come to an end.
Barack Obama’s misguided diplomacy made Iran the de facto master of Syria and Lebanon and massively reinforced Russian power and prestige. Almost every significant authority in the region loathed Mr. Obama’s Middle East order. Israelis detested what they saw as appeasement of a genocidal regime in Tehran. Sunni Arabs abhorred the “Shia Crescent” from Iran to Lebanon that Mr. Obama’s vision was ready to accept. The Gulf Arabs feared Mr. Obama’s Middle East so much that they brushed Palestinian objections aside to form strategic partnerships with Israel. Turkey, which saw the American president deliver Syria and Lebanon on a silver platter to Iran even as he supported Kurdish groups aligned with domestic terrorists, was equally horrified by the world Mr. Obama tried to make.
Read the full article in The Wall Street Journal.
Enjoyed this op-ed? Subscribe to Hudson’s newsletters to stay up to date with our latest content.