Rafik Hariri Center Nonresident Fellow Ramzy Mardini writes for the Financial Times on President Obama’s Middle East policy:
The US invaded Iraq in 2003 with misplaced certainty, misconstrued assumptions and poor foresight. The same is true of its armed intervention against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (known as Isis).
President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy is adrift amid the region’s shifting currents. Indeed, since the Arab uprisings began, the White House has misdiagnosed each crisis, intervened with little heed to the consequences and overestimated its ability to shape the outcomes in its favour.