Obama's Middle East initiatives: Just for appearances

American journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, who is close to President Barack Obama, didn't really surprise anyone when he presented "The Obama Doctrine" in The Atlantic magazine's April edition. Following a lengthy analysis, Goldberg concluded that "George W. Bush was also a gambler, not a bluffer. He will be remembered harshly for the things he did in the Middle East. Barack Obama is gambling that he will be judged well for the things he didn't do." But will he?

Barack Obama has no faith in the Middle East. Even if he did, he is convinced that like every other American president, he can't do much. He believes that to fix our region, it is necessary to launch a war that would weaken America, and therefore such a war should be avoided. He's also not in any rush to go up against the Muslim world. That explains why, from the start, he never intended to take action in Syria, despite the lines he drew in the sand back in 2012. Bush wasn't bluffing, Goldberg argues, but what about Obama?

Jeffrey Goldberg's article relates how he mentioned to Obama a scene from "The Godfather III" in which Michael Corleone explains why he couldn't escape the clutches of organized crime: "I told Obama that the Middle East is to his presidency what the mob is to Corleone, and I started to quote the Al Pacino line: 'Just when I thought I was out...'

"'It pulls you back in,' Obama said, completing the thought."

That's the story. Obama wanted to flee the Middle East. But the Middle East, when it is ignored or addressed incorrectly, comes knocking. If not at the door, then on someone's legacy.

We remember how Obama incorrectly assessed the threat posed by the Islamic State group. He also, by his own admission, didn't understand U.S. citizens' fear of the Islamist organization following the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino last year. But the Islamic State phenomenon forced Obama to come to terms with the fact that the ills of the Middle East could not be fixed on his watch, or even for a few generations to come.

One might conclude from this that Obama's initiatives in the Middle East were strictly for protocol. But the way he sees it, intervention in Syria would have cost American lives without guaranteeing results. On the other hand, diplomatic intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does nothing to weaken America, even if it also does nothing for Israel or the Palestinians.

Obama is not a pacifist. He doesn't want to isolate America, but he also doesn't want America to be suicidal. His policies, however, have undermined America's stature as a superpower. Fortunately, America's strength, which has been built up over many generations, is such that one president, even after two terms, cannot wreck the glorious inheritance bestowed upon him by his predecessors.

August 30, 2013 may go down in history as the date on which Obama kept the U.S. from entering into a destructive Muslim civil war and also as the date on which he removed the threat of chemical weapons Turkey and Iran posed to Israel. Alternately, it might be remembered as the day Obama allowed the Middle East to fall into the hands of Russia, Iran, and the Islamic State group.

Obama doesn't believe in Churchillian speeches. He thinks they lead to war. Others would say they actually led to peace.

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