A regional war is one step closer after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was ousted in the Iranian capital Tehran last week. US President Joe Biden’s deputy national security adviser Jon Feiner said on Sunday that the US was “taking everything into account”. Feiner said he would continue to work toward a diplomatic solution to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, adding that “a regional war benefits no one.”
Meanwhile, fighting in Gaza continues unabated. Western countries are calling on their citizens to leave neighboring Lebanon. Will America really intervene, and if so, what happens next?
Now that these questions are on the table, it’s good to share the VPRO American documentary this summer Corridors of power Broadcasts. The filmmakers examine how American presidents and policymakers responded to reports of war crimes and ethnic cleansing at a time when America was the only remaining superpower. Close advisers to former presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama are open about their thinking and motivations. They are not afraid to admit mistakes, and that provides fascinating insights into Washington’s sphere of power.
Preamble Corridors of power America has a special mission and status. The mission is to prevent atrocities like the Holocaust from happening again; The fact is that they are also ready for this because of their exceptional power. Of secondary importance in the documentary is the fact that America itself has significant interests in the world and does not hesitate to defend them.
We see leaders with the world’s best interests make their assessments, make decisions, and fail: during the Kurdish genocide threatened by Saddam Hussein, when the Americans made the mistake of allowing access to the Iraqi dictator, his attack helicopters were able to ruthlessly suppress uprisings in the south. It appears again and again that having a strong force does not guarantee a good outcome. Sometimes you might make a difference, but it’s nothing.
This week is the turn of the intervention in Libya. This happened in 2011 when Muammar Gaddafi threatened to end a bloody uprising in the eastern port city of Benghazi. A convoy of military vehicles poised to enter the city was destroyed. It didn’t stop there: Gaddafi had to go, for better or for worse – it was a classic case Work is creepy.
I was curious how the policy makers of the day would look back – especially given the chaos that still exists in the country today. Significantly critical, it turned out. The big problem is what to do with Gaddafi gone. No one had taken this seriously before. No active status; The power vacuum was quickly filled by rival fighters. Boots on the ground Not an option because of the disastrous invasion of Iraq. Neither the Americans nor the Libyan interim government wanted that. Shouldn’t Americans have done that anyway, the interviewer wants to know?
‘How?’ Former policy adviser Jake Sullivan asks rhetorically, “Should we have sent troops ashore against the apparent will of the Libyans?” I was a reporter in Benghazi at the time and a strong supporter of the intervention. But in retrospect, the intervention may have done more harm than good, as it did earlier in Iraq, while the Americans in Libya were now trying hard to do things differently. And then the drama in Syria is yet to come. Here the Americans waited too long to intervene, and the Russians finally did – with disastrous results. Here, too, the question was whether things could really have been done differently. Sullivan thinks not.
Access to a powerful force doesn’t mean you have to use it to turn things around. You can call it sad. The contrast between the willingness and willingness shown in the series to intervene in previously threatened war crimes and ethnic cleansing, and the current absence in Gaza, is particularly poignant.
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