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Obama and ME sectarian tsunami
http://www.arabnews.com/news/507696Obama and ME sectarian tsunami
Stephen Collinson
Published — Sunday 12 January 2014
An Al-Qaeda surge and Sunni-Shiite tumult spanning Iraq and Syria are testing eroded US influence and the logic of a foreign policy built on antipathy to Middle East entanglements.
The return of militants to cities like Fallujah and Ramadi, fabled battlefields for US soldiers, has left US President Barack Obama facing charges he pulled troops home too soon from Iraq and squandered American sacrifices.
US intelligence agencies meanwhile worry that expanding havens for Al-Qaeda extremists in splintered Syria could nurture militants destined for terror missions in the US and Europe.
Top US officials, led by Vice President Joe Biden, have been burning telephone lines to Baghdad, urging Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki to reconcile with Sunni tribes in western Anbar province before assaulting militants from Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The frantic US effort mirrors the White House’s struggles to keep pace with revolution and disintegration from Egypt to Syria and Lebanon to Libya. Washington wants Al-Maliki to adopt a two-part strategy to check Al-Qaeda advances. First: Reconcile with Sunni tribes. Then: Take military action.