Trump, Don't Be Obama

My article was published in Israel HaYom, and republished on Instapundit.org

http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/trump-dont-be-obama/

Irina Tsukerman

Trump, don't be Obama
Eight months into the Trump administration, it is time to stop making excuses. The Obama administration holdovers are not exclusively responsible for everything going wrong with U.S. foreign policy. Multiple agencies doubling down on foreign policy are a clear indication that the policy in question comes from the top, not from some rogue employee in one agency.

These actions by the U.S. are doing nothing but damaging its credibility and relationships.

First, the United States contributes free weapons to the Lebanese Air Force, which are then shared with Hezbollah, a designated terrorist organization. Hezbollah is a fearsome Iranian proxy that has now grown to the size of a standing army and plays a distinctive and influential role in Lebanese politics. It has also attacked Americans, Israelis, and other targets over the course of the last several decades in a number of locations, and has played a destructive role in Syria. That has not worked out so well with the branch of the Afghani mujahedeen that has grown into the Taliban, and arming Hezbollah is likewise not likely to contribute to peace and stability in the world.

Second, U.S. policy in Syria, which has focused only on ISIS, has essentially allowed Iran to step in uninhibited.

Admittedly, this policy started under former U.S. President Barack Obama; however, no clear explanation has ever been provided as to why the Trump administration should go along with the terrible policies of its predecessor. The White House let Iran build a land corridor to Lebanon, which will facilitate arms and drug trafficking and offer passage for terrorists. All the while, Iran is looking to build bases in Syria and gaining control of the Strait of Hormuz, which has essentially sidelined the U.S.

Third, Trump's capitulation to Iraqi and Turkish demands on opposing Kurdistan independence emboldened Iran in its interventionism policy in Kurdistan. And it's no excuse to say that the U.S. clarified well in advance that it won't support Kurdish aspirations. The Republican-led Congress has failed to repeal the law against directly arming Kurds. As a direct result of the heavy-handed U.S. pressure on the Kurds to postpone their referendum, Iraq's government openly invited the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps to plan the takeover of Kirkuk, which, by use of some force, displaced over 170,000 people, murdered over 400 civilians and injured hundreds more. And it did not stop at Kirkuk. Faced with the administration's "neutrality" policy, Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Ghasem Soleimani entered Kirkuk freely on numerous occasions, and opened headquarters and military bases, solidifying Iran's presence in the area.

Iranians and Iraqis continue their punitive march past Kirkuk, placing minorities, such as the Yazidis, in harm's way. The Iraqi army refuses to take control or responsibility for these militias, which are wreaking havoc, and, coupled with Baghdad's harsh, isolationist policies, are ruining the region's economy. Further, Iraq, armed with U.S. weapons, ignored U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's gentle admonition that Iranian militias should go home. Iraq has now found a new, stronger ally, and the U.S. is being pushed out.

Fourth, Tillerson and Trump both said that there was no plan to try to stop America's European partners from doing business in Iran. And despite the positive indication that Trump will not allow a major Boeing deal with Iran to go through, such statements send, at best, a mixed signal. It was the complete isolation of Iran that forced it to seek relief from sanctions by way of the nuclear deal in the first place. Now, not only is Iran flush with money and investments, but continued business with other countries will make U.S. sanctions a mere drop in the bucket. U.S. sanctions alone will not affect Iran's economy, it won't diminish the strength of the Revolutionary Guards, nor will it hamper Iran's geopolitical ambition. Instead, the U.S. will be at a distinct business and economic disadvantage vis-à-vis European states. Disunity among allies is sure to be exploited by the Iranian regime, which thrives on the divide-and-conquer approach to dealing with its adversaries.

Fifth, the U.S. is allowing Hamas to do business with Iran, even as it is facilitating Palestinian unity between Fatah and Hamas and trying to work out a peace deal with Israel. Iran is encouraging the worst possible behavior in Hamas and praises the return to the destructive rhetoric that makes any sort of coexistence with Israel, much less normalization, impossible. Funding from Iran will also serve to nullify any effect from the Taylor Force Act, which would curb U.S. taxpayer funding of the Palestinian Authority in response to its continuous incitement to terrorism.

Separately, each of these policies, continuing under Trump, not Obama, is destructive enough. Together, they create a pattern of paying lip service to decertification and opposing Iran's military expansion across the Middle East and beyond, while tacitly allowing Iran and its proxies to profit from the U.S. defense industry and sacrificing American allies – a familiar pattern from the preceding administration. It is time for the Trump administration to stop finger-wagging while de facto perpetuating Obama's outdated and failed policies and refocus its energy on finding solutions.

Irina Tsukerman is a human rights and national security lawyer based in New York.

The State Department Violates Law, Breaks Promises to Yazidis, Christians; allows Iran to spread influence in Iraq

Take a moment to read this article outlining that the State Department has has no issue delivering significant financial aid to Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar, but has been withholding promised aid to Yazidis, Christians, and other vulnerable minorities facing genocide in Iraq, or worse, delivering that aid through UN which is notoriously "religion-blind" and hasn't taken the targeted minority status into consideration.

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/critics-state-department-delaying-aid-congress-provided-yazidis-christians-iraq/

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The aid package came the day after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke with Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Burma, and urged the Burmese government and military to "address deeply troubling allegations of human rights abuses and violations."

Tillerson's quick efforts to help the Rohingya demonstrated the State Department's ability to quickly direct humanitarian aid to a threatened minority group. However, critics say the swift action stands in sharp contrast to State's foot-dragging when it comes to directing funds to Yazidis, Christians, and other religious minorities facing genocide in Iraq.

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President Trump promised to aid the victims of ISIS genocide, and Congress has placed a statutory obligation on the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to do so before the current fiscal year runs out in a few days, Rasche said.

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The Yazidi population also has plummeted, although estimates of how far the population has fallen vary wildly, ranging from the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands since ISIS launched its attack in the Sinjar region of Iraq in 2014.

Despite the congressional commitment, lawmakers and human rights activists say most of the U.S. taxpayer money going to help people in Iraq is channeled through the United Nations, which has a "religion-blind" policy of distributing most of the money to refugee camps that Yazidis and Christians avoid out of fear of further violence and persecution.

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Lawmakers on Capitol Hill and human rights activists are tracking the list of U.N. development projects in Iraq closely and said there are only very minor projects in Christian towns and communities. Shea said she is aware of one that would repair a canopy on a municipal building but that she believes there are no major infrastructure or road projects that would help Christian communities return and provide interim jobs for those returning.

The Iranians, in contrast, just opened a new elementary school, mosque, and library in the Ninevah region, Shea said.

From this we learn several things:

1. The State Department is in danger of violating the law.

2. Humanitarian aid to Iraq, to which we have specific commitments, is going through the notoriously ineffectual United Nations, despite this administration's commitment to national sovereignty and avoiding "globalism".

3. Administration/State Department officials responsible for aid distribution, who commented for this article, refused to go on record with their names.

4. The administration is fully aware that Iran is using the Fertile Crescent as a land bridge for creating a Shi'A crescent, and is threatening ideological influence, as well as physical conflicts, by building humanitarian institutions with Islamist strings attached in the vicinity of the most vulnerable populations.

5. Rohingya is already receiving humanitarian aid from a number of Arab/Muslim states. Yazidis have nowhere to flee and are dependent on the scarce financial aid that's coming mostly from the West. Christians are not likely to receive humanitarian aid from anyone but Western countries.

How do we explain these seemingly mind-boggling issues that appear to contradict Secretary Tillerson's preexisting commitments, as well as challenge the expectations of Congress?

Tillerson himself has been widely criticized for alienation from his own agency, as well as being too slow with implementing policies, and yet, the State Department moved quickly to aid Rohingya. A variety of factors is likely at fault. Dependency on the UN is but one of them. However, lack of structure answerable to the administration - in other words, political appointees, loyal to the Trump administration's visions of foreign policy - may explain the stark contrast in priorities that appears to reflect the Obama' administration's priorities in immigration. Once again, the most vulnerable minorities are getting shafted in favor of a politically popular group that is making the headlines. That is a rather crude way of describing the way the State Department prioritizes humanitarian disasters, and yet the patterns speak for themselves.  The lack of names and faces on record in this article supports this hypothesis. Bureaucrats of course wish to avoid accountability, but career State Department officials have a particular reason to stay below the radar and avoid being identified as having come in under Obama or having particular ideological proclivities that play a role in the distribution of humanitarian aid.

What is particular disturbing is the fact that the same bureaucrats are willfully empowering UN bureaucrats with the taxpayers' money, shifting responsibility to a body that is highly ineffective and slow-moving at best, but more likely both incompetent and comprised of downright evil actors.

And what's completely unacceptable here is that US national security priorities are being deliberately ignored in favor of appeasement of particular interests and agendas, perhaps among Islamist lobbyists who have specifically brought up the Rohingya crisis through a wide variety of media, and concerns about Islamophobia through their front organizations, such as CAIR in recent meetings with the State Department. Yazidi organizations, such as Yazda, and Middle Eastern Christian organizations in the US, lack both the numbers and the power, to attract the same amount of attention from that agency. Humanitarian aid is being cynically used to assert and wield power by lobby groups, no matter what the Congress has decided our priorities should be. Worse still, is that the State Department is well aware that both the administration and Congress are on the same page with regards to countering the spread of malicious Iranian influence in all forms, including deceptive ideological education that it is seeking to import to vulnerable minority communities in Iraq. While the United States is once again appearing to betray its own promises, Iran shows up as a sort of white knight in shining armor, building schools, community centers, and luring the unsuspecting, the weak, and the needy under its fold.  Such measures go against our agreement with our allies, and certainly the spread of ayatollah-dominated influence endangers the process of rebuilding Iraq, and the communities that suffered from ISIS-inflicted genocide and war related trauma.

Now that the Iraqi Kurds have voted in favor of an independent state in a recent referendum, our obligation to the vulnerable communities in that region takes yet another dimension. That dimension includes ensuring that with the chaotic and challenging process that takes places in creating a new state, the rights of these minorities are protected, and they have the tools they need to address their special unique interests, as well as the institutions to protect their culture in the middle of the transition, when more powerful actors such as Iran will try to take advantage of the uncertainty to perhaps pressure the Kurds, and wield undue influence through its historically potent divide and conquer strategies. Instead of focusing on building a strong relationship with a potential new friendly state and keeping our promises to its various constituents, we are giving opportunity to countries like Russia, currently the KRG's biggest backer , and to Iran, that is likewise not above investing financially where it cannot yet fully take over militarily, to fill in the vacuum of our disappearing leadership.

The takeaways here are simple and straightforward: reassert our concerns for our own interests and national sovereignty by restructuring our humanitarian aid towards direct and immediate provisions, hold the State Department officials accountable for implementation of our promises and for keeping with the law on the issue, unmask those actors within this agency that are acting counter to the direct orders given and are thus preventing the administration from successfully executing its own foreign policy, and ensure that by placing our national interests, rather than interests of dubious Islamist lobbies first, we remain perceived as leaders, desirable allies, and reliable friends, with whom every group wants to work closely and do business.

Keeping our word is fundamentally doing the right thing and a welcome change from the last administration's feckless governing both at home and abroad. Let's make it happen, starting with doing what's right for the people who need our help the most.