The American administration: We are tired of the Middle East… and the priority is elsewhere
The American administration has begun to show signs of “fatigue” with the Middle East, not because the Middle East is witnessing huge challenges, but because the world is witnessing many huge challenges.
American officials stressed that “it is necessary to look first at American foreign policy priorities and American national security priorities.” One American official confirmed that the current administration, like the previous administration of Donald Trump, “considers that the most important and greatest challenges are the rising power of China and the Russian threat that we are now seeing in Eastern Europe.”
The Americans describe the escalating Chinese challenge in serious terms. For them, China is a huge economic power, carries out commercial activities that are unacceptable according to international legal rules, controls many sources of raw materials, and China is building a rapidly powerful and dangerous military force, especially a nuclear arsenal, and what is worse for the Americans. It threatens to use this diverse economic and military power to impose a political reality, such as occupying Taiwan or controlling vital straits.
As for Russia, in the eyes of the Americans, it has violated many red lines. Launching an “attack” on a neighboring country, and attempting to “overthrow” the Ukrainian state by military force, is an expression of this danger that threatens the independence of neighboring countries, and threatens “free” Europe after it has been liberated from control. Communism 30 years ago.
Consumption of American power
These two dangers, the Chinese and the Russians, consume a lot of American military and diplomatic capabilities. When talking about these two dangers, the Russian and the Chinese, American officials point out that the United States is working with the countries of the Pacific Ocean and with the countries of Europe and the group of industrialized countries to stop the escalation of these risks, but this cooperation It is not a substitute for the American presence, especially the military presence.
During the past few years, the United States was forced to deploy two aircraft carriers in East Asia, and with these carriers, dozens of American warships and thousands of American soldiers. The United States was also forced to send huge quantities of weapons and ammunition to Europe to confront the Russian advance and protect NATO’s eastern front.
Americans’ weapons stocks reached low levels in 2023, and the world map was full of American forces when the October 7 attack occurred.
Directing forces to the Middle East
With this attack, the United States was forced to direct squadrons of air forces to the Middle East. It also directed an aircraft carrier from the Pacific Ocean to the Middle East, and American military power reached the limits of “full use” at the beginning of the year 2024.
The Americans succeeded in putting an end to the escalation, and they worked extremely hard to prevent the spread of clashes in Iraq and Syria. They were working through contact with Iran to stop the Houthi attacks and to stop the clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border, but these efforts failed, and worse happened when the Israelis were killed. A senior official in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Damascus, and Iran responded by bombing Israeli territory.
One of the American officials said when speaking to Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath: “You must understand that our priority is elsewhere,” and he continued, “The United States is a huge power, that’s for sure, but the world is also a huge theater,” and he warned with some severity. He pointed out that “the United States’ priority is China and Russia, not the Middle East.”
We should not understand from the words of this American official that the Middle East is not important to Washington. Rather, the American administration stressed that the Middle East is an essential part of America’s vital interests, and the administration of current US President Joe Biden wants to establish strong relations with the countries of this region, “but we do not We want to do the job alone,” according to the American official.
Americans need to restore their military, and even diplomatic, capabilities to the Pacific region, and for regional parties to bear the direct burden of confronting the risks.
The dangers of the region are many
The Americans list a list of risks, starting with the ongoing Iranian threat, passing through the Houthis and the protection of the strategic straits, all the way to Syria and Iraq and confronting ISIS, but American officials talk about a major lack of countries in the region in possessing the necessary equipment, especially naval vessels and their radars, and marine missile defense systems, They also point to a severe lack of training in the use of the defense equipment and systems available in these countries.
By talking to American officials, the listener gets the impression that the Americans are tired, and the soldiers deployed in the region are tired, and they want an alternative in a quick time to change the map of their deployment in the Middle East, reduce American forces in this region, give the soldiers and the American treasury a break, and then return to the “most important theater.” “
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