The post Obama could take a page out of Fiorina’s playbook on Syria appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>Well, not exactly. But there is something interesting that Carly Fiorina says about budgeting for the federal government that might be helpful in reassessing the U.S.’s strategy on Syria.
Fiorina has called for “zero-based” budgeting. What that means is that everything is on the table. Her ideas can get very scary when applied to Social Security or Medicare, but in some cases they might make a little sense. If we apply zero-based budgeting to United States foreign policy towards the Middle East and Syria and Iraq in particular, it might help us find a strategy better than the one we are presently pursuing.
I’m reminded of the endless years that the United States remained in Vietnam, well past the time when it was clear that the U.S. was not going to “win” the war. Yet President Johnson and then President Nixon repeatedly said that those Americans who had died on the battlefields of Vietnam should not have “died in vain.” So what they did was to follow a policy resulted in more Americans dying on those same battlefields in vain. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense then and it doesn’t now.
So why is the United States still waging war in Syria and Iraq? Is it because that’s where we find ourselves now and to get out would mean that the policies that brought us there were a failure? To the degree that defending the past is guiding our current policy, we are trapped in a position of our own making and are too proud to change course. This has repeatedly not worked for the United States, nor for any other country. When rationalizing the past propels continuation of policies that simply are not working, the outcome is stagnation at best.
This is where the concept of zero-based budgeting comes in. Examine the present situation without either favoring or opposing the policies that brought you there. Take a look at the landscape with a fresh eye and reassess the problems that might exist through a lens that focuses on what your real goals are. Think about the historical forces that got you to the present situation. Consider who you want to help and who you consider to be your “enemy.” Reexamine the capabilities that you have to carry out any projected policy. Put every possible policy through a rigorous cost-benefit analysis. Consider possible collateral damage resulting from any steps, or non-steps that you might take.
In broad terms, let me suggest three significantly different approaches that President Obama and the United States could take toward Syria and Iraq:
Obviously there is a myriad of other policies that the U.S. could take that are between the polarities of getting out and going in militarily without reservation. The bottom line is that whatever direction President Obama takes should be one that is based on clear goals and realistic strategies to carry them out. Justifying the past is not a good reason to do anything, particularly when the stakes are this high. Thank Carly Fiorina for unintentionally giving you the idea and wish her well in her return to corporate America. Be thankful that you won’t be working for her.
The post Obama could take a page out of Fiorina’s playbook on Syria appeared first on Occasional Planet.
]]>