Dr Richard Haass, president of the non-partisan Council on Foreign Relations and regular guest on "Morning Joe," came on MSNBC Monday morning to discuss an article he wrote in "Foreign Affairs" explaining the loss of U.S. influence in the Middle East. When asked by the hosts to explain the premise of his argument, Haass laid the blame squarely at the feet of President Obama for America's decline in the region.
After co-host Mika Brzezinski read an excerpt from Haas' article, Joe Scarborough made sure to remind everyone that Bush got us into "the hornet's nest 11 years ago." Haass explained, however, that Obama has not only made the situation worse but "much worse" by raising larger questions about "American reliability."
Brzezinski: In the latest edition of Foreign Affairs, Richard Haas wrote this, “The post-cold war order is unraveling and while not perfect it will be missed… Order has unraveled, in short, thanks to a confluence of three trends. Power in the world has diffused across a greater number and range of actors. Respect for the American economic and political model has diminished. And specific U.S. Policy choices, especially in the Middle East have raised doubts about American judgment and the reliability of the United States threats and promises. The net result is that while the United States absolute strength remains considerable American influence has diminished."
Scarborough: We also stepped on a hornet's nest 11 years ago that we’re still paying for today.
Haass: We set in motion a bunch of trends that made a difficult situation worse.
Scarborough: How has President Obama shepherded this country through these difficult times?
Haass: The short answer is not terribly well in the Middle East. I think he has inherited a difficult situation but made it much worse. More than anything else, I think the most consequential set of actions was Syria just over a year ago. Raising fundamental questions in the region and beyond about American reliability. More broadly before that not getting involved and letting a bad situation get a lot worse. His biggest idea, I think the best idea of his Presidency was to pivot to Asia to put more emphasis there. But we haven't done it. We haven’t increased out military presence, we’ve actually decreased our diplomacy, and we haven’t begun to prepare the congress for a trade agreement.
