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24 August 2014

Should a Struggling President Help a Brutal Dictator Reestablish Order? 

A genuine test of President Obama’s commitment to act in America’s long-term self-interest is whether to help an allegedly brutal dictator (or his regime, whether or not he is in control of it) to defeat a terrorist group because it challenges both that regime’s hegemony in its own country and the freedom of U.S. citizens to exercise the rights guaranteed by their government’s Constitution. A case in point is the barbarous execution of the journalist, James Foley, by members of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which had held him captive for the previous nearly two years.

In fact, it is only since the U.S. has become the world’s single most powerful state that its citizens have come to believe that the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that its Constitution guarantees against actions by the American government are guaranteed by the Constitution to be enforced by their government across the globe. This is particularly problematic when it comes to practitioners of professions such as journalism, who often assume dangerous risks in the performance of their tasks.

A world at peace and maintained in order is definitely in the long-term interest of the American (and all other) people. The inability of a brutal dictator, like Bashar Al Assad, to establish that order in Syria, his own country, threatens not only his own subjects but also the freedom of Americans and others to travel to that country for whatever peaceful reason, including reporting on civil war there. Helping an incompetent ruler to establish that order, at least by eliminating a ruthless element from the opposition to his established central government, may override America’s interest in seeing that any foreign government does not brutally rule or violate the human rights of its own residents.

Choosing to take such a step and crafting a reasonable strategy to do it, in terms of its objectives and costs, both human and material, is the duty of America’s leader. It is also his duty to conform to the statutory requirements for consultation with and approval of Congress in implementing that policy. These are only a few of the challenges that Barack Obama and his administration face in the closing years of his Presidency. Dealing with this one successfully or not could be emblematic of Mr. Obama’s ability to perform the tasks assigned to him with such hope by the American electorate twice over the last six years.

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