Chas Freeman: US No Longer Qualified to Mediate Mideast Peace

In his remarks today at the DC's New America Foundation, Ambassador Chas Freeman Jr. presented a scathing critique of a  US foreign policy in the Middle East.  He explained that the current trajectory of US foreign policy is bound to unfold more and more disasters around the world, noting that US missions in Afghanistan and Iraq and the stalled Israel/Palestinian peace process are exhausting America's political and economic capital.  Rather than pursue national interests, he argues, the US has become subject to a series of self-defeating policies and unsustainable civilian-military relations.  He made the case to revisit the original US objectives in Afghanistan, to reconsider the cost of US aggression and military supremacy in the world and to "outsource" the fumbled US role in the Mideast peace process to more credible nations. A video of his complete remarks is below. 

Amb. Freeman's latest book, "America's Misadventures in the Middle East" presents a series of essays on  US policy in the Middle East, covering the first Gulf War, the disastrous US invasion of Iraq, America's failure to engage in diplomacy and the relationship of Saudi Arabia with Western and world powers.  The book delves in depth into many of the arguments presented by Ambassador Freeman at Wednesday's NAF talk. 

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