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It’s time for the U.S. to form an alliance between Baghdad, Damascus, Tehran, and Moscow
(Interesting that Leslie Gelb, who is so well connected,would make this proposal. 
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A Winning Strategy for Iraq
It’s time for the U.S. to form an alliance between Baghdad, Damascus, Tehran, and Moscow by Leslie Gelb
You Can Skip Gelb's BIO by scrolling down to my SNIP or go directly to article here:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/21/a-winning-strategy-for-iraq-and-syria.html
from Wikipedia:
Leslie (Les) Howard Gelb (born March 4, 1937) is a former correspondent for The New York Times and is currently President Emeritus and Board Senior Fellow [1] at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is author of Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy published in March 2009.
Career
Dr. Gelb was Executive Assistant for Senator Jacob Javits from 1966 to 1967.[4] He was director of Policy Planning and Arms Control for International Security Affairs at the Department of Defense from 1967 to 1969, winning the Pentagon's highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal. Robert McNamara appointed Dr. Gelb as director of the project that produced the controversial Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War. From 1969-1973, Dr. Gelb was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
He was diplomatic correspondent at The New York Times from 1973 to 1977.
He served as an Assistant Secretary of State in the Carter Administration from 1977 to 1979, serving as director of the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs and winning the Distinguished Honor Award, the highest award of the US State Department. In 1980 he co-authored The Irony of Vietnam which won the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Book Award in 1981.[5] From 1980-1981, he was also a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
He returned to the Times in 1981; from then until 1993, he was in turn its national security correspondent, deputy editorial page editor, editor of the op-ed page, and columnist.This period included his leading role on the Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1986 for a six-part comprehensive series on the Star Wars Strategic Defense Initiative. In 1983, he also worked as a producer on the ABC documentary "The Crisis Game," which received an Emmy award in 1984.[6]
Dr. Gelb became President of the Council on Foreign Relations in 1993 and as of 2003 is its President Emeritus.[7] In addition to his work at Council on Foreign Relations, Dr. Gelb is also a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He served as the chairman of the advisory board for the progressive foreign policy think tank, National Security Network, and has served on the boards of directors of several non-profit organizations including Carnegie Endowment, the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, the James Baker Institute at Rice University, the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and is a member of the board of advisors of the Truman Project and America Abroad Media.[8] Dr. Gelb also serves on the board of directors of the Center for the National Interest, the advisory board of United Against Nuclear Iran,[9] the board of directors at the Diplomacy Center Foundation, and the advisory board of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. He is Trustee Emeritus of Tufts University.
Dr. Gelb is a contributor to The Daily Beast, a news aggregation site.
Position on the Iraq War
Dr. Gelb initially supported the Iraq War, but later said[10][11] his "initial support for the war was symptomatic of unfortunate tendencies within the foreign policy community, namely the disposition and incentives to support wars to retain political and professional credibility."
Leslie (Les) Howard Gelb (born March 4, 1937) is a former correspondent for The New York Times and is currently President Emeritus and Board Senior Fellow [1] at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is author of Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy published in March 2009.
Career
Dr. Gelb was Executive Assistant for Senator Jacob Javits from 1966 to 1967.[4] He was director of Policy Planning and Arms Control for International Security Affairs at the Department of Defense from 1967 to 1969, winning the Pentagon's highest award, the Distinguished Service Medal. Robert McNamara appointed Dr. Gelb as director of the project that produced the controversial Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War. From 1969-1973, Dr. Gelb was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
He was diplomatic correspondent at The New York Times from 1973 to 1977.
He served as an Assistant Secretary of State in the Carter Administration from 1977 to 1979, serving as director of the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs and winning the Distinguished Honor Award, the highest award of the US State Department. In 1980 he co-authored The Irony of Vietnam which won the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Book Award in 1981.[5] From 1980-1981, he was also a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
He returned to the Times in 1981; from then until 1993, he was in turn its national security correspondent, deputy editorial page editor, editor of the op-ed page, and columnist.This period included his leading role on the Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1986 for a six-part comprehensive series on the Star Wars Strategic Defense Initiative. In 1983, he also worked as a producer on the ABC documentary "The Crisis Game," which received an Emmy award in 1984.[6]
Dr. Gelb became President of the Council on Foreign Relations in 1993 and as of 2003 is its President Emeritus.[7] In addition to his work at Council on Foreign Relations, Dr. Gelb is also a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He served as the chairman of the advisory board for the progressive foreign policy think tank, National Security Network, and has served on the boards of directors of several non-profit organizations including Carnegie Endowment, the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, the James Baker Institute at Rice University, the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and is a member of the board of advisors of the Truman Project and America Abroad Media.[8] Dr. Gelb also serves on the board of directors of the Center for the National Interest, the advisory board of United Against Nuclear Iran,[9] the board of directors at the Diplomacy Center Foundation, and the advisory board of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. He is Trustee Emeritus of Tufts University.
Dr. Gelb is a contributor to The Daily Beast, a news aggregation site.
Position on the Iraq War
Dr. Gelb initially supported the Iraq War, but later said[10][11] his "initial support for the war was symptomatic of unfortunate tendencies within the foreign policy community, namely the disposition and incentives to support wars to retain political and professional credibility."
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A Winning Strategy for Iraq and Syria
It’s time for the U.S. to form an alliance between Baghdad, Damascus, Tehran, and Moscow—and divide Iraq and Syria into semi-autonomous ethnic regions.
Leslie H. Gelb
President Obama’s response to the jihadi deluge in Iraq is perfectly Obamaesque. Sensibly, he foreswears big military reimmersion. This will displease only hawks who pray for large scale U.S. air attacks plus lots of U.S. aid and ground-level advice. Such hawkish ideas cannot plausibly cure the profoundly political and religious underpinnings of what’s happening in Iraq.
Yet, Obama might take some of these military actions anyway just to deflect political pressures at home. Meantime, he’ll dispatch 350 troops to target jihadis and train Iraqis. Say what? Didn’t we already have tens of thousands of U.S. trainers training almost one million Iraqi forces for nearly 10 years only to have them abandon their U.S. arms and uniforms at the sounds of distant gunfire? And wouldn’t U.S. drones certainly acquire better targets far more readily? Give me a break! Also, behind the scenes, Obama is trying to get rid of Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki, the bad guy in the story. If Obama manages to install his guys in Baghdad, these “successors” will have large claims on the White House. In sum, the Obama plan avoids the worst, the costly futility of military overreach, but offers no strategy to stem and turn the perilous jihadi tide.
There’s only one strategy with a decent chance of winning: forge a military and political coalition with the power to stifle the jihadis in both Iraq and Syria. This means partnering with Iran, Russia, and President Assad of Syria. This would be a very tricky arrangement among unfriendly and non-trusting partners, but the overriding point is that they all have common interests. All regard the jihadis as the overwhelming threat, and all would be willing to take tough joint action. And with this fighting arrangement in place, the “partners” could start seriously fixing the underlying political snake pits in Damascus and Baghdad.
A federal or decentralized power system is the only means to get the non-jihadi warring parties to live in peace with one another.
Now, don’t start firing rockets at me just yet. Hear me out. First, every state, even the United States, works with bad guys, adversaries and enemies whenever the need is great, whenever it suits reality. Don’t forget, Iran helped us protect the western border of Afghanistan for almost the first two years of America’s war effort there. Tehran didn’t like the Taliban and neither did we. The cooperation stopped when President George W. Bush threatened to overthrow the Ayatollah’s regime with his “axis of evil” speech.
Consider as well that Russia and states over which it has great influence remain to this day a main waystation for moving U.S. troops and supplies in and out of Afghanistan. To some degree, Washington colludes with China to tamp down the nuclear threat from North Korea. Moscow has been helpful in dealing with Iranian nuclear problems. Moscow and Washington continue to share intelligence to fight terrorists worldwide, despite the Ukraine crisis. And stare at this one: Vietnam—the country we fought in one way and another for 20 years—cooperates with us against China on South China Sea conflicts. Finally, always hold in mind that America’s toughest tough guys—Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, James Baker, et al.—not only contained Russia and China, but negotiated major treaties and agreements with them. All this is common sense realism opposed only by political hacks and ideological quacks.
CONTINUED....EXCELLENT READ AT:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/21/a-winning-strategy-for-iraq-and-syria.html
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