London, Mar. 5 (ANI): President Barack Obama is a 'dithering' president whose extreme risk-averse attitude to foreign policy has damaged US interests in the Middle East, a new book by a senior former State Department adviser has claimed.
The insider-account of the damaging divisions between the White House and the State Department comes as diplomats around the world wait to see if the new US secretary of state, John Kerry can persuade the Democratic president to greater engagement on Syria, Egypt and the wider Middle East.
According to the Telegraph, Vali Nasr, a university professor who was seconded in 2009 to work with Richard Holbrooke, Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, records his profound disillusion at how a 'Berlin Wall' of domestic-focused advisers was erected to protect the president.
In 'The Dispensable Nation: America Foreign policy in Retreat', Nasr wrote that the president had a truly disturbing habit of funnelling major foreign policy decisions through a small cabal of relatively inexperienced White House advisers whose turf was strictly
The book has given details how Holbrooke, appointed in 2009, was systematically cut out of decision making as both he and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, tried to argue the merits of engaging with the Taliban and the dangers caused by the overuse of drones, the report said.
Prof Nasr wrote that the White House seemed to see an actual benefit in not doing too much, adding that the goal was to spare the president the risks that necessarily come with playing the leadership role that America claims to play in this region.
According to the report, Admiral Mike Mullen, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff until September 2011, is quoted lamenting how little support Clinton received from the White House, even though she remained on good personal terms with Obama. (ANI)
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