Responsible Leadership and the Nobel Peace Prize

   Responsible leadership sets the preconditions and expectations for peace, so that violent actions make the other appear a tyrant to the people.  Still, in the anarchic international realm of foreign affairs foreign policy must identify and advance national interests aggressively on appeal to the mutual interests of whom we are negotiating.  In the most stubborn of circumstances, leadership must be willing to use force and show its willingness to use a big stick as soft talk outlines the demands.  Its important to see your adversaries point of view, to understand their world view, grievances and empathize with their struggles; however, in the conceding of inconsequential points leadership needs to only find the lowest common denominator that will allow the negotiator to save face with their constituents, dangle the carrot and bargain hard to get what your constituents want before you release it. 

    In Syria, we saw this type of negotiation where a President's decision to attack slammed the fist to awaken everyone around from their slumbers to get hard to work on a deal.   The fact Assad goes unpunished is problematic, but America's show of force in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, prevail in demonstrating their resolve to combat both terror and tyranny with military might.  Assad giving up his arsenal of chemical weapons, allowed Obama to save face with the Americans, while preventing American intervention allowed Putin to save face with his client state.  

    By maintaining a resolve and willingness to use force at the first sign of delay Obama managed to set the conditions of compliance within which the OPCW has worked heroically in dismantling Syria's arsenal of chemical weapons.  While this may not have been done to perfection, silent military strikes from Israel may be necessary as accurate intelligence on the ground dictates, yet a larger war has been avoided and progression towards peace remains the course. 

     America can approach negotiations with Rouhani and Iran with cautious optimism, the Israeli's can push for an eradication of the nuclear program, America will destroy their nuclear program if red lines are passed, yet the hope of an end to sanctions and the face saving of a security council monitored video surveillance system on all of Iran's nuclear reactors to verify their usage for peaceful enrichment and energy can make for prosperous strategic partnership.  Iran, however, must halt its exportation of weapons throughout the region shifting to humanitarian support to troubled areas.  Conformity to the Peace Plan laid out by Hillary Clinton, sabotaged by Benjamin Netanyahu in defiance of the majority opinions of the populace he's charged to represent cannot continue, nor can any military aggression from within Palestinian territories. 

    While an authentic peace deal between Israel/Palestine moves closer, a non-nuclear proliferation treaty between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran may be the easier Foreign Policy triumph for Jon Kerry's State Department.   To avert a regional arms race and cool Saudi/Iran Proxy wars breaking along Shiite/Sunni lines can calm regional tensions and foster the prosperity necessary to end anti-semitism and the potential for larger scale armed conflict.  

    America and her allies needs to cement the gains made in Afghanistan with moderated expectations, air bases to the North East and North West of Afghanistan with nuclear armed strike fighters are necessary security measures against Tehran and Beijing should either pursue bolder military expansion.  I don't think there is any type of negotiation on this issue aside from perhaps an end to drone strikes in Afghanistan.   America should act on overtures from Turkmenistan and Kazakhastan to develop a limited naval presence in the Caspian Sea.   

    Libya has shown immense promise as even in the backdrop of chaos and insecurity it has proven it earned the distinguished place as fastest growing economy in the world.   Training in forward policing can help improve security issues in Libya and encourage greater outside investment into the hot and fast growing economy.  The successes in Libya are a testament to the virtue of secular leadership when juxtaposed to the struggles of its neighbors in Egypt and Tunisia.  With Al-Qaeda looking to bleed America to death, America and Western Civilization's winning strategy to defeat religious extremism is going to live in doubling down in terms of technical and financial resources in the regions of the Middle Eat and North Africa that have promise and supporting those governments efforts to tackle Al-Qaeda and its affiliates influence regionally.  The West needs to support Nigeria's efforts to defeat Boko Haram, Ethiopia and Kenya's efforts to contain Al-Shabaab with technical and material assistance.  

      For all of our love of freedom, aside from song, satire, book or film, America should rigorously police the internet's fraudulent reporting as it is vital for the functionality of our democratic institutions that the information we are receiving is accurate, misinformation is a disservice that is detrimental to our ability to make smart decisions and perform as a nation.   This isn't to say we prosecute or infringe on people's first amendment rights, its that we remove their websites from the public information source of the internet.  By removing enemy propaganda from the internet-- regardless of its source-- we can end the recruitment and radicalization of the public that pose such grave risks to our national security.  It would be interesting if we could contact individuals exposed to such false or poor information and explain to them in a compelling way why the information they received is factually wrong, replace it with what is factually correct and an argument for a better solution. This shouldn't involve attacking the source of the information, simply the facts, argument and/or conclusion not as a matter of spin or agenda, as in war "Truth was the Fist Victim," the necessities of poverty and war's "brass rule" can be replaced by the prosperity of peace, scientific veracity and the "golden rule" as a guiding measure of humanitarian moral authority.

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