Middle-East mess plagues US agenda

SIX years ago when he was running for president he had made a commitment to disengage the United States from the wars in the Middle East, and later on during his first term in office he declared his commitment to "pivot" US strategy from West Asia to East Asia.

So you can certainly feel US President Barack Obama's political pain as he finds himself again and again being forced to invest more of his time and energy on dealing with the never-ending instability in the Middle East where not a day passes without a new political upheaval and threats of war that leave Washington no choice but to refocus its attention on that part of the world.

And as it gets drawn once again to the mess in the Middle East, the Obama administration discovers that its diplomatic and military responses only help to ignite anti-American backlash that leads to even more American entanglement in the region as well as to criticism back home. And with no end in sight.