US Foreign Policy, "Flogging a Dead Horse"

US foreign policy can best be described by a British expression, “flogging a dead horse”, a pointless endeavour

• The Palestinian question. The two-state solution has long been dead in the water yet the US continues to push this as the ultimate answer to the conflict. A more likely outcome will eventually be a single bi-national state (including the West Bank) ruled by an Israeli minority government with limited rights for the Palestinian majority, à la the old South African apartheid state and fully supported by an Israeli led US congress.
• Iraq and the US efforts to maintain the fiction of an Iraqi nation-state and the US belief that a non-Maliki led government will resolve the chaos. Nonsense! Again, a more likely outcome will be a partitioning with the only question now being, how many pieces of the pie. At one time it appeared to be three, a Kurdistan, a Shia state closely allied to Iran and a Sunni state supported by and allied to Saudi Arabia. Now the ISIS has thrown a spanner in the works and added a new dimension. Whatever, Iraq is long gone.
• In Afghanistan continued wrangling over the election results will continue and eventually the Taliban will rule again, American troops or not. Fast forward to the past.
• Syria, now on page 16, is a real “dog’s dinner”. The US having supported the overthrow of Assad, has been unable to decide which of the rebel/militant groups is ”moderate” jihadist and now the US is enlisting Assad’s government to combat the ISIS!