If only Jordan’s King Hussein bin Talal were still alive, then the situation in the Middle East might be significantly different. Hussein was savvy enough to know what the bad players in the Middle East were up to and able to warn world leaders of impending trouble. For example, in September of 1973, Hussein flew to Tel Aviv to warn the Israeli Prime Minister that Israel was about to be attacked by Syria and Egypt.
Hussein wasn’t a leader who hesitated to take action against bad players, as seen when he ordered the Palestine Liberation Organization expelled from Jordan. Hussein also knew what was needed to win a war, as evident by the outcome of the Jordanian Civil War (a.k.a. Black September).
Surely, if he were still alive, Hussein would have foreseen that ISIS was not a JV team and not contained. He might have been able to sound the alarm in a way that would have forced President Obama to face reality. Indeed, in June of 2014, Hussein’s successor Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein told members of Congress that he feared “the turmoil in Iraq could spill over into the entire region.”
Thankfully, Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein isn’t rolling over and playing dead in response to ISIS, as seen in Jordan’s response to the killing by ISIS of Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot Muath Safi Yousef Al-Kasasbeh.
If only the USA had a head of state with the same fortitude, but that is not the case right now. President Obama can talk all he wants, but Americans want to see effective action.
