As a career soldier who served multiple tours of duty in Iraq, I am hopeful yet concerned about American Middle East policy. My hope springs from the Obama administration’s laudable commitment to forming workable partnerships in the region. But my concern is that the administration appears to not have a good sense of the limits of those partnerships. An excessively narrow focus on current threats could well blind us to other long-term dangers.

One major question is the potential role of Iran in fighting the Islamic State. The State Department claims that it has no interest in coordinating militarily with Iran, although President Obama had previously suggested this was an option. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been operating on the assumption that the US is desperate for help. Secretary of State John Kerry has failed to adequately dispute this, explicitly keeping the topic open for discussion.