Will Barack Obama Go 0-4 on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine?

(Sept. 1) -- President Barack Obama is taking on three trouble spots in the Middle East this week: Iraq, Iran and Israel-Palestine. Though technically not in the Middle East, it's fair to add Afghanistan into the mix, linked as it is to the "war on terror," which Obama arguably continues to wage, despite a high-profile attempt to re-brand the effort over the past two years.

The analysis from The New York Times is cautiously optimistic: "While Mr. Obama's thinking contains elements of the logic that drove his predecessors, there are also some critical differences, and success or failure hinges on how significant those turn out to be," David E. Sanger writes. "Those differences include evidence that the United States is truly pulling out of Iraq, far tougher sanctions on Iran and the tentative emergence of a working Palestinian government in the West Bank."

But from the vantage point of many others, it is pessimism that's more warranted. Take the milestone of the Iraq "pull out" for example, marked by a presidential address from the Oval Office on Tuesday night that is generally being cast by reporters and the punditry as one of Obama's more lackluster speeches. As AOL News writer Joseph Schuman pointed out in his analysis:

There was little new in the announced end to the American combat mission in Iraq itself. The last combat-oriented brigade left the country in August. The formal change in mission doesn't mean the 50,000 U.S. soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen in Iraq are done fighting insurgents of one stripe or another. Iraqi forces, with an uncertain political leadership, have not yet shown they can secure the country on their own. And no one expects an end to American casualties there.

In fact, calling the 50,000 soldiers still in Iraq "advisers" might even conjure up an image of President John F. Kennedy's early meddling in Vietnam, and the potential for renewed escalation if Iraq devolves into chaos. It's hardly an unlikely prospect: Months after elections, Iraq has yet to form a government.

Iran, too, remains troublesome. It's doubtful that new sanctions will cause Tehran to renounce its nuclear ambitions. Nor has Washington hinted at a way to derail Iran's nuclear weapons program without resorting to an attack, either directly or by proxy (Israel). (That's just what we need, a third war in the region.)

Meanwhile, while Obama not long ago took a tough line with Israel, that almost was entirely in reaction to impossible-to-ignore public slights from Israel's bellicose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While the episode suggested Washington might find new resolve in dealing with its client state, that proved short-lived. West Bank Israeli settlers continue to build settlements, despite the fact that they are prohibited by the Israeli government under a temporary freeze, which itself expires Sept. 26.

And Afghanistan, where Obama doubled down? The Taliban controls large swaths of the country, and President Hamid Karzai, Washington's man in Afghanistan, is proving to be more corrupt by the day. And it's worth mentioning, again and again, that Osama bin Laden, the man who ushered in America's terror war by masterminding the 9/11 attacks, remains at large.