The Washington Post reports: One of America’s top allies in the Middle East offered an excoriating assessment of the U.S. role in the region, saying that the United States is “absent.”

“There is a vacuum in the overall leadership in the world,” Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an interview airing Friday. “The Americans need to … get back to their role as an international power, an important international power.” He also accused the United States of lacking an “international strategy,” saying there is “no strategy for the alliances that are fighting and have helped us in this part of the fight.”

Allawi also attacked America’s broader fight against Islamist extremism and said the country lacks clear-cut policies. [Continue reading…]