Capturing the MidEast in short soundbites: poignant
reflections by people who understand the complexities of the Middle East. My philosophy is: "less is more."
You won't agree with everything that's here, but I'm confident you will find it interesting!
Excepting the titles, my own comments are minimal. Instead I rely on news sources to string together what I hope is an interesting, politically challenging, non-partisan, non-ideological narrative.
Friday, December 26, 2014
Appeasement Foreign Policy
While dangerously close to being partisan, this cartoon takes a shot at President Obama's overall foreign policy. Pictured are Raul Castro [on lap], Ayatollah Khamenei, Putin & Assad.
I don't see appeasement nor do i see Obama working alone on the world stage. Cuba is nothing anymore except a humanitarian crisis on our doorstep and an economic opportunity for our country. The world is dealing with Iran and nothing has been handed to them. Far from appeasement, Putin has been handled effectively and his economy is in ruins and his public opinion is beginning to turn against him. What would anyone have us do---go to war with Russia over Ukraine? I think not. Our cowardly Congress wouldn't even take up a discussion about Syria but our President, making his intentions clear to Syria and Russia forced Assad to get rid of the overwhelming majority, if not all, of his chemical weapons. Now, I know our brave GOP has lied to the country in the past, invaded weak sovereign nations with imaginary weapons and made an absolute mess of the entire region and created another hotbed of terrorism---yet they don't seem to have the stomach for that anymore which is why they refused to discuss or vote on Syria. I know the hundreds of thousands of tons of chemical weapons taken and destroyed from Syria by Obama don't feel as satisfying to arm-chair warriors as the 0 pounds, 0 ounces weapons taken from Iraq, but the world (if not Syrians) is a bit safer since Obama came on the scene: killed bin Laden, emptied Syria of its vast chemical weapons, negotiating with Iran while still keeping sanctions and the threat of continued sanctions, rallying the world to sanction Russia bringing their economy to a halt and with the lowered oil prices partly from increased domestic production under Obama, has begun the collapse of the Russian economy in response to their errant actions in Ukraine. This while bombing ISIL in Syria and Iraq freeing wide swaths of Iraqis and pushing ISIL back. Yeah, much like the American economy, I'll take Obama's "appeasement" over Bush's "Mission Accomplished" any day.
ISIL's very emergence is the result of the failure of President Obama to leave US troops in Iraq. That mistake is only his and will haunt him. He seems to have noticed the error, because he left some troops in Afghanistan.
Syria's chemical weapons are nice, but it would have been nicer to remove Assad from power after he clearly crossed Obama's red line. That would have disempowered Iran.
Now, with our military serving as Iran's air force, Obama has taken wrong side in the Shia-Sunni war. Should we succeed in crushing ISIL from the air, we will be handing Iran an empire. That's a shitload worse than the mistakes made by Bush.
It's not Obama's failure to leave troops. Iraq didn't want our troops. And how many years would you like to leave them there? Not quite in keeping with the Bush/Cheney they'll kiss our feet and we'll be out of there in no time. Easy to leave other people's kids there, while sending still more into Syria, while leaving a few in Afghanistan and hey---let's fight Russia in Ukraine too. And no, it's not worse than what Bush did---it's because of what Bush did, an extension of what Bush did, a result of what Bush did. Iraq was nothing to us and we created all of this by destabilizing the region and empowering Iran. Let this be a lesson---one which apparently is not learned---when you, right here, talk about getting rid of Assad. Not to mention it was the cowardly Congress that refused to back up their BS tough rhetoric and actually deal with Syria. It's funny all the people that view the MidEast without any consequences to their proposed actions---when at the same time they, the world and Israel are dealing with the consequences of the same hasty and poorly thought out actions from the previous administration. Those who don;t learn from the past are condemned to relive it.
3 comments:
I don't see appeasement nor do i see Obama working alone on the world stage. Cuba is nothing anymore except a humanitarian crisis on our doorstep and an economic opportunity for our country. The world is dealing with Iran and nothing has been handed to them. Far from appeasement, Putin has been handled effectively and his economy is in ruins and his public opinion is beginning to turn against him. What would anyone have us do---go to war with Russia over Ukraine? I think not. Our cowardly Congress wouldn't even take up a discussion about Syria but our President, making his intentions clear to Syria and Russia forced Assad to get rid of the overwhelming majority, if not all, of his chemical weapons. Now, I know our brave GOP has lied to the country in the past, invaded weak sovereign nations with imaginary weapons and made an absolute mess of the entire region and created another hotbed of terrorism---yet they don't seem to have the stomach for that anymore which is why they refused to discuss or vote on Syria. I know the hundreds of thousands of tons of chemical weapons taken and destroyed from Syria by Obama don't feel as satisfying to arm-chair warriors as the 0 pounds, 0 ounces weapons taken from Iraq, but the world (if not Syrians) is a bit safer since Obama came on the scene: killed bin Laden, emptied Syria of its vast chemical weapons, negotiating with Iran while still keeping sanctions and the threat of continued sanctions, rallying the world to sanction Russia bringing their economy to a halt and with the lowered oil prices partly from increased domestic production under Obama, has begun the collapse of the Russian economy in response to their errant actions in Ukraine. This while bombing ISIL in Syria and Iraq freeing wide swaths of Iraqis and pushing ISIL back. Yeah, much like the American economy, I'll take Obama's "appeasement" over Bush's "Mission Accomplished" any day.
ISIL's very emergence is the result of the failure of President Obama to leave US troops in Iraq. That mistake is only his and will haunt him. He seems to have noticed the error, because he left some troops in Afghanistan.
Syria's chemical weapons are nice, but it would have been nicer to remove Assad from power after he clearly crossed Obama's red line. That would have disempowered Iran.
Now, with our military serving as Iran's air force, Obama has taken wrong side in the Shia-Sunni war. Should we succeed in crushing ISIL from the air, we will be handing Iran an empire. That's a shitload worse than the mistakes made by Bush.
It's not Obama's failure to leave troops. Iraq didn't want our troops. And how many years would you like to leave them there? Not quite in keeping with the Bush/Cheney they'll kiss our feet and we'll be out of there in no time. Easy to leave other people's kids there, while sending still more into Syria, while leaving a few in Afghanistan and hey---let's fight Russia in Ukraine too.
And no, it's not worse than what Bush did---it's because of what Bush did, an extension of what Bush did, a result of what Bush did. Iraq was nothing to us and we created all of this by destabilizing the region and empowering Iran. Let this be a lesson---one which apparently is not learned---when you, right here, talk about getting rid of Assad. Not to mention it was the cowardly Congress that refused to back up their BS tough rhetoric and actually deal with Syria. It's funny all the people that view the MidEast without any consequences to their proposed actions---when at the same time they, the world and Israel are dealing with the consequences of the same hasty and poorly thought out actions from the previous administration. Those who don;t learn from the past are condemned to relive it.
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