Michael Crowley, Politico: Obama's Mideast 'free fall'
Mounting chaos in the region puts the administration on the defensive.
Barack Obama faces a slew of Middle East crises that some call the worst in a generation, as new chaos from Yemen to Iraq — along with deteriorating U.S.-Israeli relations — is confounding the president’s efforts to stabilize the region and strike a nuclear deal with Iran.
The meltdown has Obama officials defending their management of a region that some call impossible to control, even as critics say U.S. policies there are partly to blame for the spreading anarchy.
“If there’s one lesson this administration has learned, from President Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech through the Arab Spring, it’s that when it comes to this region, nothing happens in a linear way — and precious little is actually about us, which is a hard reality to accept,” said a senior State Department official.
WNU Editor: When the staunchly pro-Obama Politico sees a problem for the administration ... you know that there is a problem. And the scary part of this story is the realization that the situation in the Middle East is not going to get any better .... in fact .... it is descending into even greater chaos. As for the Iranian nuclear deal that will probably be announced in the few days .... the Politico still believes that it will be game-changer in the region .... my take is that it will now all but guarantee a nuclear arms race with all of the dangers that are inherent in such a push. Any bets on who is going to be right?
Update: This is hilarious .... The New York Times sees the entire situation as puzzling .... A Policy Puzzle of US Goals and Alliances in the Middle East (New York Times)
3 comments:
"Mission accomplished" - Body Odor
This is Obamas fault. No, wait it was Bush. No sorry this was Clinton. Wait, for real this time, it was... This is the Middle East we are talking about here, where crucifixion was perfected thousands of years ago. This region is a hot bed of conflict agitated by all the powerful nations on Earth. To say Obama is to blame for this is to ignore all of the other driving forces behind these conflicts. Obama might be the last straw, I won't speak to that, as half the country will do that for me, but he is far from the only leader to try his/her hand at the "keep the Middle East from nuclear holocaust game." Anybody who thinks Obama intends to see the Middle East destroy itself (sorry Aizino) is not being realistic. Not saying Obama is free from blame here but fer Christs sake, it was a different president all together who destroyed Iraq and opened that power vacuum. It was a different president who trained Osama Bin Laden. It was Russia who first flooded the Stan with weapons (in this past century). I'm not saying don't blame Obama because I'm a liberal (I'm independent) I'm saying don't blame Obama in the same way you wouldn't blame the Dutch boy for pulling his finger out of the dike. The problem was in full swing before he showed up.
If you intend to rebuild a country, you are not intending to destroy it nor create a power vacuum.
Is it wise to replace a regime? Well if we try other people will be gunning for us like Iran. they spent a ,ot of money, IEDs and other resoruces destabilizing it.
Who is to say that Iran could not have gotten a Shia government in power of we had not gone after Saddam. Was he guaranteed to stay in power forever? Iran would have sat it out and not sent arms and agents into Iraq?
An Ayatollah had a son die in a bomb blast in Tehran due to a group supported by Saddam. Iran would not return the favor and escalate it at some point?
It is charitable to call Obama the last straw. It is not something just percolating and he just happen to be holding the bag. He was stoking the fire. He gave his 2009 Cairo speech and invited the Muslim Brotherhood. He did so knowing that the Egyptians would not touch him because of his blue passport. After his tenure I do not know what that blue passport is worth.
Obama did not like 1 party rule in Egypt. Okay got that. But did he have a plan for what was next?
Nonsupport of Mubarak and have basically snap elections where the MB is assured of wining isn't exactly democratic.
Mubarak is the direct political successor of Gamal Abdel Nasser and Answar Sadat. Were the election transparent or fair? No.
But elections in America are not transparent or fair either. It is a matter of degree. I would point out the elections of Governor Gregoire and Senator Al Franken, especially Franken.
Is 10% corruption okay and livable but at 30% we have to upset the apple cart by all means necessary? Where is the U.S. and Egypt on the continuum of corruption?
Obama most definitely created 3 messes. He took out Gaddaffi and now we have messes in Tunisia, Libya and Mali. He also made Algeria less safe.
Obama got his "monsters ball" at the white House, but he failed at solving the smallest problem of Kony.
The rift valley region should be booming economically. Kony should be gone. Maybe we should not solve the problem of the Hutus militias in Eastern Congo by ourselves. But Obama certainly has not taken the lead. For all his preening about having African heritage about the most he has done is help out with Ebola.
Face it Obama is a failure through and through.
He is a worse failure than FDR.
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