Libya: Not Just a Tragedy, but the Start of Another Endless War for America
Obama has fallen into precisely the trap he has denounced in all his books and speeches. True, America is not claiming Libya as its territory, but Obama’s friends call this “neo-colonialism” and “post-colonialism.” He is now the patron of the Libyan government. If it is incompetent, corrupt, or oppresses the people, Obama shares responsibility.
Moreover, as it does all these things and refuses to implement serious Sharia law, lots of Libyans will blame those arrogant, imperialist Americans. Why shouldn’t they want to kill the American diplomats who “supervise” the status quo and prevent them from turning Libya into Afghanistan under the Taliban; Iran; Gaza under Hamas; or, somewhat more mildly, Lebanon under a mainly Hizballah government, and maybe what will happen in Syria at some point in the future?
What are the Libyan government’s options? It can try to appease the opposition by more Islam. But that won’t work really. It can try to appease the opposition by distancing itself from the United States, but given its weakness that won’t work. And it can try to repress the rebels, but since it cannot depend on its own military forces — which are riddled with jihadists — that won’t work either.
That is the real lesson in Libya. For once, Obama took sides against the revolutionary Islamists. We are seeing in Egypt and the Gaza Strip that appeasement doesn’t work; we are seeing in Libya that engaging in conflict has its high costs, too. Obama claims to have “liberated” Libya, but to many Libyans he has enslaved it to infidels.
So what next? American military aid to the Libyan government and U.S. military advisors? An endless war against the jihadists? And what if the government in Libya, which is pretty fragile and cannot fully depend on its own military, starts to fall? In Somalia, the local al-Qaeda branch didn’t win only because Ethiopia and other African nations sent in thousands of troops. In Bahrain — a complicated situation in which there is a mistreated Shia population whose opposition has both moderates and radicals — the government was only saved by Saudi troops and against the will of the White House.
Treating what has happened in Libya as an isolated tragedy misses the point. Viewing it as generalized proof of Obama’s terrible policy doesn’t get us to the solution. There is a battle going on in the Middle East that will continue for decades. Obama has largely helped the enemy side. In Libya, while he gave some help to the Islamists, his basic policy supported the moderates for once. Now the price must be paid or one more country will fall to revolutionary Islamist rule and U.S. influence and credibility will decline even further.
This is a war, not a misunderstanding. It is a battle of ideologies and a struggle for control of state power, not hurt feelings over some obscure video.
PS: I have a lot of friends in the foreign service, now and retired, and I was very upset about the deaths of five American diplomats and two American soldiers in Libya. I know this person was a colleague, too. But my goodness, how horrifyingly revealing is this quote:
“They got the wrong guy,” said a friend of the slain Ambassador Christopher Stevens at the [notoriously anti-Israel, BR] U.S. consulate in Jerusalem. “If there was someone who cared about the Arab and Muslim world, it was Chris,” who had previously served there as chief of the political section. “He spoke Arabic, he was dedicated to the cause of the Arabs.”
Perhaps this diplomat should give al-Qaeda a list of approved Americans they should be assassinating. In other words, what? It would have been better to have killed a foreign service officer more friendly to Israel? To have murdered some Republicans or Jews? I’m afraid that this is very frankly how these people think. And what is “the cause of the Arabs”? Which Arabs? To wipe Israel off the map? To have radical nationalist dictatorships? To have Sharia states? At least define your “Arabs” as the genuine moderates, genuine democrats, genuine liberals, or even — since there aren’t so many of those people — those who feel their self-interests basically coincide with those of the United States.
I find this person’s statement even more shocking than the apology over the mysterious little YouTube film. And yes, I have heard this before in private. OK, an anecdote. I’m sitting with about a dozen U.S. military officers doing a briefing a couple of years after September 11 and my co-briefer — a medium-high State Department official in the Middle East section — starts visibly panicking as he’s speaking. “Other issues might threaten you,” he tells them, looking really scared, “but only the Israel issue can endanger your life.” I can only report that the looks of contempt on the face of the officers made me proud of the U.S. Army.
Note: I don’t mean this as a criticism of all foreign service officers. There are many good ones. But this Jerusalem-based diplomat’s reaction to the death of Ambassador Stevens, plus four diplomats and now two U.S. soldiers rescuing the rest of the embassy staff, is all too revealing. Perhaps he’s just too confused about what country’s capital he’s in.
I think that if the author’s great hope for victory in this struggle is to support ‘moderate’ regimes then we will fail. If they are to survive many of the societies in the Arab Middle East need a radical change. No moderate ever accomplishes this because ‘moderates’ don’t ultimately stand for something, and a society in crisis usually cries out for someone, anyone who stands firm (or at least can convince them that they do) for something close to the hearts of that society, and that is why extremists of all stripes usually succeed in these situations.
I don’t know where all of this is headed. Looking at some of the footage that accompanied some of the bombastic headlines covering the protests at US embassies (save the disaster in Libya) it honestly doesn’t look like they were that big, so maybe there is still hope. But then again, one well aimed rocket propelled grenade has the potential to change the world
The basic problem as I see it is that Westerners cannot get their thinking around a tribal/clan culture which is predominant in the Middle East and a culture that demands a dictator to lead; otherwise a loss of face and honour in the eyes of the members.
There can be no moderates and only living and working among them can open one’s eyes to the Mafia style protection racket that runs a kfar/village or town.
Please and thank you are signs of submission and if accepted otherwise pure taquiya.
some good points but also read my earlier articles, my proposals go far beyond “moderate governments.”
Even Kemal failed.
Policy of containment is the best policy that can be pursued, given moral concerns. Annihilation of Islamdom via total war is the only other option worth pursuing.
And a very easy, cost-effective and quick option it will one day prove to be. It would be over in a matter of months if not weeks and with minimal loss of life (minimal when compared to the magnitude of the contest that is…).
It won’t however happen while the west is controled by people brainwashed by decades of cultural-marxist propaganda and activism.
The Iranians will soon have atomic bombs, and they already have medium-range missles. Their navy has cruised the Mediterranean, and has plans to cross the Atlantic in the next few years. A single atomic bomb, detonated high over Iowa, will wipe out much of our electrical and electronic infrastructure by EMP. Missle defense will not protect New York and DC from attacks launched from a few miles offshore.
Meanwhile, Europe will soon be a neutral in this struggle, as its political parties find that they must come to terms with a monolithic Muslim bloc. In short, the US is five years away from finding itself in the position Israel occupies now. I don’t see how this is going to be easy. In fact, I think our position is worse than it was in, say, 1962. We are losing a war which we aren’t even fighting, against a relentless ideological enemy. But at least the USSR could be — and was — deterred. But how do you deter a suicide bomber? We have already faced that question, on 9/11. Twenty of them died to kill three thousand of us. What will the odds be when they have nukes?
Simple. We need a President who doesn’t believe in appeasement, and directs military rules of engagement that aren’t going to let a hostile, nuclear-capable vessel to venture that close to our shores. We held the Soviets off for decades, I think, with the proper leadership, we can hold off the Iranians.
You are also assuming that Israel will let Iran make it all the way to atom bomb production. I think not.
Toward the end of the article, Barry Rubin says the following: “Perhaps this diplomat should give al-Qaeda a list of approved Americans they should be assassinating. In other words, what? It would have been better to have killed a foreign service officer more friendly to Israel? To have murdered some Republicans or Jews? I’m afraid that this is very frankly how these people think.”
I read the article and the chorus of like-minded posters afterward and came to my own shocking revelation. Barry is shocked, its seems, but he should look in the mirror. Rubin and too many of others who consider his opinion truthful and relevant perpetrate the act of self delusion on par with those they consider philosophical enemies. Here’s how: a friend of Christopher Stevens states, “They got the wrong guy. If there was someone who cared about the Arab and Muslim world, it was Chris. He spoke Arabic, he was dedicated to the cause of the Arabs.” Barry is shocked and retorts with the diatribe above. The problem that speaks so clearly is that, to guys like Barry Rubin, this is all a zero-sum game. If Christopher Stevens feels any goodwill toward the Arabs, then by default he feels negatively toward Israelis. There is no room in this shell game for an honest broker, someone who may rise above power politics and shrill ethnic demagoguing to favor both sides of the table enough to tell them that the bestowal of favor is going to come with a balance of pain and justice. While the good comes with the bad, the end result is peace and a new beginning. Rubin summed up himself nicely as someone who sees this as justice only if Israel has all the cards in the end when putting his philosophical enemies in their box: “I’m afraid that is very frankly how these people think.”
How very sad and discouraging for my country, the United States, when being an “honest broker” under these conditions only satisfies those with a represented voice in Washington D.C. by being their exclusive broker.
Perhaps he’s just too confused about what country’s capital he’s in.
No, just confused about what country he serves.
This is just his (odumbo) crowning achievement to Carterize the country. The only thing we don’t have is the double digit inflation that crushed our pocketbooks – but things are still pretty painfull.
But he’s certainly achieved our humiliation. He must be glowing.
Don’t worry, the inflation’s coming.
Yes. See Zombie’s column on “Quantitative Easing, Weimar Edition”.
And remember that most inflation is the result of deliberate government monetary policies, that the authors of are certain cannot get out of (their) control.
clear ether
eon
The murder of the ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in Libya has echoes of the Iran takeover of the American Embassy in 1979.
This attack — on 9/11 (no coincidence) is, in my opinion, a direct result of Barack Obama’s failed Middle East policy of punishing friends and rewarding enemies.
The Administration policies have been directly supporting Islamists, pretending they are “moderates.”
Americans are kidding themselves if they think the “Arab Spring” is going to bring democracy into the Middle East. It’s going to bring despair, poverty & devastation to the region as religious fanatics take over nations. (See Iran)
It may be too late to reverse the course of action that may last a generation or more. No one fears the consequences of going against American interests. Egypt & Libya are only the beginning of a long struggle. They will get America aid despite their anti-American policies. Surely we can do better.
Indeed. And to bring this full circle, Israel wouldn’t be staring down the barrel of an Iranian nuclear program right now if Carter had done the right thing 33 years ago. Not only are we dealing with Obama’s dysfunctional ideology now, we’re also dealing with Carter’s.
The history books will record them as father and son. Oh what a mess they’ve made.
“Might they have been tipped off by sources in the Libyan government or military?”
I don’t know the situation in Libya, but many other embassies employ host country nationals on their staffs. They can be anything from gardeners to secretaries to building managers. I’m sure State’s security bureau will investigate that angle.
I’m thinking of senior military officers or government officials sympathizing with the Jihdists, not some embassy staffer.
Barry, you said the American embassy tweeted apologies in Arabic. Those tweets need to be reported in the USA! Do you have a source, a translation? They have probably been deleted by now.
Another endless war? No thank you, hopefully cooler heads prevail.
While Mr. Rubin credits the President for overthrowing the previous dictator, he simultaneously slams the President for…what? Failing to create a friendly democratic state in Libya in six months? This is yet another post by Rubin which fails completely to offer any specific policy recommendations. What, pray tell, would Mr. Rubin have done differently in Libya? It is easy to shoot from the sidelines, tell us what – specifically – you would do differently.
Wars do not have to be endless.
They just have to have satisfactory endings
Then (maybe) the “next” one might not have to occur.
All our recent troubles (from the Beirut Barracks to 9/11 and beyond) could have been settled rather satisfactority from the comfort of air conditioned Missle Silos in the mid-west.
Start with Mecca.
Do to the Muslims what we did to the Japanese:
Tear down their Gods, their culture, their beliefs, and replace them with ours…under the credible threat of (an already started!) “atomic” extinction
WW2 was not “endless”
It ended rather nicely…
And it CAN BE DONE AGAIN.
All we lack this time, is the will.
WWII might have effectively ended in 1945 for the US and some of the allies. It can be argued that WWII ended when the Iron Curtain fell in 1989. It certainly did not end for many Eastern Europeans until then. Or do you not see occupation as war?
is not war because it is what the people who won the war — which means the war is ended — do to the losers.
Successfully imposing one’s political will by force of arms, as the Soviets did in eastern Europe, is the very definition of victory in war.
The most important of Murphy’s Rules of War is;
By that standard, we haven’t won a war since 1945. And yes, I’m including Iraq and AFPAK.
Our military knows how to win wars. Our politicians, however, will go to elaborate lengths to not win, in the belief that this will somehow make them more beloved… by people who don’t even like us very much.
This is a form of insanity which is no respecter of party lines, although progressives seem to have it the worst.
One day, it will very likely get all of us killed. Unless, of course, we can find political leaders who value common sense over the rosy glow of feeling morally superior to the Great Unwashed.
clear ether
eon
If we went in with the intent to actually wage total war, it wouldn’t be an endless war. We would completely level the place with none of this “hearts and minds” stuff getting in the way. In other words, if we used the full might we are capable of and make an example.
Absurd. You think nuclear weapons will prevent another lightly armed rabble from burning another American embassy somewhere in the world? How many nuclear bombs would it take to prevent that?
to destroy Arab oil wells, which would cut off the flow of money to the terrorists. The Middle East provides only about 20% of the world’s oil, so we could get enough oil elsewhere to carry on. It would be one of the few military actions in history where people on the home front suffered more — by losing jobs, waiting in line for gas, etc. — than members of the armed forces (who wouldn’t really have to do more than push a few buttons after getting their orders).
No,
I’m not worried about “lightly armed rabble” as some minimally realistic Rules of Engagement could blunt any of that as it occurs. What I’m worried about is, the Obvious State Sponsored Apparatuses that perpetually FUND them, that TRAIN them, and SUPPLY them, and present the perpetual FALSE NARRATIVE that gets sucked up by the MSM that these are “individual extremists” and not representative of Muslims at large.
Thus, I think “nuke-U-Lar” strikes in sufficient quantity could effectively decapitate the widespread and well entrenched and well KNOWN Islamic leadership Cadre around the world that is clearly driving this ideology, and every single violent action that takes place in its name..
Therefore, the House of Saud, Tehran’s Mullahs, and every Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, Yemen, Somalian, (feel free to add more) capital city, and every ship, airplane and vehicle any of them possess, and all their “holy places” like Mecca, Medina, including every Mosque bigger than an Out-House, should simply be vaporized from afar in a grinding campaign of unrelenting destruction.
Total destruction. Total War. Dictate terms to whatever few survivors their might be, and re-raise them in our image, for the betterment of themselves and mankind.
It is only our weakness to confront them, to call out their Prophet for the miserable failure of a human being that he was, and openly condemn everything they believe in as the backward self-destructive Cult of No Progress Or Dignity that it clearly is, that gives them any power at all.
No amount of funds, aid, or diplomacy can EVER change the hatred, or blunt the intentions that abound in EVERY SINGLE Muslim head of state, ambassador, minister, secretary, and mullah on their side. It, in fact, only increases their capabilities to spread their disease. There is no negotiation with them. They lie in perpetuity to our faces, and stab us in the back, 100% of the time, for 15 centuries.
So its 40 years past time to FINALLY take them up on their threats and challenges, and play for keeps.
Its been done before, it can be done again.
All we need are the balls to deal with THE TRUTH as it IS…
Not as we WISH it was.
Well, Brutus, I for one would not have MURDERED the Libyan midget in the first place! Rubin would probably have done likewise, which seemed to be the main theme of his post.
Doesn’t have to be endless if we employ the appropriate weaponary, An effective way to start a wildfire is to start a strategic counter-fire.
Im for a policy of containment. However this doesnt preclude arming the Kurds to the teeth and starting a regional free for all of Muslims killing Muslims. We can sell them arms and ammo for oil, too, as they wipe each other out.
Precisely so, Carla. They are so emotionally over-invested we could play them like a fiddle.
As long as Israel allows a US consulate in Jerusalem servicing only arabs, is it any wonder that they believe Jerusalem is arab and Tel Aviv, where the US Embassy takes care of JEWS, is the capitol?
ISRAEL DESERVES WHAT IT GETS
Until Israel shuts down this consulate in Jerusalem, and moves the fkn thing to Ramallah or Gaza where it belongs.
Nope. It hasn’t started yet. It doesn’t start until the victim society decides to fight back. And decides to stay with it. I supported GWB’s invasion of Iraq because I figured we would install permanent bases from which to strike with overwhelming force anywhere in central Asia. But America said no. We failed in Korea. We failed in Viet Nam. We failed in Iraq and shall fail in Afghanistan. We have failed. Period.
George Schultz, when he was Secretary of State under Reagan, used to bring a new diplomat into his office and ask the question, “Can you show me on the globe which one is your country.”
When the diplomat would point to the country to which he was assigned Schultz would then walk over to the globe and point to the United States and say, “Wrong! This is your Country and don’t you Forget It!”
Thanks for that one.
I wonder which part of the globe our muslim schooled president would point to.
After all, he is recorded as saying that the sweetest sound he has ever heard wasn’t his wife’s or children’s voices, it was the five times a day call to terror prayer
I wonder which part of the globe our muslim schooled president would point to.
Kenya, perhaps?
How much better for the whole world had he stayed there and won the Olympic 3000m steeplechase, rather than the US presidency.
“How much better for the whole world had he stayed there and won the Olympic 3000m steeplechase, rather than the US presidency.”
I’m putting you up for Quote of the Week with this one.
We cannot eradicate totalitarian islam, we can only marginalize it.
And as with charity, that task should begin at home.
Wrong. Islam can be eradicated more easily and definitively than most people believe. It has a jugular, very apparent if you spend a bit of time studying the basic tenets of the thing, and extremely vulnerable, once the jugular is slashed the whole body dies (rapidly).
the destruction of Mecca and Medina which, according to their dogma, are Holy cities which Allah must always protect?
Your article mentions 7 US dead whereas alll others reports mention only 4. Who is misinformed?
Congress shares a lot of the blame for all of this. They have allowed the White House more and more war making power while giving up their Constitutional role. It is Congress that is supposed to make declarations of war. This is something we have not done since WWII. We have fought “police actions” or similar nonsensical euphemisms for what these things really were: war.
If Congress had forced the President to seek a war declaration, it is unlikely we would have invaded Iraq or gotten into the many other misadventures of the last 40 years. But such a declaration puts Congress on the spot. If things go badly, or if the go well particularly in a just cause, they risk losing office depending on their vote. War Declarations also require a statement of purpose and goals up front. Changing those stated goals later is politically risky and doesn’t allow for mission creep into nation building, which never works but does buy some momentary good will from internationalists, momentary because as soon as things go wrong they will pounce.
Anyway, after the failures of Iraq and Afghanistan, it would be nice if the Idiocracy in DC would learn that such missions are pointless and would stay out of Libya. Then again, The One launched the Arab Spring probably in the belief that he could do no wrong. Now he’s created a huge mess and rather than admit it and step back, he’s going to double down and get us into an even bigger mess.
Are you seriously pushing that Bush didn’t have congressional approval propaganda?!
he had it, Democrats voted for it. When it started going badly, they all stood back and pointed fingers at booooosh.
Obama on the other hand invaded Libya and did not have congressional approval.
But of course he ‘changed’ the name from war to ‘kinetic military action’ or ‘overseas contingency’. He just yesterday got congressional approval….
But good propaganda pushing on your part.
Hey, Hey. We didn’t fail in Iraq. Saddam is dead, no threat of WMDs, and (last time I checked) they are currently a democracy.
Afghanistan? Taliban out, bin Laden and most of his cohorts dead. Again, Afghanistan currently a democracy.
If it so happens that we weren’t able to turn Afghanistan into Holland, maybe your expectations were too high. As it is, the things we–and in particular, our military–were able to accomplish were the things that were important to America. And I call that a victory.
Don’t fall into the trap of selling out the legitimate accomplishments and sacrifices of our troops in order to take a shot at Obama.
That’s @Thane.
Iraq, even with the sporadic bombings, is more stable than Afghanistan, which is still rampant with Taliban extremists who terrorize and are still fighting U.S. troops. Like I said, it should have and could have been finished years ago if we had actually fought a war instead of piecemeal battles.
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
It isn’t some supposed outrage over a film that scares me.
It isn’t a group of angry protestors killing our ambassador that frightens me.
It isn’t the thought that this or worse will probably happen again soon that bothers me.
What scares me is that I think many of the senior people in D.C. really were surprised by this and can’t get their heads around what happened. I think that many of them actually think that Libyans and Egyptians are grateful to us for aid and support over the last few years. They are genuinely puzzled that some might turn on us. They think that we Americans must have done something to cause this. Their worldview demands a cause, but rejects the real cause—pure Islam wants all to join or die—and looks for some other explanation. So they keep talking about this stupid movie. They think their kind words, their apologies, their abasing themselves, their gifts of money and technology will make the Middle East our friends. Those people will realize that we people aren’t so bad and then we’ll all be buddies. I think they are stupid enough to believe their own press releases. That’s what scares me.
It’s worse than that. About 47 percent of the people in America are willing to re-elect Barack Obama, according to polls.
I think you’re right. I’m not sure a Romney victory will fix much-the State Dept will still be over-run w/ Arabists, but it’ll be a start. Nothing could be worse than to let this gaggle of incompetants have another four years.
If Obummer were smart (and I have serious doubts) he’d ask the question What would Ronnie do? Then do it!
Anyone heard the latest from the UN or from any of the many members of the UN concerning the attacks on the US? Neither have I – probably they just don’t give a crap since it was the US that was attacked and not them.
Like trying to bring democracy to an ant hill.
Best. Sociocultural. Analysis. Ever.
“I’m sitting with about a dozen U.S. military officers doing a briefing a couple of years after September 11 and my co-briefer — a medium-high State Department official in the Middle East section — starts visibly panicking as he’s speaking. “Other issues might threaten you,” he tells them, looking really scared, “but only the Israel issue can endanger your life.” I can only report that the looks of contempt on the face of the officers made me proud of the U.S. Army.’
Well obviously David Petraeus wasn’t among those Army Officers as he blames Israel for all “the problems” in the middle east.
Careful Barry, with this, or @ReginaldQuill will come along and denounce you as a closeted Alex Jones fan falling for Kremlin agitprop that portrayed the poor oppressed Libyans and Syrian Muslim Brotherhoods as terrorists. Libyan Islamist were are friends, these attacks were carried out by Gaddafi loyalists who parachuted in from Mali or wherever they’ve been hiding. These are not the droids you are looking for.
“I’m sitting with about a dozen U.S. military officers doing a briefing a couple of years after September 11 and my co-briefer — a medium-high State Department official in the Middle East section — starts visibly panicking as he’s speaking. “Other issues might threaten you,” he tells them, looking really scared, “but only the Israel issue can endanger your life.” I can only report that the looks of contempt on the face of the officers made me proud of the U.S. Army.”
Caroline Glick: “One of my pet peeves with the US military, that I raise every time I find myself speaking to US military officers, is that they bowed to Arab pressure and wiped Israel off the Middle East map. This they did a number of years ago, when they decided that Israel would be attached to the US military’s European Command while every single Arab state is located in Central Command. This artificial removal of Israel from the purview of Central Command has bred generations of US military commanders who due to the inherent distortion of their organization, almost necessarily emerge as hostile to Israel after they serve for any significant length of time in Central Command.”
Why do I suspect that that came from State, rather than from DOD?
The video (a vedio trailor rather a movie) appently is the last straw that broke the camel’s back. However, as the protests spread like wildfire, from Morocco to India (yes, even in India, muslim anger has been walking the streets all Thursday night long), the video itself seems to be becoming more abscure, much like a catch-word that inflames.
The world over has suddenly entered a vacuum. America is consumed by the events (and the coming events after Friday) while China has warships to the island near Japan. Israel is on tenterhooks about the Sinai, Hamas and the Palestinians in the West Bank. European Embassies are nervous. Syria and Iraq will enjoy breathing space.
Nature abhors a vacuum. Politics simply loves it.
The left has trouble with the fact that just because they are not interested in war doesn’t mean war is not interested in them.
Never ending wars are the result of not fighting to WIN. The us Army has some silly notion about winning hearts and minds. That is why we get stuck with never ending wars.
Wars are about destroying stuff and killing people. Focus on that and we will never lose. It won’t take long either. Benghazi should be carpet bombed. An ‘Arc Light’ every hour on the hour for a full day. I don’t want to hear any whining about extremists vs ‘normal’ Muslims either. There is no evidence of any difference between the two. One of the foundation stones of Islam is the House of Islam vs the House of War. You are either a Muslim or the enemy. Yes I know carpet bombing Benghazi will kill lots of non combatants. Do you want to win or lose?
We will not have peace until we prove we are much better at killing then they are.
“I say we pull out and nuke ‘em from orbit. It’s the only way to make sure.”
- FO Ripley.
The Islamic world has a choice to make. It can either decide to throw off the religious superstitions and bigotries that were popular in the 13th century, or they can embrace modern times and modern social philosophies and join the rest of the civilized world in the 21st century. After seeing what has happened in Libya and Egypt, the 21st century doesn’t stand a chance in that part of the world. Egypt is turning into the next Iran and Libya has become the newest Somalia, with rival religious groups and tribes struggling for power to see who will control that country’s oil wealth. It is a terrible thing to see, to witness an entire people sliding back into the dark ages, but that’s exactly what’s happening in North Africa today.
Can we PLEASE stop apologizing for Muslim and radical Islamic fanatics? I really don’t care what was posted on YouTube. The First Amendment is not going anywhere and we’re not about to repeal it. This is who we are and free speech can get ugly sometimes, but that’s why they call it FREE SPEECH! The rest of the world, especially the Muslim world, has to learn to deal with it. Let’s say we wanted to submit to the demands of the Muslim protesters. What are we to do, execute the person who made the YouTube video for blasphemy? Note to the Muslim world: This is NOT the Sixteenth Century! I don’t think they actually got the memo on that, but they should start reading up on how we live our lives here in the United States, instead of demanding that we ALL live under their medieval sharia law.
But we all know now that the video was only a pretext for attacking American embassies in Libya and Egypt. We are seeing now that open clash of civilizations that bin Laden called for. Obama doesn’t fully grasp the war we a facing right now, and it has precious little to do with Iraq or Afghanistan. It has everything to do with the Muslim world trying to hold on to its relevance in a rapidly changing (and modernizing) world. You see Asian countries and countries like India that are embracing the modern world and, as a result, are thriving because of it. You see countries like Afghanistan and Libya and Egypt and Iraq and Syria that are trying to cling to their literal interpretation of their ancient religious beliefs and are nothing more than economic and social basket cases. These countries really think that there is no reason to move beyond the 13th century and that science and technology are tools of the devil. And let’s not even talk about human rights and how people are treated there, especially women. When idiots like Sandra Fluke say women are poorly treated here in America, I wish someone would wrap her up in a burka and send her to Afghanistan for a year. Then she would know what real cruelty is.
So the Islamists in North Africa and parts of the Middle East need to decide which path they are going to take. If the events over the past two days are any indication, they’ve chosen to remain in the 13th century, and Obama and the liberals in the State Department have no clue on how to deal with this. They really, honestly, can’t understand why the Islamists in Libya are slapping the hand that helped them get rid of their dictator. And what Obama, Clinton, and all of the other naive jerks in the Administration don’t get is that these people really do hate us, no matter what we do for them. The clash of civilizations is here, and the people in Washington don’t really realize it. They think anything can be solved with more foreign “aid,” which in that part of the world is nothing more than bribes and payoffs to a corrupt government that is being paid to be our friends.
Enough already. We will win no battles in North Africa or places like Afghanistan or even Pakistan for that matter. We should develop our own oil and energy resources here in America, become energy independent, and say goodbye to all those superstitious, barbaric, medieval, religious fanatics in the middle east. Let the Shia and the Sunnis go back to slaughtering each other like they have been doing for centuries and let the Americans come home and only deal with countries that have a shot at thriving in the 21st century. Now THAT would be a refreshing change, wouldn’t it?
Obama has no clue of how to fight a war, except class warfare. His diplomacy consists of kowtowing and apologizing instead of protecting America’s interests and standing up to muzzie terrorists, who have been waging war against Western civilization since 693AD. He has no interest or experience in how the military is structured, managed, or how we fight the nation’s wars. It’s not just a tragedy, it’s an epic FAIL.
This war—any war— can be brought to a relatively quick finish by dedicating every military tactical, strategic, and intelligence resource, to kill the enemy. Every single one of them. It isn’t hard. Pick your targets and commence fire. And don’t worry about what the f**cking pusillanimous Euros and media libtards think.
Libya
Egypt
Syria
At the end of the day, the new regime in power will be no more favorable to the West than the original regime, probably much less so. Therefore our involvement – no matter how humanitarian in the short term – is contrary to our strategi national interest. Wy the Beltway Bedwetters can’t see this is something I’ll never know.
As usual, your analysis reveals deep objectivity, knowledge and understanding of the region’s affairs professor. Your perceptions are unique in that they straddle Western and Middle Eastern realities/pov’s and are presented in a clear form.
Truly appreciated by this reader.
communications, why do we need embassies anyway? The whole idea of sending an ambassador, etc., etc. is very 19th century and designed to control exactly what gets communicated between two governments in an era when messages usually took days or weeks to travel from country A to country B.
If it weren’t for the feckless “leaders” in our government today, this wouldn’t be happening.
Obama is an embarrassment to the Office of President, and he acts like it doesn’t really matter. Hillary’s no different.
Romney calls out Obama for being the feckless bum he is, and the CMA (Communist media of America) attacks him for speaking the truth.
Our government and media is facilitating the warmongers.
They won’t be satisfied until this war gets started.
Simple, one 20k pound bomb on our embassies, end any funding to Libya and Egypt.
Take all the $ that we would have spent on aid and “war”, put it towards drilling and forget their oil.
And let them live the way they want to.
I find myself thinking of Mark Steyn’s book “America Alone.” In it he mentions those Kumbai-Ya bumper stickers that say “Coexist” with various religious symbols spelling out the word. His point is that without the Islamic crescent, the bumper sticker is meaningless since all the other religions seem to do pretty well at getting along in the modern world. It’s those darned 7th century Islamists who won’t join the party. They just keep on wanting to kills the infidels (uh, that would be us).
For Obama and Clinton to think that they can just hit the “reset” button and invite them over for a beer summit and a chat would be hilarious if it weren’t for the real-world consequences of our people’s deaths. The naivete is simply stunning.
..and the polls show that there are actually people willing to give this clown another 4 years? G-d help us all.
Endless war, only if we want one. We could bring the bad actions to a halt very quickly but we can’t do with a Marxist managing events.
No one has mentioned the material weaknesses of the regimes, or how dependent they are foreign access. Deny them that and they would fall in a heap.
Actually O being a Marxist has nothing to do with this. A Marxist runs Russia and you don’t see the muzzies attacking their embassies. The problem with O is that he hates America and everything America stands for. Putin at least loves his country.
This British Jew is amazed at the posts above. Barry has put up his traditionally brilliant piece, which is then followed by a large number of posts, presumably from the US, many of which promote if not nuclear war, then full on conventional warfare.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a 100% zionist and what’s happening in the Middle East as a result of the ‘Arab Spring’ frightens the life out of me – mainly secular tyrants are being replaced by weak governments that will be supplanted by Islamist tyrants given a year to 18 months. It’s just the prospect of all out war in the region that is SCARY.
On the other hand, Pakistan has an A bomb and is run by people that hid Bin Laden and have been supplying and arming the Taliban. Talk about double dealers! If ever a country needed taking down a peg or two, it is Pakistan, and its ISI killers and schemers.
Israel really is the only beacon of light in the Middle East and yet your president is not just happy but determined to throw it under the bus. Doesn’t he realise who his real friends are? Rhetorical question – no of course he doesn’t, which is why he spent the beginning of his presidency sucking up to Iran. Major mistake.
It’s Friday night and Shabbat/ sabbath draws close. To all my fellow religionists, I wish you a peaceful Shabbat and a healthy, happy and if possible prosperous New Year. To all non Jews of every persuasion, I wish you a great weekend and peace, health and happiness for the next 12 months.
And specifically to Barry, health and happiness, but especially health. Thank you for continuing your tremendous work, while fighting off such grave illness.
OVERLAPPING ISSUES
–Failing to give diplomatic protection.
–Attacking a Dhimmi power to hustle them into more Dhimmi mentality acceptance.
If the US office in Libya is taken, then the Libyan offices in the US should be taken within the hour.
No one believes the spontaneous attack by locals who showed up with RPGs and light FLAK artillery. The remedy is to rent a hotel in Malta and move the US embassy there until the hotel lease runs out. Libyans wishing to visit? Book passage on the ferry running to Malta. The ferry is operated for that purpose, financed by US aid to Libya.
Egypt can be informed the US is considering renting a hotel in Cyprus….
In Egypt, the visa desk can have problems giving visas to Muslims wishing to go to the US. Due to employee stress created by the mob, the staff had to be sent on a therapeutic rest to the Greek Islands, financed out of Egyptian aid. That forgiveness of a billion dollar debt owed by Egypt, I would cancel that. Aid to Egypt would be used to strengthen the embassy grounds.
Our problems are worsened by our provincial outlook. We are a contractual society operating under laws. Islam is a trading society operating under Sharia. Communist countries are/were trading societies, involving bargaining from positions of force.
The trading society is in great danger from the contractual society. The trading society does not realize that the contractual one, even in cowboy garb, really has the six-gun plopped on the table as he sits down to play poker. Traders function on visible threats. The contractual society has the threat over there beyond contract violation. In dealing with the trader, one needs to put the revolver barrel in their nostril for them to realize it exists. The contract person needs to realize the revolver in the face is to demonstrate pieces of reality, and is not a contract, yet. Before Berlin was partitioned, there were many conflicts between US and Soviet soldiers. The result was always the same, a dead Soviet. The GI would mistake a presentation of reality as a contract to deliver death and would shoot first.
I shouldn’t be stunned by this, but, being human and therefore not always consistent, I am. President Obama and Hillary Cllnton have both described the attacks on our diplomats in Egypt and Libya as “senseless violence”:
The president asserted we have to oppose “the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants.”
Clinton reinforced his analysis when she said, “We condemn in the strongest terms this senseless act of violence.”
Meaning, these were not intentional acts of violence by people who oppose the United States and want to hurt it, but just the “acting out” of whacked-out individuals, the equivalent of a drunken man firing a gun aimlessly on a street. Meaning, the murders of the American diplomats have no meaning. They must not have meaning, because if they do, their meaning is that at least a significant number of Muslims are our enemies. And if Muslims are our enemies, then we must think in terms of “us” and “them.” We must be for ourselves and against them. We must negatively judge them, discriminate against them, defend ourselves from them, and even fight them. But if we did those horrible things, modern liberalism would be kaput. We’d all be Nazis. And it’s better to let ourselves all be killed by senseless violence than to be Nazis.
If President Roosevelt had seen the world the way Obama and Hillary do, he would have said: “December 7, 1941: a day which will live in the annals of senseless violence.”
Contemporary reality has become a school to teach people the nature of the consistent, extreme liberalism that now rules our society and that was expressed in the statements of our President and Secretary of State. But there’s a little problem with this school—the quality of the students. In order to learn the lesson that reality is teaching them, people must be rational. But most people in advanced liberal society are not rational, so they don’t learn anything. They remain in the liberal fog.
Stirring up the shist IS the business model.
Endless conflict- here or there- creates endless opportunities,
as long as you pay for it.
Government is an industry of linked mafias.
Their loyalties are to whichever institution, think of them as Families.
They dont know you cattle, and they launder the money overseas.
Seeing the mafia structure makes the political class easy to understand and predict.
They favor puppets, over there and over here. Bizniss without Borders.
Heck yes take it all back, we built it and they gave it away.
600,000 people per Congressman?
They CAN’T represent you; they can only represent themselves and the people they know.
What do we think overseas junkets are for, ‘the peoples’ interests’?
After abandonment of friends ( Mubarak ) comse treason of Israel , then comes defeat ( Libya ) then comes full rout ( Hillarious Clinton blattering ) then comse the new gorilla ( Iran ) with a nuclear toy.BHO +H.Clinton will of course send a diplomatic-shrinker who will explain the Gorilla it’s dangerous to play with explosives , then the gorilla will detonate his toy ( because that’s for what such toys are made ) then the US voters will scratch their heads asking ” maybe our President is not so clever ” ???
Well it’s a war where the muslim masses are incited, instrumentalized by provocative leaders, so to educate those masses you have to reach their leaders and inflict upon those leaders a very deep pain, so the masses will sense their leaders were wrong.It useless to conquer whole countries, useless to try to expand democracy, useless to set plans for improvement and give those lunatics financing.Just aim at their leaders and shoot them if necessary.That’s how Reagan could mollify Ghedaffi, that’s how the USA should mollify Assad, and Ahmadinejad.No full scale war , just precise intelligence and action.
Something in the consulate worker’s stupid comments pinged my memory, and so I went to the website for the Washington Report for Mid East Affairs (it’s good to know your enemy, and few anti-Israel sources have done more to inadvertently inform me of how corrupt and impotent they are than WRMEA does). Sure enough, in a 1998 article about the Al Qaeda bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, one of the three writers expressed his shock that A) the terrorists killed African-American diplomatic personnel at the Nairobi locate, since African-Americans were traditionally supportive of and converted in large numbers to Islam, B) the terrorists killed massive numbers of Kenyan citizens, who included many Muslims and were not (his words) supportive of Israeli policies and C) the terrorists were genuine Islamist mass murders and NOT secretly run by the Mossad or right-wing Jews or Christian fundamentalists. What’s expressed by the very similar reactions in these cases are a sad, sick list of the other side’s pathology: the belief that support for a cause means something in the face of genocidal interests and implacable ideology, the inability to believe that someone who believes what you do can also be an unapologetic mass murderer rather than just a cheerleader for it, and the desperate attempt to make these ideas make sense by arguing, in effect, “If only the fury of bigots could be properly aimed and calibrated.” They want Al Qaeda to know they care. And the thing is? Al Qaeda and their Hamas/Hezbollah ilk? THEY DON’T CARE.
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