Pres. Obama: With Assad Finished, Don’t Dare Pull a Jimmy Carter on Syria
For the last three months, the world has finally borne witness to the violence and tragedy of the Assad regime that has been the daily diet of Syrian citizens for over 41 years. Children being tortured until they die, women shot at close range, kidnappings and detentions en masse with no regard for human rights.
Whether the world likes it or not, the Assad regime is finished. This week, Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd denounced the regime, asking for Assad to be tried by an international court for crimes against humanity. UNICEF weighed in with a statement regarding the systematic killing and torture of our children.
The Obama administration must forget about Assad and now look beyond the regime towards a transitional government it can work with.
The danger lies in what kind of government to support: who are the main players with whom to open a dialogue? To understand this process, one must first analyze the Syrian political landscape and take historical perspective into consideration.
In 1979, the Iranian Islamic Revolution was facilitated into power by the Carter administration under the general notion that the U.S. can work, through negotiations, with the new face of an Islamist Iran. That policy came to a shocking halt when, eight months later, Khomeini illegally detained 52 U.S. diplomats for 444 days, releasing them at the end of the Carter era.
Today, the same scenario is about to repeat.
In 2006, the U.S. — in its zest to appear politically correct, or for reasons that remain mysterious to many in the Syrian opposition ranks — funded a Syrian Muslim Brotherhood TV station with $12M of our tax dollars. This was kept secret until WikiLeaks divulged the information.
Following the recent speech by President Obama outlining his intent to earmark $20B for the “Arab Spring” and the EU intent to commit another $20B during the G-8 summit, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood told Syrians the majority of this money was earmarked jointly with the White House via MB allies in D.C., and that the MB intends to be the driving force for change for Syria.
Needless to say, the change the MB intends resembles the change Iran violently experienced in 1979. Just look at the cozy relations Hamas has with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, and you should understand what is in store when Assad falls. Instead of a violent “secular” regime aligned perfectly with the goals of the mullahs, it will be a violent “religious” regime aligned perfectly with the goals of the mullahs.
there are several alternate reality journalists and websites out there each trying to make sense of US foreign policy including secret and not so secret financial and other support to this Mohammedan country and that.
Fact is – the Americans are so unaware of history, language, culture that THE STATE DEPARTMENT AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE HELL THEY ARE DOING.
It’s not just a Barack Hitler Obama problem (though he makes everything he touches worse), it’s a general ignorance and confusion problem.
If the USA wants to win for the west, she’ll have to get rid of the abominations which are riling up the Mohammedan world (filthy music, movies, legal homosexuality perversion etc.). If the USA is content to slip into irrelevance, well, continue as you are…
Getting rid of the abominations which are riling Muslims would require becoming Muslims, which is not something that any sane westerner would want. Ultimately, what drives Islamist radicals is the recognition that Islamic culture has not been able to compete with the West, and must therefore either convert or destroy the West, or admit its’ own failure.
Better that the Muslims should be pressured into giving up Islam. We need to develop domestic sources of energy and impose an economic and political quarantine on the entire Muslim world. Treat it the way we treated the Soviet Bloc and the Third Reich. Without the west propping them up, they’d collapse and would be forced to recognize that Islam is the evil ideology that is keeping them back in the seventh century.
I don’t think it would be hard to get the people of the Middle East to give up Islam. In a response to a recent article by Michael Ledeen, I told him about a woman I knew 20 years ago who had escaped from Iran, right after Khomeini took over, who thought Islam was simply a means for the government to control the people. Mr. Ledeen replied that that view was widespread. Recall that Bin Laden who was waging war against Western ideology left behind a treasure trove of porn. Also, the stories of the wealthy class Arabs traveling to southern Europe for gambling, drinking and general licentiousness are wide spread. If the hypocrisy of the Mulluhs and other Islamic leaders were well publicised, how quickly would the people turn away? Quickly in my view.
Hmmmm, well, I wouldn’t count Assad out just yet. Everybody TALKS about doing something with Syria, but nobody is actually DOING anything about Syria. Assad may just remain in power. Remember when the mullahs were shooting people down in the streets in Iran after the 2009 “elections?” Everybody said the world wouldn’t stand for it and that this would be the end of the regime. Well, they’re still there and still in power after murdering God knows how many people. How about North Korea? Nobody on this planet could be as repressive as Kim Jong Il, yet he and his rabid family aren’t going anywhere, either. And, with all the “support” Assad is getting from Iran these days, I’m not really sure Assad really cares what the west thinks. So don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched. I’ll believe there will be change in Syria, any change, when I see Assad swinging from a rope. And, even then, you’ll still have to deal with his family. In that part of the world, if you intend on killing a dictator, you’d better kill his whole family too because they have a nasty way of leading a rebellion and coming back into power. This is a long way from finished.
Agreed. If the World wasn’t willing to oust Ahmadinejad then they certainly will not attempt to oust Iran’s single regional ally.
It is clear that this administration has no operational plan regarding the Middle-East; they simply pick and choose which event to try to shape almost as if they are flipping a coin. Egypt and Libya but not Tunisia despite all of them being in North Africa and two out of three being relatively friendly to the United States with Libya that has been at best neutral since the Cold War. No support to Iranian or Syrian protesters despite their current regimes being unfriendly to the United States and Israel, and no words yet I believe on Yemen or Bahrain, the latter also being an American ally and the former as of now could become a failed state any day and wreak havoc on Saudi Arabia’s security which would of course in turn force oil prices to rise more.
Couple his non-strategy in the Middle-East with his petro policy and you get the gist of why a community organizer turned US Senator for two years should not be President; not tapping for domestic oil (and yet encouraging Brazil to drill – and I thought this administration’s energy policy could not get anymore bizarre) and abandoning coal, nuclear and attempting to force the market in an economic downturn to turn to green energy, which will cost hundreds of billions in the US alone through higher tax rates on fossil fuel consumers, both businesses and individuals alike if he had his way with that cap and tax legislation.
This summarizes the importance of putting someone into office who actually has some sort of paradigm or theory to wrap events around, even if that particular operational approach does not work for every situation, it is required to help us grasp the world, as Samuel Huntington notes.
Libertyship46 and Jordan, spot-on. I note my surprise that a program to help the MB started in 2006 under Bush’s watch. Did he know that? And if he did, what was he thinking?
The author is another naive fool looking at Obama through the wrong prism. Everything is going according to plan in Egypt and Syria. Asking Obama to save you from the Islamists is like asking the devil to save you from hell.
Amen.
Although it is true that the State Department is full of ignorant twits who think that everybody else on the planet thinks like a Washington Liberal.
Also: don’t forget that behind Iran, and ultimately behind a great deal of what is happening in the world today, is the Dragon – China. Where do you think that Iran is getting its nuclear technology from?
Yes, but what can China really do about anything? They are now capitalist profiteers in pusuit of increasing wealth. Could China field an army in Iran? Maybe it could fire a few missles. China is becoming an economic powerhouse which will dampen hegemonistic aspirations. China has historically, neve been expansionist.
How true. Obama’s plan……to see the middle east in the grip of the Islamists. His actions and inactions facilitate this end game.
And, Iran, on the brink of a nuclear weapon, that they can put atop their missiles, and the Obama administration apparently unable or unwilling to do anything to stop it. There is going to be a major war in the middle east, probably initiated by the Israelis, when they attack the Iranian nuclear facilities, just before the Iranian nuclear warhead is operational. Hopefully we will have a new president when that happens, because that battle will be our battle also, and you can be sure that Obama, as President, will do nothing.
As the author notes, Carter facilitated the 1979 Islamist revolution in Iran.
And the US funded Muslim Brotherhood TV in Syria in 2006.
There is another bad agenda at work here, and when it comes to the crunch, that agenda usually seems to get its way.
Syria will probably be another sad story along the lines of Iran, and now Egypt.
he’ll screw it up
The last I looked, we are already pretty busy in the Middle East with Afghanistan, Iraq and intermittent raids into Pakistan.
Now we will now make Assad, ghaddafi and any other Middle East kowtow to us and then we get to nation build. People in the Middle East have been screwing up this region for centuries before America was even discovered.
It may sound good to mess with all of these countries but it is a fools errand.
Be Israels best friend, befriend those somewhat reasonable regimes like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait etc and we treat the rest like the enemies they are (their words not mine) Particularly since we have a completely inept administration.
Limited government, strong defense and more individual freedom, that is all I want for America.
Tenn..That’s about it.
This ‘Arab Spring’ should more aptly be called the “Moslem Spring”. Islam as we can more clearly see, except for fools, is a political ideology wrapped in a religion. Democracy will never flourish within a country with Sharia law. It can’t, not where a variety and numerous citizens are oppressed and the country is run by a gang of elite religious zealot thugs.
This whole thing is going south and we ought to get the hell out, unless we are planning on de-nuking Iran (that won’t happen) and get ready for the Moslem Winter when all hell breaks loose. You can be sure we will be a target.
Ah but me thinks that we once again are in CarterWorld and will most likely get a lot of people killed with our good deeds while accomplishing nothing and draining our treasury for the likes of people who hate us.
Get out and Get ready cause the train is coming. And it’s not the train you were thinking of but it will most likely take a lot of people to the same destination.
One should never attribute to incompetence what should be ascribed to malevolence. This stuff can’t possibly all be unintentional.
Obama might or might not be competent, I frankly don’t care, but the forces that put this puppet in place know what they are doing. It might be treasonous but it isn’t accidental.
Absolutely correct.
Well put
The author reads as though he is an immigrant to the U.S. from Syria who claims the U.S. as “home” ["our tax dollars"] while still grasping at allegiance to a foreign country ["our Syria"]. This kind of mixture is as unrealistic as writing off the Assad regime while providing no real rationale for the write-off.
I like this Neocon agenda of bringing democracy to the ME.
We should not forget the other great facilitator of the Iranian Moslem takeover; his name is Ted Kennedy, the so called “lion of the senate”, more accurately the whoremaster of the senate who supported the Islamic revolutionaries with his blustery alcholic rhetoric in the US senate. Whenever something was done to damage the US position in the world his chubby fingerprints were on it.
We missed an opportunity to quieten the jihad when we didn’t back off and turn Tora Bora into a radio active pile of glass with the bad guys sealed inside.
Appeasement by not doing things the muslims don’t approve of, or trying to buy them off are equally ridiculous. They are and forever will be the enemy of democracy as we know it. Face reality and take a note from Stonewall Jackson on how to deal with enemies.
The Obama administration cannot get this wrong.
Really? You may wish for that, but so far, the Obama administration hasn’t managed to get anything right.
Sorry Mr. Farid Ghadry – The name is the same – Obama/Brotherhood by design to destroy Israel. By Obama inviting the Muslim Brotherhood to his Egypt speech, the Brotherhood was born again in Egypt and Syria. Mr. Ghadry – when is the LA Times going to release the real story about Obama’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood? I keep reading your articles on PMJ and hope our officials can heed your warnings about Syria but I am not counting on it.
While we wait for the LA Times to fill us in, would you mind expanding on the subject yourself, TonyRose? Why should the LA Times in particular know anything about the ties between Mr Obama and the MB?
The U.S. government is NOT deceived. The U.S. government is determined to place into power the Muslim Brotherhood and the most radical elements of Islam. The U.S. was behind the unrest in Egypt; the ouster of betrayed US ally, moderate Mubarak and the ascendancy of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. It is a very sad day for liberals and seculars in Syria and other Middle Eastern countries.
Obama has quietly appointed Muslim Brotherhood operatives to key positions in the U.S government. These are very sad days for all who believe in justice, freedom and human rights. The Muslim Brotherhood stated goal is global Islamic conquest and the destruction of civilization.
G-D is merciful and kind beyond words to express. G-D’s Biblical requirement for ALL humanity is KINDNESS:
Bible, Micah 6:8 And what does the L-RD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-D.
In the end, it will require acts of G-D to rescue and save the human race.
Muslims are showing up at a Catholic church near me where I have friends (here in the U.S) claiming that they love Jesus. This is a documented “tiqiyaa” technique, the Muslim practice of deceiving non-Muslims,. They are also showing up on some of my “friends” of “friends” facebook pages. Saying that Jesus and Mohammed are both people that “inspire” them.
It occurred to me recently that it just might…and I do mean might be possible that the Obama government/1st US dictatorship actually wants the muslims to be in overall charge of the ME so that when war is declared, the enemy is more defined. But then, such sophisticated thinking is not part of Obama’s repertoire, nor of any of his flying monkeys’. To me, I think he wants the radical muslims to be uber alles in the ME so he has a place to run and hide in when he’s kicked out of the US. He’s got billions in “his stash” now and can probably transport it (if he hasn’t already) to a safe somewhere in a muslim country where he plans to retire and play golf every day. He’s currently waiting to see if he gets re-”elected” and can do further damage to the US economy and steal more money. Heck, he’s printing it at a furious rate as it is.
I’m joking only in part. If Obama actually believes the press on how popular he is, he is stupider than a guy looking for a gas leak with a cigarette lighter. But that may actually be the case.
In any event, he is showing his preference for all things muslim and trying very hard to re-structure our alliances to that end. His own personal hatreds and angers are destroying what we’ve had for many, many years and he aims to dismantle all that.
The “Arab Spring” is a euphemism for “Muslim Leap”. Where can the U.S. find a “transitional government it can work with?” Iran now de facto controls the governments of Lebanon and Gaza. The MB now has ascendancy in Egypt and Turkey, Neither has any interest in “transitional government.” Islamic theocracy’s greatest enemy is Democracy. Yhey make no allowance for transition. The words “Cooperation,” “coalition,” or “toleration” are anethma to them. Their “holy” cause is Islam solidarity throughout the kMiddle East, the obliteration of Israel, and restoration of the Caliphate.
They can make a “Leap” over any effort at “transition.”
It is not exactly a secret. They shout it from their minaret tops, mosque pulpits, and their broadcast stations, worldwide, 7/24/365. A Foreign. Policy that does not acknowledge this intractable truth is brain-dead. No compromise, ever. Just take advantage of America’s beloved tolerlance and rejection of “moral judgement”. Our foreign policy changes every 4 years – or less. Their foreign policy is Islam shall rule the world. Period. Let the weak horse waste its time in neighing. Take the so-called “Palestinian Question.” It is not a question for them – or rather a question with only one answer: Islam Rulesl. Never once in over 40 years has the Muslim side made a single concession. They are patient. They can wait, secure in their knoledge that the Infidels, for all their power, will never attack, or even defend.
Now they’ve discovered Facebook, and because they use it have proved to all those simple minded Westerners that they have discovered Democracy. Look! See how democratic we’ve become! Why, we’re so modern we even twitter – and fool the twits.
Obama believes he has the powers of a hypnotist and can persuade whomever wins the upper hand in the Middle East to sway his way. HA! I bet he can’t talk his kids into eating their broccoli.
Take it from ex Prez (and all around fool) Jimmy Carter Mr President – he too thought he had the gift of persuasion – but the troubles in the Middle East for the greater part are of Carter’s makings. The US had the means of preventing the islamic revolution in Iran but Carter figured he could ‘persuade’ the ayatollah Khomeini to see things his way – as history has shown – Carter is and was (and shall remain) a fool for thinking such thoughts.
Things have been bad enough these past 30 years since Carter screwed the pooch – wanna guess where the Middle East will be on the trouble-ometer in 5 10 or 15 years from now? I’m guessing it’ll be pegged.
Set aside questions of what US policy on Syria is, or ought to be.
Where’s the evidence of this “looming end” to the Asad regime?
Neither Kurds nor the Sunni elite have yet to throw down.
None of the smaller minority communities seem willing to risk their future
on whatever monsters might replace Asad — and no one has a real sense what they might be.
Indeed, minorities (not just Alawis) are terrified at the prospect of a fundamentalist rule.
The greater part of Syria seems to be still firmly within the control of the regime,
and fairly calm. The military remains, almost entirely, on the side of the regime.
Things may change, and they may change quickly — especially
if neighboring countries interfere or the economy collapses.
Until then, this one looks likely to be a loss for the forces of BO’s ‘hope and change’.
As for the Antalya conference, if you’re suggesting that the MBros somehow took it over,
I don’t think this is supported by any evidence. The grumpy old Brothers were in disarray.
And while they made a bunch of noise, they were bullied into line by the many other groups.
Besides, while the conference may turn out to have been important, who knows what,
if anything was actually accomplished?
It could just as easily turn into a fictive parliament in exile,
which will do nothing other than issue press releases — for the next decade.
To accomplish more than that, they’d need weapons and money.
But who would have an interest to provide them with such things?
Not the Iranians, obviously — they’re backing the regime.
But not the Sunni states, either. They would probably like to see a weaker Syria,
one without Iranian influence, but it’s hard to imagine that they’d risk Syria’s disintegration.
Syria’s got long borders, and no one wants a Syrian version of the Lebanese civil war.
Pretty much everything Obama has done, *including* drone strikes against al_Qaeda and hitting bin-Laden, has been for the benefit of the Muslim Brotherhood (who want al-Qaeda taken down much like the Tattaglias wanted the Corleones gone).
Syris is YOUR country, and YOU are going to have to fight for it – against the Muslim Brotherhood, Assad and all the rest. Are Syrians prepared to go against fellow Muslims? Are they prepared to give their lives for a free Syria?
Seeing is believing.
Muslims killing Muslims is not a rare event. In fact the number one killer of Muslims throughout history are other Muslims. The Crusaders were pikers in comparison to the internicene fighting of the Religion of Peace.
O clearly stated his attitude and his intentions towards islam after he was elected and he is right on time with his agenda by greenlighting the arab spring and m.b. throughout the m.e.The intent is to destroy israel which of course will result in a nuclear exchange before that happens which the state dept. seems not see.
If o is a puppet to soros or whoever else what do they want? Can islam save the arab world from starvation or can it be done through agricultural science and desalination? As it stands, an islamist egypt will starve to death without huge jizya from the west.
Is the western establishment hell bent on wiping out the jews through muslim immigration and a nuclear armed and hostile calphate in the m.e?It seems so to me.