I’m sure Mark Levin would agree that it’s no accident. This president, who so vigorously asserts and imposes state power against Americans, is much more comfortable supporting dissident movements against American friends than against American enemies.
At a certain point, after unconscionable dithering, he announced that Qadaffi must go, and he ordered our armed forces to help that happen. Qadaffi wasn’t killing Americans.
Now he has his feckless secretary of state announce that, while Assad must also go, we will not support–not even from way behind–those fighting against Bashar Assad, who has killed lots of Americans. With one caveat: if Assad says it’s ok, then we might do it. (Really)
Try that again, just to make sure it’s clear: Assad kills Americans, but we won’t lift an armed finger to bring him down. Qadaffi wasn’t killing Americans and our air power destroyed him.
And then there’s central issue, which we all know: Khamenei kills Americans all the time, as has his regime for 33 years, but when the Iranian people rise up against him, the American president assures Khamenei that we still want to make a deal with him.
Remember that this president is presenting himself as a tough guy, because he killed bin Laden, smashed al-Qaeda, and toppled Qadaffi. Actually the defeat of AQ in Iraq was Bush’s fault, but no matter. The important point is that this president isn’t interested in bringing American power to bear on the state sponsors of the terrorists who kill our guys. Obama kills terrorists, the tail of the snake. He doesn’t go for the head, or rather the heads, which feed in Damascus and Tehran.
The whole macabre Kabuki dance around Assad is shameful. Humiliating. Embarrassing. Poor General Dempsey actually confessed to the Senate that we don’t really know all that much about the Syrian opposition. (Can you spell “intelligence failure”?) But then he turned around and said:
The Free Syrian Army, which is, generally speaking, the centerpiece of the opposition, is for the most part domestic, although we also know that other regional actors are providing support. That complicates the situation…
As if we had a clear picture of the makeup of the anti-Qadaffi forces, or, for that matter, of the forces driving the crowds in Tahrir Square, Cairo, the masses who acted in Springtime for Arabia, the failed musical to which so many sang and danced just a few yesterdays ago.
You mean after increasing our intelligence analysts by 50%, intel is getting worse?
Gaddafi is like one of those great Clinton victories of the 90s, the Balkans, the modernization of China’s high tech sector, ‘aiding’ the transition of the FSU into great democratic allies, which will ultimately lead to America’s final resting place, just as those other victories have moved us along, to that great trailer park in the Ozarks, between the two Walmarts.
“You mean after increasing our intelligence analysts by 50%, intel is getting worse?”
Is it any wonder that JSOC has their own intelligence section?
For better or for worse the main factor in this matter is and will be the price of oil.
Iran has turned of the tap to Europe–Russia benefits.
India will continue to pay Iran for oil and gas–under or over the table.
Same with China
Oil is fungible-so the US economy will suffer seriously.
The US intelligence community says that Iran is 10 years away from having viable nuclear weapons-
Time for negotiations with Iran
–Kissinger called for joint negotiations with Iran, China, India, Pakistan, Turkey and Russia to manage the narco-terrorist threat from Afghanistan
Good idea which is moving forward.
“The US intelligence community says that Iran is 10 years away from having viable nuclear weapons-”
Any chance for a ink on that one? I had the impression that this is almost imminant.
“link” that is.
Mr. Ledeen,
I respectively disagree with you about Qadaffi. While he may not have killed any Americans lately, he surely did in the past and was harboring the Lockerbie murderer whom he sprung from jail by a ruse. Qadaffi deserved what he got. Obama merely did what Reagan should have done so many years ago. Obama’s reasons for doing so not withstanding.
Bill N,
Taking out Gaddafi was like taking out a key informant that had changed sides in the mob, it was comically stupid and may prove tragically deadly. As for Lockerbie, Gaddafi did use terrorist methods to conduct his foreign policy, however, serious doubts exist whether Lockerbie was his handiwork.
“serious doubts exist whether Lockerbie was his handiwork”
BS! He was protecting the convicted murderer at the time of his own death. He was in it up to his neck!
taking out Qaddafi was political expedient, like everything else this POTUS does. We had no more business being involved in Libya’s internal troubles than we do in Syria’s. As it is, our involvement in Egypt has led to the Muslim Brotherhood winning a parliamentary majority (anyone stop to think THAT is why the military is not relinquishing power?). And Libya will likely wind up with a sharia-based govt, too, meaning a net loss to American interests. Every day, in so many ways, the campaigner-in-chief proves his ineptitude.
I certainly didn’t shed any tears for the good Colonel when the Libyans butchered him, but in regards to being a threat to the US, we had him on a leash and had neutered him. He was a whipped mutt, whereas the pitbulls from Tehran and Damascus are still running around the neighborhood biting us whenever and wherever they can.
So, it’s OK to let a mass murderer go free if he agrees not to do it again. Assad agrees with that one, too, I’m sure. As for the pit bull on a leash, leashes can break. Are you suggesting that Obama, of all people, would keep him on a leash? I wouldn’t trust my life to that supposition.
It certainly feels Obama is hell bent on destroying the very fabric of the United States. How did this happen?
Everything he has been doing is against the U.S. and for his friends including those in other countries:
Violation of allegiance toward one’s country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one’s country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies.
A betrayal of trust or confidence.
Willful betrayal of fidelity, confidence, or trust http://www.answers.com/topic/traitorousness
High Treason: Treason against one’s country or sovereign.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/treason#ixzz1kckzTDVK
As a Lebanese christian, i saw sending an ambassador to Syria an end to the cedars revolution. this meant for us that Assad kills Lebanese and he is rewarded by having an ambassador.. Today history repeats itself if not on a grand scale and similar events but Syrians are killed and nothing is done.. if i am to visit the USA where my sister live i would not be granted a visa since i am not married and has no children assuming that i would stay..but the funniest thing is if i am shiite i would have the visa easily… Therefore we have a joke in Lebanon that say you are from Hezollah and the visa is all yours.. Just to make a statement on the irony of life…
Does anybody else see a remarkable similarity between Obama and other dictatorial tyrannical types?? Or is it just me?
Assad has essentially declared that he is a god; so has Andimanutjob and let’s not forget Khomeini baby. Making people suffer seems to be a common thread with all these guys, including Obama; they use a variety of means to do so; from finance to firearms. So what gives? Obama attacking Syria would be the proverbial pot calling the kettle black – he does not have the moral authority and besides; the election is in November.
So our stealth commander probably has his eyes on building his long dreamed of “domestic police force” so as to whip us into place. After all … he knows what’s good for us.
Revolutions should come through the use of negotiation, diplomacy, and philosophy. NOT force. Street thugs trying to overthrow legitimate rulers through the use of violence should (and will) get what they deserve. Middle Eastern revolutions are a failure, like any other part of their culture, because they won’t lawfully protest. Look at Egypt and Libya now. Or Iran, in another time.
Then, look at Eastern European revolutions to see what respectful disagreement with authority looks like. Notice that those revolutions, despite being powerless, tend to succeed.
Anyone who thinks we have friends in Syria are seriously delusional. This is NONE of our business.
Huh? What Americans has Assad killed??? when???? Where????????? Obviously I’m way out of sync with many conservatives as to militarism but let’s tote it up. We’ve intervened successfully just bloody where in the ME??? Advanced the cause of Democracy just where? Iraq? Even if obama hadn’t sped up our withdrawal Iraq would be reverting to muslim type, which is to say treacherous and deadly at best. BTW I gotta ask, what did our intervention gain for the Christians of Iraq? Murder and exile for any that can make it out is what. Afghanistan? I’m sorry, did we make Bush’s dream of making Afghanistan safe for democracy there when I wasn’t looking? Guess not. Libya??? Oh well, that’s bloody different or, wait a sec, no, it ain’t. Sinking into a morass of murderous islamic fanatacism as I type.
At this time in history the fate of any intervention goes entirely in one direction. Win lose or draw, islamism wins. I really can’t stand the idea of any more American blood being spilled anywhere over there so that the muslim fanatics can take over. Please don’t tell me again about muslims yearning to be free. muslims yearn to kill other muslims (and Christians and Jews and anyone else) and I’m perfectly ok with that.
The military interventionists are wrong on this. Totally and completely. The only exception to that would be Iran, which has killed many Americans. And there I’m talking a single but prolonged and thoroughgoing strike. Forget the pottery barn approach. Break it but good and get out; all the way out.
Americans have been dying en masse at Syrian hands since the early 1980s. Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah orchestrated most of the violence against Americans in Lebanon: from the kidnappings, to the assassinations, to the embassy bombing, to the killing of 241 Marines in their sleep. Not enough? Since 911, Syria has fascilated the Iraqi insurgency. The rat line stretches west to Damascus. The many senior Iraqi Ba’athists who took refuge with Assad remain a government and military command in exile. Keeping those convoys from crossing into Syria was a priority in June 2003, so much so that U.S. S.F. crossed into Syria, with C130s and TF-20s. There are also reports in the international press of other incidents, even earlier — again related to the interdicting of convoys. In either case, the U.S. mission failed, with the results evident from the last decade.
Or if you prefer your terrorism more gauche and more secular, remember back to the halcyon days of the ’70s, especially the Friday-night skyjackings, the Syrian-trained and Syria-equipped terrorists getting their rocks off pushing wheel-chair-bound Americans into the Med, or the dumping of the corpses of young American service men onto runways — and on good days, wrapping things up by exploding a plane or three. Where did the celebrated terrorists go for training and R&R? Ahmed Jibril, George Habash, Yasir Arafat? Hard to think of a single terror NGO keep a second house in Syria.
And then there’s Hamas, Hezbollah, and PIJ — all designated terror organizations in the US, EU, and the rest of the civilized world. If they’re not at home, chances are they’re in Syria. And what about this Hamas and its sordid record? While they much prefer to kill Israeli women and kids, they’re not all that particular.There’s a sizable list of American victims of Hamas. Some say that doesn’t count, in that the Americans in question are … well … you know … Jewish … and well … you know … dual loyalty and all that. For details, see the collected works of Joseph Goebels, Pat Lang, and Mike Scheuer. Like most Americans, I disagree. (I probably shouldn’t have written that, now I’ll never be able to work for State or CIA.)
Want more? Flip through DoS’s annual reports on global terrorism. There you’ll also learn, e.g., how Syria is one of the main supporters of the Maoist PKK. Lovely group, the PKK. They’ve been waging an AQ-style campaign against a member of NATO since the mid-1980s. I reckon the corpse-count must be near 30K now. Not bad. Not bad, especially as the PKK has never been able to field a force of more than 75,000. Still, even a small army like that requires money…. Who cuts their checks? The PuKKs pick up their allowances in Damascus — old Assad and new Assad always happy to help their Russian and Iranian friends and distribute their cash and arms to the PKK.
Admittedly, it’s often hard to distinguish the precise nature of the causation input by Iran and Syria, as opposed to what arises from acts of volition on the part of the Hezbos and Hamacids. Honestly, though, does it matter much? Provided we’ve not yet surrendered in the GWOT (not sure), fat ladies won’t be singing till Nasrallah, the mullahs, and the cretinous Assad are either besplattered or hanging from lampposts. When that’s done, you and I will once again be able to get on an airplane with as little fuss as we get on a bus today (and no naked pics). It’ll be just like the old days, when Nixon was president and Arab regimes hadn’t yet fallen under the spell of terror’s dark pleasures.
Man, those were the days! The skyjackings were fun to watch — rarely were more than a few people brutally killed. Global theatre, and all for a good cause: liberation, resistance, revolution, or whatever. This new generation is way too serious. They can’t seem to get beyond body count, body count, body count. The “Sunni extremists” alone are averaging 40,000 casualties per annum. Not too shabby, eh? (That number comes from DoS, by the way. I’d wager it’s on the the low side, too. You know how diplomats are. Won’t learn the language. Won’t leave the capital. Won’t even leave the embassy, except for black-tie cocktail parties at another embassy. So just who is counting corpses in the countryside?)
Your plan for victory strikes me as underwhelming: surrender and pray to God that the bad guys kill someone else, and that they don’t blow up anything essential to the global energy market (which would be kinda bad).
The U.S. actually once tried your plan, briefly: from ca. 1967 to the latter part of 2001. Didn’t work so well. Still, as much as it sucked, at least the stakes were low. The Assads of the world well understood that they could use their super-neat, really special weapons only on another — which they did, and not just Saddam. Even Boss Nasser liked to sit just over the Yemeni side of the border and tease the Saudis by popping off — at random intervals — one of his special shells. Not nearly as much fun as a tactical nuke, but hey, it’s the Yemen and it’s not like there’s much else to do. And besides, the Russian kept refusing his repeated requests for just a few, really little nukes.
Perhaps, though, one questions the wisdom of putting faith the current crop of regional leaders — not least as they’re no longer progressives, but religious reactionaries, and infinitely more primitive even than Nasser.
Dear Michael, first and foremost, thank you for your great efforts in the service of Freedom and the right of life. Yes, indeed Freedom is great…Liberty is worthy to worship more than a sacred gods…Freedom is the non-negotiable demand of human dignity…Freedom the birthright of every person in every civilization on the surface of the earth…On the other hand, Freedom is NOT free, Freedom has its TOO HIGH price. You bought it by your bloods, by your sacrifices. You have paid a lot of military and civil sacrifices for this “unique thing”, and today your soldiers are dying in foreign battlegrounds for your freedom and for oppressed people freedom. they paying their lives to defending this great and sacred thing just as your parents and your grandparents did before. while today, most sadly, you “Dr. Ledeen”, paying a lot just because of your great defense of this great thing, no doubt you facing a lot of daily annoyances by the disgusting gossip current from your enemies of wimps in Washington and elsewheres, who are the enemies of freedom, above all the enemies of America.
For decades you struggling strongly for the FREEDOM and for protecting the rights of oppressed people, hard working to support the Freedom Revolutions from middle Europe to the Middle East; specifically “Iran”. So, Dr. Michael Ledeen, please allow me to call you and PROUDLY in (THE GODFATHER OF IRAN FREEDOM). The world should realize that!?
However, Freedom is the non-negotiable obligation you take on when you choose to call yourself an American belongs to the Great Nation (aka Americans). You as Americans, as a “Great Nation”, you should be proud you are “Americans”, and you should be willing to do whatever it takes to continue the standard of real peace that is comes sometimes only by using of the hard-power, to continue protect the rights of people, and continues to spread freedom and peace in bloody and unstable places around the world. This is your moral mission and moral duty as “the only moral benevolent superpower on the earth”, which is why “Khamenei MUST GO…Assad MUST GO…Chavez MUST GO…Al Saud MUST GO…the powerful world’s socialist leader, “Obama” MUST GO TOO.”
Perhaps a smart way of dealing with Syria is by letting them slaughter each other. That’s right, why get involved in a messy civil war when the Syrians can do the work of destroying each other for us? And when they’re done, they will be so weak both militarily and financially that they will not be much of a threat to anybody for at least a year or two. Hezbollah NEEDS Syrian help in order to stay in power in Southern Lebanon. But with Syria occupied with its own civil war, we could start giving Hezbollah a hard time, and so could the Israelis. By doing that, we would be not only be dealing a heavy blow against an important Iranian ally, but also be taking out one of the worst sponsors of terrorism in the world. Don’t forget, Hezbollah was responsible for the Marine Corps barraks bombing and the US Embassy bombing in Lebanon in the early 1980s. Time for payback and to show both Hezbollah and the Iranians that we have very long memories.
You said it, brother.
And even those who don’t know what really happened in Beirut –
due to yet another sordid attempt to cover up the consequences of failed intelligence –
they well remember 1979.
And that’s one monster of a festering boil
that Jacksonians would dearly like to lance.
Yeah, I’ve been thinking the same thing. I’m for whatever weakens any of these countries. And I am not going to cry crocodile tears for the “civilian” population, they’d kill all of us given the chance. That is what Islam is all about. It’s viciousness has determined the Arabs fate.
I’m sick of intervening on the side of Muslims.
That policy has bought us NOTHING. In fact, worse than nothing.
We expelled Saddam from Kuwait. We bombed Serbia to stop their ethnic cleansing of Muslims in the Balkans.
And what did we get out of it? 9-11, the worst terrorist attack in our history. What did we expect from the Muslim world for our actions in Kuwait and Serbia? Gratitude? Muslims don’t show gratitude to infidels, not ever.
As far as I’m concerned, we built our last Muslim “democracy”–in Iraq. No more of that.
Because here is what we built. From the new Iraqi Constitution:
“Islam is the state religion and a basic foundation for the country’s laws, and no law may contradict the established provisions of Islam.”
4,000 young American men and women died so that the Iraqis could vote themselves into the supreme law of Sharia.
No more.
(Obama) is obsessed with nukes, as if Iran would only be a real threat to us if the mullahs had atomic warheads.
Obama pursues the nuke question (at home, in Iran) as a function of his limited, ideologically driven brain, as a segment of the narrative with which he’s been imbued since his 20′s, probably even his teens under the guidance of the not so esteemed Frank Marshall Davis.
Nothing that happens on the ground will alter the nature of his responses, although he might appear, superficially, otherwise. He will continue to talk about “negotiating” with Iran until hell freezes over, even after Iran strikes Israel.
His responses, his so called policies, are always necessarily determined by the long ago fixed set of grievances.
Candidate Obama 2008: Hope & Change
President Obama 2012: Shameful, Humiliating, Embarrassing
Um, I blew that one. I meant to say I have no problem with muslimes killing muslims, which is pretty much what they do with or without our help. muslims killing Christians and Jews, that turns my stomach. Talking serious agita,
well, the uprising has now gone on long enough that most Syrians realize that Hezbollah and Iran are helping Assad — in some sense, that is a positive outcome (though it has meant more civilian deaths)
the next step may be the actual participation of al quada and/or the muslim brotherbund on the side of the uprising and with some anti Shiite massacres too
sort of predator vs alien
The US dithering will may it more difficult for muslims to blame the US for this.
Mr. Ledeen: I share, in spades, your contempt for Obama and your frustration with the lack of effective support for those Syrians who wish to be rid of Assad. But the truth is that they are, quite understandably, not well organized, have no central leadership, and have utterly no hope of being supplied with of arms and ordnance on the scale required to militarily overthrow the Syrian Army. It is pointless to rail against the level of intelligence gathering. It is extremely difficult within a tyranny, and particularly for Americans or Europeans in the feudal and tribal Arabic world. You seem to be proposing air strikes, citing his action re Libya. There he had the cover of o European urging and commitment of support, and he is, quite rightly, criticized for not first gaining the approval of the Congress. If you don’t really know the structure of the opposition, would not be able to provide arms and supplies on an effectual basis, and are unwilling to declare war on a sovereign nation, there is little logic in complaining about a president not “doing something.” I wish you would be clearer about what you mean by “support.”
qaddafi murdered lots of Americans. His career should have been ended many years ago. asad is qaddafi without bad hair. Neither the libyans nor the syrians will be better off, but that isn’t the point. The United States needs to demonstrate that it will not tolerate the spectacle of foreign governments destroying American life and property. iran will also and hopefully disintegrate into a variety of mutually antagonistic statelets since it is also responsible for American loss of life and is planning to kill millions once its nuclear arsenal is available. We should encourage and support Kurds, arabs, azeris, and others who want to end persian and shiite dominance.
We live in a time of crisis.
If this tyrant gets the right crisis, he will use it to confiscate our firearms and he will say, “Everybody must turn in your guns… for your own safety.”
And whoever doesn’t… well, they will be labeled a terrorist and detained indefinitely under the NDAA that he just passed, which allows indefinite detention of Americans without a trial.
This move is calculated and this man cannot wait to use his executive orders to fundamentally ‘change’ America into a communist dictatorship.
What happened in other countries in the past can happen here.
Actually, staying the background is the best policy and seems to have very wide support among the people who count.
How much blood and treasure is Syria worth? I would say none at all to the US. It would actually be nice if everyone would lose, but we will not be so lucky.
The problem is regional and if the countries, with common borders, especially Turkey feel that something must be done then they should do it. Further it is a Muslim problem and they would resent US interference.
I am afraid that everyone is a Marxist now, wanted to manage events when no good result can come though mindless engagement.
Bob:
Right on!! As I’ve said before on other lists, the entire population of Syria is now worth one U.S. life or dollar. It’s worth even less when the result of involvement is most likely to be the fulfillment of the Kenyan Fascists dreams of a new Islamist Caliphate in the midEast and a bankrupt America with a depleted military.
The internal affairs of other countries, Syria included, are none of our business. Nor are our internal affairs any of their business.
Further, as in all other middle eastern conntries, the “rebels” will turn out to be islamic jihadists who, with our support, will come to power. We might wish to note that such would not be to our advantage; nor to that of our ally, Israel. Any move that enhances the Global Caliphate is a bad one.
Lets leave Assad to do his own killing. Hes good at it.
What is NOT shameful about this administration.
…With all due respect;…how long until you admit my position is correct: The executive branch of the USA has for 33 years done everything possible to keep the Iranian dictators, that parade as religious, in power at all cost; and the aircraft carriers in that area are there to protect the murderous regime from Israeli attack. And that the executive branch has as its sole goal: “a nice long lasting war and sell lots of weapons” C me 1991(and delivered to every member of congress along with, between 1988-2000, the exact battle tactics that would be used against us).
Included was exactly how to avoid the war…
I remain universally ignored; but correct…same snide ignore today as when I tried to explain to congress in 1986 (and on many other issues) that the government operating out of Moscow would fall by popular uprising…
Excellent way of putting it.
And he does that because it is politically useful while at the same time it is practically useless, since there will always be new idiots who will fight in the field for the mad mullahs and the other puppeteers.
And Occam tells us that your last question is redundant because you have already found the answer. He’s (this administration is) a branch of the internationalist subversion, and America is the enemy of the subversives. And Freedom in general is their enemy.
We sound like a bunch of contestants in a game show called “The Truth That Dare Not Speak Its Name.”
The man is unfit for office, highly likely to have been Constitutionally ineligible from the get-go, almost certainly being protected by a cadre of people whom we are paying to uphold that Constitution and protect us from the treason of which they are all guilty, and we can’t figure out what to do about it.
A simple aphorism applies here: To see what is right and not to do it is lack of courage. And I certainly include myself.
Tyrannosaurus Rex, to wit King Obama, is NOT America’s problem, only, as you so clearly lay out the timely facts about the wicked players in the Middle East and Obama’s in-your-face actions.
The scariest, to me, thing is that Obama even became president, which means too many voters were too stupid to know what they were choosing. And, NOW—Intrade places the odds of a GOP president come 2013 at 36%! We—and the world—are in deep dumb doo doo!!!
Look, when it comes to the condition of politics, led by cutting edge America, with all the tyrannies in her wake, the earth is still flat and the center of the solar system. Oh, how much awakening so many people need!
I continue to think the situation closely resembles what we face when an economic bubble arrives. The old question was, can we MANAGE a “soft landing”, or not? The members of the “awareness elite”, that is, those who REALLY know what’s happening (like our valued Michael Ledeen), have to conclude NOT, it seems to me.
So, take your pick. The political or/and economic bubble?
Who has the power? What are its correlations? My guess is that it will be the economic bubble, assisted by demographic factors, that cannot be forever kept from popping. Buy gold!
By the Enlightening way, the golden rule, that those who have the gold rule, shines the light on where the power lays. It’s quite complicated, though, because these days when second or third order “proxies” pertain, there are myriad centers of power whose influence doesn’t rest on “gold”, or even the dollar.
Take the New York Times, as a blatant example. Here’s an old guard liberal rag, that lost $41 million last year, and it still continues to be for too many “the newspaper of record”. Our own Pravda!
I await the Great Awakening.
butting our nose in other people’s affairs is a reason why a group of do-gooder Americans is stuck in Egypt. Syria’s trouble is Syria’s, not America’s. Obama’s adventurism has led to the Muslim Brotherhood poised to take control of Egypt and will likely lead to a similar outcome in Libya. There is no democracy taking hold in the ME; outside of Israel, no country even knows what the concept is. Let these countries solve their own problems. America’s role is to protect its interests, not to arm the preferred side d’jour.
Then what is wrong in applying what FDR had in mind for Vietnam, as written in “Lost Crusade: America in Vietnam” by Chester L. Cooper, for those places that voted no recently in the UN regarding Syria?
Michael, you and the other cheerleaders for the Iraq war are responsible for your share of the carnage. Invoking Bethesda Hospital to rile up the other war-mongers here on PJM is reprehensible.
Sadly, it’s hard to think of a foreign policy issue on which Obama is NOT shameful, humiliating, and embarrassing.
If Team Obama actually cared about the people of the afflicted “Arab Spring” nations, it would seek to bring a rapid end to their sufferings, and it would show some discrimination about whom it backed among the contenders for national power.
The Obama administration seems flummoxed by any power situation in which it can’t assign the burden of Western imperialism to one side. Obama’s advisors have their origins in the Western faction that has long considered the Assad regime to be an encouraging sign about resistance to the West. Marxist, authoritarian, Arabist — the Assads have been emblematic of the “anti-colonialists rising” sensibility passionately celebrated and embraced by the 1960s-th’owback crowd.
I don’t think the Obami are able to understand the world around them through any other prism. They’ve been trying to shoehorn Islamism into the anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist construct for some time now, which is — in the light of cold reality — hilarious. They really have spent decades drinking their own Kool-aid, and they are incompetent to deal with the world as it is.
This is all according to plan. BHO is a wholly owned subsidiary of George Soros and a devote disciple of Saul Alinsky. Never ever think this guy or the people with and behind him are stupid or incompitent. They are acheiving what the want. An impoverished, diminished America subservient to the UN.
Mr.Ledeen must be working for the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates. When Muslims slaughter other Muslims it’s good for the entire world. NOT A SINGLE AMERICAN LIFE SHOULD BE WASTED ON ME!
Do we need to be in a perpetual war to satisfy you neo-cons? Revolutions are bloody and it’s their revolution not ours. Bad enough the stupidity of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Might as well mention Egypt and the simply wonderful outcome of “arab spring”.
http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2012/02/15/good-bye-middle-east-quietly-liberals-and-minorities-are-fleeing/
When it comes to muslims we need to walk very softly and with a big, big stick. Let’s just stay away from this excrement in democracy. Oh dear, I meant experiment, or did I?
Ledeen, do you support arming the Muslim Brotherhood fighters against Assad in Syria? Yes or no? Are you and your fellow neocons prepared to take any responsibility for the subsequent slaughter of Allawites and Syrian Orthodox Christians? How about moderate Sunnis who simply like to drink and hang out with Lebanese Christian girls? All would be under the gun in the post-Assad paradise Syria will turn out to be.
But being a neocon means never having to say you’re sorry!
Might as well mention Egypt and the simply wonderful outcome of “arab spring”.
http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2012/02/15/good-bye-middle-east-quietly-liberals-and-minorities-are-fleeing/
When it comes to muslims we need to cut the nonsensical effort to force democracy. Let’s just stay away from this excrement in democracy. Oh dear, I meant experiment, or did I? Anyway, let ‘em kill each other. Who cares!
As I see it, Assad has done nothing to hurt western or American interests. The dispute there is part of what Rubin called “The unleashing of Islam”, aka the Arab Spring. If anything,we should help Assad, at least diplomatically and politically.
I believe that the statistics that are coming out about Obama having 50% approval are as phony as those from the labor department stating that unemployment is at 8.3%. The CBO and other organizations who use straight data rather than massaged figures (such as seasonal adjustments) have shown that this is a lie – unemployment is 9.1%. Media is lying for Obama. I don’t believe for a second that 50% of Americans want a totalitarian president. I think it is just a communist tactic to make us give up and I refuse.
It seems rather simple to me. Assad is against us. The protesters will be against us. The rebels kill Assad’s supporters, he is weakened. Assad has the rebels killed, they are weakened. Syria’s infastructure gets destroyed, both sides are weakened. Syria’s economic infastructure gets trashed, a shortage of foreign credit, Russia doesn’t get paid for their arms, boo hoo. Turkey gets tired of hordes of refugees and settles matters, problem solved with Turkey being kept busy trying to keep order. Lots of dead Arabs and a near sure guarantee of more from rounds 2,3,4, etc. The most important down side is if we intervene or let the refugees into our country.
If an article is the main meal, the comments are the salt. Some are too salty (Tired of fighting for Muslims and let Syrians kill each other) and some are just right for every taste (Freedom is the right of every human being). Americans are blessed with magnanimity and common sense because they can differentiate between a terrorist Muslim and another one fighting for what America stands for. That distinction has been an essential component of US greatness (The US helped build Japan and Germany because it was about their violent systems and not the people). There is no need to watch the unbelievably horrific videos streaming from Syria because it is not fair to subject freedom loving Americans to human violence and imperfections, but it is important that you know why the world would sink into oblivion if not for America’s foresightedness and rightness attitude. .
Michael, I consider you to be one of the few people who can expand the narrative. How well do terrormasters do when it comes to money, in the short term, medium term and long term? There comes a time when people rebel, and part of the reason is they have had enough of being financially squeezed.
So, why isn’t Iran, and those who voted no in the UN regarding Syria, having their credit ratings reviewed?
Very simple answer to your questioning ( How do you explain Obama siding with the most anti-freedom both at home and abroad ) : You american have elected a RADICAL _ LEFTIST MOLE ( remember Burgess Mc Lean Philby Blunt ? ) who does not need like those spies to act with care and restraint but a mole who has full power , who can act either recklessly , then you decide to qualify his behavior as clumsy-stupid-counterproductive or who can act in a pernicious , sly, cunning way , then you stay confused, unable to draw the correct conclusions until you draw a line among all the dots of his strange ( for you yet unexplainable ) behavior.
Put Israel under constant danger and exert pressure so you can be disarmed and left impotent in front of the coming iranian aggression 9) Try to favor Turkey entry into the european union when none of the europeans want it .10) on a very minor area , pretend to stay neutral in front of the argentinians claiming the falklands island against your british ” ally “.
Take the foreign policy and connect those dots : 1) Play the palestinian ploy against israel and blame Israel for the failures 2) Play the muslim brotherhood against the pro-western despots ( Khadafi, Mubarak ) 3 ) play the radical ayatollahs of Teheran against the popular ” green movement ” revolt after the elections 4) Stay neutral in front of the Teheran expansive creeping conquest in Iraq and let them expand their aggressivity against the pro-western petro-monarchies of the gulf ( once more staying neutral when your friends are assaulted 5) turn a blind eye and let the Assad butchery to keep going on in Syria 6) Allow the Pakistan ruling military keeps playing double game and deceiption against your own troops fighting in Afghanistan 7) Allow the iranian nuclear race to play almost toll-free ; the pseudo sanctions you have enacted were only a smokescreen then after 45 days you are ready to think of a new round of talks; As if all the previous talks really avoided the iranians getting their nuclear toy.
All those dots are claiming your president is not clumsy, your president is an anti-western RADICAL-LEFTIST MOLE who reached the ultimate power seat and who is intent on slowly and surely destroying our western world starting with your allies . We in France had such a phenomena ( Lionel Jospin prime minister 1997-2002 ) and we could expose he was a ” trotskyist mole ” in his youth and later on.But Jospin was not as brazen as Obama and could not exert the same damages since he commanded a small power ( france is a rather small player on the foreign policy and at home we were quite under a socialist rule since at least 1981 ). So now are you still wondering ” how to explain Obama’s behavior ?”
“The one group of dissidents about whom we should have a quite clear picture is the Iranian Green Movement. They want an end to the Islamic Republic. They want an end to Iranian sponsorship of terrorists. They want to reenter the Western world.
The president doesn’t talk about that.”
Well said.