Posted on 09/08/2013 8:06:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
The buzz in the Middle East media is that the real reason President Obama changed his mind about striking Syria last week was not, in fact, that he is indecisive.
Nor was it that the concept of war goes against his grain.
Nor that there’s a major division between his personal advisors and government officials.
Nor that the Arab League voted against America striking Syria and wanted the United Nations to intervene.
Nor even that the British House of Commons pulled the rug out from under him by voting against a British attack on Syria—essentially slapping Obama’s primary supporter, Prime Minister Cameron, on the face.
Rather, it’s believed that the main reason for postponing an attack was a message sent from the Iranians through the Russians stating that they were prepared to use chemical weapons in attacking Israel. Whether Iran was planning to do that directly, or indirectly through its proxies (mainly Hezbollah), it is not clear. Certainly Hezbollah has been beating the war drums as of late.
But whatever Mr. Obama’s reasons may be, many people are breathing a sigh of relief—that what could have become World War III has been delayed for the time being. For the first time in many decades, the eastern Mediterranean Sea is crowded with American and Russian warships. And that is not a comforting sign to those in the region.
Most of the Western world is underestimating the fact that the Shiite sect of Islam, championed by Iran, feels that their back is against the wall—they have to do something, even if it’s an irrational something.
To them, the loss of Syria could start a domino-effect, leading then to a loss of Iraq, and consequently the loss of the Shiite’s dream of hegemony in the Muslim world. That is something that most of the Gulf states, who are predominantly Sunni, would welcome with open arms.
Furthermore, it’s vitally important to remember that Syria is no Libya. There, the Sunni population was merely envious that their fellow Sunni despot, Muammar Gaddafi, was hogging billions of petro dollars. They wanted to get their hands on it, or at least have a say in spending it.
So while some have criticized President Obama for backtracking and wanting Congress to share in the blame if things go south, we should be thankful that his hesitation may have postponed bringing us to the brink.
For its part, Israel, like a loyal ally, has publically said they are ready for whatever may come. But privately, many Israelis are also breathing a sigh of relief. But for how long? Next week will probably tell.
Meanwhile, the Syrian refugees keep pouring into Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey.
I am grateful that our ministry partners in Lebanon and Jordan are working tirelessly to make the miserable lives of many of those refuges a little bit tolerable. I pray they will be sustained until the day when sanity and common sense returns to the region.
But sanity is not prevailing today. Americans who are treating this crisis with a ho-hum approach—focusing their attention instead on Miley Cyrus—need to understand that we could be facing a catastrophic event.
For believers, it is time to pray that God will give wisdom to those making global-impact decisions.
This is what you get when an Arab writes for Townhall.
The truth is when Zero hesitated, The Russians began moving lots of
warships to Syria. And Russia has said they will help Syria and I
don’t think Putin is bluffing. Apparently, the Zero administration does
not believe he is bluffing either.
For goddness sake, Congress Critters...just impeach Obama!!!
How pitiful that this is the only way to say something "good" about the twit-in-chief...
The Media gave him cover for his Illegal War for French Oil in Libya, that 40% of Americans don’t even realize happened, so he thought he could do the same thing this time.
Well, Putin said “Hell No”, but Obama’s Ego tried to get us in to WW3 anyway, until someone put the brakes on him, HARD.
the eastern Mediterranean Sea is crowded with American and Russian warships
***********
What could possibly go wrong? /sarc
One miscalculation or error is all it takes. This thing has now become a tinderbox.
I think you have it exactly right. Good post.
A short message to the Democrats.
Syria is a civil war. It is people in a nation fighting each other. A chemical attack on Israel by Iran, or any other nation, is an attack by a foreign nation on our ally.
They are completely different circumstances.
IMO, he helped to ensure it, if he continues down this path and we have war, it will be much worse now.
Administration insiders are still trying to sell a Syria attack, using the line that it will “send a message to Iran”. That may be bolstered by the above article.
However, the US has already sent Iran (and NK and many other dictatorships around the world) the message that they can go ahead and pursue WMD programs, including nuclear proliferation, and despite all kinds of tough talk, the US will delay, dither, waffle, hem and haw until things have gone far beyond the point where the situation could have been resolved with a minimum of fuss.
It is going to take years, and all kinds of conflicts that the US would never otherwise have to engage in, in order to reverse that opinion.
The damage Soetoro has done to the prestige of the US just with this one “red line” standoff and his lack of conviction in backing it up is incalculable.
“I think you have it exactly right. Good post.”
Understand something...
These Radical Academic Socialists don’t think like we do. They driven first and foremost by ideology.
What better way to keep the disasterous implications of the Start of Obamacare out of the Press, than to start a nice little War?
It sure worked for Fast & Furious, so why not do it again?
And they calculated that any push-back from Russia/other countries would be covered for them by their media allies, since they were taking the moral high ground on Syria.
Putin would surely cower, in the face of being called a racist, right? It’s worked every other time it has been used.
OOPS...
Exactly, and this premeditated criminal act was what finally tipped the Russians to his game.
Obama promised Putin the US military would stay out of Libya if Russia did not veto UN sanctions in the Security Council.
Putin agreed and Obama backstabbed him using US air power to kill Qaddafi. It is the last time Obama will trick the Russians or Chinese.
In addition to the oil for France, Qaddafi's gold went to the IMF to prevent Libya from becoming a competitive banker for North Africa, and Qaddafi's weapons were delivered to Al Queda and Muslim Brotherhood terrorists all over the Middle East.
You're right, the Russians are in "Hell No" mode, now.
His anti-war or anti-violence propensity, in my opinion, extends to the rest of the world minus the UK, Australia, etc. Like most leftists, he sees anything not-American or American-like as good.
I do believe he'd have zero problem waging war on traditional Americans, etc.
I’d like to think that 0bama got a wake-up moment that this stuff is not just a war of words & threats.
His little proxy war is a huge powder keg for big mouth 0bama.
Someone put the brakes on him? He did have that evening stroll around the garden with an advisor?
And part of me thinks the Boehner and McCain backing was a ‘punk the president’ tactic to put the whole heaping pile of middle east crap on 0bama’s plate. (yeah...wishful thinking I know.)
0bama suddenly realized he owns this mess.
To paraphrase Fred Thompson’s aircraft carrier Captain character in “Red October”....Things are going to get out of hand and there’s going to be hell to pay!
People in the thread have already given various alternate views on this but we will know for sure only in hindsight and maybe not even then.
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