Posted on 09/16/2013 8:26:15 PM PDT by neverdem
War is a messy business. Serial wars get even more untidy over time. Often, it's hard to know where one begins and another ends. Such is the case today as the Arab spring looks like another Muslim winter. America and Europe stumble from one conflict venue to another wondering what happened to all those rosy assertions about jasmine, justice, moderation, and modernity. The Islamic world is a mess and no one has a clue as to where or how the sequential mayhem ends. In Syria, the nanny states of the West are again perched on the brink of another sectarian and/or tribal abyss.
Nonetheless, the optimism of intervention still prevails. Today you hear argument after argument about the responsibilities of power and success -- or preaching about very selective humanitarian concerns. If you read enough foreign policy analysis you might come to believe that someone has the answer, or that somehow Europe and America have the "responsibility" to make the Third World well. Never mind that the very words "developing" and "emerging" have become geo-political oxymorons, triumphs of hope over experience.
So too, "red line" moralizing. Alas, the no-fault/default cultures of Europe and America are unlikely enforcers of any kind of norms and standards in the less civilized world. The West insists, ironically, on measures of accountability and restraint that have been abandoned in Europe and America. Political decay, especially in the First World, has consequences.
All the rhetoric about global responsibility is a rehash of the "white man's burden" trope. Worse still, the hand-wringing and preaching seems to validate "orientalism," guilt-driven theories that excuse and forgive Muslim pathology because the chaos is thought to be the results of European racism, colonialism, or exploitation.
Ironically, much of the confused strategic rhetoric originates with senior military officers and the Intelligence Community...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Serial wars do get messy.
When have we as Americans ever done this?
Give Obama another Nobel peace prize.
This guy stinks on ice.
Obama is beating down the American spirit.
There is little other explanation of his actions.
I would love to see.
I have only been to Libya/Tunisia.
Petra is on my bucket list.
Damascus will be visit-able again some day. It's a must-see.
There are better examples of the Roman Empire in Libya than in Rome.
God Bless You and stay safe.
There is no "p" in the Arabic alphabet. They say "Betra."
Hey let's go to the movies and have some bobcorn and Dr. Bebber. No kidding. That is what their English sounds like. :o)
I’ll take your word for it.
I am home now. Remember I said when Bashar’s DADDY was in charge, I was there. I am home now in God’s greatest country in the WHOLE wide world.
Obama gave Iraq away. I will never forgive him for that.
He let our influence in Turkey slide too.
I would like to see the Bosphorus straits, missed my shot at Cyprus.
I would like to see the Bosphorus straits, missed my shot at Cyprus.
Both were pretty nice. We went only to the Christian, that is, Greek-Cypriot side.
You could SEE the difference. Greek side: green and clean. Turkish side: brown and dirty.
I believe we could have divided the ME from the Black Sea to the Persian gulf.
Obama pissed it away and burnt bridges.
And Now?
The Brits hold on alone.
I think we should stay the HELL outta the entire ME. They have been fighting each other since the beginning of time. NOTHING and NOBODY can change that.
On the LAST day of existence, when God has had enough of us on earth, THEN the ME will experience peace.
It won't happen before that....ever.
My opinion.
Yes, they do.
Fair enough, and the NE stays in the ME not invading Africa Europe and the lot.
Fair enough?
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