Posted on 09/16/2013 7:09:19 AM PDT by SJackson
Max Boot does an excellent job explaining why the new Russian proposal on removing chemical weapons from Syria is almost certainly a mirage. Not surprisingly, however, President Obama is eager to embrace it. After all, doing so will avoid Congress rejecting his request to use military strikes against Syria–and the de facto collapse of his presidency.
But this will come at quite a high cost. Russia is now establishing itself as the preeminent power in the region, having displaced the United States. American prestige and credibility lie in ruins. President Obama has succeeded in undermining the moderate rebels he promised to assist. He has strengthened the murderous anti-American regime he declared he wanted gone. A despot who used chemical weapons and committed, in the words of Secretary of State John Kerry, a “moral obscenity” will now escape any punishment (which after all was the stated purpose of Obama’s threats to strike Syria). And Iran and Hezbollah, having (along with Russia) come to the aid of Assad, will emerge from this whole thing in a much stronger position.
It is hard to overstate how much of a debacle Syria has been for America. The damage we have sustained is deep and durable. The balance of power has shifted dramatically against America. It may take decades for us to undo the damage, if even that is possible.
This period may well turn out to be a hinge moment in the Middle East–and one of the worst diplomatic chapters in modern American history. Such is the cost to a nation when a community organizer is promoted to the job of commander in chief.
The Russian hegemony, vastly expanded, and with Israel now more isolated than ever.
The only counterbalance in the region now is the Saudi royal family, and they are soon to be under siege. Iran, with the aid of Russian logistical and technical support, has eyes set on finally subduing Iraq and possibly annexing parts of that land, as well and a sort of bridge to Bashar al-Assad’s Syria and the eastern Mediterranean. Once the last US and UN troops depart Afghanistan, the hegemony spreads to the east, knocking on the front door of India, and possibly China’s back door.
Turkey and Egypt remain question marks. If they should both finally turn to secular leadership, they both have opportunity to become viable players in the region.
The experiment in trying to bring a kind of Jeffersonian democracy to Muslim countries should be declared over, and the research paper written, with the conclusion that representative government and Islam are mutual exclusives.
Islam is by its very nature only functional as a tyranny, with an oligarchy at the top, the Noble Islamic Gentlemen, then the vast class of the subjugated inferiors, including the entire female gender, who have accepted this superiority of authority by the Noble Islamic Gentlemen, the Dhimmi, and all the others, the Kufir or “infidels”, fit only to be slain as some kind of animal, should they sully the presence of the Noble Islamic Gentlemen.
I’m pretty sure the Obama clown at the rodeo would make a better president than the Obam clown in the White House.
Absolutely right.
The most basic evil fundamental to Western decadence is mendacity.
The Americans trying to live in their nonexistent make-believe world cannot be honest with themselves--let alone anyone else.
American "journalism" is nothing but propaganda--replete with lies, distortions, half-truths, cover-ups. Truth for its own sake is not even a consideration. Its purpose is "molding public opinion"--a confession of mendacity.
And most Americans not only tolerate this but actually find joy and comfort in it.
Throughout the Western world, including the USA, people are abused for speaking the truth--often in deference to some "higher morality", as though there were a higher morality than truth--truth for its own sake.
The stupid will find joy and comfort in their delusions temporarily, but ultimately truth always smashes delusions and the results are not joyful.
Western Civilization began with sage tales of self-deception, delusion, denial, and hubris, leading inexorably to tragedy. If the Americans--and other Westerners--don't wake up soon to the realization that their highly seductive make-believe world is the same folly that brought down Oedipus and Jocasta et al., they will not be able to escape the fate that follows hubris and denial--and they will have no one to blame but themselves.
As you were typing your comment, I was typing comment 48 in the thread below:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3067075/posts
We’re pretty much on the same wavelength.
Yeah, but at Homo Depot she would have no problem showing you to the “gay marriage” aisle.
Are you suggesting that Americans should have followed 0bama into the strategic blunder of bombing on behalf of Al Qaeda in Syria?
Or, are you suggesting that having elected an idiot, Americans are responsible for idiocy?
I agree with the latter, but not the former. What say you?
I don’t think the Russians will gain much of a hegemony over the Middle East though. My recollection is that their hegemony in Afghanistan left a bad taste in their mouths.
The muzzies like to play their own game.
The American people put their collective foot down and cried “no more useless wars”, and, for once, their representatives listened. This isn’t weakness; it’s government working the way the Framers intended.
Why do you think it doesn’t matter that the Russians now dominate a region that is still the main producer of energy for the world but especially for Europe, Or that they are allied with the Chinese. It is more than symbolic that the Chinese sent ships to “observe.” the situation in the Med. Obama is withdrawing at the same time that he is shrinking and otherwise undermining the US Forces to 1940 levels.
Does that mean we’ll take our toys and go home and stop trying to be the world’s policeman, fire brigade and social worker?
If so, something positive may have come from all of this...
Post of the day. Or, in the immortal words of Fonzie, “exactamundo!”
There’s a group of folks I call the perfect voter group. For their loyalty at the polls they have incrementally been bestowed and elevated about the more deserving, educated and civilized with legal privilege.
They are Americas Royalty.
We expect certain things from this group...and they never, ever disappoint us. There’s nothing they can’t corrupt or foul...for they can surely break an anvil.
At present we are all under the thumb of THEM.
I’m gonna butt in, if you don’t mind. I think the American people were right in the narrow sense to put their collective foot down and say “no” to this ill-advised military venture. In that narrow sense, it was not weakness.
But in the broader sense, the American people, or majority thereof, really screwed up by not demanding and electing better public servants than Barack Hussein 0bama. The real problem, and real weakness isn’t saying “no” to a bad idea, it’s putting in office someone who routinely comes up with bad ideas. Unless the deliberate erosion of American influence is the strategy, 0bama has no middle east strategy. The point of the original article is that 0bama has seriously damaged our international interests.
My opinion is that the American people are ultimately responsible for this because we elected this guy. Not once, but twice. A national body politic of rational, competent citizens doesn’t do that.
Even worse, Zero was the BETTER of the two.
And the degeneracy of the political system is a reflection of the degeneracy of our society. We have a system that is currently designed to do the following:
1. It emphasizes “politics” over “policy.” Politics is what you do to get elected and stay in office. Policy is what you do once you are there. People who can play the game of politics get public office. They don’t have to know anything about policy. And don’t, except as it serves politics.
2. The public doesn’t really want “policy” anyway, as good policy requires tough decisions, the hardest of which is to say “no” to groups of people who need to hear that word but aren’t accustomed to it.
3. So we have 536 people in Washington who will try to give people what they want, instead of doing what’s right. Anyone else just doesn’t get there.
4. As long as people think the government can “fix” their problems and give them freebies, they will keep voting for politics over policy.
So, instead of demanding a field of candidates who will do what’s right, we get a field of political hacks who are just trying to say what 51% want to hear. The best ones, like 0bama, know how to lie about telling people what they want to hear, and then do what they want to do. They survive by playing groups of people against each other.
So, as American exceptionalism died, our political system died with it.
The author must believe that sending brave, young, patriotic Americans out to die in some Muslim country is worth building or maintaining "American prestige and credibility"!
Personally, especially when it comes to the Middle-East, I don't give a ... (expletive)! I for one am tired of using American lives as fodder for the cannons of American politicians or Neo-cons that love getting involved in foreign "WARS".
Every war since Reagan left office has been at the behest of our Saudi Masters.
See my #38. GMTA.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.