Our Middle East policy
Barry Rubin, writing in Pajamas Media, describes how President Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are making a mess of things in the Middle East-especially with Libya, Syria and Turkey. It would be hilarious if it weren't so serious.
http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/2011/07/16/obama-administration-new-achievement-messing-up-turkey-syria-and-libya-within-24-hours/?singlepage=true
If this melodrama in Libya ever ends, it will be highly interesting to see who takes over that country. It seems that Obama-Clinton seem to be rushing pell mell to embrace the forces fighting against the Ghaddafi regime. Don't get me wrong; I want ot see Ghadaffi strung up as much as anybody. I just think we need to go slow on supporting anybody. Right now, the other side doesn't look too attractive either.
As for Syria, which is it? Does Assad "have to go" or institute reforms (LOL)? One has to ask why if we bombed Libya to protect the Libyan people from Ghaddafi, are we not bombing Syria to protect the Syrian people from Assad?
It's all quite confusing, and it appears that Obama and Clinton are quite confused day by day. Who knows, maybe next week we will bomb Israel.
pajamasmedia seems to think that international diplomacy is about as difficult as a week-end sleepover.
ReplyDeleteWhat policy are they (or Fousesquawk) advocating anyway? Gary, you haven't even made it clear if you advocate a hands-off kind of isolationism, or support for the existing regimes at all costs, or whether you have a favored faction you want the USA to throw its backing behind.
One thing obvious is that ALL the "great powers" involved, or should I say "powers great and small," are simply not capable of exercising the influence an array of pundits might think morally sound or politically correct.
Our respective national budgets, inventory of ammo and armaments, and willingness of citizen volunteers and taxpayers to sacrifice for anything that seems to be on the horizon, not to mention the size of national debts and financial crises, simply doesn't allow for it.
Syria is too big for the USA to handle, whereas Libya looked relatively cheap, and we just might squeak through. Ditto for any nation or combination in Europe. We can't afford to be big bad imperialists, we can't afford to make the world safe for democracy, and the people on the ground are a mix of what we might approve of or disapprove of, but it just isn't in our hands anymore.