Mr. Obama’s policy in the Middle East was confused as usual. To be fair to Mr. Obama, he did inherit a difficult situation left by his predecessor President George W. Bush. Mr. Bush’s great failure was the invasion of Iraq in 2003; that in turn was caused by his failure to understand either the cultural or religious history of the Middle East. Mr. Bush learned from his father President George H. W. Bush the idiotic foreign policy of President Woodrow Wilson, in which America’s job is allegedly to make the world “safe for democracy”, or some other equally inane phrase. Mr. Wilson was divorced from reality, and those who follow his general foreign policy prescription demonstrate the same. Mr. Bush actually believed, or told us he believed, that the U. S. military would be greeted as liberators if it removed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein from power.
Here is how the Arab Middle East actually works. It is possible for an Arab who is not a Moslem to live peacefully and function in a normal society. It is possible for a Moslem who is not an Arab to live peacefully and function in a normal society. There is something about the Arab culture and the Moslem religion that in combination causes people who are both to turn into raving retards fit only for the desert wastelands. A person who is both Arab and Moslem is incapable of living in peace in any society, not even his own; and his main function even within his own society is to kill anyone not of his tribe, or Moslem sect, or family. The duration of feuds between Arab factions is measured in millennia. That is why the best that can be achieved in a nation populated by Arab Moslems is that it be ruled with an iron fist by a secular dictator (or absolute monarch). Such a government is the only way a nation full of Arab Moslems can prevent widespread chaos, destruction, and murder. Therefore, Mr. Saddam Hussein was the best that could be hoped for in a place like Iraq: at least he suppressed all the crazies that were crazier then him. History showed after he was gone that about half the population was in fact crazier then he was. Mr. Bush never did learn that lesson; what is sadder is that Mr. Obama never learned it either, even with Mr. Bush’s failure staring him in the face. To be fair to Mr. Bush, Iraq was sufficiently pacified when he left office, although requiring a U. S. military force of considerable size.
Rather than make the best of a bad situation, Mr. Obama, in his “leading with his behind” approach, decided to withdraw the U. S. military forces from Iraq in the belief that they were capable of rational self-government. The result was a series of civil wars, culminating in the establishment of ISIS in Eastern Syria and Western Iraq. That in turn re-ignited the war, which is still going now. He also decided to remove Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Ghaddafi, dictator of Libya, and allow him to be replaced by a set of warring factions, all of whom proved themselves crazier than Mr. Ghaddafi. Likewise. Mr. Obama’s policy in Syria showed the same confused approach. At first, he wisely failed to support the Syrian rebels. But then he turned against President Bashar al-Assad because Assad (supposedly) used chemical weapons against his enemies after Mr. Obama promised a “red-line” response if he did. Assad crossed the line, and nothing happened. After ISIS got rolling, and the Syrian rebels promised to fight them, Mr. Obama provided some nominal support, and some of those Syrian rebels joined up with ISIS. All this dithering around in Syria served only to increase the power and influence of the Russians there.
An Arab dictator used chemical weapons against his own people? What else is new? Arab history continues as it always has and always will. Al-Assad is the best that the Syrian people can achieve. But Mr. Obama never gave any support to the Kurds in the northern part of Iraq; the only force willing to actually defeat ISIS. Mr. Obama apparently was afraid to anger the pathetic excuse of a government in Iraq, which even now, cannot keep peace inside its own borders. The Iraqi government is concerned that a suitably strong Kurdish faction may seek independence from Iraq. The Kurds are not Arabs, so an independent nation of Moslem Kurds could in fact function as a normal nation.
Tags: Obama
