Obama's Middle East Policy Is in Ruins (unemployed, controversial, borders)
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Let's not stop there. Let's quote some more from that same article:
The deeply held American belief that all you have to do is liberate people from serfdom and dictatorship, and then democracy and a market economy will develop more or less on their own, burned to ash in the trial by fire of Iraq. A fact that academics and historically informed diplomats have always known can now be observed throughout the Arab world: Deeply ingrained cultural attitudes do not change simply because one political regime replaces another. In the long process of building a democratic society, it is not possible to simply skip stages."
"The conservative US media have already -- excessively -- labeled the anti-US protests in Egypt, Libya and Yemen as a 'wildfire' and interpreted them as a result of Obama's 'weakness.'"
"It's lucky for Obama that his opponent Romney is acting in such a hapless manner. Instead of condemning the attacks in a statesman-like fashion and assuring the president of his support, Romney criticized the government's alleged 'apology' to the demonstrators. That was not just nonsense, but partisan maneuvering at a moment when patriotism would have been appropriate. With his attack, Romney has scored an own goal."
"Three years after Obama's speech in Cairo, which was supposed to initiate a new beginning in the Middle East, the United States now has even less support in the region than before. That's not a failure of this president. Instead, it is the consequences of an American foreign policy that for decades favored power over democracy, and a hard line over human rights -- and which will suffer from a credibility problem for a long time for precisely those reasons."
"Mitt Romney has, however, failed to recognize the very core of the American dilemma. He attacked Obama with twisted facts shortly after the announcement of the death of the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. He claimed that the US government had sympathized with the attackers in Benghazi. But not only was that factually wrong, it also demonstrated an alarmingly high level of foreign policy incompetence to his own party. None of this would matter, except that Romney wants Obama's job -- and might even get it on Nov. 6."
"The West must be tough on terrorism. And it must show that it can differentiate between rabble-rousers and peaceful Muslims."
Shut that barn door!
All of this is from the SAME article?
Geez, maybe the OP's links are worth reading after all.
Why is everyone acting like this is the first time there have been widespread riots in the Middle East? My God, these images look like reruns of videos I have seen throughout my entire life. Has Obama been influencing our politics for that long? No.
Every POTUS has dealt with unrest and riots over there, and this will continue until we get the h*ll out of there. The anti-American sentiment over there was not caused by Obama. It has been generations in the making and will continue for generations to come.
Collective selective amnesia.
It's the only explanation.
Some of you on the forum do not understand the US can not solve the rest of the worlds problems if we even tried we would be a war with 8 to 10 other countries. All we need to do is strengthen our embassies with more troops and wait 45 days this will be all over today. Protest like these happen in the middle east every few yrs this is nothing new
I sure wish everyone would just calm down a bit.
First- there is NO excuse for the violence and murder that occurred.
But think outside your own head for just one minute.
If Muslims had released a film in 2011 that depicted Christ as a womanizer and child-abuser...you don't think some extremist bubbas here might have wanted to kill someone?
Keep in mind that the culture there does not allow this sort of thing- they don't have the concept of free speech, so it looks to them that the US approved of this.
I AM NOT EXCUSING THE BEHAVIOR. I am trying to keep from us from escalating the problem. No one wants more war.
I sure wish everyone would just calm down a bit.
First- there is NO excuse for the violence and murder that occurred.
But think outside your own head for just one minute.
If Muslims had released a film in 2011 that depicted Christ as a womanizer and child-abuser...you don't think some extremist bubbas here might have wanted to kill someone?
Keep in mind that the culture there does not allow this sort of thing- they don't have the concept of free speech, so it looks to them that the US approved of this.
I AM NOT EXCUSING THE BEHAVIOR. I am trying to keep from us from escalating the problem. No one wants more war.
So let me get this straight. Helping Middle Eastern nations move out from under tyranny and cruel dictators and move towards democracy is a bad thing for America to stand for?
Not if the group you're helping is as bad or worse than who you are overthrowing. In that case, it's better just to mind our own business.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mayiask
Using drones to hunt down and specifically target terrorists is not a better way of doing that than sending troops in and causing massive damage to infrastructure and the lives of many innocent civilians?
Nice attempt to lead the witness. I don't have a problem with getting the bad guys with drones in general. The problem with Obama's (and Bush's to be fair) drone strikes is in the way in which he's doing it. He's not working with the country the drones are in nor are the people in the that country behind it, thus the country feels their sovereignty is violated. Now we can argue if that should be done or not (tip off the bad guy), but it sure is building up a lot of resentment among ALL the Middle East population, and leads to what we see today. And keeping it up will eventually lead to something worse where we'll eventually have to go to war (again).
The better solution is to get our own source of energy, quit relying on the Middle East's oil, and then quit poking our noses into other country's business.
Yes, his policy IS in ruins. That won't stop the leftists masquerading as journalists from refusing to cover it. Instead, we'll get a steady diet of propaganda telling us about Mitt Romney's tax returns, Obama's brilliance, and how Bush is really to blame.
Can I get an Amen?.....AMEN!
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