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The Middle East that Obama inherited in 2009 was largely at peace, for the surge in Iraq had beaten down the al Qaeda-linked groups. U.S. relations with traditional allies in the Gulf, Jordan, Israel and Egypt were very good. Iran was contained, its Revolutionary Guard forces at home. Today, terrorism has metastasized in Syria and Iraq, Jordan is at risk, the humanitarian toll is staggering, terrorist groups are growing fast and relations with U.S. allies are strained.
the middle east that obama inherited in 2009 was largely at peace, for the surge in iraq had beaten down the al qaeda-linked groups. U.s. Relations with traditional allies in the gulf, jordan, israel and egypt were very good. Iran was contained, its revolutionary guard forces at home. Today, terrorism has metastasized in syria and iraq, jordan is at risk, the humanitarian toll is staggering, terrorist groups are growing fast and relations with u.s. Allies are strained.
During the absolute "quietest" month (December 2010), at least 218 Iraqi civilians were killed by militant violence, along with several dozen more police/military and militants themselves.
That's not stability. It was relatively better than what had come before, but it was a very volatile, violent, and unstable situation involving numerous political factions that disliked each other. And it took a whole lot of payoffs to various tribes to get that far.
That system was destined to fail eventually, because it was a heap of contradictions and temporary patchworks. We can already see that during the occupation, as the numbers after December 2010 crept back up.
I keep bringing this up because there is a strain of revisionist history which claims that Iraq was "stable" at some point between 2009 and 2011.
Absolutely not. Not even close. The most "peaceful" month during that time was the equivalent of the US losing 2,476 people to militant violence in 31 days. Not regular murders - war deaths. That has to be pointed out, because the revisionists want us to draw lessons from a false version of our own recent history.
He's defending his rice bowl, more or less. Of course he has to say that Prexy Obama's at fault. Otherwise, he'd have to admit his sins under Prexy Reagan & W. But see the article
...
"During the Reagan administration, Abrams gained notoriety for his involvement in controversial foreign policy decisions regarding Nicaragua and El Salvador. During Bush's first term, he served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director on the National Security Council for Near East and North African Affairs. At the start of Bush's second term, Abrams was promoted to be his Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy, in charge of promoting Bush's strategy of advancing democracy abroad. His appointment by Bush was controversial due to his conviction in 1991 on two misdemeanor counts of unlawfully withholding information from Congress during the Iran-Contra Affair investigation."
(My emphasis)
See the article for the details, all unsavory.
Last edited by southwest88; 08-22-2014 at 01:54 PM..
Reason: fix
I usually despise Obama's actions, but he is at least partly right on this. Muslims in the ME have been killing each other and anyone else they can get their hands on for 1000 years. Neither Bush, Obama or anyone else is going to change that. I see no reason to waste any more American lives trying to help the people of the ME. We should get and keep all of our people out and let them keep doing what they do. Not our country, not our problem.
Yes, Barack Obama is a failed President....let me count the ways.
But anyone who blames him for "breaking the Middle East" is about 10 years old. These threads just keep getting more laughable by the day.
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El carnicero de Centro America
