The breaking news that al Qaeda has captured Fallujah and Ramadi raises the question whether America’s sacrifices in Iraq were made in vain. It also highlights the utter inadequacy of President Obama’s Middle East policy, especially his disregard for critical regional threats.
Instead, Obama has focused on Israeli-Palestinian issues, essentially to no avail. Despite Secretary of State John Kerry’s repeated visits, including one just ended, the “peace process” has seen no significant movement.
Proponents of “peace processing” ignore this reality, asserting that the process itself has an inherent value, and that real movement comes only when deadlines loom and decision-makers realize “it’s now or never” to “take risks for peace” and achieve “a peace for the brave.” And when all else fails, peace processers say, “What have we got to lose?”
Such rhetoric might be appealing initially, but it is in fact utterly hollow.
EYE ON A CRAZY PLANET
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I've said before and I'll say it again - John Bolton is a psychopath. War is his solution to everything and his min hobby seems to be lying.
ReplyDeleteQuick quiz! Who signed the September Status of Forces Agreement with Maliki that established the 2011 withdrawal date for US forces in Iraq.
Here's a clue, it wasn't Obama, who hadn't been elected yet.
So what was Obama supposed to do, violate the SOFA, which would have been a de facto re-invasion of Iraq?
By the way, what's happening now is a clear demonstration that the surge was a failure by the Bush administration's own standards at the time. The surge was supposed to facilitate political reconciliation to the point that US troops could safely withdraw.
There's zero domestic American support for re-engaging in Iraq, and arming Maliki is crazed for several reasons.
As for the peace process, I generally agree that, other than Hamas, there's no capable Palestinian presence to enforce an agreement, but that misses the point.
Doing nothing, while Israel continues expanding settlements, could very well lead to a third intifida, the diplomatic consequences of which could make it impossible for Tel Aviv to do anything about Iran.
If Bolton were taking seriously, the United States would be overextended to the point that it would collapse like Soviet Union did within five years.
The guy's a psychopath.