I subscribe to the Dry Bones Blog by Yaakov Kirschen, an Israeli cartoonist. I enjoy seeing how he views the world, even though I don’t always agree with him. For instance:
Kirschen adds, “His ineptitude is becoming embarrassing!”
Obviously some people agree with that, but I agree with Andy Borowitz — “Don’t do stupid stuff,” is a great place to start. In his latest article Borowitz says,
Arguing that his motto “Don’t do stupid stuff” is not a coherent foreign policy, critics of President Obama are pressuring him to do something stupid without further delay.
A few weeks ago I read an article where the author said we should keep out of the Middle East, because every time we do something we make it worse. There’s some truth to that.
And Peter Bienart in The Atlantic argues that Obama does have a strategy. It’s “fierce minimalism,” to focus on counterterroism — keeping jihadists from attacking American/Americans — rather than trying to fix all the problems in the world.
From the beginning, the president’s political team has understood that on foreign policy, Obama faced two political dangers. If he got too many American troops killed in the Middle East, he risked alienating his liberal base. If he permitted a major terrorist attack against American civilians, he risked empowering the Republicans eager to paint him as weak. The way to protect against both dangers was to keep American troops out of harm’s way while pulverizing alleged jihadists from the air.
Regardless of what you think of the merits of that approach in terms of statecraft, it’s worked politically…. [Obama’s] fierce minimalism fits the national mood.
President Obama’s Mideast strategy is not grand. It’s not inspiring. It’s not idealistic. But it’s what the American people want and what their government knows how to do. And Barack Obama didn’t become president by tilting at windmills.
My own guess is Obama will do his best to kill the leaders of the Islamic State the way he finally got Osama bin Laden. It’s a tall order and he may not be able to do it, but if that’s what he’s thinking he would be a fool to announce it to the world.
September 5, 2014
It cannot be easy to be the President of the USA now for anyone, leave alone Obama. When you have a very voluble Republican Party with a one point agenda of discrediting everything he does, he has to be extremely cautious. I think that history will be kind to him in retrospect.
I agree.
Let me latch onto the assertion that “we should keep out of the Middle East, because every time we do something we make it worse”. My sentiment entirely. We do make it worse. Far worse.
Now, of course we do know that conflict peddled outside our own countries’ boundaries is often for economical reasons, or (call me naive) to divert the public’s attention from our own problems.
My view is not popular. Which doesn’t matter. LSF (longest standing friend), along with my father switched on and informed to a degree I can only and don’t wish to dream of, have a different take. Only two days ago LSF and I “wasted” more than an hour on this subject. He, like so many, argues that once we have got our fingers in the pie we can’t just retreat. Yes, we can. Let those countries sort themselves out. Says I. I am lucky, Jean: In popularity stakes I have not much further to plummet.
Let’s put it another way: If I walk into two (or more) people having a fist fight I’ll intervene. When neighbours beat themselves into a pulp I will knock at the door and ask whether I can help. But, and I might be on wobbly stilts here, I do not look out for other people in conflict and then do good on MY terms.
Slaughter me if you must.
U
Oil? Did someone mention oil?
Saudi beheads people to but our governments don’t mention this for some reason. I wonder why (no I don’t – see previous paragraph).
The impressive thing about Obama is he was trying to focus on domestic problems — he was trying to get out of getting involved in messy foreign conflicts. I don’t agree with a lot of things he has done, but I think he was right in this area.
The problem with taking out the leadership is the availability of a successor government.
Yes, it’s easy to tear down, not so easy to build something better.
Ursula, I disagree for the reason that the ISIS has drawn recruits from various nationalities including Britain, Europe and India. These people pose a threat to the entire world and particularly to the USA, Britain and India. To take back some space from them, Al Quaida has also joined the bandwagon and has announced that they have set up cells within India to wage jihad. I agree with your LSF that having been party to creating the mess, the least that the West can do now is clean up the mess. The Saudis have also sent a clear signal to the West that this danger is not some small matter and serious attention and action needs to be taken by the West.
The whole world is a mess & we cannot clean it up.
I think al Qaeda moving to India is interesting. I’ve also read that Kashmir is going to be a real hotspot soon.