The greatest strategic error the US has made in the last fifteen years whether it be in Iraq, Afghanistan,Syria or soon Iran is that we can change political and social realities at the point of a bayonet. The recent jail break in Iraq where 500 al Queda terrorists that cost the live of many young brave Americans to capture underscores the futility of American entanglement in the internal affairs of these countries. Nation building is the silly fantasy of on sabbatical academics sitting in air conditioned Washington offices. The reality is that they, if they have oil, are forced to sell it to anyone with hard currency or they will wither and starve. There will never again be a 1973 effective OPEC boycott. The US should disengage from direct involvement in the Mideast. Our policies simply do not benefit the American people and actually destabilize the region over the long term.
From Source article:
I’ve just received this dispatch from Patrick Kingsley in Cairo.
Millions are expected on Egypt’s streets later this afternoon, but Tahrir Square – the centre of anti-Morsi and pro-army sentiment in recent weeks – is only just starting to fill up.
It already has the feel of a military pageant. There are perhaps 5,000 already there, many wearing photographs of General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi – the army chief who forced Morsi from office following mass protests on 30 June – around their necks. Every 10 minutes, military helicopters fly over head to loud cheers from the crowd. Smiling protesters have their photos taken with the soldiers who are securing the entrances to the square, some of them sitting on large armoured personnel carriers.
“Behold, I am Set, the creator of confusion, who creates both the tempest and the storm throughout the length and breadth of the heavens.”
Naville, Edouard, trans. Egyptian Book of the Dead of the XVIII to XX Dynasties, Berlin, 1886.