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Obama’s Mideast Vacuum [Obama's Policies Have Left Behind a "Region On Fire"]
Wall St. J ^ | March 26, 2015

Posted on 03/26/2015 8:10:10 PM PDT by Steelfish

Obama’s Mideast Vacuum

March 26, 2015

An abiding goal of President Obama’s foreign policy has been to reduce America’s role in the Middle East, in the belief that it would lead to greater stability and serve U.S. interests. Has a policy ever been so thoroughly repudiated in so short a time? Mr. Obama has succeeded in his retreat, but the vacuum he’s left has produced a region on fire that is becoming a broad Sunni-Shiite war.

That’s the context for this week’s meltdown in Yemen, which has now escalated with the military intervention of Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Arab allies. This follows the rout of a U.S.-friendly government by Houthi militias that belong to the Zaidi offshoot of Shiite Islam and are backed by Iran. What had been a proxy war is in danger of becoming a direct Saudi-Iran conflict.

The Saudi-Gulf Arab intervention is a significant risk, not least of a prolonged guerrilla war. The Saudis have a capable air force, but their ground forces can’t sustain a long fight. Egyptian troops may also participate, but Egyptians well remember how they were bloodied when they last took sides in a Yemen civil war in the 1960s.

The Saudi strategy isn’t clear but one goal seems to be to restore the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in at least part of the country, especially in the south around the port of Aden and including the air base at al-Anad. That won’t end the civil war, but it would prevent either an Iranian proxy or an al Qaeda offshoot from dominating a nation on its southern border.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
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1 posted on 03/26/2015 8:10:10 PM PDT by Steelfish
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To: Steelfish

Both sunni and sheeite need to go....


2 posted on 03/26/2015 8:19:39 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Paladin2

3 posted on 03/26/2015 8:55:55 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Travis McGee

Our President is a perfect SOB and has no business even in the SAME ROOM with power and authority!


4 posted on 03/27/2015 4:39:41 AM PDT by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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To: Steelfish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c_23t-riWU

Here’s a song for Bam’s mideast policy...and his policy of open borders in the US.


5 posted on 03/27/2015 10:39:03 AM PDT by SaraJohnson
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