Posted on 01/17/2011 10:20:05 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING
Strategy site to Obama: End alliance with Israel
WASHINGTON — A newsletter-publisher said to have ties with the Obama administration has called on Washington to end its strategic alliance with Israel.
George Friedman, publisher of Stratfor, has published a book that called on the Obama administration to reorder U.S. foreign policy. Friedman has argued that the key element of the proposal required the end of U.S. strategic ties with Israel and bolstering of cooperation with the Islamic world, particularly Iran and Pakistan. "The United States must quietly distance itself from Israel," Friedman says in his book, titled "The Next Decade." "It must strengthen — or at least put an end to weakening — Pakistan."
This marked the second U.S. strategist to call for a revision of Washington's alliance with Israel. Last year, a former consultant to Obama, Anthony Cordesman, argued that the U.S. strategic alliance with Israel was harming Washington's interests in the Middle East, Middle East Newsline reported.
Friedman's organization includes former intelligence officials and enjoys ties with the Obama administration, Middle East Newsline reported.
Acknowledging that his proposal would be regarded as controversial, Friedman said under Obama and former President George Bush, Washington has been in a confrontation with the Islamic world, which consists of one billion people, as part of the "obsessive" U.S. war against Al Qaida.
Instead, a U.S. withdrawal of support for Israel, which receives $3 billion a year in American aid, would restore balance in the Middle East, Friedman argued. He said Washington's recent policy has destabilized the region as well as bolstered Indian dominance of Pakistan.
"Owing largely to recent U.S. policy, those balances are unstable or no longer exist," Friedman said. "The Israelis are no longer constrained by their neighbors and are now trying to create a new reality on the ground."
"The Pakistanis have been badly weakened by the war in Afghanistan, and they are no longer an effective counterbalance to India. And, most important, the Iraqi state has collapsed, leaving the Iranians as the most powerful military force in the Persian Gulf area," Friedman said.
The book also called on Washington to recognize Iran as the new power in the Middle East. Friedman argued that Washington must arrange a detente with Teheran similar to that with China in the 1970s and the Soviet Union in the 1940s. He said Iran already dominates neighboring Iraq.
"And in the spirit of Roosevelt's entente with the USSR during World War II, as well as Nixon's entente with China in the 1970s, the United States will be required to make a distasteful accommodation with Iran, regardless of whether it attacks Iran's nuclear facilities," Friedman said. "These steps will demand a more subtle exercise of power than we have seen on the part of recent presidents."
Friedman said the decline in U.S. support for Israel must mark the first step in a revised American foreign policy. He said this was vital for what he termed the survival of the U.S. empire.
"The United States is a commercial republic, which means that it lives on trade," Friedman said. "Its tremendous prosperity derives from its own assets and virtues, but it cannot maintain this prosperity and be isolated from the world. Therefore, if the United States intends to retain its size, wealth, and power, the only option is to learn how to manage its disruptive influence maturely."
Have you seen this article?
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/MA15Df01.html
The sources gave the names of some of the Canadians undergoing training. These could not be independently verified and include: Jeam Paull (local name Sadiq Ullah), Leman Langlois (Sana Ullah), James Richard (Abdur Rehman), Otto Paul (Abu Usman), Thomas (Abdullah) and Paul Gall (Hafiz Ullah).
Various militants of other nationalities are also being trained in North Waziristan, probably the most lawless part of Pakistan. Apart from Arab and Central Asian militants, one can find jihadis from the United States, Britain and Germany.
In October 2010, eight foreigners were killed in a US drone attack in the region. These included: Brusly (local name Fayaz), Gagarin Gill (Siraj), Smith (Jamal), Anderson (Waqas), Peterson (Shaheen), Walsh (Mustafa), Johnson (Wisal) and Peterson McKenzie (Usman). Prior to this attack, in September 2010 a senior German militant named Abdul Ghaffar was killed in a drone strike.
On December 15, 2010, another drone missile killed two Britain nationals in Darpakhel. They were identified as Stephen, age 48, and Darry Smith, aged 25. Stephen (Abu Bakkar), after converting to Islam, went to Afghanistan in 2009 and joined al-Qaeda. He was accompanied by the slain Smith (Mansoor Ahmed).
“End alliance with Israel”
That will trigger the end of the United States.
“Washington has been in a confrontation with the Islamic world” There’s the problem. We’ve been “after” a very small percentage of fanatic Muslims. Besides we’ve been assisted in our efforts by other Muslims.
The man is either an idiot or a fool. On second thought, possibly both.
What? No barf alert??? ...................... FRegards
Wrong George. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the past, present, and future supreme power in the middle east, the US, and everywhere else in the universe and beyond. Iran and it's Islamic cohorts are nothing more than minor speedbumps on the way to fulfillment of His plan for Israel's future, and they will be utterly destroyed if they so much as lay a hand on His chosen people. Never the less, in league with Russia and several other Islamic nations named in scripture, at some point they will attack Israel. The result of that unwise attack will be the total destruction of the aggressors armed forces. (Ezekiel 38:1-23)
Israel is the apple of God's eye, (Zechariah 2:8) and it is now back in a small portion of the land God promised to it's father Abraham (Genesis 15:18) After 2500 years of exile in the gentile world, present day Israel currently occupies only a mere smidgen of the vast territory promised to father Abraham, "from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates" Gen 15:18. But during the millennial reign of Messiah Jesus on His human forefather David's throne in Jerusalem, Israel will finally take possession of all it's promised land and will posses it forever. That's just as promised to Abraham by the only entity in the universe for whom it is impossible to lie or break a promise.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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The tardbutt has to learn to parse. Toes first, feet, then salami-sliced up to the neck. See how simple that is?
Thanks s30mki.
I have always been underwhelmed by Stratfor’s analysis.
Funny. I’ve been advocating Israel ending its ties with the US.
By what means....Magic?
I've read and listened to George Friedman for many years.
Ususally on target, but how does one stop an addict on the road to perdition?
Mr. George Friedman: It's not always about power, its about values.
Unless and until Islam changes, or its people abandon it, the core values that have brought destruction to Pakistan will continue to destroy it.
That goes for the rest of the Islamic world, which is imploding: Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon are imploding as I write.
Egypt may well be next, and Saudi Arabia after the King dies.
We have no power over this.
It is the values of their culture, derived from their religion, that is bringing destruction.
Why does India need "counrterbalancing"?
India is no longer in the camp of the USSR, and is is on target to become a leading trading partner of the US, and is THE WORLD LARGEST DEMOCRACY.
George Friedman is way off base on this one.
This is EXACTLY what Europe told itself as it started on the road to Eurabia.
With the same results.
The next step will be millions, and I mean Millions, of immigrants from the Islamic world.
Some kind of deal is in the process of being made, probably at the Bilderberg conference, and we will we not recognize this country in our life time, if we follow this policy.
That explains a lot.
Haha, Worst idea in the history of bad ideas.. so he wants to dump an ally(Israel) and screw over a prospective ally (India). Is it any wonder that India and Israel are doing join defense research and trade and at the same time upping their relationship?
This statement from Friedman isn’t simply a bolt out of the blue. Its is a long standing US foreign policy that is brought back into effect. Bush’s legacy to befriend India is being completely reversed. And I highly doubt it has anything to do with Saudi money. We very much underestimate America’s need to curry favor with Muslim countries.
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