U.S. Is Preparing for a Long Siege of Arab Unrest

The New York Times ^ | September 15, 2012 | PETER BAKER and MARK LANDLER

[mdittmar]

WASHINGTON — After days of anti-American violence across the Muslim world, the White House is girding itself for an extended period of turmoil that will test the security of American diplomatic missions and President Obama’s ability to shape the forces of change in the Arab world.

Although the tumult subsided Saturday, senior administration officials said they had concluded that the sometimes violent protests in Muslim countries may presage a sustained crisis with unpredictable diplomatic and political consequences. While pressing Arab leaders to tamp down the unrest, Mr. Obama and his advisers are left to consider whether to scale back diplomatic activities in the region.

The unrest has suddenly become Mr. Obama’s most serious foreign policy crisis of the election season, and analysts say it is calling into question central tenets of his Middle East policy. Did he do enough throughout the Arab Spring to help the transition to democracy from autocracy? Has he drawn a hard enough line against Islamic extremists? Did his administration fail to address security concerns? Has his outreach to the Muslim world yielded any lasting benefits?

These questions come at an inopportune time domestically as Mr. Obama enters the last stages of a campaign season with a measurable lead in polls.

[American in Israel]

How do you conquer a country without its even knowing it's at war?

Destroy it economically, it is after all exactly how Islam created sparked the dark ages.

[AlanGreenSpam]

Yeah, I bet Chrissie Matthews will have a tingle down his leg, but this time it’ll be because he wet his pants when he sees that Oloser has botched the election.

[PMAS]

*

[rawcatslyentist]

Well the muzzies have had a 1400 year head start on US!

It's about time we either weather the endless siege, or stomp them into the dust!

[rawcatslyentist]

>The fricking White House is in Vegas, stuffing his pockets. What a joke this has become. They even blame this on a fricking utube flick, when it was 911! Just a co-inky dink surely, 911 means nothing..

[chessplayer]

Didn’t take long for Arab Spring to turn into Arab Winter.

[fwdude]

Does anybody else see gas prices skyrocketing to over $6/gallon before election day because of the Incompetent-in-Chief?

[Ax]

What was it that he said in one of his thrilling autobiographies about standing with the Muslims if things got ugly? Fat chance that ABCCBSCNNNBC will resurrect this as a news story.

[crosshairs]

Zero out any kind of aid to muslim countries. No money, food or arms. Turn our energy segment on full bore and cut purchases of oil as well. They need the money that flows from the US to carry on their bad behavior. Cut it off.

Unfortunately we have no one in D.C. to take this kind of action, except perhaps Bachmann and West.

[jivin gene]

“were they referring to Obama’s intelligence?”

You are forgetting, this is the Affirmative Action poster child. Intelligence, who needs it?

[jurroppi1]

Amen! I was a kid then too and had the same exact feelings/thoughts. I can remember thinking at that age (9 & 10 years old) what the heck are we doing, why don’t we tell them troops are on their way right now and short of full on release of the hostages immediately threaten to annihilate the whole place.

One thing remains true in the middle east (as it does even on the playground when confronting a bully) - they understand and respect superior force above all.

[yorkiemom]

Does anybody else see gas prices skyrocketing to over $6/gallon before election day because of the Incompetent-in-Chief?

Would be nice, but I see them dropping instead, as a political ploy (perhaps by using the Strategic Oil Reserves).

[PieterCasparzen]

Great ideas, but we unfortunately need their oil. We have been prevented from enjoying the benefits of our own energy resources. Thanks to the left and the greenie weenies.

Russia has tons of oil and enormous untapped resources in general. China and Russia, however, are staking out all the oil they can around the world.

The math seems pretty simple to me: if the U.S. walks away from mideast oil, Russia and China will run the operations. They'll be buying at the cheapest cost possible. We'll be burning through our own supplies.

Up until now, we've tried to maintain some semblance of this mideast countries being their own nations and we have some sort of relationship with them. But islam, having acquired modern weapons, cell phones and money, is resuming it's hate Christians and Jews war and this is not going away. Chi-coms must be happy. To me, we're either going to lose and leave with our tail between our legs or wake up and stake out the oil we want. If the murderous cult leaves us alone, fine. If they give us any trouble, we wipe them out. That's all they understand. They're punks and they'll keep killing us if they think they can get away with it. If they were not murderous and insane, we could have a normal relationship, but they are so we evidently can't.

Carpet bomb all their cities and say deal with it. The world will be in a huff. Then they'll all shut up and sit down and get back to being lazy.

Once the mideast oil is all gone, we'll have our own left to tap.

It's utterly amazing how whimpiness can produce such stupidity.

IMHO.

[mcleodglen]

This may go on for decades I think.

[GalaxieFiveHundred]