Posted on 04/24/2016 1:11:28 AM PDT by nickcarraway
A couple of weeks ago, I was talking with Philip Gordon, who held the Middle East portfolio at the National Security Council from 2013 to 2015 (and before that, served as assistant secretary of state for European affairs) about my Atlantic article, The Obama Doctrine. The piece tried to explain how the president understands the world, and Americas role in it. (This week, the president is on a tour of the some of the countries he discussed in the article.)
Gordon, a loyal Obama man, is, like his ex-boss, somewhat-to-very fatalistic about the ability of the U.S. to direct the course of events in the Middle East (realistic, rather than fatalistic, is the term the president prefers). Gordon is known for, among other things, a pithy and concise formula he developed to explain why President Obama, and many of his advisers, are so hesitant to engage fully in the various catastrophes of the Middle East. In Iraq, the Gordon dictum goes, Obama learned that full-scale invasions leading to regime change dont work; in Libya, he learned that partial interventions leading to regime collapse dont work; and in Syria he learned that non-intervention also doesnt work. An unspoken but obvious lesson: Once a president reaches this set of conclusions, can you blame him for wanting to pivot to Asia?
So I was a bit surprised to hear Gordon tell me that he believes, in retrospect, that President Obama should have attacked Syria in retaliation for its use of chemical weapons in 2013. A year earlier, the president drew a red line for the Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad regarding the potential use of such weapons; a year later, when Assad deployed sarin gas in the town of Ghouta, killing as many as 1,300 people, Obama set in
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Syria never attacked the US. We should have bombed Saudi Arabia, they did attack us, and we did nothing.
Drawing the red line was a childish expressin. Should never have been uttered.
Assad was and is our ally. We need more dictators in the region, specifically our dictators.
Y’all ever notice that Barry and his buddies always want to overthrow the sort of secular leaders of the various muzzie nations and replace them with jihadi fundamentalist rabble??
Still trying to get the Saudis their gas pipeline.
“Yall ever notice that Barry and his buddies always want to overthrow the sort of secular leaders of the various muzzie nations and replace them with jihadi fundamentalist rabble??”
I read an article some years ago that analyzed why liberals always took the opposite choice from the reasonable, rational option. It is because they are seeking utopia. They can see that for thousands of years, people made the reasonable, rational choice and we still don’t have utopia. Therefore the answer must be to make the opposite or unreasonable, irrational choice.
The current US foreign policy evolved as marijuana was legalized.
Let’s see, that would be a neocon Hillary Clinton concept.
Agree 100%.
Yep. We had no business overthrowing Libya.
Yep. We had no business overthrowing Libya.
How’s this for pithy and concise.
0bama ha the reverse Midas touch>everything 0bama touches turns to shite.
AFP is FUBAR as is the executive branch and CONgre$$. Garbage In. Garbage Out. Take out the garbage.
Zero representation.
the president understands the world...
I’m a curious science guy. I would love to know what circuits or neurons or chemicals came together to come to a completely opposite opinion against of ALL of the evidence.
The ME is burning. Russia’s invading, W Europe is teetering
Did I leave anything out?
I know you’re a ghost writer for the Atlantic. Don’t deny it! It will only make thing worse. But you write well :)
Obama's shill at The Atlantic spins some more.
What legal basis would the Obama administration provide for going to war with Syria? (For Libya, there was a UN resolution.)
I know, I know. Obama don’t need no legal basis.
Exactly. Let it be stated that Assad always protected the Christian minority in Syria. If Isis and their ilk take over, the remaining Christians will be killed or forced to flee.
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