« on: July 15, 2014, 11:30:58 AM »
Very good article IMHO that attempts to evaluate the situation without political blinders on, showing bias or trying to score points.
Certainly not a very exhaustive discussion of the region; but it has a feeling of pragmatic reality to it that seems to be lost these days in most editorials.
The Arab Spring isn’t one thing. Many countries in the Middle East and North Africa are experiencing wrenching change, but unlike in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall, each affected country is moving in different and sometimes opposing directions. Each has its own history, its own narrative...
So what are we supposed to make of all this?
First, understand that any one-size-fits-all policy prescription for such a diverse region is guaranteed to be wrong somewhere. Libya needs state-building. Egypt needs gradual reform. Morocco needs as much diplomatic support from the US as possible. Syria, at this point, needs a miracle. Tunisia doesn’t need much of anything.
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/year-four-arab-spring-proved-everyone-wrongHere is his take on the current Iraq situation:
“We’ll kill you if you mess with us, but otherwise go die” is not even close to my preferred foreign policy, but it’s what President Barack Obama prefers (phrased much more nicely, of course) and it’s what the overwhelming majority of Americans prefer, including most liberals as well as conservatives
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/beginning-end-iraq
« Last Edit: July 15, 2014, 11:35:48 AM by Ron »
For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity, that they may be without excuse. Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
