Category Archives: Middle East

Diplomacy Or More Devastation?

Foreign Policy, Middle East, Military, Neoconservatism, Russia, UN, WMD

The latest Syria developments, as of Tuesday, September 10, are that “UN Security Council closed-door meeting called by Russia has been canceled, according to the Council’s current president Australia’s Ambassador to the UN, Gary Quinlan.” (Via RT)

And, via Politico:

President Barack Obama said Tuesday he wants Congress to delay its efforts to vote on authorizing the use of force in response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons until the round of diplomatic efforts that began this week has a chance to play out.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Obama to renounce the use of force.

Note that “Obama and Kerry … haven’t been shy about taking credit for the [Russian] proposal [to disarm Syria of chemical weapons], saying on Monday and Tuesday that they discussed the idea last week with their Russian counterparts.” (Politico)

Will the president go back to saving-face mode, or will diplomacy win out?

UPDATED (6/7/2017): Dennis Rodman (& Russia) Promoting Global Peace

Communism, Foreign Policy, Free Markets, Hillary Clinton, libertarianism, Middle East, Russia

Dennis Rodman has a road-map to peace: “building trust and understanding through sport and cultural exchanges,” as he put it. It’s slow, laborious and precludes lobbing bombs at North Korea or depriving its poor, long-suffering people of contact with the world.

Rodman says this about his frequent visits to Pyongyang: “I know in time Americans will see I’m just trying to help us all get along and see eye to eye through basketball and with my friendship with Kim I know this will happen.”

These are baby steps, but it’s one man’s way of opening up a closed and cloistered society to outside influence: through positive, voluntary exchanges and interactions.

On the other hand, a woman of war—Hillary Clinton—has just issued forth in support of Barack Obama’s adventure in Syria, while also giving a cursory nod to Russian diplomacy.

Russia has urged Syria to put its chemical weapons under international control for subsequent destruction to avert a possible military strike.
“We are calling on the Syrian authorities not only agree on putting chemical weapons storages under international control, but also for its further destruction and then joining the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,” Lavrov said. “We have passed our offer to [Syrian Foreign Minister] Walid al-Muallem and hope to receive a fast and positive answer,” he added.
… Russia and Syria urged the US to focus on convening a peace conference to end a more than two-year long crisis, rather than launching military strikes.
With Obama seeking Congress’ support for military action to respond to an alleged chemical attack near Damascus, al-Muallem said “the diplomatic channels to resolve this issue have not been exhausted”.
“We ask about the motivation of the US to launch a strike against us”, he said.
Lavrov has reiterated Moscow’s full support for calls by the UN Security Council to bring chemical experts back to Syria to complete their mission.

On a positive note: With this predictable move (not yet online)—Hillary and her Amazons did, after all, orchestrate the war against Libya—she may have damaged her presidential prospects for 2016.

We can only hope.

In any case, Hillary Clinton or Dennis Rodman for public office? I know what my choice would be.

UPDATE (6/7/2017): President Trump will get more from North Korea and its patriotic people, who prefer their own dictator to American-imposed democracy, if he sends as an emissary a man who endeavored to open up that closed and cloistered society to outside influence through positive, voluntary exchanges and interactions, not threats; a man who opted for slow, laborious efforts that preclude lobbing bombs at North Korea or depriving its poor, long-suffering people of contact with the world. That man is Dennis Rodman.

UPDATE II: His Highness’s Collateral Damage

Barack Obama, Foreign Policy, Iraq, Just War, libertarianism, Middle East, Neoconservatism, Republicans

“… And if you’re so dead-set against the killing of children that you are willing to send us into yet another conflict, will you guarantee that the 1000-pound Tomahawk missiles that you will heap on Syria won’t kill children—or are they simply your collateral damage?”

These powerful words were delivered by Judge Jeanine (written, no doubt, by her show’s writers), five minutes and 28 seconds into her weekly Opening Statement.

Judge Jeanine was speaking about the thing no Republican cared about during Iraq: collateral damage.

Let us hope that this wonderful, country wide awakening is no brief jaunt, but a return to an America-First, do-no-harm foreign policy.

Photos: Nine Years of War in Iraq.

UPDATED I (9/8): And “Will the murders of those children be less significant than those we go to avenge?” I failed to transcribe Jeanine’s last clincher. This is the sort of sharp logic missing from most tele-commentary.

UPDATE II: In reply to the thread on Facebook: Other than as an economist, Thomas Sowell is unpersuasive. No serious libertarian should take him seriously on issues of just war. Sowell was full-throttle for the war against Iraq.

UPDATED: McMussolini Vs. Marshmallow Man (Man Reads McCain His Rights)

John McCain, Middle East, Military, Neoconservatism, War

In this clip, an intelligent, informed, Syrian American hammers “McMussolini,” exposing his ignorance and arrogance. The exchange shows the measure of the man. McCain’s reply to her amounts to platitudes. His message is clear: “It’s my way or the highway.”

Via Economic Policy Journal: