Middle East Choices are Only Bad and Worse

[louis c]

I will include the North African Arab and Muslim states in my analysis.

In the Middle East the political, social and sectarian conflicts are as complicated as anything can get. American decisions, action, limited action or inaction all turn out to be bad choices and only after we choose one, do we find out if it was a bad choice or a worse choice.

With shifting allegiances and various cultures and political alliances, your allies one day could be your enemies the next. Iran is fighting Isis in Iraq and Syria, yet remain on our terrorist watch list as supporters of terrorism against Israel and the United States. The Turks are supporters or ours in Syria and the deadly enemy of out staunchest allies in the region, the Kurds. Shiites hate Sunnis. We could go into much greater detail, but you get my point.

Let's look at two decisions that President Obama made in the region to illustrate this point. In Libya, President Obama used air strikes to prevent a slaughter of Libyan Rebels in Benghazi. The action helped depose Mohamar Khadafy, a brutal dictator who was directly responsible for the terrorist attack on Pan Am 103 that killed American civilians. The Republican backed Congress criticized Obama for his actions without authorization and (including Trump) find him responsible for the failed state in Libya.

The second decision was to stay our of Syria. Of course, this was after President Obama's famous red line announcement. What the Republicans and Trump never mention, is that in this case, President Obama did ask for Congressional authorization. The Republican controlled Congress didn't even bring it up for a vote. Why get involved with a bad choice and a worse one. Now, those same pieces of shit, including the biggest piece of shit on the planet, Donald Trump, try to ridicule President Obama's "red line" stance.

Trump will learn this lesson the hard way in the coming months. Damned if you do and damned if you don't, and Congress will not have his back.

Hey Donald, welcome to the real world, you piece of shit.

[BeyondGeography]

1. Trump won't learn; he'll continue to act in the moment

He'll be seen as a joke and an unreliable partner. He'll accomplish nothing.

Obama was at least consistent. The region understood he didn't want to go to war. You could say that opened the door for ISIS (though the real father was GWB), but it also led to the Iran nuclear agreement because they knew it was where he stood and would fight for it at home.