There has been little comment about Obama’s withdrawal plans from Iraq probably because most people understandably want to forget that muddled affair. However we will be throwing away the fruits of our victory and it is disturbing to see Iraq slowly but gradually fall under the influence of Iran. As Miss Glick writes, a “war on terror” is merely a war on a tactic which the enemy employs – and that enemy is radical Islam. While rightfully criticizing the haphazard Obama administration, she lays a lot of blame on the previous administration for not clearly defining the enemy. I am glad that Miss Glick referred to Gaddafi as an impotent adversary which is what he was.
by Caroline Glick
Next month, America’s long campaign in Iraq will come to an end with the departure of the last US forces from the country.
Amazingly, the approaching withdrawal date has fomented little discussion in the US. Few have weighed in on the likely consequences of President Barack Obama’s decision to withdraw on the US’s hard won gains in that country.
After some six thousand Americans gave their lives in the struggle for Iraq and hundreds of billions of dollars were spent on the war, it is quite amazing that its conclusion is being met with disinterested yawns.
[...]
For its part, the Bush administration spent little time explaining to the US public who the forces fighting in Iraq were and why the US was fighting them.
US military officials frequently admitted that the insurgents were trained, armed and funded by Iran and Syria. But policy-makers never took any action against either country for waging war against the US. Above the tactical level, the US was unwilling to take any effective action to diminish either regime’s support for the insurgency or to make them pay a diplomatic or military price for their actions.
As for Obama, as the Kagans and Sullivan show, the administration abjectly refused to intervene when Maliki stole the elections or to defend US allies in the Iraqi military from Maliki’s pro- Iranian purge of the general officer corps. And by refusing to side with US allies, the Obama administration has effectively sided with America’s foes, enabling Iranian-allied forces to take over the USbuilt, -trained and -armed security apparatuses in Iraq.
ALL OF these actions are in line with the US’s current policy towards Egypt. There, without considering the consequences of its actions, in January and February the Obama administration played a key role in ousting the US’s most dependable ally in the Arab world, president Hosni Mubarak.
Since Mubarak was thrown from office, Egypt has been ruled by a military junta dubbed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Because SCAF is comprised of the men who served as Mubarak’s underlings throughout his 30-year rule, it shares many of the institutional interests that guided Mubarak and rendered him a dependable US ally. Specifically, SCAF is ill-disposed toward chaos and Islamic radicalism.
However, unlike Mubarak, SCAF is only in power because the mobs of protesters in Tahrir Square demanded that Mubarak stand down to enable civilian, majority rule in Egypt. Consequently, the military junta is much less able to keep Egypt’s populist forces at bay.
Throughout Mubarak’s long reign, the most popular force in Egypt was the jihadist Muslim Brotherhood. The populism unleashed by Mubarak’s ouster necessarily rendered the Brotherhood the most powerful political force in Egypt. If free elections are held in Egypt next week as planned and if their results are honored, within a year Egypt will be ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood. This is the outcome Obama all but guaranteed when he cut the cord on Mubarak.
Recognizing the danger a Brotherhood government would pose to the army’s institutional interests, in recent weeks the generals began taking steps to delay elections, limit the power of the parliament and postpone presidential elections.
Their moves provoked massive opposition from Egypt’s now fully legitimated and empowered populist forces. And so they launched what they are dubbing “the second Egyptian revolution.”
And the US doesn’t know what to do.
[...]
The Left refused to acknowledge that the US was under attack from the forces of radical Islam enabled by Islamic supremacist regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Iran because the Left didn’t want the US to fight. Moreover, because the Left believes that US policies are to blame for the Islamic world’s hostility to America, leftists favor foreign policies predicated on US appeasement of its enemies.
For its part, the Right refused to acknowledge the identity and nature of the US’s enemy because it feared the Left.
And so, rather than fight radical Islamists, under Bush the US went to war against a tactic – terrorism. And lo and behold, it was unable to defeat a tactic because a tactic isn’t an enemy.
It’s just a tactic. And as its war aim was unachievable, the declared ends of the war became spectacular.
Rather than fight to defend the US, the US went to war to transform the Arab world from one imbued with unmentionable religious extremism to one increasingly ruled by democratically elected unmentionable religious extremism.
The lion’s share of responsibility for this dismal state of affairs lies with former president Bush and his administration. While the Left didn’t want to fight or defeat the forces of radical Islam after September 11, the majority of Americans did. And by catering to the Left and refusing to identify the enemy, Bush adopted war-fighting tactics that discredited the war effort and demoralized and divided the American public, thus paving the way for Obama to be elected while running on a radical anti-war platform of retreat and appeasement.
Since Obama came into office, he has followed the Left’s ideological guidelines of ending the fight against and seeking to appease America’s worst enemies. This is why he has supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. This is why he turned a blind eye to the Islamists who dominated the opposition to Gaddafi. This is why he has sought to appease Iran and Syria. This is why he supports the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Syrian opposition. This is why he supports Turkey’s Islamist government. And this is why he is hostile to Israel.
And this is why come December 31, the US will withdraw in defeat from Iraq, and pro- American forces in the region and the US itself will reap the whirlwind of Washington’s irresponsibility.
There is a price to be paid for calling an enemy an enemy. But there is an even greater price to be paid for failing to do so.
Read the rest: Calling things by their names
Tags: Caroline Glick
Spot on!
This is perhaps the best of Glick’s work. Thanks for posting her articles here.
Dem hos can’t leave Herman alone!
She makes a great analysis, but neglects an aspect about
Obama that nobody wants to touch.
He had a Muslim father & step-father. His name itself is
Arabic. He attended Mosque in Jakarta & was registerd
in public school as a Muslim, where he took Koranic studies.
Maybe BHO has a lot of residual sympathy for the Religion
of Peace.
RIX wrote:
Obama has a lot of residual “can’t we all get along” for the world. Of course the answer to that is “no… we can’t all get along” and sometimes we have to kick ass or kill someone.
and this is what happens when the ‘realists’ are replaced by ‘neo-cons’ in foreign policy and military command.
we have lost how many men and how much treasure over this?
now how many countries are bat-shit-crazy-islamist instead of quasi-sectarian and at least a little friendly since 2001?
i would have to say that terrorism works.
@ zeuscrankypants:
I really do wish that we would stop taking every
opportunity to blame America for everything wrong.
No nation is perfect, but how bad could we be?
People are trying to get in not out.
See ya. On the way out to dinner.
Bad night for it since I have to get up at
3:30am to go to the airport!
3:30am, son of a *&%@!
Two year old summary on Agenda 21. It’s a bit long, but nothing compared to the documents.
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/15713
@ RIX:
i used to have to do that 5 times a week. i dont miss it
By calling Islam a religion of peace, we undercut our war effort.
Speranza wrote:
It is not a religion of peace, but of piece. Sounds the same, but hugely different.
Flyovercountry wrote:
Religion of pieces.
RIX wrote:
Ya think?
Bored over spring break? Join the shithead brigade.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/ucla-student-libya?vXFf&mbid=su_ppc_danger_20&vQZf
Really, Islam scum love these moronic losers.
Input from lurker. Really need to consider giving something like this a better time slot. Always a dead slot from 3pst – 6pst. Standard open thread time maybe like the OOT, just not as funny.
/lurk
OWS put the crime in your face.
@ CynicalConservative:
we keep forgetting to do that…last serious main thread of the day should be over at 1800est or so
this would have got great traffic tomorrow morning
We usually do have an open at 5-8 and then another light pre-overnight.
I was slammed at work today with no time to find something and this was in the pipeline so… there ya go…
Perdón.
@ coldwarrior:
@ m:
S’all goot. We’re all busy with life, thanks.
/lurk
@ CynicalConservative:
guess I should quit bitching and start contributing.
/…
@ CynicalConservative:
I agree with ya! I wanted to hold it for morning, but i’twas an
demergency sitchyashun!~:D
CynicalConservative wrote:
Dat’s wat Rodan keeps tellin me…
CynicalConservative wrote:
unlurk, unlurk! lol
Yeah!
lol
I have to tell y’all this cute story. My aunt gave me a history from my grandmother’s father’s side of the family at Thanksgiving dinner and I was reading it over the weekend.
One of my great-great-greats was interviewed for an article in 1934 (she was in her 90′s and had almost 300 living descendents). It was sooooo funny – her back in 1934 talking about “kids these days”.
“All they have to do is wake up in the morning and flip a switch and they have light, they never have to deal with waking up and the fire has went out and having to send your little brother 3 miles down the road to a neighbors to bring back some fire!”
“A modern girl (1934 modern) sees a dress she likes, and she gets the pattern one day, pick out some fabric the next day and they’re working on their new dress by the third day!”
Of course she had to plan a dress 6 months to a year ahead, if it were a woolen dress, the sheep had to be sheared, the wool picked and carded into rolls, the rolls spun into thread, and the thread woven into cloth before she was even where the modern girl STARTED!
And she “despises hearing the farm boys and girls of today talk about having to work so much when they ought to be thankful they have so much time for rest and recreation! We didn’t!”
LOL!
Adorable.
m wrote:
Yeah and it has been a rip roaring success.
doriangrey wrote:
We can do both!
coldwarrior wrote:
Ya think?
@ Speranza:
Repost.
/that
@ m:
Life before ‘Black Friday’ shopping. Very nice slice of personal history.
CynicalConservative wrote:
I don’t have time for it. Just got back from Texas and too much crap piled up on the desk.
@ m:
It is also the time of year that personal lives take over the blog lives. We are actually working folks here – LOL. I have/had a good basis for a post, just don’t have the time to put it together right now. If some one wants to put it together, I will forward my links and comments. Admins have my e-mail. It has to do with -0- care.
@ m:
even aristotle complained about the younger generations
@ m:
Family history is great stuff.
doriangrey wrote:
Yes People should submit guests posts.
@ m:
The evil youth!!!!!!!!!!!!
//////////////
coldwarrior wrote:
Them damn youngsters never seem to change, always goofing off, shirking their responsibilities, living the easy life at their elders expense and complaining the whole time about how they aren’t receiving their fair share or proper respect.
@ Speranza:
Didn’t mean you directly, more for the admins.
Rightwing Rebel wrote:
Cough cough <—- points at Rodan… /whistles softly to self…
@ yenta-fada:
I’m having the best time reading this history. It’s a branch that was almost empty on my ancestry.com tree. I’m filling that bad boy up!
@ Dolphin:
Links and comments? That’s a post! Send’er in! ~:D
@ coldwarrior:
Boys and their baggy togas! LOL!
@ Rightwing Rebel:
BTW – I have enjoyed your recent posts here. Thank you! Wish I had more time to post and contribute.
http://weaselzippers.us/2011/11/28/iran-satellite-images-show-revolutionary-guard-missile-base-completely-destroyed-after-mysterious-explosion/
Wow! Yep someone deserves a bonus
@ waldensianspirit:
Now that is good news for a Monday evening.
@ Dolphin:
Thanks! I appreciate it. My point is we are dealing with Cult like mentality. I will do a post called the Cultiznation of America.
Who is Rightwing Rebel?
@ Dolphin:
So very interesting. My tree reaches out in so many directions it’s not even funny! I’m such the mutt, lol.
DIVERSITY!
@ Speranza:
That’s Rodan. He metamorphasized while you were away ~:)
@ Speranza:
Yep! Used their own weapons against them
Gaddafi was an impotent adversary. I fear we will regret his overthrow due to what has followed him.
m wrote:
umm ok. Afraid to ask why?
Someone on DoD has the nic Hugh G. Rection which I think is the funniest nic out there.
@ Speranza:
Gah’Daffy was like a spaded feral cat; keeps the cat population in check by putting them back out in the wild
@ waldensianspirit:
Cough, cough – can anyone say Massed? LMAO. Even if it is not, even more reason Iran shouldn’t posses this technology. Idiots.
@ Dolphin:
The wills are the best. It helps put things in perspective when they list their pots and feather bed and shoes specifically.
I had one great-great that left his kids all the land and animals, but they had to buy their mother a new pair of shoes each year (1st year the oldest will buy them, then the next to the oldest and so on through all the male children and if she’s still living it will start back with the oldest again) and so many pounds of meat from the animals and…
She didn’t get left a thing but she was hooked up for life! lol
Gloria Allred is rapidly surfacing her inner Helen Thomas
@ Speranza:
As a fuck you to the Left. They like Che, I like Castano.
@ m:
My history also. I can trace my father’s side to the 1600′s in Virginia. Mom’s side goes way farther back to Scandinavia/dutch, Swedish, etc. I found an error in the family history when doing my own research.
I love history. I haven’t always felt that way.
@ Dolphin:
That’s so cool.
waldensianspirit wrote:
I shudder at the thought.
I want to thank the Mossad/CIA for a job done right.
Image shows Iranian missile site was destroyed
More media myths shattered: #OWS ‘income inequality’ scam exposed
Democrats, the media and Marxists hardest hit.
@ refugee000:
HAHAHA! See my #56. GMTA! High five!
@ m:
Dad’s side was part of the House of Commons of Virginia back in the day. Very interesting.
@ refugee000:
@ Dolphin:
ulululululululululu!
@ Rightwing Rebel:
Checka U E-mail, please and thanks!
Dolphin wrote:
That’s very similar to Mrs. Funn’s tree. She can trace back to an ancestor who to Virginia in the 1600′s. Her great-grandfather was born in Norway. You and I are probably cousins-in-law many times removed.
Now that I’ve killed the thread, I can get back to the game. Saints 21 Giants 10 in the 3rd.
Just watched a movie someone mentioned in a thread over the weekend ‘Four Lions’. Very odd, but funny too. It’s a look at some British Muslims who decide to become terrorists, but bumble their way through the whole thing.
@ Speranza:
Brilliant!
Speranza wrote:
If all the serious threads run in the day time, then when I’m working the day shift (as I do most of the time), then I can’t participate.
THIS is what “political-correctness” is / was truly about …. Forget the crap-ola about a ‘gentler’ , ‘kinder’ world … Bottom Line is whoever controls the “meaning” of words , controls the GAME ….
Realist brought about 9/11 by their close identification with Saudi Arabia, helping to piss bin Laden off. Usama bin Laden began to hit the U.S. when U.S. forces were on Saudi soil. That was a prime realist tactic to favor Saudia as the major ally. And the phony realists also want Israel jettisoned as if that will help our standing in the Middle East or anywhere else. @ coldwarrior: