Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Wretchard, writing at The Belmont Club:
Just read it.
Joe Doakes
I won’t quote from it; you really just need to read every single word of it. It really is the most complete indictment of the Obama Administration’s failures I’ve seen in one place – and, more importantly, their most likely consequences from this point on – that I’ve ever seen, from someone who knows foreign policy better than just about anyone in the American media.
Remember the debate between the Liar/Blamer/golfer in chief and Mitt Romney? When Romney correctly pointed out that Russia was still a concern, he received an ignorant comment rebuttal and a smirk from Obumbler.
This article illustrates just how right (and prophetic) Romney was! Of course, the media drones won’t point that out.
Anyone “who knows foreign policy”, should realize that Iraq sides with Syria/Russia, not because of any loss of U.S. “influence”, but because Iraq’s government is Shia and naturally on the side of fellow Shias loyal to Assad in Syria. No U.S. policy could alter this basic strategic reality.
Based on your statement, Rick+/-halfabrain, one may infer Russia is Shia as well. No influence peddling by Russia there, nosirriebob.
JPA: ‘All Shia are aligned with Assad’ does not imply ‘Anyone aligned with Assad is Shia’. Nor does Russian ‘influence’ cause other major actors, like Iran or Iraq, to side with Assad.
I agree 100% with the top comment, save one thing. Three words are missing from his last sentence: Only the idiot or ignorant, or the evil could be upbeat after six+ years of Obama.
Yes, I believe collectivism in all its forms is pure unadulterated evil. Maybe not on the surface, but underneath it all, it’s all based on reduction of individual freedom, if not outright captivity and oppression.
One only need ask “Why do collective dictatorships prevent their subjects from leaving, with political or physical barriers, and where do those to manage to escape always end up going?”
Short answer to why?: human nature.
The most momentous political sayings like “Four score and seven years ago”, and “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”, and “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down these walls”, shall be joined by one more in the future: We are 5 days away from fundamentally transforming this nation.
Since the winners write history, hopefully the correct side wins so history is recorded that “this was the beginning of the irreversible downfall of America” and not “this was supposed to end racism, but it didn’t”
Nor does Russian ‘influence’ cause other major actors, like Iran or Iraq, to side with Assad.
From a person who does not know what +/- means, and then claiming to know how much influence Russia exerts on people they supply weapons to… is simply… well… only libturds can be this obtuse. QED.
Aah, RickDFL, foreign policy genus. Last heard when he predicted — like Obama, Biden, Reid, etc. — that the 2006 surge would fail. What a moron. Maybe he should go over to Pen’s place and swap foreign policy ideas with Dog Gone.
Rick,
Yes – The Shi’ite part of Iraq is drifting toward Russia precisely due to the vacuum the US left.
Alignment among the Muslim sects is powerful – apparently enough to get Assad labeled “Shi’ite” after a few decades of running a dictatorship that doled out influence to all the sects (and the Alawite, Druze and Christians, for that matter; the Assads weren’t stupid). But pragmatism can and does trump sectarianism; Iraqi Shi’ites were our allies in fighting the Sunni insurgency and in minimizing Iranian influence from 2007ish until Obama cut and run.
ISIS is Sunni. Sunnis are also our biggest “allies” in the region; the Saudis, Omanis, Jordanians, as well as the North African arabs that are broadly friendly (sorry, Libya).
“Iraqi Shi’ites were our allies . . . in minimizing Iranian influence from 2007ish until Obama cut and run.”
According to who? The two main Shia parties Dawa and SCIRI were both Iranian based and funded exile parties before the invasion. They both embrace major components of the Iranian Revolution. Since the invasion the have been closely working with Iran. When is the last time Baghdad and Tehran have been this closely aligned? What evidence is there that an Iraqi Shia government would side with Sunni forces in Syria under some conceivable U.S. strategy?
“ISIS is Sunni. Sunnis are also our biggest “allies” in the region; the Saudis” Maybe that ought to lead us to re-evaluate our policy. Some “allies”, no government in the region is more sympathetic to ISIS. Saudi Arabia champions and funds the same Wahhabi extremism that inspired Al-quaeda and ISIS. Both groups got their early funding from Saudi sources. Both latter turned on the Saudis. Maybe it’s time to not be so unilaterally dependent on the Saudis.
Remember back in 2006 when RickDFL told us that he couldn’t be called a defeatist because we’d already lost the Iraq War?
Hey, RickDFL, shouldn’t Hillary or Biden or Kerry have thought of how tough the war would be before they voted for it?
Democrats don’t know how to win wars, but they sure as Hell know how to lose them.