Yeah, dudes. I agree with your assessments about Islam. I don’t subscribe to the globalists or pacifists among us who discount the use of military force or downplay the seriousness of the threat. The conflict is ideological, and it’s long-term and deadly serious. Question remains: what’s the best way to plan, position, execute and contain?
My main points are: (1) our degree of dependence on oil reserves in the Middle East severely weakens our ability to conduct an effective foreign policy in the region (aka ‘Islam’ issue), and (2) ME foreign policy under Bush and specifically Iraq has been an absolute disaster that has undermined our interests.
Toppling secular Saddam has diminished our leverage with the Saudis, strengthened Iran and weakened our influence and capabilities in the region, forward bases in Anbar notwithstanding. It has distracted us from the primary enemy, underground organizations such as Al Quaeda. Iraq was a colossal mistake and we need to cut bait and get back to work.
The first step (Obama’s position) is reducing our footprint in Iraq and refocusing on Al Quaeda. I could care less if there’s a Sunni-Shia blood bath. We need to focus our resources on Saudi Arabia, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan; as well as former Soviet nukes. We can leave a small presence in Iraq.
We need to take a leadership role in trying to broker peace between Israel and Palestine, even if it’s never going to happen. It’s important to the moderates in the region. And we desperately need to improve our intelligence, on the ground and in the field. People in the US should watch Arab television and learn Arabic. That’s not un-American right now.
Oh yeah, and about our government. Burning CIA field agents is a disgusting and traitorous betrayal of our national interests. The Plame bit should be a life sentence. The saying “Politics stops at the water’s edge” has been utterly abrogated by the current administration.
More broadly, the freak show that passes for our political discourse nowadays is part of the reason for our predicament. Take the flag pin accusations, promoting the idea that republicans are patriotic but democrats aren’t. Who does this help?
It helps Al Quaeda because it divides us. Does anybody genuinely believe Democrats are un-American? I want to know who out there thinks Obama’s actually a secret Muslim terrorist. What a bunch of subversive bullshit. Slime like jfiq who propagate this crap are un-American.
An Apollo Mission on energy sources, and a rational and effective foreign policy. From there, we’ll be able to sort through any number of economic and domestic issues. We can even get partisan about it, but the partisanship needs to stop at the water’s edge.
