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The Spectacle Blog
The Washington Post reports on how US officials feel that protests in Syria put the White House in a bind. The only bind is the conflict between reality and the delusions of Washington’s Assad apologist:
But there are more tangible reasons where Syria is concerned, including a reluctance to add further uncertainty to the tenuous Israeli-Palestinian peace process; an unwillingness, shared by Turkey and others allies in the neighborhood, to readily trade a known quantity in Assad for an unknown future; and a latent belief among some that the Syrian leader can be persuaded to adopt real reforms.
Assad is currently reforming the hell out of protestors.
View all comments (14) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by John Tabin
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/04/22/assad-coddling-watch
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Bob K.| 4.22.11 @ 6:47PM
I'm beginning to think that this is a Neo-Con website. There has been an internecine religious and cultural dispute going on in Syria for years. Assad is from the minority Alawite muslim sect. They compose less than 15% of the population of Syria and control the military and the Officer's ranks. Sunni's have about 70% of the population and have many soldiers in the enlisted ranks of the army
Somebody running this website thinks Syria would be a better friend of the US and Israel if the Sunni's ran it rather than the Alawites. That remains to be seen, but no one from Europe and now the USA, in the last couple of centuries, has taken the maxim of "If it ain't broke don't fix it" into consideration when dealing with the Near and Middle East. It has always been a "great adventure" of "nation building" and "making the world safe for democracy."
If the new USA foreign policy is to destabilize all the nations in the Near East and Middle East then these last months events have been successful and we might as well let Syria descend into chaos, which is what will happen if Assad loses power because it will become a matter of the survival of the Alawite minority. For everyones sake let us hope that it is simply ineptness on the part of our administration and that no one will pay attention to people with ideas like John Tabins.
Occam's Tool| 4.22.11 @ 11:45PM
Well, TAS is not a Paleo-Con site, for the most part.
The current Obama handling of events in Egypt and Libya make no sense. We need the governments in those countries friendly to the USA. The people in them are scumbags, danced on 9/11 and deserve no consideration.
All this "outreach" is pitiful. And expensive. And useless. Bush was wrong about Nation Building in the Middle East. You have to start with a decent culture, and only the Israelis and the Kurds have one in that area.
Ken (Old Texican)| 4.23.11 @ 6:51AM
Doctor,
just a thought; Obama is certainly not a "nation builder", but we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This leads me to believe that Dubyah just may have had some other motives for remaining in both places rather than nation building.
One example; perhaps we were there to fill the power vacuum so that Iran could not.
I don't like "neo-con" used as a curse word.
I don't like "paleo" used as a term to give isolationists a free pass.
The last time the isolationists grabbed the reins of our foreign policy, it caused the biggest war in history.
It seems to me that each "intervention" is a unique situation. Our intervention post WWII kept the Soviets from overrunning Europe for instance.
Good or bad?
The Marshall plan could be an example of nation "re-building" that had some positive consequences.
When President Truman took over the presidency and was made aware of the extent and reality of the holocaust...that we could have helped prevent...I think it made him deeply ashamed. Helping found and build Israel was not only a noble thing. It was also a brilliant block to the Soviets overrunning the entire middle east after WE discovered and developed the oil resources there.
Dubyah may have been incorrect about the things he "said", but only time will tell if he was wrong about what he "did".
Clint| 4.23.11 @ 12:48PM
Good Military Men Don't Fight The Last War.
Now, the petroleum industry in Russia is one of the largest in the world. Russia has the largest reserves, and is the largest exporter, of natural gas. It has the second largest coal reserves, the eighth largest oil reserves, and is the largest exporter of oil.
The Soviets got thrown out of Afghanistan by Mujahideen with U.S. supplied stingers.
Occam's Tool| 4.25.11 @ 11:48AM
Yes, and they don't quote irrelevant quotes about their heroes from the last war when their heroes are tossers in the cuurent one either, Clint.
I stand corrected on the term "Paleo," Ken. I have often wondered about the term "neo" since my views haven't changed much (except on abortion) since I was 18 thirty years ago, during the Reagan Revolution which, unlike Clint, I actually lived through as an adult.
Clint| 4.23.11 @ 12:59PM
Q: What is a neoconservative and who are they?
George Will: "In foreign policy, and here's where it gets interesting, they have a more ambitious, more confident approach to the use of power than regular conservatives -- if you see the symmetry here? They say that America is a nation uniquely equipped as the sole remaining superpower to order the world and spread our values, etc., etc.
Who are they? The ones most commonly mentioned are Charles Krauthammer, Paul Wolfowitz, maybe Dick Cheney and his aide, Scooter Libby, Doug Feith in the Pentagon, Bill Kristol."
Occam's Tool| 4.25.11 @ 11:51AM
Quite possible---you know the Nations there on the ground and your instincts are good, Ken.
bobmontgomery| 4.24.11 @ 11:57AM
Yeah, let's take our eye off the ball, Bob, and revert to intra-partisan name-calling. Let Hillary and the rest of the incompetent boobs from the Clinton administration continue to push reset buttons and we'll be just fine. Get your head out of the sand, Bob.
WJ| 4.24.11 @ 2:07PM
If you are just now realizing that this a neo con website then you either haven't been reading very long or you haven't been paying attention.
The bloggers and the posters on these blogs have never met a war for Israel that they don't like. Syria, in theory would fall in that category even though the actual outcome of regime change would probably not be so favorable to Israel as they think.
Those posters that aren't neocon are more along the lines of "let's kill all of them Mooslim, Ayrab types", because they have oil and my F-150 is expensive to fill up, and because we need to save Israel for the final battle of Armageddon. Their lack of historical understanding is breathtaking and somewhat surprising since they are capable of at least logging on to the Internet and reading and typing.
The site is not all bad. There is some good conservative commentary here, but on matters of the Middle East, they have absolutely nothing to offer.
Occam's Tool| 4.25.11 @ 11:49AM
Nothing to offer only if you favor the spread of sharia, WJ. Try to think strategically and a bit longer on than the end of your dick.
Dixie Pixie| 4.22.11 @ 8:50PM
OK...I give up trying to find any logic or legality in Obama's foreign policy.
The current Syrian Government is a international recognized legitimate government.
The Syrian Government is under attack by a rebellion.
So why after Abraham Lincoln suppressed the Confederate Rebellion by military means, is the Obama State Department supporting the Syrian Rebels against an legitimate government?
Ditto for the Libyan Rebellion?
Dixie Pixie| 4.22.11 @ 8:50PM
OK...I give up trying to find any logic or legality in Obama's foreign policy.
The current Syrian Government is a international recognized legitimate government.
The Syrian Government is under attack by a rebellion.
So why after Abraham Lincoln suppressed the Confederate Rebellion by military means, is the Obama State Department supporting the Syrian Rebels against an legitimate government?
Ditto for the Libyan Rebellion?
JmsA| 4.23.11 @ 9:56PM
They're making it up as they go along, hoping against hope that "our allies" take care of business and a veritable disaster is averted. After all, what can you expect from any bunch that believes, or claims Assad is a reformer?
puma ferrari femme | 4.23.11 @ 5:46AM
so cool.