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<DIV>" fuckwit farrago "</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>I will have to do some research on these
words.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>But at any rate, what a bunch of crap </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>( the article that is ).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial> if I didn't Know that it was intentional
mis-leading propoganda, I would say that Aaron David Miller was
delusional. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>David J.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial> </FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=carl@newsfromneptune.com href="mailto:carl@newsfromneptune.com">C. G.
Estabrook</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=Peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net
href="mailto:Peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net">Peace-discuss List</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, August 21, 2013 10:34
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Peace-discuss] Tendentious
nonsense</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>[This is, as they say, "not even wrong." But it might be useful
for AWARE to spend some meeting time sorting out this fuckwit farrago, because
it passes for informed comment among Serious People. --CGE]
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><B>Obama's Egypt policy makes perfect sense</B></DIV>
<DIV>Published: August 20, 2013 <BR>By AARON DAVID MILLER — Foreign
Policy<BR><BR>The only thing that's really clear about U.S. Middle East policy
these days is its stunning lack of clarity. Neocons and liberal
interventionists alike protest the confusion loudly, and a great
many others with less ideological baggage silently scratch their heads.
Anomalies, contradictions, confusion, and more than a little hypocrisy
abound.<BR><BR>n The United States intervenes militarily in Libya to support
the opposition, but not in Syria.<BR><BR>n The United States supports serious
political reform and democratic transitions in Egypt and Tunisia,
but not in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, where oil, bases and friendly
kings prevail.<BR><BR>n The United States will engage the
Taliban and Iraqi insurgents who have killed American soldiers, but
it steers clear of any dialogue with Hamas.<BR><BR>n And The United
States rationalizes away a military coup and brutal crackdown in
Egypt to maintain ties to the generals, undermining its own
democratic values by continuing military aid.<BR><BR>Still, even while it
seems confused and directionless, Barack Hussein Obama's Middle
East policies have logic and coherence. Indeed, they follow strict
directives that the president has imposed.<BR><BR>I call them BHO's Five
Commandments, and they tell you all you need to know about why
the president does what he does from Cairo to
Damascus.<BR><BR>Commandment No. 1:Care more aboutthe middle classthan the
Middle East<BR><BR>Obama may not be able to fix either one. But there's no
doubt he'd rather be remembered as a president who tried to repair
America's broken house than one who chased around the world on a quixotic
quest to fix somebody else's.<BR><BR>Immigration reform, the budget, making
Obamacare work, continuing to focus on infrastructure, education -- these
are things that are important to the American people and to the legacy of
a president who is of one of only 17 elected to a second
term.<BR><BR>Time's running out. Why squander it on problems he cannot fix,
like Syria?<BR><BR>Commandment No. 2:Pay attentionto Afghanistan and
Iraq<BR><BR>Obama's critics argue he's already paid too much attention to the
wars, drawn the wrong lessons from both, and as a result overcorrected
and abdicated U.S. leadership. But you really can't pay too much
attention to the two longest wars in U.S. history -- wars that cost more than
6,000 American lives, thousands of serious casualties, trillions of
dollars, and a great deal of U.S. credibility.<BR><BR>Obama's current
approach toward Syria and even Egypt has in fact drawn the right lessons
from these wars: he's intuitively grasped the limit of U.S. influence in
changing the nature of Middle Eastern societies caught up in internal
conflict. If we couldn't reshape what happens in Kabul and Baghdad with
hundreds of thousands of troops and trillions of dollars, how are we going to
have an impact on what Egypt's generals do or don't do with a trifling $1
billion or so?<BR><BR>He's also understood the need to be careful about the
use of American military power in these situations -- that power is a
means to effect a political end. And when that relationship is
dubious, out of whack, or just not achievable, risk aversion is more
appropriate than risk readiness. In Syria, the danger isn't the false
Afghanistan/Iraq analogy of boots on the ground; it's the more apt lesson
about using U.S. military power in a situation where the political objectives
are unclear and the costs truly unknown. This caution has also informed
the president's view of how to deal with Iran's nuclear weapons program
and the importance of trying diplomacy before war. Some believe this is
the lack of leadership, but it may well be the sense of proportion and
judgment that defines it.<BR><BR>Commandment No. 3:Kill America's
enemies<BR><BR>Where the president hasn't been shy and retiring or risk averse
is on the national security side, particularly when it comes to
counterterrorism. And despite the rhetorical shifts hinting a change
in priorities -- an emphasis on diplomacy over war, a reduction in drone
attacks -- this commandment will continue to dictate the broad outlines
of the administration's approach.<BR><BR>Whatever doubts the president has on
the wisdom and utility of drone strikes that have killed thousands,
however thin the legal and moral arguments may be, this wartime President
takes seriously his number one mission: keep America safe. That means
preventing another 9/11-style attack. If the previous administration
believed in preventive and preemptive war using invasion and regime
change, this president has narrowed the prevention to counter-terrorism. The
attacks on 9/11 were the bloodiest day in the history of the continental
United States since the Civil War. And Obama plans to keep it that way.
The president's war on terror -- whatever his own rhetorical nuances --
won't be over until the day he leaves the White House. And as the risk he took
in the operation to kill Osama bin Laden demonstrates, he's prepared to
do much to prosecute it.<BR><BR>Commandment No. 4:Stay with the devilyou
know<BR><BR>Obama may want to think of himself as a transformative leader, but
he's really very transactional and status quo when it comes to foreign
policy -- doubling down in Afghanistan, keeping Gitmo open, avoiding
diplomacy with the mullahs, rationalizing away his own redlines on Syria's
chemical weapons, and now trying to walk the fine line between changing
and sustaining traditional U.S. policy on Egypt.<BR><BR>Obama wants to be
on the right side of history and uphold U.S. values, but he's
increasingly confused on what that actually means.<BR><BR>It is the
cruelest of ironies that America's relations with the status quo Arab kings
are the best ties Washington has in the region. But maybe it shouldn't
come as a surprise. We are a status quo power during a time of great
upheaval. And instead of breaking with the past we're looking for a way
to ride it safely into the future.<BR><BR>I think we're probably heading for a
suspension of assistance to Egypt, but the president will try to avoid
it, just as he's slow-walked military assistance to Syria and opposed an
Israeli unilateral strike on Iran.<BR><BR>From Obama's perspective,
changing the status quo -- cutting ties with the generals and
risking U.S. military overflight privileges, losing cooperation on
counterterrorism, and unilaterally removing the United States from the
Egyptian-Israeli Camp David process -- outweigh the risks of maintaining
it. When it comes to what's left of the Arab Spring, the president seems
pretty comfortable with the familiar and at ease with the notion that
this region will need to be sorted out by those who live there. The
United States should simply hunker down and ride out the storm,
if possible.<BR><BR>Commandment No. 5: Protect our core
interests<BR><BR>For Barack Obama, the Middle East is divided into five core
interests and two discretionary ones. What really counts is:<BR><BR>p
Getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan.<BR><BR>p Keeping the country safe from
attack.<BR><BR>p Weaning America off Arab hydro-carbons.<BR><BR>p Carrying out
the U.S. commitment to Israel's security.<BR><BR>p Trying to prevent Iran from
acquiring nukes.<BR><BR>From his vantage point, he's checked the box in at
least four so far; and he's working on the fifth -- the success of which is
far from assured.<BR><BR>The two interests of choice, if you will, are
pursuing Arab-Israeli peace and making the Middle East safe for
democracy.<BR><BR>Those are desirable but really not critical, whatever John
Kerry may think about the importance of an Israeli-Palestinian deal, and
the president has shown very little inclination to risk much on either of
them.<BR><BR>You may think the Middle East is a mess and Obama's approach a
complete muddle.<BR><BR>But I bet you, given his domestic priorities and where
he thinks the American public is on these issues, he
doesn't.<BR><BR>Whatever the president is worrying about these days, I'd be
surprised if he's tossing and turning at night over Egypt and
Syria.<BR><BR>Governing is about choosing, and for now the president has made
his choices clear.<BR><BR>[Aaron David Miller, a columnist for Foreign Policy
magazine, is vice president for new initiatives and a scholar at the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. His forthcoming book
is titled "Can America Have Another Great
President?"<BR>Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/08/20/4888724/aaron-david-miller-obamas-egypt.html#storylink=cpy]<BR></DIV>
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