Opuscula Strongman rule Putin vs. Obama And "Arab Spring"

 

Obama's Arab Spring tried to depose all Arab tyrants that Obama didn't like; in particular in Libya and Syria. The result of his meddling in Arab affairs is civil war in Libya and Syria.

It is interesting to note Obama's Arab Spring did not include Saudi Arabia or the Gulf states. .

Russia's Putin, being a political strongman himself, knows the value of powerful leadership. He had put Russia in bed with both the ayatollahs of Iran and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

WHILE PUTIN IS doing everything he can to "show the world" that Russia is a power with which to contend, Obama is rapidly destroying any vestiges of respect for the U.S. left from his first term as U.S. president.

Unlike Sarah Palin, who could at least SEE Russian territory from the state she governed, Alaska, Obama had zero international experience, which the voters conveniently overlooked in both elections.

Obama exudes weakness, indecisiveness, and like the Bushes before him, a lack of planning that reaches a position that advances America's interests - or at least causes no damage. Even "Tricky" Nixon had a plan to extract us from Vietnam - a legacy from JFK & LBJ* - and to open diplomatic relations with China, a move that may in the end be the worst thing Nixon ever did.

Putin is, as he proved in the Ukraine, a bully, but there seems to be no one who can reign him in except perhaps the Islamists. In that case, the "cure" is worse that the "disease." Putin would like to see the former USSR restored and Soviet influence once more dominate much of Europe and Asia. Obama shakes his finger and figuratively says "naughty, naughty" and Putin laughs at the impotent U.S. president.

 

* I am aware that Dwight Eisenhower sent in limited personnel Military Advisory Groups before JFK sent in a division-size units at a time until it was decimated, then he sent in another division; LBJ tried to end the war by inundating Vietnam with thousands of troops. Nixon, having learned the lesson of the French - who earlier has been chased out of Vietnam with their tails between their legs, ended the war. Not proudly, but at least with an end to U.S. deaths and injuries. Interestingly, Johnson, who actually tried to win the war - was the target of the leftists - not JFK - who talked of LBJ's "Youth In Asia (euthanasia) program." Maybe they still were angry for LBJ lifting a beagle off its front paws by its ears.

U.S. casualty Price of war

 

ACCORDING TO DAESH (ISIS/ISIL), KAYLA JEAN MUELLE, the 26-year-old U.S. citizen 26-year-old American aid worker died when the building she was being held in by Daesh was struck by Jordanian aircraft, according to the SITE intelligence group.

Assuming the story is true, Ms. Muelle is fortunate that she died in the bombing rather than at the hands of Daesh which has taken to burning its victims alive.

While I offer condolences to those close to her, I would remind everyone, particularly other volunteers, that this is a war zone and protection cannot be guaranteed by any source.

She should not have been in Syria, not matter how concerned she was for the Syrians on any side of the intra-Muslim war.

IF ANY U.S. CITIZEN WANTS TO AID OTHERS, let that citizen start at home - in their own community and when all aid needs are satisfied there, then the citizen's state, then the greater U.S.

Beyond any doubt there are U.S. citizens and both legal and illegal - sorry, "undocumented" - aliens who need succor as much as anyone in a war zone.

IN THEORY there is no U.S. presence on the ground in Syria or it's province, Lebanon, so U.S. aid workers and "reporters" can expect NO assistance from the U.S.

It's been proven, all too many times, that the U.S. is not able to "extract" (rescue) its people from the hands of Muslim terrorists - and in Syria, it's hard to know who is a terrorist: Hezbollah, Daesh, the unaffiliated rebels, or the government.

MEANWHILE, IGNORING LESSONS THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN LEARNED IN AFGHANISTAN the fools in Washington are sending weapons to combatants in Syria .

Doesn't ANYONE remember how the U.S. supplied the Taliban weapons for their fight with the Russians? Are the denizens within the Beltway totally unaware of the absolute accuracy of Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás who said "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" (or words to that effect).

What is going on in Syria, Iran/Iraq, and about to break out elsewhere (Turkey) is anarchy.

During World War II, and in wars and conflicts since, reporters went with the troops; aid workers - notably pacifists - went with, and were more-or-less protected by, the soldiers and sailors surrounding them. Today, so called reporters and aid workers wander around in war zones sans any protection; consequently, these people are becoming victims of combatants.

I can understand a desire by some to want to help, but how can anyone help another when

1. They really don't know who is fighting who
2. They lack protection from the people they want to aid
3. Their country - and its allies - have no presence in the area

The sad part is when a reporter or do-gooder is captured, they beg their government - the U.S., England, Japan, Jordan - to rescue them at all costs.

The exception to the above is the Jordanian pilot who was shot down while on a bombing mission. Jordan offered a prisoner swap; Daesh burned the pilot anyway. Jordan - knowing the Daesh mentality - immediately hanged two terrorists and promised to execute several more.

By the way, if you wonder why Daesh burned the Jordan's Muslim pilot, the answer is that the soul of a burned Muslim cannot enter heaven or receive his 70 virgins.

Ms. Muelle was "collateral damage." She was in the wrong place - by her own choice - at the wrong time.

While I feel for the woman's kin, I cannot generate any sympathy for the woman. She went to the area against the advice of her country; she knew it was a war zone (ergo her raison d'etre) and she was doing what she wanted to do when she was captured by Daesh and held in the building that a bomb turned into rubble.

 

While Israel and Arab states use Arab acronym Daesh, most world knows radical Islamist force as either ISIS or ISIL.

Opuscula KneeJerk

 

I'm not sure if "knee jerk" is one word or two or if it applies to a hasty reaction to something or to the person who is reacting*.

But the incumbent at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC comes to mind for both options.

Knee Jerk #1: Sending U.S. military personnel to fight the ebola epidemic in Africa.

Knee Jerk #2: Training and arming "moderate" terrorists in Syria and Iraq to combat the so-called Islamic State which, it seems, is considered an "extreme" terrorist group.

When will we ever learn?

Obviously not on Obama's watch.

Ebola

It's nice that the U.S. might be able to help the folks in Africa who contracted the normally fatal disease.

But, just as sending troops into combat puts American lives at risk, so does sending American troops to fight a disease that has a 90% fatality rate.

According to Wikipedia, The virus may be acquired upon contact with blood or bodily fluids of an infected animal. Spreading through the air has not been documented in the natural environment. Fruit bats are believed to be a carrier and may spread the virus without being affected. Once human infection occurs, the disease may spread between people, as well. Male survivors may be able to transmit the disease via semen for nearly two months.

The problem is, there is little in the way of laboratories where the disease runs rampant, so it is not easily diagnosed.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a page of links that cover all ebola-related concerns.

According to the CDC's "risk of exposure" information,

High risk exposures

A high risk exposure includes any of the following:

• Percutaneous (e.g., needle stick) or mucous membrane exposure to blood or body fluids of EVD patient
  

• Direct skin contact with, or exposure to blood or body fluids of, an EVD patient without appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE)
  

• Processing blood or body fluids of a confirmed EVD patient without appropriate PPE or standard biosafety precautions
  

• Direct contact with a dead body without appropriate PPE in a country where an EVD outbreak is occurring*

Low risk exposures

A low risk exposure includes any of the following

• Household contact with an EVD patient
  

• Other close contact with EVD patients in health care facilities or community settings. Close contact is defined as
  
  1. being within approximately 3 feet (1 meter) of an EVD patient or within the patient’s room or care area for a prolonged period of time (e.g., health care personnel, household members) while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment (i.e., standard, droplet, and contact precautions; see Infection Prevention and Control Recommendations)
     

  2. having direct brief contact (e.g., shaking hands) with an EVD patient while not wearing recommended personal protective equipment.

• Brief interactions, such as walking by a person or moving through a hospital, do not constitute close contact

Today the U.S. has an experimental drug that was successfully used on two American ebola patients. Unfortunately there is no stockpile of a drug deemed, even now, as "experimental."

According to Israeli sources, the blood of a person who survives being infected by ebola contains an antibody that seems to preclude that person from contracting ebola again. There was discussion in the U.S. of taking blood from one of the two survivors and using it on the remaining U.S. ebola victim, Meanwhile, the Israelis - and others - are searching for a serum to counteract the disease.

Training and arming "moderate" terrorists

Proving that neither the country's chief executive nor his advisors have ever read a newspaper or history book, and certainly never heard the expression "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, December 16, 1863 - September 26, 1952), Obama is proposing to train and arm "moderate" Islamist terrorists, those doing battle against the Islamic State.

Perhaps he intends for the U.S. to once again arm the Taliban as it did during the Cold war days when the Taliban were fighting the Soviets. The Taliban, having sent the Russians packing, promptly turned the weapons on the U.S. and anyone who wanted real or pseudo-democracy in Afghanistan.

Today, U.S. personnel are being murdered by U.S. trained Iraqis armed with U.S. weapons. These Iraqis are supposed to be America's allies.

Even if the Iraqis stopped killing the people sent to help them, as late as September 17, 2014, a U.S. general states that Half (of the) Iraqi Army Incapable Of Working With America - and this while the Islamic State takes over more and more of Iraq.

Training and arming terrorists to combat another terrorist organization and expecting peace and appreciation for America from a "moderate" terrorists group is a political pipe dream, especially when both extremists and moderates share so much ideology.

Although Obama promises "no American boots on the ground," that is a blatant lie. Even today there are several hundred "advisors" in Iraq. The incumbent is following in the footsteps of every president since Harry S Truman left office. In Dwight D. Eisenhower's time, the soldiers were part of "Military Advisory Groups" or MAGs. (To be fair, neither Eisenhower nor those that followed him remembered history and the fact that the Vietnamese had sent the French packing.

Obama is doing only one thing different from his predecessors is that he promoted, urged on by his far left, liberal money people, to work to instigate the "Arab Spring" which has brought instability throughout the reason. Obama, and his advisors, - one again - failed to do their homework to see that the former European powers had accomplished with their arbitrary borders.

Most of the "Islamic" countries in the region are artificial - they are composed of individual tribes, many who hate their neighbor. Only a strong central power, e.g., Sadam in Iraq, Sadat in Syria, could keep a lid on local warlords. The liberals either failed to understand that or elected to disregard what was obvious to previous administrations.

 

* Kneejerk: an immediate unthinking emotional reaction produced by an event or statement to which the reacting person is highly sensitive; - in persons with strong feelings on a topic, it may be very predictable.

Opuscula Obama's "Plan" For Terrorists

 

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"
Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás^{Note 1}

U.S. President Obama's plan to counter ISIS is to

1. Form a coalition (the better to share the blame when things go wrong - and they will)
   

2. Add aerial attacks on ISIS (only)
   
3. Add U.S. "advisors" on the ground
   
4. Train "moderate Islamists" in Saudi Arabia (did anyone ask the Saudi royalty if it will welcome Islamists?)
   
5. Arm "moderate Islamists" to combat ISIS

Read military history

Obama and his yes men (and women) are determined to defeat ISIS - but only ISIS, not any other Islamists terrorist group - by sending drones and presumably naval aircraft to seek out ISIS troops and, although the U.S. is appalled when Israel does it, to assassinate ISIS leaders in their vehicles, in their bunkers, in their homes; where ever they are found.

Good intentions, I learned early on, "pave the road to hell."

Arming & Training

The U.S. armed the Taliban to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.

The Taliban, having pushed the Soviets out, then turned the U.S.-supplied weapons on - surprise - U.S. personnel.

The U.S., having unseated Saddam Hussein in Iraq, trained and armed Iraqi "police" who turned the weapons on fellow Iraqis and - surprise - U.S. personnel.

The U.S. also armed and trained "Palestinian" police who turned the weapons on - hardly a surprise - Israeli civilians.

Advisors in theater

Former President and 5-star general Dwight D. Eisenhower sent U.S. military personnel into Vietnam as Military Advisory Groups to help out the South Vietnamese. Advisors, not combat troops. Those who followed "Ike" into the White House sent in more and more combat troops - not enough to win the conflict, but enough to replace those Americans killed in 'Nam. Despite being a 5-star general, Ike apparently failed to keep up with (then) "modern" history; he failed to remember what the Vietnamese did to the French (they chased them out).

MAGs - like subcompact cars - seem to grow like a kid's balloon being filled from a high-pressure gas station air pump.

Click on image to enlarge

Obama is taking credit - perhaps deserved - for drawing down U.S. troop strength in Iraq and Afghanistan which have become "Vietnam 2" and "Vietnam 3." In both cases, his predecessors in the White House got the U.S. involved in conflicts that did not - at least directly - involve the U.S.

Unfortunately, control of air space and the ability to strike an enemy almost at will will not - as any grunt (foot soldier) knows and the Israeli military is relearning - suffice to control movements on the ground.

Obama, or his successor, will need to commit to long-term aerial attacks and be prepared to accept civilian "collateral damage" - the same "damage" for which the world condemns Israel.

Syria's almost-internal war

IMO, the U.S. has NO business taking sides in Syria's sectarian battles, for that's what it boils down to: Sunni vs. Shia vs. Alewites vs. who knows.^{Note 2} Kurds?

Syria's conflict spills over into Lebanon where Hezbollah holds forth. So far, Syrian combatants have been mostly successful in keeping the shooting on the Syrian side of the country's border with Israel, and Israel's government has, so far, managed to keep out of Syrian politics - a lesson the U.S. should adopt.

My chutzpah, my suggestions to Obama

One: Limit U.S. attacks on Islamist terrorists groups that blatantly threaten the U.S. or its citizens.

Two: Order all U.S. citizens out of Syria and Iraq; failure to remove to a safe place could result in their being "collateral damage" that, like the citizens of Gaza, were warned by Israel to relocate before an attack.

Three: Tell U.S. "intelligence" people - who seem to have no clue of Muslim mentality - to buy their information from sources that DO understand Muslim mentality. That may not be the Israeli government since, since Begin, it seems it lacks this knowledge.

Four: Train, if we must, "moderate Islamists" if any can be found; "moderate" should NOT mean "less of a blustering threat than ISIS" or "any group that has not beheaded anyone lately."

Five: DO NOT ARM anyone; remember the Taliban; remember the Iraqis; remember the Palestinians. Giving arms to Islamists is giving arms to people who will turn them against Americans.

Six: Finally, NO BOOTS ON THE GROUND - the war in Syria and Lebanon is mostly a civil war, an internal affair even though combatants are coming from all over the world. It is NOT the U.S.' fight. (True, some of the blame for the current upheaval can be laid to Obama's door for encouraging and supporting the "Arab Spring." )

If any organization should interfere in Syria it is the Arab League (or however the organization is known today). But, Mr. Obama, please note that no Muslim states are lining up to support ANY side in the conflict. Take a lesson from your Muslim kin and stay out of Syria.

Go after Islamist terrorist wherever they are found, invited or not, but do NOT involve the U.S. in civil conflicts.

President James Monroe was right.^{Note 3}

 

Notes

1: If you prefer, “Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.”
Edmund Burke

2: From Wikipedia
Sunni Islam Shia Islam, Sufism, Ahmadiyya Islam, Kharijite Islam, Quranism, Moorish Science, Nation of Islam, Mahdavism, Messiah Foundation international, Zikri, Five Percenter

3: Read President Monroe's 1823 Message to Congress at www.ourdocuments.gov