Obama Is Failing the Challenge of the Middle East Protests

The Middle-East problem has been with us for scores of years without much real change. The latest installment, uprisings against tyranny, shows some promise, but predictability is, as yet, just not there.

For Roff to suggest that Obama and his troops aren't able to "tell the difference" as to where individual countries are headed--democracy, more tyranny, into the hands of Iranian mullahs--is the kind of premature judgment only fools and those on the Right willing to capitalize on whatever Obama does or doesn't do are making. No one knows, and it might be quite a while before anyone does.

Then, for Roff to suggest we should be on top of the situation when it will mean good money thrown in after bad is hard to believe. We're sporting a national debt of $14.5 trillion and an annual deficit of $1.5 trillion, and WE should be putting more money into our international adventuring? What Roff has to do is check the figures as to how we ended up so far in the hole.

Unlike ALL other countries in the world, we project our power into every nook and cranny on earth, a very expensive thing to be doing--a habit acquired with our successes in WWII. We've become SuperPower on call and end up in intervention after intervention, Libya the most recent example, and, sadly, war after war. The cost in dollars? We now spend on National Security more than the rest of the world COMBINED--$1 trillion and more annually. The cost in American lives? Don't even ask.

I say it's time for the U.S. to call time out on its hegemonic role. Everyone will undertstand we're broke (they're already sympathizing with those Americans who are being asked to sacrifice their dollars and their lives while the coffers of hegemony are barely touched).

Instead of volunteering us for more of the same, Roff would do well to bone up on the facts in support of why we SHOULDN'T be doing more of the same. The "sun'll come up tomorrow," Peter Roff, with or without our trillion dollar a year input. Time out for some fiscal sanity!

Ron W. Smith of UT 3:23PM April 20, 2011

As large as dealing with GW's wars and everything else going on in the middle east, it seems a few think Obama can take care of things over night...you think it can be done in 3 years...8 years is what you gave GW and look what Obama is having to deal with...not sn easy challenge. He does have a plan way different than our former leader that failed immensely so give him his due time to make things happen as needed. If you thing The Donald (lama) with his surly attitude would be good, or fundamentalist eye winking Palin, or pretty boy Romney could do better....then you have some thinking yet to do....they are embarrassments to this country...at least the first two mentioned. I see people with prejudice (racist) reacting....pretty sad. Give Obama the 8 years ya'll gave Mr. GW....bet we end up in a better way than George left us.jfeb

jfeb of OR 12:00PM April 20, 2011

thing we can add to the long ,long , long list of Obamas failures . Is there a list of his successes ? If there is it's so small we can't see it .

Hunter of WI 7:15PM April 19, 2011

Has anyone writing this muck done their homework? Bahrain has a Shia Majority that wants to take back the power. Hence a possible satellite of Tehran. LIbya? Libya is staunchly and nearly monolithically Sunni.

There's a fine line apparently between Op-Ed pieces and sheer ranting idiocy........

Have some shame Mr. Roff and do some homework. Even if only a little, it would help.

Pathetic.

J. Hambel 3:58PM April 19, 2011