Barack Obama's Middle East Miscalculation

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Those countries and their people seem to like living in the seventh century so I say ,Let Em! For the arab world the phrase"lead a horse to water and let him drink" means pissing in your own glass. Proving me wrong on that is a fools errand but any and all feel free to try.

Rich K of OR 9:12AM January 21, 2012

TO: All
RE: Additionally....
....any student of history could have seen this coming from miles away.
How so?
It's EXACTLY the same way the Soviets took over Russia after the democracy movement of the Russian Spring of 1917 was subverted.
The problem is that the vaunted American public education system doesn't teach history, let alone civics, anymore. Heck. They don't even teach English or Math. And I blame THEM for our failure.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Used to be that education replaced an empty mind with an open one. Not any more.]

Chuck Pelto of CO 8:46AM January 21, 2012

TO: All
RE: Miscalculated Egypt?
Hardly.
It's all going the way he has foreseen it.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[If it's bad for US Obama will do it.]

Chuck Pelto of CO 8:16AM January 21, 2012

I'm getting sick of all these right wing pundits blaming Obama for this problem without facing up to the fact that the wars and Afghanistan and Iraq have helped cause this problem. And unless you want to invade Egypt, there wasn't much choice in the matter.
We could have chosen to react to 9/11 in a constructive manner - building an even bigger WTC and thumbing our noses at those that did it.
Instead we played into their hands, overreacting and treating our citizens as criminals, degrading ourselves merely to fly (even though locking the cockpit doors solved the problem) and launching two very costly wars in the middle east that have basically been stalemates at best.
Meanwhile our debt it piling up and up and neither party is serious about spending.
How about this - why don't mind our own business for a while, instead of trying to tell how the rest of the world to live their lives? Maybe if we didn't butt in everywhere, people won't hate us? How about we turn ourselves in the real land of the free, instead of the country that has more people in jail than Russia and China combined.
If we want to win this war, it has to be a culture war, and we need to make it superior to anything else in the world - not merely say it is.

JeremyR of MO 7:25AM January 21, 2012

Our handling of Egypt during the Arab Spring and Iran when the Shah was deposed was awful. But what choice did we really have? That sums up our relationship with virtually every country in the Arab world in the last 50 years: always trying to make the best of some pretty lousy choices. We have only one reliable ally in the Middle East: Israel. It's the only true democratic republic that protects the rights of all its citizens, Arab, Jew or otherwise.
I'm afraid we can do nothing except wring our hands and watch, hoping that someday a critical mass of freedom-loving Arabs will overthrow the dictators and fascists and reject their evil doctrine. Until then, we'll watch with dismay as we continue to foster relationships with the least opprobrious leaders from this year's batch. Ugh.

Lauren of UT 4:44AM January 21, 2012

Julie DeLuca of FL
Paul hasn't done anything...

Bill Hedges of MO 3:29AM January 21, 2012

Ron Who?
While the phenomenon of Ron Paul's invisibility has been commented on by a number of individuals, including myself, I feel compelled to comment once again based on the experience I had earlier this week.
It happened on Wednesday morning while uncharacteristically turning on the television news in the hopes of distracting myself from the drudgery of pedaling away on my stationary bike. Normally, I just listen to loud music, but for whatever reason, this week I decided to watch the news and so turned on CBS.
The lead story was all about Newt Gingrich's apparent surge in South Carolina, but also about Rick Perry and Rick Santorum and their continued battle for the nomination. At one point, the newscaster went so far as to show the four candidates on the screen as he discussed their positioning for votes in South Carolina. Yet, even though he is running third, the news program didn't even mention Ron Paul!
In the perfect hindsight afforded by the passage of the last couple of days, we now know that the grips of Santorum and Perry were so weak - single-digit territory - that they both subsequently dropped out of the running.
So now that leaves just Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.
Oh, and that other guy, you know Ron whatever-his-name-is.
Anyone who thinks that the game in this degraded democracy isn't rigged, isn't paying attention.

Julie DeLuca of FL 1:00AM January 21, 2012

Obozo prematurely received a Nobel Prize before stirring up a hornets nest while giving his human rights freedom speeches on his middle-east tour. This well spoken bag of hot air has had some unintended consequences from his speeches when he promised support for all of those who stand for democracy. Many freedom fighters have been slaughtered in the wake of this bimbo due to his irresponsible rhetoric. So far over five thousand in Syria and an unknown number crying for help in Iran. His insignificant actions have left our economy in shambles but when it comes to foreign policy this chump is like a bull in a china shop.

Krackabich of TX 7:35PM January 20, 2012

Notpartofthecattledrive of MD
I follow polls. What I wrote in previous comment was “His foreign policy hurt him bad. His being against Patriot policy added many nails to his coffin. His record of accomplishment in Congress is ??????????? ” I don’t go to poll so my vote is for the winner. I have commented many times on Newt’s many accomplishments.
Paul does not show his “real deal” in accomplishment. No doubt he is a nice guy. As they say, ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS. Newt doesn’t just speak balanced budget, he got it DONE..
I study the candidates accomplishment. Short reading for Paul. With lack of performance, Paul’s the “phony” to a BIG DEGREE. To be polite, how about CAN’T GET THE JOB DONE...

Bill Hedges of MO 7:32PM January 20, 2012

Bill Hedges,
....then by all means, follow the media's "polls" and vote for Newt or Romney!
At this point in time, we are still a semi-free country and I will vote for Dr. Ron Paul. I met this man in Lake Jackson, Tx. some years ago and he is the real deal, unlike all of the other phony repub candidates I've been reading about.
Have a nice day.

Notpartofthecattledrive of MD 6:48PM January 20, 2012