Saturday, August 30, 2014
Obama Scurries to Put Together a Middle East Coalition
In a rather surprising speech to foreign ambassadors in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has warned the US and Europe that they will be attacked if there is not a strong international response to terrorism. The King's remarks come after ISIS has seized a wide area across Iraq and Syria. While not mentioning any terrorist groups by name, King Abdullah's statement seemed to be aimed at drawing Washington and NATO forces into a wider fight against ISIS and its supporters in the region. Saudi Arabia openly backs rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but is concerned that the breakaway al-Qaida group, ISIS, could also turn those very same weapons on the Kingdom. "They could be in Europe in one month, America in two months," he said, urging the ambassadors to relay his message directly to their heads of state. “Terrorism knows no border and its danger could affect several countries outside the Middle East,” according to the king. The Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group has prompted widespread concern as it advances in both Syria and Iraq. Inaction would be “unacceptable” in the face of the phenomenon, King Abdullah said. "These terrorists do not know the name of humanity and you have witnessed them severing heads and giving them to children to walk with in the street," the king said. ~~~~~ Saudi Arabia, a major US ally in the region, has taken an increasingly active role in criticizing ISIS. Earlier in August, the country's top cleric described the Islamic State group [ISIS] and al-Qaida as Islam's No. 1 enemy and said that Moslems have been their first victims. State-backed Saudi clerics who once called on citizens to fight in Syria can now face steep punishment for doing this, and the Kingdom has threatened to imprison Saudi citizens who fight in Syria and Iraq. A decade ago, al-Qaida launched a series of attacks in the Kingdom aimed at toppling the monarchy. Saudi officials responded with a massive crackdown that saw many flee to neighboring Yemen. Since then, the Kingdom has not seen any massive attacks, though it has imprisoned suspected militants and sentenced others to death. ~~~~~ Great Britain raised its terror threat level Friday to "severe," its second-highest level, because of the situation in Iraq and Syria, even though there is no information showing the likelihood of an imminent attack. The Obama White House has said it does not expect the US to raise its terrorism threat warning level. ~~~~~ Dear readers, President Obama has yet to decide whether the United States should launch raids against ISIS positions in Syria,as urged by American military leaders in order to secure the progress made by US air strikes on ISIS activities in Iraq. US Secretary of State John Kerry called Friday for a global coalition to combat the ISIS “genocidal agenda.” Writing in the New York Times, Kerry said he and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will meet European counterparts at a NATO summit in Wales next week, to enlist their assistance. They will then go to the Middle East to build support “among the countries that are most directly threatened. With a united response led by the United States and the broadest possible coalition of nations, the cancer of ISIS will not be allowed to spread to other countries,” Kerry said in the op-ed piece. But, the fundamental problem in all of these efforts -- the meetings with allies of Kerry and Hagel, the airstrikes in Iraq, the warnings of Saudi King Abdullah -- is the lack of a cohesive Obama strategy for the Middle East. Until the President spells out his plans for eliminating ISIS, Kerry and Hagel and King Abdullah have nothing to talk about with possible coalition partners. Who will join a last-minute coalition called for by Obama because his "lead from behind" tactic has finally blown up in his face. And why would ISIS believe that Obama, the reluctant warrior, will stay the course even if a coalition is formed.
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We KNIW where ISIS is, we KNIW their leaders, we know their hiding places. How about a simple message ..."we know who you are and where you are - and we're coming for you and all who us with you."
ReplyDeleteAnd then send out teams upon teams if International/ Coalition countries SoecOps to get them. NO QUESTION ASKED!
What's the line from "Tombstone"...."I'm coming and hell's coming with me." That's what we ought to tell ISIS.
DeleteYour ideas are better than theirs....why don't you call Barack - baby???
ReplyDeleteHe listens to no one except Valerie Jarrett. And that is why he is the predicament that he is right now. No International respect, domestic poll numbers in the high 30% approval, no Middle East policy by his own admission, unemployment much higher than his Labor Department each week, rampant entitlement program usage, 49 million American on food stamps, a sliced & diced military, scandal after scandal, provable lies to cover provable lies to cover last weeks scandal.
DeleteObama has no escape. he is a lame duck president who has no idea why his administration is where it is. he doesn't understand the solutions because he doesn't understand the problem, or won't admit that he is the problem.
Mr. President – you have had a very disastrous attempt at (as you promised) to make Washington DC more transparent. You were going to make government more responsive to the needs of the people as you said. You have lost your way – if you ever really had a path you wished to travel.
ReplyDelete“When performing a long and complex task, and when you’ve gotten utterly immersed in secondary and tertiary unexpected tangential subtasks, it’s easy to lose sight of the initial objective. This sort of distraction can be particularly problematic if the all-consuming subtask or sub-subtask is not, after all, particularly vital to the original, primary goal, but ends up sucking up time and resources (out of all proportion to its actual importance) only because it seems so urgent.
When you’re up to your neck in alligators, it’s easy to forget that the initial objective was to drain the swamp.”
So Mr. President we have seen through your promises, lies, and deception. And we wish to only get to January 20, 2017 in one piece without bloodshed in our streets, an economy that can be rebuilt, and again a president and an administration that understands the Constitution better than a Constitutional lawyer from we don’t know where.
In the face of all the accusations, innuendo’s, and just plain personal assumptions that there may be something that just isn’t all in the up and up with Obama and his inner circles in the White House when it comes to their allegiance to the United States and therefore their honest dealings with certain countries that harbor good will and support to our enemies. This is a hard thing for most people to get their mind around … a president and/or a presidential staff of advisors that could be actually against the welfare of the people and the United States - for the want of a better word a charlatan, an impostor, a deceiver.
ReplyDeleteIf any of this assumption is valid, then is Obama really scurrying around trying to make alliances that will bring an end to ISIS/ISIL or is this just all showboating, playing to the gallery, down right defrauding us?
I think there is a very strong case for “what we see, is not what really see.” I think this administration is all “smoke & mirrors”. No lie, no scandal, no mistake, no failed foreign policy, no Ambassador’s death has not gone unplanned. We have been taken for a ride, a turn at the shell game table, a trip to “The Twilight Zone.”
The time that it takes Obama and his Foreign Affairs team on John Kerry, Chuck Hagel, and Obama’s eyes, ears and brains at being president Valerie Jarrett (his self-admitted Socialist born in the ME) to put together a coalition force to face ISIS/ISIL on the battlefield and the content of this hoped for coalition will go a long way in establishing his standing in the Club of Nations.
ReplyDeleteImmediately post 9/11 President Bush was having instantaneous success at creating that coalition force. A coalition force of might and resolve, not one of here’s the check go fight for us! Because in the end I think that the makeup of Obama’s coalition of forces … lots of money and little participation.
Obama only interest is in hegemony. He doesn’t want to get his hands dirty or bloodied. He just wants to ride into the next photo op on his black horse with a grin ear to ear.
DeleteObama is on a ride in Never Neverland with Peter Pan (John Kerry) and Tinkerbelle (Valerie Jarrett). Reality is behind him.
“Things without all remedy should be without regard: what's done is done.”
― William Shakespeare, Macbeth
This administration’s Foreign Policy (ies) is in shambles, it is a fiasco, a joke. Look at the situations that Obama has to deal with in/with Russia, China, N. Korea, a jigsaw puzzle of countries in the Middle East, and Israel where Obama has done what most thought was impossible – drive a solid wedge between Washington DC & Jerusalem.
ReplyDeleteAND JUST MINUTES AGO AN ISLAMIC GROUP HAS SAID THAT IT HAS “SECURED” A US EMBASSY COMPOUND IN LIBTA’S CAPTIAL OF TRIPOLI. There is no hostage situation because Obama & John Kerry decided to tuck tails and evacuate Embassy personnel from Libya a month ago. But what if our leadership in foreign policy hadn’t made that decision we would be looking right now at another Tehran, Iran situation from 1979 and Jimmy carter’s days of leadership.
We don’t need a coalition under Obamas watchful eyes … we need a watchful president.
“There have been plans on the table. “The president just didn’t want to get engaged. That is his decision. That is his foreign policy.” – Rep. Mike Rodgers
DeleteRodgers is always pretty straight forward and to the point. But here today is brutal. This statement but ISIS/ISIL and all connected right at the feet of Obama.
Obama’s scurrying around to find a coalition, pointing fingers at his departments and inner circle of advisors is all (and always is) subterfuge to fool the citizens of the United States.
ReplyDeleteThe presidents say he is waiting for ideas and suggestions from the State Department, Department of Defense, his own national security Staff, Joint Chiefs of Staff, etc. Well folks this is yet another lie or fabrication in the account of the Obama Presidency. He has on his desk plans and ideas from months ago; the problem is the content of what he has.
Obama wants plans and ideas that show leadership from out front, boots on the ground, specific military operations not just humanitarian actions and more photo ops in the Rose Garden at the White House. He wants what his ideas are so if they fail (and they will) then it will be Sate, Defense, Joint Chiefs, etc. fault not Obama’s fault.
This is a continuation of Obama’s playing CYA game, but the chips he is using to play with are lives of American soldiers, citizens of Iraq & Syria, citizens of the Middle east whose only crime is being a Christian in a Theocratic 8th century region of the 21st century.
Climb in, sit down, buckle up because the ride is about to get much bumper.
Some high ranking military personal are suggesting to Obama that he cannot possibly go to the NATO meeting in Wales this coming Wednesday (I believe) without a workable, agreed upon policy/action plan to present to NATO Ambassadors for their approval and their agreement to join Obama’s coalition.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that there are NATO countries already on their own doing exactly what Obama should have been accomplishing many months ago. For Obama to rush a plan though in 3 days will guarantee a plan that will fail in its stated objectives, and therefore failure to deliver the salvation much needed by Northern Iraq and Northern Syria (for the most immediate part).
This forth coming 3 day wonder statement will dilute Obama’s international standing even more than it is today. His lack of decision making, leadership from behind, humanitarian aid without military aid will just about vanquish him from any respectability within NATO.
Too little … Too late!
On Thursday, President Obama told the world he didn’t yet have a strategy for dealing with the Islamic Front in Syria. Although it’s never good to let an army who beheads your citizens and is hell-bent on your destruction know you don’t know how to deal with them – yet, or otherwise.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the political advisors in the White House have yet to calculate how to use this threat to influence the November elections or to at the very least blame Congress for it. But we already know the president has a phone – right next to his pen – and that the Pentagon has phones, too. If he has taken the threat of ISIS seriously for eight months, why has he not used his phone to call the Pentagon and ask the military to formulate some possible strategies for any number of scenarios? How can it have no strategy for dealing with ISIS in Syria, or anywhere, some 8 months later?
President Obama told the New Yorker magazine, “The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant. I think there is a distinction between the capacity and reach of a bin Laden and a network that is actively planning major terrorist plots against the homeland versus jihadists who are engaged in various local power struggles and disputes, often sectarian.”
First, they are using ISIL—Islamic State in the Levant—as opposed to ISIS, the Islamic State in Syria. This is to sow confusion and distract from the administration’s record in dealing with this crisis. Second, so our strategy is dependent upon Iraqi Shia, Sunni and Kurds coming together, putting aside centuries of hatred, forming a drum circle and singing “Kumbaya”? Hmmm … why didn’t we think of that before? Wait, we did!
So we do have a strategy. It’s a muddled, rudderless, leaderless strategy with no clear directives or goals. But really, is that such a surprise?