Obama - Change - implications for Foreign Policy

5 thoughts on “Obama – Change – implications for Foreign Policy”

1. I have no patience for apologists for Islamic terrorists.

   Log in to Reply

   1. How will we be able to tell if the “War on Terror” is won? What’s the definable goal? No more attacks? No more terrorists? How is success quantified/verified?

      Log in to Reply

      1. I suspect that terrorists will be on the attack for the rest of our lives and much longer.

         In many ways, we’ve won the current battles in Iraq and can win in Afghanistan, but Iran, N. Korea, Syria and other terrorist sponsors still dream of wiping out Israel, conquering Europe and taking down the U.S.

         Of course, it’s America’s fault.

         Log in to Reply

         1. .
            
            Clausewicz taught that “objective” was as important to military success as, say, artillery.  Nay, more important.

            As Canines indicates, after 6 years, we have not yet spelled out military objectives for our actions in Iraq.  Go to WhiteHouse.gov and you will see social and political and economic objectives, most of which we are nowhere close to achieving.  
            
            But what exactly are we asking the Army to accomplish through the application of fire and maneuver ?  

            ………………

            I agree with you that
            

            Religious fanatics don’t surrender and don’t negotiate … [and] terrorists will be on the attack for the rest of our lives and much longer.

            What’s the best way to respond to those assumptions ?  
            
            Following the course set by President Bush, we are attempting to kill or capture “terrorists” and potential “terrorists” with our foreign invading military leviathan.  

            Do you know the worst part about being under foreign military occupation ?  It’s not the death and destruction caused by military firepower; that’s over in a few days.  The worst is having foreign soldiers take the best houses, the prettiest girls, and the Lion’s share of the food.  It’s having foreigners decide who works at what jobs, and which local tribe lords it over the other tribes.  

            Hey, I used to be an Army officer in South Korea 30 years ago.  We had defended them from Chinese aggression 30 years prior to that, and many of the old folks still appreciated what the USA had done.  Not so much the younger folks.  

            I was a soldier in WEST Germany 35 years ago, and a German linguist.  When Germans my age found out I was American, they quit talking to me.  

            In both situations, we were considered an occupation army by the locals.  In Germany, soldiers I served with – contemporaries – were killed by various terrorist groups, some Islamist, but mostly nationalists or anarchists.  
            
            Terrorists have been around since the first hostile military occupation; read about them in the Peloponesian Wars.  

            ………………

            President Bush and his staff, collectively, are smarter than you, and they could never figure out how to “win” in Iraq.  What would you define “winning” as ?  

            The metric used right now by fascist chickenhawk warmongers to assert progress in Iraq is that fewer American personnel are being killed, and that is demonstrable.  
            
            They also assert that fewer Iraqis are being killed, and that could be true, but we have no way of knowing, since “we don’t do [accurate] body counts.”  
            
            But if you go back to the White House website, you see that the real measures of progress are not being used, because they tell a story of continuing failure.  

            I think that the best we could do to advance US national security would be to reduce threats to us, not increase them.  Therefore, we need to change course.  

            You argue, on the other hand, that it is better to increase threats to the US by turning more of the world against us.  
            
            Unstated, you seem to hope to kill everyone who has brown skin or a different religion.  I reach that conclusion because you say you feel threatened by what other people dream, and killing them is the only way to stop people from having dreams, hopes and aspirations.  That cannot be accomplished with the Bush approach, which appears to be to try to beat people down so much that they give up.
            
            Many will give up, but those that don’t become “freedom fighters” and “terrorists.”
            
            I assume you are still an unemancipated child, either living at home or attending college on your Daddy’s money.  
            
            Like Bush, you see the World as black or white: mine or not mine.
            
            You seek to destroy all you cannot control.

            ………………..  

            I cannot understand that thinking, but I will help you understand mine:
            
            think of all the human beings of the world as creatures of a loving God.  
            
            This God of mine does not love me more because I was born in Massachusetts.  

            Log in to Reply

         2. and are suffering under the yoke of a completely delusional buffoon.  If they could ever get out from under his death grip I don’t think you’d find them blowing up themselves in shopping malls.
            

            Log in to Reply