America has abdicated it's role in the Middle East to a Sectarian Arab Military

I hate to be that guy who just posts links all day without providing much personal insight, but when I find an article like this that I feel ATS would enjoy, I have to share. So apologies for being the "link guy", but here it is.

Foreign Policy is one of my favorite publications. They always have the best articles about important things, usually filled with insider knowledge and thoughtful speculation. So, if I can do nothing else, I will share their knowledge with you.

Obama wants to stop "fighting them over there", and the Arab League has answered the call. Now, the cautious optimism (or despair) begins.
Selected quotes below, but I suggest you read the whole thing.

FP - America has abdicated

The actual details of this proposed army, including its members, force structure, and location, are to be worked out over the next several months. And as Arab unity — political or military — has often proved to be a mirage, there is good reason to be skeptical that the force will ever come into being. Even if it did, fundamental divisions among Arab states would ensure that a joint force would look more like a
shifting coalition of the willing than a collective body like NATO, or even like the African Union’s Peace and Security Council.

Nevertheless, a sense of real danger, combined with a fear of abandonment by the United States, has propelled the idea onto the Arab agenda. Egypt, which has pushed hardest for the joint force, worries that extremist violence in Libya will spill across the border between the two countries. After Islamic State fighters in Libya beheaded 21 Egyptian Copts, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called for a U.N.-backed intervention force, or, failing that, the lifting of the arms embargo on the internationally recognized Libyan government in Tobruk. When the United States and Britain opposed both measures, Sisi apparently concluded that he would have to rely on his fellow Arabs, and began sounding the tocsin for a joint force.

a reply to: Ensinger23

Just yesterday there was a thread saying that Obama announced he will stop meddling the affairs of Latin America

www.abovetopsecret.com...

So does it means the US is finally withdrawing all troops overseas? If the US starts withdrawing from the Middle East and Latin America does it means they will shut down bases in Europe and Asia?

a reply to: Ensinger23Very true but only half right. America hasn't abandoned or abdicated resposability in the ME countries. They did what they did in Iraq and Afghanistan and handed back the powers to their respective local people. Though a awful lot of people on ATS will disagree with that statement and say that the US is still working behind the scenes in those countries.
Sooner or later America and the UK will have to leave these people to stand on their own two feet (no matter what religion or sect or political entity is running the country) and they must look after their own interests and that includes their own armed forces to defend themselves.

So what exactly was the U.S.'s role in the Middle East? Invader, Oil-Grabber, Destabilizer? Either way, they've destroyed a lot of countries needlessly in the name of greed.

You know , the more you think about this the more this is right. I never thought about it before , thanks for the eyeopener . That and the reminder of our President saying we are no longer going to meddle in the affairs of Central America. Also , this admin ignoring Israel and some of our other allies .That is what is going on. We in this country are moving to the same isolationist policies that started the downfall to the Great Depression and a World War.

Didn't Obama also claim that Yemen was a textbook case of success? They tried Vietnamization in VietNam, too. And Iraq, and Afghanistan. Problem with puppet governments is only the head puppet is paid well.

The rest are just countrymen and eventually see through the charade.

Lackeys, Proxy warfare, all Empires forget the lesson history teaches.

a reply to: here4this

We in this country are moving to the same isolationist policies that started the downfall to the Great Depression and a World War.

That was planned, just like it is today. Depression, war, depression, war. Only now they seem to have refined it to vicious endless circle.

Never payable debt and endless war.

Anything coming from official Obama sources is suspicious.

They have lied too many times.

Nevermind! I just realized my post would start a war (looks like it will be a Bash Obama thread, what a shocker!) and I can't be at the computer today to defend my comments, nor do I even want to, as it has all become so redundant. So I'll just remove it.

Peace. And I mean that in the most literal way.

liw

Obama and the US are full of pure unadulterated crap!


Here they took part in three adventures to overthrow leaders in IRAQ, LIBYA, and now SYRIA and created pure destruction to those people and countries.

Two of these were under Obama, in Libya and Syria

So this moron and hypocrite Obama IS TOO LATE in trying to fashion a sane ME policy after the destruction he has caused and continues to cause through now a lack of follow up on the ISIS war

His mistakes in the ME are enormous.

First, he shouldn’t have just left Iraq


Second, he shouldn’t have listened to Hillary (WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST) Clinton and bombed and invaded Libya


Third, he shouldn’t have took part in the Syria civil war


He has failed so miserably as a President in terms of foreign policy that he has no choice to abandon the policies he’s initiated

Also he isn’t going to abandon the ME he is just leaving the mess he’s made for the next president because he doesn’t know what to do

It was either this or only being able to shut the power off in the Press briefings so you don't have to keep displaying your hypocrisy on RT every day .Imagine where several ME countries gang up on one poor country and try to bomb it back into the stone age and having to answer direct questions ? Their was always only so far the west could play good cop bad cop and get away with it and it seems to be now .

The not meddling in South America only comes up because every one knows and have taken measures to nullify the practice .Better to admit it now and confess your policy is no longer that in order to stay relevant .When you become so untranslatable as the US has become in recent times you are going to need some forgiving for past sins .

LOL How is this a bad thing? I'd rather my taxes be used to help Americans anyway. The funny thing is people like Ron Paul say we should close our overseas bases, bring our troops back home, and stay out of other countries' affairs. And people here love it. But if President Obama actually starts doing it, there's a problem? LOL

Exactly at what point in time did America have "role in the Middle East" anyway? When we helped the British coup against Iran's leader Mossadeq in the '50s & installed the Shah? Or when we backed the Shah's repressive government until 1979? Or when we helped Saddam fight Iran from 1980 to 1988, while selling Iran weapons in the Iran Contra scandal? Or when we agreed to protect the oppressive royals in the GCC in exchange for their support of the petrodollar? Those people are on the other side of the world. Why should we have a role there in the first place?

I read this and the stop meddling in Latin American news/threads/posts as....

Hey, we're going to finally stop being a colonialist power and bullying our way across the globe with our secret Alphabet agencies and military power.

This is good news. Though we should play a big role in international affairs, we should do it diplomatically not militarily.

originally posted by: Willtell

Also he isn’t going to abandon the ME he is just leaving the mess he’s made for the next president because he doesn’t know what to do

The same way he inherited the mess from the previous president. His mistake was accommodating the bastards and engaging in a half-assed continuation of the neocon fantasies of reshaping the Middle East via military intervention.

After the first Gulf War in the nineties everyone involved including Cheney said that taking out Saddam would result in the indefinite military involvement of the U.S. in the region. The Neocons even admitted that while advocating the invasion under W.

a reply to: Ensinger23

Lets see if the Arab nations have oversight like the US. Lets see if they dont engage in abuses and outright war crimes.

If you thought the US was bad, lets see this. At least the US answers to its allies and the international community, little or much that it is.

I cant wait for the world to see the price of secure international trade and stability for our home countries.

Let see if the UN gets 70-80% of its budget from France and co. Lets see if anyone else will field large navies to curb pirates and secure trade.

Flame on.

When everyone starts to defy western countries because the US is no longer the muscle behind them, lets see what the other countries besides the US and the UK do.

I for one vote France starts to face off against these people. Perhaps they are right and all that is needed is good foreign policy. Perhaps they can convince them with their words to keep things as they are.

I doubt it. But hey, if it means we get to keep our people home and stop spending trillions protecting the interests of the west, FINE BY ME!

originally posted by: Willtell
Third, he shouldn’t have took part in the Syria civil war

At least he didn't start a bombing campaign against Assad the way the war hawks like McCain were screaming for. Who knows what the situation with ISIL and everything else in the area would be now if that had happened.

I'm not at all happy with Obama's foreign policy. However, it's a very safe bet that we'd be in just as much deep s*** in the region as we are now if not worse under a President McCain and God help us if we turn over the reins to another war crazed Republican lunatic with a Republican congress.

in the meantime ...

United States Central Command

originally posted by: DelMarvel

originally posted by: Willtell
Third, he shouldn’t have took part in the Syria civil war

At least he didn't start a bombing campaign against Assad the way the war hawks like McCain were screaming for. Who knows what the situation with ISIL and everything else in the area would be now if that had happened.

I'm not at all happy with Obama's foreign policy. However, it's a very safe bet that we'd be in just as much deep s*** in the region as we are now if not worse under a President McCain and God help us if we turn over the reins to another war crazed Republican lunatic with a Republican congress.

At least Obama won't be there much longer his term is almost up.
Sanity may return with peace through strength instead of chaos through weakness.

It's not our job to run the middle east.

We in this country are moving to the same isolationist policies that started the downfall to the Great Depression and a World War

Isolationism didn't have anything to do with either one of those events, but thanks for making crap up to support your right wing extremist views. We don't have any right or responsibility to run all the countries of the world. You should be happy the Arabs are stepping up now to fight their own wars.

Oh, and the founding fathers were isolationists.

originally posted by: DelMarvel

originally posted by: Willtell
Third, he shouldn’t have took part in the Syria civil war

At least he didn't start a bombing campaign against Assad the way the war hawks like McCain were screaming for. Who knows what the situation with ISIL and everything else in the area would be now if that had happened.

I'm not at all happy with Obama's foreign policy. However, it's a very safe bet that we'd be in just as much deep s*** in the region as we are now if not worse under a President McCain and God help us if we turn over the reins to another war crazed Republican lunatic with a Republican congress.

I agree any GOP president maybe save Rand Paul is and would have been worst than Obama by far. Nevertheless that doesn’t make Obama any good.


He never was firm in any intelligent policy in the ME. He just listened to the morons like Susan Rice, Samantha Power, and Hillary.

Then he either does nothing as a response to his stupid policies when there is a need for action at least to clean up the mess that Bush made.

This ignorant conman Obama has no sense of history or knowledge of any thing that deals with foreign policy.

He is incompetent.


On the issue of Cuba, and South America, if he is sincere, then finally he is doing something good…about time!

But on Russia he is just following the neocon agenda and this is more important than Cuba since this issue may cause a world war III and lead to a nuclear holocaust