Ignoring Egypt
The current American obsession with Syria, a country one-quarter the size of Egypt, might cause some to think that all is well in Egypt. No doubt, the Syrian civil war is a mess and the use of chemical weapons is a concern. As we focus on Syria we forget that Egypt is currently ruled by an illegitimate military regime as the result of a bloodless military coup that ousted the first democratically elected president of Egypt and then threw him in prison. The illegitimate regime has also imprisoned thousands of Islamists, killed peaceful protesters (children among them), and closed opposition news outlets. Nonetheless we continue to deny that a coup occurred, give the illegitimate government billions in financial aid while our debt climbs, and continue to count Egypt as our ally.
Magical thinking is required to believe that the United States has a coherent foreign policy in the Middle East.
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I refer you to the following:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/10/world/middleeast/lobbying-group-for-israel-to-press-congress-on-syria.html
Interesting whom is really pushing for War in Syria. It of course benefits Israel to remove a puppet of Iran. However, the tangled web of supporters of both sides makes the head spin.
As far as Egypt goes, the Islamists are one extreme who have been targeting Christians. No matter your belief system, systematic attacks on a group because they don't believe in a Supreme Being in exactly the way you do doesn't make for a strengthening of your position as a "peaceful" religion. Are not the last crusade(r)s 800+ years old?
I wrote the following on my Facebook Page a few days ago.
ReplyDeleteSo, now that I am back on FB for a while, here is my take on Syria (I know that you all are just on the edge of your seat). While I love our President, he is far wrong on the Syria question.
(1) We need to limit the use of our military world wide both for ethical, moral and fiscal reasons.
(2) The "rebels" in Syria are not our friends or allies anymore than Assad is.
(3) Our Mid-East policy (and most of our foreign policy) is and has been lacking any measure of coherence for the last 40 years.
(4) Our foreign policy decisions should be AMERICA centered, not Israel centered.
(5) Using 3-5 cruise missiles to take out a few Syrian government installations won't change a thing for the "average" Syrian on the street and could possibly result in more innocent deaths than less.
(6) I am not afraid or concerned about Assad's threats of retaliation, however we might want to consider the long term impact in our relationships with China, Russian and Iran (who WE have made 5X more powerful by toppling Saddam in Iraq - another emotional and irrational foreign policy decision by a President from the "other" party and endorsed by a majority of Congress in spite a lack of support from the electorate or a sound military and political plan .... sound familiar?).
As far as Obama saving face? Sometimes a true and strong leader has to be man enough to put HIS ego aside and do what is best, take the kick in the balls, the ridicule and the political beatings and move on.