When Obama dismisses the notion that a moderate opposition force could be armed quickly because it’s made up mostly of “famers and dentists,” he shows the depths he is willing to do to avoid addressing his biggest foreign policy fuckup since he became president.
The burning of adherents of the pantheistic Amalrician sect in 1210, in the presence of King Philip II Augustus. (Wikipedia)
It is not easy for me to criticize an American president, irrespective of his ideological background, because when I do, my criticism often get used by all sorts of anti-American forces in the Arab World, and beyond, in their attack against America and American values, that is, the very values which I long came to embrace, albeit always critically. For, to me, America is an idea, a worthy idea, whose advancement requires critical adherence not blind faith, and armies of analysts and scientists not militias and informants.
Angelina Jolie shows that she understands that the crisis in Syria was mishandled from the beginning, and complains against the continued lack of political will to do anything about it, noting that the situation there and throughout the region has now grown too complex. And she said all this without antagonizing the Obama Administration. Very smart on her part. I, on the other hand, cannot afford to be that smart. Somebody should call an ass an ass, otherwise not enough people might see it. To me, Obama has no clothes, and it’s not a pretty sight.
Will the U.S. intervene on Maliki’s side in Iraq? If Obama is honest about not determining outcomes of “somebody else’s civil war,” as he said in reference to Syria, then, he’s unlikely to do anything serious in terms of providing support to embattled Maliki.