Some of those who defend Obama’s policy in Syria and the Middle East claim that he actually knows what he is doing, and that by referring from overt intervention he is allowing various enemies of the United States to fight on Syrian and Iraqi territories, which serves America’s interests, or so they assert. But the things to which these “experts” seem to be oblivious here is the impact of the alleged policy on the Syrian and Iraqi peoples.
The Islamic State is evil returned – The Washington Post
Why are so many people waxing philosophical about ISIS and its evil when the Assad regime has been doing worse things for the last four years and when the industrial-scale slaughter reminiscent of the Nazi concentration camps is being carried by its security apparatuses, with little philosophization on anyone’s part? No, I am not trying to deny, justify or minimize the atrocities committed by ISIS, I am just wondering why the soul-searching is only happening now and in its regard, not years earlier in connection with the mass atrocities perpetrated by Assad. I am wondering why some people can even stomach advocating cooperation with Assad against ISIS, even though the latter is obviously a symptom of the disease that is Assad. I am wondering about the selective nature of our moral outlook on things. Is morality meant to be so cynically utilitarian, just another means towards achieving a coveted material end regardless of any human cost? Isn’t morality supposed to set up guidelines for our behavior, rather than offering justifications for it? What is wrong with this world? No. Don’t talk to me about God and Satan, Santa Clause or the Evil Wizard. Life is nothing more than fucked up peopled doing fucked up things, as they try haplessly to fill the emptiness they nourish inside, to give meaning to who they are, while fear of the unknown surrounding them and constantly closing in on them gnaw at their minds and souls. We are all so pitiful, so disgustingly pitiful.
Comment is free | theguardian.com.
This column was ranked one of the five best columns for Monday August 25 by thewire.com.
It’s time for him to do the right thing by arming moderate rebels, imposing a no-fly zone and expanding military action beyond Iraq
Barack Obama is embarking on a global course correction, if not an outright reversal: the policy of “don’t do stupid stuff” – the non-interventionism so praised by the Farid Zakarias and Tom Friedmans of the world – is getting forced out, albeit in the typical Obama fashion of admitting nothing and never going fast or far enough.
Continue reading “Obama has ignored Syria for too long: it’s the rise of Isis, stupid – now help”
Stephen Walt wonders: “Is Barack Obama More of a Realist Than I Am?” While Stephen Kinzer praises his “canny anti-interventionism,” and Syrian prodemocracy activist, Qusai Zakaria, assails him for his failure to punish Assad back in 2013 for launching the notorious chemical weapons attack against the civilian populations in the Damascene suburbs of Moadamieh and Ghoutah.
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 