"Elections are for chumps; get your AK-47"

[Scootaloo]

Obama’s Greatest Failure
by Peter Beinart Aug 14, 2013 7:10 PM EDT

After last month’s military coup in Egypt, sober foreign-policy types warned against cutting off U.S. aid. After all, the coup seemed to enjoy substantial public support. President Mohamed Morsi had become increasingly authoritarian. Cutting off aid might destroy what little leverage America had over Egypt’s new military regime.
Barack Obama



So Obama spoke saccharine words about democracy and inclusion but never called the coup a coup, since under U.S. law that would have required cutting off aid. General Abdel Sisi’s government made it increasingly clear it had no intention of allowing real democratic elections—including Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood—ever again. Secretary of State John Kerry, in a terrible gaffe, praised the military for “restoring democracy.” And then, today, all hell broke loose as the military slaughtered Brotherhood supporters by the hundreds and instituted military law.

There’s a reasonable argument that nothing Obama did would have mattered. The Persian Gulf states, which adored the coup, quickly offered Egypt far more money than the U.S. could have withheld. And it’s not as if the administration remained passive. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns worked hard to bring the Brotherhood and the military together. The White House even sent two of its domestic tormenters, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, to Cairo to try to hatch a deal.

But in hindsight it’s clear (funny how that works) that the people who wanted blunter action were right: Obama’s only real chance of preventing the military from trying to smash its Islamist foes would have been to cut off military aid.

READ MORE: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/14/obama-s-greatest-failure.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_morning&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_morning&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet

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I don't personally care for Beinart's writing too much, he often has this smug, entitled approach to the issues of the middle east. Every now and then I think he might be on the verge of "getting it," and this is one such instance.

[leftyohiolib]

1. if we got off oil could we just leave the area to it's self?

[Doctor_J]

2. probably not. The military industrial complex would never allow peace to

take over. Their half trillion dollar a year money gusher would become a trickle.

[bemildred]

3. I think if we got off oil we would have to leave the area alone.

The US miitary needs all that oil, and we need the military to "protect" the oil, so it's Catch-22. Of course if we downsize or just dispense with most of the military that whole thing becomes much easier, and with our nuclear arsenal and oceans on both sides and friends North and South, that is quite feasible too. The main thing we need the gargantuan military for is this fatuous idea we are going to dominate the world forever or something infantile like that. They wannabe the new Rome, like that was a good thing.