I’ve said for a long time that it should be America’s foreign policy to rather aggressively avoid taking sides in any sectarian hostilities between Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims, which means that we should not try to impose an outcome in the Syrian Civil War that favors the Sunnis and also that we should quit treating Iran as the world’s worst actor while arming Saudi Arabia to the teeth. Unfortunately, we have interests and obligations in the region that cannot simply be ignored, and we cannot always remain neutral in every dispute, but we should strive to be as even-handed as possible in what has become a widespread sectarian conflict. The Obama administration took this approach and suffered some of the downside consequences while also avoiding many possible worse outcomes. The Trump administration threw in aggressively on the Sunni side, making Saudi Arabia the cornerstone of their regional policy, largely in exchange for tens of billions in arms sales. They are now looking like abettors of the worst kind of monster.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
I’ve worked a fair amount in the Middle East for nearly 20 years. Right from the outset, it was clear to me that Bush and the GOP had no clear understanding of the differences between Shi’a Islam and the various schools of thought of Sunni Islam. This serious and fundamental schism dates almost the way back to the beginning of Islam nearly 1400 years ago. And it is the single most important thing you need to know about the Middle East. (The vast majority of the rest of the world’s Muslims are Sunni.)
Not only was the unprovoked war in 2003 an outright criminal act, the U.S. military was wholly unprepared to fight a mainly urban war. This war was the opposite of Bush Sr.’s Persian Gulf War and I could see immediately that this would not go well. And, of course it didn’t as was the disastrous American occupation starting with the disbanding of the Iraqi Army.
Well, we know the rest of this horrible story and the subsequent complete destabilization of the Middle East. And it was all about oil. Which is now the plan for Iran and Venezuela.
The GOP ands its donor class are the most urgent danger to American national security and that is no exaggeration. The party must be destroyed for the good of the nation.
Obama’s unprovoked wars in Afghanistan and Syria put the lie to that.
Now, if you want to say “The Republican/democratic duopoly and its donor class are the most urgent danger … Both parties must be destroyed and deep pocket political contributions abolished”, then I’m with you 100%.
It’s money. As Jesus of Nazareth said, “For the love of money is the root of all evil.”
Progressives like to portray Democrats as angels. In truth, The Democratic Party was formed by an unholy alliance of slave owners/segregationists and corrupt big city machines. Whereas the Republican Party formed out of the Abolitionists and had the first progressive reform platform. Then big money from Wall street corrupted them.
Tommyrot. Indeed, let’s all go back 100 years or so and insist that nothing’s changed,and all the people are the same.
Seriously, this is some bullshit right here.
Yes, the people are all the same. People never change. society never changes, but people never change.
No more corrupt big city machines? Listen to people running for Mayor of Chicago, right now. Mostly people of color too.
society never changes, but people never change.Society changes, but people never change.
I think you’re Old Like Me, so no doubt you remember arguing with defenders of Apartheid back in the day, who’d respond to horrors in South Africa with a condemnation of US-based racism.
And US-based racism is bad! They weren’t wrong about that. I’m still not 100% sure they were arguing in good faith, though.
With all due respect, the modern Democratic Party is obviously completely different from the original and has been for more than 50 years.
The GOP has been a far bigger problem with their determination to roll back all reforms back to 1890 at least. That’s their long-term project. They have dominated the domestic political landscape for decades and an out right left leaning Democratic Party simply won’t get elected until their domination is destroyed.
I agree that money contaminates both parties but Citizens United caused that train to leave the station five years ago. The GOP will never reform itself because it is not in the interest of their donors or the rabid, racist base of the party. So it will keep wreaking havoc on the country if we allow it. That’s what I meant.
Yes, bringing democracy to Indo-China was such a noble pursuit.
And continued through the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations. And for fun the Nixon administration added Cambodia to the mix. Given that I would say both parties hold blame for our folly in Vietnam.
That has to be the most amazing example of Murc’s law in the history of political commentary.
Thanks Obama!
. . . any need to point out how ridiculous that claim was. Surprised voice didn’t tag the war against treason in defense of slavery as “Obama’s unprovoked war”, too.
I don’t dispute that the Bushies appeared to not be -aware- of these important cultural and historical …. gynormous features of the Middle Eastern landscape. What I -do- question, is whether they were unaware, or just didn’t give a flying fuck. I fully agree that this doesn’t change your conclusions, indeed it strengthens them.
There’s that old saying “sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice”. And I feel like, this is an example that disproves that rule. It was malice, of the “don’t give a shit about those people” kind. Not mere incompetence.
Trump gave the green lights that wouldn’t have happened under Clinton or Obama, but this is too simplistic to lay it all at his (and Kushner’s) feet:
The New Arab Winter
From 2008-2013 I was a consultant to the national science funding organization in Saudi Arabia. That engagement happened through my contact at SRI in Palo Alto.
The program was to create and fund Centers of Research Excellence in the universities that would focus on science and technology innovation.
I got to visit many universities. In particular the new KAUST started and funded by King Abdullah was very impressive. But I always wondered whether it would flourish in the middle of such a repressive society.
On my last visit, our host took us to an Iranian restaurant for dinner. What was very surprising was that the restaurant had a big sign saying their food was Iranian, but no worker was from Iran! The sectarianism runs deep!
. . . “authentic” is the advertised selling point for foreign cuisines. I.e., it’s the native cuisine of the folks preparing and serving it to you, so they know it inside-out; it’s “in their blood”. If I go to a Turkish restaurant, and it’s not evidently run by Turkish-looking/sounding people who’re probably family and speaking a language I don’t know (Turkish!) to each other, I start to wonder.
From this perspective, what you describe seems very weird. And telling.
Interestingly in Venice we had a wonderful meal in a small Italian restaurant. To get to the restroom I had to go past the kitchen. Noticing that the cooks looked like they might be from the subcontinent, I asked. They were from Bangladesh.
One iconic Saudi restaurant in Riyadh had all servers from India. Not sure about the cooks.
In LA one of the popular Indian restaurant (chain) called Akbar has mainly cooks from Mexico or other Latin American countries. Cheap labor is probably the primary motivation.
That sign was so jarring that I still remember it.
. . . from the tiny Turkish family-run restaurant in Polson, MT (no idea if it still exists — been years) that I had in mind writing that.
From your examples, I guess I’d guess that busboys/dishwashers, then servers, then kitchen staff, then owner/manager/host (in roughly that order if they don’t overlap) would seem most indicative of “authentic” foreign/ethnic cuisine. (I.e., busboys/dishwashers not of the ethnicity of the cuisine completely unsurprising, not remotely “disqualifying”; servers nearly as much so; on up to ‘no Iranians work at this “Iranian” restaurant’ jarring and suspicious re: authenticity.)
No president before Trump has been this naked about looking the other way from Saudi atrocities to keep in good financial graces. The Saudis as untouchable has been a fixture in US foreign policy, regardless of party, for decades. Still, in normal times this incident would seriously test continuation of the policy.
“making Saudi Arabia the
cornerstoneGlowing Orb of their regional policy”FIFY
My idea is to assassinate Assad, then let both sides go at it, with the understanding that anyone who uses chemical weapons or otherwise colors outside the lines is going to face the same fate as Assad.
You -do- understand that this is bugfuck insane, yes? There are laws of war for a reason: it’s a whole hell of a lot easier to -destroy- than it is to create, and if you make it clear to your adversary that they have no way out, they have no incentive to not fucking destroy everything they can. Everything. Everything.
. . . someone advocating something on the Internet might not have thoroughly thought through all of the potential consequences, including the unintended ones?
How could that be right?
Well, I would like for the Mueller investigation to make it clear that he has no way out, so he has no incentive to not destroy everything.
My idea is to kill Assad, create a power vacuum, and let chaos happen. In the long run, I want to see Iran and Saudi Arabia move from a proxy war to direct conflict. I see this as a necessary step towards the democratization of the Middle East and the creation of a more moderate version of Islam. I expect people to suffer and I expect people to die. I can live with that.
Steve, is that you?
“…avoid taking sides…between Sunni…and Shiite…”
That option was taken off the table by Winston Churchill and Jacky Fisher in 1911, when they converted the British Fleet from coal to oil.
Attainable goals, pls.
Trump suggests “rogue killers” could be behind journalist’s disappearance
It was probably that same 400 pound fat guy who did the computer hacking.
Sigggghhhhh…………..
I am betting it was some of Hillary’s henchmen.