Is There Nothing That Obama Can't Do?

That muslim world is influencing the critical mass of voters that OBOZO and the donkeys need to vote for them.

Despite the biased media attempts to hide/spin the MENA unrest/events...that critical mass of independants sees the donkeys as the local chapter of the islamists.

Egotism is a bad basis for diplomacy.

Uh, no mention of Obambi...it's all about 'the film'.
Oh good...he want to ban 'insults to all religion'.

Hey buddy...Christians don't need/want you on our side.

They -do- look at America differently. They see Barry looking like a 98 pound weakling at the beach, so now they're kicking sand in his face.

Who didn't foresee that?

So Christians have had to put up with the "Piss Christ", the "Dung Madonna" and other bathroom swill that passes for 'art'.

After a while you just get a thicker skin, and become cognizant of the fact that the best reaction to 'artistic twits' is to ignore them.

Cheers

Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief

1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”

Oh, and if I may add this tidbit to this juxtaposition, especially for those thumbsuckers on the left, the crowds are burning pictures of Obama NOT Bush.

I think Obama's statement is indicative of his psychological pathology of clinical narcissism.

He lives, totally, in a 'virtual' or imaginary world made up only of His words. He is unable to interact with the real world controlled by objective reality and other people. The only way he feels in control is within his fictional world - as he tells it. So, whatever he says, is real. Nothing else has any reality. His narcissism leads him to believe that His Words will instill adulation and adoration in any who listen to Him.

He is himself, alienated from action in the real world; he makes no decisions (other than his Killing Cards by drones), leaves all actions and decisions to others. His world is just Words.

I suspect that the riots in the MENA are due to two issues.

First, a continuation of the simmering rage of poverty and a dead end economy, with unemployment anywhere from 15 to 50%, with the statist redistribution economies unable to support the population, and with any changes from the new regimes inadequate and fragile.

Flinging aid money at them, Obama's normal tactic to deal with any economic problems, won't work. That's just a continuation of the top-down distribution and most of that gets swallowed within the corruption and bureaucracy.

The infrastructure of both the economy and the political system has to change to enable more wealth production within these nations. That's, as VDH (Victor Davis Hanson) also wrote, a requirement for modernization,

'Adopt the now seemingly impossible: consensual government, a bill of rights, secular tolerance for religious diversity, gender equality, meritocracy, respect for science and empiricism, a free market, and a free press. In other words, join the 21st century.' (VDH, Pajaams Media)

That is, a capitalist middle class economy and constitutional democracy.

The second reason for the riots is the internal weakness of the new governments, and their isolation from any assistance to develop modernization (economic and political). That's Obama's rejection of the Bush Doctrine and his policy of doing nothing. Other than giving pompous speeches.

This has enabled internal radicals, different sects of them, totally ignorant of economics, seeking only power, to laud their utopian IF ONLY rhetoric and inflame the poor and unemployed.

Obama can't change. Will Americans elect Romney?

"Simmering rage of poverty and a dead end economy?" If one reads David Goldman's figures,
it is sharper than that: an increasing difficulty in affording sufficient food. That and a religion which emphasises violent "solutions" rather than cooperative ones.
The religion is doubly bad in that it predicts that they should dominate the world, not find themselves at the bottom of it.

Posted by: Eskimo at September 18, 2012 10:42 AM

Further proof that they are reacting to the boasting and posters that said ‘GM is alive, Osama is dead' at the DNC.

Nobody saw the YouTube video.

The whole world saw the DNC.

Those morons dance on Osama's grave, get a reaction, then blame some obscure film nobody has seen, but that was apparently shown on Egyptian TV.

Does the Democratic Party braintrust actually believe Egyptian TV did not show the taunting posters that their sheep at the DNC were waving proudly?

What was that about you reap what you sow?

ET: I'll organize a fundraising for next November so that after Obama win the election you can have a nice 3 weeks vacation away from the computer. Otherwise I fear for you mental health.

The latest leaked comment by Romney shows that he is totally unfit for office. There is no way this guy can be president of the USA. I think Obama should easily win.

The situation in the MENA has nothing to do with Obama.

Fear of President Bush carried these Oblamer clowns for 3 1/2 years.

Now that the enemy knows we have a Wussie in Chief,
the Shiite has hit the fan.

2 more years of this Clown Shiite Circus and Americans here at home will be killed.

Sooooo-

Ether get rid of Oblamer in November or your friends and family will die!

As Churchill was purportedly, (and perhaps incorrectly), supposed to have said about the WWII era Germans, "They're either at your feet or at your throat".

Personally I'd prefer the M.E. not to be at our throats.

The latest leaked comment by Romney shows that he is totally unfit for office.
Posted by: Quebecois NDP separatiste at September 18, 2012 11:01 AM
---------------------------------------------------

Truth in the WH? No, obviously we can't have THAT!

It doesn't matter what the US or Israel or anyone does. These terrorists will still try to kill us. Look at the people in that crowd. Do they look like reasonable people in any way? They look strikingly similar to the bums you see roaming the streets here.

Nice compact target, well bunched, excellent hard surface walls to keep the blast effects contained.

ET, what do you think of the movie "Obama 2016" theory that Obama is working though his father and Anti Colonialism as the basis of his life? As apposed to your theory that Obama narcissism drives him? Or are they both true?

I'm asking because I really enjoy your posting. I am really asking for your take on Dinesh D’Souza idea and thoery about Obama.

That's the best juxtaposition of the year! That would make a nice facebook status update.

Only in the quebecois world is a politician telling the truth (47% pay no federal taxes, culture of victimhood) considered to be a liability.

Romney should point out those facts even louder. The Oct. 3 debate would be a good time.

The bigger threat than Obama bungling the MENA is his handling of the US economy and his first attempt to Obamafy it via Health Care, 17% of GDP.

Progressives, totalitarians and Islamists all have one thing in common: they are the elites and we are the peasants. Its feudalism déjà vu. No middle class. They detest the power of the middle class because they cannot be bought with cronyism. However some of the middle class in the West has been bought with, as the previous post suggests, the empty warehouses of entitlements.

The middle class in the West had better wake up to the enemy within before, as the other thread suggests, the bond merchants slip out for intermission. The middle class has not been engaged in politics, we didn’t understand that the concepts of liberty in the Bush Doctrine are not a permanent gift, we have to be engaged enough to kick the bums out once in awhile.

The MENA needs to develop a middle class that holds the same threat of throwing the politicians out; it will take years to accomplish that. As Churchill said: democracy is the worst form of government except for all the rest.

Turning to Mitt, who told the truth about a dependency class of 47% who don’t pay federal income tax, he doesn’t need to be – elegant- about that. A small majority, say 53% , understand, they just want to know if he understands. That 53/47 split is where liberty hangs…it’s very nerve-racking.

So when these riots in Lebanon get out of control (again), will Ottawa once again cover the airfare to bring home the so-called "Canadians", all of which are only coIncidentally visiting the home land at the same time?

This script writes itself, doesn't it?

The bigger threat than Obama bungling the MENA is his handling of the US economy and his first attempt to Obamafy it via Health Care, 17% of GDP.

Progressives, totalitarians and Islamists all have one thing in common: they are the elites and we are the peasants. Its feudalism déjà vu. No middle class. They detest the power of the middle class because they cannot be bought with cronyism. However some of the middle class in the West has been bought with, as the previous post suggests, the empty warehouses of entitlements.

The middle class in the West had better wake up to the enemy within before, as the other thread suggests, the bond merchants slip out for intermission. The middle class has not been engaged in politics, we didn’t understand that the concepts of liberty in the Bush Doctrine are not a permanent gift, we have to be engaged enough to kick the bums out once in awhile.

The MENA needs to develop a middle class that holds the same threat of throwing the politicians out; it will take years to accomplish that. As Churchill said: democracy is the worst form of government except for all the rest.

Turning to Mitt, who told the truth about a dependency class of 47% who don’t pay federal income tax, he doesn’t need to be – elegant- about that. A small majority, say 53% , understand, they just want to know if he understands. That 53/47 split is where liberty hangs…it’s very nerve-racking.

John Lewis, yes, it's not just a mild but severe poverty; they can't afford basic necessities of food and shelter.

David Goldman, at Pajamas Media, also has an excellent column on the disastrous Obama tactic of supporting the MB, even before the Egyptian elections, and supporting Egypt with financial support, including backing Egypt's request to the IMF for over 4 billion.

AND insisting on nothing, absolutely nothing, in return. No requirement for a constitution, for a private market economy, for security for foreigners. Nothing.

The Egyptian economy, according to an excellent article at Jinsa, has begun to break down. Really break down. Fuel supplies are dangerously low and fuel suppliers stopped giving Egypt credit in late August. The low costs of household fuel, kept low by that statist redistributionist economic mode, can't be sustained. But the people have no private employment sector to work for and receive wages!

To quote: 'Subsidies already absorb at least 28% of Egypt's budget outlay of 476 billion Egyptian pounds ($79 billion). About two-thirds of that goes toward fuel and energy, with the rest aimed at reducing food prices, particularly for wheat." As it runs out of money, the Morsi government has no choice but to cut subsidies'.

And 'The country imports half its caloric consumption, although three-fifths of its people are engaged in agriculture. Its university system can't train a competent civil engineer (President Morsi, like almost all of Egypt's prominent engineers, studied abroad). Forty-five percent of its people are functionally illiterate. Nine-tenths of its women suffer genital mutilation, and nearly a third of Egyptians marry cousins.'

Half the population lives on less than $2 a day, and remember, most of their basic necessities are subsidized by the government, because, I repeat, they have no private sector middle class economy to generate wealth!

Morsi can't get loans from Saudi Arabia, which views the MB as its enemy. His austerity programs, which will include rationing of oil, gas and, yes, food, will weaken his hold on government - especially since he is also failing to establish a constutition AND, AND, a private sector economy.

This leaves the field open for the utopians. Those are the radicals, who live, just as does Obama, in Words. They also preach that If you just love (Obama, Allah), THEN, all will be well. Oh, and consider anyone else as your enemy. Remember Obama telling the hispanics to 'fight the enemy' (that's the GOP).

I blame Obama, directly, for this situation. His rejection of the Bush Doctrine, his refusal to assist the MENA to modernize politically and economically, and his utter arrogance that all that people need, is His Words, is at the root of this upheaval.

Again, will American choose Words or Reality?

Eskimo, yes, nice point. I wondered if the Hotel Lebanese will do it again, and insist that Canadians get them out of Lebanon if war breaks out.

Spencer, I obviously haven't seen the film, but I'd say that both perspectives are valid. Both actually consider that Obama does things, not for rational reasons, but for purely psychological ones.

I claim that he's a clinial narcissist, a state he probably moved into as a young boy. It made him feel, that if he could manipulate people emotionally by lies and manipulation, then, he'd feel in control of an environment, the external real world, which was extremely unstable (his mother, grandparents, stepfather, father).

His lack of a father, and his knowing that father only with the realm of Words (his father's ideology) could very well result in another psychological state where Obama felt a connection with that missing person, via following his ideology. He, himself, Obama, never intellectually thought through that ideology; he adopted it because it bonded him to his father. And, I maintain, because it set him up as powerful (socialism requires an elite Ruler).

@ Fred:

You're getting ahead of yourself...it's when they drop their flags and pull out the assault rifles depicted on their flag; then it's time to get 'sporting'.

But given Pope Benny was just visiting there; his message was a little more diplomatic. The Lebanese are likely well aware of what their civil war in the recent past has cost them.

Luke 7:14-16

"Do not weep." 14 And he came and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, "Young man, I say to you, arise." 15 And the dead man sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother. 16 Fear seized them all; and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has arisen among us!" and "God has visited his people!"

Cheers

Hans Rupprecht, Commander in Chief

1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”

Isn't this what Obama won that Nobel Peace Prize for?

Quebecois NDP separatiste said, "The latest leaked comment by Romney shows that he is totally unfit for office."

But Obama demonizing the rich is fine?

I guess Obama belittling business owners is fine with you too, Quebecois NDP separatiste.

So Romney has little respect for Obama voters and states that Palestinians want the end of Israel? And these are news worthy? We know the Palestinians want to kill all the Jews in Israel and only the DNC has any respect, if at all, for democratic voters!! So why is this a mark against Romney?

You know who has no respect for American citizens? Obama.

He belittles Congress, ignores the laws they pass and sets up his own unelected rulers to make the laws rejected by Congress (eg, EPA); he appoints people when Congress is not in recess; he sets up czars and rules by Executive Fiat.

He tells people that they dislike his policies only because they don't understand them, ie, the people are ignorant. He smears people who make money and tells them they got it only by their own greed not by their hard work. He belittles their intelligence, belittles their work.

And the media ignore this, because he smiles and goes on pop culture shows.

Quebecois NDP separatiste at September 18, 2012 11:01 AM

Have you noticed how sometimes NDPiste has perfect English, udder time, pas si bon.

Must be all those 'bama speeches rubbing off.

"Civil Rights Division chief can’t commit to protecting free speech"
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/09/18/video-doj-civil-rights-division-chief-cant-commit-to-protecting-free-speech/

It is certainly true that "the [Muslim] world looks at America differently" under Obama - with complete contempt.

Along with much of the rest of the world.

I do hope that the Yanks aren't rotted out but it sure looks as if they are. Obama is just a symptom - like a pimple on an abcess.

John Lewis:
Always contempt but now disrespect. Big, big difference.

VDH has a piece up with the subsidiary tag:
The Premodern Middle East and Postmodern West Don't Mix, Mr President.
Too bad this registered DEM genius didn't understand this before the Iraq invasion.

I wuz thinkin the other day after going thru a thread without commenting:
ET, et al, have a view that the vacuum was created by the withdrawal of the "Bush Doctrine", which for the life of me I can't imagine anyone mouthing without blushing.

I've come to feel that the vacuum was CAUSED by the moronic Bush Doctrine.

To be clear, yes it would be nice to have Jeffersonian Democracy in the ME (and in the US too!!!) but the Bush Doctrine was about bringing them alien democracy (really just VOTING) via military means. Moronicity on stilts!

I also have a feeling that the ME chaos won't hurt Obama; that it may be seen as just part of the inherited Bush Mess (TM). And that view isn't 100% wrong.

me no dhimmi, I've been quoting from that VDH article for two days now. It's excellent.

No, I disagree with you, and approve of VDH's analysis, which is

'What Must Muslims Do?
It is not brain surgery to enter the modern world. Follow some South Koreans or Chileans around for a week with a video camera. Grow up and stop blaming those on whom you depend for everything from drilling bits to laptops. Adopt the now seemingly impossible: consensual government, a bill of rights, secular tolerance for religious diversity, gender equality, meritocracy, respect for science and empiricism, a free market, and a free press. In other words, join the 21st century.'

In other words, a middle class, aka private sector free market economy, and a constitutional democracy.

No, you are quite wrong, and it would be helpful if you would actually read the Bush Doctrine. It was NOT about voting and anyone who thinks that democracy is 'just voting' ought be themselves blushing. Nor was it 'democracy by the gun'. He specifically rejected that.

If you would bother to read it, it was to support 'fledgling democratic governments, encourage reformers' and assist in the development of the infrastructure of democracy; that is, the constitution, the electoral rules, the method. He refers to the form of the institutions of democracy. Nothing to do with something as simplistic as 'just voting'.

If you would read Natan Sharansky's 'The Case for Democracy', referenced by Bush, you'd see that he specifically says that 'a society that is not free but in which elections are held should never be considered democratic'; that is, the constitution, the restraints and rules of elections, are the key - not 'voting'.

And what is democracy? It's the political system that empowers the majority but this majority must be the wealth-producing class. All societies give economic power to the sector that produces wealth. Democracy only exists within a population where wealth production is carried out by the private sector, of individuals owning and developing small businesses.

As I've outlined many times, the MENA political system is tribal (two class, statist, one industry and no middle class economy). This is imploding; it cannot sustain the population. As others have noted, the MENA has to change both economically and politically.

Bush's agenda, in my view, was correct. It would be helpful if you had read and understood it and were not misrepresenting it here (via a gun!heh).

The current vaccuum is caused by the implosion of these MENA economies; Egypt and Syria are in serious trouble for example, and their failure to enable a middle class private sector economy. I blame Obama for thinking that it would all happen if they would just cheer-for-him.

Interesting that Mitt Romney tells us the truth.

Obamas poll numbers remain at 47 percent.
Sometimes the truth is hard to take.

And why are men always
trying to jump into Romneys underwear?

If you want to get into a mans underwear try this website-

-

http://www.pantyhose-stockings-hosiery.com/cat-pantyhose-for-men.html

Re "it's not just a mild but severe poverty" - a good word is "destitution"; "poverty" is overused.

I see another attempt to blame Booooooooosh. To which I say, "Tobruk 1941", and add, Obama claimed that he had fixed the "Booooooooooosh problems".

Re Tobruk, a serious defeat: when it fell Churchill had been in power for one year and one month.
Needless to say he did not blame Neville Chamberlain. That's the way adults, and leaders, are. Narcissists are not. Nothing is their fault.

ET: I've Printed but not yet read the VDH piece. I will later.
I only referred to the subsidiary title.

'What Must Muslims Do?
It is not brain surgery to enter the modern world. Follow some South Koreans or Chileans around for a week with a video camera. Grow up and stop blaming those on whom you depend for everything from drilling bits to laptops. Adopt the now seemingly impossible: consensual government, a bill of rights, secular tolerance for religious diversity, gender equality, meritocracy, respect for science and empiricism, a free market, and a free press. In other words, join the 21st century.

WOW, I had no idea it was so easy. Yeah, I'm sure looking at the US/EU basket cases, they're all EARS. BUT, ET they gotta want what the Koreans pursued. They don't.

As to "growing up" and stuff, heh, that's like telling a depressive to cheer up, pull his socks up, it's all in his head. Which of course is partially true, but an ill-advised approach to said depressive. VDH is a scold here essentially shouting, PULL YOUR SOCKS UP.

Bush's dream was worthy but the "Bush Doctrine" in action was an unmitigated disaster. Bush caused the vacuum into which chaos rushed. Perhaps well-intentionally (?). And he ignored Iran 'cos to do otherwise would mean he'd have to do something about it.

I'll get a smidgen of optimism when I see some signs of a refomation in Islam -- an anti-sharia counter culture --over there, not in the western Ivory Towers here.

Again, only from the quote above I'd say VDH is a brilliant fool. Like Condi Rice.

John Lewis, yes, I think you're right, the word 'poverty' has almost become meaningless.

It's quite something to read that Egypt might be going into rationing of basic supplies.

From the CIA World Factbook, the Egypt debt to GDP is 83.4%, with unemployment over 12% and youth unemployment at 25%. The key thing, in my view, is that total lack of a middle class private sector economy. This means that it is extremely difficult to get out of this economic implosion.

In the US, if only, if only, they'd get rid of the Obama high taxes, reform the tax code and get rid of the stifling regulations, there already is a middle class private sector economy and it could, slowly, be regenerated. There's nothing in Egypt.

Indonesia, on the other hand has a growing economy, with a debt to GDP of less than 25%, and a strong focus on the private sector economy. They too have a high youth unemployment.

Turkey's debt is 40%, and high youth unemployment but they are focusing on developing that market economy and reducing state involvement.

Note that what is also common with these three examples is they are predominantly Muslim. What is not common is that two of them have moved out of the statist redistribution one industry economic mode and focused on developing that private sector.

The statist economies of the rioting MENA nations are incapable of supporting their increased populations. It is this destitution, this anger that is the root of the riots, neatly diverted to the Evil US by the governments, and also, encouraged by the avaricious vulture radicals who wait on the sidelines for any sign of weakness so that they can jump in with their ignorant utopian dreams of power.

Could some Catholic let me know when the Pope publicly announces those on his murder/hit list?? At Christmas or Easter, I mean global Muslim leaders are issuing fatwahs to murder innocents globally, and they'll even pay you to murder those innocents so when does the pope issue his death lists?

Me, I don't think I like the look in the Muslim World's eye...

Me no dhimmi, I suggest you read VDH's article, as well as others by him. I read him regularly and admire him as a brilliant mind. I posted on that site and there are quite a few serious thinkers who post on his threads.

To set up a goal of, for example, a constitutional democracy and a market private sector economy, is hardly reprehensible. To put it in writing doesn't mean that such will emerge in a Harry Potter transfiguration; it takes time and work. But as Paul Ryan said, the 'idea' has to be there.

I totally reject your opinion that the Bush Doctrine in action was an 'unmitigated disaster'. I think that all four points of his doctrine were excellent and well on their way to enabling change. The problem was, that Obama stopped them dead in their tracks.

He rejected the reality of terrorism, with his renaming it 'man-caused disasters'. He rejected the reality of jihadism, and functionally ignored the Ft Hood massacre. After all, to reduce the causes of terrorism to single individuals rather than acknowledging it as an infrastructure of problems, and attempt to solve it by his collection of Kill Cards, and his selecting Who Shall I Kill by Drone today...that's not merely stupid. It's sick.

What does Obama do about this infrastructure of terrorism? Nothing; he thinks that all that is needed is for him to apologize for 'all those bad Americans before me'..and the angst and anger will dissolve. That means that he considers the cause of jihadism to be American imperialism, that postmodernist academic view of such as Edward Said and all the other Chomsky fans.

Obama utterly ignores the imploding economies of the MENA, ignores the demographic pressures of exponentially increased and urbanized populations, ignores the disastrous results of a redistributionist economic mode and ignores the fact that a military dictatorship prevents the people from even demonstrating or working in government against these policies!

As for ignoring Iran, no, it's Obama who has ignored Iran. And enabled it to become nuclear, and who has effectively turned his back on Israel.

Yes, the Islamists need to reform their ideology but the progressives here need to move out of their own very similar utopian cocoons and their own dreams of statist big government power.

ET; the inhabitants of the MENA countries have been raised in a culture of rage and hatred of others. Rage and hate are what drives actions in those regions. Rage against anyone with a different view than theirs and hatred of those who stand for something different justify their aggressive and destructive behaviours.

It is not just the economic or social structures that cause these behaviours. The underlying Islamist culture still drives behaviour in the region. That culture is flawed in so many ways. For this point, I’ll just note that it does not accommodate personal initiative and responsibility. It does not accommodate the individual. The main point is that if you find yourself in a bad situation, “it is not your fault”, it is God’s will. Ishalla! Since there can be no disputing the MENA countries are in a bad situation and Ishalla, it must be the fault of the Great Satan.

This fundamental cultural flaw cannot be fixed by deus ex machine under the name of the Bush doctrine, the importing of a middle class or anything else. It can only be fixed from within. The inhabitants have to desire to modernize and advance themselves and change their social and economic conditions. They have to be willing to personally step up to the mark and make the social changes from within to achieve this.

Whenever the inhabitants get distracted by Western activities or get sidetracked to committing violence against Western institutions they are not making changes to their own society. They don’t need a middle class they need a Ghandi to motivate them to take personal control of their fate. Until they get one it is best to quarantine the culture and keep it fully contained within its existing boundaries.

I view personal responsibility and empowerment, and not the development of a middle class, as the bedrock of modern civilization.

BTW my takeaway of the key point from the VDH article you refer to was just this. It is about the local population (leaders and subjects, mullah and congregation) wanting to make the move to modernization and making the sacrifice to do it. They need to step up as individuals.

Mr Obama seems to have tried to put himself in the position of the God from the Machine. He provided false hope, and to that extent only can he be blamed.

ET, I'm going to read the piece. I've read quite a lot of his stuff.
And I agree he has a brilliant mind, as do you, don't blush.

But brilliant minds can be foolish, often more foolish than the less intellectually gifted. And I hate to say it, ET, but fiddle has a point: some of your language is perilously close to Brussels-bureau-speak: "infrastructure of democracy" etc. This "infrastructure" is essentially mental attitudes which can't be changed in a positive direction by military invasion esp. by a broke basket case.

And VDH's meme, that it's not brain surgery, this PULL YOUR SOCKS UP scold is as foolish as it gets. It's what happens when you can't admit you signed onto a moronic project like the Bush Doctrine.

Cutting through the BS:

RT Interview with ex- Jihadist/ Muslim Tawfik Hamid on the situation. - Sept 17 2017

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0bxhp4xomo

Hey quebecois ignoramus. Here's some facts.

Since they're based on mathematical and statistical breakdowns, I'm sure you'll be confused.

As in: My mind's made up, don't confuse me with the facts.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/09/18/the-data-behind-romneys-47-comments/

Heh Typo Sept 17 2012

ET: Done. You're right, notwithstanding the ridiculous "grow up" paragraph, it is an excellent piece. Excellent.

Here's what I liked:
A good start, then, would be very quietly to start trimming aid at about $100 million every month, and quite coolly rejecting visas from the Middle East (putting thousands of future Mr. Morsis on hold). We can put travel restrictions on the Middle East, and ask the Egyptian ambassador to go home for a month or so to think things over and see whether he really wishes to protect our embassy. Elites shriek, “Oh, but you’ll only isolate Morsi and alienate the moderates.” Perhaps, but we might also remind them that American friendship is based on reciprocity and must be earned rather than assumed. How odd that the only good thing that either Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton has said throughout this depressing spectacle was Obama’s flub that he didn’t quite know whether Egypt, the recipient of over $1 billion in annual U.S. cash, was an ally or enemy. So only by accident does he make the Muslim Brotherhood government a tiny bit unsure of exactly how we feel or what we might do.

Bingo to the bold.

That said, I'm holding to my view of the the idiocy of the Bush Doctrine (in action) and think we should just butt out, period. We shouldn't interfere at all. They get it, or they don't. We can't help them with the "infrastructure of democracy"; stop them from being Allah-mad.

Amd we don't need to be over there to protect our interests. That's mercantilism.

Shut down all the damn bases and get the hell out of the ME leaving private enterprise to sort it out without government military backup which causes all the mischief. And support no one, not friendly dictators even even the invisible reformers. Butt out.

Me No Dhimmi >

"Shut down all the damn bases and get the hell out of the ME leaving private enterprise to sort it out without government military backup which causes all the mischief. And support no one, not friendly dictators even even the invisible reformers. Butt out."

Bang On!

The only thing I would add to your statement is "!!!!!!!!!!!"

me no dhimmi, I'll continue to disagree.

Your view, which is similar to that of Obama, ie, to ignore them, is in my view, disastrous. The reason is because we no longer live in that 'mercantile' geography of separate states and economies that might be controlled via power. We now live in a globally networked informational and economic complex system, and to pretend that one billion people and a large part of the globe and resources don't exist within this shared complex network, is naive.

Private enterprise won't emerge in the MENA as long as the dictatorial military regimes are in power. That's a key point, because private enterprise moves political power to a middle class, away from those dictators.

No, by 'infrastructure of democracy' I don't at all mean a mental attitude but the actual structures, ie, the constitution, the electoral rules etc. That's not a mental attitude but a set of laws that define the perimeters of the process.

Sorry, I don't read various people who post here; I scroll from the bottom up and if I see a post by the 'braindead' as I call them, I just skip them.

rroe, yes, I fully agree with you about the people in the MENA being raised in a mindset of anger and hatred. And I fully agree with you that the Islamic ideology rejects personal responsibility, rejects reason, science, initiative, objective reality - all the facets of a modern world society.

But I don't agree that ideology drives a society. In my view, the ideology is embedded, is rooted within the economic mode. And that economic mode is directly linked to population size. And finally, those two variables support a particular political system. Finally, only at the 'top' or 'end' of this infrastructure, does the ideology develop to verbalize, to express that deeper infrastructure.

So, no society ever changes just its words, its expression. Change doesn't come from the top down; it emerges from that bottom up infrastructure, from the pressures of the population, the requirement of an economy to support that population, the empowerment by a political system for that economy... Only then does an ideology, ie, the expression of the society's actual existence, emerge. At the end.

The West changed its ideology and began to write and talk about, in great numbers and depth, freedom of the individual etc, in the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th centuries. But the hard structural changes began in the 12th, 13th, 14th centuries.

What is going on in the MENA is the dysfunction of the economic mode to support its exponentially increased population, and the inability of the authoritarian political structure to change that economic mode, to permit a middle class private sector economy.

The ideology, that articulation of 'what is our society', of Islamism, supports that old infrastructure of statism and authoritarianism. But, the population is too large for this mode! So, the region is a mess because they are unable to deal with all the contradictions. That implosion will explode into the West; that's why we, in a global world, have to be involved.

ET >

“Your view, which is similar to that of Obama, ie, to ignore them, is in my view, disastrous”

“Similar to Obamba” – What?

Obamba didn’t ignore them, he armed them and provided logistics and air support. No different than what he’s doing with al Qaeda/ Hezbollah backed “rebels” in Syria at the moment.

What is disastrous is exactly what’s going on now, sorry that I need to point out that “rebels” aren’t always cute little Ewoks fighting Lord Darth Vader in pursuit of universal happiness.

Knight, similar to Obama in ignoring them.

Obama hasn't armed them; he's withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan. He's ignored Iran, ignored its demonstrators for freedom, ignored their nuclear bomb activities. As for Libya, he only went in and I repeat that, only went in when forced to by France and the UK. He's ignored Syria. He's turned his back on Israel.

The Obama Doctrine of thinking that just because he exists and is not an Imperial America interfering with them, that the MENA will all settle down..is in my view disastrous. What was its result? Four dead Americans is just the latest.

The world, economically and informationally, is now networked. It's a very different world than that of the two world wars. We live now in a complex adaptive network where you cannot isolate any set of peoples. Your suggestion of isolation, or quarantine or no-contact, or whatever term you use, in my view, won't work.

That's because, since you DO acknowledge the continuation of economic interaction, then, this can't be done in isolation! It involves political trade agreements, embassies in these and our nations, meetings to deal with fiscal policies; it involves loans and payments and loans are vital in a modern economy.

I've asked you several times to explain exactly how you intend to carry out this 'isolation' or, again, whatever term you use. You've never replied.

Then, acknowledging the millions of illegals in both American and Europe, how do you propose to deal with and stop this? Again, you've never replied.

So, I simply can't see the operational credibility of your proposal. I certainly agree with VDH, when he says to stop the aid until they not merely agree, but actively show that they provide security, that they use our aid for modernization, etc.