Frederic Hof, former special advisor for transition in Syria at the U.S. State Dep’t;
[A]s Syria began to descend into the hell to which Assad was leading it, I did not realize that the White House would see the problem as essentially a communications challenge: getting Obama on “the right side of history” in terms of his public pronouncements. What the United States would do to try to influence Syria’s direction never enjoyed the same policy priority as what the United States would say. […]
Having failed miserably as a prophet in 2011 does not deter me from predicting the following: Obama will bequeath to his successor a problem of gargantuan dimensions if he does not change policy course now. Left to the joint ministrations of Assad and the Islamic State, Syria will continue to hemorrhage terrified, hungry and hurt human beings in all directions while terrorists from around the globe feast on the carcass of an utterly ruined state. Western Europe now reaps a whirlwind of desperate and displaced humanity it thought would be limited to Syria’s immediate neighborhood.
A chilling, and necessary read.
In other news only 3 days left of the Harper gov’t.
US middle east foreign policy had been a total disaster even before Obama was elected president.
Real men are now taking on the ISIS problem, who are filling in the power vacuum caused by US interference.
At least, that’s what retired generals are saying on FOX news.
Funny, I don’t recall huge streams of refugees pouring out of Syria when Assad and his old man had complete control. Do you? Most of these so-called “refugees”, some 70%, are men of military age, and many are not Syrians. It’s not a stream of refugees, it’s a column of invaders.
Assad had kept a lid on things, until outsiders began meddling.
hmmmm…take a hike…Monday’s electoral outcome is irrelevant to your mewing.
Who is surprised by this? There were those who accurately predicted this sort of behaviour from Obama before he was elected, and yet the “Murrcan” people went ahead and put him into office. Then they re-elected him four years later. You break it, you own it. Lead from behind. Whatever.
This same message applies to trolls like hmmmm above. If some version of a leftist gummint comes from the current election the Canadian people will own it as well. We will surely have gotten the gummint we deserve.
People take actions in their lives, and then they have to live with the consequences.
Well said, I agree.
“And as Syria began to descend into the hell to which Assad was leading it”
Complete lie. Assad was a stabilizing presence, an insurgency was fomented by the United States which then grew into the civil war and humanitarian crisis we see today.
The U.S. fomented insurgencies in several other Middle East countries at the exact same time it did in Syria with the “protestors” claiming they wanted democracy just as in Syria.
They all turned out very badly, but Syria has the backing of Russia so the U.S. cannot overthrow the government there as easily as it did elsewhere.
In case anyone accuses me of being pro-Russia, no I am not.
The U.S. has been botching everything in the Middle East, including their relationship with Israel and even tried to interfere with the last election in Israel and create “regime change” there too.
2.5 days….
The US/West had an opportunity shortly after the Syrian rebellion broke out in 2011 to intervene on the side of the rebels and depose Assad.*
Instead, wary of where intervention might have led,** it dodged that commitment while continuing to posture impotently from the sidelines and drawing pointless red lines hither, thither and yon.
Now, it’s just too late; intervention in Syria is OBE and sabre-rattling about a no-fly zone there is just ludicrous (we’re seriously going to shoot down Russian aircraft?).
* I think that – in our silly, befuddled, liberal Western mindset – we simply assumed it was a given that Assad would be overthrown.
** And no one knows where it might have gone. It certainly might have been a disaster. But then, if you’re going to act boldly, you have to accept the risks.
Commandeer in Chief indeed
Mr. Obama is keeping 5,500 troops in Afghanistan beyond his presidency, about half the strength recommended by his top general in-country. It marks the sixth time he has rejected the advice of a ground commander …
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/oct/15/obama-ignores-generals-on-troop-levels-for-unprece
Harper left zero. Let the navy rust out.
Why is our time being wasted on Mr. Hof’s drivel? As he himself says, he got it all wrong. And always this hanker after a “deal.” Mr. Hof should have realized that he had no power. In my oil patch days, when we were all young and inexperienced, a couple of us once fell for a Yank from Mobil Oil who told us all kinds of marvellous things. But he had no budget. And we wasted several beers on him! After that, whenever someone appeared, usually from South, we’d always find out what kind of budget he controlled before giving him the time of day. Mr. Hof had nothing behind him – hardly even Washington hot air. And really – “the two titans of crime—the Assad regime and the Islamic State” – such intense BS. ISIS is cruel and brutal but it can’t be compared to the USSR under Staliin or China under Mao. As for Assad, his really violent phase began after he was prevented from getting his wife out of Syria.
Agree about Mr. Hof, not a lot of insight at the time or in this article. I disagree, the Stalin and Mao were bad, but ISIS is bad in a very different way.
yuppers John, the guy is full of hot air, and so are you. Difference is he admitts it, you don t. You, like me don t have a clue as to the dynamics in the middle east. Did the obumbles start the peacefull protesters in Syria, or were they spontaneous, we don t know. What will happen in the future over there, we don t know, only time will tell, so keep your righteous indignation for another day. I found it an interesting read.
The crusades shall begin again to stamp out the blood lusting savages aka mentally warped Islamo-Nazis as happened 3 centuries ago.
History is an ugly reminder
I too found it an interesting read.
It illustrates a couple of things for me…that the State Department had really no idea as to “who” Obama was/is…
….and that said presidents complete incompetence in foreign affairs added to his gutless aversion to using military force basically impaled America to be seen world wide as an unreliable / useless force while this guy is in the WH.
Neutered if you will.
That the Russians (and Iranians), are taking advantage is not surprising…had they not, I would have been surprised.
12 more months of his “progressive marxist islamist change” still to come.
Sad
…oh, forgot to add.
“race baiting”…when yo have Al Sharpton as your Race Advisor..you know there are problems..eh?
Not to say there are no race related issues in the US..no question, but has he helped or hindered.??
my Money is on HINDERED…writ large
America would be further ahead if they simply pulled all their troops out of Afghanistan rather than leave just 5500. That number is just enough for Jihad bait.
The US needs to stay out of the ME. The Navy should keep shipping lanes open but beyond that, US foreign policy isn’t coherent enough to accomplish anything positive. Obama’s policy is more coherent than what preceded him but previous administrations were, unlike Obama, trying to further (in futility) what they believed were American interests.