Tuesday July 2, 2013

I've Been Thinking:

Washington does not understand the Middle East.

Here are four blatant examples illustrating how the administration is naive and overly optimistic about everything relating to the region. How they are not grounded in the realities of the Middle East.

# 1: In Egypt the United States jumped at the opportunity to oust Mubarak which turned into a big mistake. Now DC is overly cautious and as a result Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood are getting the soft shoe.

# 2: In Syria it appears as if the United States has decided to side with the rebels. That is despite knowing that the best organized and best trained and most powerful rebels are confirmed al Qaeda or al Qaeda affiliates.

# 3: In Turkey the United States has been relatively quiet about the brutal crackdown Erdogan has perpetrated against protesters. They have silently stood by as the Turkish leader's language slips into anti-democratic and extremely problematic imagery.

# 4: Just last week the United States opened official channels of communication with the Taliban. They met in Qatar.

The only way to explain these actions and inactions by the United States is to say that the present administration is naive, very, very naive.

Naivete and diplomacy are not a good mix.

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