Originally Posted By RoadTrip I have been very supportive of the Obama presidency, and mostly supportive of his Foreign Policy. But I really think he has blown it in the Middle East. I think his actions in both Iraq and Syria have left us considerably more at risk of terrorism than we were eight years ago. And yes, I KNOW Bush's invasion of Iraq opened up this whole can of worms. But given the situation he was left with, I truly think Obama could have and should have done much better.
Originally Posted By ecdc Have you read this? <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/the-obama-doctrine/471525/">http://www.theatlantic.com/mag.../471525/</a>
Originally Posted By ecdc Me too. I don't post it to suggest it's the last word or anything, but to say that anyone grappling with Obama's foreign policy ought to read it. I'm sure there's room for criticism in Obama's decisions, but I'm also reasonably certain I'm nowhere near familiar enough with the complexity of these issues to make those criticisms. Obama's like the anti-Bush: everything about his foreign policy radiates reflection and an understanding of how nuanced and complex the world is. It is such a welcome change after the Republican Doctrine that showing strength is the most important thing, even if the outcome is a disaster.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 That was a very good article. Basically, the Middle East is the living embodiment of "damned if you do, damned if you don't."
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Did I not navigate the site properly or was the link to a "Reader's Digest" version of the complete article? It certainly didn't seem like the 19 page opus mentioned in the introductory remarks.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip I wish my prior question had been answered, because at present there may be a lot of information out there that answers my questions. I guess my two main questions at this point would be about Egypt and Libya. At the time, the leaders of both those countries had been cooperating with the U.S. I'm not saying we should have necessarily supported them, but why the hell didn't we just stay out of it? We really had no dog in those fights. And now we have two more Middle East countries that are MUCH LESS stable than they were before, and are a likely source of future terrorism. Obama seems to have a massive blind spot when it comes to the value of SECULAR rulers of countries in the Middle East. Frankly, he is showing the same damned stupidity that GW Bush showed.
Originally Posted By Mr X I'm seeing a very long article at the end of that link, RT. Shoot me a screenshot of what you're seeing on FB and I'll compare then. p.s. gotta give LP lots of time these days. I don't know about anyone else, but I've been getting TONS of down time, especially over the last week. So I'm sure lots of people aren't able to log in and/or are waiting it out (or giving up!).
Originally Posted By mawnck RT - Keep scrolling down. The Atlantic has dynamic loading. You have to stop on the ads and wait for the next bit of the article to pop up.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Thanks guys. I'll give it another try. I kind of figured that was the situation with ads, but when I ran into what looked like a totally different article I figured the Obama policy article was done.
