In Egypt the brave boys and girls of the State Department lead the fight for consolidation of political Islamist rule. In Afghanistan the kleptocrats, Afghan and American, are finishing up the construction of their fortunes in Dubai and the Cayman Islands. In Pakistan the mobs are harangued against the United States and new, even greater nastiness against the US is planned. In Tunisia the Islamists sidle steadly toward power. The Washington Post demands active military support for Islamist rebels in Syria. Their paper has a story today that features video of Islamist rebels smashing a truck full of Scotch while chanting "God is Great!" In Lebanon Sunni preachers are much more active in demanding punishment of the Shia. Are they not encouraged by US support of people like Mursi?
We released 1.3 billion dollars to the Egyptian military to keep them in line while Mursi sharpens his knife.
Would Romnay do better in managing US interests in the greater Middle East? No! He would simply surrender to AEI/AIPAC and the Likud.
In Libya a secular leader seems to have won election.
God is Great! pl
It is hard to believe Mittens Rommney will do anything in FP but be led around by the nose by his buddy BiBi and the pack as the US goes down the drain. When confronted with some jabs around edge he does nothing but Whine. If he does not watch out the label Whiner will stick not that I think the other canidate is offering much.
Posted by: Bobo | 15 July 2012 at 12:16 PM
All I can say is "How true!" but SST is in the minority - a sorry situation when one sees what is being publishes in the MSM.
Posted by: The beaver | 15 July 2012 at 02:08 PM
In Libya a secular leader can be just as big an asshole as an MB guy. Lets talk about this guy next year.
Posted by: r whitman | 15 July 2012 at 03:29 PM
After all we have done to and for these ingrates you would think they would love us more.
Posted by: Charlie Wilson | 15 July 2012 at 03:43 PM
Smashing a truck load of Scotch demands some Drone attention on the culprits.
I knew we would release the money to the Egyptian military with a promise to let Mursi have a bit of his ways. Surely the Egyptian military will only allow so much latitude to Mursi.
Since the begging of the current administration it appears very amateurish in both International and Domestic politics. As the U.S. feeds the fire that will consume anything Western it appears too late to bring sanity.
With Western Economies on a downward slide the newly expanding radical forces with time and the ability to maintain with lean support will become very difficult to work with to keep some sanity in place. The U.S. appears to run on the quarterly accounting system doing anything to give a report that is in the black each quarter until all the assets are striped and customer goodwill is completely used up.
Posted by: Peter | 15 July 2012 at 03:58 PM
peter
I imagine it to be Lagavulin in order to summone the right amount of anger. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 15 July 2012 at 04:39 PM
Surely to God we need to go rescue that noble spirit from the hands of those savages! Are ye with me, laddie?
Posted by: Basilisk | 15 July 2012 at 04:47 PM
Babak
Which noble spirit? pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 15 July 2012 at 05:04 PM
We can not control the area any longer, thanks to the Ziocons. When you do massive intervention (Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, etc.) in a region and fail, this mess is what you get. Time to cut our loses, San Bernadino could have uses that $1.3 billion better than the Egyptian military.
Posted by: Jose | 15 July 2012 at 07:09 PM
You mean "Basilik".
Posted by: Babak Makkinejad | 15 July 2012 at 08:04 PM
Col, did you see Beinart article praising Obama's policy in the ME?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/16/how-obama-s-middle-east-policy-has-worked.html
Like the old line goes...'if we could harness all the hot we blow up our asses we power the entire nation for a year'.
Posted by: jonst | 16 July 2012 at 08:48 AM
Don't forget that, after saying that the Mubareks were a part of her family, Hillary Clinton was in Egypt giving advice to the new President. It was, I understand, not particularly well received.
Posted by: Bill H | 16 July 2012 at 10:34 AM
BillH
I understand that the mob threw refuse at her car and chanted "Monica, Monica!" i have always judged the average mentality and maturity of an Egyptian mob to even lower than that of an American mob. This confirms that notion. But, she deserved this reception from her new friends. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 16 July 2012 at 11:25 AM
The House of Saud must be on cloud 9, since their export of Wahhabism is gaining traction. Of course their cash must go a long way too.
My question is when do those that oppose the Wahhabi export intensify their effort to take the fight directly to the Saudi monarchy?
Posted by: zanzibar | 17 July 2012 at 11:05 AM
Only the Najd area of Saudi Arabia could be considered Wahabi-dominated; the rest of that country is in fact religiously hetereogenous in the sense that 3 different schools of Shia Islam and 4 schools of Sunni Islam are very greatly represented there.
Wahabis are not numerically dominant in Saudi Arabia and even in Najd not every one is a Wahabi.
Posted by: Babak Makkinejad | 17 July 2012 at 11:40 PM
Babak
In re SA, I was a diplomat there for several years, traveled around the country a lot, conversed with people in their language about a wide variety of subjects, including religion. They were always willing to have such discussions with me in the belief that I might embrace Islam. They were wrong in thinking that but I let them think it because I wanted to hear what they had to say. Technically you are correct in the distribution of different kinds of Muslims in the country, but that is irrelevant. The Saudi establishment and royal government are altogether dominated by the Wahhabi sect and that is all that matters. pl
Posted by: turcopolier | 18 July 2012 at 08:28 AM