Obama's approaching humiliation over Syria

 

"U.S. President Barack Obama, who arrived in Northern Ireland on Monday, and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to hold bilateral talks during the summit, where they will also discuss their opposing views on the situation in Syria. On the even of the summit, Putin accused British Prime Minister David Cameron of betraying humanitarian values by supporting Syrian rebels with "blood on their hands." Russia and the West have long been at odds over Syria. As the violence continues to escalate in the region President Putin expressed anger at the U.S. commitment to supply small arms and ammunition to rebels as a result of the U.S. saying there was proof Bashar Assad's regime had used small amounts of chemical weapons. Meanwhile, Russia has been providing arms and diplomatic support to the Assad regime, an action Russian President Vladimir Putin defended at a press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London on Sunday. Putin described Assad's government as "the legitimate government of Syria in full conformity with the norms of international law.""  USA Today

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Barack Obama is about to have his "butt kicked" by the Russians over Syria.  This will be the latest in a long series of defeats for him in his second term, not to mention the unceremonious way the US was disinvited from a continuing presence in Iraq and the massive and thinly disguised failure of his COIN strategic decision in Afghanistan.  These were in his first term.

Putin made it clear yesterday to our British lapdog, David Cameron, that he considers Assad's government to be the legitimate government of Syria and that there will be no resolution emerging from the UN Security Council that threatens that status.  He also made it clear that the rebels (whoever they are) are responsible for many of the civilian casualies that have occurred in Syria.

Russia, Iran, Hizbullah and Syria are in the process of finishing off the "rebels." 

Some people are saying that an unpopular minorities based government cannot hold Syria.  Really? His father did so for decades.

Putin said at Enniskillen today that Russia "will not allow" no-fly zones in Syria.  that's a real red line folks.

Humiliation over Syria will be one more phase in BHO's progress toward irrelevance.  pl

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/06/17/obama-northern-ireland-peace-will-be-tested/2430073/

Comments

[Tyler]

Obama plays basketball. Putin competes in judo. Says a bit about personality right there.

I like how Putin rubbed their faces in the fact that the Syrian rebels/salfists are eating their opponents. Another inconvenient hatefact in the face of the West's obsession with 'democracy'.

[John Minnerath]

BHO's lack of substance and total lack of the skills needed for the job become more telling everyday.

[Charles I]

Ever the optimist!

[Fred]

The Russian Foreign Minister repeated the same:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/17/us-syria-crisis-russia-idUSBRE95G0CA20130617

[Alba Etie]

I wonder what President Romney's first term would have looked like by now ? I think its Australia that has not only the two parties for a check off box - but also a check off box for neither of the two . And if the third choice "neither" gets a majority vote then the two parties have to pick different candidates. Maybe we need a third party ticket a third choice at the ballot . George Wallace was wrong about many things but he was right when he said there is not a dimes worth of difference in the two parties . Hagel Powell on the Third Way Ticket 2016 ?

[turcopolier]

Charles I
Unwarranted optimism is a disease. pl

[kao_hsien_chih]

"an unpopular minorities based government." This is a remarkable characterization, if it is meant to imply that such a government is somehow illegitimate. This is a characterization of many a government practically everywhere in the world--one based on support of a coalition of minorities that make up a majority or something close to it, including Barak Obama's (Whose political problems, even if not troubled by an openly violent opposition to the government, is rather remarkably similar to Assad's--running a government as the champion of a coalition of minorities (nominally) based on urban cosmopolitanism against a rurally-centered, socially conservative, and religious majority.)

[Matthew]

Tyler: We really don't have an obsession with democracy. We just pretend. If we really believed in spreading democracy, wouldn't we start with Saudi Arabia?

I suggest we try tribalism. The US should state categorically that we will not support any political movement in the ME that is hostile to their local Christian communities.

[Matthew]

Col: Some of us have a terminal case of it. (But like nicotine addition, we can't kick the habit.)

[David Habakkuk]

Matthew, Tyler:

Something quite interesting has been happening here in the UK. If one looks at the comments on Cameron’s support for the Syrian opposition on the newspaper websites, there is an outpouring of anger and contempt. This runs right across the political spectrum. I have not yet had time to check the Daily Mail site, which is critical to seeing what a large swathe of British opinion thinks, but the Telegraph, Financial Times, Guardian and Independent sites all show the same pattern.

The determination of Cameron to believe that there is a ‘liberal’ Syrian opposition who have a realistic chance of obtaining power if we give them arms provoked this comment in the generally left-leaning Independent:

‘“The Syrian opposition have committed to a democratic, pluralistic Syria that will respect minorities, including Christians.”

‘Well that's ok then, what has all the fuss been about? The Alawite minority can rest easy knowing that the Sunni dominated opposition and it's Al Qaeda allies will not slaughter them in droves if Assad falls.

‘And yes, while we know that almost all the Christians in Iraq have fled since the fall of Saddam, this bunch in Syria are cut from a different cloth, and how do we know this?

‘Because they've said so, and that should be enough.

‘How did we end up with leaders who are so patently naive and stupid?

‘Over to you Dave of Arabia, you really did lean a lot from Master Blair.’

(See http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/g8-summit-begins-vladimir-putin-accuses-david-cameron-of-betraying-humanitarian-values-by-supporting-syrian-rebels-8661048.html )

A few swallows certainly do not make a summer, but in the past few days I have had odd moments of thinking that there may a real backlash against blatherers and PR men like Blair and Cameron, which could cut across other political divisions.

[Mark Logan]

Charles,

If you want a possible bright side, perhaps this:

Only 11% of the public wants to go to war in Syria, say the polls. If he folds this bad hand reasonably quickly, there may be some compensation in the form of being loudly criticized for failing to get us into another war.

[Buzz Meeks]

Obama's slide will still do considerable damage to this country in terms of domestic spying, lack of prosecution of financial and other elite crimes and destruction of the Constitution. I don't even know how to describe our foreign policy any longer.

[Norbert Salamon]

It appears that the G8 has other members which oppose arming [beside Russia] the Syrian Rebels, as revealed in recent news items, at least Canada and Germany also oppose Obama's effort to for escalation.

[cloned_poster]

I cannot for the life of me understand why the West are being so stupid. Yay for Putin.

[VietnamVet]

Colonel,

Your analysis is correct, but Barack Obama won’t fade into irrelevance. He will continue his handlers’ policies of “government by and for corporations” till the end of his term. Once he is on the speakers’ circuit it will be his turn to pull the money in.

Jeff Skilling is pissed. The pioneer at Enron of investment gambling isn’t scheduled to be released from minimum security prison at Littleton, CO in 2017 but his Wall Street followers are making millions in taxpayer supported bonuses yearly and enjoying their freedom today in the Hamptons selling similar zero asset investments.

The Bush-Obama everlasting wars are spilling into Syria. Real unemployment is at 17% forever. America has been transformed into a debtor’s economy with its associated prisons for those who can’t pay court costs. The average student loan debt is $26,600. These are all contrary to the public interest. We shall see what happens next.

[Matthew]

Thanks, DH.

Sometimes it is simple: Do the people living there actaully trust the government to protect their lives? Iraqi Christians clearly didn't think so after 2003. Syrian Christians likewise seem to trust the devil-they-know more than Cameron's pipe dream. Since the Syrian Christians have their own skin on the line, I will defer to them.

[walrus]

"A few swallows certainly do not make a summer, but in the past few days I have had odd moments of thinking that there may a real backlash against blatherers and PR men like Blair and Cameron, which could cut across other political divisions."

Please let this be true.

In Australia we will shortly go to an election in which both current leaders of the parties are worthless.

[steve]

I think your take on Obama's support is a little too simplistic and perhaps based on some east coast/west coast thinking where flyover country is uniform.

There are some exceptions to that description of Obama's support. For example, large chunks of the upper Midwest are "rurally-centered, socially conservative, and religious majority", yet supported Obama. And no, I'm not just talking about Minneapolis, Des Moines, or Madison, but small rural overwhelmingly white counties of 15,000 people.

In the rural South as well--equally rural religious, and socially conservative black counties, particularly in the Delta or Alabama's black belt supported Obama.

Both of those two areas are about as far as you can get from the notion of "urban cosmopolitanism".

[steve]

"I wonder what President Romney's first term would have looked like by now ?"

I suspect more similar than different.

[walrus]

Very close to the truth Alba. Casting a vote is compulsory (to prevent voter caging and similar tactics, etc.) but it is not illegal to cast an invalid vote if you want to, or just fill it out any way you want to.

To put that another way, you can just "check the box" which will distribute your vote according to party preferences, but I much prefer to personally rank candidates according to my own prejudices in our proportional voting system.

[Tyler]

Tribalism is only for 'oppressed' peoples. If we started pushing it the average whites here in America might start getting fancy ideas that someone should look out for their rights instead of being expected to work for the benefit of the underclass/elites.

Satire aside, I agree totally with what you say.

[Tyler]

David,

Between this, the hacking up of the British soldier, the oppressive police reponse of arresting people for 'racist' remarks on Twitter, and the general antipathy for more immigration among the common folk, perhaps a populist party has a real chance in the UK and the US.

The idea that we shouldn't be in the Middle East and we owe the world nothing is spreading out from the alt-Right sphere and into the greater pool of ideas. Now if we could just get the 'mainstream' Right to drop its obsession with Israel uber alles we might be alright.

Here in the US I think the Republicans will schism if the big business lobby insists on passing the amnesty that the Democrats are helpfully advising the Republicans that they need to stay competitive. It is an interesting time all around.

[Tyler]

David:

I'm also wondering to what extent Putin is factoring in the destruction of the Christian communities across the MENA sphere as a reason to support Assad. I know that's a nonfactor to the globalists running the WH, but Russia seems to have a different take on those issues.

Also, click on my name and have a look. I've got thoughts on all of this as well.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Associated Press (AP)

The G8 summit in Northern Ireland has led to a bit of window dressing -- literally. The important thing is that the province should look good for the duration.

Let's face it: poverty stinks. It isn't welcoming. It's ugly. We don't want that. We want progress and prosperity. The poor are embarrassing everyone, including themselves.

Maybe they should have held the summit in, say, Surrey, or somewhere nice and clean and genteel like that? Then again, the locals might have objected to the noise and commotion: "All those helicopters circling above: simply awful, dear."

http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/16/18957291-derelict-northern-ireland-shops-get-facelift-ahead-of-g8-summit?lite

[Fred]

"Do the people living there actaully trust the government to protect their lives?"

When did Syria ask for admission to the Union and ratify the Constitution of the United States? The answer is they never have an that therefore there is decidedly no obligation of the people nor the government of the United States to protect any Syrian.

The R2P crowd can go sign up with the FSA just as the volunteers against Franco did in the '30s. Since zero of them have done so I would say that is exactly how many American lives it is worth to help the 'rebels': zero.