Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Dana Milbank, "Barack Obama, President Oh-bummer": Why Is There a Need for a Syrian State?



In a Washington Post opinion piece entitled "Barack Obama, President Oh-bummer," uber-liberal Dana Milbank, observing the "stylistic gulf" between American President Obama ("discouraging and lawyerly") and French President Hollande ("upbeat and can-do") at a news conference in the White House on Tuesday, concludes (my emphasis in red):

"When Laura Haim of France’s Canal+ TV network asked if there was a deadline for ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, both men had the same policy: no timetable. But what they said after that highlighted their different styles.

Hollande spoke of a new era. “There is a new mind-set now,” Hollande said. “And those who believed that we could wait” now realize “the risk is everywhere . . . . We, therefore, must act.”

Then came President Oh-bummer.

'Syria has broken down,' he said. 'And it is going to be a difficult, long, methodical process to bring back together various factions within Syria to maintain a Syrian state.'

Maybe you can motivate people when you sound so discouraging. But it’s hard."

Query for Obama: Why is there any need whatsoever "to maintain a Syrian state," whose artificial boundaries were fixed in 1916 by France and Britain pursuant the Sykes-Picot Agreement? Isn't it time to recognize a Kurdish state, which would include the northern region of Syria, where its long-oppressed Kurds reside?

Reporting on yesterday's White House press conference, Peter Baker, in a New York Times article entitled "Meeting With François Hollande, Obama Urges Europe to Escalate ISIS Fight," writes:

"Publicly, though, Mr. Obama outlined no concrete new actions that the United States would take, and he suggested that the attacks might finally prompt Europe to approach the threat more seriously. 'We also think, as François said, that there may be new openness on the part of other coalition members to help resource and provide additional assistance, both to the coalition as a whole and to the local forces on the ground,' Mr. Obama said."

"[N]ew openness on the part of other coalition members to help resource and provide additional assistance"?  His 65-nation coalition against the Islamic State includes such big guns as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Estonia, Iceland, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Montenegro, Nigeria, Panama, Singapore, Slovenia, Somalia, and Tunisia. The coalition also includes Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, whose wealthy citizens have been busy funding the Islamic State.

In fact, Obama is disavowing responsibility for the Middle East disaster he engineered and blowing smoke up our collective asses.

2 comments:

  1. almost no mention of whether Hatay really is part of the Turkey: "...Apart from maps showing Hatay as Syrian territory, the Syrian policy has been to avoid discussing Hatay and giving evasive answers when asked to specify Syrian future goals and ambitions with regard to the area. This has included a complete media silence on the issue.[20] In February 2011 the dispute over Hatay was almost solved. ...
    As a result of the Syrian war and the extremely tense Turkish-Syrian relations it brought, construction was halted. As part of the ongoing war, the question of the sovereignty of Hatay has resurfaced in Syria and the Syrian media silence has been broken. Syrian media began broadcasting documentaries on the history of the area, the Turkish annexation and "Turkification" policies. Syrian newspapers have also reported on demonstrations in Hatay and on organizations and parties in Syria demanding an "end to the Turkish occupation".[21] However, although the Syrian regime has repeatedly criticized the Turkish policies towards Syria and the armed rebel groups operating on Syrian territory, it has not officially brought up the question of Hatay.[22] ..."
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatay_Province


    Which led me to two conclusions last night:
    1) Putin is redrawing the map with a deliberate 'airspace incursion' and

    2) really hope Israel made certain that every Russian in Syria, especially pilots, has a map that shows Israel, not all those other maps that show only 'palestine'.

    Putin certainly redrawing map of 1954Ukraine.

    Some already see this as a precursor to Russia being first in recognizing an independent Kurdistan, with the benefit of really upsetting the OttomanTurks and redrawing some sacred colonial borders.


    Cognitive dissonance is when your worldview is rigidly framed by "history contaminated by imperialist aggressors" yet every border legacy of those imperialists is inviolable.

    Good time for Ambassador Danon to display the maps used by military pilots from Iran. Guess they have to show Israel - after all, can you destroy a nationstate if it is not on the map?


    Western media also not analyzing Putin's point that USA was expected to share their deconfliction details with Russia, to share all such details with NATO Turkey.

    As for Russia? Time to reconsider their occupation/annexation of Karelia.

    As for me? considering a future without maps of Eurasian land empires in my head.

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  2. for your info JG: military analysis::

    http://libertyunyielding.com/2015/11/24/war-comes-home-jet-shootdown-russian-helos-hit-with-u-s-tow-missiles-by-rebel-group-they-attacked-earlier/

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