[whataretheysaying] Mary Madigan: Obama for Change?

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Posted by Mary Madigan:
Obama for Change? 
http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1202664627.shtml


   Michael Totten on Obama's dream of [1]reasoning with Syriaâs Bashar
   Assad:

     Senator Barack Obama went on the record about the never-ending
     political meltdown in Lebanon, and for a moment there I thought he
     might have it just right.

     âThe ongoing political crisis is resulting in the destabilization
     of Lebanon,â he said, âwhich is an important country in the Middle
     East. The US cannot watch while Lebanonâs fresh democracy is about
     to collapse.â So far so good. âWe must keep supporting the
     democratically-elected government of PM Fouad Siniora,
     strengthening the Lebanese army and insisting on the disarmament of
     Hezbollah before it leads Lebanon into another unnecessary war.â

     This is all excellent, so letâs get something out of the way.
     Barack Obama is not a leftist. He is a liberal. The difference
     between an American liberal and an American leftist on Lebanon is
     enormous. I canât tell you how many Western leftists Iâve met who
     ran off to Beirut where they endlessly excuse or even outright
     support Hezbollah. (They are âvictimsâ of Zionism, they arenât
     pro-American like those icky âright-wingâ bourgeois Maronite
     Christians, etc.) Some of these Hezbollah supporters, tragically,
     are journalists. They put me in the right-wing âimperialistâ and
     âorientalistâ camp for no more than saying what Barack Obama just
     said.

     Obamaâs problem isnât that heâs on the wrong side. His problem is
     heâs the latest in a seemingly limitless supply of naïve
     Westerners who think they can reason with Syriaâs tyrant Bashar
     Assad...

     ...âWashington must rectify the wrong policy of President George
     Bush in Lebanon and resort to an efficient and permanent diplomacy,
     rather than empty slogans,â he said.

     âWhat is bizarre about this sentence,â Lebanese political analyst
     Tony Badran said to me in an email, âis that the Lebanon policy has
     been precisely that....

     ...Obama is like the smart and popular college kid with a bright
     future, yet who still needs time to learn how the world works. He
     hasnât acquired any foreign policy experience or expertise, and
     unfortunately his advisors are failing him here.

   His advisors are giving him bad advice because giving bad advice has
   always been their job. One of Obamaâs advisors is [2]Zbigniew
   Brzezinski, the guy who dreamed up Jimmy Carterâs [3]headless chicken
   policy towards Iran.

   On the other side, McCain is relying on Henry Kissinger, the man
   Christopher Hitchens rightly called a malign [4]âlittle gargoyleâ, for
   foreign policy advice. There are rumors that McCain would also want
   [5]Saudi consigliere, James âf*ck the Jewsâ Baker to join his team.

   Appeasing our oil-rich enemies and their friends has been the
   cornerstone of Republican and Democrat foreign policy for decades. The
   fact that our candidates for change are digging these malign gargoyles
   up and proping them on their desks as proof of their âexpertiseâ is a
   sign that they have no plans to change and correct old mistakes.

References

   1. http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/totten/2392
   2. http://www.mererhetoric.com/archives/11274598.html
   3. http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/8781
   4. http://www.slate.com/id/2151129
   5. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=James_Addison_Baker_III