The United States Heading for a Crash in the Middle East?

[99th_Monkey]

The United States Heading for a Crash
Tuesday, September 16, 2014 * by Immanuel Wallerstein * Common Dreams

President Barack Obama has told the United States, and in particular its Congress, that it must do something very major in the Middle East to stop disaster. The analysis of the presumed problem is extremely murky, but the patriotic drums are being turned to high pitch and almost everyone is for the moment going along. A cooler head might say that they are all flailing around in desperation about a situation that the United States has the major responsibility for creating. They don't know what to do, so they act in panic.

~snip~

A lot of attention is focused on what Obama has and hasn't done. Even his closest defenders seem to doubt him. An Australian commentator, writing in the Financial Times, summed it up in one sentence: "In 2014 the world has grown suddenly weary of Barack Obama." I wonder if Obama has not grown weary of Obama. But it's a mistake to pin the blame just on him. Virtually no one among U.S. leaders has been making alternative proposals that are more sensible. Quite the contrary. There are the warmongers who want him to bomb everybody and right away. There are the politicians who really think it will make a lot of difference who will win the next elections in the United States.

A rare voice of sanity came in an interview in the New York Times with Daniel Benjamin, who had been the U.S. State Department's top antiterrorism advisor during Obama's first term. He called the so-called ISIS threat a "farce" with "members of the cabinet and top military officers all over the place describing the threat in lurid terms that are not justified." He says that what they have been saying is without any "corroborated evidence" and just demonstrates how easy it is for officials and the media to "spin the public into a panic." But who is listening to Mr. Benjamin?

At the moment, and with the help of gruesome photos showing the beheading of two American journalists by the caliphate, the polls show enormous support in the United States for military action. But how long will this last? The support is there as long as it seems there are concrete results. Even Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey in advocating military action says it will take at least three years. Multiply three by five and one might come nearer to how long this will go on. And the U.S. public is sure to become quickly disenchanted.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/09/16/united-states-heading-crash

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. I have yet to find any videos that show beheading.

I have seen lots of photos that showed an apparent victim with a guy in black standing over him, brandishing a knife..said victim appearing very calm.
and there are reports of photos/video of a guy who seems to have his head removed.
but no actual beheading...
And, there was a infamous video of supposed 250 Iraqi men laying a row who were killed, but no blood was evident.
Yet, every newspaper picture of gangland murders shows lots of blood.

I am not cheering on bloodshed.
But I do want to be sure of the authenticity of any ISIS evidence that is being used to whip up a war frenzy in Congress and our country.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

2. Your post disgusts me.

People are dead, and you're implying conspiracy. It's as bad as the Sandy Hook truthers. But, if you need to see images of humans suffering at the hand of ISIS...

https://www.google.com/search?q=isis+beheading&client=firefox-a&hs=kFN&rls=org.mozilla:en-US fficial&channel=sb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=3egZVKCQIdbEggTJhYL4BQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg&biw=1440&bih=763

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. This country has been tricked into war many times

by reports of brutality by the people we were supposed to attack.
Remember the weeping Iraqi girl who testified that babies were thrown on the floor from incubators in Iraq?
Turned out to be a lie.
So did the yellow cake story.

It was years before we were told the truth about the Gulf of Tonkin lie.

Yesterday kpete posted an excellent story of how the Saudis are trying to push us into going into the Middle East again....
citing a lengthy daily kos report.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025545166

I don't need to or want to see actual videos of terrorism...I want to know that reputable people have seen them, and that accurate reports are based on reality, not propaganda.

[snooper2]

3. I'm not going to post the actual videos because they are fucking sick

But you can put the links together for yourself, just remove the spaces in watch

Ever see what appears to be a 5-7 year old girl missing her head?




https://www.youtube.com/w atch?v=7w-USWw5cyY


https://www.youtube.com/w atch?v=sWgXA4H2UTM

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. The urge to "do SOMETHING" and be a Strong Leader is irresistable to politicians.

No matter how self defeating, irreversible, or downright stupid it may be.

[99th_Monkey]

7. That's exactly what they (GOP war hawks) are hoping for

Obama to do something stupid before Nov. 2014 elections.

Yup.

[randome]

5. The analysis is murky? There's been plenty of analysis and that will continue.

Some want to stay out no matter what but that's not an analysis at all, just a reflexive position.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]

[99th_Monkey]

6. Fool me once .. ~nt~