Re:The Coming War in the Middle East (2013)
by finid on Thursday November 03, 2016 @03:53PM
(#12867357)
What you wrote about Obama is actually correct.
True, Obama came in with a set of foreign policy objectives that were not inline with standing US foreign policy. So he lost that battle.
He was very reluctant to involve the military, especially in the ME. So in Libya, for example, and even in Syria, he was accused of leading from behind.
Even with respect to Russia, recall that he wanted to "reset" relations with that country, but that, too, was not in line with what the military guys, that is, the guys who actually run the country, wanted. So he lost that battle too.
Re:The Coming War in the Middle East (2013)
by akytt on Thursday November 03, 2016 @04:01PM
(#12867428)
The view of military running the us is probably rather simplistic. Also, remember Russia had been pulling increasingly agressive stunts since 2009 - it's a hard background for a reset
True, Obama came in with a set of foreign policy objectives that were not inline with standing US foreign policy. So he lost that battle.
He was very reluctant to involve the military, especially in the ME. So in Libya, for example, and even in Syria, he was accused of leading from behind.
Even with respect to Russia, recall that he wanted to "reset" relations with that country, but that, too, was not in line with what the military guys, that is, the guys who actually run the country, wanted. So he lost that battle too.