POTW (Timepass) : Markhor

[Muhammad10]

When it comes to political analysis, few can match [MENTION=53290]Markhor[/MENTION].

Congratulations!

http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/s...ve-view-of-Barack-Obama&p=8947127#post8947127

I'll start off with areas of agreement with the OP.

Drones: Indeed, Obama's been more hawkish than Bush on drones, what's most troubling are the signature strikes. These are based on patterns of behaviour and not precise targeting of any individual, leaving much higher chance of civilian casualties. Egypt and Libya - Mubarak deserved to go. The regime was up to its neck in corruption and cronyism. Libya I agree on and Afghan surge which wasn't mentioned, has been disasterous.


Its not that I don't accept Obama's failings, but this is an outlandish claim. Its remarkable how 8 years of the Bush Administration has been wiped out from [MENTION=138463]Slog[/MENTION]'s analysis, let alone the previous 70 years. Now I don't mean the following to be a history lesson, the OP probably is already aware, but I want to provide it for everyone for sake of historical context.

The US's destructive policies in the Islamic World begun under the Eisenhower Administration. It was excellently described by Robert F Kennedy Jr in Politico of how the CIA attempted coups in Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Egypt in the 1950s to crush secular Arab nationalist forces, funnelling secret aid to an array of tyrants and in the case of Syria's Husni al-Zaim, a convicted swindler. It was the beginnings of the use of jihadism to counter "godless" Soviet Communism. Eisenhower advised the CIA "We should do everything possible to stress the holy war aspect." This was the original sin of US-Middle East policy.

Eisenhower backed the overthrow of Mossadegh's democratically elected govt in 1953 - an idea rejected by Harry Truman when proposed by Allen Dulles, but approved immediately Eisenhower got into office. This has led to decades of resentment in Iran towards the West, and years of brutality under the Shah. Obama's made a lot of foreign policy mistakes - but his acknowledging of previous CIA skulduggery in Iran, and the nuclear deal deserves him credit, a deal which never would've happened under Bush/Cheney, the latter especially ached to bomb Iran.

Secondly, the Reagan Administration supplied the Saddam regime with chemical weapons to use against Iran. Good ol' Ronny supplied WMDs to one of the biggest mass murderers of the 20th Century, exacerbating the Iran-Iraq War that led to the deaths of a MILLION people. Under Carter/Brzezinski and then Reagan, we saw the transformation of Afghanistan into the unmitigated jihadi hellhole of today causing the rise of the Afghan Taliban and later the TTP who've killed FAR many Pakistanis than Obama drone strikes (which I condemn too).

But let's get onto the War Criminal in Chief George W Bush. He and Halliburton's own Dick Cheney presided over the one of the biggest tragedies to hit the Islamic World - the 2003 Iraq War, based on a pack of brazen lies without a UN mandate nor any clue what to do post-Saddam. It was THAT, and the subsequent de-Baathification that sacked millions of Sunni state employees and soldiers under Bremer, that left, that caused the Sunni insurgency and the rise of ISIS - not Obama's withdrawal in 2011 like Republicans wrongly claim. Many of ISIS's commanders were Saddam-era military and intelligence officials, some of whom were tortured under US-run detention centres in Iraq.

Bush also set up the "Enhanced Interrogation Programme" AKA torture. Waterboarding, sexual abuse, sleep deprivation and physical brutality was sanctioned by Bush/Cheney towards detainees. This saw the deaths of many innocent Muslims arbitrarily detained without trial in CIA black sites and often without ever having access to legal representation. I criticised Obama for not prosecuting Bush-era officials but he did stop the program. Bush also started the Afghanistan War when a peaceful arrangement whereby Taliban could've handed over OBL was possible.

CONCLUSION - George W Bush was the biggest tragedy to befall the Muslim World, along with fellow Christian Fundamentalist sidekick Tony Blair. Then Eisenhower for committing the original sin of US meddling in the Mid East, then Reagan/Obama are tied in third.

 

[Slog]

Congrats

These types of posts can be informational for a lot of folks.

And while the claims regarding bush have credence there is no doubt that the Muslim world in general has seen more death and destruction under Obama than most other US presidents. The statistics bear testimony to that as under other presidents any death or destruction is usually localised. In obamas tenure the whole Arab world was up in flames. It makes it all the more ridiculous that Obama made that Cairo speech all those years ago

 

[TalentSpotterPk]

Quality Poster.

Congrats. Well done.

 

[Waseem]

I missed that post, brilliant [MENTION=53290]Markhor[/MENTION]

 

[KingKhanWC]

Good post but instead of tackling the subject it was more of a diversion back to the Bush era.

 

[JaDed]

Congrats ,good post.

 

[Robert]

I always look to [MENTION=53290]Markhor[/MENTION], the clearest thinker on PP.