While I support -- in principle -- the Presidents belief that our role as the policeman of the world needs to be carefully construed and executed, I feel that his speech at West Point either missed the mark; left out essential points, or was plain wrong: At West Point, Obama said he was “calling on Congress to support a new Counter-Terrorism Partnerships Fund of up to $5 billion, which will allow us to train, build capacity, and facilitate partner countries on the front lines”—from Yemen to Libya to Syria to Mali. If our experience supporting the Mujahideen against the Soviets teaches us anything, its that our allies in this part of the world may be our enemies of tomorrow. Syria is a case in point: if there are no good guys there, who do we chose to ally with, and why? The prevailing middle eastern hierarchy of religion, family, tribe, and nation leaves little room for real acceptance of outsiders, i.e. infidels. Money alone cannot change religious or cultural beliefs, with any degree of assurance or permanence. The biggest omission -- a missed opportunity and testimony to his leadership deficits -- was his failure to address the V.A. debacle; to apologize and to propose a concrete remedies; in short, to provide assurance to those future veterans.
Posted on: Thu, 29 May 2014 23:07:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015