MESSAGE
| DATE | 2016-11-08 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [Hangout-NYLXS] subboring thoughts before the election
|
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9189/consequences-of-inaction
The Consequences of Inaction
by Barry Shaw
November 7, 2016 at 4:45 am
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9189/consequences-of-inaction
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The reality is that the actors who are replacing a once powerful and
influential America are malevolently reshaping both the Middle East and
Asia in their own image.
"I announce my separation from the United States... I've realigned
myself in your ideological flow, and maybe I will also go to Russia to
talk to Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world
-- China, Philippines and Russia." — Philippines President Rodrigo
Dutere, in a speech to China's leaders in Beijing, Oct. 20, 2016.
Statements that relations were "steady and trusted" by US Assistant
Secretary of State, David Russel did nothing to hide the fact that
America's self-imposed impotence is being felt in Asia.
Action, including inaction, has consequences. We have seen this in the
failure of the US to respond to:
Syria's effective genocide of its own people;
Russia's unhindered aggression in the Ukraine, Crimea, Syria and in
the oil-rich Arctic circle;
China building military islands in the South China Sea in an
apparent attempt to control international maritime routes
ISIS's metastization into 18 countries in three years;
Iran, now billions of dollars richer, stepping up its aggression
into Yemen, continuing work on its offensive military program, and
holding new Americans hostage for ransom;
North Korea continuing to develop its nuclear weapons for both
itself and Iran;
Turkey now threatening adventures in both and Syria and Iraq, where
it will probably be thwarted respectively by Russia and Iran.
Most recently, on October 9th, 12th and 15th, missiles were launched
against US Navy ships off the coast of Yemen. They were launched by
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and were deliberately fired at American
warships.
These attacks followed one aimed at the HSV Swift on October 1. The
missiles were all identified by the US Naval Institute as being
Chinese-produced C-802 anti-ship missiles, sold to Iran, and now being
fired at United States vessels by proxy fighters of Tehran.
Then, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded to Iraqi demands
that Turkey withdraw its troops from northern Iraq by telling Iraqi
Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi at the Eurasian Islamic Council meeting
in Istanbul:
"It's not important at all how you shout from Iraq. You should know
that we will do what we want to do. First, know your place. The army of
the Republic of Turkey had not lost its standing so as to take orders
from you!"
This is the direct consequence of a deal done between the US State
Department and Erdogan whereby the US is allowed to use the Turkish
airbase at Incirlik in return for Washington turning a blind eye to
Turkish actions against the Kurds. Turkey has been allowed to trespass
into Iraq and Syria by the US Administration, under the pretext of
adding Istanbul to an Obama coalition of nations fighting ISIS. However,
facts on the ground clearly show that Turkey has disproportionately been
targeting Kurds rather than Islamic State. Turkish warplanes bombed
Kurdish fighters, who were fighting ISIS in northern Syria, on October 20.
Egypt and Russia held a week-long joint military exercise in Egypt at
the end of October. That followed renewed Russian supplies of military
equipment to Cairo after Obama's refusal to restock the government of
Egypt's Abdel Fattah el-Sisi with US-made weapons and equipment. The US
had apparently been upset when in 2013 el-Sisi overthrew the Morsi-led
government, backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, with whom the US would
apparently and incomprehensibly like to be allied.
Philippines President Rodrigo Dutere announced his country's separation
from the United States on October 20, by declaring that he has realigned
it with China as the two nations agreed to resolved their South China
Sea dispute. Dutere made his remarks in Beijing on an official visit to
which he brought two hundred business people, saying in his address to
China's leadership: "I announce my separation from the United States...
I've realigned myself in your ideological flow, and maybe I will also go
to Russia to talk to Putin and tell him that there are three of us
against the world -- China, Philippines and Russia."
Statements that relations were "steady and trusted" by US Assistant
Secretary of State David Russel did nothing to hide the fact that
America's impotence is being felt in Asia.
Back to Iran, where a top admiral, Ali Fadavi, said that the US lacks
the power to confront Iran militarily. He backed that up by having four
Iranian naval speedboats harass US naval ships in the Persian Gulf.
Four armed speedboats of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
harass the US Navy destroyer USS Nitze, on August 24, 2016. (Image
source: Fox News video screenshot)
Alon Ben David, chief military correspondent for Israeli TV Channel 10
News, wrote that American foreign policy is turning Iran into a world
power by allowing it free range to act in Syria and Yemen, and even
having the Obama Administration allow Iran to supply and support a
Shi'ite militia taking part in the battle for Mosul.
The acts of global aggression are all the result of an American policy
to do little or nothing to stop other actors from strutting the global
stage in a dangerous and shifting world.
Many countries evidently believe that America's role in recent years has
been one of damaging everything it touches -- or does not touch --
leaving them nervously sitting on the sidelines, criticizing what they
perceive as the mistakes of others. The reality is that the actors who
are replacing a once powerful and influential America are malevolently
reshaping both the Middle East and Asia in their own image.
The result has not been a more peaceful world but one in which the
vacuum left by America vacating strategically important areas is rapidly
being filled by troublesome power-players that leave countries once
dependent on US protection feeling increasingly vulnerable.
The consequences of inaction can only soon be damaging to US interests
at home as well as abroad.
Barry Shaw is a Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at the Israel
Institute for Strategic Studies.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive
http://www.coinhangout.com - coins!
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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