The Mideast Shuffle

What happened with Israel and Hamas?

Morsi calmed down Hamas and they agreed to a cease fire.

Morsi is good.

Well Morsi made himself a dictator right after he handled Hamas.

I'll bet the US was pissed.

The US had to look at Syria.

Syria? Oh yeah, I forgot about Syria.

They might be mixing chemical weapons, or the rebels might get the chemical weapons, or something.

Oh no, that's terrible -- NATO will surely crush Syria, or the rebels, or both.

Then, there's Turkey.

Turkey? What going on in Turkey?

Syria might send missiles into Turkey.

Why? Surely NATO would destroy Syria if they bomb Turkey. Isn't Turkey in NATO?

I don't know, but what about Afghanistan?

Afghanistan? Uh, you know what, I don't know. Ever hear from Iraq?

Does it still exist?

Surely it does.

Going to war through Turkey?

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06/25/syria-fires-at-second-turkish-plane-deputy-prime-minister-says/

I have a feeling that the Samantha Powers wing of the Obama Progressives wants to engage Syria, overthrow Assad and pretend that democracy has won as another Islamist strong-arm group takes power. Liberal media still talks as if there's a group of freedom fighters struggling in Syria against the terrible Assad. No doubt Assad is bad, but no worse than the bad guys fighting against him for control of the Syrian government.

If Turkey goes to war with Syria, we can be assured the US is backing them through the additional cover of NATO.

Syria, Assad and US interventions

How long has the US operated covertly in Syria, or against Assad in an attempt to create another Arab Spring uprising? US media gives us the sanitized version that Assad is evil and the peaceful protesters are now fighting for liberty against all odds. It's understood that Assad is no great, benevolent leader, but the Islamist groups attempting to gain control are no better, and where in the mideast are there any great, benevolent leaders? Several reports show that most Syrians prefer the Assad government, but you won't see that reported much in the US.

Turkey is now proposing a buffer zone for refugees, but this will require help from other countries to provide firepower. I wonder who can help? Can it be NATO who operates without US leadership?

Western media is not telling the whole story. Behind the scenes, US intervention in mideast affairs expands and expands. We are likely using Turkey as a way to affect regime change in Syria, so that we can move further toward regime change in Iran. The US is dealing with dangerous Islamist groups it won't be able to manage after they've gained power. These lovers of "democracy" will be biting us in the ass soon enough. Although our economy is an important topic in 2012, our interventions in mideast affairs are just as important. As Obama gets us more deeply involved in these no-win, mideast situations, Republicans are not opposing the involvement and manipulations --  the neo-con crowd is calling for more war, as usual. It's left up to the New Republicans led by Rand Paul to build an opposition and call for transparency -- Western media sources are practically useless, although some reports are better than others.

Intervention in the Mideast

America should remove its presence for the mideast. One powerful nation or another has intervened in the mideast for centuries and have paid the price, plus the mideast has been prevented from dealing with its own problems. Who knows what the Arab Spring means or how it will turn out, but it's their business.

Countries like Greece and Turkey have more business trying to influence the region than does America, and with shifting relationships between Israel and Greece then Israel and Turkey then Turkey and Greece, and with Iran in need of economic diversity if they want to be a powerful leader in the region, we'd do them all and ourselves a favor by bringing our weapons, plans and soldiers home. The countries of the region have many reasons to grow economically in peaceful trade and no good reasons to kill one another, even Arabs killing Jews or vice versa. There are enough secular economic interests in the area to balance out the religious fanaticism, and if moderate Islam works to separate State and religion, this could be an area of dynamic economic growth. It will never be culturally like America, but it doesn't have to be -- they can find their own balance of economic growth and cultural integrity.

America should take its response to 9/11 as a victory -- even the most radical of groups or nations will think twice before attacking America as they did on 9/11 -- they know that the next response will be much worse. As I've said before, terrorism is self-defeating, because if it's successful it fails. If Americans become truly terrorized, the gloves will come off and it'll be left to the raw savagery of power to settle any disputes. Even Iran knows better than to invite an American attack, and Iran has much to gain by working with Greece, Turkey and even Israel and everything to lose by fighting a war with us.

Morning Joe update -- we want to be like Turkey

I love to catch up with the gang on Morning Joe -- it's always good comic relief, especially when they are serious. This morning they were parroting Krugman, Joe Klein and others regarding how sad it is that American can no longer do Big Things as a nation, like Turkey and China are doing. A couple of the guests swooned over Turkey's airport, how Turkey is the "hot" new country, and the Big Things China is accomplishing with infrastructure.

When Chris Christy is on the show, they all talk about government spending in America and how it needs to be under control, then when liberals and progressives bring up State projects in countries like Turkey and China, they all wonder why America can't be more like these statist nations.

But Joe Scarborogh -- you know he was in congress, don't you? -- cleared it up by saying there is a time to spend and a time not to spend. I would guess, though, that the time to not spend is when you are out of money. But, they agreed that borrowing money is cheap for America right now, so I guess spending when you're broke is okay as long as the money is cheap and some other nation will lend it to you.

But, as always, they miss the important issue. China and Turkey both have a per capita gdp that is very low, China's is much lower than Turkey's and Turkey's per capita gdp is comparable to Bulgaria's -- around $15000 -- China's is around $6500. But when the Morning Joe gang travel, they get to see what China and Turkey are using their money on, impressive buildings and trains. For some reason this impresses the Morning Joe gang, who, I'm sure, never go out into the countrysde or the city slums to see how people are living, or what the working conditions are for people making a few bucks a day -- but, oh, they are the hot countries, for sure.

America can be impressive again if the State will release the market and allow it to be free -- or, we can make a few bucks a day and let our State build Big Things for aggrandizement and to impress the tourists from other nations. Krugman, Klein and the Morning Joe gang think the State and national appearances are more important than real economc growth in a free market which allows everyone to prosper -- I don't.