Thank you Mr. President

[madokie]

for taking the time to fill me in on our plan to put a stop to this cancer (ISIL, ISIS)

[NYC_SKP]

1. Recommended. I thought it was concise and sober.

Well done.

And, I think that's the same hallway where he announced the fate of Osama.

Nice touch, Sir!

[madokie]

5. It was

and it was a nice touch too

[grahamhgreen]

2. How much will it cost and who will pay?

[Thor_MN]

16. When will the American "Interests" pay to protect themselves?

American "Interests" being corporations that largely hide profits offshore to avoid paying taxes, along with the corporations that manufacture materials for and provide services to the military.

[grahamhgreen]

20. Exactly. Big Oil has our bucks, shell them out.

[SidDithers]

3. DU rec...nt

Sid

[RoccoR5955]

4. Violence only begets violence

When will people learn this?
When we kill some of their terrorists, it only breeds more of them.

The cancer that needs to have a stop put to, and is only being made worse is that of hate and violence!

[Flatulo]

8. I agree 100%, and I nominate YOU to go explain this to the

appropriate leaders of ISIL.

[RoccoR5955]

12. It does not have to be explained.

WE STARTED THE VIOLENCE. WE SHOULD STOP IT FIRST!

We started the violence in Iraq. We started the violence in Iran when we had the Shah installed many, many years ago.

I believe that you should review the history books maybe, and YOU should see.

Like did you know that the US ally in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, regularly beheads people?
Last month (August) they beheaded TWENTY TWO people? How come we are not going after them?

No my friend, it's all about the oil, and the corporations who want it for the sacred dollar.
All you have to do is to follow the money.

So, they kill a couple of journalists, and we go over and kill 100, 1000, 10,000 of them? And how many women, children, and other innocent people? How many survivors grow up to hate the US for killing members of their family for NO DAMN reason?

No, the violence must stop, and it should stop with the US, because the US started it.

[Flatulo]

28. ISIL did not just 'kill a couple of journalists'. They're cutting a swath of butchery across the

Middle East that every Muslim state opposes, including Iran. Absolutely no one recognizes ISIL's right to exist, except possibly a few bleeding hearts in the US.

Left unchecked, ISIL will ultimately butcher far more Muslims than a campaign to stop them will. Every single Shia is an infidel to them, worthy of the sword, as well as a half-billion Sunnis that do not embrace Salafism, their death-worship brand of radicalism.

Th US lit this fire in the Middle East with our invasion of Iraq. We owe it to these poor people, who have suffered unendurable indignities, to eradicate this cancer.

[RoccoR5955]

29. But why should it be the job of the US?

Who are we, the world's police force?
Why can't we just let the people in the area take care of it themselves. Surely Iran can deal with them, and form their own coalition.
I do not believe that we should get involved in other peoples' wars, especially civil wars.

[madokie]

30. In this case its ours, we, or the dick and w

and that cabal of war mongering war criminals started this with their ill advised invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and that to me makes it our responsibility to do what the President is proposing to do.
those of us who pay attention tried to tell the war criminals what they were fixing to do was wrong but history shows they, the dick and w, didn't listen to any of us.
Those of us who have been in a wrong headed war knows the perils of war from experience.

[Flatulo]

31. Exactly. As general Powell said, 'You break it, you own it.' We have a moral obligation to do

whatever we can to get them back some semblance of stability. I think the president's approach will be effective. He's right to make this process concurrent with opening up the political process there, too.

[madokie]

33. I agree

Our President is no dummy. He is very pragmatic and goes about things looking at the whole big ass picture unlike his distractors here and elsewhere.

[grahamhgreen]

21. I nominate you to explain to the kids who've seen their parents blown asunder by US bombs to

explain it to them.

[WillyT]

6. Um... Did You Happen To Run Across This ???

Link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025515220

Or does it matter... in the end ?

[Old Crow]

9. ISIL baaaaa-aa-aaa-aaa-d!

Bombs and war gooo-oo-ooood! Coalition gooo-ooo-ooood! ISIL baaaaa-aaaaa-aaad!

*sigh*

The older I get, the easier it is to see the string-pulling for what it is. We drop bombs over new enemies every few years or so. After the fifth or sixth iteration, the faces of the civilians dying in the collateral damage all begin to look the same. And the same constellation of corporations continue to get richer and richer: Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon....

...This concludes your Two Minutes of Hate. We now return to your regularly scheduled programming....

[morningfog]

10. Cancer is such an unfortunate metaphor.

Get ready for the chemo.

Thanks for another war or choice.

[denvine]

11. I don't understand some of the post I have seen on DU

I know no one except the hawks really want to go to war but what is your solution except to just ignore the problem of ISIL. Ignoring hasn't helped out all the people who have been killed or will be killed by this terrorist group. I don't believe I have to give the numerous examples in history where ignoring has led to unspeakable atrocities and millions of deaths. I don't like to have our country involved in a air strikes either, but if any of you have a seriously workable alternative then let us know. I seriously would like to know what it would be. How do you stop the atrocities from happening? How do you explain that we just sat back and watched when we know it will only get worse? I hate the fact that this is happening but I see no other alternative. At least this President is going at it cautiously and with a coalition of friends and Arab Nations. Maybe you see something they don't.

[Old Crow]

13. I appreciate the respectful tone...

...over what is, unquestionably, a complex and emotionally-wrought topic. I'll try to return the favor.

My problem with what I'm seeing regarding ISIL is that we've been here before, multiple times, and it's always the same: the media starts saturating the public dialog with story after story after story about how this new enemy is far worse than any enemy we've faced before, we have to act now or terrible things will happen any minute now, etc., etc., etc.

Back in the 90s, I got caught up in it myself. The environment then is exactly as it is now. To illustrate, I'm going to copy and paste your post with just a few word changes. You'll see that the prose and sentiments are perfectly reusable.

What is your solution except to just ignore the problem of Saddam Hussein? Ignoring hasn't helped out all the people who have been killed or will be killed by this tyrant. I don't believe I have to give the numerous examples in history where ignoring has led to unspeakable atrocities and millions of deaths. I don't like to have our country involved in air strikes either, but if any of you have a seriously workable alternative then let us know. I seriously would like to know what it would be. How do you stop the atrocities from happening? How do you explain that we just sat back and watched when we know it will only get worse? I hate the fact that this is happening but I see no other alternative. At least this President is going at it cautiously and with a coalition of friends and Arab Nations. Maybe you see something they don't.

And ten years from now, in 2024? I'll bet you'll be able to use the exact same words, with minor changes, to describe whoever it is the media and the defense contractors are urging us to bomb then.

[denvine]

19. I agree with what you are saying and I understand the sentiment to a point.

I know that the profiteers of war are beating their drum. I can imagine them smoking cigars and opening their expensive bottles of champagne. It makes me sick. It also makes me sick to know their is something we might be able to do to help innocent people and we don't do it. I recently read the book "Shake Hands with the Devil" which is about the Rwandan Genocide. It's an embarrassment that the world sat by and let this happen. I'm not saying that this is the same, but what if it is? I'm not trying to pretend that I know what is happening in Iraq and Syria. We all know that we are fed a hefty portion of what corporate media wants to feed us, but what if these people do succeed in growing and getting more powerful weapons and killing anyone who does not agree with them? What if it gets to a point that it might actually become a war that we could have contained? Something to remember is that President Obama is not George Bush. I understand the similarities in what we are hearing but the response is totally different. I guess I believe that a response to this situation is much more cognitive and restrained than the shoot em up cowboy be had before.

Believe me, I wish we wouldn't have to be having this conversation. I'm fully aware that it is many of our policies in the past and present that has led to this moment. Because of this I have a hard time just saying to the innocent people that you are on your own or you are shit out of luck. My compassion is definitely at odds with my love for peace.

[BrotherIvan]

23. Excellent post

Please keep speaking up because logic such as this will be shot down repeatedly by the partisans here. Funny how we never heard of ISIS until last month and now it's a daily news story. Propaganda: it's what's for breakfast.

[blkmusclmachine]

14. Oh, good. More war. I was bored with what's already on the teevee machine...

[FairWinds]

15. The 800 pound gorilla in the room .

Just as the case for 9/11, and much else that has followed,
the US needs to confront the Saudi monarchy.
If Obama will not do that, it will be a totally wasted effort.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

13 Years After 9/11: Has ISIS Been "A Saudi Project"?

ALI AL-AHMED, [e-mail], @AliAlAhmed_en

Director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs, al-Ahmed said today: "We need political solutions rather than military solutions. U.S. allies have basically been the ones feeding violent groups like ISIS: Saudi Arabian, Qatari and Jordanian regimes. None of them have been held accountable for that. Quite the contrary, sometimes it seems to have been done with the approval of at least some U.S. officials.

"As Steve Clemons recently wrote: 'Qatar’s military and economic largesse has made its way to Jabhat al-Nusra, to the point that a senior Qatari official told me he can identify al-Nusra commanders by the blocks they control in various Syrian cities. But ISIS is another matter. As one senior Qatari official stated, "ISIS has been a Saudi project."'

"Saudi officials like Bandar and Turki come before U.S. audiences as enlightened individuals representing a 'moderate' government when their role in the region is anything but that. In fact, the ideology of the Saudi regime is remarkably similar to that of ISIS. You can see that in their statements and text books. The Saudi regime poses now as being critical of ISIS, but it's great at speaking in different voices.

"The reality is that many of the suicide bombers in Iraq have been Saudis -- and of course most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi.

"More generally, the Saudi regime has been a regressive influence through much of the region. It backed the coup in Egypt against the elected government there, helped crush the popular uprising in Bahrain and took in the dictators from Tunisia and Yemen. And of course, it oppresses its own people, including being the kingdom of women's oppression -- no other government has this notion of women being the property of their male guardians. It's not that the culture is backward, it's the government. The monarch has even kept several of his own daughters under house arrest, one of whom recently called for an uprising against the regime.

"Obama has been part of a long line of U.S. presidents who have backed the Saudi regime as it has oppressed the people of the Arabian Peninsula. The U.S. has no credibility on human rights without publicly confronting the Saudi monarchy on its dire human rights record and its destruction of the Arab people's desire for freedom and progress. The Saudi regime is not the solution as it's often portrayed -- it's a huge part of the problem."

-END-

[flamingdem]

17. Good read

[ucrdem]

18. I think it was a good speech.

A little something for everyone but basically it sounds like we're unofficially joining forces with Assad and that much I think is encouraging.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. Obama is going to take on the Republicans?

[Cha]

24. Thank you, madokie for acknowledging that the President is being straight with

us and deserves a "Thank you".

[noiretextatique]

25. i wonder who is going to stop OUR cancer?

of a bloated military stepping into SHIT that is none of our business, and creating more terrorists who hate out guts. when will it EVER end? thanks a lot, Mr. President.

[Cha]

26. Thank you Mr President!

[RandiFan1290]

27. Let's do our part!

http://todaysmilitary.com/contact-a-recruiter

Share with the kids and grand kids!

[Rex]

32. I agree! As a vet, I recommend folks talk their sons and daughters into volunteering!

It will teach them a lot of real world lessons they won't learn in college or at home.