Dateline: Punyville, May 17, 2015 – Another weak week has just ended and what a weak it was. The lamest incident is the major blow off Arab leaders gave President Obama over what was to be an historic conference at Camp David.
Back on April 17, the White House announced a U.S. – GCC Summit in Washington on May 13 and 14. The GCC, or Gulf Cooperation Council, consists of six Persian Gulf monarchies including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Billed as an historic meeting, the get-together was supposed to be all hugs and kisses about how to strengthen security cooperation among the seven countries. Obama wanted to use the occasion to assure the kings that the U.S. still really has their backs against Iran’s burgeoning bullyism in their ‘hood.
The leaders of four of the six monarchs must have missed the momentous message because they decided not to attend, sending underlings instead. Widely viewed as a snub to the White House, the absences underscored the U.S.’s vanishing influence in that part of the world. This circumstance is not something that a day and one-half listening to Obama’s lectures will change.
Saudi Arabia, in particular, has been highly critical of the Administration’s nuclear deal with Iran. Not only does it not deter Iran’s nuclear advancements, lifting economic sanctions will pour billions of dollars into the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.
On top of that is our Country’s general abandonment of the Middle East, which is in the midst of an Iran-Syria-ISIS bloodbath. Today, the city of Ramadi, capital of Iraq’s largest province, fell to ISIS after government forces fled. Not a great start to a new week.
The Iran wedge that is being driven between long-standing allies is another sad example of the U.S. dictating outcomes in distant lands. Obama refuses to listen to our allies in the region about how to handle Iran substituting, instead, his own judgment of what is best for them.
Despite Obama’s speeches about the intrusive failures of past U.S. foreign policy, Western colonialism is still ruining the world.