While Syria and Iraq burn, will Obama keep looking at his dwindling options?

One would have to be brain dead to NOT feel empathy for the millions of innocent Syrians and Iraqis who are suffering under the boot of tyrannical regimes like Syria’s Assad and Iraq’s Maliki. Even worse, civilians overrun by the fanatical Islamists ransacking and pillaging both countries are committing the most horrible crimes against humanity imaginable: Decapitation, mutilation, random murder, rape, torture. You name it, if it’s barbaric and medieval – these so-called Islamists are doing it under the name of Allah.

It is in my humble opinion that President Obama’s declaration that “America will no longer be the world’s policeman and is tired of war” – as well as his stumbling in the 2009 Iranian revolution, backing the wrong horse in the ouster of long-time Egyptian ally Mubarak, and the infamous “erased Syrian Red-line” are the main contributors to the chaos in the world today. I agree that U.S. boots should not be on the ground around the world, but at least we can be as consistently supportive with our allies as Russia and Iran are to their respective allies Syria and Lebanon.

Yes, our so-called allies in Europe need to step up their game in sharing the burden of fighting the spread of violent Islamism, as their proximity and large Muslim populations put them in the line of fire should the fight jump across the Mediterranean and find a foothold. The Russians understand the threat and dealt with it harshly in Chechnya, and are still dealing with it today. The Chinese are now fighting a small, but growing Islamist threat within their borders. Africa has been suffering for decades from numerous rampaging Islamist tribes slaughtering thousands, kidnaping hundreds of woman and children, and raping at will.

America expects our President to lead from the front, not hide under his desk, play golf, or take naps while our diplomats burn, our allies are getting overrun, and our enemies go from strength to strength as they consolidate their power. America expects our president to be the moral compass for the world. It surely won’t come from the U.N.

I would like to see President Obama leave his political correctness behind and come down clearly against ALL forms of violent Islamism. I would like to see President Obama lead an effort to create enough multilateral support - without limits - for the locals populations be armed and stop the current advance of Islamism in Syria and Iraq, as well as other areas where they have gone unchallenged.

I know that there are those who will want to divert the argument by blaming President Bush for this chaos. The first Bush US invasion of Iraq was, in my opinion, done correctly – he left Saddam’s army intact. George W. Bush’s mistake was following the intelligence community’s advice in disbanding the Iraqi army. None of that matters anymore. Obama now has to “own up” to his handling of the aftermath.

We are being penny wise and dollar foolish to think that we are saving money and lives by not engaging the enemy on their turf. They will get stronger and more lethal, and they will continue to inch closer to our national interests, be it our bases, our access to oil, or our allies. We will eventually have to engage them, and hopefully not before it is too late.

Will the USA have any allies left after Obama?

It is impossible for the most Pro-Obama supporter to deny that his foreign policy is in shambles, and that under Obama’s “leadership” the U.S. government’s word is meaningless in both the eyes of our sworn enemies AND our allies – and more importantly the world is a much more dangerous place.

The grand Obama foreign policy vision of “re-setting” our relations with Russia is a disaster. He threw Egypt’s Mubarak under the bus for the Muslim Brotherhood, which ended up with Egypt in the Russian camp.  The Russian invasion of Ukraine has made the USA’s word in the EU/Russian/USA/Ukrainian treaty that guaranteed Ukraine’s sovereignty worthless (in exchange for Ukraine destroying their nuclear capability). NATO is crumbling under the weight of the pressure Russia is putting on the Baltic states, and Obama thinks Israel should negotiate a peace treaty with a USA backed puppet “Palestinian leader” who is not even elected by his own people in the West bank, much less Gaza or the diaspora – and that Israel should accept Obama’s security guarantees. 

The USA is fatigued from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but whether we like it or not, the USA has a responsibility to maintain the global leadership role that Obama has publicly surrendered to the forces that are now causing havoc. We don’t have to be the policemen for the world, but we can provide unwavering financial, logistical and military support to our allies who are on the front lines. While there is much to critique about his domestic policies, the gaping void of global leadership under his tutelage will have negative consequences for the USA and our allies – IF WE HAVE ANY LEFT - for the next 100 years.

Amateur Hour at the White House

It numbs the mind to think that President Obama actually is negotiating the surrender of 35+ years of consistent American foreign policy vis-à-vis Iran to the extremist Iranian government that brutally put down a massive Egyptian style uprising in 2009. The Mullahs of Iran have the blood of Americans, Syrians, Kurds, Argentinians, Lebanese, Syrians, Israelis, Iraqis, British – as well as thousands of other innocent civilians on their hands. They have financed and inspired countless other terrorist entities like Hezbollah who are slaughtering hundreds of Syrians as I type this letter. President Obama won the NOBEL PRIZE and now he is aligning himself with a brutal regime on par with North Korea and China!! That doesn't sound so liberal to me.

The Obama apologists justify “negotiating” with Iran using a term called “silo” diplomacy: They consider each Iranian offense separately so as not to prejudice the outcome of a “negotiation”. This is nothing but diplomatic double-talk. Can anyone picture Roosevelt or Churchill endlessly negotiated an arms pact (that they knew wasn’t going anywhere) with the Nazis while they were marching through Europe and bombing London?

There is no doubt that America is war weary from Afghanistan and Iraq, but there are other options than surrendering American values and abandoning American allies in the Mid-East. We have immense resources political, economic and military resources that could make a huge difference in the outcome of the region. Instead, we have President Hell bent on retreating and acting as if America is an impotent power on par with a South American banana republic. To make matters worse, Secretary of State Kerry seems to be improvising “off-the-cuff diplomacy” to the point that you would think he was auditioning for Saturday Night Live. This is what you get when you put amateurs with no experience in office.

Obama's domestic and foriegn policy has made the U.S.A and the world more unstable and unsafe

Once again, President Obama has lied, but this time to Israel and America’s other allies in the Mideast. President Obama has stated, on more than one occasion, that the USA “has Israel’s back”, will  “not let Iran develop a nuclear bomb” and that Israel reserves the right to protect itself from Iran or Iran’s surrogates Hezbollah and Hamas – as a sovereign country in a violent and unstable area of the world. 

The last 2 months have reveled a dramatic shift in President Obama’s Mideast foreign policy strategy. He has now engaged in direct talks with Iran and is actively working to independently rush through a nuclear agreement with Iran that is in direct violation of US Security Council resolutions – and will allow Iran to maintain all the components of a nuclear arsenal to be assembled whenever they choose.  Of course, any international nuclear treaty with Iran would in essence tie Israel’s hands from using a military option against Iran – which seems to be Obama’s objective. Now, if Israel attacks Iran, Obama can blame Israel for violating the agreement, which Israel was not party to in the first place. These is a deliberate strategy on the part of Obama to tie-up Israel’s military option and delegitimize Israel if they have the gumption to go ahead an use the military option.

Obama’s foreign policy pivot - abandoning the Mideast in favor of shifting U.S. military assets to Asia has created distrust of his motives among traditional allies – Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – who believe he is actively working against them in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran.

This has left Egypt, a traditional ally to initiate an extensive mutual military agreement with the Russians that includes a naval port and billions in sophisticated military hardware – paid for by Saudi Arabia.

The world has become more dangerous due to President Obama,  and the lack of traditional U.S. leadership. His Mideast strategy is no more thought out than Obamacare – both of which are causing unintended negative consequences that are making our country and the world a more unstable and unsafe place.

New York Times gets it wrong again in backing Obama's atttempt to let Iran become a Nuclear Power

The NYT 11/11 editorial entitled “Iran Nuclear Talks: Unfinished, but Alive” was not unexpected in it’s analysis of the P5+1 and Iran nuclear negotiations. While I understand that the NYT has positioned itself as the voice of liberalism in America, and will defend and promote President Obama’s hap hazard social and foreign policy agenda - the sophistic argument laid out in your editorial would have been considered “malpractice” in the medical world.

President Obama and John Kerry are “rushing” to sign ANY document that would in essence tie Israel’s hand in mounting a defensive war against a brutal regime that has been at war with Israel since 1972 through it’s proxies – and has on more than one occasion said they would wipe Israel off the map.

The result of President Obama “resetting” 30 years of U.S. Mideast policy is that all of our allies there now don’t trust America under Obama. He has lost total credibility and I totally understand it. Obama threw Egyptian President Mubarak under the bus, lied about his red line in Syria and agreed to a papered over WMD agreement with Russia that has fallen apart (and looked like Swiss cheese from the start) as thousand more Syrians are brutally murdered. Now Obama wants to legitimize Israel’s greatest threat without Israel as party to the agreement – and instead must “take Kerry’s word” that Obama has their back.

The NYT stated that Israeli President Netanyahu should wait to see the agreement before criticizing it. On the contrary, there should be no agreement without Israel being party to the agreement and at the table BEFORE it is signed. It is obvious that Obama is trying to rush to sign this document for three reasons: Polish his tarnished foreign policy image after the disastrous Syria/Benghazi missteps, pressure Israel from attacking Iran before Iran goes online, and most importantly to delegitimize Israel in the event they do have to attack.

America is comfortably oceans away from Iran, with the largest and most technical logically advanced military on earth.  Iran does not pose an immediate threat to the USA, so making agreements – even BAD agreements – does not have existential consequences. On the other hand, Europe, Africa and the rest of the Mideast have a different perspective – close enough proximity to be threatened.

The loose, but vocal alliance between Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Arab countries should be a wake up call for the world: When Jews and Arabs unite against a common foe – especially a foe who has killed thousands at home, and hundreds of thousands in Syria – the world should take notice. Obviously, Obama wants his trophy agreement – an agreement that I hope this alliance will not let happen in their part of the world.

A Brother's Eulogy For His Sister

October 14, 2013

The discovery that Gayle Fargotstein, my sister, had died October 8^th, 2013, has obviously unleashed a torrent of emotions among my fellow siblings, and each of us has our own way of dealing with not just her death and the way she died, but also with the way she lived her life - and how we reacted to her.

I loved Gayle very much, but she was not a person who was easy to love, and I could only love her at a distance. I can’t help but wonder how Gayle’s life (and Esta’s) might have been different had she not moved in with Esta – how all our lives might have been different. I wonder how Max and Esta - if they were looking down at the entire life of Gayle, would react to this last chapter of her life. How would they judge her - and how would they judge us? How would they judge themselves? Each of us will have to live with those unanswered questions. 

Gayle (and Esta) helped Kay and I get through our divorce by helping us with David, Sam and Molly. They would pick them up at school, feed them snacks and helped us mold them into the fine adults that they are today.  I have no doubt that whatever benefit my children got from being with Gayle, she received and equal amount of joy from their company, and truly loved them with all her heart – as if they were her own at times. Gayle, I will always be grateful to you for this, and my kids are grieving deeply over your death.

Looking forward there are lessons that I hope my siblings, kids and friends take to heart from the death of Gayle. Going forward we need to appreciate each other in a different light, and realize that we don’t have to win every argument between us. We need to end each conversation on a good note - because there is a possibility that it may be the last conversation we ever have together.

With all that said, destiny has a huge part in where life takes us, but we do have choices in our life, choices that can influence destiny. The concept of “family” (especially in a Jewish family) is traditionally extremely close, which is at odds with the societal demographic changes in America. Siblings live in different cities, connected by cell phones, the Internet or Facebook - instead of closely together in the same city, neighborhood or house. You have to invest in a relationship to maintain it, and a hug is so much more intimate than a cell phone call. I pray that my fellow siblings will remain close in the future, and also that the many nieces and nephews will learn from Gayle’s life and make the effort to maintain a close extended family far, far into the future.

Even though we bury Gayle today, her memory lives on in the family and all of the nieces and nephews who loved her. May she find the peace in death that she found so hard to find on earth.

Very Sincerely,

Shep Fargotstein