Unintended Consequences

Written on March 18th, 2015 in politics Comments Off

… Obama traces origin of ISIS to Bush-era Iraq invasion, President Barack Obama speaks with ICE news – Video published on Russia Today RT, 2.59 min, March 17, 2015.

Obama stated that he is “confident” a coalition consisting of 60 nations “will slowly push back ISIL out of Iraq,” but added that the challenge of stopping extremism won’t stop unless there is a political solution to the internal strife affecting so many countries in the Middle East.  

What I’m worried about” he said, “is even if ISIL is defeated, the underlying problem of disaffected Sunnis around the world – but particularly in some of these areas including Libya, including Yemen – where a young man who’s growing up has no education, has no prospects for the future, is looking around and the one way he can get validation, power, respect, is if he’s a fighter.

“That’s a problem we’re going to have, generally. And we can’t keep on thinking about counterterrorism and security as entirely separate from diplomacy, development, education” … //

… The president dismissed concerns that the US spends too much on foreign aid, noting that just over one percent of the federal budget goes to other nations. He argued that “we should be thinking about making investments” overseas that will prevent America from sending troops to engage in military operations … //

… The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant,” Obama told the New Yorker in early 2014. “I think there is a distinction between the capacity and reach of a bin Laden and a network that is actively planning major terrorist plots against the homeland versus jihadists who are engaged in various local power struggles and disputes, often sectarian.

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Links:

video: Ukraine cops get ‘shoot-to-kill orders’ amid unrest over army hit & run killing of 8yo, 1.49 min, on Russia Today RT, March 16, 2015;

John Helmer: IMF Makes Ukraine War-Fighting Loan, Allows US to Fund Military Operations Against Russia, May Repay Gazprom Bill, on naked capitalism (first on Dances with Bears http://johnhelmer.net/?p=12920 ), by Yves Smith, March 16, 2015: For the first time, an IMF loan is funding a country at war, and one that is an impossible basket case economically. It’s hard not to conclude that the IMF largesse served to solve the wee problem of getting Congress to approve funding for US adventurism in Ukraine …;

The German Road: Congo Project Shows Pitfalls of Development Aid, on Spiegel Online International, by Samiha Shafy, March 16, 2015 (Photo Gallery): One of Germany’s largest relief organizations has built a road through the jungle leading from war-torn North Kivu to a major river in the Congo. The project has demonstrated the limits of development aid in a stateless region …;

Three Practical Hurdles to a Universal Basic Income, on Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies IEET, by John Danaher, March 15, 2015;

Exclusive: Chris Hedges on Bill C-51 and the corporate state, on rabble.ca, by H.G. WATSON, March 15, 2015;

on en.wikipedia:

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