But unlike the USA, Russia doesn’t have ambivalent intentions where ISIS is concerned. We’ve pretended that any old freelance gang opposing Assad is our friend. Russia’s aims are pretty straightforward: prop up Assad, rescue whatever governing institutions remain in Syria, and smash ISIS. In exchange they get a warm-water naval base on the Mediterranean. That’s supposed to be an existential threat to the USA.. . . Sadly, the US can’t seem to formulate a strategy that doesn’t make things worse for people in the region or for the US homeland (or for our allies in Europe, plagued by refugees they cannot comfortably absorb and the awful threat of terror events).
I expect in 2016 that Obama’s policy will be to just get out of the way of Putin and see what happens. He doesn’t have much left in the kit-bag for now. The worst thing to come out of this for Obama, really, is if Putin can succeed in pacifying Syria, America’s leaders will look bad — incompetent and foolish — which is the actual case, of course.[1]
 |
Point of fact, I've yet to see in her anything but a woman with an impressive intellect, courage, keen political instincts, and a refusal to accept leftist manipulation.
Kunstler doesn't stop there. Trump is "Hitler without the brains and charm" and much more that Kunstler doesn't like. Just not quality people.
So, unfortunately, clarity on Syria doesn't necessarily transfer to other areas. Sometimes I wish Kunstler'd stick to his fascination with "peak oil."
Notes
[1] "Pretend to the Bitter End. Forecast 2016." By James Howard Kunstler, Clusterfuck Nation, 1/4/16.
4 comments:
Re: Kunstler, how does that expression go? "Even a stopped clock is right twice a day."
I still read him with interest. I subscribe to the view that intelligent people can have useful insights even though they get somethings wrong. Kunslter has a barely concealed disdain for Christians from what I can tell but it doesn't define him. He has some extraordinary insights into the sterility of modern architecture. He went for a walk around his Atlanta hotel a few years back and took pictures of the architecture he saw. Verrry interesting.
I've only read what others have posted of his writings, which isn't a fair sampling of what he has said and/or believes. I would certainly agree with him about contemporary architecture. FL Wright's Fallingwater home, and another he did in Arizona, are the last structures that have moved me, with the possible exception of the Guggenheim Museum. But as I try to avoid cities as I have traveled back and forth across America a number of times, I haven't seen as much as some folks have. Boston, New York, Seattle, and Houston all have some interesting structures, but it is often the older buildings, especially in Boston, that have caught my eye, and frequently those have been churches.
I had a job once in the vicinity of the Dept. of Justice in D.C. Some of the modern architecture around Main Justice was just soul sucking.
Post a Comment