tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post3914146260071688751..comments2024-03-29T02:03:49.151-04:00Comments on History Unfolding: History and the Middle EastDavid Kaiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05020082243968071584noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-87560548188636000782010-03-26T23:55:44.389-04:002010-03-26T23:55:44.389-04:00I would say that the 'history of misadventures...I would say that the 'history of misadventures' goes back at least to the Crusades, rather than to this century.<br /><br />'...but I think that Tyler has missed a larger and more critical point...Although Tyler focuses on presidential leadership, the book has another related subtheme—the anarchy of US policy towards the region. So many Presidents have been distracted by so many problems....that powerful officials—led by Secretaries of State Kissinger and Haig—have often been able to go off on their own, with highly negative results. Kissinger, Tyler shows clearly, lied to Nixon during the Yom Kippur War, promising to work for an immediate cease-fire while telling the Israelis to push their counterattack. Haig seems to have told the Israelis to go ahead and invade Lebanon in 1982 without trying to explain to Reagan what this was going to mean.'<br /><br />I think some large points are that America's highest officials are generally inattentive amateurs; foreign officials and domestic interest groups have a stronger voice in policy decisions than average Americans; and supposedly well versed career higher officials often make bad decisions, which supposedly inattentive and distracted amateur top officlals might have corrected if uncovered.<br /><br />Journalists often have anti government axes to grind; smearing government officials without suggesting a real reform alternative, is classic American journalistic free speech.<br />All the best,<br />Gerald MeadersBozonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18078858723231122013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-16538504813843285862010-01-28T08:36:11.252-05:002010-01-28T08:36:11.252-05:00I'm not really commenting about this article; ...I'm not really commenting about this article; although, I did read it. I'm commenting about an e-mail I received with your name on it about something historic coming. The entirity of this e-mail has been posted on this page by Dr.LeRoy. Like him, I'm leaving my comment here because I can't figure out how to reply to the e-mail. <br /><br />I'm 58, and I sense it too. Our parents wouldn't recognize America as it is today, and I hardly recognize it. I realize from your writings that you are probably liberal. You complain about the Democrats, but never as vehemently as you complain about the Republicans.<br /><br />I'm a Christian, and I look at things with a Christian slant. That is, I run everything that comes along through the filter of what I know of Christianity and the Bible to see if any matches or answers pop up. Sometimes they would seem to. As an example, 9-11. I know this sounds silly if you're not a believer, but I believe that God is mad at us, for all the immorality we now practice, and 9-11 was an announcement that he's going to strike our economic power (World Trade Center) because of it. <br /><br />I'm sure you ponder the relative awfulness (is that a word?) of the national debt just like I do, and I'm fairly sure we're on an economic train we can't get off of that's going to end in ruin. How much more so countries like Japan, whose debt to GDP ratio is approaching 200%. Smaller countries, like Iceland and Dubai, are already defaulting on their relatively small debts. Dubai, as you know, was only saved by a $12 bn loan from its neighbor, Abu Dhabi. The point is, the world is lurching ever closer to a major (beyond belief) economic disaster (not crisis). <br /><br />When, not if, this happens, the fabric of society is basically going to break down. Governments will collapse or just disappear altogether, the world's money and power will be concentrated in the hands of just a few people (George Soros as one comes to mind), and chaos and human misery will reign. To me, this sounds like the tribulation period mentioned in the Bible. <br /><br />And as far as the Muslims and Israel, I believe that that conflict is the beginning of the titanic, end-times conflict between the nation of Israel and the rest of the world. I believe that that conflict will eventually involve the US in as a real adversary to Israel. Right now, conservative Christians (those against abortion, gay rights, etc., and for Israel) are increasingly being demonized and will eventually be persecuted wholesale. As proof, I offer George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, and Ronald Regan, all born-again Christians. I have never seen attacks on the scale leveled at them. The attacks on Sarah Palin, her husband, her children, and anything anyone can think of have been the worst I can remember. Personally, I believe that those demonizing them were compelled to do so and really had no choice in the matter. I know, because I used to be one of them. <br /><br />At any rate,I'm not that worried (about the whole collapse thing) yet. I'll be worried later. I believe in God, and I believe he'll take care of me. He's done a great job so far. I've had a ton of trouble in my life, and he's brought me through all of it. And if he chooses not to, I hope he kills me with the first shot.Puffcatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-83057683914516898382010-01-07T14:45:31.675-05:002010-01-07T14:45:31.675-05:00Dr.LeRoy said:
"We learned just days ago tha...Dr.LeRoy said:<br /><br />"We learned just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms."<br /><br />You must know that the US has fallen, being professors/students of history. This is the plundering of the system before it declines into chaos. <br /><br />A bigger question would be who is doing the plundering and what will happen to the people of the US afterward (since I care nothing for the elite, they sold us out before we were born). <br /><br />Interesting that for many years we have pranced about claiming to 'be the world power' but the truth of the matter is that the US was the new kid on the block, and that while we fancied ourselves strong, majestic, and noble we are probably going to get a taste of the true power of the shadow government very soon. <br /><br />I love history, but it falls on its face some of the time because as much as the victor takes the spoils, he also tends to write the history, thus incorporating the lies, half-truths and redirects that suit himself as the victor. <br /><br />I find that following the money and following the history is the best balance. Back to the money, why would we give away everything to the shadow government? Perhaps it is because the shadow government has no concern about what will happen to the US. They have no concern about even paying it back...for they know they will never be called upon to do that.<br /><br />Indeed you would only have a complete lack of concern if you had a plan, it was in the works and you had zero concern that they (the US) would figure it out. <br /><br />What is it that they plan for us that will render us a complete non-entity, completely in viable, not a problem? <br /><br />You can't eviscerate an entire nation and leave it to fester and cause you problems later and what better way to demonstrate and consolidate the power of the shadow government than to completely destroy 'the greatest power in the world'. <br /><br />Would you do battle with them if this were the case? <br /><br />I worry for the future of the people of my country, but I probably won't get to worry for to long. Right now everything looks hunky (relatively) but there is simply no way around the time bomb that is ticking in our economic and financial system. <br /><br />They gave away the economy to the shadow government and are metaphorically using band-aids to patch cracks in Hoover Dam...the funny part of this is that they have managed to convince themselves that band-aids 'work', 'there is no problem here', 'move along'. It was all vanity.<br /><br />ChristianAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-87530764334237796092010-01-07T12:43:16.185-05:002010-01-07T12:43:16.185-05:00Dr. Kaiser, did you write the following e-mail whe...Dr. Kaiser, did you write the following e-mail when was sent to me under your name? I have to edit it to make it fit.<br /><br />History Unfolding<br /><br />I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books on history that have been published in six languages, and I have studied history all my life. I have come to think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is simply a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.<br /><br />Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten to fifteen years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.<br /><br />We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why?<br /><br />We learned just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the $700 billion we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? <br /><br />We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy. Why?<br /><br />We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. <br /><br />We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it simply wants marriage to remain defined as between one man and one woman. and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?<br /><br />Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government. Our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and I know precisely what I am talking about) - <br />And finally, we have elected a man that no one really knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla , Alaska.<br /><br />I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.<br /><br /><br /><br />And that is only the beginning..<br /><br />As a serious student of history, I thought I would never come to experience what the ordinary, moral German must have felt in the mid-1930s In those times, the "savior" was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. <br />How did he get people on his side? He did it by promising jobs to the jobless, money to the money-less, and rewards for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe , and across the world. <br /><br />If you think I am exaggerating, look it up. It's all there in the history books.<br /><br /><br /><br />David Kaiser <br />Jamestown , Rhode Island<br />United StatesDr.LeRoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05475281946177050189noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746692.post-44216149843811527032010-01-06T19:21:11.224-05:002010-01-06T19:21:11.224-05:00I agree that leaving the Middle East well enough a...I agree that leaving the Middle East well enough alone would be desirable. The facts however won’t allow that to happen now or in the future. <br /><br />Take Yemen for example. We hear that their oil reserves will run out in about 7 years, fresh water is in scarce supply and the population continues to swell. Even if the US pulled out of the Mideast entirely we would never be able to avoid the problems that will inevitably result from these forces. The world is just too small these days. <br /><br />Disgruntled populations of Mideast countries will continue to immigrate to Western countries bringing their problems with them. France, Sweden and England illustrate this quite well. <br /><br />So the issue now is not about trying to change Middle Eastern populations to become more Western, it’s how the West will assimilate these populations. I’m not optimistic about the outcome of this process. Islam does not appear able or willing to assimilate.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com