TODAY'S BIG NUGGET: The Difference Between Allies and "Clients" Around the World

The Bankrupt U.S.-Saudi Relationship (Daniel Larison) from the American Conservative
"The choice is between indulging the Saudis in their worst behavior or changing the relationship so that it is much more balanced and consistent with the very few benefits it affords us. As I keep saying, it is important to distinguish between clients and allies, and we shouldn’t treat them the same. Saudi Arabia isn’t a “stable ally.” It is a largely useless client state that is actively working to destabilize other countries in the region."
One of two VERY INTERESTING takes by Larison on America's relationships both with Saudi and other countries!  -- Nuggetsman

A Bleak Long-term Picture for Saudi Arabia

Preparing for the Collapse of the Saudi Kingdom from the Atlantic
"It can’t last. The U.S. better get ready."

Turkey: A Declining "Rising Power"

Erdogan’s Foreign Policy Is in Ruins from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Just a few short years ago, Turkey was heralded as one of the region's rising powers. What happened?"

Iran and Saudi: Squaring Off Each for their own Reasons

Why Saudi Arabia and Iran May Be Seeking a New Crisis (Fred Kaplan) from Slate
"The Saudi royal family and Iranian hard-liners both could benefit from the tensions."

Russia's Middle-East Ally Heading for the Exit?

Iran Retreating From Syria Fight (Eli Lake) from Bloomberg View
"... they are seeing significant numbers of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps troops retreat from the Syrian combat zone in recent weeks, following the deaths and wounding of some of top officers in a campaign to retake Idlib Province and other areas lost this year to opposition forces supported by the West and Gulf Arab States. As a result, the Russian-initiated offensive that was launched in September seems to be losing an important ally."

Republicans Attack Obama's Fantasy Record

Cruz, Obama, and American “Leadership” (Daniel Larison) from the American Conservative
"While they could attack Obama for his real policy errors, hawks have always opted to criticize a fantasy record full of “apology tours” and “appeasement” that never happened because they can’t admit that Obama’s failures overseas have typically come from pursuing some version of the policies that they support."

The Real Costs of Dysfunctionality in the Arab World

On Radical Islam, Say It Like It Is (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
"It is the struggle within Arab and Pakistani Sunni Islam over whether and how to embrace modernity, pluralism and women’s rights. That struggle drives, and is driven by, the dysfunctionality of so many Arab states and Pakistan. It has left these societies with too many young men who have never held a job or a girl’s hand, who then seek to overcome their humiliation at being left behind, and to find identity, by “purifying” their worlds of other Muslims who are not sufficiently pious and of Westerners whom they perceive to be putting Muslims down."

TODAY'S BIG NUGGET: Who Are We? The Question Asked by Arab Muslims

Who Are We? (Thomas Freidman) from the New York Times
"... conversations here in Dubai, one of the great Arab/Muslim crossroads, make it clear that the rise of the Islamic State “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria, and its barbaric treatment of those who are against them — moderate Sunnis or Shiites, Christians, other minorities and women — has revived this central debate about “who are we?” Why? Because the Islamic State, or ISIS, is homegrown; its aim is not to strike at enemies far away, but to spread and impose its vision of an Islamic society right here and right now..."

TODAY'S BIG NUGGET: The Crumbling Relationship between Israel ... and Reality

Even Israel's Best Friends Understand That It Is Disconnecting From Reality from the Atlantic
"An editorial in the leading American Jewish newspaper should be read by Prime Minister Netanyahu as a serious warning."

Obama's Limited Engagement with ISIS Strikes a Careful Balance

Bipartisan Support for Obama’s Military Campaign Against ISIS from the Pew Research Center
"Dems Concerned about ‘Going Too Far,’ Reps ‘Not Far Enough’."
Now, let's be clear: if you were to listen to the pundit class and the neo-con/liberal interventionist blatherers that have been flooding the media in the last two months, you would have thought that Obama was in some la-la kookoo land of his own when it came to his approach to ISIS (and Syria and Iran and others).  However, as this item suggests (and as I have long believed) Obama is not alone.  The great majority of the American people are with him on this!  Many don't like ANY of the choices we are faced with in the international realm -- but Obama's caution and limited engagement strikes a difficult and carefully calibrated response that matches up with the American people's mood.  Consider where we would be if John McCain and his ilk were now in charge?  (1)  We would still have substantial forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and sustaining and inflicting the casualties that we had for the last 12 years; (2) we would be deeply involved in (let's count them) Syria, Lybia, Egypt (on Mubarek's side no less) and Ukraine; and (3) we would be at war with Iran over their nuclear program!  

MIDDLE EAST PHOTO NUGGET!!

Witness Mecca's Dramatic Transformation Over The Past Century In Just 14 Photos from the Huffington Post
"Although the requirements of Hajj have remained the same, Mecca itself has changed dramatically over the decades."

The Danger of Taking Sides When There is No Center

Ready, Aim, Fire. Not Fire, Ready, Aim. (Thomas Friedman) from the New York Times
"Representative Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told “Fox News Sunday” that “this ‘don’t-do-stupid-stuff’ policy isn’t working.” That sounded odd to my ear — like we should just bomb somebody, even if it is stupid. If Obama did that, what would he be ignoring? First, experience. ... When you have a region beset by that many civil wars at once, it means there is no center, only sides. And when you intervene in the middle of a region with no center, you very quickly become a side."

TODAY'S BIG NUGGET: Obama's Minimalist Foreign Policy

Actually, Obama Does Have a Strategy in the Middle East (Peter Beinart) from the Daily Beast
"The president is neither a dove nor a hawk. He’s a fierce minimalist."

Foreign Policy "Rot" in the GOP

Fight the Powers That Be from the Economist [of London]
"William Kristol, as ever, manages to distill the rot down to its ludicrous essence: “What’s the harm of bombing them at least for a few weeks and seeing what happens? ... The fact that Americans are outraged by oppressive governments, but lack a realistic theory of how stable governments come into being, means that it is easy to generate political support for attacking undesirable states and organisations, but hard to generate support for building anything to replace them."
"“What’s the harm of bombing them at least for a few weeks and seeing what happens?..."  This is so breath-takingly stupid -- and yet, it really DOES distill so much of what passes for the GOP's approach to foreign affairs.

The Deadly Logic of Intervention in Syria

What Going to War in Syria Would Really Mean for the U.S. (Conor Friedersdorf) from the Atlantic
"A brutal dictator, a violent terrorist group, and the morally fraught tradeoff that interventionists face."

The Cost of Joining Assad Against ISIS

A Bad Case for Allying with Assad (Daniel Larison) from the American Conservative
"Fighting wars of choice is bad enough, but it is simply perverse to insist on making deals with ugly regimes in order to facilitate the war of choice. If the most effective way of fighting ISIS requires the U.S. to go to war in Syria in concert with the Syrian government, that is just one more argument against waging a war on ISIS in the first place."