President Obama’s ISIS Strategy Isn’t Reality Based

President Obama’s response to ISIS is another example of how our ruling class couples their illusions with whatever they find it convenient to do.

Angelo Codevilla, The Fedralist

President Obama’s promise “to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL” may or may not end up causing problems for the Islamic State. Surely however, it further degraded our security by further engaging us in the combination of fantasy and half measures that has earned America a reputation for un-seriousness and opened hunting season on Americans everywhere.

Obama degrades America by dwelling in a politically convenient fantasy world. In his September 10 2014 prime-time speech, Obama claimed to have made America safer by combining the withdrawal of troops from abroad with the killing of Osama bin Laden and “taking out terrorists who threaten us” in places like Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Obama pledged to deal with ISIL in the same successful way.

In Obama’s fantasy, ISIL is neither Islamic nor a state. But distinguishing ISIL’s doctrine from the orthodox Wahabism preached daily in Mecca and Minneapolis, and that from the Koran, is hardly possible for scholars never mind for religiously illiterate politicians. In fact, some of the world’s wealthiest and most influential Muslims think enough of ISIL’s Islamic credentials to give it countless millions of dollars as a faith-offering, thousands upon thousands of young Muslims from around the world, including the USA rush to fight and die for it, the Muslim governments of Qatar and Turkey, respectively, continue to buy and transit supplies for it, while the Islamic world’s leading intellectual authorities have not critiqued its Islamic credentials.

De facto, ISIL is a state because it controls territory larger than that of a plurality of the UN’s members, and because the people it rules prefer it to their former rulers. They do so because ISIL shares the people’s religious sect (Sunni Islam) while the leaders of the former Syria and Iraq are Alewis or Shia. ISIL conquered its territory with the help of the locals.  In Iraq, the local Sunnis helped ISIL chase away the Iraqi army, and the Kurds too, using arms given them by the US government as part of “the surge.”

But in Obama’s fantasy, as expressed by Sandy Berger, Clinton’s former national security adviser whose advice Obama solicited, our confrontation with ISIL “can’t turn into a U.S versus Sunni battle.” “It has to be us helping the Sunnis battle the Sunni extremists.” It has to be that, regardless of whether the Sunnis who live under ISIL regard their rulers as extremists or not. The locals have to look at things the way we do. They just damn well have to.

More than that, the folks in the region have to believe in and fight for entities called “Iraq” and “Syria,” to which heretofore they have shown scarce allegiance but in which Obama, like the Bushes and Clinton before him, professes to believe deeply. In his speech, he told the world that he had helped fix Iraq by brokering the new, “inclusive” Iraqi government sworn in on September 8. By supporting its efforts “to address the legitimate grievances and needs of all Iraqis”- read, the Sunnis – that government will “drive a wedge between ISIL and Sunnis.” Thus, “The Iraqi Government is taking the fight to ISIL, and will ultimately be the one to defeat it in Iraq.” Inclusiveness will do the trick, for Obama just as it did for Bush. This time, for sure.

If the hard men who now run the ISIL military, who had been Saddam Hussein’s security cadre, who marched against an Iraqi army flush with top-of-the line US arms confident that Iraqi soldiers would hand them over; if the Sunni Islamist agitators whom the American occupation of Iraq had imprisoned for shooting Americans and who now lead an ISIL Caliphate that draws countless recruits aching to behead Americans; if such people believed Obama’s speech, if they shared the Obama-Sandy Berger thesis, they would be quaking in their boots. Odds are they listened to Obama’s speech with glee.

They heard Obama promise to reduce ISIL’s revenue “from oil and assets it has plundered” and to disrupt “the flow of external donations to the group.” They know, just as any well-informed person anywhere knows, that the US government has the capacity to do just that. But they also know what Obama would have to do to accomplish it – namely institute some kind of secondary sanctions on countries (and there are a lot of them) that traffic in oil sold by ISIL – and that Obama does not have the slightest intention of upsetting these countries or the domestic US interests that deal with them. As for cutting off the external donations, the hard men of ISIL can use their financial account books as comfort-pillows, confident that Obama – and John McCain, Qatar’s favorite senator – will bring zero significant pressure on any Gulf rulers to jail their cousins who fund ISIL.

The secular and religious men of ISIL did not hear a peep from Obama about how the pipeline of food and fuel and medicine through Turkey by which ISIL survives is going to be shut down. That is because it isn’t going to be shut down and ISIL, along with its host population, will continue to eat, drink, and be well.

They heard Obama promise to strike from the air to “degrade ISIL’s leadership, logistical and operational capability, and deny it sanctuary and resources to plan, prepare and execute attack.” They know that America has an air force that could do that. Heck, they know that Saudi Arabia and Jordan together have over 400 modern fighter-bombers that, even without American attack aircraft but only with American air controllers, these could starve and kill them in an intensive campaign over a couple of months. But Obama told them that all they need worry about is the sort of thing that America has mustered against its enemies in recent years. Massive campaigns aimed at swift victory are now politically incorrect in Washington.

Obama promised to limit “ISIL’s ability to extort local populations; stemming ISIL’s gains from kidnapping for ransom.” That would be serious. But the men of ISIL can discount the threat because executing it would take physically pushing ISIL rulers out with a substantial ground force. Obama made it clear that the U.S. will not supply such a force. (Good thing too, because a US ground invasion would likely repeat the disastrous Iraq occupation policy). The Kurds fight magnificently. But they have learned to do so exclusively for Kurdistan. The Iraqi army does not, and will not, exist. Iraq has plenty of ferocious Shia militias – death squads – eager to take the equivalent of Sunni scalps. But all know that Obama will do his best to shield ISIL from the Shia. The Saudis demand it.

Again and again, Obama degraded the English language by describing his fantasy as “strategy,” as in: “our strategy will be underpinned by a strong coalition of regional and international partners who are willing to commit resources and will to this long-term endeavor.” This usage is akin to: “our strategy is to make a ham sandwich, contingent on somebody providing the bread and someone else the ham,” or “the mouse’s strategy for dealing with the cat is to place a bell around its neck.”

But Obama gave no hint as to how “regional and international partners” would be persuaded to do whatever it takes to “degrade and destroy” ISIL – nor even of what activity and what level thereof would be required to do that – any more than how any mouse might go about belling a cat.

The American people watched videos of men like ourselves being beheaded by Muslim thugs with a knife who now dispose of a state, and who are drawing unto themselves God-knows-how many would-be beheaders of Americans. The American people reasonably demanded a real campaign to destroy ISIL. What Obama delivered was yet more fantasy.

Alas, our ruling class couples their illusions with whatever they find it convenient to do, and call it “strategy.” Thereby do they advertise their impotence.

Angelo M. Codevilla is a fellow of the Claremont Institute, professor emeritus of international relations at Boston University and the author of To Make And Keep Peace, Hoover Institution Press, 2014.
September 14, 2014 | 284 Comments »

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50 Comments / 284 Comments

  1. @ the phoenix:

    “I’m a little tired so I will let Shere Khan provide the proper answer (@ the 1’18? mark)… If you catch my drift.”

    I’m afraid I don’t. Too cryptic for me.

    And even if you had provided a media link, I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) use sound where I am. I suppose it will just have to keep.

  2. @ dweller:
    It appears that Ted has not reigned in your abusive insults and psychobabble so I must step back in and point out your ludicrous MO
    Phoenix Said:

    “I remember one of my first replies to [Ross] (at the time I was convinced he was an attorney…) I said ‘in a court of law, you must have been formidable’…”
    Dweller said:
    ROFLMAO. You can’t see the forest for the trees. If you weren’t so lost, phoenix,

    Your first response is to insult phoenix which already presages that you have NO support for any of your arguments to follow or you would have no need to rely on this abusive, insulting and unattractive tactic
    dweller Said:

    no attorney worth the price of his lawbooks would ever take his case.

    another supported gratuitous insult AND lie. In fact a number of attorneys have not only taken my cases but followed my advice and arguments to successful conclusions. One was where I sued a philadelphia mafia front company for a purchase money mortgage on a property I sold to them. The attorney, well known for litigation success in the field began by ridiculing my suggestion to subpoena their principal and put specific questions to him. He said that no one ever does such a thing in a mortgage foreclosure. When they filed a ludicrous counter suit he decided to try my advice and they immediately withdrew their counter suit and allowed my claims to go through without any opposition. the property was bought back by me in foreclosure and the mafia took advantage of a Florida law to redeem it within 10 days, but they had to pay me for all expenses, interest etc. when I saw them next time buying 5 hotels on south beach and 1 in Tampa they complimented me. I was the only one to be successful in getting my money back in a massive interstate con where they owned banks and looted them. The 5 hotels they bought were intentionally bankrupted after sucking 35 million dollars from a california S&L. The feds finally shut them down years later after taking a 95 million dollar trucking company with the same scam. In another successful case against a bank that swindled me in a partnership the lawyer adopted into his submission my exact wording arguing that the bank was guilty of criminal fraud.

    You happened to make a loose false statement which is exactly the opposite of the truth which tends to be par for your course.. It appears that the preponderance of the evidence submitted is in Phoenix’s favor.

    (continued in next post)

  3. @ honeybee:

    “Don’t provoke a provocateur.”

    I’ve really no control over it (even if I wanted to I couldn’t). So I don’t even try.

    Never met a provocateur who WASN’T provoked by my very presence.

  4. @ honeybee:

    “The only times that I comment about anything are when I have something pertinent to say that hasn’t been said already (in the same context). There are MYRIAD instances in which I remain mute because I’ve nothing to say.”

    “Oh Sweetie, don’t kid a kidder.”

    Fact.

  5. @ the phoenix:

    “He brought me to the source”

    Yamit brought you to Yamit’s sources. There are others.

    But they might not bring you to his ‘conclusions.’

    So he does not offer them.

    “I remember one of my first replies to [Ross] (at the time I was convinced he was an attorney…) I said ‘in a court of law, you must have been formidable’…”

    ROFLMAO. You can’t see the forest for the trees. If you weren’t so lost, phoenix, you’d readily perceive that no attorney worth the price of his lawbooks would ever take his case. Even the few things he’s right about (and they are a VERY few) should’ve been apparent at a glance to anybody w/ a soupçon of common sense. Yet he’s had to deduce them thru a plodding, tortuous process intricate enough to break a snake’s back yet no more thorough for its plodding.

    He can’t afford to subject himself to common sense, however, because that would mean relinquishing his attachment to the process of intellectualization — and he’s ADDICTED to that. Worse than addicted: threatened — by the proposition that it may not be all there is. . . .

    “The clarity of his comments, the ability to connect dots in a very logical and sequential way is stellar…”

    Clear, logical, stellar — and wrong.

    Anybody predisposed to believe his own fantasies can “connect the dots” and arrive at what he wants to arrive at; happens all the time. In fact, YOU have done precisely that with the above-referenced individual (and the previous one). And he himself does it routinely.

    “Most men prefer to believe what they prefer to be true.” Francis Bacon.

    The Inquisition made an institution out of “connecting the dots” and arriving where they wanted to arrive. Lynch mobs are notorious for doing precisely the same thing. Without an interior lodestar for reference, a connector of dots is a danger to his world and even himself.

    “…(perhaps to your chagrin…”

    The only thing that leaves me more chagrined than a plodder

    — is a plodder who gets it wrong even with his plodding.

    If I were a betting man (I’m NOT a betting man, but if I were), my chips would be on your eventually seeing thru his ‘process’ — and in all likelihood, before HE ever does.

    That’s how it looks from out here in the bleacher seats.

  6. @ honeybee:

    I can believe that. I only worked the fields for a little over a year and half. Pay was good though. I hit Israel with $2. to my name and got the job in my first week. One thing working deep in the Sinai was there was no place to spend money. Drawback cooped up with a bunch of guys for 2 weeks at a stretch. Worked for a Canadian contractor and the whole crew were non Israelis, lots of guys from Norway. We had to replace packers on existing wells that were all sooted up. How long did he work in oil exploration?

  7. yamit82 Said:

    If you ever want a job that puts muscles on muscles work for a time as a rough neck.

    now you sound like TX. I had to learn to cut patterns and sew in order to make his work shirts his arms and wrist were so strong. But the hard physical work took it’s toll.

  8. dweller Said:

    the same context). There are MYRIAD instances in which I remain mute because I’ve nothing to say.

    Oh Sweetie, don’t kid a kidder. I prefer scones.

  9. @ honeybee:

    “I respect your religious and political belief, however it is you tendency to ‘beat your own drum’…”

    Who else will beat it — you?

    The only times that I comment about anything are when I have something pertinent to say that hasn’t been said already (in the same context). There are MYRIAD instances in which I remain mute because I’ve nothing to say.

    “… and beat it rather loudly that I find annoying.”

    There are several MUCH louder commenters on this blog than I.

    What you find ‘annoying’ about my remarks is not the ‘loudness’ but the confidence w/ which they’re made.

    “Also your tendency to ,’look for a splinter in the eyes of other…”

    I don’t go looking for splinters.

    QTC, I let them show themselves to me.

    When they do, I say what I see.

    “… while ignoring the beam in your own eye”

    Got any favorites you wanna discuss over tea & crumpets?

  10. dweller Said:

    I was a traditionally-raised Jew who did his own thinking and who — pursuant to that — dug Jesus

    I respect your religious and political belief, however it is you tendency to ” beat your own drum” and beat it rather loudly that I find annoying.
    Also your tendency to ,”look for a splinter in the eyes of other, while ignoring the beam in your own eye”.

  11. yamit82 Said:

    Texas version of Madame Defarge but instead of knitting she bakes!!!!!!

    The way to a man’s ” brain” is through his stomach. I like to think of myself more as a Madame du Pompadour or Marie de Medici. Perhaps my hero Elizabeth I.

  12. yamit82 Said:

    “Reuters” reports that Union Fenosa will drop its lawsuit against Egypt if imports of Tamar gas are permitted.

    Ah the oil “business” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  13. @ yamit82:

    “I gave up one helluva lot MORE attention on the outside than I could ever have hoped of getting on the inside.”

    “We know you were more popular on the inside than ever on the outside

    “Had that been the case, I’d never have been sent to prison.”

    “Say What?”

    It’s BECAUSE I was “popular” on the outside — it’s because our organizing was having an effect — that I was sent to prison in the first place.

    Had I been unsuccessful at it, I’d have been ignored by the Atty General’s office.

    “Do you ever think about what you’ve written BEFORE hitting “post”?”

    There’s no occasion on which I don’t.

    PresentCompany, however, could perhaps benefit from a course in remedial reading — or at least a new set of reading glasses?

  14. @ yamit82:

    “…[Mom] was slow at getting the picture in focus. So I had to acquire the patience to help her do that. It taught me to get really good at spotting phonies, fakes & frauds and showing what they’re made of.”

    “Here is where we add some of our own psychobabble which substantiates your hatred of women a classic misogynist who projects his own neurosis’s on to others.”

    Now, how could I possibly have guessed that you’d go there with that? Quelle surprise!

    If you think what I told you reflects ‘misogyny’ (let alone, the ‘classic’ variety), then what you’re spouting is INDEED psychobabble of the shallowest sort.

    “Guess I was right when I said you had a mommy problem that screwed up your mind from an early age.”

    Yamit, you’ve yet to be right about anything regarding me, and this matter is hardly an exception. Now, pay attention, and I’ll give you a brief lesson in First Principles of how to read these things. (And take good notes; there’ll be a pop quiz in the morning):

    You don’t get to conclude or assume (or even suspect) that somebody has a “mommy problem that screwed up [his/her] mind, etc,” as long as all you’ve got to go on is what CONFRONTED him. In a finite world, every kid comes into the world and meets a set of circumstances over which s/he has no control. That of itself tells you zilch about him/her. What DOES tell you something is how he responds to it emotionally.

    What screws up a kid’s head is trauma, not the mere fact of circumstance. And trauma is about how he REACTS to the circumstance, because it is trauma that has the power to imprint and to generate compulsiveness — and trauma is something over which, as a human being, he does have the power (viz., the potential) of control. (Are you tracking with me here, or am I wasting my time with you?)

    So the question comes down to whether the kid reacted emotionally to the circumstances. It comes down to that because emotional reaction always generates trauma. And kids usually don’t yet have the emotional wherewithal (which can’t be generated w/o a minimal level of ego strength) to keep from reacting emotionally. So they wind up traumatizing themselves — which generates an imprint of the experience, which generates compulsiveness, which in turn creates a magnet-like attractiveness for similar experience, which repeats itself endlessly. You follow?

    To bring the matter back to me — if I had reacted emotionally to being wrongly suspected (by the most important female figure in my life) of being the culprit in the matter at hand, then I surely would’ve been imprinted with the trauma-induced experience, and would’ve indeed wound up farmisht, farshimmelt & farblonget (that’s Dutch for bewitched, bothered & bewildered).

    “Not sure how to relate to sudden burst of honesty from you???”

    No less honest or more honest than at any other time.

    “Very revealing though.”

    Again, no more so or less so than on other occasions. And now, as then, you’re clueless as to what to make of what’s ‘revealed.’ Obviously one lesson won’t be enough. Oy, but you’re such a plodder. . . .

    Hate acts as a brake on the fluidity of consciousness.

  15. @ bernard ross:

    Look at a map of the Med Basin and where Arab Spring took place? Assad screwed up the works and the timetable, he was expected to fall and be out 3 years ago. Gaddafi unexpected held up for 6 mos more than expected and in the end NATO or the Brits to be exact sent in Mercenaries with British officers to finish the job. Then there was the big double cross first in Libya and then with the SFA, trained in Jordan and Turkey. The initial attacks by rebels attacked from Jordan and were supplied mostly from Jordan and Turkey both along Syrian borders. One would expect a normal popular rebellion to begin in the major cities but they were to far from the supply sources of men and weapons.

    The Saudis tried to bribe their opposition and that backfired. Sisi defied the American plan in Egypt.

    Obama has to get past the elections before he can show his cards. Everything is predicated on domestic politics.

    Obama has finally found his justification for war, taking a leaf out of Europe’s playbook he now justifies military campaign not against ISIS but from a new-found American interest stopping American and European Jihadist fighting in Syria, Iraq and Libya from returning to Europe and America and pursuing terrorism there. That will be the justification for war and boots on the ground.

  16. yamit82 Said:

    America does not need the oil and gas from the ME but they do want to deny it to China by controlling those who control the production and the shipping routes.

    then there’s europe who would like to be less dependent on russia and then there are the companies who would like to supply them. I think europe figured large in Libya and syria. If there is gas and oil all around the basin perhaps the price is up enough to start opening that up and they are getting there ducks in a row. Also, there are the many resources of Africa..

    It’s interesting how the chinese are staying out of the fray gobbling up the whole world in the meanwhile behind the scenes. I think that every 3rd world nation has been invaded by the Chinese buying up everything. they build highways and then they get ownership of the land adjoining for 30 years. They are developing where the Eu has run out of money.

  17. bernard ross Said:

    maybe these arab springs are related to that?

    America does not need the oil and gas from the ME but they do want to deny it to China by controlling those who control the production and the shipping routes. Strong nationalist regimes not dependent or subservient to American pressure must be removed and made subservient to the American will. Independent ME leaders like Mubarak,Assad and Gaddafi had to be removed, their countries carved up into weak mini states reliant on America for their defense. The IMF in non producing states serves as the functional weapon of robbing them and enslavement. For s, American nuke umbrella guarantees and for others supporting the abject greed of rulers. American Big oil wants most of the contracts and contractors like Bechtel get to build what the American military has destroyed. America has their bases covered in all aspects of their global power gambits.

  18. yamit82 Said:

    Guess I was right when I said you had a mommy problem that screwed up your mind from an early age.

    Finally, a psychological evaluation that makes sense. Freud would be proud.

  19. dweller Said:

    Had that been the case, I’d never have been sent to prison.

    Say What?

    “Do you ever think about what you’ve written BEFORE hitting “post”?”

  20. @ yamit82:

    “I gave up one helluva lot MORE attention on the outside than I could ever have hoped of getting on the inside.”

    “We know you were more popular on the inside than ever on the outside

    Had that been the case, I’d never have been sent to prison.

    “… you know what I mean.”

    No, I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.

    Suppose you tell me what you mean.

  21. dweller Said:

    — I wasn’t, but (like Ted) she was slow at getting the picture in focus. So I had to acquire the patience to help her do that. It taught me to get really good at spotting phonies, fakes & frauds and showing what they’re made of.

    Here is where we add some of our own psychobabble which substantiates your hatred of women a classic misogynist who projects his own neurosis’s on to others.

    Guess I was right when I said you had a mommy problem that screwed up your mind from an early age.

    Not sure how to relate to sudden burst of honesty from you??? Very revealing though.

  22. @ the phoenix:

    “…and let’s be clear, boychik: you’ve been part of the support phenomenon I described…”

    “Dweller, there ARE times… when your replies might be considered quick and witty.”

    Maybe witty, per occasion.

    RARELY ‘quick,’ however. Unlike some, I take time to think about what I want to say before engaging the keyboard — and more time again after the drafting & editing before hitting “post”

    — and that notwithstanding the limitations on my online time.

    “Do you know what joy means dweller?
    I really mean it sincerely”

    In that case, I shall give you a ‘sincerely meant’ answer:

    — ONE of us knows what joy means, phoenix.

    “your comments do not move the reader.”

    “The reader”? — do you know how many readers see these posts?

    And you presume to speak for them, do you?

    How do they communicate their reflections to you?

    Of course, I was unaware that we were here for the PURPOSE of ‘moving’ each other; must’ve missed the bulletin (it happens). Then again, I suppose, if you need to be ‘moved,’ it appears that there are lots of new electronic devices available nowadays — presumably w/ batteries sufficiently long-lasting to provide the intensity & duration of ‘movement’ you need.

    Entertainment, indeed, has come a long way.

  23. dweller Said:

    I gave up one helluva lot MORE attention on the outside than I could ever have hoped of getting on the inside.

    We know you were more popular on the inside than ever on the outside, you know what I mean. 😉

  24. bernard ross Said:

    I knew it, she ran the whole caper.

    Who knew???

    She has said often not to mess with Texas.

    Texas version of Madame Defarge but instead of knitting she bakes!!!!!!

  25. bernard ross Said:

    I was wondering if the whole med coast line has fields we haven’t heard about yet, perhaps from Morocco to Turkey?

    I think the ans is yes, according to the Geological survey conducted by USA some years ago. Lots of oil too but harder to locate.

    I worked in the oil fields in Sinai and the Red Sea from a drilling barge. According to a Canadian Engineer I worked with ,he said: (way back in the 70’s} “that the potential of the Sinai and off shore was greater than Iran”.

    If you ever want a job that puts muscles on muscles work for a time as a rough neck. I loved it. We worked 12 hr shifts 7 days a week for two weeks and 5 days off which included 2 days of travel to and from the site. They flew us in Dakota DC-6 into Sinai and ferried us by chopper to the Barge in the middle of the Red Sea. Fishing was great. Dose were da days 🙂

  26. @ honeybee:

    “Were you truly against ‘peacetime Conscription’ and the ‘Viet-Nam War’…?

    “No, HB, I spent 5 years of my life organizing against it — and another year & a half in the joint — just for the halibut.”

    “…or were you only a born obstructionist…”

    “You mean in the same way that YOU are a ‘born’ provocateur?

    — No.”

    “…looking for an opportunity for personal gratification ?”

    “In the joint??? You think prison is a gratification-rich environment?”

    “You received that which wanted mostly,, attention. Sweetie”

    I gave up one helluva lot MORE attention on the outside than I could ever have hoped of getting on the inside.

    Do you ever think about what you’ve written BEFORE hitting “post”?

  27. yamit82 Said:

    I think you can call this leverage!!!

    the grease that makes the peace, or war.
    I was wondering if the whole med coast line has fields we haven’t heard about yet, perhaps from Morocco to Turkey?

  28. the phoenix Said:

    The clarity of his comments, the ability to connect dots in a very logical and sequential way is stellar

    Phoenix, you de man 🙂
    the phoenix Said:

    But then again, maybe I say that because I am one of the conspirators…

    did you take the strawberries?

  29. dweller Said:

    you are the ultimate instigator here — and there is not a smidgeon of the ‘scurrilous’ in that observation. Were it not so, you would not feel compelled to give them support for your cohorts’ comments in re those posters (like myself) on your shit list; nor would you feel at all GRATIFIED to receive such support in return.

    — That’s the most TELLING evidence. You can’t turn down such an assist; nor can you resist an opportunity to pile on. Ask yourself: do you get off on it? yes or no?

    If there were no mutual support in it, it would neither lift you, nor lower you emotionally; you’d find yourself emotionally NEUTRAL. Can you say that, really?

    the usual unsupported psychobabble?
    dweller Said:

    you show just how ignorant you are of what you’re dealing with. Their STYLES are, most assuredly, different from yours — but they are every BIT as emotional as you (some, more so). For them, their emotions are the only thing that matters; for them, their emotions ARE their reality, and the narrative must be made to FIT those emotions.

    more psychobabble?
    dweller Said:

    LMSS. Thoroughly & consistently enraged.

    psychobabbler on a rampage?

  30. I was a traditionally-raised Jew who did his own thinking and who — pursuant to that — dug Jesus.

    Who knew???
    Did you use John Deere, kubota or caterpillar?
    🙂

  31. and let’s be clear, boychik: you’ve been part of the support phenomenon I described

    🙂 🙂 🙂
    Dweller, there ARE times… when your replies might be considered quick and witty.
    Indeed, it can liven up the board.
    H.O.W.E.V.E.R…..
    These are the exception rather than the rule.
    You seem to peruse the ‘recent comments’ section like a sniper looking through a rifle telescope…. Oh, oh, easy now…. GOTCHA!!!!! (bwahahahaha)

    I am indebted over my eyeballs to yamit, for his posts and the countless nuggets that I part with (yes I know… Quotation marks, attribution, Yada Yada… It’s irrelevant! He brought me to the source, and THAT’S what counts in a forum where ideas and information are freely exchanged)

    Mr Ross… I remember one of my first replies to him (at the time I was convinced he was an attorney…) I said “in a court of law, you must have been formidable…”
    The clarity of his comments, the ability to connect dots in a very logical and sequential way is stellar (perhaps to your chagrin… 🙂 )

    Is it a coincidence that as I am mentioning hb (being il capo di tutti capi) I have a wall to wall grin ??? She brings JOY!
    Do you know what joy means dweller?
    I really mean it sincerely and with sadness: your comments do not move the reader.
    To the contrary…
    But then again, maybe I say that because I am one of the conspirators…
    Who knows?

  32. @ Ted Belman:

    “If you check your own archival comments you will see that my arguments with you were largely unrelated to the criticisms of you by others.”

    Irrelevant, Yamit, and you know it.

    Most other posters here couldn’t hold their own in re matters of a theological, scriptural nature, yamit — so you HAD to take on those by yourself. But that doesn’t change the basic picture. You’ve been about getting rid of me since virtually the DAY you realized that I was a traditionally-raised Jew who did his own thinking and who — pursuant to that — dug Jesus. Everything else has been peripheral to that for you, and your pattern of assault has never altered.

    “You remind me of one who instigates contovery and then crys foul when responded to in kind. Pathetic performance you have demonstrated in your scurrilous attempts to make me the heavy…”

    You ARE the heavy, yahnkele; you are the ultimate instigator here — and there is not a smidgeon of the ‘scurrilous’ in that observation. Were it not so, you would not feel compelled to give them support for your cohorts’ comments in re those posters (like myself) on your shit list; nor would you feel at all GRATIFIED to receive such support in return.

    — That’s the most TELLING evidence. You can’t turn down such an assist; nor can you resist an opportunity to pile on. Ask yourself: do you get off on it? yes or no?

    If there were no mutual support in it, it would neither lift you, nor lower you emotionally; you’d find yourself emotionally NEUTRAL. Can you say that, really?

    “I must say in all truth they are better at it than I am, less emotional…”

    Nonsense — and by saying that you show just how ignorant you are of what you’re dealing with. Their STYLES are, most assuredly, different from yours — but they are every BIT as emotional as you (some, more so). For them, their emotions are the only thing that matters; for them, their emotions ARE their reality, and the narrative must be made to FIT those emotions.

    “… but thoroughly and consistently factual.”

    LMSS. Thoroughly & consistently enraged.

    But ‘factual’? — Only in their needful fantasies (and yours). Nowhere else.

  33. Globes.com@ bernard ross:

    Union Fenosa links Egyptian suit to Tamar imports

    “Reuters” reports that Union Fenosa will drop its lawsuit against Egypt if imports of Tamar gas are permitted.

    Spain’s Union Fenosa Gas is considering dropping a lawsuit against Egypt, if it approves a deal for the Spanish company to import Israeli gas from the Tamar field at its liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Damietta, Egypt, a source close to the talks told “Reuters.”

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    Union Fenosa was compelled to suspend exports from its plant at Damietta in 2012 when gas shortages led the Egyptian government to channel supplies to its growing domestic needs. Consequently, Union Fenosa filed a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against Egypt in 2013 in the International Chamber of Commerce for breach of contract, and began talks for gas from Tamar. Egypt owes around $5.9 billion to foreign oil and gas firms operating in the country, “Reuters” estimates.

    Three-way talks with the Tamar partners and Egypt on securing a 2.5 trillion cubic feet gas import deal over 15 years are progressing, the source told “Reuters”, but technical, commercial and legal issues still have to be ironed out, he added.

    BG Group, which owns Egypt’s other LNG export plant at Idku, is in talks to import gas from Israel’s giant Leviathan offshore field in order to revive exports from its own plant which have declined sharply.

  34. dweller Said:

    — I wasn’t, but (like Ted) she was slow at getting the picture in focus.

    Lucky Ted, he’s got a guru to teach him to get the “picture in focus”
    dweller Said:

    It taught me to get really good at spotting phonies, fakes & frauds and showing what they’re made of.

    this guys fantastic, a legend in his own mind, apparently he lost his “spotting” mirror. 😛

    (sorry Ted, you cant blame me if he keeps feeding me the lines begging for a joke)