(September 24, 2015 at 2:53 pm)TheRocketSurgeon Wrote:(September 24, 2015 at 2:41 pm)Parkers Tan Wrote: I gathered what you meant. I'm wondering how we did that in Syria?
We stayed out of it until ISIS started making huge gains; the most we did was Obama's empty rhetoric about "the Assad regime must go" and "don't cross our red line", both statements which were shown to be idle and vapid words as they weren't backed at all by any state or economic leverage.
That's why I'm confused about what you said. We didn't "bully" Syria. We did nothing.
Oh, I follow you. No, we didn't do anything in Syria because we couldn't pull the usual approach, not the least of which reason was Russia. I guess I could have been more clear.
What I meant to say was that if we don't have the bully method, we got nuthin'.
Yeah, American statecraft has always been lacking, especially in this age of polling and rigid ideology. Realpolitik has rarely been an approach we use, unfortunately.
