People, Personas, and Politics 10 – Not So Shining Beacon
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): People, Personas, and Politics
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/03/29
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Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Do America’s enemies take advantage of this?
Rick Rosner: Yea! I mean, ISIS and Al-Qaeda both became—particularly ISIS, it arose due to the chaos we caused in the Middle East. When we conquered Iraq, we fired the Iraqi army. Those guys went off and formed the so-called fundamentalist insurgent movements including ISIS. And then I’ve heard—who knows—that Trumps’ travel ban has been called the “Blessed Travel Ban” because it riles people up and makes then want to join.
SDJ: What about Vladimir Putin and his crew, and China’s recent claims about human rights being too tilted to Western norms, do you think the weakening of American prestige on the international stage provides – at least those two countries or those two cases – further strength in the repression of their own populations?
RR: Yea! Because when we are seen as clowny and impotent, then any ideals we try to promote are compromise, we’ve had, in the last 3 – of the last 3 – presidents, two of them had popular vote minorities and all sorts of chicanery associated with their being elected. And the first, George W. Bush, did a lot of damage, that we’re still struggling with.
SDJ: Obama did too. Previous president Obama damage as well with the continuance of many programs including the drone program, which was considered a terrorist campaign by many.
RR: Well, the drone program has both horribles and goods. If you’re killing from afar, you’re going to be making mistakes. You’re also going to make mistakes with boots on the ground.
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