Romancing the Sunni: A US policy tragedy in three acts; Act I

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Romancing the Sunni: A US policy tragedy in three acts; Act I

BY ANGELO CODEVILLA on

 

DECEMBER 21, 2015

in <the_category(< p="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline: none;">ANGELO CODEVILLA, MIDDLE EAST, AT OPINION</the_category(<>

 

Lifting the veil

 

Today, as Daesh/ISIS — a sub-sect of Sunni Islam — murders and encourages murdering Americans, our foreign policy establishment argues that doubling down on efforts to “gain the confidence” of Sunni states, potentates, and peoples will lead them to turn against the jihadis among themselves and to fight Daesh with “boots on the ground.”

 

For more than a quarter century, as Americans have suffered trouble from the Muslim world’s Sunni and Shia components and as the perennial quarrel between them has intensified, the US government has taken the side of the Sunni. This has not worked out well for us. It is past time for our government to sort out our own business, and to mind it aggressively.

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Romancing the Sunni: A US policy tragedy in three acts; Act II

BY ANGELO CODEVILLA on

 

DECEMBER 23, 2015

in <the_category(< p="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline: none;">ANGELO CODEVILLA, MIDDLE EAST, AT OPINION</the_category(<>

 

A surge of confusion After the February 2006 Sunni bombing of the Samarra Golden Mosque, the US proved unable to hold back the tide of Shia retaliation. The UN estimated that, during 2006 alone, Shia death squads had slaughtered some… http://atimes.com/2015/12/romancing-the-sunni-a-us-policy-tragedy-in-three-acts-act-ii/

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Romancing the Sunni: A US policy tragedy in three acts; Act III

BY ANGELO CODEVILLA on

 

DECEMBER 28, 2015

in <the_category(< p="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline: none;">ANGELO CODEVILLA, MIDDLE EAST, AT OPINION</the_category(<>

 

Reality vs. romance On Jan. 1, 2015, Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al Sisi told Sunni Islam’s leading scholars gathered at Cairo’s Al Azhar University, its leading temple of knowledge, that they had been leading Islam on a course disastrous for…›http://atimes.com/2015/12/romancing-the-sunni-an-us-policy-tragedy-in-three-acts-act-iii/

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Why Should We Want to “Keep” the Saudis?

By DANIEL LARISON • January 4, 2016, 8:42 AM

 

The Wall Street Journal asks “who lost the Saudis?”:

 

That headline question may seem premature, but it’s worth asking if only to reduce the odds that the Saudis are lost as we enter the last perilous year of the Obama Presidency.

 

Rather than asking “who lost” Saudi Arabia, here’s a better question: why should we want to “keep” them? Perhaps at one time the benefits of having the Saudis as a client outweighed the costs, but those days are long gone. Saudi Arabia is not only a useless and reckless client, but it is increasingly a liability. As we can see from its campaign in Yemen and its destructive meddling in Syria, http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/why-should-we-want-to-keep-the-saudis/