Friday, May 22, 2015

The Hedgehog's View

There is an ancient saying from the Greek poet Archilochus:  The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

The hedgehog's world view is centralized and simplified.  The fox is too engaged with the complexities of reality to formulate a general theory, since, to him, all theories are cutting off and ignoring obvious aspects of existence as it is.

I'm not entirely sure Raymond Ibrahim is using the metaphor quite the way I would in his American Thinker article:  "Obama, ISIS, and the Writing on the Wall".  Read it and see what you think.

You probably also need to read the earlier piece by Mr. Ibrahim to which he refers:  "Does Obama Need 'Time' to Defeat or Forget ISIS?"

Ibrahim predicted in the October 2014 essay that Obama's intention was never to defeat ISIS but to get them out of the headlines, to placate those who were offended by the Islamic State's videos of decapitations and other reported atrocities. 

The regime has succeeded.  Now "suddenly" we learn that Ramadi, the key city of the crucial Anbar province, is under the control of ISIS.

To quote from the conclusion of Mr. Ibrahim's AT essay (links in original): 

To fully appreciate the significance of this latest conquest by the Islamic State, consider the words of Anbar governor Ahmed al-Dulaimi, spoken back in November 2014: “If we lose Anbar, that means we will lose Iraq.”
Of course, none of these developments are surprising for those among us who were able to take a step back -- to transcend the distracting noise and nonsense daily grinded out by mainstream media -- and look at the big picture.  For those able to read the plain writing on the wall, the end game of Obama and IS was always easy to discern. 
Put differently, Americans need to start viewing the Obama administration with the eyes of a hedgehog, not a fox.

The fox might think Obama is incompetent as a political and military leader, unable to comprehend the complexities of the battlefield, unwilling to engage in a ground war for political reasons, and so forth.  The hedgehog has a simpler explanation.

4 comments:

  1. Are there any former US Military Generals speaking up publicly about this mess and Obama's 'Commander in Chief' inexplicable 'strategy' in Iraq?

    Or does loyalty to one's country, military, and leader preclude honest critique?

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  2. A few might be, but I don't see them getting much press. This is getting to be more like the military in the '70s -- too political.

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  3. I've seen a lot of former generals, senior officers and enlisted, former special ops guys on Fox speaking out against Obama's token bombings and idiotic strategy (that is doomed to fail).
    Many more that are active duty would no doubt do the same but they can get in trouble for doing so so that is why they rarely go public.

    In the past, anyactive duty generals and senior officers who have criticized Obama's horrendous strategies have been replaced by those who don't have the courage to speak out and tell the truth and will back anything Obama says.

    Excellent articles by Ibrahim, thanks Mush.

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  4. Thanks, Ben. I don't have satellite so I don't get Fox. It's good to know somebody is saying something.

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