Nero supposedly fiddled while Rome burned, and President Obama is reported playing golf as the Mideast ramps up its self-destruction in the current resumption of ancient religious factional warfare. Pundits galore masticate the presumptive causes and cures. An expert community organizer like the president may not  have anticipated that the tactics of balkanization, pitting one group against another, and raising social and economic disparities to incite jealousy and class warfare might have more downside than upside in U.S. politics. His Mideast policies provide the tragic evidence that such policies are destructive to any society. By removing the stabilizing influence of the U.S. military in Iraq, the old religious feuds and grievances have come to the surface, and are acted out in deadly violence. Religious wars have no tidy solutions. Concern over interruptions to Middle Eastern oil supplies has the White House staff brainstorming over policy decisions and publically...(Read Full Post)