World events, a psychological view – Page 60

Assad is evil. To stop him from using poison gas, Obama drew a red line in the sand, and said we would attack if he used it. Well, he used it and Congress voted to not attack. In their mind the attack would only bring chaos without resolution. That sounds reasonable to me.

We have very little power in the Middle East and most of our efforts have been abysmal failures that cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives.

In the September 23, 2013 issue of Time, Joe Klein made a very good point. When Israel took out the Syrian nuclear reactor, they did it without advance bluster and didn’t even claim credit for it afterward.

Vince Flynn, the creator of CIA agent Mitch Rapp, has the answer. When our country’s in trouble, Mitch can infiltrate anywhere he wants (he speaks fluent Arabic) and kill the bad guys. He could have single-handedly solved the problem. But, since Mitch refused to leave the safety of the printed page, it was up to President Obama to come up with a viable plan.

What happened was that the president’s openness, which is always welcome in a psychiatrist’s office, was not so helpful on the world stage. It’s humiliating to confront a bully and then have to back down.

To have the most powerful military in the world at your disposal, and yet be unable to fix a decades old problem embedded in the fabric of middle eastern culture, has to be terribly frustrating. If we knock out Assad, what brand of fanaticism will take his place? How interesting that the Saudi’s, another right-wing religious monarchy, was calling for an attack on Assad, but they didn’t lift a Sunni finger…

We’re dealing with murderers and fanatics and there has to be a better way to deal with them then by waiting, in view of the entire world, for congress to openly vote on what to do. The logic is ridiculously illogical.

Why should I or anyone care what Huma Abedin is doing? Normally, we wouldn’t. But, if Anthony Weiner is elected Mayor of NYC, we might have wished we paid more attention.

In a reported email, Gloria Steinem wrote that Huma might be doing it because of new motherhood, the Stockholm syndrome, or a mystery.

The reason I think her behavior is worthy of our understanding is much more practical. Even though half of all marriages end in divorce, the anguish that someone goes through to separate from a committed relationship is profound. Often, the tentacles that bind two people are like Aron Ralston who self amputated his own right arm to save himself when a boulder crushed his arm and he couldn’t free himself any other way.

Anthony Weiner is a sex addict. His drive to use the Internet to relieve whatever need he has is primitive and defies logic. Addictions are VERY DIFFICULT to master and there’s a good reason that the world is filled with AA, NA, OA etc. Logic and therapy are only marginally helpful.

Huma Abedin can’t leave for her own reasons. Most of us, if we were strong enough, would probably accept that the ‘or worse’ part of the vow is now way too worse and move on. That doesn’t mean we would. In any marriage, it’s often less painful to stay trapped by the huge boulder, than cut off your own arm

If you enjoy being Inside the Mind of a Psychiatrist, you might also enjoy, Chasing Backwards, a psychological murder mystery, Skin Dance, a mystery, and The Man with a Microphone in his Ear. All are available as paperbacks and eBooks.