Though what prompted me to start this so-called blog was the
entrance of Sarah Palin into the national political arena, it’s been a while
since I’ve ranted and raved about political issues. Not because there hasn’t been a mountain of
things to rant and rave about since; but because I ceased to derive pleasure
from doing so. This “Syria thing” however has stirred my
bile some, and I find myself screaming at the radio, and at the TV, and at my mother
when she says, “You have to do something against this monster.” Frankly, I have Middle East fatigue.
Whether we have to do something or not, very much depends on
what our goal is. And though no
politician ever states it, whenever we get embroiled in that Middle Eastern
viper’s nest (which is always) it is primarily to keep the export of oil
flowing smoothly. Any humanitarian
aspect to our involvement is incidental and secondary; even though, as
Americans, we want to believe that it is primary.
Stated or not, and although the goal of keeping oil flowing smoothly sounds straightforward
enough, choosing the right game to play (using human lives) to keep it that way, in an enormous and diverse region full of warring factions and tribes
functioning with a Middle Ages mentality (and I don’t exclude Israel from the
bunch as long as they have Hassidim dictating their land policy), is all but
impossible. That, Mr. President, is why
you should keep your big mouth shut, and try to refrain from aggrandizing yourself
until you actually use, for perhaps the first time ever, your brain to think
about the consequences of your un-tele-prompted words.
Over the past many days, I’ve heard a lot of theories about
why we have to get involved once more in what has become an even more complicated
game than it ever was. Yesterday, I
heard
a guy tell me (on the radio) that if we had attacked Saddam Hussein in the 80’s, when he did indeed use chemical weapons against the Iranians and against the
Kurds (and against whomever he wanted to), the landscape would be much
different today. No shit Sherlock, but
different how? We did eventually get tired of Saddam for
straying from behavior that used to serve our purposes; and we did invade,
though too late according to yesterday’s report. But who’s to say what difference it would
have made had we attacked early; plus in the eighties, he was serving our
purposes of balancing the power in the region by keeping Iran at bay.
The wishful thinking behind our recent invasion of Iraq was
way more complicated than slapping Saddam on the hand, like we did the first time around in the 90's at the tune of $60 billion, and like Obama wants to ineffectually
do to Assad. It was overtly about regime
change. I’m not sure what the Bush
Administration advisers were snorting at the time, but the thinking was that we
would present, as in the verb “gift”, democracy to a country which, because of
its relatively stable economy and educated populace, would embrace it with open
arms. Once the Iraqis tasted the freedom
that comes with western style democracy, said democracy would spread over the entire
Middle East; we would disengage militarily, sing Kumbaya together, have a
meeting of the hearts and minds, and oil would with gusto ejaculate from the ground and flow freely our way forever after….
Despite what they were snorting (and I must have picked up
on their fumes because I bought what they were selling at the time- a mistake I
will not be making again), you gotta hand it to Bush’s advisors; the invasion
of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam did indeed prompt people all over the Middle
East to develop a taste for “democracy”, and to rebel and depose their dictators in
what the media have dubbed as the “Arab Spring”. Though if April showers bring May flowers, I’ve
yet to see them. And relations between
the West and the Middle East continue to be as circuitous as ever, if not more. Enter the Syria problem.
The best analysis I heard was from
a guy at the ChristianScience Monitor reminding those who might forget that Syria is being propped up by Iran. Any war we start in Syria will be a proxy war
with Iran (our “real” “enemy” from way back when Saddam used to be our foil
against them); which is what McCain and his cronies are hoping for. McCain and Co. must be snorting some of the left over Bush administration shit. Even if they
actually believe in democracy for the people of Syria, did the short lived
experiment with democracy in Egypt (like Syria, a relatively developed country
that, by all western logic, should have been able to put together a working
democracy that was representative of all its people) not teach these clowns
anything?!!! We don’t even really know
who these rebels are who plan to run the country once they hang Assad, and intelligence
has it that they are riddled with Al-Qaeda.
How can getting embroiled in this mess sound like a good plan? That must be some very good shit they are
snorting in parts of Capitol Hill.
The report from the Christian Science Monitor also points
out that Iran is spread very thinly trying to support the Assad regime, and that
this is becoming an “Iranian war”. They
are hoping Obama gets involved so it can become the “Obama War” and they can
divest themselves from it a little in order to keep fomenting trouble elsewhere. Letting Iran spread itself thin sounds like a
great strategy to me. It is time we let
those people deal with each other. Yes,
oil might sky-rocket for a while, and there will be hell to pay here if it
does; it will probably make the recent recession look like child’s play. But the status quo, that is, our starting wars
with no goals or end, cannot hold.
The American people no longer support such action; like me, they seem fatigued. Maybe we are stupid, but we are not seeing
the benefits from the past 12 years of military engagement. And forget the costs of our big heavy duty
engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan; look at what our “light support” in Libya wrought:
can you say Benghazi?
So, Mr. President, before you start speaking without
thinking again, and before you make this thing in Syria your legacy, stop and cogitate. Find yourself a brilliant chess player, preferably
one from the Middle East, to help you navigate through this troubled zone. Lobbing a few missiles is simply not the
answer; but, Mr. McCain, neither is Regime Change à la Americaine. Mr.
President, this is a lot more complicated than your little community organizing
mind seems capable of working out, not to mention that We the Community are sick
and tired of war. ...But as surely as I sit here typing, we are moving in that direction "one more again"... let the games continue.
