Alan: All the young bucks... set free to kill in the name of God, Justice and Homeland. What's not to like?
"Terrorism And The Other Religions"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/04/terrorism-and-other-religions-juan-cole.html
From Aleppo in northern Syria almost to the Iraqi-Iranian border, the jihadists of Isis and sundry other groupuscules paid by the Saudi Wahhabis – and by Kuwaiti oligarchs – now rule thousands of square miles.
Apart from Saudi Arabia’s role in this catastrophe, what other stories are to be hidden from us in the coming days and weeks?
The story of Iraq and the story of Syria are the same – politically, militarily and journalistically: two leaders, one Shia, the other Alawite, fighting for the existence of their regimes against the power of a growing Sunni Muslim international army.
While the Americans support the wretched Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his elected Shia government in Iraq, the same Americans still demand the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad of Syria and his regime, even though both leaders are now brothers-in-arms against the victors of Mosul and Tikrit.
The Croesus-like wealth of Qatar may soon be redirected away from the Muslim rebels of Syria and Iraq to the Assad regime, out of fear and deep hatred for its Sunni brothers in Saudi Arabia (which may invade Qatar if it becomes very angry).
We all know of the “deep concern” of Washington and London at the territorial victories of the Islamists – and the utter destruction of all that America and Britain bled and died for in Iraq. No one, however, will feel as much of this “deep concern” as Shia Iran and Assad of Syria and Maliki of Iraq, who must regard the news from Mosul and Tikrit as a political and military disaster. Just when Syrian military forces were winning the war for Assad, tens of thousands of Iraqi-based militants may now turn on the Damascus government, before or after they choose to advance on Baghdad.
No one will care now how many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been slaughtered since 2003 because of the fantasies of Bush and Blair. These two men destroyed Saddam’s regime to make the world safe and declared that Iraq was part of a titanic battle against “Islamofascism”. Well, they lost. Remember that the Americans captured and recaptured Mosul to crush the power of Islamist fighters. They fought for Fallujah twice. And both cities have now been lost again to the Islamists. The armies of Bush and Blair have long gone home, declaring victory.
Under Obama, Saudi Arabia will continue to be treated as a friendly “moderate” in the Arab world, even though its royal family is founded upon the Wahhabist convictions of the Sunni Islamists in Syria and Iraq – and even though millions of its dollars are arming those same fighters. Thus does Saudi power both feed the monster in the deserts of Syria and Iraq and cosy up to the Western powers that protect it.
We should also remember that Maliki’s military attempts to retake Mosul are likely to be ferocious and bloody, just as Assad’s battles to retake cities have proved to be. The refugees fleeing Mosul are more frightened of Shia government revenge than they are of the Sunni jihadists who have captured their city.
We will all be told to regard the new armed “caliphate” as a “terror nation”. Abu Mohamed al-Adnani, the Isis spokesman, is intelligent, warning against arrogance, talking of an advance on Baghdad when he may be thinking of Damascus. Isis is largely leaving the civilians of Mosul unharmed.
Finally, we will be invited to regard the future as a sectarian war when it will be a war between Muslim sectarians and Muslim non-sectarians. The “terror” bit will be provided by the arms we send to all sides.
***
Alan: If George Bush and Dick Cheney had not waged their Whimsy War on Iraq, thus undermining a stable country that was a staunch ally of Ronald Reagan -- a country with no WMD and no involvement in 9/11 -- the current ISIS crisis would not exist.
ISIS' seizure of Mosul and Tikrit (Saddam Hussein's hometown) would have been inconceivable --- like The Tea Party winning the Oval Office, both houses of Congress and packing the Supreme Court with nine judges all named Antonin Scalia.
The prospect of a 9/11-type terror strike launched on the United States from Iraq or Syrian soil would have been unthinkable except in the delusional minds of paranoid xenophobes whose constituency (spearheaded by Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bolton) was solely responsible for kicking every hornet's nest in the Islamic world, then wondering why blowback was biting them in the ass.
If tables were turned, Americans would have already launched terror attacks across the Middle East. For that matter, the entire Iraq War -- from inception onward -- has been an unrelenting exercise in state-sponsored terrorism perpetrated by Uncle Sam.
During the run-up to The Iraq War, everyone with an internet connection and a folded cortex was aware that the invasion was monstrously stupid -- and grotesquely unjust. (Pope Benedict XVI declared the war unjust. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/07/pope-benedict-xvi-questions-if-modern.html)
Remember "Shock and Awe?" Remember "The Power of Pride?"
Who's shocked now?
And what about the pride - which, predictably, came before the fall - and wasted all those lives?
The dead, the maimed.
The Americans, the Iraqis?
Since the Vietnam War, two lessons scream at us.
"You don't get involved in somebody else's Civil War."
"And you don't start them."
When we forget either lesson, American soldiers come home in caskets having accomplished nothing.
We owe our troops trustworthy guidance, not swashbuckle, bluster and simian chest-thumping.
Fear-driven Christians, cheerleading the Apocaplypse, are the most reprehensible actors in this whole sordid scenario.
They are America's Taliban. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-newsroom-tea-party-is-americas.html
"Pope Benedict Questions Whether War Will Ever Again Be Just"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/05/benedict-xvi-from-now-on-there-are-no.html
Alan: Three star Air Force general friend, AWC, age 95, recently confided: "It seems we haven't fought a "good war" since World War II."
***
"Terrorism And The Other Religions"
***
An armed man waves his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames after being set on fire inside the US consulate compound in Benghazi late on Sept. 11, 2012. The alleged ringleader in the attack has been captured by involving Special Operations forces. (AFP/Getty Images)
Whichever "pistol" this young buck is shooting, it's all about: "Bang!" There is no better categorization of the hormonally-driven, cultural illiterates who fight wars than "young, dumb fucks." I know. I was a young, dumb fuck. (And smarter than most...)
American conservatives
- particularly Christian conservatives -
are determined to stay stupid.
Jindal video:
***
Alan: If George Bush and Dick Cheney had not waged their Whimsy War on Iraq, thus undermining a stable country that was a staunch ally of Ronald Reagan -- a country with no WMD and no involvement in 9/11 -- the current ISIS crisis would not exist.
ISIS' seizure of Mosul and Tikrit (Saddam Hussein's hometown) would have been inconceivable --- like The Tea Party winning the Oval Office, both houses of Congress and packing the Supreme Court with nine judges all named Antonin Scalia.
We owe our troops trustworthy guidance, not swashbuckle, bluster and simian chest-thumping.
Fear-driven Christians, cheerleading the Apocaplypse, are the most reprehensible actors in this whole sordid scenario.
They are America's Taliban. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-newsroom-tea-party-is-americas.html
"Pope Benedict Questions Whether War Will Ever Again Be Just"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/05/benedict-xvi-from-now-on-there-are-no.html
Alan: Three star Air Force general friend, AWC, age 95, recently confided: "It seems we haven't fought a "good war" since World War II."
Alan: Three star Air Force general friend, AWC, age 95, recently confided: "It seems we haven't fought a "good war" since World War II."
***
"Terrorism And The Other Religions"
***
An armed man waves his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames after being set on fire inside the US consulate compound in Benghazi late on Sept. 11, 2012. The alleged ringleader in the attack has been captured by involving Special Operations forces. (AFP/Getty Images)
Whichever "pistol" this young buck is shooting, it's all about: "Bang!" There is no better categorization of the hormonally-driven, cultural illiterates who fight wars than "young, dumb fucks." I know. I was a young, dumb fuck. (And smarter than most...)
American conservatives
- particularly Christian conservatives -
are determined to stay stupid.
***
- particularly Christian conservatives -
are determined to stay stupid.
Jindal video:
***
Until his death in 1940, Major General, Commandant Smedley Butler,
was the most highly decorated Marine in history.
was the most highly decorated Marine in history.
***
"War Is A Racket," By Self-Professed "Gangster For Capitalism," Maj. Gen Smedley Butler
***
No comments:
Post a Comment