A Perfect Time to Leave the Middle East, by Robert Gore
The US must immediately get off this madly careening merry-go-round. Oil in the low $40s per barrel, natural gas at $2.25 per MMBtu, and both in oversupply on world markets make a mockery of the notion that the US must be in the Middle East to secure petroleum supplies. The oil exporting nations, including Middle Eastern exporters, need the world’s largest oil consumer far more than the US needs any of them. War is expensive. Those nations that become further embroiled in Middle East conflict will find their needs for revenue ever more pressing. Oil has always been a fig leaf for the US’s military-industrial-intelligence complex, which lusts for perpetual and lucrative Middle Eastern tension and war. The rest of us have nothing to gain from it and everything to lose.
"Taking the battle to the terrorists will make us safer at home," was one of the rationales offered for intervention by the US in the Middle East. Paris is the latest reminder of its deadly fatuousness; France has been in the Middle East longer than the US. Has the US government’s intervention made us safer? The start of a serious debate about coming home will show that it has made at least some of us wiser.
This is an excerpt. Please click the link above for the full article.
"Taking the battle to the terrorists will make us safer at home," was one of the rationales offered for intervention by the US in the Middle East. Paris is the latest reminder of its deadly fatuousness; France has been in the Middle East longer than the US. Has the US government’s intervention made us safer? The start of a serious debate about coming home will show that it has made at least some of us wiser.
This is an excerpt. Please click the link above for the full article.
And let's not forget that due to Obama's deal with Iran, they'll have them in <10 now.
However, the nature of the Persians VS the Greeks seems somehow more rational, if rationality can be applied to war. In order to understand the difference between then and now would require me to hit the history books. I've got too many other things to do and not enough time to do them. But you make a good point.
Just before Alexander was to embark on his Eastern campaign to India two religious factions within the area we call Iraq opened hostilities against each other (think Shiite vs Sunni today - also recall Babylon was his capitol at the time). A religious civil war behind him would disrupt supply lines to his army so he had to crush the problem asap. He picked a town where hostilities had broken out and sent representatives demanding the priests of both factions meet him in his camp outside the town. When the priests arrived they tried to persuade Alexander to take their respective side against the other. Alexander had other plans. He had the priests of both sides put into a cage and had it placed on a high hill overlooking the town. At daybreak he sent in his army with orders to kill every man, woman, child, and every animal that walked or crawled. The army was allowed to loot what they wanted, the rest was piled in the center of the town and burned. Then the rest of the town was burned. After nearly a week of slaughter and torch, he then released the priests and told them to go to their followers in other towns and tell them what has happened here and any town that was not at peace will meet the same fate. He had no more trouble.
One problem is that Americans have never dealt with an enemy so deeply steeped in irrationality. They really believe, in their ignorance that a glorious heaven awaits them. After all, it must be better to die for Allah, since this world is so covered in shit for them.
War mongers should be treated as traitors.
Because they are!
since 0 is an admitted muslim he will try to get as many as possible state side and while he is in office we will not experience a paris type of event. when he is out of office all hell will break loose. for now he will concentrate on gun control and will orchestrate more random shootings.
It seems irnoic that US gov't went to the trouble to topple a partly-secular Sunni regime in a country with a Shia majority (Iraq), and then it supporter militants who want to despose a Shiite gov't in Syria.
I did not know that Rambo III had a dedication to the Mujahideen. It's funny in a tragic way that they edited it out later: We cannot face the consquences of our foreign policy.
And you wonder why the military finds the left despicable from Rino all the way over to Bernie.
Ahhh welll....With the left it's always one more war, one more .....one more.... one more.....don't expect any changes....from the Rino to Progressives coalition. It's how they pays the bills - after skimming it top bottom front rear, before and after.
Has nothing to do with minor shit like genocide and everything to do with the economic well being of government officials and their bank accounts.
over there, and then find that the side we thought
was right is also doing evil. Mainly, I think it would
be best to stay out of it. It seem that when one of
those nations overthrows a dictator, it just gets a
worse one. But we have been attacked. And
possibly may be again. We have to be on our
guard. And that may possibly be a reason to be
involved in what goes on over there. And it
looks like Israel is the only ally we can really
count on.
The immortal Bo Diddley would put it this way.
You can't judge a fish by lookin' in the pond
You can't judge right from lookin' at the wrong
You can't judge one by lookin' at the other
...
You can't judge a book by lookin' at the cover
You don't seem to understand the war we are in.
We are fighting the war wrongly; we need to destroy evil, not merely "intervene" or "contain" it. Yes, "coming home" is probably better than fighting wrongly, but not if we fight to win.
We all need protection from evil.