The discussion about the war in the Middle East goes on and on and on. Our right wing continues to push for boots on the ground, wanting to sacrifice more American kids so a bunch of religious fanatics can continue their endless religious wars. We have already been dragged into this war to greater extent than we should have been and it is time for us to stand firm and declare to the, so called, friendly Islamic nations, that they must fight their own battles, that they must sacrifice their own kids to get peace. We no longer have a dog in this fight. Right-wingers never seem to remember what family it was, that got us involved in the Middle East, mostly because we wanted their oil. Well, we don’t need their oil any more so let’s take a fresh look at the whole problem.
We have to get over the idea that we have to put troops on the ground every time two rival Muslim sects start shooting at each other. The Muslim religion makes up about one fifth of the world’s population. In fifty years it will be about one third of the population. We can’t keep up with the wars that these unhappy people are engaged in. What we can do is decide which sect in any conflict shares best our moral and other positions and try to support them in any number of ways that do not include our fighting their battles for them.
There are, any number of critics, especially in Great Britain and other parts of Europe that argue that we cannot callously abandon the Middle East. But we haven’t abandoned the Middle East. We have continued to let our kids be killed while the stable nations, many with large standing armies, equipped by us, have withheld their troops from battle. There are over 5 million men under arms in the stable countries of the area, countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE. Where the hell are their troops? If they aren’t willing to fight for themselves why should we be doing it for them? If we fight for them, they will never fight for themselves. They have proven that and we must pay attention.
Over the last half-century we have pumped billions of dollars worth of military aid into countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Bahrain and the UAE and what do we have to show for it? We don’t need their oil and they have damned little else of value unless, of course, you are in the beach renovation business.
Isis runs around beheading Americans, shouting death to America and making pretty much empty threats about what they are going to do to America. Why do they do that? Because it energizes their base, and we make it easy for them by dropping bombs on their people.
There is no longer any reason for us to be involved in this backward, angry, vengeful part of the world. Their religious wars have no significance to us. The whole society is sliding back into the middle ages and the sooner we abandon them to their own perfidy, the better off we will be. Africa and Asia are the areas that will bloom in the 21st century, if we pay attention and help them make the transition from Third World to some higher classification both we and they, will benefit greatly.
The Middle East has proven over and over that they have no stomach for or ability to, accept democracy; that they only function under powerful despots that know how to keep their unruly populations in line. Iraq was better off under Saddam Hussein, as was Libya under Gaddafi. Even Egypt under Mubarak and Saudi Arabia under The Kingdom are better off then they would be if the chaos of democracy were pushed onto them. Egypt, in fact, has already proved that. Syria will soon add itself to this ugly toll when Assad is deposed and the country completely falls apart.
Western nations have proven, over and over again that they have no skill in picking leaders for these nations, that the men they have chosen represent a cabal of thieves, assassins and despots who are either too weak to hold their countries together or are so dishonest that they bleed them dry. Look, the reality is that we never should have invaded Iraq. Even the dumbest conservatives agree with this – finally. Once we were in there, we made even more mistakes, mainly by leaving a sick radical Sunni, Nouri al-Maliki in charge when we pulled out. We built an army to hold Iraq and Maliki , because of his religious and political involvements destroyed it. Now we’re trying to build another army for them but this one doesn’t seem even remotely functional.
We have seen in the last weeks a small ISIS, push a much larger Iraqi army all over the lot, mainly because the Iraqis just don’t have the will to fight. Maybe this is because they are fighting their own Sunni brothers, maybe it’s because they have zero national loyalty, maybe it’s just because they are cowards. Who knows? But the why, doesn’t matter, what matters is that they aren’t getting the job done and we must stop supporting them.
We should, long ago, have built the Kurds into a serious fighting force that could take over the area. They are really the only ones with the skill, the guts and the motivation to destroy ISIS or any other group that has dreams of taking its place. I know it makes Turkey nervous when we help the Kurds. Tough! Turkey is a country of gutless conspirators whose principal history is that of genocide and backstabbing.
With our help the Kurds could become their own country and pretty much rule the Middle East. An alliance between the Kurds and the Iranians might finally bring peace to the area, if we could somehow reduce the power of the ayatollahs.
In any case, we no longer have any reason to be trying to solve the problems of these people. We have more important fish to fry.