Tag Archives: Syria

Political Rants

The golden beverage.

Panetta’s out hawking his book about how Obama isn’t enough of a hawk. Of course, he is likely acting as a surrogate for Hillary Clinton, who appears to be advocating a more knee-jerk approach to foreign intervention. She and John McCain  (and his various clones) really, really wanted that Syrian war, and now both seem to believe that the advent of ISIS is the result of our having failed to jump in ass first last year (essentially on ISIS’s side, it’s worth pointing out). Shades of Bush/Cheney – I guess it’s been long enough since the total disaster of the Iraq war for some people to yearn for the days of pre-emptive war, of “shock and awe”, of taking the gloves off. Included in that number is the putative front-runner of the Democratic field for President.

Clinton tool ... or just plain tool?So, after six years of being compelled to drink the fragrant golden beverage of Obama’s national security policy – drones, bombs, domestic spying, whistleblower-persecution and all – we are now to be treated to even more acrid delicacies offered up by Clinton, the next generation. I guess this is an indication of bipartisan consensus on foreign policy, though it remains to be seen how the GOP will outflank the Democrats on the crazytown side. This is truly a race to the bottom. That’s the power of this lesser of two evils electoral philosophy.

I suppose I needn’t remind anyone of the process I and people like me went through during the last couple of presidential elections. In 2008, I was voting to avoid McCain, who most certainly would have gotten us into several wars before the end of his first hundred days, to say nothing of the Hoover-like response to the financial crisis he was planning (remember the spending freeze?). That was a close brush with true catastrophe, I’m pretty sure. 2012 was less dramatic, but still … Mitt Romney was a disaster in the making. He would have brought in a gaggle of Bush II retreads who are now waiting for the impending Cruz or Perry administration. He would have rewarded his rich friends with more riches. Not a huge difference from Obama, you understand, but enough to be worth a vote.

After years of drinking rancid urine, however, I have had it. Obama’s policy regarding Syria, Iran, Iraq, Ukraine, Palestine, Yemen, and other nations is disgusting. Attacking him from the right is inexcusable.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

Incrementally unstable.

This week we learned that American forces are using attack helicopters in Iraq and likely Syria. The gruesomely named “Apache” helicopters (strange custom, naming weapon systems after people we’ve wiped out) have been used in several strikes over the past week. This is a subtle ratcheting up of the war effort in the Middle East; pretty much the Obama doctrine with respect to bringing the public along on these overseas adventures. Start with vehement assurances of “no boots on the ground”, then put a hundred “advisers” in, followed by a hundred more, then five hundred, then fifteen hundred, then bombing raids in Iraq, then Syria, then drones, and now helicopter gunships.

No peace prize this year.ISIS and related fighters have been shooting helicopters down. What happens when they hit one of our ships? Boots on the ground. You don’t have to be Kreskin (or Criswelll) to see that we may well be embroiled in a regional ground war within the next few months. This may make our previous conflicts look like a folk dance; the more we hit ISIS, the more people on the ground and from other countries flock to their side. Put yourself in the shoes of a Sunni citizen of Iraq. Who has contributed more to your misery over the past 25 years? You may dislike the ISIS fanatics, but you likely hate us with a rare passion. Not a formula for success.

Jeremy Scahill of The Intercept made a good point the other day on Democracy Now! The leader of ISIS was held prisoner in Iraq by our military, likely abused, even tortured. Their video executions are re-creations of their own experiences in places like Abu Ghraib. Their victims are in orange jumpsuits; they seem calm because they’ve probably been through dozens of mock executions, just like our detainees. They use these powerful images to goad us into another war. The last one almost destroyed the U.S. imperial project; ISIS seems to know that, and they want us to do it again.

I wish just one … just one politician could be honest enough with the American people to say, look, folks, we shouldn’t have invaded Iraq and smashed it to bits; if recent history has taught us anything, it’s that Iraq is a complex society, and sometimes the things we break cannot be put together again.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

Missing taco.

If you’re one taco short of a combination plate, I believe I may have the item right here … and quite a bit more besides. My weekly rant will be something of a grab bag … a disjointed journey through a handful of topics, liable to light on just about anything. Just so much going on lately it’s hard to settle on any one thing. Here goes.

Ebola. This is a disaster for coastal West Africa, particularly because the health systems of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea are in such a shambles. That’s due in part to the disastrous civil wars in the first two nations, but more generally it’s the product of the ongoing neoliberal project and the fact that, in so many of these nations, what wealth there is remains in the hands of the top 1%, whose loyalties to foreign powers, international investors, and global capital outweigh their concern for their poorer countrymen. We in the world’s developed countries have been slow to respond, as we are with practically every African crisis. Our hair doesn’t catch fire until somebody carries the virus home in a bucket; then it’s action time, right?

We need more of this.Abortion in Texas. There’s one answer to this latest court ruling that will close dozens clinics immediately: vote the jerks out, ladies, or they’ll continue to eat your lunch and stick their beaks into everything you do. Up to you, now. Will the extremists on the right continue to the carry the day? Only if we do nothing.

War and Peace. Once again, our attitude as a nation about going to war appears to be directly proportional to the degree to which we perceive ourselves to be at personal risk. There is a lack of interest on the part of Congress to get involved at any level; they truly embody the caricature of them drawn by Gary Trudeau some years back: They’ll be for it when it’s popular, against it when it goes bad, and it’s a question of principle.

Whatever we may think of the specific set of beheaders that operate under the black banner of ISIS, one thing is for certain: so long as Sunnis in Iraq are more afraid of the Iraqi army than they are of these black flag crazies, all the bombs in the world won’t make it right. Iraq is a complex place; when we broke it to pieces, we should have taken that into consideration.

luv u,

jp