No Stupid Wars

So, a few days ago a mob of Pro-Iranian protestors attacked the American Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, this in retaliation for an American military attack on a group of Pro-Iranian fighters in Iraq. Today comes news that the United States has retaliated by unleashing the American military to assassinate the second most powerful man in Iran, a general with a menacing glare named  Soleimani. Now, the Iranian government is issuing threats of massive and relentless retaliation. In other words, absolutely nothing has changed in the Middle East in the 61 years I have been alive on Planet Earth. It is the place where endless retaliation is a reality of daily life, a place where every President in my lifetime has gone searching for a Nobel Prize. It is also a place where American military personnel have been fighting and dying non-stop for the past fifty years. I am told by sophisticated people that we have no choice. American leadership in the Middle East and our participation in the never ending peace process is critical for stability in the region, that if we were to wash our hands of the place it would leave a power vacuum which our enemies, presumably the Russians or the Chinese would be more than happy to exploit. If I persist in arguing otherwise I am dismissed as an isolationist, which I am assured is a terrible thing to be.

Thirty years ago, it was hard to overcome the argument that getting out of the Middle East would jeopardize access to the world’s oil supply. Today, the United States is a net exporter of oil. Forty years ago we were told that our alliance with the State of Israel was not only part of a divine edict from scripture, but crucial to that besieged country’s survival. Today there are twice as many Jewish people living in the United States than there are living in the State of Israel. Meanwhile the Jewish military is routinely ranked among the most powerful and sophisticated units in the world. Past attempts by her enemies at invasion have been embarrassing and disastrous failures. Yet, still, American foreign policy remains firmly committed to an unending military presence in the Middle East and an undimmed determination to support the foreign policy and military goals of the Jewish State. Which brings us to the current President of the United States.

One of the few items of Mr. Trump’s policy agenda that I was on board with back in 2016 was his oft repeated slogan...No Stupid Wars. Moreover, on more than one occasion on the campaign trail, he looked straight into the eyes of the empire wing of NeoCons and flatly declared that the days of endless Middle East wars was over. Now, this.

Donald Trump certainly wouldn’t be the first President to lob a few missiles when in trouble domestically, wagging the dog being a thoroughly bipartisan enterprise, but if he were to do so now, he will have to eat a very bland diet of his own Tweets accusing Barack Obama of doing the exact same thing. Perhaps this missile attack on the Iranian general will be a one off and the routine bluster from the Iranian Government will prove to be just that...bluster. But if not, if we are now once again headed straight for another hot war in the Middle East, somebody please explain to me why we would not want to hand this job off to our enemies?? Let the Russians get bogged down in this quagmire for the next thirty years or so. I can’t think of an authoritative government anywhere who deserves to spend the next thirty years dealing with the hell-hole that is the Middle East more than the Chinese Communists. If either of them would like to fill the void that us leaving would create, I say, let them have it. If they want, we could even throw in the Korean Peninsula in the bargain. Once divested of the headache that is Arab-Israeli conflict the United States could save enough money to balance our budget. We would have enough time and energy left over to cure cancer, figure out health care, provide high speed, low cost internet access to everyone and figure out a way to run the DMV more efficiently. This new foreign policy would even have a name...Instead of “Making the World Safe For Democracy” or The War To End All Wars” or even “Containment”...this new thing would be AMOOB...

America Minding Our Own Business.