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Make No Bones About Iran
Chronicles ^ | Jan 3 2020 | Tom Piatak

Posted on 01/04/2020 3:50:22 PM PST by rintintin

Otto von Bismarck famously declared the Balkans weren't worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier. He knew that fractious, feuding part of Europe would soak up as much blood as the Germans cared to spill. Because Bismarck's successors forgot his wisdom, the Balkans ended up claiming the bones of millions, in what was naively called the Great War before it was eclipsed in bloodshed and horror twenty years later. Neither Germany nor her European adversaries have ever recovered.

The same could be said of the Middle East. The whole wretched place isn't worth the bones of a single Alabamian Marine. America has no vital interest there except oil. And, regarding the oil, whichever nation sits atop it has no choice but to sell it on the global market, since there is no other way for the backward economies of the region to generate sufficient revenue.

It is long past time for a definitive American withdrawal from that fractious, feuding part of the world. The attack on our embassy in Baghdad came about because we are contesting the Iranians for influence in Iraq. Invading and occupying Iraq has brought the U.S. nothing except flag-draped coffins, burgeoning VA wards, and fiscal ruin. Let someone else claim that so-called prize, and let us instead devote American lives and American treasure to promoting America’s interests.

Imagine how much better off we would be if the Americans killed and maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan were instead alive and vigorous, and if the hundreds of billions, even trillions, spent as a result of our Mideast misadventures had instead been devoted to productive economic activity, improving America's infrastructure, and solving American problems.

(Excerpt) Read more at chroniclesmagazine.org ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: antisemitism; bloggers; doomtroll; falsecomparison; proislampropaganda; rop
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To: FlipWilson

The fallacy of American Isolationism is assuming everyone else is isolationist as well. Recorded history shows this has never been the case.


21 posted on 01/04/2020 4:37:13 PM PST by Widget Jr
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To: 867V309

Apparently we are buddies with Saudi Arabia.


22 posted on 01/04/2020 4:38:47 PM PST by dhs12345
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To: aught-6
Those Iranian-backed Iraqi militants stormed the U.S. embassy after the prime minister of Iraq publicly condemned the U.S. for the airstrike against Kataib Hezbollah several days earlier.

It's interesting how this little fact seems to have been completely overlooked.

Iraq is a bigger problem than Iran at this point. Iranian militants didn't attack the U.S. embassy in Tehran last week -- because the U.S. has no diplomatic relations with that country at all.

23 posted on 01/04/2020 4:39:50 PM PST by Alberta's Child (In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.)
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To: Alberta's Child

You don’t think that supporting the only democratic nation in the ME is a ‘vital interest’ of the US?

I guess you’re one of those who think that material things are all that matter and that ideals don’t.


24 posted on 01/04/2020 4:40:23 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it")
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To: 867V309
I'm saddened to think you're serious.

That's up to you. I honestly don't care.

"Make America Great Again" actually means something to me.

25 posted on 01/04/2020 4:40:51 PM PST by Alberta's Child (In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.)
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To: dhs12345


Apparently we are buddies with Saudi Arabia.

yes and no

just like we were "buddies" with Russia during WWII


26 posted on 01/04/2020 4:41:38 PM PST by 867V309 (Lock Her Up)
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To: Alberta's Child


I honestly don't care.

I have NO doubt about that mr zambia.


27 posted on 01/04/2020 4:42:57 PM PST by 867V309 (Lock Her Up)
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To: blueunicorn6
The Iranians sent Soldiers to invade Iraq and attack our personnel in Iraq.

There was no invasion. The Qassim SoulMan dude flew into Baghdad Airport, and was obliterated right after he got into his Uber ride.

These senior Iranian military personnel have been traveling freely over there for years.

28 posted on 01/04/2020 4:44:06 PM PST by Alberta's Child (In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.)
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To: griswold3

It’s not Maiasia, so it must be Eurasia.

We tried surrounding Iran by ppacing troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, putting the USN in the Persian Gulf, and making alliances with the former Soviet stans. It looked good on the map, didn’t work. (Might have, if BHO hadn’t intervened.) Trump’s approach seems to be having more success, so I’m willing to let his play out.


29 posted on 01/04/2020 4:44:50 PM PST by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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To: Alberta's Child

https://www.statista.com/statistics/263798/american-soldiers-killed-in-iraq/

When Trump’s numbers start to drift up, you let us know.


30 posted on 01/04/2020 4:45:55 PM PST by samtheman (I hope someone close to Trump is reading FR every day.)
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To: Jamestown1630
You don’t think that supporting the only democratic nation in the ME is a ‘vital interest’ of the US?

No. And how is Israel the only democratic nation in the ME if Iraq has an elected government?

I guess you’re one of those who think that material things are all that matter and that ideals don’t.

What the heck does that even mean? Ideals are certainly important to me -- right here in the U.S. Anyone else can take them or leave them.

31 posted on 01/04/2020 4:49:30 PM PST by Alberta's Child (In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.)
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To: rintintin

The Iraq government may ask our troops to leave. That would be a good opportunity.


32 posted on 01/04/2020 4:56:23 PM PST by Anti-Bubba182
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To: Alberta's Child


No. And how is Israel the only democratic nation in the ME if Iraq has an elected government?

because iraqs government is a joke


33 posted on 01/04/2020 4:59:21 PM PST by 867V309 (Lock Her Up)
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To: dhs12345

We’re tied to them with the Petro-Dollar, but they are our enemies, too.


34 posted on 01/04/2020 5:02:40 PM PST by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: Alberta's Child

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_the_Middle_East_and_North_Africa

Iraq is considered ‘partly’ democratic by US-accepted indices. (I would consider it ‘marginally’, if not only ‘nominally’ so).

Are you a complete isolationist, or do you think it’s important to support countries who have proven that they are trying to grow toward the same rights, liberties, and value of the individual, that we have traditionally fostered in the US?


35 posted on 01/04/2020 5:13:03 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it")
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To: 867V309
You mean the government WE set up for them? LOL.

Thanks for making my point.

36 posted on 01/04/2020 5:14:43 PM PST by Alberta's Child (In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.)
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To: rintintin

They can’t use the oil excuse anymore........We’ve got more than enough to share with the world.


37 posted on 01/04/2020 5:19:17 PM PST by Hot Tabasco
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To: Jamestown1630
Are you a complete isolationist, or do you think it’s important to support countries who have proven that they are trying to grow toward the same rights, liberties, and value of the individual, that we have traditionally fostered in the US?

I have no problem supporting them at all. I would even suggest that these are the only types of countries in the world who we should have amicable trade relationships with.

Supporting and promoting them doesn't mean they are all military partners of ours. And it doesn't mean we should ever allow foreign interests to have any influence in our own government here, either.

A look back at the Suez Canal crisis of 1956 might be instructive here. In that case, all noble ideals about "supporting countries who have proven that they are trying to grow toward the same rights, liberties, and value of the individual" went out the window. The U.S. was in the unusual position of siding with Egypt and the Soviet Union against Great Britain, France, and Israel in that dispute. And that's because we considered our own interests to be far more important than the interests of those three countries -- even if it meant taking sides with hostile, totalitarian regimes.

38 posted on 01/04/2020 5:19:47 PM PST by Alberta's Child (In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.)
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To: Alberta's Child


You mean the government WE set up for them? LOL.
Thanks for making my point.


that was boosche's error.

trying to give a moslim a representative government is like teaching a pig physics.       by definition they are theocratic

so what does that have to do with "Israel is hardly a “vital interest” of the U.S."?

hint mr zambia:   nothing

LOL       :)


39 posted on 01/04/2020 5:25:43 PM PST by 867V309 (Lock Her Up)
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To: Alberta's Child

I think supporting a tiny nation that shares our ideals IS a military issue, when they’re within firing range of so many crazies who want to see them all dead.

YMMV.


40 posted on 01/04/2020 5:31:10 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it")
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