Posted on 04/30/2002 6:10:50 PM PDT by hope
| The View Beyond Iraq |
| John L. Perry |
| April 30, 2002 |
Not to be a Gloomy Gus, but after Iraq there are Iran, communist North Korea, communist China and the rotting residue of the former Soviet Union. The perennial pretzel-wrestle between Israelis and Palestinians has become an industrial-strength migraine for the United States, to the obfuscation and near-exclusion of those greater perils. The age-old Middle East conundrum centered on the Jewish State of Israel is just for openers, a reality that seems to elude the attention, let alone comprehension, of millions of Americans who think the American War on Terror must have begun on the Eleventh of September and ended six months later in the entrails of some bat cave in Tora Bora, wherever that is. Don't Forget Qaddafi Beyond the likes of the Palestinian Authority's Nobel Peace Prize-winning terrorist, Yasser Arafat, there is Muammar al-Qaddafi' s peace-loving Libya, doing business as the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, which specializes in blowing Boeing 747s out of the sky onto Scottish farmland. There, too, is the Syrian Arab Republic, dedicated to the extinction of Israel as both a government and a people. It is serving as the delighted middleman in the bucket brigade of arms and funds from the Muslim theocracy in the Islamic Republic of Iran for terrorists in the part-Muslim, part-Christian Republic of Lebanon to use against Israel from the north. Castro's Oily Puppet There is the Republic of Venezuela, which just happens to be a major source of oil, with its corner man Fidel Castro in communist Cuba. There are the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, both wetting their pants in fear of their own people rising up and chasing those affluent, corrupt governments into the nearest desert. There is Somalia, whose tribal gangs are busy enslaving their own native population when not killing off American servicemen. With Friends Like This … And who could possibly forget the delightful storybook Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, whose richly robed hereditary rulers maintain their lesser kin in gritty poverty and wretched health. When not tooling around the dust-blown streets of Riyadh, showing off in air-conditioned, bulletproof, bombproof Mercedes Benz limos between private-jet jaunts to visit their ill-gotten fortunes in Switzerland, they are occupying entire floors of luxury suites at Disney World with their multiple wives and unnumbered children. Even as these two-face oil pumpers are held out to the American people as "our good friends and allies" they are vilifying America in their public prints, financing and exporting terrorists, and threatening to choke off energy sources. Only the Best for Them Then they turn around and enroll their college-age progeny in elitist American private universities and have their eyeballs doctored at the finest American clinics. Meanwhile, behind their tinted glasses, these sheiks of Araby are busily bestowing alms upon goading parents of teenage Palestinian assassins. And they have the audacity to presume to lecture the president of the United States at his own home on how he should conduct this nation's foreign policy, all the while relying on the U.S. military to spare them having their heads lopped off by vengeful scimitar-swinging countrymen intent upon justice. What Bush Is Facing The list is almost endless of nations and pseudo-states that would like nothing better than to poke a sharp stick in Uncle Sam's navel. They range all the way from pipsqueak pains in the neck to nations feverishly stockpiling weapons of mass destruction and devising the means of delivering them upon American soil. It is the day-and-night job of the American president to craft a strategy for restraining, thwarting and, where necessary, defeating each and every one of them – and in the right order at the appropriate moment. It is a task the likes of which no previous president of the United States has ever had to face – and face largely alone, for authentic allies are now few and far between. An Unprepared Public George W. Bush must accomplish it all in the face of a populace still largely prepossessed with selfish pursuits and frighteningly uneducated about the realities of a world beyond TV games, tractor caps on backwards and delivered pizza. The national attention these days seems to be riveted upon who shot some third-rate Hollywood hack actor's dearly beloved, instead of who cares. The greatest national anger associated with terrorism intended to break the spirit of Americans appears to be directed at airport inconveniences aimed at saving the same passengers' skins. The Enemies Within Against that backdrop, President Bush must find ways to preserve this nation with the help of a Senate under control of far-leftists whose sympathies lie more with America's enemies. Franklin D. Roosevelt had something of a like predicament. He, along with Winston Churchill, knew good and well World War II would eventually embroil the globe and America with it. The isolationists of President Roosevelt day were largely in the Republican Party, a reversal of today's predicament in which Democrats are the ones doing most of the hogtying. Walking a Tightrope If FDR moved too far, too fast, he ran the perilous risk of getting America into a war before it was prepared psychologically, economically and militarily. If he waited too long, Adolf Hitler would conquer all of Europe and leave America in crippled isolation at the tender mercy of the expansionist Empire of Japan. The Japanese made Roosevelt's decision for him at Pearl Harbor. Even then, America came nightmarishly close to losing rather than winning World War II. It's foolish to try to equate Roosevelt's and Bush's dilemmas, other than to note that Bush also dares not move either too far, too soon or not enough, too late. Caution or Indecision? This is what's being debated at the highest level within the Bush administration – so far without resolution – and why American foreign policy seems so murky, indecisive and bereft of moral clarity at the moment. The hope is that what looks like befuddlement is prudent calculation on when and how best to move against Iraq, the obvious, most-pressing, immediate threat to American survival. The good news is: Bush is not moving too far, too fast. The bad news is: If he keeps on being prudent for too long, he will have missed the golden moment, which will not come around a second time. Delay or Derailment? Entering into this calculation of how to go after Iraq, and when, has to be, first, how to get American fingers unstuck from the Israeli-Palestinian flypaper. That disentanglement must be achieved, and soon, or America will be sucked down into a Middle East maelstrom from which there will be no coming out. Of even higher importance, however, Bush's war strategy must be envisioned and carried out with America's ultimate adversaries in mind – Iran, North Korea, China and what's left over from the Soviet Union. U.S.: A Shared Enemy Many Americans simplistically think of the Islamic Republic of Iran as Iraq's enemy, which of course it is. But this makes Iran no friend of the United States, which Iran has made clear is its No. 1 Great Satan. While there have been some signs that unrest within Iran is building against the fanatical Islamic mullahs who actually run the place, Iran is still the biggest financial supporter and supplier of weapons to anti-American terrorist cadres the world over. That is why Bush correctly declared Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, as the "axis of evil." Dangerous and Quirky Probably the most mercurial of all is North Korea, which by starving its civilian population manages to maintain one of the world's largest standing armies. It has also been one of the leading suppliers and forwarders of conventional weaponry to anti-U.S. regimes. If that weren't bad enough, the day is rapidly approaching when Pyongyang can fire a nuclear missile into the heart of some major U.S. metropolitan areas. It has been frank enough to state this is precisely what it will do. Busy in Beijing While America is now getting its act together, the communist rulers of China have been doing the same with theirs for quite some time. In light of all the evidence now available, anyone who fails to understand that China has set its sights on defeating and surpassing America is woolgathering. Nor is it just economically that the Chinese intend to reduce the United States to second-class status. It is also militarily. In America's Front Yard It is not out of appreciation of the Caribbean climate that the People's Republic of China has gained effective domination of the Panama Canal under cover of Trojan horse commercial corporations. The clock is running on the possible outbreak of a Sino-America war, which will take consummate skill and superior might to avoid. While readying America for that eventuality, Bush is confronted with the reality of enough Russian nuclear missiles, in the hands of desperate, unreconstructed ex-Soviet officers, cocked and ready to destroy this nation and most of its inhabitants. A Pause Fraught With Peril This is not what dances through the heads of presidential hopefuls as they dream of occupying the Oval Office. It is indeed enough to give pause to the sturdiest of presidents of the mightiest nation ever to stride the surface of the Earth. This is what George W. Bush is doing now – pausing to think it all through. The price he is paying is that he is beginning to give the impression of a second-year Boy Scout fumbling in his knapsack for his compass. Pray that he gets his hands on it mighty soon.
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As you may know, it is also the entire point and message of the novel I have published (actually it is a series with Volume II coming out in early June):
Dragon's Fury - Breath of Fire
If you get the chance, read some of the comments and reviews of the book on Amazon at:
LET'S ROLL!!
(The flawed logic of Francis Fukuyama and ilk, the "Neville Chamberlains" of the current era, must be discredited soon, or we will face dire consequences)
1) First of all, F^ck Him! I'll engage is 'selfish" pursuits as long as I want. My "pursuit of happiness" is specifically mentioned in the Constitution.
2) Second of all, F^ck Him! I don't play computer games, I don't even know what a tractor cap is and I don't eat pizzas. For whatever it's worth, I'm a peer of this realm (as are we all!) and for this pr!ck to go characterizing Americans as "frighteningly uneducated" -- compared to who? The Arab populace? The French? -- when the US has one of the best, if skewed, literacy record on the globe reveals this guy to be a capital-J jackass. I'll say it again, F^ck Him!
3) Finally, the notion that the US is going to -- even will be forced to -- engage is a protracted global war strikes me as childish and even absurdly naive. Our only global enemies are scum empowered only by OPEC petro dollars and scum empowered only by the Fortune 1000 policy to re-locate to mainland China. And, for the most part, although those particular enemies are overseas, the POWER BLOC that makes the decisions to do the EMPOWERING of our "enemies" is right here in the US -- it's globalists from within the US power elite who, essentially, created OPEC & neo-China and it's globalists from within the US power elite who allow OPEC and neo-China to continue to exist.
Don't look for a global war in our future. Look for jackass little squabblings to bring recalcitrant nationalists -- called "patriots" domestically -- and recalcitrant religious fantatics -- called "Evangelical Christians domestically -- to heel.
Those are the only wars -- domestic and abroad -- that this selfish, uneducated populace unit sees in our future.
Mark W.
The fact is, right now, militarily, we are not in a position to engage in two major theater wide wars. Those are the facts. Our enemies know this too. If there were enemies dedicated enough, they might see a window of opportunity in that suituation and be tempted to take advantage of it. That's a scenario we dare not ignore, however unlikely we feel it.
Finally, those globalists amongst us whom you indicate want to bring to heel "patriots" and "evangelical christians" in our own country ... could take advantage of any such wide war to try and do just that in the insuing war time conditions.
Not saying it will happen ... just saying it is possible and we would be foolish in the current circumstances (IMHO) to categorically rule out the possibility.
Regards.
Please get real. We have no enemies. That was one of my points. OPEC countries have no real military at all, and neo-China is only empowered by US business tendrils. If the US ever decided to WAGE WAR (i.e., use 100% US military forces rather "coalition" losers and 100% US might, including tactical nukes) there isn't an entity on earth that could withstand the "force projection."
Polar bears have no enemies. The US is in a similar position. We have no enemies, but OUR RULERS CREATE "SHOW" ENEMIES WHEN IT SUITS THEIR PURPOSES TO PUNISH THIS OR THAT LITTLE LOSER WHO HESITATES TO JOIN IN THE WTO GAME...
Remember the Olympic press reports? There were more US soldiers in Utah than in Afghanistan. If we were "at war" -- real war -- with a real enemy, we wouldn't be pussy-footing around forming "coalitions" with people who fight on horse back...
Mark W.
"War is Peace."
"Ignorance is Strength."
George Orwell "1984"
But do not kid ytourself ... in spite of all else that you said, we DO have enemies who are nations. And some of them are not entirely in the employ/grasp/influence of the globalists/world governance enemies.
It would not be the first time that an entity of their creation went rogue on them ... and militarily (short of using the nukes which I do not believe any American leader will do short of ourselves being on the verge of annihilation), we would be hard pressed ... very hard pressed ... to prevail or even contain, a major two theater outbreak of war. One requiring men and materiel in terms of hundreds of thousands or millions on each front.
We may diagree on this ... that's fine. But in terms of vigilance regarding it ... I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. Right now ... we don't have it.
Saddam, etc are just a pimple on our arse and will be long dead without ever being a threat to the USA. China's communism is the real long term problem. However, we 'expect' trade to alter China's views.
But then again they do have 'weapons of mass destruction'. This has been the 'get out of war' card since traitors delivered our atomic secrets to Russia. So the 'view beyond' of those to be bombed will be limited to countries without a WMD capability. No wonder 'don't leave your nation without one' is on every nation's mind to avoid being stomped.
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