Míddlé East: A Bit of Critical Thought

[Virgil Showlion]

--== Part A: Rant ==--

Why are we there? (I say 'we' since several thousand Canadian troops are a part of the NATO "restructuring" effort in Afghanistan. Nowhere near the size of the US occupation, but large enough that Canadians spend several billion dollars a year for manpower, equipment, engines of war, etc. as part of that mission.)

The media sound bite is "spreading freedom and democracy", which seems increasingly trite as the years go by—both because the Arab nations (particularly Iraq and Afghanistan) are too busy being blown and shot up to enjoy their "freedom", and too enthralled by corruption/public malcontent to benefit from anything besides a pro-Western puppet democracy.

Did our governments one day decide "You know what would be nice? Freedom and democracy in the middle east. Let's go over there and blow up some dictators."

Yes, I realize that Iraq was originally in retribution for 9/11... or was it WMDs... or ousting Saddam? Or... the hunt for bin Laden?

...spreading freedom and democracy?

And Afghanistan was... what originally? "Taking the war to al Qaeda"? More bin Laden? More freedom and democracy?

By the time our nations were bombing the snot out of Libya and Syria, the military brass had given up coming up with token reasons for our involvement. "We're there... uh... to strengthen democracy. And blow crap up. We're there for whatever reason you want us to be there."

It was clear to most of us by 2009, after our militaries continued their (insane, in the US case) spending binges despite the financial threat to our nations outweighing the threat posed by irate Afghan poppy farmers ten thousand to one, that our presence in the middle east has very little to do with spreading freedom and democracy. That much is evident even if the media wasn't tripping over themselves trying to explain away our seemingly nonsensical forays into new nations and new territories.

American civil liberties are being utterly desecrated (as I posted earlier) in the name of terrorism. The US debt-to-GDP just flew past 100%, a significant part of which was feeding the war machine. You'd be hard-pressed to find one military official or expert who will claim North America is safer today than before our involvement in the middle east. You'd be equally hard-pressed to find an official or expert who believes life for Iraqis, Afghans, Libyans, etc. is significantly better off in the current unstable regimes.

So with our financial system and civil liberties crumbling around us, our newly-made enemies lining up for retribution, and "freedom and democracy" quickly regressing to former status quos, we must ask ourselves: why are we over there?

Why?

I have my own conspiracy-minded theories, but I've expounded on those elsewhere. This is a thread about what others think.

--== Part B: Challenge ==--

In five sentences or less, describe why our nations continue to send soldiers to fight and die in an intransigent middle east?

You can include more commentary if you want to, but I'll kindly ask that you keep the five lines separate from the rest of the commentary (and if at all possible, distinct from the rest of the text [perhaps in boldface]).

Many thanks to those who contribute.

[Deleted]

That's where the oil is, we're maintaining one of our supply lines. (Did you expect anything else from me?)

[Virgil Showlion]

That's where the oil is, we're maintaining the supply line.

That could be a part of it. But the warmongers are often the same politicians who are vehemently in favour of expanding North American O&G to reduce dependency on middle east oil.

Are they just hypocrites? Is the middle east "the only thing we've got" right now?

[Deleted]

I could answer your questions in #2 but it would take way more than 5 sentences, so I amended my first reply slightly.

[mmhmm]

As I see it, the reasons behind our aggressiveness in the Middle East are many-fold. Oil is certainly up there as one of the reasons we are willing to throw young lives into the breach to achieve control in the area. Protection of Israel is another. NATO's insistance on fiddling in world politics whether or not there is need is worth a mention. The old theory that war serves the economy in a positive way is still another (maybe, this time, we (the US) have learned), as is the arrogance to believe we have the right to enforce what others believe, and how they live.

[neoh]

1. War is an easy way to award lucrative contracts to their buddies.
2. Congress goes along with it and is allowed to front run to the market with that inside information.
3 & 4. The american population will go along with it. Just give them some little flags to wave.

[Virgil Showlion]

OK. Good to see people aren't buying the party line.

I also wonder if it isn't partly a stairway to heaven complex. A master builder decides to build a stairway to heaven and lays down the first four stories of stairs. He realizes that the heavens still seem far away, but looks back and thinks "What a shame it would be if all this work went to waste. Surely a few more stories and I'll be there."

So he builds 16 more stories and is now 20 stories up. By this time, he realizes that heaven is indeed much further away than he'd anticipated. He realizes he really doesn't know how much further it could be. But he looks back on the 20 stories he's painstakingly built and thinks, "How can I give up now and abandon 20 stories of backbreaking labour? If I give up now, it will all have been in vain."

And so he toils for years and year more, until he's built 100 stories. The ground is far below him, but still the heavens seem no closer. He falls into despair. "Will I ever reach the heavens?" He wonders. "I seem to have gained so little ground." But again, he looks back on 100 stories of the work of his hands—his life's commitment, it would seem.

"What if the heaven is just a few more stories?" He muses. "If I give up now, I'll have wasted years and years of my life, only to give up just short of the finish line. Look at how far I've come."

And so he continues... and continues...

The reality being, of course, that he could continue for a thousand years and never build a stairway to heaven. But the higher he gets and the more he despairs that his goal may be unattainable, the more bitter his concession to failure might be.

Perhaps this same mentality is what motivates our politicians. They've spoken to the families of soldiers who've fought and died. They've seen years of painful sacrifice. With so much having been purchased with the blood and tears of men, and with the end seemingly so near, how can they abandon hope now?

[neoh]

"Perhaps this same mentality is what motivates our politicians. They've spoken to the families of soldiers who've fought and died. They've seen years of painful sacrifice. With so much having been purchased with the blood and tears of men, and with the end seemingly so near, how can they abandon hope now? "

You give them too much credit. If I had sent thousands of Americans to their death and was responsible for tens of thousands of Iraqi deaths while looking for WMD and not finding them, I would kill myself and accept the eternal damnation that comes with it. These guys light a cigar and pat each other on the back.

[Deleted]

You have such a way with words Virgil...are you sure you're not from the Ozarks with that name?

Anyway, here is my take on it: It was a family affair, dubbya always wanted to live up to his father's expectations of him. Now George, senior, is a real man...he called out that other idiot Reagan for peddling voodoo economics, served under him, and sowed the entire genesis of this political and economic mess. Reagan's brains were already gone when he became President...but you can hide some things.

When people say they revere Reagan, I just don't get it. I was playing with toy trains and just getting my sense of direction then, but the discussion around the dinner table always stuck.

Here is what should happen: no nation building, that is a fools game. No special treatment and buckets of money for Israel (I love the Jews, but, the longer you stay in that part of the world, the more trouble you are asking for).

Foreign policy has to be based, in equal measures on building good will, and naked self interest. Once we no longer need Arab oil, fuck them...or let them fuck each other. They will learn or they will perish. They don't even educate their own people, everything which is more complicated than an abacus, is imported.

Not good. And the beat goes on.

Seasons greetings.

[Virgil Showlion]

Once we no longer need Arab oil, fuck them...or let them fuck each other. They will learn or they will perish.

Stop hedging your words and tell us how you really feel.

If I had sent thousands of Americans to their death and was responsible for tens of thousands of Iraqi deaths while looking for WMD and not finding them, I would kill myself and accept the eternal damnation that comes with it. These guys light a cigar and pat each other on the back.

It was hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths, even by low estimates. But I get your point.