But, the Saudi Arabians killed about 3,000 Americans on 9-11. The US has killed about 5,000 Americans in retribution, and untold numbers of innocent Iraqis and Afghans.

Even the war in Afghanistan is questionable. The Taliban had asked for the proof against Osama, something the US would do if they had wanted to extradite someone from the US. And without that they refused. And how many innocent folks have we killed over there?

Be careful when you talk about terrorism. The US is the biggest terrorist, and proud of it. What was “Shock and Awe” if not terrorism?

Now I don’t believe chauvanistic Americans to be able to recognize this. After all, “they made us do it” is good enough for them, and it’s different when we do it.

Which is nonsense, but our nonsense, and will have to do.

Unfortunately, like the Israelis, all their neighbors hate them.
Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey would love to have an excuse to eradicate them. And they are landlocked; we can’t do much to help them.

As in the rest of the mid east, the situation is too complex and we are too ignorant of what is going on there to to do any good. Any attempt on our part to interfere, even if for the best of reasons, only makes things worse, our enemies will condemn our actions as interference, and our friends will take advantage of us to further their own ends.

Any action we take in that part of the world must be limited, direct, focussed, crystal clear and for a very good reason; like “Thou shalt not block the Straits of Hormuz, and if you try it we will blow you away, no questions asked.” Our attempts to go in and mold future events, establish democracy, enforce the peace, encourage free trade, promote human rights, ensure stability etc. are ineffective and even counterproductive to those very ends.

Now they oppose them to keep them from doing anything at all, just to make them look bad, so they can take over.

I don’t have much faith in our future.

“Get in!”
“Get out!”
“Tell us what you’re doing!”
“Tell us and you tell the enemy!”
“Do this!”
“Do that!”
“Don’t do a damned thing!”
“Aren’t you gonna do anything?!”

I have never envied the politician his lot, and those who jump into that ring with eyes closed, or just wearing blinders and earplugs, deserve whatever hits them.

You’re right, the people there want no part of us, but they don’t want these fundamentalist thugs in charge either. The only way we can keep the lid on this is to keep a large occupying force in country indefinitely, like we have had there for the last decade. This is, of course, no longer possible; in fact, it never was, as Obama realized before he was even elected, and as the Neocons can’t seem to realize at all.

Our best and worst fear is that at its root, the conflict in the middle east is fundamentally religious, with some national components as well. We are not really involved, or at least, we weren’t before. I suppose at one time we felt it was essential to get involved in the Islamic world’s business because of our energy dependence. We had troops and bases there, picked sides in local squabbles, allied with the biggest scapegoat (Israel). Other power centers, like Russia and China, who have no direct stake here, will continue to stir up trouble simply because it keeps us bogged down, which is always in their best interest.

This is going to be the 21st century’s Cold War. Except this time, we’re not facing a cold and calculating ideological opponent with clear goals, but a fanatic and reckless religious one who doesn’t know what he wants, and one whose own house is deeply divided, Sunni vs Shia. We should never have gone into Iraq the 2nd time (I still think the Elder Bush handled the first Gulf war brilliantly, achieving our goals but quickly withdrawing without causing a whole new set of problems).

But the occupation of Iraq resulted in a sequence of events that we should have foreseen would lead to unforeseen consequences. It was foreseen, all right, but not by our leaders. You never know just what will happen when you kick a hornet’s nest, but you should know that something will happen. Still, that’s the past. That was then, this is now. How we got here is no longer relevant, provided we don’t make the same mistakes again, which I’m afraid we are about to do.

My suggestion. Get out of the middle east. Help our allies if they ask for it, but don’t send troops. I’m not opposed to intervention in principle, but it is impossible to predict what the situation will eventually evolve into. Until it stabilizes, it is unwise to commit to any particular action or plan. Just because you can influence an outcome doesn’t necessarily mean you can manage it to your benefit. Sometimes, as we never seem to learn, we just make it worse.

The reality is that those people are against US, they are the enemy, and we are not liberating them. We are fighting them, the entire population. It’s their country, and they want us out, very much as we would want them out of our country.

Let’s not be silly. Americans can wander around many places, but in Iraq and Afghanistan (and Vietnam) are not safe among those we are “liberating”.

That’s because we aren’t liberating them. The population is against us. They may be pressured by ‘terrorists’, but they are pressured by US troops, too.

As far as mercenaries (so-called ‘contractors’) are concerned, leave them. They deserve whatever happens to them.