They really are pumping us up for another war, aren’t they? Big bad ISIS, killing Americans, killing pilots, killing pretty girls, killing Christians. OOOOOOH. Aren’t they scary?

Sure they’re scary, and these assholes deserve to be exterminated, don’t get me wrong. I can’t think of a better excuse to dust off the Family Atomics and drop a few behind the Shield Wall. These people are bad news, you won’t get any argument from me on that. But have you noticed how we’re getting manipulated, fired up, egged on for war? Its obvious, and its pathetic. After over a decade of Middle East war, and trying to get out of it, now we have a fresh excuse to start another one. How convenient. The American people are fed up with war, so they have to be convinced THIS time, we REALLY need to go. We went into Somalia, then Iraq, then Afghanistan, then (half-assedly) in Libya. We almost got bogged down in Syria, until cooler heads prevailed. And don’t forget Lebanon, even Ronnie got conned into that one, and had to back out with a bloody nose. And I can see North Africa, the Sahel, the Horn, Nigeria going the same way. Soon, it’ll be Yemen’s turn. We go in, overturn the local dictator, and stir up yet another hornet’s nest. And how long before we have to go in and pull the Saudi cookies out of a fire?

Listen, I’m no pacifist, And there are times when we have to kick some ass, but by this time, don’t you see a pattern emerging? These guys WANT us to go in, they know the more Muslims we kill the more excuses they have to recruit, and to involve us in their own local squabbles and religious wars. And that’s what it is, a Sunni-Shia civil war that’s been going on for centuries, and the participants are trying to drag us in to beat up on the other side.. The Elder Bush squashed Saddam when he got out of line, a righteous move indeed but he knew when to pull out, but that wasn’t enough for the Bush Baby, was it? So we removed the Iraqi check to the Iranians and now we really have problems, with both of them. We help topple dictators in Iraq, Libya and Egypt, and we leave chaos behind. And no, don’t tell me we can introduce “Freedom” to those people, we can’t. We tried, remember? All we can do is occupy them. The Northern Alliance was dealing fine with the Taliban, but nooooooooooooooo, we had to get involved in Afghani politics. And in the meantime, we get in bed with the Pakis, too. Man! Who’s brilliant idea was that?

So what should we do about this latest threat, (because ISIS is indeed a threat)? Just what we’re doing now. Bomb the hell out of them; arm, finance and advise their enemies, and build diplomatic and political alliances to hem the bad guys in. But “boots on the ground”? No way, baby. Obama knows this, its exactly what he’s trying to do, except the Neocons and Chicken hawks are desperately trying to start another war they can’t win, one where, as usual, they don’t even know who we’re fighting. The ground is already filled with boots, people we’ve armed and led and paid and trained. We prepared Iraq to fight Iran, and they they couldn’t even fight JV ISIS, why should we die for them? Why should one more American die in that hell-hole because the Saudis and the Turks and the Pakis would rather see us fight their wars? And now the Euros are starting to get panicky when their guest workers are turning on them. Hell, why should they help us fight? They won’t even stand up to Putin in their own back yard. As for the Arabs, they won’t fight until they’re convinced we’re NOT coming back. Then I guaranfuckingdamtee ya they’ll fight.

I hate to be cynical, but there is no way we can do the right thing in that part of the world. We’ve tried for years and it hasn’t worked. Nobody respects the peacemakers. The belligerents only want allies, and we can’t make everybody happy at the same time. We only wind up pissing them all off. Hell, they’re already all pissed off at us, we might as well start looking out for number one.

I say we get out. We leave. We can continue meddling politically and financially, (in the background, of course). We can provide diplomatic cover, intelligence, funding, arms, training, a few drones and air strikes, and keep a few carrier battle groups offshore just in case. Stir things up if we have to; hell, the Israelis have been doing it since Suez, they’ll help, they know how. That’s how they’ve kept their enemies off balance for the last half century. They know what they’re doing in that part of the world. At least, they have something at stake. But no more American grunts on the ground. Let Islam sort this out, its their fight. We have no business there. Once we leave, the Iranians will have to get involved to to help their Shia pals against the Saudi/Sunni side. Let’s see how their economy survives that. With a little luck the Russkis and Chinese will get involved. We’ll have all the cheap oil we can possibly use. And we can sell arms to both sides and be ready to nuke the survivors, if we have to.