Aw, Do I HAVE to Read Powerline Today, Ma?
Take it away, Mr. Hinderaker:
“Moment of Truth”
Ralph Peters is provocative as always, as he assesses the future of the Middle East in the wake of Israel’s defeat in Lebanon. The future, as Peters sees it, is troubled but ultimately hopeful. Here are a few excerpts, but you really should read it all:
Take a deep breath, folks. This isn’t gonna be pretty:
Within the forces of terror, the balance of power has shifted. Sunni fanatics, such as al Qaeda’s supporters, have suffered severe losses in Afghanistan, Iraq and around the world. Still capable of doing serious damage, they’re nonetheless being eclipsed in importance by state-backed Shia terrorists, with Hezbollah in the lead and Iran providing arms, money, training and strategic depth.
Say, didn’t we help empower a bunch of fundamentalist Shiite militias in Iraq?
Iraq could fail – if the Iraqis fail themselves. It’s still too early to pack up and leave, but if the people of Iraq will not seize the opportunity we gave them to build the region’s first Arab-majority rule-of-law democracy, it won’t be an American defeat, but another self-inflicted Arab disaster. Iraq is the Arab world’s last chance – and the odds are now 50-50 they’ll throw it away.
So let me get this straight: we bombed the shit out of Iraq. We disbanded the entire Iraqi Republican Guard and never filled the giant security vacuum that we left in its place. We sent a bunch of loser Heritage Foundation interns over there to oversee bollocksed reconstruction projects.
But according to Peters, we have no culpability in Iraq’s failure- it’s clearly the Iraqis’ fault that we destroyed their country.
The “unity of Muslims” confronting the West is history (it was always a bogus, ramshackle affair). Sunni-Arab leaders increasingly grasp that the real threat isn’t from the United States or Israel, but from the explosion of Shia ambitions, prowess, wealth and desire for vengeance. The future of the Middle East could go a number of ways, but we may find ourselves as bemused spectators, while our sworn enemies and phony friends kill each other. Afterward, we’ll pick up the pieces.
More dead Muslims = more bwah-ha-ha’s for warbloggers.
Iraq still could muddle through – but even if it doesn’t, our stock in the region is headed up, not down. The paradox is that a future civil war between Iraq’s Sunnis and Shias makes our military protection more essential than ever to the effete Gulf emirates and the cowardly Saudis. Avoid linear analysis and reflexive predictions of doom for American interests: The Middle East will always do more harm to its natives than it does to foreign powers. Human beings may hate a distant enemy in theory, but they generally prefer to kill their neighbors.
Which brings us to our next war: Canada. You Canuckistanians had better train a real army fast, ’cause I don’t think those Mounties’ll hold the fort when Uncle Sam decides to liberate your sorry asses from the shackles of legalized weed and homo nups.
Peters thinks, finally, that the terrorists have finally woken up the West, and revived the West’s “thirst for blood.”
And it’s that thirst for blood that best exemplifies our moral superiority over the savage Middle Easterners.
“We’re going to win,” Peters writes. I think we’ll win, too, but I’m not so confident that most Westerners have even begun to comprehend the threat from Islamic imperialism, or that they have the moral resources to respond.
We seem to be going back further and further in time with our descriptions of fundamentalist Islam. First it was Islamofascism, now it’s Islamic imperialism. Before long, we’ll reading 2,000 word essays by Steven den Beste about the perils of Muslamofeudalism.
Reminds me of the logic used by fundie parents who don’t let their kids watch TV or read secular books, and then are shocked when their kids go completely bonkers with sex and drugs as soon as they’re old enough to drive a car.
“We gave you everything you need to lead a moral life! This is your choice, your responsibility, and your fault – don’t blame us!”
Isn’t Lebanon a democracy?
Isn’t Lebanon a democracy?
Isn’t Iraq? The Dear Leader says it is …
And what’s with this Israel’s defeat in Lebanon.? I thought “The Most Brilliant President EVA” said Israel won?
we may find ourselves as bemused spectators, while our sworn enemies and phony friends kill each other. Afterward, we’ll pick up the pieces.
Jeezus christ’s tits in a mason jar!!! What kind of damaged, angry sociopath could even fucking WRITE this sentence? Yeah, dood, won’t that be fun? We’ll stock up on beer and pretzels and turn on CNN and watch them kill each other. This is gonna be better than HALO II or Ghost Recon, man! I just can’t wait, and I’m damn sure not gonna lift a finger to try to stop it! Gawd, I want to disown these fuckers. I want them to be from another country than I am. Not much in the way of optimism this morning, is there…
mikey
Blood-thirsty, warmongering bigots.
Not content with making lemonade from lemons, these wackos want to make blood pudding from middle east politics. The lebanese fiasco was highlighted by how quickly all sides were willing to disengage, even with the needed last-slug, no-tagbacks. The Iraq and Afghanistan decay of our foreign policy (you got oil, we care! you no got oil, we no care!) has lead these wackos (republican-approved nickname) to try to postulate some future confluence of events that screws our enemies and yet leaves all our interests intact. Its a trial balloon filled with nitrous oxide.
Shorter version:
Murka smart. Murka good. Murka strong.
Shorter Ralph Peters: “IT’S NOT OUR FAULT!!! IT’S NOT!!! NOT, NOT, NOT!!!”
Iraq could fail – if the Iraqis fail themselves. It’s still too early to pack up and leave, but if the people of Iraq will not seize the opportunity we gave them to build the region’s first Arab-majority rule-of-law democracy, it won’t be an American defeat, but another self-inflicted Arab disaster. Iraq is the Arab world’s last chance – and the odds are now 50-50 they’ll throw it away.Jesus Fucking Christ. Talk about absolving yourself of all the blame.
This is a good example of how these guys *have* to think to prevent their heds from exploding. They need an out, and blaming the whole sorry business on the Iraqis is the obvious choice.
It’s pretty obvious that the only reason we’re in Iraq is due to oil. I don’t see it mentioned once. I guess it is their fault because there are oil deposits there even though our efforts to claim them so far have only lead to making them unavailable to everyone, including ourselves. We couldn’t even get that right.
And after that it will be the ‘Musselmen’ who are defying our Children’s Crusade to bring them the sword of the Lord!
It is indeed part and parcel of the thought process that produced Iraq. You saw it again just last week when bush stood up and said, in so many words, that the destruction of Lebanon was Hezbollah’s fault. Those israeli fighter bombers and artillery pieces and gunships? Totally innocent, not in any way responsible for the death and destruction. It was hez, can’t you see it? In this same thought process, of COURSE the iraqis are responsible for the state of affairs in their nation. We played only a minor, constructive role…
mikey
Hey, come on. It wasn’t war, really. Iraq wanted it. Didn’t you see the way she was dressed?
The bloodthirst is not what amazes me. It’s that a few right-wing pundits are now talking of the inevitable failure of Iraq. “It’s not our fault” is an implicit admission that things have failed. Pay attention, the word of the day is shifting. They’ve gone from “They’ll welcome us as liberators” to “We must stay the course” to “Whatever!”. With 2 years to go one wonders what shenanigans they will use to reconcile themselves with Dubya in 2008 while admitting Iraq was a screw-up.
Hey, come on. It wasn’t war, really. Iraq wanted it. Didn’t you see the way she was dressed?
And it’s not like she’s a virgin or anything.
Hey, come on. It wasn’t war, really. Iraq wanted it. Didn’t you see the way she was dressed?
D. Sidhe totally wins this round.
And it’s not like she’s a virgin or anything.
Mr. Bubba, you forgot the mandatory “unlike Hindrocket” tag…
…our stock in the region is headed up, not down.
Ok, obviously, I woke up from my nap in some alternate universe where everything is topsy-turvy crazy from the universe I was in before. Excuse while I place a call to my wife, Renée Zellweger.
I like the cut of D. Sidhe’s jib there.
I was reading a book review yesterday and it got in to the marketing of the Eye-rack clusterfuck. 9/11 > Flowers & Ponies & Kittens for all Iraqis > Clash of Civilizations > Stay the Course > The Long War. The reviewer snarked that only in America would a five year battle (he considered 9/11 thet beginning, not 3/03) be considered a “long” war, unlike, say, those pikers who fought the 100 Years War (1337 to 1453).
Since this was always sold as entertainment, I get the sense that most Americans are bored with the program –think how the ratings of reality shows have dived– and want to change the channel.
we bombed the shit out of Iraq. We disbanded the entire Iraqi Republican Guard and never filled the giant security vacuum that we left in its place. We sent a bunch of loser Heritage Foundation interns over there to oversee bollocksed reconstruction projects.
We also banned the Baath Party and thereby eliminated the state bureaucracy—a big Weberian no-no.
Iraq is the Arab world’s last chance
I’m confused. I thought Iraq was the first of many stops in the Middle East for the George W. Bush Choo-Choo Train of Freedom.
I’m confused. I thought Iraq was the first of many stops in the Middle East for the George W. Bush Choo-Choo Train of Freedom.
That was before the train got robbed by Hamas and Hizbullah.
George W. Bush Choo-Choo Train of Freedom
Best . Phrase . EVAR . !!!11!!!!!!1!!
Shorter Ralph Peters: “IT’S NOT OUR FAULT!!! IT’S NOT!!! NOT, NOT, NOT!!!�
Or, alternatively, “Hey, Muslim world, why do you keep hitting yourself?”
“we may find ourselves as bemused spectators, while our sworn enemies and phony friends kill each other. Afterward, we’ll pick up the pieces.”
Jeezus christ’s tits in a mason jar!!! What kind of damaged, angry sociopath could even fucking WRITE this sentence? Yeah, dood, won’t that be fun? We’ll stock up on beer and pretzels and turn on CNN and watch them kill each other.
Oh, admit it – he has a point. That’s what the US did with Afghanistan after the Soviets split, and that worked out okay, didn’t it?
Oh, admit it – he has a point. That’s what the US did with Afghanistan after the Soviets split, and that worked out okay, didn’t it?
Sure. Of course, some of the pieces we picked up afterwards were in Lower Manhattan.
I want them to be from another country than I am.
mikey, I want them to be from a different species than I am.
With 2 years to go one wonders what shenanigans they will use to reconcile themselves with Dubya in 2008 while admitting Iraq was a screw-up.
“Okay, so it didn’t work out very well. But that’s only because the liberal anti-war media sapped our will to win, and those elitist coastal types kept talking people into not enlisting, and the democrats were so hell bent on a vicious partisan divide, anything to tear Bush down. And anyway, it would have all been worse if John Kerry had been in charge. He looks French, you know. He would have surrendered, and we’d all be Muslim by now.”
If you hold the shell of Congress to your ear, you can already hear it.
Gentlewoman, I’m still working on speciating. My goal is to become a dead-end species that is in no way even theoretically capable of procreating with a republican. Tentacles would be a plus.
And all of you guys, I’m amazed anyone can make me laugh about this crap anymore. Thanks.
I heard McCain on the radio this afternoon saying “If we set a deadline to move out, the insurgents will just lay low until we leave.”
And I’m thinking all of a sudden, wouldn’t this be a good thing?
I mean, if the insurgents “lay low” i.e., stop blowing things and people up, it becomes less violent, people go back to work, insurgents become less committed to the “cause” drift away, life starts to return to normal…..maybe less people get killed…..
Now — my comment has more to do with the logic of his words than the reality. It’s actually double-twisted pretzel logic. First, he’s implying that the reason the insurgents are fighting is some long-term goal not connected with the occupation at all, so that they would resume fighting once our presence is removed. Yet at the same time, he is somehow acknowledging that an announcement by us that we’re leaving in XXX months would molify them enough to make them stop the violence. And he’s saying this in the face of the reality that our presence there currently has absolutely no effect on stopping the violence. so
If they have a motivation that’s unconnected with our presence, then there’s no reason to think that an announcement of our leaving would have any effect on them whatsoever.
Yet if the motivation towards violence is all about our occupation, then saying our presence prevents it is…looney. Especially when we can see with our own eyes that it isn’t prevented at all. His implication that they’ll only be “good” while we’re there, and they’ll start being “bad” when we turn our backs is based on somethign that’s just plain wrong.
Ooogh.. I think I made myself a little dizzy with that.
“Okay, so it didn’t work out very well. But that’s only because the liberal anti-war media sapped our will to win, and those elitist coastal types kept talking people into not enlisting, and the democrats were so hell bent on a vicious partisan divide, anything to tear Bush down. And anyway, it would have all been worse if John Kerry had been in charge. He looks French, you know. He would have surrendered, and we’d all be Muslim by now.�
Are you from the future? Do you have a copy of the transcript from this Fox News RNC Sunday [8/17/08] program? Come on, cough it up.
Who won the One Friedman Blog War? I need to know.
Excuse me while I go look for examples of recent overt Shia terrorism against the West (other than neighbor Israel). In fact, I need to find examples of Hizbollah or Iranian suicide bombers (or as they are known suiciders).
Sunnis (Wahabis) are the perpetrators of 9/11and Sunnis are the suicide bombers of the world.
Again and again to these RW punks…
Whats this “We” shit?
These insane cowards go on and on about “the threat” but only fight it with their mouths. Since they’re afraid to physically engage their enemy, might “honking quislings” be better than chickenhawk? Reminds me of the redneck goobers who yell “fuck you!” out the window and then drive away.
Human beings may hate a distant enemy in theory, but they generally prefer to kill their neighbors.
Then we definitely should keep our Army in Iraq as long as possible, so we can make it easier for our enemies to kill our soldiers.
“Ok, obviously, I woke up from my nap in some alternate universe ”
Nah. You’re just engaging in “linear thinking”.
You see, the 8 or 10 Arab dictators in the world, and their bodyguards, need protection from the world’s 1,500,000,000 muslims. They obviously can’t stave off the unwashed hordes without our help. We just need to sell them lots of high-tech weapons and teach their secret police how to torture and disappear their own citizens more efficiently. That’s how our stock will rise.
After all, it worked for the Shah of Iran, didn’t it? Now THAT’S non-linear thinking, wingnut style.
I’m not so confident that most Westerners have even begun to comprehend the threat from Islamic imperialism, or that they have the moral resources to respond.
Gosh! Most folks are not willing to blow up half the planet on the off chance of killing a new nuts with C4! Where’s your moral resources, people? Folks just don’t get how darn scary a few whackjobs are!
We have to save Western Civilization by blowing it up!
Are you from the future?
No crystal ball necessary. It’s what they’re *still* saying about Vietnam. Even the ones who hadn’t been born yet.
Well, contrary to McCain saying that if we set a time table the insurgents would “lay low” until we left, now Bush in his press conference this morning says if we left chaos would erupt. We can have it both ways!!
D. Sidhe: Hey, come on. It wasn’t war, really. Iraq wanted it. Didn’t you see the way she was dressed?
Righteous Bubba: And it’s not like she’s a virgin or anything.
Haha. And hey, it’s not like she was a good Christian woman.
My goal is to become a dead-end species that is in no way even theoretically capable of procreating with a republican. Tentacles would be a plus.
From my limited observations, these goals are mutually exclusive. The tentacles would increase the capability.
The “not actually having lived through Vietnam” thing makes it so much easier to spout the current line of bullshit. The more ignorant the wingnuts are of any given subject, the more authoritative they feel about it. Odd, that.