Read on.
Please. Say these names. In this order.
Libya
Egypt
Sudan
Somalia
Israel
Jordan
Syria
Iraq
Iran
Saudi Arabia
Yemen
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Now…go to Google Maps and enter the words “Saudi Arabia” in the search area. Scroll out until Libya is close to the left-hand side of the map, Pakistan/Afghanistan is close to its right-hand side and Sudan is near the bottom.
What do you see?
You see an illustration of the Sufi idea that “war” resembles a disease of the body of earth. An infection. Other eras, other areas of infection. Right now? This area is in near-critical condition. Bet on it.
Once you understand that one fact…that a disease is in progress…then you can make judgments about that disease.
Just as a doctor might.
Is the patient beyond hope?
Should the disease be left to run its course? Is the area healthy enough to survive it? Does the concept “That which does not kill us makes us stronger” apply here? Left to their own devices will the people of this area eventually get rid of the parasites who have been sucking them dry for 60+ years if not longer without any help from outside?
Is said area a necessary part of the body of earth as its stands today? That is, if it dies or becomes at least temporarily unusable will the rest of the earth survive the way a human being can live without a gall bladder or a limb?
If the answer is “No, it is too important an organ to let it devolve,” then the next question is “What kind of ‘cure’ should best be applied?”
And really…that’s where we are right now.
Radical surgery?
A number of more minor surgeries?
Some sort of mystical healing approach? (Laughingly known as “democracy” in some circles.)
Wait and see what happens?
Etc.
Different interests in different countries have different opinions. They are pushing and pulling on one another in a sort of vector system, and the end result is that nothing is moving in a straight line.
A “Sufi” approach to the idea of war? (Remembering always that there are no “Sufis”, that the very use of the word is an oversimplification. A necessary one, sometimes, but there it is.)
Walk away. Protect yourself and then let it happen. Survive. This too shall pass.
I am increasingly of the mind that the United States should pull all of its military back inside its borders except the WMD subs.
The Gilroy Doctrine?
Sure.
Here it is.
Do not tread on us and we will not tread on you
But fuck with the bull and you will get the horns.
Coupled with a real green/austerity movement at home. If the hypnomedia can sell something as patently false as the runup to the Iraq War, it can sell anything. Why not austerity?
Until we become energy-independent, we will have to make sacrifices on the order of those that were made during World War II. You remember the Cold War? Well this is the Peaceful War. And it can be won!!!
And so on.
Set the troops to rebuilding the country’s infrastructure with a mind towards the conservation of energy. Rail. Mass transit of all kinds. Rebuild this damned country! Secure the borders…and I mean really secure them. Not from the so-called “illegal aliens” who are doing about 60% of the real work in this country at present, but from all possibility of terrorist attack and from all possibility of drug smuggling as well. That “can be done” too…certainly a whole lot better than it is being done now. I mean…hell, folks, we can get high on our own drugs if that’s what it takes. In fact, we can even home-produce terrorism if we really need to do so. Hell, we kin do any damned thing we set our mindlessnesses to!!!
The chances of this happening, however?
Don’t make me laugh. That’s when it hurts the most.
But there it is.
Instead we are adopting the British “muddle through” approach.
This used to work when there were fewer people in the world and thus more natural resources to be wasted.
Now?
Look at what just happened in Japan for more on that subject. A totally corrupt muddleocracy that only succeeded because of the long and elegant Japanese tradition of societal cooperation is about to crumble. Why? Due to a natural disaster the results of which have been amplified a million times over by the “need for energy”, a need that resulted in reliance on poisonous nuclear power for short-term comfort.
Green/Austerity?
Its time has come.
Only…we’re still living in the past.
So it goes.
And so we go.
Down like a motherfucker if we don’t get our own act together.
Watch.
AG
Ever hear the story of that fabulous old hero of the American west? “No Toes” Dawson? He was he fastest trigger finger in the west. His only problem? Getting his gun out of the holster fast enough not to shoot himself in the foot. (Thank you, William Burroughs.)
Hmmmmmm…
Our problem?
With our weaponry?
It’s liable not to be our toes that are in danger.
More like our mortal ass.
So it goes.
Git that Qadaffi villain!!!
Oh.
As if we didn’t have our own problems.
Whadda buncha maroons!!!
AG
Gilroy, I remember watching Rwanda in anguish as pictures showing hundreds of women and children at a time slaughtered, hacked to death with machetes.
Clinton wouldn’t lift a finger to help them.
Clinton later admitted it was his greatest failure and apologized to the Rwandan people. Actually he should also have apologized to the Iraqi people when by virtue of a US embargo, a million people starved to death. The dumb assumption here was that Saddam, a student of Stalin, would care about his people and do something.
Obama has learned at least one lesson from these incidents of America turning its back on humanitarian calls for help. At least since Carter who put “human rights” into the language of the UN and US foreign policy, there is no turning back. National shame and hypocrisy is the alternative, which Clinton essentially admitted to.
Obama understands at least that much, except of course for Israel, which can violate human rights at will. So we went into or flew over Libya. What was the alternative?
You write:
There were two alternatives besides that one:
1-Go in whole hog plus postage. The Iraq gambit.
2-Do nothing.
#1? The U.S. is too extended militarily and Obama is too threatened politically to be able to pull that off.
#2? UH oh!!! What if oil gets even more expensive!!!??? Expensdive enough to break this already fragile economy’s back? Riots in the streets because food isn’t being delivered and many people can’t even keep their houses warm.
Do you really believe that this Libya thing is about the Libyan people? How about all of the other threatened people in this nasty little world? Look at the little infection in the Côte d’Ivoire/Liberia/Sierre Leone/Guinea region for all that you need to know regarding that matter. Thousands dead, many more wounded and even more displaced.
Oh, if only they had a lot of oil!
We’d be on ’em like white on rice.
But…NOOOOOooooo.
Sure, there are “humanitarian” aspects involved in this situation. I do not for one minute believe that Obama, Hillary Clinton or very many major high-level U.S. officials both past and present…and I do not include Dick Cheney in this assessment, by the way…get off on human suffering.
But..they have to choose their moves.
Neither all the way in nor all the way out, here.
The Goldilocks mean.
Juuuust right. Or so they hope,
A very Obama-like approach, actually.
Will it “work?”
Define the term “work”, first.
Will fewer anti-Qaddafi forces be killed?
Probably.
But will more pro-Qaddaffi soldiers die?
Also probably.
Civilians?
Ir’s a toss-up.
That’s what civilians do in war zones.
Die.
But…”Oh!!! The Qaddiffi forces are the bad guys!!!”
Yeah?
Who says?
bin Laden:
Hmmmm…
I guess it depends upon which side of the looking glass you reside, eh?
Is Qaddafi a killer and a thief?
Seems like it.
Is he anywhere near say G.W. Butch or Henry Kissinger in terms of responsibility fot the amount of blood shed or wealth stolen?
No fucking contest!!! He’s a rank amateur, a goddamned pisher in the blood-letting/wealth-stealing business.
Bet on it.
Next to the real pros, he’s just an amateur who does too many drugs… hashish, more’n likely…to be able to take of much serious business. (How do I know that? Ah kin smell the hashish coming offa his images. Cocaine too, I’m thinkin’ . Been there. Bet on that as well.)
So there it is, shergald.
See the whole picture
There are always “three choices.”
The U.S. has chosen the middle way.
How will this choice work out?
We shall soon see.
Watch.
AG