Ranting of a Former Neocon.

[Lone Pawn]

I have two political personalities, both of which vie for my political attentions. Both are social liberal, fiscal conservative. But foreign-policy-wise, one's a hawk and one's a dove. The hawk used to be a neocon. But no longer. He hasn't been since 9/11. Anyway, he/I have to get something off our chest.

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Look, I'm not outraged about the Marine shooting.

It's a casualty of war. Regrettable on a moral level, perhaps, but nothing worse than anything else that's happened. The Marine spooked and as a result another man is dead--but no more or less dead than any of the scores of thousands of dead that have resulted because of this war.

But I'm not that outraged about that either.

I'm not outraged about Abu Ghraib. It was a failure of leadership, true...but I'm dead to it. Evidence of evil doesn't hurt me anymore. I'm used to seeing it happen to others.

Hell, I'm not even outraged about the war itself. The photos mean nothing to me anymore. I read what I wrote back in the pre-war buildup and barely understand the rage I felt. I don't feel anything morally about this war. One would think that's what Bushco's aiming for.

But I don't feel any outrage about the terror attacks against Iraqi civilians or the rebellion against our soldiers. And I don't feel any outrage about the beheadings, or about the jihadis, or the Red Cross, or oil-for-food, or kidnappings, or hostages, or really anything they throw at us.

But the fact that I've lost outrage doesn't mean that I don't care.

I've become too immersed in it. For two years now I've looked at every fact, figure, and article I could about this war. And it's no longer a real thing to me. It's a fucking game. I see this entire thing as a motherfucking game. Some pickup match in the sand, of which military action is only a tiny part. I want victory. I want victory more than anything else because victory in the long run--the victory the intellectuals who duped us into this thing want--would mean a peaceful, democratic middle east. And that's a very good thing.

Because in 30 to 50 years, the Middle East is going to run dry. No more oil. And when that happens, there better be a damn strong social order there, or it'll become worse than Africa is now. There will be genocide, tribal war, famine, and terrorism like we've never seen. We should have started preparing 50 years ago. We should have put some thought into the decolonialization. But we didn't, and now we're trying to quickly put things right. Being stuck in a half-stable Middle East is bad. Being stuck with a non-stable Middle East is worse. Imagine a region-wide Somalia. And we can't just "escape" it. Pulling out is a start towards noninvolvement, but as long as we're the most powerful nation, we're the easiest target to rail against. Yeah, the Islamist movement is a threat to both us and them. I never had a problem with the neocons on principle.

What I had a problem with, both now and then, is that they did an absolute terrible job of "fixing" the middle east problem. They haven't "fixed" anything. It was a nice proposal, guys: go in there and turn 'em to our side, and in return they'll be economically dependent on us. They can't go after us because they need us for their economies. Nice idea. Too bad it didn't work at all. At all. The invasion of Iraq was the worst policy mistake since LBJ decided that what we really needed was a war in Vietnam. Possibly worse.

Because it didn''t work. Why? Outrage. But not ours. Muslim outrage. And that's the only outrage that really matters. The war in Iraq immediately defeated the war in Iraq. Perhaps we should have realized that our plan for winning the peace was pretty much the Israeli plan for "calming down" Palestine: indiscriminate justice. Blowing the shit out of anything that moves within a quarter-mile from the last place you saw a guy with a gun. Absolutely great. Too bad that made Iraqis angry. And too bad the Sunnis got pissed off that we kicked them out of power for a Shi'a-led government, and too bad the Shi'as want a theocracy, and too bad that military action only further turns the Iraqi populace against us.

And the worst part is the atrocities we've committed. I really couldn't care less that we've committed them. It's a fucking war. People fucking die. We knew that going into it that we would kill people. You can't fight a guerilla war against an enemy that blends into the populace without murdering the populace. We knew that in '02. Everybody knew that. We'd have soldiers die. We knew that then. We know that now. But we can easily afford this loss rate. No harm done. A few sad people, but no harm done to the nation. I told you this was a game to me.

But what pisses me off is the fact that people focus on the above paragraph as a dismissal of the importance of the photos and videos coming out of Iraq. Because, while true, it doesn't mean anything. Muslim civilians won't think, "Oh well, it's war. People die." They think, "How could any man be so cruel? How could the Americans be so cruel?" And really, when it keeps slipping out that we're pretty damn cruel, the entire Muslim world starts getting pretty damn outraged. Forget the beheadings--they don't give a damn. That's morally wrong of them, but morals don't change things. When it comes to geopolitics, truth is useful only for scoring points in debate. But we don't seem to get that. We go "Oh, yeah? Well they're worse! Where's their outrage?" I'll tell you where their outrage is, asshead. It's directed at us. And telling them "Now, now, your rage is misplaced. Your kind is much worse than our kind." doesn't go that far. But still my fellow hawks resort to that idiotic thinking instead of thinking about how to fix the damage caused. Yes, we're held to a different moral standard. Because we fucking invaded them as humanitarian liberators, and they expect us to be pretty damn humane. And if we aren't, they'll just assume we're lying invaders, and treat us as such. But no. No, no, no.

And the best part is the anti-American sentiment is spreading exponentially through the mideast. We're not winning. We're losing. And it's because of this motherfucking war.

These photos and videos worry me, but only because of what they mean to the game. They hurt our position. Come on, guys! Wake up! Stop defending it and start fixing it!

We're supposed to be the fucking cold-blooded ones! We're supposed to be the clear-eyed realists who cast aside all thoughts of emotion and compassion in order to find the greatest good. Isn't it time we start talking about the failures in Iraq and the lessons we've learned? No, of course not. Because you're just as emotionally invested in supporting this war as those peacenik hippies are in opposing it. Asshats.

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This has been a public service message from the Lone Pawn Neocon Mentality to freepers. Thank you.