General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Are you really ready for another war in Iraq? [View all]JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)Since August 1990!
And the U.S. government is entirely responsible for the situation that has now arisen, in a multitude of ways:
by destroying the Iraqi nation in an unprovoked and imperialist war of aggression at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives,
by letting U.S. foreign policy be run by military contractors and bloodthirsty geopoliticians claiming "realpolitik,"
by promoting the bloody civil wars and ethnic cleansing,
by not cleaning house of the war criminals but "looking forward,"
by the long alliance with the Gulf states, a coterie of repressive monarchical dictatorships that created and armed the "Islamic State" and crushed the "Arab Spring,"
by arming and at times backing all of the various sides, such that claims of CIA origins for IS and al-Qaeda itself are all too credible,
by always in a crunch preferring "our bastards" no matter how extremist to independent secular movements.
In the absence of a full acknowledgement of that history, and of measures to assure it does not continue (by uprooting the U.S.-based parts of the machinery that drove the history), it's an absurdity to think a new military intervention, without historical consciousness and with transparently bullshit motives ("protecting American personnel," please) is going to yield a chaos superior to any of the other interventions.
As a first step, when an administration announces an end to the alliances and arms deals with the Gulf states backing IS and an intent to see peace in the region on the basis of current borders, it might be taken seriously. That even this is "utopian" is another indicator of our predicament. Instead "we" are off to bomb our new enemy, while continuing to supply arms and support for the states that arm and finance it.
Who has the courage to lead and take on the risks of self-examination? Ain't evident in the present or in any prospective administration. All of them live politically from historical denial and self-praising bullshit, ever since Reagan proved this is a formula for success in American politics.