ANOTHER STUPID WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST

ANOTHER STUPID WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST

By Jack Random

“The stupid endless wars, for us, are ending.”

Donald Trump, Twitter:  9 October 2019

Of all the lies Donald Trump delivered on his twisted road to the White House the most insipid, nefarious and damnable was the one that promised no more “stupid wars” in the Middle East.   

That was then.  This is now.  Trump stands poised to take a desperate dive into war that so many failing presidents have resorted to before him.  George HW Bush had his little war in Panama and his Gulf War prelude to the War in Iraq.  Bill Clinton had his wag the dog excursion into Kosovo.  George W. Bush dove headlong into the quagmire of Afghanistan and the and the ongoing disaster in Iraq. 

True or not, it is commonly believed that Americans will rally to a president at war and Trump is due to forget his campaign promise and take the dive.  Whether it is his doing or that of his neocon Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the US carried out airstrikes against an Iraqi militia killing 25 soldiers.  The bombings were a tragic and potentially catastrophic mistake.  They were not sanctioned by the Iraqi government.  In fact both Iran and Iraq condemned the action. 

Trump and company justified the strikes on two grounds:  First, it was in retaliation for attacks on US bases in Iraq, one of which killed an American contractor (otherwise known as a mercenary).  Second, the militia is connected to Iran and that apparently is justification enough. 

Whatever the justification, thousands of protestors assaulted the American embassy to express their outrage.  It seems the people of Iraq do not have warm feelings for the nation that attacked their homeland without provocation.  It seems the Shiites have warmer feelings toward their Iranian neighbor than they do for the military superpower that attempted and ultimately failed to occupy their country.  It seems there is some animosity when you terrorize a nation, kill tens of thousands of their people and wound countless soldiers and civilians alike. 

The retaliatory bombing campaign came at the same time the Iraqi government was once again on the brink of collapse.  Its security forces have killed an estimated 500 citizens who have risen in protest against the government. 

America’s recent and sudden withdrawal from northern Syria has left the region in turmoil.  Russia has regained control of her client state, Turkey is emboldened in its desire to crush the Kurdish independent movement and the Islamic State is regaining momentum.  Both the Kurds and the Iranian supported militias have played a crucial role in fighting the forces of ISIS.

Now our naïve president has been sucked into the escalation of American forces.  It begins with a few hundred marines but where does it end?  The Iraqi government has condemned the American bombing campaign as a violation of national sovereignty.  Legislation is being proposed to demand withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq.  What will our president do then? 

Trump continues to view the conflict as one between Iran and America but he fails to understand that the vast majority of the Iraqi people are against us.  We cannot be drawn into another prolonged war in the region.  But rather than pause to reflect on the consequences of our actions, our fearless leader chooses to take the most provocative action possible short of launching a full-scale attack:  He orders the assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani at the Baghdad international airport. 

We are diving headlong into the most stupid war in an era of stupid wars.  It is the supremely stupid war because we have already proven the stupidity of endless war in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Now we are proposing a regional war with enemies on all sides:  Iran, Iraq, Syria and the Islamic State. 

It is the most stupid of stupid instigations to war because it legitimizes targeted assassination as a weapon of war.  One wonders if Pompeo warned the president about the dangers of this action.  Even warlike nations have always been reluctant to employ assassination lest the enemy replies in kind. 

We can disregard all the testimonials that Qasem Soleimani was an evil man.  He was a military man.  He followed the directives of his government.  The Iranians do not believe he was evil, the Iraqis do not believe he was evil and we did not believe he was evil when he was one of several commanders leading the fight against ISIS. 

The dehumanization of our adversaries is always prelude to war and this war has all the markings of a supremely idiotic, massively destructive mother of all Middle East wars. 

The president has lied and deceived us far too many times to be believed in a matter so crucial as war.  The president claims an attack on American forces was eminent.  There is a difference between eminent and inevitable. 

If we grant the accounts that the Iraqi-Shiite militias with strong ties to Iran have staged several attacks on American bases, the fact remains that only one American mercenary was killed in those attacks.  Twenty-five Iraqis were killed in the American retaliatory bombing.  And that was before the assassination of commander Soleimani and an Iraqi militia leader. 

When you are operating in a foreign nation, there is a code of conduct and proportionality is a part of that code.  There is a process for settling disputes in other nations.  We could have and should have filed a complaint against the accused militias.  Instead we bombed them.  We killed twenty-five and wounded some fifty others.  We could have and should have consulted our allies in Iraq before assassinating the commander of the Revolutionary Guard. 

The White House has warned members of congress that it expects retaliation within weeks.  That is an understatement of epic proportions.  We have escalated our involvement by sending thousands of troops to the region.  We have made yet another stupid war all but inevitable. 

Congress must rise to stop this insanity.  Barbara Lee, the only member of congress to vote against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, stands poised in the lower chamber.  Bernie Sanders stands ready in the senate. 

To any candidate who desires to be president:  Now is the time to demonstrate your mettle.  If you do not stand up against this war now, you do not meet the minimal requirements for assuming the office. 

Jazz. 

JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES, WASICHU, NUMBER NINE, GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION, PAWNS TO PLAYERS, GRAND CANYON ZEN GOLF TOUR AND OTHER WORKS (CROW DOG PRESS).