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).
