The neocons are back, although not by popular demand.
Yesterday, the New York Times ran a nauseating profile of Robert Kagan, one of the Flying Wallenda, I mean Kagan, war tribe consisting of Robert, father Donald, and brother Frederick. Tough guys all!
The justification for the article is that the Kagans have come out of hiding because their Iraq policy has proven a success. Their thinking goes like this:
Yes, we helped steamroll the US into invading Iraq and we were right. The problem we are seeing today is that George W. Bush got cold feet about escalating the war and then that coward Obama pretty much ended it. So look what you have now. Disaster. And it’s because you didn’t leave our allies Cheney and Rumsfeld in charge.
No need to rebut any of that for this audience. Most of my readers believe that all the architects of the Iraq war belong at The Hague not in loving New York Times profiles.
To be honest, I don’t know what we should be doing in Iraq now but I do think it is our obligation to do something. The United States is responsible for everything that has gone wrong in Iraq since we invaded. We are obligated to help the Iraqi people as genocidal monsters descend on the country. After all, had we never gone in, they wouldn’t be there either.
I’m glad the administration seems willing to work with Iran to help Iraq and, frankly, help us. There is no other force in the region that appears either capable or willing to do so. The Saudis, of course,won’t; they don’t have problems with Sunni terrorists. But Iran does, even worse problems than we have.
So working with Iran is a natural and pretty much everyone is for it except…the Israel Firsters.
From Max Boot , to Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen , to Bill Kristol to all the writers at Commentary, there is universal opposition.
And why? Because Boss Netanyahu opposes any U.S. dealings with Iran and so they are duty bound to do the same.
No matter that ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) is committing war crimes (maybe even genocide) in Iraq just as they did in Syria; the Firsters don’t care. Actually, many of them do care, and are chomping at the bit to see American “boots on the ground” to fight ISIS. But involve Iran to ensure that Americans don’t have to fight in Iraq again. NEVER.
That is because the Firsters are exclusively dedicated to what they think is in Israel’s interests (they are wrong, of course). So even if we could crush ISIS with Iran’s help, they will say NO because saving Iraq (and even America?) from ISIS would score propaganda points for Iran. That is what it means to be an Israel Firster (more precisely, a Netanyahu Firster). No matter what the situation you must decide, “good for Bibi” or “bad for Bibi.” They would even make decisions about domestic sugar subsidies using that yardstick.
Watch as the debate continues. See if you can predict who will oppose cooperating with Iran to defeat ISIS. I think you can. And you know why.
Let me know if any Israel Firster strays from the line from Jerusalem.
Don’t hold your breath.
Not waiting for that or for the neocons to repent for their role in sending 4500 young Americans to die in a war of choice for absolutely nothing.
When evil and wrong deeds are carried out, only evil or more senister evil will come out of it! Destroying Iraq, and now Syria was an evil act, and more human lives and suffering was , is and will be the result of those evil crimes, including what we see today. The war (invading) of Iraq, resulted in the death of more than one Million Iraqi humans- and still counting- and the destruction of an ancient treasured civilization , to bring what? That’s is what it brings,what we see today, so if any of you guessed or predicted anything else, or you were fooling yourselves ,or lying to others( i think its this one, because ,I think the main reason ,is to bring disorder ,distruction and civil/sectarian wars to the Region)or you are limited in your thinking for not realizing that evil will always bring out the evil in others! In my opinion, their evil is less evil than ours ,as they feel they need to defend themselves for their own survival , while we invaded their homes for God knows what for, as my opinion will included not very pleasant words and thoughts,so use your honesty and imagination if you want to be truthful with yourself. Does that make any of it right? No, it does not. Evil has to stop all over the world so, humanity can servive and be celebrated.
I’m not an American and live in a small country of no great strategic importance. But, if I may, I would caution the US against any further military or political involvement in Iraq, either directly or through surrogates.
Firstly, there’s the ethical question. No side deserves the support of any enlightened Democracy such as you claim to be. Certainly, neither the Shiite sectarians currently pretending to run the joint or the Sunni fanatics challenging them deserve such support. Moreover, any involvement by you is likely to boost the body count.
Then there’s the prudential argument. Any side you chose to support would carry the obloquy of that support. That’s also true, by the way, of the Kurds, with whom I have some sympathy. And this is your fault for having completely messed up Iraq in the first place and having sowed new seeds of hatred in a part of the world where such seeds were already plentiful.
You are under no obligation to “do something” as anything you do will only make matters worse. As a nation, you need to forget about standing tall and seeing further. Contra Madeleine Albright, you tend to suffer from advanced myopia as far as the Middle East is concerned.
You have to forget about being the “essential nation” and become just a good global citizen like other democratic countries, providing humanitarian assistance but staying away from power plays. And, when you’ve followed that path for a few decades, your many virtues will again shine forth and be appreciated by a larger slice of the world’s populace, as they continue to be by my humble self.
In the meantime, more of you should learn a bit of Arabic, Turkish and/or Parsi, although, obviously, this is less important than more of you learning Mandarin.