print“The Iraq Study Group has advised the administration to try a few more tricks before getting our spent men and materiel out of Iraq. Led by James Baker and Lee Hamilton, the Group is especially desperate to secure Iran and Syria’s assistance in reversing Iraq’s fortunes. If its central thrust is accepted, “Enhanced diplomatic and political efforts in the region” will, slowly, replace localized brute force.
There is, however, a pesky problem with galvanizing the newfangled axis of angels.
One of the aims of Bush’s disastrous occupation of Iraq was to weaken—even collapse—the Islamic Republic. He has achieved the exact opposite of what he intended. Iran has superseded the US as the most influential power in the region. Syria is second. Both have collaborated nicely in getting Zelzal-2 missiles and short-range Katyusha rockets to Hezbollah. Israel, like the monkey-see-monkey-do country it has become, followed the US’s bliss, as hippies would say, and leveled Lebanon. That failed mission further entrenched the terrible troika—Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah—as the region’s top dogs.
So how do the politically weak entice the strong? How does America leverage influence over Iran and Syria? Promise not to invade them? Threaten not to return their captured soldiers? ‘Allow’ mad Mahmoud to enrich Uranium? We’ve gambled away almost all our bargaining chips—bar one.
We still have Israel…”
The excerpt is from my new WorldNetDaily column, “The Iraq Study Group’s Magic Realism.” Comments are welcome.
There is no magical realism. [Read here what “magic realism” means] It should be pointed out the Iraqi invasion turned into a disaster because America timidly stopped short. It should have taken over Damascus and moved to oust the mullahs in Iran. What is a truism is its almost impossible to build a free society in Iraq if totalitarian dictatorships on both sides of it flood the country with terrorists to undermine it and drive out America. In hindsight, the war looks like a badly conceived venture. But now that America is in the thick of it, the only possible outcome is victory. The road ahead is not to appease America’s enemies but to destroy them. A piece of magical realism lost on the Baker Boys.
Please read ‘At Least Saddam Kept Order‘ and ‘Conservatives in Name Only’
BINGO! Thank you Ilana for pointing out the obsurdity of Baker and Company regarding the Golan Heights part of the deal. My question for the Iraq Surrender Group would be how the U.S. can give away a strategic part of Israel (Golan) when it is not ours to give away? The Golan is a strategic stronghold for the Israeli military (not to mention THEIR land). A giveaway to Syria would be disastrous for Israel. Oh how I pray for Netanyahu to somehow regain the office of Prime Minister. He is the only one (it would appear) who understands what Israel is facing.
Along with extricating ourselves from Iraq, we have to figure out a way to end our financial support of Israel. Not to because Israel needs to be punished, but rather to give it a freer hand to defend itself as it sees fit. This aid only ties Israel’s hands even as it damages American credibility in the region. Both countries would be better off severing this “special” relationship.
[Well said. See “Libertarians Who Loathe Israel“ and “Foaming at the Mouth Over Israel.” Still, I never hear libertarians call for ending aid to the Arab countries, much less mention the obscene amounts of money we give to the savage Palestinians.]
There is no way The Lord God Almighty is going to countenance the pig-pen politics squirted out of the mire by those commissioners. That land is not to be eternally subject to herds of marauding hogs, it is God’s gift to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It will be defended and delivered…not to Kazars, but to the Sons of Jacob…
Don’t you just love our all-seeing, all-knowing overlords? They’re rather like the Cargo-Cultists, to borrow a descriptive phrase from Howard Sutherland (a regular poster at Larry Auster’s site and sometime contributor at VDARE): ‘If we build it, they will come!” First, they attempt to apply their magic thinking with the Neo-Jacobins’ World Democratic Revolutionâ„¢, because in the heart of every jihadi from Mecca to Molucca there is an unquenchable yearning for democracy, as we all know. To quote Sutherland: “If we build a copy of Independence Hall in every country’s capital city, native Founding Fathers will suddenly appear and conjure local Liberal Democracy! Goofy, but no goofier than our neo-magic in Iraq… ”
Since that has blown up in our face (literally), we’re now into a new “pragmatism” at the behest of Papa Bush’s longtime cronies, which roughly translates into ‘Let’s sit down for some nice diplomat chit-chat with ‘Mad Johnny’ (the nascent 12th Imam) and other assorted thugs so that we can politely ask them to let us dhimmis withdraw from without too much further molestation from the mujahedin (and embarrassment for us). At the same time, we’ll tie Israel into the whole Iraq issue (with the implicit promise to pull Olmert’s strings into giving even more land and assorted concessions to the ‘Palestinians’). Leaving Gaza worked so well for the Israelis, after all. How could they turn down such a great opportunity?
The towering hubris of these fools is exceeded only by their ignorance and stupidity.
The ones that still (sort of) surprise me here are the boble-head figures who presently run Israel. I would have hoped, with all the jihad-inspired mayhem right their in their midst, that there would be sufficient numbers of Israelis who understood the difference between reality vs. fantasy – unwilling to follow charlatans like Olmert down that well-paved road to you-know-where. Michael Savage nailed it: Liberalism is indeed a mental illness. [We disagree; that implies a lack of responsibility for their actions] A 12-step program is needed for all westerners, Israelis included. Let’s call it Dhimmis Anonymous! [Punishment, not “treatment,” is the proper solution for treason.]
Negotiate with the Iranians? What do we have to negotiate with? Money? I don’t think they’re short of funds. Good faith? Why should we expect good faith? In international affairs a country only gets “good faith” when it is strong enough to demand it. We are not. The jihadists of all countries now despise us as weaklings. They call us a “paper tiger”. They are pretty much correct. Our leaders have cowtowed to the Palestinians, the Mexicans, the North Koreans, the Iranians, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and God knows who else for so long nobody listens when we talk except to scoff and ridicule. I would hate to be in Israel’s shoes right now. We’re the only real ally they have right now and we are looking weaker by the day. Negotiate with the Iranians? What a farce. I hope they don’t start to get tough down in Trinidad and Tobago. Our political leadership in both parties would probably wet their pants.
Ilana, I see your point about punishment – especially when it comes to the total irresponsibility – even treason – of western leaders like Olmert. The thing that I find both distressing and inexplicable is how a plurality of the Israeli electorate voluntarily elect someone like him to preside over the destruction of their country – as they stand in the very midst of continual jihadist mayhem and murder.
This is where I think Larry Auster’s description of the liberalism as a type of disease process or, more accurately, a narcotic intoxication is particularly valuable. Liberalism has become so thoroughly ingrained in western thought that it would take something truly horrific to shake western people from their present state of complacent suicidal insanity. Israel, the youngest western nation-state, is displaying the progression of this disease with an unexpected and alarming rapidity.
The election of a man like Olmert would have been inconceivable even 15 years ago. [I’m not sure about that: Israel has had the leftist Labor in power before.] Today, it is not completely unthinkable that the Israelis would one day acquiesce to a UN/Baker/Bush scheme to allow the ‘Palestinians’ the “right of return” into Israel proper, which would effectively abolish Israel as a nation, as part of some ‘comprehensive peace program’ for the region.
Such “magical thinking” infects not only the leaders, but large swaths of the people they lead. BTW, I do not hold the position that mental illness completely absolves one of all moral responsibility (as in the insanity defense for murder one encounters from time to time). It may be reasonably counted as a mitigating factor in determining severity of punishment, but nothing more. [For my perspective see “Trading Morality for Medical Mumbo-Jumbo” and “Broken Brains?“] You’re right to point out the falseness of the idea that every evil is a disease in need of ‘treatment’, though. That is yet another example of the pervasiveness of liberal thinking.
It is amazing to me to see the incompetence displayed by our current administration. I mean, they supposedly have the means of gathering the proper “intelligence,” but seeing the results of supposed enlightened decisions is, to me, quite scary! From a personal standpoint all I know is that the US should continue to encourage Israel to keep its land. Instead, we seem to be constantly increasing pressure on them to give up more of their God-given land.
A sorry state indeed. But, I do believe that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will, in the end, prevail over the “wisdom of man.”
Paul David