Category Archives: Middle East

‘War, War And War Some More’ For Some Time

Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Middle East, Military, Neoconservatism, War

Do we have a president “whose words and actions are untethered to principle,” as Andrew J. Bacevich contends?

Consider the range of issues where President Trump has backed away from actions that as a candidate he had vowed to take, more often than not on ‘day one’ of his presidency. The US remains fully committed to the Nato alliance that Trump previously denounced as ‘obsolete’. The ‘One China’ policy of previous administrations remains intact, as does the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor. That Trump will abrogate the North American Free Trade Agreement appears about as likely as Mexico paying for any ‘wall’ along the American border. The US embassy in Israel has not moved to Jerusalem and is unlikely to do so any time soon. Trump’s ‘secret plan’ to defeat Isis differs little from Obama’s plan, apart from more bombs and a handful of additional US troops. And Trump’s longed-for friendship with Vladimir Putin has yet to bloom. The Trump administration neither acknowledges nor provides any rationale for these shifts. Over the course of a single news cycle, positions once said to represent the President’s considered view simply become inoperative. Without explanation, the gunboat sent to Agadir weighs anchor and goes home, leaving behind bewilderment and relief.
In other circumstances, we might chalk up the disparity between what a president says while a candidate and then does on the job to mere politics. Or see it as evidence of an individual sobered by responsibility and ‘growing’ in office. Yet such explanations do not apply here. …
Like Wilhelm II, Trump is given to bluster and to striking poses. His compulsion to look tough is apparent. So too is his need to command attention and his affinity for military pomp. He loves generals.

We know of Syria, because the offensive there was launched, today, to great fanfare. But, says a Spectator writer, there’s been “War, war and war some more” for some time. This reality has been concealed by the Russia parallel reality created by Fake News media.

It’s often said that the Trump administration is ‘isolationist’. This is not true. In fact, we are now witnessing a dramatic escalation in the militarisation of US foreign policy in the Middle East, Africa and Afghanistan. This has not been announced but it is happening, and much of it without consultation with Nato or other key allies, or any debate in Congress or the media.
A few weeks ago, US aircraft carried out over 30 air strikes against Islamic militants in Yemen — almost the same as the number carried out there all last year. In Iraq and Syria there have been many reports of civilian casualties in US raids. As many as 200 are thought to have been killed in air strikes on Mosul, although Iraqi authorities dispute that.
Meanwhile, some 400 US troops are going to Syria to set up an artillery base to retake Raqqa. Another 1,000 may soon be sent to Kuwait as a reserve force. Another 400 have gone to Iraq and some 8,000 will go to Afghanistan.
Quite an active policy, for someone with no interest in it. A closer look at Trump’s senior aides helps to explain — they’re often from the military. The State Department may be downgraded but the military has never had a stronger influence on a president. …

UPDATED (2/7): BRAVO: A US Marine Who Puts Americans FIRST

Homeland Security, Islam, Middle East, Military, Nationhood, Neoconservatism

A neoconservative wish-come-true is for the Empire’s Army to be loyal to the satellite states (Iraq, etc.) and the mission; not to Americans first. These, unfortunately, can no longer be conflated. They should be, but are not, one and the same thing.

This remarkable US Marine, however, is unwilling to think as he is trained to think by a military brass that increasingly flouts its limited, constitutional obligations. Here’s a Marine whose fidelity isn’t to Empire, but to America First, to his fellow Americans. This Marine has certainly not been afflicted with a Lawrence of Arabia complex. Bravo.

RELATED:

“Beware The Values Cudgel.”
“Lawrence Of Arabia: Lionized Liar”
“Your Government’s Jihadi Protection Program”:

… the military is government. The military works like government; is financed like government, and sports many of the same inherent malignancies of government. Like government, it must be kept small. Conservatives can’t coherently preach against the evils of big government, while excluding the military mammoth.

UPDATE (2/7):

Not every public official is as faithful:


Suppression:


Weak:

UPDATED (2/5): When I First Began To Suspect That Muslims ‘Embellish’

Islam, Israel, Middle East, Multiculturalism, Terrorism

Call me biased—lowlife lefties will—but it started when I was very small. (I certainly had, still have, a good memory, because I remember it all.) With no warning, the 1967 Six-Day War began. It was quite safe for an Israeli child to wander about alone along the paths of the Yishuv, in which we lived. That’s what I was doing at the time. A man grabbed me and carried me down to the underground shelter. The border with Jordan was close by back then, and we could hear the artillery. Someone switched on the radio. We tuned into the infamous broadcasts out of Cairo, according to which Israel was losing the war.

Even as the Egyptian air force was wiped out, and its ground forces were getting slaughtered in the deserts of Sinai, Egyptian radio was broadcasting its glorious victories: They were bombing Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, destroying the enemy with impunity, etc.

“Itbuch el yuhood” were the words most frequently deployed. (“Slaughter the Jews.”)

Translating the rest, the grown-ups explained that the crazed broadcaster was saying that the Jews were being thrown into the sea, but not to worry, children, the Arabs were lying for a change.

Yes, I confess. I heard that a lot when I was growing up in an Israel that was once non-leftist and patriotic, reality oriented (today, thanks to American influence, it’s more like America).

We won the war in six days and no Jew was thrown into the sea. Of course, it was also true, against common Israeli myth, that many on the other side fought valiantly. Nevertheless, stereotypes are often supported by evidence.

That’s what crosses the mind when I see the many tall tales about how many Muslims have already died en route because of President Donald Trump’s travel ban. For one of many instances, see “Fake news: Iraqi-American lied when he claimed that his mother died due to Trump ban.”

Do you get the impression immigrants you don’t necessarily want here will do anything (including to play guilt-riddled, gullible Americans), in order to gain unfettered access to the US and its generous welfare programs?

* By the way, the Muslim world that attacked Israel, back in those good old days, was much more secular. If anything, it has regressed.

UPDATE (2/2):

Linda Sarsour:

What About Donald Trump’s Security Detail? Has IT Been Infiltrated?

Affirmative Action, Donald Trump, Homeland Security, Islam, Middle East, Terrorism

The shooter who assassinated the Russian envoy to Turkey, Andrey G. Karlov, is “described by Turkish officials as a 22-year-old off-duty police officer.”

Off duty or on duty, does the security detail of President-elect Donald Trump include Muslims who may be similarly “awakened”? These budding Jihadis are being flooded with images of Syrians dying in a civil war between the American-backed ISIS rebels, as against Bashar Assad and Vladimir Putin. Eric Margolis:

[T]he US has long aided ISIS and still sees it as a potent weapon against the Assad government. Why else would it take the US and its Arab and Kurdish foot soldiers so long to move against ISIS strongholds at Raqqa and Mosul– which are, as this writer knows, only a taxi-ride away? ISIS is a rag-tag bunch of 20-something amateur Rambos, not the Wehrmacht.
One likely answer is that imperial Washington is totally confused over whom to support and how to do it. The bewildering fracas between Sunnis, Shia, Kurds, Arabs, Yazidis, assorted Christians, ISIS wildmen, egged on the US, Israel, Turkey, Russia, France, Britain, Lebanon, Jordan, the oil Arabs is just too much for Washington’s ill-educated, or often downright dim policy makers. …

Backing ISIS.


Be careful.


No place for Prince of Peace.


BHO goes a golfing:


Merkel must go.


Be a good dhimmi:


Fake News?


RELATED: Islamic Infiltration: How Deep, How Wide?