War Thoughts
I read a news story just now that strikes me as absurd. It is the brouhaha about Governor Mitt Romney using the term tar baby. When asked about his influence on Boston's Big Dig Bridge Tunnel project, Gov. Romney stated that he wanted to stay away from that tar baby. Although I can understand this word probably is antiquated, I still find it hard to believe that any intelligent person would suggest that the governor of Massachusetts was making a racial slur against a bridge tunnel. I know that the term tar baby has, unfortunately, been used in an unflattering way towards subsections of our society, I think in this case the context was clear; that the governor did not want to get entangled in a sticky situation. Besides, everyone knows the Bridge Tunnel project is an Uncle Tom.
There's lots of war in the news. Wars and rumors of wars, there are those that say we are in the beginning phases of World War III. That may be true, but we will see. I am not trying to be an alarmist about the situation though, in fact I feel a little relieved and I'll tell you why: remember all the ridiculous weapons and fear that our jackbooted friends in the homeland security department came up with after 9/11? Remember the suitcase nukes? Remember the dirty bombs? Remember the shoe bomber? Remember the anthrax? Remember the impending doom threatened on us like chemical nuclear and biological weapons that seemed to be lurking around every corner? remember the duct tape and plastic sheets? Well, I have every belief that if there was a stockpile of all these truly horrible things, we would see them getting used in Israel right now. I mean, there's a lot of tension going on out there Iran's getting their troops fired up, Syria's getting their troops fired up, and there's not too many media stories about all the countries that are hiding in the background waiting to aid their allies. These recent Gaza Strip activities have polarized nations, in a way that makes me reflect back on Archduke Ferdinand's assassination in World War I.
The way I see it, I think this is about to get a lot worse. I can't help it feel that America's offensive in Afghanistan, and subsequent offensive in Iraq are strong precursors in the situation. There are multiple points on which this offensive has been waged, the search for Osama bin Laden, the war on terror, bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq, the search for weapons of mass distraction, etc. but these reasons all seem to have a common theme of vengeance and retribution gowned in the foppery of a preemptive strike. Now this is a theme that it jihadist can sink his teeth into.
It is these vengeance/retribution themes that I keep coming back to when I look back on the situation. Probably the news article that disturbed me the most and yet was the most unbelievable to me, was a story I read about a ship the U.S. Navy was building using and I-beam from the World Trade Center as the keel. What is up with this? I've found that story to be a little bit repulsive my version of American sensibility. It was like reading about a Nazi blood ritual or some other medieval ceremony whose whole sole purpose was to inspire bloodthirstiness.
The Middle East is a situation that America had grown complacent about for a great number of years, and quite frankly, was an Uncle Tom that no US president wanted to touch. Although we had had our run ins with the violence in the Middle East, such as the hostage situation in 1979,it had been a policy to firmly negotiate in situations, repercussions. We suffered small losses in both personnel and pride, but the overall effect was that this turd stayed in our neighbor's backyard. That is until 9/11. To me it seems there is no denying the calculated brilliance of 9/11.
America has long been taunted to bring its troops into a Middle East conflict. 9/11 was the gambit that produce this result. The result was calculated and proved effective. This too is a common theme I see in this conflict, you can see it with the Soviets in Afghanistan, where a large, industrial, mechanized army is drawn out to engage a guerrilla force on its home turf. The lessons that were taught in the Vietnam conflict have been well studied and well used by small enemies. This tactic is also effective in morale. In the home country, every enemy's death can be seen and is therefore tangible to those that know the area. In the converse, the death of a soldier is seen as happening far away, killed by invisible enemies, are not understood.
I think it is precisely these reasons that we have not been engaged in this area in the past. I think it took a spectacle as large as 9/11 to provoke us. I think it was a one-time event, that had the desired effect. There is no further need to terrorize America in my opinion, for what would be the purpose? America is in a reactive state whereby its actions are prompted by the actions of others. This is a very dangerous situation, for you are no longer in control of the situation. In this case, in the desert, in the mountains, there is plenty of time and solitude to construct well conceived and highly detailed scenarios which may be put into play.
There's lots of war in the news. Wars and rumors of wars, there are those that say we are in the beginning phases of World War III. That may be true, but we will see. I am not trying to be an alarmist about the situation though, in fact I feel a little relieved and I'll tell you why: remember all the ridiculous weapons and fear that our jackbooted friends in the homeland security department came up with after 9/11? Remember the suitcase nukes? Remember the dirty bombs? Remember the shoe bomber? Remember the anthrax? Remember the impending doom threatened on us like chemical nuclear and biological weapons that seemed to be lurking around every corner? remember the duct tape and plastic sheets? Well, I have every belief that if there was a stockpile of all these truly horrible things, we would see them getting used in Israel right now. I mean, there's a lot of tension going on out there Iran's getting their troops fired up, Syria's getting their troops fired up, and there's not too many media stories about all the countries that are hiding in the background waiting to aid their allies. These recent Gaza Strip activities have polarized nations, in a way that makes me reflect back on Archduke Ferdinand's assassination in World War I.
The way I see it, I think this is about to get a lot worse. I can't help it feel that America's offensive in Afghanistan, and subsequent offensive in Iraq are strong precursors in the situation. There are multiple points on which this offensive has been waged, the search for Osama bin Laden, the war on terror, bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq, the search for weapons of mass distraction, etc. but these reasons all seem to have a common theme of vengeance and retribution gowned in the foppery of a preemptive strike. Now this is a theme that it jihadist can sink his teeth into.
It is these vengeance/retribution themes that I keep coming back to when I look back on the situation. Probably the news article that disturbed me the most and yet was the most unbelievable to me, was a story I read about a ship the U.S. Navy was building using and I-beam from the World Trade Center as the keel. What is up with this? I've found that story to be a little bit repulsive my version of American sensibility. It was like reading about a Nazi blood ritual or some other medieval ceremony whose whole sole purpose was to inspire bloodthirstiness.
The Middle East is a situation that America had grown complacent about for a great number of years, and quite frankly, was an Uncle Tom that no US president wanted to touch. Although we had had our run ins with the violence in the Middle East, such as the hostage situation in 1979,it had been a policy to firmly negotiate in situations, repercussions. We suffered small losses in both personnel and pride, but the overall effect was that this turd stayed in our neighbor's backyard. That is until 9/11. To me it seems there is no denying the calculated brilliance of 9/11.
America has long been taunted to bring its troops into a Middle East conflict. 9/11 was the gambit that produce this result. The result was calculated and proved effective. This too is a common theme I see in this conflict, you can see it with the Soviets in Afghanistan, where a large, industrial, mechanized army is drawn out to engage a guerrilla force on its home turf. The lessons that were taught in the Vietnam conflict have been well studied and well used by small enemies. This tactic is also effective in morale. In the home country, every enemy's death can be seen and is therefore tangible to those that know the area. In the converse, the death of a soldier is seen as happening far away, killed by invisible enemies, are not understood.
I think it is precisely these reasons that we have not been engaged in this area in the past. I think it took a spectacle as large as 9/11 to provoke us. I think it was a one-time event, that had the desired effect. There is no further need to terrorize America in my opinion, for what would be the purpose? America is in a reactive state whereby its actions are prompted by the actions of others. This is a very dangerous situation, for you are no longer in control of the situation. In this case, in the desert, in the mountains, there is plenty of time and solitude to construct well conceived and highly detailed scenarios which may be put into play.
posted by Ion Farmer at 08:40
1 Where you can pretend that I care about what you have to say...
