The War Machine

With Muslim extremists going medieval on journalists, the usual team of war-mongers in the Senate (you know McCain, Graham, Feinstein) are being joined by the same herd of lemmings that rushed into Iraq last time and are calling for another war (our third).

You would think that after two wars, a 10-year occupation, $3 trillion, thousands of dead Americans and tens of thousands of shattered U.S. families, we would realize the futility. But war is not a geo-political means to an end for this America, it is simply good business. With Afghanistan winding down we need another war and the primitives in Iraq have served up a heaping helping of self-righteous justification.

It’s not that I am not outraged by the savage nature of ISIS, but we are a bit like the abusive parents of a psychopath: we created ISIS. When we destroyed the fragile social structures holding the old Iraq together after the invasion and deliberately set the religious sects against each other, we created a fertile Petri dish for ISIS and their predecessors. When Obama dithered, and Congress did what they always do (nothing) and refused to fund “moderate” Syrian opposition, the door was opened. Add to the mix plenty of funding to ISIS from our “allies,” the Saudis and Qataris, and viola!

Every time we bomb Muslims we create 10 more enemies. Every time we allow them to work out their religious differences there are less. It is as simple as this: when we are there, they shoot at us. When we are not there, they shoot at each other. The journalists were killed after we bombed ISIS. Now the Saudis are begging for us to bomb away the problem they have been funding, and our interests are suddenly aligned with regimes we have already labeled as enemies, namely Assad and Iran.

After 10 years in Iraq it is as chaotic as it was after we created the chaos. After 11 years in Afghanistan, it is as chaotic as it ever was since Alexander the Great. Would we lose more American lives if we invade Iraq/Syria and occupy them for another 10 years, or if we let them work out their own issues? But it’s not really about Iraq, Iran, Syria or any “moral obligation,” is it?

It’s about making money with war.