Just take our ball and go home. That’s the answer.
There’s nothing for us there. Nothing worth fighting for.
And certainly nothing worth dying for.
It’s just a bottomless hole to pour money and American lives down.
The cold hard reality of 2020 is that we don’t need anything
from anyone there. We don’t even need
their oil anymore. We have plenty of our own, thank you.
So I say, let’s just leave.
Pack up our stuff and go.
They claim they don't want us there, anyway. Okay.
Fly our combat aircraft to other bases in Europe, then run a
bunch of military cargo planes and container ships out there and load up
everything we can and bring it all home. Everything: tanks, Humvees, jeeps,
artillery, heavy weapons, missiles, antiaircraft systems, small arms, all the
ammunition, and whatever else we’ve given them.
Don’t leave anything behind.
Seriously, leave nothing useful.
What we can’t ship back, we should destroy. Not just pull distributor caps, let the air
out of tires, or paint a giant pink X on it.
I’m talking molten heaps of stuff.
No way to recover.
Of course, that’s wasteful. But it was a waste to ship in all that stuff
in the first place. If we leave anything useful behind for our “allies” the bad
guys will soon have everything we left. Corrupt
weasels in Iraq or Afghanistan will just give it or sell it to the same people
we’ve been fighting against on their behalf for all these years. They’ve done it repeatedly before.
What about our loyal allies there? Are we just going to turn our back on all of
them now?
Yessiree-bob. The
same way they turn their backs on us all the time.
Everybody needs to come to grips with the fact that we don’t
have any loyal allies there. Nobody in
that region is the loyal ally of anyone, much less us. Every “alliance” is temporary and merely one
of convenience. They all hate each other, and us. They hated each other before we got there,
and, trust me, they’ll continue to hate each other long after we’re gone.
We’ve deluded ourselves for years that by supporting some
despot or warlord with money and weapons they become our ally. Our friend.
They’d support us when it mattered.
That’s completely delusional. None of them would lift a
finger to help us. Most of them think we’re hopelessly naïve, that we’ll never
understand that region, and they are right. They’re happy to take our money and
weapons and wait for us to leave. Then they can go back to killing each other –
which is really their favorite pastime.
We have no business there.
We’re just interfering with the natural order. We're holding up play.
Think-tank wonks hate to admit it but the Middle East is nothing
but a toxic mix of warring tribes and ethnic and religious hostilities. Persians, Arabs, Kurds, Pashtun, and God knows
what other ethnic groups are there and usually at each other’s throats.
Some religious groups – like the Sunni and Shia – have hated
and killed each other for over a thousand years. Some Sunni hate other Sunni who aren’t
fundamentalist enough for their tastes.
It’s a mistake to think they all want lasting peace. They don’t.
Their leaders love never ending wars; wars distract their people
from realizing how corrupt their governments are. Wars keep them in power, keep
foreign aid money flowing, and hide a lot of economic shortcomings. Wars are also much needed jobs programs. Because,
frankly, there’s not a lot else worthwhile to do for a living in most of these places.
The warmongers in our Congress and their lobbyist pals know
this. They know supporting foreign wars is a complete waste of our money and
military lives. But that’s how they keep
power and make money – spending taxpayer money to stay in office and enrich
themselves.
DOD spending drives the economies of many regions stateside
and keeps high-paying manufacturing and research jobs in key states and
Congressional districts. Lobbyists for these defense contractors and foreign
governments are a rich source of campaign contributions for Congress, and
lucrative post-government positions with lobbying firms or defense contractors.
Foreign wars consume what our defense industry makes. More
wars mean we need to make more to keep up with demand. More wars, more local jobs,
more profits, more campaign money, more votes.
That’s the real reason hawks in Congress support meaningless
foreign wars. Forget the BS about
protecting allies abroad from bad guys. Forget
the line that “if we don’t fight them there, we’ll have to fight them here.” Forget
“domino theory” analogies. Forget all
the crap about our obligation to uphold human rights and foster democracy
around the world.
If we walk away from the Middle East, it won’t change
anything. If we stay there it won’t change
anything either, except cost us more money and American lives.
It’s long past time to cut our losses. What’s the worst that could happen?
We’d lose face. Our “allies” would be concerned that they
could no longer trust us to protect them.
Good. Maybe they’d get off their ass and protect themselves.
Russia would move into the fill the void. Good luck there, Ivan. Remember Afghanistan? It’s just a matter of
time before the locals turn on you, too. Religious extremists on all sides will
take time out from killing each other to kill your people. Just for sport.
Iran will take over Iraq.
Well, they’ll have to fight the Kurds, the Sunni militias, Shia militias
that turn on them, and who knows else to pull that off. It will be Iran’s Vietnam
and Afghanistan rolled into one. That is, if the mullahs aren’t overthrown by
the Iranians first.
Meanwhile, US public opinion will largely welcome and
support the withdrawal. Much to the chagrin of talking heads and pundits on
cable news and elsewhere.
Oh, I am forgetting some other consequences. Our media and Democrats will go berserk; the same
media and Democrats usually in favor of cutting our defense budget and getting
out of meaningless wars. Lobbyists will
flood the hallways of Congress. In a
rare display of bipartisanship, the House and Senate will pass a resolution
condemning our withdrawal.
Our State Department will warn of dire consequences to our
international reputation. Former State Department officials, and past military officials
like Mattis, will testify before Congress that we’re putting the security of the
world at risk. And creating an
existential threat to our nation.
Lindsey Graham will go on TV to dramatically announce he’s
sending a “very strong letter” to the President opposing withdrawal from the
Middle East.
One last repercussion: the Europeans will follow us out of
the Middle East – our withdrawal will give them the cover they’ve been waiting
for to get out, too.
Let’s do it.
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