Have the Winds of Change Been Reversed?



The Middle East.

We have enough information available to make a prediction

But first, let’s take a look at the background.

When we first became engaged with Iraq during the First Gulf War, it seemed that we would be in and out in a matter of months and that would be it.

We will have made our point, returned the borders to what they were, and kicked Saddam in the pants.

But it has not worked out that way.

Yes, we accomplished our short term goals.

It is the longer term one’s that have eluded this country.

While the American people sat still for all of the reasons for wanting to go to War, the murkiness never went away and although we skirted around what really happened, the troops were content to believe that we went back to Iraq to settle for what happened on 9/11; that was the immediate reason.

Only, it never happened; it was a fiction created by the Pentagon and the “inner circle” of Neo-cons to justify their intentions of bringing Iraq under the power of America. For what reason?

It is hard despite all of the smokescreen to think that this is about anything but commodities, the power and riches that oil infers.

Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and anyone who understands the positions of both leaders, Saddam and bin Laden, would have no trouble understanding that these two men were polar opposites.

The unceasing hunt for more resources, however, is another matter.

Few know or recall that the allies of the Al Qaeda who controlled Afghanistan would be important allies in any program to transport Caspian Sea oil to other locations throughout the West…

We also seem to forget that the president of Afghanistan was an operative with Unocal; or that Iraq has the world’s fourth largest supply of oil remaining in the ground. Therefore, this author believes it was only a matter of time before we would find a way to take what they had. We saw it at the off-limits Energy session sponsored by Dick Cheney. We saw the motivation popping up in Neo-con references and comments…
And if 9/11 hadn’t happened, it would have had to be invented!

Because it opened Iraq to being victimized by public relations aimed at linking the country with events in New York.

Everyone who was objective and fair thinking objected to the assumptions but only the president, exercising his rights through Executive Privilege and whatever he was able to take away from Congress, was able to speed through the arguments for going to War and setting up the Pentagon to become his new research branch, the branch that rubber stamped everything he, Cheney and Rumsfeld wanted.

That was eight years ago!

We are still there.

We’ve had an election since and voted in a democrat, a democrat who won because he had the support of the Left and the Progressives and many of the Independents who were turned off on Bush conservatism and bad policies….

If the best the Left can do is to continue with Bush policies, especially in the Middle East, we should all take a long break and ask ourselves what that really means.

Keeping abreast of the latest news, we see that Al Qaeda is far from dead in Iraq.

In fact, they are seeking to keep Iraq alive and on our front pages with plots to steal a plane and use it to attack one of Iraq’s most cherished mosques.

What does this mean to us?

It means that we may be forced to reexamine our plans to depart Iraq on schedule.

As part of the exit strategy, we had agreed to reconsider if Iraq asks us to stay….

Will we? Should we?

We are now approaching having as many Allied troops in Afghanistan as we had in Iraq.

And we are winding down in Iraq, according to Cabinet Secretary Gates.

As I see it, if our present commitment is the best the representative of the Liberal Democrats can expect, it looks to me as if we have another Cuba on our hands, and a much deadlier one that will outlive many American presidents.

I say this because president Obama seems to be listening intently to Gates, and his generals including McCrystal who seems to believe that we need to perform a hands-on role of pacifying what is generally considered impossible to pacify, the northern provinces of Afghanistan and the border regions with Pakistan.

If this is all we can hope for in light of the new clamor being made by the followers of Al Qaeda, our tenure in both countries is not going to end next year, or the year after or the year after that.

Consider that we have been in a peacekeeping role in Korea since 1953….more than fifty years!

I would be willing at this time, based upon what we know and suspect, that our participation with troops and money will last at least until 2025…and there is no guarantee it will end there….

What will this mean?

It will mean we will continue to play a subservient role to China.

It will mean that our institutions at home will suffer.

That jobs and futures will be affected.

That there will not be enough money to support both our schools and our troops.

That prison populations will increase.

That recidivism will increase proportionately considering our present record.

And that more and more of the Western world will be influenced by Arab voices seeking the destruction of the West.

I don’t personally see any solutions over the short term.

And there are few great men, or women, on the horizon to change our direction
As a nation.

I may be perilously wrong; but I don’t see it based on experience and historical perspective.

The only qualifier here is the people, themselves; whether they will wake up and recognize their power to change things.

And alter the course of events.

And that could be the game-changer we are all after.

Respectfully submitted,