Chess Pieces

“American foreign policy – like that of most states – is based not on justice but on power.”   Robert Fisk

So, it will take a generation to subdue ISIS, the brutal and sadistic murderers who would not exist if the US had not invaded Iraq in 2003. Pity the people who get in their way, particularly women.

The US will send more “advisors” and build more outposts in Iraq, as if this tactic has any chance of succeeding. We’ve tried it, and it failed, but because we are the essential nation, the world’s global police force, not to mention the biggest badass on the block, we reserve the right to do stupid shit over and over.

Who is the enemy and who are our friends? Who can we trust today, and will we be able to trust them tomorrow? The stupidity of George and Dick tipped the bottle over, released the genie, and Obama has stayed the disastrous course. We’re out, back in, and for what? And this is how it’s going to play for another generation?

When it comes to the Middle East, America is blinded by a deadly combination of ignorance and arrogance.

The US doesn’t understand the Middle East, never has, and most likely never will. We support the monarchs of Saudi Arabia no matter how many of their own people have their heads lopped off in public rituals; we count the dictator of Egypt among our bosom pals; and Israel, darling Israel, can do no wrong in our eyes, even when Israel’s hands are covered with the blood of innocent Palestinian children.

The conditions are perfect for endless war and profitable arms deals.

Writing for the website Counterpunch, John Wight notes that, “In 2015 the parallels between Cambodia and the Middle East are undeniable. The conditions, as mentioned, out of which ISIS has emerged and proliferated were created by the West’s destabilising presence in the region, with the objective of controlling the huge natural resources located there.”

Cambodia paid a horrific price at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. And who made the Khmer Rouge possible? The fingerprints are undeniable.

The average American citizen like myself looks in vain for cooler, wiser heads. We lack the agency to change the course of American foreign policy. Our views and opinions are irrelevant to the ruling class. They want the liquid gold buried in the ground in the Middle East and are willing to kill for it, even if it takes another 25 years.

John Wight again: “Just as with Southeast Asia in the 1970s, in 2015 the world is suffering at the hands of men in expensive suits, sitting in Western capitals, who view the world as a chessboard – with countries and peoples reduced to chess pieces on that board to be moved around and removed at their whim and fancy.”