The Warmonger's Chorus

“Collectively, the feedback from America is a disturbing mix of sheer madness, fathomless ignorance, and dangerously myopic aggression.” Jason Hirthler on the Paris terrorist attacks.

The terrorist attacks in Paris were diabolical, designed to inflict pain and suffering on innocent people in the heart of a major city, and show any nation involved in Syria that ISIS or ISIL (I’ll use ISIS from here on) can strike far from its base.

The response from France and the United States has been predictable, lots of aggressive rhetoric, stepped up bombing campaigns, heightened security, and near hysteria about Syrian refugees. In the US, the mainstream media does what it does best: strip the events in Paris of context and fan the flames of fear. Listening to the talking fools on Good Morning America, you would never know that a war has been going on in Syria for more than four years, that as many as ten different nations have been involved in aerial bombardment, or that ISIS was birthed in the aftermath of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. To hear ABC News tell it, ISIS arose from the dust, without antecedent or reason, and the brutality it inflicts on innocents has no logical cause, other than the evil inherent in radical Islam.

The most shameful thing I’ve seen, heard or read since the Paris attacks, besides the US CIA Director trying to milk the tragedy to call for more intrusive surveillance, has to be Republican governors of American states vowing to block Syrian refugees from settling within their borders. I have seen many acts of cowardice in my lifetime, but nothing as blatant as refusing to deny desperate refugees a safe haven. Trace the cause of their exodus, you damn fools, back to 2003, the hyped rhetoric about Iraq coming from the Bush White House, the lies spilling from the lips of Uncle Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Colin Powell, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, William Kristol, and many others; remember the steady drumbeat calling for war against Iraq, and the New York Times and every superstar talking head repeating the Bush line as if any utterance from the White House was pure truth. Remember the disgraceful run-up to Shock & Awe? Syria was an intact country then, not in the American camp to be sure, ruled by a dictator as many Arab nations were then and are now, like our dear friend, Saudi Arabia, but still functioning. 

Look now, look closely, look long and hard.

There is no way France, Russia, Great Britain, Turkey, the United States or Saudi Arabia can defeat ISIS in Syria. There is no military solution. Peace can’t be gained through bombing. Thoughtful observers understand this, but as happened in 2003, the warmonger’s shrill chorus drowns reasonable and learned voices out.

Oh, the twisted tangle of interests vying in Syria: geopolitical, economic, military. Russia, Turkey, Iran, the US, France, Saudi Arabia, all trying to milk the Paris tragedy for their own advantage. The Syrian people hardly matter in this struggle, just as Iraqi civilians hardly mattered in 2003.

They matter so little that it’s not even necessary to accurately count the dead.