(Written 9/5)
Active Containment
I think that the least warlike sort of military aggression we should consider as a matter of course is a no fly zone, which is the 21st century equivalent of a naval blockade. But we should also consider naval blockades, which implies that we should have some kind of blockade on the ground. This is what I would call active containment. As part and parcel of active containment we should have a a flying command center swiping up all sorts of military communications and task a satellite to basically spy the hell out of the bad guy regime. We then share this information with enemies of the regime and essentially jail the country.
Liberty Exodus
The next thing we should do is import about 50,000 exportable middle class, rich and poor folks and put them up in a new suburb we build for them somewhere in New Mexico. Why New Mexico? Why not? We are really good at building Walmarts and McDonalds and parking lots and houses. Why not put a lot of people to work just building a new city? Make sure that we get them on the news every damned day, as soon as they learn how to speak English and say the Pledge of Allegiance.
These are not acts of war. These are acts of empire, and we need to get back into that business, but more specifically into the second aspect of that business, which is to import some fresh foreigners and let them volunteer to join the US Army so that they can be military advisors.
But more seriously, I predicted that Obama would be a retarded foreign policy president. I don't think he can bomb his way out of his predicaments. If the United States had anything close to a standard playbook when it comes to countering the outrages of tyrannical regimes around the world, we wouldn't have to go through the sort of monkey business that the current administration finds itself pandering. Just like 'the US does not negotiate with terrorists' there ought to be some standard offensive and defensive maneuvers the US ought to have on contingency.
Assad has been a disaster waiting to happen for as long as he's been in office. We all knew it. Neocons like me were saying we should have given license to Israel to smash him up way back in the.. hmm let's see:
- Kafranbel (ok that's a little cheesy - but an excellent reminder of the Right intent)
- Hitchens poked Bush for not doing enough back in 06.
See, a lot of muttonheads keep forgetting that Syria's madness has kept Lebanon on edge for years. And now Beirut is seeing people tried for rocket attacks. Rocket attacks? That ain't normal. So the suggestion that this is all about Syrians killing Syrians and what do we care, is just more ostrich feathers.
American foreign policy in the Middle East ought to be simple and consistent. But Obama made the dramatic break when he promised to meet, as head of state, and talk with Assad and Castro back in 07. So now, having been handed this not-so-stunning development the revelation that he's done nothing shows his indifference to any reality that conflicts with his vision of negotiated settlements with such parties.
At any rate, the basic premise is that lousy governments are the bane of liberty, and lousy governments who use chemical weapons need to be squashed. Period. America remains the superpower lurking in its own shadow, the improper empire and weak under this President who really doesn't seem to understand a great number of things a president should understand. I'm saddened that he isn't the moderate he pretended to be, he just moderated his radicalism. If he was a true moderate, he would be strong in moderation, but in fact he is weak in moderation, and his flippidy floppity tap dancing is only amusing to his emboldened enemies.
(Published 9/10, and he still hasn't decided)
When Iran drops the bomb. You'll know who to blame. These are the wasted days.
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