We Are All Neville Chamberlains Now?
For the sake of my own sanity, I have to presume that behind the scenes diplomacy has dictated that doing nothing makes good sense, but in my heart of hearts I cannot fathom why the Western world has stood by and let this happen:
What If Qaddafi Wins?
Either he has simply chosen to draw her back into the isolationist pattern of an earlier era, and not bothered to tell anybody, or he really is too addicted to golf and considers that more important than an imploding world around him.
In either case, the rest of the Western World has been all too happy to let America lead, with the result being that none of America's traditional allies have anything close to the power and influence required to keep the Ghadaffi's of the world contained. Thus we have to spend weeks attempting to find common ground, surrendering our sovereignty to useless organizations like the United Nations and the G8.
The result? By our own acquiescence, we have unleashed a terrible and destructive force, which, as we sit wringing our hands, will envelop us all and soon enough destroy us. We had better hope that China takes over, rather than the tyrannies of the Middle East. At least there is a very ancient and continuous civilization there; One which has produced some of the most transformative technological innovation the world has seen. One which also, throughout the vast expanse of its history, has rarely had bloody conquest on its mind. Indeed, quite the opposite. They often withdrew unto themselves believing so ardently in their own superiority that they had nothing to learn from the rest of the world. We may just be left to fend for ourselves.
History is full of great irony. I've taken to calling these uprising the Arab Spring, as many others have, with the word "spring", of course, borrowed from the famous Prague Spring of 1968, which of course ended under the tracks of Soviet tanks. History does indeed repeat itself.
Related:
France fails to get G-8 accord on Libya no-fly zone
Lybian (sic) Rebels Flee Key Post, Retreat to Benghazi
Libya rebels face last stand as Gadaffi forces zero in on Benghazi
Fears terror cell behind new bomb campaign
But there is some good news in the world, for now:
Huge success for Egypt's protesters: State security will be dissolved
PS: The world really needs to get over its fixation with Iraq and Afghanistan as major mistakes. They weren't. 9/11 ushered in a new long war. Iraq and Afghanistan were but two hot spots at the very beginning of this new Cold War.
PPS: And didn't something like this contribute to the fall of the Roman Empire? Or some like to think so.
What If Qaddafi Wins?
"If the Caligula of North Africa survives by fighting to the death and prevailing, he will surely inspire the other hard rulers to take the same strategy, especially after the humiliating and mostly nonviolent defeats of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia’s Ben Ali. The killers of the resistance bloc — Iran’s Islamic Republic, Bashar al-Assad’s Baath Party in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza — won’t likely be overthrown by peaceful demonstrations but by massive internally or externally driven wars."I am quite certain Barack Obama is a follower of the Noam Chomsky/Howard Zinn school and is convinced that America's role in the world post WWII, is responsible for all the evils that currently exist in the world. In fact, with a little coaxing he could probably be convinced that America has been a force for evil since Plymouth Rock, and for all I know, he probably already does.
Either he has simply chosen to draw her back into the isolationist pattern of an earlier era, and not bothered to tell anybody, or he really is too addicted to golf and considers that more important than an imploding world around him.
In either case, the rest of the Western World has been all too happy to let America lead, with the result being that none of America's traditional allies have anything close to the power and influence required to keep the Ghadaffi's of the world contained. Thus we have to spend weeks attempting to find common ground, surrendering our sovereignty to useless organizations like the United Nations and the G8.
The result? By our own acquiescence, we have unleashed a terrible and destructive force, which, as we sit wringing our hands, will envelop us all and soon enough destroy us. We had better hope that China takes over, rather than the tyrannies of the Middle East. At least there is a very ancient and continuous civilization there; One which has produced some of the most transformative technological innovation the world has seen. One which also, throughout the vast expanse of its history, has rarely had bloody conquest on its mind. Indeed, quite the opposite. They often withdrew unto themselves believing so ardently in their own superiority that they had nothing to learn from the rest of the world. We may just be left to fend for ourselves.
History is full of great irony. I've taken to calling these uprising the Arab Spring, as many others have, with the word "spring", of course, borrowed from the famous Prague Spring of 1968, which of course ended under the tracks of Soviet tanks. History does indeed repeat itself.
Related:
France fails to get G-8 accord on Libya no-fly zone
Lybian (sic) Rebels Flee Key Post, Retreat to Benghazi
Libya rebels face last stand as Gadaffi forces zero in on Benghazi
Fears terror cell behind new bomb campaign
But there is some good news in the world, for now:
Huge success for Egypt's protesters: State security will be dissolved
"A national security agency will replace Egypt's loathed State Security and Investigations Service. But protesters will be watching to make sure that the agency's practices, and not just its name, are changed."As always, I'm both willing and inclined to give it a couple of years, or maybe more realistically, a couple of decades. But, alas, I probably won't be around to see how it all turns out. Perhaps, in the interim, just as the Soviet Bloc fell away, the Arab Bloc will, too. Maybe Egypt will be the sharp end of the spear.
PS: The world really needs to get over its fixation with Iraq and Afghanistan as major mistakes. They weren't. 9/11 ushered in a new long war. Iraq and Afghanistan were but two hot spots at the very beginning of this new Cold War.
PPS: And didn't something like this contribute to the fall of the Roman Empire? Or some like to think so.
Labels: America, anti-Americanism, Arabs, Barack Obama, colonialism and other excuses, doom and gloom, freedom, history, idiocy, Islamofascism, Middle East, Muslims, oppression, Western Civilization
posted by Louise at 3:30 pm
2 Comments:
So, miss George Bush, do ya, Louise? I sure as hell do!!!
(I also think Pres. Zero is a devotee of those enemies of America, Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn. Zero and his "spiritual counselor" the "Rev." Jim, G*d damn America!", Wright. All slimy birds-of-a-feather.
Being a history buff, a lot of years ago, while browsing in a bookstore, I picked up Zinn's "A People's History of the United States", read the misleading flyleaf and thought it was history from the perspective of everyday Americans and how they lived over the years. Sounded fascinating. I bought it (a waste of $15!), took it home and after reading half of chapter one, went back to the table of contents, then skimmed the beginnings of a number of chapters. It was all the same: vile, pathological hatred of America, dressed up in a veneer of pseudo-scholarly language.
That was the one and only time in my life that I threw a book into the garbage. Now the bastard's dead -good riddance!- and The Usual Suspects all tried to make him out to be Scholarly Saint Howard of Academe.)
Heavy sigh. I think they've succeeded. About six or seven years ago I was browsing in a bookstore in Edmonton, very close to the U. of Alberta, which catered to the university/"intellectual" crowd. The shelves were covered with row upon row of Chomsky and Zinn. Made me want to puke.
And yes, I miss Dubya. I still think it was the right decision to go into Iraq, even if Iraq doesn't turn out to be the shining example of democracy Dubya had hoped for.
Funny how the Dems agreed with Bush before they disagreed and are now stuck with the paralyzing legacy of their having disagreed. Severely limits what they can or are willing to do.
The thing to know about Chom(p)sky and Zinn and their writings is what they leave out. In other words, anything that contradicts the hate/blame America first narrative. University students have to get out into the real world first before they understand that they've only been exposed to part of the story and some of them never do discover that. They end up stuck in the Democratic/Liberal/NDP camp making stupid statements like our boy Justin. They are to be pitied.
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