Forget Mexico....we need to build a wall around ARIZONA!

Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem was today sentenced to 30 years in prison for providing the guns used in the 2015 terrorist attack in Garland, Texas.  

Just FYI, Mr Kareem is from Syria Yemen Libya Iraq Somalia Sudan Iran Arizona.  Yes, ARIZONA!  He's an American-born Muslim who was radicalized by ISIS propaganda here online.  

So could ISIS send terrorists here from any of the "Trump Seven"?  Of course, but history suggests they would most probably be sent here from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or the United Arab Emirates.  And I would also throw in Pakistan, the country who conveniently forgot to look over the wall into Osama bin Laden's yard for 5 years.  *We see NOTHING!*

Wanna blow your mind?  Consider this:  One percent of Americans identify as Muslim. The states with the highest number of Muslims are Maryland and New York at 3% of the population in each state. In Georgia, the state with the next highest percentage — 2% of the population is Muslim. States where Muslims are 1% of the population include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. All the rest of the states were at less than .5%.  And we're getting our panties in a wad over President Trump's seven nation immigration ban that isn't a ban?  

Do you think Vegas would give better odds on our next terrorist being from Sudan or Libya or Georgia?

This is no way to fight a war!  First we need to see to it that the ISIS army and ideology in the Mideast is crushed.  Then we need to out-propaganda ISIS here at home and let our American Muslims know that America isn't their enemy! 

Correction:  First we need to get Prez Trump's head out of Steve Bannon's ass!

S

[We've] got a tiger by the tail

Remember the old country song by Buckminster Owens, "I've got a tiger by the tail"?

I've got a tiger by the tail, it's plain to see;
I won't be much when you get through' with me
Well, I'm a losing weight and a turnin' mighty pale
Looks like I've got a tiger by the tail

Well, I thought the day I met you, you were meek as a lamb;
Just the kind to fit my dreams and plans
But now, the pace we're livin' takes the wind from my sails
And it looks like I've got a tiger by the tail

I'm thinking Minster Buck saw something the rest of us didn't.  Was he writing about the 21st Century world we would soon be living in?  Was he writing back in 1964 about how we in the West would soon be grabbing hold of a bunch of rag-tag religious fanatics in a part of the world we would be hard pressed to find on a map, only to learn they were a tiger we would have no idea how to let go of without getting mauled?

Here's how we got into this mess, the epitome of "unintended consequences":  

The USSR, wanting to support their puppet Marxist allies, invaded Afghanistan in 1979.  The collective Afghan warlords fought back, aided by 35,000 foreign Sunni Muslim fighters who became known as the mujaheddin, and were supported financially and materially by the USA.  Our goal was to simply foil our arch-enemy the Soviet Union.  There was nothing there for us, we just wanted to poke a sharp stick in their eye.  Our side eventually won and the commies permanently tucked tail and ran in 1989.

Shortly thereafter, in August, 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and the West was concerned (scared shitless actually) that he would get control of the Saudi Arabian oil fields.  If he did, we were SCREWED!  Geo Bush the First quickly offered to send our military to defend the Saudi's and drive Iraq out of Kuwait, and Osama bin Laden offered to bring his battle hardened mujaheddin and do the same.  The Saudi's cast their lot with the US.  This miffed bin Laden and the fight was on.  (Numerous groups of hard-core Islamic fundamentalists had begun to congeal under bin Laden by 1988 and eventually became known as Al Qaeda, "The Base".)

One of the hardest-core of the bunch, the branch in Iraq, later split off and morphed into what we know today as ISIS.  For a while they were going gangbusters, gaining control of large swaths of Iraq and Syria.  As the old saying goes, "success breeds success"....Muslim malcontents from all over the world looked at their brothers winning for a change and wanted in, too.

In short order ISIS began planning for their ultimate demise as a Caliphate controlling land in the Mid East....it was one of their prophecies....and began sending trained soldiers back to where they came from to snipe at us guerrilla-style.  Now they and their home-grown extremist buddies are stalking us.  Their numbers are still pretty small, but it seems like they're hitting far above their weight class.

I wonder if any of this would have happened if we had just told the Soviets back in '79, "You want Afghanistan?  It's all yours....the big rock piles, the ignorant pissed off peasants, the whole mess.  Good luck."  Would Osama bin Laden have ever assembled his merry band of jihadists without US support?  No Al Qaeda, no ISIS?  As objectionable as "fracking" for oil is, if we had pursued it earlier, could we have reduced our crushing dependency on Mid East oil sooner?  Would we have cared then if they had all just jihadided each other into oblivion?

Now the BIG QUESTION....do you think we've learned anything from this mess we've gotten ourselves into?

S

Advantages outweigh disadvantages?

The story read, "The White House is debating whether the disadvantages of an accelerated pullout of American troops from Afghanistan outweigh the advantages of staying."


Um....WHAT advantages are there in staying in Afghanistan, Mr. President?  I must have missed that memo.  Didn't we go in there to make the Taliban "government" turn over the Al Qaida operations there?  Didn't we support the various Afghan tribal factions in their effort to run the Taliban out of power, and then go in and get the important Al Qaida operatives one at a time?  Didn't we do that?  Osama bin Laden IS still dead, right?  


What are we there for now?  Are we trying to set them up with a strong national government, complete with a unified army and security forces capable of defending their own territory?  I'm not sure they even WANT that, Mr. President.  They are a tribal society.  That's where their loyalties are, not with a unified national government.  Based on all I've read they've never had a unified, strong national government, so why would they want one now?  Oh sure, they have lots of people signing up to be soldiers and police, because we're paying them about 3 times as much as their civilian pay would be. 


Mr. President, I don't think you'd upset too many Americans if you sent in all the transport planes we have, load up all the troops, load up all their stuff, maybe sterilize those poppy fields on our way out, and let's have one helluva parade here to welcome all our folks home.  And leave Afghanistan and their 13th century society right were it is.


I'm sure we'll still have enough paid informants and satellites flying overhead to let us know if Al Qaida tries to re-establish any terrorist training camps there.  And if they try, I'm pretty sure we have the technology to deal with it.  I would hope that a B-2 over Afghanistan at 2 in the morning could outrun a rock thrown at it in anger.


S