So what shape should we make the wheel this time?

Can any of you remember the first Persian Gulf war in Iraq, circa 1990-91?  That was the one where we bombed everything Iraq had of military value for a couple of months, then turned the Army and Marines loose on what was left. 

After only 100 hours, literally, President George H.W. Bush called them off and dictated terms to Saddam Hussein, allowing him to remain as Iraq's dictator.  Ever wonder why that was?  

It was because the King of Saudi Arabia counseled Bush 41 to stop pursuing Saddam, telling him he might stir up (an even bigger) hornet's nest if he wasn't careful.   

And these Boy Scouts should know

What the King meant was, even the region's really despicable tyrants like Saddam Hussein looked pretty tame compared to the other nut jobs itching to step into their shoes.

Truth is, as I've stated before, the people in that part of the world have a different value system, a different way of thinking.  Our Western ideas of "logic" and "decency" just don't translate.  They are simply an uncivilized society. 

No, of course I don't mean every single one of them.  But enough that it makes my statement valid.  While we in the US have our Westboro Baptist Church types, they are just tiny little cells of crazies scattered here and there.  

In Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, on and on....their extremists are a huge percentage (a majority?) of their population.  Say something unkind about their religion or publish an offensive cartoon and they issue a fatwah on your ass.

My point is, they always have and always will fight and kill each other.  That's all they know how to do.  At times they might subscribe to "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" and work together, but it's a fleeting arrangement.  Blink twice and they're right back at each others throats.

Now the Sunni Muslim minority in Iraq are on a roll and are vowing to take over the entire country by brute force.  Our concern is that if they do it will open the door for more extremists to train there and eventually threaten us here in America.  

The truth is, even if the Sunni militants (the ISIS) DON'T take over all of Iraq by brute force (they're unlikely to capture Baghdad proper or other Shia strongholds) they can and likely will still train others to come after us.  Count on it.  While it would be nice to keep the bad guys "over there", I'm afraid we're past that.

Make no mistake, this is not an American failure.  It's an Iraqi failure.  We set them up with every material advantage they could possibly need to succeed.  What we can't give them is new gray matter between their ears.

So what do we do?  (Q:  Why does the entire world look to the USA when something "needs to be done"?)  IMHO, and as seen through my pragmatic eyes, here's what I think we should do:  Get some chips and dip and maybe a few beers, sit back, and if we're lucky watch the militants on both sides annihilate each other.  While we should pray they spare the innocents, it's simply out of our hands.

LATE NEWS:  It was just reported that the US will soon send 275 Special Forces to "advise" the Iraqi Security Forces.  So the 150,000 troops we once had there couldn't "fix" Iraq, but now these 275 can?

DUH!  Even rocks are smarter than that.

S

Here's what I don't get

The "religion of peace" has struck again, this time by knife-wielding zealots in London.  I know, I know....you can't condemn an entire religion because of the actions of a few malcontents.*  Very true.  All religions have their nut cases.  Christians have theirs, too....just look at the Westboro Baptist Church.  

They're the homophobes who somehow tie every evil / tragic thing that happens back to homosexuality.  Flood hits NYC, tornadoes hit OK, earthquake hits the west coast....it's God's way of getting back at us.

But when the Westboro Baptist Church announces they are going to protest the funeral of a soldier, for example, thousands of people (Christians?) turn out to protest the WBC protesters.  We denounce people of our own faith (?) who preach hate and violence.  We don't celebrate them.

Here Texas A&M students form a shoulder-to-shoulder human shield to keep Westboro Baptist Church protesters from disrupting the funeral of a soldier KIA.

But when Islamic extremists commit a heinous attack such as the one yesterday in London when several Muslims hacked to death a British soldier outside his barracks, I don't see rank-and-file Muslims lining up to disavow the actions of their fellow Muslims.  Why is that?

"Gaza Arabs celebrate Boston Marathon attack with dance, candies"

You'll see a few individuals holding up little hand-lettered signs that say, "This isn't Islam", but they are totally overshadowed by the throngs jumping up and down in jubilation.  The majority just sit on their hands.

Why don't they cleanse their ranks of those who scheme and plot to do harm to innocents?  Instead, they seem to applaud them.  If you knew someone was building a bomb or building a war arsenal, for example, wouldn't you call the police?  Why do they allow their places of faith to be polluted by haters?  Why don't they police themselves?  Is this just a matter of the press reporting one side but not the other?

Yet after every atrocity committed by Muslim extremists in the name of Allah, the rest of us are cautioned (rightly) to not rush to judgement and take out revenge against all Muslims.  We preach peace and fairness....we "talk the talk" and we "walk the walk".

Mainstream Muslims say they ARE a religion of peace.  OK, fine.  Then I'd like to see them do a little walking, too.

(Move over Salman Rushdie.  I'm probably now on someone's hit list.)

S

*And please don't start your comment with, "Yeah, well, back in the dark ages Christians....".  I'm interested in the here and now.

Payback is HELL!

Are any of you familiar with the internet "hacktivist" group Anonymous?  It's a loose-knit group of computer geniuses who hack into all kinds of sites and just scramble things beyond belief.  They seem to have an anarchist's agenda.  Several of their "members" (you can't actually join Anonymous) are spending time in jail these days as "the establishment" apparently has no sense of humor.   For once, however, they've done something that would prompt most of us....me for sure....to say KUDOS!

Some background:  Westboro Baptist Church (I don't know how they could possibly qualify as a "church") is the one based in Topeka, KS who sends it's members to picket and protest at the funerals of our servicemen and women and others who they say are dead because it's God's way of getting even with us for not lynching persecuting homosexuals, or some such nonsense.  IMO they are a full-blown hate group of the worst order.

Westboro Baptist Church....meet Anonymous.  According to news reports, "After the haters from the infamous church posted their intentions to picket the funerals of the twenty children killed in the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, Anonymous responded [after hacking into their files] by re-posting the personal and professional information (names, addresses, phone numbers) of the members of the church on the internet."

Anonymous has publically put them on notice...."We will destroy you.  We are coming."

Thanks Anonymous.  I'll leave some cookies and milk out for you.  :)

S