11/16/15, "A War About Nothing," Stephen Green, VodkaPundit, pjmedia
"After Friday’s attacks in Paris, the only two qualities we should look for in our next president are audacity and ruthlessness. All the rest is fluff and must be cast aside before our Age of Seinfeld becomes our children’s Age of Slaughter." (end of article)
"We continue to squander blood and treasure in Afghanistan, 13 years after that war’s main aim — really, its only achievable aim — had been won. We turned our backs on the only government in Egypt willing to take on the Muslim Brotherhood, just as we turned our backs on Iraq for ignoble reasons of domestic politics. An imprudent air war ruined Libya and created a safe haven for ISIS, and added precipitously to the flow of migrants to Europe — jihadis swimming among them in a furtive invasion. Then there is Syria, a cauldron of misery, the birthplace of the Islamic State, a training ground for jihadis, and a proving ground for Vladimir Putin’s newest weapons and for his renewed imperial vision.
And of course Iran, tantalizingly close to becoming the first nuclear-armed terrorist state. Western governments seem inexplicably and obliviously happy to pony up $150 billion for the pleasure of listening to chants of “Death to America” while Iran’s most advanced centrifuges spin and spin and spin.
Europe eliminated its internal borders to improve trade, but also effectively removed its external borders — swelling the Continent with refugees and making Paris an all-too-inviting target. The backlash in “dull but safe” Europe promises to be as ugly as it has been delayed — the former being the inevitable consequence of the latter.
And yet in Europe’s capitals there is still no consensus on an obvious matter like staunching the flow of Muslim invaders. While ISIS threatens to do to us what they’ve now done twice to France, our president assures us the real threat comes from climate change. In Syria, Obama promises only to double down on his failed strategy.
Recklessness, fecklessness, and denial, indeed. We fight like it’s 1999, like it’s a war about nothing. The jihadis fight as though they mean to conquer the world, although their reach exceeds their grasp.
We fight as though there’s no point or even any need to win, although we could. In our War About Nothing, we cripple our own intelligence, open our borders, and comfort ourselves with false hopes about the efficacy of a phony air war against a canny enemy."...
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Related: US does business with Saudi Arabia which is just a more diplomatic version of ISIS:
1/20/15, "How Saudi Wahhabism Is the Fountainhead of Islamist Terrorism," Huffington Post, Dr. Yousaf Butt, London. updated,
"The West can help by stopping its historical pandering and support of Middle East tyrants who spread this extremism. The most fundamental way to make the message clear to the House of Saud would be to threaten to stop buying oil from them. Given the relatively cheap oil prices these days it need not be an empty threat.
Eliminating the occasional militant leaders in drone and special-forces strikes is of limited use in reducing extremism if millions of radicals are being actively trained in Wahhabi madrassas across the Muslim world.
.
The fight against ISIS and Al-Qaeda is deeply ironic since these organizations were created and are sustained, in part, by funds we hand over to the Saudis and Gulf Arab nations to purchase their oil. And while France mourns its cartoonists and police officers, the French government is busy signing military and nuclear deals worth billions with the Saudis. If we continue down this road, it may well be a never-ending war....
The House of Saud is simply a more established and diplomatic version of ISIS. It shares the extremist Wahhabi theo-fascism, the lack of human rights, intolerance, violent beheadings etc. -- but with nicer buildings and roads. If ISIS were ever to become an established state, after a few decades one imagines it might resemble Saudi Arabia....
The House of Saud works against the best interests of the West and the Muslim world. Muslim communities worldwide certainly need to eradicate fanatical Wahhabism from their midst, but this will be difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish if the West continues its support of the House of Saud. The monarchy must be modernized and modified -- or simply uprooted and replaced. The House of Saud needs a thorough house cleaning."
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Jan. 2015 Esquire article:
US should not sell a single bullet to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait or the United Arab Emirates which are biggest funders of global terrorism. "Assets from these states should be frozen, all over the west."
1/14/15, "There Is Only One Way to Defeat ISIS," Esquire, Charles P. Pierce
"Saudi Arabia is the world's largest source of funds for Islamist militant groups such as the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba - but the Saudi government is reluctant to stem the flow of money, according to Hillary Clinton. "More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups," says a secret December 2009 paper signed by the US secretary of state. Her memo urged US diplomats to redouble their efforts to stop Gulf money reaching extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. "Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide," she said. Three other Arab countries are listed as sources of militant money: Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The cables highlight an often ignored factor in the Pakistani and Afghan conflicts: that the violence is partly bankrolled by rich, conservative donors across the Arabian Sea whose governments do little to stop them. The problem is particularly acute in Saudi Arabia, where militants soliciting funds slip into the country disguised as holy pilgrims, set up front companies to launder funds and receive money from government-sanctioned charities.
It's time for this to stop. It's time to be pitiless against the bankers and against the people who invest in murder to assure their own survival in power. Assets from these states should be frozen, all over the west. Money trails should be followed, wherever they lead. People should go to jail, in every country in the world. It should be done state-to-state. Stop funding the murder of our citizens and you can have your money back. Maybe. If we're satisfied that you'll stop doing it. And, it goes without saying, but we'll say it anyway - not another bullet will be sold to you, let alone advanced warplanes, until this act gets cleaned up to our satisfaction. If that endangers your political position back home, that's your problem, not ours. You are no longer trusted allies. Complain, and your diplomats will be going home. Complain more loudly, and your diplomats will be investigated and, if necessary, detained. Retaliate, and you do not want to know what will happen, but it will done with cold, reasoned and, yes, pitiless calculation. It will not be a blind punch. You will not see it coming. It will not be an attack on your faith. It will be an attack on how you conduct your business as sovereign states in a world full of sovereign states....
It is long past time for the oligarchies of the Gulf states to stop paying protection to the men in the suicide belts. Their societies are stunted and parasitic. The main job of the elites there is to find enough foreign workers to ensla...err....indenture to do all the real work. The example of Qatar and the interesting business plan through which that country is building the facilities for the 2022 World Cup is instructive here....In Qatar, for people who come from elsewhere to work, passports have been known to disappear into thin air. These are the societies that profit from terrible and tangled web of causation and violence that played out on the streets of Paris. These are the people who buy their safety with the blood of innocents far away....
These are a few things that will not solve the terrible and tangled web of causation and violence in which the attacks of Friday night were spawned. A 242-ship Navy will not stop one motivated murderous fanatic from emptying the clip of an AK-47 into the windows of a crowded restaurant. The F-35 fighter plane will not stop a group of motivated murderous fanatics from detonating bombs at a soccer match. A missile-defense shield in Poland will not stop a platoon of motivated murderous fanatics from opening up in a jammed concert hall, or taking hostages, or taking themselves out with suicide belts when the police break down the doors.
American soldiers dying in the sands of Syria or Iraq will not stop the events like what happened in Paris from happening again because American soldiers dying in the sands of Syria or Iraq will be dying there in combat against only the most obvious physical manifestation of a deeper complex of ancient causes and ancient effects made worse by the reach of the modern technology of bloodshed and murder. Nobody's death is ever sacrifice enough for that."...
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8/8/15, "How Saudi Arabia exports radical Islam," The Week staff
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9/10/15, "If the US Won't Sell You Weapons, France Might Still Hook You Up," news.vice.com, by Torie Rose DeGhett
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Codevilla in 2011: "Ever since the 1970s US policy had responded to acts of war and terrorism from the Muslim world by absolving the regimes for their subjects’ actions....Many influential Americans were making money in the Arab world....Our ruling class’ relationship with them" is the problem's ultimate source.
10/20/2011, "The Lost Decade," [2001-2011] Angelo M. Codevilla, Claremont Institute
"Our ruling class justified its ever-larger role" in America’s domestic life by redefining war as a never-ending struggle against unspecified enemies for abstract objectives, and by asserting expertise far above that of ordinary Americans. (parag. 9)...It failed to ask the classic headwaters question: what is the problem?...(subhead, 'Whatever it takes')
"Whatever it Takes"...
That would have pointed to the Middle East’s regimes, and to our ruling class’ relationship with them, as the problem’s ultimate source. The rulers of
Iran,
Iraq,
Syria,
Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, and the
Palestinian Authority
had run (and continue to run) educational and media systems that demonize America. Under all of them, the Muslim Brotherhood or the Wahhabi sect spread that message in religious terms to Muslims in the West as well as at home.
That message indicts America, among other things,
for being weak.
And indeed, ever since the 1970s U.S. policy had responded to acts of war and terrorism from the Muslim world
by absolving the regimes
for their subjects’ actions....Many influential Americans were
making money in the Arab world."...
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In June 2015 Trump proposed stopping ISIS' ability to sell oil, thereby reducing its wealth:
6/16/15, "Newly declared GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump finally revealed more details of his plan to defeat ISIS today during his sit-down with Bill O’Reilly for tonight’s The O’Reilly Factor.
“I say that you can defeat ISIS by taking their wealth,” Trump told the Fox News Channel star. “Take back the oil. Once you go over and take back that oil, they have nothing. You bomb the hell out of them, and then you encircle it, and then you go in."...
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In Nov. 2015, US reportedly hit ISIS oil trucks:
11/16/15, "U.S. Warplanes Strike ISIS Oil Trucks in Syria," NY Times, Michael R. Gordon, Istanbul
"Intensifying pressure on the Islamic State, United States warplanes for the first time attacked hundreds of trucks on Monday that the extremist group has been using to smuggle the crude oil it has been producing in Syria, American officials said....
American
officials have long been frustrated by the Islamic State’s ability to
generate as much as $40 million a month by producing and exporting oil."...
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Trump was against war in Iraq: "We spent $2 trillion in Iraq. We lost thousands of lives in Iraq.. We have wounded warriors who I love all over this country and beyond, okay? Was it worth it? We have nothing."...
Six lane swimming pool at US Embassy in Baghdad, paid for by US taxpayers. Reuters photo, March 20, 2013, "The US Embassy In Baghdad Cost A Staggering $750 Million [Photos]," Business Insider, Walter Hickey
 |
| US Embassy, Baghdad. Reuters |
8/15/15, "TRUMPMENTUM: at Top of the Polls, The Donald Catches Fire on the Trail," Breitbart, Matthew Boyle, Hampton, New Hampshire
“Governor Bush said this week that bringing down Saddam Hussein was a good deal. Do you agree with him? Do you think it was worth it?” another reporter asked. Trump responded:
"We spent $2 trillion in Iraq. We lost thousands of lives in Iraq. We have wounded warriors who I love all over this country and beyond, okay? Was it worth it? We have nothing. We have nothing. His brother made a horrible decision and President Obama made a horrible decision the way he left. We should have taken the oil instead of giving it to ISIS and Iran.... The Iraq war is a disaster for the Bushes. That’s why the last thing we need is another Bush. Saddam Hussein, instead of him, you have ISIS. Instead of him, you have Iran taking over. So you tell me: Was it worth what we paid for?""...
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Endless Afghanistan "nation building" enriching outside contractors, bleeding US taxpayers:
Nov. 2013 article:
11/28/2013, "When Most U.S. Forces Leave Afghanistan, Contractors May Stay," NPR, Tom Bowman
"In December 2007, there were 25,000 American troops, compared to 36,000 contractors.
In March of this year (2013), the number of U.S. troops stood at about 66,000 — supported by a contracting force of 108,000....
"Those jobs in previous wars were often done by other troops."...
The U.S. has spent hundreds of billions of dollars in Afghanistan, a lot of that paying for contracts. Because there's no final decision on the number of U.S. troops, it's hard to know how many contractors will be needed after 2014....
Harrison says operating in Afghanistan has consistently cost twice as much as in Iraq. Part of the reason is Afghanistan lacked decent roads and buildings and bridges before the Americans invaded in 2001.
"And so for our forces to operate there we've had to build our own infrastructure and maintain our own infrastructure," he says. "Contractors play a big role in that."
And so American defense contractors, like DynCorp International, have found plenty of work. The company now has 10,000 employees in Afghanistan. That's a number greater than two Army brigades....
About one-third of contractors are U.S. citizens, the rest come from the developing world or Afghanistan....
But there's a concern that more of that money could be lost to waste or fraud now that most American troops are leaving.
That's because there won't be enough U.S. soldiers to escort U.S. auditors safely around a war zone."
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