Fundamentally Flawed

Now before us, the wrong headedness of the Bush II foreign policy stands in blossoming view, mushroom clouds of smoke rising from buildings in Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine. The seminal Neo-Con work from The Project for a New American Century, in which they argued our security in the NWO lay in the spreading of Democracy in the Middle East and the security of Israel. The long towards their goal began, and appears to have ended, with the ouster of Saddam Hussein. Let us forget the irrelevant question as to whether the world is now better off with Hussein deposed, or even the question of whether the Middle East is better off. It appears that the seed of Democracy that was sown in Iraq and would spread all over the Middle East is stuck in hard ground without water or nourishment. Instead, the seeds of terrorism and religious fundamentalism continue to flourish, like a cactus flower that grows in barren land.  

What we got was not a plan for a New American Century, but a cold war strategy of territorialism and war by proxy. We take Iraq, establish a bulwark against two prongs of the Axis of Evil, push up against Iran with Saudi Arabia at our back. We “deter rise of new great power competitor” (this means you, China) with military positioning in East Asia (more bases and carriers in Japan, eliminating North Korea). This was not a plan for anything new, but a rebranding of something old. 

To me, there are two ways to spread American hegemony (whether or not you think that’s a good thing); you take or you give. With the former, you go into Grenada and Afghanistan, you sponsor overthrowing of “dictators.” With the latter, you engage in negotiations, send in the Peace Corps. Yeah, not everyone wants to listen and sooner or later you gotta step to someone and give them a smack.  

Seems as though we just abandoned the last one. It’s so funny/how we don’t talk/anymore. It’s like we just said, well, if Clinton couldn’t bring Israel and Palestine together, fuck it, let it play out as it will. So Arafat “died.” The head was cut off, so the body died, right? WRONG. Movements are not like snakes, they are like hydras, figuratively and literally, as we saw when al Zarqawi was taken down. Over here, there’s a head that breathes fire, over there, a head that throws rocks, there, a head that can purchase rocket launchers. Any head can be cut off, another replaces it. And no weapon can kill the hydra’s last head — anger. All heads are supported by a body that is suffering; hungry people, angry people, destitute people. 

When Hercules killed the hydra, he had to use his head. He was able to keep those heads from growing back. He used his bare hands and fire, and I think as you can see when we try to do that we only get burned. We aren’t going to be able to convince the hardline fundamentalists that we are not great satan from the West. We just aren’t. However, we probably could convince the guy on the street, that is, if we stop BLOWING UP THEIR STREETS. They might listen, I mean, the idea of having Comcast On-Demand and 24 hour White Castles must be appealing to everyone the world over. However we aren’t going to get people to listen if we keep on keeping on like Bush did today. “Hezbollah doesn’t want there to be peace, the militant arm of Hamas doesn’t want there to be peace, and those of us who do want peace will continue to work together to encourage peace,” meaning everyone who isn’t Arab or Muslim. Other sane leaders were encouraging everyone to CHILL THE FUCK OUT. Not our fearless leader. The man never met a fire he didn’t feel like dumping some gas on. 

The Bush Administration keeps crowing about our status as the only remaining super power, and Wolfowitz wrote with wet eyes about how we might exercise our “constabulatory” power in the New American Century. If we are indeed the world’s hall monitors, we should be holding both sides apart and promising demerits for everyone if they don’t stop fighting. No, we picked sides already. Of course, many people in the world already believe we’ve picked a side. But, we could be fair, just for appearances sake.  

However, the world keeps on spinning. I’m of a mind that this conflict will be short, that another shaky peace will be struck very soon. All out war will be avoided. However, it is another strike against us in the war against fundamentalism, the war against terror, the war FOR feeding that hungry body of the hydra. Why? Cause we still flounce around, trying to cut heads.