 by Patrick J. Buchanan
[TakiMag] So, again, Cicero’s question: "Cui bono?"
Certainly not the American people.
Who really wants this war? How did we reach this precipice?
| I’m an American people. I don’t want this war, but I strongly suspect it is necessary. Not to protect Israel, which for some reason is Mr. Buchanan’s bete noire, but because I don’t want nuclear devices blowing up in the various locations scouted by Ali Kourani and his colleagues in the U.S. and elsewhere. And I would dearly love to tear Iran’s various catspaws away from the Hispano-American narco gangs that already own too many American nighbourhoods. |
A year ago, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a MacArthurian ultimatum, making 12 demands on the Tehran regime.
Iran must abandon all its allies in the Middle East ‐ Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza ‐ pull all forces under Iranian command out of Syria, and then disarm all its Shiite militia in Iraq.
All terrible and yadda yadda, but WAR? The extreme measure is worth this?
| How do you suggest we end Iranian support of their jihadi catspaws, Herb? |
Well wishes and kowtowing to a third-rate power Iran must halt all enrichment of uranium, swear never to produce plutonium, shut down its heavy water reactor, open up its military bases to inspection to prove it never had a secret nuclear program and stop testing missiles. And unless she submits, Iran will be strangled with sanctions.
Pompeo’s speech at the Heritage Foundation read like the terms of some conquering Caesar dictating to some defeated tribe in Gaul, though we had yet to fight and win the war, usually a precondition for dictating terms.
Iran’s response was to disregard Pompeo’s demands.
And crushing U.S. sanctions were imposed, to brutal effect.
| You didn’t want open war. Crushing sanctions are the alternative. Or surrender, while Iran tries to do what Saddam Hussein tried a generation ago: to corner enough of the oil market to be able to blackmail the world into submission — starting with giving them Israel and Mecca, and ending with the world’s womenfolk showing no more than 1” of hair while the menfolk troop to Shiite mosques five times a day to pray properly to Allah. |
Yet, as one looks again at the places where Pompeo ordered Iran out ‐ Lebanon, Yemen, Gaza, Syria, Iraq ‐ no vital interest of ours was imperiled by any Iranian presence.
| No vital interest except Iran’s stated long term goal. Like the Soviet Union, the Iranians are content to conquer the world piecewise instead of in open world war. |
The people who have a problem with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon are the Israelis whose occupations spawned those movements.
| I am willing to believe Mr, Buchanan is not, exactly as he has so often claimed, a Joo-hater. He sure is hung up on Israel, though. Why is that? |
As for Yemen, the Houthis overthrew a Saudi puppet.
| At the time the Saudis were still unofficially financing Al Qaeda, as I recall, which seems a bit contradictory. But the Saudis also had apparently endless funds at the time, and they did like to play Allah’s chosen philanthropists. Perhaps therein lies the confusion. |
Syria’s Bashar Assad never threatened us, though we armed rebels to overthrow him.
| He funded both Al Qaeda Lions of Islam and the fighting remnant of Saddam Hussein’s Baathists, allowing them to pass freely through his through his border to fight our troops, then return to shelter in his territory. It’s all in Rantburg’s archives. |
In Iraq, Iranian-backed Shiite militia helped us to defend Baghdad from the southerly advance of ISIS, which had taken Mosul.
We allied with al-Qaeda in Syria. Gave them arms. Training. Taught them how to kill. Let that sink in for a moment.
| That was ordered by President Barack Hussein Obama (D-Moslem Brotherhood/Alinsky revolutionary) with the avid support of Senator John McCain (AZ-Republican of convenience), both of whom claimed those they were supporting were “moderate, democratic Islamists”. On the other hand, the Iranian-backed Shiites (mostly Sadr’s people in those days) had since the 2003 invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein been murdering American soldiers in significant numbers, though the American news media ignored it as hard as they could... and the DoD was under orders to not complain about it because President George W. Bush had lost momentum to Democratic posturing about the war. |
Who wants us to plunge back into the Middle East, to fight a new and wider war than the ones we fought already this century in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen?
| All those are battlefields in the same war against the current wave of expansionist Muslim jihad, just like so many wars post-Korea were merely battlefields in the war against expansionist Soviet-Maoist Communism. I find it hard to understand how an intelligent man like Mr. Buchanan fails to see the existential parallels. |
Answer: Pompeo and Bolton, Bibi Netanyahu, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Sunni kings, princes, emirs, sultans and the other assorted Jeffersonian democrats on the south shore of the Persian Gulf.
| Ooooooh, sarcasm. How clever. And neatly avoiding the fact that the the “Sunni kings, etc” have found themselves on the wrong side of the war against expansionist Muslim jihad — or rather playing both sides as they openly waved their right hand in support of the West while quietly handing out funds and more to the jihadis with their left hand — until their endless oil income sharply fell in the wake of American fracking, forcing choices. |
And lest we forget, the never-Trumpers and neocons in exile nursing their bruised egos, whose idea of sweet revenge is a U.S. return to the Mideast in a war with Iran, which then brings an end to the Trump presidency.
If President Trump fights a short, sharp war to win as he did against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the deplorables will turn out in droves for him in 2020. Only if he lets the princes of the Pentagon play measured games that go on forever will he lose all.
Separately, this was perfectly formatted, Herb. Thank you. |
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