Cowboy Wisdom for the Week From Beirut to Damascus and from Baghdad to Cairo the Middle East is in flames. And there ain’t a thing America can do about it. Nor should we. We have already spent too much blood and treasure for people who not only don’t like us or appreciate our efforts but once we leave will go back to their ancient feuds. These folks have been at each other’s throats for centuries and it is both arrogant and naïve to think that we can somehow bridge the gap between the two. And I’m not talking about the Arabs and the Israelis. I’m talking about Muslim versus Muslim- Sunni versus Shia. That’s who’s killing each other in Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon. Now all of the so-called navel gazing experts on the Middle East who sit on their lofty perches in the Washington think tanks tell us that we must stay engaged because if we don’t someone else will fill the void. Fine with me. Let the Chinese try to deal with this migraine headache of a region. We are also told that if we bug out the Israelis will be at the mercy of the Islamists. I have been to Israel and I can tell you that if the Arabs or Iranians try to drive them into the sea Tehran and Riyadh will be turned into parking lots. There will be no second holocaust. In Egypt, we told these folks to have elections and they did. We just don’t like who got elected. But you can’t preach democracy and elections and then sit silently by while the results of that process are cut down by a hail of bullets through a fog of tear gas. When the military stepped in and took over the Obama administration refused to call it a coup even though everyone else who has a pulse knew it was indeed a coup. Because if we did call it a coup, by law, we would have to cut off the $1.5 billion in aid we send to the Egyptian military every year and the geniuses in Washington felt that would hurt our leverage with the generals. But it appears that just like everything else in this world, $1.5 billion doesn’t buy as much as it used to. And the Egyptian generals did as they damn well pleased. Perhaps they want a raise after all these years. So much for leverage. The President calls this dubious strategy “leading from behind”. The problem with leading from behind is that you are like the last man behind the elephants in the circus parade. Your job is to clean up the mess. I for one am tired of cleaning up the mess of others and playing sheriff in this modern version of the wild wild West. If they want to blow themselves to kingdom come who are we to stand in their way. Besides right now we have about as much influence in the Middle East as a cop trying to break up a domestic quarrel. So here is your Cowboy Wisdom for the Week. “If you start to thinkin’ you’re a person of influence, try ordering someone else’s dog around”. And if you think that’s tough try ordering around corrupt Egyptian generals, oil-rich Arab sheiks and Iranian mullahs.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 17:52:11 +0000
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