Sunday, January 03, 2010

The Next Quagmire

Non-G.I. Joe Lieberman, Dick Cheney’s fellow Vietnam-era draft dodger turned warmonger, said on the Dec. 27 edition of Fox News Sunday that "Yemen is now one of the centers of that fight." It’s difficult to tell from reading the transcript of the interview between Joe and Chris Wallace what exactly Joe means by "that fight." Does he mean the fight against al-Qaeda, or the fight the military-industrial-congressional complex is waging to ensure that we have a Long War of 50 years’ duration or more?

"If we don’t act preemptively," Joe warned, "Yemen will be tomorrow’s war. That’s the danger we face." Yet, as Joe acknowledged, we already have a "growing presence" in Yemen: "Special Operations, Green Berets, intelligence [i.e., CIA]." We have also carried out carrier-based and cruise missile air strikes on Yemen, so Joe obviously has something more robust in mind, like a Yemen surge.

The U.S. Army, including its head honcho, "King David" Petraeus, will be all in favor of that. What better excuse to make the Army an even bigger force than we’re already making it by entangling ourselves in another boots-on-the-ground quagmire we can never extract ourselves from?

"Conservative of the Year" Dick Cheney accused the Obama administration of "trying to pretend we’re not at war." I think it’s safe to say that the Obama administration is well aware that we’re at war – two wars, in fact, that the Cheney administration stumbled into, couldn’t win, and kept going long enough to dump into their Democratic successors’ laps.

If you treat Pakistan as a separate country from Afghanistan, like the rest of the world does, we’re in three wars. We’re in four if you consider what we’re already up to in Yemen, five if you tack on the villages we’ve blown the smithereens out of in Somalia. And if you count our involvement of one sort or other in every whack-a-do the Israelis pull, you’ll lose count of how many wars we’re in.

If we surge in Yemen, we’ll have to conduct counterinsurgency operations, of course, because that’s what takes the most troops and the most time and costs the most money and has the least effect on the supposed objective of disrupting international terrorist networks.

Lieberman says we have a good relationship with the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has in essence been president of Yemen since 1978. Some say Saleh played a role in the plot to assassinate the previous president, Ibrahim al-Hamdi, who in turn was leader of a coup that overthrew the regime of President Abdul Rahman al-Iryani in 1974. So Saleh is just the kind of enlightened guy we want to cuddle up with.

Joe apparently thinks our "good relationship" with Saleh is a portent of successful escalated military operations in Yemen. Joe must have forgotten the great relationship we’ve had with Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai, who just stole two elections and who runs the second most corrupt country in the world. The most corrupt country is Somalia, which doesn’t actually have a government at all but which is another country Bill Kristol and the neocons want to invade. What better place to nation-build than in a country that isn’t a nation?

We were sleeping-bag buds with Gen. Perez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president and virtual military dictator, until he stepped down in the face of impeachment charges in 2008. We were cordial with the follow-on president, Asif Ali Zardari, until Army Chief Ashfaq Kayani stripped Zardari of his powers and reestablished the military as Pakistan’s permanent ruling establishment. As recently as July, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ruled out the possibility of a military government coming back into power in Pakistan. Now that Zardari is facing criminal charges and is little more than a figurehead, Hillary appears to be cutting dope deals with Kayani.

We were thick as thieves with Saddam Hussein for decades and backed him during the nearly nine-year long Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), even after one of his jets destroyed the USS Stark with two Exocet missiles.

Yemen’s Saleh, no matter how far he lets us run our hand up his thigh, has a tentative hold on his country. He has Shi’ite and Sunni rebels in the north, separatists in the south, and, of course, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), who may or may not be operating in connection to Osama bin Laden’s al -Qaeda, the one we’re supposedly fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

However AQAP is or isn’t related to bin Laden’s bunch, it’s the least of Saleh’s worries. There are "maybe hundreds of them" says Yemen’s Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi, "200, 300…."

For the sake of going after two or three hundred Islamo-fabulists who brag about failed terror attempts like the one where the rich Nigerian kid’s underpants failed to blow up on an airplane bound for Detroit, lipstick neocon Joe Lieberman and his fellow Long Warriors in Congress and the Pentagon would like to stick American troops in the middle of another civil war we won’t be able to dig them out of for many, many years.

And then, to paraphrase Howard Dean, it’s on to Nigeria, and Somalia, and we’re going to Sudan, and Ethiopia, and Eritrea, and Syria, and then on to Lebanon, and then all the way to Iran…Yahoo!

Historical analysis shows that military action is by far the least effective means of combating terrorism, the most effective solutions being policing and political action. In July 2008, analysts at the RAND Corporation recommended that we "minimize the use of military force" in our efforts against terrorism, and that the most effective way to counter terrorism is with "a light U.S. military footprint or none at all."

Yet we continue to enlarge our military footprint throughout the Muslim world, a course of action that produces more new terrorists – like the rich kid with the skivvy bomb that didn’t go off – than it captures or kills. Of course, there’s no better way to sustain a Long War than by making your enemies multiply.

In his weekly Saturday radio address on Jan. 2, Obama vowed retribution against al-Qaeda for the Christmas bombing attempt.

Anything to get Dick Cheney off his back, I guess.

Commander Jeff Huber, U.S. Navy (Retired) writes at Pen and Sword. Jeff's novel Bathtub Admirals (Kunati Books), a lampoon on America's rise to global dominance, is on sale now.

9 comments:

  1. It just keeps amazing me how these "war lovers" like LIEberman and Cheney and their crew are so all in favor of war, yet none of them ever wore a uniform.
    They love any war they or their families don't have to fight and die in.
    Bunch of damn cowards is what I think of them all.
    More war for even more obscene profits for the war industries. Our national slogan should be Wars R Us.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous5:37 PM

    Unfortunately there are too many young Americans who are more than happy to go out and fight wars of occupation for their 40 pieces of silver.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unfortunately,for so many, it's the only career choice available.

    Jeff

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous6:12 AM

    Is joining the military during times like this really a legitmate carreer choice? Perhaps turning thier anger on the military industrial complex rather than on a bunch of poor people half way around the world would be a more useful career choice to American society, and even for themselves. By joining the military, even if they join a safe service like the navy, they will spend long periods deployed away from their families under working conditions that a dog in a european country would not work under, they will have their minds corrupted by idiots, and finally they will be helping their brothers and sisters who join the army and marine corp to get themselves killed for the benifit of rich people.
    I would rather stand in line at a soup kitchen to avoid starvation than join the 21st century american military. Furthermore if people were joining out of a sense of desperation they should be joining the military with sense of outrage at having been forced in to such circumstances they should be looking for a chance to revolt. Are they?
    I see no evidence of that. I only see evidence of, what is in it for me, tell me any lie so that I can go on pretending that my service is a sacrifice for a noble cause. The military is a big institution no one can know but a very small fraction of those in it. But I would be willing to bet that there are many who do not even spend a moment thinking about the morality of what they are doing. It is a government job therefore it is good, end of story.
    Curt

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous10:59 AM

    Something to add to that above.
    Many Americans are taught by their religious leaders that to be saved and not go to hell is the purpose of their life here on earth. In addition they are taught that the way to be saved is to accept Jesus as your Savior. It is often implied and sometimes explicitly stated in such religious groups that your are not saved by your works but by your faith.
    I think that such teaching is an abomination, and I know more about the subject than all the televangelists who disagree with me put together. The purpose of faith is to give people the courage to do the right thing even though to do so one must take a risk.
    A person who has faith would not join the 21st Century military. they would have faith that they can work out their economic problems without joining criminals. Now if they did try and it did not work out then they would have faith that they are being driven in to the arms of the criminals not to become one of them but to reform them. They will always be looking for a chance.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous8:38 AM

    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com]Gucci[/url]
    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com]Replica GUCCI SHOES[/url]
    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com]wholesale gucci shoes[/url]
    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com]cheap Gucci handbags[/url]
    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com]cheap Gucci shoes[/url]
    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com]discount gucci shoes[/url]
    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com]Gucci shop[/url]
    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com]Gucci shoes[/url]
    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com]Gucci bags[/url]
    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com/5-gucci-men-s-shoes-show-all]Men Gucci shoes[/url]
    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com/6-gucci-women-s-shoes-show-all]Women Gucci Shoes[/url]
    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com/8-gucci-handbags-show-all]Gucci Handbags[/url]
    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com/9-gucci-wallets]Gucci wallets[/url]
    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com/11-gucci-belts-show-all]Gucci Belts[/url]
    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com/10-gucci-hats-scarves]Gucci hats & scarves[/url]
    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com/13-gucci-small-accessories]Gucci small accessories[/url]
    [url=http://www.gucci-shoes-bags.com/14-gucci-on-sale]Gucci ON sale[/url]

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous5:13 AM

    I appreciate your bright ideas in this r4 article. Great work!

    I really like this dstti adv price article, and hope there can be more great resources like this.

    Good job for writing this brilliant article of dstti card.

    Thank you so much for sharing some great ideas of nintendo ds r4 card for sale with us, they are helpful.

    Excellent point here. I wish there are more and more acekard 2i dsi 1.4 articles like that.

    It has been long before I can find some useful articles about ak2i ds lite . Your views truly open my mind.

    This acekard ak2i article is definitely eye-opening and inspiring.

    I love this r4i gold article since it is one of those which truly convey useful ideas.

    I am glad to read some fantastic acekard 2i ak2i multimedia sdhc tf cart for dsi/ndsi/ds lite article like this.

    This is the best nds card article I have ever found on the Internet.

    Your do have some unique ideas here and I expect more m3 adapter articles from you.

    You have given us some interesting points on r4 dsi . This is a wonderful article and surely worth reading.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous5:13 AM

    # Great article, it's helpful to me, and I also like the useful info about eyeglasses online.

    # You have given us some interesting points on prescription sunglasses. This is a wonderful article and surely worth reading.

    # What an inspiring article you wrote! I totally like the useful cheap kids glasses info shared in the article.

    # I greatly benefit from your articles every time I read one. Thanks for the child eyeglasses info, it helps a lot.

    # I like your ideas about child glasses and I hope in the future there can be more bright articles like this from you.

    # I really like this children eyeglasses article, and hope there can be more great resources like this.

    # Thank you so much for sharing some great ideas of children glasses with us, they are helpful.

    # Great resources of kids eyeglasses! Thank you for sharing this with us.

    # Your do have some unique ideas here and I expect more kids glasses articles from you.

    # Bright idea, hope there can be more useful articles about kids sunglasses .

    ReplyDelete
  9. Just take a look at the signature red sole, and you know you are in the presence of greatness, with a fabulous pair of Christian Louboutin shoes.
    I own a beauty nike air max shoes now, I like it very much.
    The mbt shoes reviews can make us more healthy and more fashion. Wonderful articl, hold it. Thanks for your reading, cheap MBT shoes for you. When you go shopping, with the GHD hair straightener making a simple hairstyle is very important.

    ReplyDelete