(The
title of this entry was lifted from a quote from The Simpsons'
episode entitled "Lemon of
Troy." This barely has anything to do with
anything.)
It just occurred to me what an excellent Machiavellian
strategy it is to invade Iraq and thereby destabilize the Middle
East. A quick survey of the blogosphere and of the Internet in
general will reveal that many people believe that this war will
only increase the likelihood of terrorist attacks. After all, for
every Iraqi father we kill, how many of his sons will decide to
seek vengeance?
Given that it is obvious the U.S. wants to be the
policeman of the world, a bogeyman is precisely what they
need, though. Iraq is, in truth, the sacrificial lamb. The
occupation will be long and bloody, and counterproductive. But it
is an investment. The ultimate payoff is that if the U.S.
does succeed in increasing terrorist activity, it will be
easier to get recalcitrant countries to accept the presence of U.S.
troops for their "protection." (I just have to shake my head that,
not only has the U.S. decided to, once again, screw
its daughter colony, but that GMA has fallen for it just like
Aguinaldo did. Also read about it in the
Chicago Tribune, free registration required.) But with these
tactics, maybe the U.S. can finally succeed in annexing Saudi
Arabia and Turkey into the empire. They already have Kuwait. Syria
and Jordan might even be similarly convinceable.
Wow. What we have here is a literal thug empire. You
know, akin to those "protection" rackets where thugs come over to
your place of business and ask for their "protection" fee. Because
without them, evil "criminals" will probably come by and cause
trouble. Nevermind the fact that it's because of our
protection scheme that there are even more evil criminals
around.
I now also understand why the U.S. isn't going
after North Korea. There is very little to gain. They already have
their protection racket in full effect in South Korea, Japan, and
the Philippines, and it is unlikely that they'll ever intimidate
China and Russia into allowing them to occupy their territory
(although this isn't for the lack of trying.)
Similarly, this protection racket works really well at
home. Ashcroft and his cronies are in the process of dismantling
all the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights,
and it seems like the American public is just lying on its back,
trying to enjoy it. This is serious business. I don't know what to
do but shrug. If Americans aren't going to fight for their freedom,
no one else will. The parallels with Germany in the 1930's are
astounding.
As an aside, make no mistake. I do not think the
civilized segments of Middle Eastern countries are interested in
fundamentalistic terrorism. Al Qaeda and their ilk are, if
anything, more of a physical threat to peace-living Arabs in the
Middle East than they are to even Israelis, much less to Americans.
In the face of a suicide bombers, I do not think victims care
whether or not the bomber shares their religion or ethnicity. I
doubt that the victim will be very supportive of the bomber's
cause. Killing is killing, evil is evil, whoever does it. Not like
that shouldn't be obvious.