IRAN, IRAQ & USA: STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
NEW IRAQI PREZ LEARNING HOW TO
PLAY THE GAME
Mayor Bill de
Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton address concerns that
ISIS is planning a terrorist attack in the
city's subway system on Sept. 25 at Union Square.
Photo: Stephen
Yang
TAGS:
HOMELAND SECUITY, NYPD, NYPD INTELLIGENCE AND
COUNTER
TERRORISM BUREAUS, THREAT FROM ISLAMIC STATE?,
NYC
SAFEST “BIG City” IN THE WORLD,
IRAQI
PRIME MINISTER OFFERS US ADVICE?
OBAMA AND A LACK OF COHESIVE FOREIGN POLICY,
USELESS STATE DEPARTMENT
(Friday September 26, 2014,
NY,NY) Probably every neighborhood had
one when you were growing up; mine did.
There was a kid named John and by 6th grade John was already
over 6 feet tall, weighing about 220 pounds and possessed an athletic
gracefulness that belied his size. He was
also amazing strong but John was just a little “slow” as was said in those
days. He could have beaten any one of us
into a bloody pulp but we always managed to elude him when he was at his
angriest. We could get John to do things
for us and, the tacit agreement was that he would leave us alone. But something always happened, someone always
went too far and John would suddenly be on the war path. No one is certain whatever happened to
John. His family relocated to another
neighborhood in The Bronx and we never saw him again. I was always marveled by just how much crap
he would take from us, how much teasing and practical joking before he reached
his limit.
In some important ways the
United States and our leaders have become like John. They could decide to bomb specific locales in
the Mideast back to the stone age, they can implement all sorts of sanctions,
embargoes, as well as more aggressive diplomatic and financial actions but they
seem to spend far too much time wandering around as John. The fundamental problem having the USA as John
is that we are allowing ourselves to be lead around by the nose; countries and
influences from the other side of the world and the “leaders” in countries
including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and a few of the other “Arab
Nations”, have us dangling like a cheap puppet on a string, a string of their
control. It is a troubling time in
America to recognize that many in the community of nations do not have the
respect they once did for the USA. Yes, the
moral high ground was squandered along with any lingering good will afforded us
after 9-11-01 by the Cheney/Bush debacles, but how we got here, to this
particular fragile, thorny time, is not pertinent to this discussion.
What is however pertinent is
that this Administration seems to believe that they are the puppet masters,
that they are pulling the strings orchestrating a clumsy geopolitical fandango
where no one knows the rhythm. To be
sure we have not had an effective Department of State since the days of General
Colin Powell. President Obama bears the
sole responsibility of choosing Hillary Clinton to be the Secretary of State
and only compounded that grievous error when he appointed long time Senator,
John Kerry, as her replacement. Essentially
we have been functioning in the world devoid of a consistent, articulated
foreign policy and the confusion it allows to seep through the cracks of
international relations simply breeds more of the same.
ROLE REVERSAL
In a startling act of role
reversal, the new
Prime Minister of Iraq, Haider al-Abadi, warned President Obama that his “intelligence”
service had uncovered a plot and that it was the work of extremists originally
from the U.S. and France who have been fighting for ISIS. The Prime Minister
cited “credible sources” and offered such details that the alleged plots will
be strikes on the subway system in NYC and Paris. There is no small irony in
this claim. After over 10 years of
combat in Iraq they have a new Prime Minister who is “sharing” intelligence
with the United States and France? Hard
to believe but one can imagine why. With
Haider al-Abadi comments he struck the notes most likely to attract attention
from the US and France. With his own
battle ravaged country falling apart, he would like to see nothing more than a
full out United States led military effort to stabilize Iraq. Yes, he is pulling the threat of terrorism
string.
Since the US led coalition
began their latest air campaign designed to “systematically degrade and destroy”
ISIL, there has been more intrigue behind the curtain behind which the puppet
masters work the strings. In the wings
of that hidden stage are the Saudis, the Turks, the Kurds and of course our
most demanding puppet master of all, Israel.
Each of these countries would tell America anything that would instigate
a wider war in the region. It does not
take a scholarly diplomat to see what is going on. Iran is also issuing statements aimed at
President Obama to remind him of their presence and influence in Iraq. Iran
was the only real “winner” in the war we fought so valiantly against
formidable insurgents and foreign fighters in the towns and cities of Iraq. Iran has too much of a vested stake in Iraq’s
future to allow the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) to hold huge swathes of land,
control refineries and pipelines and otherwise stand as an “occupying presence”
just as the long suffering people of Iraq were beginning to see light at the
end of that tunnel of atrocities, death, and sectarian and religious fighting.
GO IT ALONE
When President Ronald Reagan had
successfully negotiated and arms treaty with Michael Gorbachov, the Premier of
the USSR, he made a famous comment regarding how the disarmament treaty would
be enforced. Reagan said the only way to
accomplish such a historic undertaking was to “Trust But Verify”. And it was that simple coda that saw us
through to the end when the USSR imploded on itself and stood as proof positive
that American capitalism was far superior to Soviet socialism. In the world today, if we are to have any
reliable partners in our fight against the Islamic State, al Qaeda, and all the
mutant terrorist groups that have emerged in the last 13 years, we must trust
but verify. This comes into play
especially when we are fed “intelligence” from countries that, until very
recently, wanted nothing to do with us.
The Saudis have always warranted
having a watchful eye aimed at them.
They notoriously play “both sides of the street” as when they banished bin
Laden yet allowed him to operate from Afghanistan with access to his sizable
fortune. The Saudis have blocked some of
our law enforcement agency’s access to sites where terrorism occurred on their
homeland yet have showed a defiant intransigence when asked for military
support which is additionally infuriating because we have spent decades and
trillions of dollars to train, equip and support the Saudi military.
What we as a City and as a
people came to realize in the aftermath of 9-11-01 was that we are alone; we
have to do for ourselves what needs to be done.
Foreign allies have no problem assisting in humanitarian efforts, they
are willing to provide “fly over” rights, and some have permitted us to use
airbases on their soil. These are all
important contributions. But, until
areas of the fiercest fighting have Muslim faces staring down the Islamic State
and other groups, we will always be fighting from a point of disadvantage.
Hopefully this bombing campaign
over Iraq and Syria yields measurable results in short order. The term “mission creep” is already being
spoken in hushed tones in the corridors of the Pentagon.
A police
canine unit patrols the Times Square subway stop on Sept. 25.
Photo: EPA
New York City and all our
elite services from FDNY, PAPD, NYPD, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism
Bureaus and all the other special units will keep us safe. We really have no use for “intelligence” from
the Iraqi Prime Minister. We can just
send him a note, “Thanks but no thanks”.
Copyright The
Brooding Cynyx 2014 © All Rights Reserved
