Thursday 23 September 2010

Pity The Nation - By Issam Karam

Pity The Nation That Rejoices In Its Defeats!

A great question is being posed around the globe: who directs the fates of its inhabitants? And are the fates directed with wise responsibility? Initially, the question seems misplaced and foolish. The intelligence services, the universities and the thinkers cooperate… this being supposed… in order to ensure a better fate for mankind. But when human beings turn to deal with the problems they face, it is surprising to see how much the ambitions of men are governed by improvisation. Who would believe that the war in Iraq was improvised? And who would believe that the war in Afghanistan was the result of caprice and a crisis of nerves? America was shocked by the events of September 11. The explosion in New York and Washington, in the heart of America, terrorized the United States. The wounded giant swore to have his revenge before even knowing who had done him harm. “Al-Qaeda”, they said at the time! And what about Iraq when it was clear that it was not implicated in September 11, that it did not possess weapons of mass destruction and that it had no relationship with Al-Qaeda? ElBaradei was a frank witness. And no one knows to what extent his frankness may play in his favor in the battle for the Egyptian presidency.
* * *
America went to Baghdad. America, Britain and the others… And the Western forces toppled Saddam Hussein, drowning the land of the two rivers in blood and being drowned itself in the Iraqi mud. And from 2003 to 2010 America has achieved nothing in Iraq. It no longer has either friends or allies. The Shiites never thought they would be rid of America. But it is now the Shiites who govern Iraq. Those who are jockeying for power after the “elections” are all Shiites. Maliki is a Shiite and Allawi is a Shiite with a large Sunnite following.
* * *
And then America won in Afghanistan by making the same error they made in Iraq. In both places they went in without making any advance planning. However, the Soviets had preceded them in invading… in error. And in the American mindset and before America, in the mindset of the Soviets… it was a matter of days. And Kabul fell while Al-Qaeda was vanquished and the Talban capitulated. And the hours became days and the days months and the months years. Defeat became confrontation. And the American-British-Israeli military logic was, is, the same. Whoever does not overcome by force is overcome by a greater force. And the sages did their utmost to advise George Bush, who mocked the advice of sages… As he did when he jumped in a parachute onto the deck of an aircraft carrier and announced: “Mission accomplished!”
* * *
What mission? People remain silent for a certain, but eventually call for the book of accounts to ascertain that America’s war in Iraq has been a flop. The wars in the two countries have cost it a trillion dollars, and in the end we see America folding its flag and pulling out its troops, as Gorbachev did in 1989. The Soviet army left Afghanistan, crossing the “bridge of friendship”, As Napoleon’s forces fell back, beaten, across the Berezina.
* * *
It is only today that they recall the counsel of the sages, namely that a war that is not terminated in nine years suggests that something was wrong with the war in the beginning. Today we repeatedly hear that the Taliban are not terrorists, but only radical believers who have their counterparts in America… and all the countries of the globe.
I am not defending the Taliban. But I permit myself to recall to America that it was mistaken in going to Iraq and to Afghanistan without a plan.
The loss has been made worse because Iran has profited from the error of America, which has set up a “Shiite” state on its frontiers. And Turkey has benefited from the same mistake. Nevertheless, by exiting the hegemony of the great suzerain and seeking other horizons without however breaking its relationship with Washington. And China has benefited from the two American defeats to proclaim itself the world’s second largest economy, ahead of Japan and Europe. Thus Shanghai has inherited the place of New York in the twentieth century and of London in the nineteenth.
It is difficult for reason to accept a war fought on the basis of improvisation. For the most difficult decision a leader can make is to take his people to war. What if the results of the conflict are not guaranteed?
War is not an adventure. Although wars in the twentieth century were… all adventures. Germany sought wars in the twentieth century, William II in 1914-18 and Hitler in 1939-45. It is as if Germany had been encouraged by its victory in the war of 1870 to think that for it, victory would always be assured.

3 comments:

  1. Nice article, but a little too simplistic for my taste.lol
    What if the West never had any intention of going there and winning.
    Perhaps to them a win is being able to leave a Pipelineistan boot print behind.

    Many Leaders, and or Generals in history have wanted to conquer and occupy foreign lands.
    Their sages asked them "what will you do with it once you have occupied it? How will you maintain these foreign lands and its people".
    Maybe, just maybe they knew what the outcome would be all along?

    If there is a plan to live side by side with a nuclear Iran. Then I know I am right.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree he is over-simplifying, RZ but I like his take on the sequential nature of history (some of it) and the lessons never learned. I think his views would be widely shared in the Mid-East.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Some people see this whole fiasco as a mistake.
    I see it as a planned mistake.
    It was just suppose to look like a mistake.
    All the while their agenda has been fulfilled. Maybe not all of it. But enough to keep them satisfied till they move on to the next target.
    Again I must repeat myself. :-)
    I do not believe in coincidences, I believe in consequences.
    The M/E, and C/Asia is more armed and militarized than ever before.

    Does Iraq sell their oil in $ or in Euro's now as Sadam wanted to go to the Euro.
    The Gulf States also keep postponing the date to go to their own global currency.
    Wonder why.
    Maybe Iraq was an example for them.

    "Be nice to America or we will bring democracy to your country".

    ReplyDelete