Ho hum, Just Another War

Ho hum, just another war in the Middle East for us to meddle in. Can anyone actually make sense out of what we are doing bombing and shelling Libya? President Obama says we cannot just sit idly by while civilians are being killed. From our behavior up until now I might easily take that to mean we want to be involved in killing them ourselves, as we have been doing for years in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and now, I guess, Libya. Of course, according to Obama, we are not really responsible for what is happening in Libya, being merely supporters of a noble cause led by France, England, and even the Arab states. This makes no sense to me whatever. I understand why the U.S. wants to pretend it is not responsible for what is happening, and if other countries want to go along with the gag, I guess that is their business. But you can bet we will be in the forefront of the attack (which we are), and you can also bet that if anything goes wrong we’ll be the ones who will have to continue this “war.”

I confess I have no idea what this is all about. It makes no sense (I’m not certain our foreign policy ever made sense). We have supported Ka daffy for years, just as we have supported other dictators in the Middle East. So are we to also now be willing to attack the dictators in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, and others? We are certainly not coming to the aid of Bahrain, now being “saved” by troops from Saudi Arabia. And we are certainly never going to attack Saudi Arabia. The fact that Arab countries are complicit now in this attack on Libya is fascinating, given the fact they show no signs of changing their own ways. So what is this all about? It seems that Ka daffy has no friends, no one likes him. I guess that is why other Arab states are willing to support our latest “war.” So now I guess the new standard of who is to be attacked is whether or not they are liked by others. Does that make sense?

It’s not as if we can’t afford another “war.” I heard just the other day that we are not broke and, in fact, can still borrow money are very low rates (that has certainly eased my fears). I also heard somewhere that this adventure in Libya probably won’t cost more than a billion or so. It’s like the late (and very much missed) Everett Dirksen said, “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” Now we are confronted with the so far unanswered question, are we to continue to be the world’s policeman? What is going on in Libya, as far as I can see, is a potential civil war. As such, it should not be any of our business. Protecting civilians is obviously just an excuse for intervention. Why would we want to intervene? Out of a sense of basic humanity? An exercise in altruism? How about the same reason we intervene everywhere else, Oil? I suspect this is in fact what it is about. Libya has oil, as do many other Middle East nations. We need oil. To insure a constant supply of that wondrous substance we support dictators, ignore human rights, and fight “wars” to make sure we can control our supply. Whenever you hear “protecting women’s rights,” think oil. Whenever you hear “protecting civilians,” think oil. Whenever you hear, “bringing democracy,” think oil. Whenever you hear, “nation building,” think oil. Whenever you hear, “regime change,” think oil. Whenever you hear Iraq or Iran or Afghanistan you should definitely think oil. It’s not really complicated. You don’t notice us racing to the rescue of Darfur or the Congo where there is apparently little oil to be had.

This new “war” in Libya has at least for the moment upstaged the nuclear disaster in Japan, or so it appears. We haven’t forgotten about Japan, but in spite of the fact the situation there has been upgraded from level 4 to level 5 on the scale of 7, and in spite of the fact that radioactive iodine has been discovered in the Tokyo water supply, and in some of the food, and in spite of the fact that the situation could still blow up into an even greater disaster, it seems to be slowly getting less and less attention. This is as it should be if you have no intention of giving up on nuclear energy and want to continue building reactors, and who wouldn’t want to do that? Remember Chernobyl, oh yeah, I sort of remember hearing about that. Remember Three Mile, or yeah, I kind of remember. Remember Fukushima, or yeah, didn’t that happen not long ago, how did it all come out? How are those two new plants in Texas coming along?

I fear that our new “war” with Libya is going to turn out to be another disaster, perhaps not as bad as Afghanistan, but bad enough. I’m willing to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt when it comes to failing to get out of Iraq or closing Guantanamo, but I cannot forgive him for the continuing “war” in Afghanistan and this new “adventure” in Libya. Nor can I forgive him for his continued support of the terrible and perennial Israeli war crimes.