Sunday, May 04, 2014

Benghazi or Banzai?

Banzai, during WW II, for anyone who might not know, was a Japanese term that referred to a kind of last ditch, human wave, more or less suicidal attack when everything else had failed.

It seems obvious to me that the current Republican obsession with Benghazi is nothing more than their last ditch, probably hopeless “banzai” attack on Obama/Hillary and the 2016 Presidential race. All else has failed for them, their belief that Obamacare would fail, the economy would fail, unemployment would rise, they could find an IRS scandal, and so on. So now, in desperation, it’s just Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi, all the time. They are doing this because they are at a loss for anything else to do, being intellectually bankrupt, having accomplished virtually nothing for the past six years, opposing Obama at every turn.

This obsession with Benghazi may very well backfire on Republicans as it occurred two years back and has already been investigated to death with several hearings, much testimony, documentation, and so on. It is clear what happened during this truly tragic event, and also clear there was no White House cover-up, and also clear that Hillary had little or nothing to do with it (other than being Secretary of State at the time).  Even so, Darrell Issa refuses to let it go, having failed miserably to find a scandal anywhere.  Someone referred to Issa as a “mangy attack dog.” I think that is unfair to attack dogs everywhere. Issa has managed to waste millions of dollars of taxpayer money and untold hours of time for the past six years and has accomplished nothing (except getting himself lots of publicity). One of the things I find the most disturbing about our political system is the lack of any overriding authority, someone, somewhere, somehow, to just make fools like Issa stop doing more obvious damage than they already have. You might think that his (so-called) peers in Congress would themselves have made him stop, but they are either helpless or are themselves delighted in such arrogantly stupid, wasteful, and unnecessary behavior. They are not called the greatest do-nothing Congress for no reason. Every time Republicans bring up Benghazi, Democrats in Congress should shout Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!

Now that Israel has (completely predictably) managed to destroy another attempt to solve the Israeii/Palestinian problem (which probably should be simply termed the Israeli problem),  where do we go from here? My bet is the answer will be nowhere. Kerry is said to be considering waiting six months and trying again, an idea so laughable as to be ridiculous. It could not be more obvious that Israel does not want a solution, preferring the status quo, and it is equally obvious the United States is so biased in Israeli’s favor it will never succeed in being an honest broker. The United Nations is going to have to wake up and take some truly meaningful steps to force Israeli compliance with a two state solution however painful it may be to Israel. Israel is and will continue to be a true apartheid state unless the world unites to prevent it from continuing, as happened with South Africa.

It looks like we are beginning to see the end of American hegemony, the American century, or whatever you want to call it. Putin is quite likely to put an end to how things have been for the past century. If, when the current unrest in Ukraine is settled (hopefully diplomatically), Putin might well opt for closer ties with the European Union, especially with Germany. Russia has enormous natural resources, Germany has all the know-how to exploit them. Thus if a Eurasian entity emerges it will be a world powerhouse to easily challenge American hegemony. If, on the other hand, Putin decides to turn eastward, to China and India, a similar world power would be created, also strong enough to challenge U.S. hegemony. Ultimately, our meddling in the affairs of Europe and Asia, will probably bring about one of these two results, Putin will emerge as the real winner. We may, indeed, have attempted one coup too many. 

 “One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.” 
 
Oscar Wilde


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