The first 1000 days of the Soviet Trap

Wasn’t the bi-polarization of the world, during the Cold War, much easier to handle? We knew where the ‘bad guys’ were and how to thwart their every communist move. We had the CIA and they had the KGB. We were for free markets and they were for five year plans. We had stars and stripes they had hammer and sickles. However, underneath this James Bond façade of shadow operations and clandestine missions was a fallacy.

The domino theory and USSR domination of communist ideology throughout the world was a fallacy. An erroneous belief which enabled the arms race and countless billions spent to enrich the Military Industrial Complex. It is accurate that the Soviet threat was genuine however the philosophy of Soviet collusion between ALL communist nations was false and a catastrophic gaffe. Moreover, this mistake pulled our attention away from other geo-political causes such as disease prevention, terrorism, poverty and environmental degradation; tribulations which are much more costly and devastating when not prevented.

Soviet communism fell upon its own weight. Some have argued, quite ignorantly, that the arms race sped the collapse of controlled markets. In fact, statistics prove that defense expenses were a fraction of Soviet GDP. The fact remains, Soviet style five year plans were mismanaged and ill equipped to handle such a vast and complex population. The US believed otherwise. We felt that the USSR was in control of China, Cuba, and Vietnam (not to mention all of Central and South America). According, to our actor president, ‘the evil empire’ was the authority behind each nation. This irrational thinking has now resurfaced in our so called ‘war on terrorism’.

We see Al Qaeda as the source of all Arabic terrorism and it is the central hub of thought, philosophy and plans for jihad. They are evil and we are good. You are either with us or against us. The US has developed a strategy of black and white. There are no grey areas in this global struggle against extremism and radical Islam. Once again we have fallen into the trap of a provincial foreign policy. Unfortunately, this threat is not going to fall upon its own weight. This problem has grown to portions that the US has never seen.

Terrorist cells are now INDEPENDENTLY orchestrating assaults on civilian targets. See London and Madrid as examples. True these cells take their cues from groups such as Al Qaeda, the Salaifs, the Wahhabists, Lashkar-e-Tayba, Harakat ul-Mujahedin, and Jundullah. However, they are not in direct contact with any of these groups. In fact, most do not identify with the groups at all, they only identify with a sense of Muslim umma (community of believers). Thus, our strategy for fighting these groups is incomplete and has the unintended effect of energizing Muslims toward Jihad instead of Dawa (preaching). Islamic terrorism is not “Soviet Style”. It is not centrally located, it is not found in the heart of Osama Bin Laden, it is found where poverty has circumvented prosperity and religion has infiltrated government.

Bush’s Bizzaro World

Maybe there isn’t enough room in his world of subjective reality and truth for the rest of us. He pronounced today that the “terrorists want us to leave Iraq so that they can set up a base of operations there in which to attack America.” Bush has truly lost all forms of logic and affirmative ideas. His foreign policy objectives are in line with only one other person: Osama Bin Laden.

In fact, according to Bin Laden (read his manifesto), the decision to attack Iraq was a key link in the chain of events for the Muslim world to regain a strong and durable caliphate. According, to Bin Laden’s own order of operations, US forces must invade a Muslim country so that, “he can have targets close to his holy warriors.” Thus, when Bush went head long into the desert of Iraq Bin Laden smiled with glee. He understood that the more time spent in the desert the time spent killing Americans. Moreover, terrorism has risen throughout the world, since 9-11 except for America, Why? Because the targets are in Iraq, why leave the house when you can have the food delivered?

Consequently, stubbornness and arrogance will only lead to our destruction and the fragile life of Iraqi democracy (which most academic and political scientists agree that democratic consolidation takes at least 20 years –see Huntington, Lipset, Diamond and Putnam) will be extinguished before it takes root. Bush seems to think, if he keeps talking about subjective realities, then they will over time become objective truth. You can not blame him for this illogical approach to foreign and domestic policy. For this cerebral construct has worked in the past. Weapons of mass destruction, Bin Laden ties to Saddam, torture and intelligent design just to name a few popular triumphs for Bush’s Bizzaro World. Maybe if we all band together and announce that he is utterly correct and our troops must begin permanent settlements within the region, he would change his mind. Fearing that the ‘unintelligent masses have it wrong’ (he is a Straussian at heart) Bush may finally consider removing American targets from the region.

“White People First…”

As Mamma D proclaimed in her Congressional Select Committee hearing, on Dec. 6^th, the ism’s of the world must come to an end. Racism bubbled to the surface from the sludge and filth of the bayou and the clean up will take more than sewage pumps and bulldozers. Stories of complete and unapologetic racism filled the committee room. Stories of hand picked whites and Asians from thousands of blacks to be evacuated out of New Orleans. Eye witness accounts of National Guard, local police and sheriff officers expounding racial slurs which would have made the late Gov. Wallace blush.

Stories of concentration camps along the I-10 causeway; people herded like cattle and left to fend for themselves. As Ishmael Muhammad, an attorney for the Advancement Project revealed that refuges in New Orleans were left to die. The specter of forlorn trepidation saturated the city. Locals felt that they were part of genocide. Leah Hodges, through tears, exclaimed that blacks were singled out for torture, mistreatment and abuse the likes of which were comparable to Nazi concentration camps. Rep. Miller (FL-R) – (I weep for Pensacola) - ‘respectfully asked’ that Mrs. Hodges not refer to the Causeway area as a concentration camp. She stated, in her rebuttal to Rep. Miller, that “if you put a pig in a dress it is still a pig.”

Rep. Miller was stubbornly firm and questioned the intelligence of Mrs. Hodges by asking rhetorically, “do you know the history behind concentration camps?’ Hodges, now full of fury at this notion, remarked that she is a lover of history and a college educated women, apparently Rep. Miller was caught off guard by this statement and this ended the banter. Rep. Miller clearly was looking to refute the accounts rather than listen to the brave men and women of New Orleans.

I found myself ashamed and distraught while listening to the over 3 hours of testimony. I kept thinking about how racism is pervasive and a cancerous pillar in American culture, infecting all parts of society. The governments (local, state, and federal) through their ineptitude and lack of leadership left these citizens to die. There is no excuse for the uselessness of our elected leaders. The downward spiral of incompetence and apathy towards people of lower socio-economic status and color has, once again, left a scar on America.

Ironically, we seem to ignore the plight of injustice that lurks in our own communities to seek out these same injustices throughout the world. Despite our best tendencies toward tolerance and open liberal thought (liberal thought brought about true social change in this country – see amendments 15,19,24,26 of the US constitutions), we have failed as a nation to recognize our own short falls. We have failed to fully grasp the abject injustice of our societal and cultural machinations.

Philosophically, as a white person, we can not understand this invisible injustice. In other words, white people understand that there must be an understanding between groups. We must try to understand these groups. Thus, this understanding illustrates the concept of divergence. This divergence is further reaching than aesthetic complexions. For if there were no need to understand then there would be no difference. You would be looking at a societal mirror. However, as our nation stands now, we are exponentially different and our capacity for understanding has diminished. A socio-economic and racial chasm is developing in our nation. Katrina was a geologic shift which produced the latest plumes of outrage. I foresee more ruptures within America.

National Interest or Political Agenda: One of these things is doing its own thing…

Due to the rewriting of historical accounts dating from 1992-2004, over intelligence; I found myself drawn to Scott Ritter’s book Iraq Confidential. Written in a journalistic mode, it was easy to read and even easier to understand. Ritter reveals that the actors in this game of espionage and international inspections were vast; however the central characters revolved around two seemingly similar notions. First is the notion of political agendas and second that of national interest. Political agendas were markedly distant from the studious and well-trained inspectors. On the one hand, you have the CIA. The CIA, directed completely from the White House, wanted nothing short of complete Iraqi regime change; even going as far as to orchestrate a coup attempt in June 1996. This was a complete failure and Ritter opined that it was as bad as the Bay of Pigs invasion.

On the other hand, is a nation’s national interest of peace in the Middle East. This was the underlining duty of UNSCOM. This multinational group was instructed to inspect sites throughout Iraq. This was no easy task. The Iraqis were combative, uncooperative, and deceitful. Normal behavior, when a sovereign nation is asked to open up and let the whole world pry into its darkest secrets. Iraq, as any other nation, was guarded. Of course, the US saw this as simply an affront to the UN work of open inspections, but in reality the US wanted regime change. The inspections were used as a means to an end. The policy makers and politicos wanted Saddam out and nothing UNSCOM or the world could do would change this thinking. The inspectors and peace were caught in the middle of skewed policy and American hubris.

Even more disturbing then the illogical approach by the US was the underhanded and clearly deceptive nature of the CIA as opposed to international organizations. The CIA was the hit man for the White House. They played their hand close to the vest and when inspectors needed information about ‘weapons sties’ they were either snubbed or lied to. UNSCOM had to rely on other intelligence agencies for photos, eavesdropping and manpower. Furthermore, when the CIA saw that UNSCOM was moving forward without their help they labeled the other agencies as a ‘security risk’. Thus, in this tangled web of lies and missteps, Israel and Britain were deemed risks. They were risks because they did not share the same political goals as the US.

Therefore, the truth of the inspection process which lasted through 3 different presidents was not one of disarmament but of regime change. THEY WANTED THE INTELLEGENCE TO MATCH THE POLICY. This is the modus operandi of the CIA. This is a logical consequence of a private covert military arm gone unchecked by the democratic process and tied directly to the executive. The CIA, during this short new millennium, has brought this country: 9/11 and an unnecessary war in Iraq.

However, one must understand that these political agendas are not in our national interest. It is not in our national interest to be in a state of perpetual war. Peace and prosperity are in our national interest. Moreover, prosperity does not mean other nations must topple; in other words, international peace is not a zero sum game. The floundering policies associated with Iraq have left our true national interests forgotten. These interests are lost in the fog of war and deception. Americans must arm themselves with the truth. They must read all accounts of prewar intelligence and not shy away from political talk and discussions. Get in the fray and be officious about truth.