THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume V, Issue # 115, April 19, 2003
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
AMERICA & THE MIDDLE EAST TAR-BABY
By Alan Caruba
Now when I think of the Middle East, I recall the Uncle Remus story of the tar-baby. Brer Rabbit created it as a trick on Brer Fox, who was always pursuing him. The thing about the tar-baby was, if you whacked it, it stuck to you. And as you pushed against it to get free, you just got more stuck.
The Middle East has always been a kind of tar-baby for whoever invaded it. There are historians who suggest that the fall of the Roman Empire was hastened by its many efforts to subdue the Jews of Israel. There was the famous siege of Masada and then, after 70 AD, Hadrian exiled the surviving Jews.
Most of the exiled Jews settled in Persia, where they set about creating the Talmud, the huge volume of opinion concerning all things Jewish.
Historians think the Romans were so weakened by their efforts to deal with the Jews that they were seriously weakened and became much more vulnerable to the barbarian tribes--the barbarian tribes that invaded and eventually finished off the Roman Empire. The barbarians, in turn, would be conquered by Christianity, a religion that, not surpris- ingly, came out of the Middle East.
An interesting side note about the Talmud: More than seventy-five percent of its vast text comes to no single conclusion on any question raised for the great sages to answer. You get to read all their responses and then choose your own. This is very different from Islam, where the Koran and its commentary, the Hadith, answer all questions. For a Muslim, it's either in the Koran, or one goes to the local imam, who will provide the answer.
The only answer seventh century Islam does not have is how to function in modern times. This does not deter the many Muslims who write me with their answer. They want me to become a Muslim. That is their answer to everything.
That is why, when Iraqis began to march in the streets calling for an Islamic government and for U.S. troops to leave, I realized that America had grabbed hold of the Middle East tar-baby. No nation functioning with an Islamic government (Iran and Saudi Arabia are examples that come to mind) has any grasp of human rights, and all regard repression as the primary governmental function.
Are the Iraqis truly "free," now that we have "liberated" them? Will their next govern- ment guarantee them the rights that Americans take for granted? And, having invaded Iraq and "freed" it in less than a month, how long before we feel we must also invade Syria? Or haven't you noticed the White House turn up the volume on this topic?
None of this, however, addresses why we really invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. Forget about liberation. Forget about oil. Forget about nation building. The might and power of the United States of America reached out into Afghanistan and Iraq to provide provoca- teurs around the world with a demonstration of what we could do and would do if Ameri- cans were attacked again on our own sovereign soil.
It was an exercise in power because our current national leaders realized that, if power is not used, it really doesn't exist, and power not used really cannot protect any nation or anyone. This is why a man who has a gun is a lot better off, if attacked, than one who does not have a gun and is attacked. Power can, of course, be a deterrent. Our power and our known willingness to exercise it protected us during the Cold War with the Sovi- et Union. Since the Soviet state was not run by madmen, we never had to prove our point and defend our nation by initiating an all-out nuclear blitzkrieg against Russia and its totalitarian oligarchy.
This is why the Middle East differs and why it required an actual show of power. The Taliban, mostly an influx of Saudis, had to be driven out of Afghanistan in order to hand it back to the mix of little warlords who have always run that throwback to the Middle Ages. Iran is run by a small clique of power-crazed ayatollahs. Libya is run by an ego- maniac. Virtually every nation in Africa has some petty, evil despot running the show. In the Far East, another lunatic, this one running North Korea, needed an object lesson in personal annihilation.
So, here we are, poised as the greatest military and economic power in the world. And we are stuck in the Middle East, trying to deal with religious fanatics. Our position in the Middle East is not unlike that of the ancient Romans in their military occupation of ter- ritory along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and their efforts to sundue and gov- ern the Jews..
In another religion-based conflict, we hope that Pakistan and India don't nuke each other, completely destabilize the international situation and balance of power on the Eurasion landmass, and provide the occasion for the outbreak of another world war.
The whole of China is run by a new Mandarin class of Communists, who do not wish us well and who would be delighted to see the total destruction of the United States of America..
We're sending troops to the Philippines to help preserve what passes for a democratic government there.
South America has big financial and other problems.
The French and Germans dislike us and even the British populace weren't that keen on joining us in Iraq.
Neither Canada to the north, nor Mexico to the south, had a kind word for our action in Iraq. Neither gives a damn about the integrity of our borders with them.
Some forty-three or more nations did express support, however. Those nations, now free of the domination of the former Soviet Union and having begun to enjoy the blessings of freedom, understood the stakes. And thank you Spain and Australia.
Finally, there's the United Nations, irresolute, corrupt, disdainful of our naive belief in human rights and self-government, and intent on imposing itself on the whole world as a huge bureaucratic global government.
So our troops now are in the Middle East, and, like the Roman Empire, we deploy and maintain military forces around the world. Most nations these days won't spend anything on their own armies and, when they do use them, it is mostly to keep their own people in line.
Then there's that shadowy thing called al-Qa'ida. It's not a nation. It's a fanatical Islamic religious movement that hates us, the Israelis, the Saudi royal family, and who knows who else, equally. They've shown their talent for wreaking havoc in places as far apart from one another as Manhattan and the islands of Bali.
Like reading the Talmud, you can supply any answer you want to the problem. It's the Jews, it's the oil, it's the evil multi-national corporations, it's eating meat, it's SUVs, it's Hollywood. It's all of these things. It's none of these things. But that old tar-baby just keeps sticking to us, no matter what we do to free ourselves.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
Page Two
Page One
The Problem of Rogue States:
Iraq as a Case History
The Middle East & the Arabs
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, Communications Director of the American Policy Center, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly column, "Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center (www.anxietycenter.com). He is the author of A POCKET GUIDE TO MILITANT ISLAM and THE UNITED NATIONS VS. THE UNITED STATES, both available from the National Anxiety Center, 9 Brookside Road, Maple- wood, New Jersey, 07040.
Copyright 2003 Alan Caruba
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity