Friday, March 13, 2015

TRUST




While Jim Phillips, Middle East analyst for conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation is correct Iran has infused in its philosophy extreme anti American rhetoric (see NBC story below) and has killed plenty of Americans, the same can be said for American policy. In addition to the CIA unseating a democratically elected beloved Iranian leader Mosadeq in the 1950's and replacing him with the dictator the Shah, the US, in recent history, has invaded a country, Iraq, under false pretenses. Iraq had done nothing to it. The US has killed hundreds of thousands and made refugees of millions in Iraq and in many other parts of the Middle East as well. Iranians and Middle Easterners in general have long memories.
 
The greatest most profound error the Bush admin made was in not knowing or certainly underestimating the sectarian violence its war in Iraq would and did unleash while disbanding the Iraqi Sunni army of Sadam with its weapons intact. The destabilization of a tinder box Middle East leaves us the mess we have now and with the establishment of the brutality extreme of ISIS and Al Qaeda never in Iraq before the US invasion.  A note of community interest: Sadam Hussein, the man the US deposed (for those with short memories) loathed Al Qaeda.
 
I am among the guilty ones initially in supporting the Iraq War because of the horror of 9/11. I knew nothing about sectarian hatred, thought nothing about unleashing the tigers within, and thought nothing about the quagmire and the explosiveness (literally) that would ensue. But I am NOT in Washington or anywhere else making policy. The Bush admin certainly the CIA, and every other American institution with geniuses connected to foreign policy should have known.
 
This is, in my opinion, the worst foreign policy blunder in US history perhaps for all time and the extremist rightwing nationalist Republican Party now does this nation no favors by subverting those who want to bring peace to this most dangerous part of the world especially with respect to a nuclear Iran. We must work with those who were/are unfriendly to us no matter how much we may not trust them. As much as we do not trust them they do not trust us!

"Iran's Qasem Soleimani Is Guiding Iraqi Forces in Fight Against ISIS"
link to story here.


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