NOT THAT YOU ASKED
How's this for a new Middle East policy--let's just get the hell out. I don't mean we should just sit over here between our borders and ignore the rest of the world. We can't afford to do that. For one thing, the economy is now global. Heck, if China ever decides to call in its note, we're all going to have to learn to eat with chopsticks and carry around copies of Mao's little red book.
There's also the problem that over in Russia, Putin wants to become a world power again and bring back the Cold War. Gee, remember those fun filled days when the only thing that prevented the end of the world was something called mutually assured destruction? And of course, there are still those pesky radical Muslims who love their god so much they want to kill everybody that doesn't love him just like they do.
So we can't just ignore the Middle East, but at least the era of sending our military to fight another country's war should end. As our defense secretary has said, the Iraqi army just doesn't have the will to fight. If they aren't willing to fight and die for their country, no American should be asked to do so for them.
The fact that the Iraqi army is unwilling to fight isn't exactly a surprise. Every time they have faced a foe that was their equal or better, their favored tactic was retreat. When the first President Bush sent troops over there in Desert Storm, the Iraqis surrendered to news crews sent there to cover the war. When his idiot son decided to invade Iraq in 2003, they did the same thing. When ISIS invaded last year, the Iraqi army not only ran, they left their weapons and hardware for ISIS to take.
Not only should we stop fighting in Iraq, we should stop trying to turn the country into a democracy. Once the fighting is over, whoever wins should be free to set up the type of government and society they want, not what we want. Once they do we can always come around and offer to do business with whoever is in charge. In fact, by staying out of it, the winner may be more willing to deal with us.
Look at it this way. Our revolution was successful because of the help we got from France. We needed their help, and were happy to get it. However, how do you think the founders would have liked it if France had stuck around after the war and tried to tell us what kind of government to set up?
We should limit our presence in the Middle East to infiltrating ISIS to prevent terrorism here at home or at one of our embassies. We should also continue to hunt down ISIS leaders and send in strike teams to kill the ones we find. Having our military over there won't prevent terrorism. The military doesn't prevent terrorism, it reacts to it.
It may seem heartless, but I really don't care how many people over there die, either in battle or by beheading, or even being burned alive. I just don't want any more Americans sent over there to die, especially for people who won't fight for themselves. Doing that, and sending more weapons over there that will end up in the hands of ISIS is just dumb. Let's just sit back, let them fight among themselves, and we can do business with the winners.
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