Perspectives

The State of the War & World

It is understandable that not everyone understands the reason we cover the news we do, or how drug violence in  Mexico, nationalization of grocery stores in Venezuela, "bank robberies" in Baghdad, and protests in Syria or Cairo can possibly related.  Others believe there is a nefarious, secret council that is not only plotting, but implementing a plan to take over the world.  How does the average citizen come to conclusions of what is real, what is connected, and what is overreaching the bounds of reasonable conclusion, i.e. nothing more than a conspiracy theory.

Let's be frank, but not paranoid, there are individuals which conspire to advance their power.  They're often called political parties, and while they will avoid the term conspire, their means are to increase their group and personal power through conspiring together with a common theme and goal.  But to think that political opponents are nothing more than puppets to a small group of secret power mongers would ignore the fact that other groups also vie for that same power.

The world is in fact at a key point in history.  After decades, centuries even, of oppression, the people of the Middle East are rising up and demanding change.  But not every participant in the protests has the same ideals of what government should be.  Not every protest is led by people of the same ideals, and not every person holding a sign understands who they are following.  It is puzzling how the Administration in Washington is choosing whom to back and who to attempt to ignore.

Underreported Terrorist Ties

(Written in November 2009, this still applies.)

Some things really make you wonder.  Perhaps there's some "justification," but it's simply hard to imagine what excuse would make sense why the government joins with the media in ignoring the ties of terrorists.  The documentation is  there and has been to demonstrate the ties between Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas, Hizb-i-Islami, Islamic Jihad, the Muslim Brotherhood, just to name a few of  the more well known groups, and other Terrorists.  It is no secret that Osama, Mugniyah, Zawahari, Turabi, are and have been working closely with Iran and The Sudan for decades.

One would hope but sees little evidence, that the intelligence agencies and political leadership of this Nation knows and understands that basically all of the tangled webs of islamist terrorism lead back to Tehran, and many through Khartoum, The Sudan.  While the administration at the time may be forgiven for not knowing in 1993 or 1983 that the battles they fought in Mogadishu and Beirut were against the proxies of Tehran, today's leadership doesn't have the luxury of ignorance that history has removed.

Common Sense in Foreign Policy

Having worked with Diplomats & Warriors and having met a number of Politicians, Foreign Policy and Politics intrigue me, annoy me, and astound me.  While I recognize that "RealPolitik" is a reality that however distasteful, will not change, it seems that many blatantly ignore reality and prove falsehoods by simple repetition and the loudest bullhorns. 

Realpolitik means that DoD costs will always be higher than necessary, because unless a DoD supplier employs people in the widest number of Congressional Districts, some other company will get the contract.  I don't like that costs needlessly increase with transportation costs, but Congressman reality prevents change.

On the other hand, and my focus here, blatant denial of reality makes no sense.  And I'll offer several instances of it.  Let's begin with Iran:

For the last 3 decades, the Islamist regime in Iran has made a mockery of US attempts at Diplomacy.  The most obvious symbol of this is the fact that the US Embassy in Tehran is occupied as the Headquarters of the Revolutionary Guard, spraypainted with anti-American graffitti.  In diplomatic and international terms, that literally means that Iran is occupying US soil.