Choosing the right battle

“What do you read my Lord? Words, words, words.”
— William Shakespeare.

It looks like the pen is indeed mightier than the sword. The revelation of leaked Pentagon documents by the Wikileaks whistleblower website is doing more to end the West’s entanglement in the Afghani and Iraqi quagmire than the vaunted smart technology and a couple of hundred thousand troops. Evidence showing Pakistani double dealings, Iranian complicity, Saudi money and Islam’s resentment of our intervention in their world clearly shows after trillions of dollars and thousands of our young men dead that there’s no possible hope of turning that part of the world into any semblance of a responsible modern democracy.

If after nine years of utter futility doesn’t seem like enough proof we’re wasting our resources, the last nail in the coffin of deluded hopes of George Bush and Barack Obama is finally being hammered home. Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and the whole region of Chaos-stans are best left to stew in their own juices. They should be approached in the manner of the Chinese, who wisely refrain from imposing any morality upon others and come only with the intent of mercantilism. They say, “You’ve got oil. We’ll buy it.” No need to moralize here. One doesn’t see any worldwide protests calling China the Great Satan or any terrorist threats against Beijing. The leaders there are clearly more attuned to public opinion than any American President and are secretly smiling at the prospect of the U.S. having to endure another humiliating Asian retreat.

Since the question isn’t if the West is leaving but when and the big issue is what will it do to American credibility and prestige, the answer is simple. They’re both going downhill fast. There’s no doubt leaving will be humiliating but the whole effort was useless and stupid to begin with. To win in war, the effort must be made to kill the enemy; none of this hearts and minds stuff. It worked in World War II against the Germans and Japanese and it only took half as long to get the victory.

The answer to another question is what happens if Western forces leave? The Americans (and us) can start dealing with real issues at home. Our governments have serious money problems. To go halfway around the world and waste useful tax dollars is not fiscal responsibility in the least. While we’re at it, let’s stop protecting Japan, South Korea and Germany. They’re well off enough to take care of themselves. Bring all the boys home. Besides, any student of geography can see the Mexican invasion of America is going quite well, the Venezuelans and Columbians will soon be at each other’s throats and the South American drug lords are doing rather well. It looks like the War on Drugs is doing as poorly as the War on Terror.

Maybe we should look into the dictionary and see just what the definition of war really is?