Recent history, let’s say 1950s on, hasn’t been kind to our stupid foreign policy mantra that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” especially in the Middle East.  We created the Shah in Iran as a favor to the Brits, toppling a democratically elected regime there, and we’re still paying for it.  We armed al Qaeda to fight the Russians in Afghanistan, and we’re still paying for it.  We “saved” Iraq from Saddam Hussein, who, for all his faults, held all that country’s factions together.  Dubya, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, in their greedy little minds, only saw dollar signs from Iraqi oil.  They really did nothing to contribute to democracy or a stable government there.  And we’re still paying for it!

While my last post on this subject encouraged Obama to bomb the hell out of ISIS everywhere possible, including Syria, and a second beheading only underlines the need to stop these mad dogs, it’s high time we rethink our foreign policy mantra.  Its corollary seems to be “When you choose friends that way, watch out!”  Yes, air strikes are needed against ISIS now.  No doubt about it.  But there are other priorities to worry about.

I stated it in a recent “Irish Stew” post: we need to do something about so-called Americans who leave this country to join jihadists.  Britain’s solution is stupid.  They want to take away their documents and not let the wannabe terrorists travel.  Why?  That keeps the psychotics in Britain.  What Britain should do, and we can take the lead in this, is to do nothing about this migration until we learn the fruitcakes who hate the West are installed in their mad-dog pack of ISIS, al Qaeda, Hamas, Taliban, or some other terrorist group.  When we learn that they’re well ensconced among their fellow psychotics and ready to make holy war, we should strip them of their citizenship, cancel their passports, declare them personas non grata, and bomb them to hell.  They want to fight for jihad?  They hate America?  Fine.  Good riddance.

That action has to be coupled with quarantining the plague, of course.  Jihad is a plague.  Where there is terrorism, we should seal off the area.  Or, what’s a navy and air force for?  Where there is terrorism, be it Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, or Somalia, we should declare it a contagious illness, something akin to mental ebola, and seal the area off.  You say, but what about the innocents locked into those regions?  I say, that’s tough.  Part of the problem, especially in the Muslim world, is the people’s reluctance to attack their “brethren” in defense of their own lives and liberty.  They want the West to do it for them.  Why should we?  Every time we do, history bites us on the butt.  We become the invaders, the bad guys, the colonial imperialists.  Just look at Libya if you need another example.

Quarantining also means taking away the terrorists’ major weapon, the internet.  China bans websites all the time.  Can’t we?  Everyone that propagandizes terrorism and/or shows beheadings, all designed to shock people in the West, every such website should be knocked off the internet.  Quarantining also means confiscating all the funds we can, destroying all the equipment we can, and making sure essential supplies—food, water, and medicines—don’t reach the terrorist organizations.  Every terrorist group that I named above, and more, should receive this treatment.  Like I said, we hold the strong hand at this poker table.  Where would they be without Western technologies, for example?

The Husseins and the Ghadaffis of the Arab world are necessities in a region where only force is respected and democracy is a foreign import and concept.  Grievances aren’t settled via logical discussion or judicial to-and-fro.  They’re settled by bloody murders and religious fanaticism, one group wreaking havoc while the receiving group wreaks revenge.  The number of murders we can lay on Arab dictators’ doorsteps can’t compare with the number when the West “liberates” one of these countries—in the build-up, fighting, and aftermath.  Even if our intentions were good and not driven by greed (oil in Iran, Iraq, and Libya, for example), we still pay dearly.  The Arabs don’t want to be free on our terms.  The Israelis don’t either.  So put them all in quarantine and let them duke it out.  Israel became an efficient killing machine all by its lonesome.  They don’t need our help.  Same for ISIS and Putin’s separatists.

Is this a policy of neo-isolationism?  Maybe.  It isn’t our father’s isolationism; it’s neo because it’s a recognition that you can’t really cure psychosis.  You have to quarantine the human beings who have it and put them into strait-jackets and a padded cell if you can.  Call it that if you want, but aren’t you getting sick of the U.S., and the West, sticking their toes in bloody waters to rescue a drowning nation and save the swimmers, and becoming the scapegoat?  To prevent that, we have to withdraw a bit and lick our wounds.  Oil isn’t a renewable resource.  It will eventually be gone.  If nations don’t come around to the realization that oil profits won’t last forever, that’s not our problem.  A lack of planning on the Arab nations’ part doesn’t constitute an emergency for us.

As I mentioned, the irony, of course, is that these countries, including areas controlled by jihadists, are using Western technology to ensure their own extinction.  They want to return to the 7^th century?  Then we should take away all modern weapons, communications, oil exploitation infrastructure, water pumps, whatever.  Send them back to the 7^th century for good!  Sharia law, the Koran, the Ayatollahs, the Imams, and Christian or Jewish orthodoxy, Dubya, Obama, Bibi, or Putin—none of these produce computers, smart phones, or keep the internet running with its massive server farms and data networks.  Ideology never produced new technology…never ever!  Nor did the Middle Ages, steeped in religious mysticism and bloodthirsty warlords.

So, my suggestion of complete quarantine is justified.  We just need to wait long enough and all this radicalism will disappear.  It will wither and die away just like the dinosaurs.  Jihadist radicalism and fundamentalist psychoses don’t produce anything worthwhile.  All ideology is worthless and non-productive.  We should get beyond it.  Human beings on this planet shouldn’t be seen as a collection of warring tribes.  It’s time to grow up!

And so it goes….

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2014 at 4:00 am and is filed under Fundamentalism, Technology, Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.