Middle East peace: A modest proposal

Editor's Note:  This is the speech President Obama needs to give to the Middle East.

"My fellow Americans, citizens around the world, especially those in the Middle East, including Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Kurdistan, the Gaza Strip, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the Gulf States of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Somalia, as well as those in Malaysia and any other countries where Muslims or Arabs live:

"It’s time for the Arab World and the Muslim World to grow up!

"For the last sixty or so years, ever since the United States recognized Israel, you’ve acted like petulant two-year-olds, expecting the Western World, the United States and its Allies, in particular, to grant your every wish just so you wouldn’t throw a temper tantrum and then reach for your guns, your bombs and your knives.

"You kill your own people, even those who share your religious faith.  You outright murder innocent Americans trying to tell your story and – even more horrifying – those attempting to help you, like that Briton you recently beheaded. 

"Seriously, what gives with you people?

"I’m not going to tell you that U.S. policies in the Middle East have been perfect because, I, like so many others, know they haven’t been.  But one thing is for sure – more often not, certainly in the last 50 years, the United States has stood for equal rights, human rights and civil rights and, more importantly, the rule of law. 

"Women have voted in every U.S. presidential election since 1920.  And today many women hold top positions not only in government but also in industry.  Women – and this is critical for all you Arabs and Muslims to understand especially if you think your God-given mission is to put them down – are equal partners with men.  They drive cars, fly airplanes, are in the military, are doctors, scientists, stockbrokers, politicians as well as mothers and wives.

"For those of you who think you need to keep women down, well, all that shows me is how weak you really are.  Strong men never fear strong women.  So if you think Allah wants to you to keep her barefoot and pregnant or remain some third-class citizen, think again.

"This sectarian warfare you wage against those who share the basic tenants of your faith or those who don’t, needs to stop immediately.  Even Northern Ireland, once the scene of many battles between Christians in the Catholic and Protestant wings, is peaceful.  And, in a far earlier time, in the 1640s, Catholics and Protestants stopped fighting one another in Europe – for religious reasons.

'The United States has had strong presidents but never once has it had – and never will it have – a dictator.  We vote and adjust our policies based on those in political power.  And as a result, we’re successful.  You buy our products.  You use our social media. 

"The only thing we get from you is oil.  And given what we’re doing in the United States – what with fracking and developing alternative energy sources – soon the United States and the West won’t need the only thing you have to offer.

"Which means if you don’t change your ways, there won’t be a single reason to invest in your part of the world.  Which means more of you will be unemployed and many more of you will be impoverished.  And if you think turning to your guns, your bombs and your knives – and hijacking your religious faith – is going to solve your problems, keep something in mind.

"The American people have limits.  If we feel pressured, whether it’s to end a war in the Middle East or elsewhere around the globe, any president, including this one, has an arsenal that includes some quite nasty weapons that will end any conflict – quickly!

"Of course, no speech is complete without a proposal.  Therefore, today, I’m suggesting that all the Arab and Muslim nations in the Middle East as well as Iran, Israel, Turkey and the Kurds, come to together to write and agree on their version of the Treaty of Westphalia. 

"For those of you who don’t know about this Treaty, way back in the 1640s, it ended thirty years of fighting between Catholics and Protestants in Europe.  It was the beginning of international law and forced each country to recognize each other’s religious preferences – even if they disagreed with it.  Even if they didn’t like it.  It also recognized the rights of religious minorities in those countries. 

"The United States is prepared to host this meeting or, if necessary, we can find another country, a neutral one, where this meeting can take place.  For the sake of your children, for the sake of your very own lives, for the sake of peace, I highly suggest you take me up on this proposal.

"If you don’t want to come together, then the Middle East will remain what it’s been recently – nothing more than a backwater ghetto.

"The choice is up to you.  And know this – it’s time for the Arab World and the Muslim World to grow up!

"Thank you for listening."

Victory's price

This is not a strategy for victory.  It’s a terror tactic.  And it never stopped the Allied march to Tokyo during the Second World War.

Actions like the above picture, of a Japanese soldier about to decapitate an Australian one, Leonard Siffleet, only compel the Western World to resolve the conflict. 

Eyewitness accounts say the Japanese officer cut off Siffleet's head with one fell swoop of his sword,[i] making the jidhadist carrying out a similar deed, whether it was against James Foley or Steven Sotloff, look like an amateur butcher.

Without question, the pictures and videos scare the bejesus out of people, which is the intent.  But similar pictures never stopped the U.S. military from crushing another, including a ragged band of terrorists.[ii] 

The Western World, the United States in particular, handles suicidal enemies the only way it knows – they kill them.  The West is often slow to respond to national security crises.  But in time, as an enemy shows its brutality, it develops a strategy that unleashes far more destruction than the enemy ever imagined it could suffer.

So terrorists, take note.  You may win a few opening rounds with your shock and awe of slicing off heads, but you’ll lose the most critical one – the last.  You’ll pay a price you never considered.

Update:  One diligent reader pointed out that the picture's copyright is held by the Australian War Memorial.  I checked the Memorial's website and learned the picture is in the public domain.  Click this url if you're curious -- http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/101099/

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[i] http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/04/13/beheading-the-flight-lieutenant/

[ii] http://americanpowsofjapan.blogspot.com/2013/07/beheaded-on-new-guinea-honored-in-rhode.html

What's the war plan, Mr. President?

“And it’s one, two, three,

What are we fighting for?”

                                                                        ~ Country Joe McDonald

So now the Obama Administration, which came into office promising

to “reset” relations with Russia and persuade Middle Eastern terrorists

to convert their weapons into plowshares, is taking the United States

into war.

Teed up is Syria, which is being overrun by numerous anti-state

fighters, and whose condition – that of a failed country – poses

a threat to U.S. and global security unseen since Afghanistan

was under Taliban rule.

Also inside American crosshairs is ISIS, the terrorist group

dominating headlines since it brutally killed American freelance

reporter James Foley and made, until U. S. Navy fighter planes

started bombing them, significant gains in Iraq. 

Not only is ISIS so extreme it makes Al Qaeda look rational,

it’s also highly ambitious, with one member of its ranks saying his

organization won’t rest until its flag flies above the White House.[i]

Seriously, what’s a peace-leaving, smarter-than-you Democrat,

like Barack Obama, to do?

Easy – borrow from the playbook of every president since 1980,

maybe even earlier.

Sure, the White House diatribe sounds good.  We’re going to bomb

ISIS wherever we find it.  Our drones will fly over Syrian cities and

long stretches of Iraqi desert.  If they lack sufficient capabilities to kill

terrorists and destroy weapons, no worry.  Navy and Air Force jets

will be on call.

Parts of our Navy’s surface fleet might even get in on the action

by launching cruise missiles.  Let’s also hope for numerous

opportunities to keep our elite, special forces on top of their

game with plenty of dangerous combat missions.

If only this war were the real thing and not a live-fire exercise.

It’s a few bombs here, a few bombs there, spiced with some

intoxicating, edge-of-the-seat, missions from Delta Force, the

 Seals, maybe even the Green Berets.

But that’s where it stops.

A plausible case can be made that U. S. military operations in

World War II’s Pacific Theater could have come to halt once

Japan’s progress was stopped with two critical battles, Coral

Sea and Midway.

In Europe – for a few years at least – the fighting could have

been left to the Army Air Corps as it bombed factories, towns

and military installations in Nazi-occupied Europe and Germany.

That is, until their advance stopped and we figured out a time and

a place to work out a peace treaty with Berlin and, eventually,

Tokyo.

And what would we be dealing with these many years later?  The

fifth generation of Nazi leadership and the 21^st century version

of Japan’s militarists!

And there’s the problem.  President Obama has no more of

strategy to beat the terrorists, whether they’re ISIS, Al Qaeda or

anyone else – in other words, to solve the problem – than

President Johnson did for winning the Vietnam War.

Or than Jimmy Carter did for releasing our hostages in

Tehran.  Or than President Reagan did for winning in Lebanon,

or than President George H. W. Bush did for eliminating

Saddam Hussein or than President Clinton did for outright

defeating Osama bin Laden.

And, frankly, blame can also be left with President George W.

Bush, whose two wars were left unfinished.

Come to think of it, had Presidents Truman and Eisenhower

fought for a victory in Korea, today we wouldn’t be contending

with the third generation of the family running North Korea.

So the question we need to ask – as posed by 1960s music star

Country Joe McDonald – is what are we fighting for?  A total

elimination of the terrorists in Syria and Iraq or is Obama

creating a quagmire the next five to 10 generations of Americans

will deal with?

This same kind of thinking came from Martin Dempsey, the

U.S. military’s top officer.

“They can be contained (but) not into perpetuity,” he said,

referring to ISIS, during last week’s news conference.[ii]

Airstrikes can do so much, Dempsey said.  They alone

cannot stop a determined force, like ISIS.  What we need, the

general inferred, is a plan, something that includes all out

American force, both a military and diplomatic.

The President and his advisors need to craft a strategy similar

to what U. S. Army General Winfield Scott proposed at the

outbreak of the Civil War.  Call it Operation Anaconda, just 

like the general called his plan.

It would surround Syria and Iraq and, through airstrikes, special

operations and conventional infantry forces, destroy ISIS and

every other terrorist movement in those two countries, maybe

even Bashar al-Assad’s government. 

In other words, we need to fight a real war with one objective

– total victory.

Then, of course, we’ll need something along the lines of a

Marshall Plan to win the peace.

If there’s anything President Obama should know, it’s

this:  Failure to eliminate ISIS and restructure Syria and

Iraq will create more costly problems in the future, possibly 

in American and allied lives.

Did you really think Obama was brighter than the rest?

 “Don’t ask me why,

Don’t give a damn,

My next stop is Islam!”

~ with apologies to Country Joe

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[i] http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014/08/08/new-isis-video-‘we-will-raise-black-flag-over-white-house’

[ii] http://washington.cbslocal.com/2014/08/22/dempsey-isis-has-an-end-of-days-strategic-vision/s