On Sunday, we reach for humor and less seriousness, but lately, the cartoons aren’t funny, they tend toward the ironic, or are downright scary. Maybe that is understandable, since we are back in Iraq. ISIS is now as bad as or worse, than Al-Qadea, which might be good news for the Wrongologist’s defense stocks!
Why is the Iraqi government outgunned by a rogue group of thugs?
Anyone?…Bueller?
Expanding “Arabia” to the wider Islamic world, we Americans have been on very sandy ground, from Kabul to Baghdad to Benghazi. And, like quicksand, we can’t escape:
• We’re working with Iran in Iraq, but against them in Israel and in Syria
• Iran is working with Palestinians in Israel, but against them in Syria
• Turkey a member of NATO, supports Hamas against Israel, but is against Assad
Nations in the Middle East are frequently allies on one front and enemies on the other. Somewhere in that paradox is the solution. Now that we are out of Afghanistan, will we have to fight the new terror group of the month, or the new terror group of the year? Can we be the police department to the world, yet keep our social contract and our domestic freedoms intact?
Military recruiters are about the same the world over:
T.E. Lawrence – Britain’s “Lawrence of Arabia”, warned that Arabia is not a hospitable place:
Iraq didn’t stop being a cesspool when we left;
Reingagement is a tough equation to solve:
In other news, the leaders of Africa came to DC to hear our new pitch:
Finally, Jim Brady died this week. The Wrongologist’s company was a vendor to the Brady Center, and played a very small part in building public support for the Brady Bill:
Funny about Iraq (or about Arabia as a whole) we have yet to undo the damage that western interests did by dividing up the spoils of war in 1919. Have you read Lawrence In Arabia? Interesting read. Like with Russia, I have a strong belief that we should continue to stay out. That ISIS will only choke on its successes. Yes many will die, but since we really can’t take over Iraq again, we should accept our limitations and move away.
Sad about Brady. Inevitable but sad. The gun interests should be embarrassed but it seems that angry rural whites in Red States have been convinced that guns are a central American interest. No they are not.