The Ghosts of Events Past...

 

 

 

"The path ahead is riddled with death and danger..."

As most of us have heard by now, our staunchest allies in "policing" the Middle East have developed a case of "hold on, lets wait just a minute". The UK is definitely out (based on yesterday's vote in Parliament) and the French are getting very wobbly in the knees. Meanwhile, even with Congress still on a very undeserved and lengthy break, over one hundred representatives have signed a petition to the White House which implores a House vote prior to any military action.

We have come a long way (in the wrong direction) since the Gulf War. In 1990 and 1991, prior to the start of hostilities, the White House put together a coalition of 34 nations, both from the region and outside the region. In addition they had United Nations approval, and most importantly, the support of Congress.

During the Iraq War, the coalition was much smaller. In addition, support from the United Nations was very tepid. The White House did get Congressional approval prior to hostilities, but the vote was much more contentions than the one for the Gulf War.

If we start hostilities against Syria, it could end up being the coalition of me, myself and I. It will be our war, our mess to clean up. The United States has long practiced "you break it, you fix it". Our involvement could be lengthy and expensive. Our only real "teammate" will probably be Israel as they well could be the victim of retaliation by both Syria and Iran. If Israel gets pulled into this war, take cover. Israel could easily look at this as an opportunity to "fix" Iran's nuclear program. In other words, things could get big and ugly in about two shakes of a lambs tail.

When my father was alive, he would often talk about the mistakes of getting involved in Middle East dust ups. He would tell me they have been fighting amongst themselves for generations, and will continue to do so for generations to come. It is in their blood. The only thing that really unites them are outsiders - you know, like Israel and the United States.

I have said before, we missed our chance to get involved enough to make a difference. We played the fiddle while many in Syria burned and died. I think it is terrible that people have died by chemical weapons. However, it is no more terrible than over 100,000 citizens being killed by conventional means.

If there is a lesson to learn from this entire mess, it is this - the United Nations has long outlived its usefulness. It is a shell of an organization - a true paper tiger. The UN is much more concerned about fluffy initiatives like Agenda 21 than keeping or restoring the peace. As we saw in Rwanda in 1994, and see today in Syria, the UN is as useless as a flat spare tire.

So I say this to our Commander in Chief - be careful sir, and remember how you railed against the former Commander in Chief for walking the same path you are now on. Look for the ghost of events past and learn from them. As they say in Idaho, we could be getting ready to jump in the river of no return - and that is a place we don't want to be.