I have been with different groups of friends and probably a few enemies over the last few days. Of course the talk was of you know who and you know where. Our Executive Branch kind of reminds me of the old Abbott and Costello routine, Who’s On First. C’est la guerre.

I am not surprised we are in this mess. I actually thought it would come sooner. Not just for Obama but all of us. A few weeks ago CIA declassified documents said we engineered putting the old Shah of Iran back on the Peacock Throne in 1953 where he ruled until 1979. Not the people of Iran. US! So we could guarantee a supply of oil and in the name of stability.

I remember once sitting in my 1971 Volvo Station Wagon outside Gerallomon’s Mobil station on Main Street in Chatham New Jersey. It was 4:00 AM on a Saturday in 1973 and they didn’t open until seven. The Mideast Oil Embargo had made us beggars on a soup line. I was freezing my ass off and wondering how we got into this mess?

Iranian hostages, The Six Day War in 1967, The first Gulf War, the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, Hammas. PLO. Hezbollah. Al Quaeda Muslim Brotherhood. Do you really think we are going to bring democracy to this part of the world? Not our brand. But time after time and president after president we think we have it figured out. Forget it kids. Ain’t gonna happen.

The simplest reason is that this has been a religious war for centuries. Shias and Sunnis, the two main denominations of Muslims, started going after each other in 632 AD. They couldn’t figure out who was going to succeed the prophet Muhammed. And they still can’t. Sects break into tribes with warlords and turf and there is no love lost. It is like the Crypts and Kings, Hatfields and McCoys and Republicans and Democrats. The really crazy part is it probably takes a tyrant to keep them all in line.

The problem is there are 1.62 billion of these dudes(women don’t really count) and a good portion want to kill each other. Religion trumps sanity every time.

You know what? I think we ought to let them just have at each other. Why? The world doesn’t really care. We are nuts because Assad killed 1500 with poison gas. Nobody has even talked about the 100,000 dead in the last two years. Sadam Hussein gassed the Iranians in 1988 and we gave him the satellite photos to do it. The Iraq War killed anywhere from 150,000 to 1 million civilians. So many people have been brutally slaughtered, dismembered and violated in this part of the world without any outcry except towards US serviceman or drone strikes. We are the patsies.

Under factoids I will tell you how far Damascus is from various capitals around the globe. Surprise. We are the farthest away but the one everyone looks to solve this quagmire. There are countries ranging from 85 million in Egypt to 5 million in Lebanon. There are millions of refugees in neighboring states. Where the hell are the people that would be hurt the most by violence spilling over? Where are the oil sheikdoms and continental Europe? Have any of them rose up in retribution? If Iran has nukes who do you think they hit first?

Whether we lose credibility or not we have got to back off. Our volunteer force has taken in the shorts too many times only to be used once again as pawns. Military diplomacy serves only one group. The Military Industrial Complex. We keep writing checks and burying our boys and girls in the name of national security. I say bullshit.

I went to war once. So many of you have served your country too. But today 93% of Americans are not connected in any way to the Armed Forces. We are happy to salute at ball games and then get back to whatever else we do without giving a thought. War accomplishes little or nothing. How do you think I felt when everyone was hightailing it out of Saigon and they were tossing helicopters into the ocean because of the fleeing masses? How do you think a maimed or burned soldier feels when he sees people still being killed by the dozens every day in Iraq and soon in Afghanistan?

After 40 years in the Middle East we have accomplished zip. Sure we get to try out our flashy new weapons system or tactics designed by civilian desk jockeys. But in the long run we have pissed away so much money and worse so many wonderful lives.

Ladies and gentlemen I vote no. Call me a wimp but I think you know better. If they laugh at us, so be it. They were going to curse us even if we struck a blow with a Tomahawk for liberty. Either way we are not at the top of their Christmas card list. We are left out on a limb and everyone is doing the dance of derision or looking the other way.

Let’s figure out a way to rebuild our crumbling roads and bridges. Some schools don’t even have book to start the year. We pay an admiral or a general $250,000 per year and a teacher $50k. We have so many pressing problems and we can’t even get Congress to come back early from a five week vacation.

I don’t want to see people die in any way shape or fashion but let’s have others do their turn. We are the greatest country militarily but we get out butts kicked in urban warfare by two faced warlords. I say we train 100,000 Seals and bring everyone else home. I guess that is too simple but I like the strategy.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:
Damascus to:
Moscow 1538 miles
Rome 1422 miles
Paris 2042
Mumbai 2461
London 3545
Beijing 4316
Washington DC 5875
San Francisco 7342

We are almost 70% energy self sufficient at this time. We could be 100% in a few short years. The feeling is that we should continue to use foreign oil to have a wedge to use against them. Not quite sure I get that.

Disclaimer: Regardless of what is said tonight by Obama the above treatise was written from the heart. It bears no resemblance to well thought out theory. Might even border on the irrational. Sorry but that is where Ted’s Head is right now.