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TAKING EXCEPTION WITH “AMERICAN EXCEPTION”

In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 16, 2016 at 12:19 am

On September 11, 2013, the New York Times published an Op-Ed (guest editorial) from Russian President Vladimir Putin, entitled: “A Plea for Caution from Russia: What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria.”

No one should be surprised that Putin came out strongly against an American air strike on Syria.

Its “President” (i.e., dictator) Bashir al-Assad, is, after all, a close ally of Russia. Just as his late father and dictator, Hafez al-Assad, was a close ally of the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991.

Putin, of course, is a former member of the KGB, the infamous secret police which (under various other names) ruled the Soviet Union from its birth in 1917 to its collapse in 1991.

He grew up under a Communist dictatorship and clearly wishes to return to that era, saying publicly: “First and foremost it is worth acknowledging that the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”

So it would be unrealistic to expect him to view the current “Syria crisis” the same way that President Barack Obama does.

(A “crisis” for politicians and news media is any event they believe can be exploited for their own purposes.

(In the case of media like CNN–which has devoted enormous coverage to the use of poison gas in Syria–the motive is higher ratings. “If it bleeds, it leads,” goes the saying in the news business.

(In the case of politicians–like Obama and Putin–the motive is to further their own status. And thus power.

(Few politicians really care about the “human rights” of other nations–unless promoting this issue can empower themselves and/or their own nations.

(President Ronald Reagan, for example, often wailed about the Soviets’ oppression of the Polish union, Solidarity–while firing hundreds of unionized air traffic controllers who went on strike.)

In his September 11 guest editorial in the New York Times, Putin offered the expected Russian take on Syria:

Yes, poison gas was used in Syria.
No, it wasn’t used by the Syrian Army.
It was used by “opposition forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons.”
“There are few champions of democracy in Syria. But there are more than enough [al] Qaeda fighters and extremists of all stripes battling the government.”

But it’s the concluding paragraph that has enraged American politicians the most–especially right-wing ones. In it, Putin takes exception with American “exceptionalism.”

Vladimir Putin

Referring to President Obama, Putin wrote:

“And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is ‘what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.’

“It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.

“There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too.

“We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.”

Putin has never publicly shown any interest in religion. But by invoking “the Lord,” he was able to turn the Christian beliefs of his Western audience into a useful weapon.

“I was insulted,” then-House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters when asked for his blunt reaction to the editorial.

“I have to be honest with you, I was at dinner, and I almost wanted to vomit,” said U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey).

Putin had dared to question the self-righteousness of American foreign policy–and those who make it.

Making his case for war with Syria, Obama had said: “America is not the world’s policeman….

“But when, with modest effort and risk, we can stop children from being gassed to death, and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, I believe we should act.

“That’s what makes America different. That’s what makes us exceptional. With humility, but with resolve, let us never lose sight of that essential truth.”

President Barack Obama

In short: Because we consider ourselves “exceptional,” we have the divine right to do whatever we want.

It’s not necessary to see Putin as a champion of democracy (he isn’t) to see the truth in this part of his editorial: “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.”

From 1938 to 1969, the House Un-American Activities Committee sought to define what was “American” and what was “Un-American.” As if “American” stood for all things virtuous.

Whoever heard of an “Un-French Activities Committee”? Or an “Un-German” or “Un-British” one?

The late S.I. Hayakawa once made an obersation that clearly applies to this situation.

Hayakawa was a professor of semantics (the study of meaning, focusing on the relation between words and what they stand for).

In his bestselling book, Language in Thought and Action, he observed that when a person hears a message, he has four ways of responding to it:

Accept the speaker and his message.
Accept the speaker but reject the message.
Accept the message but reject the speaker.
Reject the message and the speaker.

Americans might want to consider #3 in the recent case of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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CHARLES GORDON DIED FOR YOUR SINS

In Bureaucracy, History, Military on January 28, 2016 at 10:05 pm

January 26, 2016, marked the 131st anniversary of the fall of Khartoum, the Sudanese city that sits on the banks of the White and Blue Nile Rivers.

The siege and fall of Khartoum is one of the truly epic stories of military history.

From March 18, 1884, to January 26, 1885, the charisma and military genius of one man–British General Charles George Gordon–held at bay an army of thousands of fanatical Islamics intent on slaughtering everyone in the city.

Khartoum in the 1800s

At stake were the lives of Khartoum’s 30,000 residents.

By comparison: The defenders of the Alamo–a far better-known battle, in 1836–numbered no more than 250. And the siege of the San Antonio mission lasted only 13 days against an army of about 2,000 Mexicans.

The Alamo

Gordon’s story may seem antiquated. But it bears close inspection as Republicans press the Obama administration to commit ground forces to “freeing” Syria of its longtime dictator, “President” Bashir al-Assad.

The neocons of the George W. Bush Administration plunged the United States into an unprovoked war against Iraq in 2003. After Baghdad quickly fell, Americans cheered, thinking the war was over and the troops would soon return home.

Suddenly, American soldiers found themselves waging a two-front war in the same country: Fighting an Iraqi insurgency to throw them out, while trying to suppress growing sectarian warfare between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

And now, with Syria, Americans are being urged to plunge headfirst into a conflict they know nothing about–and in which they have absolutely no stake.

On one side is the Ba’ath regime of Bashir al-Assad, supported by Russia, Iran, Hizbollah and elements in the Iraqi government. Hizbollah is comprised of Chiite Muslims, who form a minority of Islamics.

A sworn enemy of Israel, it has kidnapped scores of Americans suicidal enough to visit Lebanon and truck-bombed the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, killing 299 Americans.

Flag of Hizbollah

Al-Qaeda, on the other hand, is made up of Sunni Muslims, who form the majority of that religion.

It is intolerant of non-Sunni Muslims and has instigated violence against them. It denounces them as “takfirs”–heretics–and thus worthy of extermination.

Flag of Al-Qaeda

In short, it’s a Muslim-vs.Muslim “holy war.

It’s all very reminiscent of events in the 1966 epic film, Khartoum, starring Charlton Heston as British General Charles George Gordon.

Charlton Heston (left); Charles George Gordon (right)

In 1884, the British government sends Gordon, a real-life hero of the Victorian era, to evacuate the Sudanese city of Khartoum.

Mohammed Achmed, a previously anonymous Sudanese, has proclaimed himself “The Madhi” (“The Expected One”) and raised the cry of jihad.

Laurence Oliver (left); Mohammed Achmed (“The Madhi”)

The Madhi (played by Lawrence Olivier) intends to drive all foreigners (of which the English are the largest group) out of Sudan and exterminate all those Muslims who do not practice his “pure” version of Islam.

Movie poster for “Khartoum”

Gordon arrives in Khartoum to find he’s not fighting a rag-tag army of peasants. Instead, the Madhi is a highly intelligent military strategist.

And Gordon, an evangelical Christian, also finds he has underestimated the Madhi’s religious fanaticism: “I seem to have suffered from the delusion that I had a monopoly on God.”

A surprised Gordon finds himself and 30,000 Sudanese trapped in Khartoum when the Madhi’s forces suddenly appear. He sends off messengers and telegrams to the British Government, begging for a military relief force.

But the British Government wants nothing to do with the Sudan. it has sent Gordon there as a cop to British public opinion that “something” had to be done to quell the Madhist uprising.

The siege continues and tightens.

In Britain, the public hails Gordon as a Christian hero and demands that the Government send a relief expedition to save him.

Prime Minister Willilam Gladstone finally sends a token force–which arrives in Khartoum two days after the city has fallen to the Madhi’s forces.

Gordon, standing at the top of a staircase and coolly facing down his dervish enemies, is speared to death.

George W. Joy’s famous–and romanticized–painting of “The Death of Gordon”

(Actually, the best historical evidence indicates that Gordon fought to the last with pistol and sword before being overwhelmed by his dervish enemies.)

When the news reaches England, Britons mourn–and then demand vengeance for the death of their hero.

The Government, which had sought to wash its hands of the poor, military unimportant Sudan, suddenly has to send an army to avenge Gordon.

As the narrator of Khartoum intones at the close of the film: “For 15 years the British paid the price with shame and war.”

There is a blunt lesson for Americans to learn from this episode–and from the 1966 movie Khartoum itself.

Americans have been fighting in the Middle East since 2001–first in Afghanistan to destroy Al-Qaeda, and then in Iraq, to pursue George W. Bush’s vendetta against Saddam Hussein.

The United States faces a crumbling infastructure, record high unemployment and trillions of dollars in debt.

It’s time for Americans to clean up their own house before worrying about the messes in other nations–especially those wholly alien to American values.

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A WARNING FROM AESOP

In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 9, 2015 at 12:03 am

Tens of thousands of Syrians are pouring into Europe, seeking escape from their fellow Islamics in Syria’s ongoing civil war.

And European countries–such as Germany, Italy and Greece–are throwing open their doors in welcome.

In the United States, 14 Democratic Senators are demanding that President Barack Obama admit at least 70,000 refugees.

That’s in addition to the 1,500 that America has taken in since the civil war began in 2011.

Prompting this is the international outcry over images of a three-year-old boy’s body lying face down on the surf on a Turkish beach.

The boy, Aylan Kurdi, his older brother Galip, five, and mother died while trying to reach Europe.

Amidst all this hand-wringing, it’s well to remember the famous Aesop’s fable about a snake and a farmer.

One snowy day, a farmer found a poisonous snake lying on a road, stiff and frozen with cold. Feeling sorry for the creature, he picked it up and placed it inside his coat in hopes of reviving it.

The snake, revived by the warmth, bit the farmer, mortally wounding him.

“Oh,” cried the farmer, “I should have known better than to pity a scoundrel.”

Decades from now, the descendants of these well-meaning Europeans may well have cause to remember that fable.

In his 2009 book, Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat, Dr. Peter Hammond explored the impact of an increasing Muslim population non-Islamic societies.

Dr. Peter Hammond

And he vividly outlined the increasingly disruptive changes that can be expected to occur within those societies.

According to Hammond, Islam is not a religion nor a cult. It’s a complete system of religious, legal, political, ecnomic and military components.

The religious component encompasses all the others.

“Islamization” occurs when there are enough Muslims in a country to agitate for their “religious rights.”

Here’s how it works.

(Percentages are from CIA: The World Fact Book, 2015.)

So long as the Muslim population remains at or under 2%, they will act as a peaceful minority and pose no threat to non-Muslims. As in:

United States – Muslims 0.6%

China – Muslims 1.8%

Italy – Muslims 1.5%

At 2% to 5%, they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from jails and street gangs. This is happening in:

Australia – Muslim 2.2%

Canada – Muslim 3.2%

Denmark – Muslim 2%

Germany – Muslim 3.7%

Norway – Muslim 2.3%

United Kingdom – Muslim 4.4%

Spain – Muslim 4%

Thailand – Muslim 4.9%

From 5% of the population on, they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their numbers. They push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims.

They increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature halal on their shelves–along with threats for failure to comply. This is occurring in:

France – Muslim 7.9%

(On January 7, 2015, the worst terrorist act in France since World War II occurred when three Islamics slaughtered 12 people at a satirical magazine that had published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed.

Guyana – Muslim 7.2%

Philippines – 5%

Sweden – Muslim 5%

Switzerland – 4.9%

The Netherlands – Muslim 4.9%

Trinidad and Tobago – Muslim 5%

At 5% of the population they work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves (within their ghettos) under Sharia (Islamic law). The ultimate goal of Islamics is to establish Sharia law over the entire world–enforcing it on Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

When islamics approach 10% of the population, they tend to increase lawlessness as a means of protest about their conditions.

Any non-Muslim action that offends their interpretation of Islam results in uprisings and threats, such as in Ansterdam, with opposition to Muhammed cartoons and films about Islam.

Such tensions are seen daily, especially in such countries as:

India – Muslim 14.2%

Israel – Muslim 17.5%

Kenya – Muslim 11.1%

Russia – Muslim 15%

After Islamics reach 20% of the population nations can expect hair-trigger rioting, formations of jihad militias, sporadic killings, and the burnings of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues, as in:

Ethopia – Muslim 33.9%

At 40% of the population, nations experience widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks and ongoing militia warfare, such as in:

Bosnia – Muslim 40%

Chad – Muslim 53.1%

Lebanon – Muslim 54.7%

From 60% on, nations experience unfettered persecution of non-Muslims (including non-conforming Muslims), sporadic ethnic cleansing, use of Sharia law as a weapon and Jizya, the tqax placed on “infidels,” as in:

Albania – Muslim 56.7%

Malaysia – Muslim 61.3%

Qater – Muslim 77.5%

Sudan – Muslim 70%

United Arab Emirates – Muslim 76%

After Islamics comprise 80% of the population, expect daily intimidation and violent jihad, some state-run ethnic cleansing, and even some genocide, as these nations drive out the “infidels” and move toward 100% Islamic. This is happening in:

Bangladesh – Muslim 89.5%

Egypt – Muslim 90%

Gaza – Muslim 99%

Indonesia – Muslim 87.2%

Iran – Muslim 99.4%

Iraq – Muslim 99%

Jordan – Muslim 97.2%

Morocco – Muslim 99%

Pakistan – Muslim 96.4%

Syria – Muslim 87%

Tajikistan – Muslim 90%

Turkey – Muslim 99.8%

When Islamics reach 100% of the population, “Dar-es-Salaam”–“The Islamic House of Peace”–reigns.

Everybody is a Muslim, the madrasses are the only schools, and the Koran is the only word, such as in:

Afghanistan – Muslim 99%

Saudi Arabia – Muslim 100%

Somalia – Muslim 100%

Yemen – Muslim 99.1%

Unfortunately, peace is never achieved, because the most radical Muslim states wage war on more moderate ones.

Among the reasons for this: The centuries-old ethnic conflicts between majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslims, now on lethal display in Iraq and Syria.

* * * * *

Europeans are now offering asylum to tens of thousands of Islamics–whose religion directly conflicts with Western values. And Americans are being urged to do the same.

Before doing so, these Western nations should ask themselves two vital questions:

One: If “The Islamic House of Peace” reigns when Muslims become the majority of a country’s population, why are so many Islamics now fleeing Islamic countries?

Two: What does this presage for the Western, non-Islamic countries they are now flooding into?

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OBAMA LOSES, MACHIAVELLI RULES

In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics on September 19, 2013 at 12:00 am

I was thoroughly glad to see the era of George W. Bush come to an end. He had, I believed, become a terrible liability for America–in both foreign and domestic policy.

In foreign affairs, America had become entrapped in a totally needless war in Iraq. And by authorizing the use of torture, he had turned the United States into a pariah nation in the eyes of much of the civilized world.

Domestically, he had allowed the sheer greed and arrogance of America’s most powerful corporations to push the nation to the brink of bankruptcy.

So during the early weeks of President Barack Obama’s first term, I sent him a gift: My favorite selections from the two major works of Niccolo Machiavelli: The Prince and The Discourses.

Niccolo Machiavelli

I hoped that, on at least some occasions, the new President would find useful advice in the wisdom of the father of political science.

Unfortunately, such has not been the case.

For example:

United Nations officials estimate that more than 6,000 people have died in Syria since fighting erupted in 2011 against the regime of dictator Bashir al-Assad.

During that time, the world made no move to intervene–for a series of excellent reasons. Among these:

Since 1979, Syria has been listed by the U.S. State Department as a sponsor of terrorism.
There are no “good Syrians” for the United States to support. There is a civil war between rival terrorist groups.
Among these: Hezbollah and Hamas (pro-Assad); and Al Qaeda (anti-Assad).

This was the position of the United States as well.

Meanwhile, President Obama said on several occasions that if Assad used chemical weapons against his enemies, that would be “a red line in the sand.”

Then, on August 21, the Assad regime was accused of using chemical weapons in Damascus suburbs to kill more than 1,400 civilians.

On August 30, the Obama administration said it had “high confidence” that Syria’s government carried out the chemical weapons attack.

Having boxed himself in, Obama felt he had to make good on his threat–even if it risked the lives of those flying combat missions over Syria’s formidable air defenses.

He sent Secretary of State John Kerry before TV cameras to express America’s moral outrage at Syria’s use of chemical weapons.

And he positioned six American warships close to the Syrian coast.

On August 31, Obama announced that he would seek Congressional authorization before attacking Syria. Obama said he was “prepared to give that order” to strike Syria because:

Syria’s use of chemical weapons “risks making a mockery of the global prohibition on the use of chemicals weapons,” and
It put U.S. regional allies that share a border with Syria in danger.

It looked as though the United States was about to plunge into its third Middle East war in 12 years.

Then Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his own suggestion for averting war: Syria would agree to put its stocks of chemical weapons under United Nations control.

On September 14, the United States and Russia announced in Geneva that they reached a deal that provided a path for Obama to avoid the air strikes he had promised to launch against Syria.

Suddenly, Obama asked congressional leaders to delay votes on authorizing military action in Syria while the diplomatic process worked itself out.

As “Tonight” show host Jay Leno put it: Obama gave a speech calling for war–and then the rebuttal.

So what does Niccolo Machiavelli have to do with any of this?

In Chapter 19 of The Prince, his guide to successful rulership, he outlines “That We Must Avoid Being Despised and Hated.”

“The prince must…avoid those things which will make him hated or despised. And whenever he succeeds in this, he will have done his part, and will find no danger in other vices….

“He is rendered despicable by being thought changeable, frivolous, effeminate, timid and irresolute—which a prince must guard against as a rock of danger….

“[He] must contrive that his actions show grandeur, spirit, gravity and fortitude. As to the government of his subjects, let his sentence be irrevocable, and let him adhere to his decisions so that no one may think of deceiving or cozening him.”

By making a vigorous case for going to war with Syria, and then suddenly reversing himself, Obama has managed to offend everyone:

Right-wingers–who hoped to see America plunge into another Middle East war.
Liberals–who didn’t want to repeat the 2003 Iraqi war disaster.
Syrian rebels–who expected a full-scale American intervention to bring them to power.
The Assad regime–which no doubt believes Obama was bluffing.

Unfortunately, history is not a VHS tape that can be rewound. No one–including Obama–gets a second chance to make a first impression.

By repeatedly showing timidity toward Republicans, Obama had forfeited credibility as a leader to be feared by his domestic Right-wing enemies.

President Theodore Roosevelt famously said: “I have always lived by a South African proverb: Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far.”

By speaking loudly and then putting his big stick aside, Obama forfeited credibility among his foreign enemies.

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TAKING EXCEPTION WITH “AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM”

In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 16, 2013 at 12:00 am

On September 11, 2013, the New York Times publshed an Op-Ed (guest editorial) from Russian President Vladimir Putin, entitled: “A Plea for Caution from Russia: What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria.”

No one should be surprised that Putin came out strongly against an American air strike on Syria.

Putin, of course, is a former member of the KGB, the infamous secret police which (under various other names) ruled the Soviet Union from its birth in 1917 to its collapse in 1991.

Vladimir Putin

So it would be unrealistic to expect him to view the current “Syria crisis” the same way that President Barack Obama does.

(A “crisis” for politicians and news media is any event they believe can be exploited for their own purposes.

(In the case of politicians–like Obama and Putin–the motive is to further their own status. And thus power.

(Few politicians really care about the “human rights” of other nations–unless promoting this issue can empower themselves and/or their own nations.

(President Ronald Reagan, for example, often wailed about the Soviets’ oppression of the Polish union, Solidarity–while firing hundreds of unionized air traffic controllers who went on strike.)

In his September 11 guest editorial in the New York Times, Putin offered the expected Russian take on Syria:

Yes, poison gas was used in Syria.
No, it wasn’t used by the Syrian Army.
It was used by “opposition forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons.”
“There are few champions of democracy in Syria. But there are more than enough [al] Qaeda fighters and extremists of all stripes battling the government.”

But it’s the concluding paragraph that has enraged American politicians the most–especially right-wing ones. In it, Putin takes exception with American “exceptionalism.”

Referring to President Obama, Putin wrote:

“And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is ‘what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.’

“It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.

“There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too.

“We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.”

Putin has never publicly shown any interest in religion. But by invoking “the Lord,” he was able to turn the Christian beliefs of his Western audience into a useful weapon.

“I was insulted,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters when asked for his blunt reaction to the editorial.