Probably the only instance of me ever
uttering something prophetic happened in the immediate aftermath of
the Persian Gulf War, commonly referred to as “Operation Desert
Storm.” Since history is a weak subject for most lets backtrack for
a moment. Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, a much smaller and
weaker country was rightly opposed by the United States and the
coalition of nations it formed. Oil be damned, had Saddam's actions
gone unopposed it would have eventually lead to every second-rate
dictatorial cockroach invading weaker neighbors in an effort to build
an empire. When you throw in Saddam's treatment of people inside
Iraq, the inventory of chemical weapons he had at that time, and his
interest in acquiring even more powerful destructive capability he
had to be stopped.
That being said, First President Bush's
decision to leave Saddam in power was also the right thing to do. The
nation of Iraq is a Frankenstein's monster of varying ethnic and
religious subgroups created by the British in the aftermath of the
First World War and the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. Saddam
was a monster and if Hell really exists he most certainly is now a
resident. But you have only to look at the bloodbath Iraq became
after he was removed from power to understand that while the lesser
of two evils is still bad, sometimes the alternative is even worse.
Yes, I am totally discounting the idea that we invaded Iraq to take
away Saddam's WMD's. There was plenty of intelligence, all ignored or
hidden, that his desire to produce a nuclear bomb had no basis in
reality. As for his stockpile of chemical and biological weapons,
aside from a few pitiful exceptions they were all destroyed or taken
back during the 1990's.
History lesson over, my post Operation
Desert Storm epiphany involved the realization that despite Saddam's
real but relatively minor threat in the 1990's, and the much
propagandized menace he was made to be after 9/11, he was not an
existential danger to the United States. The statement I made to my
cohorts at the time was that Saddam Hussein was an idiot and that the
United States might find itself in some really deep shit if it ever
had to face and adversary with more than a few dozen IQ points.
My point being that given the
capabilities Iraq's military had right after he invaded Kuwait,
Saddam could have caused significant trouble in such places as Saudi
Arabia or even Israel before there was anywhere near enough American
troops and equipment on site to deter him. What that means is that
since Saudi oil is a major factor in the international economy if
Saddam had just attacked its refineries with Scud missiles he could
have caused another Great Depression.
Even worse, since one of the worst kept
secrets of the modern era is that Israel has a significant cache of
nuclear weapons had Saddam said screw it and attempted a full scale
attack on the Jewish state an apocalyptic event with clouds of
radioactive fallout drifting out from the Middle East would have more
than likely occurred. Saddam Hussein didn't hold any military punches
out of the hidden, moral goodness of his heart. The man was an utter
bastard, which was only exceeded by his ego and incompetence. (On a
side note unrelated to my point, I will refrain from the eerie
physiological comparisons I could make between Saddam and Trump.)
Of course, my point that Saddam was not
an existential threat to the United States was pretty much ignored.
This early 1990's when the modern version of American exceptionalism
was born with one of the central pillars of that belief being the
idea that the United States was immune to all the factors that had
brought down numerous other powers all through history. For those on
the right, their narrow view held that the United States was king
shit and would go on kicking ass forever. Those on the left held a
similar but slightly askew view that through its military power and
faceless corporations the United States had bullied the world into
submission and the idea that anyone else would rise up to threaten us
was ridiculous.
Well, history is replete with nations
and empires whose citizens and subject were convinced would hold
power forever. Low and behold the 2016 presidential election was
hacked by the Russians with them flooding both social and television
media with stolen emails and fake news stories. Contrary to the more
excitable and less rational on the left, I have yet to hear or read
any evidence that Russia hacked into the computers that were linked
to electronic voting machines. But what the Russians actually did to
sabotage Hillary Clinton's campaign was bad enough.
After decades of the Soviet Union
pouring untold hundreds of billions of rubles into their military
machine in an attempt to overwhelm the United States, it looks like
all the Russians had to do was tickle the ugly underbelly of American
political paranoia and abject racism to goad us to tearing ourselves
apart. Now, I'll admit while I voted for Hillary both her and the
people running the campaign made it easy for the Russians to dig up
information to use against them. It's funny to think now that back
when the collection of Republican clowns, fools, and idiots were in
the primary phase of the campaign I had the stupid idea that since
Hillary was a long time political warrior there shouldn't be much for
them to use against her. I totally ignored the fact that things could
be made up out of whole cloth and that Hillary has a history of being
her own worst enemy.
With that out of the way, the fact
remains that a hostile foreign power, I'll go ahead say existential
enemy, has found a dependable way to make the powerful United States
look like a sick old man suffering from dementia. What really turns
my stomach is how many in the Republican party view Vlad Putin, a
dictator who murders journalists and dissidents, as someone who
should be admired. Sort of makes a mockery of how they looked down
upon and even accused liberals of something close to treason if any
mention of peaceful coexistence was suggested during the Cold War.
Of course, to many of the less educated
folks on the right Putin is a masculine (white) dude who doesn't
spend time worrying about inconvenient things like civil liberties
and basic human rights. The acquaintances I known in that group, all
certified rednecks, have almost a homoerotic fixation on the manly
Putin riding on horses without a shirt and his association with
washed up martial artists/movie stars like Steven Segal. It goes
along with the perceived notion of him standing against gay marriage,
and other liberal causes that they believe America needs to be saved
from. But most of all they like Putin because he was white while the
democratically elected American president was a black guy.
Since I have lived in the American
South most of my life it would have shocked me to hear anyone of that
type say anything but the usual thinly veiled racist talk. But I've
got to admit it is the established right-wing that has most
disappointed me with their downplaying of Russian involvement in the
2016 election. Yes, there are notable exceptions like Senators John
McCain and Lindsey Graham but the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan,
and the majority leader of the senate, Mitch McConnell have only
given the barest lip service to Russian hacking. Those members of
Congress and in the Senate occupying the fuzzy middle between the two
are just waiting to see what the various investigations will or will
not turn up. Largely a rational approach given the nature of the
allegations against Trump, but that stance is less about finding the
truth and far more with just protecting their asses and cushy jobs.
What it all comes down to is that the
Russians pulled a blatant electoral Pearl Harbor on the United
States. For me that is almost reason to go to war, but what scares me
the most is that Americans are so politically polarized that many on
the right are okay with the hacking since they hated Hillary Clinton
more than they are concerned with the state of their country.
Don't worry, I'm not excluding
Democrats/liberals/progressives for putting party and ideological
purity above the health and safety of the nation. The main election
strategy for both parties is to convince voters that the other side
is evil. Yes, as a liberal Democrat I do believe some Republican
ideas are baldfaced attempts to protect the rich elites, but I also
realize Democrats have their own faults and inability to see the
forest for the trees. I'm not saying we should all go for one big
group hug and then break into singing “Kumbaya,” I can be just as
partisan as any other dickhead, especially when I believe the
Republicans are dead wrong on a subject like climate change. But
democracy only works if the different factions compromise, it's an
ugly process but works far better than one side controlling
everything only to be kicked out of power at the next election when
nothing really gets done.
It goes without saying the American
political process is a screwed up system. Both parties paint the
other as the enemy with many members saying any sort of cooperation
with their counterparts is a betrayal of sacred principles. In the
past such behavior could largely be overlooked since no other country
would dare to interfere. That time has passed with Vlad Putin and
the Russian government he controls making it part of their way of
dealing with foreign governments. Putin is the worst possible adversary we could face in this current era. He and his minions have found what divides Americans and will not hesitate to widen the existing chasm as long as we continue allow him.
It appears the time when Americans pulled together when faced with an adversary has passed into history. Then again, all we really have to blame for this
behavior is ourselves. What should scare every rational American most
of all is that the situation is probably only going to get worse.
