Essays in Idleness

The “neocons” are exaggerating when they say that Barack Obama has handed over all United States interests in the Middle East to Vladimir Putin. Only half of the region has been surrendered, so far. The rest he has merely abandoned.

As this is not a news blogue, I assume gentle reader has access to the usual media. I give only a summary of my own understanding of the strategic situation, as a longtime observer.

What has suddenly emerged, or rather been confirmed, is a Russian/Iranian “axis” that extends from the domain of the Ayatollahs, across Iraq and Syria, to the Hezbollah domain in what was once Christian Lebanon. The murderous Assad regime now enjoys not passive but active and aggressive Russian support, and the Western powers are now outmanoeuvred in advance of any attempt to retrieve their interests in Iraq.

Those who believe Putin’s armed intervention will stop the Camp-of-Saints flow of “migrants” to Europe are extremely naive. This can only increase. From the outset, the targets for the Russian air strikes in Syria are the very territories that were free of the ministrations of both Assad, and the Daesh. By reconquering this essentially neutral territory for the Assad regime (Iranian troops are pouring in for this purpose), huge numbers with reason to fear retribution must certainly flee for their lives. Their route is through Turkey, which will happily assist their passage via dinghies to Greece, thus into the European Welfare Union.

Putin and company have no immediate interest in stifling the Daesh. Neither has Erdogan of Turkey, who uses the same ludicrously false claim to be bombing the Daesh, while directing Turkish strikes against Kurdish forces. The Daesh itself is useful to both. They serve as poison snakes within the Sunni Arab tent — masters in the spread of Islamist terrorism not only within the Sunni areas of Iraq and Syria, but of its export from Afghanistan right across North Africa. As the Sunni terrorist force of Hamas — supplied today mostly from Iran — they will prove an invaluable resource for destabilizing Iran’s Arab enemies. The case is complicated only by Putin’s interest in maintaining Iranian dependency on Russia.

Russians and Turks have yet to love each other, in the history of this world, but begin to share a common interest, in for instance besieging the pro-American Kurds. For both, as for Iran, the West constitutes a common enemy; Israel is the West’s front line. We have not yet awakened to these plain facts of life — that for instance Turkey has become an extremely duplicitous NATO ally.

Within the Middle Eastern theatre, the battle is between Shia and Sunni. The Turks have old imperial interests in Arabia, and beyond. The Persians have imperial ambitions towards the extensive Shia populations of the Gulf States, and northern Saudi Arabia; they are contesting for control of Yemen on the peninsula’s other side. The Saud dynasty, whose internal problems are rapidly growing, is no longer secure; and of course the final prize, beyond oil, is Mecca.

Israel will soon also be embattled, on all fronts, with a new Intifada being organized against her on the West Bank, and with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in the north both stocking up more powerful and accurate missiles than they ever owned before. Her old enemies Jordan and Egypt are now effectively allies, against the new Russian-sponsored threat. All were once American allies. But part of the Russian appeal is that they, and only they, are reliable allies. Obama has stabbed every American ally in the back, and those who once depended upon the U.S. for stability in the region — including Israel — are now looking elsewhere for friends. The Russians will be the new brokers. Fly to Moscow if you want to buy peace.

At what an amazing speed the region has been transformed! Bush left the U.S. still in control of events, and now the position is squandered, at such extraordinary cost in wasted lives, and fresh, unnecessary suffering to come. Thanks to its predominance in our lying media, the Left has managed to tar the “neocons” with every casualty since U.S. and allies removed Saddam Hussein.

Yet the truth is exactly the opposite. At terrible sacrifice, at terrible loss to their grieving families, American and other soldiers stopped a regime that had buried hundreds of thousands in mass graves. By his abandonment of solemn responsibilities, in Iraq and now Afghanistan, it is Obama who has, and will have, the blood of hundreds of thousands more, spraying his impervious conscience. Ah, the banality of evil, as it struts and blathers! This vain, smug little man who hails himself twice in every minute while he’s talking, then plays his golf and takes his grinning selfies.

Elected by a decisive majority of American voters, twice.

The incompetence of the U.S. administration beggars belief. In Obama, Mrs Clinton, and John Kerry, American and Western interests have been directed by callow, narcissistic clowns. All of the West’s enemies know this, including those in the Far East; all are currently exploiting their opportunities, vividly aware that the U.S. will continue to lie prone for the duration of the Obama presidency. All have an interest in Mrs Clinton succeeding him, or should she fail, some other deluded buffoon.

The self-immolation of the American superpower has changed living conditions all over the world. Within a few quick years we have accommodated a genuinely monstrous new world order, to which we now make our fearful supplications.