Thousands were killed, tens of thousands were handicapped
and trillions of dollars were wasted in the last decade and a half alone. This
has been the direct cost to America
for being so foolish as to still believe it can be the policemen of the world.
And this is not counting the hundreds of thousands that were
killed in the countries that America
tried to police, the millions of refugees it has created, and the staggering
destruction it has caused everywhere it went. Add to this America 's loss of standing in the world for
being the agent of death and destruction and you can imagine how much hatred
and contempt America
has generated for itself around the world.
Is there a lesson to be learned in all of this? Yes, there
is. It is that America
should never again interfere in the affairs of other nations. Most of them were
here and doing well long before America
came into existence, and most of them will be here and doing well long after America will
have ceased to exist in its present configuration. In fact, it looks like a
good many Americans have learned this lesson, and they ask their leaders to
devote time and energy to solve their problems rather than look for problems
elsewhere.
But then there are princes of darkness who want America to
unlearn the lesson and risk repeating the old mistakes. Two of the princes are
David French and Benny Avni who wrote to flesh out their thoughts on the
subject. French wrote: “Sponsored Links by America
Has a Second Chance to Do the Right Thing in Iraq ,” an article that was
published on October 17, 2016 in national Review Online. As to Avni, he wrote:
“A cheat sheet for the battle of Mosul ,”
an article that was published also on October 17, 2016 in the New York Post.
David French promises that the current offensive against
ISIS in Mosul “will give America a second chance to do the right thing in
Iraq .”
By this, he means to say that America
did the wrong thing the first time around. Be careful now, my dear reader, he
didn't say that destroying Iraq
was the wrong thing to do; he meant to say that not staying in Iraq after its
destruction was the wrong thing to do.
But now that America
was called back to Iraq
to clean up the unintended consequence of its actions, it must do so and stay there,
says David French. Why is that? “To forge an alliance” and “demonstrate a
long-term commitment to Iraq 's
future,” he goes on to say. After all: “We'll need to keep sufficient forces on
the ground to limit Iranian influence, and mediate the country's sectarian
rivalries and conflicts,” he shamelessly asserts.
It is baffling how someone like David French can look at America 's dismal failures to accomplish anything
of the sort in China/Taiwan, North/South Korea, North/South Vietnam and Afghanistan , and still believe that his people
can pull a feat of this kind in Iraq .
Someone should remind him that the only place where a civil war raged, and reconciliation
was achieved is Lebanon
where America
did not poke its nose.
As to Benny Avni, he does the very Jewish thing of
speculating that if America
does not remain in Iraq
after the victory in Mosul , a long and dark
scenario will unfold, according to which Iraq will turn itself and the whole
region into a worse horror story than it is now. And so, he recommends that:
“Obama [must] keep his eyes on the prize, defeating ISIS [and] insisting on
keeping Iran from dominating
Iraq 's
Sunnis.” To be sure, all this will depend on whether “Obama has learned from
his mistakes. Remember: His withdrawal from Iraq
allowed ISIS to take over Mosul .
To avoid a repetition, he may have to accept a deepening America
involvement,” says Avni.
We must now ask this question: Why do seemingly intelligent
people keep making the same mistake time after time? The answer is this: There
are two possible reasons. One may be called, addiction of a gambler. The other
may be called, carelessness of the unaccountable.
Here is a backgrounder. While the “old world” was tearing
itself apart during the first half of the twentieth century, America did well
for itself playing the role of the policeman that was able to fix some of the
problems. But like the player whose initial success gave him the idea he may be
invincible, America
became prone to making the mistake of trying to duplicate that success
elsewhere.
Unfortunately, waiting in the wings were the old colonial
powers of Britain and France
who thought they could use America 's
power to implement their agendas. They pushed America to play their game,
convincing it to fight their wars. America did that, and became
addicted to the game despite the losses it suffered almost everywhere. You can
see how the addiction has affected David French, and tell from that how and why
the political elites in Washington embroiled America in
endless wars that went badly.
And then there is Benny Avni who plays the game like a
professional swindler in the business of gambling with other people's money. He
is careless with it because he knows that if he loses, he'll personally lose
nothing. On the other hand, if he wins, he'll personally win everything.
Being a Jewish pundit advising the American political
elites, he plays with American blood and American treasure, neither of which is
Jewish. And so, he takes liberty in pushing his luck past the limit of
everyone's endurance, and thumbs his nose at anyone that considers him odd.