Terrorism is in the Eyes of the Beholder
by John Lawrence, January 7, 2020
The words "terrorism" and "terrorist" are overused and have completely lost their meaning. One person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter. The Kurds consider themselves freedom fighters. They were allies of the US in ridding Syria of ISIS. However, Turkey, a NATO ally, calls them terrorists. General Soleimani, who was just assassinated by the US, was considered a "good guy" as long as he was fighting ISIS. The U.S. and Iran are mutual enemies of ISIS and effectively fought against ISIS to crush the terrorist group’s de facto state in Iraq and Syria. General Soleimani deserves credit for leading this fight against ISIS so is he a terrorist or an anti-terrorist, an ally in the fight against ISIS or, now that that fight has been won, a terrorist? The nuances of the Middle East situation are too much for an imbecile like Trump to appreciate. His other advisors aren't much better.
The ISIS so-called caliphate has largely been destroyed. That should be considered a victory, but the US should not get all the credit for that victory. Other actors like the Kurds and the Iranians deserve credit for that outcome as well. But it will be a cold day in hell before the US gives the Iranians any credit for anything. What the US should be doing is leaving the Middle East and letting the Middle East sort out its own situation. Continuing to provoke the hostility between Sunnis and Shiites is only contributing to exacerbate the Middle East situation. Trump said he wanted to end the endless wars in the Middle East so why doesn't he do it? The answer is that Trump is drunk with power, and he has made Iran the bogieman so he can vent his animosity on them. This is only increasing tensions until they will blow up into a major war that will accomplish nothing but the deaths of millions of civilians and the destruction of billions of dollars worth of property including priceless Iranian historic and cultural sites.
Finally, we can appreciate how important the Iran nuclear deal was now that Trump's first step towards war was in the abandoning of it. It at least brought Iran to the negotiating table and within reach of being included among other civilized nations. Instead it has been driven away from meaningful negotiations by Trump's refusal to have diplomatic negotiations with them. This is how hostilities leading to war begin. Put a narcissistic imbecile with a lot of pet peeves in charge of the world's largest military, and the result is that he inevitably will use that power to get his own way regardless of the destruction that that involves. The last time we saw this situation was in the 1930s, but Hitler's power to destroy civilization was trivial compared to Trump's arsenal. Hitler also started by being democratically appointed to the Chancellorship. That was before he became Fuhrer.
We can hope that cooler heads will prevail, but where are the cooler heads in the Trump administration? Trump along with his henchmen in the Senate who are totally enabling him has effectively taken over the American political structure just as Hitler took over the Reichstag. The Democratic controlled House can do nothing to stop Trump as long as the Senate under Mitch McConnell is totally on Trump's side. They are egging him on instead of putting the brakes on him. Trump is convinced that the majority of Americans are totally behind him. Like Hitler he is leading rallies of support on a constant basis unlike any President we have known hitherto. All that is missing is the torchlight parades. There is effectively no governmental constraint on his doing anything he wants to do, and that does not auger well for a salutary outcome for the US, Iran, our NATO allies or the world.
