Why nothing can be wrong if it makes our country strong
We got to get tough to save democracy.
And though it may mean war
We must defend Singapore
This don’t hurt you half as much as it hurts me.Oh, Franklin Roosevelt told the people how he felt
We damn near believed what he said
He said, “I hate war, and so does Eleanor
But we won’t be safe ’till everybody’s dead.”
~~from the Ballad of October 16 by Millard Lampell
Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business.
~~Michael Leedon according to Jonah Goldberg (via Arthur Silber)
Dear Readers–
Even by Necon standards, a recent post by Michael Ledeen was so deranged that it has attracted considerable horrified attention from the anti-war Right and Left; with Daniel Larison at Eunomia, Matt Barganier at Antiwar, Arthur Silber at Once upon a time, Doug Bandow at 4Pundits and Michael Dougherty at Surfeited with Dainties having their say.
Michael Ledeen’s madness is not a drooling, raving at the moon, obscenity-spewing lunacy – it’s more a quiet and intense meglomania, like a madman telling you that he is Jesus Christ reborn sent to defeat the Antichrist and usher in the Kingdom of God.
Michael Ledeen wrote:
Thanks to Cliff, and to Dexter Filkins for getting someone to admit, once again, that Iran and Syria are all over Iraq.
Victor says we should first stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan, but that’s skipping a step. It is impossible so long as the mullahs rule in Tehran and Assad commands in Damascus. It is a regional war. If we continue to misunderstand it, if we remain locked in this fundamental error of strategic vision, we will endlessly respond to our enemies’ initiatives, playing defense in one place after another. Today in Iraq and Afghanistan, tomorrow in Lebanon, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopea and Eritrea (that is the mullahs’ game plan), then in Israel and Europe, and finally here at home. We do not need intelligence agencies to know this, all we need to do is listen to our enemies, who announce it at the top of their lungs.
Leaving aside the apparently small matter of invading countries based on suspicion; this is sheer one-upmanship. It’s not enough to invade Afghanistan and Iraq - we should also invade Iran and Syria too. And just where will we get the soldiers considering how their numbers are being stretched now. Does Michael Ledeen have a pouch full of dragon’s teeth to sow or maybe he wants to reintroduce conscription. And the idea of fighting not just in two countries but in four at current armed forces levels is tactical and logistical madness. Who is he getting tactical advice from? Hitler? The voices in his head? Or is this just a way to justify the failure of Necon policy. It wouldn’t be because a foreign policy of attempting to bring democracy to tribalized and sectarian divided countries by sheer force of arms was bound to fail – no, it was because we just hadn’t killed enough people and invaded enough countries.
Then there is the idea that Africa is part of a regional war in the Middle East. This is a dominio theory with a vengeance - today Iraq, tomorrow Burkina Faso! As for the Iranian Mullahs as some sort of Mohammaden Illuminati bent on world domination - that’s quite a trick when the Shia are 7.5-11% of Mohammaden population (with the rest being Sunni). Daniel Larison has effectively mocked these delusions at It could be worse you could be a realist and It’s even funnier the second time around.
Michael Leedon continues:
There is no escape from this war, and we haven’t even begun to wage it. Once we do, we will find that we’ve got many political and economic weapons, most of them inside our enemies’ lands. I entirely agree with Victor that Iran and Syria are fragile, brittle, and anxious. They know their people hate them, and they know that revolution could erupt if we supported it.
When Michael Leedon says “we” should wage this ever increasing war – he means “you” should wage it. He’s going to stay at home writing pro-war articles like a good little typewriter warrior while some other poor bastard dies in some godforsaken Middle Eastern wasteland in Ledeen’s unnecessary war.
And it is a damnable lie to say that this regional war is unavoidable – if the soldiers aren’t there they can’t be attacked. If Iraq hadn’t been invaded and sanctions had continued – the present unstable situation wouldn’t exist. Furthermore the rhetoric of relying on internal enemies to help invading American armies shows that Mr Ledeen has learned nothing over the last three years and is resorting to the same useless tactics that have transformed Iraq “from a secular to a religious country; from a rogue to failed state”(in the words of Ilana Mercer).
Michael Leedon comes to the conclusion that:
Of course, as Victor says, our leaders may be so demoralized that we could just surrender in Iraq and Afghanistan, as the realists and the antisemites desire. [Emphasis added]. But that would only delay the reckoning, and ensure that the war will be far bloodier. Sigh.
Antisemites? How dare some pundits notice that many Neocons seem more concerned with Israel than America – don’t they know that what’s good for Likud is good for America? And doesn’t labelling as “realists” those who oppose Neocon schemes to transform the world mean that Necon policies are unrealistic. Or possibly, surrealistic considering the utter lack of concern with physical and cultural realities in their programs.
The real way to avoid future conflict with Mohammadean forces, as many “realists” have said, would be to withdraw troops from the Middle East and eliminate Muslim immigration to the West. And while we’re at it imprison every Neocon pundit in a padded cell where they can’t cause any more harm. But that won’t happen while we pursue Necon policies of open immigration, multiculturalism and the application of War and invasion to any country that looks even remotely hostile to the West.
Yours sincerely,
Mild Colonial Boy
