DONA QUIXOTE (IRAN) AND THE HARMFUL IDIOTS

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THE MILITARY'S BIND

I don’t envy the military. To be placed in such a bind by the harmful idiots must be unbearable:

– in a state of so-called counter-insurgency mode, while occupying a country 6000 miles away;

– in a bind as to what to do with as many as 110,000 Sunni insurgents placed on the payroll, forever, with a civil war brewing amongst them, a ticking time bomb;

– in a state of illusory hope that the Badr Brigade government (I’m using the old name on purpose), allied to Dawa, will turn against Tehran;

– in a state of denial about the fact that both of these organizations -- Badr and Dawa -- had been reared by Tehran;

– in a state of false hope that the harmful idiots (in this case, the politicians) can squeeze Tehran financially and politically, and that Dona Quixote cannot squeeze back while raking in higher and higher income from oil, thanks in good part for lower and even lower interest rates in the US -- the imperial blind spot;

– in a state of utter illusion that the Turks and the Kurds will hug and kiss, oblivious to the fact that structurally there’s no hope under the sun that the flirtation would succeed;

– in a state of war with Moqtada al-Sadr who, if one avoids a short-term perspective, and avoids buying one’s self-referential propaganda about him being a “radical” just because he’s a politician, and if one thinks long term, (Sadr) would be Iraq’s best hope to (eventually) stand up to Iran. Not a sure thing by any measure. Still, if one is betting, Sadr would be the better bet. By far. Instead, the harmful idiots are assuring the welding of his fate and that of the Sadr family saint-like legacy, to Iran’s goals.

CONTROL THE TERRITORY

Abdel Halim Khaddam, the Syrian Sunni man who the Saudis placed in a palace in France, in their silly and self-defeating war with Syria, used to say that whoever controlled the ground/territory, controlled the political outcome. He was referring to little Lebanon after the harmful idiots and their Jordanians had destroyed it on behalf of their beloved Israel -- to dodge the formation of a Palestinian state. Wait a minute: Khaddam didn’t mean an army (and another army of mercenaries) imported from 6000 or so miles away. He meant local forces supplanted by Syrian and Palestinian fighters, who look like local forces, dressed up as Druze or other fighters to roll back the proxies of the harmful idiots and Israel. Successfully.

(I really feel like stopping; I feel like a teacher at a school for the learning-challenged.)

NO HELP

Okay, a tea and I shall resume.

The harmful idiots had emaciated or destroyed every country that had allied itself to them. I’m thinking Egypt. Now useless -- and hungry -- and can’t help in Iraq. I’m thinking Lebanon which, had the harmful idiots built up a Palestinian state, would’ve been a hell of a pro-harmful idiots country -- all of it; Now even the harmful idiots’ erstwhile ally, Michel Aoun, seeing who controls the ground/territory, runs away from them, that after they had left him stranded alone fighting the Syrians and getting run over. I’m thinking Saudi Arabia, which doesn’t even have an army to speak of, and is now relying even more on the harmful idiots; Saudi Arabia, which happens to produce some of the most vicious fighters in the world, but only for export, instead of recruiting them into a fighting army. I’m thinking Jordan, which teeters about waiting forever for a Palestinian state to relieve the threat of the Islamists -- saved mostly by its King’s ingenious ways at obtaining cargo for an otherwise hostile population.

ILLUSION AND WISHFUL THINKING

And here are the harmful idiots swimming in an ocean of illusion and wishful thinking about the Badr Organization Shia state in Iraq. Here’s Robert Gates, on April 11:

“I think the Iraqi government now has a clearer view of the malign impact of Iran’s activities inside Iraq...I think they have had what I would call a growing understanding of that negative Iranian role. But I think what they encountered in Basra was a real eye-opener to them.”

Say what? You’re building a state in Iraq, dumping billions upon billions on that state with the hope (!) – with the hope (!) – that it’ll have “a growing understanding” of Iran’s “malign” role? I’m cringing.

Here’s Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman for the Iraqi government, on May 4, responding to a question about the repeated allegations by the harmful idiots that Dona Quixote has been sending weapons to Shia militias -- they mean the Mahdi Army -– and training these. His answer:

“We don’t possess like evidence.” (My translation from Arabic.)

About the Iraqi delegation visiting Tehran to talk about Dona Quixote’s role in arming and training the Mahdi Army -- Mr. Al-Dabbagh: these people don’t represent the Iraqi government.

In other words, we the Badr Organization Shia government aren’t so stupid as to pick a fight with Iran, once our mentor and host, and so well embedded amongst us that we’re one and the same. We really are one and the same.

Thank you very much. We really appreciate your help. Please come again.

BOGGED DOWN ON ORDERS BY THE HARMFUL IDIOTS

Here’s Admiral Micheal Mullin, on May 5, from beloved Israel:

“I am actually very hopeful we don’t get into a position where we have to get into a conflict [with Dona Quixote] ... It would be a very significant challenge for the United States right now to get into a third conflict in that part of the world ... I think it is very important that we increase the financial pressure, the diplomatic pressure, the political pressure, and at the same time keep all the military options on the table.”

Translation: we really cannot afford a war with Dona Quixote. That, in effect, our job as the military at the service of the harmful idiots, is to keep a state of stasis, of stagnation, including of our own miliary in Iraq, until the end of the Bush term. To be bogged down so as to preserve the fighting image of Bald Samson and the Christian-Zionist Crusader -- as warriors for one hundred years.

FRESH PARSLEY

I need some fresh perspective. I go over to see my dad at his garden. He’s checking his parsley, which is coming through, now that he’s removed the straw -- so necessary for successful sprouting of parsley seeds. I ask him. May God bring victory to the US, he says. He’s repeating what they say at his church. This is my Maronite father speaking; I need to bring out the politico in him.

I change my tone. What are you talking about? I retort impatiently. Victory doesn’t come to those swimming in illusion and wishful thinking. Answer my question please: do you think the Shia Badr Organization government will turn against Iran? You’ve spent a lifetime in a sect-dominated culture in Lebanon and had had many Shia, Sunni, and Druze friends, and countless acquaintances among these sects. You filled my head with sect and politics. He hesitates. Then he answers: No; I can’t imagine it. It’s a “tabkhet Bo7s” (“a meal of pebbles”) for the US.

Thank you. Now you can go back to admiring your parsley. How can I make up for my impatience at his earlier reluctance to answer my question? It’s gonna be a bumper crop, I comment. God I can be mean.