A fork in the road:

The Dirty Fucking Hippies
Were Right

A fork in the road:

either “Generational War”,
(http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/11/19/its-still-world-war-iv/)
….or a Road Less Traveled,
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-faux/isis-war-the-case-for-cut_b_8719368.html)

On 911, I was at work at my cafe, with my 3 employees, preparing for the lunch rush(which turned out to be my last big day)
My wife called and said “turn on the radio”.
So we listened to WOAI out of San Antonio, while we cooked and cleaned.
I remember, during the confusion and hysteria, ruminating aloud that perhaps we should ask ourselves why those folks hated us enough to do such things(it was already being blamed on Bin Laden, and Al Quaeda).
That Friday Night(my last busy night, it turned out), I was mobbed by a few folks in the kitchen, asking me what I thought about all of this...by this time, there was an uncharacteristic unity afoot in the USA, that we were in an existential war against Islamic Terrorists...and the Rhetoric was identical to that of the Cold War.(see: George Kennan, and the Truman Doctrine:(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truman_Doctrine)
I held forth...my impromptu audience in rapt attention as I slung steaks and soft-shelled crabs...and with a great intuitive leap, diagnosed the fundamental issue(which I still believe is true): that we had brought this upon ourselves...by meddling and screwing with other people's countries...by being an Imperial Force for greed and power, astride the world...all in order to maintain control of backward places where the oil lived...and that the Terrorists were being rather open and honest about their motivations...and that they had a point...and that we would do well to listen to them, and attempt to determine if their grievances were legitimate.
None of my listeners had ever heard of the numerous assholeries by the CIA...like Operation Ajax, that subverted the Democratic Will of the Iranian People in service of greedy oil barons...neither did they remember that our own government had all but created Al Quaeda in Afghanistan as a proxy to fight the Soviets.
I believe that my narrative that week was the biggest contributor to the failure of my cafe, over the next 2 months. Hunting Season didn't happen that year...and Foreign Food was seen as unamerican(Freedom Fries!)...and there was much uncertainty and fear and hysteria evident in the population...and I could see from the front window that the Greasy Spoon(and e coli palace) was doing very well, continuing to serve as the de facto Town Hall, and dishing up “comfort food”, rather than my Gourmet fare...but my Diagnosis is likely what killed my cafe.

Turns out I was right.
The actions of Our Government, and Our Military Industrial Intelligence Complex, going back 70 years, had created this mess...and continues to do so.

Now, after all these years of anti-Islamic hysteria, fueled by our own reactionary ignorance of the world, and fomented by a great wurlitzer of fear and loathing that passes for “conservative” media, as well as the socio-economic wasteland that we live in and studiously ignore, a couple of American Muslims shoot up a place...
Their motives are unimportant...aside from the ridiculous bromide,”they hate us for our freedom”--and the Drums of War....a “war that will not end in our lifetimes”...beat ominously, once more.
It doesn't matter that our increasing involvement in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, et alia is exactly what Daesh wants, and needs...that we, and our ill conceived war-making and drone strikes and the Islamophobia that drives it all, are their best recruiting tools...
It doesn't matter that by failing to address the Root Problems that drive those folks to want a Caliphate, we ensure their continued commitment and fervor...

I was right...that day in September,13 years ago...and I am right, right now.
The only way to end this conflict is to not play that game.
To admit our own guilt in fucking up that whole part of the world, and to resolve to mind our own fucking business.
To withdraw from the Arab World, and find our energy elsewhere, even if the oil and gas companies will suffer for it.
For Oil is at the very root of all of this...and always has been.
Our unending support for the vicious Saudi Regime, and their ongoing export of Salafist Wahabism...our unending support for a murderous Israeli Regime and their ongoing export of hatred and lawlessness...our unending meddling in the affairs of other people's lands, where we do not belong, and where we do not have a right to meddle...all because these places are where Our Hydrocarbons are...
Enough.

I will be called a Traitor...a Terrorist Lover who hates America...a Hippy Dippy Muddle Minded Libtard...If I'm listened to, at all.
And we will go to war, anyway.
Because nobody listens to Hippies...and nobody listens to Rational Arguments...nobody pays any mind to the Smart People who counsel that we Think and Reason and look Objectively at the actual History.
So once again, I am left with the question: does Humanity Deserve to Survive itself?
Does America?
I am inclined to answer in the negative.
We are too stupid to survive.






(http://stochasticterrorism.blogspot.ca/)