Let Allah Sort It Out
On U.S. military intervention in Syria’s civil war, where “both sides are slaughtering each other as they scream over an arbitrary red line ‘Allahu akbar’ … I say let Allah sort it out.”
So said Sarah Palin to the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference. And, as is not infrequently the case, she nailed it.
Hours later, Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times, at length, echoed Palin: “Those who are urging the US to get more deeply involved in the Syrian conflict now are living in the past.”
Four fundamental changes make it “no longer realistic, or even desirable, for the US to dominate” the Middle East as we did from the Suez crisis of 1956 through the Iraq invasion of 2003.
The four changes: the failures of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the Great Recession, the Arab Spring and emerging U.S. energy independence.
Indeed, with $2 trillion sunk, 7,000 U.S. troops dead, 40,000 wounded, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans dead, and millions of refugees, what do we have to show for this vast human and material waste?
Can a country with an economy limping along, one that has run four consecutive deficits in excess of $1 trillion, afford another imperial adventure?
On the Shiite side of the Syrian civil war are Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hezbollah and Syrian President Bashar Assad. On the Sunni side are the al-Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, Sunni jihadists from across the Middle East, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Is victory for either side worth yet another U.S. war?
Ought we not stand back and ask: What vital interest is imperiled here?
And even if Americans favor one side or the other, how lasting an impact could any U.S. intervention have? The region is in turmoil.
Since the Tunisian uprising that dethroned an autocratic ally, dictators have fallen in Egypt and Libya. There have been a Shiite revolt in Bahrain, a civil war in Yemen and a civil-sectarian war in Syria that has cost 90,000 lives. Iraq is disintegrating. Al-Qaida is in Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, the Maghreb region and Mali.
Now the muezzin’s call to religious war is heard.
“How could 100 million Shiites defeat 1.7 billion (Sunnis)?” roared powerful Saudi cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, calling for a Sunni-Shiite war. Al-Qaradawi denounces Assad’s Alawite sect as “more infidel than Christians and Jews” and calls Hezbollah “the party of the devil.”
“Everyone who has the ability and has training to kill … is required to go” to Syria, said al-Qaradawi.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban have made a comeback, and the United States is negotiating with the same crowd we sent an army to oust in 2001. And the press reports we will be leaving behind $7 billion in U.S. military vehicles and equipment when we depart.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the most successful Turkish leader since Kemal Ataturk, appears to have lost his mandate, with hundreds of thousands pouring into streets and squares both to denounce and to defend him.
The United States, says Rachman, “has recognised that, ultimately, the people of the Middle East are going to have to shape their own destinies. Many of the forces at work in the region – such as Islamism and Sunni-Shia sectarianism – are alarming to the West but they cannot be forever channelled or suppressed.”
Did those clamoring today for intervention in Syria learn nothing from Ronald Reagan’s intervention in an earlier Arab civil war, the one in Lebanon? Result: 241 dead Marines, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut bombed and hostages taken.
Reagan left office believing his decision to put Marines in Lebanon was his greatest mistake. And to retrieve those hostages, he acceded to a transfer of weapons to Iran, an action that almost broke his presidency.
Yet it is not only in the Middle East that we are “living in the past,” in a world long gone. As Ted Galen Carpenter writes in Chronicles, under NATO we are committed to go to war with Russia on behalf of 27 nations.
If Russia collides with Estonia or Latvia over the treatment of their Russian minorities, we fight Russia. For whose benefit is this commitment?
Today Japan spends 1 percent of its gross domestic product on defense. Yet the USA is committed to go to war to defend not only the home islands but the Senkaku islets and rocks in the East China Sea that China also claims.
Are the Senkakus really worth a war with China?
NATO was established to defend Europe. Yet Europe spends less on its own defense than we do. Sixty years after the Korean War, we remain committed to defend South Korea against North Korea. Yet South Korea has an economy 40 times as large as North Korea’s.
Former Rep. Ron Paul asks: Why, when U.S. debt is larger than our GDP and we are running mammoth annual deficits, are we borrowing money abroad to give away in foreign aid?
Good question. As for those ethnic, sectarian and civil wars raging across the Middle East, let Allah sort it out.
Read more by Patrick J. Buchanan
- A Reluctant Warrior Tiptoes to War – June 17th, 2013
- Outside Agitators – June 6th, 2013
- The Unraveling of Sykes-Picot – May 27th, 2013
- What Should Americans Die For? – May 16th, 2013
- Who Are the War Criminals in Syria? – May 6th, 2013
Let Allah Sort It Out
June 20th, 2013 at 9:07 pm
[...] This article originally appeared on: Antiwar [...]
6/21/2013 | Zephyr Global Report
June 20th, 2013 at 10:16 pm
[...] Let Allah Sort It Out by Patrick J. Buchanan [...]
RickR30
June 20th, 2013 at 10:29 pm
Well, it sounds nifty but it isn't saying much. Sure, I guess a hands off approach in Syria is the safe way. But, what if the US unequivocally stated its support for president Assad and rejection of terrorists and foreign interventionists? America usually has something to say about whatever is going on everywhere. I'm pretty sure that would be a powerful message to all the bizarre bunch of rebels and their sponsors and by itself might provoke peace. After all didn't peace use to be one of those American values clowns like Obama go on babbling about. Because peace is a precondition for financial stability and development, and a prosperous Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan could be a growing market for (the few remaining) US products, considering the our financial crisis and all. This of course was the American way before DC was invaded and occupied by israeli firsters. And before their sick agenda to kill as many Arabs and Muslims as possible became America's foreign policy.
AWN
June 20th, 2013 at 10:42 pm
Pat, great stuff as usual. Your points should be taken one step further. This intervention is going to destroy America if it does not focus on the principles that made America great in the first place. Muslims were the scapegoats for the national security industry after 9/11 and now with all this spying by the government "good old" Americans are beginning to realize that before we destroy alqaeda we are going to bring about our own downfall if we abuse this constitution. I know you think that your getting up there in age but I can tell you that within your lifetime (Allah willing) Israel will cease to exist, not because we Muslims want its destruction but because Israel and the US are hastening its destruction with their blow back policies. If we really cared about America (or Israel for that matter) more Americans should be listening to you.
Mike Ehling
June 20th, 2013 at 10:58 pm
This is one rather rare case where I agree with Palin. But…. (Of course there would be a "but.")
I'd much rather she have said, "the Cold War is over, we won, now 'Come home, America,' " than that she have said, "let Allah sort it out," which, knowing Palin, was said in a manner derogatory to Muslims.
Still, I'm happy that Broken-Clock Sarah has hit one of those rare moments when she manages to tell the time right.
Andron
June 21st, 2013 at 12:59 am
What a fantastic article.
Should be made COMPULSORY to be read by EVERY American Lawmaker – Senate and House.
JohnZ
June 21st, 2013 at 6:30 am
What's at stake in the middle east is israhell and its willingness to do anything to gain dominance over the entire region. The government in israhell , particularly the Likud party has stated this over and over.
It is all about israhell.
As Mr. Buchanan pointed out the government in D.C. has no real stated interest in Syria; except to overthrow Assad and allow that nation to descend into bloody sectarian violence just as has happened in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan. That was the goal: To overthrow the leaders in these countries, who for good or bad, kept the sectarian violence to an absolute minimum, in fact there was little if any. They kept the jihadist muslim extremists at bay. They are gone and in their place is bloody chaos. This is how israhell will dominate the middle east and right now the zionist neo cons in D.C. continue to beat the war drums against Assad. These people need to be seized by the neck and thrown into the Potomac however that would be creating a massive pollution problem in one of our grandest rivers. The neo cons need to be marginalized if not outright eliminated from the political scene.
Otherwise America will get bogged down in another useless, wasteful and debilitating war, just like Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan and The Korean war as well. Another war that this nation cannot afford that could escalate into an all out war with Russia and China.
Bibi is already risking the existence of israhell by declaring he will order an attack on any Russian ship delivering arms to Assad. This will cost him Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The Russians have the ability to knock aircraft out of the sky as soon as they leave the tarmac. SS-300-M/M2, the latest version of the SS-300, SS-400 and including Iskander cruise missile which cruises at between mach 6 and mach 8 will be Bibi's worst nightmare as they come crashing down on his air force, knocking F-16s from the sky as soon as they are airborne and then watching his air bases go up in flames.
For all the bravado that Bibi espouses, he is at this moment ready to crap in his pants. Putin has shown Obomber the door, Putin is ten times the man the president is and doesn't take any crap from anybody. The Russians mean business and Putin is the new sheriff in town.
Toba
June 21st, 2013 at 7:07 am
Great article Pat but somewhat off your usual fare and I'am wondering why! then I get to this part " and to retrieve those hostages, he ACCEDED to a transfer of weapons to Iran" I mean really Pat! Really! Wow….Thanks for the chuckle.
charles caruso
June 21st, 2013 at 8:11 am
Alas, great powers have to fight dirty wars in distant places – for natural resources, national security
et al.
See the sad histories of overreach by Rome, Spain, Britain.
It goes with greatness. Luckily, the greatness fades and the bloodshed eases.
Then some other megalo steps up – China anyone?
And dont think the Russian bear is dead – unless we drone Putin, the only mensch in the country.
Syria – June 2013 | The Quality of the Sand
June 21st, 2013 at 10:00 am
[...] Let Allah Sort It Out by Patrick J. Buchanan, June 21, 2013 [...]
Robert Emmet
June 21st, 2013 at 11:31 am
So, the winner is…….Bin Laden! 19 crazed but determined men seeking revenge, armed with box-cutters have turned the USA upside down to the path of self-destruction.
Middle East: Let Allah Sort It Out! - GOD Help Us All
June 21st, 2013 at 12:06 pm
[...] Via: Anti War [...]
Strider55
June 21st, 2013 at 1:45 pm
There is a fifth fundamental change that Pat neglects to mention — emerging Israeli energy independence. A huge natural gas deposit was recently discovered in the eastern Mediterranean just off the Israeli coast. Once production comes on line, Israel will quickly become a net exporter of energy. That will fundamentally change the balance of power in the region. No longer will Israel be dependent on Egyptian gas; in fact, the situation might actually reverse. And then we will have a huge reason to stop the $3 billion annual subsidy to Israel.
Lorraine
June 21st, 2013 at 3:32 pm
Amen and Insha'Allah, brother!!