Friday, March 24, 2006

We always get what we ask for

Why did Hamas do so well in the recent elections? They capitalised on rampent anti-Americanism along with the standard anit-Zionism. Our own actions in the region have so destroyed our image that even terrorist organization now have legitimate ability to actually win democratic elections. I was listening to NPR talk about how surprised everyone was at the Hamas victory. I do not think most people who studied the middle east were surprised. The Bush Administration was surprised. Their standard response to all their f'ups is to say how "nobody ever thought X could happen." X could be any one of a number of blunders. I couldn't really care less what they think, they are so lame.

I would say that we get what we ask for. How could anyone believe that a huge military adventure in Iraq create anything else? All the military adventures, while they are going on, are disasters for the regions inwhich they are taking place. There is no such thing as a good war. That is why all the millions of people at the end of WWII were cheering. They were cheering the fact that the war was over. In the war zone people were depressed, starved, and shell shocked. There were millions of soldiers encamped and the balance of power quickly shifted, over ten years, toward a east vs west nuclear stalemate. The forces at play enforced peace on both sides of the iron curtain.

Currently we have further destablized a region that was already unstable. Regional powers, other than Isreal, are week and ineffective. So the level of anarchy in disputed regions such as Gaza, the West Bank, or Iraq is high. In some ways it would be better to have a nuclear Iran. That would force Isreals hand to declare itself as an active nuclear state. It would create a dynamic that would remove US unilateralism in the region. It would not make Iran any more powerful than it is. But it would create a balance of power in a region that is like the wild west now. besides we have gone out of our way to ask for a nuclear Iran. I am amazed that we don't have it yet.

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