CONSIDER EMPIRES IN ASSESSING U.S. SITUATION
Sonny Scott
Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, MS
Nov 4 2007
After the First Gulf War, an acquaintance questioned President
Bush’s decision to let the beaten remnant of Saddam’s army retreat
to Baghdad." There is a reason," I suggested. "This was not merely
a umanitarian decision.’ Someone has a strategic reason for leaving
Saddam in power."
Well, now I guess we know what that reason was. It’s a shame the
current president didn’t ask Poppy.
I don’t know who coined the term, "power vacuum," but it is the
most apt of political metaphors. Just as any gas will rush to fill
a physical vacuum, so are political entities "sucked into" regions
where there is no established political power. Those of us here in the
Bible Belt learned that in Sunday School. Remember how the Egyptians,
Assyrians, Chaldeans, Persians, et al, swept into the Holy Land as
the political stability of the area failed? In politics, the play
never changes – only the actors.
Now we have Turkey preparing to go into Iraq to stabilize the
situation with the Kurds. This must terrify those in the Kurds who
remember Turkey’s way of dealing with the Armenians, which supposedly
inspired Hitler’s "Final Solution." Americans should be circumspect
in discussing this. After all, the deportation and massacre of the
Armenians by Turkey came only a quarter-century after Wounded Knee.
"Those who live in glass housesE", etc. I wouldn’t count on it,
however. New England’s great families plied the slave trade for great
profit for generations, but quickly turned into abolitionists scolds.
Our statesmen fumed about British imperialism, until we got our own
after picking a fight with Spain and taking hers. Yessir, when it
comes to hypocrisy, Americans can play with the best.
Growling in ‘Foggy Bottom’ The administration continues to growl at
Turkey, but surely the Foggy Bottom crowd knows that Turkey cannot sit
on its hands with a chaotic Iraq on its borders, Kurds raiding across
the border, terrorist sheltering Syria to the south, manic Iranians
playing with nuclear matches across the gulf, and chaos threatening
Pakistan. Clearly, we must gain control in Iraq, and quickly, or
prepare to deal with the inevitable partition of the region. The Kurds,
the Sunni, the ShiasEall will want self-determination.
History shows that self-determination for most tribes and nations
leads to incessant warfareEthe Bible again: "In the spring, the time
when kings go out to battle E" Wars were constant, and human progress
was stagnant until the great empires brought order and stability – at
a great cost to national pride. The Jews may have wept for memories
of Zion by the rivers of Babylon, but they found they could prosper
financially while maintaining a distinct cultural and spiritual life
by the Euphrates. They would again after their second great attempt
at sovereignty lead them afoul of the Romans. Only the horror of the
Final Solution could have elevated Zionism from an improbable dream
to historical fact.
After empires carved out their respective spheres of influence, wars
became fewer and less bloody. Most battles were border skirmishes
with the "barbarians" on the frontier. When rival empires clashed,
however, the results could be horrible. It was just such a clash
that the bumbling President Wilson decided to join in 1917. After the
infusion of fresh manpower forced an armistice, Mr. Wilson expected
to dictate peace terms. The most retrograde of his Fourteen Points
was the "right of self-determination." (American chutzpah again: this
was only 43 years since the U.S. had bloodily stamped out Virginia’s
"right to self-determination.") How much discontent in the 20th
century was inspired by this most misbegotten of Wilson’s ideas?
Little patience with limits History shows we have little patience
for protracted and limited war.
We go all out for a short total war, but the sort of war that Britain,
France, and Spain used to maintain and share control of the West for
four hundred years, Americans will not tolerate. We waged total war
with Japan for four years for our Pacific empire, but gave up after
eight years of limited war in Indo-China. Will we hold on in the
Mid-East? Not likely.
Hmm. We were in the Depression when the scrap with Japan began. Crude
oil is a C-note a barrel now. If it keeps going up, we may be in a
depression againE No; I don’t want to think about it.
Sonny Scott is a community columnist