The U.S. Identified Enemies That Weren’t Enemies

The U.S. government’s strategy in the global war on terror (GWOT) began by identifying enemies that weren’t enemies, which it called state sponsors of terror: Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Iran. The U.S. vastly over-estimated al-Qaeda, giving it too much credence. It failed to link 9/11 to Saudi Arabian sources. Following up on its choice of the wrong enemies, it attacked Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. This caused terrorism within Iraq to soar. The U.S. overturned the government of Afghanistan, destabilizing that country. The U.S. created fertile soil for non-state organizations using terror methods to arise in those three countries and in neighboring lands. In Syria, the U.S. sought to weaken that state by supporting rebel factions. This contributed to the growth of the terrorist organization called ISIS, now operating in Iraq. The U.S. imposed sanctions on an important regional power, Iran, viewing it as an enemy. The U.S. still hasn’t normalized relations with Iran or formulated a set of sensible policies with it. The U.S. destabilized Pakistan. All of this, including the drone warfare of the U.S., helped jihadist organizations to gain new recruits. Meanwhile the U.S. has failed to address the role of Saudi Arabian and Gulf state money in supporting terror groups.

U.S. policies come from the U.S. government out of the cauldrons of advice proffered by intelligence agencies, the military, its own departments, think tanks, neocons, and its advisors. The results are truly pitiful and awful. The U.S. acts as if it had no smarts. It acts as if it’s always being surprised and always behind the curve. It acts as if it didn’t possess the most basic information about the countries it’s engaged in. It acts as if it cannot think or look ahead to the future. It acts like a dinosaur thrashing in a mud pit. The U.S. government has many weapons, but does it know when or how to use them? That takes some understanding, foresight, cleverness, and ability to think several steps ahead. The “brain” of the U.S. government, which we know by the policies it adopts, appears to be moronic.

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1:36 pm on June 16, 2014