So when the US first invaded Iraq back in 2003… I cracked jokes about it. I said that “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” should really be renamed “Operation Swirly,” because Iraq never had the military resources to stand against the US military force that gets a budget of over 400 BILLION dollars. It was the equivalent of the US holding Iraq upside down over a toilet and then putting their head in it and flushing it militarily speaking.
It could have been also named “Operation Smash and Grab,” because there was no way Iraq was hiding nuclear materials given the history of the Iran – Iraq war and the way that Iraq reached and other regional powers continue to do to Iran having nuclear reactors. So why was the US really in Iraq? Oil and historical artifacts. There are still millions of barrels of oil missing and the priceless national treasures that are historical artifacts have gone missing into morally corrupt wealthy collectors collections around the world.
Really why the heck did we decided to invade Iraq if we still had not caught and killed Osama Bin Laden in revenge for September 11th 2001? And since we still had not caught him in 2003 in Afghanistan… why were we going to Iraq to “fight terror”?
We can all agree “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” did not bring any Iraqi citizen freedom it just made a bad situation worse by creating a power vacuum and destabilizing the entire region.
If I was in a decision-making position when this operation was being planned I would have scrapped in favor of a quiet assassination of “President of Iraq,” by a select team of US operatives or perhaps pull a modern interpretation of the death of Julius Caesar much more clean, quiet and cost-effective with a multinational group of operatives.
Perhaps they could have made it look like he had choked on a chicken bone or died from the side effects of using too much Viagra as the commercials always say ask your doctor if your healthy enough for sex BEFORE use.
But nothing that I thought of crossed the minds of the powers that be. Instead the average US citizen got tapped through their taxes to support a “war,” on “terror,” which is beyond ironic given – when did Iraq actually attack or terrorize the US itself ever? Answer for $500 Alex: What is NEVER? Correct.
If the American government would take a more isolationist approach and stop meddling in other countries affairs – then 100% of the blow back from Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm would not exist.
Lets be real.. what has the Kuwaiti government done for the US government lately? or in the last 10 – 15 years? Saudi Arabia is our “friend,” to help secure access to their oil – which is dwindling at a fast rate. We supply them with enough “military aid,” to keep their neighbors in line and that’s all.
Then randomly recently Russia decides to join in on the fight against the Daesh claiming it has to do with the Chechnyan and Georgian terrorists that bomb civilian targets in Russia.
ISIL hasn’t been deemed enough of a threat to US and the EU to deal with until the day before yesterday when they bombed several locations in Paris, France.
Muslim’s around the world are the group that is experience the greatest number of deaths each year at the hands of terrorist groups including ISIL. However have the major Western media sources being reporting this to Western countries including the US? No. Point in case – Paris vs Lebanon.
Beirut, Lebanon experienced a huge bombing Thursday BEFORE Paris and no media coverage in the way that Paris got. No Facebook check in or special profile picture filter. If nothing else you should question why that is.
The EU recently has been more concerned with trying to get Turkey to take all the refugee’s fleeing the myriad of conflicts throughout the North African and Middle East Regions as a condition of the EU approving Turkey’s application to the EU.
If I were Turkey I would say HELL NO to that “request” by the EU membership board. This attempt at preventing this flash flood of refugees is going on while different EU members considering closing their borders and putting in the old passport checks to stem the flow of refugees into EU.
The sad state of the US is we are only willing to take 10,000 refugees when we have room for so many more. Next thing you know state governors are trying to reject the refugees that the US said they would accept because of the Paris bombing.
The racism and religious discrimination has come out from under the rug with this years election.
How else to make the crack pots known as the Daesh seem SO much more appealing of an option for the average Muslim citizen of an EU country or any other nation than to start lumping them together with the Daesh? Tell these innocent Muslim civilians they should take responsibility for terrorist acts committed by ISIL or other so called “Islamist,” groups because they to self identify as Muslim and practice Islam as the CNN anchors did on this most recently aired show –
Make it acceptable to create and pass laws that specifically discriminate against Muslims based on our religious clothing, our ability to build our places of worship or call out our call to prayer? Insert spies/informants or force average Muslim American citizens to spy on their own communities like here in the US? And not prosecuting hate crimes against us ie the three Muslim students killed execution style in N. Carolina etc to the full extent of the law?
Not that long ago a Gen. Wesley Clark a democratic former 2004 presidential hopeful suggested that American Muslims should be put in internment camps like the Japanese American’s were during World War II.
See the link here to that piece if you don’t believe me –
Never mind adding in illogically hate filled voices of people like the new speaker of the house Paul Ryan and 2015 presidential hopeful Donald Trump.
Paul Ryan who now seeks to introduce legislation to “pause” aka stop immigration of Syrian refugees to the US. Some Congress people have also suggested a stop to immigration of the refugees all together until they can review the process that screens the refugees – which will take YEARS leaving refugees stranded in the middle of a war zone in the same way the US turned away boats filled with Jewish and intellectual refugees from Germany during WWII.
Each of these uneducated, intolerant, discriminatory and uncompassionate action pushes many Muslims into the arms of the very group so many Syrian, Afghani, Iraqi, Yazidi refugee’s are fleeing.
If nations, countries and individuals want to battle ISIS in the most effective way – stop supporting discrimination in all its forms against Muslims worldwide. You could make the difference in some Muslim’s life in your community by instead of reacting from a place of fear when you see a Muslim at the airport or local grocery store – instead seek to educate yourself about Islam and seek common ground with the Muslims in your community.
Intentional acts of kindness will win or lose this war.
American Muslimahs Musings 