Best Intentions

>...(a) myriad jihadi movements, all having the same strategic objective of humiliating the US, destroying Israel and forming an Islamic Caliphate.<

BAHUKUTUMBI RAMAN builds a convincing case that our assumptions re Al-Qaeda may not necessarily be right. One of these, however, is dead-on and cannot be disputed: 'destroy Israel'. From there follows, ' humiliating the U.S.', because we are there, conspicuously protecting Israel. Whether the desire to cleanse the region of Israel constitutes the fulfillment of religious prophecy (to establish an Islamic Caliphate) or merely to allow regional players to determine their own political destiny – Tehran vs. Riyadh; Sunni vs. Shiite; etc. – without what is seen as undue outside interference, holds little relevance to the argument (except for the bloviating class).

My guess (as one who has been known to bloviate) it’s the latter rather than the former. Israel has been an irritant in the Middle East since its formation. Irritants, in the eye for example, demand immediate removal of the foreign object. Any delay in treatment invites infection which may spread and ultimately result in the loss of the eye. There can be little doubt that the fact that the U.S. has doggedly worked to protect and sustain the Jewish State in the midst of an overwhelmingly Islamic region has affected U.S.-Arab relations adversely.

No peoples of any region take kindly to interlopers. Peaceful, tolerant, neutral Switzerland recently voted to ban the building of additional mosques. (There are four so far.) We here in the U.S. have aptly demonstrated that we too do not take kindly to having alien influences shoved down our throats and that we are prepared to fight to keep it from happening.

I am not suggesting that we abandon Israel. The moment we (the U.S.) decided to advocate for Israel’s right to exist, we committed ourselves to getting it done. When our parents give us the money to enroll in a college or university program, it is understood that we will do our utmost to graduate. It’s the same with a nation publicly committing itself to anything: going to the moon; tackling terrorism; nation building; eliminating poverty, crime, ignorance; finding cures for diseases; etc. No less than that nation’s credibility is on the line. It must be done wholeheartedly, seriously, and with the expectation of succeeding.

We are failing in many of the goals we have set out for ourselves. No doubt, there have been set-backs. And it’s time to ask why. Perhaps we’re over-extended. Perhaps promises we’ve made in the past are no longer enforceable. Perhaps conditions have changed. Perhaps what had initially come under the header of ‘good intention’ has morphed into something else: extortion, perhaps, of which we now find ourselves to be the victim. Perhaps we need to reset and re-calculate where we stand. Perhaps we need to assess our weaknesses going forward. Perhaps there are battles that need to be put to rest – one way or another. Perhaps we should refrain from adding to our obligations for a while.

Have we become overwhelmed by our own ‘good intentions’? Have we bitten off more than we can chew? Or are we being sabotaged by a clever enemy who knows how to fight us in our own houses by turning our own weapons against us – an enemy who knows precisely how to overload our systems; overwhelm our capacities; create confusion and distrust and leave us at the mercy of silver-tongued tyrants?