America has been dragged into yet another war. This time, it is in Syria to stop the forces of ISIS - or at least to use this as an excuse for expanding U.S. military involvement in that region to appease the blood-thirsty political class. The war fervor was manufactured by a corporate media that has displayed images of these barbarians committing disgusting, brutal acts 24/7. This has caused the American public to shake in its boots, develop amnesia, and forget about the mess that their foreign policy has created over the past decade. This warmongering approach, sadly favored by an overwhelming majority according to all opinion polls, is wrong-headed and will only exacerbate problems in the Middle East.
We must recognize the cold, hard reality that is staring us in the face. The United States has no track record of success in its Middle Eastern affairs. As a matter of fact, it was many rash and wrong-headed foreign policy decisions that have caused this disastrous situation. Preemptive attacks, invasions, bombings and the funding of terrorist groups by the United States have fostered an atmosphere of hatred and disorder that has allowed a vicious entity like ISIS to rise. Truly, the bureaucrats in Washington D.C. and their enablers are the best friends of the Islamic Jihadists as they do everything they can to foment their rise all over the world.
For the most obvious example of this, let us look to the 2003 American-led invasion of Iraq. When Saddam Hussein was governing Iraq, the presence of radical Islam in the country was marginalized. Although he was clearly repressive and tyrannical, he kept even worse forces at bay with his iron-fisted rule. By going in there, disposing of him and creating a power vacuum, American foreign policy created conditions conducive for a group such as ISIS to ascend. Freedom and democracy were supposed to spring about, but the opposite has happened in actuality. All of the experts were dead wrong or lying, and Americans are a trillion dollars poorer and thousands of soldiers are dead because the gullible public accepted their patently false nonsense without so much as thinking.
America has frequently targeted the opponents of ISIS for regime change. One of ISIS' most determined and effective enemies is the al-Assad regime in Syria. Just last year, there was a desperate push from Obama and warmongers in both parties to illegitimately eject al-Assad from power. He was called a terrorist, a dictator, the next Hitler and so forth. Despite the outpouring of opposition to the radical foreign "rebels" and support for the Syrian Arab Army in that war from the Syrian people, Washington D.C. poured significant resources into the effort to depose the government. We heard all the familiar canards that we heard about Saddam to dupe the public into supporting an unfortunate invasion of that country. However, the public and the American military refused to buy the propaganda in that case. Obama and his Congressional collaborators were unable to overthrow Assad - for the time being.
Now, imagine if Assad was removed from power in Syria right now and unable to fight ISIS forces. It would have an even greater foothold in the region. If American foreign policy had been successful, ISIS would have been bolstered. If we had listened to the John McCain's and Mike Rogers' of the world, ISIS would be more powerful than ever because one of their worst foes in the region would have been vanquished. This foreign policy failure of ours was the best thing that could have happened to Syrian and Iraqi Christians under persecution from radical Islam, in spite of the spin being served up by the blind, deaf and dumb Washington D.C. political class.
Another one of ISIS' worst adversaries is Iran. Like Iraq under Saddam, it is not the nicest place to live. It regularly commits many human rights violations that are deplorable. But when there is an extreme force like ISIS terrorizing millions of people, you have to pick your poison. There is simply no hard evidence that Iran or Syria pose any sort of an existential threat to America or the world at large. Both countries have shown no inclination to spread radical Islam in a brutal, imperialistic manner. However, ISIS has clearly shown the will to dominate the region, and America is incomprehensibly working to decimate all of their foes!
The sad fact of the matter is that American politicians, bureaucrats and media propagandists suffer from a terrible case of Hubris. Bombing the Middle East, laying it to waste, and then looking at your handiwork to make the case for yet another senseless war is reprehensible. Putin may be committing war crimes in the Ukraine, although those making accusations about that are less than credible. If the charges against Putin are true, and that's a big IF, he should be denounced by every respectable individual. However, in comparison to the U.S. and the war crimes it has committed in the past decade alone, Putin is a dove. American policymakers have lost the moral high ground and have no right to tell Russia or any other country how to handle their affairs. Whatever stature they had was squandered with their deadly military empire and the millions of corpses left in its wake.
Americans like to boast that they live in the land of the free, the shining city on the hill that serves as the beacon of freedom, liberty, democracy and all that is right about the world. But those days are long gone. American exceptionalism has become a thing of the past. Perhaps it was lost after the United States sanctioned torture, or maybe it was lost after hellfire missiles were deliberately dropped on wedding parties, rescue workers and funeral processions by American predator drones, or possibly it was lost after depleted uranium was needlessly dropped by U.S. forces onto Iraqis causing an epidemic of birth defects, cancer and other maladies. Nevertheless, our exceptionalism is finished, and some arrogant deluded politician's bluster is not going to bring it back.
These are the hard truths that are usually glossed over in the mainstream political discourse, but they must be addressed. America has destroyed virtually all of its good will abroad and is hemorrhaging money at an astounding rate. The country is more than 17 trillion in the hole according to official numbers, and hundreds of trillions in the red when unfunded liabilities (future promises of government payouts related to Social Security, Medicare, pensions, etc.) are factored in. Nobody can explain how this money is going to be paid back. Debt-addicted Americans live in a lala land, and the rest of the world suffers because of their refusal to live within their means and mind their own business.
Additionally, we are no longer a free people but are subjected to a growing totalitarian police state and an Imperial Presidency, which threaten the very rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness articulated in the Declaration of Independence. The feds have taken for themselves power that was never delegated to them, power which is in violation of the Constitution, power which is in violation of their oaths of office to uphold that document, and power which no one should possess. No matter how much Americans may love to wrap themselves in the flag and play the role of patriot, their society is clearly headed down the road to totalitarianism. The Founding Fathers are spinning in their graves at what America has become. While Americans are duped into chasing phantoms thousands of miles away, their own government is a million times more menacing than any convenient Arabic bogeyman that is being pushed as this week's excuse for war.
The only way we can start on the path back toward righteousness is by electing public officials who will shake up the status quo, and speak truth to power. In the 9th Congressional District, we have one of those people running as a Republican. His name is George Brikho. He is not an establishment, machine politician. He is a small business owner of Chaldean descent who advocates a rational judicious foreign policy that will restore American prestige and exceptionalism. He personally understands the damage that has been done to Iraqi Christians, and knows that U.S. interventionism has been the leading cause of their peril. His competitor, Sander Levin, represents all that is wrong with our political system. He has voted for illegal wars, debt, bailouts, corporate welfare and other abominable policies that have plagued our country. Brikho is a rebuke of these incomprehensible policies that have failed us so tragically for many years. He is the breathe of fresh air that we need in a Washington D.C. political class rotten to its core.
George Brikho understands that we are not helping anyone out with our foreign policy except for power-crazed Washington D.C. bureaucrats and money-hungry corporate fatcats. He knows that we must reject the self-serving interests that will use any turmoil throughout the world to call for more war. Their schemes have failed us spectacularly while enriching and empowering themselves at our expense. They have caused an untold amount of human misery in the process. No more American blood must be spilled in these unnecessary and counter-productive foreign conflicts. American foreign policy has already paved the way for ISIS to lay claim to land, people and power. It is time to change our ways before we cause even more damage overseas and in the homeland. The road to peace, Liberty and prosperity begins with electing representatives that understand the importance of these key principles. Please cast your vote for George Brikho for Congress in the 9th District on Nov. 4. It is a vote for peace, freedom and sanity in a world that needs these things now more than ever.
