One of the most famous of Hilla the Hun’s idiotic remarks was her assertion that Bashar Assad is a “reformer.” Yet, in an odd sort of way, she was right. After all, millions of people thought Adolf Hitler, Fidel Castro and Mao Zedong were reformers. (The dictionary says that reform is “the improvement of what is wrong, corrupt, or unsatisfactory.”)
Hitler thought the Jews were wrong, corrupt and unsatisfactory, so he took bold steps to “reform” them. And most others in the reform crowd – from Mao to Fidel, from Uncle Joe to Hugo C. – have all believed that “the rich” were “wrong, corrupt and unsatisfactory.”
Solution? They “reformed” them by stealing their property and giving it to “the poor” – and, yes, killing a lot of people along the way. It’s also worth noting that in carrying out their reforms, reformers always seem to gain ever more power and become very rich in the process.
So now that reformer Assad is purportedly committing genocide against his own people (I got that on good authority from none other than anti-war activist John Kerry), the calls for Son of Saul to take military action against Syria are deafening. What will he do? Which weapons will he use? When will he do it? American news addicts are sweating and anxiously gripping their remote controls while listening to media foreign-affairs experts like Grumpy Greta trying to sort it all out.
Perhaps it would be helpful if George Washington were here to opine on the “state of emergency” in Syria. We’re coming up on the 217th year anniversary of his farewell address – Sept. 19, 1796 – and here’s what he had to say in that historic speech about foreign entanglements:
“The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.”
Hawks would argue that times have changed, that we’re now dealing with the whole world rather than just Europe. But the fact that we now live in a world filled with tyrants and homicidal psychopaths is all the more reason why the United States cannot afford to become involved in foreign entanglements.
Early in his rein, Barack Obama gave a speech wherein he said that the United States has sometimes acted with arrogance – which raises the question: Why, then, do we continue to spend billions of dollars we don’t have to bomb people in northern Africa and the Middle East? Answer: arrogance!
Arrogance is the belief that the leaders of a nation are omniscient, omnipotent and so morally superior that they have a duty to sort out the affairs of other nations. As a result, U.S. politicians cheered the Arab Spring and the Muslim Brotherhood takeover in Egypt. Thankfully, that didn’t work out too well, so Egypt now has Mubarak-style rule once again.
Our politicians also cheered the fall of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, which led to the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in the “What difference does it make?” Benghazi attack.
Now politicians in both factions of the Demopublican Party are demanding that we “do something” to overthrow Hillary’s favorite reformer, Assad. This has our brave commander in chief trying to figure out who or what to target in Syria and what weapons to use. And once he gets his congressional opponents to support his actions (so he can blame the upcoming mess on them), he will make those decisions, based strictly on politics, and you will pay for whatever he decides to do.
Did you ever wonder what the phrase “the land of the free and the home of the brave” means? It means politicians are free to take your money and they are brave enough to use it to blow up people and things on the other side of the world – antiseptically, of course.
The dimwitted among us can be heard to ask, “But how can we stand by when people are being slaughtered in Syria?” It’s a very good question. But it raises an even better question: How can we stand by when people are being slaughtered in scores of other countries all over the world?
Why aren’t we invading all of the African countries where people live in misery and fear every day of their lives? Why aren’t we invading North Korea, where people live from birth to death in the world’s largest concentration camp? Why aren’t we invading Iran, where people are not only oppressed, but militant Muslims are plotting a world-ending holocaust? Why aren’t we invading Myanmar, Cuba, or Venezuela?
Heck, while we’re at it, why don’t we invade Russia and China on the pretense that we want their people to have free speech? Answer: Because we ain’t that brave. After all, one has to be selective when it comes to war games.
Having said all this, I would like to introduce you to “Ringer’s Four Noble Truths.”
Noble Truth No. 1: Everyone knows there is suffering in the world, and most of us would put a stop to it if we had the power to do so.
Noble Truth No. 2: We don’t have the power to do so, neither individually nor as a nation.
Noble Truth No. 3: We have neither the money nor the moral authority to butt into the affairs of other countries, regardless of the pretense.
Noble Truth No. 4: As a result of arrogance and politics, politicians will continue to butt into the affairs of other countries, whether we like it or not.
While the ignorant and shameless jokers in Congress and the media continue to debate what kind of action we should take in Syria, some of us audacious folks want to know why are we even talking about getting involved in Syria in any way?
Hmm … what’s that familiar odor I detect? Could it be the smell of burning draft cards in the air?
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