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As the latest storm clouds gather for our armed forces in the Middle East, perhaps it’s time to take stock in what I call our “Intrusion Efficiency Index.” To wit:
Almost a generation ago, we mounted an invasion to save Iraq from its terrible leader whom we had installed with lots of goodies from President Reagan, and to bring democracy to that beleaguered nation and rid it of something called “weapons of mass destruction.” At the time, our intel operations were just as sure as they are today about who flung chemicals at the Syrian rebels and Iran’s trustworthiness regarding its word on nukes. (Parenthetically, just about all nations of any consequence have had weapons of mass destruction in their arsenals for decades! Just as parenthetically: Iran has already jumped launched a spending spree to order more than 100 aircraft from Airbus and not from the United States!)
Both Iraq and Afghanistan were unable to defeat something called “insurgents,” or negotiate a reasonable conclusion of any kind, after a questionable investment of more than a few trillion dollars and thousands of lives.
Now comes our newest misadventure, in which we have permitted Iran to out-negotiate us with nuke discussions so they can benefit from billions of unfrozen assets, despite their threats to Saudi Arabia and partnerships with Russia. So, once again, we may have to assemble forces to insure the well-being of the Saudis, even as we help to propagandize against Israel, the only nation in the UN to vote 100% with the United States, and the same nation that has never asked for one American GI to risk a life, as other Middle East countries have. Among those other nations, of course, was recently Saudi Arabia, which made a big PR boast of assembling 34 nations to help fight ISIS, a promise that suddenly has been quiet.
Of course, there is much more to this tale of our Intrusion Efficiency Index, given we have had no identifiable strategic plan for what we do after we do the intruding. There has been no revelation of what we will do after we slap Assad’s hands in Syria and leave many Middle Eastern residents wondering precisely why and what we will do now that we have been so nice to Iran.
Do we simply "hit and run?” Do we somehow muster from a bunch of tired warriors who have been deployed and redeployed to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan some kind of military sans draft? We certainly know that Syria’s Assad hardly responds to our critical comments, comfortably aware that we really do not want to challenge Russia’s strong man Vladimir Putin.
All this as we make solemn and powerful declarations about how we will defeat a slippery and dangerous enemy called ISIS.
The American people are certainly entitled to this information if Congress is getting it, wouldn’t you think?
My parents and teachers always told me never to go on to something else before finishing what I was already doing. In this case, it would be wise finally to check our Intrusion Efficiency Index, if we have the courage to do so.
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Joe Honick is a Bainbridge Island, WA-based international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications. He can be reached at [email protected].
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