Chaitanya Jyothi Museum Opening, 2000
RAMANAM
In the Name of The Father, and of The Son and of The Holy Spirit, Amen.
Countrymen,
ORBIS NON SUFFICIT
SOLUS DEUS SUFFICIT
Andrew “Skip” Bacevich, West Point Class of 1969, writes lucidly on what he wishes deemed America’s War For The Greater Middle East.
I commend close reading of that essay by Skip. To the West Point Classmate of Skip’s who commended that essay to me, I replied in these words:
Thanks, I read through, most compelling argumentation, finely written.
The observation that Americans are not personally involved in defending their country — and should be — hits home. [President] Bush said, Go back to the malls, when he should have said, Gird your loins for the long haul — and then enveloped both Iraq and Saud on his way to Iran. Everywhere I go I see young people with zero, at best, loyalty to their country of residence if not birth. Depressing, ominous.
Skip pulls the punch on the religious dimension, correctly says seculars refuse to recognize it but himself does not recognize its utter centrality. He also does not recognize that secularism is a [pseudo-]religion. Ask any environmentalist/new ager.
I concur that Israel should be on the non-friendly list with Pak and Saud. But not to the extent of being reduced by total war, as Saud should be for supporting every Salafist in the world and assiduously promoting that hegemonic puritanism.
Other than that, who cares or should what this old man (yours truly) thinks! 🙂
Were I asked to name America’s global war on terrorism — and no one has — I would deem this accurate:
The World’s War Against Caliphism
Also, deeming Israel an un-friendly nation does not mean deeming Hamas or Arabs living in Gaza and the West Bank friendlies. Israel should, in my opinion, reduce Hamas to the condition of unconditional surrender, occupy the West Bank and Gaza and insist on peaceful co-existence under Israeli sovereignty. But that does not make Israel a friendly nation with respect to USA. She has USA blood on her head and hands. Unrequited USA blood. And along with China (and here) and Russia, Israel is the largest espionage and counter-espionage penetrator of USA public and private affairs. Israel is no friend of the USA and never has been. USA, Great Britain, France and Russia — and especially Great Britain, France and Russia — owe Israel strategic support because they birthed her, but that is all they owe her.
Let Israel sink or swim on Israel’s own strength. Stay out of her way as she handles herself in her own neighborhood. She is a sovereign nation.
Hamas is an enemy of the USA and Israel and, really, everyone else who is not, as Hamas is, a Caliphist. And even among Caliphists, Hamas is merely one competitor for the pretense. So, he is an enemy of all, really, including fellow Caliphists.
Skip does not see things there this way. But he sees much that is true and so I commend his essay to a good, thorough examination. And what he does not see but essays to writes about in that essay will inspire ruminations presaging, with luck, fruitful observation and decision.
Update 1: On 27 January 2015, Marine GEN (Ret.) James N. Mattis addressed the United States Senate Armed Services Committee on the subject A New American Grand Strategy. At Hoover Institution, who published an adapted version of General Mattis’ address, I commented — with edits here — as follows:
Not that it matters, but, I both appreciate and despond over General Mattis’ address here. Appreciate because (1) as a genuine warrior he says what he sees and eloquently and (2) his heart is unalloyed courage and compassion. Despond because (1) his address reflects lack of situational awareness — half his auditors at least regard the nation state, including USA, as obsolete and perishing — and (2) his address, although latterly specifying or implying serious tactical weaknesses of current operations, transits the periphery of his title: grand national strategy.
It is rare for a military leader to grasp and execute the several strands — principally diplomatic, economic and military, but others as well — of grand national strategy sufficiently to create a rational grand national strategic *goal* that is also inspirational. It is rare for anyone to be able to do that. General David Petraeus has that ability, which is why the Anti-American, Globalist-partisan US Justice [so-called] Department is persecuting/prosecuting him. Asking Congress or a bureaucracy to develop that ability and execute with it compares with asking a herd of cats to organize an expedition to summit Annapurna. Distilling and serving a happy grand national strategic *goal* is a personal, leadership thing few can do, but some definitely can and do accomplish. Their thoughts merit discovery and attendance.
The cynosure of a nation is not her grand national strategy. It is her grand national strategic *goal.* Given what we see now, project and anticipate — always expecting the unexpected, as General Mattis mentions, thankfully, in his address — where and what do we want to be as a nation three, five, ten, etc. years hence? What is our goal? What do we really, truly — as a nation — want for and of ourself to be, to do, to think? What is our inner necessity as a nation? What are we on this earth to accomplish as a national presence? And why do members of Congress not live in the states from which they were selected for office?
Related: On 04 March 2015 Marine GEN (Ret.) James N. Mattis wrote for Hoover Institution under title Using Military Force Against ISIS. I commented:
I am content that GEN (Ret.) Mattis’ thinking, clear and compelling, be expressed in public. Thank you, General! Our countrymen are working their way towards how they will think and what they will do when they are quit of the hag riding their back. And they will be that. This exercise in preparation for the restoration of national sovereignty and wealth flowing from national moral and intellectual strength is what should be happening and what is happening. I am content.
Update 2: An interesting comment string arose at Instapundit when Glenn Reynolds referenced Mark Cunningham on the subject of what The Fraud should say about Islam. I commented as follows, making an important observation regarding the effect of religion on affairs:
Were I to take Cunningham’s essay as serious thought — and I think it is not — I would say his face is too close to the canvas, he has seen a couple of swirls of paint and yelled, “Eureka!” Were he serious, he would pull back to ponder the whole canvas or at least more of it than has caught his fancy. His enthusiasm would, shall we say, moderate.
Serious, productive thought cannot come from other than a monastic. Men and women bearing the daily burdens and cares of life, such as Cunningham, simply cannot and will not create intellectual and moral forms that benefit anyone lastingly. They are too busy, and justly so, one hopes. Such men and women can use such forms once they are created, but create them they can not and will not. Those stepped way back from the canvas — monastics — do that. The truth is the whole.
Update 3: The Saudi Connection: Wahhabism and Global Jihad, and related: Qatar.
Update 4: StrategyPage: Leadership: SWOs Go WTF Against The USN
Update 5: StrategyPage: Attrition: Where Have All The Good Officers Gone?
Update 6: 6 Reasons Why Starship Troopers Is The New The Art of War
Update 7: Xi Jinping wants to co-opt Three Brothers Alliance
My comment: Xi is a smart cookie, bent version. He sees the Three Brothers global authority rationale and wants to be one of the brothers. Not possible: his people are not Christian and he has the wrong geography and ethnography. His three brothers would rest on economics, not geography or ethnography. Sand, not rock.
AUM NAMAH SHIVAYA
