History lesson:
Back before 2003, U.S. Middle Eastern policy went kinda like this: we pay Israel billions, they duke it out with the Arabs and Persians. The ten POTII since WW2 followed the advice of POTUS34 and Vizzini: Never get involved in a land war in Asia.
POTUS41 got away with violating this rule in the Gulf War, but we had the home court advantage, and he made sure our players promptly cleared the field after the game.
POTUS41’s son, POTUS43, only inherited half of his dad’s smarts. In 2003, POTUS43 invaded Iraq looking for weapons of mass destruction (spoiler alert-he never found them). Whoopsie. No problem, his minions said, we’ll make a profit on the oil.
At the time, them pointy-headed commie university Middle East experts warned POTUS43, “Son, you’re a corn pone short of a fish fry. Once you get in there you ain’t never getting out.”
Tens of thousands of people died, and the USA is $1,000,000,000 in debt from POTUS43’s war (Count the zeros).
Fast forward to today: POTUS43 is sitting at home making bad oil paintings and counting his millions. His minions, Rumsfeld and Cheney: also sitting fat and happy. Making bank. Enjoying the good life.
Among the injured U.S. servicemen: about 1,650 amputees. Maybe 90,000 with traumatic brain injuries. Iraqi injured? Well, most Americans don’t care, so why bring it up?
POTUS44 and POTUS45 made all sorts of promises before they were elected about getting us out of the Middle East. They found it’s not that simple. POTUS41 knew it, POTUS43 blew it, POTUS44 and 45 are stuck in it. Or rather, we are.
Here’s the thing: the Middle East is chock full of villains who need killing. You could crunch one a day, just like vitamins, and there would still be an endless supply of true believers to target.
It’s what those pointy-headed commie university professors warned POTUS43 of, back in 2003: the Middle East is filled with true believers who want to die. Hell, when they get bored enough, they just strap bombs on and blow themselves up. So how do we punish them? We blow them up (you can’t make this stuff up). They get what they want, and we end up $1,000,000,000 in the hole.
Hey, do you ever wake up at 4AM and think, “My God–was that their strategy all along? Suck us farther and farther in. Bankrupt us?”
Collective amnesia on the part of the American public: There was a time when we paid Israel so they could blow up Arabs and Persians, and we stayed out of it.