Shotgunning

     It's been a relatively quiet week here at Bloody Nib Manor and the environs. There were a couple of ineffective shooting attempts by various yokel cohorts. But, as usual, they were half-hearted, not unlike the marriage vows they often make while standing before the altar next to their eight month pregnant paramour. An old time chivaree exhibits more enthusiasm among the participants than the armed settling of a territorial dispute. How the mighty have fallen.
     This week President Trump announced that, acting as president, he has ordered the withdrawal of American troops from Syria. This particular action seems to have thrown the professional political crowd and ink stained wretches who call themselves journalists or opinion writers into a state of confusion among themselves. It's almost comical to watch, not unlike watching a rat being thrown into a group of dogs of different breeds; half want to tear the thing to pieces and the other hand want to make friends with it because they know that there's a YouTube video to be made. Some of the Never Trumpers find themselves p[raising the withdrawal and some of the Always Trumpers find themselves condemning the idea. And all are mightily confused because Pres. Trump is actually working toward keeping his campaign promise to get the U.S. out of foreign military entanglements.
     One of the reasons that those who are opposed to the American pull-out from Syria is that it is a betrayal of the Kurds and will result in the Kurds being at the mercy of the Turkish military. And that is not good, in their lights, because they say that the U.S., sub rosa, promised to always protect the Kurds in exchange for the Kurds fighting against ISIS (or Daesh), and, in fact, help the Kurds set up a nation of Kurdistan.
     This is, of course, all stuff and nonsense.
     First of all, in the U.S., and for the populace of the U.S., there should be no sub rosa agreements with any government. Sub rosa agreements are the purview of the Medicis and the Tudors and Hapsburgs. The U.S., in theory at least, is supposed to be a nation with an open and above board governmental and civil servant (and note the second word, "servant" which has somehow now become to be defined as "master") class answerable to the U.S. citizen. A sub rosa agreement with any foreign entity, whether a governmental, ethnic, or religious group, should be taken no more seriously than one fourteen year old girl telling another fourteen year old girl a "secret" with the promise that it will never be told to anyone else. Of course, within five hours everyone in the school knows that Debbie has a crush on Jason.
     Secondly, those who oppose the withdrawal of American troops from Northern Syria seem to be under the mistaken idea that there are thousands and thousands of Americans in the area who are all locked and load to take on Turkish bear to protect our Kurdish "friends." In fact, there are not many more than 1,000 (if that many) Americans in Northern Syria providing military aid and training to the Kurds. 1,000 men and women in the U.S. military. There are many times more Kurds and "democratic" (whatever that word means in the Arab world), and yet there seems to be an idea among some of the nattering class that 1,000 G.I. Joes can hold off an invasion into the area by Turkey as if the whole operation were a second battle of Thermopylae, or perhaps, a battle of the Alamo. In other words, American blood, treasure and honor are supposed to be sacrificed for a group of people who seem to be unable to fight for themselves, or co-operate among themselves to the extent that they can defend themselves. The problem that there are no Yanks to defend them, the problem is with themselves. Their intercine in-fighting among themselves is more a problem than the absence of U.S.Special Forces. In fact, one can argue that the most effective thing that the U.S. did to increase the effectiveness of the various Kurdish and "democratic" factions was somewhat like that of a kindergarten teacher; telling them to make up and play nice so they can get something done.
     Thirdly, people opposed to the withdrawal of American troops say that the action is a "cut and run" and betrayal of our allies, and is unprecedented in American history. This is false. Those who are of an age will remember when the U.S. abandoned the War in Vietnam. Whether it was for better or worse, it was something that happened and resulted in the establishment of a Communist government in Vietnam, as well as the establishment of a lot of nail salons, pho restaurants, and funky liquor stores in the U.S. It could be argued that the U.S., with the active involvement of the South Vietnamese government at the time, could have defeated the North Vietnamese; in fact, old North Vietnamese leaders have stated that when the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong were about to throw in the towel. When the last helicopter took off from Saigon and landed on an aircraft carrier only to be pushed off the vessel because there were too many helicopters much of the populace cheered because they finally saw the U.S. out of a morass that seemed never-ending.
     But unlike Northern Syria, there was an established government in South Vietnam; a government recognized by the world except for the Soviets, the ChiComs, the North Koreans, and the French (then the problem child of Europe). There is no proper Kurdish government. There are Kurdish governments. Each self-declared as legitimate and each not recognizing the other. One ends up not having to work with an ethnic group. One finds oneself dealing with tribes and factions within the ethnic group. In other words, and once again, playing the kindergarten teacher for a bunch of brats with rocket launchers and AK-47s or M-16s.
     Fourth, the Kurds, in U.S. media, are portrayed as cuddly Mohammedans i.e., as religiously tolerant as the average American United Methodist. According to the media, some of them drink booze and don't whip themselves afterwards as penance, they don't beat their wives or hate Jews. The fact of the matter is that they are really not all that. Saudis, once they get out of Saudi Arabia and to Spanish resorts or Beverly Hills that crowd of devout Muslims are swilling down vodka and whiskey like sixteen year old kids who managed to steal the key to the liquor cabinet, and surround themselves with large breasted Russian and European (note: this writer does not consider Russians European -- they are something else culturally) harlots while the Saudi men laze around the pool wearing Speedos over which their fat guts spill over. The only difference is that the Kurds pretend, in their public image, portray themselves as a form of the "All-American Boy" who happens to be a Muslim while installing Sharia Law in their cantons, and the Saudis pretend Sharia Law in their homeland while behaving like a bunch of Spring Break Ivy Leaguers in Fort Lauderdale. They are really both the same thing in that they both present a false face to the world for their own benefit.
     Is the Turkish government bad? Of course it is. It has been so since the establishment of the Ottoman Empire. It's grasping, racist, religiously intolerant. It always has been, even under the rule of Ataturk. The serial Armenian genocides are proof of this. But, while the Turkish governments from the Ottoman Empire to Ataturk to Erdogan have been racist, religiously intolerant and grasping. And if the majority of Turks had wanted it any other way there would have been a democratic change or a popular uprising that was effective. To paraphrase a Hong Kong protester who was protesting against China, "Turkey is a**hole!" Turkey is a rotten country in the same way that China is a rotten country. Turkey wants to take over and control the Kurds, and China wants to effectively take over and control Hong Kong and Taiwan. But as much as the "stay in Syria to fight the Turks to protect the Kurds with our 1,000 troops" crowd bitch and moan, they have made no good argument about American interests in investing American blood in the region. On the other hand, they'll give lip service to the protesters on Hong Kong or the independence of Taiwan without ever saying that the U.S. should invest troops into either place despite the fact that both places are much more valuable in strategy and economics than are the Kurds. We are expected to shed our blood and spend our money for a people who do not hold our values, respect basic human rights and have no economic benefit for the U.S., while at the same time trying to ignore, or in fact, playing the "coat holder" friend ( example: "Sean! Hold my coat while I fight this bloke!") with Hong Kong and Taiwan.
     On another topic: This writer has gotten pretty tried of the whole Global Warming/Climate Change panic. Those who have managed to grab a microphone and scream out their Jeremiads have attempted their best to make every person who has had the misfortune to be within earshot of them feel guilty because the unfortunate recipient of such sound waves is a person of the 20th or 21st century Western world. In other words, a person who has electrical power to his or her house or apartment, perhaps drives an automobile, cooks with natural gas, and maybe flies from one place to another via commercial airplane. Said Cassandras seem to have no problem talking into an electrically powered microphone, appearing on electrically powered television, driving or flying to an event to continue their "prophetic" mutterings. Not only to mention that said "prophets" seem to have the latest in "smart phones" and they consult the silly things constantly. They are not writing their missives with quill and ink by candle light. They are using the very things that they protest against to get their "message" out. And their excuse is that their message is more important than their sin. It's rather Pharisaical. But, we'll have Pharisees with us all and always until, well, you know.
     No this bunch of of well-meaning idiots have decided to follow the panicky ravings of a 16 year old Swedish girl. For anyone with a lick of the sense that Our Lord gave him or her would ignore a 16 year old kid's advice concerning moral or deep concerns. Dear reader, be honest in asking yourself if you would trust a sixteen year old kid with your bank account, your liquor cabinet, or you Amazon account? If you came home from work and found that your sixteen year old son had gotten hold of your credit card and bought a new manifold and injector for your Lexis, a Rickenbacker guitar and Orange Crate amp, and a $2,000 donation to Greenpeace, would you be pretty happy and proud of your brat? Of course not. You might not bend said awful child over your knee and give him or her a good, and well deserved spanking with a hairbrush, belt, or your Dad's old blackjack, but if you had any sense and sense of self-preservation at all kid would have been given a mighty "time out". And by "time out" this writer means, "Forget going to USC. You're going to welding school or joining the Navy. If you don't like that, get used to living in a tent on 5th Street."
     But the world had gotten silly and stupid, so a 16 year old brat is considered "wise." So wise, in fact, that the often morally confused Jane Fonda has hitched her wagon to that kid.
     For Pete's sake. One finds oneself occasionally wishing for the old days of the empire, whether American or British.