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The roadmap to Middle East peace
I found this article entertaining and informative. No, America can't rely on Israel to solve the problems of the Middle East, Israel is already a huge part of the problem! It is SAUDI ARABIA - NOT IRAN - that needs to be dealt with...and pronto!
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This is my “Road Map to Middle East Peace”. For most of the last fifty years the Middle East has been the powder-keg of the world. Most of the world's violence, warfare and bloodshed has taken place on some important sand in the land of goat herders. Why has nothing worked? The reason is simple, the solution is not. Simply put, the people of the Middle East do not want peace. The Muslim world only understands death, despair and treachery and negotiating with a people who have nothing to give other than false assurances of cease-fires is a losing strategy.
I do believe that we have to identify the root of the problems in the Middle East. The first thing we have to overcome is Islam and the theocracies that use it as fuel to the flame of war. Iran is obviously the leading exporter of political hate in the region. I am of the opinion that Islam can be folded into the modern world but in order to do so we must ELIMINATE Islamic fundamentalism. We may think of Iran as the main enemy but that enmity stems from a primarily political standpoint. Iran is the biggest baddest piece of shit on the block. They are proud of their official intolerance and hatred for the Western world. So Iran is one problem without question. This nation's government MUST fall before anything of consequence can be accomplished in the region. But toppling the Iranian theocracy is only the tip of the iceberg, a darker and more secretive enemy of the West lurks under the guise of friendship and cooperation.
While toppling Iran and the Shia government is an important first step it does not eliminate Islamic fundamentalism. Sunni fundamentalism is actually more dangerous than its louder and more obnoxious bastard cousin, Shia fundamentalism. How you ask? Well Osama Bin Laden and his butt-fucking group are Sunnis. As much as we have learned to hate the Ayatollah in Iran at least we know the leader of that group is. Sunnis are everywhere and they have adapted to living the Western world, in fact, the vast majority of Muslims in Europe and the United States are Sunni. We know the birthplace of Shia Islam and the clowns that lead them but where does Sunni fundamentalism come from? The simple answer is Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam. Its holiest cities and sites are in Mecca and Medina and the annual pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the basic rites of the religion. That being said the leading Islamic “schools” whose main mission is to spread hatred of anything not Islam are in Saudi Arabia. I feel like I need to explain this because Saudi Arabia is seen as an “ally” in the Middle East and while their government does pay lip service to support us they only do it because they know they have to. We protected them from Saddam and they know that without our intervention they would have been incorporated into Iraq. They are also natural enemies of Iran and they like to play both sides so that they can stay out of the crossfire. Of course, like I mentioned before, Osama and most of Al-Qaeda hail from Saudi Arabia. They are children of wealth with no mission in life so they naturally lean towards extremism to give their lives meaning.
Arabia is, without question, the most backwards nation in the Middle East and in the world as a whole. No, I am not talking about economically or technologically, I am referring to the fact that they do not have a formalized legal code. They are Wahhabists, an ultra-conservative Sunni sect that practices a religion that is rife with intolerable human rights violations. We all think of Iran being backwards and they are compared to us but Iranian women can vote and go out of their houses without headscarves. That is not the case in Saudi Arabia. The official government line is that all residents MUST be Muslim. That type of intolerance is incomprehensible in the modern world. Other faiths are officially banned from practicing their religion. In contrast, Iran protects three non-Muslim faiths and practitioners of those religions are given seats in the parliament. Women in Saudi Arabia cannot drive and are forced, most of the time by traveling militia types at stick point, to walk behind men. Movies and alcohol are officially illegal, in other words, Saudi Arabia is a complete cluster fuck and in terms of day to day life not significantly different than the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Ok, so what is worse than a place where women can be openly flogged and where legal code is decided by local religious leaders? Well I will tell you... a place where young men live with free cash as a result of their genealogy and are able to flog women and sit in extremist “schools”. That is Saudi Arabia in a nutshell. The economy of Saudi Arabia is in a free fall. The per capital income of the average Saudi has fallen from $25,000 in 1980 to $8,000 now due to explosive population growth. That economic decline is the largest ever seen in the history of the nation-state. This has led to an dramatic increase of unemployment, it is estimated that 60% of the under 30 demographic is unemployed.
We all know that young men with no jobs are trash, but men without jobs who are used to a life of privilege but are now forced to compete with millions of foreign nationals (who they are taught to hate in “school”) for work is an utter disaster. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a ticking time bomb and we are seeing some of the shrapnel now in the form of Osama Bin Goat-Rapist and his boys. Saudi Arabia, in its current state, is the biggest threat to worldwide Islamic reform. They openly support the spread of Islam and use the Western World’s money to fund mosques and madrassas worldwide. To make a very long story short, we are subsidizing terrorist playgrounds and training facilities. We must destroy the propped up government there and start from scratch. Will it be easy...hell no. But we must do it and here is how.
Leave it to me to solve arguably the world's biggest problem... here is my road map for lasting peace in the Middle East.
The first turn on my road map is to find any reasonable and secular groups of people who have something to gain from working with us. And no this cannot be the Israelis, they are at the core of the bloodshed. It is certainly not their fault but ultimately they are at the root of the problem. So let's look at our options for finding a nation or group who will support us and yet have some ability to reason with the fascists of the Middle East. Our traditional allies in the area (Israel and Kuwait) are the first nations to come to mind. Well, Israel is out for obvious reasons. Kuwait, while loyal, has no real power base and has nothing to gain from supporting us more strongly. They are simply oil barons with no real government or respect for democracy and secularism. So suffice to say we are starting at square one in terms of building a relationship with a group in the region.
The next nation that seems to be an option would be Turkey. They are, without question, the most modern and forward thinking Muslim nation. Turkey is, by regional standards, the most secular nation and is a member of NATO and a prospective EU member. The fact that they are so Westernized (in the eyes of the Muslim world) disqualifies them to be truly useful to our cause. Obviously Syria and Iran are not options so that leaves us with Egypt and Jordan. Egypt is a strange nation, economically viable, not oil dependent, and militarily useful to our cause. They are also skeptical of growing Iranian influence in the area. They have been the traditional power in the region so that is another positive. Hosni Mubarak seems to be a rational and reasonable man and Egypt is also a Sunni nation which makes them a traditional enemy of the Iranian theocracy.
Egypt is a changing nation. It has been a “republic” since 1952 but the Republic of Egypt has been led by a total of two men, Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak. This may not seem very republican and it is not. Egypt, like all other Arab nations, is not familiar with true democracy. That being said in 2005, Mubarak did allow for regional elections and parties that are unpopular with the government have gained seats in the Parliament. We all know that once people have any voice at all they will continue to push for choices in their national leadership. Mubarak will be the last “elected monarch” of Egypt. Laws are being drafted now to limit a president to two seven year terms.
The economy of Egypt is unusual for the Middle East due to its relative low oil production. That means that they have had to develop an economic infrastructure that is more Western than most Arab nations. Billions of dollars of foreign money are being pumped into the nation's booming stock market and the economic integration into the rest of the world is well underway. In the geopolitical world, investment equals influence. Legislation that has made the tax code less progressive has modernized the economy and encouraged entrepreneurship and spending. In other words, Egypt is a land of relative opportunity in the Middle East. The growth of the middle class is the main driver of the economic and political changes that make Egypt a suitable political, economic and military ally.
Bringing Egypt in the fold of US allies will be difficult but not unreasonably so. They have officially been non-aligned nation since the dawn of the republic. That basically means they have taken sides to whoever helps them the most, and recently that has been the United States. The US sends 2.3 billion dollars of aid to Egypt annually and that does bring some indirect influence. To make them an ally I would suggest that we boost aid five fold to $10 billion. Much of this aid would be in the form of military equipment and training. Of course, Israel would take exception to this but Israel is, at the end of the day, a US backed nation that knows where its proverbial bread is buttered. What do we get out of Egypt for arming them and assisting them with complete modernization of the economy? The payback will be their military, the strongest in Africa and only eclipsed in the Middle East by Israel, will be the police force for a revamped Saudi nation. We would make assurances that Egyptian corporations would be in the forefront of the reconstruction of Saudi Arabia and that Egypt would have increased access to the Saudi oil fields.
Egypt is certainly a viable potential ally but we need another group who has unquestioned loyalty and owes a debt to the West that they could never pay. This group must be tough, flexible and most importantly relatively secular. It is also important that they have some payback to inflict on their oppressors. That group, of course, is the Kurds.
Kurds are an ethnic group whose total population is estimated to be in the range of 35-45 million. They are the largest ethnic group who does not have a nation-state. My road map calls for that to change. The Kurds not only deserve to have a nation to call their own but it is, more importantly, in our best interests to use our political and military might to bring the dream of a Kurdish nation to fruition.
Kurds, as a people, lack extremist Muslim theology. They are officially Muslim but it is generally a fact that they adhere to a mix of indigenous, Islamic and Judaic ideologies. This mix makes them less adherent to Islam and makes them somewhat outsiders surrounded by Islamic nations. They are like an oasis of free thought in a morass of fascism, hate and ignorance. They have a native culture, language and common bond much like the Jews do. In many ways, they are like the Jews. The Kurdish diaspora is worldwide and the birth of a Kurdish democracy would be a terrific public relations move in addition to being a stroke of genius.
The nation of Kurdistan's capital city would be Mosul in what is now Iraq. It would encompass most of northern Iraq and the northwest corner of Iran. The territory that would be included in the new nation is rich in oil. They would have the sixth largest proven oil reserves in the world and thus make them economically viable from the outset. The nation of Kurdistan would also be multi-ethnic which makes democracy the only choice for competent government.
By allowing the nation of Kurdistan to rise up amongst its neighbors we would gain a nearly limitless reservoir of goodwill and admiration. It is also critical to understand the Kurds have been brutally oppressed by Iraq, Iran, and Turkey. Saddam gassed them in the 80s and 90s, the Iranians ignore their presence and the Turks undermine them politically by labeling them terrorists in order to hang on to the province of Turkey that would unquestionably become part of Kurdistan. It is not a stretch to say that they are natural enemies of those three nations and it is likely that they would be willing to help us bring order to their land. We would establish consortiums with the Kurdish government to secure oil rights. It would also be fair for us to ask for a site for a permanent military base to protect our blood-soaked investment.
I know that many of you are incapable of reading an article over a couple pages long so this concludes Part I. Part I gives you, the reader, an idea of the political and diplomatic strategy it will take to make the Middle East a worthwhile place in the world. Come back for Part II of Arthur's Road Map. It will lay out the action plan behind this incredibly brilliant plan.
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PART II
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In my last installment, I formulated a diplomatic and political strategy that will solve, once and for all, the world's biggest problem...The Middle East. As all you right minded conservatives know, a plan without a series of actions is merely words. For decades now, we have heard about roadmaps, ceasefires and the like but nothing has changed. Why? Because the powers that be have been unwilling to take ACTION. Peace agreements without the threat of overwhelming force are merely public relations stunts. A perfect example of this were the Oslo Accords. We saw our President (Clinton) doing his thing, smiling and laughing it up with infamous terrorist, Yasser Arafat. That spineless piece of shit knew that nothing good would come of this so-called agreement but he took the opportunity to bask in the sun as a peacemaker and in the process transformed Mr. Terrorist Arafat into a Nobel Peace Price winner.
Ten years later the crisis continues. The world has seen a full-scale war in Lebanon in response to Hezbollah's rocket attacks into Israel. We have suffered at the hands of terrorists ourselves with the destruction of our embassy in Tanzania, the bombing of the USS Cole and, of course, the attacks of 9/11 and the recent kidnapping and subsequent “gift” release of 15 British seamen by Iran. Two wars rage on in Iraq and Afghanistan, actions taken by a President who had seen enough of this peace charade. What have we learned? Unfortunately, most of the world has learned nothing. We now face a litany of problems; a nuclear Iran, a fragmented nation in Iraq, a weakened Israel and most importantly we face the growing consensus here and abroad that Western military supremacy is of little use in the Middle East. The world chooses to blame the crisis on the Israeli “occupation” of Palestine, our colonial past, Western exploitation of oil and the legacy of the Crusades. The excuses are endless and irrelevant. The time for action in the Middle East is now. Here is my action plan for lasting peace in the Middle East.
The first action to be taken is the partitioning of Iraq. This involves splitting Iraq into three parts. Northern Iraq would be the centerpiece of the new Kurdistan. The Sunni Triangle could either choose independence or a union with traditional ally, Jordan. Southern Iraq would remain Iraq and be a Shia dominated nation. Baghdad would be split along sectarian lines and the inevitable battle for control of Baghdad would no longer concern us, it would become a Sunni/Shiite war which is exactly what we want. The carnage there would help us convince the rest of the Arab world that change, drastic change was their only real option. Iran would obviously have interests in the new Iraq and that is perfect. The slaughter of Sunnis by the Iranian-backed Shia Iraq would lead to reprisals by the predominantly Sunni Arab world. The backlash against Iran would pave the way for Egypt, Jordan, and possibly Syria to unite at least diplomatically against Iran. Syria, of course is a client state of Iran but with the support of allies Egypt and Jordan I have no doubt that Bashar Assad, a reasonable and Western educated man, would lead Syria out of Iran's orbit and into a loosely allied Sunni led coalition. I am certainly not suggesting that those nations would join in the fight but they would join the rest of the rest of the world in the philosophical disagreement with Iran.
While the partitioning of Iraq and the creation of Kurdistan is the first step to my master plan it is by no means the last. I believe that the aforementioned events would take one year, maybe two. This time would give us time to train and arm the Kurds for step two of the Arthur's Hall roadmap to Middle East peace...the toppling of Islamic Iran. I have no illusions about the desires of the people of Iran. I know they do not want to live in a completely Western nation but I also know that they are frustrated with the current state of Iranian politics. One quarter of the Iranian population under 15 years old and the median age of Iran is 25. The younger generation of Iran is more liberal than the revolution-era generation and the simple act of killing the Islamic clerics that run Iran would bolster the opposition parties that currently operate in the shadows and back alleys of Iran. Them, along with disgruntled young people and the five million Kurds in Iran would prove to be a formidable opponent for the Islamic government.
My plan would entail having the Kurds invade the predominantly Kurdish area of northwestern Iran. Keep in mind that most of the five million Iranian Kurds live in this area so local resistance would be light. It is certainly conceivable that the Iranian Kurds would enthusiastically join their brothers in the struggle. There is certainly historical precedence for the Iranian Kurds to strive for independence. The Kurds of Iran declared independence from Iran in 1945 with support from the Soviet Union. Unfortunately after WWII the Allies were in no mood to upset the status quo in the Middle East and did not recognize the Kurdish Republic and it was crushed by Iran in 1947. Many of the leaders of that nation fled to the USSR and eventually resettled in Iraq to become leaders of the Kurds in Iraq.
Turkey would also have to be placated for the establishment of Kurdistan. The Turkish Kurds have fought for independence since the early 1900s and established a republic in Turkey (The Republic of Ararat) in 1927. As before, the world did not come to the aid of the fledgling nation and it was smashed by the Turks. Kurds make up 8-20% of Turkey's population and mostly live in eastern Turkey. Turkey has always feared a united Kurdistan and the potential for lost territory. In fact, Kurdish language was banned in Turkey until the 1990s. That, along with almost constant skirmishes in Turkish Kurdistan, has created significant animosity between the Turks and independence minded Kurds. Fortunately, Turkey is a member of NATO and a long time ally of the West. The United States and Britain would negotiate with Turkey for the release of Kurdish rebels and for Turkish recognition of Kurdistan. In return, we would allow Turkey to keep its modern borders and help the Kurds of Turkey to leave peacefully.
The Iranians would certainly retaliate against the Kurds and that would give us and our allies cause to intervene in Iran. I do not envision a full scale invasion but rather a covert mission that would be spearheaded by tactical assassinations and targeted air attacks. With most of the Iranian theocracy on the run and in hiding the current government would collapse and the people of Iran would choose some form of self rule. I have no doubt that there would be sectarian violence between Kurds, Azeris and the ruling Persians. This would only galvanize the Kurdish nation and the end result would be a more moderate ruling class in Iran along with the merging of the Iraqi and Iranian Kurds into a larger and more economically viable Kurdistan.
The borders of Kurdistan would include the Al Hasakah province of Syria, the provinces of As Sulaymaniyah, Erbil, Dahuk, Diyala, Kirkuk, Ninawa of Iraq and the provinces of West Azerbijian, East Azerbijian, Ardabil, Gilan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Ilam of Iran. Kurdistan would have access to the Caspian Sean which would allow the Kurds to have uninterrupted oil pipelines instead of relying on natural enemies Iran and Turkey. The Kurds long for a nation of their own and they will fight for it. With our diplomatic, economic and military support they would prevail and we would have an economically powerful and oil-rich ally in the Middle East.
The third and final step of my roadmap is, by far, the most difficult...eradicating Islamic fundamentalism once and for all. The actions above would realign nations and rearrange diplomatic and political alliances in our favor but in order to cure the plague that is Islamic fundamentalism the virus must be destroyed. That virus is the decrepit Saudi nation. As we know, Saudi Arabia is the leading exporter of petroleum and Jihadists. A vast majority of the money that supports Islamic fundamentalism worldwide comes directly from the ruling family of Saudi Arabia. They have done an incredible job of masking it through backchannels and so-called Islamic Schools.
With Iran out of the picture, Saudi Arabia becomes the most powerful Islamic government in the world. They have been our “allies” but that alliance is out of convenience. They have oil and we have money and unrivaled military might. The alliance has been an uneasy one throughout its history but we did save them from invasion at the hands of Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War. On the other hand, they did not allow us to use their nation as a base for the second Gulf War. The aging ruling family of Saudi Arabia is playing both sides out of necessity. If they were to openly to oppose the United States they would face increased scrutiny of their affairs (which would no doubt lead to asset freezes and possibly sanctions for arming and supporting terrorists worldwide). At home, they must not appear to be too pro-Western of they face a revolt that would topple the government. This revolt would be led by the same Jihadists who blow themselves up in airplanes, fan the flames of violence in Iraq and support the Palestinian resistance in Israel.
Saudi Arabia is much like Iran in the 1970s under the Shah. The government is rife with nepotism, corruption and is propped up by foreign money and support. These conditions create an undercurrent where people search out something not bought and paid for. In both cases, the people have looked to radical Islam as a remedy for the hopelessness of their daily lives. The only real difference is that the bulk of Iranians are Shiite while Saudis are almost exclusively Sunnis. The only thing lacking in Saudi Arabia has been the person to unite the opposition like the Ayatollah Khomeini.
bad as Islamic Iran has been, an Islamic Saudi Arabia would be more dangerous to the Western world. Why? Iran, as a nation, has a history of ethnic, linguistic and religious heterogeneity. This makes it less capable of uniting against an enemy or ideology. Saudi Arabia, in contrast, is extremely homogeneous. The Saudis are exclusively Arab, speak Arabic and worship as Sunni Muslims. Compound that with an utter lack of history as a nation and you have a ticking suicide bomb. It is not hard to see how a man with the charisma and skill to overthrow the only ruling family in Saudi history would be able to unite the nation with one cause, the destruction of the West. We cannot allow that to happen. Is the answer to prop up a decaying and corrupt government? Keeping human trash in charge of piss ant nations has served us well in our history but this is not one of those times.
Destroying and rebuilding Saudi Arabia is a momentous task. As we have shown in Iraq, our military is not structured for nation building and occupation. Our military is an unstoppable force that is capable of bringing the proudest of governments to their knees. This is not the correct course of action in Saudi Arabia. I mentioned earlier in my dissertation that we should ally ourselves with moderate and rational states in the Middle East. Of course, I am not convinced many are so I called the creation of Kurdistan. Kurdistan serves two purposes: 1) gives us a base of operations for actions in Iran and Syria if necessary and 2) secures an ally that will be on par with Saudi Arabia in oil production. By this time, Iran will have been destroyed and Kurdistan will be a young but influential republic within the Middle East. This will bring Bashar Assad and others to the bargaining table. I would propose that the forces of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Kurdistan would occupy Saudi Arabia after our military destroyed any major military targets. These nations would not do this out of their concern for the world, they would do it for a slice of trillions of dollars that would be spent building Saudi Arabia into a modern nation. We would not be rebuilding Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is not a nation, it is collection of people collecting royalty checks held together by a family who would be penniless Bedouins if it were not for the black gold in the sand.
The first step of the construction of Saudi Arabia and the dismantling of Islamic fundamentalism is to force the ruling family to abdicate to a council (named the Saudi Reconstruction Council) led by the governments of the United States, Britain, Jordan, Egypt and Kurdistan. All Saudi owned assets would be frozen worldwide and redistributed later either to the new Saudi Reconstruction Coalition. It goes without saying that annexation will result in bloodshed. Islamofascists would call for Jihad in their homeland and many would respond. Some may think of this as a negative consequence, I argue that it is the opposite. Because US troops would not be on the ground, the lunatics would be forced to kill other Muslims in their effort to free their holy land. Soon the troops and the moderate Muslims would come to realize that they (the SRC troops) were defending the holy land and that Islamofascists were in fact defaming them with their horrific actions and tactics. Stabilizing the initial waves of violence would take years not months.
war is not of tactics, strategy and body counts. The action in Saudi Arabia would be the final step in creating a more modern form of Islam that can coexist with the world. This can only be done by destroying the foundation of the religion in Saudi Arabia. All mosques would be taken away from the current leaders and those mosques would be turned over to Muslim leaders from the SRC that would be cleared by the entire coalition. This would not be popular but in order to change the way that Islam is preached you must change the preachers. If the current leaders resist, they will be executed publicly. US troops would be called in to preside over the Hajj and if the worshipers were to become unruly...the Hajj would be canceled and the people there extricated.
Saudi Arabia, after my plan, would cease to exist. Mecca and Medina would be ruled by the SRC permanently and all possessions of the government or religious entities in Saudi Arabia would be taken, by force if necessary. A constitution would be drawn up to allow for the slow progression towards self rule. The parliament would be voted upon by all Saudis (including women) and that chamber would elect one leader who would join the council as a voting member. The very act of electing a leader of the birthplace of Islam would only erode the power of Islam and transform the people into a more free-thinking and modern people.
The area of the former Saudi Arabia would be under provincial rule for a minimum of ten years. If a nation had second thoughts about their involvement and pulled troops out their seat on the council would be taken by nations who were willing to step in and deploy troops and resources to the theater. I envision a sort of Islamic Disneyland in the new Arabia. It would be ruled by the religion at large and have no political, military or ideological significance. You see, I could care less about Islam existing at all. I would rather their religion become tradition and superstition. Within one generation the firebrand clerics and maniacs that rule Islam now would be replaced by entrepreneurial preachers of sort who give the impression of Islamic teaching but truly would be destroying it.
Fifty years from now, when we are old and gray we will look back at this time as the apex of Islamic fundamentalism. Their time is now. The oil money that suspends the people in a state of lavish hopelessness is running out. The Western world is slowly cutting ties with oil. They feel it slipping away now. That is why Iran has become obsessed with obtaining a nuke. We cannot allow that to happen. The inevitable exhaustion of Saudi and Iranian oil along with the establishment of my new order in the Middle East will gives us lasting peace in the Middle East. The time is now for us to put this roadmap into action and give fundamental Islam the only sentence it deserves: a death caused by first isolation, slow but steady starvation, arduous torture, and finally death, becoming a mere footnote in history never to be mourned or even remembered.
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