More musings...

Dan Carlin's latest Common Sense podcast is one of his best, I think... and I've heard it twice now.  I'd love for you all to listen, but if you don't, here's the Titus-condensed version:

The crisis in Iraq is the result of very nearly 100 years of bad foreign policy, starting with the Entante Powers of WWI right through to the post-invasion provisional government set up by the US in 2005.  Simply put, why the UK, France, Turkey, the UN, the US or anyone else would or could think they would work in the best interest of the Iraqi people in general is beyond me.  Hind sight being 20/20, I think we can easily see that NO NATION had the best interests of the Iraqi people first and foremost in their planning offices, and Mr. Carlin goes a long way to show that with real, objective historical review.  He goes on to say that what is happening now in Iraq is almost the same as the "three state solution" we argued about here on the Bund... divide Iraq into a Kurdish, Sunni and Shi'ite states that would self-govern themselves, and throw away the arbitrary lines that were drawn on maps in 1918 by the victorious Allies as they carved new colonies out of the former Ottoman territory.

His point about the "three state solution" was particularly topical, I thought.  Kurdistan exists... no question about that.  Even Turkey has all but recognized it.  ISIS is carving out the Sunni portion of the Iraqi map, and what is left is, demographically speaking, Shi'ite.  This wasn't a peaceful transition... far, far from... but I think it was a necessary one.  I'd even have to agree that, had we given the Sunni people their own state back in 2005, they'd still have that state now... and the violence be over at worst, and avoided at best.

I found it refreshing that Mr. Carlin didn't blame one side of the political aisle or the other... it wasn't one administration's fault over another... it was simply failed foreign policy from start to finish.  Our nation was founded on the principals of self determination of the people, yet we routinely deny that self determination to other people... why?

I had to agree that the "Arab Spring" we saw blooming over the last four years was also a result of our foreign policy.  It, however, was "undirected" by a superpower such as the US... and was far more spontaneous than I think anyone in Washington DC was ready for.  What we don't hear in the media is that the Arab Spring can't happen if there isn't a very substantial portion of the Arab world's population that is unhappy with repressive, ultra-conservative regimes dictating every aspect of life to the people.  These zealots calling for a return to a "caliphate" are calling for the impossible... as is evidenced by the situation in Iran right now (and for the last 40 years), and the very near future in places like Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Gotta go to work... more later...