The Arab Collapse

Ralph Peters is a columnist in the NY Post, a retired US Army Lt. Colonel, and certainly not a dove when it comes to war, foreign policy and geopolitics.  I think he has an good understanding of the middle east and his latest column calling for the US to stay out of Syria is excellent.  America has become addicted to wars and we have to stop the mentality that we must kill in order to promote the good around the world.  The popularity of neo-conservativism in America among Catholics is understandable due to issues of abortion, general attitudes towards Christianity and religion and the Catholic Church in particular, family issues, the gay agenda, etc... But the worst aspect, the policies that are most wrong, the most incompatible with traditional Catholic teaching is the neo-conservative support of wars.  I have found my own views on this shifting towards the libertarian view of war and I think more and more Catholics are waking up on this issue. Peters shows why the USA does not need and should not interfere (again) in the middle east.

Go read Peters' whole article. 

Excerpt:

"The Arab Spring has unleashed the Arab Collapse. Everybody still standing in the region is picking the flesh of the helpless. The Islamist cancer proved more virulent than Arabs themselves expected, while dying regimes behave with unrestrained ruthlessness.

And our diplomats still think everyone can be cajoled into harmony.

We’re witnessing a titanic event, the crack-up of a long-tottering civilization. Arab societies grew so corrupt and stagnant that violent upheaval became inevitable. That’s what we’re seeing in Syria and Iraq — two names, one struggle — and will find elsewhere tomorrow.

We can’t stop it, we can’t fix it, and we don’t understand it. But we can stay out of it.

When the US is in the Middle East, the Arabs want us out. When we’re out, they want us in. But our purported Arab (and Turkish) allies consistently agree that Uncle Sam should pay the party bill, while they take home all the presents.

Yes, Syria’s humanitarian crisis is appalling. And no, I don’t like to see innocents dying or suffering. But the calls from the region for American action are nakedly cynical.

Turkey has the largest military in NATO after our own, but cries “helpless” crocodile tears over Syrian refugees — while dreaming of rebuilding the Ottoman Empire upon their ruined lives. Our Saudi “friends” spent decades building the most-sophisticated military arsenal in the Middle East, apart from Israel. Now the Saudis wring their hands over Syria’s misery — but won’t intervene directly to stop the killing.

The Saudi position is always “You and him fight!” As long ago as Desert Storm, Saudis joked about renting the American army and our bumpkin gullibility. (Try to find one US officer who’s worked with the Saudis and doesn’t hate their guts. . .) Now they want Washington to spend our blood and treasure to open the mosques of Damascus to their Wahhabi cult."