BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE MONDAY APRIL 16, 2018) — Trump blundered.

That’s the two-word synopsis of his decision to send 105 missiles against three sites in Syria, a strike responding to Syrian president Assad’s use of chemical weapons. How different from the President’s prior views of the country, going back even before the campaign trail. Candidate Trump said involvement in Syria was a mistake President Obama made but one he would not repeat. Trump even pledged to remove the 2,000 U.S. troops on the ground in that once civilized nation.

Mission botched.

There is no U.S. strategic or even tactical interest in further involvement in the Middle East tar pits. Presidents Bush I and Bush II got us over there, the latter in 2003 riding high the nauseating wave of jingoism following the events of Sept. 11, 2001. Trillions of dollars later, and what does Uncle Sampson have to show for it: Thousands of U.S. troops killed or maimed, more than a million civilian deaths, chaos in Iraq following the fall of Saadam, an emboldened Iran, embroilments in the region’s impossible sectarian politics, and now, a deepening of a flawed involvement in Syria.

Trump will be taught a lesson his predecessors failed to learn, that it’s easy to get into conflict but, especially in the Mid East, nearly impossible to get out. The President and his predecessors before him cite ISIS terrorism the season. How ironic. It was our presence in Iraq that created the power vacuum handily filled by the fanatics of the Islamic, an entity that would never have been created except for U.S. meddling. True, ISIS constitute a fighting force, but the renegade “nation” consists of five parts PR, propaganda, and publicity; four parts politics and religious ideology, and one part troops and materiel. Even that that, THE PLANET is being far too generous to ISIS’ military component.

The so-called “War on Terrorism” is nothing but a war against an idea. Because you can’t fight an idea, you can’t defeat it on the battlefield. In a perverted way this suits the oligarchs and war planners behind the U.S. efforts, who can reply of the “War on Terrorism” to keep in high gear the economy generated by the conflict — future trillions that will feed the pigs who suck on the swollen tits of the War Machine.

Can anyone explain Syria’s seven-year civil war? Do you know anything about Bashir Assad? Do you know the participants? Or why they’re fighting? Or why it matters to the United States? Can anyone demonstrate that our military involvement there serves the national defense of America? To date, no one has given satisfactory answers. We are expected once again to be loyalists to the Fatherland — rather, the Homeland (as chilling a word for this country that one could imagine).

The national defense of the United States should be limited to our shores. Period. It used to said that America couldn’t afford isolationism, especially with the intertwined ball of yarn that is the global economy. That’s accepted almost without question. THE PLANET, however, questions that assumption. Where is that fearless economist who will point out that the networked nature of the global economy makes possible and even advisable an isolationist America, a country that avoids “foreign entanglements,” deals with every nation on amicable terms, and stands ready to defend our shores.

Dollars and the products and services that both spend and earn dollars no longer require the physical presence of bricks, men, and mortar to the degree that they once did. Trillions spin around the world each day via blips and photons on computer screens. Take the trillions wasted on military adventurism out of the equation, and “poof!” gone in an instant be the need for this country to police the world.

Trump will be taught but doubtful he will learn. For the blow of hot air aimed at Syria, he tweeted the words he will never live down, a phrase tortured into a sentence by its verb-understood syntax and grammar, two words that echoed the colossal failure of George W. Bush standing in his flight jacket on the deck of an aircraft carrier: “Mission Accomplished.”

THE PLANET shudders.

—————————————————————————

“You seldom get what you pay for, but you never get what you don’t pay for” — Stanley Kubrick

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

The views and opinions expressed in the comment section or in the text other than those of PLANET VALENTI are not necessarily endorsed by the operators of this website. PLANET VALENTI assumes no responsibility for such views and opinions, and it reserves the right to remove or edit any comment, including but not limited to those that violate the website’s Rules of Conduct and its editorial policies. PLANET VALENTI shall not be held responsible for the consequences that may result from any posted comment or outside opinion or commentary as provided in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and this website’s terms of service. All users of this website — including readers, commentators, contributors, or anyone else making use of its information hereby agree to these conditions by virtue of this notice. When PLANET VALENTI ends with the words “The Usual Disclaimer,” that phrase shall be understood to refer to the full text of this disclaimer.