Will the American ‘Final Option’ work?

By M. I. Bhat

Hitler took pride in his “Aryan race” that put Jews in disadvantage because changing race is beyond one’s means. So, he found an easy excuse to go for Final Solution to solve his Jewish problem once for all. Contrarily, America takes pride in its freedom and values that any one can adopt.

So the option: Adopt or perish. When communists proved problematic, America went all out against them and we had the actual wars and Cold War. Now it is Muslims who have turned out to be problematic. And America seems to have settled for ‘Final Option’ to settle its Muslim problem. In one short sentence, the ‘Final Option’ could be summed up thus:  Kill every Muslim you see standing.

Publically undeclared it may be though, this seems to be what America is working on if the recent history of American threats against and the trajectory of its one-after-another wars on the Muslim countries is any guide. The pro forma script is: First comes persistent volley of allegations and threats supported in full measure by mainstream media, followed by orchestrated howling by America and its “international community,” invitation to the table set with humiliating menu, sanctions, UN Security Council drama, more sanctions, and then the big bang bombing.

Though no body is keeping actual count, millions of Muslims have already been slaughtered and maimed and families ruined and displaced in a continuing process.

Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya — trophies that already decorate White House; Syria and Iran are in pipeline.

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has marked a new game. He calls for “tougher action” against Egypt, which President Obama, as priming-up measure, ordered for dumps (neither ally nor enemy).

Will this option work one way only to the total victory of America or both ways as in the case of Germany?

To find the answer, America needs to drop its arrogance for a moment and try to contemplate what the trophies already won have brought it in bonus.

The toughest action that one can think of is what US took against Afghanistan and Iraq using everything it its diplomatic and military arsenal —  creating the largest ever international coalition of the willing and unwilling and using every type of big and small piece of military hardware in its inventory and even testing-live those still under development. Isn’t it?

Result.

Let us first consider war on Iraq. Although it began two years later than the one on Afghanistan, it exposed America, morally and military, very early. Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are there for ever tagged with any American high moral preaching.  The “enduring” military bases that where supposed to signal American intentions of being in perpetual occupation of Iraq stand deserted. The fate of US Embassy in Bagdad – the largest in the world intended to announce and hallmark Pax Americana — is virtually a shelter house for the shunned (by Iraqis), defunct US diplomatic corpse and most likely some JSOC commandos (American President’s private militia, neither reporting nor accountable to either Secretary of Defense or Congress).

Winners? US bête nova – Iran and China!

But it is really Afghanistan that takes the cake in thoroughly and abundantly exposing not just American military might but also all of its Nato and non-Nato coalition partners’. The latest out from Afghanistan is the Taliban attack on Prince Harry’s base inflicting “unprecedented” damage and accelerated green-on-blue killings. This is just only days after ISAF Chief, the Four-Star General, Allen Jones put his head together with his 40 commanders in Afghanistan to avoid such attacks. Policy shift these brave and wise-heads announce: Carry weapon even in loo!

Did that help? No.

So the new strategy: No joint operations with Afghan soldiers!

Will this new strategy help? Your guess is as good as mine. For certainty you may read the unclassified Pentagon-commissioned report “A Crisis of Trust and Cultural Incompatibility” or its highlights-cum-commentary by Colonel Eugene Khrushchev here on VT, if you haven’t read it already.

Here is one more recent revealing piece – an 84 page draft  report titled “Dereliction of Duty II” by some unnamed US army personal who basis his report on what “I have personally observed or physically participated in programs for at least the last 15 years” and “What I witnessed in my most recently concluded 12 month.” It should shock any American irrespective of their political allegiances or position on America’s wars. The summary of the report reads:

“Senior ranking US military leaders have so distorted the truth when communicating with the US Congress and American people in regards to conditions on the ground in Afghanistan that the truth has become unrecognizable. This deception has damaged America’s credibility among both our allies and enemies, severely limiting our ability to reach a political solution to the war in Afghanistan.  It has likely cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars Congress might not otherwise have appropriated had it known the truth, and our senior leaders’ behavior has almost certainly extended the duration of this war.  The single greatest penalty our Nation has suffered, however, has been that we have lost the blood, limbs and lives of tens of thousands of American Service Members with little to no gain to our country as a consequence of this deception.”

Insightful, like former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer who published ‘Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror’ in 2004, saw it coming very early in the war but were ignored.

Like I wrote earlier, how many Three and Four Star Generals have preceded General Jones and how many times they repeated “our resolve is fierce, and our commitment to this fight is total?” They are gone and lost in history along with their Joint Chiefs of Staff and their Defense Secretaries and their “fierce” resolve but the “rag-heads” are there making one after another coalition partner along with their Generals and killer toys leave Afghanistan in haste with coal — thick and dark — on their face. The latest to announce early departure is New Zealand while Britain has started working on excuses. Guardian quotes the British Defense Minister Phillip Hammond saying:

Six months ago the military was privately pushing “for keeping force levels as high as possible for as long as possible …. But … British military thinking was evolving because commanders had been “surprised by the extent to which they have been able to draw back and leave the Afghans to take the lion’s share of the combat role.”

English way of massaging and managing truth!

This takes the cake:

“We have to be clear why we came here in the first place. I believe very clearly that if we are going to ask British troops to put themselves in the firing line, we can only do that to protect UK vital national security interests….[We did] “not come here to defeat the insurgency”

So, whatever we heard for the past 11 years from British Prime Minister, Defense Minister, Foreign Minister and other sundry pro-war politicians about British soldiers being in Afghanistan to secure Britain and its national interests and lauding the British public for their sacrifices was all crap. Will some one ask Mr. Hammond what and who his soldiers have been fighting against for over a decade if not insurgency and insurgents? Afghan army? Well, stick for some time more, Mr. Hammond, you won’t be disappointed, after all, given the speed at which “green-on-blue” attacks are happening.

Anyway, it is precisely the same logic-of-convenience that helped US and UK re-dress once the most cherished Afghan “Mujahedeen” into now the most hated Al Qaeda and Taliban “terrorists!”

As an aside, watch out for Mr. Hammond’s contrived explanation for his British pregnant soldier giving birth to a baby on the Afghan war front.  Wow! Fighting Taliban and getting pregnant!

As for the coalition’s puppet master, America, I believe Tom Engelhardt has the best take:

“[T]he flight of those Kiwis should be thought of as a small omen, even if they are departing as decorously, quietly, and flightlessly as possible.  Because here’s the thing: once the November election is over, “expedited departure” could well become an American term and the U.S., as it slips ignominiously out of Afghanistan, could turn out to be the New Zealand of superpowers.”

New Zealand of superpowers – what a low adjective for the “superpower!”

That being the story on war fronts, what about the home front?

The stats streaming out non-stop about ever-mounting American Government (in fact for the whole Western world) and public debt, homeless, unemployed, hungry, people on food-stamps, social disharmony (crimes, drugs, suicides, protests) as well as the preparations by Homeland Security and other non-military Government agencies (importantly purchase and piling of deadly munitions) to control potential civil disorder  have become so common and widespread that it hardly needs any further analysis or comment. All it needs is simple defining — America is broke, and breaking like the past great empires.

More than anything, American is morally broke. Every word coming from its leaders is suspect in the eyes of ordinary people. Its elected leadership hates its own poor, so typically reflected in Mitt Romney’s comments on “half of Americans”: “[My] job is not to worry about those people. It has lost its body and soul to Zionists, again so unabashedly stated by Romney:

“I’d get on the phone to my friend Bibi Netanyahu and say, ‘Would it help if I said this? What would you like me to say and do?”

Not to be left behind, Obama assures his Jewish audience saying:

“So America’s commitment — America’s commitment and my commitment to Israel and Israel’s security is unshakable. It is unshakable.”

In the same breath he goes on to say:

“I am proud to say that no U.S. administration has done more in support of Israel’s security than ours. None. Don’t let anybody else tell you otherwise. It is a fact.”

That America is broke, however, doesn’t mean its military capability to destroy the world several times over has in anyway diminished. In fact its capability to do so is ever on the rise. It may not have won any of its major wars (Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan) but the addiction it has developed in turning other countries into rubble and destroy societies remains insatiable. And that is precisely the reason that has brought it — as a nation, as a society — to the pass where its people and world at large find it today. Where it should be exerting its attention, energy and resource, like, for instance, mending its economy and controlling drug use, it is asking others to work for its causes — “Do more”: e.g., Europe for economy, Mexico for drug control.

Wars may have hugely indebted American Government and destroyed lives of its 99% but it has equally hugely benefited its 1% and its ruler — Israel. So, why avoid future wars? The impression that America is being cornered by Israel into war on Iran is humbug for any one who knows that right from Bush’s war on Afghanistan and Iraq, military planning for the war on Iran has been continuously in the works in the Pentagon. No less an authority than General Wesley Clark, among numerous others, is on record to have openly confessed this.

American Christian Zionists and its war industry are brimming in their zeal for perpetual wars to need any outside prodding or cornering for a new war. It is congruence of their interests with those of Israel’s desire to see its regime expand that has made the two brothers-in arms in their political and military missions. After the Cold War, Muslim world, in particular the Middle East — where Israel has its major interests and with its financial, media and political wherewithal to influence American policies — provided a common ground to accomplish their own goals. There is no other apparent reason that could explain American per blind partisan approach to the ground facts and international opinion as, for instance, in the case of Israel’s brutal occupation of Palestine, war on Iraq or NTP-signatory Iran’s peaceful program vs NTP- non-signatory Israel’s illegitimate nuclear weapons.

Unless something cataclysmic holds America back, war on Iran is very much a fact accompli. The tiff between Netanyahu and Obama is only about timing – pre-election (Netanyahu) or post-election (Obama). There are gains to be made by American businesses, Christian Zionists and Israel that can not be sacrificed for the potential death and destruction of the Muslims or the losses to be suffered by the American 99%. Recall the historically unprecedented public protests or political and military advice against war on Iraq didn’t affect one bit US decision to attack and occupy Iraq on pure false and fabricated grounds.

And then we are told “Muslims hate our freedom!”

Way back in 2004, the very first conclusion of the study conducted by the American Defense Science Board Task Force is “Muslims do not “hate our freedom,” but rather, they hate our policies.” That is right. Muslims don’t hate American or Western freedoms. In fact, Muslims want freedom from their America-backed tyrants as protests from Tunisia to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have amply demonstrated. Backing Pharaoh Mubarak, America wasted lives of thousands upon thousand of Egyptians for four decades. Yet Hillary Clinton is now calling them ungrateful!  A case of typical American values! France bans Muslims from protesting against insults to their Prophet but same time allows its Christian citizens to publish cartoons insulting their Prophet. What a fair play! Truly “exalted” Western values!

What Muslims hate, and hate to their over fill, is this Western hypocrisy and such hypocritical values. Any assumption on the part of America and its Western allies to be able to make Muslims conform to such values is simply a “cognitive oxymoron.” That is not because Muslim do not want to progress and enjoy fruits of democracy like the people in the Western world nor is it because of so-called “cultural incompatibility.” It is primarily and fundamentally because of the fundamental contradiction in the value system between the two. Jus one example, consider this: Ever, repeat ever, heard of any Muslim – liberal, progressive, fundamental, Salafi, Sufi, Shia, Suni or whatever you have – say a word of disrespect, let alone insult, any of the Prophets or symbols of any religion including of those who practice something absolutely unacceptable to Islam, like idolatry?  Instead, as a fundamental part of their faith, they believe not just in Moses and Jesus and their messages but all the prophets.

Given the existing state of affairs, it is naive to expect any change in American attitude and policies toward Muslims in the foreseeable future. Rather, the American attitude is going to harden further. Be sure, so would the Muslim resistance. Time will tell if the outcome of Final Option proves be any different for America than what Final Solution proved for Germany.