As USS New York pre pares to join the fleet, she will enter a world of crises. As we obsess over worthless Afghan real estate, truly vital problems loom abroad.
Violent challenges to our security and strategic position are slighted or ignored, while a combination of politics, pride and inertia bind us to a distant land of marginal relevance.
The crises highlighted below are not in order of priority. Any of them could take a painful bite out of Washington’s complacency:
Iraq: Given its strategic location, iconic importance in the Arab world and vast oil reserves, Iraq matters to us. It also matters to al Qaeda, which is trying to reengage in Iraq while blowing off Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda suffered a catastrophic defeat in Iraq, largely of its own making. Now its Arab leadership has noted, with relief and delight, the Obama administration’s rush to abandon “Bush’s war.” Where do al Qaeda’s bombs go off today? The battered terrorists dream of a comeback — but not in Kabul.
IsPal: Since everything gets an acronym these days, why not the enduring Palestinian refusal to live in peace with Israel? The self-righteous Obama administration’s headfirst plunge into this intractable conflict has only made things immeasurably worse.
By aligning rhetorically with the Palestinians and catering to Arab myths of victimization in his Cairo confession, Obama empowered Hamas, Hezbollah and the Arab world’s really good haters — making yet another Israeli-Arab war inevitable. That will be the true “Obama’s War.”
Iran: We beg. They jerk us around. We beg again. They jerk us around. Eventually, leftists who insist that the savage is noble (and only America is evil) will get to see how the noble savage behaves with nuclear weapons.
Mexico: While our forces give blood to defend a wretchedly corrupt government in Afghanistan that’s losing a civil war, Mexico’s postmodern drug armies kill American citizens and residents in our streets every single day — through their wares or direct violence.
We have been invaded. Our response? Promise the outgunned Mexican government a few helicopters (eventually), neglect our borders, permit “sanctuary cities” to protect narco-terrorists who’ve killed more Americans than al Qaeda has, prepare to reward drug-cartel invaders with US citizenship — and declare this massive invasion a “law-enforcement issue.”
Our government is failing, willfully, at its primary responsibility: to protect our citizens and defend our soil.
Nigeria: It ain’t just about e-mail scams. Nigeria’s one of the key oil producers on which our security and your daily commute depend. A government amnesty initiative for the rebels who’ve been attacking Niger Delta oil installations for years shows some promise of cooling the conflict. (There’s been massive environmental damage, too — where’s the left’s outrage?)
But big issues remain between the brutalized Christian tribes of Nigeria’s oil states, who’ve seen their oil wealth stolen, and a thieving central government unjustly tilted toward the Muslim north. Nigeria’s vastly more important to our well-being than Afghanistan, yet the crisis gets little coverage. Wouldn’t want to offend any viciously corrupt Muslims . . .
Saudi Arabia: Why bother mentioning, yet again, that Saudi Arabia’s No. 1 export isn’t oil but the Wahhabi fanaticism that remains the basis of Islamist terror? It doesn’t do the least bit of good, since the Saudis have bought up so much influence in Washington that we might as well add a minaret to the US Capitol.
Al Qaeda was merely the instrument of 9/11. Saudi bigotry, fanaticism and hate-mongering fostered it. Saudi funding made those attacks possible. And Saudi money continues to spread hatred wherever there’s a Muslim community. Now we have a president who bows to the Saudi king. Peace be upon you . . .
THE world burns. We’re bogged down. And we’re still waiting for anyone in the White House, Congress or the Pentagon to explain clearly why Afghan dirt is worth American deaths while drug-cartel outlaws wage war in our nation’s streets.
Given its naiveté and malice, the “peacemaking” Obama administration may end up responsible for more deaths, here and abroad, than any “warmongering” presidencies in our time.
Ralph Peters’ latest novel is “The War After Armageddon.”