[Cross-posted at The Left Coaster.]
Reading Hullabaloo yesterday I was interested in the obvious scorn in the messaging ability of the United States Navy, as Iraq splinters apart in fierce violence ludicrous voices of yapping psychosis call for immediate American armed intervention. The instant comprehension even four armored divisions present would never work (we tried that) incoherently wanders to proposed “limited” air strikes that would “send a message.”
Potentially currently residing in four squadrons of F-18 SuperHornets aboard USS George HW Bush in the Persian Gulf. Again, citizens worried about imminent combat in Iraq should not be, the Navy would not use USS George HW Bush in singularity, for the same air and submarine defense spheres they could triple their strike arm to 144 aircraft, which they would certainly do for sustained combat operations.
But of course that still means 48 SuperHornets at the instant ready for some possible “message,” but what could that be? As discussed before about Iraq, the “message” here is in the same fantasy realm of Doing Something, an act of any dimension that is never questioned and the results never examined. We don’t work that way in the reality-based community, however, so a little mental unpacking here yields good results for all citizens, certainly.
48 SuperHornets have an amazing range and accuracy to blow up and shoot targets to smithereens unparalleled in the bloody history of man’s attempts to do so. Nothing more. It seems so ludicrous to state the absolutely obvious here, but Jesus in our times of lying and violence it’s appallingly necessary, those $30 million dollar jets and their weapons can’t feed people, they cannot negotiate between hate-filled factions, they can’t treat water, for the love of all that the Milky Way gave us any message of violence is just that, violence, its utility extremely limited and disastrous potential for harm unlimited, of course.
[massages eyebrows] There is a political thesis out there that Americans “lost their minds” after 9/11. Valid or not, Laura Bush was astounded that her sincere statements to European women leaders that the upcoming war with Iraq in fact meant Peace were so roundly trounced upon. War means peace, how could that not be obvious outside of the great American realm of intellectualism? [sigh] The we’ve-lost-our-mind thesis has a lot of problems, but man that was some serious American psychosis right there.
Excuse me. Even in this awful realm of violence 48 SuperHornets turn out to be tactically and strategically useless. Armed insurrection is taking place in major cities, how in the hell is the Navy supposed to get the intelligence to properly blow up the correct bad guys? Perhaps they can on an extremely limited basis, but nothing sustainable.
48 SuperHornets can strategically cripple a country like Iraq in 12 hours, of course, but that hardly is an intelligent objective when trying to politically stabilize a country. In fact, the United States just spent a bajillion freaking dollars to allegedly build strategic infrastructure in Iraq, so the usual bullying fear of potential violence is completely absent in this scenario, we’re not seriously blowing anything up this time.
So 48 SuperHornets cannot do anything tactically or strategically, they can’t feed or calm anyone, in all this fierce posturing of Sending a Message while Doing Something with USS George HW Bush just what in fact is the real message being sent for those who insist on living in reality?
That after all we’ve learned and bled and fought and nurtured for all we have to offer right now is useless violence, so useless everyone knows even its awesome potential is just a ruse, we’re not going to use it this time. The Iraqis aren’t stupid or cut off, what’s the 2016 Presidential candidate going to run on, keeping 12 divisions on the ground in Iraq? Heh.
Sending a Message while Doing Something, please, you’re not remotely fooling anyone. If you wanted to be serious you’d be frantically starting the American solar conversion so we wouldn’t need middle east oil with that little added benefit of saving the planet and the species, but that isn’t the message being sent at all, and it’s hard to decide which is more infuriating, the total stupidity of having only violence to offer or the absolutely ludicrous assumption the little people can’t so easily see through it all.
Well, we certainly do. In this year of 2014 the American people are offered nothing but violence as solutions in Iraq, and we eagerly await leadership that chooses more human options that will truly work long term.