Paying The Piper

As we remember this past December 7th, a day that will live in infamy Pearl Harbor reminds us of the sacrifices by the greatest generation should not have been made in vain. A world war ensued where the terror of the Nazi's set the world ablaze. Now, a new terror has emerged where the seeds of destruction and mayhem were planted well over 30 years ago. They were sowed by our foreign policies and military interventions from the Bush and Obama Administrations. We are now paying the piper by our blatant intervention in the affairs of many Muslim nations that has destabilized the entire Middle East. 

 

The disastrous results of our entanglements is evident with the rise of so many terrorist cells we see today. Some now believe that many insurgents are living right here in the United States. The most recent attack in San Bernardino is evident of what many would call sleeper cell terrorist activity. We have to go back to the early 1960's to find out what triggered the rise of radical Islamic factions that have now infiltrated and managed to carry out so much terror not only here in the US but all across the globe. 

 

It was in 1963 when the Shah of Iran who had been a close allies of the United States and Great Britain instituted a broad governmental program aimed at land reform, infrastructure development, voting rights for women and reducing the illiteracy rate. This is much like Muammar Gaddafi did in Libya where progressive reforms enabled there society to experience what many would call unparallel economic growth. At first all these programs were well received but when many didn't actually benefit and saw where the more affluent reaped the benefits of these governmental programs it was the first sign of inner turmoil in Iran. 

 

With the growing criticism from many Islamic leaders who saw the Shah conforming to a more Western culture Ruhollah Khomeini, a patriarch of the Shiite clerics instigated a coupe to over through the Shah. Even though for a time the Shah managed to hold onto power where the US and Great Britain were influential but, by 1978 the seeds of revolt bore fruit. When the Shah replaced the traditional Islamic calendar with a Persian one set the stage for open revolt. Fearful of loosing his grip in Iran the Shah resorted to Gestapo like tactics in the hope that his power would prevail. By late 1978 open revolt spread through the streets of Tehran, the Shah fearing for his life fled. It was then that Khomeini took control of Iran. When the United States refused to return the Shah in exchange for the Americans being held in the US embassy was probably the one singular event that still has far reaching consequences. Khomeini in the years that followed instituted radical changes in the Quran.  In rewording the Quran Khomeini created a doctrine of extreme intolerant views toward Western cultures. Today, it is the basis for the rise of radical Islamic extremists within the Muslim world.

 

In 1980 Ayatollah Khomeini led that successful Islamic revolution in Iran and Suddam Hussein took control in Iraq. For the next 9 years the Mid-East was a hot bed of tensions between Iran and Iraq. Warring factions of Shiite's and Sunni's, the two most antagonistic factions of Muslims continued their brutal savage grab for power, control and wealth of the regions oil. At the end of the decade Iraq was grasping for any means of wealth to boost their war torn country. In doing so Suddam invaded Kuwait in an effort to seize their oil. The United States fearing a disruption of Mid-Eastern oil organized and engineered the recapture of Kuwait to regain control of the regions oil.

 

All the first Gulf War did was set the stage for the second Bush Administration to capitalize on the notion that Iraq had an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. Whether or not Suddam Hussein had those weapons really isn't the issue. What the United States did was use fear mongering like Trump is doing today to induce reprisals based on the presumption and premonition that weapons of mass destruction are readily available and pose an immediate threat to Americans. Hence, we invaded Iraq, destabilized a whole country, and toppled a regime leaving behind a cancer of secular Islamic groups that became indoctrinated in the Khomeini's radical interpretation of the Quran. All of this gave rise to Al-Qaeda groups seizing the momentum of hatred toward the West and the US. In 1993 the first wave of Islamic terror struck. The bombing of the World Trade Center shook the nation leaving behind structural damage to the Twin Towers so that by 9/11 when the second wave of terror hit the devastation was complete. Not since that day of infamy more than a half century earlier has the United States experience such terror. 

 

We have to always remember that when rulers of countries become so entrenched the power they wield soon becomes corrupt. When absolute power is held that power is absolutely corrupted. Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya and many other nations whose rulers are so entrenched it is the majority of their own citizens who suffer and want the most. The same thing can be said of the United States where we have embedded politicians who continue to beholden to the power brokers who bankroll campaigns.

 

In the aftermath of the spring of 2011 which is now called the Arab Spring, when civil war broke out in Syria, the United States again instigated a coupe to topple another long standing ruler in Libya which only further encroached on the delicate imbalance in the Middle East. What we have now in the Mid-East is a quandary of contingencies that at any moment could spark a global fire ball. The United States has only itself to blame because of our intrusion in the affairs of other nations.

 

The greed and gluttony of our reluctance to eliminate our dependency on oil has been the focal point of our foreign policies and military actions that have continued to now backfire right in our face. The revenue that Mid-Eastern Oil brings into the coffers of the major conglomerates is the dominating factor over the many foreign policies that continue to not only keep the flow of oil flowing but instigates reprisals in the form of rouge terrorist attacks right here in the US. What we did following the first evidence of open revolt in Egypt with the overthrow of Libya's Gaddafi is instrumental to understand why many in the Mid-East still have misgivings about the intentions and even harbor an open resentment of the United States.  We are paying the piper for it today.