Is the US about to get involved in a shooting war in the Middle East? Iran has been told in no uncertain terms that a missile attack on Israel will result in a US response. Right now the are two US Navy carrier groups within striking distance. That’s more firepower in one place than most countries can muster. The US certainly has the capacity.
On the other hand, it looks like the US has encouraged Israel to take a more measured response. Don’t get me wrong, most of the Hamas leadership are dead men walking. However, Israel might take a less than scorched earth approach to achieving that goal. Frankly, too many innocents have already died.
The hostage situation complicates things immensely. A number of those hostages are foreign nationals so there are lot of other countries who have skin in the game.
The United States is not in the best position right now. The Republicans in the House have demonstrated their inability to govern. As of this writing they can’t even agree on a Speaker of the House. That’s with a majority. Many diplomatic posts remain unfilled and that doesn’t help US interests. Also, Republican Senator Tuberville’s refusal to allow military promotions has affected military readiness. Remember when the Republicans were pro-military and against our enemies? I’d like to think most are still that way but they’ve allowed a vocal minority to set the agenda.
So’s what the average Joe supposed to do? Stay the heck out of the Middle East for one thing. My guess is that the more immediate effects would be supply line disruptions. Oil has been a weapon in the Middle East for decades. On the bright side for the US, we get almost all our petrochemicals from North America these days.
This crisis shows how easily a relatively small group of terrorists can cause a global crisis.
-Sixbears
Diplomatically and in unspoken ways, The US has been at war in the Middle East Since Sadat was killed all those years ago, which was just yesterday in relation to Middle Eastern Politics. First he was a terrorist, then Arafat won a Peace Prize. One kills the other eventually gaining an award and the world is still reaping. Middle East politics is another story of brother killing brother.
ReplyDeleteIt's a long running cycle that has gone on for way way too long.
DeleteI've worked in the Middle East for almost a decade and Blood Feuds are a family honor thing. Your father killed my uncle, so I have to kill you stuff.
ReplyDeleteThen add that the two major sects of Islam simply hate each other. Makes the Hatfield's and McCoy feud look like a kindergarten slap fest.
While only 19 % of our oil comes from the Middle East (and loss of 19% would indeed be painful at the pump), I am concerned that angry (Middle Eastern illegal immigrants) folks inside America might choose to damage the few oil refineries we have working. Oil like the power grid is a powerful weapon to bring down the Great Satan as they call us.
Interesting times and yet we keep shoving our military into every hornets nest.
While we have aircraft carriers in the region there is little will to put American troops on the ground. Been there, done that.
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