FP: Well, maybe we don’t see completely eye to eye on the settlements issue, but we’re not here to debate that today and we are, of course, entitled to different perspectives. David Horowitz provided some profound insights, from angles often not discusses in our media, on this whole matter in his speech at the University of California in San Diego on May 10, 2010, which readers can check out here.
But let’s move on. Your thoughts on Afghanistan?
Peters: Let me start by addressing a larger context–into which Afghanistan fits. For many years now, we’ve heard intermittent comparisons of the United States to the Roman Empire. Usually, it’s leftists yearning for an American decline that just refuses to come (they thought they had us after Vietnam, just as they think our back’s against the wall now…well, just wait…we’re incredibly resilient, when well-led). Sometimes, we hear facile comparisons to the effect that Rome and the USA are both lesser ”engineering cultures,” descended of more high-brow parents, Greece or Europe. Lot of silliness there…which would you rather have, Aristotle or aquaducts? For myself, I’m all for fresh drinking water…
Yet, now I do see a parallel at last. It has nothing to do with the decline of “empire,” but with its limits. Rome reached a point at which it recognized, after a number of bloody fusses on its farthest borders, that there were barbarian lands it just wasn’t worth conquering–or bothering about. The value just wasn’t there. So you just needed to keep the barbarians out–which Rome did for many centuries (after which Byzantium, the eastern Rome, did the same for a thousand years).
In the greater Middle East, I think we’ve found our “limes,” as the Romans called their military frontiers. Certainly, there’s a parallel in the barbarism (although any comparison is a bit unfair to Germanic tribesmen or Picts). From North Africa through Pakistan, we’re confronted by primitive, barbarous cultures marked by degeneracy and decay, where men born of powerless families are treated as women; where women are treated as animals; and where animals are treated unspeakably. Let the left howl, but the empirical data shows that these are “cultures” with no redeeming values. (Of course, it’s riotously funny to hear the left claim that our troops mistreat Arabs or Afghans–when the same I-hate-mommy-I-hate-daddy activists are determined to overlook the region’s taste for genocide, torture, indiscriminate slaughter and the monstrous abuse of women. Instead of critiquing the barbarians, leftists from the Upper West Side to Southern California are determined to invite the barbarians in and to accommodate their cruelty).
Of course, we cannot disengage entirely from the Middle East: We need to continue to kill terrorists, wherever we locate them. And, thanks to bipartisan incompetence in Washington over four decades, the world still depends on the region’s oil and gas. But the dark lands beyond the frontiers of our civilization cannot be rescued by us. We will not civilize Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia will not grow tolerant and productive. With luck, Iraq may prove the best of the lot, but that’s saying little. I see our problem with this decrepit relic of a past civilization–its denizens mere ghouls among the ruins–as keeping their problems out of our incomparable, humane civilization.
Afghanistan in and of itself is not worth the life of a single American soldier. Its sole value lies in offering bases from which we can kill terrorists in the AfPak border region. That’s it. Our attempts at nation-building–and no matter what the White House claims, that’s what we’re trying to do–would be worthless, even were they not doomed. And, as you and I have this exchange, Jamie, the Kabul Bank, the leading private bank in Afghanistan (through which our funds are transferred to accounts that pay the Afghan army, police and teachers) has been seized by the Afghan Central Bank, with hundreds of millions of dollars gone missing, a long roster of corrupt insider loans, and a portfolio of luxury properties–now much devalued–in Dubai. No matter how broad a view you take of our reconstruction efforts, it’s a bit tough to see how U.S. funds siphoned off to buy villas in the Persian Gulf for well-connected Afghans (the Karzai family holds a 7% stake in the ruined bank) advances our efforts against the Taliban and al Qaeda. And, simultaneously, President Karzai has released a key government official arrested on unrelated, massive corruption charges…and Karzai berated us publicly for backing the case against the perp.
I really pity the old South Vietnamese regime. It had plenty of thieves, but they thought small, the poor suckers. The Karzai family and its cronies think a lot bigger and they’re showing the world how corruption is done on a scale that really means something. And our blood and treasure support them. This is madness.
FP: Your take on the growing threats in Yemen and Somalia?
Peters: Instead of my take, let me start with the take I get from my acquaintances deep in the special-operations community–including some superb service members currently in Afghanistan. While they’re doing great work killing terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan (our one success story in AfPak, along with the CIA drone attacks), they’re much more worried today about Yemen and Somalia. Even the Saudis–as encrusted as ever in moral filth and fanaticism–are terrified of what’s happening in Yemen and are begging us to do more. In Somalia–a country that only exists as a state in the State Department’s hyper-limited imagination–al Shabaab, an al Qaeda affiliate, is on the verge of a takeover.
Now, let’s look at a map of the greater region again. Exactly how much of the world’s oil supplies passes through Afghanistan? Oh, right. None. Now, what proportion flows from Iraq, the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia along sea lanes that pass directly by or near Yemen and Somalia? On that map, Yemen and Somalia can be seen as jaws ready to snap shut. Then factor Iran into the equation. Meanwhile, because Obama–as unmanly as he is unwise–is trapped by his campaign rhetoric about Afghanistan…massive threats go ignored. Even a stunning success in Afghanistan brings us nothing. Iranian or fundamentalist takeovers in Iraq, Yemen and Somalia change the global equation (you may want to buy that Chevy Volt, dear Reader).
In my lifetime, I have never witnessed worse strategic incompetence on the part of a presidential administration.
FP: Ralph Peters, thank you for joining us today.
there is another miserable factor looming besides Iran, Yemen and Somalia and that is Egypt. It appears Mubarack has less than a year to live. Can his son keep his foot on the great snake? Egypt, the home of the MUs Brotherhood, Sayyid Qtub, bin laden's second in command, Muhammad Atta, etc.,, the most populous Arab state…………….lurks.
I generally agree with Ralph Peters, but I have 2 questions here:
1. Given that the Iraqi government can't be formed because the votes split evenly between a relatively secular party and a Shiite party, how is any amount of U.S. persuasion and diplomacy going to help?
2. Generally the Israeli settlers on the West Bank (also known as Judea and Samaria) are peaceful. They don't push Arabs off their land, instead they settle on barren hillsides. They are religious, and I am not, but I can understand their motivation. Settling in Hebron, in houses that they bought (and did not take by force) should be in theory just as allowable as setting in the town of Hebron, Connecticut. The real problem with the West Bank is not that Jews want to live in the midst of Arab towns and cities, but that the Arabs don't want the Jews there, and don't want to live under a Jewish dominated government. They actually do run most of their affairs even now, but they are not a tolerant bunch, and compromise is difficult to find, especially when they are indoctrinated from both the PA and Hamas to hate Israel.
As per #1, I don't believe the differences between the two parties are irreconcilable…and my prediction is that they will eventually come to terms, probably with Maliki retaining the post of PM (even though the secular party garnered 2 more seats). The point is, with a little creative US effort, this impasse could have been cleared up months ago. But as with so many other pressing problems, Obama's attention was elsewhere.
I agree with Ralph Peters except that instead of removing the settlers I agree with Rabbi Meir Kahane, Zt"l that the Arabs should be thrown out of all of Israel.
I'd be willing to bet that if this country's military wasn't awash in political correctness, Ralph Peters would be a four-star general right now!!
Of course, as you can tell from this interview alone, the Lt.Colonel tells it like it is. And as we all know, it just wouldn't do to have someone in charge that is more worried about telling the truth to better protect us than obfuscating the facts to avoid offending adherents of a 7TH century geopolitical barbarism bent on worldwide domination.
Obama is viewed by foreign leaders as too weak to deal sternly with countries such as North Korea (and it's threats against South Korea and the U.S.), Iran with its nuclear weapons and its proxy terrorists, Pakistan and it's dealings with the Taliban and al Qaeda, China and it's threats. Is Obama so worried about appeasing the enemy that all we get are "very concerned" speeches which makes him look like a cream puff. Is America becoming a paper tiger. Is Obama just another Jimmy Carter – or worse? And his Secretary of State is just as inept with his pushing on this Israeli – Palestinian
Ralph Peters is truly a valuable national asset- more's the pity that he is not a treasured national asset. Truth cannot find its way into the halls of the Pentagon, or anywhere within the beltway, otherwise we might actually stand a chance to discharge well our generation's duty to protect and preserve civilization from the onslaught of Islamic barbarism.
Wow, I got deleted before I could post anything !!! surely a first ! Wots goin on ?
Imagine an administration with Peters as Secretary of Defense and Bolton as Secretary of State…I can dream can't I???
One has to salute Mr. Peters. He discribed Islam with the most succinct truthful phrase anyone has come up with yet …..He refered to Islam as a "Junkyard Dog Religion". Ya gotta love the guy.
American Christian Infidel
Michael Canzano
I agree with Mr. Peters that "95% or more of the responsibility for making peace remains with the Arabs, whose behavior has been self-destructive and intoxicated by atrocity over the decades. In the end, Israel wants peace. Israel’s neighbors want Jews dead or gone–preferably dead."
Abbas' last statement saying that he could not accept agreement that Israel is a Jewish state shows that there has been no change since Arafat. In addition, Abbas has no control over radical terror groups like Hamas which have to be neutralized in order for any peace agreement to be credible. Then there is the issue of the U.S. assuring Israeli security if such a peace agreement is reached. Given this administration's track record regarding Israel that is something that can not be counter on at all.
Why do we accept Arab/Muslim demands for judenrein anywhere? What happened to the notion people of any religion can live anywhere? We sure apply it to jihadi-wannabe Somali immigrants to the US or crazed Islamists in London.
I think it is the idea of Al Qaeda to start problems everywhere on the globe and then the U.S. is supposed to come in and fix the problems. Their strategy is to spread us so thin militarily and to force us to spend our national treasure until there is no more.
What are we thinking if we even consider going to Somalia or Yemen? The Saudis think we should take care of the problems in their backyard? It's like Whack-a-Mole. We keep sending our soldiers over and we lose some and while we're there they just start something somewhere else. This was their strategy even before 9-11. They take full credit for causing the Soviet Union to fail. Give the choice of Al Qaeda or the Soviets the evils are both so pronounced it would be difficult to choose, but now we have a resurgent Russia AND Al Qaeda plotting against us.
The western world must get together and work as one united front, each country saying no to shariah law and no to tolerance of inhumane brutality, instead of all this pc bickering which only uses up precious time while they use that time to build bombs and cause mayhem.
First order of business: Get the progressives, Islamists, and other backward types out of our government.
When we figure the cost of all this war into the cost of gas we must be paying an enormous amount per gallon. We need to change tactics and stand back and look at the forest instead of each individual tree. Saudi Arabia is building mosques in this country as though they were 7-11s. The more oil we buy, the more mosques and terrorist training madrassas,. All of the oil that is available to us in our own sphere, if we were to use that, would be sufficient to restrain all the Arab influence and deal them a blow. I don't think that there is a once and for all answer available to us in our lifetime. These vermin seem intent on taking over the world and forcing us to the feet of their god. We are acting in predictable American ways, we are like puppets to them. they know how to pull our strings. Let's stop all this politically correct inane bs and start acting in our own interests. If we really believe our culture is better, and I do, then let's starve theirs of our support and wee what they can do on their own. If they had to fight their own wars and actually do something for their livelihoods they might find less time, and money to make war on the rest of us.
John Bolton for President and Ralph Peters for Vice President.
It seems we need a new model for the application of force in the Middle East. If a country like Afghanistan, Yemen, or Somalia plays host to jihadists, it would seem the appropriate response would be to take out the jihadists, not to invade, takeover, and midwife a backward Muslim nation into a western style democracy. Some of these countries will not be good candidates for democracy for a century or two if ever. Why should our military forces be sent halfway around the world to occupy some god forsaken desert to hunt down a few hundred die hard jihadists, all the while being under orders not to disturb the locals who shelter the jihadists. This is using a howitzer where a sniper's rifle would do just fine. Bring the military home and unleash the CIA, special ops types, and the drones. Kill the jihadists and leave the locals to their camels. We could spend years and billions of dollars in a country like Afghanistan and leave it as we found it, a backward, barbarous, and corrupt tribal society.
Environmentalists (leftist agitators) crippling our oil fields
and exploration with discoveries in America of vast deposits,
we can develop and stay in oil for a few centuries. Why do we
allow ourselves to be destroyed piecemeal when all we need
to do is get rid ouf our leftists and then use sane business
practices to make do with what we have. If we elect enough
right thinking people in November the way back to sanity is
possible. Bolton and Peters X 1,000,000 ready to go to work,
they are here we just have to open up to the fact our politicians
are and have been all wrong…………………………….William