Welcome to the inaugural post of Organized Chaos, what I hope will be a convenient method to "sound my barbaric YAWP", as Whitman put it, "upon the rooftop of the world." Not to mention that most Lefty e-zines take a long time to publish what I have to say, if they do at all. After all, instant gratification is the hallmark of the Internet era. But I digress. Content! - the hallmark of a well-designed website (or blog). Since I know you want some tasty political goodness, I'll start off with a gigantic essay I wrote about the next enemy in the war against terrorism...
As the dust slowly settles over the newly cleansed land of Afghanistan, many might be inclined to say that the war against terrorism is over. Certainly, the terrorist system in general, and al-Qaeda in particular, has been dealt a terrible blow. But now is the time where we must not give up, not lend a second thought to the notion of throwing in the towel and calling it a day. The future of the civilized world and the fate of innocents worldwide will be determined by our choice of the military action we undergo following Operation Enduring Freedom - if any. In order to ensure that terrorism is eradicated, not just given a bloody nose, we must undertake a systemic campaign of bombing, support to resistance groups, special-forces deployments and democracy implantation to be applied to all known and unrepentant terrorist sponsors. The proof that this system works has screamed across the airwaves in the past few weeks.
But there's one problem - who's next? With a juicy list of nation-states that are known terrorist sponsors, Dubya could throw darts and manage to hit a country that exemplifies the worst of humanity. Perhaps the miniature missile might alight upon Pakistan, which has lately been pushed to the brink of war with its neighbor over a territorial dispute. Not exactly a politically popular target - after all, they did offer us "aid" in the fight against terrorism. But there are many factors that point to Islamabad having shuffled the cups in a gigantic shell game of international diplomacy. Why not start with the pre-Sept. 11 world? Before the Taliban became the receiving end of vitriolic hatred, their subject country was regarded by Pakistan as a "buffer state," according to the Economist. The Pakistani government claims to share a civilized opinion that fundamentalist Islam is disagreeable. However, when their military planners regarded Afghanistan as a neutral or possibly even friendly neighbor, they belied these politically popular pronouncements. If Islamabad truly believed fundamentalist Islam was bad, they would not consider a living, breathing example of such a government neutral or friendly. They would consider it an enemy, and take steps accordingly. Thus we can only conclude Pakistan adopted a position against religious fundamentalism as a method of distracting attention from its true beliefs. That's where we hit Pakistan's dirty little secret: Kashmir. Doesn't sound familiar, and it shouldn't. Only recently has it even garnered national attention, and that is only because war seemed imminent between two nuclear powers. Islamabad wants you to forget their war over what they consider Pakistani territory, and especially to forget their possible (and probable) sponsorship of terrorism with civilian and military targets in mind that was designed to get India out of their "sovereign territory." The Pakistani government is a perfect example of hypocrisy: with one hand, they offer assistance to those who combat terror's practitioners and supporters - but with the other hand, they beckon the same scum to kill civilians in pursuit of their twisted goal. It's about time for Islamabad to get a much-needed change of government and give the civilized world a true partner in the global coalition against terrorism.
Bush's dart could punch a hole through North Korea, which most people seem to have forgotten lately. Given that it last existed as an omnipresent horror in American minds over 50 years ago, it seems quite obvious that its failing Communist system has been condemned to the dustbin of history. But in its death throes, the North Korean government might cause irreparable damage to society. Two nuclear reactors were scheduled to be built in the troubled country as a deal between NATO and NK: you dismantle your nuclear weapons and destroy the parts, and we'll take care of you. Unsurprisingly, North Korea hasn't held up its end of the deal. It refuses to allow inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to verify that the weapons have been trashed - so it seems quite likely that one of the last Communist countries in the world is still a nuclear power. Then there's still the lingering problem of the reactors, which are still on track to be built and should be completed in 2004 or so. Did I mention that they could provide weapons-grade uranium and plutonium? With every day that passes, it grows more and more likely that North Korea will seize control of the reactors' construction and expel all regulatory agents from its territory. That leaves civilized world society with a renegade country that has nuclear arms and reactors to replenish and add to its stocks of the ghastly weapons, and no Western forces present to help dispel the threat of a missile launch. Something tells me that North Korea's population would enjoy a change of government - something that would remove a ruling class which has brought them to the brink of extinction. In fact, without the donation of half-a-million tons of food by the United Nations last year, millions of peasants and families would have starved. By decapitating the rusting Communist bureaucracy and replacing it with an effective democracy, we have a triple advantage - millions of people set free from the yoke of socialism, the removal of the nuclear threat from the country, and a stable ally in the region to help fight the continuing war against terrorism. Maybe the 53rd parallel and the DMZ need to come alive with the sounds of gunfire one more time.
The list goes on and on. We could help Israel crush the Palestinian Authority and let Israeli children walk to the mall or ride the bus again without fearing for their lives. We could storm Yemen and find out the truth about the U.S.S. Cole. We could run a second "Operation Restore Hope" in Somalia and really do it this time - by killing the warlords who kept stealing food destined for orphanages in 1993. We could lend a hand to the Iraqi National Congress and kill the bloated fiend who nerve-gassed ethnic minorities and starved his nation of much-needed food and medicine by refusing to cooperate with arms inspections. Then we could head next door and bomb Iran forward into the Stone Age (maybe with a couple of BLU-82s emblazoned with "This is for Lockerbie!"). After that, Syria is just a hop, skip and a jump away.
And once the dust cleared, millions of innocent people would be able to lift their heads and walk proudly in the streets of their mother country, able to have a voice in government and criticize the ruling class without fear of punishment or death, fed to the fill with nutritious food and clean water, bandaged and treated with modern medicine, practicing the skills learned in excellent schools that cater to both men and women. Does anyone doubt that would be worth the effort?
posted by Brian 2:51 PM