March 1, 2015
I wanted to write something as vacuous as Red Lipstick for my next installment — something along the lines of Medicine Finger or the Losing Lakers — but the wife snuck some photos of ISIS-butchered children before my eyes; and now, the only thing that seems important is: somehow contributing to the eradication of this very large squad of indiscriminate assassins.
On-the-heels of my last ISIS essay — where I suggested that ISIS was a diversion for some bigger game — that may-or-may-not involve Iran — I was informed (as I suspected in the \’Red Herring\’ essay) that ISIS includes upwards to 20,000 foreign mercenaries. So you can bet that this is no real holy war, no jihad — and that a sizeable percentage of ISIS is just there for the killing (and the money).
In \”Red Herring\” I also suggested that the-powers-that-be are working on re-shaping the Middle East. Does this mean that Iran must to go down? I had always imagined Iran and Israel to be bedfellows. And if you know anything about recent Iranian history; you would know that Iran has been a rather unwilling Muslim country for the past 36 years.
And, after all the dirty work Iran has done for US in the past — it would be a shame to stab them in the back, yet again (I read a delightfully humorous contribution to my beloved Times that suggested the complete opposite). So, for the unschooled (like Jack Salem): we assisted with the Shah\’s removal and opened the door for Khomeni. I\’m sure that Jack doesn\’t realize that the Iran/Contra thang was NOT Iran\’s idea either.
So what\’s up with this ISIS crew? Butchering entire villages with aforementioned impunity! Will Israel blame the existence of ISIS on Iran? Or, will Netanyahu run with the whole nuclear bomb shit — knowing full well that Israel has had nuclear armaments for a very long time now? Thank god for Elliot Rothman\’s letter to The Times in which he makes a mockery of Netanyahu\’s appeal for war against Iran (I definitely could not have made my point so adroitly and succinctly as Elliot did).
But let\’s say that Iran did develop a nuclear weapon and joined the other 9-or-10 countries that do have \”the bomb\” — Israel could still nuke them ten-times-over. And if the prevailing winds held steady — could wipe out a sizeable chunk of the Arab world at-the-same-time. Ah, but I forget — Israel is a peace-loving nation that only reacts when threatened…
So could it be something more insidious…something I alluded to in \”Red Herring\”? Could ISIS succeed in painting Muslims as a bloodthirsty religion — committing atrocity after atrocity against innocents — thus uniting the entire world against them?
This Middle East craziness has me feeling as helpless and powerless as a Californian being gouged by oil companies…but if the end result of all this is that the 2022 World Cup is moved the hell out of Qatar — then I guess all the death and carnage will be worth it…nah, I\’m just bullshitting…it looks like we\’re in for a Neverending War…