When I was in school we were told that there can be no such thing as perpetual motion. Any system requiring energy input cannot be completely self perpetuating but will eventually run down because of unavoidable inefficiencies or energy losses. However, the remark that I heard made by Senator McCain, in which he claimed that American Troops could be in Iraq for 50 – 100 years – or longer, combined with the new term for America’s Enemy: “Al Qaida in Iraq”, makes me think of another kind of self perpetuating system.
Al Qaida’s goal is not now nor ever has been to take over Iraq (although Bin Laden and Saddam hated each other). Al-Qaida is not a country or a government; it is a loosely organized club of fundamentalist Muslims who want the American armed forces out of the Middle East (principally for religious reasons). As long as Americans are in Iraq, Al Qaida will continue to be there too, finding an unlimited number of recruits from young people bound for revenge of killed family members, probably with the perceived incentive of going immediately to heaven when killed in this task (something never completely certain for Muslims otherwise, due to the unknown state of their good deed/ bad deed balance). AND while Al Qaida remains in Iraq, at least a substantial US force must remain to protect the Embassy and other US presences, such as reconstruction projects and (would you believe) something to do with oil. Unfortunately, even Obama is saying something like this as of now. So the equation is reversible and perpetual: US Presence = Al Qaida Presence, Al Qaida Presence = US Presence. The beauty of this perpetuity (in the minds of some I suppose – need I say “Military Industrial Complex (MIC)”?) is that the thing takes Billions of Dollars from the US public by taxes and places them in the balance sheet of the MIC companies (where a sizable percent ends up eventually in the profit column). Who was the business genius who thought this up?
Is there a solution? Maybe. What about 0 = 0? If the US is not there, the Al Qaida will have no business there. The three types of Iraqis hate Al Qaida (some of them just hated the US more), and once Al Qaida leaves or is run off, the three factions will go back to fighting each other and eventually will come, all by themselves, to the solution best suiting them. OK, this is more “Audacity of Hope“ than even Obama may be able to muster. But it is worth trying - for at least one reason: Since the beginning of this fiasco, 1-10 US soldiers have died each day. This would be expected to continue perpetually – what a shame – what a waste – what a sad, sad thing. Barack, I love you, but we must do better.