The United States' chosen role — seems to be to unsettle the world — the Qatar example — a provocative observation

© 2017 Peter Free

 

06 June 2017

 

 

Where ignorami rule

 

The United States predominantly combines impenetrable ignorance with arrogant self-righteousness and a demonstrated inability to think.

 

This metaphorically spells "oaf".

 

Our Commander in Chief (that entertaining combination of sunny ego, stone-headedness and tweeted vanity) is the perfect representation of these qualities.

 

Who could be more visibly and honestly American than he?

 

 

The Qatar blow up — a minor example that demonstrates the allegation

 

First, before jumping into Qatar's symbolizing water, let's put Presidents Bush II and Obama aside:

 

 

Thoughtfully knowledgeable people recognize the world-unsettling damage that those two Military Industrial Complex-ists did in the name of advancing alleged American rectitude.

 

Their skills lay in their concealing hypocrisy and their ability to lie with surprising effectiveness. That mix is also decidedly indicative of historically traditional American leadership.

 

This said . . .

 

 

In addressing my theme today, President Trump is an even more culturally unmasked American bull in the world's china shop.

 

Take the subtly indicative Qatar "breaking news" development:

 

 

Qatar is unexpectedly under siege from its neighbours.

 

Led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, supported by Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen, the five Arab states have cut diplomatic relations with Qatar, severed land, air and sea travel and are expelling Qatari citizens who have 48 hours to depart.

 

© 2017 Patrick Cockburn, This Is Why Saudi Arabia and Its Allies Suddenly Cut Ties to Qatar, The Unz Review (05 June 2017) (paragraph split)

 

 

How can this intra-Arab conflict be an indicator of America's rampaging bumbling?

 

One of the world's most experienced Middle East correspondents explains:

 

 

What has changed in the Gulf to precipitate a crisis now?

 

The answer is that the Trump wrecking ball passed through the region last month and the US President’s unreserved backing for Saudi Arabia, and in particularly for deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has disturbed the regional balance of forces.

 

It has already emboldened the Sunni monarchy in Bahrain to crush the last Shia resistance to its dominance, killing five protesters in one village and closing down the only remaining independent newspaper.

 

Much more seriously, Mr Trump’s unqualified support for the Sunni monarchies and autocrats during his two-day visit to Riyadh emboldened the kingdom to start a second and, it hopes, final round in its confrontation with Qatar.

 

Mr Trump may not have intended to touch off this latest crisis when he aggressively and inaccurately demonised Iran and by implication the Shia as the source of all terrorism in the Middle East and North Africa. But his words were interpreted by the Saudis as enabling them to move against Qatar though it is home to a major US base.

 

© 2017 Patrick Cockburn, This Is Why Saudi Arabia and Its Allies Suddenly Cut Ties to Qatar, The Unz Review (05 June 2017) (paragraphs split)

 

 

Divisive clumsiness is not new for us

 

The United States historically has evidenced virtually complete ignorance of any culture except our own.

 

This lack of factual reference becomes problematic. At least when attempting not to be a crassly violent "dumbshit" in furthering the Art of War. Or anything else important.

 

Illustrating this point, U.S. leadership characteristically knows nothing about sectarian thorns within Islam. Nor does it understand the precarious intra-national cultural balances that characterize the Muslim world (and pretty much everywhere else).

 

Nevertheless, in we come, inevitably throwing our rich couch potato weight around. Usually via means of the United States' aggressively un-couched (and notably more physically courageous) volunteer military. Power comes from the barrel of a gun. And all that.

 

Pertinently:

 

 

Chairman Mao's virtually same-paragraph inclusion of the necessity of using brain (as well as guns) —

 

a caveat that parallels his countryman Sun Tzu's repeated edict to that effect —

 

escapes our tiny ability to comprehend even short, translated wisdom lifted from other cultures.

 

 

As a result, in struts Commander Oaf:

 

 

(i) further blasting the Sunni-Shia rift,

 

as well as

 

(ii) tossing an impressively large hand grenade into the additional cultural division between Arab and Persian.

 

 

Our perennially glowing president even did a ceremonial Saudi sword dance to emphasize his choice of Sunni Arab versus Shia Persian sides.

 

Keee-Rhyest! (went the explosion).

 

Notice that our Christian-fostered (intra-Islam) meddling often adds a Crusades-like flavor to the already gasoline-impregnated fire. Oh, the Christians are choosing to befriend only one side of our Islamic split?

 

 

Is this all President Trump's fault?

 

Hardly.

 

American ignorance of this type goes back generations. And in a direction that fuels unnecessary tumult. We like inducing profitable wars.

 

 

The moral? — If it is superhumanly possible to act unbelievably dumb, we Americans will

 

"Let no depth of depraved stupidity go unexplored" is evidently our motto.

 

President Trump is America's true face, unmasked. We could not have chosen more self-revealingly. Those who deny this are indulging either self-guarding hypocrisy or ignorance of History.

 

As President Trump forcefully shoves his way across the world's physical and electronic forums, I give him almost appreciative respect:

 

 

No one else could have simultaneously stripped delusion and fostered illusion in quite so fascinating a mix.

 

The Trump Concoction requires showman's genius or an oddly visible form of (still task-functioning) madness.

 

 

The combination arguably characterizes the fully bared American "us".

 

Blaming the President for our culture's complacently flaunted ignorance and its imperialistically parasitic selfishness misses most of the truth.

 

It is ourselves we see in Trump's mirror. When revulsion occurs, our psychic defenses enthusiastically toss its sting onto the President alone. The unoffended rest of the population apparently does not mind being identified as the planet's most dominant barbarian horde.

 

It has been interesting and will remain so. We are only about 5 months into our nationally sponsored self-revelation experiment.