BIDEN BOMBS, That Didn’t Take Long Did It?

Getting rid of Trump was what any sane American, or citizen of the

world wanted. He was a disaster for the US both home and abroad.

Only the most brain-washed of his supporters

would beg to differ. So once Trump sulked off into the Florida

distance aboard Marine-One, it felt like the new Biden presidency

could only be nothing but good. It had to be, just had to be, right?

Sadly, no.

The American presidency comes with a lot of things, including

tradition. Whether delivering the State of the Union address or

forgiving a Thanksgiving turkey, some things never change. And

never was that truer than the Presidential pastime of bombing the

Middle East. A mere five weeks into his term, and Biden has

unleashed American firepower on Iranian backed targets in Syria.

American security is, of course, important. So too is its strategic

interests around the world. But hitting Iranian backed militia in

Syria? Again? Syria has been torn apart by a Byzantine civil war

that has been raging on for nearly a decade now. The country is a

ruin and at the mercy of any number of state and regional actors.

The last thing it needed was another dose of Uncle Sam’s remote

explosive “justice.” And come to that, the American people don’t

need to be associated with that either.

It appears that whoever is in the White House, some things never

change, including that the Middle East remains a continual punching-bag

for the American military and the hawks that haunt the Pentagon.

This starts to look suspiciously like the US has a penchant for

targeting those of a, shall we say, non-white disposition.

Since the end of the Second World War, the US has viewed the

Middle East as a chess-board to be played in the name of big oil-

dollars and strategic gambits. The Islamic Republic of Iran is all too

often singled out as the number one enemy in the Middle East by

president after president, administration after administration.

How very convenient to have such a high visibility punching-bag to lash out

at. Likewise, how fortuitous is it for the US to “overlook” the fact

that they helped bring about the Islamic Republic in the first place.

Washington’s near-sighted backing of an increasingly autocratic

Shah of Iran throughout the 60s and 70s paved the way for the

popular unrest of the people of Iran to boil over and pave the way to

the current Islamic Republic. Or let’s look at it another way –

Persian (Iranian) culture has been around for thousands of years and

has fought endless adversaries. The US is no different in their

great scheme of things.

History aside, the financial cost of America throwing its substantial

military weight around is mind-boggling. The planning, building and

maintaining of American air power is now running into trillions of

dollars in the last 30 years alone. And it shows no sign of slowing up

any time soon. Of course, there is always money to be found for

that – why ever not?! Paying off student debt, or affordable health

care for everyone? Good Lord no – how could we ever afford that

sort of thing?

American defense spending is, to put it bluntly, obscene. It spends

yearly more on its military than the next ten leading world powers do

combined. A country that can bomb a militant’s bunker to

smithereens in the depths of the Syrian desert but can’t provide

either affordable education or health care has no basis in claiming

any sort of moral high ground.

Trump spent four years showing up America’s very worst traits. He

was the walking, babbling embodiment of everything that is wrong

with the US.

Biden, although much more polished and presentable as

a president, is quickly perpetuating the myth that the US is a

forever military bully. Especially when it comes to peoples of a

certain ethnicity, religion or region.

The situation in Syria is extraordinarily complicated and that

complication is only amplified by hawks in the Pentagon continuing to

push for military strikes in the region. It didn’t work before. Why

would it be any different now? The US already has a sullied

reputation in the Middle East (outside of Israel) and Biden is

ensuring that this latest heavy-handed display of military crotch-

grabbing is maintaining that bleak view of the US as held by millions

in the region.

Didn’t take long for Biden, now did it?