By Alex Roberts
Look, everyone knows that America in the 21st century has been, shall we say…a bit careless foreign policy wise?
Indeed, the big swinging dick of America has smashed up a region; all while apologizing to no one and holding flyovers of bomb-carrying jets over crowded stadiums in Texas.
This past 36 hours has been the thesis statement to America’s current inherent dumbness; to dive in balls deep into a situation that they can’t possibly comprehend (in Trump’s case, barely form words around). That being said, the situation in Iran is a dire one; that at this juncture looks as a near certainty to result in a minimum of an escalated proxy war, and a maximum of God help us all.
It makes one wonder, with such reckless and blatantly illegal action, is East Africa entirely secured from American imperialist action? From where this writer sits, unfortunately, the answer is a resounding no.
‘Madness!’ You retort, ‘When has a Western power behaved recklessly through militaristic pissing contests in the sphere of the African continent? Surely there is no track history of imperial military action? When has there ever been a proxy war on the part of foreign super powers anywhere in this region?’
Was that too on the nose? Apologies I suppose, all though the utter speed of the descent since the New Years has me to shook to make such niceties.
Let’s be absolutely clear, at a minimum, this conflict will cost lives in the thousands, directly from what happened yesterday. Yeah, yeah, yeah he was asshole, so was Bin Laden, and how’s Afghanistan been lately? How far reaching were those consequences? The ripple effects will run deep, long and miserable in the Middle East and may not be contained just to a regional conflict.
What’s the phrase? When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled.
On top of Trump having to show off his ego, this latest action raises some very significant questions about the extra judicial nature of United States policy of isolationist- interventionism: where does it end?
General Qassim Suleimani was Iranian, a member of an organization declared terrorist in nature by the American government, and was bombed on third party sovereign soil in Iraq outside of an international airport.
So, does that entail US drones having a green-light to strike suspected al-Shabaab members in Nairobi or Kampala? Members of the organization are spread all across the region- so just how slippery is this slope? Are Kenya and Tanzania expected to more heavily allow their ports to US war ships to dock enroute to bombing more innocents? What could be the Iranian response to that?
If the conflict escalates, it could embroil and ensnare much farther than anyone could anticipate.
A teacher once compared World War I to a bar fight; everyone had to back up their friends, and in the end the bar lay in utter ruins. Iran is allies with Russia, who are closely aligned with China. China wields incredible influence across the East African region. Are we to expect random proxy wars as superpowers vie for further influence in an expanding conflict?
Don’t worry, it’s not like the Americans or Brits have major strategic military bases in the East African region or anything…
These are dark thoughts to put out while many of you readers are most certainly still mildly hangied from the New Years; but it is a stark situation, and sugarcoating issues got Trump to the White House in the first place.
Now the entire world seems to stand at the edge of a precipice entirely born out of stupidity, but such things have occurred before. It is a difficult time to predict; as much uncertainty seems to abide right now; but one thing is for sure, whatever happens just keep some middle fingers up on behalf of the innocent people in the Middle East who will suffer and die at the behest of an evil and small-minded ignoramus.
To someone like Trump, it doesn’t matter, you don’t matter and neither does anything your country has done or will do. For a man like that, if you can call him a man, the end result is always him ‘winning’ for a second time. Anything or anyone that helps him get there is a tool to be used; I mean, he views the America that way, what pause could he possibly have about using Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania or Uganda? None.
Just remember, to Trump, you’re just a shit hole anyway, not even a continent, not even nations, cultures, people, lives. A shit hole. I’d imagine he thinks of much of the world through such tainted orange lenses, but he’s said it about Africa (as a singular) specifically.
What do you think he cares about expanding his policies, making demands of the region, leveraging one or more East African nations as allies at the barrel of a gun and then cutting and running as soon as a random foreign power tells him to?
What’s a shit hole worth to such a piece of shit?
