Our Foreign Policy in the Middle East

OUR FOREIGN POLICY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Mon. Feb. 23rd, 2015

A charge of heartlessness has been made against ISIS, the Islamic State.  The charge is well-founded.

Can a well-founded charge of heartlessness be made against American foreign policy in the Middle East?

The questions has to do with bombs dropped from airplanes, and explosives projected by drone missiles.

Of the various parts of American foreign policy, the part that interests me the most is the part of our foreign policy which lives in the hearts of our people.  The foreign policy which lives in the hearts of our people is that bombs dropped from airplanes are completely unrelated to bombs exploded by suicide bombers.

This has to do with playing from a position of strength.  The strong player is against sneakiness, but in favor of using weapons which the other side can't afford.  ("They can't afford it" includes "they don't have the technology for it.")  In the current state of warfare, bombs dropped from airplanes, and explosives thrown by drone missiles, are weapons which the other side can't afford.

Let's get back to heartlessness.  Are bombs dropped from airplanes and explosives thrown by drones heartless?

The standard answer is "You don't want to know" and its mutation "You can't handle the truth."

Some can, some can't.  It ties in with the strange picture of the monkey with his hands over his eyes, whose name is See No Evil.

See No Evil is a heck of a weird saying.  Does it really mean, I am more virtuous if I don't see evil?

I think what the saying "See no evil" is trying to mean is, "Don't feast your eyes on evil, if evil excites you."  Because "See no evil" had better not mean "If you see evil, turn your face away."  Turning your face away from evil was the behavior of the priest and Levite who came before the good Samaritan, and Jesus did not praise the priest and the Levite for their behavior.  The only actually virtuous meaning which "See no evil" can have is the meaning that if evil excites you, you need to avoid that excitement exactly the same way the straight alcoholic avoids taking an alcoholic drink.

Also -- and this is based on a story I read about the sinking of the Titanic -- if something horrible is happening, it's all right to put your hands over your child's eyes.

But putting your hands over your own eyes when you see evil is not the point of the saying "See no evil."

So to me, the question is not whether one person or another person can handle the truth.  The question is whether our foreign policy will be more productive if the American people are keenly aware of the evil consequences which a military strategy of bombing has for many innocent families of people native to the Middle East.

I believe the bombs we drop from airplanes and the explosives we detonate from drone missiles, in the Middle East, are heartless.  That would put the United States in the same category with ISIS.

What to do?  Repent of our foreign policy in the Middle East, and make a better one.  Repent, before the other side learns how to use the weapons we have been using against them.

There is another important angle to the sorrow we are storing up for ourselves.  Namely, the whore of Babylon.  She raises her ugly head in the Book of Revelation, chapter 17.  When we Christians read it, we need to remember, this is Saint John's euphemism.  John was a citizen or a subject of the Roman Empire -- the Roman Empire had both citizens and subjects -- and when he wrote about Babylon, he was really talking about Rome.  He was talking about the enemy of Jerusalem in his own generation.  He wasn't talking about the enemy of Jerusalem five hundred years earlier.  Indeed, the United States has changed its enemies and its allies many times in half of five hundred years.  John was talking about Rome.  Many people hear this, and they say "Ahh, that is SO unimportant."  It's not.  Your country has absolutely no right to persecute Babylon (Iraq) because of Saint John's euphemism.  Word. 

Furthermore, you need to think very carefully about Rome's role in the persecution of Jesus.  Rome, Europe, and the United States owe reparations to the Middle East, which is the cradle of religion, because we have mishandled our Arabic policy.  "No posthumous victories for Hitler" said Fackenheim -- alas!  The shambles of our policy towards Arab and Islamic nations is a monstrous victory for Hitler.  We fail to notice, that Hitler would have been just as happy persecuting Arabs as he was persecuting Jews.

As far as reparations are concerned, a suitable place to begin would be by dismantling the Arch of Titus.  But, if someone says "Rome" today, it might be a euphemism for the United States.

We have prophets in the United States, prophets of good quality.  I urge my fellow Americans to listen way more carefully to the prophets among us.  We need to get much better at diving down into the mud and getting to the bottom of each other's hearts.  It will make our country both stronger and better-hearted.