STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

Recent Increase in Intensity of  Syrian Civil War / Escape of Afghanistan Prisoners: Predictable Outcomes of American Intervention!

I am compelled to belabor the point that our past jingoist cavalier invasions of both Iraq and Afghanistan were geopolitically destabilizing and self-destructive to American interests.    What arose subsequently in both countries were a series of shifting battle scenarios and confusing alliances among so-called ‘terrorists’.   These ersatz terrorists were reacting to the very disruptive nature of the American invasion itself;  as well as the ‘untoward consequences’ to the quotidian life of the particular citizenries.   In simple terms,  invasions are by their very nature exceedingly complicated to plan,  execute and predict.

  I speak not from someone who has been on a military planning staff but rather as a professional who has had to deal with the travail and hardships of evolving civil wars initiated by the USG or other so-called Super Powers [read Russia, France, England, et. al].    I  cast no aspersions on anyone,  least of all our own military,  which has had a certain proclivity to relearn lessons of combat and asymmetric warfare,  not once but again and again… until they forget it all together.   That’s why we have War Colleges,   a futile attempt to instill creativity and ‘out-of-box-thinking’.  

But enough carping….  

The recent escalation in the Syrian Civil War where a Baskin-Robbins assortment of 31 flavors of newly created terrorist cells are fighting one another as well as their principle enemy Bashar Assad,  illustrates the tenets that I have called the Dr P. Principles of Permeability of Enemies:

[1] War is not an extension of policy.   I basically refute Clausewitz.

[2] War is fought for only one reason—to fight a war.   Rarely are there other reasons like land access, oil or my favorite- humanitarian reasons.

[3] The more complex the war becomes,  the greater the theory of reductionism comes into play.   Witness the Iraq War when Gen Shenseki argued for a minimum force structure of 250,000 yet only 75,000 soldiers were granted by Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz.

[4] Most American Wars are initiated by Presidents and senior Officials who have never engaged in any form of combat  or were directly involved in any form of death defying overseas ‘enterprises’ ,  either in single or multiple units.

[5] War is an abstract concept for war planners.    It has very little textural, visceral or consequential component to it.  More like a game.

[6] The  inherent nature of war is referred to as ‘unexpected consequences’ implying that despite serious planning and foresight,  what subsequently occurred was ‘force major’ or an ‘act of God’ for which the military planners and POTUS are not responsible?!?

[7] In every civil war around the world,  there are ‘extremists’ with whom we cannot deal with; and ‘moderates’ with whom we can work with and even arm with necessary supplies.

[8] These so-called civil wars have shifting alliances where there is no spectrum of moderate to extremists.  All elements of the civil war have but one interest—their own specific power gain, bereft of any other considerations.   Each group, despite rhetoric to the contrary, want to prevail in an extremely competitive field of killing, mutilation, and barbarism.

[9] At any given time or place, if one were to identify a terrorist group, there is a very high probability that the terrorist group was either created by a major superpower or it’s proxy.   Once that anointed terrorist group has been created,  trained and supplied by a superpower or proxy,  it will, more often than not, ‘blowback’ on it’s creator and switch sides to destroy the ‘creator’.

[10] The number of different terrorist groups are never measured in ‘additive terms’ but in ‘exponential variants’.

 For example, if there are four different terrorist groups fighting in Syria [which there are] then the number of permutations of potential enemies is NOT ADDITIVE:

• Four Plus Three Plus Two Plus One = 10 different groups fighting among each other.

• Rather the real number of potential fighting groups and enemy combatants are:

• Four Times Three Times Two Times One= 24 different permutation of groups that shift back and forth at any given time and place.

Remember that no one anointed leader is ever grateful for American assistance or presence in his country.   Witness the bipolar phenomenon Hamid Karzai. Born, bred and nurtured by “CIA” and Dr Zalmay Khalilzad.    Now Karzai refuses to work with the USG and releases all our American captured Afghan militants.

These civil wars lead to massive displacements of people,  personnel and countries.   The most natural consequence is a humanitarian disaster accompanied by more fighting until another dictator or authoritarian leader arises and the USG forgets about the countries that it had unnecessarily invaded.

Lets not forget the brave American men/women who are killed, mutilated and are immediately shuffled to the backwards of a dysfunctional VA Hospital system rife with cash and entrenched in stifled bureaucracy.    All these America casualties are retitled ‘wounded warriors’ for purposes of alleviating the military/civilian conscience.   Post conflict,  most ‘wounded warriors’ wondered why they had gone into combat in the first place and was it worth it??

All these America initiated wars are costly and create a massive interregnum financial/political domestic stagnation which takes decades to realign into some semblance of normalcy.   Then of course we have the senior military /civilian initiators of the unnecessary war write ‘biographies’ justifying their incompetency and malignant narcissism.   These phantasmagorical biographies usually receive seven figure advances which never is justified; while the ‘wounded warriors’ and brave veterans have a ‘hard time’ maintaining an ordinary life and even a harder time  supporting  their family.    Predictably the mainstream media fellates these senior leaders and military planners so that they can also write non-fiction books that receive only six figure advances while they continue to appear on disappearing talk shows –providing a surplus of ‘talking heads’ or ‘bullshitters’. 

I hope that I have made my point.

I am becoming fagged out by the inanity of our past,  present and future military/intelligence escapades.   I call them escapades, because for the most part our military has become nothing more than men/women dressed in some camouflaged uniform that presages nothing more certain death or highly probable dismemberment.    US military leadership has lost it’s credibility and legitimacy by parading on the grounds of some pristine fort where there will be no chance of their ever encountering mishap or ‘collateral damage’.

  As for our intelligence, it is beyond resuscitation.

Yet on a bright note,  our CIA, SEAL, and other SOF units seem to have a Hollywood-Tropic tendency.

  Recommend:  that we dissolve the Pentagon,  for it’s nothing more than an elaborate Home Depot of antiquated and futuristic military supplies, and transform it into a subsidiary of NETFLIX,  PARAMOUNT,  UNIVERSAL or better yet---WALT DISNEY STUDIOS.   At the rate that our military/intelligence community creates ‘stand downs’, ‘false flags’ and fictional tales of rescue,  let’s use their collective imaginative talents to further their fictional careers  in the entertainment industry..

Yet,  I am grateful for the presence of our military because they afford me characters and interesting places where I can visualize that next exciting scenario for TOM CLANCY’S OP CENTER and NET FORCE.

Seriously,  what would I do without Muslim Terrorists or North Korean ‘mad men’? 

  Thanks!! 

And good luck on your next unnecessary invasion. !!!