The ME - a Distant Land

Someone who used to post here, but evidently gave up put a comment on another blog to the effect that my views on the ME are unacceptable 1- because they are not Chomskyite (i.e. seeking revolution everywhere in the best anarchist and socialist tradition) and 2- because some of my views are compatible with Israeli analysis. I can only say that for me the ME is a distant and somewhat alien place even after so many years of work there or about there. Anyone who thinks I ever went "Asiatic" is wrong As for the Israelis and their views I am simply indifferent to the Israelis and their country. If they "get it right" at times, well, to quote von Rumsfeld, "even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then." pl

Comments

[Matthew]

"...I am simply indifferent to the Israelis and their country."

Something tells me that Mitt Romney won't be calling after Jan. 20th.....

[turcopolier]

Matthew

I sure hope not. pl

[Jake]

Colonel - Bet your also not going to get a Hanukkah Card from AIPAC! Giv'em an education! If they can't get that one. Then giv'em hell!

[J]

How fast would he get the 'dial tone' in his ear if he did?

[Jose]

Romney is the Shillary of this election, great chance to win as a moderate combined with the stupidity of becoming a NeoNuts = Good bye!

Col., at least you do not pretend to change your views to your audience.

[Roy G.]

Col, I beg your pardon, but your critical stance against the Zionist project pretty closely aligns with Chomsky's own. Just sayin'.

[YT]

Jose,

Estamos de acuerdo, esé.

Unlike the many fool S.O.B.s out there whom I'm all too familiar with my side of the hemisphere, at the very least our host has the cojones to stick to his personal convictions.

[Petrous]

Well put Mr. Lang.

[Pirouz]

Colonel, my dad came from an elite Middle East family and my mom from an American military family (ethnic Native American). A union of this sort was (is?) only possible by accident in San Francisco, in the late 1950s. I was the result.

I lived in Tehran for a year as a teen in the 1970s.

I can tell you this, I know how those people think over there, which may give me a leg up on other military observers here in the U.S. Can't say if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but they rarely catch me by surprise.

-Mark

[turcopolier]

RoyG

That must be the only thing about which our opinionsare even a little close. pl

[William R. Cumming]

PL! Question or perhaps questions!

Has the US foreign policy and political establishment been able to understand and integrate fully the dramatic scene of the Arab Spring and will any recalibration occur of our foreign relations? Do you have a favorite open source article or book on events in MENA so far?

Any indication that wars of religion will now be taking place even more often in Nigeria?

[Russ Wagenfeld]

Hi Pat,
"even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then." That pretty much sums up my goal scoring career on the ice. I think Israeli analysis of near term situations is fairly accurate it is with the longer range strategy/policies that their analysis is seriously flawed.
Regards,
Russ

[The beaver]

OT

Has the s--t hit the fan?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15936213

I guess the Iranians read the British rags, after all LOL!!!!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/liam-fox-adam-werritty-and-the-curious-case-of-our-man-in-tel-aviv-6268640.html

[Charlie Wilson]

Damn Mark! A whole year in Tehran as a teen and progeny of a military family (what the hell is a military family anyway, even American) and elite middle eastern DNA. In that time you learned how those people think and are never surprised. I am surprised you haven't been recruited as a HVHUMINT star!

[highlander]

Colonel,

Well,I for one,with no middle eastern experience, would be interested in what just what makes up the matrix of your thought process, when it comes to that blessed corner of the globe.

You are a man of definite and well formed opinions about the region's players. Give us a few clues as to how you arrive at these conclusions. Maybe you are right about the Israelis,and I'm wrong.

[Roy G.]

Actually, you're also in agreement on the deplorable state of the Media, in how it services power. Chomsky's book, Manufacturing Consent, laid this out back in 1988, way before FOX News. Again, just sayin'.

[Roy G.]

beaver, i've been wondering why that Fox scandal hasn't gotten more play on this side of the pond. I'd like to think if our SecDef had a Zionist boy toy accompanying him on secret unofficial meetings with the Mossad and other Israeli big wigs about Iran, it would be a huuuuge scandal. But then again...

[Harper]

To put your carefully chosen words more bluntly: Chomsky has a severe form of the leftist disease of seeing the United States purely as an evil empire. He is reactive and just hates all things American. It's common among leftists outside the United States--it's more blatant, and therefore, more transparent, among some leading leftist intellectuals who happen to be American. I won't get into Chomsky's work on artificial intelligence/linguistics for NATO, and possible psychiatric explanations for his anti-American knee-jerkism. Col. Lang has deep insights into the Arab and Muslim World, particularly of the Middle East, and this is valuable, especially when it carries a unique American patriotic brand of sometimes-frayed optimism about how the world can be bettered. It is most valuable when the American patriot puts his insights and desires to help without cultural imperial views and snobbery into tackling such tough matters as the Arab world. It reminds me of the American post-Civil War generals (both Union and Confederate) who gave a decade of their lives to creating a military-nationalist tradition in Egypt, that to this day impacts on the situation there.

[Hawi Moore]

I have read most of the comments posted and this has helped me pick a few useful things thanks all