Thursday, January 09, 2020

The President Says, "AMF" Middle East

Way back in the day, leaving unpleasant things like the Vietnam War, a common military parting shot was "AMF" (you can look up it meaning all by yourselves).

In this interesting piece by Roger Kimball in Spectator USA, Mr. Kimball puts it more a more refined manner:
On the world stage, Iran is a bit player, especially now that the United States does not need Middle Eastern oil. Really, Iran is an exotic curiosity, a country with a magnificent past that has been captive of an insane theocratic ideology for the past 40 years. Iran is not the staging ground of World War III, just a brutal and pathetic backwater.
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The third take away concerns Donald Trump and his legacy. In acting decisively in response to the sighting of Soleimani and his henchman, in acting with caution and deliberation in response to Iran’s calculatedly feeble response, President Trump has showed both that you attack the United States or its people at your peril and that America is getting out of the nation-building neocon regime-change business.

The elimination of Soleimani was not a prelude to deeper US involvement in the Middle East. It was a farewell letter. Always admitting the fickleness of contingency, it nonetheless looks as though Donald Trump will go down as the man who catalyzed the United States economy, who brought unemployment down to historic lows, who goosed real wages, especially at the lower levels, who made important inroads against the stultifying miasma of the the regulatory state while also resuscitating the US military, curbing illegal immigration, and — just now — extricating the United States from foreign involvements that help no one but our enemies.
So, Middle East, it's not us, it's you, so enjoy yourselves in your regional squabbles, but if you mess with us again, it will be like that Toby Keith song:



Next time we won't be coming back to pick up the pieces.

We have more important matters to attend to.

AMF!

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