The Vulture Theory and Western Civilization's Stumbling Gait

Now Playing: "Heretics" by Shawn Lane, Jonas Hellborg, Jeff Sipe, from "Time Is The Enemy" (1996)

Once-Great Britain's craven submission to the recent Iranian act of war is like a dear friend in the throes of some wasting disease. Worse still is the knowledge that the disease is a contagion and that we (meaning: America,) have caught it too. Blogger Stephen Browne has written a couple of excellent post-mortems, or mortem-posts, that encapsulate Britain's descent from proud empire to groveling dog. [April 01 and April 02 posts, "Now who rules the waves" and "The British Fleet" respectively.]

America has scarcely done better - it's just performed its own submissive belly-up with a little more bluster. As I've written to the Administration and to my Congressional buffoons, Iran's Mr. Ahmad-in-a-jar should have been staring at large, smoldering craters where his nuclear weapons facilities used to be, some 18 to 24 months ago, courtesy the United States Armed Forces. The momentum for action, which peaked just after confirmation of that weapons program hit the news, has been lost, but it could and should be undertaken regardless. A followup communique thereafter, along the lines of Walter Williams' suggestion, would be to politely inform the Iranian regime that any future attempts to rebuild nuclear weapons facilities will meet an identical fate. We needn't even engage in war per se, just some thorough precision bombing to take some dangerous toys away from a psychotic punk.

Instead, our President sits on his hands pending the actual vaporization of Israeli cities or perhaps an American harbor or two - any of which scenarios will become not just possible but probable should Iran's juggernaut finally acquire nukes. That is an eventuality we cannot afford, and...wasn't President Bush's initial statement something like "Iran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons"? Idle banter, apparently.

The humiliation that Iran would (and should) suffer as a result - and which it should have suffered from the British the moment Iran began abducting its sailors - would achieve a destabilization of Ahmadinejad's regime that would essentially eliminate it as the prime supporter of the Iraq insurgency; it would also leave him vulnerable to ouster by an Iranian populace that is reportedly quite disgusted with his lunacy.

That's three birds with one stone just for starters but....naaaaah. We'd first need principled leadership from at least the White House, but Bush has shown himself to be a follower, not a leader. And Congress? No comment. Grab these links and use them - those insular, monarchic politicians seem to have forgotten their mission. Remind them.

The standard-issue vulture is the quintessential coward, yet it survives as a species by sensing mortal weakness in creatures it wouldn't ordinarily dare come near. America, its allies and Western Civilization as a whole have attracted the attention of at least three such scavengers, and so far the great and noble animal has only managed an apathetic stare at them.

Let's meet Vulture #1: America elected perhaps the worst President in its history in 1976; a mere three years later the same fool acted as midwife to a brand-spankin' new vulture, Islamic terrorism. By allowing the newborn monster to sink its claws into America for 444 days that fool injected the political equivalent of steroids into the scavenger, so as to ensure it would grow up big and strong. It did. A seemingly endless succession of capitulations, hand-slaps, blind-eye-turns, empty posturing and toothless "responses" in the years since had led to the attacks of September 11, 2001. It only took some three years thereafter for America to slip into a "That was then, this is now" apathy, compounded by a relapse into that bizarre drug-induced '60s neurosis called "pacifism";

Vulture #2: As outlined here in recent posts, the reconstituted anti-capitalist movement has shifted into overdrive and has taken the 2006 election rout as a green flag - pun if you want one - for a full-scale fascistic putsch directed at the whole of the modern industrial world;

Vulture #3: There is disturbing evidence that vestigial Marxists are again gaining a foothold in Central and South America, some of which regression is being promoted under the auspices of Communist China - though it is unclear what ratio of economic to military comprises China's motives; the same noxious ideology remains a corrosive element in American academia and politics; their ultimate target is of course Americanism, anathema to collectivists of every stripe.

The common perch for these three king-sized vultures is philosophical default, which has left Britain, America and the rest of the semi-civilized world incapable even of mustering a healthy sense of self-preservation.

Vultures, again, have an uncanny ability to perceive mortal weaknesses in their prey - hence today's headlines.

I say we aim at that perch they're sitting on first...