Your Other Left: Magna Carta Liberalism VS Regressive Left & Reactionary Right

The phenomenon of Donald Trump is the product of the way both the left and right in this country have obsessively placed tribal identity ahead of principles.  When ideological orthodoxy trumps intellectual honesty, when social justice trumps personal liberty, when ideas no longer matter because our minds are already made up that's when our fringe elements become mainstream. That's when we get Trump.

 Fascism and Stalinism won't appear waving copies of mein kampf or pravda.  They'll seep into the mainstream through the eyes of regular people who are frightened and angry at a political rally for a populist celebrity stoking fear and arousing bigotry, and they'll be young college students snapping their fingers and hysterically shouting about their need for a "safe space."  We have to start countering this sinister folderol now by promoting our principles.  If we don't promote our enlightenment values: democracy, pluralism, freedom of expression, the rule of law, then the definitions get confusing for people and they will gravitate to the charismatic angry people who are speaking to them.

Dogmatism and orthodoxy stifles debate and leads to a bleak place.  Fascism comes in many flavors, but whether it's Nazism, Stalinism, Klanism, Nationalism, or Theocracy, it has these constants: it promises answers that cannot be questioned and a perfect society or paradise that cannot be achieved, and it provides people with enemies both inside and outside to keep the paranoia and barbarism perpetually boiling.  These ideologies are sadistic and suicidal.  The enlightenment revolutionaries did not promise utopia.  All they promised they demanded for themselves: freedom under law.  The open societies that adopted the enlightenment principles are not paradise.  They are not intended to be perfect, because people and ideas are not perfect.  The promise of the open society is only that my freedom and your freedom are one and the same and as long as we demand this, we have a chance at justice and we have a chance at a functional society where equality is inherent.  It is this delicate balance of freedom under law that holds up the center and keeps the radical fringe at bay.

 The progressive movement, the regressive left, the libertarians, modern conservatism and academia have failed us.  Today we have allowed the fringes in to our homes and they got drunk and won't leave.  The right is drunk on xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, conspiracy theory and idiotic tribal rage. The left is drunk on their own sense of superiority and their concept inherent injustice. They're both redefining words to suit their philosophy and insisting that only they may debate issues on their terms and by casting everyone who disagrees with them into one group of "racists" or "socialists" they devalue the meaning of words.

All across the political spectrum, there are true liberals who care about liberal principles and intellectual diversity.  Some if them call themselves conservative, some call themselves liberal or progressive.  Some are atheists and some are religious.  It matters that these people do not agree on everything because what they agree on is made stronger by their differences.  In the months since Ben Affleck appeared on Bill Maher's show calling both Maher and writer Sam Harris gross and racist for criticizing ideas like female genital mutilation, and since the privileged students at universities across the US and Europe have begun attacking free speech, there has been an awakening of sorts.  We who reject the regressive left and the reactionary right are not going to be silent.  It is time to defend our principles.  It is time for Magna Carta Liberalism.

  Magna Carta Liberals who value enlightenment principles must challenge and ridicule this shit every single day.  Freedom under the rule of law and intellectual pluralism  is necessary for humans to have dignity, equality and justice.  What matters is not your tribal identity, but your ideas.  We should not apply different principles to different people.  We must begin with principle.

Your Other Left: United States & Turkey: an Exercise in Masochism

                   
The half billion dollar program to recruit and train a moderate Syrian rebel force to fight ISIS has been a failure. This is due largely to the fact that nearly everyone fighting in Syria is more interested in fighting Bashar Assad's government than fighting ISIS.  Its not like we in the west are fans of Assad (his biggest international fan is Vladimir Putin) but with the country in chaos and full of domestic and foreign warring factions, removal of Assad's government root and stalk would only perpetuate and worsen the chaos.  If some sense of order is restored then a new government would be a better prospect, especially if the civil servants, bureaucrats and military leadership can keep some semblance of continuity.  This is incredibly naive in light of everything we know about the Syrian civil war.  Assad is going to be removed and his government will be extirpated.  We cannot save him and we don't want to.  

Our alliance with regional players who are actively sabotaging our efforts makes the entire prospect of stabilizing Syria seem far fetched.  The United States relationship with Turkey is the most cringe-worthy example of this duplicitous trend. The willingness of Turkish officials to do business with ISIS and al Qaeda and refrain, until recently, to take any part in the fight against ISIS seems to have been forgotten.  The United States government seems to be ignoring the Turkish attacks on Kurdish fighters in Syria and Iraq and domestic police violence against Kurdish dissidents inside Turkey.  Turkish politics has descended into blatant authoritarianism.  The so called 'buffer zone' that Turkey wants between itself and Syria would be another in the series of new Berlin walls that are popping up all over the globe.  

This 'buffer zone' is least of all the distressing behavior of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  Since his party, the AKP, lost it's majority in recent elections, his covert support for ISIS and his unhinged paranoia about the Kurds and Assad have become more transparent and more well known.   We in the west can't even acknowledge the seriousness of ISIS as an enemy or measure our successes and failures on the battlefield since the administration, congress and the Pentagon have no coherent voice on this war. The assessment of this foe and the threat they pose has been delusional from the outset. The effort to motivate the various regional interests to work together against the Islamic State is a halfhearted approach to a serious problem.  Almost no regional party of importance is interested in the western objective which is eliminating ISIS as top priority



.

Turkey has worked hand in hand with ISIS and al Qaeda to fight the Kurds and the Assad regime and these relationships have not ended.  Saudi Arabia has been working with al Qaeda in Yemen.  Iran has a clear desire to fight ISIS, but they are terrible to the Kurds, supportive of terror groups in Yemen and have genocidal aspirations for Israel.  Iraq is just trying not to fall apart, but the Iranian influence has filled the void left by the US.  We can hope the new leadership can free itself from Iranian influence to some degree and make progress bringing moderate Sunnis back to the government. Iraq is still no accepting all of the arms the US has offered, and since they're the middle man between the US and the Peshmerga, this is an embarrassment.

The only people who are only interested in fighting ISIS happen to be the people who value pluralistic democracy, humanitarianism and equal rights above theocracy and tribalism.  The Kurds are eager to trade resources and ideas with any people that wish for such peaceful engagement.  Shouldn't the US policy be to double down on our support for the Kurds, who have been most effective at defeating and scattering ISIS from towns in Syria and Iraq, rather than this masochistic organizing strategy?

The creepy crawl of the Turkish state towards fascism and their known terror sponsorship should negate the longstanding relationship with the west, at least until democracy is restored and the police violence is stopped.  The various parties in the  region are more worried about Assad returning to power, greater Iranian or Saudi influence over Iraq and Syria, and Kurdish territorial expansion or establishment of a Kurdish state than about ISIS. Our efforts in Syria, Yemen, Iran and the region at large have put us on both sides of many confrontations.  Our support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen has helped al Qaeda. Our dealings with Turkey have hurt our Kurdish allies and helped ISIS and al Qaeda.  We don't need to cater to these regimes and double agent diplomacy serves only to drag this war

This absurd strategy is steeped in our geopolitical identity crisis.  Do we in the west care about preserving our principles and confronting undemocratic ideas? Might we forge new alliances with people because they share our values instead of the double agent diplomacy we've been mired in with burdensome friends like Saudi Arabia and Turkey? The fear of a Kurdish state is inspiring the Turkish collusion with ISIS and al Qaeda as much as the fear of Syrian Baathists returning to power.  The Kurds in Syria and Turkey, to their credit have said they do not want a state of their own but rather self determination and autonomy within existing states. 

While the Kurds have taken territory from ISIS, they've been hospitable to inhabitants and refugees and tried to deliver basic services.  Maybe what we ought to be doing is promoting the Kurds as an example of democratic ideals and altruism. A Kurdish state would be a strategic victory against the theocratic fascists and corrupt regimes in the middle east.

I think we ought to arm, support and equip the Kurds to completely secure Kurdish territory first.  From there we have several options and nine are certain to be available.  One possible outcome is that the Kurds defeating ISIS savagely and decisively will decimate the morale of ISIS fighters, dry up their recruitment and encourage others to fight ISIS in other territory.  Ultimately this whole fight requires unwavering leadership from the US and allies.  Part of that leadership may be to encourage Kurdish and international volunteer fighters to go beyond Kurdish territory simply to remove ISIS, free slaves and confiscate weapons and resources.  If the coalition is more committed to defeating these monsters, then the Kurds and other allies may be encouraged to take ISIS controlled territory for humanitarian purposes, not to hold the territory or annex it.  This means the forces fighting ISIS beyond Kurdish territory cannot fight under a Kurdish flag or Kurdish militia emblem.  A new regional force like NATO, if not NATO itself, including Kurdish, Iraqi, Syrian and international volunteers could take the remaining ISIS territory and hand it back to locals once peace is restored.  This is not too likely a scenario, but at the moment no good ideas seem likely.  Leadership is needed to defeat ISIS.  We need to forget this exercise in futility of begging others in the region to fight this enemy.  The US and UK have been in the middle east for so long that it's silly to pretend we can extricate ourselves while conducting air strikes and diplomacy.  We have alienated Arabs just by being there.  Lets go all in with the Kurds to defeat ISIS quickly, surge style, rather than continue a strategy that accepts ISIS as a long term reality.

Counter insurgency expert and pillow talk media source David Petraeus has been suggesting that the coalition work with the Syrian al Qaeda affiliate, al Nusra Front against ISIS since they are indeed more moderate than ISIS and he has successfully recruited al Qaeda militants in Iraq to assist US forces briefly in the past.  First of all, it isn't necessary to work with al Qaeda against ISIS since we are already working with both al Qaeda and ISIS through our masochistic relationship with Turkey. There is only one available option that would not indirectly aid at least one jihadist group, and that is to go all in with the Kurds to take and secure the Kurdish areas and remove ISIS from Iraqi cities. If we have military success and effectively diminish ISIS territory, the humiliation will start to dry up their recruitment and it will only be a matter of time before ISIS is isolated in Raqqa. At that point, everyone who was reluctant to help before will smell blood in the water and begin fighting over who will take Raqqa. In the meantime we will have killed a good amount of barbaric thugs and freed some slaves. Every minute we are not freeing slaves is a minute we are complicit in the slavery, rape and torture we have the means to stop. And nobody is going to tell me we have to work with al Qaeda to get this done.