Thomas Wictor

I’ve always been a patriotic American. Our nation’s ideals are truly unique. However, I’ve recently had to accept that much of the criticism we experience as a world power is completely warranted. The worst thing about us is our arrogance. We believe that we’re the best and always will be the best. This is wrong. We’ve been utterly outclassed by people who “elites” consider our inferiors.

Everybody hates Donald Trump. Fine. In a representative democratic republic, we get the government that the voters want. That’s why I’ve never been upset by election results. This is how the system works.

But now I think it’s time for emergency psychiatric intervention on a nation-wide scale. Here’s what I just read about Donald Trump in National Review.

Irrational, mercurial, draconian, solipsist — all wrapped up in a neat little persecution complex. I wouldn’t put him in the Oval Office, but he has the makings of a fine Saudi sheikh.

The author is Andrew C. McCarthy.

National Review chose a photo that makes Trump look like a maniac, so I wanted you to see how easy it is to find unflattering imagery. It’s the cheapest of all cheap shots, like shooting tuna in a barrel.

The thing is, McCarthy is no idiot. Here’s his resume.

Andy is a former Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney in New York, best known for leading the prosecution against the Blind Sheik (Omar Abdel Rahman) and eleven other jihadists for waging a terrorist war against the United States – including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a plot to bomb New York City landmarks. After the 9/11 attacks, he supervised the U.S. attorney’s command-post near Ground Zero. He later served as an advisor to the Deputy Secretary of Defense.

We need the Saudis on board in a war against Muslim terrorism. And the Saudis are, in fact, on board. They’re doing a much better job than we ever did, so McCarthy’s arrogance is misplaced. We’re in no position to be making fun of anyone. We’re the clowns.

Arrogance precedes collapse

To be clear: The American men and women who fight our wars in the Middle East are not to blame for our failures. Our civilian and military leadership simply made incorrect assumptions. I myself made incorrect assumptions. Based on what Arabs had been saying for decades, I honestly thought that overthrowing Saddam Hussein would allow the Iraqis to create a functioning democracy. I was wrong. So was Andrew C. McCarthy.

Jeb Bush is not alone in failing to grapple with these failures. All of us who supported the Iraq invasion must answer for them.

One of the Saudis who Andrew C. McCarthy disdains as irrational, mercurial, draconian, and solipsist, all wrapped up in a neat little persecution complex, went on record with the following prediction before we launched Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Regime change would lead to the destruction of Iraq, and would threaten to destabilise the entire Middle East region, Prince Saud said.

“If change of regime comes with the destruction of Iraq, then you are solving one problem and creating five more problems. That is the consideration that we have to make, because we are living in the region. We will suffer the consequences of any military action.”

Regime change can only be a possibility if it is done “indigenously”, he said.

His name was Saud bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and he was smarter than we are.

The Saudis are still smarter than we are.

Not arrogance

It’s easy to criticize Saudi Arabia. However, I refuse to do it publicly. As far as I can tell, the Saudis are running one of the most brilliantly effective military campaigns in human history, completely putting their money where their mouths are. That earns them a lot of goodwill from me.

Though it appeared that there would be no solution in Syria, the Saudis have begun to implement one. The Syrian Democratic Forces (QSD) are the best combatants in the war. This group came out of nowhere and has existed for only four months. It’s comprised of Kurds, Muslim Arabs, Turkmens, and Syriac Christians. Within the QSD is the Syrian Arab Coalition, currently fighting west of the Euphrates River while the Kurds who live in the east have remained there.

To my utter shock, Turkey is providing long-range, precision artillery fire in support of the Syrian Arab Coalition near Manbij.

Nobody knew that Turkey had this capability. I think Israel supplied the Top Gun guidance fuse for the Turkish 155mm artillery rounds.

Someone was able to convince Turkey to engage in combat on behalf of the Kurdish-dominated QSD. I can guarantee you that no American would’ve been able to pull that off. It was the Saudis. The Manbij offensive is being conducted in secret, another way I know that the Saudis are involved.

Our arrogance is misplaced

From early 2013 until September of 2015, the US ran the Military Operations Command (MOC) in Amman, Jordan, to help the Southern Front of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) defeat Bashar al-Assad in Daraa Governorate.

From what I can gather, President Obama micromanaged the MOC, demanding to approve the supply of weapons for individual tactical operations such as attacks on specific trenches, bunkers, etc. As always, we bungled by choosing the wrong people. The Southern Front included Islamists who kept betraying our plans to the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State.

On March 26, 2015, Saudi Arabia and a coalition of eight other countries began an air campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels who overthrew the government in Yemen. Reporters and “human rights” organizations have accused the Coalition of wide-scale war crimes, but there’s literally no evidence whatsoever that these allegations have merit. I’d bet you any amount of money that these are lies, since the Saudis have staffed their Yemen command center with American, British, and other military officials who report back to their own countries.

Although the war in Yemen has genuine goals, the Saudis also used it as a stunningly effective deception operation. By not vociferously defending themselves, the Saudis allowed world attention to focus on Yemen. Nobody noticed what was happening in Syria. There’s no doubt that thousands of Arab special-operations troops entered Syria and are fighting as the Syrian Arab Coalition and other groups. Arab militias that had no weapons or equipment are now effortlessly taking territory back from the Islamic State.

The Saudis are creating the Sunni alternative to al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and Wahhabism. It can’t be publicly acknowledged because of the vast numbers of insane people on the planet. A non-Muslim in California said this today.

Take that level of slobbering irrationality and ramp it up by a factor of ten thousand, and you’ll have the mindset of too many Middle Easterners. The Saudis know this, which is why they fight clandestinely in Syria. Also, the SYRIAN Democratic Forces must be the winners. As in Yemen, the Arab League is assisting, not running the show. Most of the ground troops in Yemen are Yemenis, while I’m sure that fewer than 10,000 Arab special operators are in Syria.

In our arrogance, we didn’t reset

Much is being made of an alleged Syrian-Russian victory.

Western-backed Syrian rebels on Tuesday suffered one of their most significant defeats since Russia’s military intervention in Syria turned the tide of the war in favor of President Bashar al-Assad, further complicating prospects for a negotiated settlement at peace talks scheduled later this week in Geneva.

After a month-long offensive backed by Russian warplanes, government forces and allied ­militias reclaimed control of the town of Sheikh Miskeen, strategically located at a crossroads commanding a southern supply route between the Jordanian border and the Syrian capital, Damascus.

It was the latest in a string of defeats inflicted on rebel fighters in recent weeks, as Assad loyalists finally start to capitalize on nearly four months of intense Russian airstrikes that have mostly targeted the anti-Assad rebellion.

Pure fantasy. It took the Syrians and Russians a full month to not-quite defeat a ramshackle, suicidal circus.

Civilians, journalists and opposition fighters blamed recent infighting between FSA-affiliated brigades and one hardline Islamist group as a critical factor in the city’s fall to the Syrian army.

“One of the main reasons for the fall of Sheikh Miskeen has been ongoing infighting between Harakat al-Muthanna and the [FSA-affiliated] Southern Front,” Mahameed told Syria Direct Tuesday.

Last Monday, Syria Direct reported on the rise of intra-rebel tensions between Harakat al-Muthanna al-Islamiya, of salafi-jihadi leanings, and two FSA affiliates over accusations that the former had engaged in a series of “kidnappings, assassinations and intimidation,” culminating in the abduction of the head of the Daraa Provincial Council.

Russia is providing the semblance of air support, but in reality, Assad’s enemies are defeating themselves in the south. Compare that to the north, where Turkey is essentially fighting on the side of the Kurds, and the QSD is capturing villages, oil fields, refineries, granaries, and dams without damaging them.

And the combat in northern Syria is more ferocious than that in the south. You can tell by videos of the aftermath.

The QSD has said that it’ll liberate all of Syria. That’s not arrogance; they have the ability to make good on their promise. New weapons and highly trained professional warriors make the difference. My guess is that when the last battle begins—Syrians and Hezbollah versus Arab League special forces—Putin will offer Assad asylum in Russia.

Saudi Arabia talked both Russia and Turkey into cooperating. Neither the US nor Europe were able to do that.

We should be so lucky that our next president have the brains and skills of a Saudi sheikh.

Behold one of my favorite works of art, created by a Saudi. It’s the human condition in less than four minutes.

Whoever you are, Scobla, I can’t thank you enough for sending a burger into space. Your movie is magic, the polar opposite of arrogance.