Wednesday, September 06, 2006

The Ugly American Award Winner - Ralph Peters

Ralph Peters is a retired Lieutenant Colonel, FOX military consultant, and a writer of fiction and non-fiction who has a hard time distinguishing between the genre. Ralph feels everything in Iraq is tickety boo and once wrote this ode to the concept of permanent war and US hegemony:
At any given moment for the rest of our lifetimes, there will be multiple conflicts in mutating forms around the globe. Violent conflict will dominate the headlines, but cultural and economic struggles will be steadier and ultimately more decisive. The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault. To those ends, we will do a fair amount of killing. ~ Constant Conflict, 1997
'Ethnic Cleansing Works'
Ralph's latest bon mot was published in the Armed Forces Journal last month. He proposed the wholesale redrawing of the map of the Middle East. He would carve up Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia to build several new countries. He justified his meat-cleaver approach to regional politics with the pithy observation, " Oh, and one other dirty little secret from 5,000 years of history: Ethnic cleansing works."

Ralph is silent about who would do the most ambitious redrawing of the globe since the colonial powers cut up Africa in the Nineteenth Century although, given his target audience, I suspect he envisions the United States military will get to do most of the killing.
Peters' new map of the Middle East.
As much as any American with an IQ above a turnip would hope that Ralph kept his insanity private, he was published and he was read abroad. Yassar Latif Hamdani, writing for the PakTribune, exposed Ralph's grand scheme to his countrymen.
Unfortunately, American attitude historically has always favored wrong turns and a foolhardy belief in the notion that two wrongs make a right. This is precisely why Mr. Peters says so openly "Ethnic cleansing works!"
For enhancing every notion of America's over preening arrogance and for making diplomatic efforts throughout the region, even among allies like Turkey, a thousand times more difficult, Ralph Peters is awarded the first Ugly American Award.

The Ugly American Award is given monthly to someone who has tainted us all throughout the world with his or her supercilious gall and general, all around, assholery.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A very deserving choice.