Getting Out

It is now a question of time before the U.S. exits the Iraq quagmire that it so incompetently created. Long before this happens, we should think about the ramifications of this now inevitable withdrawal.

Why did they invade in the first place? Revenge. Short-sightedness. The Bush Administration cynically capitalized on the shock and anxiety that resulted from the 9/11 attacks to simply settle an old and personal score.

Here in Israel, smelling an opportunity to exact direct vengeance for the Scud attacks of 1991, the government of Arik Sharon actively abetted the Administration’s efforts. But as true friends and allies, it should have been done differently. Untold damage was done to Israel’s reputation. While there will always be voices that blame the Jews and Israel for all the world’s ills, we should have pointed out what we knew even back then: that Iraq wasn’t the major threat in the region. To be sure, Saddam was rabble-rouser-in-chief. But it has been common knowledge for some time that the real danger comes from the Mullah regime in Iran. Perhaps we could have brought our influence to bear and saved political capital to face the truly existential menace. Of course no one was sorry to see Saddam go. However now we have a completely different geopolitical reality to deal with.

The fall of the Baath regime strengthened the Islamic Republic’s hand immeasurably. What’s more, after seeing governments toppled in two immediate neighbors, Afghanistan and Iraq, by a U.S. that was lashing out like a frightened rabid dog, they drew the conclusions that any empathetic mind would also come to. The mullah regime faced an existential danger on its doorstep and had to ramp up its political and military capabilities to stave it off.

Acting on this, Professor (yes, in Engineering) Ahmedinejad was groomed for and catapulted to the presidency. They almost certainly didn’t realize at the time that he would be like the golem run wild.

Ahmedinejad is a messianist. He believes that the Twelfth Imam is about to reappear in the context of cataclysmic events to bring about the Reign of God on Earth. I have a severe allergy to folks of this ideological ilk Furthermore, it is totally reasonable to group this evil professor with messianic Christians who keep looking at their watch wondering why the Rapture hasn’t yet occurred, as well as those jovially misleading types in Chabad Lubavitch. They will only bring us death, destruction, war and misery. Forget that their spiritually compelling arguments fire off extra special synapses in the portion of the brain that generates spiritual ecstasy. They’re wrong. They’re bad. They must not be allowed to wield political influence in such a way that it endangers the world.

Iran is well on its way to producing nuclear weapons. That doesn’t mean to say that they’ll use them. As a matter of fact, they probably won’t. It is safe to assume that for all their fiery rhetoric, they are still basically rational players on the international scene. Nevertheless, as we watch them take over effective influence in Iraq, as well as engender a Hizbollah-led coup in Lebanon, fund the monstrous Hamas, muse out loud about closing the Straits of Hormuz and stirring up sectarian tensions in other Middle Eastern states with Shiite minorities, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that once armed with nuclear weapons, the Islamic Republic’s ability to project its power and zealotry around the region will be pretty much untrammeled. Add to the mix Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and God knows who else racing to obtain nuclear capabilities of their own, and we have a foreboding scenario indeed.

What can be done? Basically nothing, if you think in terms of realpolitik. The American public doesn’t have the appetite for another military adventure in the Middle East, especially after the Bush Administration foolishly blew all its chips in Iraq, with Israel and some of the Anglo countries acting as cheerleaders. For all the mystique of the Israeli Air Force, Iran’s nuclear sites are too spread out and well protected to do anything more than temporarily and partially cripple them. The only real solution would be sustained bombing of all critical military, Revolutionary Guard and Bassij installations. The regime doesn’t need to be toppled. That task is for the Iranian people. But it definitely needs to be defanged.

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Whenever I go visit Yotvata, the kibbutz where I made Aliyah eight years ago, I truly get a sense of how long I’ve been in this country. It seems like it has all passed in the blink of an eye. I spent a little over a year there. Now in the dining hall, I see babies that have become children, and adults who have gone grey and gained weight. Some people have even passed away. Life continues there, and I can see it in snapshots, giving me a better perspective of the time that has elapsed.

What have I been doing all this time? I’ve lived in a beautiful apartment. I had a fulfilling relationship that lasted five and a half years. I’ve built an impressive career. On that score, the last two years at Attunity have been the best ever. I’ve never been in any organization where everyone, without exception, was so nice. And not just nice and friendly. Nice and professional. Nice and cooperative. Nice as mentors. Nice as friends.

And all the while, I have dreamed about India. I’ve been everywhere else in the meantime, because I always knew that India would be a special and long sojourn. Ever since I came back from there in January 2002, to the worst portion of the Al Aqsa Intifada, I knew that my mission there was incomplete.

So I want to put all my achievements in my back pocket, and with a smile on everyone’s face, go and fulfill this mission. Any way you slice it, there really is no alternative to the working world and the rat race. It is against the order of nature to obligate a human being to sit and concentrate for ten plus hours a day in front of a computer. And I have another thirty years of this to look forward to? If so, then a sabbatical is definitely the order of the day.

And I want to share the experience with you.

If you’ve always thought I was crazy (in the mental state sense of the word) about Bollywood, well then get ready for The Dream Factory. You know all those movies about the young country bumpkin that takes the Greyhound out to Hollywood to make it in the movies? Well, this is the middle-aged computer professional taking El Al to Bombay to do just that.

Ever wondered how it is that curious Jews somehow manage to square non-theistic Buddhism with archetypally theistic Judaism? Get ready for the theological face-off with the followers of the Dalai Lama and Beit Chabad of Dharamsala in The Supermarket of Spirituality.

How long can one laze around on the most perfect beach in the world without going stir crazy? Longer than you might think. We’ll find out for sure in Andaman Adventures.

And there’ll be an ongoing series of food, book, art and film reviews in Bag of Culture.

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Just as the U.S. is getting out of Iraq, now seems like a logical juncture for me to spread my wings and get out of Israel, for the trip of a lifetime to India. After the Passover holidays, on April 12, 2007, I am closing the beautiful apartment, leaving the excellent job, and bidding farewell to such dear friends who have never let me know a single day of loneliness. For all of this, I am expansively grateful. However, unless my digestive tract definitively gives out or I run out of money, both of which are unlikely, the sojourn will be for a year.

Welcome aboard.