Category Archives: Middle East

Keep It Regional

Foreign Policy, Hillary Clinton, Islam, Middle East, Neoconservatism, UN, War

Al Jazeera, “headquartered in Doha,” “is the “broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation.” Toward Syria, the Gulf state of Qatar has adopted the regime-change policy of Saudi Arabia (in particular), the Arab League (in general), John McCain’s, Sean Hannity’s, and as many liberals. While Qatar intensifies its efforts to overthrow Syrian President Bashar, it is, simultaneously, supporting Bahrain’s crackdown on dissent. (An Al Jazeera correspondent out of Beirut was so enraged by the network’s bias that he resigned.)

In the Middle East it all boils down to faction and tribe.

Not so long ago, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, ruler of Qatar, asserted that “Arab countries should send troops into Syria.”

We can agree with the Sheikh that the US has no business in Syria. But good luck to him in handling Arab civil wars regionally. South African President Jacob Zuma’s attempted to deal with Libya locally (in the Continent), but the “gorgon who heads Caesar’s state department” (Hillary) would have none of it.

Not even the African Union, which has a good working relationship with warlords, could keep the Über dogs of war of (America masquerading as “NATO”) from leveling Libya. The rest is history.

Gladiators in the Emperor’s Colosseum: Memorial Weekend Message

Homeland Security, Middle East, Military, Neoconservatism, Propaganda, Russia, The State, War

It is customary, on Memorial Day weekend, to thank uniformed men for their sacrifice. I thank the likes of Sheriffs Paul Babeu (Pinal County, Arizona), and Joe Arpaio (Maricopa County, Arizona) of this nation, who stand on this country’s soil and defend their countrymen from the detritus of mankind.

My sympathies go out to Americans who fight phantoms in far-flung destinations. I’m sorry they’ve been snookered into living, dying and killing for a lie. But it’s inappropriate for me to honor that lie, or those who give their lives for it, and take the lives of others in America’s many recreational wars. I mourn for them, as I have from day one, but I can’t honor them.

I am sorry for those who’ve enlisted thinking they’d fight for their countrymen and were subjected to one backdoor draft after another in the cause of illegal, unjust wars. My heart hurts for you, but I won’t worship at Moloch’s feet just to lessen that sense of loss and disillusionment.

I honor those sad, sad draftees to Vietnam and to WW II. The first valiant batch had no option; the same goes for the last, which fought a just war. I grew up in Israel, so I honor those men who stopped Arab armies from overrunning our homes. In 1973, we came especially close to annihilation.

“What I learned growing up in a war-torn region is that a brave nation fights because it must; a cowardly one fights because it can.”

It is appropriate on this Memorial Day, to watch a documentary RT put together: “Fallujah, a Lost Generation?”

In 2004, Fallujah in Iraq became the theater of a major showdown between the American soldiers and the Iraqi insurgents. But even though the sounds of this harsh battle have died down a long time ago the consequences are only showing now. And they are of the toxic kind. Babies are born with malformations, kids are affected with leukemia and cancer has multiplied tenfold. The situation reminds the one of 1945 post atomic Hiroshima.
Meanwhile, in the USA, the marines who took part in the battle are developing strange diseases.
What really happened in Fallujah?
Which weapons were used? White phosphorus? Depleted uranium?
Has a generation of Iraqis been sacrificed?

America’s military men are penned like gladiators—condemned criminals, slaves and wild animals—in the Colosseum, destined to murder or die for the benefit of the craven Emperor and his comitatus.

All You Need To Know About Egyptian Democracy

Democracy, Islam, Jihad, Middle East, Socialism, Terrorism

The 15, turbulent months “since Mr Mubarak was forced from power” have been marred by “continued violent protests and a deteriorating economy.”

According to BBC News, “Foreign direct investment has reversed from $6.4bn (£4bn) flowing into the country in 2010 to $500m leaving it last year. Tourism, a major revenue generator for the country, has also dropped by a third.”

But, as members of the American chattering class will tell you—they had all tripped over one another to show-off their solidarity with the popular uprising in Egypt—none of this matters.

The Egyptian people are about to vote for a president, which, apparently means they have won the universal rights they fought for.

“I know nothing so miserable as a democracy without liberty,” wrote Alexis de Tocqueville in the mid-1800s. He speaks for me. I find myself unable to get lathered-up about democracy for others, while I live in the democratic despotism that contemporary America has become. Tocqueville “foresaw the coming of the social welfare state, which agrees to provide all for its subjects, and in turn exacts rigid conformity.” Above this race of conformist men “stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratification and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. … it seeks … to keep them in perpetual childhood.”

Keeping Them Dishonest

Foreign Policy, Middle East, Neoconservatism, Russia, Terrorism

Anderson Cooper is reporting from the Syria-Turkish border (or maybe the bathhouse). Cooper has allowed a brief segment in which The Rebels (our side, of course) are arresting and coercing other Syrians to join their cause, at the point of a gun.

As usual, “Keeping them Honest Cooper” (that’s his slogan) is soliciting the bellicose advice of the Arab neoconservatives. The local chalabies, if you will. (Chalaby was the Iraqi who agitated on American tv for American intervention in Iraq, and fed the New York Times’ birdbrain Judith Miller, now perching at FoxNews, with the “intelligence” she presented to the public.)

Fouad A. Ajami, if I recall, once even called for a Marshal Plan for the Arab countries. Some of the Arab neoconservatives were once close to Bush, and keep reinventing themselves as perfectly legitimate (because not Jewish) agitators for US intervention in the Middle east.

In any case, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told reporters on Monday something that “Keeping them Dishonest Cooper” failed to: “weapons continue to flow to [Syria’s] militant opposition.”

Car bombs were not the norm in Syria; now they are. “At least 55 people have been killed and 372 others injured by two powerful blasts in the Syrian capital on Thursday morning,” reports RT.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov does not rule out the possibility of outside forces being involved in masterminding the Damascus attacks. [Qatar and Saudi Arabia, for sure, and, in all likelihood, the US] “At least some of our partners are doing some practical things aimed at exploding the situation [in Syria] both in a direct and indirect sense of the word. I mean the explosions you have mentioned,” Lavrov commented on the blasts during a press conference in Beijing.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia have admitted that they support Syrian opposition financially. It is believed that Turkey is turning a blind eye on armed groups using Syrian refugee camps on Turkish territory near the border to rest and regroup before moving into Syria.

Just where Anderson is.