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.

UPDATED: The GDP Gambit

Debt, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank

Official GDP numbers are deceptive because they chart—and include—the growth of government debt. In order to come to grips with America’s real economic prognosis, you must tease apart modest economic growth from the monstrous accretion of public debt.

In his latest book, “The Real Crash: America’s Coming Bankruptcy, How to Save Yourself and Your Country,” financier Peter Schiff does just that, noting that, “From 2008 to 2009 our national GDP (of around $14 trillion) contracted by $212 billion. To prevent any further dips, the government aggressively spent, borrowing heavily to do so. To the relief of just about everyone, these moves did stop the nominal contraction. From 2010 to 2011 the U.S. GDP expanded by $502 billion, and from 2011 to 2012 it added an additional $508 billion. All told, from the end of 2008 the U.S. economy added a cumulative $798 billion in GDP. But those gains came at a very high price.”

“The combined federal deficits for the same time frame come in at a staggering $4.2 trillion! In 2009 alone the feds chalked up a chart breaking $1.4 trillion in debt (the deficit was a mere $161 billion in 2007). In other words, we borrowed five times more than we grew. This ‘strategy’ for growth is no different from an individual who loses half his income, but continues to spend by running up credit card debt.”

Could this be described as economic growth? But that’s just how we are describing our current economy, and for the large part, expert economists, politicians, investors, and academics all agree..”

UPDATE (May 30): Writes Nixter Jeelvy on Facebook : “GDP = Aggregate Demand = all the money SPENT within a year, within the nation. It’s no measure of wealth, Lord Keynes and his pipe dreams be damned.”

FACEBOOK “FRIENDSHIP” POLICY

Ilana Mercer, IlanaMercer.com, Technology

FACEBOOK “FRIENDSHIP” POLICY: This Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/ilanamercer.libertarian) is a forum from which the work done on www.ilanamercer.com and http://barelyablog.com/ is championed and promoted.

A precondition for Facebook “Friendship” is a general interest in this work. A Facebook personal page, after all, is a fraternity of sorts.

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Please send your Facebook-Friendship request my way once you have “Liked” (as a first step, we hope) the Facebook Fan Page of “Into The Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons For America From Post-Apartheid South Africa” (@ https://www.facebook.com/IntoTheCannibalsPot), by adding The Cannibal to your Book Favorites.

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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.