Exclusive: In Official Washington’s latest detour from the real world, top pundits are depicting Iran as the chief troublemaker in the Mideast and saying the nuclear deal should hinge on Iranian “behavior.” But the real “behavior” problems come from Israel, Saudi Arabia and the U.S., writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
There is a madness in how the mainstream U.S. media presents the world to the American people, a delusional perspective that arguably creates an existential threat to humanity’s survival. We have seen this pattern in the biased depiction of the Ukraine crisis and now in how Official Washington is framing the debate over the Iranian nuclear agreement.
In this American land of make-believe, Iran is assailed as the chief instigator of instability in the Middle East. Yet, any sane and informed person would dispute that assessment, noting the far greater contributions made by Israel, Saudi Arabia and, indeed, the United States.
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius. (Photo credit: Aude)
Israel’s belligerence, including frequently attacking its Arab neighbors and brutally repressing the Palestinians, has roiled the region for almost 70 years. Not to mention that Israel is a rogue nuclear state that has been hiding a sophisticated atomic-bomb arsenal.
An objective observer also would note that Saudi Arabia has been investing its oil wealth for generations to advance the fundamentalist Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam, which has inspired terrorist groups from Al Qaeda to the Islamic State. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were identified as Saudis and the U.S. government is still concealing those 28 pages of the congressional 9/11 inquiry regarding Saudi financing of Al Qaeda terrorists.
The Saudis also have participated directly and indirectly in regional wars, including encouragement of Iraq’s invasion of Iran in 1980, support for Al Qaeda-affiliate Nusra Front’s subversion of Syria, and the current Saudi bombardment of Yemen, killing hundreds of civilians, touching off a humanitarian crisis and helping Al Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate expand its territory.
U.S. Meddling
Then there’s the United States, which has been meddling in the Middle East overtly and covertly for a very long time, including one of the CIA’s first covert operations, the overthrow of Iran’s elected government in 1953, and one of U.S. foreign policy’s biggest overt blunders, President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The Iran coup engendered a deep-seated hatred and suspicion of the U.S. government among Iranians that extends to the present day. And, the Iraq invasion not only spread death and destruction across Iraq but has spilled over into Syria, where U.S. “allies” Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel have been seeking another “regime change” that is being spearheaded by Sunni terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front and the Islamic State.
The U.S. government has further aided in the destabilization of the region by flooding U.S. “allies” with powerful military equipment, including aircraft that both Israel and Saudi Arabia have used to bomb neighboring countries.
Yet, in the fantasy land that is Official Washington, the politicians and pundits decry “Iranian aggression,” parroting the propaganda theme dictated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he spoke before an adoring audience of senators and congressmen at a joint session of Congress on March 3.
This Iranian “bad behavior” includes helping the Iraqi government withstand brutal attacks by the Islamic State and assisting the Syrian government in blocking a major victory for Islamic terrorism that would follow the fall of Damascus. Iran is also being blamed for the Houthi uprising in Yemen although most informed observers believe the Iranian influence and assistance are minimal.
In other words, the neoconservatives who dominate Official Washington’s “group think” may detest Iran’s regional activities since they are not in line with Israeli (and Saudi) desires, but less ideological analysts might conclude that on balance Iran is contributing to the stability of the region or at least helping to avert the worst outcomes.
A Lost Mind
The question becomes: Has Official Washington so lost its collective mind that it actually favors Al Qaeda or the Islamic State raising the black flag of Islamic terrorism over Damascus and even Baghdad? Is Iranian assistance in averting such a calamity such a terrible thing?
Apparently yes. Here’s how The Washington Post’s foreign affairs honcho David Ignatius in a column entitled “Will Tehran Behave?” describes the geopolitical situation following Tuesday’s signing of a deal to tightly constrain Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions:
“The problem isn’t the agreement but Iran itself. Its behavior remains defiantly belligerent, even as it signs an accord pledging to be peaceful. Its operatives subvert neighboring regimes, even as their front companies are about to be removed from the sanctions lists. The agreement welcomes Iran to the community of nations, even though its leader proclaims that Iran is a revolutionary cause.
“Obama argues that dealing with a menacing Iran will be easier if the nuclear issue is off the table for the next 10 years. He’s probably right, but the Iran problem won’t vanish with this accord. Iranian behavior in the region becomes the core issue. Having played the dealmaker, Obama must now press Iran to become a more responsible neighbor.”
By the way, I always thought that the United States proclaimed itself “a revolutionary cause.” But here is Ignatius, who is regarded as a “big thinker,” setting the parameters of the acceptable debate about the Iran nuclear deal. It’s all about Iran’s “behavior.”
Ignatius even quotes Netanyahu decrying the danger that, after 10 years, the agreement will give Iran “a sure path to nuclear weapons.” Of course, Ignatius doesn’t bother to note that Israel already has taken its own path to nuclear weapons. That context is almost never mentioned.
Nor does Ignatius admit how he and many of his fellow pundits supported Bush’s invasion of Iraq, which in a normal, parallel universe would disqualify Ignatius and his friends from lecturing anyone about how to “behave.” But in today’s Official Washington, a pre-war endorsement of the Iraq disaster is not a disqualifier but a prerequisite for being taken seriously.
Similarly, The Washington Post’s editorial page, which in 2002-03 eagerly backed Bush’s invasion and routinely asserted as flat fact that Iraq possessed hidden WMD stockpiles, now says the real risk in the Iran deal is, you guessed it, “Iranian behavior.”
The Post says the deal could unleash “a dangerous threshold nuclear state that poses a major threat to the United States and its allies.” And, the Post warns that Iran’s “leaders will probably use” the money from the sanctions relief “to finance wars and terrorist groups in Iraq, Syria, the Gaza Strip, Yemen and elsewhere.”
Step into Crazy Land
Again, to appreciate the Post’s thinking, you have to step into crazy land. In the real Iraq and the real Syria, the Iranians are supporting internationally recognized governments battling against terrorist groups, Al Qaeda’s affiliate and the Islamic State.
In Yemen, Iranian involvement is probably minor at most. Plus, the Houthis are not a terrorist group, but rather an indigenous popular movement that has been fighting Al Qaeda’s terrorist affiliate in Yemen.
While it’s not clear what the Post thinks that Iran is doing in the Gaza Strip, which is under a tight Israeli military blockade, only fully committed neocons would think that the long-suffering people of the Gaza Strip don’t deserve some outside help.
Still, the larger issue for the American people is what to do with this insane political-media system that dominates Official Washington. Either these powers-that-be are detached from reality or they are deceitful propagandists who think they can manipulate us with lies and distortions.
Yet, by creating a false reality, whether from madness or cynicism, this system guides the nation into terrible decision-making. And, given the immense military power of the United States, this long national detour into a dark psychosis of delusion must be addressed or the future of humankind will be put into serious jeopardy.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). You also can order Robert Parry’s trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes America’s Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.
Already 60 comments! I remember the days when even the most interesting and current topic would hardly attract more than 10 comments. In this regar the Consortium has travelled a long way in the right direction. No doubt Bob Parry deserves a big congrats but at the same time regular contributors for the comment section such as Abe, Zac Smyth, F.G. Sanford, Joe Tedski, mark and many others are also deserve great admiration for their insightful and scholarly contributions. I for one learnt immensely from their contributions, and I thank all of you for your great work.
I think Parry was being highly satirical when he wrote this line: “Either these powers-that-be are detached from reality or they are deceitful propagandists who think they can manipulate us with lies and distortions.”
What keeps astounding me is the fact that Americans only seem to wake up to the fact that Israel, the US and its allies are the main destabilizing forces in the Middle East. This has been obvious to many outside the States for a very long time. Try decades.
I am quite sure this cycle of murder and other violence has never been the aim of the average american.
The next question, though, is a bit tough, but needs an answer: what will you american voters do about it? The world is waiting for some kind of democratic process to take place in the US.
This talk and others in the series were the result of a successful academic freedom challenge at SFCC:
‘The Successful 2nd American Revolution 4-2-2015*,1P1V1S, and America free of the Israeli Lobby/Jewish Lobby’
WHEN: July 1st, Wed evening, 6:00 – 7:00pm
WHERE: Classroom 219, West Wing, Santa Fe Community College,
WHO: Dr Lance Dale Call SFCC@ 505-428-1000 to find classroom
A talk providing description and context of the historic clean break with the Israeli Lobby made *4-2-2015 with the signing of the Iran Framework Nuclear Deal (finalized June 30 with the Iran Nuclear Deal), the collapse of Israeli Apartheid and 1P1V1S, and America politically free of the Israeli Lobby
The critical US Strategic Pivots of the 2nd American Revolution:
The Pivot on Israel’s strategy on Iran *4-2-15
The Pivot on Israel’s strategy on Palestine
Dissolution of Israeli Apartheid
1P1V1S – One Person, One Vote, One State from the River to the Sea
The 3 causative ‘existential events’ of the Apartheid’s collapse:
The 3 dispositive and concurrent existential events seen as such by Israel itself:
Fresh History #1: The Iran Nuclear Deal: signed sealed and delivered June 30
Fresh History #2: Successfully advancing Palestinian case at the ICC
Fresh History #3: Catastrophic reversal of US Diplomatic cover at UN
– ‘Concurrency and synergy of crises and Strategic Collapse of Israeli Apartheid/Strategic Collapse of the Israeli Lobby’
American Political Consequences and Resets :
‘America politically free of the Israeli Lobby/Jewish Lobby’
Battle Royale – Obama’s Legacy slam-dunking Hillary’s Near-Presidency
Sheldon Adelson’s ‘Chinese Mafia links’ US Court Case
‘There is no Israel Lobby of Post-Apartheid 1P1V1S’
CHECKMATE: ‘Queen Hillary on an AIPAC Horse’
==========
Goals: General familiarity with current US and Israeli policy position and state of play amidst rapidly evolving events and importance of consumption of Israeli media to understanding above
Obama’s narrative is a lie. But lies and peace are an improvement over lies and war.
Mr. Parry touches on one crucial point in this article that should be explored further when he mentions that the arguments against the Iran deal seem to be coordinated. Are all these people on a mailing list of talking points distributed by the Israeli embassy? Are writers for the Washington Post directed by their employers to follow the official line? All this smacks of the kind of response to world events you would have seen in the Soviet press. All Soviet papers in those days would say the same thing because they were ordered to say the same thing.
In the US there is this very weird binary system of media. On the one side you have responses that consider an issue and range all over the map. On the other you have repeated phrases, repeated arguments, and a single, party line.
It all points to an urgent issue that’s hardly mentioned lately. Can America maintain its independence as a state and a democracy when its media is owned, operated, and demonstrably in the service of a foreign power?
“Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were identified as Saudis and the U.S. government is still concealing those 28 pages of the …..” Could not read anymore!
Author needs to do some research on the 9/11 subject. The Saudis had nothing to do with the 0/11 bombings and hijackings. 8 of the 19 fabricated are alive. Only folks who had access to the airports and WTC buildings were Israels.
Obama isn’t easing sanctions because he thinks it “will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weaponâ€. That’s baloney. What he’s trying to do is replace Russian gas with Iranian gas in order to hurt Russia. He wants to steal Moscow’s best customer, slash its revenues, weaken it economically, and push NATO further eastward hoping to foment regime change in the capital.
It’s all about the pivot to Asia, the plan to break up Russia, control China’s growth and dominate the world for the next hundred years. And it all starts by blocking the flow of Russian gas to the EU, which means sabotaging Gazprom’s pipeline strategy (South Stream), arming and supporting Russia’s enemies on its western border, demonizing Putin in the media, and doing everything it can to prevent further economic integration between Europe and Asia. That’s the basic gameplan; annoy the hell out of everyone until they’re so frustrated, they finally give up.
Is the Iran Nukes Deal Aimed at Crushing Putin?
By Mike Whitney
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/17/is-the-iran-nukes-deal-aimed-at-crushing-putin/
Abe, Don’t worry about it. Russia’s Putin has always been one step ahead of the Neocons. Afterall he’s ex-KGB, he knows better than anyone how the the game is played.
Iran Nuclear Deal: What Future Has in Store for Russo-Iranian Relations
Moscow and Tehran carried out a series of high-level meetings before the deal was ultimately concluded.
http://mycatbirdseat.com/2015/07/92223-iran-nuclear-deal-what-future-has-in-store-for-russo-iranian-relations/
Let free markets and free trade and “non-interference†become a reflection of the natural system of democracy and liberty.
AIPAC: Anti-Iranian Propaganda at Congress
By David Swanson
http://davidswanson.org/node/4831
America honors or betrays its own policies not because of coherence or rationality or justice. But rather it arbitrarily alters course dependent upon present-day allegiances and the needs of those duly initiated into the ‘inner American circle.’ What mitigating allies’ concerns truly means in this case is America may ultimately betray its promises and principles on stage today for other promises made to friends tomorrow. It just depends on how important the friends are. And Israel and Saudi Arabia are banking on always being very good friends. This is the true Great Game of the Middle East that no one likes to talk about. It is a game of strategic doubletalk. What is potentially the most frustrating in this particular context is how the Great Game might in the end actually backfire on the long-term security of not just the Middle East region or the United States national security agenda but of the actual nuclear deal concluded today.
Truly turning Iran, long-term, into a functioning member of the global community, not just with its benefits but with its responsibilities and obligations, might be the only real plan that allows the Iranian people, long-studied and long-documented as perhaps the most democratically-knowledgeable and democratically-aspiring people within the Muslim world, to finally reconstruct its own society in a manner that fundamentally changes the nature and the dynamic of the region. That possibility has only an inkling of a chance if the present deal is not actively undermined, if the powers on the stage that crafted it work in the coming years to turn what was initially a temporary band-aid into a full-on permanent brace. And that, quite frankly, won’t happen if the two most important countries that did not have their flags on the dais today in front of the cameras work hard to ensure this temporary solution becomes simply a confirmation of everyone’s worst assumptions about Iran. Perhaps, in the end, that is exactly what Israel and Saudi Arabia want the most. They don’t want change. They want affirmation. Sometimes status quo has its seduction.
Enemy of My Enemy: Keeping Iran Cornered through Saudi-Israeli Strategy
By Matthew Crosston
http://journal-neo.org/2015/07/17/enemy-of-my-enemy-keeping-iran-cornered-through-saudi-israeli-strategy/
Dr. Matthew Crosston is a Professor of Political Science, is the Miller Chair for Industrial and International Security and Director of the International Security and Intelligence Studies (ISIS) program at Bellevue University. His research agenda continues to address counter-terrorism, intelligence analysis, failed democratization, and cyber war/ethics. His works have been translated into Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Spanish, and Uzbek. In 2013, Crosston was named the Outstanding Instructor by the International Association for Intelligence Education (IAFIE).
Fundamentalist ; Wahabi sect of Sunni Islam; alqaeda; Islamic State. O please, O please, for God’s sake stop relating/equating this nonsense to Islam. Anybody who is familiar with Islamic history would know that the attributes purported to be of above entities were never the attributes of Islamic governments. On the other hand these are exactly the attributes of western governments what they did to the Jews, or the attributes of US government what she did to Veitnammis and Iraqis, or the attributes of Zionist entity what she did and still doing to the Palestinians.
It needs understanding that more a Muslim is fundamentalist, more he/she is God fearing and therefore less likely to be an extremist/terrorist. Wahhabi Sunnis are not extremist terrorists and Saudi government is not spending their oil money to promote Wahabi Sunni sect. Saudi Arabia is a client state of USA. Saudi money and influence is used for illegal clandestine activities where U.S. Government entities do not want to come into the lime light. In return US government’s support Saudi kings and princes to maintain and to strengthen their grip on Saudi society. The so called 22 9/11 terrorists were not ‘Wahhabi Sunni extremists’. Their purported descriptions do not fit even an ordinary non-observing Muslim. Describing them fundamentalist extremists Mr. Perry is indulging in the same group thinking he is often wary of. It is a possibility that Neocons surrounding president Bush might have used Bush’s special relations with Saudi rulers to provide pawns for 9/11; and Saudis just obliged.
Netanyahu stated that the nuke deal with Iran “would destabilize the region.”
Is he delusional? Havoc reigns in the Middle East thanks to neo-con/evangelical robust schemes for the restoration of Greater Israel, or is it a zeal for the Apocalypse they enthusiastically long for?
The true history of Iran/US entanglement began in 1953 when we overthrew their gov’t because they declared a national right to own their natural resource, oil.
We proceeded to install and protect a brutal dictator who enriched himself and his family, who , to this day remain fabulously wealthy, living in America. — while the people of Iran suffer food and medical shortages by reason of US imposed economic sanction that has internationally frozen at least 100 billion dollars of currency as well as a trade embargo.
Is it “right” to cause such suffering upon a nation of people when your own “creed” calls for the “Right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness? — How do such ‘sanctions’ contribute to the “spread-of’ -“democracy”?
When will all this insane hypocrisy and bullspit come to an end? — Only when honest people rise up and stand against the Liars who rule over us.
Parry is the best! ….and most of the commentators are equally as sharp…
Maybe the Middle East isn’t so attractive what with the abundance of shale and natural gas technologies producing bonanzas around the world. The Middle East’s oil is too hard won by to bother with anymore. these Arab despot ruelrs had a good run and the House of Saud’s faux royalty will soon be a mirage in the desert.
Surely some form of human common sense will come to humanity writ large when each year breaks record temperatures year after year. As much as global warming becomes cataclysmic, so too will be the other two disaters that make up the “troika”; acidification of the oceans and global neoliberal trade.
Sometimes its simplicity that changes the course of history and not really statesmanship and diplomacy or the madness of war or its threats…
I was thinking along the lines of an asteroid strike on planet earth. We now have the potential to ward off even an asteroid strike, as long as we don’t squander all in the “Holy Land.” Time to rethink what is religion. Time to spend wisely.
There is indeed a madness in > how the Zionist – controlled U.S. media presents the world to the American people. Unlike Europe,where most ordinary people think with their Brains, American people don`t think at all, or at best . . . think with that other `head between their legs`,however, must finally realizing that they have been hijacked by evil Israel.
Example > Under Israeli pressure ! the US announced that its ‘military option’ could be activated – resulting in missile strikes and a bombing campaign against 76 million Iranians in order to destroy their government and economy – adding Insult to injury !
The U.S. has given Israel $6.72 billion: $6.194 billion falls under Israel’s foreign aid allotment and $526 million comes from agencies such as the Department of Commerce, the U.S. Information Agency and the Pentagon. The $6.72 billion figure does not include loan guarantees and annual compound interest totalling $3.122 billion the U.S. pays on money borrowed to give to Israel. It does not include the cost to U.S. taxpayers of IRS tax exemptions that donors can claim when they donate money to Israeli charities. (Donors claim approximately $1 billion in Federal tax deductions annually. This ultimately costs other U.S. tax payers $280 million to $390 million.)
One wonders how much every member of the US Congress / Senate had been promised in kickbacks and the $ billion the U.S. has provided Israel with over all the those years.
With direct financial welfare checks mischaracterized as “aid”, along with money spent trying to buy “peace” for Israel by paying off their neighbors and then fighting Israel’s pre-planned wars like the 2003 Iraq invasion with Syria and Iran all being part of the same plan — the US has spent trillion$ to date propping up Zionist lies.
And we know by Israel’s own acts of aggression and continuing thefts of Arab lands that Israel does not even want “peace”!
The biggest fools in all of this are those Americans that support the Zionist criminals thinking they are God’s chosen.
But then they are correct aren’t they? That the Zionists are self-chosen as the greatest deceivers and corrupting manipulators that murder and steal as they make their way in the world,
There is no way or point in trying to be nice when telling the truth here. If anyone reads this and is offended I would suggest you pull your head out from the oppressive stench that supporting Zionism’s deceptions and carnage has delivered to the world and blinded you with.
I can’t, for-the-life-of-me, get behind this “global Zionist plot”. It seems to me that Israel, a tiny pinprick of real estate, is hardly more than a strategic beach head, hardly any different from D-day Normandy of 1944. It seems to me that the Western Powers (the Children of the ancient Roman Empire), have once again planted their Fasces upon the shores of Levant and Asia Minor. It seems to me that our American problem has always been here, with us; and the revolutionary Patriots have NEVER been able to rid themselves of their Imperial Tory brethren, to establish The Republic once again, knocking down the Fasces of Empire. Indeed, it seems to me that the Patriots have, more often than not, been “strangers and outsiders” in their own Homeland. It seems to me that those “thinking Europeans” have a nasty habit of turning to the old Roman Fasces, turning to men like Petain and Laval and Salazar and Franco and Mussolini and Hitler and Banderas, ad nauseum, and are fixing to do it once again, (God help Syriza to turn back the Fascist Tide). It seems to me that, far from being a secret, global cabal of Zionistas, the Jews have NEVER been able to escape the yellow Star-of-David that the Children of The Fasces have sewn onto their clothes. It seems to me that the Children of the Fasces get a free ride, because everyone is watching the Children of The Star-of-David, ignoring the Fasces in our midst. It seems to me that The Western Empire of the Fasces has only “pre-positioned” nuclear weapons upon their beach head in The Levant and Asia Minor. It seems to me that the little, stubby, tail doesn’t wag the Big Imperial Dog. I just can’t buy into the “Zionist Plot” theory. Sorry. The Fasces, not the Star-of-David, is the threat, has always been, for two thousand years-and-counting.
You seem to have bought into much of the Zionist propaganda. The US Mid-East policies are entirely Israel’s policies as stated in PNAC’s ‘New Strategy for Securing the Realm’ and thank your cowardly ‘US’ representatives for helping Israel’s AIPAC lobby foist their Trillion$ expense on the US citizenry. All you need to do is see the lies Israel tells when compared to their actions.
How would you explain all that?
WAKE UP!
How is it that the Western media is entirely slanted in favor of Israel? They don’t call Israel’s war crimes what they are and blame Israel’s war crimes on their victims as though it was the Arabs fault the Zionists concocted the lies told to foreign governments and the public through the news and entertainment industries.
When is the last time you saw a Hollywood movie with an Arab or Persian hero?
Who runs and regulates the IMF and Wall Street which orchestrated and got away with the biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of the world that revealed itself in 2008?
Pro-Zionist Jews run the Western capitalist banking system. Are your eyes not open for a reason? These people are enslaving the world with debt or “usery” as it was termed and outlawed in the Middle Ages. Now they call “usery”, “financialization” and they both amount to the same thing, a form of slavery.
What is wrong with you son? Do you like being taken advantage of along with the rest of the world? And do you like making excuses for those that are orchestrating and profiting off the wars and misery they are subjecting the world to?
Zionists love you because you are their victim paying for, and apologizing for actions they themselves have committed and profit from.
Agree wit all you write!
The key to Zionism’s “success” to date has been their correct assessment that the Western nations are essentially run by those who’s natural inclination is to sell themselves as practitioners of the world’s oldest profession, aka w h o r e s.
Is it any wonder the lying press is owned and run by pro-Zionists or Zionists who have staked their legitimacy on concocting lies which they pretend are real?
David Ignatius and his ilk are perfect examples of successful w h o r e s selling what little integrity they ever had.
And their reasoning as part of their self fulfilling prophesy, like all political w h o r e s, is that it pays better to be a w h o r e than to have integrity and honor.
Regarding Jonathan Swift: The semantic ‘secret weapon’ that Swift identified represents a primal flaw in human cognition. It is amenable to description by another aphorism: “A man convinced against his will is a man of the same opinion still”. Note that the ‘convincing’ refers to a collision with the ‘will’, an emotional rather than a rational confrontation. All human cognition is based on abstractions – even the primary senses are physiologically modulated before they reach the cortex. Once transposed into words, they are further removed from the original abstraction. Without considerable specification, they become mere generalizations. The trick is to spin the generalization in an emotional context which instantaneously halts rational thought. “Behavior” in a foreign policy context conjures ‘childish’, ‘irresponsible’, ‘irrational’, etc. Our politics have become a stinking sewer of these malignant verbal cues. Adjectives are sometimes employed, but more often a single word is all that is needed: communist, terrorist, Islamist, etc. are all meaningless without context, but they exhort powerful emotions. “You’re either with us, or with the terrorists”. That’s a slimy accusation, but it effectively halts rational thought. Few realize that Goebbels’ Ph.D. was in a subject which can only be translated into English as “rhetoric” or “semantics”. The flaw in human cognition which he exploited – the failure to recognize meaningless abstractions – is what makes humans engage in ‘magical thinking’. Psychiatry and Psychology have never found the wisdom or the courage to address this fundamental flaw in human cognition. No matter how ‘unbelievable’ some things are, there are always people who will believe them. In this context, ‘faith’ becomes psychosis, and it appears to be incurable. None of that was insurmountable before humanity got its hands on nuclear weapons. But some of these loons believe that “God” is on their side, and a nuclear exchange is survivable. Maybe it is, but there won’t be much left to work with. They’ll need a strategy. Will it be reason…or religion? Prayers…or penicillin? Mythology…or modernism? As Einstein said, “You can’t expect a solution from the people whose best thinking caused the problem in the first place”. I’m thinking they could easily go right back to witchcraft, voodoo, seances, cannibalism and human sacrifice. They’ll be the same femur cracking, marrow sucking Neanderthals we were 100,000 years ago. God help them if they find a Bible in the rubble.
It is mind boggling that so many have lost the ability to “think for themselves”.
Regardless of the fact that they don’t actually consume human flesh at the dinner table, we could still conclude they are nonetheless canibals in consuming the lives of others as they sustain and enrich themselves!
We may add the Upton Sinclair corollary to the Swift proposition:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!”
in spite of all of these attempts from the White House to avoid acknowledging their involvement in the establishment and operations of the ‘Islamic state’, the other day, as a result of publication of declassified documents of the US State Department and the Department of Defence made by Judicial Watch, a conservative organization supervising the US Government, the documentary evidence was presented again that the security services and the US administration yet in 2012 deliberately went to support ISIL, hoping to use this organization in the fight against the legitimate authorities of Syria and other political adventures of the White House. A report on the growing threat of the ‘Islamic state’, prepared on August 5, 2012, clearly stated a warning that this formation would have “disastrous consequences for the situation in Iraq†and would give huge advantages for ISIL, which arose on the basis of Al- Qaeda in Iraq. “This creates ideal conditions for the return of Al-Qaeda to Iraq, to their former pockets of resistance, located in Mosul and Ramadi,†the document says. It further points out that the ISIL can announce the Islamic State after entering into alliance with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria, which would create a serious danger for unifying Iraq and defending its territory.
The stated report of the Defense Intelligence Agency – (DIA), originally classified as «SECRET // NOFORN» and dated August 12, 2012, was sent to many US government agencies, including CENTCOM, CIA, FBI, DHS, NGA, the US State Department and many others. From these documents, it follows that in 2012 the US intelligence clearly understands the growing threat to peace from ISIL. However, the US administration decided to use this terrorist organization in solving their regional problems in the Middle East, including the weakening of the Muslim regimes in Syria, Iraq, Iran and several other countries. The documents of the US government agencies published by Judicial Watch visually confirm that the Al-Nusra arming process was directly coordinated by the US intelligence. Al-Nusra was joined ISIL and other jihad groups. American arms, delivered to Syria, including anti-tank missiles, was made available to ISIL Al-Nusra’s militants back in 2012, including through direct weapon supply to ISIL from Washington’s allies – Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Support from Washington for the Saudi project to create an ‘Islamic state’ was acknowledged by Robert Ford, a former US ambassador to Syria, in his recent interview for Foreign Policy Journal. He pointed out that the US protection of this terrorist group with the help of former officers of Baathist army was a huge mistake.
Overall, the introduction of the documents published by Judicial Watch creates the impression of a very strange coincidence of the tactics on the participating the US and Western countries in dealing with ISIL and Nazi Germany in the years 1938-1940. One can trace a similar scheme using any militant forces to fraternize with them, a large destabilization of the region and to ensure their own interests. In this case the preferences is given to solution of extremely difficult and sensitive tasks by proxy, secretly flattering most reactionary players on the world stage, while catastrophic fatal myopia will not be sobering, including the West.
ISIL: Ugly Washington’s Child
By Vladimir Platov
http://journal-neo.org/2015/06/04/isil-washingtons-child-new-proof/
Back on September 30, 2014, on FOX News’ OReilly Factor, Likud spokesperson Charles Krauthammer committed a telling slip that informed us about what’s really happening in Syria:
“It’s not being talked about in part because we’re trying to get ISIS to tacitly help, um, we’re trying to get Iran to tacitly help us with the war on ISIS.â€
http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2014/10/01/us-capitulating-iran/
(WATCH minutes 1:00-1:15)
There you have it, straight from the jackass’ mouth:
ISIS is helping Israel prepare for war on Iran.
The conflict in Syria since 2011 has paved the way for Israeli Air Force access to the three possible air routes to Iran: the northern route along the Turkish-Syrian border, the central route over Jordan and Iraq, and the southern route over Saudi Arabia.
The United States, along with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey all have been complicit in funding and arming the terrorist forces in Syria and Iraq.
Five main Iranian facilities would be targeted in an Israeli airstrike: the Bushehr light-water reactor, the heavy-water plant near Arak, the uranium conversion facility at Isfahan, the uranium enrichment facility at Qom, and the main Iranian uranium enrichment facility in Natanz. Iranian radar stations and air bases would be targeted as well. Israeli defense analysts have planned to attack as many as sixty different targets with return sorties lasting up to two days.
U.S. suppression of Syrian air defense grants Israel an open corridor to attack Iran, and places American assets in the airspace to assist the assault.
It seems that if Islamic State, either solely or with allied jihadi groups, runs Assad out of Damascus and rules Syria itself, then Israel would have all the get-out-of-war-crimes credentials it needs to bomb the shit out of the ‘new’ Syria. There now are still limits to how horribly and how often Israel could attack Syria while Assad is in charge, since Syria is considered an antagonistic actual nation, but once Islamic State is in charge the term ‘nation’ would not be honored by the [western] ‘community of nations’ (including Israel, of course) and the bombing would be long, hard, and perhaps permanent, unlimited war on Israel’s terms and deadlines, if any. There’s your ‘advantage’ to Islamic State as perhaps the U.S. and Israel see it.
It seems that if Islamic State, either solely or with allied jihadi groups, runs Assad out of Damascus and rules Syria itself, then Israel would have all the get-out-of-war-crimes credentials it needs to bomb the shit out of the ‘new’ Syria. There now are still limits to how horribly and how often Israel could attack Syria while Assad is in charge, since Syria is considered an antagonistic actual nation, but once Islamic State is in charge the term ‘nation’ would not be honored by the [western] ‘community of nations’ (including Israel, of course) and the bombing would be long, hard, and perhaps permanent, unlimited war on Israel’s terms and deadlines, if any. There’s your ‘advantage’ to Islamic State as perhaps the U.S. and Israel see it.
I think that Israel has several things in mind. First, all this conflagration in the region supposedly takes peoples minds off what is going on in E. Jerusalem and the occupied land and Zionist things can be done under a form of cover. Secondly, if everyone is fighting, Israel can sit back and wait for the right moment and then tell us once again it feels threatened and take Lebanon up to the Litani river and more of southern Syria. Mission accomplished in the north.
No doubt that some of the Zionists are thinking exactly that.
Practicing deceit and distraction has been very self-rewarding to the Zionist entity to date.
It seems by now axiomatic that demonizing is the red flag on the surface covering an under-surface reality, the hidden scheme. I’m talking about demonizing that is inaccurate to rational analysis, which is not the same as making a critical assessment. The essential problem with the Iran deal leading to the demonizing is how it sets back the grand chessgame plan to rule over the middle east, and turn adversarial countries to the US and its cronies into vassal states. Economic domination is the why in this plan for regional control. The formula = demonize, stir the froth, eliminate rational analysis in your target audience. As with the Orwellian war is peace it’s a control precept that non-thinking is thinking. This has been particularly noticeable as the technique since (and including) 9/11: Iran wants world domination, Putin is the aggressor, the Greeks are lazy, Assad is a madman, etc. etc.This piece talks about the underlying economic dynamics in the Iran deal.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/15/why-they-hate-the-deal-with-iran/
The same people ” The Chosen People of Yahweh ” have a history of brutality just like their blood thirsty god…..One thing is certain , they are Yahweh’s chosen. Watch this 10 minute video on youtube…..” Yahweh and the serial killers part 1 ” . sorry I couldn’t provide a live link :(…..
It’s an unfortunate fact that many of our policy makers and media personalities, from early childhood, have been steeped in myth that the Israel is a manifestation of God’s divine plan and that Jews are God’s chosen people. Much of America’s foreign policy flows from this. There are many Jews who are somewhat skeptical of all this, but as so often happens, the majority is often pulled along by the fanatics.
The Devil quotes the Bible.
I’ve just now run away from Mr. Obama’s stumbling press conference where he’s had to defend the ‘treaty’ against media precepts of Iran as The Big Troublemaker in the region. The delusion is diabolical. I’m agitated and gulping for air in the river of False Accusations/Presumptions espoused by reporters in the room. Questions that force Mr. Obama into apologetic monologue as if Iran was the Ferocious Dog threatening, killing, bombing, overthrowing governments in the region or the world.
My God.! The people of Iran ARE SUFFERING under crippling sanctions unjustly imposed through AIPAC financed edicts by our Congress and our military/industrial alliance with Saudi-Gulf States oil regimes and bellicose Israeli expansionist goals.
The Saudi’s lead in Jihadist belief/teachings and reverence of prophet Mohammad.
The Zionist lead in the reclamation of (by any means necessary) the Biblical Jewish State.
They are now the Allied Protagonist, using U.S. weapons, assistance and compliance in a Focused Campaign (crusade) to Remake the middle east — a reformulation of the WW1 agreement where England & France mapped and distributed the middle east kingdoms into “states” under their separate influence. — That’s how Palestine, under a British edict, became ‘the Jewish state’ in the Middle East and is now the European Monitor/Foothold-er in the region.
So — There’s the democratically elected United States President, Mr. Obama, standing before this Anglo-Saxon press corp, as if in a Roman coliseum with hungry lions encroaching, Straining to reason, Reason, why diplomacy, in This case, was better than war — — — even as Freak’n WAR is Raging all across the god-forsaken Middle East right Freak.n NOW !!!
People are dying DAILY, being Displaced, Raped, BLOWN UP to Smithereens God damn it!
And IRAN IS THE TERRORIST STATE !!!!!!!!!!! ???
What wars have they started?
What states have they bombed?
Why are the Iranian people living under siege?
Why must they die from lack of food and medicine? Lack of industry/jobs due to crippling sanctions IMPOSED upon them by Powerful nations who live in relative comfort, without fear of WEAPON RICH nations like United States/Europe and ISRAEL?
And there’s Obama the Straw Man, apologizing to brainwashed “reporters” who’ve swallowed, whole cloth, the propagandized Myth of an imminent threat from DIRT POOR Iran, whose citizens struggle to make ends meet.
The bullshit is just pitiful, just pitiful…
Mortimer, take a gulp and try and relax, for this game is just getting underway. I truly hope you are okay. You seem very upset with what is going on between the U.S. and others over this Iran Nuclear Disarmament deal. Israel feels it has a lot to lose here with this treaty being signed. First, Israel feels threaten that they won’t be American’s ‘Only Child’ in the Middle East any longer. Boo Who, Boo Who, for poor little Israel. Also, Israel is afraid that Iran’s natural gas (which is still under development), but will be cheaper than Israel’s natural gas (which has been recently found in the eastern Mediterranean). Not to mention the vast market of goods which maybe a bonanza in the making of profits for those who have access to selling goods inside Iran. I already saw an article declaring how Persian rugs will be available once again, since we have made this agreement with Iran. So, there you go. Now, is when we should all be prepared for the worst. For Israel and Saudi Arabia the window of opportunity has become much smaller, for any kind of military attack they had in mind. You will hear nothing good coming out of our American congress. Our congress has a 60 day time limit to ratify this agreement. You would be wise to wear ear plugs during this period. Also, hang in there Mortimer. Besides that, you have us here on the comment board who share most of your angst over this Iran development. Look at it this way, for now the agreement has been agreed to, and that’s a good thing.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/15/why-they-hate-the-deal-with-iran/
Thanx for the consolation, Joe. I’m not upset over the so-called Iran deal and the false premises that surround it. The “New Middle East” reality of the heartless disregarded death of untold numbers of every day people is sleeplessly disturbing as compared to the vacuous and, imperialistic questions thrown at Obama along with his vaudevillian, long stretched replies.
The entire procession was like a Greek play with faces hidden behind masks. Very surreal, like a Rod Serling Twilight Zone production…
Last night I watch a Frontline piece about Isis’ slaughter of Yezidi? boys & men and the capture and rape of their women & girls – it brought me & the wife to tears.
The “New Middle East” regime change imperialist, with their Divide & Conquer methods,
all that comes to mind for It & Them is God Damn Them !
Sorry if I offend any “exceptionalists” here…
It is good to know you are okay. We need you here Mortimer. I can also tell you are tough enough just by the way you write your comments. What I wrote here is a warning to all not to let your hopes exceed the reality, which is still to unfold. There maybe a lot to applaud here with Iran agreeing to the NPT treaty they were forced to sign. There are 31 other countries developing nuclear energy programs, but Iran was singled out in order that they comply to a nuclear weapon free nation. A talking point over Iran formulating a nuke program is how this will encourage other Middle East nations to want their own bomb is very interesting. Interesting, because as we all know Israel already has the capability of killing the world with nuclear weapons. The U.S. maybe exceptional, but Israel is special. Special enough, that the exceptional U.S. not only looks the other way when it comes to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, but has the U.S. covering for them at the U.N. every time a NPT treaty is being waived in front of Israel face. So Mortimer you have good reason to be upset. I just don’t want to see you pop a gasket and end up to frustrated to go on. Something worth knowing is, although AIPAC is unhappy with this agreement J Street sounds very excited over making this peace with Iran. Let’s hope some day the Zionist is replaced by the Jew.
Mortimer,
it is quite extraordinary, almost “surreal” , the main stream media’s contortions of fraud, like they are some kind of “thought zombies”, completely incapable of critical thought or independent judgement…..As if they were all immersed in some kind of “forcing chamber of mind fraud “…..
…. Like Benjamin Netanyahu’s private army of “Stepford “reporters”..or something ?.
I have never seen anything like it in my whole life….It is really , truly bizarre !
The whole country, the whole WORLD is ecstatic that we have avoided another “catastrophic ” war.in the middle east…
and these reporters are totally clueless….absolutely clueless ! …..
They should be congratulating the president for this wonderful achievement ,not acting like someone has done them WRONG.!…
.There is some kind of strange Psychopathology going on here…. worthy of a sociological study…or an in depth ,documentary !
Fascinating !
Stepford Reporters….I nearly fell out of my chair. How entirely apropo! Then you go on to state how clueless these reporters are. I’m afraid there is a little disconnect there. Automatons do not think or reason. Their mission is simply to spread the Zionist propaganda position of fear, not to actually be logical in any way, shape or form, as that does not translate to corporate kudos. Yes, if you sit and watch this opera unfold, one can clearly see the disconnect between reality and propaganda. I do think more Americans are beginning to see the light, as it were. In my personal observations, as regards to my evangelical fundamentalist brother, I receive less emails about the ‘muslim’ president and emails with the virtues of Israel expounded. I can only hope this is a sign of realization. I fear though that we will not see a gradual change eventually overpower the lies and manipulation…but a sudden massive shift of realization. What event would bring such a development is worrisome, however beneficial in the long run.
In terms of the New Great Game in Eurasia, and the ongoing tectonic shifts reorganizing Eurasia, this is huge: Iran — supported by Russia and China — has finally, successfully, called the long, winding 12-year-long Atlanticist bluff on its “nuclear weapons.â€
And this only happened because the Obama administration needed 1) a lone foreign policy success, and 2) a go at trying to influence at least laterally the onset of the new Eurasia-centered geopolitical order.
[…]
The conventional arms embargo on Iran essentially stays, for five years. That’s absurd, compared to Israel and the House of Saud arming themselves to their teeth.
Last May the US Congress approved a $1.9 billion arms sale to Israel. That includes 50 BLU-113 bunker-buster bombs — to do what? Bomb Natanz? — and 3,000 Hellfire missiles. As for Saudi Arabia, according to SIPRI, the House of Saud spent a whopping $80 billion on weapons last year; more than nuclear powers France or Britain. The House of Saud is waging an — illegal — war on Yemen.
Qatar is not far behind. It clinched an $11 billion deal to buy Apache helicopters and Javelin and Patriot air defense systems, and is bound to buy loads of F-15 fighters.
Trita Parsi, president of the National American-Iranian Council, went straight to the point; “Saudi Arabia spends 13 times more money on its defense than Iran does. But somehow Iran, and not Saudi Arabia, is seen by the US as the potential aggressor.â€
So, whatever happens, expect tough days ahead.
Historic Iran Nuke Deal Resets Eurasia’s ‘Great Game’
By Pepe Escobar
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/15/historic-iran-nuke-deal-resets-eurasias-great-game/
Understanding behavior:
Robert Newman – History of Oil
Chapter 1 – Marching to the Drums
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIpm_8v80hw
(WATCH minutes 1:35-8:00)
From the Ignatius piece:
You see, Iran has a bad attitude – it isn’t groveling enough. Ignatius works for the neocon rag – the Washington Post. He has managed to keep his job there for quite a long while by crafting reasons to dump on Israel’s Villain of the Year. He played the same game back in 2002-2003 with the pending invasion of Iraq. Ignatius frankly admitted that the WMD business was nonsense, but he placated his bosses by advocating an invasion on the grounds of helping the poor, oppressed people of Iraq get rid of the very evil Saddam. Mission Accomplished! By taking the high moral road he was still able to complete his job to the satisfaction of his neocon bosses. Had it been plausible, he’d have favored the invasion because of suspicions Saddam cheated at solitaire. JUST START THAT INVASION!
On down in the piece was this:
Iranian behavior in the region becomes the core issue.
No mention at all of Israel’s behavior in the region, despite it being magnitudes worse than Iran’s. Ignatius is quite competent at his courier work.
It’s my (totally uniformed) view that Obama was caught up in a billionaire faction fight over Iran, and the group which isn’t card-carrying neocons won the first round. BS wars for Israel are good and fine if they advance the interests of everybody, but ‘somebody’ decided that whacking Iran would not be as profitable for them as composing this Agreement.
It’s not over till it’s over, and Israel has plenty of tools in its chest suitable for raising hell. At the very least, that shitty little apartheid nation will extort dozens of billions of dollars from US taxpayers. The worst case isn’t something I care to speculate about.
In 1721 the great Jonathan Swift observed that, “Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired”. (“A Letter to a Young Gentleman, Lately Enter’d Into Holy Orders by a Person of Qualityâ€).
That is one of those sayings that, as you return to it time and again, gradually reveals more and more depth of meaning. Look around you today, and you will notice all manner of views and opinions that seem – not to put too fine a point on it – rather deranged. Yet, try as you will, you simply cannot persuade the people who put forth those views that they are wrong. Facts, figures, reason, argument: nothing will prevail. Finally, you realize that Swift’s dictum applies. Those people did not acquire their beliefs by reason, but as articles of faith. Hence they cannot be disabused of those beliefs by reason.
I found it deeply saddening to realize that there are so many people who are, to a great extent, immune to facts and reason. But that in itself is a fact, and we must accept it and find ways to live with it.
Failure of the US and West in general (including those of European Zionist descent), may be the death of us all if we try to “live with it”.
Discovered in “On The Basis Of Morality“, by Arthur Schopenhauer (highly recommended), this quote from Locke, “Essay Concerning Human Understanding“:
“But, not withstanding the great noise made in the world about errors and opinions, I must do mankind that right, as to say there are not so many men in errors and wrong opinions as is commonly supposed. Not that I think they embrace the truth; but indeed, because concerning these doctrines, they keep such a stir about, they have no thought, no opinion at all.â€
Then further on “They are resolved to stick to a party that education or interest has engaged them in; and there, like common soldiers in an army, show their courage and their warmth as their leaders direct, without even examining or so much as knowing the cause they contend for.â€
Millions (billions) of us outside the US do regard America as crazy. You stole the richest land on earth and pissed away most of the resources. You have killed more innocent civilians since WW2 than any other country. You are the larget manufacturer and exporter of arms and routinely use killing to solve other people’s problems. You have overthrow numerous democracies for no good reason. You spend trillions on war machinery and have no idea what America would be like if you spent this money on healthcare, education, renewable energy and, heaven forbid, more equality.
If you still think that America is not crazy, have a look at a couple of leading presidential candidates, Walker and Trump.
Actually I don’t see it as madness. There is too much method in it. Remember the motto that was prominently displayed in Bill Clinton’s campaign headquarters when he was running for president? “It’s the economy, stupid”. What that reminded everyone was that matters of principle were all superficial, unimportant. The key issue that mattered was: will Americans feel better off as a result of you winning this election? If not, you won’t win it.
For well over a century, American politicians focused tightly on making their constituents feel prosperous; and, as far as possible, more prosperous with the passing of time. To do that, it was necessary to exploit the rest of the world ruthlessly; to set up a “wealth pump” to siphon money and resources from poor regions and countries to rich ones. As a direct result, Americans were far richer on average than other people, and lived far better lives.
In the 1970s and increasingly since the 1980s, a small clique of fantastically rich Americans seized the reins of government in what was really an unnoticed coup d’etat. (You could say that the very first colour revolution took place in the USA itself). Ever since then, the policy has changed subtly: instead of enriching Americans at the expense of the rest of the world, US government policy has been to enrich the wealthiest 1 percent of 1 percent – about 30,000 people – at the expense of all other Americans and the rest of the world.
Yes.
A micro of your macro is oil. Nixon was pleased to allow the Shah to sky the price of oil so long as he rode herd on the Middle East and continued to buy our guns. The Bush / Cheney drive into Iraq showed that we’d given up the requirement that oil be cheap, but confirmed our national interest (sick) in controlling it.
The current moderate price of oil is a function of anything but ‘good will towards men’ (even americans). Soon enough, manipulation or blowback will set things right (sicker).
This is a exceeding clear and concise assessment of the haps in our country most recently.
Saudi Barbarism Actively, Intentionally Enabled by West
A barbaric autocracy lopping the heads off its own citizens while creating colonies of terrorism across the globe through direct support of marching terrorist armies and a global network of madrases promoting the state-cult of Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism, under the guise of Sunni Islam would seem like one of the West’s greatest threats.
Yet in most cases, particularly when these Saudi-sponsored madrases are established in Europe or North America, national intelligence and law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, the CIA, MI5, and MI6 actively participate in the cultivating, exploitation, and entrapment of radicals created within. Never is it attempted to expose and dismantle these networks, and instead, an intentional strategy of tension is created around these rat nests of extremism to promote hysteria, division, and further fan the flames of fear at home, while justifying perpetual war abroad.
Considering this, it is clear why Saudi Arabia is not only pardoned for its inhumanity and criminality, but encouraged and enabled by special interests in the West. These interests are able to manipulate and terrorize their population at home, justify the creation and enlargement of domestic surveillance networks, and justify the use of military force abroad in campaigns of hegemonic conquest predicated on “national defense†against “terrorism†they and their allies have themselves created to begin with.
US NED Ignores Saudi Barbarism
By Tony Cartalucci
http://journal-neo.org/2015/07/15/ned-ignores-the-existence-of-saudi-barbaria/
Iranian Foreign Minister H.E. Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks with Washington Post journalist David Ignatius:
Zarif warns America about “Monsters of your own creation” i.e. Saddam Hussein, Taliban, Al Qaeda, and now Da’esh…”old habits die hard” he quipped.
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2015/07/15/iranian-foreign-minister-h-e-mohammad-javad-zarif-speaks-with-washington-post-journalist-david-ignatius/
ON TARGET, MR. PARRY!
Your article needed to be written. Its points were implied in your
recent piece on the Iran so-called “deal”.
Those politicos and others who say they oppose seem embarrassingly
like they are reading from a script provided by the Israeli government.
(eg Senator Lindsay Graham, candidate for President, on NPR and
others.)
Israel and its PM needed an enemy and chose Iran. Almost all the critiques
of Iran levelled by Israeli “supporters” hold for Israel but not for Iran.
(Reminder: The “you can’t trust the Russians” mantra was repeated
by the US which refused to sign the Geneva accord in 1954. The result
in that case was the Vietnam War in which many American lives were
lost and more Indochinese lives. In the end, the US lost. Remember?
And meanwhile, Russia offered “peace intiatives” which were an affront
to the US. We needed a real enemy.)
As I have noted in this space before, when Israel is willing to accept the
constraints it insists for Iran—all recommended by the UN General Assembly
in 2014 and opposed by the US and Israel. They included ratifying and
abiding by the NPT, not done by Israel currently. And, of course,
random inspections of all Israeli bases to eliminate the capacity
for making nuclear weapons. And so forth.
But Israel desperately needs an evil enemy –“untrustworthy” they say—
to avert world attention and US attention in particular to its many
war crimes from 1948 and continuing its defiance of international law.
Senator Graham didn’t hesitate to say that any European capital
refusing to follow future US sanctions of Iran should be refused all
business dealings with America. (And should the US corporate
world be totally prohibited from doing any business with any
European capital which refused to follow US orders? Come on,
Mr. Senator!)
With many thanks to Robert Parry.
—Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
Wahhabi Sunni Islam is the purest form of Islam, and does not at all demands from its followers any acts of extremism or violence. It is only used at home to quieten the Saudi public. Their apparent love for Islam is to portray themselves as custodians of Macca and Madina which is as prestigious in the eyes of Muslims at large as it is profitable. Otherwise, Saudi ruling family do not observe any form of Islam. In reality the life style they pursue is entirely against Islamic teachings. The terrorists they prop up with their oil money are desperate people from poor countries who are ready to do anything, including dying, for money to support their families. Most of them are not religious fanatics. They are mercenaries, trained to do specific acts of violence. All this apparatus is developed to act as a client state for Western governments especially US and UK. These governments in return provide all necessary support for maintaining and strengthening their grip on the Saudi society. This symbiotic relationship has worked well so far.
Saudi leaders only have to satisfy their bellies and keep it big and roomy for more food and also the organs below their bellies by paying under age prostitutes transported to them from every corner of the world! In other words, there’s no freaking brain to act as a human being on this planet! If you don’t believe what I’m saying read the old British papers! The Brits knew the Arabs very well this the reason for planting the Zionist state in their lap!
Great phrase — “delusional perspective that arguably creates an existential threat to humanity’s survival.” That captures the foreign policy failures you describe and also the domestic madness that results in double digit unemployment and attacks on the world through willful, unnecessary pollution and contributions to catastrophic climate change.
Right on! Robert Parry.
“The U.S. government has further aided in the destabilization of the region by flooding U.S. “allies†with powerful military equipment, including aircraft that both Israel and Saudi Arabia have used to bomb neighboring countries.”
I doubt that F-35’s or anything which flies would be of better use in controlling militant domestic upheavals than a bunch of M-16’s, but pretty, shining fast moving toys like these are always nice gifts for petty Princes who love such things, as well as good business! It gives them a cloak of power and meaningfulness, new clothes for the Emperor!
There seems to be something wrong with a nation which depends on a worldwide distribution and display of military might to maintain its position of influence and respect in the world, and I use the term respect with abandon, for I am not sure that is what it gets in return.
Teddy Roosevelt, one of America’s greatest and most infamous bullies, a man not noted for his intellectual acumen, once advocated “walking quietly, but carrying a big stick!”
This seems to have been adopted as a fundamental of US Foreign Policy, except they have ignored the “walking quietly” part.
Backing off and taking the long view, it does appear that the end of the Arab Principalities as the old men knew them, are in sight. And,the end of American hegemony, as the “Patriots” and “Liberators of the world” knew it, is also in sight. But, it also appears that they have weakened the entire underpinnings of civilization and civilized living throughout the entire world while taking down those two major towers.
The forces which be, did a much neater job of imploding and taking down the World Trade Center than they are doing taking down the rest of the world.
RE: “delusional perspective” (threatening humanity’s survival)
IN OTHER WORDS: “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.” ~ Karl Rove (channeling Charles Krauthammer)
FROM GARY LEUPP (May 11, 2011): . . . I think too of an unnamed Bush administration official’s statement to Ron Suskind on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, contemptuously dismissing “what we call the reality-based community.†These are people, the official elaborated, who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.†He continued: “That’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality, we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.†. . .
SOURCE – http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/05/11/the-death-of-bin-laden/