Tag: Geopolitics

The Lie Of Victimhood

The move is complete and the violence will continue….but there is more to this than the embassy…..

Unarmed civilians are being shot and maimed by an army that if it occurred elsewhere there would be a world uproar…..and yet it has been a whimper…..the US has made sure that Israel is protected…and yet this same scenario was playing out in Libya and we know how that turned out…..

The United States has used its veto power at the UN Security Council to block a Monday resolution calling for an independent probe into the killing of scores of Palestinian protesters this week along the Gaza Strip border. The protesters were killed by Israeli forces.

It is very common for the US to use its veto power to protect Israel from any UN Security Council repercussions for its mistreatment of the Palestinians. US Ambassador Nikki Haley praised Israel over the killings, saying they’d not only shown “restraint” in only killing 61, but had shown more restraint than any other country on the planet would’ve in the face of the demonstration.

Haley further claimed that the blame should really fall on the Iranian government, on the grounds that the protesters were encouraged by the Hamas movement, and Iran has backed the Hamas movement in the past.

Haley mostly sought to downplay the links between the massacre and the US opening its new embassy in Jerusalem. It is fair to suggest that the two events aren’t wholly connected, as the protest was organized for Nakba Day. It is impossible not to notice that the US made the decision to open the Israeli Embassy on Nakba Day, however, despite knowing it would be seen as yet another insult to the Palestinians.

(antiwar.com)

Restraint my ass!  This is typical bullshit from a country that allows war crimes to go unchecked……

The US media is just as guilty as Haley in this whitewashing of the deaths of civilians……

Typical of the mindset of corporate media reporting on what happened in Gaza on Monday as Israeli soldiers killed more than 50 protesting Palestinians, is this tweet from CNN. It says: “Death toll rises to at least 52 people during clashes along the border fence between Israel and Gaza, Palestinian officials say. More than 2,400 people have been injured.” CNN’s new slogan is “#FactsFirst.”

Adam Johnson, who writes for the media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, responded to CNN with a tweet of his own:

“This one’s got it all:

  • ‘death toll rises’ — no one was killed and no one specific party did the killing, the death toll just mysteriously ‘rises’
  • ‘clashes’ — launders all power asymmetry
  • ‘2,400 people have been injured’ — all 2,400 are Palestinian but lets go with ‘people’.”

Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, said on his blog that he did a Google News search for the word “massacre” and found not one reference to Gaza.

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/05/14/u-s-media-whitewashes-gaza-massacre/

And American journalist keep pushing the “victim” card for Israel….it is the biggest lie we have these days…..

The New York Times has always had a double standard on human rights, but they usually aren’t very open about it.  They condemn Russian bombing as horrible war crimes, but criticize similar US bombing as mistakes and pretty much ignore Israeli bombing of Gaza. But they don’t come right out and say that killing is good or that it is cruel to be kind and kind to be cruel and Palestinians need to be shot for their own good.

Until now.

Columnist Shmuel Rosner says essentially this, and the Times published him three days ago: “Israel Needs to Protect Its Borders. By Any Means Necessary.”

http://mondoweiss.net/2018/05/columnist-palestinian-palestinians/

If the US foreign policy was at all consistent then we would do as we did in Libya…..attack and destroy for threatening civilians……

The Syrian civil war, we have been told, began as part of the Arab Spring and really took hold when Syrian government forces allegedly opened fire on protesters across the country in early 2011. This pattern of indiscriminate violent behavior against civilians has been a talking point in the western media’s regime-change narrative. The media often goes so far as to claim that the government led by Bashar al-Assad has lost all legitimacy.

What then, should we make of Israel’s decision to open fire on protesters in the Gaza Strip this past week, killing over 60 protesters and wounding 2,700 more in the process? According to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Israel is not an aggressor at all but a country that has shown considerable “restraint” in its use of force. Despite the claim that most of the dead were Hamas members, the fact that 2,700 people were injured suggests Israel deployed lethal force upon thousands of protesters — not exactly what comes to mind when one thinks of the word “restraint.” Even purposely shooting one unarmed protester seems to contradict everything we are supposed to believe about human rights and democracy.

http://theantimedia.com/us-bombing-israel/

Our Foreign Policy has never been consistent and our defense of the innocents in this world has become a joke that the whole world sees for what it is….a goddamn lie!

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The Bomber Has Landed!

As a foreign policy wonk that is analyzing conflicts around the world I do a lot of research and I found something this morning that needs attention.

So far today there has not been much news about the Chinese long range bomber that landed on China’s island in the South China Sea…..

The Chinese air force has landed long-range bombers for the first time on an airport in the South China Sea, a state newspaper said on Saturday, in a move likely to further fuel concerns about Beijing’s expansive claims over the disputed region.

The China Daily newspaper reported that the People’s Liberation Army Air Force conducted takeoff and landing training with the H-6K bomber in the South China Sea.

China is pitted against smaller neighbours in multiple disputes in the South China Sea over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential oil and gas reserves.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/china-lands-bomber-on-south-china-sea-island-for-first-time/articleshow/64232552.cms

Not a big deal, right?

Well that may be an understatement for I also read a piece about what this event could mean for the future of the region…..

….on Friday, reports emerged that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army-Air Force (PLAAF) had, for the first time, landed an H-6K strategic bomber on one of the country’s South China Sea islands. China’s state-run People’s Daily shared footage of the bomber landing on an airstrip.

The island in question was Woody Island, China’s largest military outpost in the South China Sea. Woody Island sits in the Paracel Islands, but Chinese military activity there has foreshadowed possible moves in the seven artificial islands that Beijing also possesses in the Spratly group.

In addition to permanently stationing military personnel on Woody Island, China has deployed J-11 fighters, HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles, YJ-62 anti-ship cruise missiles, and other materiel there.

https://thediplomat.com/2018/05/south-china-sea-what-chinas-first-strategic-bomber-landing-on-woody-island-means/

This fell through the cracks with the hoopla of some royal nuptials….this region is becoming more contentious as the years go by……this needs attention and soon!

Closing Thought–18May18

The war torn nation of Iraq has held their most recent election…..I gave my readers a rundown on the what’s what with this vote…..

https://lobotero.com/2018/05/14/democracy-comes-to-iraq/

Back during the dark days of the 2003 invasion and occupation America’s biggest opponent was an Iraqi cleric, al-Sadr…..and with this election he has risen to the top of Iraqi political process…..

Widespread disillusionment with Iraq’s current political class appears to have helped the political coalition of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr become the early front-runner in national elections marked by record low turnout. Partial returns of the 2018 vote—the first since Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State group—were announced late Sunday by the Iraqi electoral commission and put al-Sadr’s political alliance in the lead in four provinces, including Baghdad. Al-Sadr is a strong Iraqi nationalist—he is critical of any outside influence in the country—and campaigned on a platform that criticized Iraq’s current political leadership as deeply corrupt. He rose to prominence in Iraq after the 2003 US-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein when he commanded a militia that fought American troops. He also commanded paramilitary forces in the war against ISIS.

The election came as the country deals with the disenfranchisement of the country’s Sunni minority. Of more than 2 million Iraqis displaced by the war, the majority are Sunnis. Also at issue is the influence of Iran on the country: Iranian-backed Shiite militias who played a key role in defeating ISIS and were allied with the Shiite-led Baghdad government made significant electoral gains. Al-Sadr did not run for a seat in parliament and therefore cannot become prime minister. However, if his alliance wins the most seats, a member of his bloc will be tasked with forming a majority government and will appoint the country’s next prime minister. Despite not holding an official office, al-Sadr exercises strong organizational control over his followers, per the AP.

It will be interesting to see how he plays with the American forces this time around…..this Iraqi institution is very fragile and will be attacked politically from all sides.

Will his government survive?

North Korea And A Nuke Deal

Just last week Pres. Trump decided that he would scrap the Iranian nuke deal……now we must go about trying to negotiate a new deal or start a bleeding war.

In the same time span the US has good vibes from North Korea about ending their nuke program……after all the insulting coming from bot Kim and Trump…….like a switch in a dark room….a light came on and both parties saw the error of their ways and promise to play nice. (Meeting set for June 2018 in Singapore)

One was bad news and the other good news……but there are a couple of points that need to be considered.

President Trump and national security adviser John Bolton are apparently not on the same page when it comes to the “Libya model”—and the confusion led to what was seen as a stern threat to North Korea Thursday. When asked about Bolton’s suggestion that the 2003 Libya model of nuclear disarmament be a template for talks with North Korea, Trump appeared to think he was being asked about the 2011 NATO intervention that led to leader Moammar Gadhafi’s death at the hands of rebels, the Guardian reports. “The Libyan model is not a model that we have at all when we are thinking of North Korea. In Libya, we decimated that country.” Trump said, adding that the model “could take place if we don’t make a deal.”

Trump said the deal he was hoping to reach with Kim Jong Un would give him strong protections in return for denuclearization and would be “something where he’d be there, he’d be in his country, he’d be running his country, his country would be very rich,” the BBC reports. The president said it would “really be a South Korean model in terms of their industry.” Pyongyang, angered by Bolton’s remarks on the Libya model for denuclearization, threatened Wednesday to pull out of the planned June 12 Kim-Trump summit if the US kept up its “one-sided” demand for it to give up nuclear weapons. Trump said Thursday that the meeting is still on track, the AP reports. He said that despite the threat to withdraw, officials from both side are still working on details “as if nothing happened.”

I do not think that is a good selling point…..telling Kim that he would suffer the fate of Qaddafi….if you recall he was killed….I thought the idea was to make the giving up of nuke desires more appealing…..that will not do it.

Then there is the nuke deal with Iran….if the US will stand by that deal what makes anyone think that they would stand by any NK deal?

Just a few thoughts…..

Remember The Sh*tholes?

The big story of the week is the move of the American embassy in Israel…..it is a terrible decision this only placates Israel and Israel alone.

But that aside what other countries will follow the US lead?

Now remember a while back when Trump made his sh*thole comment about immigrants trying to come to the US?  Look at the list above and there are the countries Trump was talking about.

Sorry I find it amusing…..

Then we all have heard about the violence around the embassy move, right?

The Trump has made it clear who is to blame…..and it is not Israel…..

It’s seemingly a straightforward sequence of events – Israeli troops lined up along the Gaza border, firing machine guns into the strip at unarmed protesters, and scores of those protesters were killed, the US is desperate to portray it as a “propaganda” plot by Hamas.

The White House portrayed themselves as wholly comfortable with Israel’s actions, saying they totally absolve Israel of any responsibility for all of those people they killed. Spokesman Raj Shah insisted the protests were Hamas’ fault, and the deaths are, too.

Shah further rejected reporter suggestions that Israel should show any sort of restraint, saying Hamas is responsible for whatever happens. He said Israel has an absolute right to engage in “self defense” against the protesters.

(antiwar.com)

Yep that 8 month baby killed by tear gas was a terrorist….or the man in a wheel chair killed by an Israeli sniper was the source of the attacks or the 16 year old girl shot in the stomach…..the list goes on….

We all knew that Israel would be blameless as it always is even as far back as the USS Liberty incident in 1968 which killed and maimed American sailors….it was not their fault that their jets and patrol boats fired on the American ship.

It is always Syria’s fault or Iran’s fault or Hamas or Hezbollah and whoever else Israel can blame.

They play the VICTIM card more than my ex-wife.  Israel plays the victim card masterfully….they are NO more a victim than I am a female gardener….

Time for Israel to be held to the same standards as the rest of the world and time for the US to stop allowing Israel to hide behind their skirts.

The End Of Pax Americana

These days there are many people that are predicting the end of the “Pax Americana”….but then there are those that have damn idea what I am speaking of (that is until they dash to the Google machine to help them look informed)……so let me help so no one has a stroke trying to get there quickly……

Pax Americana is a term applied to the historical concept of relative peace in the Western Hemisphere and later the Western world resulting from the preponderance of power enjoyed by the United States beginning around the start of the 20th century. Although the term finds its primary utility in the later half of the 20th century, it has been used in various places and eras, such as the post-Civil War era in North America and globally during the time between the World Wars. Pax Americana is primarily used in its modern connotations to refer to the peace established after the end of World War II in 1945. In this modern sense, it has come to indicate the military and economic position of the United States in relation to other nations.

(freebase)

This phenom has been a good way to control the world and yet our leadership has been slipping……it started a rapid decline in 2001 and Bush’s desire for war and began its rapid descent in 2003 with the invasion and occupation of Iraq….and each president since has done nothing to stop the slide of the “Pax Americana”….not Obama and must certainly not Trump……

What if three very different U.S. presidents were to succeed each other in office, each focused like a laser on undoing what he saw as the gravely damaging policies of his predecessor? And what if, in so doing, the three actually compounded the damage done by the others? And what if, thanks to the handiwork of the all-powerful God of Irony, the three would someday be seen by history as the central collaborators in writing the closing chapter on Pax Americana, the more-than-70-year period that may someday be seen as the pinnacle of U.S. global influence?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/06/27/how-bush-obama-and-trump-ended-pax-americana/

Will the summit with North Korea help to stop the slide….and then the impending war that Iran could become that certainly not be a good thing for “Pax Americana”

We are losing our place among world nations…..will it cease?

Democracy Comes To Iraq?

With ISIS on the run Iraq has held a round of election trying to find a truly workable government….

Iraq’s electoral law is a complex and idiosyncratic method of securing proportional representation in Parliament. The system tends to favor the largest parties and solid voting blocs using a process so arcane that virtually no one outside of professional politicians and statisticians really understands how it works.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-05-11/iraq-elections-are-sure-to-leave-a-mess

Since the fall of Saddam Iraq has been suffering from sectarian divide and its politics are the battlefield…..can they move past this?

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a Shiite, has not limited his campaigning for this week’s elections based on traditional sectarian considerations. He has traveled to predominantly Sunni areas such as Salahuddin province about 100 miles north of Baghdad and Anbar province about 70 miles to the west of the capital. He is the most prominent Shiite leader striving to win votes of residents in areas known for strong sectarianism, areas which the Islamic State (IS) invaded in 2014 as the group ultimately settled in about one-third of the country.

In the predominantly Sunni province of Salahuddin, the list of alliances includes diverse ethnic and sectarian names in which 332 candidates from 15 electoral alliances will compete.

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/05/iraq-election-sectarianism-shiite-sunni.html

Iraqis head to the polls on May 12 to elect a new parliament, after which legislators will choose a speaker, president, and prime minister. The elections come at the end of four tough years for Iraq, with the Islamic State seizing a third of the country in 2014 and the Kurds making a strong push for independence last September.

Despite the turmoil, Kurdish-Arab violence has been minimal, and the numerous victors of the war against IS are all hoping to turn their battlefield triumph into votes. Chief among them is Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is seeking reelection and a stronger mandate to govern. The numerous Shia militias who fought IS have formed a political coalition that is expected to do well. Yet the electoral prospects are uncertain for the Kurds, whose independence referendum and subsequent military and political setbacks have diluted the goodwill they gained by fighting IS in the north.

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/iraqs-elections-red-flags-and-opportunities-for-inclusion

With all the past fighting and destruction and past political in-fighting there are some green shoots of democracy creeping into the Iraqi political scene….

In March 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq, and in June 2004, it tendered sovereignty of the country back to the Iraqis. Iraq’s first elections took place in January 2005 with images of purple fingertips marking the milestone, but elections alone do not make a democracy. The record of the U.S. in fostering Iraqi democracy has been mixed, but despite the errors and setbacks, the U.S. still has an important opportunity to support something unusual: a stable, Arab democracy.

One of the early U.S. errors was the 2003 decision to order de-Ba’athification. This meant that nearly anyone that was part of the government during the Saddam Hussein regime lost their jobs. Those in favor of de-Ba’athification argued it was the only way to remove the Hussein-tainted operatives from the levers of power. Hindsight shows that critics of this decision had the better argument. With de-Ba’athification, the security situation in Iraq worsened, and since Ba’athists were largely Sunni, ethnic tensions amongst Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds were exacerbated.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2018/05/11/green_shoots_of_democracy_in_iraq_113433.html

WE will just have to see how the election turns out….personally as long as there is any sectarian divide democracy will always be a dream on unfulfilled.