Ronald Reagan and Obama: Reckless in Beirut, Cautious in Benghazi………

      


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Writing on the Lebanese adventures of Ariel Sharon and the American forces in Beirut and the bombing of the U.S. Marines and French barracks and the embassy in 1983 has reminded me of a more recent event. Three major bombings in Beirut in 1983 killed tens of U.S. diplomats and CIA agents as well as hundreds of U.S. Marines and French soldiers.
Which begs a comparison with the more recent ‘event’ in Benghazi, Libya. The recent battle cry (one of them) of the Republican Party has been: “Benghazi, Benghazi!” Four good men died in Benghazi. Yet in 1983, hundreds of Marines and tens of diplomats and spooks were killed in Beirut. The Marines died because the Reagan administration recklessly inserted them in the middle of the Lebanese civil war, placing their barracks right among the warring confessional and sectarian militias and hereditary warlords of Lebanon.
So, Mr. Obama hears this squawk of: “Benghazi, Benghazi….. Four good men died in Benghazi!” to contend with. Did Mr. Reagan have to face squawks of: “Beirut, Beirut…….Hundreds of good men and women died in Beirut!”?

Cheers
mhg

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Syria: a Side War Among Worst Enemies, Jarba and Buffalo Selected……

      


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“The two Islamist fighting forces in Syria affiliated with al Qaida on Tuesday appeared to be on the edge of an all-out conflict amid reports that dozens more captured soldiers and civilians have been executed at the hands of the more radical of them, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Abu Mohammad al Julani, who heads the Syrian-based Jabhat al Nusra, or Nusra Front, charged that the rival group had pursued “misguided policies,” “had a significant role in instigating the conflict” and warned: “We will defend ourselves against any aggression directed against us, from whatever the source.” The surprise offensive that Nusra and other Syria-based regime opponents began Friday against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, has forced the Iraq-based group, consisting mainly of foreign volunteers, to abandon many of the bases and towns it occupied in the past six months in northern Syria. Heavy fighting was reported Tuesday………………….”

It is a side war, a Wahhabi vs. Wahhabi battle for control of the Syrian opposition. Speaking of the Syrian opposition: I read that a bunch of members of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) have resigned last week. One source claimed the resignation was in protest against the re-selection of Saudi-appointed chief of SNC, Ahmad Al-Jarba (Badr Buffalo Jamous was appointed his deputy). Another source reports the resignations were a protest against participation in the Geneva “peace talks”.

Even as these meetings are held, even as Western “Friends of Some of Syria’s Opposition” are meeting in Paris, other groups and militias are breaking away. New blocs are formed among the militias, like mutations in a stagnant pond. Some breakaway groups are holding their own ‘conferences’, in Spain and other venues. The Syrian “opposition”, all of them including secular exiles and Muslim Brotherhood and armed rebels and Jihadis and kidnappers and warlords, are their own worst enemies.

Cheers
mhg

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Archaeological Arabia, Jurassic Modern Arabia………

      


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“A team of scientists from the Saudi Geological Survey with the active support of Uppsala University, Museum Victoria and Monash University have uncovered the first record of dinosaurs from Saudi Arabia. What is now dry desert was once a beach littered with the bones and teeth of ancient marine reptiles and dinosaurs. The researchers found teeth and bones dating from around 72 million years ago in the northwestern part of Saudi Arabia along the coast of the Red Sea, according to the scientific journal PLOS ONE which published the finds jointly authored by participating researchers from Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Australia. Two types of dinosaur were described from the assemblage, a bipedal meat-eating abelisaurid distantly related to Tyrannosaurus but only about six meters long, and a plant-eating titanosaur……………..”
Speaking of dinosaurs? I would have thought any talk of ‘dinosaurs’ would be banned in the Jurassic Kingdom. In case the shoe fits, which it does.
Cheers
mhg

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Chuck Hagel Going Gulf Native: Support for “Unique” Political Reform in Bahrain………

      


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“The United States, he vowed, will continue to guard “the free flow of energy and commerce” from the Persian Gulf and keep Iran nuclear-free, through the presence of 35,000 US military personnel or the (as-yet-unproven) regional missile defense system. Hagel also trumpeted the American commitment to “political reform” in the gulf region. But the Pentagon chief uttered not a word about the hundreds of Bahrainis languishing in prison—many without adequate medical care—for demanding the very rights he says they deserve. Bahrainis have engaged in nearly daily demonstrations against the Al Khalifa monarchy for the past three years. This resistance started on Valentine’s Day, 2011, when thousands gathered at the Pearl Roundabout in the capital city, Manama, to demand free and fair elections, real power for the popularly elected lower house of Parliament, the release of political prisoners and an end to government corruption. From the beginning, the monarchy has sought to suppress this activism with home raids, torture, show trials and lengthy prison sentences……………….”

It says: “Hagel also trumpeted the American commitment to ‘political reform’ in the gulf region”. Oh, it would be fun if he said that publicly in Riyadh. It would be even fun-ner if he said it wearing native attire (Gulf dishdasha or Saudi thobe and shmagh): the security agents would then suspect him of a native seeker and reform, converging on him. Then he would discover how truly reform-minded the ruling families of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are.

Cheers
mhg

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Ariel Sharon and the Liberation of Lebanon……..

      


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“Israeli leaders seemed like moths irresistibly attracted to the fires of Lebanon” Me

Ariel Sharon was probably more hated by Arabs than any other Israeli, until Benyamin Netanyahu showed up and took that crown. Sharon did his fighting mostly on the ground: in the battlefield and in occupied Arab territory from Gaza to the West Bank to Lebanon to the African bank of the Suez Canal in October 1973. Netanyahu has ‘personal’ baggage that Sharon did not have. He is also no military commander: he prefers to jaw-jaw the United States into war on his behalf. He does much of his fighting in front of a microphone, in the halls of the U.S. Knesset Congress, and especially within the halls of the powerful AIPAC.


In 1982 Israeli forces led by Ariel Sharon invaded Lebanon, swept across the border, reaching the outskirts of Beirut right in the middle of the Lebanese Civil War. Maybe they were given the impression that they were liberating Lebanon and that they would be met with flowers. They were in fact met with the equivalent of flowers, but only by the Gemayyel’s Phalange fascist militia and some other warlords now allied with the Hariri March 14 bloc. One of their goals was to break and expel the PLO from southern Lebanon, and that they did. That invasion, at least the second Israeli invasion of Lebanon at the time, lasted many years. The PLO was expelled, but the Israelis probably regret that by now, seeing what replaced them. The expulsion of Palestinian security left the refugee camps open and vulnerable. Israeli forces had surrounded the camps (Sabra and Shatila) but allowed their local allies among Lebanese fascist militias to enter them and exact their revenge. Thousands of unprotected Palestinian civilians were massacred, after being subjected to other atrocities.
After that the Reagan administration and France managed to blunder into the Lebanese civil war, establishing vulnerable military bases in the middle of the warring factions. A classic blunder and the tragic consequences for French and U.S. forces are well recorded. The shaken Western forces pulled out quickly. The Israelis had also pulled back to the border region and decided to remain inside Lebanon, within reach of their local ‘allies’ who ironically were inspired by European Fascists and Nazis and hence inherently anti-Semitic.

The PLO departed for Tunisia, but in its place emerged a new indigenous organization called the Party of God, Hezbollah. The war and economics had pushed many repressed Lebanese Shi’as away from the border region, north to Beirut and its suburbs. That movement and the aftermath of the invasion and occupation of the South in 1982 weakened the political influence of the traditional Shi’a political “bosses” who were like other quasi-feudal Lebanese political warlords. Hezbollah, and Amal (Hope) movement before it, quickly attracted Shi’a loyalty as the Israelis seemed set to remain in the country. The guerrilla war against the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon and against its Lebanese surrogates of the so-called South Lebanon Army lasted about 18 years, until Hezbollah guerrillas forced them out in the year 2000. Over the years of war Lebanon lost several politicians including at least two presidents of the republic to car bombs. The victims also included many honest citizens.
 
When it came to Lebanon, Sharon was no different from other Israeli leaders who followed him. I posted once that Israeli leaders seemed like moths irresistibly attracted to the fires of Lebanon. They keep getting burned by it but they come back for more. They are still making incursions, flying sorties, and bombings in Lebanese territory, and against UN resolutions which seem to only apply to Arabs and Muslims.

Sharon failed in his quest to liberate Lebanon from its future, to preserve it for the right-wing hereditary warlords. That impossible task has now been handed over to Saudi intelligence and Saudi money and the politicized and widely discredited STL Lebanon Tribunal. Going against the tide of the future, the writing on the wall in Lebanon, it will also fail.
Cheers
mhg

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Fullerton’s Worst: California Policemen Get Away with another Murder……….

      


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“A jury has acquitted two former Fullerton, California, police officers on trial in the beating death of Kelly Thomas, a mentally ill and homeless man. The verdict was read in a Santa Ana courtroom Monday afternoon. Eight women and four men began deliberating the case on Thursday. “I’m just horrified. They got away with murdering my son,” Cathy Thomas, the victim’s mother, told reporters after the verdict was read. The victim’s father, Ron Thomas, said that everyone now needs to be afraid. “This is carte blanche to police officers to do whatever they want,” he told reporters. The beating of Thomas in a transit parking lot was recorded by security cameras on the night of July 5, 2011. The surveillance camera footage shows Thomas being beaten, clubbed and stunned with a Taser by police. The video sparked a nationwide outcry. Former officer Manuel Ramos was charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. A second former Fullerton officer, Jay Cicinelli, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and excessive use of force. Both were found not guilty on all charges…………..”

Cheers
mhg

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Bandar Goes to Washington, May Seek Syrian Presidency…….

      


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AlQuds AlArabi of London (reportedly still Qatari-financed), reports that chief of Saudi Intelligence Prince Bandar Bin Sultan Al-Saud is heading to the United States for medical treatment. It doesn’t say what ails him, but if afterwards he goes to Morocco for recuperation, that would be an ominous sign. Other princes reportedly have ended their Moroccan recuperation ‘feet first’, as the saying goes.
The daily also reports that the prince, who is the effective leader of the Syrian opposition and Lebanon’s March 14 bloc, will use the trip to smooth over Saudi-American relations. Among topics to be discussed: the Arab Peace Initiative for Israel-Palestine (actually it was a Thomas Friedman Initiative which the Saudis hijacked), Syria (Saudis want to show that they can also selectively side against some of the Jihadis fighting against Al-Assad, even as the opposition continues its happy disintegration). The report claims that relations between Washington and Riyadh warmed up after American officials, finally, announced that Iran will not be attending the Geneva 2 conference on Syria. Having apparently blocked Iran from attending Geneva (on Syria but not on the nuclear issue), the Saudi goal now is to prevent Bashar Al-Assad from running for president next year, presumably for fear that he might defeat Prince Bandar in the election…………

Cheers
mhg

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Breaking News: Prince of Mecca Receives Mayor of Mecca, Holy Town is Doomed……….

      


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“Makkah Emir Prince Mishal Bin Abdullah received at his office in Jeddah on Saturday Makkah Mayor Osama al-Bar. They discussed development projects being implemented in Mecca for the welfare of pilgrims and visitors, unplanned districts, land encroachments, compensation for expropriation of properties, the public transport project in the holy city, the Makkah Gate project and other issues. Al-Bar congratulated the prince on his appointment as the new emir of the province…………”

Okkkkkay. Expropriation of properties indeed. As for the fate of mecca and how the princes and potentates and their retainers and business partners have ruined its heritage, I refer you to the following links, if’n you are interested:

Destroyers of Islamic Heritage, Looters of Mecca……

Holy Greed: Paris Hilton Does Mecca, Takes Over Prophet Mohammed’s Childhood Home………

Saudi Culture: Bulldozing the Graves of Mohammed and Omar into Las Vegas…….

Birthplace of Islam: Where Dogma and Greed Face History………

Buying the Soul of Britain, Raping the History of Islam, Sacking Mecca………

Cement Shortages May not Save Mecca from its Las Vegas Future………

Cheers
mhg

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A Nordic Mystery: Stormy Seas, Animal Mutilations, Mutilated Lebanese Cows………

      


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“Fourteen dead cows that washed up on the beaches of Denmark and Sweden were probably dumped overboard by the crew of a Lebanese ship after it encountered bad weather, Danish police said Friday. “The police suspects that (the source is) a Lebanese ship that was transporting live cattle from a US port to Europe,” the South Zealand and Lolland-Falster Police said in a statement. “The ship ran into a storm in the Bay of Biscay, in which a number of cows died,” it added. The ship’s management may be prosecuted since dumping dead animals in the Baltic Sea is prohibited, it said. The puzzling appearance of nine cows on the beaches of south Sweden and five in Denmark has stunned the public, especially after it was revealed that some of them had been shot and had their ears mutilated…………….”

I am not touching this one, just linking to it. It might be cultural, a WTF. You figure it out.

Cheers
mhg

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U.S. Navy Seals and Al Qaeda and U.S. Judges vs. Iranian Money………

      


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“When insurgents shot down a CH-47D Chinook helicopter carrying Navy SEALs over Afghanistan in 2011, it spawned myriad questions about who in the U.S. military and political establishment should be held accountable. But the families of several of the 38 men killed in that mission intend to take it a step farther, suing another entity more removed from the incident: Iran. Problem is, the families don’t at the moment have much in the way of direct evidence to implicate Iran in the shootdown. The families plan to name Tehran, two of its leaders — former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei — and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards among the defendants in a lawsuit seeking $600 million in damages………………”

Imagine if the family of every veteran who was ever wounded or killed in battle or in a terrorist attack decides to sue ‘somebody’ for it. Many thousands who died in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, etc. Many thousands of veterans who were wounded. It would be a mess.
That ought to keep a lot of lawyers occupied.
This case is one hell of a stretch, but nothing new here. It seems that other parties in the USA have aspire to sue Iran for money, and have done so. And why not, and who needs real solid reasonable sensible evidence? There have been judges in recent years who ruled millions of Iranian dollars for American victims of Al Qaeda terrorism, under the pretext that “Saudi Arabia Iran supports Al Qaeda”! This is as sensible and reasonable as claiming that Jews supported Nazism. But hey, these honorable judges are just doing their job, and there is a lot of honorable frozen Iranian money to be had. There is plenty of easy money to be had.
BTW: How come nobody sues those princes and Wahhabi potentates who created, arm, lead, and finance Al Qaeda? And should the families of all those Afghans and Pakistanis and Yemenis who were collateral damage in the war against Al Qaeda terrorists decide to sue for the drones killing their relatives by mistake? And how much should they ask for? And what are their chances of a judge outside Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen ruling for them?
 

Here are some links to a few of my older posts on similar topics of ‘legal’ absurdity:

Mel Brooks and Oliver Stone of Persia: a Taliban-Hezbollah-Colombian-Iranian-alQaeda-Mexican-Texan-African Network…….

Piling on Iran: Teetotaler Washington Judge Plays Sherlock Holmes, or is it Hercule Poirot, not Stalin…..

The Iran Embassy Plot and My old American History Professor, about the Maine……

Cheers
mhg

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