The American right wing has always expressed suspicions, nay abhorrence, at what was often called “world government”. They were always unilateralists, when not isolationists. Odd how they are eagerly adopting multilateral action, by NATO and not the UN. Yet NATO is now a form of world government, ruling the whole world, with the exception of China and India and Iran and some pockets in Latin America. NATO can almost unilaterally start wars and interfere in other countries. Yet the American right wing now wants more of this kind of “international” government (Ron Paul excepted). Selective wold government. Could it have something to do with the fact that NATO is a rich man’s “Golf club”? Of course there is the small matter of Turkish membership, but the Turks got in when they were needed during the early Cold War. They are expendable now that the old cold war has ended. Just as they became expendable to Europe once the Soviet Union fell. Cheers
mhg
“Britain’s armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern about Tehran’s nuclear enrichment programme, the Guardian has learned. The Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government. In anticipation of a potential attack, British military planners are examining where best to deploy Royal Navy ships…………”
Having liked Iraq (2003 and WMD and W and all that) the (new) British regime is doing it again. They are now being more ‘royal’ than the American king. Maybe there have been promises by the petroleum potentates of my Gulf, promises to pay the costs of war, promises to buy more useless weapons. Most oligarchies of the Persian-American Gulf would like nothing better than for the West and Israel to attack the mullahs in Iran. They would like a Saddam II (or is it III), except this will not be a retake of previous wars. There will be no UN resolution authorizing aggression against a member state that has not attacked anyone. The geriatric polygamous al-Saud absolute tribal monarchy would likes nothing better than for the West to destroy Iran (the head of the snake), making them by default the new Western “viceroy” in charge of the region.
Yet a war against Iran will have ominous consequences for some Gulf states. The danger will not be from the Iranians, it will come from the Saudis who have always been expansionist at the expense of the smaller GCC states. They have taken territory from almost all the Gulf states and Yemen. After all, the Iranians are safely on the other side, they must cross the Persian-American Gulf and plow through all the Western navies to reach the Arab side, the GCC states. As the invasion of Bahrain proved, all the Saudis need do is drive their tanks across the border. Only Bahrain can feel safe from Saudi tanks: the tanks are already in Manama. Cheers
mhg
“Once friends, Turkey and Iran are finding that their reactions to the Arab Spring revolutions are driving them apart and renewing an old regional rivalry. One sign of the deepening divide was obvious from the attendee list for an international conference on Afghanistan security that opened today in Istanbul. Every primary player is here: 14 regional nations, with the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan in attendance, as well as more than a dozen other countries, including the United States. But Iran had planned to send just its low-ranking deputy foreign minister, despite its long border with Afghanistan and claims of being a regional superpower. While Iran relented at the last minute and sent Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, the diplomatic tension indicates how the people-power uprisings have helped transform the Turkey-Iran friendship into an escalating rivalry. So far, analysts say, Turkey appears the winner in pushing for secular, democratic outcomes …………..”
It almost looks like that old rivalry that was fought on territory extending from the Caspian Sea to Mesopotamia. Eventually the Turks ended up with what is now Iraq as well as the rest of the Arab East (it was mainly Iraq they fought over and kept winning and losing to each other). There is no doubt that the Arab uprisings have enhanced the Turkish role in the Middle East. The Arab uprisings have also sharpened the contrast between the Turkish model and the Iranian one. Many more Arabs now look toward Turkey, a NATO member, as an example. Perhaps it is the comparison between the elected Turkish leaders and their own thuggish Arab dictators and absolute tribal kings. It is also partly the contrast between Turkish leaders and the inarticulate Iranian clergy who come across as repressive (mainly because they are repressive). The Turks have also benefited from moving away from their “former” Israeli friends in recent months. Either way the Turks have benefited from the Arab uprisings, for now. The Iranians are on the defensive mainly because their system of government is not nearly as free and democratic as the Turkish one. They have also suffered partly as a result of a furious Saudi sectarian media campaign that has continued since the Iraqi elections of 2005. The Saudi dynasty rules Arab airwaves, or most of them. That Saudi campaign has not only been aimed at the Iranian regime: more ominously it has also targeted Arab Shi’as and poisoned relationships within many societies on the Persian-American Gulf. Cheers
mhg
“Israelis are almost evenly split on whether Israel should attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, with 41 percent supporting such a strike and 39 percent opposed, a new Haaretz-Dialog poll has found. The remaining 20 percent said they were undecided…………The poll follows a spate of media reports in recent days about efforts by Netanyahu and Barak to muster a majority for such a strike in the forum of eight senior ministers. These reports coincided with several major military tests and drills………”
“Israel conducts a rare ballistic missile test; the Israel Air Force reports a successful exercise in Sardinia, far from home; Iran’s chief of staff says the “likelihood is low” of an Israeli attack, but threatens that his country would respond forcefully. British sources tell The Guardian of preparations for an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites coordinated with the United States; Britain’s chief of staff makes a secret visit to Israel……….” Haarez
“A disagreement within the government over whether to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities has sparked a political catfight between two members of the “octet” forum of eight senior ministers: Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Associates of Ya’alon charge that Barak is behind the recent spate of media reports about the octet’s deliberations on Iran, while Barak’s associates charge that Ya’alon’s judgment is becoming unbalanced…………..” Haaretz
Ain’t that sweet: Israelis are split on whether or not to attack Iran, a country that has never attacked them. Sitting on occupied Palestinian territory in “Judea and Samaria”, annexing territory against international law, and debating whether to attack a country that is a thousand miles (and a few yards) away. One that has never attacked them or anyone else in a few hundred years. Or maybe it is a red herring related to the expanding settlements and UNESCO and diversions. Not only that: the cabinet is openly discussing if and when and how to launch a futile attack on Iran. If the Iranians were to publicly discuss if and when and how to attack Israeli installations, the UN would expel them and the West would attack them, armed with a UN resolution. Meanwhile the West is filling my Gulf with warships carrying more soldiers than there are people in….. Abu Dhabi. Cheers
mhg
“Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani said there would be a vote for an advisory council in 2013, in line with a constitution introduced eight years ago. The decision is another victory, though a small one given the delayed and partial nature of the change, for the Arab Spring which Qatar did so much to foment. The royal family’s failure to introduce any semblance of the democracy it was helping elsewhere to promote, through the Al-Jazeera television channel which it owns, and finance with its large-scale backing for the revolution in Libya, has drawn increasing political attention to itself. “We have always preferred that regimes start changes on their own and lead the movement of transformation, instead of seeing people rise up,” the Emir said in a nod to the contradiction………...”
No doubt the Qatari potentate had to do something. His Aljazeera network could not continue publicizing Arab uprisings against despots in Syria and Libya and other places while his own people had no representation. A two-third elected parliament is better than no parliament, depending on what other actions the government takes to influence the elections. The “devil is in the detail” and all that. It will be better than Bahrain which has nominally a half-elected legislature but it is effectively no more elected than 30% or so. It is even better than the case of Saudi Arabia where no one votes for a legislature or a dog-catcher and the ‘Shoura” council is fully appointed by the royal family. The Saudi “elections” they are talking about are for toothless municipal councils, which will also act as “advisory”, pending the accession to the throne of Prince Nayef (Naif) who will then get rid of them. Arab potentates on the Gulf are learning how to “game the system”. Just as Mubarak and Saleh did, they can have all the pretensions of popular elections, without the headache and inconvenience of actual accountability.It would also make the Western allies happier, once they learn to turn a blind eye.
“Alaa Abd El Fattah is in jail. He was arrested on Sunday – accused of inciting violence against the Egyptian military – and on Monday was given 15 days’ detention for refusing to answer questions to a military court. A campaign to secure his release has also got under way with extraordinary rapidity: protests in the streets, a Twitter hashtag (#FreeAlaa) and even graffiti appeared within the first 24 hours or so. That is not especially surprising as Alaa, besides being a pioneer of Egyptian blogging, belongs to one of the most famous families of leftist agitators. By arresting him, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which is currently running Egypt (and increasingly being referred to as “the junta”), has picked a fight with the core of the movement that toppled President Mubarak in January……….”
Saudi King Abdullah famously claimed last February that the Egyptians participating in the uprising were “foreign infiltrators and agents”. Maybe it was a fatwa issued by his tame ulema, his Salafi palace clerics. Apparently millions of foreigners, mostly Iranian and Hezbollah agents with a handful of Hamas operatives, had infiltrated Cairo and Alexandria and el-Mahalla el-Kubra and Suez because these are good places to riot. It is possible the ruling military junta (SCAF), known for its tin ears, also believes the same. They have been doing their best to abort the Egyptian uprising, with a lot of help from their friends among absolute tribal Arab potentates. Maybe the visiting former shaikh of Bahrain (currently king) can advise them on crowd control. Which makes me wonder: wtf is the king of the Saudi province of Bahrain doing in Cairo? Cheers
mhg
“The New York Times newspaper reports the United States is
negotiating with Kuwait to allow American combat troops to be based in
the Persian Gulf area after completing the announced withdrawal from
Iraq by the end of this year. The Times says the United States is also considering sending more warships through international waters in the region. The size of the potential standby force has not been determined.
There was no immediate confirmation of the Times report, which was based on interviews with unnamed military officials and diplomats.
U.S. military plans in the region have been under discussion for months, but the Times said the talks became more urgent when President Barack Obama announced that the last American troops would leave Iraq by the end of December……….“
Several of the GCC states will no doubt be happy to host more U.S. forces. Kuwait especially was traumatized by the Iraqi invasion under the Ba’athist regime and feels more secure with American forces nearby. Yet it is not clear why the huge new buildup in the Persian-American Gulf. It is highly unlikely, with American and other Western fleets congesting the Gulf, that any “foreign” forces will invade. The only candidate, Iran, has never invaded its neighbors in modern times, but was invaded by Iraq (1980) and by the Soviet-British forces during World War II. Saudi Arabia invaded Bahrain last March by invitation from its ruling elites.
What many Arabs, outside the pro-Saudi Wahhabi GCC faux-liberals of my Gulf and their Salafi allies, speculate is that the West is preparing a military attack against Iran. The pro-Saudi Wahhabi faux-liberals of my Gulf and their Salafi allies hope fervently that this is true, that the West plans to start yet another war in our region. If the mullahs refuse to come to war, then by golly the West shall bring the war to the mullahs.
Cheers
mhg
Sports potentates of the Persian-American Gulf, including the GCC states and Yemen (which is not a Gulf state) and Iraq but minus Iran, met Monday and made a sudden decision to move the upcoming Gulf Cup games from Iraq to Bahrain. They cited instability in Iraq as a reason for the move, adding that it was not a political move and that the next round, the 2013 tournament, will be in Iraq. The move was from the frying pan of Iraq to the fires of rebellious occupied Bahrain.
Of course the move was all political. Moving the games from terrorist-threatened Iraq to a Bahrain where the people are in revolt against the regime. It was also a way for the GCC potentates to needle Iraq, insult it by forcing it to attend in occupied Bahrain or, possibly better yet, forcing it to withdraw from the event. No doubt the Saudis and their al-Khalifa toadies were behind the move, hoping the Iraqis will decide to quit. Of course the al-Saud may have to send in more tanks and soldiers into Bahrain for the games, and they may have to ban a majority of Bahrain’s people from attending the games. I suspect most of the people may boycott the games anyway.
One thing is almost certain: whoever wins the Gulf trophy can attribute the victory, as usual, to the ruling potentates; whoever loses will blame the mullahs in Iran. Cheers
mhg
BFF “Even in the heart of the Islamic republic, fully observant Muslims may not be in the majority. Iran’s police chief estimates that as many as half of Tehran’s citizens eschewed fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, the most recent of which ended in late August, the Iranian media reported Monday. Speaking to journalists at the International Press Fair in Tehran, Brig. Gen. Esmael Ahmadi-Moghaddam said that 20% to 50% of the capital’s population failed to fast during the holy period of contemplation and prayer. Should law enforcement intervene? Not a good idea, said Iran’s top cop. “Police would interfere only when it happens in the public,” he was quoted as saying. Police officers, he said, cannot compensate for society’s failure to imbue proper Muslim practices in much of the population……………”
I imagine many people, especially young Iranian people, may have been turned off Islamic piety by so many clerics running their lives. It can easily happen when ruled by dogmatic repressive clergy who take away many freedoms: young people (probably wrongly) tend to equate the repression with Islam. Of course that is as wrong as equating some unique American version of “Christianity” with the Republican (Tea) Party or equating Judaism with the Israeli social Salafis and the Likudniks. Maybe what they need in Iran is a dedicated intrusive religious police, something like the Saudi Commission for the Propagation of Vice. Then they can crash into people’s homes to catch them eating and drinking, and possibly fornicating, during Ramadan. Cheers
mhg
BFF “Worried they might return with provocative tales of a populist uprising that just toppled another Middle East dictator, strongman Kim Jong Il has issued a decree to North Koreans in Libya –- don’t bother coming home. The ban was an effort to prevent word of the often-violent Arab uprisings from reaching the isolated regime, illustrating Kim’s concern about potential social unrest at home inspired by the Arab Spring revolutions, according to stories published in the South Korean press. The move has left an estimated 200 North Koreans stranded as country-less orphans. They include doctors, nurses and construction workers sent to Libya to bring hard currency back to their impoverished country, which many say is experiencing food shortages..……..”
This odd story is just a reminder that even the worst of Arab despots (there are about 20 of them) are mild pussycats compared to the Kims of the People’s Republic of Korea. Maybe some of our Gulf regimes can use these stranded North Koreans. The UAE now has a mercenary force led by Blackwater veterans and composed of Colombians, Australians, White South Africans and others. They can always add some Asian flavor to the mix. The regime in Bahrain has been in the foreign mercenary business even longer, they can now add a few dazed North Koreans to their current mirthless mix of Pakistanis and Jordanians.
Rattlesnake Ridge 
BFF
