Monthly Archives: January 2012

Anti-Semitism, Europe, France, Muslims, NATO, Turkey, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

Texas Governor Talking Turkey: Muslims and Terrorism and NATO and Republican Turkeys and Old Hickory…….

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“Well, obviously when you have a country (Turkey) that is being ruled by, what
many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists, when you start seeing that
type of activity against their own citizens, then yes. Not only is it
time for us to have a conversation about whether or not they belong to
be in NATO, but it’s time for the United States, when we look at their
foreign aid, to go to zero with it.And you go to zero with
foreign aid for all of those countries. And it doesn’t make any
difference who they are. You go to zero with that foreign aid and then
you have the conversation about, do they have America’s best interest in
mind?………..”

That was Texas governor Rick Perry talking Turkey, addressing a hall apparently full of cheering turkeys. Turks would be surprised to hear that their government is Islamic terrorist.
I wrote here once that the Hitler comparison should be banned by a United Nations resolution, and I was half serious. Now I expect Rick Santorum (and fellow right-wingers at AIPAC) to pick up the slack now and call Turkish prime minister Erdogan a new Hitler, thus joining Nasser and Saddam Hussein and Ahmadinejad in the pantheon.
Funny how Hitler was an Austro-German beer-drinking European from a Catholic background, yet Arab and Muslim leaders have the privilege of being exclusively compared to Hitler in the West. Someone like Andrew Jackson (Old Hickory himself) might object, feeling left out, his Trail of (Indian) Tears demeaned. Many Southern (post-Reconstruction) leaders, governors and “famous” U.S. senators, might feel left out as well. With Hitler’s charred remains still warm in Moscow, the French government of newly American-liberated France massacred thousands of Muslim Algerians who wanted either full equality with the white settlers on their land or independence. Europe of the EU is now full of new little leaders that might be carelessly called would be Hitlers, some of them partners in government (Netherlands and that very same Austria). They also aim their fear-mongering and venom toward people that are mostly Semitic. Again.
Cheers
mhg


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Afghanistan, Terrorism, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

Rick Perry and Afghanistan and the Yellow Rain of Texas…………..

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“GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry is accusing the Obama administration of “over-the-top rhetoric” and “disdain for the military” in its condemnation of a video that purportedly shows Marines urinating on dead bodies in Afghanistan. No one has been charged in the case, but officials in the U.S. and abroad have called for swift punishment of the four Marines. A military criminal investigation and an internal Marine Corps review are under way. The Geneva Conventions forbid the desecration of the dead…………”

Spoken like a true pandering Republican candidate in 2012.
What Texas governor Perry doesn’t understand is that American soldiers normally don’t urinate on “dead” corpses, not even on enemy corpses. He doesn’t realize there aren’t enough American soldiers who urinate on dead corpses every day, not nearly enough to justify his pandering. The very few imbeciles who might do so are not the type that would vote, especially not in a South Carolina primary. Not even in Texas. Besides, as an aspiring, hopeless, candidate for POTUS, doesn’t he worry about the impact of all this inside and outside the USA? Doesn’t he realize that he insults a couple of million of normal U.S. soldiers who would never think of urinating on another human being?
Cheers
mhg


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Iran, U.S. Congress, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

Iranian Paranoia, American Paranoia, a World to Conquer…………

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Official Iranian views about the West, especially about the United States, are reciprocated by the other side. There are many plots and conspiracies on each side against the other. Iranian officials and their media are full of foreign plots against their country and the Middle East. American media and especially the (not so hallowed these days) halls of Congress are full of Iranian plots to obliterate Israel and to take over not only the Arab side of the Persian-American Gulf , but the whole Middle East, and also to conquer Latin America. Here are some samples from Iranian news agencies today:

“Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has said that there is evidence that certain international inspectors, who have travelled to Iran to inspect (nuclear) facilities, have provided terrorist groups with Iranian nuclear scientists’ particulars.”
Mehmanparast means “guest worshiper, or worshiper of the guest in Persian. I suppose it implies unusual hospitality.

“The commander of the Iranian Navy says Iran has always had naval supremacy over the Strait of Hormuz and will not allow the arrogant powers and the Zionist regime to create tension in the region.”

“U.S. President Barack Obama recently announced that his government will soon unveil a new military strategy that switches focus to the Asia-Pacific region. The new focus shows that the United States fears the rise of China, which has enjoyed considerable economic growth over the past ten years.”

“The movements of Western countries’ warships and aircraft carriers in the region are part of the psychological warfare being waged against Iran, a military official said on Sunday.”

“Through sanctions against Iran the United States is seeking to eliminate its economic rivals, particularly China and India, an Iranian Foreign Ministry official argues.”

The above quotes show the degree of Iranian paranoia and suspicion about the West, especially the United States. These are not any wilder than Western (American) suspicions and paranoia and all the recent wild allegations of absurd Iranian plots.
Cheers
mhg


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9/11, Gulf states, Iran, Iraq, Israel, nuclear Iran, Persian-American Gulf, Saudi Arabia

Remember Joe (Judas) Lieberman? He is Alive and Well and Homesick for Iraq……..

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““I don’t know that the president will order a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities even if the sanctions don’t work, but I know that he’s capable of doing that and I believe he’s prepared to do that,” he said, adding that he doesn’t think Obama would ever send ground troops to Iran. Over the New Year’s break, Lieberman visited Israel, Iraq, Tunisia, and Libya, and he said Iran was the number one concern of leaders in the region. In previous meetings, Israeli officials had focused almost entirely on U.S. red lines and their concern over whether Obama would really attack Iran if push came to shove, emphasizing that Israel would attack if the United States doesn’t. But now the Israeli government seems more willing to let the sanctions strategy run its course, Lieberman said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview this week that Iran is beginning to show signs of cracking under the international sanctions regime……….”

Now WTF rock did Joe (Judas) Lieberman crawl from under? Joe the famous turncoat of 2008. Maybe he is covering his backside for 2913: maybe he hopes Obama will appoint him secretary of state if he wins again. He might as well appoint that other (Avigdor) Lieberman.
Joe and John (McCain) and their friend Goose had wanted to establish permanent bases in Iraq, although they have plenty of bases and warships all over the Persian-American Gulf to hang around, as well as an alleged drone base in Saudi Arabia.
Anyway, Joe who single-handed derailed the original Obama healthcare plan is back and he has a whole year left of his senate term to do damage and push for a project dear and near to his heart: a new war in the Middle East.

These right-wingers like Joe Lieberman seem to have a perverse attachment to our region, to the Middle East. From Bush-Cheney to Hillary Clinton to the pandering Republicans of 2012, they all want to start yet another war or two or three in the Middle East. Oddly they never want to start a war against the only Middle East country whose citizens attacked the American homeland in September 2001. They want to start a war of choice against another country that has not attacked anyone, not yet.

Cheers
mhg


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Iran, Israel, Middle East Nuclear, nuclear Iran, Sanctions, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

Disturbing Solo Brainstorming: So What is the Goal in Iran?………

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“The Obama administration has been adamant that regime change per se is not the goal of U.S. sanctions. On Wednesday, a Washington Post article initially quoted an anonymous U.S. official as saying “regime change” was the goal, but then was quickly corrected to say “public ire” was the sanctions’ goal, not regime change. Today, a U.S. official told AFP that the goal of the sanctions was to “close down” the Central Bank of Iran (CBI)……..”

This is confusing. There are conflicting reports about the goal in Iran. The three (red) goals given above do not include the ‘nuclear’ program which the Iranians insist is civilian. The Obama administration and the Israelis and the Saudi princes and their Gulf Salfi and Wahhabi faux-liberal admirers insist is for military purposes. There are two reasons not mentioned here for the sanctions and the possible war that may follow: Reason One is to keep the Israeli extreme right-wing government quiet before the 2012 U.S. elections. If you don’t believe that is one important, possibly the most important reason, then I still have that perfect old lame camel for sale. The Likud and its American lobbyists and worshipers can make Mr. Obama’s life miserable between now and November, and they probably will do so anyway.
Reason Two may be to keep Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from being “disturbed”. Lately she has been describing many news, allegations, and rumors about the Iranian mullahs as “disturbing” or that she is ‘disturbed’ about them. The secretary and her spokespersons have been doing that at a ‘disturbing’ rate.
I am sure my confusion, and yours, has not been clarified by this individual solo brainstorming by yours truly.
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab Revolutions, Bahrain, Britain, GCC, Persian-American Gulf, Saudi Arabia, US Foreign Policy

A Gulf Love Affair: Mr. Cameron the Democratic Traveling Salesman……

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“The Foreign Office currently warns all Britons travelling to Saudi Arabia to exercise vigilance: “Any increase in regional tension might affect travel advice,” its website says. It is a warning that David Cameron could do well to heed when he flies to the kingdom today. Saudi Arabia might seem an ideal customer to a British prime minister keen to win contracts. If Barack Obama can sell the kingdom nearly $30bn of F-15 fighter jets, Britain can surely flog its armoured personnel carriers, sniper rifles, small arms ammunition and weapon sights………. However, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are fast learning to play another role in the region. The kingdom is branding itself as a bulwark not just against the Revolutionary Guards in Iran and despots in Syria, but against the Arab spring itself……… Internally, the most authoritarian regime in the Arab world has much to fear from demonstrations – which are illegal…………”

The Conservative (Tory) British prime minister likes to claim his coalition government’s love of democracy and spreading it around the world. His government participated in the NATO bombing and ground campaign for the liberation of Libya from Mu’ammar Qaddafi. Colonel Qaddafi was formerly a dear and near friend of Britain and the U.S. government in the last decade. They liberated Libya, just as they helped in the liberation of Iraq eight years ago. Just as they might help in the ‘liberation’ of Syria if the absolute ruling oligarchies on my Gulf, and their Salafis and the Wahhabi faux-liberals have their way.
The British government, like the United States government, like the Iranian government, like the French and Saudi governments, doesn’t give blanket support to all movements for freedom and dignity. If it truly believed in democracy before self-interest it would not do the following, and more:

  • The Crown Prince of Bahrain invited to visit the UK and was feted at No. 10 Downing St and other places.
  • The King of Bahrain to UK invite to visit the UK, where he was feted even as his mercenary forces were, are, busy gassing and killing and arresting protesters. Even as his local and imported Jordanian torturers are busy in the cells.
  • Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex last week visited Bahrain where they reportedly received gifts of jewellery and watches. Gifts usurped by the ruling al-Khalifa clan from the poor people of Bahrain.
  • Now Mr. Cameron is visiting the most repressive regime in the Middle East, which also makes it the second most repressive regime in the whole world (thank God for North Korea). That would be the Democratic People’s Kingdom of (Saudi) Arabia, which is dangling the prospect of fat contracts in return for turning a blind eye, nay two blind eyes.
  • British governments since the days of Tony Blair have become good at the two-faced game. Pushing democracy while pushing weapons that repress democracy. Pushing transparency in other countries while suppressing investigations at home of massive bribery to Saudi princes like Bandar Bin Sultan (as in BAE Systems and Saudi al-Yamama and Tony Blair and British SFO).
  • Just before the Riyadh visit, Mr. Cameron loudly and noisily sent a new British warship to the Persian-American Gulf. The goal was likely to show the al-Saud princes who their true friends are; that it is not only the Obama administrations, and whoever follows it into the White House.

Cheers
mhg


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Arab Revolutions, France, Iran, NATO, Persian-American Gulf, Syria, US Foreign Policy

BHL d’Arabie: the Liberation of Syria and the Gulf………

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Speaking of the liberation of Syria, whatever happened to Bernard-Henri Lévy? The French pop-philosopher and liberator of Libya has not yet landed in Latakia to rally the opposition against the al-Assad regime. Actually Tartus would be a better spot for him than Latakia. He might be waiting for the opposition to establish their own ‘beachhead’, their own Tripoli (Libyan Tripoli not the Lebanese Salafi-Muslim-Brother Tripoli). Then he can sweep ashore, a la Douglas MacArthur. BHL d’Arabie, Lévy of Arabia!
Or maybe he has a more ambitious target in mind, maybe he is waiting or an opportunity to sweep the shores of the Persian-American (not yet French) Gulf. The liberation of Iran from the mullahs may be his next ambition: to bring down the theocracy and raise the flag or freedom, modernism, Wahhabism, and international oil companies. To drive the last Western nails, figuratively speaking, in the coffins of Mossadegh (nationalizer of oil) and Ayatollah Khomeini. For that goal, he can count on a small army of our Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood cheerleaders (only cheerleading, no fighting, not even puffy pompoms).
Cheers
mhg


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Arab Counterrevoltion, Arab League, Arab Politics, Arab Revolutions, NATO, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, US Foreign Policy

Shaikh of Qatar and the Liberation of Syria: about a Piss-Up in a Brewery….………..

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Media report that the Emir of Qatar has called for an Arab force to intervene in Syria. Arab forces do not have a good history of intervention in other Arab states, unless they are led by a Western general (or colonel or major). Remember, Europeans (T.E. Lawrence and others higher above him) actually led the “temporary” liberation of Jerusalem and Damascus in WWI. Commanders of regular Arab armies, like Arab leaders in general, can’t organize the proverbial-American ‘piss-up in a brewery’ as far as war is concerned. What they can organize is repression of their peoples, and occasionally of other Arab peoples (as the Saudi princes are doing in Bahrain). If Desert Storm were Arab-led (as some Saudi regime journalists occasionally try to claim), Iraqi Ba’athist forces would still be sitting in Khafji, and most likely beyond.

No, an Arab force in Syria would have as much success as the Arab League observers have had. Not only will both the Syrian regime and the ‘opposition’ run rings around them: it would also be a bloody fiasco. As one example: the Saudi military, armed with the best American weapons that petro-money can buy, could not subdue a small group of Yemeni clans (the Huthis) armed with primitive guns just a couple of years ago. They had to leave in defeat. Imagine what the well-armed Syrians can do to these same forces, led by the same inept princes.

I suspect that some of the Arab oligarchs of the Gulf look toward an eventual Western intervention and “liberation” of Syria. Just as the West liberated Iraq and Libya. That is probably their goal, something they have in common with many leaders of the fractured Syrian ‘opposition’. The people who excoriated the West for ‘liberating’ Iraq, after helping it ‘liberate’ Iraq, now want more of the same. Assuming they will end up in control, a tough thing.
Cheers
mhg


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CIA, Iran, Israel, Mossad, Pakistan, Salafi, Terrorism, U.S. Congress, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Legalized Bribery, Western Terrorism vs. Islamic Terrorism, a Most pro-Israeli Administration…………

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“In the peculiar American system of legalized bribery, AIPAC has bought most US congressmen by organizing thousands of Jewish and Christian Zionist groups to give money to Congressional campaigns. AIPAC ought to have to register as an agent of a foreign country, but is allowed to so function without any let or hindrance, by the FBI, which really ought to intervene here. The hypocrisy is so thick you could drown in it. The Israel lobbies have managed to configure the Hizbullah party-militia of Lebanon as a “terrorist” organization, when Hizbullah’s major military operations were defensive, aimed at expelling occupying, aggressive Israeli troops from Lebanese territory on which they had unlawfully squatted. But when Mossad (pretending to be Americans) buys Baluchi agents to blow up innocent worshippers in mosques in Zahedan, that is defined away as not terrorism…………”

Also sprach Juan Cole, not unreasonably; in fact quite reasonably.
All these revelations only reinforce deeply ingrained Iranian suspicions that go back almost six decades. Jundullah have committed some gruesome murders against Iranian civilians, like beheadings and slitting throats, Salafi al-Qaeda style crimes. It is not clear yet if it was the CIA that recruited the Salafi terrorists or the friendly Israelis in American disguise (nice friends, no?). But it all reminds the mullahs and ordinary Iranians of the American-British plot that ended their democracy in August 1953. That plot, Operation Ajax, handed absolute power first to the shah, then it lay the seeds for the 1979 revolution, the embassy hostage-taking, and the ongoing crisis.
As for the Israelis, if they were behind it, they certainly will not be punished, not even reprimanded. Not when they have the American Knesset running the show in Washington DC, and a terrified Democrat administration turning a blind eye in a way George W. Bush would never have allowed. This is truly the most pro-Israeli administration in American history. Unfortunately, pro-Israeli also means extreme pro-right-wing Likud.
Cheers
mhg


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Ali Khamenei, Human Right, Humor, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Middle East, WTF

A Very Funny Iranian Political Story…….

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“There are unconfirmed reports that the qualifications of 30 to 40 current MPs, who had registered to run for the March parliamentary elections, have not been approved by the government’s appointed executive committees, the Mehr News Agency has learnt. The qualifications of the parliamentary candidates have to be approved by the mentioned committees, the Interior Ministry, and the Guardian Council respectively. These MPs were initiators of controversial proposals at the parliament……….”

This Iranian news agency has a subtle sense of humor. Political humor should be subtle in the Middle East, it is safer that way (except in places where humor may not exist anyway, like Jordan and Gaza and possibly the West Bank and Israel). It says the qualifications of these listed members were not approved (not yet, hints that maybe not later either) for the March elections in Iran. It also says that these members were “initiators of controversial proposals at the parliament”, wtf that may mean. Yet it seems as simple as putting two and two together (2+2=4, normally, except when it is inconvenient).
Cheers
mhg


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