Monday, August 25, 2014

Graveyard of Empires

The Middle East has descended into a clusterfuck that defies all description. So here are some of the most ludicrous facts gleaned recently regarding the current "situation"...

The theoretically "unexpected" rise of ISIL - ISIS - Now Islamic State, had the U.S. State Department contemplating coordination with Iran to formulate a regional "response". Yes, the same Iran that is developing nuclear weapons, is engaged in a cold war with Israel, and is under economic sanctions imposed by the U.N. The same country that the U.S. government intentionally attacked with the Stuxnet virus in 2010, to impair its nuclear facilities. The same Iran that funds Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel. And of course way back in 1953, the CIA and British Intelligence orchestrated the coup that led to the installation of the Shah of Iran puppet government which held power until the Islamic revolution in 1979.

Now, in a similar vein, the U.S. state department is considering partnering with the Syrian Assad regime to orchestrate a similar "counter-response" to Islamic State. Yes, the same Assad regime that the U.N. estimates has killed 191,000 of its own civilians. On CNN, Neocons were recently questioning (again) if the Obama administration had made a mistake by not more adequately arming the rebels against Assad, apparently not realizing that Islamic State is one of multiple rebel groups operating against the Assad regime. Lest we forget that the U.S. government armed Saddam Hussein during the 1980s, Al Qaeda in the late 1980s, and cooperated with the Taliban during the late 1990s. It's an unbroken history of never knowing what side to be on at any given time and then regretting the decision about :15 minutes later. Islamic State is currently parading around with all of the weapons it took from the Iraqi military which literally dropped everything and fled en masse. All of whom were "well trained" by U.S. taxpayer dollars. 



Islamic State is the inevitable outcome of failed Imperialism
Islamic State actually arose from the merging of several terrorist organizations with Al Qaeda in Iraq. The original leader of Islamic State was former Al Qaeda lieutenant Al Zarqawi, who was killed in 2006. The current leader of IS is a relatively unknown self-nominated caliph named "Al-Baghdadi". The IS is avowed enemies of "all apostates" which includes anyone and everyone who does not subscribe to its own literal interpretation of Sunni Islam. Shiites are mortal enemies, however, so is the Sunni Hamas organization operating in Gaza. So IS must first destroy Hamas and Hezbollah before it can get to the satanic Jews. 

Not to be outdone, a Shia insurgency (The "Houthi") in Yemen just routed government forces and now aspires to take control of the entire Arabian Peninsula. They pledge fealty to an entirely different "leader" who happens to be dead. 

Some timely quotes from The Looming Tower:
"Radical Islamist groups had risen in the past, only to fail because of disunity and the lack of a clear plan. In January 1998, Zawahiri began writing a draft of a formal declaration that would unite all of the different mujahideen groups that had gathered in Afghanistan under a single banner. It would turn the movement away from regional conflicts and toward a global Islamic jihad against America. The language was measured and concise, in comparison with bin Laden’s declaration of war two years before. Zawahiri cited three grievances against the Americans. First , the continuing presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia seven years after the end of the Gulf War. Second, America’s intention to destroy Iraq, as evidenced by the death of what he said was more than a million civilians [Prior to the Iraq war]. Third, the American goal of propping up Israel by incapacitating the Arab states, whose weakness and disunion are Israel’s only guarantee of survival. 
[Wright, Lawrence. The Looming Tower (Vintage) (pp. 259-260)]. 


"Bin Laden wanted to lure the United States into Afghanistan, which was already being called the graveyard of empires. The usual object of terror is to draw one’s opponent into repressive blunders, and bin Laden caught America at a vulnerable and unfortunate moment in its history."
[Wright, Lawrence. The Looming Tower (Vintage) (p. 272)]