I won't write too much about this. My last post was way too long and self- indulgent. I promised I was going to keep entries here short, because no one should be expected to plow through a post of more than 500 (less than 490 you have to forgive me) words and that last one should have been split into probably three separate ones.
I've noticed some interesting things: First, most commentators here in the Sates are ignorant propagandists who very clearly know next to nothing about what they are talking about. Very rarely do you get anyone willing to speak the truth, apart from all the nonsense about our being interested in Arab freedom, democracy and human rights.
We are - and rationally so - only interested in one thing: defending and advancing our own national interests, as defined by our own power elite. The idealistic yammering is a cloak for that power, that's it. "Our" interests are oil, our economic and political security and international political and economic stability.
That's it, that's all. It's all about maintaining the flow of wealth, and protecting the broad interests of the decision makers in DC and Europe.
All the handwringing about why we are intervening in Libya, while ignoring the revolts in Syria, Bahrain, and Yemen drives me nuts.
In Bahrain we and our key allies the Saudis and other Gulf emirates are invested in the status quo. If the protesters were to gain power and overthrow the monarchy there, the 5th Fleet's basing rights would be in question and danger of revocation. Democracy in that island satrap of ours would throw power to the Shiite majority, just as it has in Iraq.
This would further tilt the balance of power in the Gulf toward Persian Shiite Iran.
The Sunni Arab "monarchies" there are deathly afraid of Persians and Shiites. They know that when we leave - and we will, it's only a question of time and how much oil is left - then they will be on their own.
All talk of attacking Iran needs to be taken in that context. It's not primarily about Israel. Iran is only an existential threat to Israel in that it undermines Zionism as an ideology (who wants to move to a place under constant bombardment by Hezb' Allah, and under the eventual slight theoretical threat of a possible nuclear war? Not middle class American Jews, that's for damn sure..) not in the military sense.
As for Yemen, supporting the revolting tribes there against the government is tantamount to supporting "al-Qaeda" in that our only real allies in that hell hole are the rulers. This is true again and again throughout the Middle East and rest of the world - the people who need and want us need and want us for our guns. We prop up their regimes against their own people, they sell us oil cheap (not that Yemen has much oil) and let us do things like base spec ops and attack drones in their countries to hunt terrorists.
As for Syria the government there are Baathist thugs like Saddam, but that ruling clique is made up of Alawite and Druze minorities (whom the French made the military officer class during the colonial era to create a reliable indigenous power base against the Sunni majority - divide and conquer - when they left, those clans, most particularly the Alawites were in control) - any support of Sunni majority rebellion would destabilize the devil we know (who isn't even that devilish, really, a few convenient mass murders of Islamicists and other extremists that we secretly enjoyed like when they killed 20,000 Muslim Brotherhood leveling Hama in 1982 aside) and give us - and our Israeli friends - a new, and potentially much more unpleasant Sunni regime that could seek a renewed alliance with Egypt. Bad scenario for us, not going to encourage that. Note also that Syria has no oil. No oil, you're not that important.
Anyway, the reason we are taking out Qaddafi is that the Europeans and Chinese need his high quality crude. He's a jerk who has alienated and pissed off everyone - even the bankers in Zurich and Geneva hate him, and when you are rich and still have pissed off those mercenaries, you know you really have no friends. So in his case the "rebels" (disempowered tribes) are a positive improvement, hence the bombings.
Italy also has a vested interest in North Africa not descending into utter chaos, since they would prefer to keep the African boat immigration to the current trickle. That's why they volunteered their bases with such alacrity, right off the bat.
One closing observation: I've noticed that Al-Jezeera - which is a consistently more interesting news source than any major American corporate channel - is revealing its biases now. They aren't pro- western corporate, they're Sunni Arab sectarian and in defense of the Gulf Emirates and Saudis.
They refuse to favorably cover (or cover at all, really) the revolts in the Arab Gulf, which I think is highly amusing. It's game on in making everyone else feel uncomfortable (which I love them for) but when it comes to annoying the sheiks paying their bills, they keep their mouths shut.
We all have our sacrosanct loyalties and self interest to defend in the end. That's what makes the world go round.
Enjoy the ride. It's getting interesting.
---
No comments:
Post a Comment