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Guest Post: This Is Blowback
Submitted by John Aziz of Azizonomics
This Is Blowback
The YouTube video depicting Mohammed is nothing more than the straw that broke the camel’s back. This kind of violent uprising against American power and interests in the region has been a long time in the making. It is not just the continuation of drone strikes which often kill civilians in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan, either. Nor is it the American invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Nor is it the United States and the West’s support for various deeply unpopular regimes such as the monarchies in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia (and formerly Iran). Nor is it that America has long favoured Israel over the Arab states, condemning, invading and fomenting revolution in Muslim nations for the pursuit of nuclear weapons while turning a blind eye to Israel’s nuclear weapons and its continued expansion into the West Bank.
Mark LeVine, Professor of Middle Eastern history at U.C. Irvine, writes:
Americans and Europeans are no doubt looking at the protests over the “film”, recalling the even more violent protests during the Danish cartoon affair, and shaking their heads one more at the seeming irrationality and backwardness of Muslims, who would let a work of “art”, particularly one as trivial as this, drive them to mass protests and violence.
Yet Muslims in Egypt, Libya and around the world equally look at American actions, from sanctions against and then an invasion of Iraq that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and sent the country back to the Stone Age, to unflinching support for Israel and all the Arab authoritarian regimes (secular and royal alike) and drone strikes that always seem to kill unintended civilians “by mistake”, and wonder with equal bewilderment how “we” can be so barbaric and uncivilised.
All of these things (and many more) have contributed to Muslim and Arab anger toward the United States and the West. Yet the underlying fact of all of these historical threads has been the United States’ oil-driven foreign policy. Very simply, the United States has for over half a century pursued a foreign policy in the region geared toward maintaining the flow of oil out of the region at any cost — even at the cost of inflaming the irrational and psychopathic religious elements that have long existed in the region.
This is not to defend the barbaric elements who resort to violence and aggression as a means of expressing their disappointment with U.S. foreign policy. It is merely to recognise that you do not stir the hornet’s nest and then expect not to get stung.
And the sad thing is that stirring the hornet’s nest is totally avoidable. There is plenty of oil and energy capacity in the world beyond the middle east. The United States is misallocating capital by spending time, resources, energy and manpower on occupying the middle east and playing world policeman. Every dollar taken out of the economy by the IRS to be spent drone striking the middle east into the stone age is a dollar of lost productivity for the private market. It is a dollar of productivity that the market could have been spent increasing American energy capacity and energy infrastructure in the United States — whether that is in oil, natural gas, solar, wind or hydroelectric.
And this effect can spiral; every dollar spent on arming and training bin Laden and his allies to fight the Soviet Union begot many more thousands of dollars of military spending when bin Laden’s mercenaries turned their firepower onto the United States, and the United States chose to spend over ten years and counting occupying Afghanistan (rightly known as the graveyard of empires). It is likely that the current uprisings will trigger even more U.S. interventionism in the region (indeed it already has as marines have already been dispatched to Yemen) costing billions or even trillions of dollars more money (especially if an invasion of Iran is the ultimate outcome). This in turn is likely to trigger even fiercer resistance to America from the Islamist elements, and so the spiral continues on.
The only way out of this money-sucking, resource-sucking, life-sucking trap that is very literally obliterating the American empire is to swallow pride and get out of the middle east, to stop misallocating American resources and productivity on unwinnable wars.
But neither major Presidential candidate is interested in such a policy. Perhaps it is because war is a great profit source for the military-industrial complex, the force to which both the Democratic and Republican parties are beholden?
In any case, we should expect to see much more of this:
Source: Reuters
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Great read! A+ bravery for truth to power (Israel).
Proof how brutally and quickly "Israel" will get you fired, kill you, or otherwise harm you personally if you state the most innocuous truth about them.
Via email I asked the chicken-shite coward John Zenakis (Yale grad, blogger, thinks he's a genious) the most simple, innocuous, harmless question:
"Mr. John Zenakis: Is the modern state of Israel the fulfillment of Old Testament Israel?"
His grand, wise, incredibly intelligent reply that only a Yale grad could provide: "They think so."
Go ahead, ask anyone in power the same question and see what happens.
If they say "Yes" you know every syllable they utter is based on the most racist, hateful, Talmudic lies, such as the daily prayer of Judaic males: "Thank you g_d I'm not a slave, a woman, nor a gentile." Or this gem: "Even the best of the gentiles deserve only death." That's so sweet, is it not?
If they say "No" they risk utter, complete personal ruin at the hands of the Israeli thought police, starting with the slur "Anti-Semite".
You'd be surprised how impossible is it for a non-Judaic public person to answer that question.
so it's not the fault of the American Israeli filmmaker, its the fault of Israel. I'm not confused.
Sounds like another arms for hostages GOP play. Sorry mittens it won't work.
Nobody fucking care - while is jacking their 401k higher.
I have just the dangest silly idea ya ever did here....we take half of our $1 trillion "Defense" budget and invest it in the development of a new power technology that fucking destructs the price of oil to the point where the fucking animals over there end up gnawing eachother to death - all of em. Fucking oil is financing the madness over their. Destruct the price of it. I never want to see the words American and Middle East in a sentence ever again. Anyone else ?
Such a dumb idea.
"And the sad thing is that stirring the hornet’s nest is totally avoidable. There is plenty of oil and energy capacity in the world beyond the middle east"
Well that's a stupid thing to write isn't it.
The economies of the western world do not work without oil, to think therefore that the biggest superpower in the history of the world (and of course the biggest consumer of oil) is not going to do whatever it needs to do to secure that oil is rather naive.
Looking at proven worldwide oil reserves (not pie in the sky maybe stuff) it makes perfect sense to start to colonise as much of the middle-east as soon as possible and as subtly as possible to ensure the future of the US. Such action in any of the other regions with vast reserves would be the commencement of a third world war therefore picking on the part of the world least able to defend themselves seems a completely understandable path to follow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves#Estimated_reserves_by_country
"The only way out of this money-sucking, resource-sucking, life-sucking trap that is very literally obliterating the American empire is to swallow pride and get out of the middle east, to stop misallocating American resources and productivity on unwinnable wars."
Without oil the western world is going back to the middle ages, no one really wants that thus the acceptance at the highest level in all western democracies that the middle east is fair game. Given that the majority of the casualties of the 'wars' will from the populations of the countries colonised and that all won wars are profitable for the winner it seems that if anything it's suprising that the colonisation hasn't gone further since the first oil shocks.
It would be nice if everything could be run with regard to fellow humans but that's never really happened at any stage in history so why would the US now gamble and hand their future fate over to people with existing grudges against them?
Liberal western gulit is very admirable but unlikely to help if the very essence of the world around us ceases tomorrow.
I'm not convinced about the peak oil matter, but I do think peak civilization is debatable. It's only a matter of time before petroleum is too expensive for the commoners to be filling up the stupid SUV at will. I believe a gigantic super humbling event is in our future, and it scares me very much. Sometimes I am thankful that I never had children to worry about. Peace and love to all.
"Civilization" has nothing to do with how much energy we consume, though. It's an outgrowth of our ability to live with each other.
Tolerance of individual differences and personal impulse control creates the potential for civilization. It doesn't matter whether we're mud-hut dwelling rice farmers or photo-synthesizing integalactic explorers.
"Tolerance of individual differences and personal impulse control creates the potential for civilization"
Great line, kinda stands to reason, doesn't it?
"It doesn't matter whether we're mud-hut dwelling rice farmers or photo-synthesizing integalactic explorers."
Daleks being the exeption that prove that rule?
Dalek civilization will be pretty great, really, when it eventually comes into existence.
They all own their own homes, provide for their own survival, watch each other's backs, and agree to a set of common goals.
Talk about solidarity!
October surprise in September? Also don't overlook geo-thermal energy.
This whole bruhaha re the "threat" of Israel's nuclear weapons is a red herring. Israel has had nuclear weapons for decades and has never threatened anybody with them. If your country was smaller than San Bernadino county, had .2 of 1% of the areas land mass, and was constantly threatened with annihilation and extinction, would you want nuclear weapons? Israel has never used these weapons which is a clear indication they are only for the most desperate of situation. If not, they've sure had opportunities in the last 40-50 years to use them...as well as the neutron bombs they must surely posses. Why haven't they, even in 1971 when it looked like they might lose the war, they used the utmost restraint. Unlike Iran, they have no messianic enemy upon which they want to inaugerate the new millenial dark age. The key to ME politics today is to NOT take the crazy Iatolahs and Imams at their word and consider it to simply be hyperbolic frivolity. I think we are all tolerant of the leaders of the religion of peace at our ultimate peril. A
Additionally, the "occupation" and the PA is a joke. Aside from the fact that the land was ceded to Israel by Jordan and is not "ancient Palestinian land" (since there is no such thing as the historical or indigenous Palestinian (Arab / Muslim) people), I lived (on assignment) in Israel for 6 years. The Israelis would love to give the PA a state, but every time they give them something, the PA just asks for more and is unwilling to cede / exchange about 2-4% of the land to make the deal. The Israelis left Gaza and got Hamas, democratically elected by the people of Gaza with a platform specifically stating they were going to wage jihad and attempt to exterminate Israerl (over time and with the help of their allies). If the people of Gaza suffer, it is by their own hand and their own will to empower their elected officials to implement their oft stated platform. What's the confusion here? Once again, if you were Israel and your "peace partner" elected officials who swore to wipe you out if they can, what would your reaction be?
I'm afraid the Israel is a war mongering Goliath doesn't stand up to the facts of history. But there's no point in arguing with those who have an agenda to fulfill. Rallying around the "Palestinian cause" is just the excuse used by those who hate Israel and the Jews for whatever reasons. It's easy to understand the Embassy attack of this past 9/11 week in this light. First, have an agenda; then find an excuse to implement it. What could be more obvious?
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
You nailed that script perfectly, bro. Well done. Not a word out of place.
Sadly, your "argument" just rationalizes the status quo, and even the majority of Israelis are unhappy with the current situation.
But you already know that. That's why it's so important that there be only one "acceptable" perspective on the issue, and why it has to be repeated at every opportunity.
Collective punishment is a war crime, though, no matter who does it.
bullshit. You think all these people living in poverty in those countries are sitting around debating the global politics of the US and how it affects them? Their leaders keep them in squalor, living like animals, and keep them distracted from their real oppressors by focusing them on the West. It has been the same throughout history. We will likely see it here too in the next few years when our politicians blame all our problems on China.