Det er en lignende historie med at anstifte og derefter at 'styre' konflikten med henblik på Syrien. Fra at være absolut bestemt på at ville se Assad gå af, så er John Kerry nu parat til at forhandle en aftale med ham, eller det er det han siger. Visse elementer i den amerikanske media harcelerer Kerry for hans fredsforslag. Jeg vil igen advare imod at se dennne flip-floppen som et tegn på den amerikanske regerings svaghed eller inkompetens. Når det kommer til stykket, at spille en balancering mellem fremstød og tilbagetrækning, hårdslående udtalelser og formildende toner, så er det hvad strategisterne via talerør som Kerry gør, for at være istand til at nå deres mål, hvilket selvfølgelig er total hegemonisk verdensdominans. Så du kan rent faktisk ikke stole på et ord de siger.
Så er fridom og demokrati hvad der skjuler sig under ruinerne af mit tidligere hjem?
Alle foregiver at sagens kerne i Syrien og Irak er ISIS, men terror truslen er blot en del af 'dynamisk fortælling', som tilpasses på daglig basis, efterhånden som konflikten behandles - ikke løst - imod det ønskede strategiske mål (hvilket er forblevet uændret i næsten et århundrede: Vestlig kontrol over
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For dem som finder engelsk svært, så er det muligt at bruge oversættelsesmaskiner på nettet såsom www.translate.bing.com eller www.translate.yandex.com eller www.translate.google.com
This management of the narrative is producing some jarring glitches. Just this week, the Syrian Army shot down a US surveillance drone over a coastal region of the country where, everyone agrees, no 'jihadists' are present. The US State Department's Jen Psaki 'would neither confirm nor deny' such had taken place, but warned the Syrian government - in a statement of breathtaking hubris - "not to interfere with its aerial assets in Syrian airspace", as if to say 'Hey! Don't do that. We're allies now, in the War on Terror, remember?'
I say to you Obama, give us better tents, or we will march on Washington, as soon as we get some boats...hint hint.
On Wednesday 18th, "two terrorists disguised in military clothes" got into Tunisia's parliament building, then - using kalashnikovs - opened fire at tourists disembarking from a bus at an adjacent museum. The massacre left 23 people dead and 50 wounded. Responsibility for the attack has been claimed by 'the Islamic State'. Well, not exactly. It's been claimed by private US-Israeli intelligence agency 'SITE Intelligence' to have been 'claimed by ISIS'. For a steep fee, you can go here for the details. Or you can just read any number of mainstream news articles about this 'discovery', which all just repeat verbatim what SITE said. Here's Reuters description of what the 'audio recording' - 'found' online by SITE Intelligence - says:
"We tell the apostates who sit on the chest of Muslim Tunisia: Wait for the glad tidings of what will harm you, o impure ones, for what you have seen today is the first drop of the rain."Those mooslim t'rrists really like their flowery prose, don't they? Personally, I don't really see any claim of responsibility there. Nevertheless, Tunisian president Beij Caid Essebsi has promised to wage full-scale ground war against terrorists:
"I want the Tunisian people to understand that we are in a war against terrorism and that these savage minorities do not frighten us. We will fight them without mercy to our last breath.""I want the people to understand that we are..." Where have I heard this before? Oh yes, here. Anyway, moving along... Tunisian authorities have identified the two terrorists - killed on the scene by Tunisian security forces - as Hatem al-Khashnawi and Yassin al-Abidi, both Tunisian, and one of whom was reported by local media to have spent time in Iraq and Libya - not, presumably, to take in the scenery. Tunisia's Prime Minister Habib Essid said Abidi had been under surveillance, but - get this - "not for anything very special." So one or both of these terrorists were under surveillance for... what, traffic violations? Were they still under surveillance when they got into Tunisia's parliament building dressed as soldiers and armed with kalashnikovs?
Terrorism Inc.- it's not just about the terror
No news yet from SITE Intelligence on who was behind the bloodbath in Gothenburg, Sweden on March 18th. People were watching a football match after work when two guys walked in - armed with kalashnikovs, of course - and shot the place up. 2 people were killed, including the barman, and another 15 were injured. The shooters have not been caught, and the authorities have no clue who they are. Swedish media is suggesting it's gang-related, but they've not yet provided any details as to means or motive. Across the water in Copenhagen, yet another shoot-out was taking place around the same time, this time in a large Danish shopping mall. This was too was vaguely attributed to gang-warfare, and again only sparse details were released. Bucking the trend of mass shootings these days, the authorities in both Sweden and Denmark seemed to go out of their way to stress that these were "not terror-related shootings."
War against Ukraine, well, Russia - same thing
The Russian government has issued new sanctions - entry bans and asset freezes in Russia - against some 200 Westerners, including politicians, civil servants and other public figures known for their openly anti-Russian activities. About 60 people on the list are from the United States. Among these are Deputy National Security Advisor Caroline Atkinson, presidential advisers Daniel Pfeiffer and Benjamin Rhodes, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Robert Menendes and Senators John McCain, Daniel Coats and Mary Landrieu.
Russian MP and deputy head of the State Duma Committee for Foreign Relations, Leonid Kalashnikov, told Izvestia newspaper that the Russian government has no particular desire to play this tit-for-tat game with the West, and pointed out that the travel bans' primary purpose is "to deprive Russian politicians and public figures the opportunity to deliver their position at international parliamentary conferences," a strange stance to take for a country so strongly committed to 'freedom of speech'. Elsewhere on the anti-Russia propaganda front, the Dutch government today corrected privately-owned broadcaster RTL's midweek 'special report' on the MH17 plane crash that cited 'final proof' that a BUK missile shot down the airliner. Apparently the investigation is still "in progress" and the Dutch government is "not yet ready to take any conclusion." Nice try by the Dutch propagandist though.
'Freedom and democracy is harder than I thought'
US (controlled) implosion looming?
The US appears to be on course for some kind of major internal showdown. While US police forces continue shooting black people with impunity, somebody else is feeding the outcry, recently by leaking outrageously racist internal police communications. On the 'other side' in this racial divide, the 'New black Panther Party' is parading its weaponry and proposing that "every black person in America be armed with a gun."
You can see how close the situation is to boiling point following last week's shooting of two cops standing guard outside the Ferguson, Missouri police station... while a protest against their brutal tactics was underway. They have since beaten a confession out of a local man who supposedly shot the cops from his vehicle, but there are strong suspicions, from both police and protesters that this was a 'professional hit' from a sniper's rifle, probably from a nearby rooftop. Now where have we seen this happen before; a highly charged situation is brought to a head by mystery snipers who shoot a bunch of people, chaos ensues and a new order is imposed...
Coming soon to cities and towns across America! Oh wait, they're already there.
Greek exit this way
The new Greek government successfully passed a new 'humanitarian crisis law' last week that will provide housing allowances and emergency food aid for the poorest Greeks. You get a real sense of just how much power has been centralized in the EU when you hear the unelected European Commission in Brussels describe the law as "a unilateral move", the implication being that the Greek government has no sovereign right to draft and pass a law that covers the most basic needs of its population. PM Tsipras also revealed plans to reopen the state broadcaster and offer taxpayers more lenient terms on overdue taxes, "without having been given the green light from international creditors," prompting an EU official to say, "There is a general feeling that the Greek side is completely out of touch with reality." Yeah, I mean, what the hell is the Greek government thinking, cutting poor people some slack. It's just outrageous! What is this guy, Tsipras, a Commie?? The IMF weighed in by reporting that Greece is "the most unhelpful country the organization has dealt with in its 70-year history," and complaining that the rebel country isn't adhering to the $254 billion bailout extension deal reached in February. Good. It's about time someone stood up to these psychos.
So long and thanks for the memories...NOT!
Speaking of those money masters of the universe, they were confronted in Frankfurt this week at the opening of the European Central Bank's new headquarters - which cost €1.3 billion of taxpayers money - with a 'Blockupy' anti-capitalist protest of some 10,000 people. It quickly became a fiery riot when the usual 'Black Bloc' types started torching cars; hundreds of protesters were subsequently injured and arrested as police cracked down hard. Easy peasy. I could have sworn that in some similar situation last year such state responses were officially deemed 'authoritarian', 'undemocratic', and merited a change of regime, but I might be getting my 'dynamic narratives' crossed...
Eurasia or bust
And what of the 'hope of the world'? Since his return to the public limelight after a brief working holiday, Putin has - on the one year anniversary of Crimea rejoining Russia - signed a deal with South Ossetia in the Caucasus that effectively makes it a Russian protectorate; granted Turkey a 10.25% discount on gas prices; initiated multiple simultaneous war games exercises across the entire expanse of Russian territory - and in Venezuela; held bilateral talks with the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee (Russia is the first foreign government to do so, ever); flown to Astana to discuss a currency union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan; spoken (and sung!) to a crowd of 100,000 people on Red Square celebrating the anniversary of Crimea's reunification with Russia. Not too shabby for a few days' work. Sure puts all those asshats in the West to shame.
Ignoring direct pleas from the Obama administration, three of Europe's biggest economies - Germany, Italy and the UK - have signed up to become founding members of the new Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a long overdue rival to the World Bank and other institutions set up by the US after it took all the spoils following World War II. The Americans, needless to say, are not happy about it.
'It's ok Barack, I got this covered. You go sit over there.'
Quite what the Europeans think they'll get out of membership of an institution set up by Chinese leader Xi Linping to help fund infrastructure projects in poor Asian countries is unclear, but I guess that even some of the most hardcore neo-liberal predatory capitalists out there can see the writing on the wall: the dollar's day in the Sun is coming to an end. Same goes for the English language as the 'lingua franca' of international business: the working languages of the growing anti-NATO Shanghai Cooperation Organisation - whose current member-states represent half of humanity - are Chinese and Russian. Something the Chinese will want to keep an eye on is the British government's redeployment of its Skynet military satellite (yes, it's called Skynet) "over the Asia-Pacific region to provide secure communications to Britain's allies in the region," which probably means 'to gain an edge over China for NATO'.
The Americans can whine all they like, but they have blown repeated chances to maintain hegemony without forcing such developments. In 2010, the 188 member-states of the IMF agreed a package of reforms that would distribute influence in the organization more evenly, while keeping the IMF under the effective control of Washington. However, Congress refused to approve the agreement. US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew went before the House Financial Services Committee this week to again plead with US Senators to
"...urgently address prior unmet commitments, which have grown to levels that raise significant questions about U.S. credibility and leadership in the multilateral system. Failure to do so could result in a loss of U.S. shareholding at a time when new players are challenging U.S. leadership in the multilateral system."Reminding Congress that the IMF and World Bank "effectively leverage our limited resources in service of our national and global interests," and if the other IMF members decide to rebalance power within the institution without US approval, the result, he warned, would be "a loss of US influence and our ability to shape international norms and practices." Oh dear! Say it ain't so! Lew was basically saying that the US is poised to lose it all and face the music with respect to its gargantuan debt, which sits at 104% of GDP, and growing.
That means the USA is officially a failed state, and the only things keeping its head above water is the fact that it has tied most of the rest of the world to its fate via the dollar-as-reserve-currency and the petrodollar. You'd think alarm bells would have gone off in Congress at hearing that from their own Treasury Secretary. Instead, they changed topic to grill Lew on what he knew about which email account Hillary Clinton used to contact which people while Secretary of State. Did they not understand the importance of what Lew was telling them, for America's economic survival and therefore its global hegemony? Were they blithely unconcerned because they've heard rumors about something big coming down the pike? Or were they too busy dreaming about what they're going to do with the fat checks they've all received from the Israel lobby? Time will tell.
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