Mar 28 2011

After Libya, how could we NOT bomb Syria?

(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

The self-propelling logic of war, a “news analysis” courtesy of the New York Times:

Syria … could pose a thorny dilemma for the administration…. Having intervened in Libya to prevent a wholesale slaughter in Benghazi, some analysts asked, how could the administration not do the same in Syria?

Hmmm?

Elsewhere in the NYT, Greg Mankiw demands “austerity now.”

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    • Edger on March 28, 2011 at 01:52
    • #

    Libya And Bahrain: A Tale Of American Hypocrisy

       The United States has shown real hypocrisy in its treatment of two Arab revolutions – Libya and Bahrain.

       In Libya, the U.S. and its European allies have decided to go in with all guns blazing. With Bahrain it’s a different story as the Americans refuse to lift a finger to evict Saudi Arabia after their invasion of that country.

       Why this two faced strategy? Both countries (Bahrain and Libya) are repressive dictatorships. The peoples of both nations have risen up against their long time rulers and are fighting for their freedom on the streets. The rulers of these two nations have opted to take a repressive line in dealing with their respective peoples.

       Yet, more pressure is being applied to Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi than to the Bahraini Al Khalifa ruling family. There’s a simple explanation for this – Gaddafi (despite his post-9/11 cuddling up to the West) has long been seen as an enemy of Western (read U.S. and Israeli interests) in the Middle East. Meanwhile the Al Khalifa clan have permitted the Americans to base their Central Command and Fifth Fleet headquarters inside the country, thus making the country strategically vital to U.S. imperialist interests.

       [snip]

       If the US, British and French wanted to be consistent, they should unhesitatingly support all the Arab peoples in their struggle for freedom but not directly intervene. By all means, if the people are being attacked by their national military forces, then they should be externally armed and trained to fight back. But that’s as far as it should go. Instead, neo-imperialist strategic interests have driven the U.S. and their allies to treat the cases of Libya and Bahrain differently. And that is a real tragedy for both the Bahraini and Libyan peoples in the midst of their respective struggles.

    All of US history in the middle east leads us to the conclusion that the only “grand conspiracy” is the one that tries to put forth the idea that the US Government has “noble” intentions in the area.

    They do not.

    Bahrain is a perfect example. Whose rulers ruthlessly suppress any dissent while Gates cover his eyes while he comes and goes and the US supports the dictatorship there wholeheartedly because Bahrain is home to the US Fifth Fleet?

    And it would be virtually effortless. All that needs to be done is for the US ships in the harbor to turn their guns and point them at Bahrains royal palace.

    The US either cannot or will not protect Bahrain’s citizens from a murderous US backed dictatorship, but many believe that what the US cannot or more likely will not do in Bahrain while already there, the US somehow can or will do in Libya.

    Time will tell us what the Libyan situation really is. I fear, or rather I expect, that it will turn out about as good for Libyans as the Iraq “liberation” turned out for Iraqis.

  3. unable to identify reality? This is a conflagration that breaks down the noosphere even further as the werewolf finds himself in the Garden of Hell. After all, the reader of the novel is its author.

  4. Check out this 12 Imam stuff.  It’s the Islamic version of Nostradamus, “our” Christian Biblical Armageddon End Times stuff.

    http://www.google.com/#hl=en&s…

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