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| Peace on Earth |
Showing posts with label peace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label peace. Show all posts
Saturday, December 24, 2016
Monday, February 15, 2016
The Supremes Are Well Oiled - 4
(a tributary by Dredd)
One man-judge ordered
more pollution into the air
'until somebeing else stops it'
then went Quayle hunting
as-if good will hunting.
I don't like hunting
but I like finding
said the textualist
to the originalist.
Things and stuff should stay
as the man-judge fixed from birth
flies busy dying from Houston
searching out how to be still born.
Like all who are not busy being borne
on the wings of the songs of love
or the songs of the wings of love,
"busy dying is still busy not being born."
(a tributary by Rimbaud)
especially, stupid, he persisted
In locking himself up in the latrines
Where he reflected in peace, inhaling deeply.)
...
(At the age of seven, he composed fictions about life
In the vast desert, where luminous Liberty lies in her abduction,
Forests, sun, riverbanks, savanna!—)
...
(Idle youth,
Subservient to everything,
I have frittered away my life
Through gentleness.
Ah! may the time come
When hearts will meet!)
...
(It has been rediscovered.
What? -Eternity.
It’s the sea fused
With the sun.)
...
and the mountains, will we hail the advent of the
new toil, the new wisdom, the flight of tyrants and
demons, the end to superstition, adore
—for the first time!—”Christmas” on earth!)
(a tributary by David)
The previous post in this series is here.
Friday, January 1, 2016
Friday, December 25, 2015
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Dinosaur Discovered: Peaceful Co-existence With Our Neighbors! - 2
First Cuba, now Iran.
It is encouraging when nations work things out via diplomacy rather than military conflict.
The Donald Trump of the mideast, Netanyahu, is using warmongering rhetoric to try to impede progress.
Perhaps the honing of diplomatic skills during this two-year effort will also help in the conferences and negotiations on climate change that are approaching.
Congratulations to Secretary Kerry, President Obama, the Iranian Government, and all the diplomatic corps from several nations, who worked tirelessly to accomplish this first step.
BBC News
Google News
Guardian
On another front, the New Horizons spacecraft is doing the first flyby of the dwarf planet Pluto, and its neighborhood.
America is first to have visited all planets and dwarf planets in our solar system:
"The first age of solar system exploration is in the books.(Space dot com, cf. NASA site).
NASA's New Horizons probe flew by Pluto this morning (July 14), capturing history's first up-close looks at the far-flung world — if all went according to plan. (Mission team members won't declare success until they hear from New Horizons tonight.) Closest approach came at 7:49 a.m. EDT (1149 GMT), when the spacecraft whizzed within 7,800 miles (12,500 kilometers) of Pluto's frigid surface. To celebrate, NASA unveiled the latest photo of Pluto, showing a reddish world with a stunning heart-shaped feature on its face."
The previous post in this series is here.
Friday, January 16, 2015
The Peak Of The Oil Wars - 12
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| Russia is rerouteing gas to Turkey |
But, like those persistent climbers who climbed the face of El Capitan's Dawn Wall recently, they are working hard and getting closer.
In the previous post of this series we discussed the Black Sea oil episode which the Russians won, only to prompt a storm of sanctions, including the manipulation of the global oil market,
Manipulation that targeted Russia and U.S. fracking companies, fracking companies that have no counter attack except to bitch, moan, and shut down because their costs exceed the barrel price of oil in most cases.
Russia can do more than bitch, moan, and shut down ... well except they have implemented a shut down mechanism that will "incidentally" shut off gas to six European nations:
"Russia plans to shift all its natural gas flows crossing Ukraine to a route via Turkey, a surprise move that the European Union’s energy chief said would hurt its reputation as a supplier.As you can read in those quotes, there are different takes on the Russian action, from ramifications for business all the way to ramifications for war.
The decision makes no economic sense, Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission’s vice president for energy union, told reporters today after talks with Russian government officials and the head of gas exporter, OAO Gazprom (GAZP), in Moscow.
Gazprom, the world’s biggest natural gas supplier, plans to send 63 billion cubic meters through a proposed link under the Black Sea to Turkey, fully replacing shipments via Ukraine, Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller said during the discussions. About 40 percent of Russia’s gas exports to Europe and Turkey travel through Ukraine’s Soviet-era network." - Bloomberg
"Russia has said it will stop EU gas transit via Ukraine and do it via Turkey instead in the second shock announcement on energy in as many months.
It said on Wednesday (14 January) that the EU should build new infrastructure to link up with a future Russia-Turkey pipeline or lose access to supplies.
Gazprom head Alexei Miller issued the ultimatum during a visit to Russia by EU energy commissioner Maros Sefcovic, who said he was "very surprised" by the statement." - EU Observer
"Russia cut gas exports to Europe by 60 per cent today, plunging the continent into an energy crisis 'within hours' as a dispute with Ukraine escalated.
This morning, gas companies in Ukraine said that Russia had completely cut off their supply.
Six countries reported a complete shut-off of Russian gas shipped via Ukraine today, in a sharp escalation of a struggle over energy that threatens Europe as winter sets in.
Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia and Turkey all reported a halt in gas shipments from Russia through Ukraine.
Croatia said it was temporarily reducing supplies to industrial customers while Bulgaria said it had enough gas for only 'for a few days' and was in a 'crisis situation'." - Daily Mail
"In the last few hours Russia has announced two key strategic decisions that show they are not going to stand idly by while their economy and way of life are destroyed by Western forces.
First, presumably in response to stiff sanctions leveled by the United States and the European Union after the annexation of Crimea last year, Russia has cut off 60% of Europe’s gas supplies right in the middle of winter. This has caused an almost immediate crisis in six European nations that have seen a complete cut-off to their supplies – Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia and Turkey – with more to follow. According to reports via Zero Hedge, the effect has been almost instantaneous.
Without Russia residents across Europe have no way of staying warm." - Putin Strikes Back
"Vladimir Putin has been silent lately. But if anyone thought he had been shamed into defeat or marginalized, then think again.
In the last few hours Russia has announced two key strategic decisions that show they are not going to stand idly by while their economy and way of life are destroyed by Western forces.
First, presumably in response to stiff sanctions leveled by the United States and the European Union after the annexation of Crimea last year, Russia has cut off 60% of Europe’s gas supplies right in the middle of winter. This has caused an almost immediate crisis in six European nations that have seen a complete cut-off to their supplies – Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia and Turkey – with more to follow. According to reports via Zero Hedge, the effect has been almost instantaneous.
Without Russia residents across Europe have no way of staying warm." - SHTFplan
"EU Parliament Calls Russia Potential Threat to EU
BRUSSELS — The EU parliament on Thursday condemned Russia as a "potential threat to the European Union itself" even as the EU foreign policy chief sought to resume dialogue with Moscow to help end the conflict in Ukraine.
The legislature backed a resolution with a show of hands that called for a continuation of the sanctions against Moscow even beyond March, when the first measures will be up for review." - AP NY Times
"Russia pulls out of the petrodollar
In addition to cutting off natural gas supplies to Europe, Russia has also "just pulled itself out of the petrodollar," reports Zero Hedge.
The story quotes Bloomberg.com stating that Russia "may unseal its $88 billion Reserve Fund and convert some of its foreign-currency holdings into ruble."
This is further explained by Mac Slavo at SHTFplan.com who explains, "What we are seeing are the strategic moves that will eventually catalyze the next great war. And make no mistake, this is exactly what's in store for the world should these escalations continue." - Natural News
CONTRA [update]:
"The reports from the UK Daily Mail and from Zero Hedge that Russia has cut off natural gas deliveries to six European countries must be incorrect. These sources are credible and well-informed, but such a cut-off would have instantly produced political and financial turmoil of which there is no sign. Therefore, unless there is a news blackout, Russia’s action has been misunderstood.
We know something real has happened. Otherwise, EU energy official Maros Sefcovic would not be expressing such consternation. Although I am without any definite information, I believe I know what the real story is. Russia, tired of Ukraine’s theft of the natural gas that passes through the country on its way to delivery to Europe, has made a decision to route the gas to Turkey, thus bypassing Ukraine.
The Russian energy minister has confirmed this decision and added that if European countries wish to avail themselves of this gas supply, they must put in place the infrastructure or pipeline to bring the gas into their countries.
In other words, there is a potential for a cutoff in the future, but no cutoff at the present." - Paul Craig Roberts (emphasis added)
The previous post in this series is here.
Canned Heat, "On the Road Again"
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Dinosaur Discovered: Peaceful Co-existence With Our Neighbors!
Wow, who would have thunk it?
Peace with Cuba after all these dark years of un-neighborly feuding!
A change of course away from the W direction to make Give Peace a Chance no longer just a song, no, it is active politics, diplomacy, and national policy!
You young people who do not remember the Cuban Missile Crisis (The Most Dangerous Moment in Recorded History), you young people who don't remember a year without war, may be asking "what is peace like?" and you might wonder "what is peace?"
Well, it is the way to not always be paranoid, to not always be spending bridge-fixing-money on weapons of mass destruction, a way to befriend other nations around the
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| Cuba without Gitmo !! |
It is the "other" option, the way out of constant war, the way out of bringing death and destruction to living people, which you have seen year in and year out.
It is a way to be healthier in our minds and hearts, a way to breathe easier each day.
But brace yourselves for the warmongering, torture loving, cultural dogs who walk among us who hate peace.
They will froth at the mouth for awhile, they will snarl with rabid words of hate.
They thought that the dinosaur we call peace was just a myth.
Resist them!
We may even be able to get rid of torture on the island of Cuba now ... yes! ... CLOSE GITMO ... the darkest place on the beautiful Caribbean isle.
Give peace a chance!
Give Peace a Chance, John Lennon
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
The Supreme Being Netanyahu - 2
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| Front entrance: NSA Headquarters |
The self-destructive relationship that the U.S. has had with Israel through Netanyahu has been detrimental to peace in the region as well as peace in the world.
In fact, "peace" has become, in this unhealthy relationship, a meaningless word over there and now over here.
About the only government agency that still unconditionally "loves" Netanyahu at all costs is the military NSA ... probably because they use the Mossad of Israel on the intake side of the military NSA's insatiable demented hunger to destroy the privacy of Americans and everyone else by incessantly spying on us all.
To top it off, Israel has enough nuclear weapons to bring about the war to end all wars by ending all human life (The Most Dangerous Moment in Recorded History).
So, the souring of the relationship with Netanyahu is an opening for pressure on the Israeli government to listen to the moderates in its populace and in its government:
The other day I was talking to a senior Obama administration official about the foreign leader who seems to frustrate the White House and the State Department the most. “The thing about Bibi is, he’s a chickenshit,” this official said, referring to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, by his nickname.(The Atlantic, Crisis in U.S.-Israel Relations). In past posts on Dredd Blog it has been pointing out that the relationship is not a good one:
This comment is representative of the gloves-off manner in which American and Israeli officials now talk about each other behind closed doors, and is yet another sign that relations between the Obama and Netanyahu governments have moved toward a full-blown crisis. The relationship between these two administrations— dual guarantors of the putatively “unbreakable” bond between the U.S. and Israel—is now the worst it's ever been, and it stands to get significantly worse after the November midterm elections. By next year, the Obama administration may actually withdraw diplomatic cover for Israel at the United Nations, but even before that, both sides are expecting a showdown over Iran, should an agreement be reached about the future of its nuclear program.
The fault for this breakdown in relations can be assigned in good part to the junior partner in the relationship, Netanyahu, and in particular, to the behavior of his cabinet. Netanyahu has told several people I’ve spoken to in recent days that he has “written off” the Obama administration, and plans to speak directly to Congress and to the American people should an Iran nuclear deal be reached. For their part, Obama administration officials express, in the words of one official, a “red-hot anger” at Netanyahu for pursuing settlement policies on the West Bank, and building policies in Jerusalem, that they believe have fatally undermined Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace process.
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was opened for signature in 1968 and entered into force in 1970. It has nearly 190 Parties, giving it the largest membership of any arms control treaty in the world. The Treaty comprises legally binding nonproliferation commitments and is the basis for international cooperation on stemming the spread of nuclear weapons. It is widely regarded as the legal and political cornerstone of the nuclear nonproliferation regime and as containing three main concepts or “pillars” – nuclear nonproliferation, disarmament, and the peaceful use of nuclear energy. In Prague on April 5, 2009 President Obama said that the basic bargain at the core of the Treaty is sound: “countries with nuclear weapons will move towards disarmament; countries without nuclear weapons will not acquire them; and all countries can access peaceful nuclear energy.” The President also called on NPT parties to take steps to strengthen this vital nonproliferation instrument.(Origin of the Classic Nuclear Bully - 2). This bully relationship is a danger to human civilization (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch - 2).
...
High-level talks between Israel and its Muslim neighbors regarding a nuclear weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East have been canceled by the US and Israel.
A nuclear weapons-free zone has been repeatedly proposed, only to have Israel – the only state in the region with nuclear weapons – reject it in favor of maintaining this nuclear monopoly, further destabilizing the region, and keeping the threat of others’ nukes as a primary excuse for its militarism.
Diplomats tell the Associated Press that the US, one of the organizers of the meeting on this latest NWFZ proposal, would likely make a formal announcement of its cancellation soon, claiming that “the time was not opportune.”
While Iran is a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has publicly pledged its opposition to nuclear weapons development, has subjected itself to thorough international inspections, and in fact has exactly zero nuclear weapons, Israel has done none of the above and has approximately 200 nuclear warheads. Iran is being severely punished and threatened with attack, Israel is supported with unparalleled economic, military, and diplomatic support.
In the first post Netanyahu had been criticized for overseeing war crimes against defenseless groups.
Currently he has now done even worse war crimes during his recent attempted genocide which he calls "mowing the grass."
We need to get back to the place where peace was preferred to war, and human sanity was preferred over madness.
The previous post in this series is here.
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Origin of the Classic Nuclear Bully - 3
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| Will the "good nuke" please stand up |
A virus that is still within our culture, but a virus that we try to forget and ignore.
Like the currently active Ebola virus indiscriminately attacking civilians as well as doctors, the
Like the
On this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world's first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout.(History Channel, "Aug 6, 1945: Atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima"). The Gaza Strip terrorism, where Israel committed the indiscriminate killing of civilians, has been condemned recently.
...
Of the city's 200 doctors before the explosion; only 20 were left alive or capable of working. There were 1,780 nurses before—only 150 remained who were able to tend to the sick and dying.
According to John Hersey's classic work Hiroshima, the Hiroshima city government had put hundreds of schoolgirls to work clearing fire lanes in the event of [conventional] incendiary bomb attacks. They were out in the open when the Enola Gay dropped its load.
What makes a far worse killing that took place in Hiroshima a "good" thing?
We are told that "WW II was a good war" ... so evidently the way a particular war is characterized, by Propaganda Central, makes the killing of civilians either good killing or bad killing?
Evidently everyone thinks "that kind of killing" is ok, because everyone wants a nuke or two.
Which has now brought us to the Doomsday Clock:
If some extraterrestrial species were compiling a history of Homo sapiens, they might well break their calendar into two eras: BNW (before nuclear weapons) and NWE (the nuclear weapons era). The latter era, of course, opened on August 6, 1945, the first day of the countdown to what may be the inglorious end of this strange species, which attained the intelligence to discover the effective means to destroy itself, but -- so the evidence suggests -- not the moral and intellectual capacity to control its worst instincts.(Tomgram, Noam Chomsky, emphasis added). Not many are willing to say that human extinction is good, so will nuclear killing begin or end?
Day one of the NWE was marked by the “success” of Little Boy, a simple atomic bomb. On day four, Nagasaki experienced the technological triumph of Fat Man, a more sophisticated design. Five days later came what the official Air Force history calls the “grand finale,” a 1,000-plane raid -- no mean logistical achievement -- attacking Japan’s cities and killing many thousands of people, with leaflets falling among the bombs reading “Japan has surrendered.” Truman announced that surrender before the last B-29 returned to its base.
Those were the auspicious opening days of the NWE. As we now enter its 70th year, we should be contemplating with wonder that we have survived. We can only guess how many years remain.
Some reflections on these grim prospects were offered by General Lee Butler, former head of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), which controls nuclear weapons and strategy. Twenty years ago, he wrote that we had so far survived the NWE “by some combination of skill, luck, and divine intervention, and I suspect the latter in greatest proportion.”
And even if nukes were to be banned and removed from the planet, would that remove the spectre of human extinction from before our eyes?
Regular readers know that Dredd Blog posts about civilization being on suicide watch (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch, 2), and a recent paper by a well known ecologist used different words to say the same thing:
“It is prudent not to dismiss the possibility that the Earth System – the biosphere – could die if critical thresholds are crossed … Humanity’s well-being depends upon complex ecosystems that support life on our planet, yet we are consuming the biophysical foundation of civilization … Scientists need to take greater latitude in proposing solutions that lie outside the current political paradigms and sovereign powers …(Collapse of the Global Biosphere, quoting a scientific journal, emphasis added). The war on our environment is not primarily nuclear, but it too can bring human extinction.
There are no good nuclear wars, so WW II was a bad war.
It is way past the time for us to grasp that reality before we become extinct.
The previous post in this series is here.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
The Peak Of The Oil Wars - 11
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| "The Kremlin didn't see NATO expansion to Russia's borders as benign." |
In that book, he wrote that he had observed the essence of U.S. and British foreign policy: "The enemy aggressor is always pursuing a course of larceny, murder, rapine and barbarism. We are always moving forward with high mission, a destiny imposed by the Deity to regenerate our victims, while incidentally capturing their markets; to civilise savage and senile and paranoid peoples, while blundering accidentally into their oil wells" (page 222).
The religious, self-righteous notion that "if we do it is ok, but if they do it that is not right" still permeates U.S. and NATO foreign policy to this very day, now plaguing us in what we are seeing as the Ukrainian folly.
To the last several U.S. Presidents, that anomaly was known as American Exceptionalism, even though "holier than thou" really does not have a place in a nation that touts the separation of church and state.
There are Central European people who think of this policy, as it is being manifested by NATO strategists, as ill mannered:
The downing of MH17 did not start the process of dysfunction, and neither did its incubating Ukrainian crisis; these are symptoms of the failure of nationalist entities to govern. The main crisis - gripping the entire region - is reducible to the inability of post-Soviet nations – some with little or no experience of independent statehood – to properly function in place of the collapsed multinational federation. And the only truly viable solution is a reintegration programme. This is not to advocate the return of Russian privilege in a neo-Soviet Union. Rather, there needs to be an integration programme of equals so that no voices are drowned and no interests eclipsed. No integration means no stability.(Ukraine: Reflecting on the Downing of Flight MH17, emphasis added). The wrong-wing lunatics, who fancy themselves capable of mentoring presidents, call civilized behavior "isolationism", while they try to isolate Russia from the European Community by threat of force of arms (their hypocrisy knows no bounds).
The crisis following MH17 is producing an avalanche of pundits' opinions and bloggary that run counter to this message and reveals how little people understand about the processes that run in the post-Soviet space. Calls to punish Russia, introduce more sanctions and, at the extreme even militarily help Ukraine, will not be productive in ending 20 years of regional chaos, cronyism and bad governance. These policy suggestions - if adopted - will only create further, more intractable problems.
Any significant cooperation within the post-Soviet space, which excludes Russia, leads to crises and there are numerous cases of Russia’s conflicts, economic, energy, and military - in 2004, 2006, 2008, and now in 2014 - which strongly suggest such a tendency. In other words, do not neglect Russia, include it in all initiatives, and prioritise its economic benefits instead of political values and ideological narratives. Russia needs a voice at the table, otherwise it will muscle in by force.
What is left out these days is the art of statecraft; enlightened, realist-based diplomatic bargaining, which may be one of the reasons for today’s open confrontation in Ukraine. It may not be a coincidence, that currently the world is lacking true statesmen but is governed by politicians instead.
Regular readers know that Dredd Blog touched upon the very old and rotting roots of this policy recently (The Peak Of The Oil Wars - 10), indicating that more would be said of the Ukraine crisis later in this series ("more in future posts").
After Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev did some statesman like interaction in foreign policy, it was not long until officials following them in time and sequence began to dismantle their good deeds:
Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to allow the unification of Germany and its membership in NATO, a hostile military alliance. In the light of recent history, this was a most astonishing concession. There was a quid pro quo. President [Bush I] and Secretary of State James Baker agreed that NATO would not expand “one inch to the East,” meaning into East Germany. Instantly, they expanded NATO to East Germany.(Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch - 2, quoting Noam Chomsky). They don't call it a "theatre of war" without "reason."
Gorbachev was naturally outraged, but when he complained, he was instructed by Washington that this had only been a verbal promise, a gentleman’s agreement, hence without force. If he was naïve enough to accept the word of American leaders, it was his problem.
After all, it is composed of propaganda-driven theatrics mixed with drama queen machinations.
The president who followed later in the election-driven lineage also believed that the show must go on:
For Tuchman [author of "The March of Folly"], these mistakes were examples of folly, which she defined as "the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests." It is, she added, "a phenomenon noticeable throughout history regardless of place or period."(Joining The March of Folly, emphasis added). This ill-advised policy is described by observers in one of our allied nations:
The Clinton administration's campaign to expand NATO into Eastern Europe once again proves that Tuchman was on to something. Last July, at a NATO summit in Madrid, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic were invited to join the alliance, a process that is expected to be concluded by 1999, NATO's fiftieth anniversary. All three countries were Soviet allies in the defunct Warsaw Pact.
The administration has repeatedly stated that these countries will not be the last ones admitted to the alliance.
However unsettling, Russia's actions are not irrational. In many ways they are the foreseeable reaction to the West's decisions since the collapse of the Soviet Empire, writes Tom Switzer.(The West Poked The Russian Bear, emphasis added). The criticism comes from a lot of places, including the Foreign Affairs website:
The conventional wisdom among western pundits and politicians says the Ukrainian crisis is entirely Vladimir Putin's fault and the West is blameless.
Russia's military incursion in Crimea, warns the Wall Street Journal, is a "blitzkrieg" that "brings the threat of war to the heart of Europe". Putin, according to Hillary Clinton is acting just like Hitler in the late 1930s. Moscow, editorialises the Financial Times, has started a "new Cold War". Now, it is widely argued, President Barack Obama must get tough with the Kremlin and intensify political, economic and strategic relations with the new Ukrainian Government.
Throughout this crisis, however, there has been very little attempt to take into account Russia's susceptibilities and its attempt to protect what it perceives as its vital strategic interests. If anything, as several distinguished professors of international relations, such as John Mearsheimer (Chicago University) and Stephen Walt (Harvard University), have made clear, this crisis stems from decisions made by Washington and Brussels since the collapse of the Soviet Empire more than two decades ago.
Start with the expansion of NATO eastwards and Washington's [Bush II-Cheney] decision to deploy ballistic missile defences in Russia's neighbourhood.
In 2014, Western officials are learning about their strategic errors the hard way. They have come to realize that NATO’s collective defense mission in Europe is still vital because Russia is in the business of changing international borders by force, that NATO never had to go “out of area” for a compelling mission, that the Kremlin didn’t see NATO expansion to Russia’s borders as benign, and that NATO missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya cost a great deal in lives and money but they only achieved mixed results.(NATO's Biggest Mistake, emphasis added). A google search on "the Kremlin didn’t see NATO expansion to Russia’s borders as benign" leads to many other places with the same results.
...
The second major change in NATO policy, starting in the 1990s, was the adoption of a new array of global missions to justify NATO’s continued existence. The rationale was that NATO’s European members would have to help Washington with its global concerns to keep the United States committed to Europe.
This strategic reasoning was based on several flawed assumptions. First, the global interests of the United States and Europe were not (and are not) in alignment.
In the end, Russia got the mine (Black Sea Oil) but NATO and the U.S. got the shaft, because one size does not fit all when it comes to foreign policy.
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
"The Front Fell Off"
Monday, July 21, 2014
The Peak Of The Oil Wars - 10
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| Ottoman and Persian Empires circa 1912 |
In other words, Current Civilization's enslavement by addiction to the use of oil (Russia-Ukraine's part below).
It is also a story of a century of decisions which define the suicidal episodes of current civilization, a dynamic which we have found also apples to most civilizations, empires, and societies (Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch).
The graphic to the upper-left shows the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) and the Persian Empire (now Iran) circa 1912.
A few years prior to 1912, oil had been discovered in the Persian Empire:
In 1901 William Knox D'Arcy, a millionaire London socialite, negotiated an oil concession with Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar of Persia [now Iran]. He assumed exclusive rights to prospect for oil for 60 years in a vast tract of territory ... By 1908 having sunk more than £500,000 into their Persian venture and found no oil ... [however,] in a stroke of luck, struck oil shortly after on May 26, 1908 ... [thereafter those interested] created the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) ... Volume production of Persian oil products eventually started in 1913 from a refinery built at Abadan, for its first 50 years the largest oil refinery in the world (see Abadan Refinery). In 1913, shortly before World War I, APOC managers negotiated with a new customer, Winston Churchill [Britain], who was then First Lord of the Admiralty. Churchill, as a part of a three-year expansion program, sought to modernize Britain's navy by abandoning the use of coal. Furthermore, Churchill wanted to free Britain from its reliance on the Standard Oil [American] and Royal Dutch-Shell [Netherlands] / Dutch / Brits] oil companies. In exchange for secure oil supplies for its ships, the British government injected new capital into the company and, in doing so, acquired a controlling interest in APOC. The contract that was set up between the British Government and APOC was to hold for 20 years. The British government also became a de facto hidden power behind the oil company ...(Anglo-Persian Oil Company, emphasis added, see also Viva Egypt - 2). As for the Ottoman Empire, oil was discovered near Mosul:
Discovery of oil in 1908 at Masjid-i Suleiman in [what was then "Persia", now] Iran – an event that changed the fate of the Middle East – gave impetus to quest for oil in Mesopotamia [now Iraq]. Oil pursuits in Mesopotamia [now Iraq] were concentrated in Mosul, one of three provinces or "vilayets" constituting [Mesopotamia, now] Iraq under the Ottoman [Ottoman Empire] rule. Mosul was the northern province, the other two being Baghdad (in the middle) and Basra (in the south) provinces. Foreign geologists visited the area under the disguise of archeologists.(The Quest for Oil, emphasis added). The video at the end of this post shows some additional Ottoman Empire oil fields up in the Black Sea area that were producing prior to WW I.
For a good part of the last century, interests of national governments were closely linked with the interests of oil companies, so much so that oil companies were de facto extensions of foreign-office establishments of the governments. The latter actively lobbied on behalf of the oil companies owned by their respective nationals. The oil companies, in return, would guarantee oil supply to respective governments – preferably at a substantial discount.
This symbiotic relationship manifested itself superbly when Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC), founded in 1911 and named as such in 1912 to exploit Mosul oil, was reorganized in March 1914 at a meeting held in Foreign Office in London where British and German diplomats sat next to executives of British and German banks and British and Dutch oil companies. Notwithstanding its name, TPC did not have Turkish participation. At that time World War I had not broken out yet, and Germans were welcome at TPC.
The British and Dutch were attracted to German participation because German banks had obtained a concession from the Ottomans in 1904 – a concession that in fact had been allowed to lapse. Calouste Gulbenkian, the consummate deal-maker of Armenian origin that helped found TPC, was not present at the meeting, but his interests were well looked after. He ended up with 5 percent share in TPC, though with no voting rights.
The same sort of deception was taking place against Persia [now Iran], according to a book published in 1912:
"The Persian Government, starting in December, 1909, had been seeking to obtain a loan of about $2,500,000 from the Russian and British Governments, but the conditions which the two Powers endeavored to impose upon the granting of this assistance was so dangerous to, and even destructive of, Persia's independence that the Medjlis [the Parliament] was compelled to reject them. Shortly thereafter Persia entered into negotiations with a private banking-house in London for a loan, and it was upon the point of being concluded on terms mutually satisfactory, when, in October, 1910, the negotiations were brought to an end through the action of the British Government, working in harmony with Russia, whereby Persia was prevented from realizing money on the crown jewels which she was ready to pledge for the loan. All this time Russia had been openly endeavoring to extort a number of valuable concessions from the Persian Medjlis as the price of withdrawing her troops from Northern Persia. The general attitude of the two Powers toward Persia was marked with increasing unfriendliness and hostility."(The Strangling of Persia, Intro. p. liii, by W. Morgan Shuster, emphasis added). The year 1912, shortly before WW I, was a time when both of the empires shown on the map had oil resources within their borders, and both had predators circling around them.
That map was to change when the first world oil war (WW I) took place, as detailed in the "Blood and Oil" video below, a good look at that oil war.
In closing for today, (more in future posts), let's bring oil wars up to date:
When Russia seized Crimea in March, it acquired not just the Crimean landmass but also a maritime zone more than three times its size with the rights to underwater resources potentially worth trillions of dollars.(In Taking Crimea ..., emphasis added). Our current oil-based civilization has been warring over oil for over a century because of the mindset of Oil-Qaeda, the current "Jim Jones" that is deceiving and leading us toward mass suicide (MOMCOM's Mass Suicide & Murder Pact - 5).
Russia portrayed the takeover as reclamation of its rightful territory, drawing no attention to the oil and gas rush that had recently been heating up in the Black Sea. But the move also extended Russia’s maritime boundaries, quietly giving Russia dominion over vast oil and gas reserves while dealing a crippling blow to Ukraine’s hopes for energy independence.
Russia did so under an international accord that gives nations sovereignty over areas up to 230 miles from their shorelines. It had tried, unsuccessfully, to gain access to energy resources in the same territory in a pact with Ukraine less than two years earlier.
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
A look at the phenomenon of "blood for oil" is depicted in this video:
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Season's Greetings
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Santana reunites with former band member who is homeless: (New Recordings Planned).
"Somewhere in Heaven", by Santana
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
The Peak Of The Oil Wars - 9
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| The damaged Global System |
The war on Oil-Qaeda has yet to be declared, even though commerce in the products of Oil-Qaeda is the greatest threat to the U.S. Navy (Has The Navy Fallen For The Greatest Hoax?).
In this and related series on Dredd Blog the origin and history of the oil wars has been documented (Viva Egypt - 2, The Universal Smedley - 2).
Regular readers know that Dredd Blog has pointed out how the technical needs of the military combined with fears of The Battle of Armageddon led leaders of Western Nations to enter into a struggle for the control of the oil and other resources of Middle Eastern nations (Viva Egypt - 2, The Universal Smedley - 2).
During that time, like now, the warnings of scientists about green house gases did nothing to dissuade the fateful decision to addict Western Civilization to fossil fuel use (The Exceptional American Denial).
As part and parcel of the oil wars, the military NSA has kept its spying eyes on OPEC and other oil rich nations:
The National Security Agency has managed to infiltrate the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), according to documents from former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden.(NSA, GCHQ Spied on Oil Cartel, OPEC). This, even as the U.S. Navy and USCENTCOM have surrounded those nations with massive military fleets (The Fleets & Terrorism Follow The Oil).
And so the struggle continues unabated down through time to our day, culminating in a civilization-affecting-doublespeak syndrome where there are two concurrent logically-opposite dynamics that drive the oil wars now.
The first of the two is the fossil fuel damaged Global Climate System, which has produced many typhoons this year, culminating so far with typhoon, Haiyan.
The second issue is the peak oil crisis which Oil-Qaeda is spending billions to cover up:
Lloyd's of London and The Guardian are not "professional lefty" agitators whom White House Press Secretary Gibbs was talking about in one of his glib fibs that outraged a lot of the president's election campaign supporters recently.(The Peak Of The Oil Wars). In the Dredd Blog post The Peak of Sanity - 3 it is pointed out that this dichotomy is a damned if you do use the oil, and damned if you don't use the oil type of conundrum.
Yet they both warn of the dire consequences of ignoring the reality of peak oil:
One of the City's most respected institutions has warned of "catastrophic consequences" for businesses that fail to prepare for a world of increasing oil scarcity and a lower carbon economy.(The Guardian). The Lloyd's / Chatham House report quotes the U.S. Government treating peak oil as anything other than a conspiracy theory:
The Lloyd's insurance market and the highly regarded Royal Institute of International Affairs, known as Chatham House, says Britain needs to be ready for "peak oil" and disrupted energy supplies ...
“Peak oil presents the world with a risk management problem of tremendous complexity.”(Lloyds / Chatham Report, page 15 of PDF). They go on to point out where the remaining oil will come from along with some reasons for the notion of "risk management":
US Department of Energy 2007
Production from Iraq is the wild card. The current target of 12 million barrels a day by 2016 would make Iraq the world’s number one producer, potentially increasing global spare capacity and sending the oil price down. However, numerous legal, security and administrative problems hinder this development.(ibid, page 16 of PDF, emphasis added). Dredd Blog has pointed out that the wars which are devastating the U.S. middle class but radically increasing the wealth of MOMCOM's one-percenter elites were and are being fought for oil.
Our energy policy is the result of being governed by psychopathic ideology which informs the Epigovernment policy makers who guarantee the continuing institutionalization of catastrophe for the foreseeable future.
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
Now for some more serious language:
Thursday, September 12, 2013
That is Not My Daddy
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| Vladimir Putin, President of Russia |
Or does it prevent you from reading an op-ed in the New York Times which he penned?
If so, that is your cultural amygdala, an extension of your physical amydala which develops as your "birth amygdala" before it has been "customized" by your society, the culture around you (The Cultural Amygdala).
What goes into our cognitive system, our 2% conscious brain and our 98% unconscious brain, is not under our conscious control:
Probably 98 percent of your reasoning is unconscious - what your brain is doing behind the scenes. Reason is inherently emotional. You can't even choose a goal, much less form a plan and carry it out, without a sense that it will satisfy you, not disgust you. Fear and anxiety will affect your plans and your actions. You act differently, and plan differently, out of hope and joy than out of fear and anxiety.(The Toxic Bridge To Everywhere, quoting Professor Lakoff). You and I are sensitive beings, that is, our cognition is tied to our five senses.
Thought is physical. Learning requires a physical brain change: Receptors for neurotransmitters change at the synapses, which changes neural circuitry. Since thinking is the activation of such circuitry, somewhat different thinking requires a somewhat different brain. Brains change as you use them-even unconsciously. It's as if your car changed as you drove it, say from a stick shift gradually to an automatic.
What our five senses detect is handed off first to our amygdala for processing:
... the amygdala gets sensory information directly from the various sensory systems that process the external world. So the visual system, the auditory system, olfactory, touch, pain, and so forth. All of these kind of come together, or converge, in the amygdala. And then the amygdala on the output side with all the systems involved in the emotional reactivity. So, when you encounter sudden danger, you might freeze, your blood pressure and heart rate begin to rise, stress hormones are released, all of these things happen as a result of outputs of the amygdala.(The Amygdala in 5 Minutes, quoting Professor Le Doux). Reactions to external stimuli in the form of sound, visual events, taste, feel, and smell, which first go to the amygdala, are not primarily formed by our conscious thinking.
So the amygdala you can think of as this circle with one input coming in being the... or the input coming in being a sensory, flow of sensory information from the external world, then outputs being connections to systems involved in controlling the responses. But we have to expand those inputs, so it’s not just getting one sensory input, but all sensory inputs. So each sensory system is coming in. And it doesn’t stop there because in addition to getting information from sensory systems, it also gets information from higher-order systems, like the prefrontal cortex and higher-order association areas involved in various kinds of integrative activities in the cortex.
In the extension of our primitive amygdala, an extension called the "cultural amygdala", the cultural "spin or propaganda" of our society, as well as the "spin or propaganda" of our "local world", is fused to sensory input.
What comes out to then be given / transferred to our conscious brain is substantially up to our amygdala, not up to our conscious brain, which gets the package last.
Our conscious brain does not unilaterally decide these fear and other issues, even though we may sometimes struggle with fears using our consciousness against the customized fear output of our physical and cultural amygdala.
So, some of the responses to President Putin's op-ed in the NY Times are based on past propaganda and/or current news media machinations within our two cultures.
President Putin wrote:
RECENT events surrounding Syria have prompted me to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders. It is important to do so at a time of insufficient communication between our societies.(NYT, "What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria"). Our physical and cultural amygdala will work on that sensory input, that writing, so that we can't completely believe it.
Relations between us have passed through different stages. We stood against each other during the cold war. But we were also allies once, and defeated the Nazis together. The universal international organization — the United Nations — was then established to prevent such devastation from ever happening again.
The United Nations’ founders understood that decisions affecting war and peace should happen only by consensus, and with America’s consent the veto by Security Council permanent members was enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The profound wisdom of this has underpinned the stability of international relations for decades.
Years of propaganda in the two nations have put people at each other's throats, so much so that the concept of peaceful co-existence is made more difficult for all of us.
We are too exceptional for peace anymore (Exceptionalism In A Nutshell).
Peace should be the norm, but it isn't.
The warmongering wartocracy embedded within our two cultures engenders the dynamics that form our antagonistic, fearful, cultural amygdala.
We suffer accordingly as the elite of our nations celebrate their war profiteering and deal with us as if we are children (Security: Familyland, Fatherland, or Homeland?).
The next post in this series is here.
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Syria: War Drums Go Silent as Sensibilities Emerge
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| Make love not war |
"Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp have offered a second path to dealing with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that doesn't immediately call for missile strikes. Sen. Manchin joins Morning Joe to discuss. NBC News' Chuck Todd join the conversation."(Morning Joe). Sen. Manchin said that he had shared his proposed Senate Resolution with the staff of Secretary of State John Kerry, who thereafter had the good judgment to mention that potential diplomatic approach in a press conference, briefing, and/or speech.
Then President Putin of Russia took the ball and ran with it, publicly saying it was a good idea, to which President Obama agreed.
Next we have the Syrian government indicating that it accepted the idea and is agreeable to placing all of its chemical weapons under international, meaning U.N. control, it would seem:
On Monday, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem stated that his country welcomed the Russian proposal, which called for Syria to place its chemical weapons under international control and for the weapons to be destroyed.(Huffington Post). And France is moving this new development along in the U.N. process:
The French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said France had reacted with "interest but also with caution" to the Russian proposal that Syria place its weapons under international control.(Syria: France to test Russia plan with UN resolution). This kind of thing should not be so rare in our international relations.
So, we should step back from the brink then move back to where we were a couple of decades ago, to a more robust use of diplomacy and the U.N.
Now President Obama has an opportunity to shine up his Nobel Peace Prize in his speech tonight, and at the same time has an opportunity to shine up his image with the people of the world, who have been clear that this new idea is better than the violent idea.
The era of international diplomacy is a good thing to revive, with full strength.
Recently President Obama mentioned in an interview that he was in favor of a robust diplomatic corps.
We Earthlings have a lot of things to work on together for the betterment of all of our lives on this embattled planet --our only home world.
I have my fingers crossed.
Monday, August 19, 2013
When The World Outlawed War
The book concerns, among other things, the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928.
Interestingly, the pact would have (as an intended or unintended consequence) also outlawed feudalism (American Feudalism).
Not long after that agreement became official the largest and most deadly wars were fought.
Not only that, those wars included the use of nuclear weapons on civilian populations, and were fought between or among the first nations to have signed and ratified the treaty to outlaw wars.
And wars continue now, some 85 years later, as the memories of the treaty fade along with the rusting war tanks, mines, and other weapons slowly returning to the dust they came from.
That being the case, the probability formula P(H∣E.b) = P(H∣b)P(E∣H.b) / P(H∣b)P(E∣H.b)+P(¬H∣b)P(E∣¬H.b) says it is probable that war will get rid of us before we get rid of war.
I suppose that the mental state of those who engaged in the more recent wars is a consideration when attempting to solve the what-happened-to-the-treaty mystery:
In 2002, it was reported that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had told a friend an amusing tale about our man George W. Bush. It seems that the two of them and French President Jacques Chirac had gotten into an economics discussion, after which George supposedly confided to Tony that he was decidedly unimpressed with Jacques' views: "The problem with the French," Bush scoffed, "is that they don't have a word for 'entrepreneur.'"(Jim Hightower, see also The Dogma of The High Priest In Chief and He Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken).
Which reminds me of the Dredd Blog series The Germ Theory of Government.
War "breaks out" like some disease, causes more disease, and brings the worst out in nations and peoples (see The Greatest Source Of Power Toxins? and Hypothesis: The Cultural Amygdala - 2).
Surely it must be caused by germs related in some way to the corruption of power?
Monday, May 6, 2013
Origin of the Classic Nuclear Bully - 2
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| "Bigga Badda Boom" - The Fifth Element |
The Washington Post has an article about it (Syrian report: Israel bombs outskirts of Damascus for second time in recent days).
Let's think about some of the serious ramifications of a Middle East area wide conflict, in terms of it getting out of hand.
In the first post of this series Dredd Blog pointed out the shocking reality that the U.S. and Israeli governments refused to attend the scheduled talks about a nuclear weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East.
All the other relevant Middle East Nations, except Israel, have signed on to nuclear non-proliferation world wide:
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was opened for signature in 1968 and entered into force in 1970. It has nearly 190 Parties, giving it the largest membership of any arms control treaty in the world. The Treaty comprises legally binding nonproliferation commitments and is the basis for international cooperation on stemming the spread of nuclear weapons. It is widely regarded as the legal and political cornerstone of the nuclear nonproliferation regime and as containing three main concepts or “pillars” – nuclear nonproliferation, disarmament, and the peaceful use of nuclear energy. In Prague on April 5, 2009 President Obama said that the basic bargain at the core of the Treaty is sound: “countries with nuclear weapons will move towards disarmament; countries without nuclear weapons will not acquire them; and all countries can access peaceful nuclear energy.” The President also called on NPT parties to take steps to strengthen this vital nonproliferation instrument.(U.S. State Department Website, emphasis added). The nations that are not part of, that is, have not signed or committed to the treaty are India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and South Sudan (Wikipedia).
As an offshoot of that overall treaty, a nuclear free Middle East focus was subsequently envisioned, so the the U.S. became one of the organizers.
Somehow Israel has now evidently persuaded the U.S. to renege on that proposal:
High-level talks between Israel and its Muslim neighbors regarding a nuclear weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East have been canceled by the US and Israel.(Origin of the Classic Nuclear Bully). Is this the way to persuade the rest of the nations that Israel and the U.S. are the ones who want peace?
A nuclear weapons-free zone has been repeatedly proposed, only to have Israel – the only state in the region with nuclear weapons – reject it in favor of maintaining this nuclear monopoly, further destabilizing the region, and keeping the threat of others’ nukes as a primary excuse for its militarism.
Diplomats tell the Associated Press that the US, one of the organizers of the meeting on this latest NWFZ proposal, would likely make a formal announcement of its cancellation soon, claiming that “the time was not opportune.”
While Iran is a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has publicly pledged its opposition to nuclear weapons development, has subjected itself to thorough international inspections, and in fact has exactly zero nuclear weapons, Israel has done none of the above and has approximately 200 nuclear warheads. Iran is being severely punished and threatened with attack, Israel is supported with unparalleled economic, military, and diplomatic support.
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
Imagine Dragons - Radioactive (lyrics here) ...
Friday, March 22, 2013
Peace In The Middle East Is Welcome
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| "You can be the generation ..." |
It seemed as if he was saying the older guys can't seem to get there, but you can.
Those young people were open to a peaceful co-existence with Palestinians, so in a way he was preaching to the choir in a war-torn region that no doubt needs to experience at least the absence of war.
It was a refreshing use of words:
President Barack Obama made a powerful and impassioned argument for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, telling an audience of young Israelis that their generation bore responsibility for securing a secure, stable and democratic future for the conflict-ridden land.(Guardian). The problem is regional enough to cause difficulties in other nations around Israel, including Jordan for example:
In what was billed as the most important public speech ever made by an American leader on the issue, Obama delivered a tough message to Israel, saying hard choices had to be faced and risks must be taken.
"You can be the generation that permanently secures the Zionist dream, or you can face growing challenges to its future … The only way for Israel to endure and thrive as a Jewish and democratic state is through the realisation of an independent and viable Palestine," he said.
JORDANIANS go to the polls on January 23rd, the day after the Israeli election, but for people of Palestinian origin, who make up a majority in Jordan and a large minority (at least a fifth) in Israel, there are disarming similarities apart from the timing. Increasing numbers of them are likely to boycott the polls in despair at systems that seem designed to keep them out.(The Economist). The foreign policy of the U.S. in the distant past was more helpful to a broader middle east peace than it has been during the decade or so of the Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libyan wars.
Jordanians of Palestinian descent make up less than a tenth of the parliament’s members, thanks to gerrymandering. In two mainly Palestinian districts of Amman, the capital, 310,000 voters elect as many MPs as 122,000 tribesmen in Karak, a southern town where Bedouin predominate. “It’s not the ballots that are rigged as much as the system itself,” says Ahmad Obeidat, one of several former prime ministers who, alongside the kingdom’s largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, is calling for a boycott of the poll.
Tensions over Syria and Iran have not helped.
So, this presidential endeavor on its face is hopefully a new direction in foreign policy, a policy movement away from The W Direction.
The Guardian article, quoted from above, went on to point out that "necessary diplomacy which secretary of state John Kerry will begin after Obama's departure from Jerusalem on Friday" is the next phase of the effort.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
The Peak Of The Oil Wars - 8
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| Here's the deal Barry |
Iran was in agreement to having such a nuclear weapons-free zone, as were all the other Muslim nations in the area.
That treaty involves the idea that no nation in that region will have any nuclear weapons.
It is somewhat similar to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty signed by Iran and all of those nations -- except one -- Israel.
Iran and other significant nations in the area signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty years ago -- a treaty which gives any nations that are signatory to it the legal right to use nuclear power plants to generate electricity for their citizens.
To add insult to injury, the government of Israel, backed by the U.S. government, has cancelled its participation in the talks:
High-level talks between Israel and its Muslim neighbors regarding a nuclear weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East have been cancelled by the US and Israel.(Anti War, quoting AP). This is rank hypocrisy on steroids and is a foreign policy debacle that is sure to diminish the good standing of the U.S. in the eyes of the other nations.
A nuclear weapons-free zone has been repeatedly proposed, only to have Israel – the only state in the region with nuclear weapons – reject it in favor of maintaining this nuclear monopoly, further destabilizing the region, and keeping the threat of others’ nukes as a primary excuse for its militarism.
Diplomats tell the Associated Press that the US, one of the organizers of the meeting on this latest NWFZ proposal, would likely make a formal announcement of its cancelation soon, claiming that “the time was not opportune.”
While Iran is a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has publicly pledged its opposition to nuclear weapons development, has subjected itself to thorough international inspections, and in fact has exactly zero nuclear weapons, Israel has done none of the above and has approximately 200 nuclear warheads. Iran is being severely punished and threatened with attack, Israel is supported with unparalleled economic, military, and diplomatic support.
You may be wondering what this has to do with oil or with oil wars, so let's tie it together.
For decades the foreign policy of the U.S. in the region has been one of controlling the oil reserves for western use:
QUESTION: Is there a U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East?(Chomsky, 1977 interview). Chomsky, over thirty years ago, envisioned exactly what was taking place then, and why it was taking place, referring in a footnote to:
CHOMSKY: Yes. There's been a very consistent U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, at least since the Second World War, whose primary concern has been to ensure that the energy reserves of the Middle East remain firmly under American control. The State Department noted in 1945 that these reserves constitute "a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history."
Basically it is a policy meant to keep Saudi Arabia, which has by far the largest known stores of petroleum, under American control. This has been quite explicit since World War II. In fact, during the war the government tried to expel Britain, and later France, from the region. There were forms of chicanery used to achieve that end, which was achieved, certainly, by the formation of ARAMCO [Arabian American Oil Company] in 1947.
Given U.S. control over Western Hemisphere resources, the United States thus effectively controlled the major energy reserves of the noncommunist world, with all that implied with regard to the organization of international society. A number of years later, the American position in the Middle East was extended. Following the CIA-backed coup in Iran in 1953, American oil companies controlled 40% of Iranian oil. By the mid 50s, American dominance of the region and total dominance of Saudi Arabia was virtually complete.
American penetration of the Saudi economy and military has been extensive. There are now about 30,000 Americans in Saudi Arabia, mostly ARAMCO employers. U.S. exports to Saudi Arabia and Iran amounted to $28 billion each in 1976, with sales to Saudi Arabia projected to reach $4.8 billion in 1977.
U.S. Department of State. Foreign Relations of the United States. 1945, viii, 45, cited in Joyce and Gabriel Kolko, The limits of power, Harper & Row, 1972, which provides a comprehensive analysis of the development of U.S. policy at the time.(ibid, 1977 interview, footnote 1). Likewise, he foresaw what is taking place in foreign policy today which we currently read about and hear in the media:
Suppose the U.S. had 100% of its own energy right here. That wouldn't affect in the least American desire to control the Middle East because we want to make sure that nobody else has access to those cheap resources of energy. One of the ways the U.S. keeps control over Europe and Japan is by having a stranglehold on their energy supply. Therefore, if there was a solar energy or shale breakthrough, giving the U.S. its own energy supply completely independent of Middle East oil, we still would want to ensure control over that region as long as Middle East oil remained cheap and accessible.(ibid, 1977 interview, emphasis added). Solar energy and shale fracking for oil is a common theme in the media today, consistently presented in the context of U.S. oil independence (pro fracking here; contra fracking here).
Yet, as Chomsky presciently said thirty five years ago, the U.S. and Israel do not want to give up the nuclear weapon advantage because they want use it to help control the lifeblood of economies of the world - oil.
That is why the U.S. and Israel will not attend the nuclear weapons-free zone talks that were to take place this month.
Chomsky reiterated this reality in a recent speech (see video at Epigovernment: The New Model - 2).
Other Dredd Blog series give additional information on these subjects (see Series Posts under "OIL").
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
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