Category: 2017

There was quite a lot of real news – not the MSM version of news, which is almost always corrupt, biased, selective and dishonest propaganda – going on these past two weeks and about which I can write volumes. However, I will stick to discussing a few of the items concerning the most beleaguered region on our planet today: The Middle East.

To begin with, let me mention that it is not porous borders that encourage “jihadis,” as some in Europe and the US are saying, because there is no border on the face of the planet that can be entirely sealed.  What utter nonsense!

Secondly, “radicalization” needs new approaches, and it cannot simply be more violence, occupations, interrogations and torture, because the more of that we are doing, the more “terrorism” our actions will engender.

Lastly, it is very clear that the nations of the world have to make a concerted, intelligent and synchronized effort to eradicate all forms of extremism on all levels, whether within, or without, their borders, and whether it is from their own citizens, or from citizens of other nations. And, while it may be true that Israel, the US, Saudi Arabia et al, created, supported, trained, financed etc. some of the Arab and Middle Eastern ideologues (some of them pseudo-Caliphs, fake Muslims, criminals, rapists, kidnappers, profiteers, vengeance seekers) to begin with, we now must put an end to their atrocious crimes. The US and the European Nations have been viciously Blundering – and Plundering – in the Middle East for centuries. We occupied and destroyed that region, now we own the aftermaths of our criminal actions. The usual knee-jerk responses and haphazard racist ideas will not stem this ideology, or the anger, frustration, dispossession and misery that we have deliberately caused. Our trillions could be used much more wisely, effectively and peacefully! Moreover, this is not a problem that is going to be solved by snapping our fingers, or shifting blame onto those whom we have savagely warred against, even though we cannot be so naïve as to believe that the regional powers, the sectarian interests and the depraved nature of many politicians, arms dealers, drug peddlers et al in the Middle East have been above the fray. They have all contributed to the chaos and bloodshed. The biggest onus, though, is on us, the United States of America, and our constant wars irrelevant of who is President and what their campaigns promise. Disastrous!

All that being said, I was quite pleasantly surprised when I read what Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Vice President (and former Prime Minister), said after a visit to Moscow: “We are grateful to you for the role Russia is playing in the region . . .” He also said: “Our interest is that friendly Russia should be present in Iraq, thus creating political balance.”

I must reiterate here that there is No Arab who looks at the devastation of Syria and Iraq without shedding tears and crying out: Woe unto the Abbasid and Umayyad genuine Arab Caliphates of yore! The totally unnecessary, and avoidable, destruction of these two countries has wounded the region in its entirety.

But to go back to Maliki’s words: Political Balance, or Balance of Power, is reminiscent of the Cold War years, isn’t it? However, the theory posits that national security is enhanced when military capability is distributed so that no one state is strong enough to dominate all others. So what Maliki seems to be saying is that the US has not really been Negotiating a resolution in Iraq (or elsewhere), but that, rather, it has been Dictating the rules that have proven their abysmal failure. Hence, will more cooperation between the powerful nations of the world, and a return to the Balance of Power, help in resolving the crisis in Iraq and Syria especially, as well as the rest of the Middle East? I don’t know, but it does sound sensible, and may offer a glimmer of hope that the bloodshed could begin to dry up IF we are serious about this. So far, we have not been, because war is profitable supremacy.

Moving on to Afghanistan. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, said that the Taliban whose main opposition to the US (as it was to Britain, the Soviet Union and any occupier) is the occupation of their country and the refusal, so far, of the US to Negotiate, rather than Dictate any agreement – which we have tried and failed at on numerous occasions. If Tillerson is really serious about negotiating with the Taliban, then there is a ray of hope that Afghanistan may begin to mend its deep wounds, because I don’t think anyone wants a radical, criminal extremist government parading as a Muslim Caliphate to exist in Afghanistan, or anywhere else. And, yes, the cooperation of Pakistan and India in the Negotiations will have much more lasting effects than should we, as usual, simply Dictate our swaggering, absurd, double-standard terms on All.

President Trump said that we are not into “nation building” anymore, and that our only objective in the Middle East region is to end terrorism. That is historically incorrect. Our main objectives in the entire region have always been control of the oil and all resources. Were it not for that “lofty” goal, we wouldn’t even have terrorism! Therefore, for the US to continue usurping the resources of these countries, whether they are oil or minerals, and expecting that its military power will overwhelm any opposition to this extortion is fantasy. At some point or another, people will demand what rightfully and legally belongs to them. And, it has to be through Negotiation, and not Dictation and more wars if we are to have long-term goals for that devastated region and not to continue our power-play in order to reign supreme, and enforce our interpretation of what is best for them!

Libya, it seems, is slowly – very slowly – regaining itself, and, from what I hear, it seems that Benghazi is coming back to life. Let us hope so! Let us also hope that the likes of France’s Bernard Levy and America’s Hillary Clinton – the two main culprits for the destruction of Libya – will not ever again go on the totally unnecessary rampage of bludgeoning that country, or any other! That was such an unconscionable invasion!

Also, according to Xinhuanet’s website, it seems that China has proposed a four-point proposal in order to facilitate peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. President Xi Jinping proffered his suggestions to President Abbas during the latter’s visit to Beijing in July. Russia, as well as the European Union are also keen on advancing this intractable dilemma. What will the US deal proposal be? Could Jared Kushner, who according to the White House is to “focus on the path to substantive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, combatting extremism, the situation in Gaza, including how to ease the humanitarian crisis there” be successful at the core issue that is tearing up the Middle East? I will not hold my breath as long as Emperor Bibi and his radical, extremist, criminal cabinet are in charge with their ability to twist and warp every proposal so that it appears that it is the Palestinians who are not cooperating – an argument that is stale and factually untrue. We have seen this false scenario, and all the delaying tactics, time and time again, which the Israeli Government will make sure America’s Legislature, its politicians and media will buy into hook, line and sinker. Tragic! Is Jared that naïve? Could he, too, like all those before him be swayed by Bibi’s false narrative? Maybe he should ask the many Israelis who can see right through Netanyahu and his shenanigans. They are ex Generals, Mossad operatives, writers, activists, bloggers and thinkers who have Israel’s best interests at heart. Yet, their voices, like the many sensible and honest voices, get drowned by Israeli extremists and their American choir. I’m afraid that this effort too will have the same dismal fate we have been witnessing for decades unless Jared and Trump are willing to Negotiate (that is Listen to both sides, as well as to include ALL the Palestinian factions, the Russians, Chinese, Europeans, Arabs) rather than simply and arrogantly Dictate, and, in this case, dictate Bibi’s demands. If we are really serious about a resolution and not playing games again, it might happen.

As for that totally pointless war on Yemen, suffice it to say that it is most disconcerting, criminal and heartbreaking. There seems to be no serious effort to end that either. Simply appalling!

I think we all know the saying: what goes around, comes around. And what comes around might be a worse “terrorism” than what we are now experiencing. We should not allow it to get to that. We cannot afford it. Neither can the world. Negotiating in good faith will benefit everyone. Dictating our terms may produce short-term gains, but in the long-run it is a losing proposition. What will it be? My hopes have been diminishing by the day: with every innocent dead person as a result of wars and terrorism; with every architectural relic destroyed; with every displaced human; with every migrant fleeing in terror; with every girl and woman being raped in a tent city; with every kidnapped migrant child. I am really tired of inept, corrupt, self-serving politicians everywhere who cannot sit down and Negotiate us out of these catastrophic disasters. It cannot get worse than this, or . . . could it?

PS: Sorry RB that I could not end on a positive note!

At a certain stage in life, our responsibilities become a matter of Choice rather than Duty. It is a very liberating position to be in, and it is only one of the advantages of old age. Another benefit is the fact that, because we have negligible Duties, we can Choose to be more aware of what is going on in our sorry world. And, while I hear of, and meet, younger people who are even much more aware than myself despite their many demanding Duties, it is mostly us old and retired Activists (Armchair or Actually Active) who can avail ourselves of that Choice, and Never has it been more vital than it is nowadays as our planet seems to be going totally berserk!

A friend of mine, whom I love dearly, told me recently: “I used to seek Excitement. I now seek only Tranquility.” However, how can there be Tranquility, let alone Excitement, amidst the chaos surrounding us everywhere we look? No wonder then that most people have tuned out and don’t bother anymore to even make any sense of our disarray. They’re behaving like many of us proverbial non-Westerners: Manana! Inshallah! Karma! In other words: Let Tomorrow/God/Fate take care of it! Some mornings, I feel that way too! It’s so much easier to lay it all at the feet of some Unknown Power when we feel so utterly helpless, and when our politicians are afflicted with That Special Passé Mindset that, moreover, seems to compel them to continuously deceive us!

“O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”

Such as . . .

For seven years the Republicans have been yelling: Repeal and Replace Obamacare! And nothing! Nada! Zilch! (Trump is right on this one!) And should they finally come up with something, trust me, it will only screw us people even more! Much, much more! Shameful! How does it make any iota of sense that we are wasting trillions and yet not being able to rein in the Insurance Companies, Big Pharma and all those related entities to the medical care of this nation so as to have a sensible, affordable, healthcare system for Everyone, rather than their continuing to mislead us with the deceptive placebo that they have a better deal in store for our welfare? And those same politicians want to deny that they are the epitome of corruption? Unbelievable! Totally!

And such as . . .

Looking at our venerated elected Legislature, those who Occupy – literally! – the Congress and the Senate, I see that most of them are as old as Methuselah and should have been retired long ago. However, it seems that the bribes and kickbacks are phenomenally great, aren’t they? That feeling of Power is awesome, isn’t it?! It appears to me that they, and many of the Generals appointed by Trump, belong to that Special Passé Mindset which is still living the post WWII era, the Evil USSR Empire, the Iron Curtain, Communism! They cannot seem to have adjusted to any other alternative, or the possibility of one. How, with such a Passé Mindset can we ever hope to resolve the world’s problems through dialogue and cooperation and not from the point of a gun, a Mother of All Bombs, a nuclear device? Pretty frightful!

And, such as . . .

I can probably go for a coffee, or a lunch, with any of the MSM (Mainstream Media) persons and come away saying: He/She is so smart, and so nice. Why then do they continue to persevere in this Greed and Corruption that seems to be driving them, and that seems to come before and above their Integrity, Honesty, Responsibility, Professionalism, Reason or Patriotism? And why do they continue to feign indignation at the “non-issues” every day and every hour, while many of us are very well aware that they are only Actors – non of them Oscar material, either! – who are fulfilling a Role in a Media Ratings Competition, or playing a part, maybe inadvertently, in “The Conspiracy” that is trying to do away with President Trump, or, at the very least, to curb his agenda? They have become part of the tangled web of deceit that is our predicament, and I wonder how do they extricate themselves from something like that? And how much egg on their faces will they have if all this Russian brouhaha turns out to be nothing of consequence? We don’t know. I certainly don’t. However, I sincerely hope it is the case, not because I voted for this President, or because I support him, but for the sake of the continuity and self-respect of our government. Moreover, we need to arrive to a sensible resolution of all the hot-spot issues of our world without having to resort to more wars and criminality. This will not happen if all of us aren’t focused on this, rather than on the drivel being disseminated by the “news.” Haven’t we caused enough catastrophic damage around the world already? Are the MSM happy to be playing a major role in exacerbating more of this madness as they continue to trash Trump and to overlook all the dangerous events going on in the world?

And such as . . .

Those reports coming out of Afghanistan saying that the production of opium has flourished, tripled and quadrupled since the US first invaded that country. Remember when we saw on TV the burning of the opium fields and they said that we were teaching the Afghan farmers how to replant all those acres upon acres with sustenance grains? What a joke! We did the same in Colombia, when we oversaw (dictated?) the burning of their cocaine harvests, and how that crop flourished right after that. And, yet, we cry out against the proliferation of drugs, while our Big Pharma, through its Mafia-like agents and gangs, is buying Afghani opium, as they do Colombian cocaine. Might there be a connection, perhaps, with the fact that there are American subcontractors, individuals and doctors (horrors!) profiting from the opium trade and our addiction to opiates in this country? Maybe instead of chasing Russian ghosts, we can start chasing the real-life drug peddlers killing our youth, not the paltry users?

And such as . . .

We deem our US meddling, hacking, arm-twisting and war-mongering to be for lofty causes and values, yet few are those that remain in the world who believe us anymore, even though they might go along with us for their sordid political purposes. Many intelligent people, as well as politicians across the world, know that even if we prove beyond any doubt whatsoever that Russia hacked, meddled, distributed fake news and propaganda in order to influence the outcome of our – or any other – election, that we are just as culpable. And haven’t we been doing exactly that all over the world ad infinitum, and denying it. Deceitful? You bet! Just our usual chicanery! Putin, is looking very good these days, believe me!

And . . . and . . . such as . . .

Syria? Libya? Afghanistan? Iraq? Sudan? Somalia? Palestine? Ukraine? Qatar? North Korea? . . . and . . . war on Venezuela? Seriously now? . . . all that blood on our hands? Shouldn’t we be focusing our energies on our own “sectarian” and “ethnic” violence such as Charlottesville, VA and et al?

It is time for American politicians of the post WWII era, That Special Passé Mindset, to retire themselves from the scene and to open up the space for modern, up-to-date negotiators and facilitators amongst people whom we have been viewing as “the enemy.” It is time to put a halt to war-mongering and demonizing. It is time for Tranquility in a world that is verging on the brink of disaster, it is time for the world to make better Choices, and it is time for us Americans to take our civil Duties seriously – very seriously . .  . and, perhaps, Try a Little Kindness (RIP Glen Campbell)?