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writing for godot

Keep Your Enemies Closer

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Written by Jaron Pearlman   
Tuesday, 05 August 2014 09:28
You know that old adage “Those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it”? It’s amazing how little time it takes for that to come true.

It’s almost as if the ostentatious, vibrant, and polarizing consumer/entertainment culture here in the West is actually MEANT to stunt our collective memory. If that is true then it does an incredible job.

But some media has its own insight to share, if interpreted properly.

Take the horror classic (and remake) ‘The Thing’ from John Carpenter. The premise is that an alien can shape shift, literally becoming friends, family, and those you trust in appearance. The real horror of ‘The Thing’ is that the monster isn’t lurking in the shadows or biding time to take its next victim; rather it is literally among its prey manipulating them.

That being said, at this point everyone has heard the name ISIS in the media and amongst their friends. It’s becoming the new buzzword like ‘Al-Qaeda’ was in the early 2000s, or even ‘Communists’ back during the Cold War Era. The deeply skewed and rewritten narrative coming from American media not only doesn’t address the real threat of ISIS, it also insults everyone’s intelligence with its web of contradictions.

Let’s break it down:

The Islamic State in Iraq & Syria (ISIS) supposedly seeks to claim northern Iraq and Syria in the name of a new Islamic State founded on Sharia Law. The faction is synonymous with ISIL which also sets hopes for an Islamic domination of the Levant (essentially the entire Fertile Crescent including Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Palestine, Southern Turkey, and Jordan). Predecessor/related groups to ISIS include Al-Qaeda and various councils of Mujahedeen Jihadists.

These groups are primarily very devout Sunnis, who oppose other religious groups, including Shia Muslims. This is no different than a feud like the Protestant/Catholic upheavals in Ireland (or the incredibly destructive European Wars circa 1524-1648). These conflicts do not represent the majority of either Sunnis or Shiites, and are certainly goaded on by political interests from both sides. Sectarian, religious violence has been a cover for geopolitical manipulation for a long time, and with many different faiths.

But all this you could hear on any pandering MSM channel. The true nature of what is going on is far more convoluted than anything conveyed on our ‘comprehensive’ 24-hour propaganda networks like CNN, FOX, or MSNBC.

To begin, lets revisit the most recent major reformation of the West Asian/Middle Eastern world.

Prior to World War One, Turkey, the Balkans, some of Central Asia, much of North Africa, and the Middle East were part of the Ottoman Empire; a very old and powerful group of nations based off of Muslim hegemony. The Ottoman allied themselves with the Central Powers (Germany, Bulgaria, and Austria-Hungary) in the First World War, and when it ended the Ottoman was dissolved.

This left a huge portion of land with no political direction, which was to be rearranged at the discretion of the Allies and League of Nations. Keep in mind that in both World Wars, Russia and the west were Allied. What ensued was many new leaders, being placed in many new nations, for many reasons that were bound to create conflict in the future (events which include the 1917 Balfour Declaration leading to the creation of Israel after WW2).

The League of Nations (predecessor to the United Nations) was an experiment that had never really been tried before. A global council of nations was poised to rebuild a massive section of the world, but the varying powers attending had their own agendas. Both eastern heavy hitters like Russia/India, and western ones like the UK and their close friends in Washington DC wished to keep their own economic holds on various regions; creating countries that either favored the west economically (like Saudi Arabia/pre 1958 Iraq/pre 1979 Iran), or the east (Ukraine, Libya, modern Syria). Granted, these alliances changed over time, but the Middle East/Central Asian territories are essentially always being pulled to favor one side or the other.

On top of all this, the obvious indigenous nationalism is to be expected. Arabs, Muslims, and indigenous Middle Easterners of any creed that see this manipulation for what it is (and many do) often react with staunch nationalism and conservatism; seeking to stamp out the unwanted influence of either east or west (economic, military, political, and cultural). This creates a hotbed of potential incitements, and a lot of very shady alliances with ulterior motives.

Now that the historical framework is there, here is the application to economics. Though the USA was never part of the League of Nations (it is part of the UN), it has always shared very close business ties to Western Europe. Even the US banking system post 1913 is modeled off of Western European central banking. Naturally this means several things:

1.) The west shares many of the same multinational interests such as petroleum companies, pharmaceutical companies, investment banks, food or R&D companies, and etcetera.

The east has its own set of cross-national companies, and some nations like Russia are incredibly self-sufficient.

2.) Because of the prominent nature of these multinationals, they are able to influence national politics, culture, and economies at a disturbingly accurate level. This even includes the public education systems that often receive both corporate funding and (biased) curriculums that are drafted by corporations.

3.) Western European civilization/colonialism still exists in much of the world, via the form of economy. Debt peonage through the IMF/World Bank has replaced shackles, and economic sanctions have replaced whips. In the case of the west and its consumer heavy nations, foreign policy hasn’t really changed since the 1400s (or earlier).

The Middle East and West Asia are a literal goldmine – not just for Iraq/Syria’s oil, or Afghanistan’s minerals and poppy; but also for their literal geographies connecting trade from the East to the West. The Fertile Crescent, Suez Canal, Black/Mediterranean Seas, and Silk Road are widely coveted trade routes; and as most modern shipping is still via ground or sea, its obvious why companies would feud over the territories.

This brings us to the origin of the modern Middle East conflicts.

After the Ottoman fell, the British government and its Allies encouraged a powerful man named Ibn Saud to unify the provinces of what would become Saudi Arabia (Hejaz and Nejd). The family of Al Saud had been competing with rival family Al Rashid for some time over Arabia, and the fall of the Ottoman provided the opportunity needed for the Sauds to take full control of the nation.

Tribal factions of the new Saudi army tried to create a campaign after unifying Arabia to encroach upon British protectorates, but were suppressed and destroyed by the House of Saud; solidifying the alliance between Western Europe and Sunni/Wahhabi dynasty rule.

Very soon after Saudi and Western alliances were reaffirmed, oil was struck in Saudi Arabia. Suddenly a war torn, poor, increasingly unstable nation had a commodity that everyone wanted- and their friends in the West made the House of Saud into overnight billionaires.

(Side note: Most American oil comes from Canada, which is why its integral to remember that economic interests pull the strings of war, not individual nations/provinces.)

Remember those British protectorates? One of them was Iraq. The British retained control of Iraq post WW1, and made sure its precious oil flowed to the companies of the West. They did this mostly through a Sunni regime called the Hashemites, though coup attempts made against Hashemite Iraq were often suppressed with British military occupation.

Eventually a series of coups led to the pan-Arabic Ba’ath Party taking control of Iraq (nationalist/socialist). This new government was sick of Western and devout Sunni subjugation, instead claiming to want unity among Muslims and an end to the Western hegemony/peonage Iraq had been placed under. Persecution of Shiites/Kurds eventually became the reality under Ba’athist Iraq and Saddam Hussein.

Saddam’s overzealous attempts to purify/unify Iraq (particularly the with the gassing the Kurds/invading Kuwait) resulted in a visceral and not at all peaceful regime. The Kurds seek their own country, and are a mountain dwelling people wishing to unify into Kurdistan. Kuwait (a member of the western oil cartel OPEC) had reportedly been slant drilling into Iraq and siphoning oil. Both of these things threatened Iraq’s unity and sovereignty to Saddam.

Saddam’s nationalist platform not only set him up against some powerful economic enemies, but also severely divided his own people. The Gulf War and Iraq-Iran war (where the USA actually funded Saddam) set the tone for Iraq’s place in the world: Rejected by both the West for its economic non-compliance, and the East for fighting their friends in the new Ayatollah lead (Shiite) Iran.

Even while Iraq was not at war with the USA, intense economic sanctions were placed on the country. These fueled poverty, civil unrest, and hate amongst the people for both Ba’athists (like Saddam) and the West. Limits on food and medicine imports were particularly severe, resulting in many deaths.

Finally Saddam laid the straw that broke the camels back. In 2000 he refused to accept US dollars for Iraqi oil, preferring instead to have the Euro. At the time, the Euro was about 82 cents to the dollar, and has since predictably raised to 1.3 dollars as US money inflates faster than the Euro. Saddam’s reasoning? He ‘didn’t want to deal in the currency of the enemy’.

By 2003 Iraq was invaded shortly after Afghanistan, under what most of us now accept as a false allegation of WMD production.

Aside from the West’s connections to the House of Saud, there is another forgotten link between Sunni Jihadism and (specifically) the USA. As I covered in my article ‘Rise of the Federalist State’, the US State Department and CIA worked with militant Sunnis to fight against the Soviet Union. Many of these factions became known later as AL Qaeda, the Taliban, Tehran 8, and more. Saudi Arabia no doubt had a hand in these clashes as well.

The Syrian Civil War is a modern extension of this. The East (Russia) has an alliance with President Bashar Al-Assad (another Ba’athist) for some resources, but mostly for Syria’s geography. Russia is very protective of its warm water ports, as their navy isn’t particularly useful in the frozen seas of the north. This is why Sevastopol is important in Crimea (Ukraine), and also why Tartus is important in Syria. Western coalitions have been training and eventually arming Sunni resistance forces via places like Jordan or Pakistan, to attack and overthrow Syria’s largely religiously unbiased rule. While the Jihadists really believe they are fighting for Sunni rule, the West lets them do the dirty work.

Bashar Al-Assad could not have reacted any worse to this situation. In fits of what I Imagine are rages and paranoia he has turned the Syrian Army into the very thugs he seeks to fight, as live rounds are being used on protestors and munitions upon entire dissenting communities. Sadly, in Syria (much like Iraq) there isn’t a faction working toward the good of the people at all- just layers upon layers of geopolitical/religious manipulation.

The United States (and Saudi Arabia) has openly admitted to funding ‘moderate’ resistance groups in Syria. Aside from donations/weapons under the table from the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel there have been formal requests from the White House for funding these insurgencies (the last one was in June 2014). Surely after the public forced the Obama Administration away from formal war, the new plan for proxy war was put in place full force; once again using Sunni jihadists in the form of the Free Syrian Army, Syrian National Coalition, the Muslim Brotherhood, AL Qaeda, Kurds, and…. ISIS.

ISIS has been in Syria for a while. Though they had a falling out with FSA in early 2014, these insurgent groups all receive training, aid, and weapons from western sources; also pooling recruitment from the same places. Thus any aid provided to Syrian opposition will in all likelihood end up in the same Sunni hands that western media tells everyone to fear so fervently.

But here is where it gets even more messed up.

The new Iraqi government relies heavily on arms manufacturers from the west to fight against the insurgencies the west also subsidizes like ISIS. While the country continues to be destabilized for economic takeover, war profiteering runs amok, with artillery/firearms/munitions companies selling to both sides of the conflict via corrupted western governments.

So what is the real end goal? Why spend so much time on Syria and Iraq? Obviously both have oil and both have valuable geography. They also are countries that have both had successful coups against their post WW1 western handlers.

In northern Iraq and middle Syria the plot thickens however, revealing an all too unsettling reason for the proposed Islamic nation ISIS is fighting for.

The Mosul-Haifa pipeline is an oil pipeline leading from Iraq’s most oil rich fields in Kirkuk to the north, through Jordan, and to the Haifa Refinery in oil-lacking Israel. There is also a connecting channel leading directly through Syria near Homs, then through Lebanon to the Mediterranean. The pipeline was integral to fueling the war machines of WW2, but was decommissioned in 1948 during the Arab-Israeli War when Iraq refused to pump any more oil through it.

(Also the Bush family made their fortune as a result of WW2 investments, many stemming from the resources of Iraq and the surrounding area. This may explain their insane fixation with the region.)

During (and before) the second gulf war, US/Western/Israeli diplomats were all exploring the reopening of the Mosul-Haifa. Fast forward to post-invasion and USAF bases were constructed at three points near the pipeline in Iraq. Fast forward again and the proposed immediate border goal of ISIS very closely outlines the periphery of the pipeline, partitioning off northern Syria and Iraq. How very curious.

As the world reels in terror from the atrocities in Iraq, Syria, Venezuela, Egypt, Ukraine, and elsewhere it becomes difficult to figure out why any of this is happening. That’s exactly why governments seek to deceive and confuse their people, and they do a damn good job.

The concept of Orwell’s ‘double think’ couldn’t be more relevant. Sunni Saudis using Sunni extremists to further a goal that is neither religious nor ethical; and western factions funding their own ‘enemies’ in order to destabilize various nations and make a quick buck off of a war at literally everyone’s expense (including western militaries/taxpayers). It sounds crazy but remember this has been done before many times. Think of the Taliban- western backed Sunni insurgents that had a successful coup against the Soviets, imposed Sharia law, and had the support of the west for decades…until they banned poppy production.

History reveals what time will tell and it’s hard to dig up; hence why it’s so much easier to just buy into entertainment/consumer culture. You certainly won’t be hearing about the Mosul-Haifa pipeline on the news.

President Obama has decreased military spending which many may perceive as an end to the endless neoconservative bullying of the USA, but that is not the case. What we have seen in the last six years is a shift in practice, not ideology. Our military will become further automated with the use of more drones, and will be supplemented by proxy wars waged by rebels or private security groups like Blackwater/Academi.

The majority of Americans are finally sick of war and death overseas, so expect that you will hear of more insurgencies, more groups to fear, more Russians, more Cubans, more Jihadists, more boogeymen in the dark waiting to take your freedoms.

But as the great horror director John Carpenter said there are two types of scary stories:

One is the monster is out there in the dark waiting and anonymous. That one may or may not exist, it could just be in your head.

The other is that the monster is in the room with you. And it is someone you know.
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