I just found Mind Over Matter which is a podcast, and subscribed. Time of
Useful Consciousness is either not a podcast, or if it is, it isn't available
on OO Tunes. But it sounds like it's a TV or radio channel, perhaps. Anyway, I
now have one more podcast. Yesterday, I subscribed to Tel Aviv Report because I
found a lovely talk on it by the Palestinian American professor at Columbia
University about his book, Brokers of Deceit. Well, I don't know about that
podcast. It actually does come from Israel, aimed at American Jews. I thought
it was left of center because of the talk I heard, and it does seem to be
academic. But the episode that appeared was an author discussing his book about
some religious Jew who wrote about a religious Jew and his version of Zionism,
not my cup of tea. Thanks for Mind Over Matter. I'll see what just downloaded
onto my stream.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2017 11:09 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The Devious Aim of Trump's Trip to Saudi Arabia
I hope that we don't simply dismiss Donald Trump as "Crazy". Whether this is a
fact, or not, is beside the point. Donald Trump just happens to be the
American Corporate Empire's Poster Boy. It's true that Donald Trump's face and
voice dominated the Empire's Media for months prior to his "election", but the
fact is, he appealed to a large cross section of Americans who see themselves
in Donald Trump.
While I'm reading this article, and responding to it, I'm also listening to
Naomi Klein, speaking in Seattle. Prior to that, I tuned into Richard Wolff's
weekly program. Naomi will be followed by a program featuring noam chomsky.
Sunday mornings on KEXP FM features a series of programs called, "Mind Over
Matter". The noam chomsky talk is broadcast on TUC(Time of Useful
Consciousness). Such programming go a long way toward saving my sanity.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/20/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I may have posted a very abstracted version of this earlier. Do read
this complete version of the article. It's informative and the
author's wonderful style at its best.
Miriam
Alternet
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org) Home > The Devious Aim
of Trump's Trip to Saudi Arabia The Devious Aim of Trump's Trip to
Saudi Arabia
By Robert Fisk [1] / CounterPunch [2]
May 19, 2017
Donald Trump sets off on Friday to create the fantasy of an Arab Nato [3].
There will be dictators aplenty to greet him in Riyadh, corrupt
autocrats and thugs and torturers and head choppers. There will be at
least one zombie president – the comatose, undead Abdelaziz Bouteflika
of Algeria who neither speaks nor, apparently, hears any more – and,
of course, one totally insane president, Donald Trump [4]. The aim,
however, is simple: to prepare the Sunni Muslims of the Middle East
for war against the Shia Muslims. With help from Israel, of course.
Even for those used to the insanity of Arab leadership – not to
mention those Westerners who have still to grasp that the US President
is himself completely off his rocker – the Arab-Muslim (Sunni) summit
in Saudi Arabia [5] is almost beyond comprehension. From Pakistan and
Jordan and Turkey and Egypt and Morocco and 42 other minareted
capitals, they are to come so that the effete and ambitious Saudis can
lead their Islamic crusade against “terrorism” and Shiism. The fact that most
of the Middle East’s “terrorism”
– Isis and al-Qaeda, aka the Nusrah Front – have their fountainhead in
the very nation to which Trump is travelling, must and will be
ignored. Never before in Middle Eastern history has such a “kumidia
alakhta” – quite literally “comedy of errors” in Arabic – been staged.
On top of all this, they have to listen to Trump’s ravings on peace
and Islamic “extremism”, surely the most preposterous speech to be
uttered by a US president since he is going to have to pretend that
Iran is extremist – when it is Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi Isis clones who
are destroying Islam’s reputation throughout the world. All this while he is
fostering war.
For Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (henceforth MbS)
wants to lead his Sunni tribes – plus Iraq if possible, which is why
Shia Prime Minister Abadi has been invited from Baghdad – against the
serpent of “terrorist” Shia Iran, the dark (Shia) “terrorist” Alawite
regime of Bashar al-Assad, the “terrorist” Shia Lebanese Hezbollah and
the aggressive “terrorist” Shia Houthis of Yemen. As for the Gulf
states’ own Shia minorities and other recalcitrants, well, off with their
heads.
After all, that’s what the Saudis did to the prominent Saudi Shia
leader Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr last year: they cut his head from his body,
Isis-style, in a classic bit of Wahhabi decapitation, along with 47 other
“terrorists”.
And any powerful Shias in neighbouring Gulf countries will be cut
down, too – which is what happened to Bahrain’s Shia majority when the
Saudi army moved in to occupy the island in 2011 at the “request” of its
Sunni ruler.
And you can see why America’s disgraceful President, a man who truly
falls into the regional pantheon of raving loonies – he surely ranks
among the Gaddafis and Ahmadinejads of the Middle East – goes along
with this. The fact that Isis – Trump’s mortal enemy and the strategic
adversary of his defence chiefs – is a creature of the same Salafist
cult as Saudi Arabia, is neither here nor there. The Sunni Saudis and
the Gulf kings and princes possess immense wealth, the only religion
that Trump really respects, and they want to destroy Shia Iran and
Syria and the Hezbollah and the Houthis – which is a simple
“anti-terrorist” story for the Americans – and this means that Trump
can give MbS and his chums $100bn (£77bn) of US missiles, planes,
ships and ammo for the war-to-come. America will be happy. And Israel
will be happy.
I guess Crown Prince Jared Kushner thinks he can handle this end of
the Arab-Nato alliance, though the Israelis themselves will be
perfectly happy to watch the Sunnis and Shia fight each other, just as
they did during the
1980-88 Iran-Iraq war when the US supported Sunni Saddam – albeit that
his army was mostly Shia – and the Israelis furnished US missiles to
the Shia Iranians. Already, the Israelis have distinguished themselves
by bombing the Syrian army, the Hezbollah and the Iranians in the
Syrian war – while leaving Isis untouched and giving medical
assistance to al-Qaeda (Nusrah) on Golan.
Much has been made (rightly) of MbS’s threat to ensure that the battle
is “in Iran and not in Saudi Arabia”. But, typically, few bothered to
listen to Iran’s ferocious reply to the Saudi threat. It came promptly
from the Iranian defence minister, Hossein Dehghan. “We warn them [the
Saudis] against doing anything ignorant,” he said, “but if they do
something ignorant, we will leave nowhere untouched apart from Mecca
and Medina.” In other words, it’s time to start building air raid
shelters in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dhahran, Aramco headquarters and all those
other locations dear to American hearts.
Indeed, it’s difficult not to recall an almost identical Sunni hubris
– almost four decades ago – to that of MbS today. The latter boasts of
his country’s wealth and his intention to diversify, enrich and
broaden its economic base. In 1980, Saddam was determined to do the
same. He used Iraq’s oil wealth to cover the country in
super-highways, modern technology, state-of-the-art healthcare and
hospitals and modern communications. Then he kicked off his “lightning
war” with Iran. It impoverished his oil-rich nation, humiliated him in
the eyes of his fellow Arabs – who had to cough up the cash for his
disastrous eight-year adventure – led to Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait,
sanctions and the ultimate Anglo-US invasion of 2003 and, for Saddam,
the hangman’s noose.
Yet this leaves out the Syrian dimension. Sharmine Narwani, a former
senior associate of St Antony’s College – and an antidote for all
those sickened by the mountebank think-tank “experts” of Washington –
pointed out this week that US support for Kurdish forces fighting
under the dishonest label of “Syrian Democratic Forces” are, by
advancing on Raqqa, helping to cut Syria off from Iraq. And that
Kurdish forces are now reported as “retaking”
Christian or Muslim Arab towns in the Nineveh province of Iraq, which
were never Kurdish in the first place. Kurds now regard Qamishleh, and
Hassakeh province in Syria as part of “Kurdistan”, although they
represent a minority in many of these areas. Thus US support for these
Kurdish groups – to the fury of Sultan Erdogan and the few Turkish
generals still loyal to him – is helping to both divide Syria and
divide Iraq.
This cannot and will not last. Not just because the Kurds are born to
be betrayed – and will be betrayed by the Americans even if the
present maniac-in-charge is impeached, just as they were betrayed to
Saddam in the days of Kissinger – but because Turkey’s importance
(with or without its own demented leader) will always outweigh Kurdish
claims to statehood. Both are Sunnis, and therefore “safe” allies
until one of them – inevitably the Kurds – must be abandoned.
Meanwhile, you can forget justice, civil rights, sickness and death.
Cholera
has quite a grip on Yemen now, courtesy of the criminal bombing
attacks of the Saudis – ably assisted by their American allies long
before Trump took over – and scarcely any of the Muslim leaders whom
Trump meets in Riyadh do not have torturers at work back home to
ensure that some of their citizens wish they had never been born. It
will be a relief for the fruitcake president to leave Israel for the
Vatican, albeit given only a brief visitation to – and short shrift by – a
real peacemaker.
That only leaves one nation out of the loop of this glorious charivari:
Russia. But be sure Vladimir Putin comprehends all too well what is
going on in Riyadh. He will watch the Arab Nato fall apart. His
foreign minister Lavrov understands Syria and Iran better than the
feckless Tillerson. And his security officers are deep inside Syria.
Besides, if he needs any more intelligence information, he has only to
ask Trump.
Robert Fisk writes for the Independent [6], where this column
originally appeared.
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Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/world/devious-aim-trumps-trip-saudi-arabia
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/robert-fisk
[2] http://www.counterpunch.org/
[3]
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-speech-r
adical
-islam-peaceful-muslim-saudi-arabia-international-trip-a7739441.html
[4]
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-tr
ump-sa
udia-arabia-islam-speech-stephen-miller-musilm-ban-executive-order-a7742036.
html
[5]
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-sau
di-ara bia-arms-deal-sale-arab-nato-gulf-states-a7741836.html
[6] http://www.independent.co.uk/
[7] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on The Devious Aim ;
of Trump's Trip to Saudi Arabia [8] http://www.alternet.org/ ;
[9] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
