The 2011 Uprisings

Astro Boy

Pocket Rocket
Dispatches From America: Washington's Echo Chamber

One has to strain to fit this Middle Eastern moment into any previous paradigm, even as - from Wisconsin to China - it threatens to spread like a fever across the planet. In the face of such an undefined but world-shaking phenomenon, one might imagine that everywhere people would be rethinking our world with a sense of awe and humility - but not, it seems, in Washington.
Tom Engelhardt co-founder of the American Empire Project and runs the Nation Institute's TomDispatch.com
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
[quote='Dave' Cameron]Mr Speaker, it is clear that this is an illegitimate regime that has lost the consent of its people. My message to Colonel Gaddhaffi is simple: Go now.[/quote]
Oh how these words may come back to haunt.

Fresh impetus for the march in March?
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
Oil be damned, the West appears to be preparing for War once again , how surprising

One man's 45 minute WMD is another man's Mustard Gas

But as we know War is business. The shareholders have flogged their arms to Libya, so now they can re-supply the 'West' to battle them into new improved profits




Strange how nobody bothered going into the Congo when their civil War began innit........
 

joshua

Well-Known Forumite
Britain is joining an American military campaign to blunt Iranian influence in Iraq and the Gulf.

In a move likely to heighten tension in an already volatile part of the world, US forces have been ordered to detain Iranian agents in Iraq and to strengthen substantially America’s military presence in the Gulf.

Two Royal Navy minehunters have arrived in the Gulf to reinforce a naval frigate on patrol in the area.

“We are going after their [Iran’s] networks in Iraq,” Zalmay Khalilzad, the outgoing US Ambassador to Baghdad, said. The aim was to change the behaviour of the Islamic regime in Tehran, he added.

Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, accused Tehran of “very negative behaviour”.

Twice in the past few weeks US forces have detained Iranian officials in Iraq, first in Baghdad and last week in the northern city of Arbil.

America has accused the Iranians of supporting militant Iraqi groups. Iran insists has insisted that all those detained were performing normal diplomatic duties. Although Mr Gates was recently an advocate of opening dialogue with Iran, as recommended by the Iraq Study Group, he told a Nato meeting yesterday that now is not the time to talk. Tehran’s behaviour justified America’s decision to beef up its presence.

“We are simply reaffirming that statement of the importance of the Gulf region to the United States and our determination to be an ongoing strong presence in the area for a long time into the future,” said Mr Gates.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier group entered the Gulf in December.

It will be joined by the USS John C. Stennis carrier group. This is the first time since the invasion of Iraq four years ago that the US has deployed two carrier strike groups in the Gulf at one time.

In addition, President Bush has ordered the deployment of an air defence battalion equipped with Patriot missile batteries to protect America’s Gulf Arab allies from possible air attack from Iran.

Britain’s contribution is two minehunters HMS Blyth and HMS Ramsey, which will remain in the Gulf for an unusually-long two-year mission to keep shipping routes open in the event that Iran attempts to block oil exports.

The White House has insisted that it has no plans to take military action against Iran. But Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, described the build up as an evolving strategy to confront Iran’s “destabilising behaviour”.

Dr Ali Ansari, an Iranian expert at the University of St Andrews, said that the escalation could have serious consequences.

“There is a distinct possibility that the current cold war could turn hot,” he said. “This is an accidental war waiting to happen. Even with the best will in the world crises are not easily managed. Before you know it you can lose control of the situation.”

In spite of Iran’s defiant stand, there were reports yesterday that Tehran wanted to ease tensions with Washington. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad reportedly sent a letter to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asking him to relay a goodwill message to Dr Rice, who arrived in Riyadh last night.

The US military build-up is seen as an attempt by Washington to ease concerns among its traditional Arab allies in the region, like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, whose leaders have spoken out repeatedly against the danger of Iran extending its influence across the Middle East.

The Iranians and their Shia Muslim allies are regarded as the main beneficiaries of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

In Lebanon Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, has emerged as the most powerful military force in the country. The Arab Gulf states are also concerned that Iran will try to foment unrest among their large Shia populations.

Of greater concern is Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Yesterday Tehran announced that it was stepping up its uranium enrichment programme, which many fear could be a cover for producing highly enriched uranium, the fissile material needed to build an atomic bomb. Last month the United Nations Security Council called on Iran to halt its enrichment work and imposed limited sanctions against Tehran.

The Iranians said that they were pressing ahead with the programme and planned to have more than 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium at the heavily fortified plant at Natanz in central Iran. Referring to Iran’s refusal to accept repeated international calls to stop elements of its nuclear programme, Mr Gates said: “My view is that when the Iranians are prepared to play a constructive role in dealing with some of these problems, then there might be opportunities for engagement.”

And so it begins........
 

Alan B'Stard

Well-Known Forumite
Gaddafi attempts to defuse protests with old skool acid house mix tape

http://newsthump.com/2011/02/23/gaddafi-attempts-to-diffuse-protests-with-old-skool-acid-house-mix-tape/
 

Astro Boy

Pocket Rocket
And The (Arab) Oscars Go To.......

In the (real) Arab world, this is what Oscar night - somewhere over the rainbow - would probably be like. Among the many winners, "Social Networks Smash Kings' Speeches" would be the best movie, while the best ensemble cast would go to the mother of the great 2011 Arab revolt, Tunisia. Muammar Gaddafi's last stand is a shoe-in for best James Cagney "Look Ma, top of the world!" moment.
Pepe Escobar

Some favourites:

Best solo performance by a leading actor: The African King of King's Speech telling of an al-Qaeda conspiracy carried out by "rats" on hallucinogenic-laced milk and Nescafe.

Best producer: The House of Saud. Over the years, produced Wahhabism, Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, the Taliban and 15 of the 19 box-cutter wielding 9/11 actors. May be brought down by an emerging production house - Facebook-savvy "Burning Down the House" (of Saud). Runner-up: Washington Inc; from producer of tyranny and torture, via neo-liberalism and waterboarding, to promoter of made-in-USA Google/Facebook/Twitter "change we can believe in" in the Arab world.

Best comeback since the collapse of the Ottoman empire in 1922: The Arab world. Up to World War II, miserable life under the colonial boot of France and Britain. Then, since 1956, basically an immense US satrapy, dominated by brutal and corrupt client dictators/monarchs propped up with weapons and "advisers" from Washington. And now, finally, a glimpse towards the road to independence.

Best tear jerker: Assorted Zionists, neo-cons and Zio-cons freaking out with the potential emergence of a new, independent, sovereign Middle East.
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
Word reaches me of a kafuffle in Saudi

The Arrogant Defence League headed by A Windsor are on their way
 

Astro Boy

Pocket Rocket
Libys puts China in world stage spotlight
The parallel with the Iraq War of Western proposals for intervention in Libya is striking, with the crucial difference that things are in fast-forward mode as Russia and China clear the diplomatic path. Whether this is a one-off or China's defining moment as a United States collaborator in global common interests will come to light if the US presses the United Nations for a no-fly zone in Libya.
M K Bhadrakumar

Dispatches from America: Old secretaries of defence never die
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, preparing to step down this year, has said that if any of his successors advise the president to again send a big American land army into Asia, the Middle East or Africa, he or she should "have his head examined". But it doesn't matter whether the US goes in big with counter-insurgency-style nation-building or not, the problem is the interventionist spirit.
Tom Engelhardt

Libyan test for refocused al-Qaeda
In a fundamental shift that began last year when an ideologue questioned a reliance on terror attacks and the severing of ties with international Islamic movements, al-Qaeda is positioning itself to support political Islamic parties in Libya's rebel-held areas. The move is hoped to not only kick-start al-Qaeda's revised vision, but also to prevent the armed opposition from falling into the hands of pro-Western agitators.
Syed Saleem Shahzad

The perfect (desert) storm
The Arab revolt, North African yearnings for democracy, Western despair over oil prices, and the new American doctrine for regime alteration are kicking up a perfect storm, deploying devastating gusts of hypocritical winds such as the US request for Saudi Arabia to arm rebels, while turning a blind eye to the House of Saud's inconvenient truth. History yet again repeats itself as farce.
Pepe Escobar
 

Trumpet

Well-Known Forumite
United57 said:
Could spread to the England this summer when we really feel the Tory cuts. I know some will laugh but the Thatcher government were prepared for civil unrest and certainly ramped up the police by increasing wages and lots of overtime.
Wasn't it about then that the police 'fortress' was built on Eastgate Street?
 

Trumpet

Well-Known Forumite
Have to say I thought the navy sending a frigate named after a pork sausage out to Libya showed a certain 'flair' on someone's behalf.
 

Astro Boy

Pocket Rocket
Arab revolt reworks the world order
Brazil, India and South Africa, all serving as non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, took a clear-cut position against Western orchestrations for a "no-fly zone" over Libya. By favoring Arab nationalism, the three underscored growing recognition that the era of Western dominance of the Middle East is passing into history. China may also heave a sigh of relief.
M K Bhadrakumar

Rage against the House of Saud
The US$36 billion question in Saudi Arabia concerns whether an ailing monarch can bribe his subjects into submission with oil money and escape the furious freedom winds of the great 2011 Arab revolt. The world will be able to watch a preview this Friday, as a Facebook-organized "Day of Rage" hits the globe's largest gas station.
Pepe Escobar

Dispatches from America: The disappearance of the nightmare Arab
Western civilization's ancient mistrust of Arabs, created and stoked for centuries by the church and exacerbated by 9/11 and its aftermath, has been rocked by the pace, democratic ideals and Islamic underpinnings of the Arab revolutions. The absence of "fanatics" and fatwas and presence of women protesters has left Americans asking: do we actually know anything about these people, or this religion?
James Carroll
 

Astro Boy

Pocket Rocket
Generational rage in the House
Whatever response they plan to the "day of rage" demonstrations in Saudi Arabia, the elders of the ruling House of Saud will have to take into account that generational conflict will resonate with politics and intrigues within the large royal family. Calls for change from Saudi youths will likely stir old resentments among royal offspring who hold positions in both the state and military.
Brian M Downing

Why no-fly won't take off
As the countries known as BRICS build a wall around the plan for a no-fly zone in Libya, Muammar Gaddafi is skillfully reading the writing. No-fly, even if approved, would be useless and he knows those backing the idea can't invade Libya - that would be seen as one more chapter, after Afghanistan and Iraq, of the white man's crusade to destroy Islam (and get the oil).
Pepe Escobar
 

Astro Boy

Pocket Rocket
The birth of Islamic modernity
Although the symptoms are the same - unemployment, poverty, corruption, absence of freedom - the Arab revolt is actually diverse revolutions fought with diverse strategies. The crucial unifying theme is that Arab peoples are starting to build their own modernity. That, as Gilles Kepel was prescient to note, secures the victory of Islam as democracy over Islam as a "revolutionary" vanguard.
Pepe Escobar

Rebels outgunned, overstretched
The initial lightening assault of Libya's rebels is losing momentum, with loyalist forces now launching massive counter-attacks to retake the key nodes of Zawiya and the oil hub of Ras Lanuf, even threatening the relative calm of stronghold Benghazi. Sensing an upper hand over the strategically challenged rebels, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is stepping up the propaganda war.
Derek Henry Flood

Hidden energy crisis in the Midlle East
Preoccupation with the impact of Middle East instability on oil prices and the world economy is masking an ongoing reshuffle in natural gas supplies that has left Israel and Jordan short of fuel. Expect the politics of gas to be just as dramatically affected by upheaval as those of oil - and a major restructuring of basic energy relationships in the Middle East and Mediterranean.
Victor Kotsev
 
Top