Independent historian and journalist Gareth Porter discusses the limits of America’s awesome military might when it comes to fighting insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan; Iraq’s brutal sectarian civil war in 2006-2007; how the US helped increase Iranian influence in Iraq; and Gen. Petraeus’s influence on COIN doctrine and the “victory in defeat” PR campaign.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS
The US can pretty much handle anything militarily. But when it comes to ‘complex politics’ as Gareth Porter described it, they’re finished even before they start. Hollywood jingoism is pretty much our style. It excites the populace and keeps war ‘entertaining’. If you can’t make war entertaining the people won’t want it anymore. The problem with peace (and diplomacy) is that it goes over the heads of the (over)entertained public.
Let’s see if I have this straight:
The Neocon plan assumed the Iraqi Shiites would be nationalistic enough to spurn Iranian aid but not so nationalistic as to demand free elections, and the Sunnis were suppose to welcome their toppling from power by acting as the occupation’s police force while the Shiites took over.
When none of these assumptions proved correct the US allied itself with Iranian-backed death squads to kill the Sunnis who were already busy fighting the local branch of al-Qaeda.
[Of course, the USA normally hates al-Qaeda and Iran and considers them evil incarnate – except when they are arming and transporting al-Qaeda to destroy nations America doesn’t like, or they are arming Iran in order to ensure Reagan get elected by keeping Americans hostage.]
Seems legit.
I beg to differ with you Roger. The US can
And then walked away with its tail in the air from its war crimes and crimes again t humanity, washing its hands grabbing a polluted flag with one hand, a disgraced gun with the other whistling the national anthem dreaming of football games and processed meals driving in gas-guzzling suv now full with Arabian gas….rah rah rah
Dulce Et Decorum Est III & A Taste of Armageddon
(or the empire has no clothes but a disposition matrix)
by michael hall
In due homage to Horace, Owen and Mikhail i humbly nod
for how sweet & glorious it must be to kill or die for God & country by pompous duty with dishonor
so c’mon kiddies, any up for good jingo sport?
who
However, missile engineer Bob Aldridge-www.plrc.org-on the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA), the missiles in Romania, Poland and on USS Monterey: “Whether they are on ships or land, they are still a necessary component for an unanswerable first strike.” The missiles will cover all of NATO by 2018 and result in Launch On Warning by 2017. More info: claus eric/antiwar.com esp. interview with Ray McGovern May 07, 2012.
princ Turki bin Faisal Al Saud warned the US that invasion and regime change in Iraq will inevetabley lead to Shiaa regime in Iraq . so Why te US anyway invade iraq ??? the decission of AbdulMadjeed Al Tikriti to trade Oil not with Dollars but with Euros was the main and only reason to intervene in Iraq any other reason is or was irelevant to US policy .
and as an analysts Gereth Porter is briliant , i must say
i agree… if scott were a bit more objectiv on gathering information he would have not stating speculations as a factum
You’re wrong. http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/08/08/us-iraq-qaeda-idUSL725478720080808
“Quite the reverse, for The Holocaust taught the victims that never again should they enrich themselves upon the misery of society by hoarding such a massive amount of wealth.”
Now there’s an interesting perspective. So the Jews, Gypsys, homosexuals, Eastern Europeans, Russians, and so many others (we’re not even going to consider Japan) were guilty of hoarding “so much wealth” and the Nazis were just trying to even things out? Gosh, why haven’t I thought of that?
“For everyone has an illusion that they deserve to live, when not even this day of life do we deserve.”
And just what the fuck do you plan to do about that? Seems to me that the only plan with even a vestige of integrity is suicide, unless you feel qualified to decide who, other than you, should live or die. Putz!