First there was the 1991 Iraq
By 2011, with the country in ruins and the the bulk of US troops preparing to leave, US military 'advisers' hastily cobbled together an 'Iraqi army'. Unfortunately, the tribal nature of Iraqi society, the serious divisions between Sunni and Shia that had been provoked by 10 years of bloody foreign occupation, including the use of US-sponsored death squads (aka 'al-qaeda'), and the installation of a Shia-led government in a country previously dominated by the minority Sunnis under Saddam, made the very idea of a united Iraqi army a fantasy. But those details were of little concern to the occupiers. A few major weapons and oil deals and the US was outta there. Thanks for the memories... for a while.
Next Stop - Syria
Then came the (Israeli-sponsored) plan to 'remake' Syria. But when it was decided that a US invasion and occupation of that country was too problematic in the sense that it might set the entire Middle East alight and threaten Israeli sensitivities, plan B was to use the same fundamentalist jihadi nut-jobs from Iraq to start a 'revolution' that the majority of the Syrian people wanted nothing to do with. But after three years of direct and indirect funding and arming of the jihadis by the USA, Saudi Arabia Qatar and Turkey, and massive bloodshed, with several Syrian cities reduced almost to rubble, Assad was still there, the Syrian army were prevailing against the nut-jobs, and the psychopaths at the US state department, the CIA and in Tel Aviv, were getting antsy. 'Can't we just have NATO bomb the crap out of the place?' A pretext was needed, and last year the Saudis were used to supply sarin gas to the jihadis (or a Saudi black op team did it themselves), who happily sacrificed the lives of 1,000 Syrian civilians in Ghouta in an effort to blame the Assad government for 'war crimes' and justify NATO (i.e. USA) bombing.
While the alternative media (including this website) pointed out that the chemical attack came from a 'rebel'-held area, John Kerry (and his counterpart borgs in the EU) bluffed and blustered to the world that Assad had "crossed a red line" and "something had to be done". But an eleventh hour reprieve for the Syrian people was secured by the Russian government who, behind closed diplomatic doors, made it clear to the US and EU warmongers that they had clear evidence pointing to the true source of the chemical attack, and would rather not be forced to reveal it to the world at the UN. To assuage Kerry and Co's severe disappointment at not getting to dismember some civilians, and to help them save face over the fact that the USA's 'al-qaeda' 'rebels' in Syria were responsible for the chemical attack, the Russian government suggested that, as an alternative, it could ensure that the Assad government destroyed its chemical weapon stockpile. Kerry and Co. had to accept the deal, but they weren't happy with Russia for denying them an opportunity to crush some little people, and they were willing to bide their time.
New Old Jihadis on the block
The group that is currently grabbing gruesome headlines in Iraq - the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) - is 'al-qaeda' by another name, or 'al-qaeda 2.0' if you prefer. They subscribe to Wahhabism or Salafism which is the extremist Saudi version of the Muslim religion that, according to a 'conspiracy theory' was created by agents of the British Empire in the 18th century as a way to corrupt Islam and safeguard the region for British interests. The document that constitutes the evidence for this plot is essentially the Muslim version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Then again, when you consider the existence of fundie Christian leaders like Pat Robertson, and the phenomenon of 'Purity Balls', no conspiracy is needed. And it's not hard to see how similar specimens and ideologies could arise in Islam. Unless, of course, Pat Robertson is a CIA agent. Manufactured fundamentalism or not, Saudi Wahhibism has played a central role in safeguarding the Middle East for British and American interests.
Strangely enough, in July 2013, the European Parliament identified the Wahhabi movement as the source of global terrorism and a threat to traditional and diverse Muslim cultures of the whole world. That analysis has done nothing, however, to effect the cozy relationship between the Saudi royals and the US and EU.
ISIS is said to have originated (although not under that name) in 2004 with the mythical Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi was, if you remember, one of 'al-qaeda's' front men in Iraq from 2004-2006 and was accused by the US government of orchestrating much of the 'sectarian' killings, and the video-recorded beheadings of American citizens Nick Berg and Eugene Armstrong. I already detailed the likely truth behind the 'sectarian' killings in Iraq in this article (think US-sponsored death squads), and exposed the fact that even US military intelligence agents in Iraq knew that 'al Zarqawi', as he was portrayed, existed only in the lurid fantasies of Donald Rumsfeld:
US military intelligence agents in Iraq have revealed a series of botched and often tawdry dealings with unreliable sources who, in the words of one source, "told us what we wanted to hear".But good 'terrorist masterminds' are hard to come by, and the Pentagon knows that it has to take what it can get. To establish his credentials as terrorist bogeyman in Iraq, Zarqawi was kind enough to write a letter to Osama bin Laden in 2004 and copy the Pentagon on it. The letter, which was later proven to be fake, was enthusiastically accepted at the time by Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, who said: "the important thing is that we have this document in our hands, how it was found is not as important as the fact that we have it and that we can use it."
"We were basically paying up to $10,000 a time to opportunists, criminals and chancers who passed off fiction and supposition about Zarqawi as cast-iron fact, making him out as the linchpin of just about every attack in Iraq," the agent said.
"Back home this stuff was gratefully received and formed the basis of policy decisions. We needed a villain, someone identifiable for the public to latch on to, and we got one."
No doubt.
In the letter, Zarqawi conveniently took pre-emptive responsibility for the wave of sectarian attacks and shrine bombings in Iraq that occurred between 2004-2006 and 'wrote':
"We are striving urgently and racing against time to create companies of mujahidin that will repair to secure places and strive to reconnoiter the country, hunting the enemy -- Americans, police, and soldiers -- on the roads and lanes. We are continuing to train and multiply them. As for the Shi'a, we will hurt them, God willing, through martyrdom operations and car bombs."I have yet to hear a reasonable explanation of the logic behind 'Zarqawi's' plan to encourage Iraqis to join him in fighting American troops, while at the same time attacking and killing Iraqis. It is also an enduring mystery why 'Zarqawi' believed that attacking and killing Iraqi civilians was the best way to 'destroy the infidels'. As it turned out, it was the best way to justify the continued US occupation of the country and destroy lots of Iraqis. Admittedly, that was a lucky break for the Americans... and the Saudis... and the Israelis... and the Western oil companies.
'Zarqawi' was eventually dispatched (or so we're told) by way of two made-in-the-USA 500lb bombs, special delivery, and dropped on the house he was allegedly inside of, in Iraq in 2006. Check out the short video of the bombing in that last link, and then check out this image of the alleged body of 'Zarqawi'. Enough said.
So the ideological descendants of Zarqawi are today rampaging almost unimpeded through Iraq and, like Zarqawi, waging a war, not against the 25,000 American soldiers, diplomatic staff (including CIA) and US mercenaries, but against other Iraqis! ISIS is led by the new 'Zarqawi' - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - who coincidentally spent 4 years in US military custody in Iraq before he was simply set loose, for some unknown reason, although we're starting to get a clue), and Shakir Wahiyib 'the terrible', a 20-something bearded dude with a penchant for posing for pictures in the desert and uploading Youtube videos of himself killing innocent civilians.Despite the fact that the US govt. and the Western media are claiming that everyone was 'caught by surprise' by the ISIS invasion, it was reported several weeks ago that these 'Syrian rebels' (again, the ones funded by the Saudis, Qatar, Turkey and the USA) were heading in the direction of the Iraqi border as the Syrian military pushed them out of cities like Homs. What seems to have happened is that, as the tide turned against the West's terrorists in Syria, and with the original plan for NATO air strikes thwarted by Russia, this group of jihadis was allowed, or encouraged, to escape to Iraq with their truck-loads of NATO weaponry (supplied by the USA, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar) from where they could be expected to cause enough chaos for 'Democratic Iraq' (sic) that Western governments and media would call for Western bombing of both Iraq and Syria (from whence the jihadis came of course). The kidnapping by ISIS of dozens of Turkish embassy staff in Iraq was the icing on the cake in that respect. Turkey is a NATO member you see, and an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all. That's actually NATO's unofficial motto "one for all and all for one... except the EU...because f**k the EU."
It is also worth noting that the actions of ISIS have allowed the Kurds in Northern Iraq to take control of several major towns (including oil fields), and with ISIS declaring a war on Iraqi Shias, the stage is finally set for the fulfillment of that long-standing US and Israeli scheme to divide Iraq into three separate 'stans': Kurdistan, Shia-stan and Sunni-stan. Again, it's an amazing stroke of luck for the warmongers, regime changers, Empire builders and self-styled 'reality creators' in Washington that ISIS just happened to decide to move into Iraq and thereby fulfill CFR President Leslie H. Gelb's 2003 dream of splitting Iraq into three statelets - or this strangely prophetic segment from 'A Strategy for Israel in the 1980s', an article penned by Israeli journalist Oded Yinon and published in 1982 by the World Zionist Organisation's publication, Kivunim:
The dissolution of Syria and Iraq into ethnically or religiously unique areas such as in Lebanon is Israel's primary target on the Eastern front. Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel's targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In the short run, it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to Israel.From Whence That 'Muslim Terror Threat'?
An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall at home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against us. Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and Lebanon.
In Iraq, a division into provinces along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times is possible. So, three (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul and Shiite areas in the South will separate from the Sunni and Kurdish north.
The current Muslim Terror threat against Western nations, as portrayed by ISIS (or 'al-qaeda' before it) is entirely a creation of Western governments and intelligence agencies. That does not mean that they are not real jihadis with weapons; they are, but they are in no way representative of the vast majority of Muslims in the Middle East or anywhere else. That should be obvious given that these particular jihadis are more interested in killing other Muslims than Westerners. Neither are they a threat to Western nations, primarily for the above reasons, and also because they get most of their weapons from their Western handlers.
While there may not be any credible 'Islamic terror threat' to the West, that does not mean that there is no anti-American sentiment in the Middle East and around the world, wherever the US has enforced the 'American way' on other nations (the 'American way' being the mania for overthrowing legitimate governments and installing tin-pot dictators who will do the US' or the 'West's' bidding). But the genuine Muslim or Arab or African opposition to American and British corporate imperialism is subverted, by the Americans, Israelis and British themselves, by funding and arming these otherwise marginalized fundamentalist groups, so that they can be both easily demonized as 'terrorists' and used to justify continued imperial expansion to "combat them".
Throughout the Middle East and going back 70+ years, the genuine opposition was, for the most part, led by moderate and sometimes largely secular Muslim groups and leaders that sought to establish a 'pan-Arab' front and to unite Arab nations. For the US and Israel (like the British before them), the triumph of a secular pan-Arab movement in the 19th or 20th centuries was the worst case scenario because progressive, enlightened secular governments tend to put the interests of their people first, or at least above the interests of foreign powers. US global hegemony was founded on the control of the resources of other nations by US 'interests'. Without that control, the US would be forced to relinquish its role of 'world leader' and the US economy would quickly collapse because the one thing that has been propping it up - the petrodollar - would be no more.
American and Israeli interests were therefore always best served by the rule of corrupt, authoritarian, fundamentalist (if only in name) Muslim leaders who would happily suppress any protests movements and play ball the American way, and history shows that it was these kinds of regimes and individuals that received funding and promotion from Western governments. Consider Saudi Arabia's fundamentalist, Sharia law-practicing, police state, for example. It is heralded in the West as a 'stabilizing force', while largely secular and somewhat 'socialist' governments like those of Iraq, Libya, Syria and Lebanon were, and are, condemned as 'terrorist regimes'. Then again, the US strategy of hoodwinking the world into accepting US global domination and plunder as 'free', 'democratic' and 'civilized', was always going to require an inversion of logic and subversion of reality, and a few hundred tons of bombs for good measure.
'Reality Creators'
America, as an allegedly 'capitalist' country, claims that it wants to spread US-style secular democracy to the entire world, in very much the same way as the Marxists wanted to. But who, in their right mind, would want a predatory capitalist system masquerading as 'freedom and democracy', where most of the wealth of a country is sucked up to the top of the psycho pyramid, creating a vast and impoverished underclass?
The US elite don't seem to realise that their ruthless profiteering and warmongering is not exactly an appealing model for the ordinary people of the world. Then again, we shouldn't be surprised at the apparent ignorance of the US elite because (like elites almost everywhere) they are not really human beings in the strict or essential sense of the term.
Lacking the ability to empathise with others or connect outwards with objective reality, they are, in effect, a different species. They are possessed of (or by) an intense and all-consuming narcissism. Not a common or garden variety narcissism, mind you, but an extreme version that is so contractile and self-focused, that they actually believe they can 'create reality' by simply imposing their will, by force, until the 'facts' reflect what they want to see. This is obviously a type of insanity where a person automatically assumes that what they think about a situation or other person constitutes the objective reality. In the event that these types can't, for whatever reason, create their twisted reality by force, they simply ignore the facts on the ground and speak and act as if it already existed, i.e. they lie, profusely and unflinchingly.
Such people justifiably belong in a special kind of 'gated community' for their own protection, and that of others, but the halls of power in the major nations of this world are suffused with such types, and they impose their perverse version of 'reality' from the top down, infecting the beliefs, lives and future of most of the rest of humanity until the entire world appears to undergo a schizoidal break with reality.
Consider the fact that, in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, one of the justifications proffered by Washington and London was that Saddam had ties to 'al-qaeda'. No such ties ever existed, and yet, today, after 10 years of US occupation, 'al-qaeda', or a gang of US and Saudi-funded jihadis (same difference) are running around Iraq, slaughtering at will. How's that for 'creating reality'?
An Honorable Mention for the Right Honorable Tony Blair
Speaking of psychopathic 'reality creators', that despicable piece of subhuman waste, commonly known as Tony Blair, wrote a craven essay on his website yesterday where he claimed that it was a "bizarre reading of the cauldron that is the Middle East today, to claim that, but for the removal of Saddam, we would not have a crisis", and that, on the contrary, the situation in Iraq is due to the fact that Syria was not bombed by NATO and that the US and UK should not only bomb Iraq but Syria too, for good measure. Blair is, of course, simply attempting to divert attention from the fact that he is an inveterate liar and sadistic war criminal who delights in the massacre of civilians and is personally responsible for the genocide of 1.5 million Iraqis, genocide that was justified on the basis of a pack of lies. To say that Blair is discredited among the vast majority of people in the UK is an understatement. Each time he opens his mealy mouth to bore the world with his inane refrain about how "Saddam was a bad man", he is thoroughly, and almost unanimously, derided in the comments sections of mainstream media websites, regardless of the political leanings of the commentators.
Blair's thesis that Saddam was a 'bad man' and had to be removed and that Iraq is today 'better off' without him and that the West should be thanked for 'removing' him, is so utterly preposterous that it could only come from the mind of one of those - technically insane - psychopathic 'reality creators'. Under Saddam, Iraq was the most developed secular country in the region. Iraqis enjoyed universal health care and education, and Sunni and Shia lived largely peacefully side by side. The abuses of the Iraqi government were no worse than the abuses of any Western government at the time. After the first Gulf
Johnson said of Blair's essay:
"It struck me as unhinged in its refusal to face facts. In discussing the disaster of modern Iraq he made assertions that are so jaw-droppingly and breathtakingly at variance with reality that he surely needs professional psychiatric help."In Conclusion
Mainstream media outlets have been regaling Western audiences with headlines like 'A powerful and merciless force has emerged on the world stage', and 'Black flag of jihad will fly over London', and encouraging us to view 'terrifying execution images' to the point that we start to get the impression that someone, somewhere, really wants to scare us, albeit in a crass and theatrical way.
What we are witnessing in Iraq and Syria today is indeed largely theater, designed and performed by psychopaths for the purpose of terrifying the masses of humanity into accepting the rule of the same psychopaths. While the action plays out in real life in cities and towns, and with real people suffering and dying, the underlying philosophy is similar to that portrayed by the 1950s 'Theater of the Absurd' where stage actors reflected the ponerized world in which they lived by expressing the belief that human existence has no meaning or purpose, with logical argument replaced by irrational and illogical speech and man appearing as a puppet, controlled or menaced by invisible outside forces. Normal human beings today truly are 'menaced by outside forces', but those forces are not invisible, they just hide behind massive lies and obfuscation and present themselves as 'our leaders to whom we must look to for protection', when the truth that we all must recognize is that they are a fundamentally different species from normal humanity with a fundamentally inhuman and malignant essence.
Speaking of warmongering ...
There are suspicions that the photos of soldiers killed by ISIS - are fake.
[Link] Knowing how the U.S. is to blame for the chaos in Iraq, I do not like see that they are returning there.