[Peace-discuss] How the US is Arming Both Sides of the Iraqi Conflict

Fri Aug 22 17:27:45 EDT 2014

We need the notion of  "blowback" here.

~ The US created modern jihadism - and hence al-Qaeda - in the Carter administration, when the most expensive CIA operation in history rounded up the most fanatical Islamicists it could find, armed them (often via Saudi Arabia), and sent them into Afghanistan "to give the Russians a Vietnam of their own," as US Nat. Sec. Advisor Brzezinski said. 

~ The blowback was 9-11. ("A few stirred-up Muslims...," allowed Brzezinski.)

~ Israel created Hamas in the 1980s to provide opposition to secular Fatah - classic 'divide and rule.'

~ The blowback was Hamas' triumph in a free election in the Occupied Territories in 2006, after which the US/Israel had to organize a coup against them (which failed in Gaza, which is why Hamas rules there.)

~ The US labored mightily to poison relations between Sunni and Shia in Iraq - 'divide and rule' again. Petraeus particularly did all he could to buy up the Sunni. The success of the US "surge" in Iraq was primarily the result of a vicious civil war (2006-7) between communities that formerly lived together amicably - and the US produced it. 

~ The blowback is ISIS, the reaction to the Shia government (and ally of Iran) that the US established in Baghdad.  

On the one side are US clients: Saudi Arabia, Israel, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Kurdistan and (the US hopes) Turkey; on the other side are official US enemies - notably Iran, Syria and Iraq (at the moment), with Russian (and Chinese) support (which is one of the reasons the US is provoking Russia in Ukraine). 

IS is a relatively independent creation of the clients (who, as Escobar and others suggest, may suffer its blowback). Hence it is opposed by the official enemies.  (Obama's airstrikes are undertaken in effective alliance with Syria and Iran: you have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at the White House Murderer and his allies here.) 

The great fear of the US clients (esp. SA and Israel) is that the US will switch sides - make nice with the official enemies in order to take the clients down a peg or two. 

The US has done it before, most famously after WWII, when it abandoned the victor, the USSR, in order to make clients of the defeated, Germany and Japan. US adminstrations follow the rule set out by Lord Palmerston in 1848: "We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow..." And those interests today are the interests of the American one-percent in controlling the world economy - for their benefit.

At the dawn of modern capitalist politics in the US, Lincoln's Secretary of War enunciated an abiding principle of US politics: "An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought." The US insists on the principle for its clients, but exempts itself... 

As Falstaff says, "A plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another!" 

--CGE

On Aug 22, 2014, at 12:00 PM, David Johnson via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:

> Oh really ?
> How is it not a reliable source ?
> What information sources to do you consider reliable ?
> 
> David Johnson
> 
> On 8/22/2014 9:43 AM, Roger Helbig wrote:
>> Global Research is not a reliable source of information - it should not be cited as a source by anyone who actually cares anything about the truth - David, you should know better instead of becoming a propagandist yourself.
>> 
>> On Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 6:59 AM, David Johnson via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
>> 	• Ferguson: No Justice in the American Police State
>> 	• Comprehensive Data on Palestinian Deaths in Gaza (July 6 – August 17, 2014)
>> 	• Ukraine Crisis Continues
>> 	• How to Start a War: The American Use of War Pretext Incidents
>> 	• Provocations as Pretexts for Imperial War: From Pearl Harbor to 9/11
>> 	• Afghanistan and Iraq: it’s the Same War
>> How the US is Arming Both Sides of the Iraqi Conflict
>> 
>> By Tyler Durden
>> Global Research, June 13, 2014
>> Zero Hedge 12 June 2014
>> Region: Middle East & North Africa, USA
>> Theme: 9/11 & 'War on Terrorism', Militarization and WMD
>> In-depth Report: IRAQ REPORT
>>  651 
>>   67  11     1346
>>                         
>> <Mail Attachment.jpeg>
>> Recall a week ago we wrote “US Begins Delivering F-16s To Iraq This Week, A Decade After It Wiped Out Iraq’s Air Force” in which we said:
>> 
>> … the US will deliver the first of 36 F-16 fighter jets to Iraq in what Baghdad’s envoy to the United States called a “new chapter” in his country’s ability to defend its vast borders with Iran and other neighbors ... the US earlier in March provided Iraq with some 100 Hellfire missiles as well as assault rifles and other ammunition. Then in April the US sent more arms, providing Iraq with 11 million rounds of ammunition and other supplies.
>> 
>> It is unknown how many of these have fallen into Al Qaeda/ISIS hands (we do know that at least one Iraqi Black Hawk chopper was captured during the rush for Mosul). What is known is that as PBS Frontline reported two weeks ago, while the administration has denied arming Syrian “rebels”, i.e. the same ISIS militants that have crossed the border and are now fighting in Iraq…
>> 
>> <Mail Attachment.jpeg>
>> 
>> … the reality is that it has. From: “Obama Says Not Arming Syrian Rebels, Syrian Rebels Say He Is”
>> 
>> … the Syrian rebels themselves say they are already armed and trained by US in the use of sophisticated weapons and fighting techniques, including, one rebel said, “how to finish off soldiers still alive after an ambush.” The interviews are the latest evidence that after more than three years of warfare, the United States has stepped up the provision of lethal aid to the rebels, as PBS notes “it appears the Obama administration is allowing select groups of rebels to receive US-made anti-tank missiles.”  The commander of the unit also told Ali that their American contacts had asked him to bring 80 to 90 members of his unit to Ankara for training. One of the fighters said they received three weeks of training in how to conduct ambushes, conduct raids and use their weapons. They also said they received new uniforms and boots. “They trained us to ambush regime or enemy vehicles and cut off the road,” said the fighter, who is identified only as “Hussein.” “They also trained us on how to attack a vehicle, raid it, retrieve information or weapons and munitions, and how to finish off soldiers still alive after an ambush.”
>> 
>> To summarize: the US was arming and training the same Al Qaeda/ISIS groups of Jihadists, that it concurrently gave Iraq weapons to fight. And since the Iraq army has so far proven utterly incapable of any resistance, it is now up to US drones to “fight” the same “rebels” that the US itself was collaborating with until a month or so ago.
>> 
>> The clear winner here? The US military-industrial complex, of course, as well as the banks who lend money to the governments to fight wars provoked by various “developed nation” spy agencies.
>> 
>> Collateral damage? Millions of innocent people on the ground in Syria and Iraq, and everywhere else too.
>> 