Thursday, June 13, 2019

Usual Suspects

Detectives,

Who possibly would and could torpedo a Japanese oil tanker while Japanese ​Prime Minister Abe ​and Iranian officials were meeting? 
(Supposedly, Trump is using ​Abe​ to negotiate for the US. This looks like it would mess that up.​ Whose interests does that serve?​)
2 Tankers Damaged After Torpedo Attack Near Strait Of Hormuz; Oil Soars

​ ​It appears earlier reports that the Front Altair had sunk were, in fact, incorrect. The ship's captain has said that it is still afloat. VHF radio traffic confirmed that it is damaged but still afloat.
​ ​Hours have passed since the suspected attacks, and still nobody has claimed responsibility. Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has noted how suspicious it is that a Japanese owned vessel would be attacked while Iranian leaders were meeting with the Japanese prime minister in Tehran.
​ ​And as one BBG analyst pointed out: "Fingers will certainly be pointed at Iran as the mastermind behind these events. But the potential benefits to the Persian Gulf nation are outweighed by the risks. And even if Tehran isn't responsible, it will still suffer the consequences."
​ ​Several American warships were nearby when the attack unfolded, per radio traffic, which also showed some signs of tensions with Iranian vessels: "American warship identifying itself as 'Coalition Warship' stating they have multiple vessels and aircraft in the vicinity. Iranian Navy calling vessels asking their intention in the area."

​Interview with an Israeli military officer about US war with Iran. I think Eleni sent this one:
​ ​There are a few aspects. In purely military terms, it's impossible to defeat Iran. It has a huge amount of territory. The Americans won't have enough forces to deploy there. The logistics are crazy, it's impossible for the Americans. So, there's no opportunity to conduct a war against Iran and win it. And the Pentagon knows that better than anyone. And they warned and said it. To advance by a few miles in small, miserable Kuwait, the Americans deployed half a million servicemen there. They strained their entire army...
In the south of Iran, there are Arabs who are Shia. And there are Arabs who are Shia and live in Iraq. And in Saudi Arabia, the area where the oil is developed is controlled by the Shia. And the majority of Kuwait's population is Shia. 80% of Bahrain's population is Shia. Then, such a big fire will start in the Middle East. And the Sunni won't be able to [stop] the Iranians and pro-Iranian forces. They don't have enough forces. Saudi Arabia has a huge military budget. Its hands are tied, so it can't do anything to tiny Yemen. They can't do anything to the Houthi. Therefore, in this war of Persians against Arabs, the Persians will win. And this is another problem. It means a stronger Turkey. The Americans won't remain whole after that war. The Middle East won't remain whole. If anyone wins, it'll be Russia...
​ ​This tale about 120,000 isn't a tale. The American servicemen, just counted that in order to maintain the U.S. presence, 120,000 servicemen are required. These aren't operational plans. When they ask the military what it's necessary for that, they say that they need 120,000 servicemen in order to stay in the Middle East…
They need one million servicemen to go to Iran. They don't have them...
​ ​Trump came to the conclusion that it's almost impossible to conduct regime change in Iran. Why almost? It's because American specialists, who think like Americans and have no idea what the Middle East is, think that the economic environment in Iran will lead to the collapse of that regime.
​ ​They don't understand what they're talking about. The current government in Iran is stable. And nobody and nothing threats it. If Iranians will have half as much food, the government will stay. This is Iran. It isn't Spain. That's why everyone who thinks like Americans or Europeans, that if somebody doesn't have enough of anything, the government will change. They treat Hamas and Iran like this.
​ ​They don't understand what they're talking about. Another option that Trump has is simple - to conduct negotiations. And all of those shouts, that hysteria, are meant to make Iranians take part in negotiations. But he wants to do it and save face, so he wants them to ask for it​.​



​Eleni certainly sent this article, critical perspective for US/NATO imperial military operations in the post-Soviet era.​
​ On March 24th, 1999, NATO launched its 78-day round the clock aerial assault on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia without the approval of the United Nations Security Council. Over a thousand NATO warplanes delivered over 2,000 airstrikes in nearly 40,000 sorties, dropping over 20,000 bombs over the former Yugoslavia, killing thousands of civilian men, women, and children, as well as upwards of a thousand Yugoslav soldiers and police.[1] [2] [3] NATO employed weapons considered criminal by international law such as depleted uranium and cluster bombs.[4] [5] [6] [7]  ... 
By the year 2000, Yugoslavia had been ripped apart with NATO bombs, IMF restructuring and ethnic conflict. Serbia was destroyed and the rest of the republics were transformed into neocolonies of the Western powers. The most popular narrative is that the West intervened in the region out of humanitarian concern - to stop genocide. However, this claim doesn't hold up when actual facts are brought into play. In reality, the NATO intervention in Yugoslavia was not a humanitarian one; it was instead motivated by the colonial-imperialist, economic and ideological interests of the member states of NATO - namely the United States and Germany.
​ ​Although the bombing was dressed up as 'humanitarian', all it really served to do was dismantle all that remained of socialism in Europe and once again 'Balkanize' and colonize the Balkans. This truth becomes obvious upon a principled analysis of the economic interests and actions of the NATO bloc before formal intervention, an investigation into how the actual intervention was handled, and a look into the current state of the former Yugoslavia. The 'humanitarian' and 'democratic' bombs dropped on Yugoslavia resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars in economic damage which dramatically reduced the living standards of the Yugoslav people - the most damaging in the region since the Nazi occupation during WWII. The strategy of Balkanization and 'humanitarian intervention' has become the West's (often through NATO) modus operandi; the same strategy of partitioning unified economically nationalist and independent states first exercised over Yugoslavia has also been practiced in Iraq, Libya, and now Syria. The results are always the same - a drop in living standards, a huge resentment towards the West and NATO from the populations of the targeted countries, and a profit for the imperialist powers. 

​More correct perspective on the empire from Eleni:​
​ ​Giving a speech at the ACLU last week after the Senate torture report was initially released, Hersh gave some insight into what was on the Pentagon’s secret tape.
 Debating about it, ummm … Some of the worst things that happened you don’t know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib … The women were passing messages out saying ‘Please come and kill me, because of what’s happened’ and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It’s going to come out.”


​"Who Is Funding Uncle Sam?"​ This is the neoliberal assessment of US Treasury debt, increasingly held by Americans, at this point in the game. You hear this analysis regularly. I've heard it my whole life. It is approaching a breaking point, whenever there is a run on this bank. Thanks Eleni.

Here is MMT, Modern Monetary Theory, looking at the same issue more usefully, not painted into a corner,... but irresponsible kids playing with cans of paint. 
This model is really how they have been thinking at the top for a long time. It will be openly adopted in the next crisis.

 Credit Card

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