Washington’s War and Middle East Policy RacketPreviously by Ron Holland: Facebook Nation
US Marine Corp Major General Smedley Butler accurately described in his book, "War Is A Racket" how the American military is often forced to make war far more for Wall Street and big corporation profits than the false reasons usually provided for the conflict. While he wrote his book about World War One, his conclusion is an accurate description for the War Between the States, the Second World War as well as most wars in US history. Today an aging king Abdulla returned home to the Saudi Kingdom now surrounded by freedom movements threatening almost every authoritarian regime in the Middle East. The government of Saudi Arabia is basically a family dynasty and the law requires that the king must be chosen from the sons and grandsons of the first king, Abdul Aziz Al Saud and the throne succession is decided by the royal family. The royal family is promising $37 billion in handouts attempting once again to buy off the vast majority of Sunni citizens and the second-class Shiite minority to protect the ruling elites. They also fear the new Facebook campaign calling for "Day of Rage" demonstrations scheduled for March 11. Could Washington Invade Saudi Arabia? – While only time will tell if the Saud dynasty and western oil interests survive the insurrections exploding across the Middle East, readers need to be aware that nothing in the region is as presented by the establishment press. I believe Washington and our oil interests will do anything to maintain their control over the oil resources and the dictatorial puppets who rule each nation of the empire. Still who controls Saudi Arabia is far more important than just their 20% of global oil reserves. The nation has the vast majority its $440 billion in foreign reserves invested in US Treasury obligations. A new government or leadership just might decide to stop buying more Treasury bills denominated in fiat dollars or worse, "wise up" and dump the bonds and buy gold and other currency investments. The result would be catastrophic for the Washington national debt and the dollar. I believe American troops would be instantly inserted into the kingdom to prop up the regime and safeguard the oil resources and Treasury obligations should a real threat to the government materialize from the people. Get Ready For the Propaganda Machine – Should Saudi Arabia be threatened by the Facebook revolutions now sweeping the region we can expect press reports and opinions highlighting the democratic ideals and good works of the Saudi elites. This will be a replay of the false propaganda presented about the thugs of Kuwait before the first Gulf War. Just bear in mind the nation of Saudi Arabia has no parliament, the women have no rights and it is only a nation because of British and American intelligence seeking to control the oil resources. Most military invasions are only economic in nature but the threat here is three fold. First to continue the rollover investments of our Treasury obligations by Saudi Arabia when they mature, second to halt any sales as well as safeguard oil profits and resources. Events are moving very quickly in the Middle East. The invasion threat is real and it will not be to safeguard oil resources or to make America safe. Neither will the conflict be for freedom, low oil prices, democratic rule or to rid the world of tyranny as our past efforts since the Treaty of Versailles have actually worked to hold back these benefits to the region. The military action will be all about oil resources, profits and our desperate attempt to hold back a run on Washington treasury obligations. This is business as usual for our involvement in the region as you’ll see in the short but sordid history lesson below. An Anglo-American Saudi History Lesson – Saudi Arabia, like most of the nations in the Middle East except for Egypt and Iran were created by the Anglo-American powers during World War One. Saudi Arabia is a creature birthed from British Intelligence. Jack Philby, a British intelligence officer was sent to Saudi in November 1917 to foment an Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire which was part of the Central Powers led by Germany. British Military Intelligence was very successful and ultimately Saudi Arabia was born in 1932. Philby worked with T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and the American intelligence officer, John Foster Dulles in the Middle East. Philby also became involved with helping Standard Oil of California, Anglo Persian Oil (British) and later worked with Standard Oil and Texaco to create ARAMCO (Arabian-American Oil Company). This has been described as the richest commercial prize in the history of world politics. The story gets even stranger and Charles Dudley Warner was certainly right when he wrote, "politics makes strange bedfellows." Philby was later involved with Nazi Adolf Eichmann, Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizman, the first President of Israel. His son Kim Philby was also a high-ranking British Intelligence officer and later became a communist spy and part of the infamous Cambridge Five. He defected to and died in the Soviet Union in 1988 only 3 years before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Future of the Region? – Oil wealth, politics and foreign interference by Anglosphere intelligence operations have been stirring the unstable caldron of the Middle East since before World War One and it still goes on today.
War Is Still A Racket in the 21st Century – I don’t know the answer to the above questions but war is a racket is doubly true in the Middle East. But as for me and my family, we wish the people well in the region as we have done them a great disservice during the last 120 years. America should not risk one more soldier, one more dollar or more blowback from nations we have conquered, ruled and exploited during the period. Oil can be bought on the open market and as for our Treasury obligations; they and the dollar will all eventually be worthless anyway. In less than a minute, I can walk to the ocean and see in the distance far across an inlet to a Marine base my grandfather, as a young marine recruit helped build during World War One. He fought in the trenches, was gassed and captured two German machine gun nests but he would never talk about the war. He would only say, building the base with the heat, humidity, mosquitos and rattlesnakes were worse. On the same beach I can see remnants of a fort and a battle where outnumbered Southern forces fought and lost a battle to prevent Union forces from invading the sovereign state of South Carolina. Today, I often hear the sounds of Marine jets flying over in practice for current or future conflicts and I hope they are not deployed to Saudi Arabia. The American people need to make sure our military forces are only used in the future to defend our nation against foreign aggression rather than serve as surrogates to advance multi-national profits and financial interests of our wealthy elites at home or abroad. We can help achieve this worthy goal by again requiring a Declaration of War for future conflicts as is often mentioned by Congressman Ron Paul. War Can Also Happen Here! – As the power of the internet and the Facebook revolutions spread around the world, we should remember that Arab nations do not have a monopoly on government tyranny and violence against their own people and innocent civilians. Today, exactly 150 years ago to the day, back in 1861, Abraham Lincoln in disguise and in the darkness of night, protected by intelligence operatives slipped into Washington, DC with orders to carry out the will of powerful special interests against seven southern states which had already seceded from the voluntary union. He, like Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Ahmadinejad of Iran turned the military forces of his nation against the citizens of the Southern States far more violently than Gadhafi of Libya did today. To date, Gadhafi’s actions have killed over 1,000 people while the five long years of Lincoln took the lives of almost 600,000 Americans. Remember on this day that war is usually a racket just as our past foreign policy has been in the Middle East. All too often government tyranny and actions against their own citizens is the norm rather than the exception in world history. The people of the Middle East may well eventually end up in Islamic style republics if democratic representative government forces aren’t able to out-organize the radicals but we should not intervene. But I believe the jury is still out as to the Facebook revolutions sweeping the Middle East. Religious and political autocracies can no longer control the debate and opinions by limiting the flow of information and communications. Watching the fall of current despots in the Middle East gives me hope that other leaders are beginning to at last, fear the power of the people. May the fear also spread around the world even to Brussels and the European Union and finally to Washington, DC. Once again, the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson follows us through the ages and I believe he would be cheering the growing desire for freedom and liberty in the Middle East. Yes, there is a tremendous risk for the region and the world but in the free-market of ideas and human action, with risk comes opportunity. Thomas Jefferson wrote, "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." Reprinted with permission from The Daily Bell.
February 25, 2011 Ron Holland [send him mail] is a contributing editor to the Swiss Mountain Vision Newsletter and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Foundation for the Advancement of Free-Market Thinking (FAFMT) in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. Copyright © 2011 The Daily Bell
|
