Check out this magnificent thing that Sheldon Richman wrote back in August 1991 about “Uncle Sam” ruining everything in the Middle East since back when the U.S. took over for the British.
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Lebanon Civil War Explained for Dummies
In 1982, Israeli tanks crossed the border into Lebanon to hunt down the PLO. It was supposed to be a quick simple mission to push the Palestinian resistance groups north 25 miles to protect Israel. However, the mission quickly became more complicated with Israel going all the way up north to the capital and blockading the city with heavy civilian causalities.
This war forever changed the Middle East and the dynamics of the west’s relationship with Iran. In addition, the towers falling in Lebanon,inspired Osama-bin-laden to commit 9/11 in New York. Don’t miss out on this critical knowledge, laid out in a fun simple format!
Saudi Jets Bomb Yemen Capitol Sanaa
The Saudi-led coalition said it started an operation to target military positions in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, according to state TV early on Saturday.
Fatik Al-Rodaini from Mona Relief Yemen Charity is reporting on Twitter that bombs are going off and Saudi jets are hovering around the capitol Sana’a.
Is the U.S. Going to Take a More Active Role In The Saudi War On Yemen?
David D. Kirkpatrick writes in the N.Y. Times that the pullout of U.A.E. forces from Yemen has left Saudi Arabia in a stalemate position. They can bomb from the air but the U.A.E. forces were doing most of the ground fighting.
While the Saudis have fought almost entirely from the air, the Emiratis, seasoned by years of combat alongside the American military in Afghanistan and elsewhere, led virtually every successful ground advance. Behind the scenes, Emirati officers, weapons and money played an equally critical role in holding together a fractious alliance of mutually hostile Yemeni militias, which have already begun jostling to fill the power vacuum left by the Emiratis.
The Saudi’s don’t have the ground capability to defeat the Houthis but are unwilling to negotiate an end to the war because of their fear of Iran.
One reason the war has not generated more domestic opposition, he said, is that the fear of Iranian influence that motivated the intervention “is not just limited to the royal family — the Saudis just have an intense, passionate feeling that they are under threat.”
This fear is also shared by Mike Pompeo and John Bolton who will use their hatred of anything Iranian as an opportunity to involve U.S. forces.
At an American-sponsored conference in Warsaw in February, Mr. Pompeo bluntly told the Saudis and others that the coalition fighting in Yemen should kick the stuffing out of the Houthis, one diplomat present said, although he said Mr. Pompeo used an earthier noun than stuffing. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private meeting.
The State Department declined to comment.
The Saudis say statements like Mr. Pompeo’s remind them that Washington shares an interest in containing Iranian influence by rolling back the Houthis.
“Why haven’t the Americans carried out a single operation to help?” asked Mustafa Alani, a scholar at the Saudi-backed Gulf Research Center who is close to the royal court.
He recommended that the Saudis take a blunter approach to convincing Washington that the Houthis were an American problem: withdraw completely and let the United States deal with the anti-Western militants and Iranian surrogates he says would overrun Yemen.
“I would do what the Americans did in Somalia,” Mr. Alani said. “Turn off the light, shut the door, and say, ‘to hell with it.’”
In spite of Congressional opposition the U.S. is sending more weapons and now more troops to Saudi Arabia.
Five-hundred troops are expected to go to the Prince Sultan Air Base, located in a desert area east of the Saudi capital of Riyadh, according to US two defense officials. A small number of troops and support personnel are already on site with initial preparations being made for a Patriot missile defense battery as well as runway and airfield improvements, the officials said.
It sure looks like we are being slow-walked into war. Congress and the U.S. public need to keep the pressure on the Trump administration to end our support for this genocidal war against Yemen.
The Philippine War on Drugs Has Murdered Thousands – World Liberty Weekend
The death count by the Philippine police in the name of President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs makes the United States’ numbers seem like a grain of rice. Government officials claim that over 5,000 drug dealers, which they claim all fought police, have been killed, while activists say that it’s actually at least 27,000. The rate of extrajudicial killings has become so awful that dozens of countries have called on the United Nations to investigate.
President Duterte won in 2016 on a platform of practically eliminating crime and has continued to draw controversy for his cruel and explicit comments. As Mayor of Davao, he earned the nickname “The Punisher” and was accused by human rights groups of allowing death squads to murder hundreds of alleged criminals. His election rivals warned that he would bring nothing but more death and terror to the Philippines, a prophecy that appears to have come true.
Philip Weiss: It’s About The Benjamins
Philip Weiss at Mondoweiss is correct in pointing out that the strategy of Trump and the Republicans is to exploit the division in the Democratic party around support for Israel. The main target is large democratic donors. While Trump and the Republicans have been critical of the four Justice Democrat members of congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Presely, Rashida Talib and Ilhan Omar, it is Omar and Talib that are on the receiving end of the most vitriolic attacks.
Isn’t Donald Trump’s tactical aim an exodus of Jewish donors and voters from the Democratic Party over the party’s supposed betrayal of Israel? Isn’t this really about the Benjamins? How much of the wedge Trump is driving is financial, aimed at hemmorhaging the major artery of Democratic financial support — as much as 60 percent or more of Democratic contributions, a “gigantic” “shocking” percentage of Dem moneys, as even J Street acknowledges. The “donor class,” as liberal Zionist Michael Koplow puts it: the Dems are “squeezed between a pro-Israel legacy and a donor class that is more supportive of Israel on one side and an activist base that is far more critical of Israel.”
Israel and its friends have too much damned influence in our country; and Ilhan Omar has been right to call them out.
Court Rules Police Officer Who Shot 10-Year-Old Immune From the Law
This is your security force. Your “independent” judiciary.
Rand Paul Wants To Work Things Out With Iran
He wants Trump to make him an envoy to Iran.
Sure hope the report is true. The hawks in it complain that it reduces “maximum pressure,” but if the point is a “better deal” and not war, then they need to be able to discuss things then don’t they?
That’s why the hawks in it are really complaining. They don’t want talks to get in the way of war.
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