NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong
CARROTS AND STICKS: More U.S. Middle East Incoherence
US allies Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE (supported by Israel) continue to square off against US ally Qatar (supported by US ally and NATO member Turkey). They charge Qatar with support for “terrorism” (see “Pots and Kettles” from last week) -- and too much coziness with US-Israeli “arch-enemy” Iran. Trump seemed to join the anti-Qatar chorus, while his Defense Secretary and Secretary of State sought to temper the crisis. This week the US Senate barely failed to block the proposed multi-$billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia (which is in the process of destroying Yemen), while the Pentagon announced another multi-$billion sale of F-15 fighters to Qatar. As the US lurches incoherently in its role as Middle East hegemon, only arms manufacturers are the uncontested and perennial winners.
Nearly all Democrats voted against the Saudi arms transfer (including Markey and Warren), while the sale was supported by most Republicans in a surprisingly close 50-47 rollcall. The outcome may also constitute a warning message to Israel’s budding allies in the GCC (Gulf Coordination Council) that it wields considerable power to help or harm them in Washington. (It is hard to imagine reliably pro-Israel NY Senator Charles Schumer – who joined in opposing the Saudi arms sale -- voting on a Middle East issue without some guidance from the Israeli Foreign Ministry.)
Meanwhile, Israel has joined GCC countries in DClobbying against Iran and Qatar (and Hamas). The US Senate duly voted to ratchet up sanctions against Iran this week (adding some more against Russia while they were at it) by 98-2, with Warren and Markey joining the majority, while only Sanders, together with RepublicanRand Paul, voted NO. In Syria, Iran is battling al-Qaeda and supposed US “enemy-number-one” ISIS -- which have received financial support, along with many volunteer fighters, from Saudi Arabia.
NIAC (The National Iranian American Council) had this to say about the new Iran sanctions:
“It is the height of folly to expect Trump to show restraint with these new authorities when he is openly hostile to the nuclear deal and diplomacy in general. Numerous former administration officials, including Sec. Kerry, had cautioned against moving forward with this bill at this time… “The U.S. has now moved one step closer to a potential war with Iran. It is now the responsibility of those Senators – in particular those who asserted contrary to evidence that this bill is wholly consistent with the nuclear deal – to ensure that Donald Trump does not use these authorities to undermine the accord or spark conflict with Iran.”
STEPHEN KINZER: Saudi Arabia is destabilizing the world
Successive American presidents have assured us that Saudi Arabia is our friend and wishes us well. Yet we know that Osama bin Laden and most of his 9/11 hijackers were Saudis, and that, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote in a diplomatic cable eight years ago, “Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.” … Saudi Arabia has used its wealth, much of which comes from the United States, to turn entire nations into hotbeds of radical Islam. By refusing to protest or even officially acknowledge this far-reaching project, we finance our own assassins — and global terror. More
AMERICA AND QATAR'S LATEST DEFENSE DEAL
The mixed messages out of the Trump administration illustrate the divergent views of Qatar held by officials in Washington. From the perspective of Tillerson and Mattis, Doha is an important ally and punishing Qatar threatens to undermine vital US national security interests in the Middle East given that America relies on its USCENTCOM forward headquarters in Al Udeid for ongoing operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen… The sale of fighter jets to Doha, however, will give pause to those in Egypt and the GCC taking action against Qatar. Signing a major defense deal with the emirate signals that Washington continues to value Qatar as a key US ally in the region despite Trump’s recent speeches and tweets. More
Why Afghanistan? Fighting a War for the War System Itself
Some of the war managers would argue that the United States has never had enough troops or left them in Afghanistan long enough. But those very figures are openly calling for an indefinite neocolonial US military presence. The real reason for the fundamental weakness of the US-NATO war is the fact that the United States has empowered a rogues' gallery of Afghan warlords whose militias have imposed a regime of chaos, violence and oppression on the Afghan population -- stealing, killing and raping with utter impunity. And that strategy has come back to bite the Pentagon's war managers… The linkage between warlord militia abuses and the cooperation of much of the rural population with the Taliban has long been accepted by the US command in Afghanistan. But the war has continued, because it serves powerful interests that have nothing to do with Afghanistan itself. More
4,000 more US troops to go to Afghanistan
The Pentagon will send almost 4,000 additional American forces to Afghanistan, a Trump administration official said Thursday, hoping to break a stalemate in a war that has now passed to a third U.S. commander in chief. The deployment will be the largest of American manpower under Donald Trump's young presidency. The decision by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis could be announced as early as next week, the official said. It follows Trump's move to give Mattis the authority to set troop levels and seeks to address assertions by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan that he doesn't have enough forces to help Afghanistan's army against a resurgent Taliban insurgency. More
Boots on the ground: Elite U.S. troops are in Raqqa near the Islamic State's front line
“Coalition SOF are in Raqqa, and they are close to the front lines,” said Col. Ryan Dillon, a spokesperson for the U.S.-led coalition battling ISIS in Syria and Iraq. The Americans are not "kicking down doors," Dillon added. Rather, their primary mission is to advise partner forces, though they are authorized to defend themselves. The revelation fits a growing pattern in the ISIS war. As operations intensify in and around key objectives and densely populated urban centers, U.S. commanders send advisers considerably closer to the action to bolster partner forces doing much of the fighting. More
U.N. says 300 civilians killed in U.S.-led air strikes in Raqqa since March
Intensified coalition air strikes have killed at least 300 civilians in the Syrian northern city of Raqqa since March, as U.S.-backed forces close in on the stronghold of Islamic State forces, U.N. war crimes investigators said on Wednesday. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish and Arab militias supported by a U.S.-led coalition, began to attack Raqqa a week ago to take it from the jihadists. The SDF, supported by heavy coalition air strikes, have taken territory to the west, east and north of the city.
"Coalition air strikes have intensified around the city," said Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry. "As the operation is gaining pace very rapidly, civilians are caught up in the city under the oppressive rule of ISIL, while facing extremedanger associated with movement due to excessive air strikes," he told reporters. More
FROM SYRIA TO SOMALIA: THE WAR ON CHILDREN
“This is a war against normal life.” So said CNN correspondent Clarissa Ward, describing the situation at this moment in Syria, as well as in other parts of the Middle East. It was one of those remarks that should wake you up to the fact that the regions the United States has, since September 2001, played such a role in destabilizing are indeed in crisis, and that this process isn’t just taking place at the level of failing states and bombed-out cities, but in the most personal way imaginable. It’s devastating for countless individuals -- mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, friends, lovers -- and above all for children. Ward’s words caught a reality that grows harsher by the week, and not just in Syria, but in parts of Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya, among other places in the Greater Middle East and Africa. More
US v. NUCLEAR WEAPONS BAN
In a context of almost total indifference, marked by outright hostility, representatives of over a hundred of the world’s least powerful countries are currently opening another three-week session of United Nations talks aimed at achieving a legally binding ban on nuclear weapons. Very few people even know this is happening. Ban nuclear weapons? Ho hum… Let’s change the subject… But the United States, the only power already guilty of nuclear manslaughter, continues to perfect its nuclear arsenal and to proclaim its “right” to launch a “first strike” whenever it chooses. The United States naturally calls for boycotting the nuclear arms ban conference. More
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