Unwanted guests?

Written By: - Date published: 10:40 pm, January 8th, 2022 - 22 comments
Categories: Deep stuff, iraq, Peace, Peace, Russia, spin, Syria, us politics, war - Tags:

When I heard US Secretary of State Blinken’s take-away line from his D.C. press conference on RNZ’s news bulletin today on events in Kazakhstan  ‘I think one lesson in recent history is that once Russians are in your house, it’s sometimes very difficult to get them to leave’ I wondered what the Iraqis would think.

On the basis of a negotiated joint security agreement among the central Asian countries Kazakhstan leader Tokayev invited these countries to assist in providing security in what appears to be a co-ordinated insurrection of the ‘colour revolution’ type which also happened in Ukraine. Co-incidentally (or not) Ukraine’s situation is a key component  of talks between Russia and the US starting tomorrow at Russia’s initiative about NATO’s eastward encroachment to Russia’s border. Russian troops form the main part of the joint force sent to Kazakhstan to restore order, and they also seem to have been well prepared and able to act swiftly. They were not facing a parade with placards. And the Russians were invited into Kazakhstan,

Iraq on the other hand did not invite the United States to invade in 2003 on the basis of what is now known to be an utterly false pretence of the possession of ‘weapons of mass destruction.’ Having now caused mass destruction by their intervention, the United States has been asked to leave by the Iraqi government, but is taking its time over leaving, no doubt also now embarrassed by its tail-between-the-legs exit from Afghanistan.

They were not invited into Syria either, but now still sit east of the Euphrates on top of oilfields and that country;s granary, denying these resources to suffering owners. At Al Tanf, they block a highway that would allow passage from Iraq to the coast. Having bombed the place to destruction, they refuse to assist in its regeneration. Blinken recently stated that the US position is to oppose Syria’s reconstruction until there is regime change

Washington’s economic warfare against Syria is exacerbating the country’s food shortages. According to the UN, as of February, the number of Syrians that are close to starvation is at 12.4 million, or 60 percent of the population.

The talks between US and Russia could be crucial for peace in the area. More information will undoubtedly come out about events in Kazakhstan; Blinken’s hypocrisy is not helpful. Watch this space and cross your fingers.

 

22 comments on “Unwanted guests? ”

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  1. weston 1
    8 January 2022 at 11:11 pm

    Seems every day we hear more stories about the yanks and their foreign policy im just wondering , who havnt they shat on ??

    • Anne 1.1
      8 January 2022 at 11:20 pm

      Trying to think of a country they haven't shat on since WW2.

      They shat on Aussie in the 1970s because they didn't like the Whitlam Labor Govt.

      They shat on NZ in the 1980s because they didn't like the Lange Labour Govt.

      It's pot and kettle time.

    • Gezza 1.2
      9 January 2022 at 11:06 am

      “Iran has imposed sanctions on Americans, including many from the US military, over the 2020 killing of General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike.

      Iran’s foreign ministry said the 51 Americans were sanctioned for terrorism and human rights violations. The step lets Iranian authorities seize any assets they hold in Iran, but the apparent absence of such assets means it will likely be symbolic.

      The ministry said in a statement carried by local media that the 51 had been targeted for “their role in the terrorist crime by the United States against the martyred General Qassem Soleimani and his companions and the promotion of terrorism and violations of fundamental human rights”.”

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/459247/iran-imposes-sanctions-on-us-citizens-over-drone-killing-of-top-general
      … … … … … …

      The Iranians have left it so very late in the piece late to do this, one wonders if they’ve deliberately taken the opportunity of Blinken’s latest announcement (in which he said the United States values its relationship with Kazakhstan in calling for a “rights-respecting resolution” to the crisis) just to embarrass the US over its hypocrisy on fighting terrorism & promoting human rights?

  2. pat 2
    9 January 2022 at 6:16 am

    Bemoaning hypocrisy is to lament what it is to be human.

    • Gezza 2.1
      9 January 2022 at 8:19 am

      Russia & China are better at not needing to publicly defend themselves for hypocrisy in diplomatic circles.

      They both always claim they fighting or suppressing “terrorists” & “foreign agents” – in internal or external security operations. And Russia seems to have always been invited in to assist the UN-recognised “legitimate” governments.

      Most people in the world nevertheless probably see them as authoritarian regimes ruthlessly suppressing domestic dissent & supporting or – in the case of Putin’s Russia – actively helping other authoritarian regimes to do the same thing with Russian military or mercenary assistance.

      They tend not to comment on human rights & such concepts. They refer instead to the legality of their security operations.

      The US, on the other hand, consistently talks about human rights but utterly fails the self-awareness test for hypocrisy because they have illegally invaded other countries, killed hundreds of thousands – including both troops legitimately defending their homelands & civilians as “collateral damage” in their ongoing military ops – and ended up installing or supporting puppet or corrupt regimes which do not survive their eventual belated withdrawals.

      Although they have positioned themselves as the primary defender of democracy & human rights, they don’t act like it. They act like the only thing that really matters to them is American diplomatic & business interests & the American people. At least Trump was bluntly honest about that.

      Other US presidents & Secretaries of State persist in attempting to maintain the fiction that their military & economic wars are meant to help the people of the countries they attaknor interefere in.

      • Gezza 2.1.1
        9 January 2022 at 8:21 am

        🙄 *attack or interfere in

      • Blazer 2.1.2
        9 January 2022 at 8:31 am

        'Although they have positioned themselves as the primary defender of democracy & human rights, they don’t act like it'=understatement of the century.

        They are very concerned about the Uighurs in China atm=believe it ..or not!

        Of course their great friends in the M.E Israel and Saudi Arabia have great human rights records.blush

        At home-

        U.S. Government's Role in Sterilizing Women of Color (thoughtco.com)

        Won't bother with the treatment of native american Indians.

        Democracy they defend if the leaders toe the U.S line.

        If they don't ,they get 2 choices-bombed back to the Stone Age in the M.E. or sanctions to destroy economies as in the Americas.

        America the Great Satan,feared and despised around the world.

      • pat 2.1.3
        9 January 2022 at 8:37 am

        All true and all known.

    • Blazer 2.2
      9 January 2022 at 8:33 am

      Now that explains Human Rights….American style!

  3. Stuart Munro 3
    9 January 2022 at 6:24 am

    There are several countries in the former soviet sphere with corrupt leaders clinging to power through force of arms – Belarus is another.

    Kazakhstan has no western exit option, so, unlike Ukraine, they'll have Moscow backed puppets for the foreseeable future. It's cold in the 'stans – and doubling the LPG price will leave poorer people freezing. I'm sure paratroopers with guns will warm them up though.

  4. Dennis Frank 4
    9 January 2022 at 8:53 am

    Stalin perfected the method in the 1930s: use the goon squad to take out the top goon.

    The detention of Karim Massimov was announced by the National Security Committee, which he headed until he was fired by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Thursday after violent protests swept across the Central Asian nation.

    Tokayev's office said he had told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call that the situation was stabilising.

    The Kremlin said Putin backed Tokayev's idea to convene a video call of leaders from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), under whose umbrella Russia and four other former Soviet republics have sent troops into Kazakhstan to help restore order.

    Apart from heading the intelligence agency that replaced the Soviet-era KGB, Massimov was twice prime minister and worked closely with former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the country's ruler for three decades until he turned over the presidency to Tokayev in 2019.

    Tokayev removed Nazarbayev on Thursday as head of the country's Security Council, a role in which he had continued to wield significant influence. Interfax news agency reported on Saturday that the council's deputy head had also been fired.

    Out of a cannon? Old-fashioned, that method of elimination. Use when populace gets restless & needs a spectacle to divert them, then put on primetime tv news.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/459243/kazakhstan-s-ex-intelligence-chief-arrested-as-crackdown-continues

  5. Subliminal 5
    9 January 2022 at 1:03 pm

    It really is difficult to know how the US justifies its presence in Syria. Trump admitted it was for the oil. Also happens that most of Syrias wheat is grown in the regions of the US bases. They weren't invited and they've been repeatedly asked to leave. Starving the locals and stealing oil to fund extremist insurgents. And then the Blinken statement??! How can such a shallow man be taken seriously?

    • Dennis Frank 6.1
      9 January 2022 at 2:38 pm

      Yeah, not bad eh? The CFR ain't really dead in the water if strategists like these folk are operational. Clever smart.

      Once upon a time there was Maxwell Smart, with his dollybird sidekick:

      They work for CONTROL, a secret U.S. govt counterintelligence agency based in Washington, DC, fighting against KAOS, "the international organization of evil".

      While Smart always succeeds in thwarting KAOS, his incompetent nature and insistence on doing things "by the book" invariably cause complications. The enemies, world-takeover plots, and gadgets seen in Get Smart were a parody of the James Bond film franchise.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Smart

      Doing things by the book evaporated fast, of course. Macho dudes were quick to ditch control by bureaucrats. Looks like Brezinski got hooked, realised the thing would work better if he flipped the binary. So we got US geopolitical strategy doing the agent of chaos play instead of the old global policeman stance.

      Chaos works better than order when you keep all the players guessing about your next move. Like the essay says, Russia & China focus on the shit that keeps happening suddenly in different places all the time. Bamboozles them.

    • Bill 6.2
      9 January 2022 at 6:28 pm

      The paragraph below from that article pretty much bangs the nail on the head if folk care to look at Myanmar or Thailand. Brian Berletic's youtube channel (the new atlas) is fairly tireless on exposing western interference and holding up the receipts for anyone with an interest.

      Color Revolutions are outside-supported pro-Western coups. They specifically use the tools of social media and NGOs to infiltrate societies, increase their ranks, and expand their efficiency after the regime change operation has been commenced. Because they typically manipulate large groups of people, they create the illusion of a broad grassroots movement of disaffected masses rising up against a tyrannical dictatorship. This misleading perception enables the coup attempt to gain wide support and acceptance among the Western community, and it also denigrates the legitimate authorities that are trying to put down the illegal overthrow…

      Should add Hong Kong to the list, and the age old nonsense of forming a “unity” government in exile (Myanmar, Venezuala…etc)

      • adam 6.2.1
        10 January 2022 at 12:00 am

        Except the Russian anarchists I've been talking to, say that this has been brewing in the country for years. They also said it has been worker led, and the first of the leaders who have been shot by the government troops have been union and community leaders. Anarchist and other socialists have also been rounded up by the Russians since they landed.

        Not exactly the pro-west mob.

  7. georgecom 7
    9 January 2022 at 8:07 pm

    The afghanis got rid of the USSR after 9 years of bloody fighting. 20 years later the US meddling chickens in that conflict came back to roost. Took afghanistan 20 years for the US to leave