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.
Written By:
Mike Smith - Date published:
10:40 pm, January 8th, 2022 - 22 comments
Categories: Deep stuff, iraq, Peace, Peace, Russia, spin, Syria, us politics, war -
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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.
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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Seems every day we hear more stories about the yanks and their foreign policy im just wondering , who havnt they shat on ??
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.
“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?
Bemoaning hypocrisy is to lament what it is to be human.
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.
🙄 *attack or interfere in
'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.
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.
All true and all known.
Now that explains Human Rights….American style!
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.
Always the moaners…
/
According to Samruk-Kazyna, the privatization timeline for its major assets was adjusted as follows: Kazpost and Samruk Energo – in 2021, KazMunayGas, Air Astana, Tau-Ken Samruk and Qazaq Air – in 2022, and Kazakhstan Temir Zholy – in 2023.
https://www.dentons.com/en/insights/alerts/2021/january/21/what-kazakhstan-will-sell-until-2025-the-new-privatization-plan-is-already-in-effect
What would be really interesting is knowing who will buy them.
I suspect it won’t be Western companies.
As with any despot worth their salt, it'll be a family affair.
His son Timur (born in 1984) is an oil entrepreneur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kassym-Jomart_Tokayev#Personal_life
three daughters: Dariga, Dinara and Aliya.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursultan_Nazarbayev#Personal_life
Ah. Of course. Good sleuthing work, joe. 👍🏼
never know…
https://youtu.be/OENHuxXqWJ0
Stalin perfected the method in the 1930s: use the goon squad to take out the top goon.
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.
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?
A very interesting strategic analysis written in 2014 https://fromestopwarscampaign.wordpress.com/2014/10/18/the-reverse-brzezinski-the-ultimate-eurasian-dilemma/
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:
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.
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)
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.
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