SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES ......

Despite American admonitions to avoid estranging Arab partners like Saudi, Egypt, the Gulf Emirates and Morocco, with too much democracy, righteousness and human rights issues, Israel has already adjusted to the region's shifting geopolitics, even to some eastern big powers like China and India, China just opened the first private port in Israel over American objections. Clearly despite Israel's frequent demands that the U.S. continue to defer to the Israeli government's interests and goals. Tel Aviv will not do the same for Washington nor necessarily reciprocate with American goals and long foreign politics. 

Although unprecedented, the last Israeli moves toward some Arab countries and the east in general pursuing its own political and economic agenda reveal a widening divide between the two long lasting pseudo allies, as well, the U.S. must take the same independent approach. It is long past time for American to get out of Israeli direct influence on our foreign policies. And for our successive administrations and presidents to prioritize U.S. interests over those of Israel. 

The outbreak of our efforts and diplomacy under Israeli dominance in the Persian golf and the greater Middle-East , plus our adventures in Iraq and elsewhere, always under Israeli influence, that contributed heavily to Arab animosity toward Iran, as well as toward America. Ironically only when the U.S. decreased its influence on all countries around the gulf they started coexisting with more pragmatism and realism. 

While Chinese and Russian influence in the entire region expands, and the U.S. is left to watch from afar. meanwhile Israel is adapting itself fast to these new geopolitical new games. As neither China nor Russia will give in to Israel's own interests, as it was with America for long decades, maybe this is why Israel is nervous and shifting policies. It's important though that no adventure of anyone's making to topple the game could drag the U.S. into a new war for anyone's sake or benefit. 

Apparently, the U.S. removed most of its missile defenses from Saudi Arabia in the past several weeks, leaving the kingdom and its neighbors feeling vulnerable to different missile attacks from Yemen and elsewhere, as well the administration's releasing a classified FBI report revealing contacts between the 9/11 hijackers and certain Saudi officials, it all confirms the U.S. further detachment from Saudi and the area in general. It is confirmed that American forces have withdrawn from at least 3 bases in eastern Syria. Not to mention the possibility of reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran. Even the sudden decampment from Afghanistan and handing it to the Taliban to annoy and threaten all its neighbors, and create some welcomed instability in central and western Asia. All these are clear indications that the U.S. foreign policies are moving to a more independent and not as in thrall to Saudi or Israeli hegemonic preferences. 

The Arab-Persian discord, suited perfectly Israeli hegemony and the U.S. war machine manipulators, and the Neocons under Israeli dominance, for these reasons the divide is growing, and Israel is showing us its teeth, anger and impatience. President Obama in a 2016 speech asserted that "the Saudis and Iranians need to learn how to share the region," Israel, China and Russia now, are all looking for shares of the new divided cake. 

A writer, Sam Keen, reminds me of the policies that Israel plays while the U.S. totally obliged for many decades, he says; " When your icon of the enemy is complete,  you will be able to kill without guilt, slaughter without shame." That has been the motto of our politics for too long, it's high time for a change of philosophy, we have enough problems on our own plate internally. 

My, as always, many thanks for your time. stay safe and well.                           

Power .....

September 6, 2021

Patrick Lawrence asks some pertinent questions of the American people.

Are Americans going to sit around indefinitely eating potato chips while the State Department and Treasury starve Venezuelan children? Are Americans going to play video games while Israel fires U.S.–made missiles into Damascus from Lebanese airspace—two violations of international law?

Are Americans going to sit around watching corporate sports while the Pentagon drone-murders entire families and Congress votes to increase its post–Afghanistan budget? Are Americans going to sit on their sofas while the United States condemns several generations of Cubans to lives of desperation because they have chosen to live in a socialist republic?

Are Americans going spectate on their sofas while the CIA and other rogue intelligence agencies subvert the Republic of Nicaragua, the Syrian Arab Republic, and any other nation that resists American hegemony? Are Americans going continue stuffing their faces with Cheetos, Hot Pockets, and Bac–O’–Bits while the Saudis use American–supplied bombers and bombs to drive Yemen into a state of famine and reduce its people to  Dachau-like skeletons? 

Are Americans going to sit around silently while no-neck generals push the U.S. relentlessly toward military confrontations with China and Russia, two nuclear-armed nations? Are Americans going to shop on Amazon while The New York Times, CNN, and the rest of the monstrous propaganda machine cultivate their ignorance—purposefully, knowingly, and with malign intent—by way of gross omissions and outright falsehoods as to America’s international conduct?

Are Americans going to sit around worrying about their lawns while climate change burns half the country, floods the other half, and a federal judge tells the Biden administration it is obliged by law to auction new oil– and gas-drilling leases on hundreds of millions of acres? 

Are Americans going to read The New Yorker and The Nation while mainstream journalists cheer the creeping suppression of independent media and post-adolescent know-nothings in Silicon Valley are authorized to censor their speech, what Americans read, and—it will come—what Americans think?

Are Americans going to sit around dribbling on their shirtfronts while Julian Assange, Daniel Hale, Steven Donziger, and other courageous people acting in their behalf are made victims of extravagantly corrupted judicial systems? 

Are Americans going to remain silent while millions of them are malnourished and evicted from their homes in the name of the market god? Are Americans going to sit around while millions more get sick because they can’t afford perfectly ordinary medical care and those who could remedy this crisis are paid by insurers, hospitals associations, and drug companies to refuse to do so? Are Americans going to sit around while Big Pharma treats a global health crisis as if it were simply an eternal profit center?

Are Americans going to sit around stuffing their faces with chlorinated chicken, Velveeta, and Pepsi while corporations colonize every minute of their lives and every cell in their bodies? Are Americans going to sit around soporifically watching television while Rachel Maddow takes home $30 million a year for turning news into a Barnum and Bailey circus? 

Are Americans going to sit around watching Walt Disney movies while Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez and other such “progressives” betray every voter who got them into office? Are Americans going to sit around talking about their IRA accounts while a dense web of mind-manipulating institutions, corporations, corrupt pols, and the national security state totalizes its grip on power?

Not one year into the Biden presidency, the mind regurgitates. The mind dreams of exile in the way all those principled anti–Cold War people expatriated during the 1950s, having had enough. 

And the mind wonders.  When?

When are Americans going to stand up? When are Americans going to clear the litter millionaire bums have left on their village greens and reclaim their public space? When are Americans going to stop indulging the weak-minded fiction that they are powerless?

When are Americans going to transcend the atomization of American society systematically inflicted upon it since April 30, 1975, and learn again to speak and act for the commonweal? When are Americans going to present themselves with dignity to show they have regained their self-respect, their respect for those who have to look at them, and their respect for their reawakened civic selves?

When are Americans going to figure out that a global class war rages and that race is a subset of class and not the other way around? When are Americans going to stop bickering about pronouns, gender preferences, bathroom doors, bronze statues, identity politics, and all such distracting rubbish?

When are Americans going to read the scholarly definition of fascism and then look at themselves in their mirrors? When are Americans going to dismember the scam economic “model” that produces and reproduces billionaires and an ever more impoverished majority?

When are Americans going to admit to ourselves that America’s nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons, drones, bombs, and landmines are the root reason all these weapons proliferate globally? When are Americans going to tell the Pentagon, “That’s our money.” When are Americans going to demand radical action to counter the climate crisis and change their lives—joyfully and with commitment?

When are Americans going to impose civilian control over the CIA and the other appendages of the “national security” octopus? When are Americans going to say, No!” to subversive “democracy promotion” interventions in other nations? When are Americans going to reject the Russophobia and Sinophobia their “leaders” and their clerks in the press malignly stir up? When are Americans going to object that the U.S. started and prolonged the Cold War because the Pentagon needed it and defense contractors profited from it? 

When are Americans going to turn off their televisions? When are Americans going to stop eating Fritos? When are Americans going to stop bothering to write their congressmen?  When are Americans going to stop pretending their political process is intact and voting matters?

When are Americans going to stop pretending Joe Biden is mentally competent? When are Americans going to stop pretending Joe Biden is the second coming of FDR? When are Americans going to stop pretending Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, and Ned Price are anything more than programmed robots? 

When are Americans going to recognize that The New York Times is now a propaganda organ and the future of journalism lies in independent media?

This article by Patrick Lawrence who is Salon's foreign affairs columnist, a correspondent abroad for many years, chiefly for the International Herald Tribune, a columnist, essayist, author and lecturer, he authored several books.

My usual many thanks to all.  

A NEW MENTALITY .....

 

Less than a year after a clear majority of Americans across the country delivered a resounding defeat to Donald Trump in the 2020 elections, Trumpism has not stopped rearing its ugly and obstinate presence in almost every state of the Union. The ex president is announcing full throated endorsements of many candidates for different positions all over, diminishing the chances that Republicans with integrity and better social understanding are being able to get elected. 

He is with his machine of extremists and lackeys destroying any chances of hearing the real voices of the Republican party, representing almost 27% of American voters, he is with his oligarchy and family members and big big money from corporate and extreme rich billionaires as well as special interests, they are systematically turning the party into a rich man and special interests organization, to shape and legislate strictly for their benefits, while turning the rest of Americans into cheap tools and robo- workers and soldiers ready to serve their interests and profits, no matter what this absolute majority pays or sacrifice for these goals. 

Leaving Trumpism and antidemocratic fascism unchecked in any corner of the country shouldn't be an option, and is to be fought ideologically and politically by all means, if we want to preserve and maintain a good free America, a prosperous to all America. One example of what and how these tactics are working, is taking place nowadays in Virginia. 

We have soon in VA, an election coming for governor and many executive members for the state, the Democrat candidate is an ex governor known for his rationality and attention to all Virginians and their needs. The Republican candidate is a big rich man who was hand picked by Trump for the post of governor. Mr. Glen Youngkin who pledged to spend 75 million$ of his own money fortune to buy the governor's seat. 

One should ask, who's Donald Trump in politics to decide who's who, more so in local politics, except to insure more lackeys and followers willing to serve and facilitate his political agenda. The second question would be; anywhere in the world when a politician spends lots of his own money on an election, he or she expects to get it back at least doubled within the life of the position, so is Mr. Youngkin looking actively to make 150 millions or more within his tenure ?? 

No one is a saint, but to go all the other way to devilish behavior and acts shouldn't be the policy of the land in the 21st century and beyond, let's leave these tactics to some failed countries, the Levant come to mind, with Lebanon and Syria leading. It could lead to disastrous situations and total chaos for all. 

Basically the mainstream media machine have for long years operated on the assumption that there are always two sides to every story, and that their job is to represent the balanced reasonable center, well that is not true anymore. Today in America one side is trying to protect voting rights for all, and the other side is trying to suppress votes because it's more advantageous to them. 

One side is advocating for science and the other side is pushing pandemic conspiracy theories and climate denials. One side wants the rich and corporate taxes reduced or eliminated, while the other is advocating for universal healthcare, free education for all and more affordable prescription medicine. Equating them all is misleading and dangerous, it will kill democracy and the well being of the majority of Americans. 

As we should all keep fighting against abhorrent wealth inequality, and the money grab of power and politicians, we must fight and resist media inequality and all its misleading arms. And as the saying goes; "Why are guns good, sex bad and God seemingly okay with it all."                                                     As always, my profound thanks for your time, stay safe and well.            

Three People I Would Interview About Afghanistan Aug. 19, 2021

 

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

As I watch events in Afghanistan unfold, I find myself trying to ignore all the commentary and longing instead to interview three people: President Lyndon Johnson, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mohammed Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan.

Friedman: President Johnson, what did you think of Joe Biden’s speech about quitting Afghanistan?
Johnson: I listened to it, and I have to say that I choked up. If only I had had the guts to give that speech on April 7, 1965, about America’s involvement in Vietnam — the war that I inherited and then expanded with that speech. Promise me one thing: You won’t link to that speech.

Friedman: Sorry, Mr. President, but I already did. Here are some highlights of what you said to justify sending more troops into Vietnam: Why are we in South Vietnam? We are there because we have a promise to keep. Since 1954, every American president has offered support to the people of South Vietnam. … We are also there to strengthen world order. Around the globe, from Berlin to Thailand, are people whose well-being rests, in part, on the belief that they can count on us if they are attacked. … We are also there because there are great stakes in the balance.

Let no one think for a moment that retreat from Vietnam would bring an end to conflict. The battle would be renewed in one country and then another. … Thus it became necessary for us to increase our response and to make attacks by air. This is not a change of purpose. It is a change in what we believe that purpose requires. … We do this to increase the confidence of the brave people of South Vietnam, who have bravely borne this brutal battle for so many years with so many casualties. … We will not be defeated. We will not grow tired.

Johnson: Yes, Mr. Friedman, I wish I had said what Biden did — and what his predecessors never would: “How many more generations of America’s daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghanistan’s civil war when Afghan troops will not?’’

Friedman: President Xi, what do you think of all the American commentators proclaiming China a winner from Biden’s withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan?

Xi: Oh, my, these are what we call useful idiots. What planet are these people living on? We had a perfect situation going before Biden came along. America was hemorrhaging lives, money, energy and focus in Afghanistan — and its presence was making the country just safe enough for Chinese multinationals to exploit.

The Metallurgical Corporation of China and Jiangxi Copper had a contract to develop a copper mine in Mes Aynak, and the China National Petroleum Corporation was working on a field in the north of the country — and the Americans were funding the overall security. That is our idea of perfection! Alas, neither of these projects ever got off the ground because of the craziness in the Kabul government. But Afghanistan is hugely rich in minerals we need. Who will protect our investors after the Americans have stopped doing it for free? Not me.

Friedman: How about the Taliban?

Xi: The Taliban?! You think that we trust them? Have you noticed what their brothers in the Pakistani Taliban have been doing to our investments in Pakistan? Just read The Wall Street Journal from July 28:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A gunman opened fire on a car carrying two engineers in the southern port city of Karachi, the latest attack on Chinese nationals in close ally Pakistan. … Chinese nationals have been the victims of multiple recent attacks in Pakistan. Earlier this month, a bombing killed nine Chinese construction workers in a bus being taken to the site of a dam being built in northern Pakistan. Targets of other attacks in recent years include the Chinese Consulate in Karachi, the partly Chinese-owned stock exchange in Karachi and a hotel in the Chinese-run port of Gwadar.

Xi: Pakistan cannot even keep us safe from its own Taliban and Baloch separatists — in their own country — and we own Pakistan! And don’t even get me started on how the Taliban victory could inspire our Uyghur Muslims. … Joe, Joe, what did you do to us, Joe? You should have listened to your foreign policy experts and stayed in Afghanistan. The last thing we want is you refocusing all of America’s resources and energy on competing with us for the industries of the 21st century, instead of chasing the Taliban around the Hindu Kush.

Friedman: Mohammed Zahir Shah was the last king of Afghanistan, who ruled from 1933 until he was deposed by his brother-in-law in 1973, triggering nearly a half-century of coups, wars and invasions. He was the last of a 226-year dynasty of Pashtun monarchs to rule Afghanistan.

Your Highness, what do you think of Biden’s decision to just quit Afghanistan and of the Taliban takeover?

Zahir: Let me tell you a few things about my country. The first thing you have to know is that we are and always will be a mosaic of many different languages and cultures and ethnicities and approaches to Islam. There are 14 ethnic groups recognized in our national anthem — Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Balochis, Turkmens, Nooristanis, Pamiris, Arabs, Gujars, Brahuis, Qizilbash, Aimaq and Pashai. We have Sunni, Sufi and Shiite Muslims. The reason the country was relatively peaceful under my leadership, until my idiot cousin toppled me, was that people saw me as a unifying symbol to whom they could all relate.

The Taliban represent only one element in our mosaic — Pashtun Sunni Islamism. Since they were ousted by the Americans 20 years ago, all they have been thinking about is how to again own the Afghanistan they lost, not how to govern anew the Afghanistan that exists today.

Let me tell you, Mr. Friedman, more than 70 percent of Afghanistan’s population is under 25 years old. Most of them know nothing about the Taliban and have never heard of Mullah Omar — just like all those 20-somethings in Iran who have never heard of the shah and give Iran’s Islamic rulers grief every day. They have been raised in a different Afghanistan, in a different age, and they will not easily give up the freedoms they enjoyed these past 20 years, even if the country was a mess.

Tribes in this part of the world, Mr. Friedman, have a saying: Me and my brother against my cousin. Me and my brother and my cousin against the outsider.

Americans were the outsider, and the Taliban could always find plenty of passive and active cousins for its project of getting you out. But now they and their brothers will have to deal with all their cousins inside — from those 14 different ethnicities — and that will be a different story. The Taliban have no idea how to govern a modern country. Vietnam’s nationalist leader, Ho Chi Minh, spent his exile in Paris. These Taliban guys studied, at best, in madrasas in Pakistan, where they don’t even teach science.

And then there’s the money. The American occupation was to Afghanistan what oil is to Saudi Arabia. You were like an oil well that didn’t dry up. But now that you’re gone, so is all that income to run the government and pay salaries. How are the Taliban going to replace it? You can smuggle only so many drugs to Europe. Sure, the Chinese will throw them some crumbs to keep them away from the Uyghurs. But there are no more sucker superpowers out there that want to come in and run this place, because they all now know that all they’ll win is a bill.

Here is my prediction: The Taliban will either form a national unity government with all the major ethnic and tribal groups, under loose centralized control — and it will sort of hold the country together and be able to enlist foreign aid — or they won’t. If they do, President Biden’s bet on getting out will prove right — that America’s presence was actually preventing Afghans from compromising and coming together to govern themselves. Maybe they will even find one of my family’s descendants to be the symbolic unifier. I repeat: My reign corresponded with one of the most peaceful eras in Afghan history.

But if the Taliban try to keep power all by themselves, with no cousins, watch out. The country will eventually resist it, the Taliban will crack down harder, and Afghanistan will not implode — it will explode. It will break up into different regions and hemorrhage refugees and instability. It will be very ugly, and America and Biden will be blamed for the chaos. But America will also be gone. Afghanistan then will be a huge problem for its neighbors, particularly Pakistan, China, Russia and Iran.

Friedman: Hmm. Pakistan, China, Russia and Iran? Maybe Biden had that in mind all along.

 Mr. Friedman's article in the NY times hits the point again, in my 18th Aug. blog I tried to suggest that the whole act of leaving it all to the Taliban, even strengthening and arming them is intentional, and with tacit agreement, very few commentators and political annalists touched on this nuance, most tried to criticize and even blame the Biden administration for abandoning Afghanistan, even accusing  it of naivety, I don't think it is the case, it's strictly political hypocrisy. It is more a careful and older policy plan in development, a plan that cannot be openly declared nor discussed, and Mr. Biden at this stage is only continuing to execute accordingly. All my thanks to my good readers, stay safe and well.

 

THE AFGHANI FISHY AFFAIR .....

 

For decades, elites told the American people we were winning this war, later they told us while Iraq was wrong, Afghanistan was the war worth fighting. They told us it was worth the lives, worth the money, worth the time, it was all lies. They spend trillions in tax Dollars telling us we're building up their country and army, now they tell us we cannot afford nation building right here at home. 

One would prefer if President Biden and the State Department didn't claim and ascertain that the Taliban surprised us by moving so swiftly to take the entire country including the capital Kabul, even the American intelligence agencies and the military advisors claim that they didn't expect all provincial capitals including Kabul would fall so quickly, without even shedding any blood, all these clearly indicate that the administration, the intelligence, Pentagon and State Department had in mind that the Taliban forces would take over all powers and control of Afghanistan as a government and the country, the only failure was the timing, which created some logistical difficulties to evacuate all Americans, foreigners and loyal Afghanis. But it's working fine after all, as planned. 

The American side were in serious negotiations with the Taliban for over a year in Doha, and the Trump administration released more than 5000 Taliban fighters including some of the highest ranks. And through the past 2 decades of our Afghani adventure we didn't seriously engage in fighting or destroying the Taliban machinery, on the contrary we were playing a go between policy with some drone bombing, among several Afghani factions. 

With the presumed conclusions of this pseudo war that cost us few thousands lives, trillions to maintain, equipment and arms, and training a totally unwilling to defend itself or fight its enemies army. I wonder who was responsible and who benefited the most all these years, but I know for sure that 85% plus, of these amounts went into the pockets of special American interests. and arms manufacturers and high ranking private army contractors as well as some commanders. 

We cannot pretend that we're so naïve and gullible by not understanding the nature of the Afghani people or some factions of it, after 20 years of living and governing them. As a matter of fact we openly admit help creating them and arming them some 40 years ago, to fight Russian communism, as well as the Al-Qaida mujahidin who turned against us later, we even used the invasion of Afghanistan to open the way to invade Iraq, which probably was the real aim. 

We simply thought with arrogant confidence that Afghanistan was an easy target, easy to subdue, for a good strategically located position in the center of Asia, so we went in and played a good role with all parties, but when it became too costly and Americans got tired of endless wars, we actively looked for someone to play the game on our behalf, and who better than the old Taliban our oldest partners. Even if we sacrificed part of the Afghani population that stood with us. We're promising them total control, lots of arms and equipment with only; do not harm our people while retreating and not to harbor openly any terrorist groups, and try to be more humane toward your people, your women,  which is maybe happening.   

They will be our newest creation of disturbances to all or most of their neighbors, and help us tremendously controlling the continent. China, India, Russia, Iran, even Turkey and Pakistan, plus a score of smaller players could all be threatened by a Taliban fanaticism and godly Islamic zealots. Now my problem with such a plan is to see if the Taliban would play our game or eventually change alliances and adversaries, that would be a totally failure of the whole scheme. 

This entire scenario is mine of course, but honestly I cannot fathom, nor make sense of simpler arguments of arrogance and naivety of our entire intelligence, war machine, administration with their State dept. we cannot be so simplistic, not in today's world and times and technologies, we cannot accept little assumptions and mistakes leading us to such failures and humiliations, while sacrificing thousands of Americans, allies and hundreds of thousands of Afghani along the way. 

Politically this administration will eventually win in performing a long term plan and claiming to get us out of war situation, and if it's well played we can boost and strengthen the Taliban again or any other faction , under our rules, satisfy the military industries and war machines with fresh prospects, it's a solid win win strategic situation for every one on our side. And if I'm wrong and it is indeed a case of desperate non understanding, naivety and misplay from our side, I would classify it as tragic, calamitous and sad, and maybe we deserve to loose more adventures so we finally learn from our past. 

My thanks to all my readers, stay safe and well.                                

ADDRESSING LEBANON

 

The Head of the British Embassy in Lebanon, Dr Martin Longden, bids Lebanon farewell this week. He shared his reflections in the following opinion piece on Lebanon’s present and future:

"There have been better times to be head of the British Embassy in Lebanon.  The crises buffeting this wonderful and troubled country – from the port explosion, to the Covid pandemic, to the economic collapse – have dulled Lebanon’s shine, impoverishing the people and putting both state institutions and the private sector under intolerable pressure.  With no prospect in sight of a government capable of gripping the situation, Lebanon’s situation looks increasingly precarious.

And yet my message, as I leave Beirut, is not just one of profound concern but also of hope.  For I see in Lebanon a place which, for all of its deeply serious problems, retains incredible potential.  This land of the cedars is a truly amazing country: of outstanding natural beauty – from the mountains to the sea, of a rich and diverse culture, and of a people whose hard work and creativity rivals anyone in the Middle East – and beyond.

But you will only unleash this better future if you can slip the shackles of your history. And change fundamentally the way in which politics and government are done here.  Lebanon today stands perhaps at its most important crossroads ever: which way will you go?

Forgive my bluntness: but there is something rotten at the heart of Lebanon.  The failure so far to hold anyone accountable for the disastrous port explosion last summer is just the most dramatic example of the impunity and irresponsibility that characterizes too much of Lebanese life.  State institutions are subverted; special interests are protected; and Hizballah’s militia operate freely, accountable to no one but themselves.  And the result?  An elite enriched, as the Lebanese people lose out at every turn. 

I have discussed Lebanon’s political deadlock and the deteriorating situation with almost all shades of the political elite.  I have warned about the risks they are taking, and of the damage being done to people’s lives.  I have urged them to find a compromise that can establish a broad-based government, with a mandate to undertake the reforms and secure the IMF support that is so desperately needed.  But I regret that my words, like those of Lebanon’s other international friends, fall on deaf ears.

And this is a problem.  Because although the UK will always do what it can to stand by the Lebanese people – with a strong record of significant support for Lebanon’s security, education and humanitarian support– this assistance cannot be a substitute for urgent action by Lebanon’s politicians.  The international community cannot stop Lebanon’s fall.

 It would be easy to dismiss Lebanon’s political elite as out of touch and corrupt.  Many regrettably are.  But the problem is more profound than that.  For a political system rooted in the divisions of confessionalism can simply never be the basis for a successful twenty-first century country. 

For decades the real purpose of the Lebanese “system” has been, not to look after the national interests of the country, but to “balance” the interests of competing groups.  Some tell me this is what is necessary to prevent the fracturing of the delicate Lebanese mosaic.  Perhaps.  It is certainly important to ensure that Lebanon’s diversity is respected and protected in the framework of the country.  But what has been the consequence of this system?

It has been to focus on a zero-sum game, on ensuring that each group gets no less of its share of Lebanon’s wealth and resource than it believes it is due.  And in this relentless effort to take, Lebanon’s leaders have spent its resources recklessly – way beyond what it could ever truly afford.  Now the country stands on the verge of insolvency.  So focused were the political elite on dividing the cake, they never thought about how to bake a bigger one.

Some say it is the region that prevents progress.  Lebanon is a small country – a place in which the fault lines and tremors of others’ geo-politics play out.  For sure, yours is a difficult neighborhood: too many foreign powers take too close an interest in what happens here.  Their agendas are not always benign.  But the confessional instinct to lend one’s trust to foreign powers more than to fellow Lebanese has not helped.  The weaker and more divided the country, the more vulnerable Lebanon becomes to the predations of others. A neutral Lebanon, disassociated from the region’s other conflicts, is an essential feature of a better future.  And it would be a fatal error to conclude that Lebanon must wait for other nations to reconcile before change can happen here. 

None of this is easy to do: nothing of value ever is.  But in the midst of our current despair I do believe that change can and will come to Lebanon.  Last month I took a two day tour of the south, travelling as far down as Bint Jbeil.  One of the highlights was to call in on a rural public school and meet the young people to hear their views and aspirations for Lebanon.  They are – in every sense – Lebanon’s future.  For theirs is a generation less scarred by the divisions of the civil war.  But also more united, through technology, with their peers across the globe: they see the world beyond Lebanon – and thus what is possible here.

I do not believe that the old, corrupted practices will withstand youth’s excited impatience for a better future, and nor should they.  This at heart is what gives me hope for the future of Lebanon: as the new generation rides to the rescue of the old.  And the UK, as a long-standing friend and partner to the Lebanese people, will be proud to ride with you.”

The speech appeared and was reproduced from National News Agency (NNA), and as usual, my many thanks to all readers, stay safe and well. But my last word would be ; Are we in Lebanon and elsewhere honestly going steadfast into a Haiti example situation, or maybe duplicating what's happening in Myanmar, are we already there ..... 

THE STATE OF THE UNION......

 

Around 25% of Americans think, believe and behave in certain suspiciously dubious ways, concerning certain existential patterns. Are they all so naïve, so simple minded, so literally Christian zealots, so as not to see the realities of actual politics of today versus the original Christian writings and teachings. Or is it all instigated and covered by some motivational naivety, a soi-disant naivety and simplicity to let a political agenda proceed.

To allow a man to rule and become the shadow of God on earth, plus his family, oligarchy and lackeys, who will be the new Apostles and messengers. Many previous leaders tried it historically, and many more are still at it nowadays, they failed miserably in most cases. But not us in America, we are as always the most stubborn and obstinate, we belong to the unchanged minds even when it leads us to total failures even annihilation. We even keep handy religious scribes and dictates to back us up and keep us on the right path. No fear, God and the scriptures are with us, covering our obstinacy and naivety. 

Whether it's the pandemics and their deadly viruses, or the election frauds, and the cheatings of more than half the country or our economic inequalities and vulnerabilities and well being, nor our real problems of social welfare, wealth distribution, nor our foreign meddling, adventures, policing and regime changing in every corner of the world. Our failing to achieve healthcare for all, and provide reasonable prescription drug pricing, and teach our younger generations plus retraining of our older workers, and to top it all our non approach to global warming changes and green energy necessities.

We surely must be so brainwashed by traditional corporate power, and rich tycoons, and lately by this new breed of pretentious and greedy leaders governing our lives in the present as well as the future of our descendants. I cannot believe, in all honesty, that roughly 25% of American adults, people from all walks of life, are so naïve and so blinded by cheap rhetoric and pure propagandist demagogy, I might accept and understand it in some fourth world countries, or some failed states in Africa or the Middle-East, even Latin America, but to behave and think like this in a top Western superpower is literally unexplainable and unacceptable.

 Some malignant sarcasm is being spread nowadays, stating that when more and more Republican voters are in the jaws of death due to ideological refusal to vaccinate and apply other Covid precautions, only then maybe the majority of Americans will wake up realizing the stupid fix we've willingly placed ourselves in, following blindly empty slogans and empty fake demagogy. 

Our democracy is being tested and eroded like never before, voter suppression laws are being advanced in nearly every state across the country, our wealth inequality and our social benefits plus our infrastructure and our scientific research accomplishments and competitiveness are all vanishing rapidly, we are only contemplating as policies to punish or destroy our competitors, not to elevate ourselves and advance, not to lead in constructive advancement and competitiveness on the human levels, but to perpetually destroy and annihilate the others to prove our supremacy. 

This trajectory is evidently a clear sign of what could be coming to the West in general and to America if left unchecked and uncensored, the world and humanity paid a dear price for such politics and behaviors in the first 50 years of our past century, we ought to revive our memories and learn our lessons. It's time for America to join the world as a member state, and not as the only feared one sided policeman. 

My, as always, many thanks for your time and patience, stay safe and well.