You have commented 0 times on Rantburg.

We're sorry, but only human beings are allowed to comment on Rantburg. If you're a human being, please take this simple test to prove it. If you're not, get lost.

This is a chicken. What are you?
Bandwagon
Now, that's a sandwitch!
Some wine is red, some wine is white. Some people drink wine most every night
A cat. It is not in a hat.
Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Photo
Terror Networks
From Al-Qaeda to IS, familiar games and known players
2014-08-30
[ARABNEWS] Those who cannot remember the past, cautioned George Santayana, are condemned to repeat it.

Those who think in cliches are bound to repeat them.

I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist but the scepter of IS -- and all such groups -- is evidently a grand conspiracy against Islam and its followers, just as Al-Qaeda had been. And you see the fingerprints of CIA, Mossad and their willing collaborators all over this baby.
So Barack ObamaI think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody...
, who stood against Bush's wars and his apocalyptic visions of a world divided between Us and Them, is not just back bombing Iraq -- fourth US president to do so -- he seems to read from the self-same script.

"No just God would stand for what they (IS) did yesterday, and for what they do every single day," the US president declared, responding to the slaying of US journalist James Foley in Syria.

When was the last time you heard this invocation of the divine and the whole business of civilizational conflict, the good versus evil? We have been here before, and not long ago either.

Obama may not exactly envision himself on a 'divine mission' to save the world, as his predecessor did, but he has ended up doing just about the same. Only the pretext seems to differ.

Then it was supposedly to rid the world of Saddam Hussain's mythical weapons of mass destruction or to confront him on his support to Al-Qaeda in planning 9/11, as Bush claimed.

Now it is to save the Christians and Yazidis from the clutches of the IS bigots. Truly touching the lengths America goes to every time to save the wretched world.

Taking Obama's lead, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and even cousins across the pond have gone all hyper screaming: "Apocalypse Now . . . end-of-days . . . We must prepare for everything . . . an imminent threat to every interest we have . . . This is beyond anything we have seen . . . "

In the words of Robert Fisk
...British journalist who is invariably on the other side of any question. The logic of his prose is so shaky, the ideas so predictable, that he has given his name to the process of mocking a piece of poorly reasoned hackery. He was once beaten up by an Islamic mob and decided they had every right to thump him because he was so Western...
, Hagel and Dempsey were pure Hollywood. It only needed Tom Cruise at their presser to utter the words "Mission impossible. " David Cameron
... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ...
, in the great tradition of Tony Blair who swore the UK was just 45 minute away from an Iraq WMD strike, sees the IS unleashing its terror on the UK streets. For years one saw such exaggerated nightmarish scenarios regularly spawned by the West vis-a-vis Al-Qaeda and of course Iraq and Iran.

Alas, Al-Qaeda has nearly been wiped out; Saddam and Bin Laden have been eliminated and Iran has been suitably neutralized.

So the world needed, or rather the mighty military industrial complex that drives the US economy needed, a new enemy to keep its good, old wars going. And the fearsome IS chief Abubakr Al-Baghdadi with his black, murderous mobs and their blood-curdling acts of casual brutality is perfect for the job profile. Even Al-Qaeda, or what remains of it, seems to be fearful of and is shocked by their viciousness and sheer savagery.

The tales of mass murder, rapes and abductions of Christians, Yazidis and even Moslems by the hordes of the IS or Islamic State, as it absurdly likes to call itself now, already seem to be the stuff of legends. Not surprisingly, they have shaken and outraged people around the world-- the Moslems more so. The IS and the so-called caliphate it promises is like our worst nightmare come true.

It materialized out of thin air, like clouds of locusts, taking over the vast swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory. As Yvonne Ridley reasons, IS has achieved in a matter of weeks what the US and its allies failed to do in 10 years of occupation. This hasn't happened by accident; military victories on this scale take strategic planning and inside help.

So who, exactly, is behind IS? More importantly, who stands to benefit from this carefully calibrated mayhem in the heart of the Middle East? The same folks who created Al-Qaeda and used it ingenuously and effectively for years until Osama and his baby had exhausted their uses and were past their sell-by date.

Look at the uncanny similarity in the methods used by Al-Qaeda and IS -- from the chilling murder of Daniel Pearl to the barbaric beheading of James Foley this month, both US journalists incidentally.

I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist but the scepter of IS -- and all such groups -- is evidently a grand conspiracy against Islam and its followers, just as Al-Qaeda had been. And you see the fingerprints of CIA, Mossad and their willing collaborators all over this baby.

As author Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya argues, the targeting of Christians and other minorities in Iraq and Syria and attempts to remap the Middle East are aimed at paving the way for the clash of civilizations that the likes of Samuel Huntington and Bernard Lewis have obsessed over for years.

So it is good that Arab and Moslem states seem to be waking up to the monster that is staring them in the face. The recent Arab ministers' brainstorming in Jeddah and the Saudi-Iran confabulations seeking a common front against IS are welcome. So are the strong denunciations by top Islamic scholars and ordinary Moslems.

The Moslem world has never in its long history faced a greater challenge. Doubtless, IS is a clear and present danger. And it wouldn't, most probably, have come into existence if it had not been for the spectacular lies and crusades of Bush and Blair. The Israeli crimes against humanity and relentless persecution of its helpless victims have also helped radicalize generations of Arabs and Moslems -- even those born in Western climes, as is apparently the case with the alleged British killer of James Foley.
One can just hear it whispered among the grander wives of Saudi Society, as they discuss the latest exploits of what now calls itself the Islamic State. "Parvenus!" they hiss, and "Nouveau riche upstarts! How dare they act just our illustrious ancestors did only a century or two ago, and claim to be equal!"
Posted by:Fred

#1  This is beyond anything we have seen

This is news to you? Ask the Jews of Medina
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2014-08-30 06:47