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January 17, 2006
This is a very clear representation of the neo-conservative understanding of the US intervention into Iraq and the Middle East. It is a map of the imperial president's messianic mission to bring liberal democracy to Iraq and the Middle East. I presume that the light of democracy stands for a secular enlightenment in a dark world of Islamic fundamentalism: an Islamism that is anti-Western, anti-capitalist, anti-liberal and anti-Semitic.
Michael Ramirez
It is a suprising map because the reality on the ground in Iraq is that a majority of Iraqi's want the coalition forces to withdraw. The occupation is the problem for them. If Iraq were to become sovereign and democratic, then the Shia population in the South, where much of Iraq's oil is, would have a predominant influence, and they would prefer friendly relations with Shia Iran. They do not want the Coalition to set up a client regime with military forces that the US can control.
A question: if the US or its client regime cannot rule Iraq, then is Washington's policy to regress the country into an "Afghanistan" of warring clerical and ethnic warlords and tribal chieftains based on min-fiefdoms?
Suprisingly, what is not mentioned in the map is the region's relative importance as a source of petroleum, given the limits of the world's oil supplies and surging growth of the Asian economies causing a huge increase in global demand.
And where is Israel? Is not that Jewish nation-state a key to US geo-political strategy in the Middle East?
Is not the nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East already been broken by Israel? Are we heading for a situation in which an Islamic Tehran has a nuclear missile pointed at Tel Aviv and a right wing Israeli government has a missile pointing right back at Tehran?
Washington's push for Security Council economic sanctions against Iran will likely fail because of a China/Russia veto. Will the Bush administration's principle of pre emptive strike be invoked to thwart Iran's nuclear aspirations? Or rather Israel will attack Iranian experimental nuclear energy site with the complicity of the Bush Administration in the White House and a Republican Congress. Presumably, Iran will defend itself if it is attacked by Israel.
What I hear is the American media's war drums beginning to beat, as they give space for the neo-con hawks to talk about Iran's "nuclear weapons", it's " nuclear weapons program", and its long-range plan for hostilities against the geo-political interests fof the US or Israel.
I reckon that Iran will get the bomb. And the US will have to live with it. I refuse to accept the way the US media is currently framing the issue.
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Adding to your first-rate summation on the present situation in the Middle East, the most favoured solution to the Iranian nuclear issue is the creation of a weapons of mass destruction-free zone in the Middle East. This solution is supported by the EU, Russia and China but rejected off-hand by the US and the Israelis. To date the US has not allowed the subject of Israel’s nuclear arsenal to be raised in any diplomatic discussions on this issue. Iran wouldn’t have been so bold to press on with its nuclear research had the US been in such a weak position in Iraq, its position there dependent on tacit support from Shia power brokers in the south.
The war in Iraq appears to be lost, so the Americans are playing for time, but to what aim? One reason might be is that they wish to create a US oil state protectorate in the north, similar to Kuwait. The Kurds in the north have been independent for a long time now, all but in name, however they lack a standing army. I’ve read a number of reports that Israeli and US military advisers are assisting with the conversion of the Pershmerga militia units into a regular army. We’ll know if this theory holds weight in due time. A standing army will need artillery, helicopter gunships, tanks, etc. Training in these types of sophisticated weapons takes time. Self-determination for the Kurds has always been on the cards, but how does the US placate its long time middle eastern ally Turkey?