Michael Carmichael
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archived: 23 - 29 Jul, 2006 Back Next
ISRAEL IN
LEBANON: CHENEY WAS RIGHT & Why are the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Gaza so disproportionate? Mike Whitney has an answer: to incubate generations of jihadists, terrorists and to guarantee a massive recruitment surge for Al Qaeda. The violence is gratuitous. The Israeli attack has confirmed Bin Laden's status as a prophet, and the geopolitical calculus is unfolding to remove Assad from power to allow the laying of a pipeline from Kurdistan to Haifa. Whitney agrees with Cheney - the war will be long, probably longer than the 50 years the deeply unpopular Vice President predicted. Be prepared for 100 years of ultra-violence, rising energy prices and terror - loads of terror. ______ Junkie: Mike Whitney’s article referred to by Carmichael can be found at the link below: Lebanon’s Expendable People by Mike Whitney These are excerpts from the article: It proves that everything Bin Laden said was true: “They have come to take your land and your resources; they have come to shame your women and disgrace your culture; they have come to humiliate you in front of your children and heap ignominy on your religion.” Where was he wrong? Author and writer Pepe Escobar said it best: “The effect of the Israeli bombing barrage will be to draw newer, thicker waves of moderate Muslims toward political-and radical–Islam. The perception in the Arab street- as well as for most of the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims-has been reinforced: the U.S./Israel axis seems to hold a license to kill Arabs with impunity.” (Pepe Escobar, “Leviathan Run Amok” Asia Times) . . . How many will chose to join the growing ranks of jihadis and resistance groups plotting and planning to strike back in any way they can? How many will figure that it’s better to die on your feet than live on your knees? Lebanon has paved the way for a century of war. It’s been ravaged and its people evacuated to settle scores with Hezbollah and create a buffer zone on Israel’s northern flank. The ruined lives are of no consequence. The city will be rebuilt by loans from the World Bank and IMF and the work will be contracted by Halliburton and Bechtel. We’ve seen it all before; the utter destruction of a society so that it can be placed in the hands of the global corporatists. Lebanon will be no exception. Now that Israel’s northern flank has been “pacified” Olmert can turn his eyes eastward towards Damascus where the ophthalmologist Bashar Al-Assad will have to be toppled to secure pipeline routes from northern Iraq to Haifa. That way Israel will become a major player in this century’s resource wars and a leader in the region. The geopolitical chess match is unfolding just as it was written years ago by neoconservatives who were dismissed at the time as radicals and lunatics. No one is laughing now. The 12 villagers who were massacred in Srifa yesterday by Israeli bombs aren’t laughing nor are the parents of the 11 children who were vaporized by an Israeli missile while taking a swim in a canal at Oasmia refugee camp. This is the calculus of human misery; the deliberate killing of innocent people to achieve political objectives. It is no different than terrorism. Bush and Olmert are two men who have absolute confidence in the ability of violence to shape behavior. They are not concerned about the rivers of blood that feed their dreams. After all, those people are “expendable.” __________________ Michael Carmichael has been a professional public affairs consultant, author and broadcaster since 1968. In 2003, he founded The Planetary Movement, a global nonprofit public affairs organization based in the United Kingdom. He has appeared as a public affairs expert on the BBC's Today Programme, Hardtalk, PM, as well as numerous appearances on ITN, NPR and many European broadcasts examining politics and culture. He can be reached through his website: www.planetarymovement.org
Last Update: 07/30/2006 |
