We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Iran and the Strategic Encirclement of Syria and Lebanon

Click here to access article by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya from Stategic Culture Foundation.

This independent Canadian journalist assembles evidence that the Empire is actively and dangerously putting into operation its next project: the capture of Syria which is merely on the road to Iran, the biggest prize of all.
For half a decade Washington has been directing a military arm build-up in the Middle East aimed at Iran and the Resistance Bloc. It has sent massive arms shipments to Saudi Arabia. It has sent deliveries of bunker busters to the U.A.E. and Israel, amongst others, while it has upgraded its own deadly arsenal. U.S. officials have also started to openly discuss murdering Iranian leaders and military officials through covert operations. What the world is facing is a pathway towards possible military escalation that could go far beyond the boundaries of the Middle East and suck in Russia, China, and their allies. 
Although mainstream media has played up the removal of US troops from Iraq, they have downplayed the re-deployments of the same troops to neighboring Kuwait such as suggested by this report from AFP. There have been a few reports from US sources of only about 3500 being re-deployed there on a permanent basis, but I suspect that this is only a cover story for a vastly greater number.  I keep coming across articles about re-deployment of individual US units being moved to Kuwait. And then there is all the military equipment being moved to Kuwait which poses the question about whether it stays there. The analysis from World Socialist Web Site may have it right:
The formal US pullout from Iraq is part of a redeployment of US military assets in the wider region, as well as a shift in the focus of US foreign policy from southwest Asia to the Far East and the rising challenge of China. The US Central Command, which controls US operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, has more forces at its disposal today than during the heaviest days of fighting in Iraq under the Bush administration.