Petras is one of the very few on the left to view Obama’s strategy objectively. He is right to stress that global conditions are no longer favourable for US intervention: we are witnessing, before our very eyes, the end of empire.
The recent events in Honduras and Iran, which pit democratically elected regimes against pro-US military and civilian actors intent on overthrowing them can best be understood as part of a larger White House strategy designed to rollback the gains achieved by opposition government and movements during the Bush years.
We have had weeks of government and army propaganda selling the “good war” in Afghanistan as being for the benefit of the Afghan people and as necessary to Britain’s interests.
Celente is a bit hard on Mussolini who would , of course, have been appalled at government backing for purely parasitic financial wheeling and dealing. The problem is not state intervention per se but the fact that it is not orientated to rebuilding infrastructure, productive capacity and the general welfare.
The Obama administration has ordered the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade (2 MEB) into a potentially bloody offensive in the southern province of Helmand. The objective is the suppression of the ethnic Pashtun population, which is overwhelmingly hostile to the seven-and-a-half year US and NATO occupation of the country and rejects the legitimacy of the Afghan puppet government headed by President Hamid Karzai.
Twitter can now revert to its plan to shut down its Iran services and attend to maintenance work. Twitter goes into recess pleased that it probably embarrassed a resurgent regional power. The United States government owes Twitter a grand salute for having done something where all other stratagems of war and peace failed in the past three decades.
Tehran’s « green revolution » is the latest version of the « color revolutions » which have allowed the United States to impose subservient governments in several countries without needing to use force. Thierry Meyssan, who advised two governments facing this type of crisis, analyses this method and the reasons for its failure in Iran.
« Color revolutions » are to revolutions what Canada Dry is to beer. They look like the real thing, but they lack the flavor. They are regime changes which appear to be revolutions because they mobilize huge segments of the population but are more akin to takeovers, because they do not aim at changing social structures. Instead they aspire to replace an elite with another, in order to carry out pro-American economic and foreign policies. The « green revolution » in Tehran is the latest example of this trend.
On July 28, troops in Honduras ousted President Manuel Zelaya and flew him out of the country. Praised by the traditional left for his economic policies and social reforms, Zelaya’s alliance with Hugo Chavez and growing relationship with the ALBA countries were sharply rebuked by the more conservative sectors which also disapproved of his periodic attacks on the United States. From Costa Rica, Zelaya declared: “This was a plot by a very voracious elite, which wants to keep this country in an extreme level of poverty!”. However, it seems improbable that the Honduran elite would have toppled the democratically-elected president without Washington’s prior consent and support, despite assurances to the contrary.
En remettant en question la présence militaire US à Soto Cano et en adhérant à l’ALBA, le Honduras a suscité la colère de Washington. Des militaires formés à l’École des Amériques et encadrés par des conseillers US ont renversé le président constitutionnel Manuel Zelaya et ont installé à sa place son rival de toujours au sein du parti libéral, Roberto Micheletti. Thierry Meyssan revient sur les enjeux de cette confrontation qui marque la volonté de l’administration Obama de reprendre en main l’Amérique latine.
“Not even the « jobless recovery » many experts are trying to make us believe in. In the United States, United Kingdom, Eurozone and Japan, it is a « recoveryless recovery » we must expect, i.e. a pure invention aimed at convincing US and UK insolvent consumers to start buying again and keeping US T-Bonds’ and UK Gilts’ country purchasers waiting as long as possible (until they decide that there is really no future selling their products to the lands of the US Dollar and British Pound.”
As anticipated by LEAP/E2020 as early as October 2008, on the eve of summer 2009, the question of the US and UK capacity to finance their unbridled public deficits has become the central question of international debates, thus paving the way for these two countries to default on their debt by the end of this summer.
Israelis are realists par excellence. This is why it is always gainful to buttonhole an Israeli counterpart over a single-malt on the diplomatic circuit. He will invariably weave into the tapestry of the plain tale a nylon thread until then obscure to the naked eye. Read the rest of this entry »
·President Hu made a 4-point proposal for tackling the financial crisis at BRIC summit.
·BRIC countries should try to take lead in recovering from the financial crisis, Hu said.
·BRIC countries shoul push forward the reform of international financial system.
YEKATERINBURG, Russia, June 16 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Hu Jintao Tuesday presented a four-point proposal for dealing with the ongoing global financial crisis at the first summit meeting of BRIC countries which groups Brazil, Russia, India and China.
In These New Times 