America's Attack Dog
by Gary Sudborough
Sunday Jul 23rd, 2006 10:23 PM
An alternative view of Israel's attack on
Lebanon
Whenever the United States needs assistance in establishing full
military control over the oil-rich Middle East, it can always depend
on Israel, its faithful attack dog. The United States desperately
wants to control Iran. Iran is rich in oil and lies directly between
the permanent US military bases and huge fortified US embassy now
under construction in Iraq and the US and NATO bases in Afghanistan.
Also, unlike Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, Iran has a government
which does not follow Washington's orders.
Under the previous despotic police state of the Shah, Iran did
follow US desires and privatized the oil resources, allowing
American and British oil companies to make huge profits. However,
the Shah was overthrown in 1953 and Mossadegh nationalized the oil.
This is an intolerable act to the US government, so strongly
influenced by the political power of some of the richest
corporations on Earth. The CIA organized a coup which overthrew
Mossadegh and brought the Shah back to power. Naturally, the oil was
once again privatized. Unfortunately for the oil companies, the Shah
was overthrown again by a growing fundamentalist Islamic movement
led by Ayatollah Khomeini. Once again the oil was nationalized and
relations between the US and Iran have been hostile ever since that
time.
One should analyze why the nationalization of oil is so important to
the United States and to the large oil companies. When John D.
Rockefeller built his empire on oil, he realized that the most
profit could be made by having a vertical monopoly. That is, the oil
companies should own all the operations from the oil rigs through
the refineries to the distribution and sales operations. When oil is
nationalized it eliminates one of these profit-making steps and
foreign governments profit from the sale of their oil. If it is a
country like Saudi Arabia, which spends these profits on supporting
the US stock and bond markets and helping to finance the growing US
deficits caused by wars and military spending, there is little US
protest. On the contrary, if the country is Venezuela and utilizes
the sale of its nationalized oil to benefit Venezuela's poor people
by bringing them medical care, building schools, providing clean
drinking water and sanitation and elevating their standard of
living, the US government grows very upset, the CIA plans coups
against Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and a torrent of derogatory
corporate propaganda is launched against him. He becomes a
communist, another of those corporate bogeymen like terrorists.
Air America commentator Randi Rhodes believes that the reason for
the Iraq war was that Saddam Hussein intended to trade oil for Euros
instead of the dollar and also that the large oil companies wanted
to keep Iraqi oil off the market for a time to substantially
increase its price. I don't disagree with this theory, but when this
oil is eventually sold, companies like Exxon-Mobil, Shell, British
Petroleum, Chevron and others want ownership and a vertical monopoly
to increase their profits. They hate nationalized oil with a
passion.
The hostility toward Iran has nothing to do with its fundamentalist
Islamic leadership. The CIA used fundamentalist Islamic groups like
Al-Oaeda to drive the Soviet Union from Afghanistan and to fight the
Serbs in Bosnia. The US also is very friendly toward an exceedingly
fundamentalist, undemocratic regime in Saudi Arabia. The most
ridiculous thing in the world is when George W. Bush talks about
bringing democracy to the Middle East. He even lectured Vladimir
Putin about Russia becoming democratic like Iraq. Notice that when a
group which is a hindrance to US and Israeli influence comes to
power in democratic elections, as Hamas and Hezbollah did, all this
talk about democracy flies out the window.
In the spring of 2006, columnist Seymour Hersch revealed US plans
for an attack on Iran. However, the weapons of mass destruction
excuse used for the Iraq invasion was not so easily accepted by
European governments, Russia and China in relation to Iran. One can
easily see the double standard in allowing the despotic regime in
Pakistan, which came to power in a coup, to possess nuclear weapons,
while complaining and threatening sanctions and war over any nuclear
development by Iran. Of course, Pakistan follows orders from
Washington, DC and Iran does not. It makes a world of difference.
Israel has now massively bombed the cities of Lebanon, supposedly
over the capture of two Israeli soldiers. The problem is that these
captures have occurred many times in the past and have simply
resulted in prisoner exchanges with Hezbollah. What was different
this time? It is obvious that this operation had been planned long
in advance by Israel. History if full of examples of nations using
either fabricated incidents or actual minor hostilities for the
start of wars planned for completely different reasons than the
stated ones. Now, all the American news channels, especially Fox,
are blaming Hezbollah for the destruction of Lebanon and always
state that Syria and particularly Iran are backing Hezbollah. Notice
that after all the death and destruction in Lebanon, this provides
an additional excuse for either Israel or the US or both to attack
Iran and Syria besides the supposed nuclear program in Iran. Nothing
is mentioned about the large shipments of American weapons to Israel
and Turkey, only the aid to Hezbollah from Iran. In fact, the United
States has been recently shipping large numbers of bunker-busting
bombs to Israel, undoubtedly those with depleted uranium warheads,
which will add to the devastation of the region. This could escalate
to a situation where just before the congressional elections in
November, George W. Bush launches a war against Iran and depends on
American patriotism to get his Republican cronies reelected and
improve his poll ratings. I hope I am completely wrong because Iran
has some advanced weapons and could probably sink American warships.
If that happened, would the United States use nuclear weapons? It is
a very frightening scenario.
It is exceedingly ironic and sad that Israel is using two techniques
that the Nazis used against them and other occupied people in World
War II. One of these war crimes is bombing civilian infrastructure
and denying water, electricity, medical care and sanitation to
people. The other crime that was practiced by the Nazis and now by
Israel is collective punishment. All Lebanese are paying dearly for
the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah. When two Czech
exiles executed the Gestapo chief Reinhard Heydrich, also called
"Hangman Heydrich," the whole village of Lidice in Czechoslovakia
was obliterated from the face of the Earth by the Nazis. It seems
Israelis do not learn any more lessons from their own history than
do Americans. Of course, Israel denies it is attacking civilians,
just as the United States denied using white phosphorus on Fallujah
and bombing the city into rubble or torturing prisoners at
Guantanamo. These criminals and their lackeys in the corporate media
lie like they breath.
The United States is so powerful over Israel that it could end this
slaughter in Lebanon with a phone call. Israel is accomplishing aims
which are in accordance with the objectives of the administration of
George W. Bush. Notice how Condoleeza Rice is proceeding at such a
leisurely pace to the Middle East. Does anyone remember the last
time something like this happened? When Israel invaded the refugee
camps on the West Bank like Jenin and was conducting a mass
slaughter of Palestinians and bulldozing houses, Colin Powell
stalled and stalled on his way to the area in order that Israel be
allowed to accomplish all its murderous objectives. I doubt if any
Americans remember this bit of history. As Gore Vidal states: "It is
the United States of Amnesia."
When I see the world being driven to the precipice of disaster by
the greed of a very few oil barons and their responsibility for the
pictures of wounded and burned children and a thousand other crimes,
I am furious, but also despondent. I realize most people don't
understand the world as I do and are completely deceived by
corporate propaganda and the attractive news models who tell lie
after lie with a smiling face. I wonder if these corporate whores
ever think what repeating everything put in front of them is costing
their children. Probably not-that requires intelligence. I am also
depressed by the lack of outrage among people who are dissidents in
this nation. It is as if the CIA sprayed a vast cloud of valium all
over the country. There should be hundreds of thousands of people in
the streets protesting these Israeli atrocities and there aren't.
The corporate propagandists have turned reality upside down. By
their arguments, it is not the United States, Britain and Israel who
are the imperialists, but Syria, Iran and Hezbollah. Those fighting
imperialism have been transformed into imperialists. I would like to
think it is just the heat, but I am afraid Zionist propaganda has
had an effect. I would change some of the words of the Communist
Manifesto to "Working people of the world unite. Before we allow
ourselves and the environment to be destroyed and commit an
unpardonable sin against future generations."
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/07/23/18290883.php
Weapons
U.S.
Speeds Up Bomb Delivery for the Israelis
WASHINGTON, July 21 The Bush administration is rushing a
delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the
expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign
against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said
Friday.
Developments yesterday in the Middle East conflict: ISRAEL The
Israeli military massed vehicles near Lebanon痴 border. Hezbollah
rockets hit Haifa and other towns in northern Israel. LEBANON The
Lebanese defense minister said the army would resist any invasion.
Israeli warplanes hit targets throughout the country and at least 12
Lebanese were reported killed. WASHINGTON The Bush administration is
rushing precision-guided bombs to Israel at the Israelis request,
American officials said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said
she would go to Israel tomorrow and then meet Arab and European
envoys in Italy. GAZA Fighting continued, with Israeli tank fire
killing a man the Israeli military said was a Palestinian militant.
Israeli airstrikes heavily damaged a mainly Shiite section of
Beirut's suburbs.
The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with
relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the
officials said. Its disclosure threatens to anger Arab governments
and others because of the appearance that the United States is
actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign in a way that could be
compared to Iran痴 efforts to arm and resupply Hezbollah.
The munitions that the United States is sending to Israel are part
of a multimillion-dollar arms sale package approved last year that
Israel is able to draw on as needed, the officials said. But
Israel痴 request for expedited delivery of the satellite and
laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by some military
officers, and as an indication that Israel still had a long list of
targets in Lebanon to strike.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/world/middleeast/22military.html?hp&ex=1153627200&en=ccb5206208860925&ei=5094&partner=homepage
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