25 February 2014

The State Department Game Concerning Language: Honduras, Egypt, Central and East Africa

The government rarely wants to specifically or openly endorse the overthrow of another government. To declare 'regime change' is a posture of war. Bush did it, but diplomats cringed. You only do something like that if you're ready to start shooting. These things are best done quietly especially if the reasons behind it are not something you really want to talk about.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jul/01/honduras-zelaya-coup-obama

This also happened in Egypt. Sometimes the government can support a coup while officially not endorsing it.

There are other times when the US projects certain values pertaining to Human Rights and yet is allied with regimes that systematically violate them. You can be sure the media won't cover it and if they do, it will be spun.

Other times there are countries that grow sick and tired of the hypocrisy. The United States has long worked through the Egyptian military. This dates back to Sadat and the rise of Mubarak. But now Al-Sisi who will likely become the new leader may turn his back on the United States. After almost forty years of meddling, the Egyptian military may have had enough. Time will tell, but Egypt may turn to Russia. Getting a backbone can be awfully dangerous. Egyptian generals can easily be replaced.

Putin has no designs on Egypt or stirring up the Middle East but he'd sure like to stick his finger in America's eye. They've given him every reason to.


This would prove a stunning blow to the US-Israel front. The Camp David Accords have been the backbone of the stability (albeit shaky) of the Middle East. There can't be a major anti-Israel war without Egypt in the game. In 1979 Sadat pulled them out and lost his life for it.

The militarists in Washington are having Jimmy Carter flashbacks. Carter likewise 'pulled back' from some of America's relationships in Africa and other parts of the world. He wasn't overly impressed with some of the relationships his predecessors had cultivated. The United States was tight with some very nasty regimes.

I'm afraid morality has little place in the rough and tumble world of geo-politics. Machiavelli and Kaplan's pagan ethos are what is required to run an empire.


Of course such a pagan ethos (which would include a Constantinian mindset) is incompatible with the Kingdom mandate. Christians cannot hold these powers and retain any modicum of integrity. If a Christian actually became president (which I contend is not possible) and actually tried to bring an end to the bloodshed and criminality, he would quickly suffer a heart attack or perhaps die in a plane crash. Whatever the method, he wouldn't last long.

Since the end of the Cold War the United States has looked to nations like Uganda, Kenya, and later Ethiopia and Rwanda to fulfill its policy goals in the Central and East Africa.

The Christian Right has won a victory in Uganda. President Museveni has signed anti-gay legislation and has placed the US State Department in an awkward situation. If past is precedent, some noise will be made but little will be done. This was the pattern followed during most of the 1980's with regard to South Africa. Every once in awhile someone in the State Department will speak out about Saudi Arabia, but the criticisms are empty and hollow.

But...Obama may follow the Carter path and pull back a little from Uganda. And yet like Carter even a president is limited in what he can do. There are too many forces at work...corporate, intelligence and military that are already dependent on the Ugandan relationship.

Sometimes it seems like the spokespersons make the news, but the Empire marches on even if the corporate media turns a blind eye.

Speaking of the corporate media, they've done their utmost in failing to cover what is really happening in East Africa. Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia are all being used by the United States in this war which is only partly about Al Qaeda. There are bigger things at stake like trade, resources and geopolitics.

But what is most striking by reading some of these articles, and some of them are several years old is that this will only generate more Blowback.

Enemies are being made and in some cases the problems are being agitated by blunders. Obama's administration is taking out people with little accountability. The rest of the world is taking note, but the American public knows little about it unless it somehow fits in with the FOX coverage regarding Benghazi or Bill O'Reilly's Super bowl interview with Obama.

Bush's team completely bungled their Somali plan, ran out the democratically elected government (the first in decades) and then realized these 'Islamists' weren't the same as the Al Qaeda brand of Islamism and worked to re-install them.

Can you even imagine how Americans would react if other nations were toppling state governments, assassinating citizens, kidnapping people off the streets, launching drone strikes, stealing resources etc....?

All things to consider. It's all being done in our name.






 

 

 

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