U.S. Leadership’s Tradition v. History’s Truth

Middle East: U.S. Meddling, Disparaging, Interminable Crises

Presidential lies and blame

Lie and Blame the Other Guy

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.S. President Donald Trump’s Cabinet Meeting October 21, 2019

…[W]e’ll work something out with the Kurds so that they have some money, they have some cash flow.  Maybe we’ll get one of our big oil companies to go in and do it properly.  But they’ll have some cash flow, which they basically don’t have right now.  Everybody is fighting.  It’s not a big oil area, but everybody is fighting for whatever there is.  So we have a lot of good things going over there, and they’re going very well.…”

“As you know, most of the ISIS fighters that we captured — ‘we.’  We.  Not Obama.  We.  … ♦ Me.  …

We helped the Kurds.  Everyone said the Kurds helped us; that’s true.  But we helped the Kurds.  They’re no angels, but we helped the Kurds.”

[But] “We never gave the Kurds a commitment that we’d stay for the next 400 years and protect them. …   [N]obody ever committed, ‘Gee, if you do this, we’re going to do that, and we’re going to stay with you forever.’ …”  

“Where’s an agreement that said we have to stay in the Middle East for the rest of humanity, for the rest of civilization, to protect the Kurds?”

U

.S. President Donald Trump’s Northern Syria remarks on the “Situation in Northern Syria” October 23, 2019

“We’ve secured the oil, and, therefore, a small number of U.S. troops will remain in the area where they have the oil.  And we’re going to be protecting it, and we’ll be deciding what we’re going to do with it in the future.

“Turkey, Syria, and all forms of the Kurds, have been fighting for centuries.  We have done them a great service, and we’ve done a great job for all of them.

“…It was supposed to be a very quick hit and let’s get out.  And it was a quick hit, except they stayed for almost 10 years. …

“American forces defeated 100 percent of the ISIS caliphate during the last two years.… Now Turkey, Syria, and others in the region must work to ensure that ISIS does not regain any territory.  It’s their neighborhood; they have to maintain it. …

“… As a backup to the Kurds watching over them, should something happen, Turkey is there to grab them.”

“…we’re leaving.

“…Let someone else fight over this long-bloodstained sand.”

Other Views in the News

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T reporting from Northern Syria October 23, 2019

Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin and President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday this week “held lengthy talks in Russia’s resort of Sochi (and came) up with an agreement regarding northeast Syria.

“As a result of the deal, Turkish military incursion dubbed ‘Operation Peace Spring’ has effectively come to an end, while Syrian troops and Russian military police are set to deploy to much of the Syrian-Turkish border. Kurdish-led militias – which Ankara believes to have strong ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – are to be fully withdrawn from a 30-kilometer (19-mile) strip along the border.”

 

Historical Context, Depth, Insight

U.S. Character and Continuance in Middle East Crises

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rofessor Norman Finkelstein in conversation with Renegade Inc

“The long history of foreign policies of the U.S and Britain are integral to how the history of the Middle East has evolved over time.

‘You have to look at it over a long period. You cannot pretend as if the situation that has befallen the Middle East – the past say, decade – is divorced from systems … that were set up by the British when they came to the Middle East …, (climaxing) in the mess you have now because they set up all these autocracies – self-serving corrupt regimes’

“This set a reaction among competing capitalism(s) culminating in the contemporary domination of the region by the U.S.

‘You can’t understand Iran without understanding the coup orchestrated by the United States in Iran in 1953.

‘You can’t understand Saddam unless you see that the US supported Saddam during the war with Iran from 1980 to 1988.

‘…One has to accept the fact that the climax of that foreign first intervention then interference is what we’re experiencing right now. This is the result of that whole corrupt system’

And there’s this

“White Man’s Burden”

“The contextual analysis outlined by Finkelstein is largely lost on a Western political and media establishment guided by morally paternalistic concepts akin to Kipling’s ‘White Man’s Burden’:

“‘There’s a feeling like we did them a favor and they blew it’”— this idea found in a post-U.S. Iraq War book by U.S. Ivy Leaguer Arab Foyad Ajami, The Foreigners Gift, whose title suggests “‘We came in, we ended the tyranny of Saddam Hussein and then they blew it. We gave them a gift and they blew it because, Arabs are so incompetent and stupid.’

“Underpinning this notion of imperialistic paternalism is a form of authoritarianism with a moral obligation at its core predicated on hubris and arrogance that’s devoid of responsibility.”  The “imperialist-colonial mindset:

‘These are lesser peoples and they’re basically incompetent – not very bright.’

 “In order to counter this, says Finkelstein:

 ‘You set up some sort of benign dictatorship which looks to the West for its inspiration.

‘… [T]hey’re not there to set up democratic regimes but regimes that are enthralled to the west. ‘They then justify it in their minds on the grounds that, ‘Well, that’s the best you can hope for from people like that.’

‘[T]hey also believe that these Middle Eastern types are African types who are completely incompetent.

‘Left to their own devices, they’re going to mess everything up because that’s just their nature.’”

“Then there are the pragmatic achievements of the west’s adversaries:

‘(People like … Nasrallah (the head of the Hezbollah) …, an extremely smart guy, very focused…; the only leader in the world from whose speeches you actually learn things’…

‘It begins with the Koranic verses and allegories; then, around one-quarter of the way through he starts with facts and analysis.

‘You could see he’s a guy who is using his time to educate. And you feel there is somebody who has pride in being Arab and Muslim.

‘I’m not a believer but I think there’s something to be said at the end of the day about human dignity and being’”

Sources

“Remarks by President Trump in Cabinet Meeting” Issued on: October 21, 2019 Cabinet Room

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-cabinet-meeting-15/

Remarks by President Trump on the Situation in Northern Syria” (Foreign Policy) Issued on: October 23, 2019 Diplomatic Reception Room https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-situation-northern-syria/

RT “‘Thanks Russia!’ — Kurdish military chief welcomes Russian peacekeeping patrols” October 23, 2019 https://www.rt.com/news/471674-kurds-abdi-shoigu-russia-thanks/

Renegade Inc Renegade TV Segment “Labouring Under Antisemitism”

Politics: renowned U.S political scientist, academic, activist and author, Professor Norman Finkelstein in conversation with Renegade Inc. https://renegadeinc.com/labouring-under-antisemitism/

Renegade Inc. is a mainstream media platform that “creates and broadcasts content aimed at those who think differently. Its mission is to inform, illuminate and inspire, focusing initially on three sectors: entrepreneurship, self-learning and the arts.”

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