U.S. Slave Regimes In the Middle East

November 28, 2011

One of the measures the Pakistanis took after the deadly weekend U.S. bombing of their outpost was the immediate closure of the Shamsi airstrip in Baluchistan used by the CIA to launch drone attacks.

That airstrip was originally built with money from the United Emirates and used for the Emirs' hunting pleasure vacations. After 2001 it was turned over to the U.S. which used it for drone operations.

The U.S. is still trying to keep it that way:

President Asif Ali Zardari has rejected a request by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to let United States continue using the Shamsi air base until the completion of the Nato attack probe […]

The request was made by the foreign minister of the UAE, during a meeting with the President in Islamabad.
…
The Shamsi air base, had originally been leased to the UAE, and later its control was handed over to the US as the war on terror was launched in Afghanistan.

Interesting here is how the U.S. is using one of its colonial regimes in the Middle East to push its policies in a country outside of the region.

It obviously ordered the UAE government to go to Pakistan and to ask for continued access to the base. By following through on that request those UAE regents showed that they have no independent policy, no real pride and no concern for their fellows in Pakistan.

If anyone ever doubted that those Middle East rulers the U.S. calls "friends" are actually little more than slaves this should settle it.

All they have is money. Independence they have not.

Posted by b on November 28, 2011 at 19:49 UTC | Permalink

Comments

UAE hunting vacations in Pakistan?
from Dawn article on wikileaks, Jun 28, 2011:
“Interestingly, the meeting between Sheikh Mohammad and Gen Abizaid [CG-Centcom] also revealed that the UAE already had been using drone technology “since the first Gulf War” and that the US had asked for the deployment of a squadron of the UAE`s own Seeker II drones to Afghanistan.
[snip]
“The July 28, 2004 cable – which is classified so as not to be shared with even friendly foreign governments – also indicates the level of military cooperation between the US and UAE. In it Gen Abizaid is noted as having thanked Sheikh Mohammad “for the UAE`s strong support for coalition operations in Afghanistan, singling out the UAE special operations deployment for special praise”. It is not clear which special operations UAE forces were involved in Afghanistan.”
http://www.dawn.com/2011/06/28/secret-us-cables-accessed-by-dawn-through-wikileaks-uae-wanted-armed-predator-drones-in-2004.html

Posted by: Don Bacon | Nov 28 2011 22:13 utc | 1

These drone strikes are war crimes. Period. Not only are innocents being slaughtered, but the ostensible goal of wiping out the “terrorists” will not and cannot be achieved using these methods.
I can think of no more effective means of radicalizing a population than to mow down women and children with these ridiculous drones. Where’s the outrage from Americans at these cowardly acts?

Posted by: Cynthia | Nov 28 2011 23:16 utc | 2

Another concept, immoral illegal gift, from the Israeli’s who started all this with their ‘Targetted Killings’ in Gaza and the West Bank. Simply extrajudicial executions with incidental ‘collateral’ and unquestionably crimes. And the Rule of Law ?

Posted by: Outraged | Nov 28 2011 23:31 utc | 3

Russia threatens to cut off NATO supply route
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64593

Posted by: nikon | Nov 29 2011 0:27 utc | 4

@ Nikon
Predicted precisely this and the other probable follow-on consequences in the other thread

Posted by: Outraged | Nov 29 2011 1:55 utc | 5

You know, I keep hearing the recurring theme that there will be blow back for all this death and destruction that has been leveled by Western Armed forces, but is that necessarily a correct assumption? For example, where’s the blow back from the Vietnamese? Estimates are, the U.S. killed 3-5 million of them, many of them innocent children, women and men, and yet here we are, thirty some odd years later, and no noteworthy blow back from the Vietnamese.

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Nov 29 2011 1:57 utc | 6

@ Cynthia
In fact America has been carrying out extrajudicial killings, training and sponsoring other states and actors for so long its depressing to even go into the list or scope … the public has never stopped or prevented it and drones are simply the latest technological advancement/refinement of a historical ‘Deep State’ policy … 🙁

Posted by: Outraged | Nov 29 2011 2:00 utc | 7

The fact that the Yankees had to beg their UAE satraps to grovel to the Pakis on their behalf suggests that the doors of communication between US and Pakistan have been slammed shut. If so, the Yankees have only themselves to blame if they find themselves on the receiving end of a Paki version of the cretinous Bush dictum “We don’t talk to ter’rists.”
……….
A footnote to TomDisptch’s Nov 13 article informs readers that Andrew Bacevich has edited a Harvard Press book called
The Short American Century.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Nov 29 2011 2:09 utc | 8

@ Morocco Bama
9/11 was ‘Blowback’, the current effective expulsion of America from Latin America is ‘Blowback’, the contempt the Chinese hold behind closed doors, behind the diplomatic mask is ‘Blowback’, Russia’s attitude to the farce of a ‘Reset’ is ‘Blowback’, etc. As the empire declines, the ‘Blowback’ will be even worse in ways we probably cannot foresee … there won’t be a ‘Marshall Plan’ for the US from the rest of the world whence it inevitably needs it and when the time comes its subservient and loyal former vassal states will likely ‘Blowback’ with a vengeance.

Posted by: Outraged | Nov 29 2011 2:11 utc | 9

@ Outraged #9
Excellent.
And it’s happening in more ways than we’d cared to know. Indirectly and assymetrically.

Posted by: easy e | Nov 29 2011 3:13 utc | 10

@10, no, that’s not excellent, and these are not examples of blowback by any means. However, Outrage’s last sentence is a nice taunt to make people get off the fence and choose sides….or tribes, if you will. Since I now know the Chinese, the Russians, the Middle Easterners and the myriad others around the globe want to wipe me from the face of the earth because I am a U.S. citizen, it makes the decision rather easy, doesn’t it? I have to go with my own tribe, as much as I hate it, because it’s now a matter of Simian Survival, and as Outrage has just indicated, we know where all the tribes stand. I suppose I have no choice but to support their annihilation before they annihilate me and my family, even though I have advocated on their behalf all the way up to this point, and opposed my own tribe. I’m certainly not going to lay my life on the line for people who despise me and want to annihilate me, anyway. I suppose this means I will also have to take a strong, critical stance against any further immigration into the U.S., whether it be legal, or not, because according to Outrage’s logic, they are all enemies at this point, and if annihilation is the end game, then let’s get it on, and blow the whole fucking thing to smithereens.
It’s nice to know it’s this simple, and this is where it stands.

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Nov 29 2011 12:14 utc | 11

As for me, I’d love to see the bullies on the block receive their pay-back, no matter what tribe they belong to. Up to now, the only ones receiving any pay-back are the peons doing the bidding of those calling the shots. And thus it will always be, but, I’m waiting.

Posted by: ben | Nov 29 2011 15:24 utc | 12

@12, of course, so would I, but that’s not what Outrage is saying. Outrage is saying that you and I are going to be annihilated because we are considered in league with the “bullies.” Of course, there are no bullies in China, Russia and the Middle East…..the folks running those countries, and the countries of the Middle East are benevolent altruists who would give you the shirts off their backs, if only the big bad U.S. would let them.

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Nov 29 2011 15:34 utc | 13

Wasn’t the UAE along with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan the only three contires to recognise the Taliban? So in effect they (UAE)were forced to realise their folly and now work even harder as a subservient puppet then ever before. Be sure, that the Sauids wont be far behind pressurising Paidistan.

Posted by: Irshad | Nov 29 2011 15:41 utc | 14

@ easy e
Excellent ? To continue current policies and attempt to maintain the flailing empire will only result in further unnecessary death and destruction, for what ?
@Morocco Bama
my comments are in a geostrategic context. Not about tribes.
As a matter of formal policy we’ve been stealing and exploiting other peoples resources for our exclusive benefit for more than a century. Its all documented quite clearly in our own declassified records. As needed and sometimes when not we have killed, maimed, tortured, imprisoned countless ‘others’, using whatever means available and made a mockery of the constitution and Rule of Law, and always for the benefit of a corporatist elite.
The empire is in decline, and if we don’t change policies and therefore the results of those policies soon and find a new place in this world, instead of an essentially militaristic Götterdämmerung approach since Bush jr, well, sow the seeds, reap the whirlwind.
Pick sides, support your tribe and go down fighting ? Hm, that worked well for the Third Reich didn’t it … more death, destruction and horror in the last year of WWII than the 4 years preceding its end.
Change the policies, remove the ‘Deep State’, wind back the expansionist neo-colonialism going back a century and change the equation, thereby changing ‘others’ view, and diminish or avoid the otherwise inevitable consequences.

Posted by: Outraged | Nov 29 2011 16:27 utc | 15

@15, my post was a sarcastic slippery slope of what you presented, meaning that it’s not wise to spit in the face of allies in this quest to neutralize Power. When it comes to allies in this quest, I don’t think in terms of Nation-States……I think in terms of the Human Race, so when you say “there won’t be a ‘Marshall Plan’ for the US from the rest of the world whence it inevitably needs it and when the time comes its subservient and loyal former vassal states will likely ‘Blowback’ with a vengeance,” it gets my dander up, because it precludes any chance of solidarity across Nation-State boundaries in this quest to eliminate tyranny in all its manifest forms.

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Nov 29 2011 16:34 utc | 16

Start the change by pressuring the US Congress to pass a constitutional amendment making corporations non-persons with no first amendment rights! Help your local Occupy group!

Posted by: Jake | Nov 29 2011 16:59 utc | 17

@ MB

“Damn, damn, damn the Filipinos!
Cut throat khaki ladrones!
Underneath the starry flag,
Civilize them with a Krag,
And return us to our beloved home.”

Its US government policies and the results of those policies, outrageous hypocrisy and duplicity that other nations peoples abhor, not the average joe, however they have some difficulty understanding why american citizens allow/permit it to continue, all the same …
Change the policies, change the outcome.

Posted by: Outraged | Nov 29 2011 17:07 utc | 18

First of all, it’s not my Congressman, and secondly, yes, of course, it’s policy, but it’s much more than that. What kind of monsters create such policy? And you want these monsters to now change that? How would you go about that without utilizing the corrupt, and corruptible, System that promulgates the monsters that formulate the policies that further support and enable the System to create and promulgate even more monsters so they can do the same.
No, it’s much more than changing policies, at this point….so much more.

Posted by: Morocco Bama | Nov 29 2011 17:18 utc | 19

“9/11 was ‘Blowback'” Outraged #9
No it wasn’t. 9/11 was an undeniable false flag op staged by Mossad and their co-conspirators in the United States government who claim American citizenship while working diligently and exclusively for the interests of Zionist Jew Israel.
Any other explanation doesn’t fit the facts as we know them.

Posted by: arthurdecco | Nov 30 2011 0:17 utc | 20

Morocco Bama, #19 “…of course, it’s policy, but it’s much more than that. What kind of monsters create such policy? And you want these monsters to now change that? How would you go about that without utilizing the corrupt, and corruptible, System that promulgates the monsters that formulate the policies that further support and enable the System to create and promulgate even more monsters so they can do the same.
No, it’s much more than changing policies, at this point….so much more.”
Succinctly said.
Now, what can we DO about it? I’m at a loss, not being willing to murder people to further my own preferred view of the future like so many other people seem to be these days…

Posted by: arthurdecco | Nov 30 2011 0:25 utc | 21

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