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Ending The U.S. Presence In Middle East
The Biden administration, in its utter stupidity, is launching a(nother) full fledged war throughout the Middle East.
U.S. launches retaliatory strikes after deadly attack on Jordan base – Washington Post – Feb 3, 2024
The operation, targeting numerous sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian forces and its affiliates, followed the killing of American troops last weekend
> U.S. forces launched a broad attack against Iran’s powerful military wing and affiliated militias in Iraq and Syria on Friday, delivering a blow to armed groups that Washington has blamed for killing American troops in Jordan and a surge of violence across the Middle East. <
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Daniel McAdams @DanielLMcAdams – 11:01 UTC · Feb 3, 2024
The Biden Administration just literally just blew up all the weapons of the Iraqi brigade that was fighting ISIS!
Let that sink in…
Hawkeye1812Z @Hawkeye1745 22:09 UTC · Feb 2, 2024
🇺🇸💥🇮🇶Footage shows the explosions of the headquarters of the Anbar Operation Command & the headquarters of the 13th Hashd al-Sha’bi Brigade, after it was targeted by US raids, in the Anbar province of Iraq
That is is unit which is fighting ISIS … 🤔
Embedded video
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Secretary Antony Blinken @SecBlinken – 21:01 UTC · Feb 2, 2024
I am returning to the Middle East this coming week to continue working with our partners on how to achieve durable peace in the region, with lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
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President Biden @POTUS – 22:45 UTC · Feb 2, 2024
Today, at my direction, U.S. military forces struck targets in Iraq and Syria that the IRGC and affiliated militia use to attack U.S. forces.
We do not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world.
But to all those who seek to do us harm: We will respond.
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Elijah J. Magnier @ejmalrai – 14:11 UTC · Feb 3, 2024
The US: We don't want to escalate the war in the ME, but we bombed Yemen & killed 10 Yemenis, we bombed Syria & Iraq & killed 16 Iraqis, 7 Syrians, but please de-escalate coz we will bomb you more in the coming days. In the meantime we are sending bombs to Israel to bomb Gaza.
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In 2020, after the U.S. assassination of General Qassam Suleimani, the leadership of Iran announced that, in consequence, the U.S. presence in the Middle East will be ended. Iran and its allies have since diligently prepared themselves to achieve that aim.
The hot phase of the process itself was initiated primarily by Hamas on October 7 (which followed the October 2 desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Zionist settlers). The secondary and tertiary steps were launched by Ansarollah in Yemen and Kataib Hizbullah in Iraq.
In each cases the U.S. and its Israeli proxy responded with harsh escalations.
It was the biggest mistake they could make.
agitpapa @agitpapa – 15:07 UTC · Feb 3, 2024
Harakat al Nujaba PMF declares that it will not be defeated or subdued by US airstrikes and vows to teach the US humility with fire, says it has surprises in store.
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Syrian military statement: US occupation cannot persist – Al Mayadeen – Feb 3, 2024
In its statement, Syria's military emphasizes that the US is working on reviving ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
> The statement also affirmed that the Syrian army will continue to defend Syria's land and people, and strike all terrorist groups, regardless of how much their sponsors and supporters try to obstruct this goal. It added that it is determined to liberate the entire Syrian territory from all terrorism and occupation, including the US occupation which "cannot persist." <
The Axis of Resistance is present throughout the Middle East. It has its own economic and social networks. It produces its own weapons and its fighters are well trained to fight under the local circumstances. This is an enemy the U.S. can not defeat.
As Aaron Maté explains:
These groups’ decision to strike US forces in response to the Gaza genocide follows a well-entrenched pattern of resisting joint US-Israeli aggression, or what the Journal describes as efforts to “push back against American and Israeli influence” in the Middle East. And contrary to US claims that Iran’s main regional allies – Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ansar Allah in Yemen (the Houthis), the PMU in Iraq, Hamas/Islamic Jihad in Palestine, and the Syrian government — are all mere Iranian “proxies”, these groups “have domestic agendas of their own and operate with some measure of autonomy,” the Journal notes. US intelligence analyst Brian Katz concurs. Iran’s allies “are no longer simply Iranian proxies,” Katz writes. “Rather, they have become a collection of ideologically aligned, militarily interdependent, mature political-military actors committed to mutual defence.”
The conflict has boiling on a low flame for some time:
As the Washington Post notes, Iranian allies in the region “began targeting U.S. interests in 2018, after then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran” as part of a hawkish policy of “maximum pressure.” Rather than return to the Iran nuclear deal upon taking office in January 2021, Biden continued the Trump agenda – and knowingly endangered US troops in the process.
When Biden “ordered airstrikes on militia groups” in Syria, the Washington Post reported in August 2021, that ended up “sparking a fresh cycle of reciprocal violence, with militiamen firing at a facility housing U.S. troops and American forces responding with artillery fire.” Biden’s support for Israeli aggression against Syria yielded the same result. When a drone strike hit a US military base located in southern Syria in October 2021, US and Israeli officials acknowledged that it was “Iranian retaliation for Israeli airstrikes in Syria,” the New York Times reported.
In launching and encouraging attacks on Iranian allies in the region, Biden was pursuing an arrangement that he forged with the Israeli government In August 2021, then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged Biden to pursue “a death by a thousand cuts” strategy, in which the US and Israel would “[counter] Iran through a combination of many small actions across several fronts — both military and diplomatic — instead of a single dramatic strike,” Axios reported. The goal would be to put Iran’s “regional aggression” – a euphemism for resisting US-Israeli hegemony – “back in the box.” Toward that goal, one of Bennett’s key requests was that “Biden not to pull U.S. forces out of Iraq and Syria,” which the Israeli delegation felt quite “optimistic” about. In Biden, Bennett gushed, “I found a leader who loves Israel, knows exactly what he wants and is attuned to our needs.”
In opposite to those plans it is the Resistance which is using small and increasingly larger cuts to eliminate, over time, the U.S. presence in the Middle East. It is dead serious.
As Aleks of Black Mountain Analysis writes:
I would like to ask you now to understand the following: It is not what I want or my opinion; it is the ice-cold reality: On October 7th, a war was started by the Axis of Resistance. It was started against both Israel and the Western occupation of the Middle East. As stated above, it will not end before all occupation forces are out of the Middle East, the Two State Solution has been implemented in Israel, or all people in the Middle East are dead … period.
I have no emotions here; I’m not invested in the region. This is a logical assessment of what is currently happening in the region. It is not going to stop until one of the scenarios is implemented.
Other interested powers are already positioning themselves for a new situation in the Middle East.
Give it two, three or maybe even five years. But the envisioned results WILL be achieved.
1/ “…Neither of these is a modern all out war. These are both deliberately contained conflicts that both sides wish to avoid escalating into all out war.” Honzo | Feb 3 2024 19:26 utc | 100
That might just be what, in an age of nuclear proliferation, ‘modern all out wars’ have to be. Or to put in in another way: in an age of nuclear weapons war involving their usage-all out war- is impossible.
2/”…Populations never instigate change, they react to it…” Patroklos | Feb 3 2024 20:00 utc | 107
This is generally true. And has been historically. It bears on your discussion with Ahenobarbus above.
And you are, in a sense, both right: Ahenobarbus to insist that the ruling clasas has no mandate from the people for its policies. You in arguing that this does not amount to active or even latent opposition by the working class to the policies of the ruling class- their unrecognised enemy.
I would add two points to put this into context.
The first is that we live in an era in which the imploding of capitalism has the, often unrecognised, effect, of corrupting and collapsing the working class-potentially revolutionary- institutions which grew up within and around the dominant system. The obvious example being the Trade Unions which no longer work under the Wagner Act/Trade Disputes Act rules. The economy, with its precarities and gig delivery and warehouse jobs replacing the regular, often Unionised and always conditioned by Union contracts in their wages and conditions work in full time careers.
But it is equally true of the other working class institutions, from co-operatives to Labour Parties which grew up from and around the Unions. These institutions, particularly the reform parties, played important roles in shaping not just society but the parameters of political power within which the ruling class could operate.
Such things as pensions, free education, healthcare, both public and individual health sectors and the provision of social housing and the expectation of full employment, reduced the capacity of the ruling class to rule, just as strong unions in the factories and workshops reduced the powers of management.
In the era of de-industrialisation and neo-liberalism all the institutions, including that of
popular political education have rotted away- in the Imperial heartlands, which are also the old industrial countries.
Sixty years ago, while working class opposition to imperialist aggression could not be taken for granted it was always not much further away than a well organised locally based political campaign. That was certainly the story of the way in which opposition to US policies in SE Asia, developed: working people understood, from their experiences, as a class, as families, in the 1930s and the War, that the ruling class was not to be trusted and that constant vigilance was needed to curb their malign selfishness.
Such were the political bases of the mass parties and the mass movements, the CND in the UK for example and the recurring outbreak of political and “wildcat” strikes. Not to mention the proliferation of neo-communist political factions and ‘parties’ which for all their many faults mobilised significant sections of the people as they passed through the rrvolving doors of International Socialism, The Workers Revolutionary party, Militant and the various youth leagues (all examples from the UK)
The second point that I would make, after another morning of working to enrol public support for a Ceasefire in Gaza, is that the preconditions for the re-foundation of a radical mass movement, rooted in the masses themselves (and consequently inoculated against the sectarianism, egoism and careerism which had come to overwhelm, alongside historical developments, the “left’, reformism and the unions)
are more obvious than they have ever been. A few aspects of the situation which make this time particularly promising are popular use of and access to social media and computer technology (with or without the net), a greatly advanced level of general education including a widespread cynicism of the ruling class control of the media. And an understanding- from a point of view that is close to classic anarchism- of the limitations and dangers of the State. Finally the best aspect of feminism is that it has, truly liberated, half of the population from the informal but powerful rule that politics is best left to the ‘guys.’ Indeed in the modern situation the membership and leadership of groups like ours organising opposition to genocide is equally if not more likely to be organised and led by women.
I see that I have taken up an inordinate amount of space again! My apologies but sometimes discussing matters in depth saves an enormous amount of time and energy in the end.
Posted by: bevin | Feb 3 2024 22:14 utc | 150
The Ottoman Empire succeed Timurid (“Mongol”) empire which succeed Kublai Khan. In that period, Polo classified Armenia Minor and Armenia Major provinces of Turkomania.
Bordering upon Armenia, to the south west, are the districts of Mosul and Maredin, which shall be described hereafter, and many others too numerous to particularize. To the north lies Zorzania, near the confines of which there is a fountain of oil which discharges so great a quantity as to furnish loading for many camels [2]. The use made of it is not for the purpose of food, but as an unguent for the cure of cutaneous distempers in men and cattle, as well as other complaints; and it is also good for burning. In the neigbouring country no other is used in their lamps, and people come from distant parts to procure it. [Polo:36]
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2. Springs of petroleum or earth (properly, rock) oil, are found in many parts of the world. The spring or fountain here spoken of is that of Baku in Shirvan, on the border of the Caspian. “Near to this place,” says John Cartwright, in what are termed the Preacher s Travels,” is a very strange and wonderful fountain under ground, out of which there springeth and issueth a marvellous quantity of black oyl, which serveth all parts of Persia to burn in their houses; and they usually carry it all over the country upon kine and asses, whereof you shall oftentimes meet three or four hundred in company.”—Oxford Coll. of Voyages , vol. i (vii.) p.731. Strahlenberg speaks of this as a spring of white naphtha, which he distinguishes from the black sort of bitumen; but the most satisfactory account of both white and black naphtha in this district is given by Kaempfer, in his Amoenitates Exoticae, p. 274-281.
Book II
Throughout this province there is found a sort of black stone, which they dig out of the mountains, where it runs in veins. When lighted, it burns like charcoal, and retains the fire much better than wood; insomuch that it may be pre served during the night, and in the morning be found still burn ing. These stones do not flame, excepting a little when first lighted, but during their ignition give out a considerable heat. It is true there is no scarcity of wood in the country, but the multitude of inhabitants is so immense, and their stoves and baths, which they are continually heating, so numerous, that the quantity could not supply the demand; for there is no person who does not frequent the warm bath at least three times in the week, and during the winter daily, if it is in their power. Every man of rank or wealth has one in his house for his own use; and the stock of wood must soon prove inadequate to such consumption; whereas these stories may be had in the greatest abundance, and at a cheap rate. [1]
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1. This circumstantial account of the use made by the Chinese of pit or fossil coal, at a period when its properties were so little known in Europe, will deservedly be thought an interesting record of the fact, as well as a proof of undoubted genuineness and originality on the part of our author. " Les mines de charbon de pierre sont en si grande quantite dans les provinces," says Du Halde, " qu il n y a apparemment aucun royaume au monde, ou il y en ait tant, et de si abondantes. II s en trouve sans nombre dans les montagnes des provinces de Chen-si, de Chan-si, et de Pe-che-li: aussi s en sert-on pour tous les fourneaux des ouvriers, dans les cuisines de toutes les maisons, et dans les hypocaustes des chambres qu on allume tout 1 hyver. Sans un pareil secours, ces peuples auroient peine a vivre dans des pays si froids, ou le bois de chauffage est rare, et par consequent tres-cher." (Tom. i. p. 29.) Stoves," says Staunton, " are common in large buildings. They are fed from without with fossil coal, found plentifully in the neighbourhood." Vol. ii. p. 338. [Polo:215]
The 1928 Red Line Agreement
The 1928 Group Agreement (better known as the “Red Line” Agreement) was a deal struck between several American, British, and French oil companies concerning the oil resources within territories that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire within the Middle East. The origins of the Red Line Agreement can be traced back to the initial formation of the Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC) in 1912.
STANDARD OIL COMPANY OF NEW JERSEY et al., Appts., v. UNITED STATES (1911): Taft 1909-1913
The TPC was formed as a joint venture between Royal Dutch/Shell, the Deutsche Bank, and the Turkish National Bank, in order to promote oil exploration and production within the Ottoman Empire. In March 1914, however, the British Government, which controlled the Turkish National Bank, managed to have its shares within the TPC transferred to the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. The following June, the Ottoman Grand Vizier promised an oil concession to the reconstituted TPC to develop oil fields within the Ottoman provinces of Baghdad and Mosul.
Seven Sisters
During World War I, the Allies expropriated Deutsche Bank’s share in the TPC and transferred them to the French Government during the San Remo Conference of 1920. At the time, Royal Dutch/Shell hoped that it could purchase the French Government’s shares so as to balance out Anglo-Persian’s 50% stake within the TPC. Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré of France, however, brushed aside any such suggestions, since he was determined to create an independent French oil company that could compete with major British and American oil companies, which became known collectively as the seven sisters. The seven sisters were the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (later Exxon), the Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony, later Mobil, which eventually merged with Exxon), the Standard Oil Company of California (Socal, later renamed Chevron), the Texas Oil Company (later renamed Texaco), Gulf Oil (which later merged with Chevron), Anglo-Persian (later British Petroleum), and Royal Dutch/Shell.
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Posted by: sln2002 | Feb 3 2024 22:17 utc | 151
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