Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Iraq: three kinds of blowback and the threat of war stoked by western meddling

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Iraq: three kinds of blowback and the threat of war stoked by western meddling

Click here to access article by John Rees from Stop the War Coalition (Britain).

The current crisis in Iraq is a direct consequence not only of the war of 2003 and the occupation that followed it but of Western foreign policy in Syria and the longer timescale of intervention in the Middle East.

Rees's analysis covers the long history of capitalist ruling classes trying to control the Middle East because of its vast oil and gas resources, but he seems to suggest that many of their policies had unintended consequences or "blowbacks". While many of the events as a consequence of their "meddling" may be, and have been, unanticipated, I argue that their overall effect is, and was, intentional: to keep Arabs and the Iranians killing each other and generally destabilizing all these governments so that they never pose a threat to Western capitalists who want to exploit their resources.