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

Sunday, September 28, 2014

A Too Complicated Game: Obama's Deals With The Saudis And Al-Nusra

Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama.
According to the Wall Street Journal Obama made a deal with the Saudis. They will lend legitimacy for his attacks against the Islamic State and AlQaeda in Syria (aka Jabhat al-Nusra) and he will later overthrow the Syrian government under president Assad. Like the Saudi prince Bandar, who nurtured the Jihadists, was ousted over it, but is now back in the deal, the neocon editors of The Economist are doing victory jumps. They managed to get the U.S. back into their war. Hurray!
Like most political analysts, Bernhard assigns too much agency to Obama, and the latter's concerns about the next elections, instead of a deep state functioning behind him and giving him instructions. I also doubt that Bandar (formerly known as "Bandar-Bush") was ever really ousted; it is far more likely that he was intentionally dropped out of public sight in order to organize ISIS.
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