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

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Operation Tomahawk The Caliph

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times Online.

Because the directors of the Empire like to play to its home crowd in themes of morality, humanitarianism, and rule of law, the twists and turns of their imperial ploys often require rather absurd twists and turns in their propaganda. Then we have Escobar who can smell hypocrisy miles away, and loves to ridicule it wherever he finds it. With directors like those running the Empire, he has no difficulty satisfying his love of ridicule. He feasts on the abundance of hypocritical newspeak that these directors must serve to their home subjects in order to appear as humanitarian cooks.
The Obama administration's unison newspeak is that Khorasan includes former al-Qaeda assets not only from across the Middle East - including al-Qaeda in Iraq and Jabhat al-Nusra - but also Pakistan, as in an ultra-hardcore extension of the Pakistani Taliban.

What a mess. Al-Qaeda in Iraq is the embryo of ISIS, which turned into IS. Jabhat al-Nusra is the al-Qaeda franchise in Syria, approved by CEO Ayman al-Zawahiri. Both despise each other, and yet Khorasan holds the merit of bundling Caliph's goons and al-Qaeda goons together. Additionally, for Washington Jabhat al-Nusra tend to qualify as "moderate" jihadis - almost like "our bastards". Too messy? No problem; when in doubt, bomb everybody.
 
If ridicule is not your "thing", then read a more conventional report by Tony Cartalucci on the same subject. Some will argue that Escobar's article is more effective.