The Recent History of The Middle East

Sent by The Whited Mama:

 

Let's stop doing this - Iran edition

The CIA has admitted that it was behind the 1953 military coup in Iran that overthrew the government of radical nationalist Mohammad Mossadegh, and the US has declassified documents detailing how the CIA’s secret operation brought the country’s Shah back to power.  (Iran was going to nationalize the company that later became British Petroleum.) 

This led to the 1979 Iranian Revolution when Iran grew weary of our puppet. 

This led to every other Mid-East regime (with the exception of Israel) hating America. 

This was part of what led to the 9/11 terror attacks. 

This helped justify our responsibility for almost half of the world's military spending.  It "saved and created jobs" for Lockheed, Bell, General Dynamics, and scores of others. 

It gave us plenty of reasons to fund both sides of an Arms Race between Israel and everyone else in the region.  Lockheed, Bell, General Dynamics, and scores of others are quite pleased with the results. 

It created enemies that we needed protection from, hence the need for stronger "leaders". 

For the last couple of decades, Colin Powell, Condi Rice, She Whose Name Is Not Spoken, and John Freakin' Kerry have been stomping around the globe making things worse.  Our armies follow in their paths. 

Let's bring them all home.  Let's stop doing this.  Please.

First they came for the Twinkies....

You occasionally hear stories of Totalitarian regimes like Iran and China charging a "Bullet Fee" to the families of executed protesters.  They prop your kid against a wall, shoot him, and then charge Mom and Dad for the bullet. 

If you step out of line in the U.S. it's not as severe.  But they'll charge you for the chicken nuggets. 

The food police at West Hoke Elementary School looked at a 4-year-old's homemade lunch, declared it to be counter-revolutionary, and made the girl eat some chicken nuggets (she ate three of them). 

Yes, you are paying for food police. 
Yes, if your child goes to a government school, they're looking at the lunch you pack for them. 
Yes, they have nothing better to do. 
Yes, the children they're harassing are going to be paying for the Food Nazi's retirement and pension programs for a long, long time. 

The little girl's family was charged $1.25 for the chicken nuggets.  Why the breaded chicken nuggets were superior to the turkey sandwich that Mom packed, well, that remains a mystery. 

While the mother and grandmother thought the potato chips and lack of vegetable were what disqualified the lunch, a spokeswoman for the Division of Child Development said that should not have been a problem.


“With a turkey sandwich, that covers your protein, your grain, and if it had cheese on it, that’s the dairy,” said Jani Kozlowski, the fiscal and statutory policy manager for the division. “It sounds like the lunch itself would’ve met all of the standard.” The lunch has to include a fruit or vegetable, but not both, she said.

There are no clear restrictions about what additional items — like potato chips — can be included in preschoolers’ lunch boxes.

I'm dealing with a similar situation at work.  The fire inspector doesn't want to see pallets stored inside the warehouse; the environmental inspector doesn't want them outside.  When I bring up the contradiction, both sides back off.  They don't want attention drawn to themselves, they want to keep serving as Civil "Service" lifers and collect their retirements at a ridiculously early age.  The system is the point of the system - not fire prevention or the environment. 
Enough of my problems.  Back to the Carolina Journal:

“With a turkey sandwich, that covers your protein, your grain, and if it had cheese on it, that’s the dairy,” said Jani Kozlowski, the fiscal and statutory policy manager for the division. “It sounds like the lunch itself would’ve met all of the standard.” The lunch has to include a fruit or vegetable, but not both, she said.


There are no clear restrictions about what additional items — like potato chips — can be included in preschoolers’ lunch boxes.

“If a parent sends their child with a Coke and a Twinkie, the child care provider is going to need to provide a balanced lunch for the child,” Kozlowski said.

Ultimately, the child care provider can’t take the Coke and Twinkie away from the child, but Kozlowski said she “would think the Pre-K provider would talk with the parent about that not being a healthy choice for their child.”

Well, I would think that the kid's lunch was non of Jani Kozlowski's freakin' business, but I'm apparently wrong. 

These people can't reliably deliver Sports Illustrated. 
They've blown every penny you've sent to Social Security. 
They're a totally owned subsidiary of a gaggle of lobbyists. 
They're spending a third of the money you give them to blow up, slaughter, and maim some brown people overseas. 
They're the object of the derisive cliche "Good Enough For Government Work". 

You're going to let them tell you what your kid should eat? 

Here's a picture of the Department Of Agriculture's old food pyramid.  Note the 6-11 servings of bread, cereal, rice and pasta that they recommended. 

Eat that for a year and let me know how it works out for you. 

John Jay Myers on the Iranian threat to Israel

From the Facebook page of my buddy John Jay Myers:

CNN just stated that Iran has threatened to destroy Israel, so the war drums continue.  Iran, however, has never said that. Iran's nuclear capability is the "Weapons of Mass destruction" lie continued needed for us to continue war, and give oil rights to our masters.


Iran would never drop a nuclear weapon on Israel....

Reason 1: Because we would flatten them like a pancake.

Reason 2:  Because they claim to want Israel (the land), so why would they nuke it? 

Reason 3:  Because millions of Palestinians live in Israel, so I am pretty sure nuking them would come across as an act of bad faith.

Reason 4:  Nuclear bombs are no small affair, Nuking Israel would also be nuking Syria, Turkey, Egypt etc. I believe that would cause them all to have to ask... whose side are these guys on?

Reason 5:  See Reason 1, the only reason that matters.

Now, why would they want one (a nuke)?  Because we seem to have this habit of taking over countries who don't (have nukes) and respecting the rights of those that do.
 
John Jay Myers.  Always short, sweet, and straight to the point.  Plus, he makes good gumbo. 
 

Shah of Iran nuclear: Good ! Other Iranian nuclear: bad

Here's some old-school propaganda about the wisdom of allowing Iran to go nuclear. 
Those of you who are at least 40 years old might remember when the Shah was our boy, and Iran, for all practical purposes, was our colony. 
Yes....It was good for Iran to go nuclear.  Not any more. 

Don Surber is despicable. Or maybe just misinformed.

Don Surber, whose writing I ordinarily enjoy, has been pushed over the edge.  It seems that Ron Paul's opposition to Hillary Clinton's and Dick Cheney's and Condi Rice's and George Schultz's and Henry Kissinger's foreign policy screw-ups have driven him over the edge. 

He's got a piece on his site entitled "Ron Paul Is Despicable".  Here's Mr. Surber: 

His (Ron Paul's) weird take on the Constitution is Jacksonian and I do not mean that in a complimentary manner. Republican Congressman Ron Paul envisions a world in which the USA is neutered as she was in the 1990s. He talks as if the last 65 years without a major European war are not worth the sacrifices our nation has made over the years in standing up to communism and in standing up for democracy in Europe and elsewhere.

Ok, lets look at the easy stuff first.  There hasn't been a major European war, only a minor one in Yugoslavia/Bosnia/Serbia.   But let's broaden our horizon to include continents that don't include so many white folks.  What about Korea, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos, Libya, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, El Salvador, and the financial aid and training we've given to dozens of dictators? 

Never mind.  Those folks ain't white, and they talk funny. 

There are places in the world where nothing is more terrifying than the U.S. coming over to "stand up for democracy". 

Back to Mr. Surber:

But even if I agreed with him, I would think of Ron Paul as a despicable human being because of this, which he said to supporters, according to CBS: “Just think of what happened after 9/11. Immediately before there was any assessment there was glee in the administration because now we can invade Iraq.”

Well, if memory serves, we went into Iraq claiming that they had WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.  We never found any.  The flimsy evidence upon which we based our invasion was weak and flawed.  I repeat....WMD's were the only reason we had to invade Iraq at the time.  We went in.  We found nothing.  We were looking for anything, any excuse whatsoever, to go invade the place.  We were "gleeful" to have that excuse, as no others had presented themselves.  We're still there.  We now have the largest fort in the world over there, and it is disguised as an embassy.  We'll be there forever.  Mission accomplished.
And there was very little Al-Qaeda presence there until we showed up and started kicking over anthills. 

He is lucky we outlawed dueling, because I am pretty sure that given the opportunity, Dick Cheney would indeed issue such a challenge.

And if Dick Cheney's dueling skills are anything like his dove hunting skills, Ron Paul has nothing to fear.  Cheney's no better at hitting targets than he was at finding WMD's.   
 

UPDATE: Ron Paul need not worry about repercussions. No one in the Bush administration takes him serious. The London Daily Mail reported that Ari Fleisher, Bush’s spokesman during 9/11, tweeted, “The man is nuts.”

Ron Paul has peddled this bullcrap for years. Recall this exchange during the 2008 presidential debate season:

Ron Paul: “They attack us because we’ve been over there, we’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We’ve been in the Middle East. I think Reagan was right. We don’t understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics.”

Rudy Giuliani: “That’s an extraordinary statement of someone who lived through the attack of Sept. 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before and I’ve heard some pretty absurd explanations for Sept. 11.”

Ron Paul is a perennial presidential candidate whose first bid was in 1988. He has figured out how to make a buck or two off paranoid rubes who buy this swill. It is a cottage industry that others such as Lyndon LaRouche work quite well.

I defend his right to lie about honorable men because I trust that most people have the wisdom to understand how ignorant he is.

The day after this debate, Ron Paul's campaign took in one million dollars. 
Until Ron Paul dropped out of the race, he had the honor of receiving the most contributions from active military personnel. 

Here's something from the comments beneath Surber's article:

I wish Ron Paul was crazy. I wish Iraq really did have WMD’s. I wish the Federal Reserve really did have the knowledge and ability to maintain stable prices and full employment. I wish that our welfare programs were solvent and sustainable. I wish the sacrifices made by our troops were really necessary. I wish the Patriot Act was patriotic. I wish we didn’t have inflation and unemployment was only at 9%. I wish we could win the war on drugs. I wish the terrorists really did hate us for our freedom. I wish we were defending our national interests in Afghanistan. I wish our big banks really were too big to fail.

But I can’t believe these lies anymore, and Ron Paul is the only candidate who is brave enough to tell the truth. Open your eyes.

Ron Quixote

Is there anyone in the world who not only talks the talk AND walks the walk more than Ron Paul? This is from Talking Points Memo:

The House voted 405-1 today for a resolution in support of the Iranian dissidents and condemning the ruling government. And the one man who opposed it was...Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX).

Paul said in his floor speech that he was in "reluctant opposition" to the resolution -- that he of course condemns violence by governments against their citizens. On the other hand, he also doesn't think the American government should act as a judge of every country overseas, and pointed out that we don't condemn countries like Saudi Arabia or Egypt that don't even have real elections.

None of these logical points will make any difference, of course. But it's nice to see someone go tilt at this windmill just the same.

Is there any rational person who thinks it's a good idea for a nation to be run by a bunch of Sand Preachers?

No.

Are we going to intervene in their elections?

No.

So does passing U.N. and congressional resolutions against barbaric theocracies do any good at all, other than giving The Sheeple the impression that our leaders are compassionate?

No.

"It seems our criticism is selective and applied when there are political points to be made," Paul said. "I have admired President Obama's cautious approach to the situation in Iran and I would have preferred that we in the House had acted similarly."

Picture of Ron Paul provided from here. Don Quixote pic provided from here. Bumpersticker provided from here. Ron Paul's compliment of Obama provided with great reluctance.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

The Mouse That Roared....

Remember the concern about who is going to do reporting if the traditional print media goes under?
Remember when people cared if CNN's coverage of an event was any good or not? People are writing letters to the New York Times about how crappy CNN's coverage of the Iranian protests has been.
That was then, this is now.

If you haven't heard, there's a revolt going on in Iran.
I've had ample opportunity today to listen to the radio. I didn't hear a peep about the revolt in Iran on KERA, our National Socialist Radio affiliate. None of the right wing AM stations - KSKY, KLIF, or WBAP were talking about it. KMNY, the lefty station (1360 on your AM dial) spent the day damning Rush Limbaugh.
AS OF 8:09 P.M., THE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM'S WEBSITE DOESN'T MENTION IRAN ON THE FRONT PAGE ! ! !

Well....like the old men said when Ebeneezer Scrooge died, I'll go to their funerals if refreshments are served.

This revolution is being broadcast all over the world, as it happens, but without the CNN/FOX/ABC/NBC content filter, or Voice Of God network anchorman.

It's amazing. Check this out from Little Green Footballs, especially at the .30 mark where the woman gets knocked down by police, hops up like she's got Allah on her side, and goes back for more:



I'd like to meet that lady.

When you get a chance, look at the Tehran Twitter Feed. Amazing, depressing, and exhilarating. There are thousands of voices out there, Tweeting away, many of them doing it in English for YOUR benefit. Be grateful.

Andrew Sullivan has been going at it for four days straight, posting a fraction of the tons of material sent to him. Talk about your "first draft of history".... Eat your heart out, Newsweek.
Here's a sample of what Andrew's been posting. Warning: neither of these videos is for the squeamish.





Here's where things started getting out of hand....



When Iranian "students" took Americans hostages during the Jimmy Carter Era Of Darkness, the clerics who led the Iranian revolution claimed that the students were acting on their own.
Years later, six of the former hostages now claim that one of their student captors was.... Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, now semi-legitimate president of Iran.




It's funny how those revolutions will turn on a guy. Trotsky, Che, Danton, and now Ahmadinejad.
But, I digress.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. It will be Tweeted, Texted, Blogged, Emailed,and YouTubed. Coming straight to that little screen in front of you.