Russia and Iran are supporting the Assad regime in Syria. Meanwhile, the U.S. and its Arab client states are arming Islamist militias. It’s the 1980s all over again! Now for the proxy war, à la Afghanistan.
Proxy War Redux
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Argybargy and Sandinista.
Cold War!!
Whoo Hoo!!!
Lovely view from there.
Where are the American people while their government is spending incredible amounts of money fighting illegal wars and now, more proxy war? Could it be that they are watching American idol, the Voice or Jersey Shore? Imagine just a bit of that money spent on repairing the US infrastructure and creating jobs. Meanwhile, strip-searching has been approved, and another bill allowing the Government to yank passports away from any American who is “allegedly behind in taxes” to the IRS is quietly making its way through our illegal system! The movie, ‘Idiocracy’ is actually happening. The US is turning into a police state with a complacent nation of reality show addicts and people who know so little, that they bark at the President for gas prices while their freedoms are slowly being taken away right in front of them. Sad – really sad…
If he could, BHO would take our guns away and give them to the freedom fighters.
It’s a pretty cool setting, complete with Reagan calendar and a jacuzzi reminiscent of mr. Wilson who helped prop up the Afghani freedom fighters.
The cartoon made me think though. Why should it be so, that the people who will now be given arms by the Americans will turn out to hate the Americans and take down their World Trade Centers? Usually people say that the islamists hate the West because of how it is turning a blind eye to their local dictators and occupation of Palestine.
Wouldn’t doing nothing about the present crisis be in the end taken as a tacit endorsal of the Assad’s oppression (in name of secularism &c.), and in the end just backfire? It seems to me their grievances about their government are pretty legit.
I’m not even mentioning that the militias have Christians among them, and that their religious affiliations are bound to be as diverse in their fervour as the society in general. If freedom for Syria and an evolution towards a more democratic government is desirable, then what other way is there forward, but through removal of Assad by the oppressed, even using military means? Surely the “passive resistance” cartoon Ted drew earlier speaks volumes about the limits of peacefulness of any revolution.
Ok, on a completely unrelated note (not completely so, since you mentioned Russia) I just had to post this tweet from Justin Raimondo:
Ron Paul movement infiltrated by Communists!:http://bit.ly/IATF67 — does @jkirchick know about this?
So that’s why Ted Rall gets all that weet exposure in RTTV! Damn you, Ron Paul, in bed with the commies! You had me fooled all this time..
–*– sarcasm-mode=off –*–
@rikster
The American People ™, after being brainwashed for decades by movies which glorify violence against brown foreigners and TV shows which glorify cops who shoot the bad guys (also mostly brown) are watching and cheering with their pants around their ankles and waving a little plastic flag. I hate to say it but George Lucas had it right: “This is how liberty dies – with thunderous applause”
I agree ComradeZero – without any real direction or leadership, the The American People ™ just continue to lambaste themselves in sound-bites and a dumbed-down culture – especially when raising your head above the herd will usually get you slapped down pretty hard, or possibly strip-searched now. As far as the comment made by buceph, it’s Ted’s choice to accept the media coverage that he can get from Russian sources, but I think we know that they aren’t giving it to him because they have the same agenda as him, and that aligning or accepting resouces from people that are even more corrupt and berserk can have negative effects – I’ve lived in Russia, and if you think things can get bad in the USA, you’d be surprised how crazy and unfair thay can get over there.
The US Foreign Policy supports Freedom?? This could be a real surprise to woman in Saudi Arabia, or any one else there who might try to vote the Royal Family out of their palaces. If lies did in fact grow a nose long we could walk to nearest star on the President’s nose or on any previous President’s nose.
That said the important part here for the Wall Street-Military Industrial Complex to best maximize profits on this fighting.
In a famous interview with Le Nouvel Observateur (15 – 21 January 1998 issue), Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski bragged about the US supporting anti-government Islamic rebels in Afghanistan from July 1979, in the secure knowledge that the Soviet Union, which bordered on Afghanistan, would be forced to interven, which it did som five months later. Brsezinski dismissed concern about an Islamist blow-back («stirred-up Moslems») by saying that what he termed «the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War» was vastly more important. (The interview seems to have been removed from the Nouvel Observateur’s on-line archives – or at least, I can’t find it, but William Blum’s English translation is available at http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/BRZ110A.html .) Do Obama and Co really believe that by intervening in Syria, they can cause the collapse of not merely Iran, but Russia and China as well ? Cheap at the price in that event, but somehow I doubt it’s in the cards….
Henri
BTW, is it it just my impression or are skirmishes and continuing bloodshed in Lybia out of the headlight of the MSM?