by
Jim Miles
While eastern Canada suffers unseasonable rains, the west enjoys its average warm/hot summer. In the Middle East however, the heat is rising in the geo-political field.
I noticed an article in the local paper (The Province, Friday, August 15, p. A41) concerning Prime Minister Harper and his claim that Russia is returning to a Soviet-era mentality. That may well be true, but it is only because the Americans adopted their own unilateral, interventionist, first-strike, supreme military "full spectrum dominance" ethos that has proven so disastrous around the world, but specifically in military terms in the Middle East.
Harper joins Bush and Rice in their full-on wilful ignorance of the facts that the U.S. has invaded more countries in the past half century than any other, that the U.S. unilaterally invaded and occupied Iraq, that the U.S. created the situation in Afghanistan - going way back to the CIA preceding the Russians in 1979 - including the creation of al-Queda and the Taliban to help fight the Russians (interesting case of "unintended consequences", all wars have them), that Georgia attacked Russia first, vainly believing that Israel (who trained and supplied the Georgian military) and the U.S. (who also trained and supplied the Georgian military) would step in to help them.
Of course Russia has to return to "cold war mentality" - it has
been the intent of the U.S. all along to isolate and destroy Russia, to
lay claim to all the oil and natural gas resources as well as the
transportation routes (thus Georgia and Afghanistan) to 'friendly'
seaports and countries. That Putin outsmarted the Americans is quite
clear if one reads enough about the current geopolitical climate in
Central Asia. Russia is not perfect, but it has recovered
substantially from the Washington consensus induced rape of resources
that nearly destroyed the country economically and socially.
At
the same time the American state is declining rapidly in its morality
and in its democracy (as well as economically, another partial
side-effect of American wars). Bush holds fuller executive power than
any other president and the American congress is no longer functioning
as a democratic control on the executive; and neither one of the new
candidates for the presidency have indicated that their will be
significant changes - McCain is Bush renewed and Obama is a change, but
only in skin colour as all his advisors are old white guys.
For
Harper to say that he is deeply troubled "that Russia somehow has a
say or control over countries outside of its borders" is absolute
garbage.
Look at how the Americans act, always
intervening in "countries outside their borders" either through
military action, CIA intervention, or through supposed NGOs such as the
federally funded National Endowment for Democracy. And then Harper
needs to look closer to home, at how Canadian resources under NAFTA
have been sold downstream to the Americans (consider the clauses on
natural gas and U.S. rights to it even if Canada has to give up some of
its needs), and then consider Canadian troops in Afghanistan helping
the Americans with their overall plans to secure those resource
supplies.
Of course it is all rationalized as being
free market (which do not exist, never have, never will) and helping
democracy (in a country based very much on tribal conditions and with
the will to defeat any occupiers (as all foreign troops are viewed) or
to die in the process, especially once civilians start dying as
"collateral damage".
Mr. Harper, it is time to simply be quiet and contemplate your own ignorances or wilful follies, whichever they be.
Jim
Miles is a Canadian educator and a regular contributor/columnist of
opinion pieces and book reviews for The Palestine Chronicle. Miles’
work is also presented globally through other alternative websites and
news publications.
Chronicle, August 18, 2008. Use it as you see fit if it
suits your editorial needs.
Jim Miles
5509 South Vernon Place
Vernon, B.C. V1T 8N5
Canada
jmiles50@telus.net
www.jim.secretcove.ca/index.Publications.html
