Move Along - Nothing to See in the Middle East

The London Telegraph printed a 'secret' (is anything secret anymore?) document, showing that the US had brought an Egyptian dissident to America, and trained him in how to organize an overthrow of the Egyptian government. Read it here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8289698/Egypt-protests-secret-US-document-discloses-support-for-protesters.html

You'd think America would stay out of these endless uprisings, be upfront and deal fairly with whomever is in power - fair trade and no trade deficits. But there is money to be made, oil and minerals abound, and Egypt is at the Suez Canal - they can stop oil shipments any time they want. Never mind that there are not only vast resources under our own country - which, by the way, BP is assiduously extracting in the Northwest - or that the main reason fuel prices are so high is because, in the 70's, Congress with her lobbyists restricted the number of fuel refineries in the US. If you can't refine it locally, the price for shipping and refining goes up. Never mind that much of our Alaskan oil resources are being sold to China and the Far East. No, we must deal with OPEC - whomever might be in charge this week.

This stinks - as it always has - of profiteering. Recently, Newsweek printed an article that said that NATO is requesting that Russia return to Afghanistan, to train troops and assist the Americans. The vast amounts of cash that Russia dumped into Afghanistan while they were there contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union - and the US was there, in opposition to Russia, training those mountain people to fight against the Communist regime that Russia backed and espoused. So naturally, Russia is demanding concessions from NATO. And so the game continues...

It was we who put Saddam Hussein into power, gave him the funding and weapons to form his own little dictatorship, and then were forced to go back and take him out again when he got out of line and dared to try to bite the hands that fed him. And apparently, our wonderful government is doing it again - training fundamental Muslims on how to overthrow their current dictatorial government to replace it with one of their own. Keeping the Middle East in an uproar, funding first this and then that future dictator, is what our own government is doing - for our own good. It's all about democracy and freedom, though, isn't it - replacing one regime for another and using American dollars and American blood to grease the wheels of 'progress'. That makes it all ok.

People will tell you that you just don't understand, that no one can understand the intricate ins and outs of dealing with other countries, other governments, especially those led by religious fanatics, unless they are involved in it daily. Besides, it's boring. Who cares about the Ayatollah any more? Wasn't he Iranian, anyway? What's the big deal? It has nothing to do with us, in our little lives, our little communities, trying to get that dog park built or that ruling overturned. We have to help first this poor afflicted soul, then that one, with money, and armaments, and training, so that they can fight the previous poor afflicted soul who took those same monies and armaments and training and used them to become the current dictator. Isn't it fun?

It's like a game of chess where you are always the white, and your opponent in black keeps changing. Of course, when you have an endless supply of American blood and American money, you actually own the chessboard and can dictate who the players are. Never mind that your poor little pawns keep getting blown up, lives and bodies shattered, and that the cost of living for the common man keeps climbing with no end in sight. Who cares? They're just pawns in an end game of money, drugs, and resources, the benefits of which the pawns will never see. Tell them it's for freedom, it's for God and country and the American way of life, it's to spread democracy across the world! They'll buy it. Teach them that the oppression in the world is all their fault, from Africa to America to the Middle East, and that they have to do something about it. They'll buy it. We've dumbed down the education in this country so far that no one even questions their inherited guilt any more. Send 'em to Wal-Mart, and tell them to fahgeddaboudit. It has nothing to do with them. Nothing to see here. Let's go save Egypt!!