Geopolitical Poker, Blowback & Iran

Radical political Islam has flourished in large part due to “blowback” from US/Western foreign policy. This isn’t just an observation by Ron Paul, he is also restating what the CIA have told us for years. Blowback was also discussed by the 9/11 Commission.  Our corporate media give the Neocons a free pass when they refuse to even discuss blowback.  The current extremely serious situation with Iran is probably the best example of blowback and can be traced back to the US/UK overthrowing Mosaddegh in 1953 (over oil). Continuing to engage in the same interventionism despite the obvious evidence of failure only further bankrupts the United States, both financially and morally. If we do bomb suspected Iranian nuclear facilities, I predict the Iranian regime itself will be the big winner (as it was when we went into Iraq). Any attack would be a propaganda gift. Repression would accelerate under the guise of protecting the state from a “5th Column”, thereby weakening internal dissent. Iraq would further destabilize. Plus don’t forget the fragility of Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia. Geopolitics on this scale is a massive poker game, we are in serious danger of being taken to the cleaners yet again.  But don’t expect to hear blowback discussed anytime soon by any of the so-called experts, or should I say propagandists, that grace our corporate media.

Bolton, Bolton on the Wall, What is the Biggest Obamablunder of them All?

When pondering Obamablunders, and many are colossal, there is a tendency to focus on the unrelenting overseas adventurism, failures to adequately investigate allegations of malfeasance on Wall Street – hardly a shock when considering President Obama has been so chummy with the likes of Tim Geithner and Jon Corzine – or his continued erosion of the Bill of Rights, such as his renewal of the provisions of the Orwellian PATRIOT Act.  But there is one little discussed Obamablunder that I don’t think I have ever heard addressed, and has the potential to have dreadful implications.  That is the failure to investigate and, where required to by law (with the exception of Irv Lewis Libby, and that was under President Bush!), prosecute those that were complicit in the Iraq debacle.

By the Obama administration failing to investigate President Bush and Vice President Cheney’s cronies, we now know that they have a route back.   This week Newt Gingrich said that he wants John Bolton as his Secretary of State.  Yes, John Bolton.  Our former UN ambassador that was up to his neck in the neocon warmongering that has in no small way contributed to our national bankruptcy, erosion of civil liberties and dreadful international reputation.  Honestly, if Newt Gingrich becomes the GOP nominee against Obama is he trying to lose?  Pandering to “the base” doesn’t work with independents, swing voters or “Ron Paul Republicans”.  He needs these voters to win the White House, and he won’t get them if he chums up to the very individuals that have taken America to the brink in pursuit of their adventurist agenda.

A supreme irony in all of this is that Mr Bolton and his ilk should be grateful to President Obama and the Democrats.  By failing to investigate the events leading up to the Iraq debacle, the perpetrators avoided having to repeatedly testify on Capitol Hill.  This also meant they could keep traipsing between their “Think Tanks” and certain of the “Fair and Balanced” crowd, spewing their propaganda.  But President Obama in large part simply continued the Bush doctrine, which is why I am not at all surprised that they got off scot-free.