Lew Rockwell, president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and proprietor of LewRockwell.com, and syndicated columnist/reporter/author Eric Margolis, discuss Bush and Cheney’s bloodletting in Gaza, the war crime of blockading civilians, the dangers of Obama’s plan to escalate the war in Afghanistan, Hosni Mubarak and Egypt’s future as America’s client dictatorship, the proverbial “stupid or the plan” conundrum, the continued danger of war with Iran and some decent media from around the world.
MP3 here. (18:22)
Great interview, as always Lew Rockwell gets the big picture. Eric Margolis is equally brilliant. I know most of the people on this site also check out the Lew Rockwell site but if you haven’t you should, bookmark it and read it every day! It’s always full of great info.
One of the things I found most interesting about this article was when Lew Rockwell asked if Eric Margolis believed that there were people in power who are actively trying to destabilize the Middle East. Although Eric Margolis plays it off to simple ignorance and incompitence at lease they brought up the possibility.
I DO believe that the powers that be are trying to keep the Arab nations in check through destabilization. They don’t want the Arab nations to use the profits from oil to make themselves into a world power. It’s largely a mixure of fear and greed that creates world policy regarding the Arab nations and the Middle East in general.
Peace!
I’ve often wondered as much myself. There is no guarantee the Arab world will always be as weak and chaotic as it now is. America has burned a lot of bridges here, all for the benefit of one ungrateful, parasitic “ally”. Someday America may deeply regret this decision.
WE have a history of intentional destabilization. I think you are correct.
Most historians will tell you that, given a choice between a giant conspiracy and a giant cock-up, to explain something, you’re usually better off chosing the giant cock-up. Likewise, look to economics before religion, when trying to explain some atrocity.
Lester Ness
Kunming
China
you’re usually better off choosing “a giant cockup” if you need to conform to the accepted wisdom…
want to do a little thinking about the anthrax attacks and their function in reinforcing the official 9/11 “giant cockup” theory?
A “giant cock-up” is usually the result of giant conspiracy gone awry.
the 9-11/anthrax operation accomplished everything it was meant to accomplish… it vilified the people who own most of the remaining oil in the world, it gave us an excuse to start bombing them, it intimidated dissenters, and it silenced critics of israel.
last time the world condemned israel was the durban human rights conference in september of 2001.
israel and its american puppet walked out of the conference, and a week later, the WTC was attacked.
as wikipedia puts it…
“many of the potential political aftereffects of the Conference were annulled by the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“The attacks took place just three days after the Conference ended, entirely eclipsing the Conference in the news, and significantly affecting international relations and politics.”
World Conference against Racism 2001″
pretty convenient, which probably explains why netanyahu thought 9/11 was so good for israel…
…but doesnt explain why sharon, a year earlier —at about the time PNAC published its need for “a new pearl harbor”— had visited the al aqsa mosque accompanied by 1000 cops/soldiers, a move that was most likely a deliberate attempt to stir up palestinian resentment… sharon’s visit was most likely a preliminary step in the overall PNAC plan… another “cockup” that did exactly what it was intended to do.
the resulting intifada was documented by the zionist media in the normal fashion, which is to say, every time an israeli was killed, it was a national tragedy for israeli america.
palestinian casualties were ignored.
and this stuff was beamed 24/7 into american homes, showing that palestinians and arabs in general were capable of any atrocity… perfect prep for the 9/11 operation.
this situation dragged on for a year, palestinians (and muslims) vilified constantly on israeli american media, which set the stage for the 9/11 operation, arabs pre-designated as fall guys.
what kind of event will rescue israel’s status as “the light unto nations” this time?
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anyhow, once 9/11 was accomplished, according to USAtoday…
“In the minutes after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, while Attorney General John Ashcroft was rushing back from Milwaukee, Michael Chertoff was calling the shots.
“Chertoff, then chief of the Justice Department’s criminal division, breached the prickly territorial lines that have long divided the Justice Department from the FBI. From a fifth-floor office at FBI headquarters, above the streams of panicked people who flooded Pennsylvania Avenue, he set up shop in the bureau’s crisis center. For the next 20 hours, he directed the government’s initial response to the most lethal terrorist attack in U.S. history.
“Chertoff played key role on 9/11” USA today
so chertoff protects the dancing israelis until he and the israeli consul general, alon pinkas, can be sure the official 9/11 conspiracy theory would hold —and until they can browbeat the fbi into releasing the dancing mossad agents, a process that took over two months.
meanwhile, the anthrax attacks are happening, with accompanying hysterical coverage in the israeli american press —coverage which reinforced the official conspiracy theory, intimidated congress, and made sure any maverick media or law enforcement people got the message, that message being: you will be risking your neck if you dont fall into line with the official theory.
…then the dancing israelis are shipped back to israel, where one of them confesses that he and his mossad friends were filming “to document the event”, implying that he and his mossad friends had prior knowledge of 9/11, and were sent, before the event, to film the unfolding of a operation that their mossad bosses very likely planned and/or participated in.
no wonder they were so happy as they witnessed the success of 9/11 operation.
so here we are, bogged down in iraq and afghanistan, and if the progress has not been up to snuff, we need look no farther than the architects of this operation to find out what went wrong… they are perfectly willing to tell us that it’s a great plan, but the execution, post-9/11, was botched… although, given the “success” lately in iraq, that whining about the botchedness may have been an momentary attempt to shift blame for the failures.
judging from obama’s appointments, it looks like we’re still in the neocon soup, doesnt it…? …and it’s just a matter of another “new pearl harbor” to mobilize america to a total war footing, which —if we’re to pay any attention to the CFR— might include a nuke first strike on russia.
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2009/01/02/heilbrunn-reviews-neo-con-travails/
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the one thing to remember: this is the last chance to establish world government before oil shortages and looters cripple the neocons’ armies.
Re the panting-for-war on Iran, consider the continuing Russia/Ukraine gas crisis. Within Europe, there are more and more calls for “alternative sources”. About the only easily accessible alternative source of gas is Iran. Will economics win over ideology?
maybe it’s not a matter of economics vs ideology.
maybe it’s more a matter of degree of desperation in israel…
…seeing as how they can trump economics, ideology, common sense and everything else if they use their cruise missiles and subs to blow up bushehr, natanz, esfahan and whatever else they want to bomb.
it’s likely some new “new pearl harbor” will be necessary before that, though, seeing as how it wouldnt make a very good story if, out of a clear blue sky, israel bombed iran.
Eric Margolis is an interesting character and mainstream commentator unless you notice some nuances of his talk, there is a reason why he gets to appear on all the mainstream media and not someone like Justin Raimondo. Even here, he blames current situation in Gaza on befuddled Bush (as if Bush is an evil genius or as if there will be any difference after him or was before him) but not on Israel and the jewish zionist lobby. Although he sometimes criticizes Israel it never seems but a hollow talk aimed to placate muslims and his talk of proverbial “american interests” seems very odd considering the Washington regime’s interests are aligned by AIPAC, JINSA and PNAC and other jewish dominated organizations
And for all the people that think that he is somehow antiwar, just read his book “American Raj” or any of his other work. There is so many distortions and outright lies in that book it’s almost comical if not criminal . In this book Margolis claims war in Iraq is “about oil” not about Israel at all ,has one line on neocons whom he doesn’t even define, claims serbs and russians are nazis who conveniently commited genocides on muslims because of their slavic and christian nature and how “westerners” and muslims can cooperate by invading Balkans or even Russia, claims there are 9 milion muslims in the balkans waiting to be liberated.
He has expressed countless times outright genocidal intent against serbian people (so much he whined so on air that some canadian serbs threatened him physically) and curiously enough against Indians and to some extent against russians, all seemingly on behalf of muslims. In fact , in this book he seems to be even talking as one of the muslims chiding muslims for hating America and Israel and not hating serbs and russians. Although he claims to be some sort of an expert on middle east, he takes all muslims as same and wants to rule them and use them when in fact these people want to be free and independent.
I for one am not fooled by Margolis fake criticism and deflection of Israel, his scapegoating of Bush and Chaney nor of his endless love for everything muslim and America, in fact I have thought for a time that he was one of these so called neocons but I know better now, he is just a smarter washed up neocon and that’s why he is in newspapers and tv .
http://www.amazon.com/American-Raj-Liberation-Domination-Resolving/dp/1554700876
American Raj: Liberation or Domination?:
http://www.bigeye.com/fc112705.htm
ATTENION ALL AMERICA HATERS! DON’T FORGET BOSNIA AND KOSOVA
Blockading civilians can never be excused. Whatever the dispute it never makes any sense to blockade the civilian population.