{"id":190184,"date":"2015-10-10T01:57:23","date_gmt":"2015-10-10T01:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=190184"},"modified":"2015-10-10T02:07:55","modified_gmt":"2015-10-10T02:07:55","slug":"russia-is-1-in-the-world-now-u-s-still-fights-to-win-long-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/russia-is-1-in-the-world-now-u-s-still-fights-to-win-long-term\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia Is #1 in the World Now; U.S. Still Fights to Win Long-Term"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

On October 7th, Reuters headlined, \u201cIraq Leans Toward Russia in War on Islamic State,\u201d<\/span><\/a> and reported, from Baghdad, that, \u201cIraq \u2026 wants Moscow to have a bigger role than the United States in the war against the militant group, the head of parliament’s defense and security committee said on Wednesday.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier, in an interview in English, with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, telecast on October 2nd, France24 TV<\/span><\/a> asked him how he would view an extension of Russia\u2019s anti-ISIS bombing campaign into Iraq, and he said (7:54), \u201cI would welcome it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t merely a culmination of U.S. President George W. Bush\u2019s overthrow of Iraq\u2019s leader Saddam Hussein in 2003 \u2013 an event twelve years back, and so this is a twelve-year culmination on that count alone \u2013 but it is also an unequivocal statement from the majority-Shiite nation of Iraq, that the U.S. is too heavily committed to the rabidly fundamentalist Sunni royal family of Saudi Arabia (who provide the overwhelming bulk of the funding for Al Qaeda<\/span><\/a> and other jihadist movements), to be willing to do what must be done in order to defeat in Iraq the Sunni extremists who have destroyed Iraq, and who are now possibly turning Iraq into a failed state, like Libya has become<\/span><\/a> after NATO\u2019s bombing campaign there in 2011<\/span><\/a>. (Qaddafi, like Assad, was an ally of Russia.<\/span><\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n

The Reuters report went on: \u201c\u2018In the upcoming few days or weeks, I think Iraq will be forced to ask Russia to launch air strikes [in Iraq], and that depends on their success in Syria,\u2019 Hakim al-Zamili, a leading Shi’ite politician, told Reuters in an interview. \u2026 \u2018We are seeking to see Russia have a bigger role in Iraq. … Yes, definitely a bigger role than the Americans,\u2019 Zamili said.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On Tuesday 10 February 2015, Iraqi News, whose claim to fame<\/span><\/a> is non-alliance with any political party, bannered, \u201cParliamentary Commission on Security and Defense reveals documents on coalition aircrafts aiding ISIS,\u201d<\/span><\/a> and reported: <\/span><\/p>\n

The Parliamentary Commission on Security and Defense revealed Tuesday, that there are many documents and photographs confirming that the international coalition aircrafts delivered aids, weapons and supplies to ISIS using parachutes. \u2026<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Committee Chairman MP Hakim Zamili said in a press conference at the House of Representatives, \u2026 \u201cOur armed forces, volunteer fighters, Peshmerga and tribesmen have achieved victories against the ISIS organization in all operations,\u201d noting that, \u201cMeanwhile, we keep finding documents, pictures, and information confirming that the coalition aircrafts violate the Iraqi sovereignty and the international norms in order to prolong the war with ISIS by providing it with aid by air or on land.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been receiving this information continuously from many sources, documented in photos and reports to prove that the planes did land at some airports in Mosul, Tal Afar, Al Kiara, and Araf Lahib areas in Kara Tepeh in Diyala and Yathrib, in addition to Dhuluiya village, Fallujah Stadium in Anbar desert,\u201d Zamili stated.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe monitoring reports and available photos show ammunition, weapons and supplies being delivered by parachutes,\u201d he added. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Already on 20 January 2015, the astute Michael Snyder had managed to lay out<\/span><\/a> the case that, \u201cWe have the most sophisticated military on the entire planet and yet we drop weapons into the hands of the enemy by mistake? Come on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The United States Government, which had invaded Iraq and killed its former leader, Saddam Hussein, blames the success of ISIS in Iraq, on the failures of Iraqis. Not at all on anything that\u2019s wrong with U.S. operations \u2013 not even on the \u2018errors\u2019 in dropping weapons into ISIS territory.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, America had created ISIS; Iraqis had not. Saddam Hussein had prevented ISIS; he blocked all jihadists from operating in Iraq \u2013 they all wanted to overthrow him. ISIS had not even existed prior to 2006 (three years after the U.S. invasion), when it was started by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Sbu Ayyub al-Masri<\/span><\/a>. (Zarqawi was Jordanian; Masri was Egyptian. There was also a fictitious<\/span><\/a> third founder, Abu Omar al Baghdadi, in order to provide a mythological Iraqi root to this \u2018Iraqi\u2019 \u2013 actually Saudi \u2013 political \u2018movement\u2019). According to the Washington Post<\/i><\/span><\/a>, Zarqawi \u201cserved as Osama bin Laden’s proxy in Iraq, attracting hundreds if not thousands of foreign fighters under the al-Qaeda banner.\u201d Of course, the Saudi royals had co-founded al-Qaeda (working through the CIA and Osama bin Laden<\/span><\/a>) in order to defeat the pro-Russian Afghan government of Nur Muhammad Taraki<\/span><\/a> back in 1979. (Russia is perhaps Saudi Arabia\u2019s chief competitor in international oil-and-gas markets; the U.S.-Saudi alliance is an anti-Russian alliance.) And, so, the Saudi royals massively fund the jihadist movement (the same movement that finally expelled Russia from Afghanistan<\/span><\/a>), which the U.S. secretly supplies<\/span><\/a>. This \u2018Western\u2019 support of Sunni extremists is antagonizing Shiites in the predominantly Shiite<\/span><\/a> nation of Iraq. The Iraqi public are now the angriest and almost saddest<\/span><\/a> of any nation on Earth.) Therefore, Zamili has publicly invited Russia into Iraq, and invited America out of Iraq. America in Iraq was even more disastrous than America in Iran had been<\/span><\/a>. (Both cases generated surging fundamentalism, which means catastrophe anywhere.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Zamili is Shiite, and Saddam was a nominal Sunni but actually committed to keeping religion out<\/i> <\/span>of politics altogether, Zamili is facing the same enemy that Saddam did, which is the U.S.-Saudi alliance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Secularism is at the core of the Ba\u2019ath Party, which ruled in both Syria and Iraq. Here is an example of that, from Karsh & Rautsi, 1991 Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography<\/i> (Diane Books), p. 142:<\/span><\/p>\n

A few months later [in 1978], Saddam delivered a speech in which he vehemently rejected calls for compromising the [Ba\u2019th] Party\u2019s staunch secularism as a means of accommodating the growing Islamic sentiments. \u201cWhat we must do,\u201d he argued, \u201cis to oppose the Revolution\u2019s intrusion into religion. Let us return to the roots of our religion, glorifying them \u2013 but not introduce it into politics.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

One of the reasons why Saddam loathed the Shiite fanatics who were rooted in Iran and who took over there in 1979 (after America\u2019s dictatorship under the Shah ended) was that they were fundamentalists. He was at war against all fundamentalists, of all faiths. The only difference between Shiite fundamentalists and Sunni fundamentalists is that only the Sunni fundamentalists believe in \u2018restoring\u2019 \u2018the Caliphate\u2019 \u2013 a potentially global Islamic empire, so that everyone in the world will bow down in the direction of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. For a Shiite to support that worldwide Islamic government would be equivalent to that person\u2019s converting to the Saudi version of Islam, especially its Wahhabist or Salafist form, which is the royal family\u2019s form<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

So: the United States is allied with the Saudi royal family\u2019s political movement, against Russia, and against Iran \u2013 and, therefore, against Ba\u2019athist Syria, which allies with both Shiite Iran and secular Russia. (NOTE: When nations are at war against one-another, it\u2019s actually their respective aristocracies that are at war; their publics are just cannon-fodder to be fed propaganda and bullets for the enterprise, killing one-another. Only for an authentic democracy is war actually the last resort \u2013 after all, it\u2019s no aristocracy<\/i> <\/span>at all. But aristocratically controlled countries seek out war, in order to extend their empires \u2013 the only \u2018first resort\u2019 there will be insincere diplomacy, so as to achieve the conquest as cheaply as possible: without war if possible, but with war if conquest can be attained in only that way; i.e., if diplomatic deception can\u2019t suffice alone.)<\/span><\/p>\n

An Iraq that has moved more firmly into the Iranian camp is moving toward Russia and away from the United States; and that\u2019s today\u2019s Iraq.<\/span><\/p>\n

On 24 May 2015, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, said<\/span><\/a>, \u201cIraqi forces showed no will to fight,\u201d though they \u201cvastly outnumbered the opposing force.\u201d Obama was now openly contemptuous of the Iraqi people. However, on both sides (U.S. and Iraq), the heads of state were not talking publicly about the crumbling relations.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, now, Iraq is, in fact, turning to Russia, which U.S. President Barack Obama has in his second term been treating as America\u2019s main enemy<\/span><\/a> (despite having campaigned for President against<\/i> <\/span>Mitt Romney\u2019s calling Russia \u201cour number one geopolitical foe\u201d<\/span><\/a>). He calls Russia the main aggressor in the world for its having accepted the results of the Crimean referendum to switch from Ukraine to Russia<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

On September 25th, Fox News issued an exclusive news report headlined, \u201cRussians, Syrians and Iranians setting up military coordination cell in Baghdad\u201d<\/span><\/a>; and, instead of denying it, Russia\u2019s Sputnik News simply bannered, \u201cRussia, Iran, Syria Reportedly Set Up Joint Center in Baghdad to Fight ISIL,\u201d<\/span><\/a> and cited this Fox News report as its source. The only difference between the two articles is that Fox\u2019s was slanted against Russia, and it presented two retired sources within the U.S. government as making the assertions (including their framing it with anti-Russian propaganda), whereas Sputnik\u2019s version stripped out Fox\u2019s anti-Russian propaganda and focused only on the fact, which was stated in both headlines (theirs and Fox\u2019s). So, the only quotable sources on this allegation were the U.S. government retirees who spoke to Fox (based on their inside sources), but the Russian government transmitted the allegation \u2013 the fact itself \u2013 with no modifications, thus confirming the fact that was alleged. It\u2019s more tactful to do it this way, instead of having heads-of-state, in Iraq, Iran, and Russia, step in and proclaim publicly that the American Century is over. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ashton Carter was equally arrogant about Russia. On October 7th, the Wall Street Journal<\/i> bannered, \u201cU.S. Rules Out Strategic Collaboration With Moscow in Middle East,\u201d<\/span><\/a> and quoted Carter as saying: \u201cWe are not prepared to cooperate in strategy which, as we explained, is flawed, tragically flawed, on the Russians\u2019 part. The U.S. is not cooperating with Russia in that regard.\u201d Insulting Iraqis wasn\u2019t enough. Russian officials weren\u2019t speaking in similarly contemptuous language about the U.S., as U.S. officials were speaking about Russia \u2013 and also about Iraq. It seemed that U.S. bullies were peevishly responding to getting trounced by a party (Russia) they constantly assaulted but couldn\u2019t even get a rise out of.<\/span><\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t mean that the American public cannot recover; it means that the American aristocracy can\u2019t \u2013 unless, perhaps, this sort of thing<\/span><\/a> can turn matters around, not on the political battlefields, but on the economic ones. (The only trouble there is that the more the U.S. aristocracy wins there, the more defeated the global publics will be, everywhere \u2013 and this would include Russia, China, and every nation, including the U.S. itself. This would be a terrifying global empire, achieved entirely by diplomacy. Tyranny can enter even on cats\u2019 paws, not only with lions\u2019 roars.) <\/span><\/p>\n

Tyranny that enters via diplomatic means can be just as tyrannous, though perhaps less destructive, than one which enters via nuclear war (the end-point that Putin\u2019s tactics thus far seem to be successful at averting \u2013 but, given his peevish opponents, might not be able to continue doing so).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org On October 7th, Reuters headlined, \u201cIraq Leans Toward Russia in War on Islamic State,\u201d and reported, from Baghdad, that, \u201cIraq \u2026 wants Moscow to have a bigger role than the United States in the war against the militant group, the head of parliament’s defense and security committee said on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":190185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[115,30,32,96,38,907,59,804,543,524,981,754],"class_list":{"0":"post-190184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-barack-obama","9":"tag-big-brother","10":"tag-cia","11":"tag-cover-up","12":"tag-iraq","13":"tag-isis","14":"tag-military","15":"tag-politics-2","16":"tag-putin","17":"tag-russia","18":"tag-saudi","19":"tag-syria"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}