Neocons // Current

October surprises

Pepe Escobar Commentary: Al Gore campaigns for Obama in Florida; Bin Laden still not heard from. For months there has been... more

Vierotchka
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A new map for Peak Oil Wars: Redrawing the Middle East

A new map for Peak Oil Wars:
Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, former Soviet Georgia, Africa and others.

The US empire is playing a "Good cop / bad cop" strategy where the neo-cons wrecked Iraq but the neo-liberals are in agreement that Iraq should be partitioned (which would allow the US greater control over the oil). If the bulk of the remaining oil was in places that were predominantly Buddhist or Hindu, the US would be waging a war on Buddhism or Hinduism.

The national borders of the Middle East countries were mostly drawn by British and French imperialist bureaucrats around 1920, not by citizens of these nations. These lines separate the bulk of the Arab peoples from the bulk of the oil wealth, a quasi-Apartheid situation deeply resented by millions of poor Arabs. The Arab world is roughly divided into countries with large populations and little oil, and countries with little populations and large amounts of oil (an oversimplification, but the general point is valid). But these configurations still allow for nationalist control over tremendous oil resources - which the US empire still resents.

The neo-cons call the current Middle East conflict "World War IV," since they consider the many wars under the umbrella of the Cold War to have been World War III. If you add up the number of bodies in the wars between 1945 and 9/11, the casualties are comparable to World War II.

Some of the neo-cons have publicly proclaimed that their goal for the War on Iraq (and eventually, its neighbors) is to redraw the borders of the Middle East. The ostensible reason given for this arrogance is to separate feuding ethnic and religious groups from each other. However, if you combine maps of the "new Middle East" sought by these armchair warriors with maps of the oil fields, a more sinister motive becomes obvious. Dividing up Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia would allow the consolidation of most of the region's oil into a new country (which presumably would be allied to the United States). This would remove control over the oil from governments based in Baghdad, Tehran and Riyadh, allowing new arrangements of control to be established.

The supposed "failure" of the Bush Cheney invasion of Iraq allows for a new administration to supposedly fix the problems of their civil war by splitting Iraq into three new states - a Kurdish enclave in the north, a Shiite Arab state in the south, and a Sunni region in the center. Most of Iraq's oil would be concentrated in the Shiite region, with lesser amounts in the Kurdish part, and very little would remain for the Sunnis. This would allow the US to focus its occupation and manipulation on the parts of Iraq that have oil, and the parts without oil could be ignored.

September 5, 2002
The Guardian
The real goal is the seizure of Saudi oil
Iraq is no threat. Bush wants war to keep US control of the region
a must read...cont.....A new map for Peak Oil Wars: Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, former Soviet Georgia, Africa and others. The US... more

wlwatkins
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3 responses

22 days ago

The Conservative Awakening

Christopher Buckley's endorsement of Barack Obama -- followed by his abrupt departure from the back page of the magazine his... more

Pericles1978
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10 responses

1 month ago

Obama, McCain and the Empire

Chalmers Johnson: No president has stood up to the military-industrial complex. Part 4 In Part 4 of his series of interviews... more

Vierotchka
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6 responses

1 month ago

Kenya deports anti-Obama author

Jerome Corsi, author of "Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," tried to launch his new book, but... more

Vierotchka
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30 responses

1 month ago

Georgia's Saakashvili: freedom fighter or rights abuser?

An influential group of Georgian opposition leaders has mounted a blistering political campaign against U.S.-backed President... more

Vierotchka
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13 responses

1 month ago

Will a new US President mean a new foreign policy?

Gareth Porter: McCain subscribes to extreme neo-con ideas, but Obama is not a break with the past. Part 5 In George W.... more

Vierotchka
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12 responses

1 month ago

America pays the piper, big time

Robert Parry: After 28 years of drunken optimism and blind nationalism the US wakes up to a grim future. Part 1 Robert Parry is... more

Vierotchka
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8 responses

1 month ago

Welcome to the final stages of the coup...

By Larisa Alexandrovna If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it. ~ Julius Caesar In... more

Vierotchka
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25 responses

1 month ago

Debate Foreshadows <em>the</em> Debates

The first high-profile political debate since the bailout of American International Group foreshadowed what the upcoming... more

starr111
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1 response

1 month ago

The Neocons' Palin Project -

Will the neocons who tutored George W. Bush in the ideology he pursued to the ruin of his presidency do the same for Sarah Palin?... more

starr111
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18 responses

1 month ago

Neocon Circle Jerk: Hannity to Interview Palin

Sean Hannity will interview Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) next week in Cincinnati, MediaBistro reports. The interview will air in... more

SushiBandit
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0 responses

2 months ago

Who is Randy Scheunemann?

McCain's neocon foreign policy adviser has been a lobbyist for arms companies & Saakashvili's Georgia.

Randy Scheunemann, John McCain’s Senior Foreign Policy Advisor, Lobbyist, and a former director of the neo conservative Project for a New American Century. A group which advocates global strategic and ideological predominance of the United States through military force. He has been a Republican political insider In Washington since 1986. He served on the staffs of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and as National Security Adviser to Senate Republican and Majority Leaders Bob Dole and Trent Lott from 1993-99. He was also McCain’s defense and foreign policy advisor during the bid for the White House in 2000. About his relationship with McCain the web site RIGHT WEB reports: He introduced the senator to the foreign ministers of Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia as they tried to win admission to NATO, and a representative of Taiwan as it lobbied for free trade, records show.

Mr. Scheunemann also accompanied Mr. McCain to Latvia in 2001 and Georgia in 2006. He has led 3 lobbying firms, SCHEUNEMANN & ASSOCIATES, ORION STRATEGIES and the MERCURY GROUP. He has lobbied for among others: Arms manufacturers and gun associations, Oil Firms, And represented foreign governments Including Georgia. The Wall Street Journal reported that “Mr. Scheunemann's firm (Orion Strategies) has earned more than $2 million since 2004 lobbying U.S. officials, including Sen. McCain and his staff, on behalf of various clients including Georgia, records show. His lobbying for Saakashvili has led to the inference by Journalist Robert Scheer on TruthDig, Conservative Columnist Pat Buchanan on Creators Syndicate, and indirectly Vladimir Putin of Russia, to suggest that he had something to do with Georgia’s attack on the breakaway region of South Ossetia in early August. Randy Scheunemann has been described as John McCain’s Henry Kissinger or Zbignew Brzeniski.

Senior Analyst at Political Research Associates, Chip Berlet is a veteran freelance writer and photographer who specializes in investigating right-wing social movements, apocalyptic scapegoating and conspiracism, and authoritarianism. A PRA staffer since 1982, he has written, edited and co-authored numerous articles on right-wing activity and government repression for publications as varied as the The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Progressive, The Nation, The Humanist, and The St. Louis Journalism Review. Mr. Berlet edited Eyes Right! Challenging the Right-wing Backlash, co-published by PRA and South End Press (1995), a popular primer on the right. He is also co-author with Matthew N. Lyons of Right-wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, published by Guilford Press (2000).McCain's neocon foreign policy adviser has been a lobbyist for arms companies & Saakashvili's Georgia. Randy... more