Shades of Suez

Our resident historian and all-around sharp and savvy person, Coast Watcher, returns to the blog with an in-depth look at the recent going-ons in Africa, particularly between Niger and their former colonizer, France. Once again, the more things change...the more history repeats itself?

Shades of Suez: How the situation in Niger reflects that of Egypt in 1956

by Coast Watcher

Egypt

The British and French Empires had a long history of involvement in Egyptian affairs, mostly rooted in the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.

The 19th century rulers of Egypt were ambitious men. Although nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt’s rulers had practiced autonomy for centuries. Beginning with the rule of Ottoman Viceroy Muḥammad ʿAlī, Egypt’s borders expanded into Syria and the Sudan, Arabia and Yemen. This expansionism by Muhammad and his successors came at a cost. By 1876 Egypt’s national debt owed to European powers exceeded its means to pay.

Egypt’s ruler, Khedive Ismāʿīl Pasha, tried to stave off bankruptcy by selling the national shares in the Suez Canal to Britain. The measure failed, and both countries established the Dual Control, a means by which Egyptian revenue and expenditure were directly supervised by French and British officials. Needless to say this imposition rankled with the ordinary Egyptians and their ruler. Exploiting popular unrest, Ismāʿīl ousted the Dual Control, but Britain and France persuaded the Ottoman Sultan—still nominal ruler of Egypt—to depose Ismāʿīl in favor of his son, Muhammad Tawfik.

A rising nationalist movement in the officer caste of the Egyptian military led to war with the British in 1882, but the movement failed in the face of superior force. Egypt remained a virtual British colony. Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in World War 1, it became a kingdom under British control from 1922 to 1952, with a promise of independence given by Britain in a treaty of 1936. After World War 2, the Egyptian drive to independence gave rise to a guerilla war that ousted the king in July of 1952. Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser became president.

Prolonged negotiations with Britain led to the 1954 Anglo-Egyptian Agreement, under which British troops were to be evacuated gradually from the canal zone. Nasser put in place an ambitious plan to construct a dam across the Nile at Aswan to regulate the annual flow that powers Egypt’s agriculture. He gained a promise from the United States to fund the project, but the US reneged on the deal. In turn Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, intending that tolls and tariffs imposed on shipping using the Canal would pay for the project. Nasser was backed by the Soviet Union, who provided arms, equipment, and advisors to the Egyptian military.

This move promptly brought Egypt into conflict with Britain, France, and the new state of Israel. France was infuriated by intelligence suggesting Egypt was funding anti-colonial rebels in its colony of Algeria. Since Nasser had no time for the new state of Israel, their military had already skirmished with Egyptian forces along their shared frontier. Israel led the invasion of Egypt on October 29, 1956, followed two days later by Britain and France.

The allied forces took control of the canal zone, but the Anglo-French deployment delay gave time for the Soviet Union to react. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was keen to exploit the moves toward Arab independence throughout the Middle East. He saw the invasion by the reactionary powers as a direct threat. Khrushchev in turn threatened to use nuclear weapons in Europe if the allied coalition did not withdraw.

Alarmed by this, US President Eisenhower warned the Soviets that threats of nuclear war were only exacerbating the situation. He and Secretary of State John F. Dulles told the coalition in turn that they had to withdraw from Egyptian territory or face economic sanctions. Since their economies were still suffering the after-effects of World War 2, Britain and France had to comply with American demands. All forces withdrew from Egypt by December 1956.

This established the United States and the Soviet Union as the dominant players on the world stage—a prestige the US, in particular, has trouble relinquishing.

Niger

Fast forward to the year 2023. A recent coup in the African country of Niger has caused an uproar in the West.

France moved in to what is now Niger in the late 19th century, formalizing control of the region in the following decade. This was conducted mainly to counter British and Italian imperial ambitions in the area of western Africa. In World War 2, the Niger colonial administration remained loyal to the French Vichy government, but following the war a small measure of self-governance was given to them. In 1960, Niger along with many other former French colonies attained full independence. French influence in Niger and elsewhere in its former African territories remains strong—but it is declining.

French military and local forces based in Chad and Burkina Faso were active in the past ten years during Operation Barkhane. This is an attempt to contain and eliminate the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda jihadist groups operating in the Maghreb and the Sahel, and also to counter growing Chinese and Russian influence on the continent. Needless to say, this aspect of French colonialism has the approval of the United States.

Some 5,650 French troops are deployed across the continent. Between 1,000 and 1,500 are stationed in Niger, mainly at the Niamey Airbase to control access to Niger's substantial gold and uranium deposits. France is rumored to be concentrating its African forces, possibly in preparation for an attack on Niger should the situation demand it.

Niger has played the part of a bulwark against instability and jihadist influence in the region. It’s also the location of the Americans' Airbase 201, a drone base staffed by 1,000 personnel. It is said to be the largest drone base in the world and key to the US operations across the Sahel. The recent coup by President General Abdourhamane Tchiani, that overthrew the unpopular President Bazoum, has put Western control of Niger's natural resources under threat. This has not gone unnoticed by the United States.

Indian historian and journalist Vijay Prashad observes:

Hours after the coup was stabilized, the main Western states—especially France and the United States—condemned the coup and asked for the reinstatement of Bazoum, who was immediately detained by the new government. But neither France nor the United States appeared to want to lead the response to the coup. Earlier this year, the French and US governments worried about an insurgency in northern Mozambique that impacted the assets of the Total-Exxon natural gas field off the coastline of Cabo Delgado. Rather than send in French and US troops, which would have polarized the population and increased anti-Western sentiment, the French and the United States made a deal for Rwanda to send its troops into Mozambique. Rwandan troops entered the northern province of Mozambique and shut down the insurgency. Both Western powers seem to favor a “Rwanda” type solution to the coup in Niger, but rather than have Rwanda enter Niger the hope was for ECOWAS—the Economic Community of West African States—to send in its force to restore Bazoum. --What's Happening in Niger is Far From a Typical Coup

Both France and the US are putting pressure on the African nations they still have a measure of control over. These nations are known collectively as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). ECOWAS is said to be amassing troops ready to intervene in Niger. Opposing them are suspended member nations of ECOWAS, backed by Russia. All the suspended members are ruled by military governments, and they were suspended for being in violation of ECOWAS rules on democracy and good government.

The neighboring countries of Guinea, Chad, the Central African Republic, and Algeria all want to see the situation resolved peacefully, but they oppose an invasion of Niger through fear the situation could escalate to a war that will engulf the entire west of Africa. As of this date, it looks like military intervention by ECOWAS forces is unlikely. There’s a great deal of push-back against the West from African nations, who rightly perceive the whole action against Niger to be nothing more than a colonial power’s attempt to hang on to the assets and a resource grab practiced—in France’s case—for centuries.

Jihadists are already exploiting the situation. Seventeen troops were killed in an ambush in the Tillaberi region near Burkina Faso recently. ECOWAS is fully aware of the threat Islamist extremism poses against their own order.

The United States announced last week that a new ambassador would soon head to Niger to help lead diplomacy aimed at reversing the coup. ECOWAS has already applied trade and financial sanctions, while France, Germany, and the United States have suspended their aid programs to Niger. The measures are being applied to one of the poorest countries in the world. Niger regularly ranks bottom of the United Nation’s Human Development Index.

It should be noted that France has substantial gold reserves. But Niger—possessing sizable gold deposits—has none. Niger possesses uranium deposits as well, uranium that is mined by French corporations to fuel France's nuclear power plants. President Macron of France is taking a harder line against Niger’s new government than the United States, but given America’s history of armed intervention, it is by no means given that the softly-softly approach will last for long.

And so it goes with history. Where once the US warned off another power (France) from exploiting an African country (Egypt), now it’s joining that power in opposing another, Niger. 

What has really changed in these last seven decades? Could it be that simply the hegemony of the West (particularly in the mind of the US government) is being threatened? Does the West fear that once they're kicked off the continent the BRICS nations will take their place, exercising control over Africa's vast natural resources? Possibly. But wouldn't it be better if Africa could be ruled, and its resources controlled, by Africans instead?

 

Related Articles:
Egypt

https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/suez-crisis

https://www.britannica.com/place/Egypt/Abbas-I-and-Said-1848-63

Niger

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_of_Niger

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/9/niger-coup-leaders-accuse-french-forces-of-destabilising-the-country

https://www.thewaywardrabbler.com/p/rumors-of-war-in-west-africa?sd=pf

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/le-monde-africa/article/2023/08/02/niger-coup-undermines-french-military-strategy-in-sahel_6077607_124.html

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/le-monde-africa/article/2023/08/17/niger-coup-west-african-military-chiefs-meet-to-discuss-response_6096120_124.html

BIO: Coast Watcher is an armchair historian with a vast knowledge of the West's plundering of other countries' mineral wealth, land, and people. When will this plundering end? Could the fall of the petrodollar and the rising multi-polar world of BRICS bring hope to the beleaguered African continent? Only time will tell.

Other interesting articles and links:

African Union Will Not Back ECOWAS Intervention in Niger https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/18/african-union-will-not-back-ecowas-intervention-in-niger/ 

Niger: A Coup against French Control and Dominance https://unac.notowar.net/2023/08/11/niger-a-coup-against-french-control-and-dominance/ 

 

What’s happening in Niger is far from a typical coup

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/08/15/whats-happening-in-niger-is-far-from-a-typical-coup/

 

No U.S./French-Backed Invasion of Niger!

https://unac.notowar.net/2023/08/06/no-u-s-french-backed-invasion-of-niger/

 

As Senegal Organizes Troops To Invade Niger, Violence Mars Order At Home https://popularresistance.org/as-senegal-organizes-troops-to-invade-niger-violence-mars-constitutional-order/

 

War in Africa and War in the Americas: Accelerating the End of White World Supremacy  https://www.blackagendareport.com/war-africa-and-war-americas-accelerating-end-white-world-supremacy  

 

‘The Greatest Fighting Force in Human History’ – The Perpetual Wars You Aren’t Supposed to Notice https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/17/the-greatest-fighting-force-in-human-history-the-perpetual-wars-you-arent-supposed-to-notice/

 

How Much Aid Has the U.S. Sent Ukraine? https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-aid-has-us-sent-ukraine-here-are-six-charts

 

Seymour Hersh: Summer of the Hawks

https://scheerpost.com/2023/08/19/seymour-hersh-summer-of-the-hawks/

 

Big Brave Western Proxy Warriors Keep Whining That Ukrainian Troops Are Cowards https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/big-brave-western-proxy-warriors 

 

White House Downplays CNN Poll Showing Majority of Americans Oppose More US Aid for Ukraine https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/09/politics/white-house-responds-cnn-poll/index.html

 

The Crucifixion of Julian Assange https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-crucifixion-of-julian-assange

 

Wealthiest 10% Responsible For 40% Of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions https://popularresistance.org/wealthiest-10-responsible-for-40-of-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions/ 

 

EPA Finds at Least 26 Million People in US Have Toxic 'Forever Chemicals' in Their Drinking Water https://www.commondreams.org/news/epa-pfas

 

Last week's post This Is What Empire Looks Like was translated into French and posted at the Zanzibar Freedom of Speech Substack: https://zanzibar.substack.com/p/voila-a-quoi-ressemble-lempire  (Isn't that awesome? If you read French, tell us how well it was translated. Thanks.)

 

And while you're there, don't forget to subscribe to us directly on Substack: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

 

Seen on the formerly known as Twitter:

The Western puppet govts in West Africa are playing a very dangerous game. Armed intervention with logistical support from the U.S. & NATO will light the entire region on fire. I guess they don't understand what is unfolding in Europe as a result of Biden's war in Ukraine. https://t.co/84H61CFnPt

— Ajamu Baraka (@ajamubaraka) August 19, 2023

 

Coming soon, the first book from The Revolution Continues blog:  The Little Red Book of Revolution

How can you get your e-copy? The easiest way is to subscribe to The Revolution Continues on Substack as a paying subscriber. Choose what level you'd like to subscribe at: https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com

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Resolved: Capitalism Must Die

Resolved: Capitalism Must Die

by C. A. Matthews   

  

Most New Year’s resolutions aren’t kept for more than a month. Six weeks tops. Those resolutions to lose weight, get more exercise, quit bad-mouthing the boss behind his back will all be forgotten by the time Valentine’s Day rolls around. It doesn’t mean they aren’t noble goals. It just means we’re human, and we humans tend to forget things and move on to deal with other, more pressing challenges as time goes by.

 

There are some resolutions, however, that aren’t so quickly forgotten. This is one of them: Capitalism must die.

That capitalism, the corrupt economic system of dealing with each others’ basic needs, must go away for the good of all is a no-brainer. A heating planet inundated with greenhouse gases caused by ceaseless pollution to maintain growing profit margins for capitalists won't be able to sustain any of us forever. Haunting images of millions of our fellow human beings struggling to feed themselves and their loved ones isn’t something most moral individuals can ever forget. Driving by a person sleeping rough on a city sidewalk in the middle of a frigid winter isn’t something easily ignored.

At least it shouldn’t be.

You’d be amazed at how many Americans do just that—ignore the horrific suffering surrounding them like it’s an everyday occurrence of no consequence. Well, it is an everyday occurrence, as the number of homeless and hungry grows daily in the US, but it’s not an occurrence of no consequence that should be forgotten as easily as a New Year’s resolution to play more tennis or take up golf. The suffering of others should be seared into our minds, branded onto our subconscious, melded into what little conscience some of us still possess.

Why? Why should people living comfortable lives in comfortable homes with comfortable jobs and hobbies be forced to think of others who aren't as "blessed" as they are? Think about what happens to those who have plenty. They live their luxurious lifestyles in the midst of those who have little to nothing, those who live an evermore precarious existence. At some point something’s going to give—and a starving person with no place to call home and holes in their shoes has nothing left to lose.

That’s when the pitchforks and guillotines (or their modern equivalents) come out. That’s when things get extremely messy and not-so-pretty. It won’t be a casual day on the tennis court or a drinks at the club after a round of golf, in other words. People will get hurt. Badly hurt. Many will be killed.

“Sure,” you say. “I’ve got my AR-15 and plenty of ammo in the closet. I know the cops will always be on our side because I live in a gated mansion-fortress on the right side of town with those of my kind, the ones who always remember to tip their bodyguards and support the ever-increasing police-military industrial complex budget. We can ride out the invading storm of millions of malnourished, under-armed, tent city bums in our nuclear bunkers in New Zealand if we have to. What can the poor do to us, the rich, the powerful, the ones perpetually on top?”

What indeed. I’m sure King Louis and Marie Antoinette felt the same all the way up until the moment they heard a swoosh! and felt a bit of a breeze on the back of their necks.

That capitalism is failing and will fail isn’t even argued anymore by most economists. They just argue over the timing and the effects the turn-around to another system will bring to our society. A failed capitalist state can easily fall into a fascist dictatorship as it can transform into a more democratic, socialistic society. 

Billionaire capitalists can use brute force to ensconce themselves and their corporations into the police-military-industrial complex and rule from there with an iron fist. The masses dying of disease, hunger, and as cannon-fodder in endless wars for oil, lithium, farmland, silicon chips (i.e., “resources”) is to be expected and actually is considered desirable by capitalists.

"Well, they (the poor, the disadvantaged) should hurry up and die and rid us of the surplus population," says Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Sound familiar?

 

But a failed capitalist state doesn’t have to go that route if it’s directed toward a more peaceful and just path. One of the first and biggest steps those of us dedicated to end this unjust system must take is taking up the cause of peace. All wars—covert, overt, coups d'etat, civil wars, police violence against the public—must be stopped. It’s the only way to shut down the police-military industrial complex. If there is no need to build more weapons of death and no hunger for building more instruments of destruction, then resources wasted on such inhumane pursuits can be directed toward more constructive purposes.

You probably can name a few of those purposes: ending world hunger, ending homelessness, meeting the challenge of the climate crisis, extending health care and education to all in need…

If your New Year resolution is to help to bring about positive changes in the world, then join me and millions of others working for a day when capitalism and endless war is no more. March in the streets. Demand peace. Campaign to end suffering through meeting basic human needs. Share your knowledge and compassion with those unlike yourself. 

 

Sure, your tennis courts or your golf courses might eventually become full of people not all one color or ethnic background, but it will at last reflect the magnificent diversity found on our planet Earth.

Related Links:

Free Audio Book--Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins https://youtu.be/ySefPIZaYT0 

Free Book--War is a Racket by Major Gen. Smedley Butler https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

Rage Against the War Machine -- Rally in Washington DC, February 19, 2023  https://rageagainstwar.com/

Defense Contractor Shares Surge as US Doubles NATO Arm Sales https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/12/30/glzw-d30.html

On the Influence of Neo-Nazism in Ukraine https://scheerpost.com/2022/12/30/on-the-influence-of-neo-nazism-in-ukraine/ 

How the War in Ukraine Could Have Been Prevented Decades Ago https://scheerpost.com/2022/02/24/not-one-inch-eastward-how-the-war-in-ukraine-could-have-been-prevented-decades-ago/ 

The Understated Effects of Nuclear War on the World https://scheerpost.com/2022/08/15/the-understated-effects-of-nuclear-war-on-the-world/ 

The Boot https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-boot.html

The Benefits of World Hunger https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-benefits-of-world-hunger.html

The Business Model of Empire https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-business-model-of-empire.html 

I'm Sorry You Can't Afford to Be Alive https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2021/08/im-sorry-you-cant-afford-to-be-alive.html 

Exploited People https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2022/01/exploited-people.html

Seen on Twitter:

Your right to be alive shouldn’t be conditional on your contribution to society. No one should ever have to prove they are “deserving” of their humanity. Whether unhoused, unemployed, or unable to work — capitalism shouldn’t get to decide whether your labour makes you human.

— Ahmed Ali (@MrAhmednurAli) December 26, 2022

How capitalism"works": (1) employers underpay wages to boost profits, (2) squeezed workers cannot afford what employers need to sell, (3) employers lend their boosted profits to underpaid workers, adding debt to their problems.

— Richard D. Wolff (@profwolff) December 23, 2022

First Monday of the year is a great time to remind everyone:

You don't hate Mondays

You're tired of being exploited, undervalued, and only thought of as a consumer

You hate capitalism

— Nate Wendt (@NateWendt) January 2, 2023

Socialism:
Everyone, no matter who or where you are deserves a basic level of existence.
We are all Human.
Food, warmth, health, and shelter...basic rights.

Capitalism:
Greed.
I deserve more than you.
I'm worth more than you.

— @ Vincent Rowlatt. (Peasant) (@VincentRowlatt) January 2, 2023

Heavenly Peace

 Heavenly Peace

by C.A. Matthews

Silent night, holy night. All is calm, all is bright.
‘Round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace!
Sleep in heavenly peace!

There’s nothing in any classic Christmas carol about “Shop until you drop!” There’s nothing about spending tons of cash on gifts, food, travel, clothing, or general rabble-rousing. There’s nothing about “He who dies with the most toys wins,” or how great it is to send billions of dollars in weapons to a proxy war and drone bomb civilians, either. Carols tend to emphasize qualities such as “silence” and “peace.”   

How did we ever find ourselves in the mess we find ourselves in today? To understand where we are now, perhaps it’s best to unravel the string of events that led us here.  

Let’s travel back in time and see where our Christmas celebrations took a turn away from silence and peace and landed us in a pit of noise and turmoil. What wrong step did we take? How can we get back on the path of peace and stillness, away from this madness that calls itself “Christmas” in the 21^st century?

The idea that Christmas was about going broke every December buying numerous superfluous presents for loved ones, friends, co-workers and bosses is a relatively recent invention. Most place the blame on Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s shoulders. Albert and Victoria (both of German descent) introduced the tradition of Christmas trees to the English-speaking world. 

 

Of course, being tremendously wealthy, the royals lavished tons of toys and other gifts on their huge brood of children. The British middle class was coming into its own in the mid-19th century, so they had an overwhelming urge to copy the customs of their young and spendy queen. Hence, the yearly mad rush to the toy and department stores began.

To outdo your middle class neighbors, you had to have the biggest tree with the biggest pile of gifts under it. Competition was not only encouraged in Victorian times, it was practically mandated. This competition started near the beginning of the industrial revolution, and mass-produced items were becoming the “in-thing” to give. Simple gifts of food and drink were seen as inferior and only for the poor and disadvantaged to share with each other on Christmas Eve.

The burgeoning middle class had to have the best their money could buy from the best stores and manufacturers. To aid these not-quite-as-rich-as the-queen folks and guide them toward where  they could purchase the latest mass-produced gift items, a new art form was developed. “Advertising” told the middle class exactly what was the in-thing that year and, more importantly, where it could be purchased and for how much. 

“Be the first family on your street to own this wonderful consumer item!” advertisers shouted, bursting the peace and silence of the beautiful snowy skies.

This is where the Western celebration of Christmas took that big wrong turn.

“Okay,” you say. “Materialism is bad. Unselfish giving of our time and talents is good. We all stop purchasing useless mass-produced goods we never wanted or could use and end this stupid competitiveness, and everything will be hunky-dory, right? We'll start now, and the world will be peaceful before you know it."

But it isn’t, and you know it. We still have hatred, violence, and endless war. What wrong turn did we take there? 

Would you be surprised if I told you it was the same one? 

The same mass production and keeping up with the neighbors and allowing the elites to dictate how we ordinary beings should live our lives has led us into this mess. There can be no “Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Humankind” when there’s money to be made creating billions of useless disposable items—from $1 plastic do-dads to $1 billion bomber aircraft.  

By creating an insatiable need to have more and use more via advertising, we perpetuate the modern myth that Christmas is a holiday for commerce. Because what’s the use of having stockpiles of anything—including weapons—if you don’t have the means to deplete them before next year’s big rush to the “toy” store? Ka-boom!

 

Capitalism depends on endless growth in order to make capitalists (the elite) endless profits. Endless resources are needed to produce ever more mass-produced products for consumers to buy (as they're instructed by advertising to demand more and more) year after year. When the natural resources are depleted at home, capitalists must go abroad and take them. 

 

Sure, capitalists could offer others money and a fair trade, but bombing another country to smithereens and destroying their economy is much more fun, isn’t it? Once you’ve destroyed another country's economy via either a "hot" or "cold" war, you can assume all its resources and use its people as cheap/slave laborers. They have to work for you now, or they don't eat. More profits to be made for the "winning" capitalists. Yeah!

To reiterate, advertising drives the middle class into a frenzy of crass materialism each December, which then leads corporations into destroying our environment in search of the raw resources needed to manufacture these items while also making these corporations vast profits, and these resources are being obtained more and more via endless warfare. Rinse and repeat.

 

A holiday to honor the birth of a man of peace has been co-opted by capitalism and endless wars for resources. Totally and completely co-opted.  

Now that we know how we’ve gotten ourselves into this mess, how can we get out of it? Could it be all we have to do is ignore the propaganda that capitalism is the best economic system ever? (Propaganda is simply another name for the advertising put out by our governments to prop up private corporations destroying our earth in their race to obtain natural resources.) Could it be that all it takes is to stop billionaire CEOs and the endless warfare and sue for peace throughout the world? Could it be that simple?

“Sleep in heavenly peace!” By following words of peace and not those of capitalist warmongers, we will find ourselves surrounded by the beautiful silence of Christmas, where only the celebration of the gift of love is needed.

Related pieces:

The Madness of Nuclear War is Alive and Well in America https://scheerpost.com/2022/12/16/the-madness-of-nuclear-warfare-is-alive-and-well-in-america/ 

Raytheon and Boeing Can't Be Voted Out (video) https://revolutionaryblackout.substack.com/p/raytheon-and-boeing-cant-be-voted

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Seen on Twitter:

It's the final stage of socialism. This ⬇️ but an entire nation, eventually the entire world. pic.twitter.com/LGmjY5koNn

— ♿☭ Nakama Toni 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (@bamabulldog21) December 12, 2022

20 million killed in WWI is peanuts compared to the stakes in Ukraine proxy war. With 2000 nukes on hair trigger alert and looming risk of nuclear winter, we're all in the cross hairs. #PeaceNow https://t.co/skq1YiCDLO

— Dr. Jill Stein🌻 (@DrJillStein) December 15, 2022

A Ukrainian Embassy reception was sponsored by Northrop, Lockheed and Raytheon, reports @mideastXmidwest. (Not The Onion) https://t.co/U89y7gER8v pic.twitter.com/fNzika6utb

— Eli Clifton (@EliClifton) December 16, 2022

pic.twitter.com/f9Hvecmohb

— We can have a society that honors life🌲🍄🌻 (@TimOnTheTractor) December 20, 2022

Put The US In The Time Out Chair

 

Put The US In The Time Out Chair

by C.A. Matthews 

When you work in a kindergarten, you see a lot of a particular kind of behavior. One kid—sometimes the biggest physically in the group but not always the most mature emotionally or mentally—will walk over to a fellow student and take a toy or object away from him without a moment’s thought. The big kid just yanks it out of the smaller kid’s hands and might even hit him over the head with it in the process. The teacher is then forced to step in to protect the injured child because obviously the big kid doesn’t understand that he’s acting like a douchebag and has broken all the rules of civilized society.

Placed into the “time out chair,” the big bully sits there and stews, spouting off all sorts of gripes about how the smaller kid didn’t “share” the toy with him when he asked nicely. Of course the teacher or a staff member never witnessed any manners whatsoever on the part of the bigger child. It’s all lies and the big kid knows it, but he sits in his time out chair and continues to whine and cry about how unfair everybody is to him simply because they won’t share their toys and don’t care to be beat up by him. Oh, boo-hoo-hoo!

Flash forward a few decades and you’ll see the “big kid” acting like a douchebag once again, taking things that don’t belong to him and screaming that it’s not fair that the “little kids” don’t like having their resources grabbed in a violent manner without permission. Here is an example of our current president doing just that on the behalf of the American people:

On Tuesday night US Central Command announced that it had "conducted precision airstrikes in Deir ez-Zor Syria" in order to "defend and protect U.S. forces from attacks like the ones on August 15 against U.S. personnel by Iran-backed groups."

"The President gave the direction for these strikes pursuant to his Article II authority to protect and defend U.S. personnel by disrupting or deterring attacks by Iran-backed groups," CENTCOM said.

Iran has denied any link to the troops targeted in the airstrikes, up to ten of whom were reportedly killed. (...)

"US claims to be in Syria to fight ISIS, but it rarely fights ISIS," journalist Aaron Maté tweeted of the exchange. "It's actually there to deny Syria its own oil and wheat, and to occasionally attack Syrians and their allies who defeated US-backed sectarian death squads in the dirty war." -- US Invades Syria, Kills People,Claims Self-Defense

The US simply takes away resources from Syria like a bully grabbing a toy away from a smaller kid. Aren't you pleased that we have such a respectful and neighborly Commander-in-Chief? 

It's not like Americans haven't done it before. After bombing Afghanistan for twenty years and then withdrawing, the US decided to keep $7 billion worth of Afghans' money sitting in our banks. Yeah, the big bullies stole ordinary Afghans' money, and now millions of Afghan children are starving. But when did doing the right and moral thing ever stop a bully from grabbing a smaller kid's lunch box?

The biggest and most destructive sanction currently facing Afghanistan is the seizure of more than $7 billion of the country’s assets that are held at the US Federal Reserve. This is equivalent to about 40 percent of Afghanistan’s economy, and about 14 months of the country’s imports – which include food, medicine, and infrastructure needs that are vital to public health. --US Sanctions on Afghanistan Could Kill More Civilians than 20 Years of War

According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), nearly 23 million Afghans, or 55% of the population, are facing “extreme levels of hunger.” Of those, almost 9 million are at risk of famine.

UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch called it “a crisis of hunger and starvation.”

Yet there is little discussion inside Washington of the disastrous impact of US sanctions. --Millions in Afghanistan Are Starving Due to US Sanctions

Sometimes, bullies will gather together into a grouping of bullies to make it easier to gang up on a weaker kid or kids. Gangs of bullies are able to grab a ton of toys or "resources", as they’re known to most grown ups. A recent headline tells us that's exactly what a gang consisting of the US, NATO, and a few others are doing in Ukraine:

Representatives of Western governments and corporations met in Switzerland this July to plan a series of harsh neoliberal policies to impose on post-war Ukraine, calling to cut labor laws, “open markets,” drop tariffs, deregulate industries, and “sell state-owned enterprises to private investors.”

Ukraine has been destabilized by violence since 2014, when a US-sponsored coup d’etat overthrew its democratically elected government, setting off a civil war. That conflict dragged on until February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded the country, escalating into a new, even deadlier phase of the war.

The United States and European Union have sought to erase the history of foreign-sponsored civil war in Ukraine from 2014 to early 2022, acting as though the conflict began on February 24. But Washington had sent large sums of weapons to Ukraine and provided extensive military training and support over several years before Russia invaded.

Meanwhile, starting in 2017, representatives of Western governments and corporations quietly held annual conferences in which they discussed ways to profit from the civil war they were fueling in Ukraine.

In these meetings, Western political and business leaders outlined a series of aggressive right-wing reforms they hoped to impose on Ukraine, including widespread privatization of state-owned industries and deregulation of the economy.

On July 4 and 5, 2022, top officials from the US, EU, Britain, Japan, and South Korea met in Switzerland for a so-called “Ukraine Recovery Conference.” There, they planned Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction and performatively announced aid commitments – while salivating over a bonanza of potential contracts.

--West Prepares to Plunder Post-War Ukraine with Neoliberal Shock Therapy: Privatization, Deregulation, Slashing Worker Protections

There’s no aggressive behavior under the sun that would surprise a kindergarten teacher, and there’s nothing new about how stronger nations treat weaker ones. The US and its Western allies want cheap liquid natural gas, and they don’t want to go crying to Russia or even Saudi Arabia to get it. So, they take it from Syria. The indiscriminate bombing and killing of innocent civilians along the way is just the price you pay for being the smaller kid in the global classroom.    

Western corporate interests—especially those of the military industrial complex, such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, etc.—wanted to make some money off of the disintegrating Soviet Union thirty-something years ago. It seemed like a piece of cake to these capitalists to walk in and take their resources since the Cold War was now officially over. The largest part of the former Soviet Union (now simply “Russia”) helped many of the weaker kids (former Soviet nations) in their classroom get back on their feet economically. This cooperative activity didn’t sit well with the West. The US of Big Bullies and friends started working on angles to grab the natural and man-made resources of the weaker nations of the now defunct USSR. 

The unrest in Ukraine in 2014 gave the West the opportunity they’d been looking for to make a grab for these resources. The CIA helped to instigate a coup against the elected government of Ukraine because the Ukrainian voters (heaven forbid!) elected a pro-Russia president who wanted to increase trade with their much larger neighbor. With Ukraine’s ports and a liquid natural gas (LNG) pipeline (the Russian-German Nord Stream 2), Russia and Ukraine together could make some serious cash by selling LNG to European countries to heat their homes and businesses.

The US of Big Bullies and its gang of NATO wasn’t going to suffer this indignity. How dare a weaker kid keep his toys and share them with another kid—a kid we don’t like (and are possibly even jealous of)! Grabbing Ukraine’s resources and causing the big brotherly country that helped them (Russia) to collapse at the same time became US priority number one. Six months and a lot of death and destruction later, the entire world can see what happens when a big bully like the US tries to get its way by grabbing resources from and then hitting a smaller kid who simply wanted to get along with his fellow classmates, or neighboring countries in this instance. 

I realize that I’m simplifying things, but, like most teachers have discovered, sometimes it’s the best way to get down to the root of an aggressive behavior so we can end the aggression once and for all. We can’t continue hiding this behavior of resource grabbing or else it will never stop. We can't keep denying it, lying about it in our mainstream media, or attempting to rename it. 

The US military intervention in other countries has got nothing to do with giving Syria or Afghanistan or Ukraine "freedom and democracy." It's the US acting like a big bully by bombing weaker nations into submission in order to make a lot of profits for the military industrial complex and other Western corporations. All moral people must expose this evil for what it is so we can deal with it like adults, not children. 

It's time we put the US and NATO in the time out chair.

I sent a few grabber-hitters to the time out chair when I worked in a kindergarten class. Usually by the end of the school year these bullies matured a little emotionally. They began to understand why hitting and stealing toys/objects from their classmates wasn’t a good idea. Their first grade teachers praised our patience and stick-to-it-ness. It (almost) made the stress of dealing with these miniature Napoleons worth it.

Unfortunately, the world doesn’t have a school year to wait and see what will happen if we don’t stop the US and the West’s aggressive behaviors. We’ve got warmongers in Congress who want to provoke a war with China next. What’s sane about a bully taunting and grabbing at resources from other countries who own nuclear weapons? Nothing. Nothing at all. 

The next time you read how a far away country like Syria is a “threat” to the US look at what kind of natural resources they have. Look at where it’s positioned on the globe. Perhaps it’s located next door or within a short bomber’s flight distance of another country we’re jealous of and want to push out of our “classroom” so we can grab all their “toys”.

And stop making excuses for the United States of Bullies—even if you're a member of their "gang." Because how will Americans ever  grow up and stop their aggressive ways if they’re not taught a lesson by sitting in the time out chair?

Related Articles

US Invades Syria, Kills People, Claims Self-Defense https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/us-invades-syria-kills-people-claims

US Carries Out Airstries in Syria's Deir Ez Zor Province https://popularresistance.org/us-carries-out-airstrikes-in-syrias-deir-ez-zor-province/ 

US Sanctions on Afghanistan Could Kill More Civilians Than 20 Years of War  https://multipolarista.com/2022/02/05/us-sanctions-afghanistan-death-war/

Millions in Afghanistan Are Starving Due to US Sanctions https://multipolarista.com/2022/01/23/afghanistan-starving-us-sanctions/

'We Will Die by Poverty before Dying of Covid’: Young Adults and Multi-Layered Crises in Afghanistan  https://areu.org.af/publication/2205e/

US Judge Says Billions in Seized Central Bank Funds Belong to Afghan People https://scheerpost.com/2022/08/30/us-judge-says-billions-in-seized-central-bank-funds-belong-to-afghan-people/

West Prepares to Plunder Post-War Ukraine... https://multipolarista.com/2022/07/28/west-neoliberal-recovery-conference/

Revealed: US & EU Plans to Plunder Ukraine (video) https://youtu.be/1WsB-vvMLZk

This is Why the EU Doesn't Want Russian Gas (video) https://youtu.be/vC9yRNYWb84

The Uncomfortable Truth About Zelensky, featuring Scott Ritter (video) https://youtu.be/qmpnVbbqqOE 

Free Speech Doesn't Matter If Propagandists Determine What People Say  https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/free-speech-doesnt-matter-if-propagandists

 

 Seen on Twitter:

1. Invade a country on the other side of the world
2. Kill the people in that country who don't want you there
3. Claim your actions were self defense https://t.co/fiVhvbVVW0

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) August 24, 2022

Sacrificing for a war in Ukraine that didn't have to be while defense companies make record profits. When will the people learn that their interests & interests of warmongering capitalist are not the same? End the war in Ukraine, abolish NATO, reject "full spectrum dominance." https://t.co/Y0PvISJz9i

— Ajamu Baraka (@ajamubaraka) August 25, 2022

The US illegally occupies Syria, bombs it, steals its oil and wheat, murders its people, and accuses Russia of aggression. The audacity of these people.

— Hassan Mafi ‏ (@thatdayin1992) August 25, 2022

That's What america Does In Africa.

Among The Many Places Elsewhere Globally. https://t.co/qbnn31wi3Q pic.twitter.com/XjQg8TbEoF

— DanCDO7大牛❤️🇭🇰🇸🇬🇨🇳🇪🇺🇺🇸❤️ (@DanCDO7) August 26, 2022