Hi James,

I read the article (think is actually chris-floyd.com) and found it an interesting discussion. The author is unashamedly anti-US. I followed up by reading an interview (www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/000475.html) with the author in which he discussed his upbringing and life to that point in time. Surprisingly we share a lot in common; when Reagan got re-elected I opted to leave the USA permanently. I thought like him at an earlier stage of my life but over the past 20 years I've become conservative.

My problem with authors like Chris Floyd are is accepting blanket statements like "The War on Terror began as a monstrous hybrid of imperialist adventurism, blood-money boondoggle and psychosexual power trip for the stunted, blunted second-rate souls who hold sway in our corrupt system."

At no point in the article does the author denounce ISIS, rather he presents to whole war as staged manipulation by the USA - "Barack Obama is massively escalating U.S. military operations in Iraq, launching a bombing campaign in Tikrit, ostensibly in aid of the Iraqi government's attempt to recapture the city from ISIS but more likely just to keep Iranian-led Iraqi Shiite militias from retaking the town. (Alternatively, some have suggested, not entirely implausibly, that the bombing is actually a bid to save ISIS from defeat by the Iranians, and keep both sides embroiled in conflict; the same strategy followed by the U.S. in the Iran-Iraq War.)"

I don't know, I accept there is always more going on than we know but this guy's scenario is a big stretch for me to accept.

The USA having totally used up all its credibility in Afghanistan and iraqe can no longer convince it's own people to send troops on the ground anywhere. Any honest appraisal finds that whilst the USA has secured the oil fields for the global plutocracy in Iraq, it has lost the war there and even the oil fields are held tenuously. In Afghanistan they have achieved even less except that poppy sales are up.

Going forward the USA policy is proxy war. Sometimes a state, sometimes rebels, sometimes ISIS and even Al Ciada are provided assistance. This rag tag of alliances is unreliable. The strategy seems to be to simply creates chaos.

The USA is stretched. Whilst embroiling itself in the Middle East it has entirely lost credibility globally amongst it's own citizens and the. Entire western world.

The reassertion of Russia in a loose alliance with China and Iran has left the USA bewildered and erratic. We are returning to a multi polar world. The fictional war on terror is unravelling because real politics with real state powers are re asserting themselves against the failed and crazed USA policies over the last 15 or so years.

Anyone who thinks ISIS and Al Ciada are genuine movements posing an uncontrolled threat outside the theatres they are instructed to operate is living within the matrix of mainstream media fictional narratives. And even among the general western populace the percentage who buy these increasingly incoherent story lines has dramatically dropped and morphed into widespread cynicism.

The article would more correctly be titled Obamas theatre of the grotesque.

Hi Yebiga,

What does 'yebiga' mean in Russian, I wonder ?

A fictional war on terror ? Perhaps you could tell that to the people of Kenya. Or Nigeria. or France, Denmark, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, etc. etc.

Yes, your ISIS friends provide a convenient stick to shove up the @rse of the US, but opportunism does not get you very far, eventually. So, crow all you like.

So, in the grand scheme of things, Yebiga, when it comes down to it, do you support the US or ISIS ? The US ? Or ISIS ? Simple as that.

Once that battle has been resolved, in a few decades, we can get back to shoving it up the Yanks. But there are more urgent issues right now.

Joe

@Joe & CH. Nobody is going to condone the atrocities perpetrated by Islamic radical groups. But to portray them simply as expressions of Islamic fundamentalism, barbarism, or any of the other epithets currently used is to my mind to miss the point, or rather, several points.

the complexity can hardly be explored in the confines of OLO's comments section. There are however a number of relevant issues that need to be borne in mind. A far from exclusive list would include:

1. Thew US creates and uses fundamentalist groups for its own geo-political purposes (see for eg. Hersh (2007) "The Redirection").

2. As indicated in previous comments the US is simultaneously and fighting against the same groups in different countries as it suits their purposes.

3. As appalling as the carnage by ISIS et al is, it represents a tiny fraction of the millions who have died as a consequence of US policy, which is one reason Gallup polls in the Middle East and Africa overwhelmingly nominate the US as the greatest threat to world peace and the greatest terrorist nation by very wide margins.

4. The level of debate in this country on this and related issues is abysmal, marked by profound ignorance of historical and current realities, a too ready descent into cheap mud-slinging, and a mindset that marks anything that departs from the received wisdom as wrong (to use a neutral term).

Well, as bad as the US is, or is claimed to be!? I don't see where there is any official acceptance of ritual beheading, or rape or crucifixion, or sanctioned sex slaves!

If my only two choices of a place to live, work and play were the so called Islamic state and the US? Guess where I'd head, or just allow my feet to vote for me.

However, if the out and out nutters think ISIS has a case and want to join in the genocide and the massacres?

They should all be allowed exit visas, and once they're there and in just the one region, bomb them to hell; because there's just no place in paradise for murders, thieves and blood lusting dirty rotten scoundrels, without a single redeeming human quality!

Want to fight and die; and remember, you are not invincible as you once were when all this was just a video game, and where the target might shoot back, and with incredibly painful consequences!? [And if wounded may be left where you fell; gut-shot and begging for mama or death, and in a desert which regularly tops 50C!]

Then at least pick a justifiable righteous cause, not presided over by a power mad extremist; where your extremely premature, downright dumb death as some sort of sacrificial lamb, may at the very least, serve a higher purpose?

Rather than that concocted by the Devil's premier disciple!

At least the American President does have to face the judgement of the people, who retain the right to give him the right royal boot!
Rhrosty.

Hi James,

I'll ask again, what evidence is there that the US is currently supporting ISIS and the other supporters of a caliphate uner it ?

One thing I've learnt in a long and dissipated life is that when people come to the conclusion that what X or Y is doing is 'Just crazy ! Just crazy !', then they don't have any real understanding: 'Why the Stolen Generation ?! Just crazy !' 'Why cover up Roswell ?! Just crazy !' In this case, the bafflement may simply be because you've got it all wrong. Which means that, despite your faint damns, you're letting the really bad guys off the hook.

The US may be one of the most evil forces ever known in the universe, but not in this situation: can you, off-hand, name any university campus where they've killed 147 students at random ? Have they shot a couple of thousand prisoners and chucked their bodies in a trench ? Raped, killed or enslaved a couple of thousand women ? Butchered people as in Libya, Kenya, Nigeria, etc. ?

Get some proper perspective, James. In the first instance, provide some evidence of US complicity with ISIS, and if you can't, face the fact - in your own head - that currently, there may be far worse forces in the world than the Yanks. Don't grasp at straws.

Joe