This week's discussion was about the deepening military conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan. The new military government in Egypt and nascent civil war in Libya.
Is the is a'boiling frog' world war that has already begun?
Here it is in hi-fi quality
http://radio4all.net/index.php/program/49882
Hats off to Seamus Milne in Thursday's Guardian too!
While American and British politicians have ramped up talk of a no-fly zone, US warships have been sent to the Mediterranean, a stockpile of chemical weapons has been duly discovered, special forces have been in action, Italy has ditched a non-aggression treaty with Tripoli and a full-scale western military intervention in yet another Arab country is suddenly a serious prospect.
Egged on by his neoconservative lieutenants, David Cameron went furthest. Fresh from his tour selling arms to Gulf despots, the British prime minister talked excitedly about arming Libyan rebels, and only staged a hasty retreat when he found himself running ahead of the US administration.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/02/intervention-libya-poison-arab-revolution
Comments
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What Arab revolutions?
05.03.2011 11:45
The question you should ask is: how would the West respond to a genuine uprising that was sweeping through the Arab world that caught them unawares?
There would be panic.
- A row would break out between the various US intelligence services and State Departments for not seeing this
- The CIA’s head of the Middle East would be hounded out of his job
- Republicans would be calling for Hiliary Clinton to resign
- There would be US congress people and Senators demanding military intervention to protect oil supplies and “our way of life” – indeed there would be a propaganda campaign
- There would be endless programmes in the US debating what should happen
- There would be emergency meetings among G7 heads
- NATO would be in permanent session
- The US would sign security treaties with friendly Arab states
- US bases would be set up in various friendly Arab states
- Security advisers would be flown in to help Arab states remain stable using “humanitarian means”
- State Department ministers and CIA chiefs would be in and out of Arab states on a regular basis
- We’d be told that Al Qaida is organising the rebellions
- Finance chiefs and gurus would be telling us oil-price Armageddon is around the corner
- You’d know what German leaders think about the revolutions – because they’d be on news shows telling you along with lots of other leaders
- Western media would go into panic mode
- US forces would go to Def Con 4 (second lowest level of readiness)
I see no sign that there is any significant fear among Western elites about these so-called revolutions.
incognito
They are genuine arab revolutuions!
05.03.2011 12:38
poster