A religion divided against itself
Written by Paul Craig Roberts
Muslims are numerous but powerless. Divisions among Muslims,especially between Sunni and Shi'ites, have consigned the MuslimMiddle East to almost a century of Western control. Muslims cannoteven play together. The Islamic Solidarity Games, a regional versionof the Olympics, which were to be held in April in Iran, have beencanceled, because the Iranians and the Arabs cannot agree on whetherto call the body of water that separates Iran from the ArabianPeninsula the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Gulf. Muslim disunity has made it possible for Israel to dispossess thePalestinians, for the U.S. to invade Iraq, and for the U.S. to rulemuch of the region through puppets. For example, in exchange forfaithful service, Egypt receives $1.5 billion a year from Washington,which enables President Mubarak to buy off opposition. The oppositionhad rather have the money than support the Palestinians. Therefore,Egypt cooperates with Israel and the U.S. in the blockade of Gaza. Another factor is the willingness of some Muslims to betray their ownkind for U.S. dollars. Don't take my word for it. Listen toneoconservative Kenneth Timmerman, head of the Foundation forDemocracy, which describes itself as "a private, non-profitorganization established in 1995 with grants from the NationalEndowment for Democracy (NED) to promote democracy andinternationally-recognized standards of human rights in Iran." By now we all know what that means. It means that the U.S. finances a"velvet" or some "color revolution" in order to install a U.S. puppet.Just prior to the sudden appearance of a "green revolution" in Tehranprimed to protest an election, Timmerman wrote that "the NationalEndowment for Democracy has spent millions of dollars during the pastdecade promoting 'color' revolutions in places such as Ukraine andSerbia, training political workers in modern communications andorganizational techniques. Some of that money appears to have made itinto the hands of pro-Mousavi groups, who have ties tonon-governmental organizations outside Iran that the NationalEndowment for Democracy funds." So, according to the neocon Timmerman,funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, it was U.S. money thatfunded Mousavi's claims that Ahmadinejad stole the last Iranianelection. During President George W. Bush's regime it became public knowledgethat American money is used to purchase Iranians to work against theirown country. The Washington Post, a newspaper sympathetic to theneocon's goal of American hegemony and war with Iran, reported in 2007that Bush authorized spending more than $400 million for activitiesthat included "supporting rebel groups opposed to the country's rulingclerics." This makes the U.S. government a "state sponsor of terrorism." Forconfirmation, one of the U.S. paid operatives, who conducted terroroperations in Iran, has ratted on his terrorist supporters inWashington. Abdulmalek Rigi, leader of the Baloch separatist groupresponsible for several attacks, was recently arrested by theIranians. Rigi admitted that the Americans in Washington assured himof unlimited military aid and funding for waging an insurgency againstthe Islamic Republic of Iran. (Read his confession here.) Possibly he was tortured into confession. It is the American way. Ifthe "light of the world," the "indispensable people," and the "shiningcity on the hill" tortures people, perhaps the Iranians do as well.Rigi's younger brother, himself on death row in Iran, has said thatthe U.S. provided direct funding to the separatist group and evenordered specific terrorist attacks inside Iran The U.S. and its NATO puppets have been killing Afghan women,children, and village elders since October 7, 2001, when the U.S.military invasion "Operation Enduring Freedom," a proper Orwelliantitle for a self-serving war of aggression, was launched. The U.S.installed puppet president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is bought andpaid for with U.S. dollars. The money that Washington gives Karzai finances the corruption thatsupports him. Karzai's corruption and his treason against the Afghanpeople encourage the Taliban to keep fighting in order to achieve agovernment that serves Afghans instead of Washington, D.C. Without the puppet Karzai selling out Afghans to Washington, the U.S.would have already been driven out of the country. With Karzai payingAfghans with American money to fight Afghans for the Americans, thewar drones on into its ninth year. Feminists, liberals, and naive American flag-wavers will say that whatis written here is utter rot, that Americans are in Afghanistan tobring women's rights and birth control to Afghan women and to bringfreedom, democracy and progress to Afghanistan, even if it meansleveling every village, town, and house in the country. We, "theindispensable people," are only there to do good, because we care somuch for the Afghan people who live in a country that most Americanscan't find on a map. While this collection of naifs rants on about America "saving" Afghansfrom whatever, the White House and the Congress are conspiring againstthe American people to cut $500 billion dollars out of Medicare inorder to give the money to private insurance companies. Joblessbenefits are about to run out for millions of Americans, whose jobshave been moved offshore in order to make the rich richer. The U.S.Senate failed on Friday, Feb. 26, to extend jobless benefits. A singleRepublican Senator, Jim Bunning of Kentucky, was able to block thebill because it would cost a measly $10 billion and "would add to thebudget deficit." The "fiscally responsible" Bunning supports blank checks for wars ofaggression (war crimes under the Nuremberg standard) and payoffs toinvestment banks for wrecking the retirement plans of most Americans.Bunning sends the bills to the unorganized and unrepresentedAmericans, whose jobs have been stolen by corporate offshoring of jobsand whose retirements have been stolen by the endless greed of theWall Street investment banks. What fool believes that the U.S. government, which is totallyindifferent to the fate of its own citizens, cares so much aboutAfghanistan that it will spend blood and treasure to bring "progress"and "women's rights" to a country half a world away, while it drivesits own citizens into the ground? At Washington's behest, the government of Pakistan is conducting waragainst its own people, killing many and forcing others to flee theirhomes and lands. The Pakistani government's war against its owncitizens has caused military expenses to soar, putting Pakistan'sbudget deep in the red. Deputy US Treasury Secretary Neal Wolinordered the Pakistani government to raise taxes to pay for the waragainst its own people. The puppet ruler, Asif Ali Zardari, complied with his Americanmaster's orders. Zardari declared a broad-based value added tax onvirtually all goods and most services in Pakistan. Thus, Pakistanisare forced to finance a war against themselves. The "cakewalk war" in Iraq has lasted 7 years instead of the promised6 weeks, and the violence is still ongoing with Iraqis killed andmaimed nearly every day. The reason Americans are still in Iraq isbecause the Iraqis hate each other more than they hate the Americaninvader. The vast majority of the violence in "the Iraq war" wascommitted between Iraqi Sunnis and Iraqi Shi'ites as they cleansed oneanother from neighborhoods. The majority Shi'ites regarded the American invasion of Iraq as anopportunity to gain power over the minority Sunnis, who ruled underSaddam Hussein. Therefore, the Shi'ites never engaged the Americaninvading forces. The minority Sunnis (20 percent of the population)gave most of their effort to fighting the Shi'ite majority, but intheir spare time a few thousand Sunnis were able to inflict serious
Written by Paul Craig Roberts
Muslims are numerous but powerless. Divisions among Muslims,especially between Sunni and Shi'ites, have consigned the MuslimMiddle East to almost a century of Western control. Muslims cannoteven play together. The Islamic Solidarity Games, a regional versionof the Olympics, which were to be held in April in Iran, have beencanceled, because the Iranians and the Arabs cannot agree on whetherto call the body of water that separates Iran from the ArabianPeninsula the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Gulf. Muslim disunity has made it possible for Israel to dispossess thePalestinians, for the U.S. to invade Iraq, and for the U.S. to rulemuch of the region through puppets. For example, in exchange forfaithful service, Egypt receives $1.5 billion a year from Washington,which enables President Mubarak to buy off opposition. The oppositionhad rather have the money than support the Palestinians. Therefore,Egypt cooperates with Israel and the U.S. in the blockade of Gaza. Another factor is the willingness of some Muslims to betray their ownkind for U.S. dollars. Don't take my word for it. Listen toneoconservative Kenneth Timmerman, head of the Foundation forDemocracy, which describes itself as "a private, non-profitorganization established in 1995 with grants from the NationalEndowment for Democracy (NED) to promote democracy andinternationally-recognized standards of human rights in Iran." By now we all know what that means. It means that the U.S. finances a"velvet" or some "color revolution" in order to install a U.S. puppet.Just prior to the sudden appearance of a "green revolution" in Tehranprimed to protest an election, Timmerman wrote that "the NationalEndowment for Democracy has spent millions of dollars during the pastdecade promoting 'color' revolutions in places such as Ukraine andSerbia, training political workers in modern communications andorganizational techniques. Some of that money appears to have made itinto the hands of pro-Mousavi groups, who have ties tonon-governmental organizations outside Iran that the NationalEndowment for Democracy funds." So, according to the neocon Timmerman,funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, it was U.S. money thatfunded Mousavi's claims that Ahmadinejad stole the last Iranianelection. During President George W. Bush's regime it became public knowledgethat American money is used to purchase Iranians to work against theirown country. The Washington Post, a newspaper sympathetic to theneocon's goal of American hegemony and war with Iran, reported in 2007that Bush authorized spending more than $400 million for activitiesthat included "supporting rebel groups opposed to the country's rulingclerics." This makes the U.S. government a "state sponsor of terrorism." Forconfirmation, one of the U.S. paid operatives, who conducted terroroperations in Iran, has ratted on his terrorist supporters inWashington. Abdulmalek Rigi, leader of the Baloch separatist groupresponsible for several attacks, was recently arrested by theIranians. Rigi admitted that the Americans in Washington assured himof unlimited military aid and funding for waging an insurgency againstthe Islamic Republic of Iran. (Read his confession here.) Possibly he was tortured into confession. It is the American way. Ifthe "light of the world," the "indispensable people," and the "shiningcity on the hill" tortures people, perhaps the Iranians do as well.Rigi's younger brother, himself on death row in Iran, has said thatthe U.S. provided direct funding to the separatist group and evenordered specific terrorist attacks inside Iran The U.S. and its NATO puppets have been killing Afghan women,children, and village elders since October 7, 2001, when the U.S.military invasion "Operation Enduring Freedom," a proper Orwelliantitle for a self-serving war of aggression, was launched. The U.S.installed puppet president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is bought andpaid for with U.S. dollars. The money that Washington gives Karzai finances the corruption thatsupports him. Karzai's corruption and his treason against the Afghanpeople encourage the Taliban to keep fighting in order to achieve agovernment that serves Afghans instead of Washington, D.C. Without the puppet Karzai selling out Afghans to Washington, the U.S.would have already been driven out of the country. With Karzai payingAfghans with American money to fight Afghans for the Americans, thewar drones on into its ninth year. Feminists, liberals, and naive American flag-wavers will say that whatis written here is utter rot, that Americans are in Afghanistan tobring women's rights and birth control to Afghan women and to bringfreedom, democracy and progress to Afghanistan, even if it meansleveling every village, town, and house in the country. We, "theindispensable people," are only there to do good, because we care somuch for the Afghan people who live in a country that most Americanscan't find on a map. While this collection of naifs rants on about America "saving" Afghansfrom whatever, the White House and the Congress are conspiring againstthe American people to cut $500 billion dollars out of Medicare inorder to give the money to private insurance companies. Joblessbenefits are about to run out for millions of Americans, whose jobshave been moved offshore in order to make the rich richer. The U.S.Senate failed on Friday, Feb. 26, to extend jobless benefits. A singleRepublican Senator, Jim Bunning of Kentucky, was able to block thebill because it would cost a measly $10 billion and "would add to thebudget deficit." The "fiscally responsible" Bunning supports blank checks for wars ofaggression (war crimes under the Nuremberg standard) and payoffs toinvestment banks for wrecking the retirement plans of most Americans.Bunning sends the bills to the unorganized and unrepresentedAmericans, whose jobs have been stolen by corporate offshoring of jobsand whose retirements have been stolen by the endless greed of theWall Street investment banks. What fool believes that the U.S. government, which is totallyindifferent to the fate of its own citizens, cares so much aboutAfghanistan that it will spend blood and treasure to bring "progress"and "women's rights" to a country half a world away, while it drivesits own citizens into the ground? At Washington's behest, the government of Pakistan is conducting waragainst its own people, killing many and forcing others to flee theirhomes and lands. The Pakistani government's war against its owncitizens has caused military expenses to soar, putting Pakistan'sbudget deep in the red. Deputy US Treasury Secretary Neal Wolinordered the Pakistani government to raise taxes to pay for the waragainst its own people. The puppet ruler, Asif Ali Zardari, complied with his Americanmaster's orders. Zardari declared a broad-based value added tax onvirtually all goods and most services in Pakistan. Thus, Pakistanisare forced to finance a war against themselves. The "cakewalk war" in Iraq has lasted 7 years instead of the promised6 weeks, and the violence is still ongoing with Iraqis killed andmaimed nearly every day. The reason Americans are still in Iraq isbecause the Iraqis hate each other more than they hate the Americaninvader. The vast majority of the violence in "the Iraq war" wascommitted between Iraqi Sunnis and Iraqi Shi'ites as they cleansed oneanother from neighborhoods. The majority Shi'ites regarded the American invasion of Iraq as anopportunity to gain power over the minority Sunnis, who ruled underSaddam Hussein. Therefore, the Shi'ites never engaged the Americaninvading forces. The minority Sunnis (20 percent of the population)gave most of their effort to fighting the Shi'ite majority, but intheir spare time a few thousand Sunnis were able to inflict serious