What we got here is a failure to communicate*
Despite popular sentiment against it, U.S. military “projection of power” in the Persian Gulf region has reached new heights. Hours after Bush announced his plan to surge troops into Iraq, U.S. forces raided the Iranian embassy in the Kurdish [Northern] region of iraq [Agence France-Presse]. The Washington Post speculates that this could be a test of of Iraqi Prime Minimster Nouri al-Maliki’s determination to enforce security laws independent of the ethnic and religious affiliation of the suspects. Al-Malikii is a Shiite Muslim. The nightmare scenario of Pentagon Neocons is a unified Iranian-Iraqi Shiite population sitting on top of most of the world’s easily exploitable oil.
Three days before the Bush address a British publication, the Independent reported that the Iraqi parliament was considering a new law concerning production-sharing agreements with foreign oil companies. The report cited terms far more favorable to such firms than is usual in the business. The Bush address confirmed that there is such a law under consideration, but the spin was noticably different – that the law is about equity between competing Iraqi ethnic groups. Chris Floyd argues that this law is the real victory for Bush.
Two days before the Bush address, U.S. forces launched an airstrike on a village in Somalia, the first in over a decade. The target was presumed al-Qaeda. The U.S.S. Eisenhauer strike force [Codename “Ike Strike”] set sail for the Somali coast. A second carrier strike group, the U.S.S. Stennis, is scheduled to deploy to the gulf sometime this month. The specific capability of an aircraft carrier is the “projection of power” as is appointing a navy man as commander of Centcom.
America Says No is staging protests across the country tonight Jan 11, 2007. Their website has a lookup to find one near you. As of 1:30 PM EST, those near Harvard are:
4:00-6:00 PM Boston Park & Tremont Sts.
5:00 PM Natick, Malden, Newton, Sudbury
6:00 PM Revere, Stow, Rockland, Andover, Westborough, Jamaica Plain, Salem, Belmont(2), Concord, Bedford(2),
6:30 PM Rockland
7:00 PM Lexington
11:30 PM Harvard, MA {the town not the university]
Take a camera and post pictures to the web [or look at other people’s event reports]. Send a link to your congresspeople. You’re allowed to drive your car to get there, but carpooling is encouraged.
*Cool Hand Luke.
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- Third Light
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- What we got here is a passion to communicate.
