We’ve read much analysis on why Saudi Arabia is attacking Yemen and heard accusations of criminal hypocrisy against the USA for supporting Saudi Arabia’s attack on the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula. But we haven’t yet established why the USA would allow yet another destabilizing war in the Mideast, a violent war taking place right at the gates of the world’s largest oil fields.
On the surface, it would seem odd that the USA would approve of a war that could easily get out of control and threaten to jeopardize global industries and the health of our global economy. But… there is method in Empire’s madness.
America intends to remove the House of Saud from power.
Yes, the decision has been taken and Empire is now working to remove the House of Saud in exactly the same way that it removed Saddam from power: by first encouraging Saudi Arabia to go to war with a stubborn neighboring foe, a war that will take years to unfold, thereby slowly draining the House of Saud from local geopolitical prestige and influence, rendering them vulnerable to the winds of change and to the vicissitudes of unstable dictatorship. Empire’s resolve is to be rid of all monarchies in the middle east starting with the House of Saud. And after the fall of the House of Saud, Saudi Arabia will be divided into three provinces.
The first province, rich in oil, is presently occupied Yemeni territory which will be returned to Yemen. The second province will encompass all the major ancient Islamic cities, turning it into an Islamic Vatican, administrated likewise; its wealth collected not from oil but from religious pilgrimage and religious tourism. The third province, rich in oil, will be given to the downtrodden Arabian Shia and other marginalized desert tribes already historically rooted there and for decades living practically as slave labor to the House of Saud’s petro corporations.
Empire’s vision also includes big changes ahead in Israel. No longer will Israel’s crimes of aggression be supported by the USA at a global level. No. Those days are now gone. Empire, with the backing and will of the world behind it, will enforce, even by force, a Two State Solution in the holy land based on the ’67 borders (with agreed swaps etc), whether Israel likes it or not. Yes, Israel will resist like a madman his straight-jacket. Yes, it will get very hideously ugly with the israelis before they eventually get the message that there is no god but Empire in this world and its favored sport is smiting the unruly. Ironically, an enforced Two State Solution, with Israel kicking and screaming, will actually save it from self-destructing through Apartheid, or from annihilation through a showdown with its capable neighbors. Israel’s nukes cannot save it from death by Apartheid or death by war, even if it launched all its nuclear warheads out across the world. Not even Israel’s nukes can stop the Two State Solution that’s being set to charge directly at its spleen.
Look around the middle east region and you see the center of the old zeitgeist is now cracked and its once artful and formidable practitioners, Israel and Saudi Arabia, now look power-parched, wrinkled and cantankerous. A burdensome duo whose extremist ideologies are in direct opposition to Empire’s own political manifesto and self-branding. Colossal hypocrisy aside, ultimately, Empire prefers a life-long ally whose ideologies are on par with its own. ‘If you’re like us, you’re cool for life – and everyone else is fine and dandy till they’re disposable’. That’s our quintessential MO.
With chaos and multiple wars spreading across the middle east, wars that have been directly instigated by either Israel or Saudi Arabia, or both – wars that israel and Saudi Arabia have lost or are in the process of losing – all this has, over time, consequently caused a chronic hemorrhaging of American power and influence in the middle east. Sure, we had a lot of blood to spare in the past so we could afford to lose a few pints – but that is no longer the case. America’s continuing hegemony in the middle east now absolutely depends on its new vision manifesting; depends on its giant motions of change occurring – slow motions that are being seeded today and that will gather momentum as events unfold in our lifetime.
Will this change not create a dangerous geopolitical vacuum in the region? The simple answer is no. There is a new zingiest in town and its superstars are called Turkey and Iran – possibly Egypt too, depending on how the political schizophrenic Sisi plays it in the next few years. But thus far, Turkey and Iran have passed the test and Empire has calculated that between them, they can oversea American interests right across the region, sans the strife and mayhem and project failures that Israel and Saudi Arabia have produced.
During the last zeitgeist, it served Empire to have the middle east be unstable; but for the new zeitgeist, it needs the middle east to be heading towards its own brand of democracy and stability in the next two decades, so it can then safely turn its full focus further east to counter and block the encroaching powers of China and Russian, as well as the emergent power of India.
Whatever explosive and major events may come to pass in the meantime in the middle east, American geopolitical strategy is now based and centered on directing the results towards manifesting this new vision of the middle east.
brilliant! seriously brilliant.
sorry, i was suddenly called away in the middle of writing that response by the sound of some email dings.
it had not occurred to me the US was trying to undermine SA’s regime via yemen, but it makes a lot of sense the way you’ve explained it. do you think this will happen regardless of who takes the presidency in 2016? i sort of assumed when the king died recently it would be an opportune time for the changing of the guards (or regime) and i had heard of chopping SA into three states, one being equivalent to the muslim vatican. but there’s so much info here i need to read thru it a coupla times. thank you.
Annie, it doesn’t matter what party the new president will belong to – this is Empire’s decision not party politics – and Empire’s political needs override everything else in our political arena. Think of why the two Bush presidents drew a clear mideast boundary for themselves despite their warmongering politics and their abilities to invade or attack anywhere in the mideast. Father Bush would NOT go into Baghdad during Desert Storm, and Bush junior absolutely refused to attack Iran despite his ability to do so and despite aipac and Cheney’s immense pressure on him. As president, you’re required to serve Empire above all and ‘manage’ internal political resistances to that end.
The Al-Saud family is divided into two antagonistic sections and the old king belonged to one family branch while the new king belongs to another branch (different mothers). The old king was in serious internal conflict with Saudi wahabis while the new king is a champion of wahabism. Wahabism was useful to Empire but that is no longer the case. Wahabism now burdens Empire in the same way and measure that zionism is burdening it. They are now both regarded as ‘loser’ clients and Empire does not support losers indefinitely.
Usually, after so many losses by a client state, Empire will take stock of the situation and promptly change direction and alliances, usually aligning itself anew with rising, winner allies. Empire would get dragged down to bankruptcy if all it ever did was support perpetual losers. It’s not a personal or ideological thing, it’s pure pragmatic politiking.
Wow, Taxi! This is impressive stuff! I am going to come here more often!
Thanks Cloaky! I appreciate your vote of confidence.
I have always enjoyed reading your posts at MW, but this one seriously knocks it out of the ballpark!
I really like the idea that the US is setting up SA just like we set up Iraq for a fall. Hope this one has a better outcome. There are a lot of skeletons buried in the SA relationship – including some 9/11 complicity, along with Israel. I don’t believe that 19 hijacker story for a minute – ‘specially since a number of the are still alive, but you don’t hear about that in the MSM. This was a CIA/Mossad operation all the way.
As for Iran, a lot rides on the next 3 months, but looking at how O has been playing this, I think he is going to be able to pull off a final deal. Most likely, he is going to bypass Congress and just do it as a UNSC thingy. After all, this is not a treaty, so the senate really has no purview here, and O doesn’t need senate approval for anything that is not a treaty. Non-treaty agreements aren’t really constitutional, but we have done over 40 of them, so it would be hard to block this one.
If O is smart, and he probably is, he will spend the next 3 months talking to the people directly, bypassing congress. Already, looking at the comments on Huffpo to articles like “GOP hugs Israel closer”, it is apparent that popular opinion is increasingly anti-Israel. I have been predicting the “tipping point” since the beginning of the year, and I really think this could be it.
Not ready to pop the champagne corks yet, but I am moving some bottles up from the cellar.
Cloak,
The deal with Iran is not a ‘peace treaty’ between USA and Iran – this therefore leaves Obama room to cicumvent the islamophobes and iranophobes in congress, as you rightly pointed out.
For sure, America is in the process of transitioning allies in the middle east and the zio critters in congress will fight tooth and nail to protect israel from being sidestepped – but it really is a lost cause.
Israel, having proven that it cannot ‘resolve’ the emotive Palestine issue, has no intention of doing so; plus it has proven that it cannot destroy or even contain any of the Levant resistances that grow stronger by the day, is now seen by Empire as an unreliable and un-serving client state. That’s why every day that passes, isreal’s concerns are rendered irrelevant to Empire’s new big picture. Note how Obama halted any intelligence-sharing with israel during the Iran negotiations – clearly confirming isreal’s deepening irrelevancy in the eyes of Empire. Israel has been failing at all its projects in the middle east: it failed against Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran. These failures have cost Empire dearly, in terms of dollars and prestige, and Empire does not keep its hand extend to client states who time and time again cannot deliver.
It’s not really Netanyahu’s saline approach to Obama or anything like that that has caused Empire to redirect its interests – any other israeli prime minister in power today would be eventually receiving the same low grading by Empire based on the State of Israel’s performance as a whole over the past three decades.
The transitioning of allies, especially with regards israel, will happen gradually but decidedly. The fights over israel in our political arena will be scandalously ugly but Empire’s wishes in the end will prevail.
Aipac and its friends in USA have long been under the delusion that they control Empire and have manged to convince even their enemies that this is the case. But control of congress through monetary gangsterism is not the same as controlling Empire. This reality is slowly sinking into the brains of more sober zionists. They have no choice now but to comply with Empire’s wish for a Two State Solution based on the ’67 borders. It’s not really for the love of Palestine that Empire wants a 2SS, it is because a 2SS at this stage of the game is most beneficial to Empire.
Yes it is in America’s interest at this stage to implement the Two State Solution by any means necessary.
For the time being though, it will use the cover of the international community’s wishes for a 2SS to make its maneuvers.
Even if McCain was president today, he would still have to work according to Empire’s interests and not for the localized political interests of Sheldon or Soros.
One thing’s for sure, the American public is losing love for israel and no amount of dollars given to congressmen by Sheldon etc can reverse this.
Zionism has lost the battle for the hearts and minds of Americans and without a victory in that area, no political ideology can survive for long.
Hello Taxi,
thanks for this great article. Let me give some additional thoughts to it:
It’s quite obvious to me that the development in Yemen is a US-engineered trap for the Saudis. I’m so confident about this because the main foe of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen is not the Houthis, but politically it’s the GPC and military it’s Yemen’s army. As Hadi’s foreign minister Reyad Yassin Abdulla just publicly said, Yemen’s army is almost completely united in backing the Iran-friendly Houthis against Hadi and the Saudi coalition! Read this breathtaking admission in
Reuters, 1/4/2015: Yemen’s problem is ex-president not Houthis: foreign minister
Some key quotes from that crucial Reuters article:
So, that is the same Yemeni army, which was trained and equipped by the US with hundreds of millions of Dollars, and the US trainers and advisors for the army were there right until March 2015, when Yemen’s army long ago made the Houthi take over of Sanaa possible. And from the crucial Al Anad airbase near Aden, the US trainers only retreated in March 2015, when militias loyal to Hadi – whom the US views as legitimate president of Yemen – were advancing in direction of the Al Anad airbase. As long as the US forces in Yemen were with Yemen’s army (which is united and allied with the Houthis) there were just feeling fine and lauded Yemen’s army as being good and fine. And now the US supports the Saudi war with the nothing of “Intel & logistics” against exactly this army, thereby making the Sauds look like US pawns in the view of ordinary Yemenis and filling the ranks of Ansarullah. And that is all while virtually anybody expects the Saudi war on Yemen to fail – and possible to backfire big time against the Saudis. So, yes, I completely agree with your analysis, that the Sauds walked in Yemen straight into a big US-engineered trap.
However, the conclusions of the why drawn from this analysis may be different. In my view this trap not about empire to put it’s guns against China & BRICS, but about “Camp Obama” fighting against “Camp Bibi” for the control about the United States of America.What Camp Obama wants from that trap is Saudi help in fighting Camp Bibi. So far the Sauds were the biggest geopolitical allies of Camp Bibi, but “Camp Obama” wants them to change this. If the Sauds don’t change their alliance, the kingdom of the Sauds will be detroyed, with Camp Obama using the Yemeni leverage. The final goal is Palestine, to “put Bibi in the box”, making him either obeying Obama’s orders or destroying him. In the course of this fight the US empire will vanish and the biggest winner of this geopolitical struggle will be – besides Camp Obama and the US people, who get back their sovereignty from Israeli tutelage – Iran and the BRICS, because whatever comes out of the struggle for Saudi Arabia, it will greatly enhance Iran’s influence in the middle east and thereby benefit the BRICS & SCO, of whom Iran is a close ally. And I do think camp Obama consciously follows the policy to break the US empire to beat Bibi. Have a look what just happened in Nigeria. David Axelrod, Obama’s chief campaign manager, advised the campaign to defeat Goodluck Jonathan (Search Google for Axelrod and Nigeria), one of Camp Bibi’s most valuable allies in Africa, and bring instead a guy to power in Nigeria, who has vowed to align Nigeria with the BRICS, and especially Russia (See:Strategic Culture, 4/4/2015: Muhammadu Buhari – Nigeria’s New President). So, this looks pretty much like Camp Obama intentionally strenghtens the BRICS to weaken Camp bibi thereby. If the US policy following the grand strategy I assume that is being followed succeeds, Bibi will be beaten, the I/P conflict resolves, the US will cease to be an empire and the US will instead become one sovereign country (and still a quite powerful one) in a multipolar world.
Of course, that this is Obama’s grand strategy is speculation, but I find it worth to think about it. Since camp Bibi controlls congress, Obama has only his role as commander in chief and his primacy on foreign policy to fight against camp Bibi, and, I think, what we see here, is that Camp Obama is using these powers in his fight against Camp Bibi.
Bandolero
Bandolero,
That is an interesting perspective, but I am not so sure that this is “Camp Obama” vs. “Camp Bibi”, despite the animosity between them. This is chess at a much grander scale than personal acrimony between two men.
I think that empire has wearied off the ME and wants to focus on China and the growing power of the East. The dollar hegemony is under its biggest threat with the new China bank that has all our allies stampeding to join – even Israel (no ally of ours). Any time in the past when the dollar hegemony was threatened, we went to war – Iraq, Libya, etc.
China is too powerful to go to war with, so a new strategy is needed. Can’t focus on that with distractions in the ME. Israel and SA have to go.
Bandelero,
Great Yemen quotes – thank you for adding that. As per usual, America is arming both sides of the conflict and in the case of this conflict, I fear more Yemeni civilians will die than Saudi ones. But the abyss waits only for Saudi Arabia, as repeatedly stated by subjective analysts. Between the old ‘forgetful’ king who’s never even drawn a single window curtain in his life, and his pampered defense minister, the youngest defense minister in the world, I’m not surprised the USA jumped to agree to their request to attack Yemen. This was a godsend opportunity as far as America is concerned.
And it’s interesting: your Bibi-camp versus Obama-camp perspective. Here, I really think the situation is a lot bigger and deeper than just Bibi and Obama bitch-slapping each other. I think the bright “daylight” we now see between USA and israel is bigger than the both of them.
It’s a new era Bandelero – America is changing course in the middle east.
And regarding confronting China or Russia or any of the BRIC countries: there will never be wars between major world powers anymore – not in the traditional sense – no one can afford the colossal damage. But there will be plenty of proxy wars and economic wars between major powers: this is the hallmark of the 21st century.
I should have also added that once a ground offensive begins, we’ll see some of the Saudi coalition countries pull out of the direct line of fire and out of battle altogether – including even possibly Egypt (I’ll elaborate on that tomorrow – no time to get into that seg). We’ll also start to see kidnappings of Saudis, car bombs in Riyadh, false-flag mosque bombing in towns and cities across Saudi Arabia – we’ll see every act of violent urban terrorism that the House of Saud has birthed in other countries for decades, finally hit its own metropolis and criss-cross its land.
The whole Gulf region will consequently go into a security clampdown, the worse the Yemen war gets. This will adversely effect regional business travelers and tourism, especially in trendy Dubai. The Gulfie royals are absolutely petrified of losing their cushy gigs. They will start sleeping with their suitcases already packed and their bricks of gold bullion loaded on royal airplanes (just kidding!) . The Gulfie royals are more obsessed with ‘their security’ than even the israelis are – and we all know the security neurosis that israelis incessantly suffer from.
This war was bound to happen. Yemen versus Saudi Arabia. David versus Goliath. The Yemen will take the hits but the Saudis will end up losing.
The Saudi war against Yemen will go down as the shmukiest war in history. Take a good look at the king and his defense minister – it’s like the Arabian Laurel and Hardy. This is a war ordered and run by Laurel and Hardy. I’d laugh if I didn’t already know that innocent people will be dying.
Cloak And Dagger, Taxi
With my words “Camp Obama” versus “Camp Bibi” I meant not at all that this is a conflict of personal animosity or personal bitch-slapping. I’ld see it as a struggle between colossal global political, economic and military forces coalescing into two different sides defined by two different world views. Until a couple of years ago, I would have thought of US axis vs China axis a good description for these blocs, one aiming to preserve the US hegemony over the world and the other aiming for a multipolar world.
Sharmine Narwani called these two global forces recently in her RT op-ed “Will Yemen kick-off the ‘War of the two Blocs?'” the Neo-Colonial Axis and the Post-Colonial Axis for the US axis vs China axis struggle which I find very useful but quite abstract terms for these forces. Since US president Obama in his 2nd term seems to have defected to the Chinese worldview the US axis vs China axis would not be a useful description today anymore. What we have now, seems to me that in the US there are – like in many other countries – forces of both views. I used the terms “Camp Obama” vs “Camp Bibi” as everybody can see the differences of these forces on a number of recent issues like:
Nabucco vs South stream
US military strikes on Syria vs Syria CW deal
Arming new Ukraine gov vs not arming new Ukraine gov
prevent Palestinian state vs create Palestinian state
Backing Ghani vs backing Abdullah in Afghanistan
Backing Sharif vs backing Khan in Pakistan
Backing Bibi vs backing Herzog in Israel
Put more pressure on Iran vs cut nuclear deal with Iran
Backing Jonathan vs backing Buhari in Nigeria…
Regarding the nature of this major global struggle, much fighting is about
– economy & economic alliances like the epic TTIP, TPP, TiSA vs RCEP, SCO, AIIB, BRICS & silk road battle, and
– influencing public opinion to win elections like in Turkey, Israel, Nigeria & US 2016.
However, while much of this global struggle is non-military, there exists a masty bloody military & proxy war component in this global struggle, as we can see in eg in Palestina, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Ukraine & Nigeria.
Bandolero,
Thanks for explaining that.
I like the labels “neo-colonial” vs “post-colonial” perspectives as a much more apt overview of global politics. You are exactly correct that the “Chinese perspective” is much more representative of the emerging world view – one of extending dominance and power through diplomacy and market usurpation, rather than the obsolescent model of military dominance, which Taxi also mentioned.
Proxy wars will continue well into the future. The trick is for us to become the puppet masters behind these proxy wars, rather than continue to be the puppets ourselves, as Israel has rendered us since the LBJ days. Hopefully all this can eventually be replaced by pure diplomacy and sound business one day.
Cloak,
I like the label ‘Last of the misanthropic crusaders of the Holy land’. Crusaders is more fitting for their endeavor.
bandelero, really good article by Narwani, finally got around to reading it earlier today. just reading b’s article at moa http://www.moonofalabama.org/2015/04/the-war-on-yemen-makes-no-sense.html , he asks at the end “Why do the Obama administration and the hawks in congress think that this whole campaign is a good idea? Why do they support it?” i think i’ll link to this thread.
oh, and SA came out w/a statement they support the iran deal (for whatever that’s worth, segues w/c&d’s obama camp vs bibi camp.) http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.650712