The Arab Spring, Bahraini Autumn and the US

 How do the US officials keep a straight face when they preach democracy?

The Crackdown

How the United States looked the other way while Bahrain crushed the Arab Spring’s most ill-fated uprising.

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After massive protests shook the tiny Gulf state last February and March, Bahraini authorities swept in with the backing of foreign troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, clearing the streets of demonstrators and imposing martial law. Since then, government forces have engaged in a long and ruthless crackdown, effectively burying hopes of real reform. If any Arab Spring revolt can be pronounced a failure thus far, this is it.

Not coincidentally, Bahrain’s ill-fated uprising stands out in another way, too. The United States, which took a forceful stance on other Arab revolts, remained relatively passive in the face of the kingdom’s unrest and crackdown. To many who are familiar with the region, this came as no surprise: of all the Arab states that saw revolts last year, Bahrain is arguably the most closely tied to American strategic interests. The country hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, a key watchdog in some of the world’s busiest oil-shipping lanes, waters that also border Iran. In the past five years, the U.S. has sent close to $100 million in military aide to Bahrain—a hefty amount for such a small country—much of it earmarked for “stabilization operations” that include training and equipping police and paramilitary forces. And Bahrain’s leadership is intimately linked to that of Saudi Arabia, America’s greatest ally in the region.

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“If there is a place globally where there is not just distance but a huge gap between American interests and American values, it’s in the Persian Gulf. And its epicenter is in Bahrain,” says Toby Jones of Rutgers University.

Distance, hug gap, gaping void.  How does it matter?

Why Is The West So Hypocritical?

Actually, the question asked is:  

Why is the West silent about Algeria?

Johan Galtung, Feb 13,2012, IPS:

Since the military seized power, a quarter million people have been killed in Algeria.

The killing of nonviolent demonstrators and civilian bystanders is escalating in Syria. Assad should resign immediately, a coalition government should be formed, and hundreds of mediators should hold dialogues with the many parties, to try and form a federation.

But the situation in Algeria is even worse. Since the military seized power and cancelled the second round of elections in January 1992 — with Western consent — when the Islamic Salvation Front was headed for a victory, a quarter million people have been killed.

Why is there no Algerian Spring?  Maybe because the repression is too atrocious. Why have there been no protest from the West? 

The answer is not pretty.  From the same article:

Maybe because the Algerian government did what the West wanted: granted access to oil and gas, to bases, and a made a promise of possible recognition of Israel. Syria did none of this.

Thus, the real question is:  Why Is The West So Hypocritical?  Especially the US which never stops going on about supporting democracy and opposing repression against the citizenry when it suits it.

"US Leaves Iraq Weaker, Less Secure, More Unstable"

Lamentable legacy

But the Iraq [US] troops have left behind is far weaker, less secure, and infinitely far more unstable than when they invaded it. The war unleashed and empowered the forces of religious fundamentalism in Iraq. Washington is patting itself on its back for leaving behind a democratic Iraq. But whether Iraq today is any more democratic than under Saddam Hussein is questionable.

...The US-led invasion of Iraq was shrouded in lies. Leaders in the US and Britain claimed they had irrefutable evidence that it possessed weapons of mass destruction. This duplicity continued right through the occupation. And now at the war’s end, Washington claims the war is a success, resulting in ‘an extraordinary achievement’ that Americans can look on ‘with their heads held high’. Can the US look the Iraqi people in the eye while telling them what exactly it means by ‘success’? 

Has Washington forgotten that as early as 2005, a former head of the US National Security Agency had declared the invasion of Iraq as ‘the greatest strategic disaster in United States history’?

Many Americans and Britons will want to forget their ignoble adventure in Iraq. They must not. All wars are wrong but their war in Iraq was particularly so. The US and its allies invaded and occupied Iraq when it posed no threat to them or any other country. Forgetting the past, glossing over blunders and refusing to learn lessons will condemn the US to repeat its mistakes. 

That repetition appears to have been set in motion with American officials already issuing threats to Syria and Iran. Historians and spin masters will make every effort to twist facts and embellish the US’ Iraqi misadventure and to wipe clean its lamentable legacy in Iraq. They would do well to record the invasion of Iraq in 2003 as marking the starting point of the US’ decline as a superpower. 

Iran Shoots Down a Drone - Bloodless War

Beastly Affair:

From a military point of view, three things become apparent other than that electronic warfare has arrived as the norm rather than exception. One, US has lost the monopoly of a military technology it developed at great cost. 

Tehran proposes to do ‘reverse engineering’. But, will it do so all by itself or with friends from, say, Beijing or Moscow – or Pakistan? Two, Iran seems to possess reserve capabilities, which it has been chary of publicising, and in turn would leave the US and Israel guessing what all Tehran might ultimately do by way of retaliation if attacked. 

Three, there is laughter echoing in the hills and valleys of North Waziristan. The Haqqanis are laughing. With US being evicted from Shamsi air base and Pakistan threatening to shoot down anything in the sky crossing its border, and Iran showing how to do it, is the drone saga of the Afghan war ending? 

Not to worry, drone manufacturers, you have a new market: US.  See The growing menace of domestic drones.

Regime Change Hangover in Iraq

Huge numbers of Iraqis still adrift within the country

As many as 2 million Iraqis — about 6 percent of the country's estimated population of more than 31 million — are thought to have been forced from the cities and towns where they once lived and are housed in circumstances that feel temporary and makeshift.

Tough luck.

via eschaton. 

Meritocracy in the USA

America’s meritocratic, watchdog news media.  Baby Bush's daughter joins an NBC show, Bill Clinton's daughter joins NBC's as a full-time special correspondent and John McCain's daughter joins MSNBC.  As Greenwald puts it:

I really don’t understand what those angry, lazy losers in the Occupy movement are so upset about. America is a meritocracy; if you work hard and prove your skills, you get ahead. The winners deserve what they have because they have earned it. And when all else fails, we have a media filled with insurgent outsiders who will be relentless watchdogs over those in power because that’s what our media outlets are: true outsiders there to check the most powerful factions.

US against local content requirements in renewables

US against local content requirements in renewables

The company's President, Mr James Brown, said that the solar industry was “in a bit of a turmoil”. In an obvious reference to the Chinese, he said that some players, “desperate to find a market for their products”, were bringing down prices aggressively.

Other players, equally desperate to find a market, bring Daddy along with them for help. to arm-twist the client. 

Tax Avoidance - The US Corporate Way

Tax Avoidance on The Rise.

"What's going on here, unfortunately, is murder"

US drones in Pakistan.

Two-tiered Justice

I thought this is what we have only in India. But no. The two-tiered justice system.

Bought Politicians

Rick Perry: The Best Little Whore In Texas. Strong.

In fact, Texas is run much like a Soviet protectorate, with a party boss (Perry) and a Politburo of super-connected advisers to the governor who shuffle back and forth between the public and private spheres (Perry's chief of staff, Mike "The Knife" Toomey, for instance, jumped from the governor's office to a job lobbying for Merck prior to the HPV vaccination order), all backed by a somewhat larger Central Committee of big financial donors who are the real "representative" power in the state, much more than the actual state legislature.

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The system of uncapped donations means that Perry's superinsiders effectively operate as mobsters who hold a chit on the state's government. "These are obscenely huge amounts," says McDonald. "You can give a politician $100 or $1,000 because you like his ideology. But when you start giving him $250,000 or $500,000, you gotta think you are getting something in return."

Fishy Definitely

On the menu, but not on your plate.

It happens for a range of reasons, from outright fraud to a chef’s ignorance to the sometimes real difficulty of discerning one fillet from another. But industry specialists say money is commonly the motivator: It’s a way to increase profits - a cheaper fish sold as something more pricey - on the assumption that customers will not detect the difference.

US Senator: ‘Let’s Get In On The Ground. There’s A Lot Of Money To Be Made In The Future Of Libya’

Link:

Sixty-thousand Libyans have been wounded, 3,000 maimed, 25,000 killed. Let’s get in on the ground. There is a lot of money to be made in the future in Libya. Lot of oil to be produced. Let’s get on the ground and help the Libyan people establish a democracy and a functioning economy based on free market principles.

Democracy. It is always about democracy.

Government For Sale!

And it is not in the 3rd World.  This is the US we're talking about.  Time's July 12th Edition's headlines say it all.  Government for Sale: How Lobbyists Shaped the Financial Reform Bill.  The online edition doesn't have the full article, just the teaser. 

Nuclear Liability: Do As We Say, Not As We Do

Siddarth Varadarajan writes in The Hindu:

The irony is that even as it has pushed the regime of legal channelling on the rest of the world, the U.S. system of economic channelling of liability allows tort claims as well as an unrestricted right of recourse for the operator. That is how, for example, Metropolitan Edison, the operator of the Three Mile Island reactor, sued its supplier, Babcock & Wilcox, after the 1979 accident.

What is it that makes the U.S. so hypocritical?

He also considers some alternatives that India could consider in terms of making a liability law:

In a recent article, Evelyne Ameye has confronted the flawed logic of channelling, making a safety-cum-engineering argument in favour of suppliers remaining liable for accidents their products may cause. (“Channelling of nuclear third party liability towards the operator,” European Energy and Environmental Law Review, 2010). This can be done in two ways. Liability for an accident can still be channelled on to the operator but his right of recourse in the event of supplier negligence is left unrestricted. The Russian Federal Act on Atomic Energy, for example, does not impose a limit upon the operator's right of recourse. (Alexander Matveev, “The Russian approach to nuclear liability,” International Journal of Nuclear Law, 2006). South Korea's liability legislation also allows operators to recover damages from suppliers in the event of negligence. A second way would be to allow victims to sue suppliers for fault-liability under tort law so as to win damages over and above what the operator pays through strict liability. Thus Germany, a party to the Vienna Convention on nuclear liability, entered a reservation stressing its right, under national law, to hold persons other than the operator liable for nuclear damage. Besides, several conventions on environmental damage — such as the 2003 Kiev Protocol on industrial accidents in transboundary waters — now explicitly provide for strict as well as fault-liability to run side by side.

Conspiracy Theories

Glenn Greenwald : Those irrational, misled, conspiratorial Muslims

Unputdownable. Or unclosetabable.

Regulators in the US

Unbelievable!

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators responsible for oversight of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico allowed industry officials several years ago to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil — and then turned them over to the regulators, who traced over them in pen before submitting the reports to the agency, according to an inspector general’s report to be released this week.

The report, which describes inappropriate behavior by the staff at the Minerals Management Service from 2005 to 2007, also found that inspectors had accepted meals, tickets to sporting events and gifts from at least one oil company while they were overseeing the industry.

(via Atrios).

This coming after the senior employees of the Securities and Exchange Commision (the finance industry regulator/watch dog) were caught watching porn in the office. Not good days for the regulators in the US!

Liability Caps

The Americans want the Nuclear Liability Bill which caps the suppliers' liabilities in case of mishaps. One has to agree that they practice what they preach. I mean, $75 million liability cap to cover damages from oil spills. How pro-oil companies can a country's politicians be?

America: Where Even The Prostitution Is Better

From the NY Times:

Prostitution in America isn’t as brutal as it is in, say, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Cambodia and Malaysia (where young girls are routinely kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured by brothel owners, occasionally even killed).

But the only problem is, it isn't!

“If you don’t earn enough money, you get beat,” said Jasmine, an African-American who has turned her life around with the help of Covenant House, an organization that works with children on the street. “If you say something you’re not supposed to, you get beat. If you stay too long with a customer, you get beat. And if you try to leave the pimp, you get beat.”

It's Official, The Banks Own the US Government

DURBIN: And the banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.

And that's a serving Senator speaking, no conspiracy theorist. Link.

Update: And the Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway thinks so too:

May 2 (Bloomberg) -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Vice Chairman Charles Munger, whose company is the largest private shareholder in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co., said banks will use their “enormous political power” to prevent changes to the industry that would benefit society.

“This is an enormously influential group of people, and 90 percent of that influence is being spent to gain powers and practices that the world would be better off without,” Munger, 85, said yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “It will be very hard to accomplish the kind of surgery that would be desirable for the wider civilization.”

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Munger said the financial companies spent $500 million on political contributions and lobbying efforts over the last decade. They have a “vested interest” in protecting the system as it exists because of the high levels of pay they were earning, he said. The five biggest U.S. securities firms, only two of which still exist as independent companies, paid their employees about $39 billion in bonuses in 2007.