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Kunstler: Voila World War Three
Whoever really runs things these days for the semi-mummified royal administration down in Saudi Arabia must be leaving skid-marks in his small-clothes thinking about Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his ISIS army of psychopathic killers sweeping hither and thither through what is again being quaintly called “the Levant.” ISIS just concluded an orgy of crucifixions up in Syria over the weekend, the victims being other Islamic militants who were not radical enough, or who had dallied with US support.
Crucifixion sends an interesting and complex message to various parties around this systemically fracturing globe. It’s a step back from the disabling horror of video beheadings, but it still packs a punch. For the Christian West, it re-awakens a certain central cultural narrative that had gone somnolent there for a century or so. ISIS’s message: If you thought the Romans were bad…. Among the human race, you see, the memories linger.
ISIS has successfully shocked the world over the last two weeks by negating eight years, several trillion dollars, and 4,500 battle deaths in the USA’s endeavor to turn Iraq into an obedient oil dispensary. Now they have gone and announced that their conquests of the moment amount to a Caliphate, that is, an Islamic theocracy. In that sense, they are at least out-doing America’s Republican Party, which has been trying to do something similar here from sea to shining sea but finds itself thwarted by hostile blue states on both coasts.
More to the point, the press (another quaint term, I suppose) is not paying any attention whatsoever to what goes down with ISIS and the other states besides Iraq and Syria in the region. I aver to Saudi Arabia especially because Americans seem to regard it as an impregnable bastion against the bloodthirsty craziness spreading over the rest of the Muslim world. Saudi Arabia is, of course, the keystone of OPEC. Saudi Arabia has had the distinction of remaining stable through all the escalating tumult of recent decades, reliably pumping out its roughly 10 million barrels a day like Bossy the cow in America’s oil import barn.
Or seeming to remain stable, I should say, because the Saud family royal administration of mummified rulers and senile princes looks more and more like a Potemkin monarchy every month. 90-year-old King Abdullah has been rumored to be on life support lo these last two years, his successor brothers already dead and gone, and other powerful Arabian clans with leaders who can walk across a room and speak itching to kick this zombie Saud family off the throne. To make matters worse, the Sauds have also managed to sponsor much of the organized Sunni terrorism in the region (around the world, really) in their role as the chief enemy of the Shia — as represented by the politicized clergy of Iran.
Things are happening at lightning speed over in the region and beware of how the turmoil spreads from one flashpoint to another. This would be an opportunity for ISIS to put the Saud family on the spot regarding the just-announced Caliphate — as in the question: who really calls the shots for this new theocratic kingdom? (Answer: maybe not you, doddering, mummified, America suck-up Saudi Arabia). What’s more, what happens to the other kingdoms and rickety states in that corner of the world? For instance, Lebanon, which has been a sort of political demolition derby for three decades. The founder of the group al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), pre-cursor to ISIS, was the Lebanese Abu Mus‘ab al-Zarqawi — blown up in a USA air strike some years ago. Lebanon has been under the sway of Hezbollah for a decade and Hezbollah is sponsored by Shi’ite Iran, making it an enemy of ISIS. Might ISIS roll westward over Hezbollah now to capture the pearl of the Mediterranean (or what’s left of it) Beirut? I wouldn’t be surprised.
Then there’s Jordan, and it’s youngish King Abdullah, another notorious USA ass-kisser. Those crucifixion photos coming out of Syria must be making him a little loose in the bowels. And, of course, Syria, where this whole thing started, is a smoldering rump-roast of a state. And finally, that bugbear in the bull’s-eye of the old Levant: Israel.
It is miraculous that Israel has managed so far to stay out of the way of this juggernaut. Of course, among its chief enemies are Hezbollah and Hezbollah’s foster father, Iran, which happen to be the enemy of ISIS and, of course, in that part of the world the enemy of my enemy is my ally — though, I’m sorry, it’s rather impossible to imagine Israel getting all chummy with the psychopaths of ISIS. One thing is a fact: all other things being equal, Israel has the capability of turning any other state or kingdom in region into an ashtray, if push came to shove. Voila: World War Three.
Howard J. Kunstler of Kunstler.com
11 Comments on "Kunstler: Voila World War Three"
paulo1 on Tue, 1st Jul 2014 7:43 am
Could happen and then again… I suppose it could happen right around the time of the Stock Market collapsing to 6,000, which JHK predicted for many years running. It’s a damn mess to be sure but WW3? Maybe with McCain in the saddle but not likely with Red Line Ireallymeanit thistime in the White House. Most likely it will be a continuing collapse which will spill over into the KSA. Let Russia and Iran fill their boots on this one. There will be no winners.
Paulo
Davy on Tue, 1st Jul 2014 7:50 am
Agreed with all said Paulo and especially let the other guys get shot at. We are well aware there are no winners in these activities.
bobinget on Tue, 1st Jul 2014 9:13 am
Three kidnapped Israeli teens are being buried today.
Any hope of peaceful resolution in the Mideast will be buried along with hundreds then thousands, then millions of Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, Israelis,
Jordanians, Egyptians, Ukrainians, Iraqis and on and on.
One hundred years ago began the ‘Great (world) War’
We only began to number wars seventy-five years ago.
While it appears we are indeed looking down the throat of WW/3.. There is still time. It depends, will the Arab World decides to “turn the other cheek” one more time? Or, will Persians, Arabs turn their anger towards
Israel? On which side will Nigerians come down on?
Russians? Most importantly, China, whose resources are highly threatened.
Israel was always predicted to be the spark lighting this
next conflagration.
I’m guessing all the folks here and elsewhere who were so anxious to ‘get us off fossil fuels’ will get what they wished for.
It’s imposible to predict when WW/3 will explode. We
only know, the fuse is lit.
antiwarforever on Tue, 1st Jul 2014 9:40 am
and meanwhile, we are “dancing under the volcano” (world cup, tv shows and all) thanks to our medias and “presstitutes”.
The awakening of the western lobotomized masses will be terrible.
Mince my words.
Plantagenet on Tue, 1st Jul 2014 9:45 am
Obama is sending US combat troops back into Iraq at the same time he is pulling them out of Afhanistan, It doesn’t appear that Obama intends to go to war in Iraq —- he seems to think that just sending 800 US troops into harms way constitutes a viable response to ISIS
Davy on Tue, 1st Jul 2014 9:49 am
Antiwar, yea, when the awakening to decent is talked about like casual weather talk or the cheapest gas in town talk then we will see some pissed off people. People hate being mislead and lied to not that it would change the outcome.
J-Gav on Tue, 1st Jul 2014 10:03 am
I agree Paulo and Davy, things could get out of control but I don’t see WWIII over ISIS, Syria, Iraq as inevitable, at least at this point in time.
What would be really cool – so we’ll no doubt never see it – would be coordinated Russian and American airstrikes on key ISIS positions.
That would definitely take some of the cackle out of them and reduce the attractiveness of joining the Caliphate for jihadi-inclined foreign fighters. Ironically, it would ease pressures both on Iran (to send boots on the ground to defend their Shia brethren, raising tensions with KSA and Israel) and on KSA’s crumbling monarchy, who have helped to create a monster which could destroy them if its influence continues to grow.
Jerry McManus on Tue, 1st Jul 2014 12:03 pm
Kunstler whiffed on this one.
The question everyone should be asking about events in Iraq is how in the world did an entire army on jihad escape notice in a country so thoroughly blanketed by drone surveillance that your average mud farmer cannot even fart in the wind without some joystick jockey in Arizona seeing it on a video screen?
C’mon folks, is there any doubt that the Sunni royals in Saudi Arabia are behind the also Sunni ISIS attack dogs? And with full complicity of their puppet masters the USofA?
This is a power grab by the big players, plain and simple, not some “bugbear” out of nowhere.
bobinget on Tue, 1st Jul 2014 6:29 pm
Jerry McManus of course Plantagenet, see the need to fix blame on some individual or deeply obsessed religious dictatorship. Cheap, when one offers no alternative.. (solutions)
When the Syrian revolt began we all understood the aim was regime change. That was three years ago and counting.
Because Iran needs a friendly neighbor, because Saudi Arabia fears a friendly democratic Shiite one,
because Russia seeks oil dominance and cannot get there w/o Iran, because all peoples of the Islamic faith were not created equal in each other’s eyes, because the US installed a highly biased Iraqi President, because the US deposed one ruthless dictator who, like ISIS or ISIL a class A mass murderer(s).
Because the US disbanded Iraqi Army officer corp, these battle hardened, power hungry or just hungry,
went looking for employment elsewhere.
It’s commonly agreed WW/1 was all about nationalism. WW/2 an outcome of the war that preceded. When the US, not a neighbor BTW, toppled one despotic regime, it failed to take power itself using time honored hard nosed colonial methods of killing off opposition. The US came close but pretense of installing democracy interfered. The fact is,US would still be powerful in Iraq were we true Nazis and not playing at colonialism.
WW/3 will be nothing less than the continuation of an unresolved Iraq invasion based on transparent lies
rather then straight forward aggression for oil supremacy. The US never had any Iraq plan other then a battle plan.
V. Putin is another case entirely. He has been planning this campaign for a decade. Down to the last jot.
Foolish Saudi Arabia thought of only a military solution. During WW/2– AKA “The Final Solution” Jews, not Shiites were the ones to be exterminated. Anti Semitism was and still is alive and well in Eastern Europe. In Semitic Arab states, Israel
has humiliated and embarrassed Arab leaders for too many decades to remember.
Israel will claim to have been dragged into this leftover battle over most the world’s Proven, remaining oil.
V. Putin would love to destroy interfering Israel. Rather then a frontal attack, President Putin will watch as Israel destroys itself.
Beginning no later then this coming week Israel will begin bombing Gaza in a demonstration of collective punishment worthy of any top Nazi commander. Israel is the traumatically affected child of that “Final Solution” .
Hamas will retaliate. Of course in true Mideast fashion
Israel will up the anti. Islamic Fighters who can’t agree
on much else will join forces to help beleaguered Gaza. Poor Little Lebanon, home to almost a half million Syrian refugees will explode into action. Hezbollah launching barrage after barrage of LR missiles, many getting through Israel’s “Iron Dome”
Israel launches its own missiles killing thousands of Syrian Refugees who ironically went to Lebanon to escape violence that has devastated their homeland.
.
Jordan, itself overrun with Syrian Refugees, fearful of Islamic state takeover will side with fellow Arabs.
Nuclear armed Israel feels besieged. Only a massive US intervention, by now an impossibility, could slow down this insanity.
By now oil choke points become prime targets.
I can’t wait for Plant to blame Obama for the conflagration. Oh, were it only that simple. We could put Obama on trial for starting the Iraq war in the first place. (he did it while posing as a community organizer)
I’m not the praying type but emailing the Israeli Embassy in DC begging them not to continue attacking Gaza might do some good.
Keith_McClary on Tue, 1st Jul 2014 8:57 pm
bobinget-
“The fact is,US would still be powerful in Iraq were we true Nazis and not playing at colonialism.”
Then the true Neocons would have marched on to Iran and beyond.
Makati1 on Tue, 1st Jul 2014 10:10 pm
Keith, it appears to me that the West is there for the oil and control of same, to be sold in USDs. To Muslims, this is just the next phase of a war that has been going on for 1,200 years and Israel is getting in the way of finishing it. Perhaps they will unite in one goal, getting rid of the Jewish thorn in their sides, then resume their disagreement?
BTW: the US gets most of it’s imported oil from non-OPEC countries.
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_a2_nus_ep00_im0_mbbl_m.htm