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Karoline Leavitt Tells Traoré “Sit Down, Boy” — His Reply Leaves America Speechless

Karoline Leavitt Tells Traoré “Sit Down, Boy” — His Reply Leaves America Speechless

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One of the Greatest Stories Ever Told: A Salute to Capt. Traoré, the finest humanity can produce. Listen and Weep

  • Ibrahim Traoré is a Burkinabé military officer and politician who has served as the interim President of Burkina Faso since 2022. Traoré took control of Burkina Faso in September 2022, ousting interim president Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba in a coup d’état. Wikipedia
  • Born: March 14, 1988 (age 37 years), Bondokuy, Burkina Faso
  • Education: University of Ouagadougou
  • Nationality: Burkinabe
  • Office: President of the Transition of Burkina Faso

The flag of Burkina Faso is a horizontal bicolour of red and green, with a yellow five-pointed star in the centre. The red stripe is on top, and the green stripe is on the bottom. The flag was adopted on August 4, 1984. 

Here’s a more detailed breakdown:

The flag of Burkina Faso is a horizontal bicolour of red and green, with a yellow five-pointed star in the centre. The red stripe is on top, and the green stripe is on the bottom. The flag was adopted on August 4, 1984. 

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso is a landlocked African country surrounded by Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana in the south, Cote d’Ivoire to the southwest, and Mali to the north.

Burkina is a rapidly growing country with an estimated 2024 population of 23,409,000. million, which makes Burkina that 62th most populous country in the world. The country has a surface area of 274,200 square kilometres. On August 4, 1984, the country changed its name from the Republic of Upper Volta. Burkina Faso’s people are known as Burkinabe.

Hunter-gatherers populated the area between 14,000 and 5,000 BC. Farming settlements appeared between 3600 and 2600 BC. Mossi kingdoms were present in the central part of the nation. In 1896, Burkina Faso became a French protectorate. After its independence in 1960, several governmental changes occurred until the country took its present semi-presidential republic form. Blaise Compaore is the current president.

Ouagadougou is the capital. The African Union, Community of Sahel-Saharan States, La Francophonie, Organization of the Islamic Conference and Economic Community of West African States list Burkina Faso as a member.

History

Between 14,000 and 5000 BC, hunter-gatherers began populating the country’s northwest. Simon Nijjar discovered their tools in 1973. Farmer’s settlements began to appear between 3600 and 2600 BC. Evidence shows these were permanent settlements. Iron, ceramics, and stone were used beginning between 1500 and 1000 BC. Burial remains indicate spiritual practices began around this time as well.

The Dogon left relics in the north and northwest parts of the country. The Dogon left the area between the 15th and 16th centuries to settle in the Bandiagara cliffs. There are also remains of walls in Burkina Faso’s southwest, but their builders is unknown.

Mossi kingdoms existed in the central area. The most powerful of these was the Wagadogo and Yatenga. They likely emerged in the 16th century, but their origins are obscured and subject to legends.

Colonial Period and Independence

The English and French waged a major rivalry in the area through military and civilian expeditions. The French defeated the Mossi Ouagadougou kingdom and the area became a French colony in 1896. The western and eastern regions came under French control in 1897 after a standoff with the powerful ruler Samori Ture. Some small parts of the region were not under control, but by 1989 most of the modern day nation had been conquered.

On June 14, 1898, the English and French drew the borders between their colonies, ending the confrontations. The French continued wars of conquest against local areas and powers for an additional five years. As part of the reorganization of the French empire in 1904, the Volta basin territories merged with the Upper Senegal and Niger colony in French West Africa. The colony’s capital was in Bamako.

The territories draftees, known as the Senegal rifles, fought in World War I in Europe. The Volta-Bani War, an important armed opposition to the colonial government, took place from 1915 to 1916 in western Burkina Faso and eastern Mali. After suffering defeats, the French gathered its largest colonial expedition force and eventually defeated the movement. Around that time, Tuaregs and allied groups also rebelled in the Sahelian north.

On March 1, 1919, the French established French Upper Volta, partly due to fears of uprising, economic considerations, and to bolster its administration. The move separated the present Burkina Faso territory from Niger and Upper Senegal. Charles Alexis Edouard became the first governor of the newly formed colony called Haute Volta. Colonial revenue stagnated after a coercive cotton policy failed. On September 5, 1932, the colony was dismantled and split between French Sudan, Niger, and Cote d’Ivoire, which received the largest share.

After World War II, colonial agitation led this dismantling to be reversed. The colony was revived as part of the French Union on September 4, 1947 with its prior borders. It earned self-government and became the Republic of Volta on December 11, 1958. It also became a member of the Franco-African community at that time.

The French revised their territorial organization with the Basic Law’s passage on July 23, 1956. Other measures were passed in 1957 to give territories more self-government. After self-government in 1958, Upper Volta became its own republic in 1960 and was independent from France.

Upper Volta

On December 11, 1958, the Republic of the Upper Volta was established. The Volta River has three parts: the White Volta, the Black Volta, and the Red Volta. The national flag’s colours correspond to the Volta River’s parts.

It was part of the French Union and French Upper Volta before independence. Maurice Yameogo was the first president and leader of the Voltaic Democratic Union (UDV). The national assembly and president are to be elected every five years through universal suffrage according to the 1960 constitution. Yameogo banned all political parties but the UDV after coming to power. In 1966, after massed demonstrations and strikes, the military intervened.

Yameogo was deposed by the coup, which also suspended the constitution and dissolved the National Assembly. Lt. Col. Sangoule Lamizana became the head of the military officers governing the nation. On June 14, 1970, after four years of army rule, the country ratified a new constitution that set a four year transition back to civilian rule. Lamizana remained in power through the 1970s. Conflicts led to a new constitution in 1977. Lamizana was reelected in 1978.

The country’s trade unions were a problem for Lamizana’s government. On November 25, 1980, Lamizana was overthrown in a bloodless coup by Col. Saye Zerbo. Zerbo’s Military Committee of Recovery for National Progress became the governmental authority.

Trade unions again resisted and Zerbo was overthrown after two years by Maj. Dr. Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo on November 7, 1982. His Council of Popular Salvation (CSP) promised transition to civilian rule but banned political organizations. CSP infighting led to Capt. Thomas Sankara being appointed prime minister in January, 1983. Sankara’s leftist positions and internal conflict led to his arrest and, later, efforts by Capt. Blaise Compaore to release him. Another coup occurred on August 4, 1983.

After this coup, Sankara established the National Council for the Revolution (CNR) again with himself as the president. He also formed Committees for the Defence of the Revolution (CDR) to organise the people and implement revolutionary programs. Two small Marxist-Leninist groups were part of the CNR’s secret membership. As a result of Sankara’s efforts, the country’s name was finally changed to Burkina Faso on August 4, 1984.

An armed gang killed Sankara in 1987. His former partner and the country’s current president, Blasé Compaore, organized this coup.

On June 2, 1991, a new constitution established a semi-presidential system with a parliament. The President of the Republic has the power to dissolve the parliament. The president is elected every seven years, but this was later amended to every five years. A legal ruling allowed Compaore, the current president to run again in 2005. Divided political opposition resulted in his 2005 victory.

The National Assembly is the single chamber of parliament. It has 111 seats with five year terms for its members. A constitutional chamber also exists which has ten members. An economic and social council is purely advisory.
Burkina Faso: Administrative Division

Burkina Faso has 13 regions, 45 provinces, and 301 departments. The regions are Boucle du Mouhoun, Cascades, Centre, Centre-Est, Centre-Nord, Centre-Ouest, Centre-Sud, Est, Hauts-Bassins, Nord, Plateau-Central, Sahel, and Sud-Ouest.
Burkina Faso: Military and Security

France served as the model for the security and police forces. France supports and trains Burkina Faso’s police. Police services are delivered at the brigade level by the Gendarmerie Nationale. The Minister of Defense has authority over the Gendarmerie, whose members are deployed along the border and in rural areas.

Identity checks are common for travellers, and all foreigners are required to carry identification.

The army has 6,000 volunteers. The People’s Militia supports the army and is composed of civilians between 25 and 35 years old. Burkina Faso’s army has some armoured vehicles but is considered poorly equipped.

By African standards, the army is well funded but generally undermanned. The elite Presidential Security Regiment (RSP) is better funded and equipped. There is no navy but an air force has 19 operational aircraft. Military expenses are 1.2 percent of the country’s GDP.

Climate and Geography

Southwestern Burkina Faso has a sandstone massif with a highest peak of 749 meters. Sheer cliffs up to 150 meters high border this area. The country is mostly covered by a peneplain with few isolated hills. Burkina Faso’s average altitude is 400 meters, making it a relatively flat country.

The Black, White, and Red Volta Rivers cross the country. The Black Volta flows year-round. The Niger River basin drains 27 percent of the country’s area.

The Beli, Gorouol, Goudebo and Dargol, Niger tributaries, are only seasonal streams. They can cause flooding. Numerous lakes do exist, including the Tingrela, Bam, and Dem. Water shortages, particularly in the north, are a problem.

The country’s climate is primarily tropical with two seasons, the rainy and dry. The rainy season, lasting four months, brings 600 to 900 millimeters of rainfall. There are three climatic zones, the Sudan-Guinea, Sudan-Sahel, and Sahel.

The Sahel is a dry tropical savannah. It extends from the Horn of Africa to the Atlantic Ocean and borders the Sudan to the south and the Sahara to the north. The Sudan-Sahel is a transitional zone. The southern Sudan-Guinea zone has cooler temperatures and receives 900 millimetres of rain.

Burkina Faso has limestone, marble, manganese, pumice, phosphates, salt and small gold deposits as resources. Two national parks exist.

Economy

With one of the world’s lowest per capita GDP figures of $1,200, Burkina Faso is a very poor country. Agriculture is 32 percent of GDP and 80 percent of the population works in that sector. Livestock is mostly produced but sorghum, pearl millet, corn, peanuts, rice and cotton are grown.

Emigration results from high unemployment. 3,000,000 citizens live in neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire. The migrants send money back to the country each year, provoking regional tensions.

International aid funds a large portion of the economic activity.

The CFA Franc is the currency.

Copper, manganese, iron, and gold are mined, providing employment, aid, and even hospitals.

One of Africa’s most important handicraft fairs, Le Salon International de I’Artisanat de Ouagadougou, is hosted in Burkina Faso.

Demographics

Most of the country’s population belong to the Voltaic and Mande groups. The Voltaic Mossi members are one half the population. The Mogho Naba lead the Mossi kingdom from their court in Ouagadougou. They believe they descend from warriors who migrated to the area from Ghana.

Ethnically integrated and secular, most of the country’s people are concentrated in the country’s center and south. Migrants travel to neighbouring countries for seasonal agricultural work. Political events in these countries, such as the 2002 coup attempt in Côte d’Ivoire, led to migrants returning.

Religion

Burkina Faso’s government states that 61 percent of the population practices Islam, most of which are in the Sunni branch. 19 percent are Roman Catholic and 4 percent Protestant, 15 percent follow some form of traditional indigenous beliefs. Atheism is not shown to exist.

Many in the country practice multiple religions. Even among Muslims and Christians, ancient traditions are observed.

Health

The median age is 16.7 with a growth rate of 3.109 percent. The government spent 3 percent on healthcare as of 2001. A doctor shortage exists as there are 6 physicians per 100,000 citizens. Similarly, there are only 13 midwives and 41 nurses per 100,000. Estimates have shown 72.5 percent of the country’s girls have suffered female genital mutilation.

Culture

Burkina Faso’s oral traditions remain important. Dim-Dolobsom Ouedraogo published his Maximes in 1934 during French occupation which recorded the Mossi people’s oral history. Writers such as Nazi Boni and Roger Nikiema were influenced by the oral history. The number of playwrights grew in the 1960s. Literature developed in the 1970s.

Traditional ethnic ceremonies involve dancing with masks. During colonial times, western theatre became popular. After independence, a new theatre style emerged involving a forum theatre designed to educate the rural population.

Cuisine

As is typical in western Africa, the cuisine is based on sorghum, rice, millet, peanuts, beans, yams, and okra. Protein most often comes from chicken, eggs, and fresh water fish. Fermented palm sap, or Palm Wine, is a typical beverage. The town of Banfora is known for its Palm Wine.

The worst flood in the country’s history occurred on August 30, 2009. It left 8 people dead and over 150,000 homeless. Burkina Faso requested international aid and Japan, France, Ivory Coast, and the European Union responded.

Cinema

Burkina Faso’s contribution to African film began with the FESPACO film festival in 1969. Many filmmakers are internationally known and have received awards. The Federation of Panafrican Filmmakers had a headquarters in the country for many years. The most well-known directors are Gaston Kabore, Idrissa Ouédraogo, and Dani Kouyate. Bobodijiouf is a popular television series.

Sports

Sports participation includes football, basketball, cycling, Rugby union, handball, tennis, boxing, and martial arts. Played formally and informally, football is very popular. Nicknamed “Les Etalons” in reference to Princess Yennenga’s legendary horse, Burkina Faso’s national team is ranked 48 in FIFA World Rankings.

Education

The system is comprised of primary, secondary, and higher education. Attending schools costs about $97 USD per year, outside the reach of most families. Girls have far lower literacy rates than boys. The government has made school cheaper for girls and granted them more scholarships, leading to an increase in their schooling. National exams must be passed to move between levels. The University of Ouagadougou, the Polytechnic University in Bobo-Dioulasso, and the University of Koudougou are higher education institutes. Private colleges exist, but only a small percentage can afford them.

The International School of Ouagadougou is an American-based private school in Ouagadougou.

Media

The state-sponsored television and radio service, Radiodissusion-Television Burkina (RTB) is the main outlet. It broadcasts on several FM and two AM frequencies. There are also several privately owned stations. RTB also produces a short wave new broadcast in French.

Attempts to bring independent press and media have been inconsistent. In 1998, journalist Norbert Zongo, his brother Ernest, his driver, and another man were assassinated. An independent commission of inquiry determined they were killed for political reasons because of Zongo’s investigative work.

Since Zongo’s death, protests during the investigations have been dispersed by police. International organisations have written to the government requesting investigations into death threats to journalists and radio commentators.

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Nuclear Chutzpah By Eric Margolis

Nuclear Chutzpah

By Eric Margolis

May 07, 2018

 

 

 

‘Chutzpah’ is a wonderful Yiddish word that means outrageous nerve, or unmitigated gall.

This week’s Chutzpah Award goes to Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Standing in front of props of data files and cd’s, Netanyahu claimed Israel’s renowned Mossad spy agency had stolen a small mountain of secret Iranian nuclear data from a warehouse in Tehran.

The never-understated Netanyahu claimed that the purloined material proved that Iran was lying about having halted its covert nuclear program and must not be trusted.

Netanyahu’s supposed nuclear bombshell was likely the warm-up act for President Donald Trump to reject Iran’s nuclear freeze deal with the US, Russia, China, Germany, and France, blessed by the UN and the European Union. The only thing Trump apparently hates more than Muslims is his predecessor, former President Barack Obama (whom he accused of being a secret Muslim). The Iran nuclear deal was the most important foreign policy accomplishment of the Obama administration.

Netanyahu repeatedly warned the world about Iran’s alleged nuclear arsenal while making no mention at all of Israel’s own large, secret nuclear arsenal, which is believed to comprise of over 100 warheads, perhaps even several hundred, that can be delivered by aircraft, missiles and submarines. Every Mideast nation can be hit by Israeli nukes as well as Russia, which some experts say is or was on Israel’s target list.

Trump, of course, made no mention of the awkward fact that Israel had stolen much of its nuclear technology and uranium from the United States, sometimes with the connivance of very senior US government officials. France, that paragon of world peace, had the rest.

Listening to Netanyahu accuse Iran of hiding secret nuclear facilities was a pure pot calling the kettle black. Israel’s early nuclear program at Dimona in the Negev desert was entirely concealed from US and UN inspectors, including fake walls in the nuclear complex that completely fooled them. When Netanyahu accused Iran of cheating, he knows of what he speaks.

Most of what Netanyahu ‘revealed’ about Iran’s alleged nuclear program was old stuff, dating back to 1999-2003 and readily available in reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency. This respected UN agency now reports that Iran has fulfilled all of its commitments and abandoned its earlier nuclear program that did not produce any weapons before it was ended.

But facts don’t matter in this Trump-produced, made-for-TV drama. The key point is that with the naming of Michael Pompeo as US Secretary of State, and appointment of the rightwing fanatic John Bolton as US national security advisor, Israel’s rightwing government has completed its virtual takeover of US Mideast policy. As I’ve previously written, Trump looks more and more like a Trojan Horse for Netanyahu and his extremist allies.

 

Dimona-Israel Nuclear Program-Actual Nuclear Bombs are kept near Airbases such as one around Accor

 

 

 

 

 

 

Besides Pompeo and VP Mike Pence, both ardent Christian Zionists, and Bolton, Trump now has around him the UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, of Indian origin, who is the darling of the US far right and a handmaiden of arch-pro Israel billionaire, Sheldon Adelson, a major bankroller of the Republican Party. Add in Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and, of course, Trump’s daughter and son-in-law. In short, an amen-chorus for Israel’s far right.

This American Israel-first coalition has joined Netanyahu’s Likud alliance in pressing for war against Iran. The first skirmishes have already begun with over 100 Israeli air attacks on Syria, ostensibly against Iranian positions. A great propaganda hue and cry against the purported dangers of Iran is being raised in the US and Europe. According to Israel’s right, Assyrian hordes are about to engulf Israel.

 

 

 

 

In reality, Iran has very little offensive power. Like Iraq before it, Iran is militarily dilapidated with 40-year old equipment, a largely grounded air force, little artillery and poor communications. Tehran has a few inaccurate missiles but no nuclear warheads.

Israel’s powerful air force could easily turn any attacking Iranian forces into chopped falafel. Iran’s only strength is defensive, in urban combat or mountainous terrain. Iran has no capability to seriously threaten Israel except by aiding the Lebanese Hezbollah movement in showering northern Israel with light artillery rockets, a nuisance rather than a mortal danger.

Israel is moving to repeat its triumph in 2003 when the Bush administration, US partisans of Israel, and dishonest US media pushed the nation into a war of pure aggression against Iraq. Israel emerged the victor from this unprovoked war and is trying to repeat its success again with Iran.

Overthrowing Iran’s Islamic Republic would leave Israel the unchallenged power in the Mideast.

Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune the Los Angeles Times, Times of London, the Gulf Times, the Khaleej Times, Nation – Pakistan, Hurriyet, – Turkey, Sun Times Malaysia and other news sites in Asia.https://ericmargolis.com/

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Trump triggers new ‘Great Game’ in South Asia BY ADIL NAJAM

Trump triggers new ‘Great Game’ in South Asia

 

 

Speaking at Fort Myer last week, the president promised that “American strategy in Afghanistan and South Asia will change dramatically.” In Afghanistan, it is unlikely to. In South Asia, it already has – in deep but disturbing ways and mostly because of what President Donald Trump had to say about Pakistan.

Here’s how the stakes, consequences and options for each of the major players in South Asia have been transformed.

The speech left Pakistan hurt and angry.

The country’s foreign minister, Khawaja Asif, was livid at President Trump’s threatening tone and words, claiming that his country’s “sacrifices” as an American coalition partner were “disregarded and disrespected.” Pakistan’s National Security Council (NSC), which includes both the prime minister and the military chief, echoed the consensus in Pakistan that both Washington, D.C. and Kabul are bent on “scapegoating” Pakistan for their own failures.

 

Remarkably for Pakistan, President Trump seems to have united a deeply divided country. Government, opposition, military and civil society are all equally offended. All point out how Pakistan itself has had to spend many times more of its own resources in fighting America’s war than whatever America may have provided: 70,000 casualties, 17,000 Pakistanis killed; a nation living in constant fear of Taliban terrorism; an economy devastated to the tune of over $100 billion.

Of course, American allegations that Taliban encampments exist in Pakistan are not new. But President Trump has refused to recognize that Pakistan’s struggles to eliminate them are no less challenging than Afghanistan’s or America’s efforts within Afghanistan. This has been seen as particularly disingenuous.

 

 

 

 

Given the timing, tone and especially the fawning overtures toward India, Pakistanis read President Trump’s speech as the newest episode of abandonment from the nation’s longest but most fickle ally.

Privately, Pakistan and the United States have each long considered the other to be equally unreliable. With President Trump signaling that America will now look elsewhere, Pakistan feels compelled to do the same. Both China and Russia have been quick to exploit the chasm, advancing their own deep interests not only in Afghanistan but in greater South Asia.

Even before Pakistan had made any response to President Trump’s speech, the Chinese, already wildly popular in Pakistan for investing heavily in its infrastructure, responded with an official statement calling Pakistan an “all-weather friend” and thanking it for its “great sacrifices” in the fight against terrorism.

Not to miss the opportunity, Russia’s presidential envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, proclaimed that Pakistan is “a key regional player,” the pressurizing of whom could “result in negative consequences for Afghanistan.”

In Pakistan, such statements and the speed with which they came have been viewed as evidence that Pakistan does have choices, i.e., it may be time for Pakistan to move out of the U.S. orbit and seek deeper alliances elsewhere. Pakistan’s foreign minister, for example, immediately postponed his planned visit to Washington. This is not simply to register displeasure, but to gain time to visit other capitals and explore alternative options.

India’s initial reaction, not surprisingly, was to gloat. Its narrative about Pakistan was thoroughly embraced in President Trump’s speech. However, this is a gift horse they are likely to examine more carefully. Being anointed America’s sheriff in South Asia brings with it a new stress to their already-strained relations with China.

It is inevitable for tension to grow between these two Asian behemoths, but India would clearly have preferred to plan out the timing and terms of the escalation itself.

President Trump’s message to India that it “makes billions of dollars in trade with the United States, and we want them to help us more with Afghanistan,” is likely to be met with nothing more than a polite smile from New Delhi. There is certainly no likely relieffor the American taxpayer in how much they have to pay to keep dysfunctional governments in Kabul in place even while 40 percent of Afghanistan remains under Taliban control.

But the biggest consequence of President Trump’s South Asia strategy is that it gives India a license to elevate a new proxy conflict with Pakistan in Afghanistan. Pakistan is clearly terrified of being trapped in a pincer squeeze on its eastern and western borders by its arch nemesis, India.

But Afghanistan, as recent statements from its former president, Hamid Karzai, suggest, can also not be thrilled by the prospect of yet another major power becoming entrenched in yet another “Great Game.”

Therein lies what is truly new and frightening in Donald Trump’s South Asia strategy.

For the entirety of the last seven decades – including throughout the Cold War, when India was firmly ensconced as a Soviet ally – the American goal in South Asia was, above all, to maintain regional stability. The aim was to avoid and to actively resist tensions in a region that was a powder keg well before India decided to go rogue with nuclear weapons, and Pakistan followed suit. As of last week, the new American policy is to pit neighbor against neighbor in South Asia.

One day, one hopes, someone will explain to President Trump, like Chinese President Xi Jinping did about why North Korea is “complicated,” why the India-Pakistan relationship really is as fraught with danger as it is.

Meanwhile, an abdication of America’s traditional stabilizing role in South Asia has been announced. Afghanistan that will get kicked around the most, as five of the six largest militaries in the world (China, India, the United States, Russia and Pakistan), all nuclear, jockey for advantage in whatever the new South Asian balance of alliances might become.

Let us all hope that the unimaginable remains unimagined.

Adil Najam is the founding dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.

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THE GREAT WHITE FATHER COMES TO SAUDI ARABIA by Eric Margolis https://ericmargolis.com

by Eric Margolis

May 27, 2017

 
The Great White Father came to Saudi Arabia last week to harangue some 50 Arab and African despots on the glories of Trumpism, democracy and the need to fight what the Americans call terrorism.
Having covered the Mideast for many decades, I cannot think of a more bizarre or comical spectacle. Here was Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most repressive regimes, hosting the glad-handing US president who hates Islam and the Mideast with an irrational passion.
I was amazed to learn that Trump’s speech to the Arab and African attendees had been written by Great White Father How very bizarre.
Not only that, Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, who are also strongly pro-Israel, were with him. So too was the powerful commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, another ardent pro-Israel cabinet member with whom I spent a weekend last year. Billionaire Ross performed the traditional Saudi sword dance with skill and verve.
Listening to Trump and Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, blast Iran as the font of terrorism provided another big joke. Trump’s tirade against Tehran was delivered in Saudi Arabia, a feudal monarchy that holds no elections cuts off the heads of some 80-90 people annually, and treats women like cattle. While claiming to be the leader of the Muslim world, the Saudi royal family funds mayhem and extreme Muslim obscurantism through the region. The current wave of primitive violence by some self-professed Muslims – ISIS being the leader – was originally funded and guided by the Saudis in a covert struggle to combat revolutionary Iran. I saw this happen in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Let’s recall 15 of the 18 men who attacked the US on 9/11 were Saudis.
Iran has the freest political system in the Mideast except for Israel). Iranian women have rights and political freedoms that are utterly unknown in Saudi Arabia. Iran just held a fair and open national election in which moderates won. Compare this to Saudi Arabia’s medieval Bedouin society. I was once arrested by the religious police in Jeddah just for walking down a street with an Egyptian lady.
Today, US and British equipped Saudi forces are laying waste to wretched Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation. As a result of a Saudi air, land and sea blockade, the UN now reports that famine has gripped large parts of Yemen. US and British technicians are keeping the Saudi air force flying; the US and Britain supply the bombs.
President Trump arrived with a bag of $110 billion worth of arms (some already approved by the Obama administration), and a promise of $350 billion worth in ten years. There was nothing new about this arms bazaar: for over a decade, the Saudis have bought warehouses of US arms in exchange for keeping oil prices low and fronting for US interests in the Muslim world. Most of these arms remain in storage as the Saudis don’t know how to use them.
Many of America’s most important arms makers are located in politically important US states. The Saudis were so deeply in bed with the Republicans that their former ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar, was known to one and all as ‘Bandar Bush.’ Saudi money and influence have flowed far and wide across the US political landscape. That’s how the Saudis get away with mass killing in Yemen, funding ISIS and ravaging Syria with hardly any peeps of protest from Congress.
By now, it’s perfectly clear that the long secret relationship between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf Emirates has finally come into the open. Israel and its rich Arab friends all hate Iran, they oppose Palestinian rights, and fear revolution in the Arab world.
The two most reactionary Arab states, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are now close allies, though they compete over who will lead the Arab world. Neither despotic regime has any right to do so. Trump lauded the Egyptian dictator Abdel Fattah al-Sissi who overthrew Egypt’s first ever democratically elected government (with Saudi help), gunned down hundreds of protesters, jailed and tortured thousands. Suspects in Egypt are routinely subjected to savage beatings and anal rape.
As I tried to explain in my second book, ‘American Raj,’ the brutal, corrupt regimes we westerners have imposed on the Arab world and Africa are the main cause of what we call ‘terrorism.’ So too the wars we have waged in the region to impose our will and economic exploitation. It’s blowback, pure and simple. So-called terrorism is not at all about Islam as our politicians, led by Trump of Arabia, falsely claim.
But no shoes were thrown at Trump by his audience. They were too scared of their heads being cut off by our democratic ally.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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