Only two days ago top military brass, including Centcom Commander General David Petraeus, were openly calling Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad a “lone wolf” who had acted alone, and scoffing at any reports of Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) involvement.
Today Attorney General Eric Holder signaled a new official stance on the attack, declaring on multiple Sunday news shows that the US now has evidence that the TTP was behind the attempt, called “amateurish” by police.
Exactly where the Obama Administration goes from here is anyone’s guess, but it is clear that at this point all eyes are on Pakistan and that the Obama Administration’s recent praise of Pakistan’s internal policy is over.
At the start of 2009 only tiny Bajaur was being attacked by Pakistan’s military, after considerable US harranguing Pakistan now has ongoing offensives in half the tribal areas and lingering hostilities in Malakand, in the NWFP (Now Khyber-Pakhtoonwa), with some 200,000 troops committed along its northern frontier in US-demanded wars.
Once touted as proof of the floundering Zardari government’s loyalty to the US, the offensives and the almost ridiculous lengths to which the military has suspended civil liberties in the tribal areas are falling so short of American expectations that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday threatened “very serious consequences” against Pakistan over the Times Square bombing and said she expected the Zardari government to do more against militants.
On the other hand it is unclear what, if anything, Pakistan could theoretically do to placate the US. Constantly having to commit a significant portion of its force to its eastern border with India, the nearly bankrupt Pakistani government would be hard pressed to commit many more troops to the Afghan frontier. Even if they do, the offensives have done little but chase tribesmen out of their homes, and the militant leaders, from the TTP and other groups, simply blend into the background and reemerge at a later date.
Much as the failed Christmas Day attack led to knee-jerk calls to launch a full scale invasion of Yemen, or at the very least a large number of air strikes (ironically the US launched two major air strikes against Yemen before the ostensible casus belli came along), Times Square now has people openly talking about a reaction against Pakistan, up to and including the threat of putting “boots on the ground.”
As with Yemen, however, the US has really been attacking Pakistan all along, killing some 700 civilians in 44 drone attacks in 2009 alone. And perhaps even more-so than with Yemen, the evidence is overwhelming that the attack didn’t happen in a vacuum, and that the US attacks and constant US meddling in Pakistan is actually fueling the insurgency, which didn’t exist in any serious form until the 2001 US invasion of neighboring Afghanistan.
Those US drone strikes have now gotten so onerous that it should be no surprise that the TTP and others are looking to strike back at the US, and while the troops in Afghanistan and certainly the closer, more convenient target, attacks on the US mainland are on the table whenever practical. It is entirely uncontroversial at this point to note that the Times Square attempt was retaliation for the US attacks, though looking for a less provocative way to deal with the troubled region appears never to be considered: only escalation is treated as a real option.
It is unclear what, if anything,the “boots on the ground” approach would even hope to accomplish in Pakistan, other than turn the anti-US sentiment and increasing weariness with the corrupt Zardari government into a full-on insurrection nationwide. Already hanging on by a thread, Pakistan’s civilian government can ill afford the challenge of trying to sell a US ground invasion to the public.
Still, popular sentiment will demand a US response to the incident, no matter how ill-conceived. Escalating the drone strikes against the tribal area would scarcely register as a response at this point, after all, President Obama has done that so many times in his 16 months in office one might imagine it to be a necessary bodily function for him. Whatever options are left, all seem a recipe for sabotaging US relations with Pakistan for a generation or more, and a ground invasion would likely tear the country’s government asunder and leave the US with not just a failed state of 28 million people to contend with, but a pair of bordering failed states with a combined population of nearly 200 million.
This has the fingerprints and smell of another Mossad false flag operation. The MO is about as kosher as it can get. Dupe a patsey and through in just enough "evidence" to put the blame on another country.
This has the fingerprints and smell of another Mossad false flag operation. The MO is about as kosher as it can get. Dupe a patsey and through in just enough "evidence" to put the blame on another country.
This has the fingerprints and smell of another Mossad false flag operation. The MO is about as kosher as it can get. Dupe a patsey and through in just enough "evidence" to put the blame on another country.
Sure does look like a false flag operation, much as the underwear bomber and the Mumbai affair do.
Here we go again! First destabilize Pakistan, a rather unsavory and unpredictable entity… much like the USA, and foment in-country and cross-border instabilities and then threaten said "partner" with invasion. Woo-boy!
Well one simple word…..if the Americans believe this all drama is a REL THING, and the US opt for something stupid as they did with Iraq and Afghanistan, so be it.They will find us as ready as always.USA has Our corrupt mini rulars in their pockets not Public.We live and die once anyway.
Guy Debord is not mastered in a few moments. Nor can what he says about the "Spectacler" be isolated from a much larger context.
Too, Debord was deliberately quite silent on certain points.
In fact the "Spectacle" appears global but it has vulnerabilities, which Debord was quite aware of and remained silent about for various reasons.
In the end it does not matter whether most Americans "believe all this drama is the REAL THING" (they do). Most Americans are irrelevant save how they are manipulated and to what end.
corr: "Spectacle"
It is a key element of the Neo-Con plan for the "New American Century" to denuclearize Pakistan.
The pretext agreed upon some time ago is obviously the idea that "terrorists" may get their hands on nuclear weapons in a so-called "failing state".
The procedure is transparent then: (1) destabilize; (2) fuel insurgency and "terrorism"; (3) intervene and denuclearize.
There is little or no question, for example, that the Bush administration sent Bhutto back to Pakistan actually to destabilize the situation, or that her assassination played out to the same tune.
Is there any doubt that Obama and Biden are pursuing the same program in their own way, including the constant provocation of drones, intervention on the ground by special forces, incursions, and all the rest?
The US is on the verge of bankruptcy, and they talk as if they could really start another war in, of all places, Pakistan. It seems the war criminals in Washington haven't caused enough death, mayhem and suffering, and they want to accelerate their decline. Fine with us, the rest of the world.
Hey, the trip up shit creek has gone from Warp 1 to Warp 4! Just through adding some fertilizer!
On the other hand, this might tie up the resources needed to bail out the Israelis if they decide to implement the August Surprise.
Consider for the sake of analysis the "Spectacle" to be a language (which in fact it is, but the argument is complex).
One of the characteristics of language is that it is capable of reflexivity-e.g.,–"word" is a word in English.
So the language can be used for at least two activities–(1) talking about what is not language that language supposedly indicates; (2) talking about language.
The Israelis discovered this long ago, and their use of the Spectacle is twofold: (1) to manipulate the Spectators; (2) to manipulate the Spectacle itself in regard to the other "Spectacle-makers".
The latter has considerable leverage in certain modes.
Netayahu, for example, is mostly "Meta-Spectacular"–he manipulates the Spectacle, and thereby gains considerable leverage over the other "Spectacle Makers", making a hand that is very weak, appear very strong.
As Spectacle the Dubai assassination is pitiably weak. As Meta-Spectacle, it influences the other Spectacle Makers in ways they find threatening, and cannot respond to as Spectacle.
To wit–the Israeli Right Wing: (1) engineered the assassination; (2) wanted it uncovered.
Note that, in the case of Britain, for example, the only cause for protest was (2). Not a word about (1).
Similarly, the meeting with Hagee and the supposed insult to Biden, who is made to look like a Spectacular fool.
Debord was unalloyed genius, and completely original, though his style is so pellucid in its seeming simplicity that many reading him think they already know whatever it is that he is telling them.
On the other hand, Debord, though quite erudite, particularly in terms of French culture and history, was not too well versed in the "ant work" of ancient Western history. He certainly knew the loci classici well, and makes elegant use of Thucydides, just for one example.
One area he is weak on is the Late Roman Empire–he would be pleased to be informed that in fact his "Spectacle" was already well developed in that complex world, though it was far from universal in reach or final in thrust.
There is, for example, in Ammianus Marcellinus–whom one cannot recall Debord ever citing–a marvelous passage that characterizes the Spectacle to a "T", so to speak.
One will not mention what the a passage is.
Should someone else know it, and now have realized it pertains to an aspect f the Spectacle, one would be all too happy to discuss.
I didn't think it was possible to be dumber than the Bush administration, but the Obama crowd is proving me wrong. Arrogant beyond belief and astonishingly ignorant about Middle Easter politics, their pat reaction to any event is more force. They are the hammer, every problem is a nail. The nail doesn't go in? Pound it harder, baby!
We will make real graveyards for american and thier allies in Pakistan.
Their sword will become our plow, and from the tears of war the daily bread of future generations will grow.
Adolf Hitler
Mein Kampf