BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
What a week! Heydar Aliyev dies and Saddam Hussein is captured. And thereby hangs a tale.
Besides the obvious initial snickers and commen’s–"What if it’s one of Saddam’s doubles they found," and the major effort required by some who suffered under Aliyev’s tyranny to suppress whoops of joy at his demise–and besides the obvious benefit of having two tyran’s less prowling the planet–there is a serious problem.
One murderer is hunted at a cost of billions of US tax dollars in an illegal invasion. The other is given red carpet treatment in a top-notch US medical facility. Very fair–sensible–and understandable–right? The list of such US–mollycoddled-murderers is quite extensive: Pinochet–Idi Amin–take your pick of China’s leaders–Pervez Musharaff–etc. ad nauseam and sometimes really strikes close to home–as in Aliyev’s case.
Why haven’t we seen an "Operation Free Prometheus" (he was bound to the Pontic Mountains in Greek mythology–if I remember correctly) to rid Turkey of its wannabe Ataturk leaders–establish democracy for all residents of the country–especially the long suffering Kurds (the once and future Armenia’s)–and implement the right of return of dispossessed Armenia’s to our homes?
Ya think it might have something to do with the black stuff that both Iraq and (formerly) Texas (’til it was largely sucked dry) float atop? Maybe even the Shrub’s connections with the oil industry? Or–could the Afghanistan escapade have something to do with a pipeline deal being worked to transport Central Asian oil to the south–specifically to circumvent and exclude Russia? What about the early saber-rattling against Iran–before the Wolfowitz(-less)es occupying the halls of US power realized that conquering–occupying–and subjugating Iraq wasn’t going to be a cake-walk? Could that too have something to do with black gold? And of all these shows of US imperial might and arrogance–is it just possible they’re designed to scare the Saudis into compliance with Washington’s deman’s? Gee–guess what–Saudi Arabia has the world’s largest proven oil reserves. Then–with all this oil lined up–Venezuela could be squeezed–through oil-pricing shenanigans–to bring to heel the hapless president who dares defy Uncle Sam’s dictates and stands for his own people’s interests.
Another revealing phenomenon–though tangential to this article’s topic–is the thinking that with Saddam gone–the anti-coalition (I gag and cackle every time this word is used in the present context) attacks will eventually ebb–possibly after an initial surge. The people just don’t get it. They don’t understand nationalism–not viscerally anyway. They don’t understand human beings’ deep hatred of occupiers. How else to explain everything being attributed to individuals vs. organizations/groups of people with shared ideas?
With all this in mind–we’re still supposed to take seriously the President’s pontifications about liberty and such. It’s a damn shame.
