Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel to get a country to defeat
“Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business.”- Michael Ledeen.
Context
The war unfolding war in the Middle East goes far beyond Israel vs. Hamas and Hezbollah, and also falls 10 or so years after the last Major US’ Intervention, making it a part of Ledeen Doctrine. On 22nd October 2023, the US announced plans to deploy THAAD and Patriot air defense systems, capabilities that exceed Hamas’ and Hezbollah’s threats, suggesting that the US is preparing for another war. The US announcement followed Israel’s bombardment of a market, a café, and apartments. The entire Gaza ‘Cauldron’ is being turned into rubble with intensive bombing of Churches, Mosques, markets, and apartments, a sight that would make Michael Ledeen very proud as his sardonic doctrine in my quote above states. I advise readers to visit Ledeen’s Wikipedia page to see how he embodies the personification of US crimes that are narrated therein, but the perpetrator is cleverly left out of the CIA-edited piece. Such crimes include the Iran-Contra affairs, and the US-Iraq war that has killed 1,000,000 people and destroyed the region. While promoting the US war against Iraq, Ledeen wrote;
Scowcroft fears that if we attack Iraq … It could turn the whole region into a cauldron and destroy the War on Terror. One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron… If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today. If we wage the war effectively, we will bring down the terror regimes in Iraq, Iran, and Syria, and either bring down the Saudi monarchy or force it to abandon its global assembly of young terrorists.
The statement reflects the US views of the region, while the Governments he mentioned (Iraq, Syria, and Iran) have oil, which Biden needs to steal (like Blair and Bush did) to revive the dollar as the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is at its lowest. With neocons like Samantha Powers, and Victoria Nuland in power, and with the guidance of Neoliberal appendages such as Blinken and Biden, It seems the war in the Middle East will be wider and last longer. The US will seek to cauldronized the entire region or scare it by showing it that the US means business, as Ledeen’s doctrine goes.
Hamas and Israel
Hama’s attack on Israel on 7th October, including condemnable killing of civilians, displayed confusion in the Israeli security forces, but also got the air force reverted to striking targets across Gaza, strikes that have been ongoing indefinitely. 1400 Israelis and 4000 Palestinians had died by 21st October. Different countries made initiatives to resolve the conflict, with Russia and Brazil proposing ending hostilities and delivering aid to Palestinians, while the US, UK, France, and Japan favoring continuation of the war. Russia, China, and Many Middle Eastern players have proposed the formation of a Palestinian state according to 1967 boarders as Russia, and Egypt, delivers aid to be forwarded to Gaza while the US only delivered weapons to Israel. The first US weapon delivery occurred on 10th October, three days after the outbreak of war as AP reported, showing that this is another US war. Western powers profess Israel’s right to self-defense, as if Hamas has any power to threaten Israel’s existence, which shows westerners’ stratagem. Scot Ritter (here) and The Intercept (here) reveals that Hamas was created by Israel. Therefore, the war was most likely arranged to gain Israel-US justification to lay waste to Gaza, and send a firm message to global south, especially those emboldened by Russia’s victory against NATO’s dehumanization of ethnic Russians in Donbas, and attempt to break Russia.
Hamas’ attack looks like a false flag, despite being conveniently labeled as the ‘largest intelligence failure’ in Israel’s history. I am not convinced that the Group that live in a crowded open-air prison alongside 2 million civilians, and use Israeli-controlled cellphone networks, could have blindsided Americans and Israelis. The US subsidizes Israel. US news on 10th, October revealing that Israel, with 6 million people, has received over $260 billion from the US. Biden repeatedly claimed that Israel is the best strategy the US could have for the Middle East. It follows that the US must be the entity that handles security intelligence for its Middle East strategy.
Justification to Level Gaza
Israel openly bombed a Greek Orthodox Church on 20th, October, which confirms its earlier bombing of Al Ahly hospital that killed about 500 Palestinian civilians. On 22nd October, Gaza’s health ministry reported that Israel bombed a busy market. Israel’s half-hearted denial of the Al Ahly Hospital bombing is most probably meant to amplify the matter, showing its disregard for Arabs while using US-supplied JDAMs, which the US promptly reimburse. Israeli’s efforts to shift the blame were disputed by among others, Aljazeera. Remarkably, no Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s (PIJ) rocket has ever brought down a large building in Israel, which makes Israeli claims farfetched. Conversely, Israeli’s bombing to rubble of civilians’ apartment in Gaza have proudly been showcased in western media, here, and here. Netanyahu’s digital mouthpiece, Naftali Hananya in an X (formerly Twitter) post had gloated about Israel’s Al Ahly’s bombing before he stealthily deleted his post following global outrage. Israel’s action and US facilitation shows the latter’s effort to invigorate its latest project after Ukraine, as it returns 155 mm shells delivered to Ukraine back to Israel (here). The US and former colonial masters shot down Russia’s UN resolution for a ceasefire and provision of aid to Gaza, while formerly colonized peoples sided with Russia. The US by continuing to arm Israel and bringing its aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean shows a plan to push one pathetic country to the wall to show the world that it means business. The US and vassals are now scraping the bottom of the barrel for countries they are guaranteed to defeat to show some victory after the Ukraine fiasco. America’s entry into the Gaza-Israeli war can be noted by Biden’s statement last week, where he stated that ‘ terrorists like Hamas and Tyrants like Putin’ should be made to pay a price’.
Out Zelensky-in Bibi on Israeli’s 911
Financial allocation shows that the US is more committed to Israeli war than Ukraine’s, with Biden asking congress for $60 billion for Israel and 40 Billion for Ukraine and Taiwan (here). The shift shows that Israeli war has more benefits to the US’ foreign policy establishment, which had presented their simple goal of destroying Russia all across last year. Biden in Poland last year yelled how ‘Putin cannot remain in power for God’s sake’ a goal that remained a mirage despite hundreds of billions having been invested. Biden still outlined his desire to put down Putin, in October 2023. The US and Vassals feel threatened since their power to arrange medieval-style crusades to destroy and plunder countries has failed twice, in Syria and now in Ukraine, at Russia’s hand. They see a serious need to send a message to the global south.
Simon Chege Ndiritu is a political observer and research analyst from Africa, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.