US agenda: "to maintain a perpetual state of chaos"

[Minstrel Boy]

From "(Just) alive and kicking in Baghdad" by Pepe Escobar, Sept 19, The Asia Times:


The convergence of views between Baghdad students and the Jordanian intelligence official is remarkable - and is widely shared by the popular voice of the bazaars. The perception is that "the Americans" engineered both the UN bombing that killed special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello, and the Najaf bombing that killed Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim (the Jordanian insists the Israeli Mossad was responsible for the Hakim bombing, which benefits the Americans by splitting the Shi'ites and pitting Sunnis against Shi'ites). All agree on what the US agenda is: to maintain a perpetual state of chaos, enforce the control of the fabulous Iraqi sources of energy, and use this new, sprawling military base in the heart of the Middle East to harass Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

...


There's not a single working industrial plant left in the city, according to a businessman now selling satellite dishes. To wander around some parts of the city on foot - a practice that can be quite a gamble - is to be surrounded by rubble uncollected in five months, a collection of instant ruins, piles of rubbish and vermin, and the occasional clouds of fire with which Baghdadis try to protect themselves against this filthy avalanche. Baghdad mirrors Kabul in its squalor and its lust for life, in its lacerated, bombed urban landscape and its barely contained rage that so much, yet so little, has changed for the better.

Practically none of the public services work. There are very few operating police stations. All the ministries remain closed - or totally destroyed. There is no postal service - although an extreme minority can now use DHL of Fedex. Telephones in some neighborhoods do work - and once again the extreme minority can buy a Thuraya satphone on the spot, plus refill cards. Any brand-new BMW is assumed to be driven by a looter.

The Americans stay on another planet - in bunkers. Humvees venturing out on patrol are subject to all number of attacks in broad daylight. Like this Wednesday, when a still sweating resident of Zayouna tells how he saw, through his rear-view mirror, a Humvee being hit by a roadside bomb and another backing up to collect two dead American soldiers and speed away. He can hardly believe that his car was not hit. Locals inevitably tell a foreigner: "Don't be near any Humvees or jeeps, even walking in the street. The American soldiers are so frightened they start shooting at random every time they hear an explosion."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EI19Ak02.html