Pervez Hoodbhoy, The United States and Islam: Toward Perpetual War? (2005)

There may well have been no 9/11 but for 1979, the year of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

From the day Soviet troops invaded, American diplomatic strategy was to mobilize world opinion against the Soviet Union. American ire was aroused not out of sympathy for the particular victim but by the act of aggression itself and what it portended for the future. Afghanistan was doomed to be a domino. With Ronald Reagan as the rival presidential candidate, Jimmy Carter could not afford to appear soft on Moscow. Officials like Richard Perle, who became Reagan's assistant secretary of defense, saw Afghanistan not as the locale of a harsh and dangerous conflict to be ended but as a place to teach the Russians a lesson. Such "bleeders" became the most influential people in Washington (Ahmad & Barnet, 1988; Ahmad, 2000).

Pervez Hoodbhoy, The United States and Islam: Toward Perpetual War? (2005)

Pervez Hoodbhoy, The United States and Islam: Toward Perpetual War? (2005)

Pervez Hoodbhoy, The United States and Islam: Toward Perpetual War? (2005)

Lest we forget, the CIA gave birth to Osama Bin Laden and breastfed his organization during the 1980′s. Former British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, told the House of Commons that Al Qaeda was unquestionably a product of Western intelligence agencies. Mr. Cook explained that Al Qaeda, which literally means an abbreviation of “the database” in Arabic, was originally the computer database of the thousands of Islamist extremists, who were trained by the CIA and funded by the Saudis, in order to defeat the Russians in Afghanistan.

America’s relationship with Al Qaeda has always been a love-hate affair. Depending on whether a particular Al Qaeda terrorist group in a given region furthers American interests or not, the U.S. State Department either funds or aggressively targets that terrorist group. Even as American foreign policy makers claim to oppose Muslim extremism, they knowingly foment it as a weapon of foreign policy.

Garikai Chengu, How the US Helped Create Al Qaeda and ISIS (2014)

The fact that the United States has a long and torrid history of backing terrorist groups will surprise only those who watch the news and ignore history.

The CIA first aligned itself with extremist Islam during the Cold War era. Back then, America saw the world in rather simple terms: on one side, the Soviet Union and Third World nationalism, which America regarded as a Soviet tool; on the other side, Western nations and militant political Islam, which America considered an ally in the struggle against the Soviet Union.

Garikai Chengu, How the US Helped Create Al Qaeda and ISIS (2014)

Song of the Day 🌿🔫: https://youtu.be/uasxLOLCsZo?si=lxIJrHOhe3u_HI4b

Das Gute daran ist, dass die SVP damit ihr volles Potenzial ausgeschöpft hat. Stärker kann sie nicht mehr werden. Ähnliche Ergebnisse gibt es ja auch in anderen Demokratien, z.B. Deutschland. Mehr als 30% Wählerpotenzial haben rechte, antidemokratische Parteien nicht. Immerhin etwas. https://www.msn.com/de-ch/nachrichten/other/jeder-vierte-ist-der-schweizer-demokratie-%C3%BCberdr%C3%BCssig-geworden/ar-AA1ZEoaG

“Everything is linked to everything: Oil price to gas price, to food price, to fertilizer price, to price of pharmaceuticals, the list goes on.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/iran-war-global-recession-finland-president-alexander-stubb/

I don´t agree with all the points, but Harari is quite thought-provoking. So I decided to share it regardless https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/p/what-happens-when-intelligence-outgrows

Der Podcast im Link ist der eigentlich spannende Teil: Afrika als Wirtschaftsmacht kann nicht mehr ignoriert werden. https://www.srf.ch/news/international/cassis-auf-afrikareise-die-heimliche-wirtschaftsmacht-schweiz