Stephen Lendman

American foreign policy is defined by rage to ravage. Lunatics run the asylum. Washington's criminal class is bipartisan.

People have no say. Wealth and power alone matter. It's always been that way, today more than ever. Post-WW II, America lurched from one war to another.

Today they're waged in multiples. A queue perhaps includes Syria and Iran topping the list. Ongoing for months, Western intervention incited Syrian violence.

At issue is regime change, eliminating an Israeli rival, and advancing America's imperium. Libya's insurgency began the same way before NATO attacked last March. Will Syria follow the same pattern, then Iran?

So far, heated rhetoric alone is heard. On and off before it echoed. Media scoundrels regurgitate it. Is something different this time? Time alone will tell. Israel often makes baseless accusations. President Shimon Peres warned there's "not much time left" to act.

Israel, of course, is the sole regional threat, nuclear armed and dangerous. A serial aggressor, it endangers Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Iran with potential attacks.

In contrast, Syria and Iran threaten no one. Rhetoric, of course, belies it. Warrior leaders like France's Sarkozy whetted his killing appetite in Ivory Coast and Libya.

Despite overwhelming homeland opposition ahead of next year's presidential election, he accused Iran of an

"obsessional desire to acquire nuclear (weapons) in violation of all international rules....If Israel's existence were threatened, France would not stand idly by."

No evidence whatever suggests Iran's developing nuclear weapons. Plenty shows Israel and France are nuclear armed and dangerous. So are axis of evil partners America and Britain. Whether or not attacking Iran is planned isn't known.

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Gilad Atzmon

Israeli hasbara insists that an attack on Iran is compatible with both Western interests and NATO strategy. For example, this week Israel released information about an IAF exercise in NATO’s bases in Italy. The statement was made to create the impression that any future Israeli aggression against Iran enjoys Western backing.

NATO however was quick to disassociate itself from any such attack. NATO leader Fogh Rasmussen confirmed in a press conference that the alliance has no intention whatsoever of intervening in Iran.

To date, we’ve not seen any British public official statement that would suggest that Britain is ready to back either the US or Israel in any possible strike on Iran. Yet, it seems as if the Guardian, once a respected British newspaper, has already become fully integrated in the Israeli psychological war machine.

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Adnan Al-Daini

Eurozone finance ministers have endorsed a record
110-billion-euro bailout for Greece. The aid package
requires that Athens implement tough austerity mea-
sures. But Athen's plans for painful wage & pension
cuts have already triggered widespread protest there.

A classic instability in engineering systems occurs when disturbances to a system are magnified, rather than damped out, leading to its destruction. 

As Greece, Italy Portugal… etc. struggle to pay the interest on loans these banks were happy to push on to them not that long ago, they are being asked to pay more interest. It thus deepens their difficulties, and when combined with severe austerity measures, bankruptcy becomes inevitable. It thus mirrors the instability in engineering systems.  I believe Greece should declare bankruptcy, leave the Eurozone, and start building a sustainable economic model distinct from the existing corrupt capitalism that is serving the 1%ers and blighting the lives of the 99% in the U.S., UK and other Eurozone countries.  Yes, this will deliver a shock to the system, but it could hardly be any worse than the present draconian austerity measures demanded by the IMF, ECB and European politicians. The humiliation of Greece by foreign politicians and unelected bodies, dictating what Greece must do regardless of what harm it causes its people, must be too much to bear in a country that gave the world the concept of democracy. Institutions and governments are demanding that Greece privatize its energy sector utilities, airports, marinas…etc. This hasty privatization programme, demanded by external governments and institutions, prompted Stefanos Manos, a former national economy minister in a centre-right Greek government to say (Guardian, 1 August 2011):

"With timetables being so pressing, I worry that the whole process is very ill-prepared. If there is not enough transparency we may end up like Russia, where only a cast of oligarchs end up benefiting."

I have news for Mr. Manos. The privatization of utilities in Britain has not been a great success either.  It has faithfully served global corporations and the super rich, with many of the poor now having to make a choice between heating and eating.

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