The neocons' rag

CRITIC'S CRITIC
Herman Tiu Laurel
6/20-26/2011



The peace dividend from the end of the Cold War in 1991 turned into dust when the United States proceeded posthaste to assimilate fallen eastern Soviet states into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) while plotting the “Balkanization” of Yugoslavia (which it later bombed in 1999 to break up into seven new states).

As these were taking place, the US deployed missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic as a so-called defense against “rogue states” such as Iran. Russia, of course, along with every credible analyst out there, considered that a joke – at Russia’s expense.

In succeeding years, the US and NATO then launched wars in the other half of the globe--in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now in Africa’s Libya as well as in the Middle East’s Yemen (the last two coming after their neocolonial coup in Côte d’Ivoire).

Single Biggest Threat
It is to the interest of every citizen of this Internet-connected world to understand that the US and NATO, or the Western alliance, is the single biggest threat to hopes of world peace.

And behind this 21st Century imperialist-hegemonic aggression is the neoconservative (neocon) cabal starring the likes of Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, et al -- a cabal we should all expose.

Our previous column discussed the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Op-Ed pages as an oligarchic tool for consistently and systematically riveting readers with motherhood issues of human rights, liberal democracy, and Marcos-Erap demonization while omitting reports and analyses of massive plunder by the oligarchy through bloodthirsty profiteering on the basic needs of citizen-consumers such as electricity, water, public transport (MRT/LRT), tollways, telecommunications, etc.

We questioned the Inquirer’s June 9 story on the Energy Regulatory Commission and Meralco’s disinformation, claiming that the 2011 PBR (Performance Based Regulation) power rates have been reduced when these are actually double the original.

We also assailed that paper’s “star” columnists (including an ex-National Economic Development Authority head) for dwelling on the more esoteric motherhood issues than zeroing in on, say, the power price gouging that plagues our nation’s very survival.

Thumbprints Galore
There are important connections to point out here: The Philippine oligarchy is a surrogate of the international neocon cabal whereby the local mainstream media, fed and fueled by the oligarchy’s corporate advertising budgets, carries out the neocon agenda by running “weapons of mass distraction” to throw off people’s attention from the anti-people, anti-democratic and plundering political-economic campaigns of such neocon impositions or designs as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the “War on Terror,” as well as innumerable “civil society” NGO fronts, etc.

The local oligarchy is to the US-NATO neocons today what the Principalia was to the Spanish Crown in Philippine history.

In turn, today’s local mainstream media is filled with the same Ilustrados of yore, articulating the ideology of their colonial ruler while totally bereft of the bravery and rebellious streak of the masses’ forebears, the Indios Bravos.

We thus highlight two guest columns featured in the Inquirer that project the neocon agenda:

First is Patrick Pierce’s “President Aquino should lead move to probe Burma,” where the author writes, “the Philippines, through its president, is in a unique position to demonstrate its commitment to human rights…” Wouldn’t the Philippines and its media do mankind better by asking why US drones are bombing and killing Afghan civilians (with over 700 dead in 2009 alone, and with only 14 confirmed Talibans among them) and how many more innocents have been killed in Libya, Yemen, and Pakistan?

The Inquirer cites Pierce as someone who “heads the International Center for Transitional Justice, Burma Program.”

But what would have added illumination to his views is the background and character of his institution and its funding sources, which I easily found on the Web but are not being disclosed by the Inquirer for good reason. From the Ford Foundation (which funded ICTJ’s inception), to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, to the Carnegie Corp. of New York, to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Andrus Family Fund, one will find neocon thumbprints galore.

Global Domination
Pierce is badgering BSA III to call “on the UN to establish a commission of inquiry into human-rights violations in Burma,” stressing that he (BSA III) “will not only live up to the democratic legacy of his parents but to the human rights commitments of the country that gave People Power its name.”

The fact is BSA III hasn’t even started to make headway on the hundreds of “extra-judicial killings” and murders of Filipino journalists (among the highest in the world; No. 3 in the Impunity Index according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists) or in the Hacienda Luisita Massacre victims’ cases.

So, isn’t that call silly, to say the least?

But why do the Western neocons like to have propaganda ammunition against one of the Asian states unwilling to go along with their hegemony?

As Myanmar is at the underbelly of China, the major strategic target of the neocons is to restore their global domination, which the West had before the second part of the 20th Century.

Their own Destiny
The second featured Inquirer article under our watch is from Radek Sikorski, Polish politician and Director of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)’s New Atlantic Initiative.

For those not in the know, AEI is also at the core of the neocon networks. Moreover, Sikorksi writes for Project Syndicate, an international newspaper syndication distributing commentaries, analyses or opinion pieces by “experts.”

Among the funders of Project Syndicate is the Open Society Foundation of multi-billionaire financial and currency predator-speculator George Soros.

Sikorski’s “The frontline of democracy” dishes advice to “new democracies” (i.e. countries falling into neocon control): “Peoples in transition from authoritarian rule--peaceful in Poland in 1989, bloody in Libya today -- grapple with decisions that determine their fate for decades.

How should the former regime’s worst wrongdoers and security police, with their insidious archives, be treated?”

He then continues, “Today, across North Africa, millions of people are demanding a voice in their own destiny.”

Intelligent Readers
But in Libya, the African Union led by South African president Jacob Zuma has already visited Muammar Gaddafi under the atmosphere of NATO bombardment to bring a ceasefire proposal formulated by the 53 African states.

Given that this and other similar proposals have been repeatedly brushed aside by the US and NATO, just what is Sikorski talking about?

Can’t he admit that his employers are the ones who are suppressing the voice of Africa, which is actually supportive of Gaddafi and the Libyan peoples’ right to self-determination?

The US and NATO are citing the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)’s appeal as justification for its “No Fly Zone” on Libya, which has turned out to be nothing but a bombing campaign against the people of Tripoli. Sikorski then looks at the “rebels” in Benghazi and concludes, “…there is a fair chance that Libya’s emerging leaders will be good”-- well, good enough to reverse Gaddafi’s nationalism and Pan-Africanism, so as to revert Libya and the whole of Africa back to the old colonial days, I should add.

In all, I don’t expect the Inquirer, being an Establishment newspaper, to be anything other than what it is today -- the oligarchy and the global neocons’ rag.

I just think more Filipino members of the intelligentsia, especially the young, should be aware of this whenever they flip through the paper’s expensive ad-laden pages. (We’ll study Ceres Doyo’s views on the International Criminal Court and Rina Jimenez-David’s praise release for NGOs next).

(Tune in to Radyo OpinYon, Monday to Friday, 5 to 6 p.m., and Sulo ng Pilipino, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 6 to 7 p.m. on 1098AM; Talk News TV with HTL, Tuesday, 8 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11 p.m., on GNN, Destiny Cable Channel 8, on “GSIS Union’s Victory vs. Winston’s Outrages”; visit http://newkatipunero.blogspot.com for our articles plus select radio and GNN shows)