
CIA-backed rebels are now fighting Pentagon-backed militants in Syria - huac
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikegiglio/america-is-now-fighting-a-proxy-war-with-itself-in-syria#.tsmk91wjqz
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DenisM
[...] In a scene in Woody Allen’s film Bananas, US paramilitaries are flying
to the troubled, Latin American backwater San Marcos, where insurgents are
attempting to overthrow the military junta. One paramilitary asks out-loud,
“[are we] for or against the government?” “The CIA is not taking any chances,”
responds another officer, “some of us are for it and some of us are gonna to
be against it [...]

[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-
intellig...](https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-
intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol.-55-no.-4/driving-the-
yanquis-bananas-the-feeling-was-mutual.html)

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pjc50
Managing proxies, puppets and suzerains is an important part of a global
empire. It's just a shame that America is so bad at it, whereas it worked
brilliantly for TE Lawrence and the British Empire.

The worst instance of this was probably Ahmed Chalabi, who convinced the
"Project for a New American Century" group that he was a viable leader of Iraq
in exile, thereby starting this whole mess at a cost of a trillion dollars and
a million lives. We'll probably never know if he was an Iranian intelligence
agent or not; if he was he might be the most effective saboteur in history.

There's also the question of how much ISIS are Saudi proxy forces ...

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Gibbon1
Um... this crap in Syria and Iraq is us still dealing with the aftermath of
the dismemberment of the Ottoman empire.

War casts long dark shadows through history.

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visakanv
> “It’s very strange, and I cannot understand it,” said Ahmed Othman, the
> commander of the U.S.-backed rebel battalion Furqa al-Sultan Murad, who said
> he had come under attack from U.S.-backed Kurdish militants in Aleppo this
> week.

This seems like an appropriate time to quote Major General Smedley Butler:

> "War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the
> most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international
> in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars
> and the losses in lives."

> "I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that
> period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business,
> for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for
> capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American
> oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the
> National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of
> half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I
> helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown
> Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the
> American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the
> American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that
> Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have
> given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket
> in three districts. I operated on three continents."

And perhaps even more relevant:

> “Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die. The
> was the "war to end wars." This was the "war to make the world safe for
> democracy." No one told them that dollars and cents were the real reason. No
> one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their
> dying would mean huge war profits. No one told these American soldiers that
> they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here. No one
> told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be
> torpedoed by submarines built with United State patents. They were just told
> it was to be a "glorious adventure".

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emp_zealoth
And now I can't get the image of weekly get togethers of generals and CIA
spooks watching live satellite streams of the infighting, betting while doing
pristine and cheap coke courtesy of the mess

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nicolas_t
"La guerre, un massacre de gens qui ne se connaissent pas, au profit de gens
qui se connaissent mais ne se massacrent pas." Paul Valéry - 1871-1945

Loosely translated to: "War is a massacre of people that don't know each other
for the profit of people who know each other but do not kill each other."

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scotty79
World would be a safer place if US military found more contained way to get
rid of their current military gear so they can purchase new toys.

~~~
whatYouGet
Well, a recycling program would seem a little pinko, wouldn't it?

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NumberCruncher
Divide et impera - nothing new in politics since 2000 years.

