Menopause, I\u2019m told, is horrible.<\/p>\n
Men don\u2019t know too much about it, and thankfully I\u2019ve not been exposed to it\u2026 yet. One minute you\u2019re\u00a0hand in hand on the beach with your sweet adoring wife\u00a0and the next she\u2019s a sobbing wreck who wants to stab you in the thigh with a pair of knitting needles.<\/p>\n
This is probably just how Qatar feels right now.<\/p>\n
Sure, they\u2019ve never been \u201cmates\u201d with their neighbours but they\u2019ve always tolerated each other.\u00a0Only months ago, they had joined with Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Hand in hand, they had\u00a0come together with the shared vision of bombing Yemen back into the sand. Happy days! Today, knitting needles.<\/p>\n
Two\u00a0questions:<\/h3>\n\n- What is actually going on?<\/li>\n
- Should we care?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
The two are related. We can only know if we should care if we actually know what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n
To answer the first question, let\u2019s begin with the second.<\/p>\n
Consider that the most expensive, complicated, and unpopular wars are those\u00a0that Western powers (which really means the US these days) wage directly. Outright wars\u2026 Washington has found\u2026 are unpopular.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019m not referring only to women with hairy armpits and unshaven men running around, waving silly placards chanting and throwing chairs through McDonald\u2019s windows every time they feel triggered. After Iraq and Afghanistan, Trump faces a populace sick of \u201ctheir boys\u201d coming home without their legs.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what happens: the US military, after offloading a few billion dollars worth of hardware, flattening designated cities\u2026 I mean, \u201cstrategic targets\u201d (remember shock and awe?) must ultimately commit ground troops to \u201csecure the peace\u201d. Puppets need installing and that\u2019s impossible\u00a0to do without security, and security means ground troops.<\/p>\n
And this is where the fun starts.<\/p>\n
The average terrorist looks exactly like everybody else in the country. US ground troops, however, stand out like a sore thumb. Brave young Billy Joe Swanson, armed with pimples, testosterone, and enough hardware to take out New Zealand, doesn\u2019t actually know why he\u2019s there, but\u00a0he\u2019s there because he was recruited from a low socio economic area where his prospects were late shift at Taco Bell or the excitement of \u201cfighting for freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n
Young, uneducated, and not being the sharpest tool in the shed, Billy\u00a0chose the latter and now, in a country and culture he knows absolutely nothing about, is faced with unknown and mostly unidentifiable attackers who will cut him down in an instant. Billy, together with his friends, feels increasingly isolated, frustrated, frightened, and angry. We\u2019re here to help, he thinks. WTF is wrong with these people?<\/p>\n
When Billy has to push what\u2019s left of his best friends\u00a0organs back into the gaping hole an\u00a0IED left in his side, he\u00a0quickly comes to hate the locals. They\u2019re all terrorists or terrorist sympathisers. You can tell by the language used by Billy and his fellow soldiers where they\u00a0are in the world \u2013 narcos, gooks, chinks, flops, commies, ragheads.<\/p>\n
The countries change but the results do not. Billy and his friends hate them, and this means that more innocents are killed. This turns the country increasingly against the invaders.<\/p>\n
The locals, now presiding over rubble, grow increasingly intolerant of arrogant, heavy handed Billy and the \u201cliberating forces\u201d. Whatever synergy and initial euphoria may have existed rapidly disappears. The gap \u2014 a result of cultural, religious, and value systems \u2014 widens with each viewing the other as more alien than ever.<\/p>\n
Remember Abu Ghraib?<\/p>\n
The lines between acceptable and outrageous blur in war. All wars, all militaries. None are immune. It\u2019s how it is.<\/p>\n
Western media continue to speak of \u201cprecision strikes\u201d and, when things inevitably go wrong, \u201cisolated incidents\u201d. \u00a0Locals speak of genocide and murder.<\/p>\n
For Washington it becomes an embarrassment. The world\u2019s most sophisticated military with B1s, drones, guided missiles, satellites, helicopter gunships, and bunker busting bombs still, many years later, are struggling to win against sandal-wearing goat herders with AKs and RPGs.<\/p>\n
Just like Musk figured with Tesla, it\u2019s far easier to simply outsource all the parts to someone else and get someone to fund the whole thing.<\/strong> Enter proxy wars and the US\u00a0puppet dictatorship of Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\nTrump likely figured this out. Ground troops in yet another Middle Eastern backwater will be as popular as herpes. So why\u00a0going there?<\/p>\n
Trump to his military advisors on Saudi Arabia:\u00a0\u201cIsn\u2019t it time these guys started working for us?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nThe real issue here isn\u2019t Qatar.<\/p>\n
They are merely a pawn in this. The target here is Iran, and now that\u00a0Chairman Trump just gave the Saudis\u00a0a \u201cwe\u2019ve got your back\u201d pledge,<\/a>\u00a0it\u2019s time to move things forward.<\/p>\nThis is likely to be as messy as ever. Why? Because it\u2019s all been tried before. Direct wars, as discussed, have their problems. Proxy wars, on the other hand, aren\u2019t all peaches and cream either.<\/p>\n
The folks in the 5-sided building in Virginia may have higher IQs than Billy but they\u2019re still as dumb as \u201cisht\u201d.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what happens with proxy wars.<\/p>\n
US forces \u201ctrain\u201d local forces to stand up and fight for whatever the US thinks they should be fighting for. All too often it involves killing the citizens of their own country.<\/p>\n
Pray tell, why US-trained forces in Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan never seem to work?<\/p>\n
Let me put it this way. It\u2019d be like the Russians invading the United Kingdom and having Ivan force Peter\u00a0in Yorkshire to fight Luke\u00a0in Devon. Only government could fail to see this for what it is: a terrible idea. This won\u2019t stop it from happening. You can\u2019t fix stupid.<\/p>\n
What Now?<\/h3>\n
Iran, a country that hasn\u2019t invaded another in 200 years, is a terrible danger to the US, and Qatar supports them. We know this because the MSM tells us it\u2019s so.<\/p>\n
![\"Qatar](\"http:\/\/www.valuewalk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Qatar-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAs that thug Henry Kissinger stated:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not a matter what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nSadly, he is correct. That this narrative is being championed now\u00a0by none other than biggest sponsor of terrorism makes it all the more laughable.<\/p>\n
![\"Qatar](\"http:\/\/www.valuewalk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Qatar-2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWashington have decided Iran is the enemy and that\u2019s really what matters, which begs the question. Was Trump\u2019s Middle Eastern visit used to\u00a0drum up support for an offensive on Iran? An easy sell to the Saudis who like Iran in the same way Jews like bacon.<\/p>\n
Given the speed with which the\u00a0Saudis and 6 other Middle Eastern countries cut ties with Qatar, I think it\u2019s safe to say there is a far broader plan in the works.<\/p>\n
As ZeroHedge<\/a> pointed out yesterday it\u2019s about energy and the money and power that comes with it. Surprise:<\/p>\n\u201cThe real reason behind the diplomatic fallout may be far simpler, and once again has to do with a long-running and controversial topic, namely Qatar\u2019s regional natural gas dominance.<\/em><\/p>\nRecall that many have speculated <\/a>(with evidence going back as far back as 2012<\/a>) that one of the reasons for the long-running Syria proxy war was nothing more complex than competing gas pipelines, with Qatar eager to pass its own pipeline, connecting Europe to its vast natural gas deposits, however as that would put Gazprom\u2019s monopoly of European LNG supply in jeopardy, Russia had been firmly, and violently, against this strategy from the beginning and explains Putin\u2019s firm support of the Assad regime and the Kremlin\u2019s desire to prevent the replacement of the Syrian government with a puppet regime.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n wp-image-1954722\u2033 src=\u201dhttp:\/\/www.valuewalk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Qatar-3.png\u201d alt=\u201dQatar \u201d width=\u201d600\u2033 height=\u201d423\u2033 \/><\/a><\/p>\nWith nearly 30% of global LNG supply, Qatar has more natural gas than Michael Moore after a bowl of cauliflower. And what\u2019s more, it has the lowest extraction rates in the world. It\u2019s how they\u00a0got to be the richest country in the world on a per capita basis.<\/p>\n
![\"Qatar](\"http:\/\/www.valuewalk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Qatar-4.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhat to Expect?<\/h3>\n
Remember Libya?<\/p>\n
Well, it\u2019s no coincidence that the amount of terrorist attacks in Europe have increased ever since the US-led \u201ccoalition\u201d shoved a flag pole up Gaddafi\u2019s bum.<\/p>\n
Any conflict in the Middle East is likely to increase the surge of refugees into Europe, and you can read my article on this very topic \u201c7 steps to the easiest short in recent history\u201d<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>for a rundown. That particular theme will only increase the already fragile political and social fabric of Europe.<\/p>\nWhile it\u2019s currently a low probability, should the powder keg that is the Middle East really blow, expect a US-led \u201ccoalition\u201d to first provide \u201csupport\u201d and finally to put boots on the ground. Then we go from passive to active and Billy gets to \u201cintegrate\u201d once more with the natives. We\u2019ve seen it all before.<\/p>\n
Who wins? Who loses?<\/p>\n
\n- It\u2019s hard to see how any disruption to the supplier of 1\/3rd of the natural gas market wouldn\u2019t move prices.<\/li>\n
- Any escalation leading to war won\u2019t help already ballooning deficits, and yet the treasury will almost certainly need to sell more of those. Wars don\u2019t come cheap.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Something else to consider is that this move by Middle Eastern countries led by the Saudis \u2014 designed no doubt to contain Qatar ahead of a more aggressive stance towards Iran \u2014 could backfire spectacularly, pushing Qatar closer to both Turkey and Iran. Qatar has money\u2026 lots of it.. and Turkey and Iran have decent military capabilities and regional ambitions.<\/p>\n
Will Qatar capitulate or align themselves more aggressively with Turkey and Iran?<\/p>\n
\n- They\u2019ll fold like a wet blanket<\/li>\n
- This will backfire as they seek alignment with Turkey and Iran<\/li>\n
- Something else? Comment on the blog<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\u2013 Chris<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn\u2019t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard<\/p>\nArticle by Capitalist Exploits<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(views in the article below are of the author and do not represent views of… more
The two are related. We can only know if we should care if we actually know what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n
To answer the first question, let\u2019s begin with the second.<\/p>\n
Consider that the most expensive, complicated, and unpopular wars are those\u00a0that Western powers (which really means the US these days) wage directly. Outright wars\u2026 Washington has found\u2026 are unpopular.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019m not referring only to women with hairy armpits and unshaven men running around, waving silly placards chanting and throwing chairs through McDonald\u2019s windows every time they feel triggered. After Iraq and Afghanistan, Trump faces a populace sick of \u201ctheir boys\u201d coming home without their legs.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what happens: the US military, after offloading a few billion dollars worth of hardware, flattening designated cities\u2026 I mean, \u201cstrategic targets\u201d (remember shock and awe?) must ultimately commit ground troops to \u201csecure the peace\u201d. Puppets need installing and that\u2019s impossible\u00a0to do without security, and security means ground troops.<\/p>\n
And this is where the fun starts.<\/p>\n
The average terrorist looks exactly like everybody else in the country. US ground troops, however, stand out like a sore thumb. Brave young Billy Joe Swanson, armed with pimples, testosterone, and enough hardware to take out New Zealand, doesn\u2019t actually know why he\u2019s there, but\u00a0he\u2019s there because he was recruited from a low socio economic area where his prospects were late shift at Taco Bell or the excitement of \u201cfighting for freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n
Young, uneducated, and not being the sharpest tool in the shed, Billy\u00a0chose the latter and now, in a country and culture he knows absolutely nothing about, is faced with unknown and mostly unidentifiable attackers who will cut him down in an instant. Billy, together with his friends, feels increasingly isolated, frustrated, frightened, and angry. We\u2019re here to help, he thinks. WTF is wrong with these people?<\/p>\n
When Billy has to push what\u2019s left of his best friends\u00a0organs back into the gaping hole an\u00a0IED left in his side, he\u00a0quickly comes to hate the locals. They\u2019re all terrorists or terrorist sympathisers. You can tell by the language used by Billy and his fellow soldiers where they\u00a0are in the world \u2013 narcos, gooks, chinks, flops, commies, ragheads.<\/p>\n
The countries change but the results do not. Billy and his friends hate them, and this means that more innocents are killed. This turns the country increasingly against the invaders.<\/p>\n
The locals, now presiding over rubble, grow increasingly intolerant of arrogant, heavy handed Billy and the \u201cliberating forces\u201d. Whatever synergy and initial euphoria may have existed rapidly disappears. The gap \u2014 a result of cultural, religious, and value systems \u2014 widens with each viewing the other as more alien than ever.<\/p>\n
Remember Abu Ghraib?<\/p>\n
The lines between acceptable and outrageous blur in war. All wars, all militaries. None are immune. It\u2019s how it is.<\/p>\n
Western media continue to speak of \u201cprecision strikes\u201d and, when things inevitably go wrong, \u201cisolated incidents\u201d. \u00a0Locals speak of genocide and murder.<\/p>\n
For Washington it becomes an embarrassment. The world\u2019s most sophisticated military with B1s, drones, guided missiles, satellites, helicopter gunships, and bunker busting bombs still, many years later, are struggling to win against sandal-wearing goat herders with AKs and RPGs.<\/p>\n
Just like Musk figured with Tesla, it\u2019s far easier to simply outsource all the parts to someone else and get someone to fund the whole thing.<\/strong> Enter proxy wars and the US\u00a0puppet dictatorship of Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n Trump likely figured this out. Ground troops in yet another Middle Eastern backwater will be as popular as herpes. So why\u00a0going there?<\/p>\n Trump to his military advisors on Saudi Arabia:\u00a0\u201cIsn\u2019t it time these guys started working for us?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The real issue here isn\u2019t Qatar.<\/p>\n They are merely a pawn in this. The target here is Iran, and now that\u00a0Chairman Trump just gave the Saudis\u00a0a \u201cwe\u2019ve got your back\u201d pledge,<\/a>\u00a0it\u2019s time to move things forward.<\/p>\n This is likely to be as messy as ever. Why? Because it\u2019s all been tried before. Direct wars, as discussed, have their problems. Proxy wars, on the other hand, aren\u2019t all peaches and cream either.<\/p>\n The folks in the 5-sided building in Virginia may have higher IQs than Billy but they\u2019re still as dumb as \u201cisht\u201d.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what happens with proxy wars.<\/p>\n US forces \u201ctrain\u201d local forces to stand up and fight for whatever the US thinks they should be fighting for. All too often it involves killing the citizens of their own country.<\/p>\n Pray tell, why US-trained forces in Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan never seem to work?<\/p>\n Let me put it this way. It\u2019d be like the Russians invading the United Kingdom and having Ivan force Peter\u00a0in Yorkshire to fight Luke\u00a0in Devon. Only government could fail to see this for what it is: a terrible idea. This won\u2019t stop it from happening. You can\u2019t fix stupid.<\/p>\n Iran, a country that hasn\u2019t invaded another in 200 years, is a terrible danger to the US, and Qatar supports them. We know this because the MSM tells us it\u2019s so.<\/p>\n As that thug Henry Kissinger stated:<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not a matter what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Sadly, he is correct. That this narrative is being championed now\u00a0by none other than biggest sponsor of terrorism makes it all the more laughable.<\/p>\n Washington have decided Iran is the enemy and that\u2019s really what matters, which begs the question. Was Trump\u2019s Middle Eastern visit used to\u00a0drum up support for an offensive on Iran? An easy sell to the Saudis who like Iran in the same way Jews like bacon.<\/p>\n Given the speed with which the\u00a0Saudis and 6 other Middle Eastern countries cut ties with Qatar, I think it\u2019s safe to say there is a far broader plan in the works.<\/p>\n As ZeroHedge<\/a> pointed out yesterday it\u2019s about energy and the money and power that comes with it. Surprise:<\/p>\n \u201cThe real reason behind the diplomatic fallout may be far simpler, and once again has to do with a long-running and controversial topic, namely Qatar\u2019s regional natural gas dominance.<\/em><\/p>\n Recall that many have speculated <\/a>(with evidence going back as far back as 2012<\/a>) that one of the reasons for the long-running Syria proxy war was nothing more complex than competing gas pipelines, with Qatar eager to pass its own pipeline, connecting Europe to its vast natural gas deposits, however as that would put Gazprom\u2019s monopoly of European LNG supply in jeopardy, Russia had been firmly, and violently, against this strategy from the beginning and explains Putin\u2019s firm support of the Assad regime and the Kremlin\u2019s desire to prevent the replacement of the Syrian government with a puppet regime.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n wp-image-1954722\u2033 src=\u201dhttp:\/\/www.valuewalk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Qatar-3.png\u201d alt=\u201dQatar \u201d width=\u201d600\u2033 height=\u201d423\u2033 \/><\/a><\/p>\n With nearly 30% of global LNG supply, Qatar has more natural gas than Michael Moore after a bowl of cauliflower. And what\u2019s more, it has the lowest extraction rates in the world. It\u2019s how they\u00a0got to be the richest country in the world on a per capita basis.<\/p>\n Remember Libya?<\/p>\n Well, it\u2019s no coincidence that the amount of terrorist attacks in Europe have increased ever since the US-led \u201ccoalition\u201d shoved a flag pole up Gaddafi\u2019s bum.<\/p>\n Any conflict in the Middle East is likely to increase the surge of refugees into Europe, and you can read my article on this very topic \u201c7 steps to the easiest short in recent history\u201d<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>for a rundown. That particular theme will only increase the already fragile political and social fabric of Europe.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s currently a low probability, should the powder keg that is the Middle East really blow, expect a US-led \u201ccoalition\u201d to first provide \u201csupport\u201d and finally to put boots on the ground. Then we go from passive to active and Billy gets to \u201cintegrate\u201d once more with the natives. We\u2019ve seen it all before.<\/p>\n Who wins? Who loses?<\/p>\n Something else to consider is that this move by Middle Eastern countries led by the Saudis \u2014 designed no doubt to contain Qatar ahead of a more aggressive stance towards Iran \u2014 could backfire spectacularly, pushing Qatar closer to both Turkey and Iran. Qatar has money\u2026 lots of it.. and Turkey and Iran have decent military capabilities and regional ambitions.<\/p>\n Will Qatar capitulate or align themselves more aggressively with Turkey and Iran?<\/p>\n \u2013 Chris<\/p>\n \u201cThere are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn\u2019t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard<\/p>\n Article by Capitalist Exploits<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (views in the article below are of the author and do not represent views of… more What Now?<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nWhat to Expect?<\/h3>\n
\n
\n