Tillerson’s Middle East Trip Aims to Shore up Support for Washington’s Imperial Agenda
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
From February 11 – 16, he’s visiting Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt and Kuwait – Israel and the West Bank not included on his itinerary.
His trip has nothing to do with fostering regional peace Washington and its rogue allies abhor, nothing to do with combating terrorism US administrations support, everything to do with advancing America’s imperium, isolating Iran a key aim.
In Kuwait, he’ll address a so-called Defeat-ISIS Ministerial and Iraq Reconstruction Conference.
Washington’s agenda together with its rogue allies supports ISIS, pretending it wants its scourge defeated.
US-led terror-bombing raped and destroyed Mosul last year, the city and surrounding areas once home to over a million Iraqis.
No longer. It’s now largely rubble, uninhabitable with no signs of recovery, some Iraqis living in ruins – their homes and possessions destroyed, loved ones slaughtered, abandoned and desperate in the midst of decomposing bodies and unexploded ordnance.
RT’s Murad Gazdiev said “(t)he world has forgotten Mosul. It’s out of fashion, no longer trending. And locals have a well-founded suspicion that this was never about saving them.”
Once Iraq’s second largest city, it’s largely deserted. Corpse-filled ruins replaced long ago bustling life, the smell of them rotting everywhere.
Months of US-led terror-bombing massacred tens of thousands of civilians, accountability not forthcoming for one of history’s great crimes – how Washington wages all its wars of aggression, masquerading as liberating struggles.
America pledged no reconstruction money for Mosul, wanting other countries to defray the cost of what it destroyed, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert saying:
“I’m not aware of any announcements that we will be making” on contributing to Mosul’s reconstruction, adding:
“Our policy position has changed since previous administrations. We used to support nation-building, but the US is not doing that anymore” – sticking to destroying them only, letting other countries deal with the consequences.
According to USAID’s Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance director Jeremy Konyndyk, “(i)f the US doesn’t put money into reconstruction, (it) could help set the stage for a new insurgency.”
They’re endless in regional and other countries, Washington using ISIS and other terrorist groups for this purpose.
Washington-based Future Foundation president Entifadh Qanbar, an Iraqi-American, called Mosul “a huge (unaddressed) mess” – Raqqa devastation in Syria from US-led terror-bombing as bad or worse.
The UN called its devastation “unparalleled,” civilians attempting to return home slaughtered or injured by IEDs and unexploded ordnance.
Tillerson’s meeting with Erdogan and other Turkish officials won’t be easy. Washington’s support for Kurdish YPG fighters and its plan for using them as part of a 30,000-strong northern Syrian border forces engaged Ankara.
Ahead of arrival arrival, US National Security Advisor HR McMaster met with Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin. Issues negatively affecting bilateral relations were discussed, very much unresolved.
Tillerson hope to shore up support for Washington imperial agenda, using its usual tactics – pressure, bullying, bribes and threats.
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