New Years 2020 fireworks: Iraq US embassy occupation

After a clumsy, cruel bombing of perported weapons depots of pro-Iranian militas on Sunday, December 29, the next day, Iraqis stormed the US embassy in the Green Zone, forcing diplomats to flee.

Pictures of frightened US soldiers, bristling with their rifles, went viral, as the US tries to reinforce its embassy, the largest US embassy in the world,

The US blames the Iraq police and army for not preventing the demonstrators from entering the Green Zone, as if it is US territory. The image of survivors of the bombings bearing coffins of some of the 25 martyrs with them shows a different story. US actions only unite the Iraqis in opposition to them.

Wait. have I got this right? The US, without so much as a howdy-do to Iraqi authorities, bomb and kill 25 Iraqis in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, the birthplace of western civilization, and then whine when Iraqis assert their national pride by the only weapon they have -- some bricks and their lives?

That sounds a lot like the US mindset in 1979, when a certain embassy was occupied in Tehran, protesters calling it the Den of Spies, ground zero for US-Israeli spying in the Middle East.

So guess what embassy in which Middle East capital has that renown today? Even the slogans of the protesters today are much the same as those in 1979: death to America, America out of Iraq, down with Trump. Only this time in Arabic, not Persian.

Bizarrely, after stomping/ bombing all over the Iraq government and people, the latest is Trump now calling on Iraqis to protest, not against the US occupiers, but against neighbour Iran, the only actor with any real interest in a peaceful, stable Iraq under Iraqi control, sans US occupying forces.

We are fed rumours of corrupt Iranians infiltrating the government, of resentment of Iran, all by isolated, unpopular Iranian 'proxies'. LOL

This is straightforward US Imperialism 101: if a banana republic gets out of line, first install a new puppet, write a 'new' constitution, cause some false flag unrest, get the US-trained 'security' forces to crack down. If that doesn't work, send in the Marines. Except the US Marines are already there. Hey, that's not in the textbook.

If (or rather, when) the US invades Canada to bring 'peace and freedom', etc, it's hard to believe Canadians will blame Russia, Iran, China. That demonstrators will be isolated, unpopular Russia etc 'proxies', as the US sequesters water, oil, whatnot for 'national security/ emergency'.

I bet producers in Hollywood are already eagerly gathering action sequences and love subplots for Argo II , about spiriting Americans out of Iraq (maybe with help from faithful US 'proxy' Canada).

Or maybe they'll combine it with a remix of the iconic helicopter evacuation of the last US 'diplomats' from the US embassy in Saigon in 1975. But I'm not a gloater. I don't need the pointless special-effects remake of history. Just imagining the crowds, the angst of mothers, their martyred sons, feeling the empowerment of protesting the imperial devil is enough.

We are witnessing the final act of George Bush Sr's 'New World Order' (circa 1991), when for one brief moment, the US seemed to rule a peacefully, capitalist world utopia, free of pesky socialism, communism, whatever.

An entertaining film about all this is The Interview , a 2014 American action-adventure black comedy where the CIA uses a popular comedian that the North Korean leader enjoys watching, in a scheme to assassinate the leader.

The Hollywood film of course has a happy ending with the collapse of North Korea, but there are some telling lines. The comedian (Seth Rogen) asks the sexy CIA agent -- a honeypot: How long are you guys going to keep bombing and destroying countries to bring democracy? 'As long as it takes.' So Rogen asks : Why do you keep doing it when it doesn't work? 'It's what we do.'

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