Some Predictions for 2011 !

Iraq pullout canceled, This will never be announced, but before long the media is bound to wake up and ask: whatever happened to the much-vaunted “withdrawal” from Iraq? Perhaps not in such a peremptory manner, but, nevertheless, the continuing, substantial US presence is already causing Prime Minister Maliki to press his American “allies” for a more definite day on which to schedule their going-away party, and the complete inability of his government to maintain its own territorial integrity, as well as ensure a minimal level of security and stability, is likely to motivate US policymakers to hedge their “withdrawal” plans. This will end in a mutual agreement – haggled over for months by the US and its Iraqi sock puppets, and finally firmly insisted on by the former – that the US presence is to be “temporarily” extended, although, of course, the “support mission” will remain ostensibly unchanged.

Afghanistan “surge” Karazi out, The war in Afghanistan will take a new turn: yet another “surge” will be announced, great “progress” will be hailed, and – naturally – the whole charade will end in a US “victory,” albeit not enough of one to allow US troops to leave. You don’t have to be Nostradamus to predict that US casualties will increase – they are already at their highest level since the start of the war – but one consequence of the “surge” is that US politicians – and the news media – will begin to take notice of this uptick in the death rate, and we will see increasing calls by US politicians on the right as well as the left to declare “victory” and bring the troops home. Another consequence of this turn will be a renewed focus on the character of Afghan “President” the ex Sandwich seller Hamid Karzai,hastily recruited by the CIA a week before the war, both by the news media and his American patrons – scrutiny that Karzai’s horrendously corrupt administration is unlikely to withstand intact. My prediction: Karzai will not last out the year. Either he’ll be unceremoniously kicked out in a military coup, or else he’ll be conveniently assassinated in a suicide bombing that could easily have been prevented if only his “friends” in Washington had been paying attention….


Pakistan “Surge” Zardari out, The US won’t announce the “surge” of its forces into Pakistan proper, but it will happen – and, indeed, is already happening – nonetheless. A joint US-Afghan force will directly engage militants in Pakistan’s tribal regions, as the formerly clandestine American incursion takes on an increasingly open character. This will provoke widespread disaffection with the government of President A.Zardari the widow of Benazir Butho also known by the Iranians as the mother of the Taliban , which has already lost its majority in Parliament and will inevitably suffer a vote a “no confidence” and fail to win the subsequent elections. With the threat of a supposedly Islamist government in Islamabad hanging over its head, and the fate of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal increasingly uncertain, the Pakistani military – pushed by the US – will suspend Parliament, take over the government, and institute martial law in order to meet the “national emergency.” For the first time, the Pakistani Taliban will go national, gathering widespread support in all regions of the country. The return of Gen. Pervez Musharraf is a real possibility.



The Return of the “Yellow Peril”,The War Party,(Neo-cons) however, will soon shake the World out of its torpor with new warnings about the alleged “danger “ of Chinese expansionism. Not the old-fashioned type of territorial expansionism, which the US and some of its Western allies routinely engaged in, but economic expansionism of the sort we are supposed to admire when it is initiated by Western capitalist countries. With the Chinese holding much of the US debts debt, essentially financing the course of US imperialism in the post-9/11 era, they are setting themselves up to become a major political target, and we saw some of that engaged in by both US political parties this past election season. Expect to see more, with Sinophobia becoming a major theme of both Democrats and Republicans in the coming year, as the always-Sinophobic Nancy Pelosi leads the charge from the left and Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee talk up the Yellow Peril from the right. Blaming the Chinese for our disgusting profligacy will become almost as fashionable as bashing Muslims.


Civil liberties in the US on the wane,With the passage of an anti-wikileaks bill in the US Congress – only Rep. Ron Paul dissenting – the assault on civil liberties in the US will take on a new and ominous urgency. Efforts to rein in the internet will increase, with the FCC and Congress moving in for the kill. For the first time, an attempt to impose content “guidelines” will be launched, and regardless of whether or not it succeeds, the attempt itself will set an important precedent, paving the way for more formal controls.(with thanks to J.Raimondo)