ISIS: WHY IS OBAMA LEADING? WHY NO MUSLIM OUTRAGE?

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. (ISIS), also known as the Islamic State, (IS), has bludgeoned onto the world scene with a bloodstained scythe. Unimaginably barbaric they have ridden roughshod over Iraqi, Kurdi and Syrian opposition. They then carved out with bullets and swords a large swathe of land in those countries and hoisted their skull and crescent flag. First and foremost they threaten the Middle East Muslim countries who are shuddering in their shawls. The Gulf States, the Sunni non Jihadists have joined Obama’s coalition to fight this unholy terror. Jordan and Egypt are onsides to a lesser or great extent. Iran, the paymaster of terrorism and genocide is the one country that could wipe out this menace but is standing aside scoffing at Western efforts. They are waiting for some trade off on their nuclear designs before entering. Before continuing this begs the question why is it that it is the Obama American led West that is spearheading  the campaign to rid us of this pestilence? 

WHY NOT LEADERSHIP OR PROTEST FROM THE MUSLIM WORLD

Why is it not Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States that are leading the propaganda campaigns, mobilizing world Muslim support to condemn these obscenities, cobbling UNO resolutions and begging the West to join in as it is essentially their problem and moral responsibility? Why are there not protest meetings in every Western City in the world lead by Muslims distancing themselves from these barbarians? Why isn’t every “Peace Loving” Imam preaching that this hate and savage brutality is a disgrace to the Muslim religion and should not be tolerated?

THE AMERICAN LED WEST ONLY TO HAPPY TO CRUSADE AND RISK ALL OUT WAR

Well there are many reasons why the Muslim States and the Muslim leaders themselves need not take the lead. These include the fact that it is the American led West’s pushy desire and arrogance to sort out the world. It is not an unreasonable hypothesis that ISIS beheaded a few Westerners anticipating  the heavy handed ill thought out response they have predictably received. Nothing is more geared to garner support in the Middle East than to cry the Imperialist infidels are attacking us. After all the misguided Bush/Cheney gang did for Iraq they couldn’t wait to chuck the US Army out. Now the West are groveling in thanks at Iraq’s invitation to bomb IS. 

US Chief Of Staff says that there must be boots on the ground.

Let it be clear once and for all that bombing and crippling IS for the moment is just not going to cut it. The US Joint Chief of Staff General Martin Dempsey has stated the obvious. “Absolutely we are going to need a large ground force to overcome IS”. He threw out a bone to the doves,  “It needn't be a US one!”. G-D spare us here we go again. The current plan is that the naked bootless toothless pathetic Iraq army, the overwhelmed Kurds and Syrian moderate rebels are up to the task. Apparently the Pentagon is ready to train up to 15,000 Syrian moderates. This had been wisely resisted to date as who vets the resumes and guess where the hardware can  land up. 

Intervention in the Middle East achieves nothing and is counterproductive

Not only is the West not wanted in the Middle East and have achieved next to nothing in several wars over decades but the exercise is counterproductive. Who armed and trained Osama and help him create Al Qaeda? Nobody but the “do gooder” American West in their effort to wrest Afghanistan from the Russians and ended up by giving it to the Taliban! CNN has reported that the US has hit 41 Humvees, given to the Iraquis, that cost three quarter of a million dollars each. The bombs to take them out cost $30,000 each. The latter has to be the tip of the iceberg of American goodies that IS has harvested coupled with the cost to neutralize the bootie. 

The other cultural factor the West does not take into account when computing its strategies is the differing concepts of time. The West’s concept of an age is an election cycle. The Middle Eastern Muslim one is whatever it takes. The Arab world first and now the Jihadis have made and are prepared to make the Palestinians suffer for forever till they have eliminated Israel. Likewise the leaders of ISIS with their culture of death don’t mind letting their followers die in the process of establishing their extreme Sharia Islamic State.

To deal with nuclear hungry Iran is insane

To do a deal with Iran to wipe out a menace that is not an existential threat to the West and prop up the paymaster of Assad, Hezbollah and Hamas and facilitate Iran going nuclear is crazy. Tell Iran to wipe out IS themselves. Sooner or later Iran will have to be drawn in when IS gobble up the sociopathic Assad and move onto Hezbollah. (Who do we back then?). IS will come after Iran too if it can. 

To spend all that money and effort to bomb IS will literally go nowhere. The only measurable outcome of this exercise will be is that it will ensure the longevity of the Assad regime. You see IS also has billionaires who will carry on replenishing their money supply. IS have no infrastructure to send in terrorists but rather an ability to instigate, exhilarate and galvanize Western home grown misfits to wreak havoc. Spend the money and the effort to root these out as IS has not one plane to come and bomb us. 

Obama changes course 

As Jay H. Ell blogged, (A Glimmer of  Sanity In The Middle East Lunatic Asylum), it wasn’t a national interest per se decision it was a moral decision to take on IS. Notwithstanding all the President’s rationalizations it was the barbarism that precipitated his change of heart. Obama’s decision signaled the beginning of a cultural war between two civilizations - one of life and one of death, and it was the barbarism of the beheadings that clinched it. Whatever made the crazy Islamic State, (IS), Jihadists decide on this medieval inhumane tactic has changed history. 

However, Obama’s decision has consequences and  illustrates the transformation of the ideologue who came into the office of Presidency with the naive belief that he could unify America and bring peace to the world, (a belief that persuaded the Nobel Committee to present him an anticipatory Nobel Prize for Peace) . Just to think one of the key factors in the Democratic Primary election was Hillary’s vote for the Iraqi war and his opposition to it. Sadly, he has felt forced to transform his agenda by the reality of the world that he was thrust into. Fox News cynically criticized Obama maintaining that this was the seventh Muslim State that the Nobel Laureate has bombed. (Fox and their crew had all but called him a Muslim plant). But this was not the way Obama planned it. As Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post pointed out in 2009 the President gave a speech in Cairo where he called for a new beginning between the US and the Muslim world. Now his priority is to wipe out the Jihardi killers, “Who understand no language but the language of force”. 

The only plus in Obama’s whole volte face is that he is still functioning within the parameters he set himself with regard to foreign intervention. (Blog: Obama’s Legacy - Take 1).

WHY THE GULF AND ARAB STATES ARE NOT LEADING

This all begs the question why the Gulf States, Egypt and Jordan are not taking the lead in rooting out IS. They are the ones who face the threat of overthrow. They are all scared that IS threatens their very own stability in their unstable countries. Qatar is a dictatorship which has been controlled by the Al Thani family since the early nineteenth century. Legislation is Sharia law. Qatar has backed many terrorist groups and took on the main sponsorship of Hamas recently. Saudi Arabia has Sharia Law deluxe and has been run by a succession of hereditary monarchies from the Al Saud dynasty  for as long as memory serves. While Saudi Arabia have never been directly implicated in terrorist movements billions have emanated from that country in support of terror groups and it is the birthplace of the most notorious terrorists, including Osama. 

Bahrain has been ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family since the end of the eighteenth century and for practical purposes they are an absolute monarchy. They currently have an abysmal record on human rights and like the United Arab Emirates, (UAE), have made moves at giving women some rights. Also in tandem with the UAE, they have expanded their economic horizons to include banking and tourism. Whatever the window dressings are the predominant legislative code is Sharia Law in both “progressive” states. 

Jordan and Egypt are secular States the former being in control of a Hashemite king and the latter having rid themselves of the monarchy have had a succession of dictators.

So all have dictatorships of one sort or another and any populist movement is a potential threat. The Gulf States are obviously the most threatened by IS. They have the same culture as IS as they too have Sharia law to a lesser or greater extent - at least without the summary executions and beheadings. Every now and then scary Sharia decisions leak out to the Western Press to remind us of the state of human rights in those dictatorships. In all of these Gulf States there has to be lots of support for IS so they are treading very warily and letting the Crusader West do their thing and they will send a couple of planes - one even with a woman pilot.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

All this adds up to an even more unstable problem than it even appears at the moment - but not the West’s problem. Let them take a cue from Israel who is in the front line of all of the mayhem and where the threat is not existential but real - stay out! Israel is only worried about Iran and its surrogates. It has a promising sub rosa relationship with Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates with a common objective to oppose Iran and its terrorist surrogates. If IS threaten to invade them they will do the necessary and they have one set of boots, not to mention the air force to go with it, to contain IS but they have spilled enough blood in survival without looking for unnecessary heroics. (They are probably providing the US with what intelligence there is). 

One may argue that IS is evil and these are unheard of atrocities. To true but what about, Somalia, Rwanda and the like? It would not be inappropriate to respond to a beheading with bombing or taking out a leader with a drone but the allies can never sort out the differences between a culture that is so different from their own. The West keep trying to foist their value system down the Middle East Muslim throats who are literally, at the end of the day, not interested. 

Alas all this discussion is in vain. The question is what does the US do when IS still has its territory and the surrogate boots that they can put on the ground have failed. Is it a rerun of “Onward Christian Soldiers” or will they at least do what Reagan did, albeit in a different context, after the Lebanon disaster, pack up and go home. If it is any consolation the US public are expecting forces to be shipped as evidenced in a recent poll.

NFL PLAYER VIOLENCE, WHAT IS AT STAKE AND WHY

For those non Americans who are not aware of American football they just have to know that it is the biggest entertainment business in the USA. Entertainment equals viewership and viewership equals money, big money, because viewership sells soap and everything else.The uninitiated may just have picked up in their news media that the sport is in a turmoil as a result of some of its player’s off the field domestic and child abuse violence.  

AMERICAN FOOTBALL IS A CULT FUNDED BY BILLIONS

NFL a multibillion operation

Baseball maybe America’s traditional game much like cricket is England’s time honored past time but just like soccer, (Association Football) is where the focus is at across the pond, football, (American), is where it is at in the “Homeland”. For a short season of about 20 weeks it is all that fans eat, drink, and talk about. Just some bare money facts to make the point. American Football is under the aegis of the National Football League, (NFL). The TV channels pay over $5 billion a year for the rights to televise the games and the NFL now have their own TV cable channel as well. Advertisers at games including the Super Bowl payed another $5 billion and $2.1 billion is chalked up in merchandising according to Pelligrino and Associates. The NFL aim is $25 billion a year in revenue within 12 years. 

 None of this includes what the clubs, (franchises), rake in with ticket sales of over a half a billion a year not to mention what they net from local advertising and sponsorship. Twenty of the 32 teams according to Forbes are worth over $1billion. Forbes statistics show that the Dallas Cowboys franchise is worth $3.2 billion. There is only sports club worth more than in the whole world and that is the Madrid city owned Real Madrid, $3.4 billion. (No team on the planet has more recognition than the latter.) Fourteen of the owners are among the top 400 richest in the world…. “And so it goes….”

College Football is bigger business than College Courses

This hysteria does not stop at the National level it only begins there. College football is mega mega bucks with the Football Coach having a higher salary than the College President in virtually every instance. ESPN, in 2008, analyzed the football income of 120 Colleges. None of the 120 had football revenues of less than $10 million, the top 50 earners had $50 million or more, the leading twenty odd $75 million and the heady ten over $90 million each. At the top of the pyramid is Alabama College - “The Crimson Circle” at $123 million, TheTexan “Longhorns at $120 million, Ohio State “Badgers”  $115 million and The Florida Gaters at $106 million. 

The whole College Sports endeavor is a $16 billion a year pursuit.

It starts in the High Schools

The adulation of the game and its participants starts in the High Schools. The local newspapers run inserts on the school’s football prowess. There are half page photographs of the stars and  full reports on the games. In small towns the whole population turns out on a Friday night to cheer them on. Many of those will be watching College Football on Saturday and all the NFL on Sunday and Monday and Thursday nights. The Sunday weekly games are prime time events and even the American Tennis Open Finals are scheduled not to interfere with the football. The SuperBowl  which decides which Team is crowned “World Champions” was watched by an 111,000,000 audience this year. 

Football a central cultural phenomenon in the USA

By now some of the uninitiated may have got the message. Football plays a central role in American culture. It is an obsession, it is a gigantic cultish exercise, it is the opium of the masses, it is the subject of many many conversations, arguments and feuds. There is massive legal and illegal betting on even College games. The NFL has devised a past time entitled “Fantasy Football” where groups pick their imaginary teams and the winner is decided on how each of their players in their fantasy team performed in their respective matches. So fans can take solace from the fact that their favored team may have lost but at least they fared better with their “Fantasy Side”.

A game of brutality and skill

Just one final word about the game itself before one inevitably asks what on earth can go wrong? The endeavor itself is a mixture of naked brutality not seen outside of the boxing ring and sophistication, intelligence and skill of a degree not obvious to the naked eye. To the unknowing each contest is akin to the Coliseum where the Christians are thrown to the lions. The crunching of helmets, the merciless tackling and the barbarous melees all add up to one helluva battle. This admixed with the movement and crisscrossing of players to become unmarked and then receive the ball from a throw some 50 yards away make this a spectacle for the connoisseur and the bloodthirsty fan. All these seemingly random incidents having been worked and rehearsed with boards and diagrams and even analyzed instantly by the battalions of coaches with print outs from the last play. Not to be cynical but Jay H. Ell must point one other feature of the hoopla - frequent breaks in the flow of the game allowing, in the SuperBowl as the most expensive example, for the screening of commercials lasting 30 seconds each at $4 million a throw.

WHAT HAS GONE WRONG?

What have you done bad for me lately?

Plenty has gone wrong but as is Jay H. Ell’s wont let’s start at the end. Ray Rice a superstar running back of the Baltimore Ravens was caught on video pulling his unconscious fiancee by the hair outside of an elevator. Now the NFL has a conduct policy which contains the usual expectations of behavior and when they might discipline a player. It includes the mandatory criteria of criminal behavior, drugs, betting tra la la and the generic provision, “Conduct that undermines and puts at risk the integrity of the NFL, NFL Clubs or NFL players”. So Rice presumably under this provision was suspended for two games by the NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, who is salaried at $44 million a year. The leniency of the sentence provoked an outcry which reached pandemonium when another video surfaced from within the elevator which showed Rice downing his future wife with a vicious blow. A controversy followed where it was alleged that Rice had shared this with Goodell already and or Goodell had seen the video. On the basis of the new video Goodell indefinitely suspended Rice whose goodself is under a $35 million contract. Goodell, who is still under fire for his handling of the whole affair, has apologized and promised to clean the whole NFL act up but the media still want his resignation.

Then current disaster number two involves a charge of child abuse against an even bigger star running back Adrian Petersen who is currently paid $14 million a year and on an $80 million arrangement . Petersen has admitted hitting his four year old son with a switch and the now inevitable video revelations of the marks that it left were there for all to see. Minnesota Vikings management said he would be on the bench for the game but when all hell broke lose they deactivated him. They then reactivated him before finally axing him and announcing he was not in the teams future. The burning question is where was our $44 million commissioner in all of this.

NFL’s players history of violence and and what the new policy is

This has all been going on for a long long time but apparently till now had not reached the bar to seriously brake the barrier of “conduct that could undermine and put at risk the integrity of the NFL”. In a USA Today report they note since the year 2000 there have been 800 arrests and criminal convictions involving active NFL players. Of these there were 90 domestic violence cases none of which drew more than a one game suspension. (No wonder Goodell thought a two games suspension for Rice would show he was serious). 

Arising out of the recent tumult the beleaguered Goodell has announced a new disciplinary policy for the NFL - for the first offense a six month suspension and for the second a ban from the sport forever. To detail the problems that Goodsell faces - Ray McDonald of the San Francisco 49ers was charged with felony domestic violence. He has been released on bail. Should Goodell automatically suspend him? Greg Hardy of the Carolina Panthers was convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors but is appealing. According to legal authorities he has a good chance on appeal because the 911 tapes paint a different story. So a process needs to be outlined as how the NFL will react to an allegation as opposed to a conviction and how to act there after.

In the not so distant past, November 2013,  A. J. Jefferson of the Minnesota Vikings was charged with attempting to choke his girlfriend. He was suspended for 4 games and Commissioner Goodell immediately reversed the decision. Even though Jefferson was subsequently found guilty nothing further has been done. Dez Bryant in July 2012 was charged with assaulting his mother and he was discharged on condition that he had anger management treatment. The NFL did not suspend him and imposed a strict set of conduct rules on him.

So it appears that the NFL is all over the show with it’s disciplining for domestic violence. However, there are two bottom lines. One is they have not to date taken it very seriously and the other is that they have put no logical understandable policy, where due process is included in place, to show what they are going to do now. 

NFL disregard for its players well being.

The NFlL faced a class action law suit brought about by  4,500 former players in that they failed to protect them from repeated injuries, concealing the dangers inherent in this type of recurrent trauma and then did nothing to compensate them. These players were diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, (CTE). They had clinical conditions ranging from death, Alzheimers, dementia and severe depression as a result of repeated concussions sustained during their playing career. This class action suit was resolved when the NFL offered to fork out close on a billion for players diagnosed with CTE. Included in the settlement was diagnostic aids and research. However, this settlement has been challenged as it only compensates those with defined CTE and ignores up to 15,000 others. 

This show is far from over and while initially inexplicably garnered very little media follow up (obviously not seen as a medium for selling soap and other goodies), is sure to resurface as the melodrama on the NFL continues.

College Footballers revolt.

Several groups of College players have instituted litigation against their ruling bodies or Universities at what they consider to be the inequity of receiving virtually no compensation when their college is raking in, literally millions. The most celebrated of these is the Northwestern College Football team that successfully sued to form a Union. The National Labour Relations Board ruled, in effect, that they were underpaid employees. All they receive is their tuition and have to work sometimes 60 hours a week at football. Their demands are very limited and include a Trust Fund to allow former players to finish their degrees and an increase in their scholarships. The decision has been appealed by the University. The governing body of college sports the National Council of Athletic Associations and five of the organizing bodies of College Football are also being sued by players in different areas to improve their financial standing.

While these instances do not involve the NFL per se they add to the gestalt of exploitation of players and values for the sake of profit. 

WHY  NOW

Why all this attention now on the NFL on their policy of treating domestic and other violence with a light non violent slap on the hand and a “boys will be boys” attitude. Well the changed world that no longer tolerates this aggression to women and children has finally penetrated into the inner sanctum of the most holy of holies. Up till now they couldn't have cared less. There is no way that they would have removed an Adrain Petersen from the scene who has dazzled and entertained tens of millions of viewers. That could affect the ratings and that would affect the advertising and their value as a commodity. 

Now they have found that by overlooking this behavior they can effect the bottom line. Changes in society include the recent major thrusts to decrease sexual violence in the Colleges and Military. The heavies have weighed in on it and even the President has voiced his concern and certain Universities are under scrutiny in order to prevent all these incidents being ignored. Senator Gillibrand from the Senate forced the armed forces to get serious about sexual aggression having had the Military Justice Improvement Act passed. The New Republic has just published a major feature entitled “We Are All Feminists Now”. It discusses in detail the gargantuan amount of attention that the Feminist issues are receiving. One of the contributors emphasize that the number one issue is sexual violence and notes that, “We have done a pretty good job of fighting this in country”. All this societal change has passed the NFL by till the latest scandals.

It cannot be coincidence that the actions of certain NFL sponsors have mobilized one of the last bastions of the old boys club into action. Obviously the sponsors feel being associated with such an organization will not help them sell their soap or whatever.

The following has already transpired.

* Proctor and Gamble have withdrawn their deal to have NFL players wear pink gums, the football fields to have pink ribbons and other NFL activities to promote awareness about Breast Cancer. This has to have been worth mega mega bucks.

* The Radisson Hotels have withdrawn sponsorship from the Minnesota Vikings as a result of their handling of the Adrain Petersen saga.

* Anheuser -Busch have issued a statement that is wholly dissatisfied with the NFL’s handling of these issues and is reconsidering its $1.2 billion contract with them.

* PepsiCo’s CEO, Indra Nooyi, has served notice that she finds the behavior of some players “repugnant” and they have a $6.2 deal with the NFL.

* Nike has cancelled its sponsorship of Adrian Petersen. 

WHAT NOW?

How this all pans out at the end of the day is largely dependent on two factors. One whether the media follow it up or not and secondly, how Goodell and the NFL enact a plan to deal with the issues and institute damage control. Thus far Goodell, except for his “mea culpa” statements, has not shown that he has the ability to put together a coherent policy. He even obviously did not foresee that his arbitrary indefinite suspension on Rice following his initial two game suspension would lead to litigation. The NFL could axe Goodell but that would be acknowledging that they were in almost irretrievable mess. Goodell’s axing would really give the story legs with press conferences with him, the new commissioner, the NFL players and Uncle Tom Cobbley and all. 

What about the obsessed fans? They will not get their “circuses” if no-one will pay for them. However, they do represent the constituency that this whole house of cards is built on. The fans are fickle. As long as they have someone to scream for and someone to hate they could switch. Nobody watched ice hockey in Illinois till the Blackhawks started winning and their ratings exceeded other sports teams and the play offs reached Prime Time. Also soccer is played by far more people in the USA than American Football which is basically a spectator sport so the switch could come there.

Jay H. Ell however believes that the NFL will survive this crisis but it could be the beginning of the end especially if the CTE litigation gains more and more traction. Jay H.Ell, at the risk of being lynched, wishes this was the biggest problem the USA faced.

MLK: A MYTH AND A NIGHTMARE

Martin Luther King Junior is regarded as the quintessential success story that represents the embodiment and essence of everything that America stands for. It is the drama of how one man’s talents, perseverance, integrity, faith and personality effected a change that altered the course of history in a country that was receptive and conducive enough and constitutionally amenable to a then cataclysmic modification to the body politic. His efforts resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voters Rights Act of 1965. Both of these landmark acts legislatively transformed the status of the “Negro” and the future of America politically and socially.

He is the legendary icon of the “feel good” story of American folk lore - from the genre of log cabin to President. No other American, not even Lincoln, has had a Public Holiday enshrined in his honor and on and on. This Nobel Peace Prize Laureate is undisputedly the greatest orator of the twentieth century and with Ghandi and Mandela one of the most influential activists who initiated transformation. At the height of his popularity in the early sixties he was voted, in a Gallop poll, the second most influential man of the twentieth century. Today he is revered and even the crazies pay homage. The honors and eponymous buildings, highways and the like are only rivaled by popular Past Presidents.

NOT REVERED IN LAST YEAR OF LIFE

It is the perception, of most, that this revered status existed till his tragic end rising to a crescendo following his assassination, that is challenged in a recent book by Travis Smiley, entitled “Death of a King”. Smiley lays bare that myth. Smiley, in a tightly written volume with suspenseful prose, chronicles the nightmare the final year of King’s life.  He also reveals that at the time his death, in April 1968, three quarters of Americans were against him and fifty - seven percent of African Americans thought he was “irrelevant”. Travis and his co writer David Ritz compellingly explain how all this came about. In so doing they revealed much about what shaped the giant’s persona, his commitment to non violence, his unswerving faith and his humility. They spell out the factions that were responsible for his rejection by the body politic that had lionized him so recently. Finally, they detail the deep depression he suffered, his self medication with alcohol, his torment with sleeplessness, his awareness of imminent death and fixation on the latter and suicide in the final year of his life. The message of their narrative is that much of what caused King’s spiraling downfall prophetically relates to today’s controversies on poverty and America’s propensity to militarism.

MLK’S DILEMMAS

 King was dissatisfied that the benchmark legislation that Johnson had enacted was having enough impact on the day to day lives of the newly “freed” citizens. “What does it profit a man to have access to an integrated lunch counter when he does not earn enough to take his wife out to dinner”. While his emphasis was on a new attack on poverty - “Poor People’s Campaign” - he linked this with militarism and this is where his major problems with the administration begun.

Vietnam.

As Smiley’s story opens, a year before his assassination, King is reflecting on his decision to agree to talk on the Vietnam war. He feels that this extravagant militarism is connected to racism and poverty. So against all his advisors advice he feels he cannot, in good conscience avoid the burning controversy of the day any longer. The “doc”, as he is referred to by his closest, vents in no uncertain terms. “America is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today” and “Bombs being dropped in Vietnam land in the ghettoes of USA”. In one fell swoop he brings down on his head, the liberal media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Life and the like. The “Negro” establishment including, Ralph Bunche, Carl Rowan and Thurgood Marshall all are at odds with his decision not to mention those within his movement the Southern Christian Leaders Conference, (SCLC),”. Not the least he has antagonized the paranoid Lyndon Johnson who believes that any criticism of the war is directed at him. In the months to come he would add insult to injury by refusing to have meetings with the President. This allowed the manipulative FBI director, Edgar J. Hoover, to gain traction with his off the wall belief that MLK was a Communist. The FBI, who some credibly believe was responsible for his assassination, infiltrate his organization and make his life more and more uncomfortable. 

It is no exaggeration to conclude after he made that speech at the Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, he was politically dead. He had needed to remain in his political space as so many of his advisors had cautioned. 

Black Power

As if the black establishment weren’t enough to handle Stokely Carmichael of the Black Power Movement was steadily eating into his support. The youth was more attracted to Carmichael's style and his commitment to violence. Disgruntled with the lack of progress and angry with the establishment, they were in favor of violence and militancy. In addition at every Southern Christian Leadership Convention there are more and more challenges to his leadership. It is uphill as he goes into the last year of his life wedded to non violence under any and every circumstance. He is being told on the one hand to leave the Poverty Campaign alone by an increasing number of his supporters and on the other to start the Second American Civil war.

War on Poverty linked to the world, racism and Vietnam. 

This  war on poverty project was his main thrust and he envisaged that it would climax in a gigantic march and an encampment in Washington in the following year. He remained dogged and persistent in this objective that became more and more politically unrealistic as the year went on. The more quixotic the notion became the more he frenetically championed its fulfillment. 

He saw poverty globally: “Like a monstrous octopus, poverty spreads its nagging, prehensile tentacles into hamlets and villages all over our world. Two thirds of the world go to bed hungry at night”….. in Marks, Mississippi,… “I saw hundreds of little black boys and black girls walking the streets with no shoes to wear. They are ill housed; they are ill nourished and shabbily clad. I saw their mothers and fathers trying to carry on a little Head Start Program, but they had no money.”

Smiley comments in this context, “He speaks of his recent visits to the tenements of Newark and Haarlem and the frustrations that he faces as a man determined to heed the cries of the dispossessed”. 

He has his greatest condemnation for Congress whom he maintains together with the WhiteHouse are about to enact an immoral and monumental backward step on the War on Poverty, "I am appalled that the House may eliminate 272,000 poor children from Head Start; 250,000 high school drop outs from the Neighborhood Youth Corps and an additional 50,000 poor adults from much needed jobs - (this is) an open invitation to social disorder in the streets of our beleaguered ghettos. It is disgraceful that Congress can vote upwards of $35 billion a year for a senseless immoral war in Vietnam but cannot vote a weak $2.5 billion to carry on our all too feeble efforts to bind up the wounds of our nation’s 32 million poor. This is nothing short of Congress waging political warfare against the defenseless poor of our nation.”

Does this sound like the beginning of so many deja vus to follow?

MEMPHIS - THE SALVATION?

So the die is cast. The visionary is way ahead of his flock. The political animals around him see the dangers and try and warn him. The vultures in the movement challenge him to take over the mantle that he has created. The black activists mock his non violent and establishment like demeanor. His family suffers and Coretta is resentful at his continual absence and her inability to play a role in the struggle. He confesses to his infidelity to add to the pressure. No-one but him is interested in his Poverty Campaign. The SCLC is penurious and money has stopped coming in. To cope he emerges himself in a backbreaking schedule. He drinks, is obsessed with death, discusses his eulogy and expects to die. He is in hopeless denial and continues obsessively to discuss the Poor Peoples March where he envisages thousands pouring in from all over America. In retrospect it all looks like a Greek tragedy with an inevitable ending.

The Memphis saga started when “Doc” learns that two black garbage workers in Memphis sought refuge during a storm in the only area they were allowed, a garbage storage cylinder. The mechanism misfired and the workers succumbed. King follows the sequels and learns from a fellow pastor, Reverend James Lawson, that the city officials refuse to improve safety conditions and nearly all of the 1100 employees have gone on strike. Then follows a march where the police bludgeon the protestors. The media are ignoring the whole incident and Lawson repeatedly calls for King. The latter is ambivalent as his priority has to be the Poor People’s Campaign. He also is under constant threat of death. Finally, he acquiesces and  addresses a crowd of 15,000 in Memphis. He is once again the conquering hero and he reiterates what he has been prophesying for some time America may be going to hell. 

He is exhilarated by the response to his message and he is rejuvenated that his grand vision of occupying Washington with a shanty town in the Mall can become a reality, “I ask you to make this the beginning of the Washington movement. We are going to keep marching until the walls of injustice come tumbling down", all articulated with the old familiar mesmerizing cadence. Memphis, as Smiley sums up, is his new rallying point.

The denouement of the Memphis movement will be a protest march on March 28. The latter turns into a disaster with looting and rioting, arrests and a 16 year old dead.The instigators of the violence were black agitators. His old friend Stanley Levison attempts to comfort him as he resigns himself to the blackness and gloom ahead, “Martin Luther King is dead” he opines. The vultures pick at the corpse, The New York Times screams that this is a powerful embarrassment to Dr. King and his descent on Washington would be likely to counterproductive. 

His advisors once again caution him not to go ahead with yet another march but there is no way he will stop clinging to this mirage. He will lead another march in Memphis but he is so ill he is unable to address the throng prior to the event. There is also no way that the crowd will disperse till they have heard him. He is on message non violence is the most potent weapon. The march will still go on regardless of legal attempts to stop it. The march once again ends in chaos and violence. What is now resonating in his head and heart is “Why America May Go to Hell’. as he steps out of his hotel room and a shot rings out and a King is dead at the age of 39 years.

WHAT AND WHY

It is understandable that a reformer such as MLK could not stop reforming. It is comprehensible that those who had the political nouse would want to curtail him when they thought it was impolitic. The question is why those that had followed him deserted him in every direction. The simple answer is that his support came from many constituencies. The youth were no longer motivated by his non violence and the politicos knew that America was not ready for more. The liberal media cynically shared the politicians' assessment. There needed to be a pause. His administration powerful allies deserted him when he became a threat to the status quo and if the perception was that Kennedy was killed by the military industrial complex who was King to take them on? 

That Martin Luther King was a prophet is borne out by the fact that the two issues he honed in on, the poor and militarism, are front and center again. It was Travis Smiley’s motive for publishing this book to provoke discussion on the three missions in King’s life - racism, poverty and militarism. He has provided the ideal vehicle to do so and if nothing else his book should be compulsory reading for all those in public life today.

While Smiley was not optimistic when Jon Stewart interviewed him he should take some solace from the fact that the Congressional African American Caucus has 43 members and that African Americans are widely represented in the every sphere of life in America . And in case no-one has noticed the re elected President of the United States is an African American. Obama has acknowledged that this could never have happened without Martin Luther King Junior. Also the financial inequities that were central to MLK’s raison d’être will be addressed in the next decade even if it is only because the demographic change in the American electorate will force it to be.

So while racism is still alive and well the bohaai the Travyon Martin and the Martin Brown killings have provoked, for example, are indicative of the fact that the majority of Americans are agonizing over the still present discriminatory behavior against minorities. 

Martin Luther King, notwithstanding his doubts, was fundamentally an optimist and believed that all was attainable:  “Our goal is freedom and I believe we are going to get there however much she strays from it the Goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be as a people, our destiny, our destiny is tied up in the destiny of America”. 

Jay H. Ell believes that when the day comes that there is no more freedom to strive for on this earth the messiah will have arrived! In ending - just a quote from two of his heroes - Mandela, “The walk to freedom is long” and Churchill. “You can trust the Americans to do the right thing after they have tried everything else”.

A GLIMMER OF SANITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST LUNATIC ASYLUM?

At the moment there are two disconnected processes taking place in the Middle East. On the one hand there is the chaos arising out of the Syrian Iraqi quagmire and the surfacing of the nightmarish Jihardi Islamic State, (IS or ISIS), and on the other there is a realignment of Arab States with Israel, accompanied by some paradigm changing enterprises. The latter has been overshadowed by the IS crisis. Obama’s move to make the key Middle East problem the elimination of IS has relegated the Israeli - Palestinian "problem" to the back burner.

THE LUNATIC ASYLUM

The  Arab and Muslim world plus Israel, loosely interchangeably known as the Middle East, is in sheer and utter chaos. In the not so distant past the simplistic narrative, whether verbalized or not, was  - “If only the Israeli - Palestinian “problem” could be resolved all the rest of the Middle East would be mollified and they would stop hating the Americans and the West, who either overtly or covertly back Israel”. Some were less subtle than others being openly irritated with Israel for not just meeting Palestinian demands and letting everyone live happily ever after.

Then along came the Arab Spring which has since turned into an Arab winter. Iran also became a major threat as the theocracy demanded its democratic right to produce a nuclear weapon. Then there were problems everywhere in Syria, Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, Sudan and Yemen with players such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia getting more and more involved in the action. One hardly knows where to begin it is all such a shambles……. 

DEGRADATION AND DESTRUCTION  OF IS -THE NEW MIDDLE EAST POLICY

So let’s begin with the latest simplistic analysis and work backwards. The current focus is on IS or ISIS the latest collection of crazies to emerge from that cauldron of insanity.  If one would have written a smear on the Islamic fundamentalists and called it “The Protocols of Islam” and just chronicled what IS is now enacting one would have been driven out of town as being Islamophobic. However, it is for real and they are proud of it too! Their behavior is trotted out on the internet by themselves for all to see. - pure unadulterated totalitarianism, barbarism, rape, enslavement of women, ethnic cleansing of minorities especially Christians, child exploitation and primitive Sharia law with whippings, and executions for the “unbelievers”, all with children in attendance. Their piece de resistance is periodic beheadings of Westerners. What is more this crowd are growing stronger and stronger by the day and are said to have 30,000 fighters. They have sequestered huge chunks of land in Syria and Iraq. IS controls towns and has set up administrations. So all the other complex affairs of the Middle East have been swept under the carpet in favor of the degradation and destruction of IS. 

WHY ISIS?

It is fair to interpret that Obama’s policy was to stay out of the Middle East as far as possible -  other than to resolve the Israel and Palestine “problem” of course and more lately to prevent Iran from going nuclear. Congress and the USA population were ad idem. They didn’t even want him bombing Syria. However, when ISIS became a reality Obama weakened and started moving back into the Middle East arena. (Blog: Iraq: Obama Won’t You Please Stay Home - 6/19/14). So what allowed and even forced Obama to go ahead and change direction to degrade and destroy ISIS? What compelled Obama suddenly to realize it was in the USA’s national interest  to take on the heinous ISIS? Everyone is agreed that it was the hideous videos of ISIS beheading two American journalists. (One can predict that Cameron's attitude to IS will change dramatically now that a UK citizen has suffered a similar fate). 

So when “It comes down to reality” to quote Billy Joel, what triggered the USA into ISIS was the beheadings. 

Thus in the final analysis this is the beginning of the declaration of war between two cultures - one of life and the other of death. 

Of course the US rationalizations followed for the change in policy - this is not a “feel good” or “national ideal” exercise, the reason for the policy is “national Interest”; there is a need to protect American citizens in the area; IS threatens the stability of the whole Middle East, thereby becoming a danger to the USA; and sooner or later they will become international terrorists so there is a need to wipe them out now! (Another unspoken rationale is they don’t need IS controlling too much oil). 

Not terribly convincing arguments as why to go to war again to say the least but let us carry on. 

Coalitions against ISIS

In effect there are three coalitions "against" ISIS. The whole of the West and the rest of the Middle East are against the barbarians for differing reasons. Then Obama has put together a “feel good” coalition of Western Countries and certain Middle Eastern countries, none of whom, will have “boots on the ground” but will provide, to varying degrees, material and other support. Then there has to be a third coalition, yet to be announced, of those who will put “boots on the ground.”

How IS can be degraded and destroyed with “no boots on the ground” and who and what the boots partners are and are going to do the necessary is still uncertain. The USA with the firepower and drones and the like will cause IS distress there is no doubt. However, the “Homeland’s” attempts to execute similar ventures in the recent past have taken battalions of boots and numbers of years with, to put it kindly, mixed success. Part of the current mess is thanks to George W and Cheney and his neocons trying to do whatever they were attempting to do in Iraq and all after all those USA efforts in Afghanistan the latter is still corrupt and unstable although the Taliban don’t run it for the moment.

Whose Boots?

Then who the partners who are going to have boots on the ground is a mystery. The obvious candidate, the Iraqi army, thanks to Bush is totally dysfunctional. He dismantled the army, and a 1000 Obama American advisors are not going to improve their prospects in a hurry. (The Iraqi Defense Force retreat from Mosul leaving their heavy uniforms and American tax payer paid for munitions show just how far they have to go to become battle ready).The Kurds are a fighting force but no match for this crowd. Iran can deliver but we can hardly kiss and make up with them in the midst an economic boycott and don’t forget they are central to much of the  Middle East shambles. They support Assad, Hezbollah and Hamas. Iran really philosophically would like a Caliphate but their Shia Caliphate and not one that opposes their Assad. There are no other contenders who are inclined to send ground troops. So sadly Obama’s approach is not going to make the real problems in the Middle East go away and if anything have just muddied the waters even further.

However, finally Obama has found an issue to unite with Congress and they are all backing him to the hilt with relatively few ifs and buts.

THE NEW UNITED MIDDLE EAST?

Obama’s move has made a new united Middle East. All of a sudden the dynamic has changed. The whole Middle East including El Qaeda, and even Syria is on the same side. Even Saudi Arabia is ostensibly Iran’s newest best friend. However, this coalition as well as the more formal Obama “feel good” group can only offer what America is already providing - munitions, money and cheerleading. Obama still mistakenly believes that with the new Iraqi government the country will become unified so they can stop their own virtual civil war and their army can then concentrate on IS. Iran is really the only force on the ground with boots that realistically can take on IS -  as Churchill might have said, “Our noble allies the Russians I mean the Iranians” will wipe them out.

It is obvious that a “boots coalition” doesn’t exist and if anything this whole exercise can be detrimental to American interests. Just citing one example how tough is Obama going to be on Iran’s abrogations of nuclear policy if indeed they wipe out IS? Also one can be sure that if Iran does fight IS it will be in tandem with bolstering Assad, Hezbollah and Hamas.

A GLIMMER OF SANITY?

But wait while all this is going on Israel’s Middle East anti - Jihardi coalition is showing some movement even though the Israeli - Palestinian madness continues of its own momentum.

Hamas

Hamas is defiantly rebuilding their tunnels with tours available on U- Tube. They have not denied that their policy was to run up as many civilian deaths as possible and are rearming while demanding the right to be rebuilt so that they can start firing rockets at Israel again and have more civilian deaths and have all the buildings where their fighters with their armaments and where women and children hang out once again reduced to a pile of death and rubble. 

But even here there is glimmer of light. A Chief Hamas official, Abu Marzouk, says that there is nothing wrong with negotiating with Israel. He states that Hamas may be forced to follow this path as the population of Gaza demands this. Marzouk maintained that this would become a reality if  Abbas fails to address the Gaza situation. This resulted in a sharp rebuke by Abbas’s Fatah calling such a move “treason”.

Arab Countries Paradigm Shifts

The most significant  break in the logjam is in the Arab Muslim world as the non jihadist Sunnis separate themselves from the Sunni and Shia Jihadists. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and UAE are firmly on Israel’s side against Hamas. All of these countries see no merit in this counterproductive destructive lunacy that at the end of the day achieves nothing. It is important to accentuate that this happenstance did not occur in a vacuum and is the pay off for decades of good faith efforts by leaders such as Rabin, Peres, Begin, Ohlmert, Barak and Sharon. The message may not have gotten through to the Palestinian leader Jihadists but has permeated through to the environment around them. Now none of the countries Israel is involved with are models of democracy and or tolerance but this pragmatic attitude is a great start.

Jordan has just done a paradigm shattering $15 billion energy deal with Israel. Israel can well be the economic and resource engine that fuels a new Middle East. From all accounts Egypt have made an earthquaking move offering to give Gaza a chunk of land four times its size. Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post discusses the significance of this move in detail and indicates why this offer, that has since been denied following Abbas’s public refusal of it, was most likely a genuine effort to break the deadlock. Abbas as Jay H. Ell has blogged is part of the old school of a one State solution - Palestine and until then chaos.

Surreal Israel

Meanwhile back in Israel they are holding hearings to access whether there were any abrogations of policy in some of the civilian deaths in the Gaza incursion with a view to disciplinary action for those IDF members who violated policy. The Chief Military Prosecutor has opened criminal investigations into 5 cases including the incident where four Palestinian teenagers were killed on a beach and the bombing of an UNRWA facility where 14 Palestinians succumbed. All in all, according to the Jerusalem Post, Military Advocate - General, Major General, Dani Efroni has opened investigations into a 105 different episodes. (This civilized behavior is surreal in this madhouse). Israel is also building more security systems that will eliminate even more risk of fatalities when Hamas strikes up the band again. This suits Hamas as they play on the differential between Israeli civilian deaths that they are targeting and Palestinian civilian deaths that Israel are trying to avoid. 

There also appears to be a mood in Israel that is sick of this all. The feeling is that there has to be some accommodation. While the extremists they are opposing are amoral there has to be a majority of Palestinian parents who love their children as much as the Israelis love theirs. Netanyahu’s ratings have dropped from 82% from during the fighting to 38% now that it is over. The Israeli media was awash with the decision of 43 Intelligence officers who refused to continue in the processing of information in the WestBank as a result of the IDF’s methods of obtaining material there. 

In general no-one is giving up the right to defend oneself but there has to be some thinking outside of the box. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY.

“If my analysis of the position is right at the end of the tunnel there is a glimmer of light”

- Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat

* The Middle East is in the process of splitting. On the one hand there are those of the Gulf States including Qatar, with Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq who are the in Obama’s “feel good” coalition against ISIS. On the other there is the Syrian, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah axis. ISIS is the real enemy of all and sundry and in the long run are not going to go anywhere unless they become an effective terrorist group acting outside of the Middle East.

* The Iran axis is the one Obama should be concentrating on instead of trying to get the Sunnis, Shia and Kurds to become one happy state in Iraq. Iraq is a failed state as a result of the Bush, Cheney et al criminal misadventure. Eliminating ISIS is not going to save Iraq.

* Israel is no longer alone in the Middle East and has allies in the key members of Obama’s “feel good” coalition. 

* There appear to be openings in the 70 year old Palestinian Israeli dispute. These will be exploited by the new anti Iranian axis which includes Israel. The Egyptian Premier Sisi is in a strong position to broker a deal and he can do the obvious by giving a relatively tiny chunk of land to make Gaza viable. There is an apparent beginning of a split between Fatah and Hamas, who well may being pressured by Qatar. Qatar has a foot in both camps but are members of the anti Jihadist Sunni Gulf Cooperation where two of its members are already part of the Israeli axis. Hamas is more under the influence of Qatar at the moment than Iran. There is no way that Abbas could beat Hamas in any election so in the grand scheme of things he is more irrelevant than Netanyahu.The Palestinian population believe that Hamas won the last war so they have a ton of credibility. Maybe Hamas are pondering giving up playing games with Abbas, whose tactic is to go to the World Court to charge Israel with war crimes, and actually accommodate those they purport to represent. 

* For all this to happen Netanyahu and Abbas have to go. They are relics of the past. Also there has to an incredible amount of backroom work which no doubt is going on as we speak.

* Hopefully, watch this space......