Mark Hackard

The fallout from Israel's May 31st seizure of an aid convoy headed for the Gaza Strip is revealing some new dimensions to the incident. Credible information has surfaced that the Turkish NGO organizing the ill-fated Peace Flotilla, Insani Yardim Vakfi (known as IHH), has ties to the international jihad. IHH allegedly raised funds and recruited Muslim fighters for holy war in the Balkans and Chechnya.

In the ongoing crisis in relations between Tel-Aviv and Ankara, Israel’s most fervent supporters in the United States have been quick to seize upon the IHH charity’s jihadist connection. Yet they omit the fact that key figures within the Israel lobby have long encouraged the use of mujahideen in Eurasia to advance U.S. interests. And the very same lobby that now warns of Turkish power has been instrumental in its rise.

It’s inaccurate to claim that the mission to Gaza was just a grand terrorist ploy, but certain activities of its sponsors should not be overlooked, especially in a geopolitical context. If IHH was involved in finance and logistics for past conflicts in Bosnia and the Caucasus, such operations would align with Turkish strategic interests. This is especially relevant since the flotilla had Turkey’s informal support.

There is a certain logic of degeneration at work when a civilization loses its bearings. The Olympic Games are a case in point. Once a religious festival of the ancient Hellenes, the Olympics were first revived during the convulsions of the French Revolution.

Along with a number of other spurious fabricated holidays, the Directory in Paris held L'Olympiade de la Republique from 1796 to 1798. In place of classical paganism, the games were animated by the new humanist faith, with athletes competing to honor the gods of liberty and reason.

The Olympics would then be permanently established a century later, this time their rationale being the rather Victorian concerns of good hygiene and international brotherhood.  Since that time the events evolved from a propaganda battleground among the militant antitheist ideologies of the 20^th century into the vapid, overblown commercial extravaganza we know today.

While the Olympics held sacred import for the Greeks of the classical era, they have been recast through modernity as a pseudo-festival, a celebration of ultimately nothing. In his work In Tune with the World, the Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper saw that man's rejection of God leads to a frenzy of meaninglessness in a vain attempt to escape the terror of death.

For the mad dash to meaninglessness, contemporary Britain wins the gold. In the run-up to hosting the 2012 Olympics, London has just raised the curtain on its mascots for the summer games. While they're supposed to "chime" with children, these creatures are more likely to induce a fresh round of psychological disorders in the rising generation. Forget clowns; let's all welcome the new stars of kids' most fevered nightmares.

Aside from these concerns, the new representatives of the games neatly encapsulate the U.K.'s transformation into an alien, postmodern dystopia. It's particularly noteworthy how these entities came into being- by committee. "Wenlock" and "Mandeville" (named after the respective founding-places of the British Olympics and Paralympics) are the product of 40 focus groups over the span of 18 months, a fact that presupposes additional layers of administrators and experts guiding the entire unholy enterprise. Any individual creativity or artistic inspiration was thus quashed by the processes of the managerial regime.

Photo: Suzanne Plunkett, Reuters

The mascots' creators have also ensured that the characters are liberated from even the slightest connection to English history and culture. There they stand in a schoolyard in front of a rainbow mural, each a strange metallic cylinder with the all-seeing eye of a giant squid. Perhaps they're meant to symbolize Britain's ubiquitous surveillance cameras; that would at least make matters more comprehensible. Ever-vigilant Wenlock and Mandeville monitor London's multicultural chaos, represented here by the ensemble of children who might as well have been flown in from multiple points around the globe.

There are affairs more pressing than criticizing London's choice for its 2012 Olympics mascot. After all, one can find evidence for British social disintegration in its crime explosion, the breakdown of the family, mass immigration by invitation and numerous other symptoms of advanced decadence. Then again, the two silver aliens are fitting symbols of secular, egalitarian Cool Britannia's institution of formlessness. Modern society's worship of man ultimately leads to the reign of absurdity.

The managers of U.S. interventions abroad tout quantitative measurements as "metrics of success" in pacifying the natives. So here's a metric the counterinsurgency crowd might find interesting: the number of U.S. soldiers seeking treatment for opiate dependency rose 50% in conjunction with Washington's recent "surge" into Afghanistan.

The rise in opiate addictions among U.S. servicemen is no mere coincidence with the surge in the Hindu Kush. Afghanistan produces over 90% of the world's supply of heroin. Over the course of five years, the Army's figure has "skyrocketed" over 500%, from 89 in 2004 to 529 in 2009. And these are only the reported instances, which usually compose a minority of actual cases of drug abuse. It's becoming increasingly hard to ignore the nexus between narcotics trafficking in Eurasia and U.S. foreign policy.

The U.S. foreign policy establishment, known for its support of the Orange Revolution, now seems to have a case of the Ukraine blues. It's not difficult to surmise why journalists, think-tankers and government officials inside the beltway are so deflated.

In January elections, Viktor Yushchenko's drive to integrate Ukraine into Euro-Atlantic structures went the way of the dodo, and the "Orangeists" were finally ejected from power. Viktor Yanukovich has since taken the helm and initiated a rather sensible policy of not antagonizing Russia.

Yanukovich has taken specific actions with this policy in mind. He has dissolved Ukraine's state committee for NATO membership, and this Tuesday the Rada agreed, with plenty of theatrics from nationalist/pro-Western factions, to extend the Black Sea Fleet basing agreement with Moscow until 2042. While the government in Kiev has always been a dysfunctional entity, Yanukovich is pursuing actual Ukrainian interests. In return for keeping the Russian navy in Sevastopol, the new Ukrainian administration secured a 30% markdown on natural gas imports (to be covered by Russian reserves).

Ukraine's realignment with Russia frustrates Washington's strategic objectives in wider Eurasia, or as The Washington Post delicately puts it, "presents other challenges for U.S. goals in the region." The country is undoubtedly the central element in American geopolitical plans for the former Soviet space. If Ukraine were to fall into the Western orbit and host NATO forces on its territory, just pull out a map to see what that would entail for the Russians. Moscow is 490 km from its western frontier with Ukraine.  Effective Russian control of the Caucasus would evaporate, since Moscow's interior lines would be severely compromised by a NATO force posture in the Crimea. U.S. strategists know this- people in the Pentagon and NSC are paid to understand and exploit these sorts of things. The Orange Revolution generated such enthusiasm among the foreign policy community because of its subversive potential in both political and strategic terms.

With the coming of the spring thaw, it's another season of riots and intrigue in Eurasia. And amidst local power plays and rumors of Great Game covert action, Washington's color revolution program is disintegrating.

Kyrgyzstan's President Kurmanbek Bakiev, leader of the U.S.-backed "Tulip Revolution" of 2005, was forced to flee Bishkek last Wednesday as political dissatisfaction accelerated into armed clashes with police and widespread looting. Seventy-eight people were killed. In the aftermath of the uprising, the Kyrgyz opposition has seized power, and with the cooperation of the Interior Ministry seems to be bringing order back to the city center. Meanwhile Bakiev is in the southern city of Osh, announcing to anyone who will listen that he's still the president. Bakiev has called for negotiations with the opposition, though it seems a little late for that, since he's been chased out of the capital.

The Kyrgyz who took to the streets were exasperated with the regime's mismanagement, nepotism, increasing brutality and endemic corruption. Yet these phenomena are all enduring features of the political landscape in Central Asia. Whatever slogans various factions display to energize the mobs, political struggles here revolve around regionally-based clans and their patronage networks. In the case of Kyrgyzstan, add in remote and mountainous topography, an impoverished population, almost no energy resources (besides hydropower coveted by the Uzbeks) and Soviet-drawn borders designed for dysfunction. With these factors in mind, it's clear that the country is vulnerable to instability in a neighborhood contested by the great powers.

It is highly likely that the March 29^th terrorist strikes in Moscow were carried out by Chechen female suicide bombers, also known as "black widows." After six years, Chechen jihadist cells have pulled off another successful attack against innocent Russians only minutes from the Kremlin.

The official U.S. response to the bombings has been to condemn the violence and "stand with" Russia, though support in these matters rarely extends beyond statements for the press. Beyond public diplomacy, what policy line does Washington actually pursue in relation to the Caucasus?

If you are ever inclined to indulge certain masochistic tendencies, forget the dangerous new fads enjoyed only at the cost of life and limb; just head on over to National Review.

The premier magazine of the conservative movement provides a sure means of inciting incredulity and aggravation even in those of the most pacific temperament.  Looking for a heaping dose of jingoism for Washington's postmodern empire? Victor Davis Hanson has it covered. Michael Novak, the neocons' house theologian, is always available to justify the finer points of aggressive war for democratic capitalism. How about painful attempts at keeping relevant with septic pop culture? Well, hey, they've got  that, too! This assortment of conservative wisdom might even serve as a source of morbid entertainment, causing readers to laugh in despair for the country and our beloved West.

L. Paul Bremer, former head of the US Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, popped up for an interview recently. Bremer (His nickname "Jerry" is much too bland. Victorian custom might accord our hero the moniker of "Baghdad.") had nothing to say about the bang-up job he did in managing the occupation of Iraq from 2003-2004. But as a former ambassador to the Netherlands, he did elect to share his wisdom on the subject of Islam in Europe.

Bremer is a Neoconservative, in case his position in Baghdad didn't clue you in. As such, he purports to defend the heritage of the West while maintaining a worldview and positions that only work to undermine it.

Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel this week turned out to be a major diplomatic flop for the White House. The Obama administration was hoping to renew peace negotiations between the Jewish state and Mahmoud Abbas’ West Bank Palestinians, but ended up in a rather embarrassing position.

In the middle of Biden’s stay, the Israeli Interior Ministry gave the stamp of approval for new settlements in East Jerusalem, an act that torpedoed the White House reconciliation initiative. Over the course of two decades, the talks have never gone anywhere anyway, but that is not the point.

Biden’s trip was touted as a US-Israel love fest. He went out of his way to remind the press that alignment with Tel Aviv "has been and will continue to be the centerpiece of American policy." Appearing upon arrival with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Biden also remarked on how it was "good to be home." And we thought the man was from Scranton! Yet the Vice President didn’t get anything in return for all this obsequious behavior. Rather, the Israeli government undermined his agenda in a very public fashion by giving the green light to further settlements.

 

We hear regularly from officialdom that US forces are engaged in pacifying Afghanistan and spreading the gospel of the open society to prevent another terrorist strike along the lines of 9/11. This explanation can't even pass the laugh test, given that the September 11th attacks were planned and coordinated by jihadists in perfect models of open society such as Hamburg, Germany.

While the ideological sincerity of US policymakers and think-tankers is not in doubt (they really do want to bomb the Hindu Kush into the Brave New World), there are other factors that loom just as large. Afghanistan has provided the US a continuous presence in Central Asia over the past decade, and Washington has no plans for departure. The country’s proximity to the oil and natural gas of the Caspian basin is just too alluring, as is the possibility of undermining both Russia and China. At stake is control of Eurasia and the East-West energy corridors that compose the New Silk Road.

Richard Holbrooke, State’s Special Representative for “AfPak”, recently wrapped up a tour that spanned Central Asia and the Caucasus. Long a key architect of US interventions in Eurasia, Holbrooke was making his way across the region’s capitals looking for support in Afghanistan. The Central Asians were quite cautious in their dealings with Holbrooke, given that the Kremlin controls the main northern route for US/NATO supplies into Afghanistan. Georgia, though, was another story.