U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced that the United States will dole out $ 25 million in 2011 to bloggers and Internet activists in authoritarian countries.
The financial support will help politically active figures in such countries to technically enhance their abilities and be one step ahead of censors.
Clinton’s announcement came following the huge success recorded by modern communication technology, as Twitter, Youtube and Facebook were applied to mastermine the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, respectively. Both revolutions led to the ousting of Tunisia’s Ben Ali, and the resignation of Egypt’s Mubarak. On queue now are Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Morocco, and several other Arab nations.
But Clinton’s announcement only went further to reafirm the fact that the United States is the master-planner of the chaos that has engulfed the Arab World.
However the effects of the social tension which has resulted from the state of utter disorder in North Africa and the Middle East can not be over-looked in relations to other parts of the world.
Take Europe as an example. As it was previously noted, Europe could become a region of chaos, the area of continuous street fighting. This would result in the collapse of the labor market and social system leading to social unrests or revolts, terrorism, and other movements such as rebellions and separatism.
Already, Italy has warned that an influx of Tunisian migrants arriving on its shores could have devastating consequences for all European nations, according to the BBC.
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said migrants who have landed on the island of Lampedusa threaten the institutional and social structures of Europe.
Most of those arriving in Lampedusa say they are seeking work and a better life in Europe, although reports say they could include escaped convicts and members of the ousted regime who are fleeing “retributive justice”.
Europe could as well remain on the brink of social instability. One can recall recent protests and the rise of nationalist parties in many European countries. It is obvious that the new wave of immigrants will make them to justify their anti-immigrants sentiments.
Immigrants from Northern Africa are going to settle in France and Italy. If something happens in Turkey, they will flee to Germany – and some analysts now think Turkey might be the next country that could face a revolutionary situation.
Turkey’s mass media in February reported a series of gas explosions – four explosions occurred were recorded between Feb. 4 and 16, with two of these occuring on Febraury 7, and 8. These very frequent gas explosions could just be the first steps to creat tension among the citizens of the country and and then, eventually plunge Turkey into tumoil.
Moreover, on Febuary 12, the Court of Istanbul ordered the arrest 163 out of 196
active and retired military officials who were accused in the preparation of a coup to overthrow the government of the Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in 2003, Russian Information Agency Novosti reported.
In the meantime the recent announcement of Bin Laden not being the terrorist number one adds to the suspicion of a hidden hand in the current state of chaos in the Arab nations. Anwar Al-Awlaki, who currently lives in Yemen, has become the main threat. Yemen is today in chaos with proteseters chanting slogans disapproving of the regime in the country. Sooner or later, it will be disaster, as Anwar Awlaki will have to be fished out by the U.S., this will mean the further distabilizing of the state of Affairs in the country.
Oil interest is also possibly at the center of the instability in the Arab world which produces a bulk of the world’s oil. A few years ago those analysts who were deeply enmeshed in the problem were saying that 2011 or 2012 looked like the fateful year. Then the dealine was postponed due to the great recession when the demand for oil plunged. However, according to some estimations 2014 could become the year of transition, and so, there is not that much time left for oil interests of the West to be safeguarded.
Back in 1975, President Gerald Ford used his State of the Union message to inform Americans how dangerous our growing dependence on foreign oil was: “We, the United States, are not blameless. Our growing dependence upon foreign sources has been adding to our vulnerability for years and years, and we did nothing to prepare ourselves for such an event as the embargo of 1973.”
In late October 1973, members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) decided to cut oil production by 25 percent until Israel withdrew to the 1949 armistice lines. OAPEC also decided to cut off oil to the United States and the Netherlands to protest U.S. military and Dutch political support for Israel. Exempted from the boycottwere France, Spain, Muslim countries, and Great Britain (conditionally). The remaining countries divided whatever oil was left between them. The result was a fourfold increase in the price of oil. The embargo was lifted in March 1974.
The Obama Administration has recently requested $ 553 billion from the U.S. Congress for the Pentagon’s operations in the fiscal year 2012. This is about 5 percent higher than this year. And this budget does not include the costs of the military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. For these purposes Obama requested $ 118 billion dollars separately.
One could assume that this money will be spent for staging a totally new type of energy war. This war would strengthen the position of the U.S., make the U.S. dollar the strongest and the most attractive currency and put down the main “competitors” of the country such as Russia, China and India.
(To be continued)
The author is one of the 4th Media‘s international reporters. She is a graduate student at Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication program in Beijing, China.