“African oil is of national strategic interest to us and it will increase and become more important as we go forward… We don’t foresee anything stopping the Chinese from increasing their equity participation in oil, and I think it probably would be problematic if they were the dominant player.” (Walter Kansteiner, US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa)
So world famous film director Steven Spielberg has resigned as artistic adviser to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing because China has failed to use its influence to stop Sudan’s war in Darfur!
Said Spielberg, justifying his stance: “China's economic, military and diplomatic ties to the government of Sudan continue to provide it with the opportunity and obligation to press for change,
What bollocks! What hypocrisy!
Could this be the same Spielberg who, speaking at a press conference in Rome back in September 2002 voiced support for Bush’s war against Iraq, alongside quick-witted scientologist Tom Cruise ? Yup, none other!
And what was Spielberg’s response to media questions as to his views on the nearing US invasion? He confidently replied: “Bush’s politics has been solid, grounded in reality, willing to uproot terrorism wherever it may be found."
Spielberg, fully aware that Iraq had been bombed back into the stone age in the first Gulf War, having fought a ten year proxy war for the US against Iran prior to that, and since the Gulf war of the early 90’s had suffered daily aerial bombardment, wanted another merciless bombardment of Iraq?
While he singles out China for attention, what about US complicity in the crisis in Darfur. Where the shot over the bows of the Bush administration?
The Independent last week, highlighted US connivance in the war in Darfur in a lengthy piece on Somalia.
The Indy points out how US General John Abizaid visited the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi, in November, 2006 and that Ethiopia invaded Somalia the next month.
Moreover…
"The US provided key intelligence from spy satellites CIA agents travelled with the Ethiopian troops, helping direct operations US forces have carried out at least four attacks inside the country in the past 12 months."
Spielberg suddenly cares about refugees in Darfur? What about the 4 million Iraqi refugees? The 850,000 Somalia refugees, victims of a US-authored humanitarian catastrophe? He rants about China supplying Sudan with weapons, but where his criticism of the reactionary regimes the US arms? What about the recent $20 billion arms deal with Saudi-Arabia, one of the worst human rights abusers in the world?
One wonders whether Spielberg is simply an agent of US foreign policy. China may well be arming a reactionary regime, but its real crime is that at the moment it has the biggest stake in Sudanese oil.
Rant over!! Film next!______________________________________________________________
War Made Easy
War Made Easy exposes a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.
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