RAMIN MAZAHERI—It is not all Trump and Pompeo – the executive powers, which reduce the American system to investing a dictator’s powers in the presidency, were installed by Bush II and increased by Barack “Dronebama” Obama.
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RAMIN MAZAHERI—This lack of effort at self-reflection is very typically American even within their own society – if America’s leaders will push a McCarthy-era Russophobia wave for three years just to avoid honest discussion of the failures of the Democratic Party and “democracy with American characteristics”, then why should we expect those leaders to be honest about Iraq?
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RAMIN MAZAHERI—It is normal that this imperialist psychosis occurs in the European Union in 2019, as it is indeed a neo-imperialist project. The question the French cannot quite answer is: are they the still the coloniser, or are they now colonised?
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RAMIN MAZAHERI—I expected online commenters to object to my treatment of Aoun in my previous two articles. I did not expect anyone to publicly stand up for Samir Geagea – no one did. His supporters are the types who leave anonymous, racist, ill-informed comments. Bombing churches, assassinations of Christian leaders, fighting alongside Israeli Defense Forces – his crimes were the most atrocious of his era, and he was the only warlord to serve jail time for that reason. And yet he was released. (This is obviously in contrast to the ‘Arab Nelson Mandela’.)
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RAMIN MAZAHERI—A big difference between the two movements is that Occupy was led by many college-educated “do-gooders” – and God bless them – whereas the Yellow Vests are undoubtedly a movement of the most marginalised classes. Seemingly the most comprehensive survey thus far showed that few Vesters are unemployed, two-thirds of Vesters make less than the average national wage, and an even greater percentage regret a lack of cultural resources and social links. In other words: hard-working, (yet still) poor, isolated citizens who yearn for more cultural enrichment.
