“The real question is, given the involvement of China in North Africa, if the U.S. and British powers still have the muscle and resolve to dictate the terms of how the North African energy market operates. Drones won’t be enough.”

The “call for a new imperialism notwithstanding” … is Cameron the only one making such “calls”?

You write of the U.S. and British “powers”, Dan, might you make somewhat more clear what, specifically, you mean by the term, “powers”?

And, what do you imagine it will “cost”, this “muscle” and this “resolve”?

Who do you imagine is to “pay” this “cost”?

Not to argue with you, you understand, but might not the REAL question actually be, Is humanity prepared to seek some better future than perpetual war and the dictation of “how … energy markets operate”?

Maybe the even more real question, is this, “Does the vast majority of humankind have ANY choice at all, or is the ‘dictation’ far more basic and destructive … might such ‘dictation’ put the final seal on our collective fate?

Are we not contemplating final questions and “final solutions”, if we are honest about it?

Are we not contemplating our own extinction?

Is that, very likely, the actual “real” question?

One we should ask ourselves and each other?

Or will it just be “more of the same”?

Who knows?

And, if I may be thoroughly unpleasant, who cares?

Too many final questions.

And perhaps, not enough time … or sufficient humanity?

Ah, well … on to better, more up-lifting thoughts.

We’ll all just sit back and allow our … “jaunty and resolute” … “leaders” to … decide, to dictate …

DW

Thanks DS.

Methane is the main component of natural gas. Chemical structure of both is CH4. Whether you frack ng out of the ground, or get bio methane from cow manure (or a lot of other renewable sources), it’s still got to be refined. WRT bio methane from cow manure, refining removes water vapor, CO2 and hydrogen sulfide. It also gets the concentration of CH4 north of 95%. After the 40 second mark of this Hilarides Dairy video you can see the CNG (compressed natural gas) pump that delivers the dairy’s bio methane.

Fuel cells that run on bio methane/hydrogen use a chemical reaction to generate energy and thus are significantly more carbon negative.

Biomass is a renewable source bio-methane. Hydrogen generated from wind and solar fueled electrolysis can be turned into methane.

Algeria decided what was more important, the facility or the workers and then they made their choice.

“Decades-long battle,” eh, Mr Prime Minister? I do hope the British people are listening to what you have planned for them, and throw your imperialist ass out at the first opportunity.

I also wonder how long it will take President Obama to intone that West Africa is now an area of vital interests to the American Empire and that we will crush the “terrorists” by any means necessary.

The more you accept the finality of our situation the easier is is to question our overlords or dictators who have placed us here. Keep up the thoughtful questioning, futile or not.

I was using “powers” as a sort of throwback style because that’s what I consider a British Prime Minister proclaiming a need to dominate North Africa to be – an unfortunate throwback to the days of the British Empire. Powers just means organizations/countries with the ability to project force it is a popular phrase among historians.

There is also a sort of new scramble for Africa going on but this time it is not solely among Western states but involves China. China has shown its willingness to go eye to eye with the West and not blink so even if the British and Americans are able to put down any indigenous resistance to their plans to dominate the region they might face other “powers” objecting to any dictates.

But really I’m just wondering given the instability, Cameron’s statements, and the recent launching of AfriCom by the US how far this agenda goes to secure North African resources. Make no mistake that’s what this “Al-Qaeda in Africa” business is all about.

For all the faults of the “West,” I think we are better than the Chinese, ie., the Chinese government. So, yes, what Cameron is talking about is justified, and we don’t want radical Islamists taking over North Africa, either. Of course, we need more enlightened policies, not just drones. Some use of drones is probably justified, but not to the extent that Obama has been using them. He’s taking the easy way out for himself politically. Obama is no great leader. I think people understand that. He’s a mediocrity.

Yes, the term, “powers”, is popular among certain types of “historians”, those more concerned with “producing” hagiographies than honest histories, those who “do” the “official histories” of nations or corporations.

My larger concern is that the term is, indeed, a “throwback”, a rather dangerous and sanctimonious reiteration of enforced “legitimacy” of “manifest destiny”, “the white man’s burden”, and other such myths of superiority which are not necessarily those simply of the empire upon which the Sun nevah sets, but typical of ALL empires and the pretense of “projected power”, the justification of greed, of pillage, of rape of peoples and continents …

Thus leading to my “ending” questions.

And my disgust with the “jaunty and resolute” leaders of power and “interests” and my serious questions about “cost” and who is expected to “pay” those costs as “the Racket” ratchets “up” and the rhetoric of war drowns out reason and truth. It will NOT be the elite, those who will profit, who will pay the costs …

While “we” have been “adventuring” in several countries, the ever inscrutable Chinese have been making “business” deals with nations in the area. So, do “we” accept the implication that the Chinese need to be put “in their place” while “we”, the acquisitive West, watch our civil liberties and domestic Rule of Law be attacked and diminished even as the US makes a mockery of international law with those drones you mentioned, which as you very correctly advise us, will not be “enough” for the next phase of acting “tough”?

Frankly, I see no viable or worthwhile future in pursuing the old “game” of hegemony and “killing everything that moves”.

And that, is precisely what is being calculated, anticipated, and delightfully “planned for” by the “powers” that you mentioned, beginning with the US political class, which includes the media, and the MICC, not to mention the “energy interests” who “supply” the fuel for such overtakings.

Let us not embrace the language, the “terms” of oppression and perpetual war which language will, all too soon, be unleashed upon the many to breathlessly justify “whatever” might … follow the desperate need of immediate “action” to deal with that “Al-Queda in Africa” … “business”, which indeed, is the lead-in to “what” … “this is all about”.

Isn’t it amazing how often the same old “tricks” succeed … and yet nothing ever really changes. Whose blood and whose sweat … whose tears shall be shed?

DW

David Cameron should listen to Leon Panetta.
SecDef Leon Panetta on Nov 20, 2012:

Over the last few years, al-Qaeda’s leadership, their ranks have been decimated. That includes the loss of four of al-Qaeda’s five top leaders in the last two and a half years alone. Osama bin Laden, Shaikh Saeed al-Masri, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, and Abu Yahya al-Libi.

Through what has probably been the most precise campaign in the history of warfare and by partnering with local allies, numerous other experienced operational terrorists and commanders in this region have been killed, or captured. This pressure has significantly demoralized and weakened al-Qaeda in terms of their core capabilities. And it seriously disrupted their active plotting against our homeland.

Yes, we have decimated core al-Qaeda. And yes, we have made notable progress against its associated forces in Yemen and Somalia. And yes, we have reduced the chance of a large scale terrorist attack against the United States. But the al-Qaeda cancer, has also adapted to this pressure by becoming even more widely distributed, loosely knit, and geographically dispersed.

Exactly.

I saw something in a straight news article that the suggested that the raid was predicated more over concern for the infrastructure than the hostages.

The Chinese answer to the .1% and their job is to keep the factories running that the motu had moved to China or that they control. The mad scramble for energy will line the pockets of the 1% and eventually kill most of our planet. The scientific predictions about what will happen as we reach the tipping point are correct.