Tag: antiwar

America Unhinged

Perhaps it  should not be a surprise that  the United States political  scene is becoming increasingly deranged  with its talk  of ‘treasonous Trump” , and  it’s ( and the U.K.’s) media screaming headlines  about the  purported but totally unsubstantiated ‘hacking’  of the U.S.  presidential  elections by  Russia, and where any foreign media or politician  that  does  not support the “Democratic” Party’s view of American politics, is subverting democracy  .

After all ,  we have seen more than a hundred years of American  politicians  trumpeting the United States as  the international  beacon of freedom  and hope for the oppressed,  while at the same time committing endless wars against  vulnerable countries ( almost exclusively populated by  darker skinned  peoples) who  dare to oppose its economic demands . And indeed has conduced a  long-standing violent war  against  its own  vulnerable populations.

Perhaps now we simply   see  American society, previously  unable to  differentiate between  the constant lies  it has told the world over the past century and more, and the reality  of its sordid and brutal  foreign  policies, now turning in  on itself- cannibalizing what  remains of its   democratic processes , innovative thinking and compassion for the underdog..

Sadly , with  such  immense natural  resources, the United States has squandered its opportunities  to build a truly democratic  open  society  that provides free education, healthcare  and job opportunities  for   all;   and protects the environment in real  ways while building a prosperous and sustainable  future for its human  citizens ..It has  instead become an oligarchy  where greed  and  brutality rule ..

A nation  is in  deep  trouble when it begins to  believe the lies it tells itself – here’s just one bizarre example of American  groupthink..

As Bill  Van Auken at  the World Socialist  Web,  (and bear in  mind that  Putin is no  socialist!) quotes: “1964 is a year of crisis and decision. Will America continue to aid the communist enemy, to disarm in the face of danger, to bow before communist dictators in every corner of the earth? The decision is yours.”

Postscript:

Perhaps a quick  read of Code Pink’s Assessment of American Foreign  Policy might also  be instructive?

 

Links

https://eand.co/how-russia-conquered-america-without-firing-a-bullet-36d9f0132b8c

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/07/detente-bad-cold-war-good/

https://williamblum.org/chapters/rogue-state/war-criminals-theirs-and-ours

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/433793-putin-helsinki-interrogations-russiagate/

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/07/19/pers-j19.html

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/07/20/pers-j20.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5971475/Flake-suggests-TREASON-Senate-floor-saying-Trump-gave-aid-comfort-enemy.html

https://blackagendareport.com/russiagate-ruling-class-diversion

https://www.al-akhbar.com/Opinion/254619/

Trump’s Treasonous Traitor Summit or: How Liberals Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the New McCarthyism

The Utility of the RussiaGate Conspiracy

CODEPINK  War Profiteers: The U.S. War Machine and the Arming of Repressive Regimes*

The Sick Men of Washington

President Trump,  has now  officially pulled the United States out of the Iran  nuclear deal , officially known  as the “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ( JCPOA) 

Negotiated via U.N.  auspices, the Iran deal limited Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium and thus limit any potential  for Iran to develop  nuclear weapons;  something it has always said is has not intended  nor planned to  do. UN inspections prove that  Iran has indeed complied with  the JCPOA in  full  since its inception in 2015. The deal  in no way  prohibits Iran’s develop  of missile technology,  which would be seen by  any state as a   sovereign  right to protect  itself from  aggressors.

And Iran has many threatening states  to protect  itself from. These include Israel, who  sees Iran  as its major  spoiler to the  ongoing expansion of Israeli  territory  in  the Middle East;  particularly  because of Iranian support for Hezbollah in Lebanon, who  roundly  defeated  Israel in its last  attempt to  occupy Lebanon in   2006 . Then  there is Saudi Arabia,  the despotic regime which  pretends to be a ‘monarchy” who  actively supports protects and funds the Salafist terrorists  across the Middle East  and beyond.  Salafists believe that  all  other Islamic and other religious  beliefs   other than  their own  are ‘heretical”, and therefore those people who  hold such beliefs need to be either forcibly converted or disposed of. Hence the  millions of Shiite peoples of Iran   and its Shi-ite theocracy are anathema to  the Saudi  ‘princes’. Iran is a  large country of over 80  million people,  and while its economy has been made vulnerable by  years of U.S. and other Western countries sanctions, it has managed to develop a wide range of responses to those sanctions,  and particularly  a  home grown defence industry.

Iran is therefore not  significantly vulnerable to  attack  by  Saudi Arabia ,  despite S.A.s huge defence spending ($76 billion in 2017 – third  highest in  the world after the U.S.  and China) ,  as opposed to Iran’s approximately $14 billion), largely because of its very  effective home grown  ballistic missile systems. (it is always amusing to note that U.S. military ‘specialists  always attribute this or that countries’  home grown  military capabilities to some other country – implying in some way  that the specific  country does not have the  technology ,  research  capability and technical know-how that  only  the great and exceptional  U.S.  has!)

And finally,   Iran’s perhaps most significant threat  comes from  the United States,  who has desperately tried to destabilize Iran’s theocracy  in  every  way  possible way since its inception in  1979, after overthrowing the U.S.  and and U.K. installed  despot, the ‘Shah’  of Iran .

The U.K.  has also  played a supporting role to the U.S.  since 1953 in supporting the salafist regimes in the Persian Gulf  and encouraging the export of  Saudi  and Qatari  jihadist  terrorists to  Middle East  states  which  are not active supporters of Western colonialism or Israeli  expansionism.

Thus the latest  move by  the Trump administration to  undermine the U.N.  JCPOA agreement  and threaten sanctions against  countries  and companies that do  not comply with its renewed sanctions against  Iran, is simply part of the ongoing war  by the United States against  Iran that had its inception in  the overthrow of its  brutal dictator ,  the Shah.

The drivers for this  ongoing  war against  Iran are  largely economic:  primarily  re-acquisition of the huge Iranian  oil  market  by  American oil  companies  will  buffer the U.S.  against  the imminent collapse of the local  shale oil  market, whilst  ensuring that Iranian owned oil  and gas is not pipe-lined through to  Europe and Turkey.

However the other major U.S.   impetus for Iranian destabilisation and overthrow of its  independent theocracy is the role of Israel  and its Zionist  lobbyists in  Washington.  Now that Saudi Arabia has been bought into  the Zionist  fold and accepts  the Israeli   theft of Palestinian  lands since 1948 as legitimate, there is only Iran  as a significant power player in  the Middle East  who is  able to  confront Israeli  expansionism.  A tame Iranian regime that supported both  Israel  and  U.S.  colonial policy in  the Middle East  would mean Chinese and Russian commercial and strategic   ambitions  there could be thwarted, and  U.S.  and U.K.  (and to  a smaller degree, French) companies could make billions exploiting the region. With  the truly psychopathic John Bolton now  as Trumps defence advisor, drooling for war  with Iran, and Israel’s Netanyahu frothing at  the mouth for the U.S.  to bomb Iran, all  options are truly on  the table.

While Iran does not have an  effective airforce, due to the  long-standing sanctions against it; it’s ballistic missile  capacity is  indeed formidable,  although largely deprecated by  U.S.  defence analysts . Should the U.S. launch  an attack on  Iran’s infrastructure, as it has continually threatened to do  over the years, the U.S.  would undoubtedly be able to , over time,  obliterate much of Tehran  and  its  key urban  centres as it has done in North Korea,  Vietnam Libya and Iraq in  the past, along  with the consequent  huge suffering and civilian casualties  that  entails. However in  the first  days and weeks of such  a war, Iran’s  widely  dispersed military units, and particularly its missile and anti-ship  units, will  be able to  inflict  massive damage on  U.S.  military bases and aircraft  carriers in  the Gulf because of their close proximity to Iran. An ongoing guerilla war against  U.S.   economic and military  interests in  the Middle East   could well  last  for years. In  comparison  to  the U.S.  war against  Iraq,  Iran’s military capabilities cannot be under-rated as American  defence  analysts  are wont to do  in  their arrogance. This would not be the  “cake-walk” that  the neocons pretended the Iraqi  invasion would be!

Should Israel  also enter the war,  as it has often promised to,  then Tel Aviv is now  well  within  missile striking distance by  Iran’s  Lebanese allies.  Hezbollah.

One would hope that  the crazies like Netanyahu  and John Bolton will  finally be locked away  somewhere safe for the rest of humanity’s sake ,  and the fools like Donald Trump  fade into  quiet  oblivion,  but sadly it seems , that may not be the case…

Links

The Deep State First – Madness On Both Ends of the Acela Corridor

How Hezbollah Defeated Israel

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/05/countdown-to-war-on-iran.html

No flies in Syria

The recent cruise missile attack  by  the U.S.  and its allies the U.K.  and France ( former colonial exploiters  in  the region) raises some interesting dilemmas for Western  military planners .

If we are to believe the Russian military  assessment of the strike, 71 of the of 103 cruise missiles  were brought down  by  Syrian  air defence systems,  particular via the Russian made Pantsir surface-to-air missile  systems.

While the United States and its two allies have claimed that  the missile  attack  was in  response to  their espoused  view that there had been  a gas attack  by  the Assad military in Douma against  the  civilians trapped there, the evidence seems to  suggest  that  this attack was aimed at  eliminating the air support threat  from  the Syrian  Air Force for the jihadists those 3  Western governments have been extensively supporting since the start  of the war to  overthrow the Assad regime.

Having failed in  their bid to  convince the United Nations of a ‘no-fly’ zone in  Syria  on  multiple occasions ( ie elimination of Syrian  government aircraft from the skies above rebel-held territory) ; the use of a chemical  weapons attack  as a pretext  for bombing airfields  has become the next  best  option. Using  The American   government  ( and Muslim Brotherhood)  funded Syrian American Medical  Society (SAMS),  and the largely British intelligence funded and managed White Helmets to  produce videos purporting to  show a chemical  weapons attack  in  Douma, Western media has been united in  showing moral  outrage at  ‘animal Assad’s” killing of his own people, and baying for more attacks on the Syrian military.

The apparent logic given  by  Western media and politicians  for ‘animal Assad”  to  drop  barrel  bombs filed with   toxic chemicals on  the people of   Douma was to demonstrate that there was no  hope for the rebels there and they  should surrender. According to  this logic, it was worth  the risk of a repeat of the previous cruise missile attacks  ordered by  President Trump  last  year  for the Assad regime to drop a few barrels of toxic chemicals on  Douma  to  dislodge the few remaining  “rebels’  there who  were already negotiating an  exit  with the Syrian government from the enclave . One assumes those politicians and the Western media think  their publics are very  very  stupid….Unfortunately for Western intelligence, the overrunning of the last  of the rebel enclaves in Ghouta  and their departure in  buses to  Idlib came far sooner than they expected,  allowing the Syrians and Russians and journalists like the respected British Robert Fisk, to enter the area where the supposed gas attack  had occurred and interview civilians and medics there .

One finds it strange that  neither Western media nor their governments have bayed for large cruise missile attacks on the Al  Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra,  or ISIS, or any  of the other  head-choppers supported by  Gulf and Western states. And that in  fact there have been no  reported cruise missile attacks by  Western countries on ISIS throughout this entire war. How could this be  one wonders?

The chemical  weapons scam is largely similar to  the earlier and still  ongoing farce  in  the Western media about Assad’s “barrel bombs”. “Barrel  bombs’  are nothing but impromptu explosives packed in   drums  and  dropped from government helicopters and  fixed wing aircraft. They  are in  fact, unguided ordinance, which the majority  of the  aerial  weapons  at play  in Syria by  the United States and its allies,  as well as the Russians and the Syrian government, are. But  we are somehow expected to  believe that  packing  munitions into  oil  drums and dropping them  on  targets creates   far worse  dangers,  chaos, injury  and death   than those caused by  other unguided munitions. But again  the ‘barrel  bomb’  farce is one more attempt by  the Western  media and politicians to  remove the threat  to their tunnel  based jihadists from  aerial  warfare of any kind. If the Syrian airforce can be removed and then  the Russian airforce, then  ISIS and the other Al  Qaeda affiliates and salafists out to  exterminate all  Christians , Allawites, Shi-ites and other non  fundamentalist  Sunni sects in Syria, will  have a much free-er hand on the ground.

Despite American  denials, it would appear that in  fact  the  vast majority of the cruise missiles were therefore  aimed at  Syrian  airfields, rather than the alleged chemical  weapons storage and production facilities ( which had been vetted by  the OPCW as ‘clean’  just  last  October 2017). The Syrian and Russians had in  fact deployed most of their more effective anti-missile stations around those airfields; and if they  are to believed,   destroyed the vast  majority of the incoming missiles at  those airfields. There is some speculation that  Russian  electromagnetic interference jamming   systems may have played a part in  the incoming missiles’ lack  of effectiveness,  but that  cant be confirmed as yet.

It would appear  that  the Americans ,French  and British  are relying on  their NATO fellow members of the OPCW to  influence  the public statements of the OPCW in  regards to the alleged Douma gas attack , whilst acknowledging that the inspectors themselves will  draw their own conclusions which  they  can not publicly release as OPCW staff ( but will  likely leak  to  the public or Wikileaks if they  do  not coincide with the political narrative) .  Note that  the most recent media release by  the OPCW on  their survey  of the Dhouma site in Syria states that  “On arrival at Site 1, a large crowd gathered and the advice provided by the UNDSS was that the reconnaissance team should withdraw. At Site 2, the team came under small arms fire and an explosive was detonated. The reconnaissance team returned to Damascus. “

Very clearly, the battle to partition Syria by  the West and its Gulf allies using jihadists is far from over.

But -as in  previous unilateral totally illegal strikes  ( ie not approved by  the U.N. Security Council) by  Western governments on  states that do   not comply with the Western political  and economic agenda , this latest missile attack  provides ample rationale  to  China, as the upcoming dominant global  power,  that  missile   strikes on  countries who  do  not acquiesce to its political  and economic agenda, are a completely legitimate response, in  the future.

It  may not be too  long before China’s aircraft  carrier armada are patrolling the seas off  the United States, the U.K and France..

 

Postscript

A more detailed assessment of the cruise missile numbers and targets from  Joe Quinn at  sott.net

https://www.sott.net/article/382908-About-Those-Nice-New-Smart-Missiles-And-The-Chemical-Weapons-Sites-in-Syria

Links

https://russianmilitaryanalysis.wordpress.com/2017/04/10/u-s-cruise-missile-strikes-in-syria-brief-analysis/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_bomb

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-chemical-attack-gas-douma-robert-fisk-ghouta-damascus-a8307726.html

http://eng.mil.ru/en/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12171300@egNews

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/04/syria-pentagon-hides-attack-failure-70-cruise-missiles-shot-down-.html#more

https://www.opcw.org/

Robert Fisk’s Douma Report Rips Away Excuses for Air Strike on Syria

America First – R.I.P.

From Cold to Hot War..

“On the Beach”

The recent very  fake news from  the White Helmets about Assad’s government gassing civilians in Douma in Ghouta province of Syria has clearly been orchestrated by  Western intelligence agencies ( who  largely control  the White Helmet’s agenda   and their Al Qaeda affiliates on  the ground in  Syria). As has been noted elsewhere,  Syrian government forces have no  need to  gas anyone;  they  are on  a roll  and likely to  overrun  all  Al Qaeda rebels in  the Ghouta area in  the next week..And in fact  Syrian  government forces and Russian  advisers now control the area where the gassing supposedly occurred. An unfortunate fact  for the U.S.  now gunning for war…

The appointment of John Bolton as Secretary of State for the U.S., who  along with  U.S.’s U.N.  representative, Nikki Haley,  know  no other response to   perceived threats to  U.S. global  omnipotence than  war  and more war,  is a solid indication that  the U.S.  intelligence community and State Dept  is indeed preparing for war  with  Russia.

If we combine those changes to  U.S.  administration, with  the farcical  attempts by  the U.K.  government to  blame Russia for the Skripal’s near death  experiences in Salisbury, and advance  agreement by  the French  sock-puppet Macron to obey the U.S.’s every  command in fighting the Assad  government if a gas attack  just happens to  occur in  Syria ;  we are left with no  option other than war.

Russia has given  categorical  statements at  the U.N. , and to  the U.S. , that  missile attacks  against  the Syrian  government will  be responded to “at source”  ie by attacking   U.S.  French or U.K.  aircraft ,  airbases  or aircraft  carriers that  carry  out such  attacks.

As noted in  a previous post on  this site;  the argument in NATO command and the Western  “think tanks”, is that by destroying once and for all, the  threat of Russia as an state entity capable of having an independent  foreign policy  and  economic pathway,  all  the other dominos;  China,  Iran,  North Korea who  currently oppose Western global  control,  will  inevitably  ‘fall  into line”

We know from previous experience,  that  Western  countries;  particularly those who have signed up  to  NATO,  will indeed  fall   into line with their masters, and  both  acquiesce and actively participate in  whatever horrific actions the Americans and their British  allies  have decided upon.

The blatantly  absurd arguments about Saddams’  little trucks full  of WMD,  or the  viagra given  to  Libyan soldiers so  that they could rape Libyan  civilians, or any of the  ridiculous other  casus belli formulated in  the rather small  brains of the military strategists  in  London  and Washington  over the past 60  years since the second world war, have been  promulgated by  a compliant (or perhaps ‘bought”)  Western  media without analysis, and accepted as fact by  the vast majority of the Western world’s population. We do  not need rational or factual  arguments,  any old rationale, however ridiculous,  will  do  to destroy another country  and its population.

We are after all,  as members of the Western world-  defenders of democracy  and freedom  and civilised  humanity-  are we not?…..

Except this time, making war with  Russia as  a major nuclear power, and with  very formidable weaponry,  will  not be the ‘cake-walk’  it was supposedly going to be in Iraq. In  addition it is unknown  at  this point,  but likely,  that China will  have to take a stand beside Russia  in the lead-up  to  war-knowing they will  be next  if Russia falls. The writing is on  the wall  for the Chinese with  Trump’s ‘trade war”,  and the Chinese have demonstrated they  will  not be bullied by  the U.S.

If  you think  that none of  this could  be possible , (we wouldn’t risk global  war-  would we?) it is well  to be reminded about  the last  Western  allies in  the pursuit of ….something….  invaded Russia.

Or to be reminded of the total barbarity of the Western invasions of North Korea  during the Korean War , the still ongoing excuses by  the U.S.  for its totally vicious devastation of Vietnam  and its population during the Vietnam  War. But right now in Yemen,  where millions of civilians are starving and dying  because of Saudi  bombing ( coordinated by  U.S.  and U.K.  ‘advisors’)  and  a naval  blockade of food  ably assisted by  the US  Fifth Fleet,  we see clear evidence of active complicity in  massive war crimes by  the U.K.  and U.S.

Why  should such barbaric partners therefore  need things like evidence or truth  when responding to  allegations  by  the jihadists they  support in  Syria, of gas attacks  by  the Syrian military ( and therefore Russia).

There is a higher goal  here-  the pursuit of more money  and power…

Links

The Rush to War

Trump’s Rush to Judgment on Syria Chemical Attack

Syrian War Report – April 9, 2018: Another ‘Chemical Attack’ Story Triggers Escalation In Region

Russia controls Douma, guarantees impartial investigation; that makes US attack MORE likely

The Rapidly Evolving Skripal Story: Evidence of the Destruction of an Anglo-American Plan

https://disobedientmedia.com/2017/01/us-supported-syrian-white-helmets-involved-with-war-crimes-committed-by-rebel-groups/

https://disobedientmedia.com/2018/04/all-russiagate-roads-lead-to-london-as-evidence-emerges-of-joseph-mifsuds-links-to-uk-intelligence/

http://www.syrianews.cc/last-terrorists-of-douma-jaish-helmets-sams-collaborate-in-massacre/

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/423846-syria-attack-trump-war-russia/

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13970122001526

Control 101: Creating Consensus Reality

 

Faking News

As the great journalist John Pilger notes in  his 1st April  2018  article about the Ecuadorean  Government’s silencing of Julian Assange , we are being subjected to  a constant battering on  many fronts to  ensure we only listen to the ‘right’  information about the world around us.

The demonisation  of Russia can partly be explained by  Western Government’s concerns about the role of RT.com  providing an  alternative meme ( in most cases as legitimate -and often more so   than its Western news-agency  counterparts) to that  expressed through what is termed Mainstream media (MSM) . Mainstream Media is in  essence, western media which  toe the dominant  political party line –  whether it be anti-Russian,  anti-Trump,  pro-‘intervention’ ( read  ‘killing’)  in  other countries, or most importantly,  pro-consumerism.

But this attempted silencing of alternative media stories, no  matter how legitimate or truthful they  are, not only extends to  foreign  entities like Russia or China ,  it also  includes any  highly visible figures like Assange  who  do not espouse what is known to be ‘right’ by  our esteemed leaders, and the multitude of internet  bloggers who  research  and analyse the stories behind the stories.

The recent bizarre attempt by western governments and MSM,  to conflate alternative opinion as ‘fake news”,  borders on  the psychotic.  It  is a  witchhunt against  those who do  not respect  the  often  infantile repetitive lies told in  the MSM or by  apparently intellectually impaired politicians such  as U.K’s Foreign  Secretary  Boris Johnson, or for that  matter  Donald Trump. By  now the old lies about  the reasons we must fight  wars in  ‘foreign’ lands  for ‘freedom  and democracy”  or  to “save civilians”, are wearing remarkable thin.

Thus the  ‘establishment’ is now flailing around for a further reason why  we should just  accept that   the mass-killing  of ‘other’ people is good for them. In  John Pilger’s belief,  this media frenzy  against  those who detour from  the party line is  a  significant threat to  the establishment, with the intended  war against  Russia and China looming and the drums beating ever louder – they can  not afford a dissenting “fifth column” in  their midst who  can undermine the thirst  for war or the need for civilians to rally behind the flag.

As the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal  has made clear;  it is not just  Russia and the ‘enemy’  who  is manipulating public opinion through  ‘slanted stories’ and  twitter bots! SCL, Cambridge Analytica’s British parent company,  prides itself on  its capacity to manipulate public opinion in  both  foreign lands and internally in  the UK.  We can be sure that there are many other western  companies and intelligence services who, despite their actual  minimal real intelligence,  aim  to manipulate public opinion at  home and abroad. In the United States, this is an  easy  task. The vast majority of Americans have limited education,  no understanding of foreign countries and no memory  for history-  an ideal  subject for manipulation!

In the United States therefore we have something passed into  law by  Congress  in  2016  called

The Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act would ensure America’s national security infrastructure helps counter the false narratives that harm our security — delivering truthful information and making the world a safer place for the United States and our allies.”

Note .. that as written into the NDAA, the legislation’s provisions establish an inter-agency body “to track and evaluate counterfactual narratives abroad that threaten the national security interests of the United States and United States allies,” and to develop “procedures to expose and refute foreign misinformation and disinformation and proactively promote fact-based narratives and policies to audiences outside the United States.”

Where the ‘facts”  come that  the public needs re-education on,  and the ‘false facts’  that  the public needs protection from,  do  not of course need to  be stated. Our respective governments always know best! -don’t they??

As we have seen in  the ludicrous litany  of lies put out by  the British government  around the Salisbury  nerve gas poisoning affair, all  the key  mainstream  UK and other Western media have jumped in lock-step to  push the U.K government Russian-basking charges without once examining the implausibility of the  facts presented. Whether these media agencies and their journalists  are  paid,  bribed, coerced or blackmailed into  regurgitating this British  propaganda, is unknown  at  this point,

This is of course not something new.  State entities  have always attempted to manipulate their publics to ensure compliance to  the  official  line -whether it be going to  war, or maximising the potential threats of other states  to  maximise profits for the corporates who  fund the ruling “elite” . In  all  cases, the states’ manipulatory processes are for  short-term  gain and almost  inevitably have a long term negative impact  on  their public.

The most telling  and catastrophically fatal example of this flaw in  our ‘democracies”, is the media  and political drive for corporates to produce more ‘things’  and for their publics to consume more things.  All analysis shows that in  a closed system  like our little world, this drive inevitably leads to  planetary disaster – but it helps keep  political  parties in  power…for now….

Postscript

A  useful analysis of military  propaganda here from Adam  Ramsay here 

Note also  the “The Times” (U.K.) fascinating attempt to shut down academic dissent around the  U.K. government’s version of events in  Syria 

 

Links

http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-isolation-of-julian-assange-is-the-silencing-of-us-all

Roger Stone: Obama’s National Censorship Board is Very Real

https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/gec/  Global Engagement Center (U.S.)

The Poison in our Body Politic

Control 101: Creating Consensus Reality

https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/philip-hammond/syria-stop-asking-questions

New Zealand & its role in the current Korean crisis

I note with sadness but no surprise, that New Zealand has once more joined the Western cabal aiming to destabilise North Korea.

Given that New Zealand  and her  allies inflicted horrific genocidal acts on North Korean civilians in the Korean War (with many millions dead) and the subsequent 50 years of threats of nuking North Korea, annual massive war games on the Korean armistice line, a refusal by the Americans to negotiate a peace treaty, and ongoing threats to decapitate the North Korean leadership, it is small wonder that the North Korean regime feels its only safety is in a nuclear deterrent.

The hypocrisy of the US and its ‘allies” to advocate for a ‘non-nuclear’ Korean peninsula, while patrolling its waters with nuclear armed weaponry, no longer astounds me.

The symbolism of a shared North/South Korean flag at the Winter Olympics must be deeply troubling to those whose only negotiating option is war.

Perhaps our esteemed  new Foreign Affairs Minister,  Mr Winston Peters, might wish to read some history?

Christmas 2017 & The Dishonest Broker

In the last few months we have seen the Trump administration reeling from one extraordinarily stupid move in foreign policy, to another.

Firstly  we have the tragedy and farce of the declaration that the US will ‘accept’ Jerusalem as Israel’s capital; somewhere that all Western nations have been loathe to go (officially) whilst fully accepting and unconditionally supporting the reality of the triumphalism of the apartheid racist Israeli entity.  A two state solution has, since 1948, been known to  all  parties  as a totally non-viable option, and will never happen.

It is of course possible that the Israelis finally realise that the nation of Israel has no future in the long term , unless it grants full right of return to all Palestinian and full compensation for lands stolen since 1948 and lives destroyed… The alternative for Israel does not bear thinking about.

It is not that Trump’s declaration changes anything;  what is upsetting for the West and for China and Russia, is that it makes plain that there never was a two state option- and that the United States has always been the Dishonest Broker in the ‘peace process’ .

Now we can start to face reality in Palestine- and it is not a pretty picture for the Israelis.

The ludicrous aspect of this, is that for those modern day Israelis whose ancestors came from the Levant; they are of exactly the same ethnic Semitic lineage as the ‘dirty Arabs’ they despise . We have seen more than 60 years of completely farcical “peace’ negotiations; the Israelis have never had any intention of returning any of the lands stolen by war or genocide, and both the ‘disinterested” broker and the Palestinian negotiators have always known that.

Then  we have the  ongoing playground bully tactics to North Korea by  the United States president and his policy  advisors and chiefs of staff.  A country that knows full well the epic scale of barbarity the American nation is capable of;  having endured American genocide in the Korean War and the continuous threats from various U.S. presidents and US generals since that time to blast them back into the stone-age. With its back against the wall, North Korea has only one option- to continue to develop enough nuclear ICBMs to substantially debilitate the American economy ( Given that of course from the American side, there will be no negotiations with North Korea until they ‘behave’ )

And then we have dear Nikki Haley the United States ambassador to the United Nations displaying bits of what are supposedly Iranian made missiles launched by the Yemenese Houthis against their Saudi aggressors ,who are currently killing thousands of Yemen citizens with cholera and millions through starvation…

But hey Nikki!- what ‘s more important? -the lives of a few million Yemenese? Or the need to destroy Iran to serve the interests of the Israeli supporters and Saudis who pay Congress and the Washington ‘think-tanks’ ? One hopes that karma is not for real:- Nikki’s future lives are not going to be exactly pretty…nor will it be in this life should true international justice be finally served.

It is not that Trump has really changed anything;- the brutality, cynicism, duplicitiousness and lack of humanity of United States foreign policy has remained largely unchanged since the Second World War. Trump has simply made it very clear what it  has always been about for the United States:- money!

The facade has been removed…We have  seen  a dramatic transition from  a President able to so  plausibly lie through his teeth  (and win  a Nobel peace prize for it), to  one who  seems  to  say  (or tweet) whatever  fleeting thought is on  his mind at  the time ,  but whose sole  immediate directive for decision-making is money  and power, rather than  a longer term strategy of deceit  to reach  the desired same end.

It is disturbing to think that these great leaders of the ‘Free World’ are supposedly the best of humankind- a sad indictment on us all

Links

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/world-will-not-mourn-decline-u-s-hegemony/ 

The North Korean Nuclear Fiasco

I note the opinion piece by Ralph Peters (supposedly a Fox News “Strategic Analyst”) in the New York Times of 4th September 2017 who states; “ better a million dead North Koreans than a thousand dead Americans.” and ‘We cannot allow moral relativism to butcher Americans. We must deal with the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. And in the real world, the greatest immorality in war is not killing the enemy. The greatest immorality would be for our country to lose. “

This I believe, truly reflects the brain-dead amoral stance of many Americans in Washington.

After the United States; having committed a horrific genocide in the Korean War of more than 20% of the North Korean population (without apology and without compensation) , refusing to sign a peace treaty,  conducting annual large scale war maneuvers on the North Korean border, threats of nuclear annihilation and “ decapitation’ of its leaders, it is somewhat less than surprising that North Korea feels itself threatened by this  ongoing military aggression from the United States, and chooses to defend itself with nuclear weapons.  A December 2017  Counterpunch  article describes the savagery  of the American  onslaught against  the North Korean  people in  the Korean War in  vivid detail. The North  Korean  regime know full  well  that  the Americans can never be trusted, and that  their inhumanity to ‘others’ is on a scale that compares to  the very worst  of genocides.

We see an ongoing 60 year propaganda war against the North Koreans; with the South Korean military and their intelligence units fully colluding with their US masters to ramp up the anti North Korean rhetoric along with the former Japanese brutal colonists of Korea .

We see the ongoing media mockery of their leaders (just as was done to ‘educate’ the American public in the value of ‘taking out” (in true Hollywood B movie style), Saddam Hussein, Ghaddafi and any other leaders the Americans want to ‘decapitate’.

The United States has a more than a century long tradition of unbelievable barbarity and acts of aggression against countries and states that do not comply with its economic interests.

Combined with this infantile bully-boy approach goes a mindset devoid of morality and ethics, let alone any sign of intelligent behaviour. Group-think in Washington allows itself to believe anything that one of its so-called ‘think’ tanks wants it to believe; as long as the price is right of course. The United States is perhaps unique among 21st century nations in having its international policies sold to the highest bidder; be it Israeli sympathisers, Saudis, Qataris,U.K business interests or Japanese and South Korean business ones.

One might think that as the “exceptional empire’ rapidly draws to a sudden close,  policy makers in Washington might start to realise that it might pay to start being somewhat less belligerent and genocidal in their approach to other countries in the hope they might be able to, in the future escape the clutches of the International War Crimes tribunal- but no…

As the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin  recently noted: “It is difficult to talk to people who confuse Austria and Australia. But there is nothing we can do about this; this is the level of political culture among the American establishment. As for the American people, America is truly a great nation if the Americans can put up with so many politically uncivilized people in their government.”

We are told that North Korea is the ‘hermit kingdom’ yet strangely it is not the North Koreans who want to be isolated- rather it is the United States who needs them isolated. We are told that North Korea starves its population and its economic systems are inefficient and laughable- yet strangely we are again not told about the impact of international sanctions starving its children or how the North Koreans have achieved technological breakthroughs in nuclear and rocket technology faster than any other country before them.

I do not applaud any country acquiring nuclear weapons or long range rockets, yet there is total logic in North Korea pursuing those goals against a relentless and evil aggressor; the United State of America. A country that refuses to negotiate, that constantly threatens ( and not just DonaldTrump) “fire and fury, and frankly power that the world has never seen.”. – a direct allusion to first strike nuclear aggression.

We see a completely corrupt and evil empire threatening a poor and small country again and again for more than fifty years with obliteration (again). And strangely the United Nations (including even Russia and China in their stupidity) once again approve another round of sanctions on North Korean for trying to maintain its existence against this unpredictable entity that is the war state of America.

We are told by Nikki Haley the United States ambassador for war at the United Nations saying somewhat ludicrously, even for her, that Kim Jong Un is ‘begging for war” http://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/04/politics/haley-north-korea-united-nations/index.html

China must certainly be aware that all these posturings and threats by the United States are designed to ensure South Korea agrees (with little prompting from its military who are hand in glove with the US military) to install more anti–missile technology like THAAD, which is primarily designed to remove any threat from a Chinese missile strike at the US or its off-shore bases– allowing the US a first strike capability on China.

Let us not gloss over the significant shortcomings of the North Korean regime; UN reports of political prisoner ‘gulags’ are likely to be true ,at least to some extent. However the South Korean military and business interests and U.S propaganda machines have been very effective over many years at ‘disinformation’ on North Korea and a significant number of paid ‘defectors’ , so many allegations must be taken with a large grain of salt. However this likely savagery by the North Koreans pales into comparison with that wreaked by the United States, not only on Korea , but across the globe over the past 100 years and more in the pursuit of profit.

As the U.S. well knows, the more pressure both externally and internally they can apply to undermine a nation, the more defensive, paranoid and extreme becomes those states’ reactions to those internal and external threats; which in turn, fuels the American propaganda war.

The ONLY solution therefore to these current events is negotiation. The very rational interim agreement proposed by the Russian and Chinese governments for North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme in exchange for the US and South Korea stopping its military threats to North Korea has been supported in principle by the North Koreans but dismissed without a consideration by the United States. . However as every country knows that has negotiated in good faith with the United States; the U.S. government,  as the Plains Indians found out to their cost, ‘speak with ‘forked tongue’ as Paul Craig Roberts notes in his disturbing article on the ‘cleansing’ of American history.

Links

https://www.vox.com/world/2017/8/29/16079076/north-korea-maps

http://www.newantarctica.com/mad-sad-and-bad-north-korea/

http://nypost.com/2017/09/04/we-need-to-destroy-north-korea-before-its-too-late/

https://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/interventions.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

http://thediplomat.com/2017/03/whats-the-big-deal-about-these-us-south-korea-military-exercises/

https://www.asiasentinel.com/econ-business/south-korea-chaotic-corrupt-defense-policy/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisons_in_North_Korea

http://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir_15_02_04_dilorenzo.pdf

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/08/21/trump-american-history-assassinated/

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/26/how-park-geun-hye-influences-thaad-deployment-in-south-korea.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_under_Japanese_rule

State of Fear: How History’s Deadliest Bombing Campaign Created Today’s Crisis in Korea

The Last Stand for Our Survival

While multinational mining companies and other entities continue to  plunder   the remains of our natural  resources on  this planet,  we are rapidly heading towards environmental  disaster.

Recent heatwaves in southern Europe are just one of almost countless  signs that our inexorable path to  global heat (not warming) will lead to  much of the earth  being un-liveable-  not just  for humans but also  for the other species that  we rely on  for our survival  on  this planet.

Our blind stupidity as a species, our incapacity to  plan for anything more than the next year or two,  combined with our capacity to  inflict  horrendous damage to  the  eco-systems that give us all  life, are rapidly, and ever more speedily,  pushing us down the path to  oblivion.

Those remaining indigenous cultures that have not been sucked into  the collective  insanity of the human ‘progress’  meme,  are being actively imprisoned and murdered because they stand in  the way of more profits for multinational  companies. One wonders where exactly those muti-national  board members will  run  to  when  their gold is literally too  hot to handle?

In the United States there is even  debate as to  whether the U.S. Trump  administration will  ‘accept’  the recent Draft of the 2017 ‘Climate Change Report’, such is the insanity that prevails;  not just in  the United States but across the word where governments are locked into  close relationships with the business sector that is destroying the planet in  the name of progress.

There appears to  be  no  capacity to  change our direction of increasing species destruction and increasing production of carbon  dioxide and the  other climate  change accelerants,  despite the hype generated at  the voluntary  Paris Accords.

It is of course  not surprising that  the U.S.  president  has rescinded the United States willingness to  implement the Paris Accord. In a country  where all  government policy  is, and always has been , sold to  the highest bidder,  the coal  industry won out!

We know that  ‘global fossil fuel emissions grew by 0.7% in 2014, then held steady in 2015. Provisional data for 2016 predict a very small rise, of just 0.2%.’ This tiny decline, or possible small  increase, may be  more attributable to  the decline in  the global  ‘economy’ (reductions in  coal use and cement production)  rather than  any active intent to  reduce emissions;  although  changes in  electrical  production  using  so-called renewable energy have  also  have played a part. In reality, renewable energy  products place huge demands in  different ways on  the environment.

However it’s important to bear in  mind that  while we have not seen  a significant increase in  the amount of CO2 production globally,  we have not seen a  decrease-  the amount  of CO2  being pumped in to  the atmosphere is now about 9.9 billion tonnes  per year….More than  enough to continue ratcheting up global  temperatures at  an increasing rate for centuries to  come,  when  we take into  account   both  the immediate impacts of increased temperatures and the slower impacts of  the capacity for CO2 storage in  our oceans, soil   and plants ( which  are rapidly declining in  global  volume)  steadily decreasing..

We are quite simply ,  not a fit species to  be entrusted with  the  future of this planet.

When the supposed ‘greatest  nation on  earth’  behaves like a child bully in  the playground and threatens  nuclear war on  all  and sundry;  when  ecological  devastation is not even  taken into  consideration as we  plunder  the planet, and its once multitudinous living things   for our little shiny baubles, then  we know we have lost our way-  irremediably..

Links

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Indigenous-Women-Led-Environmental-Struggle-in-2016-20161226-0019.html?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Agreement

http://www.atree.org/earthday_2017_secre

The Rogue State that is the United States of America

As  one more US aircraft  carrier  steams  off to  confront the North Koreans and threaten nuclear war once again , it is timely to  recall  that  60  years ago  the United States and its allies (including a very  compliant New Zealand) began  a genocidal  bombing of every  town  and city in  the north of Korea.  Millions of Koreans died. Since that  war ended,  the largest and nuclear superpower in  the world has refused to  sign  a peace treaty  with  North Korea,  has stationed thousands of troops  and weapons along its South Korean border and has regularly  threatened to nuke North  Korea,  applied  annual  large scale attack  manoeuvres along the border with North Korea, as well  as  implementing  sanctions that in  several years since the war,  caused mass starvation in  the north.   Small  wonder that the North  Korean  regime might be considered  paranoid and unstable!
Ironically, the United States has absolutely no  interest  in  the Korean peninsula and its peoples;  its sole rationale for  maintaining the ongoing conflict  with North Korea is to justify  maintaining the extensive military  bases encircling China, with the support of the Japanese. China has recently  proposed “As a first step, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) may suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the suspension of large-scale U.S.-Republic of Korea (ROK) military exercises,” but  this eminently reasonable offer has been  once again  refused by  the United States because it would reduce the threat to  China.
While the latest  American  President is  also  considered unstable and unreliable, it is  important to  recognise that every American president’s  foreign  policy  since the 1900s   has almost entirely consisted of  a psychopathic policy of violence and war and repeated acts of genocide:-  in  the Philippines,   at  Hiroshima and Nagasaki,  in  Korea, Vietnam and Laos,   in Iraq,   and Libya,  as well  as support for unspeakable acts of murder and  terror in South  America .  Its  full logistical and weaponry  support for the starvation of millions of Yemen ‘s children by  Saudi Arabia  because they do  not share the Saudi regime’s  extremist  and sectarian Wahhabist views,  (ably supported in  this war of terror by  its sycophantic ally, the United Kingdon),  tells you exactly where the United States’ current moral  and ethical  foreign policy stands.
The old fiction of the “Shining City Upon  a Hill”  –  an American beacon of hope, democracy,  liberty and freedom ,  has been ceaselessly trotted out by American  Presidents  over the years and regurgitated by  the American mainstream  media. Now the facade of that  shining city is falling away;-exposing the house of horrors within.
United States  foreign policy  does not recognise the international  rules of war or human rights obligations;   it stands above any necessity for humanity or compassion or  peaceful  solution to  conflicts.  It is in fact,  a rogue state.

Links