Iraq War Lesson: the seduction may be sweet but the hangover is hell

 MARCH 18, 2022

 Peter Van Buren

Tomorrow is the 19th anniversary of Iraq War 2.0 — the one we fought over Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. What have we learned over the almost two decades since?

While the actual Gotterdammerung for the new order took place just six months ago in Afghanistan as the last American troops clambered aboard their transports — with Washington seeming to abandon American citizens, a multi-million dollar embassy, and the Afghan people to their fates. The Afghan War did not begin under false pretenses as much as it began under no pretenses. Americans in 2001 would have supported carpet bombing Santa’s Workshop. Never mind we had been attacked by mostly Saudi operators, the blood letting would start in rural Afghanistan and the goal was some gumbo of revenge, stress relief, hunting down bin Laden in the wrong country, and maybe nation building, it didn’t matter.

 

A Biden Blood Bath?

CHARLES M. BLOW

April 17, 2022

A recent poll truly shocked me.

Quinnipiac University found that President Biden’s approval rating had sunk to just 33 percent. You might argue that this was just one poll, but Biden’s approval is down in multiple surveys.

As CNN’s Harry Enten pointed out Friday, there were four major national polls released last week, and in three of them — including Quinnipiac — Biden had the lowest showing of his presidency. In the fourth, he was “one point off the lowest.”

These are just devastating results on the heels of a historic Supreme Court confirmation and only seven months out from the midterms.

NATO Put Ukraine on the Path to Partition

 by David Stockman Posted

April 21, 2022

The gist of our two-part series is this: Unlike Ford automobiles, Ukraine was not "Built to Last!"

First Priority – Avoid US War With Russia

 by Patrick J. BuchananPosted on

April 22, 2022

 Asked if the U.S. should send troops to fight beside the Ukrainians, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said Sunday the time may have come.

Russian President Vladimir Putin "will only stop when we stop him," said Coons.

"We are in a very dangerous moment where it is important that … we in Congress and the administration come to a common position about when we are willing to go the next step and to send not just arms but troops to the aid in defense of Ukraine."

"If the answer is never, then we are inviting another level of escalation in brutality by Putin."

دین ستیزی

این عبارتی است که زعمای قوم مذهبی اختراع کرده‌اند، که از هر گونه واکنشی به مزخرفات دینی آنان جلوگیری کنند. این مختص به اسلام نیست، چرا که در غرب مسیحی / یهودی نیز به زبانها و گفتار‌های متفاوت این اصطلاح دیده میشود. ستیز به معنای جنگیدن است. بنابراین چنانکه شما در بحثی جمله‌ای را عنوان کنید که انتقاد سازنده‌ای به یک جریان مذهبی باشد، و شخص مقابل بحث به آن جریان مذهبی اعتقاد داشته باشد، با گفتن "لطفا دین ستیزی نکنید" به بحث خاتمه میدهد.ا

Biden’s Hypocrisy on Accusing Russia of War Crimes

 Ted Snider Posted on 

April 14, 2022

Do you want to charge Russia with war crimes? Go for it. Though Russia felt the tide of existential threat at their borders, they were not under imminent attack, and they did not seek Security Council approval. So the moment they launched a war against Ukraine, Russia had broken international law and committed a war crime.

But let there be a common and consistent standard of law established for all countries. And do not allow the one bringing the charges of torture against Russia to be the warden of Abu Ghraib, Bagram and Guantanamo Bay.

 

The Path Out of Ukraine Is Reversing the Path In

 Ted Snider

March 16, 2022

When you get hopelessly lost in the woods, the best way to find your way out is to reverse the steps you took to get in.

In numerous addresses since the illegal invasion of Ukraine, Russia has clearly set out its terms for ending the invasion "in a moment." The terms usually follow a three part formula: Ukrainian neutrality, meaning not joining NATO; removal of US and NATO troops and missiles from Ukrainian soil; and recognizing Donetsk and Lugansk.

 

Let Us Now Praise Amazon Unionists

 Chris Hedges

April 6, 2022

Let us honor those workers who stood up to Amazon, especially Chris Smalls, described by Amazon’s chief counsel as “not smart, or articulate,” who led a walkout at the Amazon warehouse at Staten Island JFK8 in New York at the beginning of the pandemic two years ago to protest unsafe working conditions. He was immediately fired.

Amazon’s high-priced lawyers, however, were in for a surprise. Smalls unionized the first Amazon warehouse in the country. He, along with his co-founder Derrick Palmer, built their union worker-by-worker with little outside support and no affiliation with a national labor group, raising $120,000 on GoFundMe. Amazon spent more than $4.3 million on anti-union consultants last year alone, according to federal filings.

Outrage as Azov Nazi Addresses Greek Parliament

Joe Lauria

April 8, 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been making a virtual world tour with video hookups to parliaments around the globe, as well as to the Grammy Awards and the U.N. Security Council, sometimes with troublesome results. 

On Thursday a major row erupted when Zelensky brought along a Ukrainian soldier of Greek heritage from the city of Mariupol, who just happened to be a member of the ne0-Nazi Azov Regiment. Greece was under Nazi occupation during World War II and fought a bitter partisan war against Nazism (later to be betrayed by Britain and the United States.)  

With Zelensky in the screen, the man, who gave only his first name, told Parliament: “I speak to you as a man of Greek descent. My name is Michail. My grandfather fought against the Nazis in the Second World War. I am born in Mariupol and I am now also fighting to defend my city from the Russian nazis.”

The Warfare State’s Infinitely Mendacious Echo Chamber

 David Stockman 

Posted onApril 07, 2022

It all starts with the number $813 billion, the Biden national defense budget for FY 2023. That number is so hideously – nay, grotesquely – large that it is the inherent fount of the war fevers, Russophobia and sweeping disinformation that now gushes from the Washington war machine and its auxiliaries in the mainstream media.

The fact is, never before in the history of mankind have economic resources of this gigantic magnitude been showered upon the blob-like military-industrial-intelligence-foreign aid-think tank-NGO-lobbying complex that is now ensconced in the world’s leading national capital.

 

Is Global ‘Democracy’ America’s Mission?

Patrick J. Buchanan Posted on

April 05, 2022

"In the battle between democracy and autocracy, democracies are rising to the moment, and the world is clearly choosing the side of peace and security," said President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address."This is a real test. It’s going to take time."

Thus did Biden frame the struggle of our time as the U.S. leading the world’s democracies, the camp of the saints, against the world’s autocrats, the forces of darkness.

But is "democracy" really America’s cause? Is "autocracy" really America’s great adversary in the battle for the future?

 

Partnering With Neo-Nazis in Ukraine: An Inconvenient History

by Ted Snider Posted on 

March 31, 2022

 Volodymyr Zelensky defeated Petro Poroshenko in the 2019 election on a platform that included making peace with Russia and signing the Minsk Agreements. The Minsk Agreements would have granted a degree of autonomy to the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of the Donbas that had voted for independence from Ukraine after the 2014 US backed coup put a government in power that was handpicked by the US and that was pro-West and anti-Russian. It was intense pressure from the far right wing ultranationalists that bent Zelensky from a Minsk backer into the shape of a Minsk rejecter. Under that pressure from neo-Nazi parties that have large power that is disproportionate to their small support, Zelensky abandoned his campaign peace promise and refused to talk to the leaders of the Donbas and implement the Minsk Agreements.

اوقات استثنایی

 

 کسانی که سن‌شان به پیری نزدیک میشود غالبا به بازگوئی خاطرات خود میپردازند، که البته به نظر منطقی میاید، چرا که اگر دانشی نداشته باشند، حد اقل تجربه چندین ساله دارند که ممکن است این تجربه بکار جوانان بیاید. همانطور که کسانی که به بهشت و جهنم اعتقاد دارند تصور میکنند که حتما به بهشت میروند، و من تاکنون کسی را ندیده‌ام و یا راجع به کسی نشنیده‌ام که تصور کند که به جهنم میرود. به همان دلیل هیچ کس تصور نمیکند که یک پیرمرد و یا یک پیرزن باشد، و اشخاص هشتاد و یا نود ساله نیز از پیرها به عنوان شخص سوم یاد میکنند. حال من که به مرز هفتاد سالگی رسیده‌ام، گر چه خود را پیر نمیدانم، ولی به سخنگوئی از تجربیاتم میپردازم!ا

Pentagon Drops Truth Bombs to Stave Off War With Russia

Joe Lauria- March 23, 2022

The Pentagon has been engaged in a consequential battle with the U.S. State Department and the Congress to prevent a direct military confrontation with Russia, which could unleash the most unimaginable horror of war.

President Joe Biden is caught in the middle of the fray. So far he is siding with the Defense Department, saying there cannot be any kind of NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine fighting Russian aircraft because “that’s called World War III, okay? Let’s get it straight here, guys. We will not fight the third world war in Ukraine.”

Cold War 2.0: Much Worse Than the Original Cold War

 Melvin Goodman- March 23,2022

In 2003, General David Petraeus asked “tell me how does this end”—the most memorable quote from the Iraq War. Once again, we are involved in a war—a war of horror and terror—with no idea of how it will end.  There is even talk of World War III and the use of nuclear weapons, which has allowed oped writers to discuss the unthinkable.  Their essays are often hyperbolic, but there is one certainty: the next Cold War will be more destabilizing than the original and will present challenges to national leaders who don’t appear up to the task.

 

Twice in a Century: Russia Faces a War of Annihilation

MIKE WHITNEY • MARCH 13, 2022

A war of annihilation is a war in which the goal is the complete obliteration of the state and the extermination of its people. It is defined as a radicalized form of warfare in which “all psycho-physical limits” are abolished and the strategic goals are pursued by any means necessary. It is war without rules, restrictions or moral constraints. The United States is in the early phases of a war of annihilation against Russia the aim of which is the total destruction of the economy, the culture, the population and the nation.

“We have seen 5 waves of NATO expansion. Now NATO is in Romania and Poland and they are deploying their missile-attack systems there. That’s what we are talking about. You need to understand, we are not threatening anyone. Russia did not come to the US borders or the UK borders. No. You came to our borders and now you are saying, ‘Ukraine will join NATO and will deploy their systems there. They will deploy their military bases and their attack-systems.’ We are concerned about our security. Do you understand what that means?” Vladimir Putin, press conference, You Tube

Athens Burning

Those who are  interested in  historical studies, especially in the case of ancient Iranians, the name of Zabbihollah Mansoori is a familiar name for them; the eloquent writing, and His simple and fluent style makes it easier to read his works. He passed away a few years ago, and had always claimed that his books were translations of certain foreign historians who specialized in Iranian history. His writings, therefore, are not factual, and although each story is based in general on some historically documented accounts, but what the reader reads in his books is truly a fictional novel that is mostly the product of Mansouri’s imagination.

In an article in Sharq Newspaper by Ali Akbar Qazizadeh,  in July 16, 2007, entitled "Clarify the Task of Zabihollah Mansouri", he presented solutions to elucidate the status of Mansouri's works.  He writes:

“All of these works are presented to readers in the name of translation, but scholars and literature experts know that those Western writers whose books are introduced in their names, can be classified under one of these three categories:

1)       These writers may have a foreign existence, but they have not written a book in such title or theme,

2)       They may exist, but they have written a pamphlet, essay, or a multi-leaf note that has been transformed into a detailed book by mansouri's creative and constructive mind,

3)       Or basically, since the beginning of the genesis of planet Earth, such people have not been born at all, let alone have written a book that Zabihollah Mansouri has translated into Persian.”

 

"Is Russia's Central Bank Chief a "Hostile Foreign Agent" Deliberately Sabotaging the Russian Economy?"

Mike Whitney

March 15, 2022

Interview with economist Paul Craig Roberts

“We could completely offset the negative consequences of financial sanctions if the Bank of Russia fulfilled its constitutional duty to ensure a stable ruble exchange rate, and not the recommendations of Washington financial organizations…. It was the connivance of the Central Bank which led to the fact that Russia and its industry were drained of blood and unable to develop.” Sergey Glazyev, Russian economist and author

“A person has to wonder why Russia has taken none of these steps that would bring instant agonizing cries from the stupid West and an immediate end to all sanctions and Russophobic propaganda. Russia can dictate the terms. Why does she forgo this power?” Paul Craig Roberts

 

Tell Me How Ukraine Ends

 PETER VAN BUREN

MARCH 14, 2022

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12:01 AM

Anything can happen, but Putin "losing" in Ukraine seems among the most unlikely of scenarios.

In the opening days of Iraq War 2.0, a wiser not-yet-General David Petraeus famously asked, “Tell me how this ends.” Petraeus understood that how wars end is more important than why they started. So how does the current war in Ukraine end?

Dangerous Times

When General Eisenhower was leaving the White House in January 17, 1961, in his farewell speech, he warned American people of the Military Industrial Complex. Why didn’t he do anything about this danger when he was in the office? The answer is clear. Presidents of the United States can make decisions about any issue that does not endanger the benefit of big businesses. The real control is in the hands of a few industrialists whose power exceeds beyond economics, and expands into all aspects of American societies. These are the people who made the United States the greatest nation in the world, after the Second World War, which has continued through the first decade of the 21^st century.