Neocons Have Trump on His Knees

Exclusive: The Democrats’ Russia-made-Hillary-lose hysteria has pushed a weakened President Trump into the arms of the neocons who now have a long list of endless-war ideas for him to implement, reports Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry

After slapping Donald Trump around for several months to make him surrender his hopes for a more cooperative relationship with Russia, the neocons and their liberal-interventionist allies are now telling the battered President what he must do next: escalate war in the Middle East and ratchet up tensions with nuclear-armed Russia.

Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at Fountain Park in Fountain Hills, Arizona. March 19, 2016. (Flickr Gage Skidmore)

Star neocon Robert Kagan spelled out Trump’s future assignments in a column on Sunday in The Washington Post, starting out by patting the chastened President on the head for his decision to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles at an airstrip in Syria supposedly in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack blamed on the Syrian government (although no serious investigation was even conducted).

Trump earned widespread plaudits for his decisive action and his heart-on-the-sleeve humanitarianism as his voice filled with emotion citing the chemical-weapons deaths on April 4 of “small children and even beautiful little babies.” The U.S. media then helpfully played down reports from Syria that Trump’s April 6 retaliatory missile strike had killed about 15 people, including nine civilians, four of whom were children.

However, for Kagan, the missile strike was only a good start. An advocate for “regime change” in Syria and a co-founder of the Project for the New American Century which pushed for the Iraq War, Kagan praised Trump “for doing what the Obama administration refused to do,” i.e. involve the U.S. military directly in attacks on the Syrian government.

“But,” Kagan added, “Thursday’s action needs to be just the opening salvo in a broader campaign not only to protect the Syrian people from the brutality of the Bashar al-Assad regime but also to reverse the downward spiral of U.S. power and influence in the Middle East and throughout the world. A single missile strike unfortunately cannot undo the damage done by the Obama administration’s policies over the past six years.”

Kagan continued: “Trump was not wrong to blame the dire situation in Syria on President Barack Obama. The world would be a different place today if Obama had carried out his threat to attack Syria when Assad crossed the famous ‘red line’ in the summer of 2013. The bad agreement that then-Secretary of State John F. Kerry struck with Russia not only failed to get rid of Syria’s stock of chemical weapons and allowed the Assad regime to drop barrel bombs and employ widespread torture against civilian men, women and children. It also invited a full-scale Russian intervention in the fall of 2015, which saved the Assad regime from possible collapse.”

A Seasoned Propagandist

Kagan, who cut his teeth in the Reagan administration running a State Department propaganda shop on Central America, has never been particularly interested in nuance or truth, so he wouldn’t care that Obama pulled back from attacking Syria in summer 2013, in part, because his intelligence advisers told him they lacked proof that Assad was responsible for a mysterious sarin attack. (Since then, the evidence has indicated that the attack was likely a provocation by Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate with help from Turkish intelligence.)

Prominent neocon intellectual Robert Kagan. (Photo credit: Mariusz Kubik, http://www.mariuszkubik.pl)

But groupthinks die hard – and pretty much every Important Person in Official Washington just knows that Assad did carry out that sarin attack, just like they all knew that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was hiding WMDs in 2003. So, it follows in a kind of twisted logical way that they would build off the fake history regarding the 2013 Syria-sarin case and apply it to the new groupthink that Assad has carried out this latest attack, too. Serious fact-finding investigations are not needed; everyone just “knows.”

But Kagan is already looking ahead. Having pocketed Trump’s capitulation last week on Syria, Kagan has shifted his sights onto the much juicier targets of Russia and Iran.

“Russia has … greatly expanded its military presence in the eastern Mediterranean,” Kagan wrote. “Obama and Kerry spent four years panting after this partnership, but Russia has been a partner the way the mafia is when it presses in on your sporting goods business. Thanks to Obama’s policies, Russia has increasingly supplanted the United States as a major power broker in the region. Even U.S. allies such as Turkey, Egypt and Israel look increasingly to Moscow as a significant regional player.

“Obama’s policies also made possible an unprecedented expansion of Iran’s power and influence. … If you add the devastating impact of massive Syrian refugee flows on European democracies, Obama’s policies have not only allowed the deaths of almost a half-million Syrians but also have significantly weakened America’s global position and the health and coherence of the West.”

Trump’s Probation

Yes, all that was Obama’s fault for not invading Syria with a couple of hundred thousand U.S. troops because that’s what would have been required to achieve Kagan’s “regime change” goal in Syria. And there’s no reason to think that the Syrian invasion would have been any less bloody than the bloody Kagan-advocated invasion of Iraq. But Kagan and the neocons never take responsibility for their various bloodbaths. It’s always someone else’s fault.

President Barack Obama, with Vice President Joe Biden, attends a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Dec. 12, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

And now Kagan is telling Trump that there is still much he must do to earn his way back into the good graces of the neocons.

Kagan continued, “Trump, of course, greatly exacerbated these problems during his campaign, with all the strong rhetoric aimed at allies. Now he has taken an important first step in repairing the damage, but this will not be the end of the story. America’s adversaries are not going to be convinced by one missile strike that the United States is back in the business of projecting power to defend its interests and the world order. …

“The testing of Trump’s resolve actually begins now. If the United States backs down in the face of these challenges, the missile strike, though a worthy action in itself, may end up reinforcing the world’s impression that the United States does not have the stomach for confrontation.”

And confrontation is surely what Kagan has in mind, adding:

“Instead of being a one-time event, the missile strike needs to be the opening move in a comprehensive political, diplomatic and military strategy to rebalance the situation in Syria in America’s favor. That means reviving some of those proposals that Obama rejected over the past four years: a no-fly zone to protect Syrian civilians, the grounding of the Syrian air force, and the effective arming and training of the moderate opposition, all aimed at an eventual political settlement that can bring the Syrian civil war, and therefore the Assad regime, to an end.

“The United States’ commitment to such a course will have to be clear enough to deter the Russians from attempting to disrupt it. This in turn will require moving sufficient military assets to the region so that neither Russia nor Iran will be tempted to escalate the conflict to a crisis, and to be sure that American forces will be ready if they do. …

“Let’s hope that the Trump administration is prepared for the next move. If it is, then there is a real chance of reversing the course of global retreat that Obama began. A strong U.S. response in Syria would make it clear to the likes of Putin, Xi Jinping, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Kim Jong Un that the days of American passivity are over.”

On His Knees

To put this message in the crude terms that President Trump might understand, now that the neocons have forced him to his knees, they are demanding that he open his mouth. They will not be satisfied with anything short of a massive U.S. military intervention in the Middle East and a full-scale confrontation with Russia (and perhaps China).

Former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland during a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine, on Feb. 7, 2014. (U.S. State Department photo)

This sort of belligerence is what the neocons and liberal hawks had expected from Hillary Clinton, whom Kagan had endorsed. Some sources claim that a President Hillary Clinton planned to appoint Kagan’s neocon wife, Victoria Nuland, as Secretary of State.

As Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs under Obama, Nuland oversaw the U.S.-backed putsch that overthrew Ukraine’s elected President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, replacing him with a fiercely anti-Russian regime, the move that touched off civil war in Ukraine and sparked the New Cold War between the U.S. and Russia. [For more on Kagan clan, see Consortiumnews.com’s “A Family Business of Perpetual War.”]

Clinton’s defeat was a stunning setback but the neocons never give up. They are both well-organized and well-funded, dominating Official Washington’s think tanks and media outlets, sharing some power with their junior partners, the liberal interventionists, who differ mostly in the rationales cited for invading other countries. (The neocons mostly talk about global power and democracy promotion, while the liberal hawks emphasize “human rights.”)

In dealing with the narcissistic and insecure Trump, the neocons and liberal hawks conducted what amounted to a clever psychological operation. They rallied mainstream media personalities and Democrats horrified at Trump’s victory. In particular, Democrats and their angry base were looking for any reason to hold out hope for Trump’s impeachment. Hyping alleged Russian “meddling” in the election became the argument of choice.

Night after night, MSNBC and other networks competed in their Russia-bashing to boost ratings among Trump-hating Democrats. Meanwhile, Democratic politicians, such as Rep. Adam Schiff of California, saw the Russia-gate hearings as a ticket to national glory. And professional Democratic strategists could evade their responsibility for running a dismal presidential campaign by shifting the blame to the Russians.

However, besides creating a convenient excuse for Clinton’s defeat, the anti-Russian hysteria blocked Trump and his team from any move that they might try to make regarding avoidance of a costly and dangerous New Cold War. The Russia-hating frenzy reached such extremes that it paralyzed the formulation of any coherent Trump foreign policy.

Now, with the neocons regaining influence on the National Security Council via NSC adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster, a protégé of neocon favorite Gen. David Petraeus, the neocon holding action against the New Détente has shifted into an offensive to expand the hot war in Syria and intensify the New Cold War with Russia. As Kagan recognized, Trump’s hasty decision to fire off missiles was a key turning point in the reassertion of neocon/liberal-hawk dominance over U.S. foreign policy.

It’s also suddenly clear how thoroughly liberal Democrats were taken for a ride on the war train by getting them to blame Russia for Hillary Clinton’s defeat. The liberals (and even many progressives) hated Trump so much that they let themselves be used in the service of neocon/liberal-hawk endless war policies. Now, it may be too late to turn the train around.

Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).

152 comments for “Neocons Have Trump on His Knees

  1. William Carr
    April 19, 2017 at 23:23

    Global thermo-nuclear war is a very bad idea. It ranks just ahead of world-wide U.S. NeoCon/NeoLib-led hegemony.

  2. Martin Burger
    April 13, 2017 at 14:46

    The unanswered Donald Trump question during the 2016 campaign was, is he a Bolshevik in sheep’s clothing, and did he serve another agenda over that of, making of America great again.
    With the Trumped up attack on Syria together with other smelly issues (charges of molesting young women) it is now clear he enthusiastically sucks jewish dick. While you may have fooled us all Donald, you in are way over your head with the deep source crowd and you will get what you have coming to you.

  3. my two cents
    April 13, 2017 at 07:25

    I am sure they have dirt on him.
    Trump visited Jeffrey Epstein on his pedo-island.

  4. Windy
    April 12, 2017 at 12:32

    People of honor and truth stand tall and stand behind their values and promises.

  5. Taras77
    April 12, 2017 at 12:21

    This is a big “for what it is worth” as this could be construed to merely repeating gossip and rumors but I am really upset at what I am seeing (I know I am not alone but need to try to summarize).

    It is astonishing to me how thoroughly the neo cons have taken control of this admin! Having said that, one tries to understand how this complete turnabout could occur after all of the trump rhetoric prior to the election and the alleged panic by the neo cons over this rhetoric. Looking at various blogs and “news” sites, it becomes apparent, to state the obvious, that this is a conspiracy theorist’s dream. But the caveat must be clear that no one can determine if one is simply reading about rumors, fake news, or a reasonably accurate report. All one can do is to witness the mind boggling statements and actions and be completely astonished at the turn of events!

    The kushners obviously are in the middle of things and from that flows all of the mind boggling decisions of this admin. Pls keep in mind that all of these theories are just that but some more plausible than others. And I keep running into the clinton stench, hillary reportedly received a tweet that the missile atk was going to occur, then went on tv to recommend that prior to the attack. Ivanka is close to chelsea, dina powell was brought into nsc, she is good friends with valarie jarrett, and the bottom line is that the kushners are from a nyc democratic environment. Jared definitely has close ties with new york demos and israel and jamie gorelick, an old demo/clinton hack, is the kushner’s attorney as well as the attorney for podesta’s think tank.

    Moreover, it is not diffiicult to see patraeus’s fine hand in recommended troop levels and perhaps strategy to partition syria-he and mcmaster go back and have worked and are working together. I do not think I have witnessed a more disfunctional admin with trump saying we are not going into syria, mattis saying it is still possible, mcmaster wanting 1500 additional troops in syria, haley screeching at the un trying to make samantha power appear normal, and south front, a reasonable accurate reporting site, reports that the us has off-loaded tanks and arty at a Jordian port with indications that this group will move east in syria.

    I guess to put a cap on this ramble, it is evident that the alleged panic by the neo cons resulted in a full court press to result in the total chaos in the admin (their desired result) and total control by the neo cons. the clintons, the kagans, and their big money backers riding high at the moment-America is in deep trouble as a result.

    God Bless America!

  6. April 12, 2017 at 10:16

    Neo Cons.If one is surrounded by Neo Cons and you have mixed blood with them then one could assume there is a serious connection.

    Since this is the case probability indicates real concept of Trump may have always been driven by influence mentioned.

    If one appoints those who don’t agree with their views in powerful positions what can one expect.

    Trump’s past political position changed over night one could say.

    This event shocked is supporters referring to bombing Syria.As I am one I can tell you it has depressed me.

    I hope for the best.I do not see how if Neo Cons rule as usual there can be any change.

    Russia being bipolar if true can sway actions.Problem is they knew airfield was going to be hit.

    This indicates strange bedfellows.

    Public Private Partnership-Joan Veon may also have some answers as to real direction of Make America Great Again For Who?

    If Trump does not honor is promises then his supporters have been made fools.

    Walter Haas—God Bless America

  7. Fred
    April 11, 2017 at 21:40

    I look at that photo of Kagan and think, now there’s a face that needs punching.

    • April 12, 2017 at 23:16

      Fred, I’ve been thinking the same thing for a long time.

  8. PlutoC
    April 11, 2017 at 19:00

    “Trump on his knees”? Kagan and the neocons stand over Trump with grins and dried blood of Americans who died in Iraq caked to their hands wanting to add fresh, warm American blood to them. Kagan’s number 1 priority is Israel. He wants American blood, limbs and money to take out Syria and Iran for Israel. The neocons always wanted Iraq, Syria and Iran neutralized for Israel – not the oil.

    The neocons, all of them, should be offered the choice of 2 “deals”: 1) a 3-year stint in the Army or Marines on the front line of Syria with equipment on their backs and weapons in their hands to join young Americans in battle or 2) move to Israel, their number 1 priority.

  9. Binky
    April 11, 2017 at 16:28

    The foolish notion was the idea propagated by hobby leftists on a purity binge that electing Trump would be a change from any policy already long in place.

    HRC, the subject of irrational personal animus from both the hobby left and the frothing right, at least behaved in a predictable and rational fashion.

    Trump, taking his PR cues from Linda McMahon and his moral structure from Rand and the Mafia, could simply be running a scam on the world. This is both awesome and terrifying in a world where the electronic devices we depend on can be destroyed with an electromagnetic pulse device.

    • LJ
      April 11, 2017 at 18:16

      Oh well, It’s almost cocktail time somewhere , isn’t it?

  10. mrtmbrnmn
    April 11, 2017 at 16:24

    This sarin gas con is just further proof (if any were needed after all these years of glaring examples) that the neocons are Crazy Eddie INSAAANE!!!

  11. Lou E
    April 11, 2017 at 16:12

    And yea and verily the sewage descendeth upon their coordinates.

  12. rosemerry
    April 11, 2017 at 15:56

    “Russia has increasingly supplanted the United States as a major power broker in the region.”
    What a terrible thing, that the Russians should have some influence in their own region, and our mighty, generous, peaceful and cooperative exceptional nation cannot rule the world in our inimitable fashion.

    • April 11, 2017 at 16:18

      Absolutely right! The fact is that this is the Russians’ neighborhood. They KNOW what they are doing. Not only do we not have an interest there, but we DON’T KNOW what we are doing. It’s obvious to anyone who reads even the MSM (That’s the irony of their deceit. They are so dumb, you can get the picture by reading between the lines, if you have the time.)

  13. David F., N.A.
    April 11, 2017 at 14:57

    This is brilliant. While 16 years ago, the neocons, Bush and Cheney had to pull the media, which, in turn, would pull the public, but now it is all media driven. So all Pence Trump has to do, is try to look presidential and go with the flow. See, think tanks do work.

    There will be a day when all closet neocons and useful idiots can walk the streets without fear. I know, I know, “closet neocons” has been used so often these days that its meaning is sometimes ambiguous. Oh, there’s a new CIA leak/hack/infomercial…time to dance.

  14. LJ
    April 11, 2017 at 14:54

    Amazing and scary isn’t it? The most blatant and gauche flip flop ever. , Trump probably believes that it’s his idea that the NY Times and Washington Post and Hillary and McCain and Graham and Hollande and Merkel back him suddenly. He won them over because he is very, very smart and very, very strong and so very, very decisive.

  15. Michael Eremia
    April 11, 2017 at 14:16

    The French got it right 200 years ago: “The more things change, the more they stay the same”.

  16. Mark Thomason
    April 11, 2017 at 13:50

    This was always a serious risk in what the Democrats were doing. Ramp up the Cold War, and you face that it was not always cold, and not always safe.

    It turned out well enough in retrospect, if we ignore a hundred thousand US dead in Korea and Vietnam and more, and even more ignore the millions the US killed, but that is a “good” outcome that could have turned out much worse.

    We came to the brink several times, not just the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was really hairy until it was over. Now these guys easily just cruise back into it, as if it was all a joy ride.

  17. bondo
    April 11, 2017 at 13:33

    all the kagans will be on their knees and hands. they might even roll over and bark.
    trump will win.
    it is a long and winding road.

  18. mike k
    April 11, 2017 at 12:35

    And please don’t include me in a broad category as an American. We still have a very diverse population in America, in spite of the efforts of some to make us all the same.

    • April 11, 2017 at 16:10

      Absolutely right! As a multigenerational American with colonial heritage, I make a big distinction between “my America” and the one you see out there today. Until recently, I was thinking of “America” as that country, but my attitude has changed bigly. That was a hard choice, but my survival instincts have kicked in and I’m going for broke.

      There were some big changes along the way in our immigrant population. In the early 1920s they called a big halt to immigration because things had gotten out of control in the 1`880s,90s,00s and 10s when about 4,000,000 Eastern European Jews came to this country “in droves” (as Benny Nuttyyahoo says about the Zrabs in Israel). NYC was their warehouse, where they made up one-third of the city’s population (now it’s only about 20%).

      1965 left another big milestone, the Immigration Act of that year, notoriously pushed by the organized Jewish community and their shabos goys (gentiles who do things for Jews on their holidays which they can’t do, but the term has been extended cynically to include all gentiles who work for the Jews’ benefit and their own destruction, the ultimate object of the Jews.) in Congress, included among whom Ted Kennedy. All restictions (basically open borders) were removed, and since then the country has gone from 90% to 65% White, the largest change in ethnic and racial character in any major country in the history of the world. The Jewish motivation was to dilute the White (Were they thinking German?) population and increase the multiple minority population to the point where they (the Jews) would feel more comfortable. Fewer Whites, fewer holocausts goes the thinking. Read the History. It’s all there. This is, of course, an anti-semitic rant. The fact that it’s the TRUTH is not important.

      • Druid
        April 15, 2017 at 19:45

        Well said. Most people have no idea of this truth!

    • PlutoC
      April 11, 2017 at 19:08

      With that attitude, America will never be a democracy. The plutocrats are pleased you agree with their divide and conquer approach they put into play years ago. It has been succesful – we are polarized and the next natural step ss the we kill one another in a civil war. Remember, to the plutocrats, the bottom 90% are the serfs or peasants (they have given you a choice.)

  19. mike k
    April 11, 2017 at 12:33

    Plenty of jews in Israel are strongly opposed to the cabal that runs their government and it’s policies. We need to respect this diversity and not make sweeping statements about “jews’ and “Israelis.”

    • April 11, 2017 at 15:36

      Absolutely right. There are the “good” Jews (American Council for Judaism, JStreet, Jewish Votes for Peace, IfNotNow), and the”bad” Jews (Zionists, Neo-Cons,AIPAC(all its members),ADL). Unfortunately, the “bad” always seem to be running things, wherever you go.

      • Stefan
        April 11, 2017 at 22:22

        I have a suggestion for you to read:
        Google “atzmon Jewish voice for peace”.

    • PlutoC
      April 11, 2017 at 19:10

      We hear whispers, see no action. Action is all that matters.

  20. Michael Rohde
    April 11, 2017 at 12:20

    I had hoped trump could resist the neo-cons and construct a real foreign policy for the Middle East but American jews won’t have it. I don’t know who their leader is but these people with their hidden agenda to dominate the middle east for Israel’s benefit have done harm to our national interests and are encouraging confrontation with a nuclear armed Russia. They don’ t seem to get that no matter how much money you have, you can’t tug on superman’s cape and expect to escape unscathed. This is dangerous and not in America’s best interests or the greater population of the Middle East. Creating a billion enemies for 6 million friends that are not really our friends is stupid. When will America catch on that they are being used?

    • mike k
      April 11, 2017 at 12:25

      American jews is too broad. We need to focus on Zionist warmakers, who are only a faction among Americans who happen to claim jewish identity.

  21. Bahij Sakakini
    April 11, 2017 at 11:50

    the neocon and the liberal interventionist will not relax and won’t be contented with one strike in Syria as this will not be enough to assert the US position as a world policeman and regain the uni-polar world which it has lost. These warmongers are setting the agenda to widen the US aggressive policy against Iran, Russia and China and any country who can be seen or thought to threaten the American interests and hegemony, without paying any consideration to the consequences of such irresponsible and reckless policy, even if it leads to a nuclear confrontation with Russia.

  22. Diane Pfaeffle
    April 11, 2017 at 10:07

    Please forgive me but I am not buying your cheap shot that the Democrats pushed a weaken Trump into bombing Syria, my God what has this country come too?

    Trump is no better prepared to be President of the United States than I am. Quit blaming Democrats for Trump’s failings.

    • Skip Scott
      April 11, 2017 at 11:45

      Democrat and Republican are obsolete terms. The liberal interventionists (some democrats) are in cahoots with the neocons (some republicans) to force regime change in Syria. They also are paid handsomely by lobbyists for the Military Industrial Complex to keep selling the story of “the evil Ruskies”. Trump is an idiot, but Hillary is an evil witch.
      We can only hope that some new party will form with enough people of conscience to challenge these groups at the polls and in the streets. We need a new peace movement like during the Vietnam war.

    • mike k
      April 11, 2017 at 12:20

      The democrats have plenty to answer for before, and after Trump came on the scene. The Russia hating witch hunt for starters….

  23. April 11, 2017 at 08:45

    The biggest change in foreign policy in recent decades was the development of a solid and rigidly ordered War Party in Washington that now infects all parts of the Washington with the joining of the “responsibility to protect” “liberals” and the neoconservative movement. Permanent war works for the power-structure in Washington and its clients all over the Empire and, as the oligarchs have realized, only Orwellian war can keep the masses from wondering about where their money is going.

  24. April 11, 2017 at 08:19

    All you folks who really care about were we are at. Punch in to google. Council on foreign affairs founders. You will have many directions to go. Read. Why isn’t the CFR in history books. If you do not go to this website you really want to stay in the dark.

  25. April 11, 2017 at 07:44

    Could be true. Might not be. I’m no fan of neocons, but I’m afraid this kind of article might be a bit premature. Let’s wait and see.

  26. Michael Hoefler
    April 11, 2017 at 05:20

    $120M would have built a new irrigation system for most of Syria including a filtration system to utilize sea water. I understand that the Syrian conflict began with famine and crop failures in Syria. I wonder what would happen if they declared a truce – and began to rebuild their entire infrastructure so they could feed and take care of their citizens. Just sayin’…. Why not?

    • Stefan
      April 11, 2017 at 08:47

      The Invasion of Syria by proxy, has zero to do with nonsense talk about “famine”.
      Such explanations are conjured up to muddy the waters and obfuscate what is really going on, which is an invasion of Syria by Israel, using the clout it has over USA, and hence all the other puppets in the chain.

      A related nonsensical floating explanation, is about a supposed “Qatar gas pipeline” – all utter nonsense, and again used to muddy the waters in order to hide Israel’s alliance with al Qaeda to attack Syria.

      End goal is the destruction of Iran, and Syria together with Hezbollah is a huge roadblock towards that age old goal for Israel.

      Last time Israel seriously tried to take out Hezbollah, was in 2006, and failed miserably at that.

      Israel recognized that Syria was a big reason for that military failure.

      The tactical strategy had to be revised. Syria must be deconstructed first, thus severing the link between the resistance group and Iran.

      With Syria gone, an important channel would have been suffocated, and Hezbollah may now be crushed. Hezbollah must be weakened during the process. An endless supply of Al Qaeda terrorists (using the coffers and political clout on USA and Saudis) will soften up Hezbollah by dragging into an al Qaeda war in Syria.

      Two birds in one stone, you destroy Syria, and you soften up Hezbollah to destroy next – and as a bonus, you can deny any involvement, spare your own soldiers (and thus can keep the proxy invasion going on forever – limited only to the American taxpayer).

      With all of the above accomplished – then the road to the destruction of Iran is open – they think.

  27. April 11, 2017 at 05:03

    Deception and kick the can down the road. Avoid any responsibility formulate ur argument and keepm lying. No one at the MSM never challengen the narrative they create it. Just look how quick the echo chamber chaged. Zarak character from CNN. Miss quote’ “It looks like Trump is starting to look presedential. Then that other creten on NBC.” The beautiful images of those missiles” Remind me of that Leanard Cohen song”
    It is incredible that we in the west r experiencing a total military industrial complex take over. Gulf of Tonkien moment and events that want more bloodshed and more devastation.
    What is more depressing that General Smedley Clarke saved us from a coup in the 30’s and further told us that all the US army is Hired muscle for their racketeering . Capone even had their number .
    YESTERDAYS NEWS GETS WRAPPED IN TODAYS FISH.

  28. Martin
    April 11, 2017 at 04:32

    PNAC has just become Project for a New American Clown.

  29. exiled off mainstreet
    April 11, 2017 at 01:45

    I agree with the tenor of the article that the bombing was as a result of Trump’s inability to stand up to the power structure, deep state, neocon establishment or whatever you want to call it. Unfortunately, I see this as terminal for civilisation. If Trump somehow resists further intervention pressure, rendered far more difficult by this rubicon-crossing effort, all it probably does is delay the inevitable until something happens. It’s like terminal cancer. It could last a few weeks or a couple of years. I don’t really see things ending well.

  30. fudmier
    April 11, 2017 at 00:46

    WAR PROFITERS DOES NOT DESCRIBE THE REAL PROBLEM in broad enough terms to cover its scope..

    It you look throughout the middle east, Africa, and South America you will see that since 1896 the global network created in Switzerland via Rothschild support [RSGN], has had a hat in the ring to every event”. Since 1948 the RSGN has reduced all but the biggest nations in the world to puppet controlled, zip code sized nations [easier to manage and to bully]. They have used law to force the British and the America people to pay for military big enough and strong enough to bully the people in foreign lands out of control of their own homelands and they have used law to deprive Americans of their own domestic oil and gas and America industries, jobs and quality of life. They have tried every way possible to take our guns.
    In 1904 RSGN created or took advantage of a fire in Salonika, in 1913, RSGN imposed both the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and used the supreme court to overpower the constitutionally prohibited tax on income to create the Income Tax Act of 1913. These acts assured the RSGN an unlimited source of currency [print all as needed] which could be used to achieve the RSGN objectives. RSGN directed Germany into WWI, and forced Britain when on the brink of invasion into the Balfour Agreement (1917) which could only be ratified if the leadership of the USA (1917) could force its able bodied Americans into WWI(1914-1918) on the pretense of saving the Brits. While that was going the RSGN engineered “Regime Change” in Russia. The Lenin led Bolsheviks achieved majority status in Petrograd Soviet Russia; forced Alexander Kerensky, PM of the provisional government to flee to Europe, then Lenin”s Bolsheviks proceeded with revolution, shut down all Bolshevik newspapers, deployed Bolshevik troops to take over all government buildings, arrested the provisional senate, and engaged an armed uprising and took charge of the authority of the government of Russia. The Bolsheviks arrested the members of the provisional Russian government, on October 24, 1917, all opposition to Lenin and Bolshevik government was dealt with severely. By the end of 1917-8 there was little the Russians could do. It must be remembered that Germany was at war with Russia at this time and Russia was a stronger bear than the USA was at the time, yet chaos, controlled and manipulated propaganda, armed youth teams, and what today would be called street dissent and Terrorism brought the big Bear Russia down. 32 million Ukraine Christians died before Stalin over threw the Bolsheviks in 1932. Post WWII Germany was made a villain and propaganda was used to enforce the invade and transform terms of the Balfour Agreement; when it was all over, the land ownership and governing authority of the British Colony called Palestine was handed over to Israel. Native Palestinians would serve Israel or else? Is 1917-1932 Bolshevik Russia different from 2017 Republican/Democrat USA?

    Every American is allowed to vote for five candidates (P and VP, 2 senators, 1 house member) to fill the 527 elected positions in the USA; Each American votes based on campaign promises to stop the war, to eliminate the spying, to trim back the military, to use taxes for domestic needs, but once elected, the elected candidates do as instructed? The USA no longer belongs to human Americans; instead Americans are the human property of the USA?

  31. tina
    April 11, 2017 at 00:19

    imagine, if it is possible, if your hated opponent HRC would be potus. today. Some of you believe she would have gotten into WW3 on day one. Today, our government , is doing the best they can to do just that. Trump needs his poll/rating numbers to rise. I really like this site, I appreciate Perry’s reporting, I appreciate dissent, but come on people, did you really believe DJT was fit to be president? Did you really believe he is the prince of peace? He has more GoldmanSachs people in his cabinet than HRC ever gave a speech to. .Putin, and his family and friends; Trump, and his family and friends; Tillerson, and his family and friends, and The Koch brothers and their family and friends, for them the earth is their playground. Nothing will change that.

  32. Wm. Boyce
    April 11, 2017 at 00:12

    “Yes, all that was Obama’s fault for not invading Syria with a couple of hundred thousand U.S. troops because that’s what would have been required to achieve Kagan’s “regime change” goal in Syria. And there’s no reason to think that the Syrian invasion would have been any less bloody than the bloody Kagan-advocated invasion of Iraq. But Kagan and the neocons never take responsibility for their various bloodbaths. It’s always someone else’s fault.”

    Yes, indeed, fatf@ck Robt. Kagan is going to make the creature do his bidding. And the creature is stupid, and out of his depth by a factor of 100. Good luck to all of us, we’ll be lucky to survive the next four years as a planet.

  33. Linda Furr
    April 10, 2017 at 23:27

    Unfortunately, Victoria Nuland, Robert Kagan’s neocon wife and Hillary Clinton’s new best friend in the State Department during Clinton’s tenure there, looked and sounded exactly like her mentor and former boss Dick Cheney-in-drag with the same monotone voice and quiet assumptions of knowing everything. And she was just as willing to kill thousands and thousands of people with the same compunction as Cheney’s – none. Honduras, Libya, “!%$# the EU!” and “Assad must go! Assad must go!” – to hell with international law, squandered lives and territorial integrity. Victoria Nuland was the new and old face and voice of America in W. Bush and Obama’s Washington DC. She’s out of the State Department now, thank goodness, because of Donald Trump. Let’s take up praying that Trump will wrench himself free from Nuland’s neocons and get back to working with Russia to rid the world of ISIS (the neocons’ new excuse [which we created] for full military take-over of the Middle East).

  34. Winston Warfield
    April 10, 2017 at 23:15

    I would bet a million bucks that Democracy Now would never invite you to appear, not even in the interests of balance. Most pwogwessives (spelling intentional) have joined the hive-think. The libruls are worse. Sanders simply disgraceful. Chomsky too, appears to have swallowed the Assad-done-it mantra, hook line and sinker.

  35. April 10, 2017 at 23:00

    For people like me, who do have an interest in this country by virtue of long-standing, multi-generational residence, it is easy to see that people like Kagan and Nuland, of a late 19th century vintage at best, do not. They couldn’t, based on the things that they do and say. So what are they doing living in this country? By vote of the Knesset in 1951 they are de facto citizens of Israel.

    • Dave P.
      April 11, 2017 at 01:41

      Kagans, Robert Rubin, Paul Wolfowitz, . . .these are the very people who have reduced the people of long-standing, multi-generational residence in the American Heartland to the desperate state they are in now by imposing their neoliberal agenda and de-industrializing the country – while they became richer and richer, and own just about everything, including the Politicians. It is painful for me to drive through those once flourishing industrial cities small and big in those states, now ruined and looking like graveyards.

      And now, for the last thirty years or so the likes of Kagans are in the War Making business too, full time, to do the same treatment to the countries who dare to oppose them. It is apparent that no Power in this Wide Land had dared to ask them that why don’t they send their own Kids to fight.

      Send the kids of poor folks to fight, while they enrich themselves.

      Assad, the brutal and cruel dictator! Just look at the Whole Middle East :

      King Salman: Saudi Arabia where there are be-headings – for gays, for dissenters, for heretics, for women who commit adultery – in the Public Square for the public to enjoy the spectacle.

      Gulf States Sheiks , who are Sunni in the land where shiities are majority, where they systematically dispose of whoever dares to oppose.

      Field Marshall Sisi – Egypt , where the democratically elected President had been disposed and is languishing in jail and thousands of his supporters killed. And so on with other Arab countries.

      Bashar Al-Assad (Alwite) is London trained Opthamologist, and his British born wife Asma (a Sunni) who is graduate of Queens College, London, and worked in Finance. It is good to read about her participation in Civic and Economic affairs in far flung villages, and cities in Syria for sixteen years. She is a very activist First Lady. A very secular couple.

      Yes, he has done some terrible things. But it is a tough neighborhood with Israel on one side and Turkey on the other side, Saudi Arabia, Gulf States close by – all plotting to depose him. His biggest crime is that he refuses to let his Country be a vassal State.

      • Fred
        April 11, 2017 at 21:38

        Spot on Dave

  36. April 10, 2017 at 22:50

    There is a possibility of US economic collapse, the debt is gigantic, bailing out the banks by Obama simply allowed them to recreate the potential for another meltdown which may be larger this time. I would like to see someone push back on Kagan and the neocons, not that many Americans know who they are. I would like to see a bumper sticker STOP THE NEOCON WARS instead of just the usual “Stop the War” type. It is time to bring the neocons out of the shadows. The empire is trying to save face with its wars, it is overextended like Rome and could collapse because of the astronomical debt. This time, the barbarians are running the show.

  37. Michael Keenan
    April 10, 2017 at 22:44

    Kagan is a Henchman. Needs to be brought before the Hague.

  38. R Davis
    April 10, 2017 at 22:17

    Maybe Hillary Clinton was not up to the task .. maybe her exhilarating efforts with Libya were not enough to convince the ultimate dreamer .. that she had the capability that it would take to run several wars .. in several parts of the world .. all at the same time & so they set her aside.
    The NEO-CONS how quaint .. but are they the dreamer .. or just the organ grinder .. who could be behind all this ?

    Also, have we noticed that H.E.P.C.D.B. Netanyahu is stomping around the planet like the Supreme leader of Planet Earth.
    Was he crowned King & we were not told .. or is Trump too busy & has given over some of his tasks to Netanyahu ?

  39. April 10, 2017 at 22:12

    BREAKING: Fox News Tries to Censor Truth on Idlib Alleged Chemical Attacks from Ray McGovern [listen to video]
    April 9, 2017 By Vanessa Beeley

    http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/04/09/breaking-fox-news-tries-to-censor-truth-on-idlib-chemical-weapon-attacks-from-ray-mcgovern/

  40. April 10, 2017 at 22:08

    Everyone who is reading this has a computer in your hand. punch in who is the council on foreign relations after you read who these folks are you will understand the whole game. A whole lot of sites are going to pop up go to. The story on global research . YaHa NPD.

  41. Randal Marlin
    April 10, 2017 at 22:07

    Once again, Robert, I find it heartening to read your evidence-based commentary, with so many plausible observations that stand up against what you rightly call the media group-think. The punditry is never brought to account for its misdirection and support for wars.
    Recall what Edward Luttwak wrote August 13, 2002 in the Globe and Mail, Canada, when the propaganda seeds for the Iraq war were being planted by the Bush administration.”While the chattering classes continue to ask irrelevant questions about the future of Iraq after a successful war, the issue for Mr. Bush is America’s security, not Iraq’s.” The current questions that seem to be treated as irrelevant have to do with (1) evidence of Assad’s responsibility for the chemical attacks attributed to him, (2) assessment of the likely consequences of President Trump’s missile strikes, (3) evidence supporting the principle that a country can justifiably act as judge, jury and executioner to enforce its own perception of moral right, without any need to justify the action before a duly constituted international tribunal.

  42. R Davis
    April 10, 2017 at 22:07

    The war in the Middle East .. wasn’t that plot hatched around or shortly after 9/11 ?
    U.S. General Wesley Clark told us .. the Pentagon wants .. war with 7 countries in 5 years.
    Tuesday, September 11 2001 was 9/11 .. they are way behind scheduled.
    Maybe Trump is more of a “can do man” than Obama .. do we have any idea how long all these wars have been on the drawing board .. due to procrastination of course .. then along comes a mover & shaker like Trump & it’s time to roll up the sleeves & make dreams come true.
    Who’s dreams come true .. are / is / have .. the implementation of all these wars been . over the years .. & there we find the organ grinder.

  43. Ragnar Ragnarsson
    April 10, 2017 at 21:55

    or…….

    This could be similar to Reagan attacking a target in Libya AND that was all that happened. The whole thing seemed to come out of the blue and only days after the WH saying the fate of Assad was up to the Syrian people. Which leads me to believe the chemical attack was a false flag by our own CIA.

    But as far as Trump is concerned, he may not intend to go any further. To suggest he’s been forced to his knees and is about to start blowing neocons might be going a little but too far. Only time will tell.

  44. April 10, 2017 at 21:55

    We know there is overwhelming evidence that wars were planned on various countries by war criminals in power.
    Yet, this goes unreported in the corporate media. Our so-called “leaders” (past and present) are up to their dirty necks in all this carnage.
    See link below:
    http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2016/10/the-evidence-of-planning-of-wars.html

  45. ltr
    April 10, 2017 at 21:17

    Another brilliant but tragic essay. Imagine, we have Washington Democrats pushing for the defeat of Representative Tulsi Gabbard because Gabbard questioned what Trump had done.

  46. D5-5
    April 10, 2017 at 20:57

    The movement into Syria over the past month or so was actually the “opening move” Kagan is referring to, step one. It’s possible this development will soon emerge as one concerted program board of which the chemical incident and the missile strike were minor bits or pieces, or steps along the way. Masking with language such as “safe zones” has provided cover for a massive invasive force into Syria-Iraq toward “autonomous zones,” meaning separate states (potentially another Libya). This could lead on catastrophically. Agreements such as “de-conflicting” have been ended with Russia. Kagan’s arrogance does suggest mental illness, to me. It also looks like a program which has subdued Trump into his place as mouthpiece at best. I’m disappointed. I thought he was brighter and tougher.

  47. April 10, 2017 at 20:35

    i believe the only solution left is to:

    Arrest Them

    Arrest all those responsible for the plight of the Refugees
    These people are in camps, or drowning in unfriendly seas
    And when these unwanted, reach “safety,” or a foreign land
    They are treated like garbage and the rulers want them banned

    Arrest these “rulers” who created this hell on earth
    Who act, that human lives, don’t have any worth
    They are examples of evil and should not be in power
    They really are disgraceful and an awful bloody shower

    Arrest the warmongering “leaders” who create havoc around the world
    Authorizing bombings and killings these “leaders” should be reviled
    Instead we give them fancy titles and homes to park their asses
    Will there ever be a day of reckoning and a rise up of the masses?

    Arrest the financiers of these bloody wars of destruction
    This is how these blood sucking parasites get their satisfaction
    Drag them away in chains and handcuffs, and orange prison attire
    These are the corporate cannibals who set the world on fire

    Arrest the fat and plump little “honourable” Ministers of Wars
    They are the “useful idiots” for the leading warmongering whores
    They never fight in battle or sacrifice any of their rotten lives
    They get others to do their evil work while they themselves thrive

    Arrest the corporate chieftains who feed off death and destruction
    And who count their bloodstained profits with smiling satisfaction
    These are the well dressed demons who call their investments “creating jobs”
    Meanwhile, around the world the oppressed are crying, and nobody hears their sobs

    Arrest the uniformed generals who blindly obey their marching orders
    To bomb, kill, maim and destroy: they are the brainwashed enforcers
    Years ago there were trials for war crimes committed by those in charge
    Now we need them again for we have war criminals at large

    Arrest all the aforementioned, and help clean up the world
    We cannot afford these people in power: Are they mentally disturbed?
    They are a danger to all of us and we better wake up
    Is it time to arrest all of them: Have you had enough?

    http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2015/09/arrest-them.html

    • mike k
      April 10, 2017 at 22:09

      I like your poem very much Stephen. Please keep doing them – they help in hidden ways to change our world…..

  48. Joe Tedesky
    April 10, 2017 at 20:32

    I remember back when Trump and Bannon bumbled their bright idea of imposing a very restrictive 7 nation Muslim ban. If you recall on this comment board there were conversations suggesting that the Deep State helped leave the doors open for the two White House newcomers, so as they could go out and make themselves look stupid. This came after Madonna famously declared how she would like to burn down the old presidential residency, and many here on this board added to they’re hunch that this was all Soro’s driven. Conniving and deceptive, but apparently a good enough plan to fool the American public.

    Trump’s sudden concern for children is apparently working. Again, on this comment board we all discussed the meaning of Fynn’s departure, and to where that might lead. What makes Flynn’s degraceful end so important, is that this left a most efficient path for the Neocon’s to slide McMasters in. Having Trump’s inner circle break off into a floating disarray is even better, as now Trump has only got Jared and Ivanka. I’m sure the kids are bright, but are they capable of playing in this league.

    America is traveling, or better yet being steered towards a violent fall. America’s strongest asset may just be America’s weakest link. If our adversaries were to wipe out a section of the our nation’s global hegemony would America be able to retain it with itself so stretched out? I’m not a military planner, but Russia, China, and the others could possibly do something surgical, and all that’s holding them back is that they are waiting for America to make the first move. Will Trump make it?

    If or when Armageddon will take place I suspect there will be a gnashing of teeth everywhere, and especially on some cable news outlets, but the outrage over the truth finally coming out maybe a little more than overwhelming.

    As a young twelve year old around the time of the Cuban missile crisis I remember an issue of MAD magazine doing a satire on how the wars in the future would be televised, and run and directed by the big 3 Networks. MAD had cartoon pictures of television executives with ABC, NBC, and CBS on their briefcases. Funny how at the time, and being totally a fan of the Twight Light Zone, MAD’s depiction of future wars seemed reasonable to assume it would eventually happen….well here we are and welcome to the future of MAD magazine.

  49. Abe
    April 10, 2017 at 20:19

    Perhaps we may applaud Kagan’s candor for admitting the real motivation for the current debacle: A decisive effort to “reverse the downward spiral of U.S. power and influence in the Middle East and throughout the world”.

    Kagan’s Washington Post op-ed curiously neglects to mention the key vehicles of this project for a new century of American and Israeli regional and global power: Al Qaeda and ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, formerly Al-Qaeda in Iraq).

    After the coalition invasion and occupation of Iraq, Al Qaeda started bomb attacks targeting UN representatives, Iraqi Shiite institutions, the Jordanian embassy, and provisional Iraqi government institutions. In 2005, Al Qaeda announced an agenda to extend a “jihad wave” to “the secular countries neighbouring Iraq”, culminating in a “clash with Israel”.

    George Bush’s mess in Afghanistan and Iraq eventually metastasized into Barack Obama’s mess in Syria.

    Armed attacks on the government of Syria began in Daraa in March 2011. Al Qaeda affiliated Salafist groups rapidly became the most effective fighting forces battling the Syrian government. Ideologically, the war in Syria has served the interests of Al Qaeda. Viewing Shia Islam as heretical, Al Qaeda and other Salafist terrorist groups have invested heavily in the conflict, actively backing and supporting the anti-government forces despite clashes with moderate opposition groups such as the Free Syrian Army (FSA). In November 2012, The Washington Post described Jabhat al-Nusra (Al Qaeda in Syria) as the most successful arm of the anti-government forces.

    With the rise of ISIS in 2015, Al Qaeda sought to presenting itself as “moderate” in comparison to the Islamic State forces. A second effort to “rebrand” Al Qaeda in Syria occurred at the end of January 2017. Following violent clashes with Ahrar al-Sham and other opposition groups, al-Nusra Front merged with 4 other groups to become Tahrir al-Sham.

    Kagan’s op-ed positions Trump’s mess in Syria as a litmus test for “America’s global position and the health and coherence of the West”. But that tired justification has been employed for every act of U.S. military aggression since the end of the Second World War.

    The destruction and dismemberment of Syria and Iran are long-cherished goals of the state of Israel. Israel has quietly crafted alliances with NATO-member Turkey, the Gulf Cooperation Council states, Al Qaeda and ISIS to advance this regime change agenda.

    Russian support for the government of Syria checked this agenda starting in 2013, so Russia has been directly targeted with aggressive regime change efforts.

    The Neocons may appear to have Trump on his knees.

    But rest assured, like his predecessor Obama, Trump is facing them and busy in their service, with hands and mouth eager to please.

  50. mike k
    April 10, 2017 at 19:33

    A collapsing empire is never a pretty picture. But some of us know that the failure of this one may make it the last human empire, and the beginning of the rapid extinction of humankind.

    This is indeed highly probable now, and if it must be I must confess to mixed feelings about it. On the one hand I have prayed and worked in my own way to discover a path for our for our species to avoid this self-inflicted outcome. But our determination to do our worst to each other and the other innocent species we share this beautiful planet with, has weakened my feelings of “my species, right or wrong.” There comes a point where the wrongs are so horrible that I can no longer muster any enthusiasm for a continuation of our reign of terror.

    On the bright(?) side, when we are gone all the other wonderful species will give a deep sigh of relief, and then get busy seeing how much of the damage we have inflicted on them and their environment can be healed going forward. On our tombstone, if anyone leaves one could be written, “Goodbye forever. Your life here has ended in a complete failure.”

    • mike k
      April 10, 2017 at 20:04

      Proof reading is such a bitch, ‘for our” is mistakenly repeated above. But correcting your own writing is always tricky. I worked as a proof reader at one time, and did pretty good work. But my own stuff? That’s a whole other ballgame. I only saw the error on reading it when it was published. It must be that when I read it again, it was like someone else’s work, and I could be objective and see the mistake.

    • Bob Van Noy
      April 10, 2017 at 20:06

      ”Grave of British Soldiers
      They came three thousand miles and died,
      to keep the past upon its throne:
      Unheard, beyond the ocean tide,
      their English Mother made her moan.”
      April 19, 1775

      Years ago l became enamored with Ralph Waldo Emerson and was eventually able to visit Concord Massachusetts and explore his environment. I found out many exotic things about Emerson and Concord, I was changed by the experience, but one of the most startling finds for me was the British monument at North Bridge. It reads like a cry from the dead that they had no business fighting and dying in that particular location. Will we Ever Learn?

      Thanks mike k.

      • Bill Bodden
        April 10, 2017 at 21:03

        I was changed by the experience, but one of the most startling finds for me was the British monument at North Bridge. It reads like a cry from the dead that they had no business fighting and dying in that particular location. Will we Ever Learn?

        The Brits were participants in wars for centuries before the war of the revolution and have been constantly at war ever since. If they didn’t learn from the monstrous and barbaric First World War it is difficult to foresee when they will ever learn. The ridiculous class system that is still part of British culture is a big factor. Americans who have learned the wrong lessons from the Brits are now cursed with a similar class system.

      • mike k
        April 10, 2017 at 21:59

        Thanks Bob Van Noy. Sometimes I just have to let myself feel and give expression to the whole fatal hopeless madness of it all. Then I pick myself up and continue like Sisyphus to roll the stone of trying to help my world back up the dark mountain that Robinson Jeffers wrote about in his poem Rearmament, at a time similar to our own prior to WWII.

        These grand and fatal movements toward death: the grandeur of the mass
        Makes pity a fool, the tearing pity
        For the atoms of the mass, the persons, the victims, makes it seem monstrous
        To admire the tragic beauty they build.
        It is beautiful as a river flowing or a slowly gathering
        Glacier on a high mountain rock-face,
        Bound to plow down a forest, or as frost in November,
        The gold and flaming death-dance for leaves,
        Or a girl in the night of her spent maidenhood, bleeding and kissing.
        I would burn my right hand in a slow fire
        To change the future … I should do foolishly. The beauty of modern
        Man is not in the persons but in the
        Disastrous rhythm, the heavy and mobile masses, the dance of the
        Dream-led masses down the dark mountain.

        — Robinson Jeffers, 1935

        Rearmament was written in response to Russian rearmament in 1934.

  51. Patrick
    April 10, 2017 at 19:31

    I have said this before but the author and some of these commentators need to give Trump a little more credit. He is NOT stupid. This bombing was a minimal response. They did not even target the air strip so planes can still fly there. The response was a clear warning. I have no idea what happens next but this war in Syria reminds me of the ten year war between Iraq and Iran which Iraq started. It is Sunni versus Shiite but this time all the countries are in on it including unfortunately Turkey. This Syrian war started seven years ago so we have about three more years to go.

    • Gregory Kruse
      April 10, 2017 at 20:19

      Saddam was goaded into that war with assurances from the West, which the West then reneged on.

    • Joe Tedesky
      April 10, 2017 at 22:22

      Patrick forget Trump making a great show of it, and consider what the rest of the world thinks. I know I’m asking you to do something quite unAmerican, but seriously Patrick how much longer until the world recoils at the U.S. Bluster Machine? All this tough guy talk, is finally going to come to an end. Stoking and poking, and making our own reality can only led us further down a unwinnable path. Rev Wright wasn’t all wrong, the chickens will come home to roost.

      Don’t get me wrong I’d be the first to defend my America, but while we play target practice in the Middle East, and deploy War Ships up to the edge of conflict in N Korea, to claim this is done under the umbrella of National Security is only a convenient sound bite which sells our nation’s aggressiveness to the gullible masses. I’m not sure if Thursday’s Tomahawk missile attack having a 49.15% accuracy rate is good or maybe even acceptable, but if this is any example which leads to a F35 debacle or worst yet another Vietnam style tradegy such as the M16 Jamming Jenny rifle well then we should at least be a little more humble with our warring hubris since our superiority of war inventions sometimes fails us. Just because our Military Industrial Complex sees a Rich America Sucker doesn’t mean that the MIC always sells us what we need, nor what will be reliable when needed. Remember this weapons industry has an open door policy of employment recruitment for the military’s retiring top brass, could this be that by cutting these old generals and admirals in on the profit margins the MIC may keep all associated to their continued manufacturing of kill toys a little quiet?

      These wars are not to spread freedom, or forget to save gas attacked dying children, so please don’t rally behind Trump when someday you may have wished you hadn’t, and instead called this number (202-456-1111) and told our president to cut it out, and start being a true Diplomate and find more peaceful solutions.

      I’m not giving you hell, just my opinion.

    • Skip Scott
      April 11, 2017 at 08:03

      Patrick- the Sunni-Shia rift is overblown when it comes to Syria. The majority of soldiers in the Syrian army are Sunni, not Shia. They are fighting for Assad because they want to keep Syria secular, like Iraq under Saddam. Check out Eva Bartlett for the clearest view on what is really going on in Syria. The Syrian soldiers know it is either victory, or they become the next Iraq or Libya.

  52. Salford Lad
    April 10, 2017 at 19:20

    The true motive behind the wars in the Middle East, is to maintain the US dollar as Reserve Currency and the Petrodollar as the unit of value for a barrel of oil. thus financing the US economy and its Military enforcement machine.
    Russia and China have been dumping their US Treasury Bonds slowly and now trade between themselves in Gold,Yuan and rubles.
    They have formed a new Financial system with the AIIB (Asian investment and Infrastructure Bank). They have formed a new Bank Clearing System,separate from SWIFT. They have their own credit card systems.
    China is building the NEW SILK ROADS and sea arteries to connect the countries of ASIA to Europe. Trade along these routes will be in local currencies,by-passing the dollar.
    The Silk Roads by-pass the US Navy’s control of the sea route choke points and make their carrier fleets largely redundant as enforcement tools..
    For the Washington war machine,Syria is but a stop along the road to Iran, then up into Central Asia to cut and control the Silk Road and impose the US dollar toll charge.
    The New Silk Roads spell the end of the US dollar as the dominant currency and the end of the US military and Financial hegemon.
    Thus Syria is a major pivot point in World History and will be a war to the end. Empires die slowly and usually decay from within, but this may not be the case with the neocon psychopaths reluctant to concede power.
    There are other US allies with interests in subduing Syria; Saudi and Qatar to build their gas pipeline to the Meditterean and on to the European Market, this undermines Russian near monopoly of supply and will undermine their already fragile economy.
    Turkey with its grab for the corridor to the oilfields of Mosul and subjugation of its rebellious Kurds.
    Israel and its Oded Yinon plan to break-up Syria and grab land, also to cut the Shia Crescent connecting Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
    European countries who are reliant on Russian gas energy supplies and wish to have another supply source from the Gulf States.
    So there are many countries ready to feed on the carcass of Syria ,if it is defeated

    • bear47
      April 10, 2017 at 21:13

      Salford Lad,
      Just the opinion of an old, worn out former US Marine who did his 13 months in the Vietnam war for profits to Wall Street, I think you are as close to the truth as anybody else posting comments here.
      The US of A, or as I have been calling it for years now; ‘Merikkka, is on the downhill slide and the slide is getting faster, the slope down ever steeper. The end will be very messy.
      My personal view is that every damn fool war the US has been in since 1945 have ALL been wars of choice. These wars have been for profit for the very rich. They do not do the fighting. As Mr. Parry has pointed out more times that I can count, these neocons who are all so in favor of these idiotic wars never do any of the actual combat and when their p,lans go belly up, as they almost always do, they take NO responsibility for the failures. Damn cowards the lot of them.
      The US wars since 1945 have been fought for the very rich by the working class and poor kids. All the talk about the ‘Merikkkan ‘middle class’ is total crap. So many working class folks have been fooled into thinking they are middle class. What a huge crock of cow manure. I was born into a working class family and was just a working class person until injury and age got me into retirement. I am proud to have been a working class human being. This ‘Merikkkan ‘idea’ that being working class is somehow shameful is so full of cow manure it is sinking the entire country.

      • Joe Tedesky
        April 10, 2017 at 21:54

        I wrote the following yesterday bear47, when some of us were debating Bill Maher’s Islamphohic rants. At the time I was attempting to get more people to focus on what really plaques us. After reading what you wrote here I would like to rewrite what I wrote yesterday, and see if you agree with the tactics and mindsets employed upon our terribly misinformed American public too what it is.

        “The bad guys are who we say they are, the mission is never about winning, but the goal is always about the largest amount of profit to be made, and the beat goes on.”

        Until we Americans somehow can confront the Corporate Facist straight on, and by some unknown means shut them down I see no other way out. I hope I’m all overthinking it, but it sure does look like the crazies who have so far been destroying this country are now preparing for the finale. Let’s hope I’m wrong, but let’s at least get it right for who we should hold responsible.

        And then ask yourself, when in our lifetime (I’m 67) has it ever been any different?

        • Skip Scott
          April 11, 2017 at 07:57

          The ironic thing is that their country club walls will not protect them from the nuclear fallout. They are as doomed as the rest of us. The utter hubris of people like Kagan never ceases to amaze me. They seem to think that their actions will never have any repercussions for them personally.

          I think a pitchfork revolution is our only hope at this point, and the sheeple are so controlled by bread and circuses I don’t see it happening in time.

          • Joe Tedesky
            April 11, 2017 at 10:27

            Skip when the stuff starts flying we are all coming over to your house. I might even take up drinking once again, and if I do you will be the first to want and shoot me. When you do put a bullet in my drunken body then I will have taken the easy way out….sick humor may help, so bear with me until you can’t.

            Like you I often wonder what world people like the Kagan’s are in. Apparently maybe there are all those hidden elite bunkers that you and I know nothing about.

            Let’s hope that there is a peaceful solution, and our leaders will find it.

        • bear47
          April 11, 2017 at 10:02

          Joe,
          I am 69 and very tied of the mess this country has become. The media is constantly used to keep the working people divided with false divisions, i.e., religion, skin color, etc.. I keep hoping for the day when the workers of the US of A (‘Merikkka) wise up and have national strikes as many in Europe did shortly after my four years in USMC were done. Remember the early to mid 1970s? It was a rare month when France or some other large nation in Europe did not have full on national strikes.
          Of course thanks to ‘saint” Ronnie of Ray-gun, the unions in ‘Merikkka have been neutered so as to keep the workers from ever organizing. That I think is one of the great fears of the ‘ruling class’ of ‘Merikkka.
          By the way, I have an Honorable Discharge from USMC hanging above my computer desk. While I despise war, I still have an odd pride in the fact that I did serve honorably as a Marine.
          For an ever better take on war, please do a web search for a short booklet; “War is a Racket”. It was written by General Smedley Butler who served for 33 years as a Marine Corps officer. Int is available online, often for free. Well worth reading for all who despise wars of choice. He shows how wars generate huge profits, not just for weapons makers, but even those who make socks and underwear. The troops need those items as well as bullets and guns.

          • Joe Tedesky
            April 11, 2017 at 10:21

            Actually bear47 when I read your comment I thought of Smedley Butler, and how he could have written what you wrote. Although I didn’t get stationed in Vietnam I was in the Amphibs who for most of the time were in Little Creek Va.. The ships I were on all took cruises with Marines on board who came back from that wicked Asian war, so I knew a lot of guys such as yourself.

            I could not agree more about the unions. I have said on this board that we Americans should all go on strike. Could you imagine one day empty highways, empty airports, empty everything. I don’t know maybe my idea is stupid, but something must be done to wake these leaders of ours up.

            If you read my comments you will read of how I feel probably a lot like you do. You are right War is a Racket.

      • Bill Bodden
        April 10, 2017 at 22:34

        My personal view is that every damn fool war the US has been in since 1945 have ALL been wars of choice.

        Almost all wars in which the United States has been engage from the War of the Revolution to the present have been wars of choice.

        • Brad Owen
          April 11, 2017 at 12:19

          I think he meant wars of (attempted) colonial recapture for a covert Western Empire, which have NEVER been in America’s national interest. We’ve been converted into a mere Province of a Western Empire, displacing FDR’s genuine anti-colonialism (hell, Ho Chi Minh was OUR ally in WWII, and FDR agreed they should be liberated to attain sovereignty, just as he agreed to the Philippines sovereignty from us) with a bogus anti-communism lie, that served interests other than our own national interest.

      • Natasha
        April 11, 2017 at 16:28

        I just commented the same thing before I noticed your reply.
        He hits the nail on the head.
        Nothing else makes sense otherwise.

    • Natasha
      April 11, 2017 at 16:26

      This makes more sense than anything else I have read.
      Thank you for sharing this…
      Clearly you know what is actually going on..
      Do you write a column? Commentary?

  53. April 10, 2017 at 18:56

    How do we hit back on this fat psychopath to let him know that some Americans are not clueless about his goadings for war? Any suggestions, Mr. Parry? I will continue to call the White House daily, and I think I’ll mention the neocons’ goading of Trump to war. I’d like some suggestions on some effective ways to push back on these sick neocons, they have controlled the insanity of this nation for too long and their armchair warmongering must be decimated.

    • Dr. Ibrahim Soudy
      April 10, 2017 at 19:28

      Jessica,

      If I may suggest. These neocons are only the mouthpieces of the true power brokers and those are the BANKERS. Trump himself filled his administration with Goldman Sachs people!! Remember the out crying of those who wanted to see the speeches Hillay gave to Goldman Sachs?! See, the BANKERS own the whole darn circus and we think that we have a say!!!

      Those who control the MONEY control the whole thing. Elect Obama or McCain…..elect Obama or Romney…..elect Trump or Hillary does not make much difference……all work for the BANKERS.

      You want to beat the BANKERS?!…..Put them out of business……how?

      – Do your personal banking with Credit Unions.
      – Stop using credit cards……..
      – Join the effort of the Public Banking Institute to create state banks like the BANK OF NORTH DAKOTA.
      – Wake up your circle of friends and family and encourage them to do the same………
      – No money on professional sports or Hollywood and other brainwashing tools that are all part of the arsenal of the BANKERS…

      • backwardsevolution
        April 11, 2017 at 00:20

        And the banks are trying to get rid of cash. Don’t let them! Once they get everyone using credit and debit, they will totally control us. Pay cash when you can.

    • Abbybwood
      April 11, 2017 at 01:45

      We have Ann Coulter, Alex Jones, Michael Savage, Marine Le Pen and Nigel Farage ALL ticked off at Trump for the missile strike on Syria.

      Even Milo is displeased!

      Here is Alex Jones:

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ohhsXCUVHho

  54. D5-5
    April 10, 2017 at 18:47

    Currently youtube news versions are full of invasion of Syria underway as of today, events leaping ahead now into Kagan’s script:

    “ . . . the missile strike needs to be the opening move in a comprehensive political, diplomatic and military strategy to re-balance the situation in Syria in America’s favor.”

    Reports of 3000 special forces, marines, heavy equipment, McMaster trying for 150,000 boots on the ground. I hope this is false news . . .

    • Libby
      April 11, 2017 at 13:48

      The quote you selected is, I think, the crux of the matter: the US must be dominate, no matter. And the neocons are angry.

  55. DannyWeil
    April 10, 2017 at 18:45

    Yep, this seems to be the truth. Thanks, Rachel Maddow and the sordid corporate demos for this. Meanwhile, behind all of this the reactionaries are not only implementing austerity,but they might even get a Constitutional Convention to change the Constitution. they now have 26 states behind the initiative.

  56. Zachary Smith
    April 10, 2017 at 18:28

    Trump earned widespread plaudits for his decisive action and his heart-on-the-sleeve humanitarianism as his voice filled with emotion citing the chemical-weapons deaths on April 4 of “small children and even beautiful little babies.”

    This simply isn’t Trump. Nothing I know about either his history or recent behavior includes any version of this. I’m probably quite wrong, but for now I’m going with the view this Trump humanitarianism” is as fake as a three-dollar bill.

    I don’t believe Trump thought he had a chance of winning the White House, and his actions since the election tell me he simply isn’t serious about doing the job. He started outsourcing everything he could, and has kept on giving away even more of his duties to others. He didn’t and still hasn’t attempted to fill many important jobs. News reports have him losing a whale of a lot of money, and he’s under such close examination these days that his free-wheeling business style is seriously crimped.

    I think he wants out, but in a way that will preserve his self-image. So conspiracy theory time. Why not try something like the totally lawless Syrian attack while wrapping himself in a mantle of highfalutin virtue. When criticism mounts to some level he deems to be adequate, he can resign while chanting some version of “I was trying to save helpless little babies from the cruel tyrant Assad, and I’m catching hell for it. This is just wrong, and I’m not going to be under endless attack for being the Greatest Christian In All History. You totally don’t deserve me, so goodbye, and good riddance.”

    OK, I’ll concede this is totally crazy stuff, but how many other ways can his loopy and erratic actions be explained? Looking out for #1 is the defining characteristic of the Trump I’ve come to know.

    • DannyWeil
      April 10, 2017 at 18:48

      No it is not crazy. The man is losing his wife and has to sdevote all his energy to issues which affect the world, of which he is not much interested.

      I think you are right. He never expected to win and has no idea of what to do. So he can be stuffed like a pig ready for the skewer with neo-con lies and war.

      • Brad Owen
        April 11, 2017 at 12:06

        So it’s time for him to go all “Sarah Palin” on us and just walk away from the job…probably mumbling “this position is so effed up that nobody can play it.”

    • Abbybwood
      April 11, 2017 at 01:41

      He’s been golfing 16 times since the inauguration!

  57. F. G. Sanford
    April 10, 2017 at 18:20

    I read the Robert Kagan article the other day, and have been waiting with bated breath for Robert Parry’s inevitable dissection. Yep, things are getting pretty dicey. We’re all in suspense waiting for the next “salvo” Killer Kagan recommends. With time on my hands, I cruised the internet looking for some inspiration. I ran into the Scott Horton Show, which featured retired Army Colonel Claudio Antonio recounting his investigation of H.R. McMaster for mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners. Seems the findings got buried, but Antonio sounds credible enough to conclude that McMaster is an unprosecuted war criminal with sadistic tendencies. Another source claims that Petraeus withdrew his name from the hat for National Security Advisor when he heard McMaster would take the job. Petraeus is in cahoots with H.R., and the narrative suggested that Petraeus operates him by remote control. Thusly, Petraeus is the “stealth” NSA director, and together with H.R., they aim to convince President Trump to deploy 150,000 ground troops to Syria to “straighten out the MiddleEast”.

    Surrounded by competent(sic) advisors like “Dr.” Sebastian Gorka, who knows what decisions may be taken? The Trump administration has its very own “Lord Haw-Haw” in the person of Gorka, who recently touted his superlative capabilities on the Bill O’Reilly show. A review of Gorka’s bona fides suggests that his resume is both heavily padded and subject to change on a whim. Supposedly serving in the British Army as a counterterrorism specialist, attempts to determine his actual credentials have led multiple investigators down blind allies and rabbit holes. Gorka was apparently an enlisted reservist who served in a unit which never engaged in counterterrorism operations. Various researchers have labelled him a “con man” and “opportunist”. He was also apparently once a member of a society associated with ideological exponents of Miklos Horthy, the Hungarian WWII Nazi collaborator. But Gorka has a refined English accent, which is an essential attribute for anyone seeking to bamboozle gullible Americans.

    At this point, no serious researcher denies that the “chemical” attack last week was at best an accident, and at worst a false flag. And BOY! We sure showed Assad a thing or two with that missile strike! Twelve hours later, Shayrat airbase was back up and running! Yep, the Neocons have got just what they wanted. Brian Williams described the attack using the word “beautiful” three times. The Neocons have co-opted the U.S. Government. Ensuing war crimes will be committed by reliable lackeys whose personal histories will play well to prosecutors should war crimes trials come to pass. Kagan may do well to contemplate the fate of Julius Streicher and Alfred Rosenberg. Journalists both, their “necktie party” for lifetime achievement was a choking success!

    • john
      April 20, 2017 at 18:36

      Thanks for that. Very interesting.

  58. jfl
    April 10, 2017 at 18:13

    ‘The liberals (and even many progressives) hated Trump so much that they let themselves be used in the service of neocon/liberal-hawk endless war policies. Now, it may be too late to turn the train around.’

    are you kidding me? the ‘liberals’ and ‘progressives’ ‘allowed’ themselves to be used in the service of neocon/liberal hawk endless war polices for eight long years under barack obama!!

    who do you think draw the salaries from the wehrmacht and clip the coupons from the war industries? the split in the us a over endless war is between those for whom endless war pays … the people who work on the coasts, on wall street, in california’s and washington’s weapons factories, and spy-central silicon valley … and the rest of us.

    there’s no war-monger like a fat, well-off liberal/progressive war-monger hypocrite.

    • April 10, 2017 at 18:38

      NeoCon and NeoMcCarthyites HEART Democratic Humanitarian Interventionist.

    • Dave P.
      April 11, 2017 at 00:23

      Excellent. Right on the mark.

    • Anthony Noel
      April 18, 2017 at 18:48

      “There is really no hope of accomplishing anything genuinely new or different in American politics until the Democratic Party is done away with.”

      – Hunter S. Thompson
      1972

  59. turk151
    April 10, 2017 at 18:11

    The genius of the Trump campaign was his ability to target and destroy his opponents in a couple of simple words that gets repeated over and over.

    Lyin Ted
    Crooked Hillary
    Little Marco
    Low Energy Jeb

    What is a Neocon, euphemism for what exactly? Is it really that important to credit Levi Strauss? As if this anything to do with philosophy.

    How about “War Profiteers have Trump on his Knees” instead?

    Why not start out every article with “War Profiteers Nuland and Kagan” and watch how fast they go down.

    • April 10, 2017 at 20:12

      “Con” in French does not imply conservative. Ultra.

    • Sam F
      April 10, 2017 at 20:40

      Actually in the Mideast the motive is primarily to get bribes from Jewish supporters of Israel. Those accounted for every one of Killary’s top ten “contributions”. The next motive is to get Saudi bribes. Then to pick up reflexive right-wingers. Way down the list is MIC bribes and keeping the military happy.

      • backwardsevolution
        April 11, 2017 at 00:09

        Sam F – so you are saying that the priority is Israel first? And that is because they own the money (banks, Federal Reserve), because they own the media, because they own academia, think tanks, congressmen, senators.

        Rich Zionists control or contribute to the above and, because of this money greasing the wheels, huge amounts of money get sent back to Israel by the American public? One great big circle? Then young American boys get to fight and die in wars so that Israel may live and be protected in a country that should never have been?

        And soon nobody in Europe is going to think about boycotting Israel, as they will soon be sitting in the same boat Israel is, surrounded by jihadists bent on blowing them up? Is that it, allow hordes of refugees, mixed in with terrorists, to invade Europe so that the people of Europe will eventually empathize with Israel? Then in future we can all look forward to a great big religious war?

        • Brad Owen
          April 11, 2017 at 04:29

          Look higher up the chain of command: this the Roman Empire making sure there is no more revival of another Muslim Empire to take away their Provinces again (and the Mongol Hordes are also in the back of their minds). I’m talking about very old dynastic families, including the Windsors, junior branch of the Hanovers, who are probably a junior branch to an even older dynastic family (having achieved the ultimate in power: anonymity). They created Israel as the cover reason for suppressing any nascent Muslim Empire (defend Israel at all costs), they’ve recaptured America as their manpower Province, used to,recruit “Roman Legions” kept at a safe distance so they can never “cross the Rubicon” again. They’ ve created KSA to help serve their ends regarding ME Provinces (like favoring one Celtic tribe against other warring Celtic tribes: divide & conquer). They’ve set up their fall guys in case everything goes south: Israel zionistas, KSA, America. Everybody takes the bait. The Patriots knew who the real enemy has always been: old European, Imperial, Dynastic Family lines and their financial/managerial Elite in their loyal employ.

          • Brad Owen
            April 11, 2017 at 07:22

            They steer the “three Great Republics” (America, Russia, China: all who’ve renounced Crowns) towards warring upon one another, BECAUSE they alone, combined in alliance, are the ONLY ones who can defeat & dismantle this new Roman Empire once-and-for-all-times. America is in a unique position to “Blunt” the Empire’s main weapon (financial manipulation) with Glass-Steagall, & a National Credit bank dedicated to investment in infrastructure and REAL economy. China’s Silk Road policies and Trump’s attraction to it, was an immanent & dangerous threat to the Empire, hence steering Trump AWAY (by threat or seduction; whichever works) from it, and TOWARDS perpetual war, to keep Muslin Nations in “failed state” status, and threatening Russia & China (with their American Province, NOT themselves of course) with a war of annihilation, thus killing off three threats-to-Empire with one war. They’re still working on how to accomplish this last Mission without destroying the entire World.

          • Turk151
            April 11, 2017 at 19:41

            This is a concise of a summary of how I believe the world works.

            Israel is toxic, but ultimately merely a diversion. I see them willing accomplices, but probably not the ultimate power because they are far too visible a target.

          • Brad Owen
            April 12, 2017 at 04:28

            To Turk 151:
            We must put a stop to them. This is what America was called in existence to do. We haven’t had much success in this mission. In fact, we are ” captured” by the Empire at the present time. Trump represented another break-out moment. It ain’t over yet though. They won’t stop of their own accord. They’ll eventually get around to reclaiming Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, if they put down the Three Great Republics. There still are some Americans who know their mission, so all is not lost yet.

        • Peter Loeb
          April 11, 2017 at 07:03

          ISRAEL’S ROLE

          It’s nice to know that there are some perceptive and honest
          so-called “anti-Semites” like backwardsrevolution. (And me!)

          No one wants to touch this, of course.

          For background, see Thomas Suarez’ THE TERROR STATE,
          Norman Finkelstein’s THE HOLOCAUSST INDUSTRY (beginning),
          even arch conservative Robert Riggs’ DEPRESSION, WAR AND
          COLD WAR, in particular on how those who rule (large
          corporations) blackmailed the “deranged government” of
          FDR for profit, profit and more profit.

          When the Defense Appropriation Bill is passed and the
          tax cuts are in legislation guaranteeing the wealthy
          NO RISK gain the assumption being that they will
          invest in “real investment” which is “bs”
          (see Jack Rasmus,EPIC RECESSION PRELUDE TO
          DEPRESSION for how investment really works.

          And that is where we are irrevocably headed.

          With horror, I emailed my “liberal” Representative
          saying his anti-Assad crap was sad and tragic.(i disn’t
          use such language.)

          “In conclusionh” as political speeches always end—long
          before the “conclusion”, many, many thanks for Robert
          Parry’s continued excellent articles. We all depend on
          people like Parry and other Consortium writers for
          a glimpse of truth.

          In thanks,

          Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA

          • Drew Hunkins
            April 11, 2017 at 10:40

            Also see James Petras’ books: “Zionism, Militarism and the Decline of US Power” and his “The Power of Israel in the United States.” Also see Alison Weir’s “Against Our Better Judgement” and Mearsheimer and Walt’s “The Israel Lobby.”

          • backwardsevolution
            April 11, 2017 at 13:25

            Peter and Drew – thank you for the reading selections you suggested.

    • Rob
      April 10, 2017 at 20:53

      Thanks for “cutting to the chase” on MSM complicity in endlessly validating the Neo-Con world view.

  60. bobzz
    April 10, 2017 at 18:06

    There is nothing in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) to cover this. A religious term in required: demonic.

  61. Drew Hunkins
    April 10, 2017 at 18:05

    The insouciant American public better come to the realization pronto that our ruling class in Washington is filled with warmongers across the state-politico-media nexus. These sociopathic leaders along with their slick media lapdogs will stop at nothing until every single head of state across the globe bows in obeisance to Wall Street, Tel Aviv and the military empire builders.

    These current imperialists in Washington are now intent on completely obliterating states and turning them into failed wastelands. These militarist oligarchs rule through chaos, fear, extortion and turmoil.

    The tragedy of all this is that 80% of the US public is understandably deathly worried about other domestic issues rather than the militarist-Zionist cabal that’s been running roughshod in Washington for the last 20+ years. Filled with massive amounts of economic insecurity and suffering under mounds of student loan and credit debt, living in debt peonage to the parasitic financial elite, one paycheck away from destitution, forced to double and triple up on housing causing interpersonal strain, and drowning all the misery in opiate, alcohol and credit consumption, the working class has been defeated.

    An otherwise healthy and aware working and middle class could possibly put a stop to this dangerous nonsense but of course it’s off the radar for so many b/c the contemporary domestic politico-economic nightmare’s engulfing tens of millions as low wages, un and underemployment and 60 hour work weeks stalk the towns and cities of America.

    A working class consciousness rooted in the bread and butter kitchen table issues needs to come to the forefront, bellowing screams of defiance that the giant defense contractors’ wars and Israeli wars are not the fight for our millions of desperate working class boys.

    • DannyWeil
      April 10, 2017 at 18:50

      And this is show the elite roll. Slight of hand here, slight of hand there always confusing for this way no one knows what is really going on. They almost operate asymetrically like Al Qaeda, assuring one hand knows nothing about what the other is doing.

      Confusion is the biggest weapon and the coin operated politicians and socks puppet corporate press are paid well to seed it.

  62. Bill Bodden
    April 10, 2017 at 18:04

    It is mind-boggling that the American people can’t seem to recognize that these people who are promoting this war on Syria are the same people who promoted the catastrophes in Iraq, Libya and Yemen while they have their eyes on Iran, Russia and who knows what else. If it were just these brain-dead nonentities that would suffer I would be tempted to say “bleep ’em” and go shoot some pictures in our national parks or along the west coast, but the youngest generation is innocent and deserves better.

    • DannyWeil
      April 10, 2017 at 18:51

      “There is nothing more dangerous than ignorance in action.” Goethe

      • Kiza
        April 10, 2017 at 22:50

        You may be giving too little credit to Trump. My feeling is that his switch over was planned from the beginning. Through Jared Kushner, even his campaign has been run by the Ziocons. You may wish to refer to Leo Strauss, the Godfather of Ziocons on deception if you have not already.

        Much more importantly than what has been done in Syria so far, at least for the US, is that no positive change has been done or even properly initiated on the domestic front. In other words, the fuss about Syria is hiding that there is absolutely zero chance that Trump will do any of the desperately needed reforms in US against the entrenched interests. Naturally, now that Trump has shown that he is just another swamp dweller, the media will probably start covering up for his lack of the change the electorate voted for.

        In summary, only a civil war appears to be able to deliver the necessary changes. Externally, the US will keep talking tough and leaking like a broken seave. The silent and stealth opposition to the regime, such is leaking, will keep increasing. The US will be more and more a paper tiger, which will rely on the concentrated power of nuclear weapons instead of a divided and demoralised military.

        • Joe Tedesky
          April 11, 2017 at 01:09

          KIza recommending a civil war? What are we Americans watching on our tv? Is it not a civil war already? There is every reason to believe that Trump’s first 80 days serving as president has been under siege, a media led coup if you will. I know you know this, and I’m being redundant with my angle on the issue, but I do think that since the 2016 presidential election that a civil war of somekind did break out, and the Donald has or is on the ropes, take your pick to the time element.

          Now if there is a third party within our government that has some juice, maybe even high ranking enough military officers, oh and their mission was to turn America around and away from the Neocon’s wouldn’t that be something to cheer on for? The U.S. Foreign Policy is not keeping up on the times. Within my grandchildrens 21st Century shifting of power will be an evolutionary paradigm, and America would be wise to join this evolution rather than destroy itself trying to be something it’s not able to accomplish. Bigger doesn’t always mean better, or that you will win. Alliances could develop to crush your quest for world hegemony…all this damn technology might not even work, so why risk it?

          To change this without a fair and balanced media would rely in my mind something from within the system that would just say no, and enough is enough. We are so deregulated brainwashed and corporation conscience that the public goes along with TSA groping to protect us from terrorists, whereas apparently the real danger is with the airport security when they drag you out of a overbooked flight. That mindset that drove that was a corporate mindset which set in and decided to run its customer service with the attitude of ‘how else they going to fly’, because we allowed profit ideology to drive the corporate mission statement, and this is in a country which is proud to have healthcare as a privilege and not a human right. In the Dakota Access the American corporate system has a portion of our citizens cheering on the oil over human life giving water, mostly because they think there’s employment. This whole thing has become a mean joke.

          How the voice of reason can take over a country of 340 million I don’t know, but it’s always good to read and write with you….Joe

          • Kiza
            April 11, 2017 at 02:28

            Joe, definitely not recommending a civil war, but something bad will happen this way or that way, unfortunately. You mention a civil war already going on, but at least until now it was relatively civil – a lot of noise but not much gunpowder. But now we are looking at “accumulated contradictions” popularly referred to as “crazy wherever one looks”. In other words, I wish I could point at least one good thing, well maybe those photos from the gold plated NASA of the satellites in the Solar system, like quarter of billion dollars per pretty photo. Everything else has turned into sh**. And sh** is not the natural order of things no matter whether the powerful think that they can maintain it. Therefore, maybe not a civil war then some kind of revolution, but change is unavoidable. Panta rei, time for change is imminent, the more it is delayed by the faux agents of change (Obama, Trump etc) the more explosive the change will be.

            Please check out the photos and videos on RT from the Syrian village that Trump blasted.

          • Realist
            April 11, 2017 at 03:24

            Of what use will it be to your grandchildren, Joe, for the United States to be the world hegemon if they have no affordable access to education, healthcare, or jobs, the country’s infrastructure has collapsed to rubble and their grandparents have their pensions and health care benefits stolen to pay for perpetual wars of conquest? I’m sure you worry about that all the time as your primary concern, for this generation will soon pass away… but must we destroy all hope for our future generations at the same time? The miscreants in control of our government are ushering in the absolute extinction of all hope for the future. Their promise is that things will only get worse, except for the powerful and the privileged few.

    • john wilson
      April 11, 2017 at 04:53

      The American public get all their world affairs info from the main stream media and never read or look at internet sites like this one. They see false flag pictures of babies being attacked by Sarin and they just lap up the rubbish from the MSM. The public are incapable of grasping that Sarin is deadly poison and that anyone touching or even going near a victim of this of this stuff will be immediately contaminated. As you will know, the pictures show people milling around not even wearing a mask or gloves but they are not being affected at all. !! Try telling this to your average American Jo and see what response you get.

      • Kiza
        April 11, 2017 at 07:26

        John, I wrote several times that what is happening to Syria is nothing compared what will happen to ordinary US citizens. TPTB can extract a pipeline or two, some oil from Golan Heights and that is about it. Half a million killed and endless stream of bull lies just for as little as that. But US citizens are much more productive cattle for milking, meat and other outputs. The technology of control is advanced enough, the police state is already in place, soon we will only have the right to serve.

        In other words, Syria is only a symptom, not The Problem and most US people do not even understand Syria let alone the domestic developments. They started by touching our genitals when we wanted to board planes, now they are kicking us and dragging us out of planes just because they need our seat. Note that in the Chicago airport incident the police was on their side, not on the side of law.

  63. Bob Van Noy
    April 10, 2017 at 17:59

    Thank you Robert Parry. Keep tugging on that curtain; the Wizard is in there somewhere and must be exposed…

  64. Marko
    April 10, 2017 at 17:42

    “….pretty much every Important Person in Official Washington just knows that Assad did carry out that sarin attack, just like they all knew that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was hiding WMDs in 2003.”

    Mr. Parry is charitable to a fault here. I’m confident pretty much all of them believe just the opposite. It’s only because they’re such skilled liars that they seem genuinely committed to the establishment line. Like good actors , they’ve internalized the script. Terms like fact , fiction , truth , and lies have lost all meaning to them.

    If it turned out that they’re all robots , I wouldn’t be the least surprised.

    • mike k
      April 10, 2017 at 18:57

      These folks in Washington are the most disgusting and evil beings on our planet.

      • R Davis
        April 10, 2017 at 22:43

        Is it be possible to imagine that all is not as it seems .. that there is a definite streak of disapproval in Washington .. at the crass demean of the place & it’s context .. there is always a good guy & gal somewhere .. why not in Washington.
        What happens if a president is found to be incompetent or corrupt .. because it looks like someone forgot to zip up & the matter of fact thing are on display.
        Fingers crossed. all is not lost.

    • W. R. Knight
      April 10, 2017 at 19:13

      Robots are smarter than that.

      • W. R. Knight
        April 10, 2017 at 19:13

        And more reliable.

        • April 10, 2017 at 20:10

          Depends on how and for what they are programmed.

    • Patricia Victour
      April 11, 2017 at 09:27

      Gives the theory of “lizard people” aliens some credence. They all appear to be guided by the limbic system entirely.

  65. Susan Sunflower
    April 10, 2017 at 17:40

    The new double-down is a contention by AP that Russia “knew about the chemical strike days in advance” — because — there was a Russian drone over the medical facility (clinic/hospital) when the victims were arriving — before — that clinic was then (of course) deliberately bombed to conceal the evidence or something.
    tweet: https://twitter.com/AP/status/851514871632080897
    article: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_UNITED_STATES_SYRIA_MILITARY

    apparently — at this point — at least wrt the AP — there is no “bottom” to the evil that is Russia

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has concluded Russia knew in advance of Syria’s chemical weapons attack last week, a senior U.S. official said Monday.

    The official said a drone operated by Russians was flying over a hospital as victims of the attack were rushing to get treatment. Hours after the drone left, a Russian-made fighter jet bombed the hospital in what American officials believe was an attempt to cover up the usage of chemical weapons.

    The senior official said the U.S. has no proof of Russian involvement in the actual chemical attack in northern Syria.

  66. Jay
    April 10, 2017 at 17:32

    I see the NY Times just won a Pulitzer for it’s neo-McCarthyte “Russia as the Bond villain SPECTRE” “reporting”.

    Someone in Administration Trump was real smart to warn the Russians that the cruise missiles were being launched and specify the targeted airbase in advance of the strike.

    • Erik G
      April 10, 2017 at 20:52

      Pulitzer and NYT are owned by the same faction. We are very fortunate to have Mr. Parry’s counterpoint to the mass media “newspeak.”

      Those who would like to petition the NYT to make Robert Parry their senior editor may do so here:
      https://www.change.org/p/new-york-times-bring-a-new-editor-to-the-new-york-times?recruiter=72650402&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink

      He may prefer to be independent, and there may be better polling websites, but pressure on the NYT to recognize the superior reporting of their opposition is a good thing. It is instructive to them that intelligent readers know better journalism when they see it. A petition can demonstrate the concerns of a far larger number. I will repeat this post from time to time.

      Incidentally, Syria lost 14 of its 40 Su-22 aircraft, so the “warning” stories appear to be US propaganda.

    • Patricia Victour
      April 11, 2017 at 09:32

      That is something that struck me as very, very strange – why was Russia warned, and by whom? Was the attack just a charade to divert attention from the messes here at home. Doesn’t seem likely, but . . . At least now we have our “war” president and Americans can rest easy that we will be made “safer” by standing up to Russia – and China, and North Korea. I woke up this morning and breathed a sigh of relief.

      • April 11, 2017 at 12:47

        This is mostly smoke and mirrors. The Neo Cons do not want all out war with Russia. In fact they are deathly afraid of that scenario. Hence the warning to Russia of the impending missile attack in Syria.They know that that situation could spiral dangerously out of control in a New York Minute. The one thing these Chicken Hawks do not want is for Intercontinental nuclear ballistic nissiles coming to a town near them. They want to flatten Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Yeman etc. They do not envision New York , Washington, Atlanta, Chicago, San Fransisco, San Deago and their home towns going up in a radio active cloud of smoke. In a way they do not understand the danger they are promoting. Russia does not even have to drop a missile in the USA to wipe out half the Atlantic Sea Board, all they have to do is drop a couple of thermo nuclear devices in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The tidal wave will do the rest. the same with the Great Lakes, all of that low lying land would be swept away with every town, village and city bordering the lakes.

        One can only hope that Russia is collecting all of the personal information on each and every Neo Con. Where they live, where they go on vacation where there sons and daughters go to university etc. And label one bomb for each of them. Like rats, cockroaches and the Black Plague the Neo Cons need to be wiped off the face of the earth.

      • DoomGuy
        April 12, 2017 at 14:13

        Patricia Victour — Russia was warned as a standard procedure of the Air Space Deconfliction Agreement that’s been in place since 2015, when Russia entered the conflict. It can be used either to alert one nation that it is accidentally attacking too close to the other’s forces, or to warn them when an attack is coming into their sector. The purpose is to avoid members of one nation killing those of the other, potentially leading to a nuclear exchange. Many figures in the media, notably Keith Olberman, have attempted to present this as some special favor by Trump to Putin, but even if it was, it still falls under standard guidelines, so Olberman and others are just trying to generate more anti-Russia, anti-Trump hysteria.

  67. SteveK9
    April 10, 2017 at 17:23

    It’s hard to imagine that people like my own Senator Shaheen, don’t seem to realize what war with Russia would mean. Or, they really believe that we can do whatever we want in the World with no repercussions.

    • JWalters
      April 10, 2017 at 19:22

      Or they are in effect prisoners of Israel, e.g. “Let’s talk about Russian influence”
      http://mondoweiss.net/2016/08/about-russian-influence/

      Here’s a good article on how Israeli agents (aka “neocons”) infiltrate the U.S. government and steer U.S. policies. Obama’s ambassador to Israel declares he’s a Zionist
      http://mondoweiss.net/2017/04/miracle-ambassador-declares/

    • Kiza
      April 11, 2017 at 00:46

      If you know the situation just before WW1 does not the current situation remind you of it? Trump Administration appears to be threatening regime change in Syria, whilst Russia is not backing off a millimeter from protecting Syria from external aggression.

      After Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Empire delivered an ultimatum to Serbia to let its investigators into Serbia and provide access to any person and any document. In essence, the AH Empire demanded unfettered access that no internal Serbian agency had in its own country – that is the surrender of the Serbian State to the AH Empire. When this was refused, AH Empire declared war on Serbia and attacked whilst Russia as a protector of Serbia declared war back. Then Germany declared war on Russia and Britain jumped in to restrict the growing power of Germany and declared war. This account is approximate, not true to detail.

      The only difference is that a group of Serbian extremists has really assassinated the Archduke (for a couple of reasons, some of them relatively valid), whilst the US claim of the Sarin gas use by the Syrian government looks very much like the Hitler’s attack on German border guards by the German troops dressed up in Polish uniforms, which kicked off WW2.

      Trump the Ziocon king truly promises a direct clash between US and Russia, with highly likely participation of many other countries.

      • Kiza
        April 11, 2017 at 01:06

        Those whooping for war should consider the case of a doctor taken violently off a United flight in Chicago. Ordinary people have no rights, whilst the connected, the monied, the privileged and the positioned (the incorporated) have all the rights to do whatever they need or feel like (even chain paedophilia when they feel like it). Therefore, what US Establishment does to Syria tomorrow will be exactly what the US Establishment does to any of its citizens the day after tomorrow.

        You morons who are whooping for war, you will be the next enemy of the state when they want something that you happen to have, maybe your child for one of their needs of war, sex or the like.

        • Kiza
          April 11, 2017 at 14:12

          There are fascinating parallels between the United Airlines case at Chicago Airport and a case of four German police beating up a man at a place of some traffic accident. The two are similar because they both show how a monopoly on violence result in its abuse. Then this leads into just how the misguided US Government conviction that it has a planetary monopoly on dishing out violence, thanks to its nutty spending on its MIC, guides its behavior.

          In both Chicago and in Germany, the perpetrators with the monopoly, the perps in short, dished out violence on a powerless individual and then claimed that he threatened them. This is a common theme of all perps in power – any, sometimes even minor, non-compliance which is perceived as a challenge to their authority “becomes” physically threatening. Unfortunately, in both case a video surfaced, which showed a simple defiance of authority met by extreme, unjustified and overwhelming use of force. Until the video popped up, the German Police organisation stood by the version of their four members that one of them was physically assaulted by their victim. The CEO of United claimed similar even when two videos showing a peaceful passenger popped up (who are you going to believe, a power-connected CEO or your lying eyes?). On top, almost every detail of the CEO’s account of what happened with the passenger victim is a lie, i.e. how much money the airline offered to buy a ticket off the passenger who was assaulted and so on. On top, the CEO perp immediately unleashed an army of professional online trolls to challenge anyone criticising. On some comment boards, the troll comments (sock puppetry etc) outnumbered ordinary people comments 2:1.

          I am commenting on all this only because of amazing parallels with US & Allies behavior re Syria.

        • Kiza
          April 11, 2017 at 14:33

          It is the CEO of United who behaved the closest to the US Establishment. Interestingly, just as the current $800M stock price fall of United showed how the market reacted to the CEO’s attempt to force-feed his version of reality, so has the act of the Bolivian representative on the UN Security Council shown the sinking credibility fortunes of the US Gov & Allies (aka the International Community).

          Nobody trusts you any more.

          Finally, a comment on the Chicago Airport Police which perpetrated the violence over the Asian medical doctor passenger on behalf of the United’s CEO. The government of Chicago is totally bankrupt, but it paid about $500M over the past 12 years to settle its police brutality cases, in what was popularly called “the negro lottery” (blacks in front of police with their friends with mobile phones on the ready). Has the bankrupt Government of Chicago learned anything? Is any US & Allies government capable of learning anything from past mistakes?

      • Realist
        April 11, 2017 at 05:39

        As I am reading the British papers at approx. 5:30 AM EDT, it would seem that Trump has decided to start a two-front world war against both Russia and China. They say he has given orders to pre-emptively strike NK with a missile barrage and an incursion using special forces– as soon as that Carl Vinson task force makes port [sarcasm] in SK I suppose. China is massing 150,000 troops on its border with NK, the cocky Americans interpreting that move as a block to NK refugees flooding China. More like an occupation force to repell the American invaders. Trump is an idiot if he thinks China will cede its buffer state because he launched missiles against Syria and “intimidated” Xi. As to Syria, McMaster, Mattis and Petraeus are calling for an invasion force of 150,000 American troops to occupy Syria in an apparent Iraq redux with Russia presumably standing around with its thumb up its butt. What dreamers! Jackass Trump recklessly frames Assad and rushes in to shoot up the town, wasting most of his ammo and missing most of the targets and suddenly he’s the 21st century reincarnation of Sun Tzu. I suppose today is the day he settles all family business–he wishes. Can’t wait for the authors on this site to dissect all that bullshit, if there’s still a world left.

      • Cyric Renner
        April 17, 2017 at 02:08

        World War I was really about Britain and France eliminating Germany because it had become too powerful. War was inevitable, just like with the lunatics like Kagan in charge it seems to be inevitable. The Neocons are guided by the philosophy that the US can be the only superpower in the world. That’s why they want war with Russia and China. Then you have competing philosophy that wants a one world government whereby for this to materialize there can no superpower. This is what many thought Obama’s mission was. Either way we are all screwed.

    • Stephen Sivonda
      April 11, 2017 at 02:40

      SteveK9… If that’s what you really think about your Senator…. then write a well thought out letter and send it to her. Also go on a periodic ( twice a month) phone call . You’ll probably not get her on the phone ,but can leave a impressive message for the Senator on voice mail or with their office asst. to pass on . DO IT MAN !

    • Michael Hoefler
      April 11, 2017 at 04:44

      I called both of our Montana senators – one democrat and the other republican – and expressed my displeasure and outrage at this attack by Trump. I said that they should have at least waited until they knew for certain who had done this – and cited the 2013 experience. I doubt that I made them change their minds – but I raised some hell anyway.

    • Cyric Renner
      April 17, 2017 at 01:59

      They are going to find out soon enough. They are doing everything they can to provoke Russia to start the war. I have never seen such insanity in my life. You know Russian military leaders are telling Putin that he had better initiate a first strike while he still can ? You cannot reason with this people, and they are insane. Look at the obese pile of filth Kagan. The very definition of a chickenhawk. They want your sons and daughters to die, not theirs.

      If Russia did do a first nuclear decapitation strike and eliminated the Kagan’s of this world, I would say go ahead even though it probably would mean my own destruction. Why ? Simple. The world will never no peace with these people. Never. Even if they ruled the whole world, which they practically do already, they would still want war. Their satan’s offspring and a plague on mankind, wherever they do.

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