Craig Murray mulls the depressing series of events over the past few weeks involving Iran, Venezuela, Ecuador and the U.S.
By Craig Murray
CraigMurray.org.uk
There is no conceivable interest of the ordinary people of the Western world being served by the crazed decision of their governments to firmly take the Sunni side in the Sunni/Shia tensions of the Islamic world, and to do so in a fashion which deliberately exacerbates points of armed conflict across the Middle East.
It is even more extraordinary that, in doing so, the West is deliberately forwarding the interests of two nations that have philosophies that are entirely antithetical to the supposed tenets of Western philosophy. Those states are Saudi Arabia, an unrepentant despotism, which promotes and finances a theocratic ideology directly responsible for the major terrorist attacks on the West, and Israel, which is now an openly apartheid state. The USA/Saudi/Israel alliance is underpinned by the identification of a common enemy in Iran and other Shia communities.
Of course the patent absurdities of the alliance point directly to the fact that the real motive is entirely different; this is all about the financial ties of the 1 percent and the permanent interest of the military industrial complex and their financiers in stoking the flames of war.
Which is an opportune moment to mention — as I have several times over the years — that if I had to recommend one single book to illuminate your view of the world it would be “Imperialism” by J A Hobson. His brilliant perception that empire had been a net disbenefit to the ordinary people of both the colonial power and the colonized, with the advantages reaped purely by the military, financial, armaments and political classes, and his groundbreaking methods of proving his thesis, is one of the great works of human thought. Vladimir Lenin plagiarised Hobson extensively.
You can indeed find in Hobson a reflection of the anti-Semitism that was regrettably common in his time. It is a problem in many of the great books of the past. The 19th century novelist Anthony Trollope is notably anti-Semitic, but when John Major as prime minister repeatedly told of his love for Trollope, there was none of the manufactured outrage we saw over Jeremy Corbyn’s recommendation of Hobson. In reading literature of the past there are inevitably notes that jar with the mores of these times, but they do not invalidate all the other qualities, once noted and appropriately analysed. I confess to being with John Major as a serious fan of Trollope. “The Way We Live Now” is a great book, whose dark anti-semitic undertones are not necessary to its critique of rampant capitalism.
Improbable Narrative
To return to Iran, I have no confidence whatsoever that apparent limpet mine attacks on shipping are Iranian in origin – in fact the narrative seems to me distinctly improbable. We have the intelligence community frantically signaling that U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton is making up his intelligence assessment of enhanced Iranian military activity. Jeremy Hunt has just put out a quite ludicrous advisory against dual nationals traveling to Iran. My wife Nadira was recently in Iran together with several dual nationals filming a comedy feature film. They met with nothing but friendship and cooperation from Iranian officialdom.
View of Tehran at night. (Danielle Harte for Bourse & Bazaar, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons)
However, I remain hopeful that President Donald Trump can outplay Bolton and prevent any immediate escalation. However bad his domestic agenda, one thing to be said in Trump’s favor is that, unlike every American president since Jimmy Carter, he has not fed the military industrial complex by starting a needless war. I have no doubt whatsoever that Hillary Clinton would have started one by now. Trump, a monumentally flawed individual, is the only thing that today stands between the world and a Middle East conflagration that would make the last three decades seem like peace. That is hardly a comforting thought.
Nor is it comforting that Chelsea Manning is once again in jail, in terrible conditions, for refusing to testify against Julian Assange, himself in Belmarsh maximum security prison. These two heroes showed us more truth than the world’s professional journalists combined ever have or ever will.
The American “justice” system is shown up yet again for the farce that it is. What value should be placed on testimony physically coerced from Chelsea Manning, who has already spent a lengthy prison sentence for her actions in leaking the truth about U.S. military aggression? Either Chelsea provides damning testimony against Julian, or Chelsea gets tortured. That the world stands by and watches — and that the cowards of the mainstream media line up to applaud — I find rather hard to take.
Police outside Venezuela embassy. (Ann Wright)
Two other actions are worth noting here. The United States violated the embassy of Venezuela, against the will of its government and in stark contravention of the Vienna Convention, to break in and seize materials and individuals, based on the farce of recognizing the impotent U.S. puppet Juan Guaidó as the legitimate government able to give permission. If any government wishes to recognize me as president of the United States, I happily give them my gracious permission to trash the U.S. embassy in their country.Ec
There is no doubt that Guaidó, with the entire world watching, attempted to launch a military coup in Venezuela, and failed dismally. He has since addressed rallies in which his supporters have been numbered in scores. In the vast majority of countries around the world, specifically including the United States of America, Guaidó would have been arrested and executed for his military coup attempt. President Nicolás Maduro has the power to do it. The fact Guaidó and his violent antics are tolerated gives the lie to that false picture of Venezuela as authoritarian dictatorship which the mainstream media daily present to us.
Ecuador the CIA Puppet
Finally, in a country which the CIA has succeeded in reducing to puppet government status, Ecuador has, entirely illegally, compounded its illegal refoulement of a political refugee by handing over all of Julian Assange’s personal effects to the United States of America, on no legal basis whatsoever.
I had some difficulty in writing this post because the chain of these and other events over this past few weeks has been so thoroughly depressing, and can easily lead to a feeling of helplessness. On a brighter note, Part 2 of my interview with Alex Salmond is now out.
Here are three cheerful thoughts (on that interview). Firstly you can declare your determination to work to destroy the United Kingdom, as I do here, and if you have a nice gentle voice and friendly personality nobody gets upset. Secondly, Part 1 had over 122,000 views on Facebook alone, plus those who watched on Russia Today TV and those who saw it on YouTube. When you compare that to the audiences of 7,000 for the flagship Nine news on the BBC’s new anti-Scottish propaganda channel “BBC Scotland,” that is pretty impressive. My third thought is this. I think the lesson of my life as revealed over the two interviews, is that no matter what the state throws at you, it is essential to continue to struggle for social justice. The struggle is in itself a good. Which is something I first learnt from Jean Paul Sartre’s “Iron in the Soul” trilogy when I was 15.
Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010. This article first appeared on his website.
Craig Murray makes a fantastical claim in his otherwise interesting article about Lenin the great leader of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 that ushered in the first workers state. He claims that Lenin “plagiarized Hobson extensively” without offering any evidence. It seems to me that Mr. Murray is grossly unfamiliar with the extensive works of Lenin or he would not make such a baseless and ignorant accusation. It appears to me that he has allowed his anti-communist sentiments to get the better part of him.
“Lenin the great leader of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 that ushered in the first workers state.”
” is grossly unfamiliar with the extensive works of Lenin or he would not make such a baseless and ignorant accusation.”
Perhaps you are over-reliant on the extensive published works of Mr. Lenin and unaware of the extensive practices of Mr. Lenin and his associates to hold the illusion that “..the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 ushered in the first workers state.”
If you require evidence that your statement is an illusion and can set aside The short course of the history of the Russian Social Democratic Party (Bolshevik) (1937), the history from 1917 until 1991 will illustrate that a workers’ state never existed and that the main opponents of the Bolshevik project, including those who facilitated the transcendence of “The Soviet Union” by the Russian Federation, were the workers which including those engaged in agriculture, largely as a function of their alienation from “The Soviet Union”, which Mr. Gorbachev and his associates, who held to some degree the illusions which you hold, sought to address through “glasnost” and “perestroika” in order to maintain a modulated version of “The Soviet Union” with “increased productivity”.
If you wish to follow your practice of requiring devotional texts, perhaps an analysis of Mr. Lenin’s What is to be done ? (1903) will illustrate that a worker’s state was precluded by design and hence required various forms of coercion throughout the Bolshevik project from at least 1903 onwards.
The allegation that Hobson blemishes an otherwise excellent article. Lenin fully acknowledges his high estimate of Hobson’s work and his debt to it.
Excellent as always. But what is this perennial outing of anybody across time and space who is tainted with this scourge of ‘anti-semitism’ ala Anthony Trollope? I mean has anybody read the Talmud? Or this? https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156893409534342&id=771374341
because it is spoiling an excellent article
a usa human rights attorney, i with several others am following your comments very closely and sharing them across this country with members of the usa bar, academia, and human rights and political (ie green party) groups. the lawyers representing the usa venezuela embassy (4) protectors are in good spirits after their arraignment yesterday, waiting for hearing JUN 12. they are well represented and supported by expert legal counsel which should vindicate all points you made on the vienna convention. more international and usa diplomatic ans constitutional law will come to bear on that case supporting your views. as you concluded, social justice cases must be pursued else opponents simply win. many of us here in the usa are very grateful for the insights and criticisms you are providing. thank you.
The two-part interview with Craig Murray on the Alex Salmond Show on RT UK is informative and interesting:
https://www.rt.com/shows/alex-salmond-show/
(You can even download the broadcasts, which is much faster than streaming)
TS, indeed, one will find in those interviews an individual who has dedicated a lifetime to public engagement and a solid sense of justice and morality…
J.A.Hobson along with his similarly named radical liberal L.T.Hobhouse, both wrote for the then Manchester Guardian who at the time was under the editorial tutelage of C.P.Scott. They were affectionately known as the ‘2 Hobs’. Of course the Manchester Guardian was very different from the current neo-con rag.
Hobson’s ‘anti-semitism’ consisted of one reference to the Rothschild banking conglomerate on page 57 of a 368 page book. But of course this was taken up by the zionists as a sure sign of his ‘anti-semitism” But Hobson’s views were pretty mild fare given the real anti-semitism of the age. This would include, members of the ‘Bloomsbury set’ and its intellectual periphery including Virginia Woolf (strangely since her husband Leonard was jewish) G.B.Shaw, John Maynard Keynes, Lytton Strachey, Aldous Huxley et al, and on the other side of the pond, Ezra Pound.
Breaking Our Biggest Taboo
By Eric S. Margolis
March 9, 2019
“Tell me who you cannot criticize and I will tell you who is your master”. Attributed to Voltaire.
Saying anything negative about Israel has long been the third rail of US politics and media. Israel is our nation’s most sacred cow. Any questioning of its behavior brings furious charges of anti-Semitism and professional oblivion.
MORE > https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/03/eric-margolis-breaking-our-biggest-taboo/
Breaking Our Biggest Taboo
By Eric S. Margolis
March 9, 2019
“Tell me who you cannot criticize and I will tell you who is your master”. Attributed to Voltaire.
Saying anything negative about Israel has long been the third rail of US politics and media. Israel is our nation’s most sacred cow. Any questioning of its behavior brings furious charges of anti-Semitism and professional oblivion.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/03/eric-margolis/breaking-our-biggest-taboo/
Great article thank you keep fighting.
“Throughout the world, the more wrong a man does, the more indignant is he at wrong done to him. ”
? Anthony Trollope, The Way We Live Now
“A liar has many points to his favour,—but he has this against him, that unless he devote more time to the management of his lies than life will generally allow, he cannot make them tally.”
? Anthony Trollope, The Way We Live Now
I share Craig’s admittedly fairly desperate hope for an ultimate triumph of truth and justice over greed. This “indignation” can remain buried for a long time, overshadowed by the power of dazzling wealth, but it does not go away. It CANNOT go away until the CAUSE is removed.
One overlooked seeming irrelevance is the wealthy power portrayal of “1%”. I believe that this is in the meantime concentrated in the hands of less than .001% of people. “People” being not just US citizens.
… when the blind lead the blind
they shall both fall into a ditch. …
https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/whats-in-a-cartoon/
Your readers might not be aware that Australia, lSt week-end, had a national election in which an opposition with a widespread and bold economic and climate change agenda was defeated by an incumbent government riven by internal conflicts, widely perceived as both unpopular and doomed and unable and unwilling to address major challenges facing the country.
For more than three years the Labor Opposition had been ahead in all of the published opinion polls but those same polls showed the party leader was consistently less popular than the (several) Prime Ministers he opposed.
The win was unexpected and a surprise to everyone but perhaps it shouldn’t have been because every individual the policy agenda the Opposition put forward was opposed by powerful interests led by the (Rupert Murdoch dominated) mainstream media, but also specific groups which were able to stoke a climate of fear by basically telling lies about the likely impacts. The democratic processes were skewed by the intervention of a wealthy coal mine owning individual who allegedly spent $60 million ( an unheard of amount) with the express intention of keeping the Opposition out of government.
It may be a minor point, but the Opposition leader’s name was Bill, a name which lent itself to easy parody as “the bill you can’t affird’ And similar juvenile sallies.
The relevance to your readers: your President was one of the first on the phone to congratulate a re-elected Prime Minister Scott Morrison, a Pentecostalist climate change denier whose policies have seen legitimate refugees locked up in offshore detention centres, expansion of the same sort of attacks on freedoms in the name of ‘security’, demonisation of Moslems and other immigrant groups, economic and tax policies further boosting the already wealthy while demonising welfare recipients, and, finally, almost certainly a supporter of any war that Trump might see fit to become involved in.
Democracy may not have died in Australia but it’s repudiation by a broad coalition of self-serving liars and fear mongers, has severely injured it.
We have one of the best welfare, public health and education systems in the world, not to mention a world class independent publicly funded broadcaster but all of these things are now under threat, especially as we, like the rest of the world, look at the possibility of a world recession exacerbated by Trump’s stupid trade war with China.
Since World War 2, when America’s intervention certainly helped end the war in the Pacific and a threat to Australia, we have been enthusiastic supporters of the US ‘adventures’ in our region, though not always with public support. Our troops supported the US in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Although I fear the current interference of the US in the Middle East and particularly the war mongering NeoCons leading an ignorant president towards a war with Iran, in some ways I would welcome an attack on Iran because I think the US might get a bloody nose which might encourage Trump to live up to his promise to get out of foreign interventions altogether. That might include leaving Venezuela to sort out its own problems, free of the illegal US sanctions currently crippling it.
Finally, neither America nor Australia, and to a lesser extent Great Britain, will never enjoy true democracy until Murdoch and his pernicious Fox are neutered.
I see evidence for Craig Murray’s hope in this result ! I see the “surprise” electoral result expressed in rejection of very obvious Mainstream Media bias in favor of Labor, rather than obedience to the fat cat’s $60M. -He was also decidedly rejected. My claim of Media bias is proven in the word “surprise” – They “backed the wrong horse” !
These “surprise” results are a protest against narratives formulated by big money.
Well said.
@ “To return to Iran, I have no confidence whatsoever that apparent limpet mine attacks on shipping are Iranian in origin – in fact the narrative seems to me distinctly improbable. ”
That was my first impression, but I now tend toward believing Iran was behind them. Yossef Bodansky was Director of the Congressional Task Force on Counterterrorism from 1998 to 2004. He now the executive editor of a non-profit corporation that has 105 state members. In other words he is the spider at the center of a global network of intelligence agencies. In his first publicly published articles since he exposed the false flag sarin attack at Douma, Syria, within a week of its occurrence, he has just published two articles on Iran’s recent decision to begin its fight back against its tormentors in the U.S., Israel, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates (UAE).
I highly recommend that anyone interested in what’s really going on with Iran and its opponents to read Prof. Bodansky’s articles. Spoilers:
* Iran has launched a long-planned “war on oil,” reminiscent of its promise that if it can’t ship oil no one will be able to.
* The attacks on the four tankers coincided with a drone attack on a strategic pipeline that halted all oil transport from Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
* The attacks on the tankers was located just inside the Straits of Hormuz, through which 2o + percent of the world’s oil shipping flows, mainly from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. It’s a strong reminder that it lies within Iran’s power to close the straits, wiping out the western world’s economies.
* Russia and China just provided Iran with guarantees that they would not permit Iran’s government to be overthrown.
* And lots more.
hxxps://www.worldtribune.com/khamenei-decides-iran-will-confront-the-u-s-and-its-allies/
hxxps://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/Middle-East/On-The-Cusp-Of-War-Why-Iran-Wont-Fold.html
what have russia and china said of the shipping attacks? i cannot believe putin would support such a provocative policy, or that he would be silent about it. he is not anxious to engage the west in an iran war, but of course will if he must to protect russian interests. if iran is depending on putin as you claim, they would not attack shipping without explicit permission from putin himself. there is no evidence whatever of it.
It’s possible Iran carried out the tanker attacks, causing minor damage to send a message to the Saudi and other Gulf Dictatorships. Nobody hurt, slight damage to two tankers. Oil pipeline damaged and closed down for repairs for a short time after being hit by a couple of unsophisticated drones. Away of saying if you get the war you say you want so much, just be aware that it’s not only us who will suffer. You have a vast sprawling network of oil installations that is wide open to attack. You will pay a very heavy price if you getv the war you want. Of course somebody else may have or it could be a complete hoax, like Russiagate, like Skripal, like the Syria gas hoaxes.
One problem with the argument is that the coincidence of western threats with the tanker damage does not argue more for Iran aggression than US/Saudi/Israeli aggression. Iran has nothing to gain by aggression, whereas these rogues have arranged false flag after false flag to rationalize the very aggression they threaten.
Plus the rocket attacks were Houthi: the only Iran connection is that both Iran and Yemen had some old USSR rockets that they modified differently; analysis of earlier attacks showed a lack of the Iranian modifications.
Also the ship damage involved no explosives, judging by a photo showing no paint damage at all. It looks like collision damage to me. If it was a mine, that does not implicate one side more than another. A mine could take out Iran/Qatar shipping just as easily, and could be planted by anyone.
But we will see as this develops.
The struggle is in itself a good would go down smoother if there were any evidence that the struggle was yielding results. Not being critical of Mr. Murray of nice gentle voice and friendly personality. At my darkest moments when nothing I’d done made any difference I have also consoled myself with this thought.
I’ve often speculated that a movement that could change many of our current paradigms would have to be one that the ruling elite would not recognize as a threat until it was too late. I am woefully inadequate and too unclever to imagine what that might be, though I continue to hope that at this very moment it may be, somewhere, somehow, taking shape.
One thing is certain; it would have to propagate outside of this electronic medium, this screaming paradox of democratic empowerment vs. all-seeing surveillance and control. Think about it: we’ve been channeled, herded, cajoled to be here. A true underground, resistance, or rebellion must necessarily operate outside of this medium. There’s a puzzle that will defy solution.
“this screaming paradox of democratic empowerment vs. all-seeing surveillance and control. ”
That may or may not be your perception.
That it is/would be your perception is the hope of some pursuing “all-seeing surveillance and control”.
But why do some continue to expand efforts in pursuing “all-seeing surveillance and control” ?
And why “and” in “all-seeing surveillance surveillance and control”? Perhaps control is not sufficiently facilitated by “all-seeing surveillance?” thereby rendering “all-seeing surveillance” of restricted purpose rendering restriction of control ?
Perhaps entering through these portal questions will not only illuminate “what is” and “how to”?
Thereby suggesting you should modify your assertion – “There’s a puzzle that will defy solution.” although in any interactive system no solution can ever be attained, although processes of transcendence can be catalysed/encouraged.
I was pointing to the obvious opposing realities of the democratization possibilities of our new global communication system and the fact that it is constantly surveilled by governments west, east , and in between. During the Egyptian uprising which was aided by social media, the government there shut it down – control. China if I’m not mistaken has resorted to that on several occasions as well. And of course they rely more heavily on a pre-emptive approach by limiting what is “allowed.” Perhaps because of that Chinese society may be the ones to solve the puzzle. Search engine algorithms accomplish much the same here.
The point is, we rely on this medium for information and more critically, organization, at our own risk. Through surveillance and monitoring it can be taken away at any time to quell any movement that might arise. It’s important because as is already apparent this next “electoral campaign” is shaping up to be another indulgence in civic sadomasochism, where voting is about as effective as praying. It’s no secret that throughout or history movements large and small were infiltrated with moles, spies, and informers. Now they don’t even have to leave the comfort of their air-conditioned bunkers; they merely have to listen.
“I was pointing to the obvious opposing realities of the democratization possibilities of our new global communication system and the fact that it is constantly surveilled by governments west, east , and in between.”
That was understood as a function of evaluated experience not as a function of “We the people hold these truths to be self-evident.” whilst not conflating a moment in a lateral process with trajectories through time of lateral processes.
Other things were also understood as functions of evaluated experience and hence the portal questions of :
“But why do some continue to expand efforts in pursuing “all-seeing surveillance and control” ?
And why “and” in “all-seeing surveillance surveillance and control”? Perhaps control is not sufficiently facilitated by “all-seeing surveillance?” thereby rendering “all-seeing surveillance” of restricted purpose rendering restriction of control ?”
“Now they don’t even have to leave the comfort of their air-conditioned bunkers; they merely have to listen.”
Perhaps if you enter the question pathways/portals above you will start to perceive that your a priori assumption is misguided, since it is in emulation and illustration of prevalent practices of theocratic cults in the self-designated “The United States of America” and elsewhere?
In the critique/representation of the opinions of Mr. Cohen’s interpretations of limited data thread comments section a pathway/portal to perceiving why the practices of theocratic cults in the self-designated “The United States of America” are not restricted to “Russia-gate as Count Dracula” but are widely prevalent was thumbnailed.
“The point is, we rely on this medium for information and more critically..”
Not all rely on this medium for information nor rely on any medium for information but derive and test such through interaction.
Not all have the same purpose in navigating this portal since some are aware that such reliance would aid deflection of purpose rather than be limited to ” more critically, organization, at our own risk.” and hence “communicate” in a various forms through various practices in various contexts.
Some perceive that their purpose is aided through sharing hypotheses with others to test if so minded including suggesting useful questions/portals of rigorous testing hence:
“Quote number three is an attempt to conflate agreement with a hypothesis, with the correctness of a hypothesis.
Quote number three in the abscence of authenticated evidence in corroboration and by omission through framing inferring that one cold war was ended facilitating the requirement of a new cold war, does not outline to whom the new cold war is a dangerous folly, nor in what assay for various parties a new cold war is a dangerous folly and hence is rendered an a priori assumption.”
“Perhaps because of that Chinese society may be the ones to solve the puzzle.”
“…… in any interactive system no solution can ever be attained, although processes of transcendence can be catalysed/encouraged.”
Transcendence is a lateral process not an event and hence if some choose not to expend such effort this will aid the practice of “How to drown a drowning man with the minimum of blowback” since like Mr. Guevara tourists who enter battlefields pose dangers to themselves and their associates’ well-being and well; being.
The “Emperor” has some clothes facilitated by the beliefs of some others, but not new clothes nor qualitatively developing abilities in tailoring, all as functions of purpose, and hence the “Emperor” and associates facilitate and are complicit in the implementation of opportunities for the “Emperor”‘s transcendence by others, not restricted to specific “nation states” nor “nation states”.
Axes of evil are linear constructs attempting to limit lateral perception of the “Emperor”‘s opponents to various audiences as comfort blankets of various designs.
Thank you for your contribution to the petri-dish of aspects of the opponents’ “culture”.
“That it is/would be your perception is the hope of some pursuing “all-seeing surveillance and control”.
But why do some continue to expand efforts in pursuing “all-seeing surveillance and control” ?”
In illustration.
https://www.rt.com/usa/459902-social-media-navy-archive/
how are we to deal with john bolten and mike Pompeo and others? Those guys are just itching to do what they want.. Their agenda has nothing in common with a peace agenda. They are in power.
One of the occasional commenters (Lin Cleveland) once referred to this comment board as a “sound proof free speech zone”. That’s it in a nutshell. Our voices have been kept from the vast majority, and will continue in their isolation. I would love to see some techie figure out a way to override a “Nightly News” MSM broadcast and bring real news to the American public for even just one broadcast.
It is encouraging to know there are thoughtful, sane and sober men and women around the Earth like Craig Murray in these days of stress and worry over bizarre actions coming from the dangerous power-and-wealth-crazed planetary freak show. Mr. Murray and fellow contributors to Consortium News and other serious media platforms give reasons for optimism and hope, especially during difficult periods of history such as May-June 2019.
Perhaps humanity’s chances of continuing for thousands of more years and many, many more generations – forever – are greater than more pessimistic observers have estimated.
Peace.
John Bolton`s elevator doesn’t go to the top —it`s obvious he`s not playing with a full deck of cards——any one that listens to him should locked up with him for war crimes —War of aggression is a war crime .—
True what you say , but we cannot convict him. Give me three ounces and I will be in jail for the rest of my life.
Good article. One thing, though. I don’t think it’s fair to say that Lenin “plagiarized” Hobson. He cites him a lot, especially in Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, but he always gives attribution. He basically critiques him. He favorably compares the non-Marxist Hobson to Marxist economists such as Hilferding claiming that Hilferding is a “step back” from the analysis offered by Hobson. He also, of course criticizes Hobson since he was still essentially, in Lenin’s view, a “bourgeois economist” which made him incapable of recognizing some of the implications of his analysis.
I thank God, and you, Craig Murray, for the simple truth, the unambiguous history you’ve laid out in this essay.
The “exceptionalist” among U S citizenry will reject your message as blatant deceit or a manipulation of fact.
They are headstrong and devout in the Faithful Ideal that “America can do no wrong”.
May the Light of Day, as explained in your essay/news piece coax them closer to the reality of American Military Dominion over Human Life in the world, thru sheer Military Power and Threat of Violence.
The US – “Christian”/Israeli/ Saudi alliance equate to a Doomsday Alliance set before all humanity. There must be a world-wide reckoning of the foreseeable consequences of the continuance this evil alliance. …
I pray that your piece here will pierce many into sharp realization that They – [the State Powers now ruling the world] are the alliance of the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
… – – – …
A Special Relationship Born in Hell
The United States should cut all ties with war criminal Israel
PHILIP GIRALDI
APRIL 3, 2018
http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/a-special-relationship-born-in-hell/
Liked this article, read on my youtube channel with all appropriate credit given to author and source. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-C9ZHmANnc
In reality, of course, this is all part and parcel of the US’s attempt to gain global hegemony. The world isn’t going to start calming down until we stop jacking it up.
These are dangerous times and there is a misplaced calm, as if collectively we do not want to face up to the crisis in front of us. This is comparable to the Cuban Missile Crisis, where a Soviet submarine could have launched a nuclear torpedo in response to a perceived attack by the US navy. A similar incident could happen in the South China Sea, the Kerch Strait, Iran, Syria – there are many flash-points. Yet there is no sense of alarm. The present crisis is worse because the Cold War was the peace: a post-world war environment; we are now in a pre-world war environment. The world has experienced periods of peace (or relative peace) throughout history. The Thirty Years Peace between the two Peloponnesian Wars, Pax Romana, Europe in the 19th century after the Congress of Vienna, to name a few. The Congress System finally collapsed in 1914 with the start of World War One. That conflict was followed by the League of Nations. It did not stop World War Two. That was followed by the United Nations and other post-war institutions. But all the indications are they will not prevent a third world war, because history shows that civilizations eventually get the war they are trying to avoid.
There are always things that ‘jar with the mores of these time’ when analysing history. Power (manifested as interest) has been present in every conflict of the past – no exception. It is the underlying motivation for war. Other cultural factors might change, but not power. Interest cuts across all apparently unifying principles: family, kin, nation, religion, ideology, politics – everything. We unite with the enemies of our principles, because that is what serves our interest. That’s what is leading us to world war three.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
Indeed, Craig, this has been a most “interesting” recent bunch of outrages.
Principle among them, here in the U$, seems to be that dedicated viewers of
the “Game of Thrones” viewers are outraged that their heroine has gone total Savage Depravity, totally upsetting the milk and cookies Good and Evil assumptions, pushing perilously close to actual reality in the real world that so many of these viewers apparently have long been paying far less attention to.
While there has been rapt attention paid to the actors and actresses on screen, with many viewers sharing their profound knowledge of the dramatic ins and outs, the retributions and justice so well meted out among nasty players and intriguers in fantasy lands, these many enthralled seem far less learned and interested in the deceits, manipulation, and dangerous goings on transporting on the world stage.
Nonetheless, those who are aware of the serious implications of the many things you mention, must also, one hopes, be cognizant that common threads run among and join all the actual, real, and increasingly dangerous outrages that have been ongoing for decades, especially “ramped-up”, or “sexed-up”, after 9/11.
Notable is the increasing precarity of life for the many and especially the young, worldwide, as a certain empire destroys all law, replacing it with an empty “form” of law that primarily serves as, first, a bludgeon to beat on the many, be it laws restricting or limiting “protest”, empowering police to react with unrestricted violence, or simply limiting the platforms, the means of being heard, that honest “free speech” must understand as necessary and fundamental to actual communication.
Thus latter also applies to Assange and to many other individuals recognized as genuine voices of deeper critical thought and revelation that ought be available to all human beings.
What we are all witness to is a process of authority, less legitimate by the day, by the hour, using blatant force and open violence to achieve what more subtle psychological manipulations are beginning to fail to accomplish. That is, the shaping of “consent” or of a “common” and readily accepted interpretation of reality, that homogeneous and little disputed sensibility that permitted power to have its way, its sway, with little effective resistance or question.
Even as the “comfortable” and “educated” classes, especially in the U$, but elsewhere as well, no doubt, choose to uncritically accept media and government pronouncements, increasing numbers of human beings, those not mesmerized by gladiatorial statistics or seduced by fictive fantasies, either on the bookish tube or spun by corporate media psychologists, are perceiving that a pervasive corruption, lucrative and addictive, has been enthusiastically embraced by those who wield power, be it political, military, financial, or in every other “system” of “civil” society, not for the benefit of society but simply to consolidate all power in the hands of a few, the self-selected elite who, frankly, are become a pathological threat to the very existence of the rest of us, indeed of most life on the planet.
Humankind has never been in such a place as now it finds (if it cares to make use of its conscience) itself.
This is not a situation that can be muddled through, nor is there some magic reservoir of hidden trust and good will just waiting to be tapped.
Mistrust, fear, hatred, and intolerance are not inherent to the species.
These things must be “taught”.
The “lesson” have been long, insistent even unrelenting.
FDR once said something along the lines of, “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.”
Well, he made rather good use of fear as a political tactic, himself, but now it is all pervasive and seemingly very effective.
One notes that recent revelations about the gas attacks in Syria, that what we were told, even by agencies charged with telling the truth were, in fact, lies, lies if commission but also of omission, have not been covered by the MSM. Which is not surprising. However, that many do not have the information which many who visit this site possess, makes clear that informing others is a part of the educational outreach required of all of us. Most will have to do so without “compensation”, without recognition,
and without appreciation.
So, “donations” of mutual support, of understanding and appreciating the shared risks and social costs must be offered between us.
In that spirit, I should like to thank the many here who inspire, educate, encourage, and empower courage, tolerance, and understanding, in a real world much abused by fantasies, hubris, arrogance, disinterest, greed, and pathetic notions of superiority.
In the vastness of universe, certainly vast beyond my comprehension, this planet is our only home, this time is our lives, and all human beings ever truly get to “spend” IS time.
We had best spend it well.
There may not be much of it left.
Unless, of course, we choose to think and behave as if “it”, life, matters.
What do you think?
Yes, “pervasive corruption… has been enthusiastically embraced by those who wield power” and “taught” by MSM which requires opposition to “inspire, educate, encourage, and empower courage, tolerance, and understanding” in a people lost in MSM “fantasies, hubris, arrogance, disinterest, greed, and pathetic notions of superiority.”
This is because the scammer bully rises to economic power in our unregulated market economy, and our Constitution was written before economic concentrations and provides no defenses of elections or mass media therefrom. To correct that, the people must be educated, which history suggests is unlikely to get far until the nation is financially ruined by embargo, misgovernment, and wars (which still might not discredit MSM), or the MSM are physically attacked as enemies of the people. The greatest sacrifices are barely holding the line, and unfortunately advances are still very speculative prior to more widespread suffering.
Until then let us “inspire, educate, encourage, and empower courage, tolerance, and understanding.”
Thank you Craig Murray for this piece and for your references to books and videos of your interviews, including Hobson’s book “Imperialism”.
There’s a fascinating new book, as you may know, by Northwestern University history professor, Daniel Immerwahr: “How to Hide an Empire” who uncovered the dark side of our imperialism/colonization: e.g. 1. waterboarding was not new in Iraq. We practiced it, according to Immerwahr’s research, on our “allies” in the Philippines after “joining” their 30 year struggle against Spain. 2. At first, they saw us as their heroes until we didn’t leave but moved in, replacing Spain. 3. The war with the people of the Philippines that followed was horrific. The military takeover was bizarre and racist. 3. Interestingly, the Filipino general who led their fight against Spain, General Aguinaldo, had been hoping that the pending 1900 U.S. presidential election would be won by the anti-imperialists who called the war “criminal aggression” born of “greedy commercialism”. “No nation can long endure half republic and “half empire” and that they would have their country back. 4. But the U.S. imperialists won that election with 51% of the vote.
Immerwahr also covers the sentiments of writers Rudyard Kipling and Mark Twain. Both were imperialists until, in 1900, Mark Twain became a “red hot” anti-imperialist: “He became the vice-president of the Anti-Imperialist League of New York and chronicled the expanding war with withering sarcasm ‘There must be two Americas,’ he mused. “One that seta the captive free, and one that takes a once-captive’s new freedom away from him, and picks a quarrel with him with nothing to found it on; then kills him to get his land.”
The only thing that’s changed, it seems from 1900 is that public criticism of foreign wars and foreign policy is no longer normal. Chelsea Manning is imprisoned for telling us the truth. And “national security” is used as a weapon using fear to silence “unpatriotic” revelations of the truth. And Julian Assange, a publisher, is thrown in jail.
evelync and interested others, much of our dedicated use of torture was developed in the Philippines by our own bad guys, see my link below. Was Edward Lansdale “The Ugly American)?, some think so. Col. Fletcher Prouty thought he glimpsed Lansdale in photographs immediately after JFK’S Assassination.
I think JFK and JK Galbraith were well aware of this violent kind of Imperialism and determined to prevent it from spreading. One can see that same kind of outrage by Craig Murray who saw it beginning in Uzbekistan and was recalled.
https://spartacus-educational.com/COLDlansdale.htm
That article is well written and very revealing. Interesting that General Maxwell Taylor “argued in the summer of 1963 that 40,000 US troops could clean up the Vietminh threat in Vietnam and another 120,000 would be sufficient to cope with any possible North Vietnamese or Chinese intervention.” Those are almost the same numbers we were given for Afghanistan and now Iran.
Maybe Hitler had the same class of advisors, as did Napoleon upon invading Russia. 120,000 goes a long way unstoppably, very persuasively, until it meets superior force. Or Generals January and February, whom the Russians say they can always rely upon.
It would be interesting to see a strong analysis of the remarkably consistent hatred of spies and militarists for liberals. Perhaps secret violence power makes right, just as military power makes right, and for the oligarchy money makes right. Humanity is the enemy of nearly all who seek any form of power. They are themselves the best argument that democracy cannot tolerate a large standing military, nor secret agencies, nor an underregulated economy.
Thank you Sam. I’m lost and saddened by the deep corruption but I take heart that people like JFK, JK Galbreath, Craig Murray, Robert Parry, Gary Webb, Yourself, can still see through the Fog and argue for moral right.
It’s depressing to find well read and literate individuals apparently easily used and corrupted. I wish we could have a few minutes to discuss the ultimate legitimacy of Democracy, must it fail?, can it overcome deep crime? Thank You, Sam…
“supposed tenets of Western philosophy.”
The key word here is SUPPOSED if you want to understand our alliance with Saudi Arabia and Israel Those tenets are only used to coddle the ordinary person in western society. They mean nothing to our so-called leaders
Also I would not give kudos too quickly to trump for not having us in a war yet. Remember he is the guy who said why have nuclear weapons if you don’t use them. He is the guy who wants “his” forces to have a parade to honor him. He is the guy who just shouted at Iran not to provoke him. No peace hero here.
I sympathize with you. I don’t know what it is like in the UK but in the USA the the problems you describe are deeply cultural. We are seeing, at all levels of education, a rejection of reason, a rejection of the scientific method in favor of myth and fantasy. Certainly this might be expected in the hoi poloi where tribal attitudes have always prevailed but it has solidly moved to the intellectual classes. The cultural critic Morris Berman was asked once why he left the US to live in Mexico and he said that was because he had no one to talk to (he was an academic). While there is a vigorous and very very small group of people online who are dissidents from the official Narrative their influence is slight on the culture–for example I don’t think many people read Consortium News despite the fact its record for truth is pretty solid in sharp contrast to the mainstream media that supplies endless lies that would have made Goebbels blush.
While it is possible that the 2020 election might bring some positive change (not if Biden is elected or someone like him) but if it does it will be going against the grain. We are moving rapidly into an authoritarian or, at best, neo-feudal political system in part because that is what people want, as far as I can see. In a world of baffling “choices” and confusing conceptual frameworks certainty and security look attractive even to those who are on the bottom. So I only see one place for an opening and that is the cracks in the current frameworks that come from an expansion of consciousness provided by the growing acceptance of mysticism whether in the scientific area from figures like Rupert Sheldrake or from mystics like Carolyn Myss. When we feel connected to each other and the universe then it is possible to support compassionate social policies and seek conflict resolution and oppose the deliberate attempt to slaughter people. In the end figures like Bolton and other leaders, particularly those who aren’t in the news like Jamie Dimon represent a kind of radical evil that seek destruction not so much for gain but for the rush that comes from power. I would rather see people like that addicted to the rush of crystal meth than to the rush of power.
What can be said of a nation which pardons war criminals as though they were hero’s while at the same time jails and prosecutes truth tellers? Now here we are starting a multi front war of sanctions and instigation against our declared enemies as, we feel so rightfully needs administered in full. My question is, can the USA accomplish anything of any great value when all it’s rivals strike back in they’re own way? This over stretched method of intimidation by the USA seems to me to have run it’s course as now these declared national security concerns are bluffing DC out of they’re overly used game. The fool me once fool me twice routine is now finally on the other foot and being seen for what they are. It’s seriously a shame that the USA doesn’t see it’s weak spots while the same war-hawks control the narrative.
Yes, it is a shame, although if it leads to discrediting and recycling of the corrupted USG, it may be the shortest path to restoration of democracy, with safeguards of elections and mass media against unregulated economic power. That might be the last historic example of the destruction of hubris by its own blindness, or it may be that organized corruption is already too sophisticated to correct by education, once mass media are controlled.
Sam F (Joe), Sam, you’re right, I think, it’s a very long shot but before time runs out or irrevocable shots are fired, there are ways even now to, as you say, recycle government especially with safeguarded elections. Well worth the effort… Your optimism is appreciated
Sam maybe an even bigger scheme which could play out is, the ‘do it now while we have the military advantage’ crowd will get they’re wish and, we will have a war. How big this war may need to be is of question. Will it be a shooting match between navies in such places as the South China Sea or off the Iran coastal areas is my quest? Another possibility anything worst will happen is game over for the planet. Yet these warmongers who never served in the military are the first to want to use that awful might. Are they even sure all the weapons we have spent a generation of wealth on or, are they even taking the time to learn if all these weapons of mass destruction will even work. I remember from my days in the Navy much didn’t work nor, did it work on time every time as was required. Ask a Vietnam Vet about the M4.
Today I see where the MSM is promoting war with Iran. Not a one of these soulless buggers go against they’re corporate pay masters. I see an elite interest who crave for war due to the interest they will earn from our indebtedness. The bankers never lose because if our side were to lose the bankers would just cut a deal with our new governing masters and the supper rich would just slide right in there. Anything lower than a Rothschild or a Rockefeller would be enslaved or sentenced to death. Somebody please argue with me that Putin or Xi would treat us citizens better… I will buy it but, I was taught in the Navy to always think the worse and the best will happen. Okay I said my piece and thanks Sam for your reply. It’s always worth accepting for honest judgement. Joe
Thanks, Joe, your comments are always worthwhile. If the the US plunges into yet another war of foolish escalations to nowhere as in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, based upon fraud, I can imagine reruns for several generations before the rest of the world embargoes the US completely as a rogue power, and it declines economically. But I don’t see the population catching on, even after a century of isolation and decline, until the funding of elections and mass media is restricted to limited individual donations or public funds. We would be better off as a colony of some small Nordic country, but I very much doubt that anyone there would be interested, beyond their own repressed tyrants.
How do you mean Sunni?
Sunni and Shia are brothers
Ummayads , Wahabis, Takfiris , like Saudi family’s clerics are NOT Sunni.
A New Analysis Of Wahhabi Doctrines shows this easily ( free book online)
Please find strength in the fact that your readers are grateful for your clarity and wisdom. Keep speaking truth to power!
“The struggle is in itself a good. Which is something I first learnt from Jean Paul Sartre’s “Iron in the Soul” trilogy when I was 15.”
Mathieu was killed partly as a function of his own complicity and ideology, as was Mr. Guevara.
“Mathieu’s” country was occupied and many collaborated necessitating the creation of myths of “The resistance” from at least 1942 onwards to facilitate changing to remain the same, and extended opportunities for the “American Empire” and its associates.
Since you are no longer 15 perhaps it is time to set aside childish things?
Elephant in the room
In the past, people washed in rivers
-now, daily, take shower.
In the past, we were told stories
-fables and proverbs for teaching
-today are shows and films.
In the past, women had time to cook
-house to house, varied food
-now, we eat frozen, recipes are the same
-use mass of cooking oil
-in machines, repeated and copied.
In the past, love was for affections
-towards the children and parents
-now it is for shoes, food…
In the past, the beasts were our friends
-to carry our cargo, travel;
-now you call for Uber, airplane
-on the surface, everything is arranged…
In the past, they told us
– “Well-diggers will remain
-at the depth of the well…”
Now, leaders act like birds
-half digest and vomit…
-Most people will suffer…
Look at an example; a US president
-had Bolton of the time “Kissinger”
-United, they had a Ping-Pong game
-to break China, off Soviets!
-Now, Trump complaints:
– “China is the Devil!”
Is it not what you made?
Are you not well-diggers?
Are Yemen, Palestine different?
Have you not made ISIS, Taliban?
“the depressing series of events”
“The Struggle Is the Meaning”
Perception is a function of facility – some see “events” whilst others see opportunities of transcendence; some see an approximation of “what is” whilst some see approximations of “how to’s with the complicity of opponents.”
Some practice self-absorption whilst some perceive the self-absorption of opponents as accelerants of “how to’s with the complicity of opponents” thereby aiding the maximisation of opportunities and minimising “struggles”.
Framing in mantra such as “The struggle is the meaning” is a predisposition to limit opportunities of transcendence through limiting perception and to encourage resort to alibis of “unexpected consequences”, self-absorption, deflection of purpose, and re-integration into “depression”.
To transcend re-integration the phrase requires to be rendered as “The meaning (purpose) is the transcendence” in distinction to the opponents’ phrase “The purpose is the non-transcendence.” rendering those intoning “The struggle is the purpose” waiting for Godot thereby facilitating “how to drown a drowning man with the minimum of blowback?”
It seems to me that the term ‘the American government’ used here by Murray, is a misnomer, because as far as foreign policy and war is concerned, the ‘government, namely the Congress and the Senate don’t seem to have any power or input at all. As far as I can see, a few psychopaths in the White house and the deep state call all the shots with regard to war and foreign interference.
The Zionists. Death to the Zionist cancer.
Oh, no. The Congress gets to buy this too. It was Congress that passed the Magnitsky Act even though Magnitsky was a CPA, not a lawyer and he wasn’t fighting corruption, he was trying to get his boss, Bill Browder out of paying taxes on the money he looted from the Soviet State enterprises. They passed CAATSA which is one of the dumbest approaches to foreign relations that I can think of and one that betrays the US imperial pretensions. Among others.
Excellent comment, Jeff Harrison.
Far too few know the history you summed up so precisely well.
Browder deserves far greater exposure and the all too successful efforts to limit that exposure deserve far greater scrutiny.
As with Jeff Harrison, I would disagree with you that it is all on the Strumpet and his Admin. Indeed, I would argue that what is going on now is a continuation of US government/MIC business as usual. US dominance must win, OK.
Obama, Clinton, Bush, Nixon, Reagan et al (and others) were hardly behind the door when it came to causing and or continuing wars, invading countries, visiting mayhem, murder and destruction on other peoples. And Congress was all too frequently supporting them. The MIC and its insatiable appetite has to be fed. So, too, does the apparently equally insatiable belief among the US ruling elites (and many of their followers – if they are in the least concerned about what this country is really doing to people beyond its shores, and about that concern I am not at all sanguine) that US planetary hegemony must continue. Its dominance is righteous and must be obeyed by all, everywhere. Its word is *law.*
If Congress is not on board – where is their strong protest? Especially from the Demrat controlled House? Not a whisper – not that I’ve heard. Not even from those so-called “left” wing-ish members. War-making – like Russiagate – not only keeps their paymasters and cronies happy, it also conveniently lets them all avoid listening to and doing anything about their constituents’ concerns about healthcare, income inequality, infrastructure degradation, climate change and so on.
Your comments are very much appreciated, AnneR.
The thoughts you shared the other day regarding the behavior of the “comfortable” (and I would also include, complicit) “educated” class, are absolutely spot on.
I am very certain that your late husband did have far more success, in terms of encouraging genuine consciousness and responsibility among his students than you might sometimes, in this era of deliberate inattention and hubris, imagine or worry.
Encouraging critical thought is an undertaking most fraught, yet successfully choosing to live as example, as you and he, I am certain, have done, as you continue to do, is the only real means of genuine influence, it is true substance in a society besot with mere appearance.
DW Bartoo – Many thanks for reading my comments. And even more so for your kind words about my husband.
He was a wonderful teacher and mentor and brilliant intellectual. His former students and colleagues revealed these aspects of his praxis to me on their learning of his death. (I knew about his intellectual abilities but much less about just how great a teacher he was, not having been a student of his.)
But it is disheartening to see some of his former students being entranced by the Russiagate trash, the Russophobia, Sinophobia and likely Iranophobia bilge and their not even touching on the rank, dreadful warmongering, bombing of Yemen, Diego Garcia, Israeli treatment and continuing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and on and on in their posts on FB.
I know that he would be disappointed and possibly feel that he had failed somehow. But he hadn’t. People are influenced by so many things as they travel the trajectory of their lives, not least their class location and those of their family and friends and colleagues.
you know, calling people from the democratic party, demrats, how does that do anything positive ? You know nothing about me, yet you feel so superior to denounce me by painting an image of me and what you think/believe a Democratic voter is. Get off the internet and go canvas your neighborhood. You might experience real life and not your internet generalities.
Ms Garcia – You know nothing about me either. So please do not presume about which you know nothing. And if I – as I do – call Republirats just that, I shall name the Dems as I perceive and understand their neoliberal bourgeois positions.
As someone born into the poor end of the working classes, whose education was less than adequate (left school at 15 – quite legal back in the UK in 1963) until my late husband encouraged and supported my furthering my learning, who worked at all the low wage occupations available to females back in the 1960s-1985, who read widely and reasonably deeply even before marrying, who was anti-the bomb, anti-war, anti-imperialist-capitalist, was a Labour Party voter until its total descent into neoliberalism – basically a warmongering corporate-capitalist-imperialist party with a painted face i.e. the British equivalent of the Dems, and as someone who has lived in ten countries over four continents, I don’t think that I’m as completely divorced from reality as you assume.