Exclusive: In his Mideast trip to Saudi Arabia and Israel, President Trump sought some political safe harbor by tacking toward neocon orthodoxy and jettisoning his campaign promises of a more rational strategy, writes Daniel Lazare.
By Daniel Lazare
With astounding precision, Donald Trump zeroed in on the worst possible Middle East policy option in his recent trip to Saudi Arabia and made it his own. He rebuffed the efforts of Iran’s newly elected moderate government to open up communications with the West and instead deepened America’s alliances with decrepit autocratic regimes across the Persian Gulf.
President Donald Trump is escorted by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia during the arrival ceremonies, Saturday, May 20, 2017, at the Royal Court Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Official White House Photo Shealah Craighead)
Turning up his nose at Iran — a rising young power — he embraced Saudi Arabia, which is plainly on its last legs. It was a remarkable display — rather like visiting a butcher shop and passing up a fresh steak for one that’s rancid and smelly and buzzing with flies.
Saudi Arabia is not just any tired dictatorship with an abysmal human-rights record but one of the most spectacularly dysfunctional societies in history. It takes in half a billion dollars a day in oil revenue, yet is so profligate that it could run out of money in half a decade. It sits atop 18 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves, yet is so wasteful that, at current rates, it will become a net importer by the year 2030.
Its king travels with a thousand-person retinue wherever he goes while his son, Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, plunked down $550 million not long ago when a 440-foot yacht caught his eye in the south of France. Yet this pair of royal kleptocrats dares preach austerity at a time when as much as 25 percent of the population lives on less than $17 a day in trash-strewn Third World slums.
Similarly, Saudi Arabia’s appetite for high-tech weaponry is such that in 2015 it became the largest arms importer in the world. Yet its military is so inept that it is unable to subdue ragtag Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen or even stop them from raiding deep inside Saudi territory and launching regular missile attacks.
The kingdom accuses Iran of sectarianism yet bans all religions other than Islam, arrests Christians for the “crime” of praying and possessing Bibles, equates atheism with terrorism, and has imposed a state of siege on Shi‘ite Muslims in its own Eastern Province. Although a bit restrained of late, its religious police are notorious for roaming the shopping malls and striking out with canes at anyone violating shari‘a law.
As the English novelist Hilary Mantel (of Wolf Hall fame) recalled of the four years she spent in the kingdom with her geologist husband, it was impossible to know what might arouse their ire: “it might be the flashing denim legs of a Filipina girl revealed for a second beneath an abaya gone adrift, or it might be the plate-glass shop front of a business that, as the evening prayer call spiraled through the damp air-conditioned halls, had failed to slam down its metal shutters fast enough. What were the rules? No one knew.”
Saudi Arabia also denounces terrorism at every turn even though its funding groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS (also known as ISIL and Islamic State) is an open secret. In 2009, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton complained in a diplomatic memo made public by Wikileaks that “donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.” In September 2014, she observed that “Qatar and Saudi Arabia … are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.”
A few days later, Vice President Joe Biden told a Harvard audience that “the Saudis, the emirates, etc. … were so determined to take down [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war … [that] they poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of military weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad, except the people who were being supplied were Al Nusra and Al Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.” (Quote starts at 53:30.)
Arming the Saudis
Rather than fighting ISIS and Al Qaeda, the Saudis give them money so that they can wage jihad on religious minorities. Yet this is the country that Trump now calls upon to “drive out the terrorists and extremists,” which is as ludicrous as relying on the KKK to drive out racism. It’s also the country that he hopes will serve as the cornerstone of an “Arab NATO” so that he can sell it more jet fighters and Blackhawk helicopters.
Entertainers perform traditional dances during a banquet held in honor of President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at Murabba Palace, May 20, 2017, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
But the Saudi military is already top-heavy with such gear while at the same time so short of infantry that it relies on ill-trained Sudanese mercenaries, scores of whom were reportedly killed in a recent battle in the Red Sea province of Midi in Yemen’s north. This is not surprising since no Saudi in his right mind wants to serve as a foot soldier so that the deputy crown prince can buy another yacht. But more such purchases will only add to the military imbalance while adding more fuel to the broader Middle East conflagration.
So how did this god-awful marriage come about? Is it all Trump’s fault? Or have others contributed to the mess? The answer, of course, is the latter.
Every president since Franklin Roosevelt has contributed to the catastrophe. Roosevelt declared Saudi Arabia a U.S. protectorate while Dwight Eisenhower got it into his head that a corrupt desert monarchy would somehow be useful in the fight against Communism. Worried that it might come under Soviet influence, Jimmy Carter commenced a military buildup in the Persian Gulf that, according to a 2009 Princeton University study, has now surpassed the $10-trillion mark.
Ronald Reagan relied on the Saudis to finance arms to the Nicaraguan Contras and to Jonas Savimbi’s pro-apartheid guerrillas in Angola. George H.W. Bush launched a major war to save the Saudis from the evil Saddam Hussein. George W. Bush and Barack Obama covered up the Saudi role in 9/11, while Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encouraged them and other Gulf monarchies to fund anti-government rebels in Libya and Syria during the Arab Spring. Both Libya and Syria fell to ruin as a consequence as hundreds of millions of dollars flowed to pro-Al Qaeda forces and the flames of Wahhabist terrorism spread ever wider.
Indeed, Donald Trump for a while seemed to augur something different. Rather than praising the kingdom, he denounced it in 2011 as “the world’s biggest funder of terrorism” and asserted, not inaccurately, that it was using “our petro dollars – our very own money – to fund the terrorists that seek to destroy our people while the Saudis rely on us to protect them.” Once on the campaign trail, he upped the ante by declaring that the Saudis “blew up the World Trade Center” and threatened to block their oil if they didn’t do more to fight ISIS.
Even more disconcertingly – at least to Washington’s endlessly bellicose foreign-policy establishment – Trump dismissed the cherished U.S.-Saudi-neoconservative goal of overthrowing Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, arguing that the U.S. should concentrate on fighting ISIS instead.
“I don’t like Assad at all,” Trump declared in his second presidential debate with Hillary Clinton. “But Assad is killing ISIS, Russia is killing ISIS, and Iran is killing ISIS.” If killing ISIS was the main goal, then it followed that checking the power of the other three could be safely put off to another day.
Prioritizing in this way made a modicum of sense. But it went counter to Official Washington’s self-serving orthodoxy that Assad was somehow in league with the terrorists and that weakening one would undermine the other. Trump’s “Assad is killing ISIS” line thus triggered a firestorm of protest from those “in the know.” Clinton shook her head sadly at Trump’s naiveté while the mainstream U.S. media agreed that Trump didn’t know what he was talking about.
CNN, a division of Time Warner, said the claim was false because “there has been no visible effort by Assad regime forces to go after ISIS.” The Huffington Post, owned by Verizon Communications, wrote that Syria’s “primary focus” was not to go after ISIS, but “to wipe out less radical Syrian rebel groups that pose a larger challenge to Assad because they could be a popular, internationally acceptable alternative to him.”
Another Groupthink
In other words, although it might look to an objective observer that Assad was fighting ISIS, the Washington groupthink held that he really wasn’t; he was somehow on ISIS’s side. Or so such mainstream outlets assured us.
President Donald Trump touches lighted globe with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi King Salman and Donald Trump at the opening of Saudi Arabia’s Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology on May 21, 2017. (Photo from Saudi TV)
But it was nonsense as IHS Markit, a London analytics firm with extensive aerospace and defense experience, made clear in a subsequent report. Beginning in April 2016, its study of actual field conditions in Syria found that government forces engaged Islamic State in battle two and a half times as often as U.S.-backed forces did. Damascus, for all its faults, was the one doing the heavy lifting, not the United States and its allies.
“Any further reduction in the capability of Syria’s already overstretched forces,” IHS Markit observed, “would reduce their ability to prevent the Islamic State from pushing out of the desert into the more heavily populated western Syria, threatening cities like Homs and Damascus.”
Added a Middle East analyst named Columb Strack: “It is an inconvenient reality that any US action taken to weaken the Syrian government will inadvertently benefit the Islamic State and other jihadist groups.”
Overthrowing Assad, in other words, means clearing a path for ISIS straight through to the presidential palace. This reality is obvious. Yet it is a reality that Official Washington prefers to ignore so it can continue selling Saudi Arabia more military goods.
As a result, Democrats, neocons and the liberal media opened up with a rhetorical artillery barrage when it became apparent that America had someone in the White House who might think differently. Trump, they cried, was a “Siberian candidate”! He was a Kremlin stooge!
The fact that Trump questioned whether overthrowing Assad should be the first priority of the U.S. strategy in Syria was proof that he was in league with Vladimir Putin! Reeling from the onslaught, Trump began to realize that he was in a no-win situation, just as Obama had eight years earlier when he gave Hillary Clinton and her neocon allies control of the State Department.
Bucking Washington’s foreign-policy establishment, a.k.a. “The Blob,” was a losing proposition. The neocons were too powerful. Resistance was pointless. So Trump surrendered to the “truisms” of Official Washington’s foreign-policy elite regarding the Middle East conflicts: Saudi Arabia and its allies: good; Russia, Syria, and Iran: baaaad.
Shoring up his right flank, Trump brought on board standard-issue hawks like Secretary of Defense James (“Mad Dog”) Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. He launched a raid inside Yemen and bombed a Syrian military air base, earning rave reviews from the press. He invited Saudi Defense Minister Muhammad bin Salman to a lavish White House lunch and then flew to Riyadh to cozy up with his dad, King Salman. Washington Officialdom was pleased. So was Israel.
Trump’s discordant comments on the campaign trail were forgotten as U.S.-Saudi relations settled back into their well-worn groove. The upshot was a record $110-billion arms deal, a sword dance, ritualistic denunciations of terrorists – Saudi-speak for anyone opposed to the royal family – and a good deal of incendiary rhetoric aimed at Tehran.
Where to Now?
The big question now is whether all this tough talk leads to something more substantial. If so, two flashpoints bear watching. One is the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, Yemen’s chief entry point for humanitarian aid and, according to the Saudis, for Iranian military aid to the Houthis. For months, the kingdom has been pushing for an all-out effort to wrest the port away from Houthi control, and the great danger now is that Trump, swept along by his own rhetoric, will go along.
Map of Syria.
But a frontal assault on a city of more than 300,000 is no easy matter. To the contrary, it would be a major undertaking requiring not only U.S. air and naval support but probably U.S. ground troops as well.
As the rightwing Jamestown Foundation noted: “Even with US assistance, the invasion will be costly and ineffective. The terrain to the east of Hodeidah is comprised of some of the most forbidding mountainous terrain in the world. The mountains, caves, and deep canyons are ideal for guerrilla warfare that would wear down even the finest and best disciplined military. The most capable units of what was the Yemeni Army and the Houthis themselves will inflict heavy losses on those forces that try to take Hodeidah and then, if necessary, move up into the mountains.”
It’s hard to imagine even Trump blundering into such a trap. This is why the second flashpoint is even more worrisome. Located some 1,800 miles to the north near the desert town of Al-Tanf, it is where the Baghdad-Damascus highway, a crucial supply route, crosses into Syria from Iraq. It is also where U.S. jets struck a pro-Syrian government convoy on May 18 as it neared a U.S.-British military outpost. It is an area where all sides – the Syrian army, Iraqi Shi‘ite militias, Iranian-backed forces plus U.S., U.K., and even Norwegian troops – are now beefing up their forces. With Trump’s “Arab NATO” vowing to contribute 34,000 troops to the struggle against both ISIS and Iran, the question is whether the U.S. and Saudis will push matters to the brink by attempting to sever a key Syrian supply link to the outside world.
If so, the upshot could well be a firefight that triggers a wider war. That will make the neocons and their Saudi allies very happy and no doubt please Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well. But it will scare the hell out of everybody else.
Daniel Lazare is the author of several books including The Frozen Republic: How the Constitution Is Paralyzing Democracy (Harcourt Brace).
The Deep State was pressing hard against Trump, and he caved in to it. He gave it what it wanted most. They in turn lightened up.
It is no different than what J Edgar Hoover did to so many Presidents. Blackmail.
The problem with Iran, Assad and Putin is that they are all Israel’s enemies and the Israel Lobby’s grip on the American body politic is such that no US President, least of all Trump, who seems to be the most pro-Israel president in US history, can do anything to antagonize Israel or its American supporters. Iran is Israel’s designated enemy No. 1, Assad is considered Iran’s stooge and Putin has made himself Assad’s protector and is being presented by his own American supporters as Iran’s “ally”. In addition, Obama’s weak response to Putin’s attack on Ukraine has discredited NATO but NATO is vital to Israel’s security. It provides a legal pretext for maintaining US forces and military supplies close to Israel, and it provides a convenient fuel stop on the most direct route from the US to Israel. In addition, it’s hard to see how the US could wage any sort of war in the Middle East without having use of the NATO bases. The NATO “deal” is that the US defends Europe and in return, Europe acquiesces in US use of its NATO bases to defend Israel, and in that context, wage (an admittedly unwinnable) war on terror. In simple terms, no NATO = no defence of Israel and no war on terror; Putin in Ukraine = no NATO. Thus, removing Putin is the lynchpin of the whole problem. Putin out of power restores NATO (and US) credibility and brings about Assad’s downfall. Thus, “the truisms of Official Washington’s foreign-policy elite” are just a common sense analysis of the world as it really is and not some airy-fairy dogma into which empirical reality is to be straightjacketed.
You are a liar jew. I worked in Saudi Arabia for a year and had my Bible with me.
What makes this neocon as opposed to neoliberal orthodoxy? So far as Saudi Arabia goes, they’re one and the same.
True Ann, they are exactly the same, wrapped in different paper.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries never expects to be invaded by Uncle Sam’s 32,768 denominations of Protestant Christian greatness AND Trump.com
Very clear, good and informative piece Daniel.
What the hell else do you expect! This idiot is just that, an idiot. And he’s the freakin’ so-called president. God help us.
The intense naivety (or plain ignorance) exposed by many here is pitiful.
The U S arms and trains the so-called “moderate” jihadis while the Saudi’s arm and fund the branch known as ‘ISIS’ —
In 2014 we (The United States) aroused the Sunni in Iraq to declare war on the Shia and, with our expertise and covert compliance and Saudi funding, the Sunni Caliphate was born. —
This isn’t ‘Deep State’ stuff, it’s outright genocidal conflict with the purpose of creating and controlling a “NEW MIDDLE EAST”. — We’re essentially already involved in World War 3 – just count the nations already engaged in the deadly, dispossessing destruction and desolation of previously stable peoples— the deaths of innocents fleeing conflict, the mass displacement of entire communities, the refugee crisis, the once proud and free Arabs now locked behind fences in foreign countries — the shameful, shameful horror of dependency forced upon the once proud peoples of the Middle East by foreign forces with their Evil Agenda.
This isn’t simply the “Deep State” — this is the carrying out of an agenda previously planned and declared in GHW Bush’s September 11 1990 New World Order speech.
Trump’s decision to increase our military budget shows his absolute acquiescence to and acceptance of The Plan (name) – A New Strategy For Securing The Realm.
Let’s quit being participants in this deception and deceit. It’s high time we start marching and shouting for world peace instead of laying down under foot of the corrupt military rulers and the 1% whose sole desire is to build wealth for themselves while the world crumbles around all of humanity.
————————————————————-
George H.W. Bush | NWO preparation speech (Sep 11 1990) – YouTube -3:43
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw2ZuetYxpM
George Bush Sr. New World Order Live Speech Sept 11 1991 – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byxeOG_pZ1o
A New Strategy For Securing The Realm.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1438.htm
welcome back…Mr. Obvious
Yes, but the plan was created before 1990 and is following the neocon playbook to a tee. First thing in the playbook: create chaos in the country you want to include in your realm, hence the destruction of middle eastern countries. Then when chaos is complete, preferably with the killing of millions, then the country is yours to take.
A lot of people on these sites, smart people commenting, say they love this country, but for such and such.
I don’t love this country and haven’t for a long time.
Trump has been neutered, has had a sex change operation. He’s now Hillary Clinton!
did people actually think Trump would have been any better?
Jared’s Secret
Something brewing 1/16 inch under the surface was there was an ALREADY KNOWN crime of collusion between the incoming Trump administration and a foreign government – the collusion with Israel around UN 2334.
There is the KNOWN December 2016 ‘Crime of Collusion with Israel against the USA’ with Jared’s December ‘backchannel’ collusion with Bibi/ the Israelis as they sought to derail the US policy of support of UN SCR 2334, in attempt to wrest power from Obama and thereby to rescue a desperate Israel
Jared just got sloppy and thought he could do the same thing with the Russians that he just did with the Israelis
WHOOPS – ANOTHER WINDFALL
Jared’s collusion with Bibi and the Israelis over 2334 is stuck like a tarbaby to Jared’s collusion with Russia
When asked about OTHER foreign agent interference in the US besides Russia, Brennan said he would like to do that behind closed doors. LIKE WHAT HAPPENED WITH UN 2334, right, Mr Brennan?
CHECKMATE ISRAEL –
The America people are only just beginning to understand the public spectacle of Israeli/Israeli Lobby interference in the American political system
Thumbs down on Jared – how about 5 yrs for a count over Israel and 5 for the count over Russia?
Hey Jared, where did you go to talk to Bibi over UN 2334, the Israeli Embassy, Dermer’s office? ha!
Democracy dies in Darkness and that is EXACTLY what the Nightflower has had for years. No longer…
It’s the Successful 2nd American Revolution
GOGOGOGOGO Courage is Contagious GOGOGOGOGO
Planks of the ‘Successful 2nd American Revoution Party’
1- force AIPAC to register as agent of foreign government, then bring forward the Rep Jane Harman completed crime to derail the FBI prosecution of Steve Rosen and weissman which, then make AIPAC illegal.
2- 28th amendment prohibiting israeli or other interference in, financing of American politics/politicians
3- Prosecute Jared Kushner to the full extent of the law
VOTE the Successful 2nd American Revoution Party
In Popeye, Bluto was a pest. Don’t be like that. Go away.
How can you tell anyone to go away? Do you not agree that maybe AIPAC plays a big part in who gets to make decisions in your country? It is high time to name NAMES wether it be people or organizations. I’ll name a family that in m humble opinion the USA would be better off if they were not there the Kagan Klan.
You all have a nice Peacefull day. YAHANPD
..
The Kagan Klan (and some of their wives like Victoria Nuland,.Robert’s wife) is indeed major part of the Israeli fifth column and push behind Iraq, Syria, Iran…and Russia….The zio cabal really really wants a war with Russia so they can steal whatever they didnt get around to stealing when the USSR went under.
Yes, that’s the only theory that answers all the questions. The neocon/neoliberal cabal, “deep state” or whatever you want to call it does exist (Every day I talk with “resistance” types who hate trump but don’t think the deep state is real), and their agenda, straight out of the Brzezinski playbook, has neutering of Russia at its core. Readers here know that.
Mike Whitney today has a great expose suggesting that imperial defeat in Syria is the real trigger for Russia-gate. Makes a lot of sense, though I don’t know why he omitted the part about Russia pissing off US/NATO by arranging for Syria to eliminate all its chemical weapons, right when they thought they had Obama cornered into attacking. I mean how dare they deny us our regime-change?
Anyway, in an alternate and better world, John Brennan would be the Person of Interest in the Russia-gate investigation. Read and enjoy (darkly): http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/02/trump-brennan-and-the-intel-communitys-iron-wall-of-secrecy/
No one has any basis for trusting Donald Trump about anything. His credibility is totally shot. The “deal” he made with the Saudis is an absolute disaster for america, however good it may look to salivating weapons makers. Every deal Trump makes from now on will be another nail in America’s coffin. A give away is not a deal. Trump really has no idea how to deal on the international level.
Trump has embraced the head-choppers’ cause and the anti-Iranian crusade with such a fervor , that even a corrupt emirate such as Qatar now appears to look more sensible than him, if one is to believe the recent statements of emir Al-Thani about Iran being an islamic power that should not be isolated. Although the Qataris say that its news agency was hacked, it looks like Saudi Arabia and the UAE are bent on painting Qatar as a traitor to the Iran-bashing line that was warmly confirmed during the meetings between Meister Head-Chopper Al Saud and Ringling Brothers’ lead clown Trumpy.
Trump is simply another Zionist ruse being played out in the Grand Chessboard for control of the world. It is all scripted folks, including their false flag attacks like Manchester. This video does a good job of laying out how the Hegelian Dialectic is being employed in regards to Trump and how the global elite play us all against each other, as they finance terrorist groups. Prepare to have your mind blown as it all becomes more and more surreal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO5ECFtd_sE&t=1s
But the Saudi military is already top-heavy with such gear while at the same time so short of infantry that it relies on ill-trained Sudanese mercenaries, scores of whom were reportedly killed in a recent battle in the Red Sea province of Midi in Yemen’s north. This is not surprising since no Saudi in his right mind wants to serve as a foot soldier so that the deputy crown prince can buy another yacht.
On the other hand, the U.S. military is not in a position to be smug and self-righteous. So the Saudis are top-heavy with gear. What about our F-35s and other boondoggles of hardware? Except for the “victories” in Grenada and Panama and the barbaric turkey shoot along the Iraq-Kuwait border our generals haven’t won a war since WW2. As for “no Saudi in his right mind wants to serve as a foot soldier so that the deputy crown prince can buy another yacht” perhaps our American youth ought to give that some thought and not sacrifice their lives so some top executives in our weapons-making corporations can buy themselves their own yachts or some other symbols of moral decadence.
make that “not’ likely to influence him.
I am tired of using ‘Deep State” without naming names—so name the individuals.
For instance which ‘deep staters’ got to Trump?—-assuming he has been gotten to and wasnt lying in his campaign to begin with about avoiding wars and etc..
People like ‘simple’ so they usually blame and name something like— the ‘intelligent agency(CIA) or the ‘weapon sellers (the military industrial lcomplex or ‘Capitalist ‘, Globalist’ (Wall Street), or the Dems or the Neos and etc etc..
Soooo ‘who’ in the deep state got to Trump—? It had to be either someone he listens to or someone with some ‘hold’ on him.
He’s not taking advice from the likes of McCain or any Hillary Dems so whose advice is he following? And he has no respect for any ‘agencies’ so any ‘information ‘ he is fed by them is likely to influence him without someone else he trust backing them up.
The “Deep State” is just a convenient term for unelected power brokers in Washington. They comprise the three letter intelligence agencies, the authors of Project for a New American Century, The Big Banks, The Zionists, and some of the western owned Global Corporations. As for “who” got to him, that is a good question. The messenger is probably from one of the Intelligence agencies. The “hold” they have on him is his valuing his next breath the way we all do.
The proof that “they” exist is that no President can go against their policies. Clinton ran on no “most favored nation” trade status for China, then immediately reversed that policy once elected. George W ran against Foreign Military Entanglements and “Nation Building”, then immediately reversed. Obama ran on “Hope and Change”, then gave us more of the same, and is quoted as saying the CIA usually get what they want. Now Trump has done a complete 180 on foreign policy, and no doubt the “free trade” 180 is coming up next.
What other explanation is there if none of these Presidents could do any of what they said they’d do?
I was not questioning the existence of the deep state—-I just want people to do the research and –if they haven’t– and start using the names of the evil ones.
Yeah Cal, I’d like to know the names myself. We know some of the names: Kagan, Wolfowitz, Cheney, Brennan, Clapper, Koch….. and some, like McCain and Graham are just pawns, paid mouthpieces. I think the higher up you go, the harder it is to find out the names. And the institutions of the Deep State have a life of their own, when one dies off, there’s another to replace him. The goal in unrestrained Global Oligarchy, rule by the .01%.
I actually can name them, but it’s easier and less time consuming to tell you where to find them: the authors of Project for a New American Century and Bilderberg members. These two groups (some over-lapping) decide everything and you can find both places on line.
To name names is to work up a target list. Tread carefully.
Such an exercise will have to be performed, eventually, when it comes time for the push-back. I don’t think marching in the streets with protest signs is going to cut it. We’ll need significant numbers from the Establishment (high-ranking people from the military, intelligence community, Congress, police and investigation agencies) who are willing to side with the whistle-blowers and the black-balled investigative journalists to succeed in the re-taking of our Republic.
There is a fresh wind coming from the military,,,, soldiers and field officers are beginning to awaken to what they have gotten involved with…many that were charged, patriotic young men in the beginning…are seeing that they have become the “bad guys” that they thought they were fighting to save us from…We really need a sea-change like that in the military and our militarized police forces…
For those of you that look forward to an armed confrontation with our government…think again…they have become more than prepared for that event…u will not win a shooting match with the powers that be…
Non-violent revolt is the way to win this..and hope that many in the armed forces and police depts. will not be willing to fire on their own countrymen…
God help us…No more WAR!!
peace
D
Another article of interest About “The Donald” at link below:
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Trump: Dancing with Wolves on the Titanic
The Saker • May 27, 2017
http://www.unz.com/tsaker/trump-dancing-with-wolves-on-the-titanic/
You should save your linked article for the grandkids. Someday an article like the one you referenced will read like a factual history book. I agree with the author when he describes a dying empire. I love America, and I wish and hope that by some chain of events, hopefully not violent ones, that the U.S. the country I grew up in will see itself through to the other side, and join the rest of world instead of bombing every living thing on earth.
Trump is going neocon to duck the extreme attacks against him. He’s trying to appease his domestic enemies. They won’t be appeased of course, but they do back off momentarily as they get things they want.
Critical to understanding this is to realize just who the neocons are today. They are Democrats. They are the anti-Trump forces. They are Hillary.
We are back to the dominance of the Scoop Jackson Democrats of the deep Cold War.
Whatever the manifest faults of Trump, at least he is not them.
We are told it is good against evil, good against Trump. But the “good” is worse than the “bad” when it comes to war and peace, and the very active killing going on in so many places.
Mark – good comments.
“In his 1960 book On Thermonuclear War, the flamboyant nuclear strategist Herman Kahn likened certain kinds of conflict to the game of highway chicken. Two cars speed toward each other, head on, late at night. In the standard version of the game, there are three possible outcomes. One driver gets nervous and veers away; he loses. Both drivers veer away; the game’s a draw. They both keep zooming straight ahead; everybody dies. But Khan posited a fourth outcome and an unconventional way to win: One driver yanks the steering wheel from his dashboard and visibly throws it out the window; the other driver, seeing that his opponent can’t pull off the road, has no choice but to veer away himself.
“In this analogy, Trump is the guy who’s thrown the steering wheel out the window, possibly without knowing what the steering wheel does. The other drivers, Russia or China, can’t be sure of his motives, but they’d better get out of the way anyway.
“Trump may take this analogy as vindication of his approach to public relations. He has said that he wants to foment uncertainty in the minds of adversaries (or, sometimes he’s suggested, in the minds of all foreigners), to throw them off-guard. That may be happening to some extent, but the effect will likely wear off soon—or if it persists, the results will be grim for global stability and American interests.”
Return of the Madman Theory
By Fred Kaplan
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2017/04/trump_is_inadvertently_putting_nixon_s_madman_theory_to_the_test.html
Donalds new self-improvement book…..”How to Blockhead your way threw a massive Neo-Liveral attack”
Reminds me of the ugliest line in the world: “American Interests Abroad” which will eventually kill us all.
The slaughter of people in the Middle East:
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Are The Christians Slaughtered in The Middle East Victims of the Actions of Western War Criminals and Their Terrorist Supporting NATO “Allies”?
…
I believe many Christians and other denominations would still be alive today and the countries where they lived would still be whole, were it not for the “illegal wars” planned and carried out by Western war criminals (past and present) in positions of power. Some of these war criminals purport to be “Christian” but they and their associates created the unholy mess, that has resulted in not only the killings of Christians, but other unfortunate peoples in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan and other countries too….
[read much more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/04/are-christians-slaughtered-in-middle.html
I honestly think Trump is baffled as to what to do, since he’s seen the power of the Deep State. Reports today are musing that Kushner may pull out of Washington and return to his business in real estate. That sword dance in Saudi Arabia made me think this about Trump, he looked completely lost. He does not know how to play the Deep State game and may feel his win has been for naught. The wretched Middle East wars of nearly two decades now have really pushed the world order (if you can call it “order”) to the breaking point. That article from New Eastern Outlook, Joe, is really interesting. The western imperialist nations really need to rethink what they have done, and I hope they do not try to ruin the OBOR project. The West has a habit of playing nasty from years of being the bully. At this critical juncture with climate change and huge populations, the neocons are secondary only to nuclear power as the greatest threat to life on earth.
I picture Jessica that many of America’s 20th Century allies will peel away one by one, that is unless the U.S. does an about face and reforms it’s ways. Seriously, what make China’s ‘One Road One Belt’ project appear so well, is because China’s program is centered around a positive theme, whereas the U.S. is all about war and weapons sales. Something the Project for the New America Century loss sight of was infrastructure projects, and their narrow militaristic view is slowly but surely turning countries off. Plus, S Korea doesn’t want to spend a billion dollars on THAAD missiles, as well as European nations don’t have the money to spend on NATO participation. This 21st Century so far as been very misrepresented by the bluster coming out of D.C., and at some point in time America will be left to stand very alone. Good bye empire!
im still thinking Donald will take the bribe…and resign the office to pence…im pretty sure Donald is having 2nd thoughts about the job anyway,,,
“The thief comes not but to steal,kill and destroy…” (and cares about nothing but self-aggrandizement)
How many of you thought otherwise is deeply distressing.
The American media has ALWAYS loved the Saudis. They’ve got some splainin’ to do.
Back after Memorial Day.
President Trump’s conversion to neo-con/neo-liberal foreign policy validates author Gore Vidal’s description of the US as the “United States of Amnesia.” The US learned nothing from it’s debacle in Vietnam, despite the fact that 58,000 Americans died there, in addition to several million Vietnamese and Cambodians, all for nothing. Now the US is repeating it’s mistakes in Southeast Asia, in the Middle East. Albert Einstein once defined insanity as “repeating the same mistakes over and over again, but expecting a different outcome each time.” Lord Acton was right when he said never underestimate the influence of stupidity upon history. The late American journalist and writer H.L. Mencken would be having a field day with Donald Trump. Trump and his supporters are clearly what Mencken often referred to as: “the boobwahzee.
Great comment, George. I suspect that Trump has had his trip to the woodshed, and decided he’d like to live and stay rich, so he’ll do whatever the “Powers that Be” tell him to. I suppose he is hoping that none of his followers notice that he’s become a “Swamp Thing” himself. Just like Obama, no “hope and change”, just more of the same. Globalization run amok and the Forever War on steroids.
The Who had it right:
“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
I’m only surprised that when Trumpenstein visited his Saudi chums they didn’t lay on a mass beheading or a ceremonial crucifixion of a few teenagers for his entertainment. I was expecting Trumpenstein to collapse helpless with laughter as he read his scripted speech praising the Saudis. But we live in an time when Saudi Arabia is chairman of the UN human rights and womens rights councils. This stuff is beyond satire. Its not quite so funny when you consider the likely results. Trumpenstein is now inextricably shackled to the dying Saudi dictatorship and all its works. The increasing opposition within Saudi Arabia itself has the potential to produce another Syria, with America mired in a quagmire trying to prop up a dying barbaric medieval regime. It guarantees US support for whatever adventures the reckless and irresponsible Crown Prince dreams up in Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Iran and elsewhere. It surrenders control of US foreign policy to Saudi (let alone Israeli) adventurism. And that’s without considering the war that is being ginned up by Saudi Arabia and Israel against Iran. Whats happened over the past 15 years in the Middle East could look like a vicarage tea party by the end of Trumpensteins term.
This is the treason of the deep state, including a coopted Trump, against civilization. The best thing which could be done would be to supply the houthis with modern weapons. The war on Yemen is a war crime, and the Saudi regime is the chief sponsor of terrorism. Trump is mistaken if he thinks he can sell out to this fundamental barbarism and somehow manoevre around it.
As with the past administrations Trump seems to be falling in line with the foreign policy whims of the neocon/interventionists in their mad dance to destabilize the middle east. Sell arms to the Saudi’s, the real sponsor of terrorism against the Shia minorities in the states of Iran and Syria, and satellites around the world. I’m left to wonder what will come of another huge arms sale, Obama sold $90 billion, the devastation will be immense. I’m left to wonder if an endgame is even on the table or just more death and destruction to maximize the profits of weapons makers. There’s always some talk about Nazi Germans not doing something to stop their atrocities, what about Americans being held accountable for the US government’s atrocities? By my count it’s,(the deaths of civilians) now in the millions since the end phase of WW II with no end in sight. As I write this the Indy 500 just started yet all I can think about are the atrocities continuing by the US government and the ‘allies’ and the costs with no way to ever pay for it. There’s something seriously wrong and I don’t know what to do about it; and I guessing nobody else does either.
One of the things we can do about the world situation is what we are doing here on this blog. Think about it, talk about it online and with your friends. Public opinion needs to change. How else are we going to do that ? Don’t discount the value of words, ideas, communications – if these count for nothing then we are indeed helpless, and hopelessly screwed.
Join the club Ol’ Hippy. I wish I knew how to alert my fellow Americans to begin thinking as you have suggested. Although there maybe hope, and we are not aware of it. Presstv reports how Israeli citizens are pushing back against the official Zionist narratives, and protesting in favor of the Palestinians having their own state. I personally advocate a one democratic representative Palestine/Israel, but at least there are good Israeli citizens promoting a peaceful end to the decades long atrocities which have been committed against the Palestinian people. Now if only we Americans could gather to bring our war state government to an end.
http://presstv.ir/Detail/2017/05/28/523435/Palestine-Israel-Tel-Aviv
There’s something seriously wrong and I don’t know what to do about it; and I guessing nobody else does either.
There is something we can do, and that is what we are doing now supporting Consortium News and kindred websites. Unfortunately, we will probably all be like the goddess Cassandra who shared oracles with the people but was continually ignored. At least, we can claim we tried and did something that might have been better than doing nothing. Those of us that have reached beyond our allotted three score and ten years might be lucky enough to get out of here before the nukes go off or climate changes puts the kabosh on Planet Earth, but I feel for the small minority that are concerned and are trying to avoid the ultimate catastrophe.
yes…we need to stay alive…the readership of these independent sites may go WAY up if Joe-avg-citizen starts to feel real pain from proposed budgets and healthcare…George Carlin expresses the feelings of the Elites towards us pretty succinctly…
“Damascus, for all its faults, was the one doing the heavy lifting, not the United States and its allies.”
Of course the Syrian government just cannot be given a smidgeon of credit without an attendant qualifier. Using the expression “for all its faults” is an overall demeaning suggestion, a blanket of disapproval that does injustice to Syria’s history, real-time threats and other contingencies, and the positive evolution of Syrian society, politically and otherwise.
Somehow the government of Syria must be looked upon as “a problem” because it prefers the sovereignty and welfare of its own people to the dictates of private bankers and other thieving profiteers. Somehow socialized benefits in the realm of healthcare and education are to be looked down upon. Somehow support for the rights of Palestinians is a no-no. Somehow the heroically courageous defense of its population from the wicked onslaught of proxy terrorist factions is twisted into the idea that these terrorists joined a popular armed civil rebellion so that Assad’s fight against jihadis was something he brought upon Syria, that a “civil war” was enlarged and a “bad guy” inadvertently found himself fighting other bad guys.
I am not suggesting that this is what Mr. Lazare thinks, but the qualifier is unnecessary here and contributes to the problem of fairly assessing the Syrian situation.
You can oppose US foreign policy, Saudi support for terrorism and the terrorists fighting Assad without becoming an apologist for the Syrian government,which really has used indiscriminate violence in its war.
Opposed to this view, titled:
you only hate Assad because your TV told you to;
points to the distressing lack of evidence for such statements as “indiscriminate violence”; a strong perspective here on demonizing Assad
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47136.htm
You know D5-5 there is a lot of truth to what you said about the tv. More people should stay away from the tv, and especially avoid cable network news. I do believe you are right thought that people go with what the tv told them. Possibly because of that, this is why you and I and the others here come to this site. Sure we also could get it wrong, but at least by reading sites such as consortiumnews we are being informed with the truth, of which doesn’t get told in our big corporate media. Oh and Gregory Herr hit it so perfectly on so many notes, that I find myself wanting to sit in on his orchestration.
Great Link. Caitlin is quickly becoming one of my favorites. No blinders and no fear!
i beg to differ. War is hell and cannot be sanitized from indiscriminate effects. But as a matter of policy and performance, the Syrian government has been discriminating in its use of force, has established humanitarian corridors as possible, and has implemented a successful reconciliation program.
I suppose the government should have just allowed terrorist factions to continue indiscriminately attacking civilians from their violently captured strongholds (not to mention what they were doing to civilians within their strongholds) on the pretext that attaking those strongholds would result in civilian deaths.
If you want to have a discussion about indiscriminate violence and the choices governments make (some forced and some unforced), then you need to broaden the parameters to include the entire dirty picture of geopolitical machinations and motives.
The term “apologist” is too cute. I do not blanketly defend nor condemn anything as complex as the Syrian government. To defend what is right or well-motivated about something doesn’t take criticism of other aspects off the table. But Syria and the Assad government have been unjustly maligned to the point of absurdity, and the rank evil that has been perpetrated against the Syrian people is beyond description.
Hey Gregory I’m not sure if you have ever visited this site, but I think you might enjoy it….the comment section is diverse, and well informed.
https://syrianperspective.com
Gregory Herr, you comments and assessments about Syria are wonderfully refreshing . Especially the “Unjustly maligned to the point of absurdity” part. I wish that millions of viewers could see what reality is versus that tired lie about the “Assad Regime”
I do believe that the Syrian people resoundingly would agree with Gregory.
(.. and I do too..)
In 2016, the US Presidential Election had 56% of all eligible voters turn out.
****
But:
On June 3rd, 2014, the Syrians conducted their own Presidential Election, and 73% of all eligible voters turned out.
This was with 11,634,412 of the 15,845,575 Syrians eligible citizens to take part in the voting. This number of Syrians eligible to vote was based on the government’s data of all Syrians living in Syria and abroad who were over the age of 18. This included all Syrians in the government-held territory, the rebels-held territory, the refugees, the newly naturalized Kurds, and declared Syrian expatriates.
Bashar al-Assad (.. the Ba’ath Party) won the election with 10,319,723 votes or 88.7% of all votes cast.
The Syrian election was also recognized AND supported by 27 Countries who shouldered the heaviest of loads of Syrian refugees/expat’s. These country’s assisted these Syrian expatriates to vote in their local Syrian embassies from abroad.
The US along with 10 other Western Countries did not open or provide any means for local Syrian refugee’s/expat’s living in there countries to vote.. .. So, the Syrian Government called out to those citizens in those Western country’s for their expat’s to find a way to vote. And of course, they were all counted in the Over All Vote count.
On May 15th 2016, this was Vice President John Kerry’s statement of the International legally recognized/supported election that was being conducted in 28 countries:
“Together, we are unified in saying that Assad’s staged elections are a farce,” Kerry said. “They’re an insult. They are a fraud on democracy, on the Syrian people and on the world.”
“.. Who was our friend when the world was our foe..”
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
(..remember, he said this to RU when they visited us in 1871. Because, RU had parked ships off of NY & SF during our Civil War, in order to protect us from any interference from the French and British..)
cmp – excellent post. The Russians also came to the defense of the USS Liberty.
“No one came to help us,” said Dr. Richard F. Kiepfer, the Liberty’s physician. “We were promised help, but no help came. The Russians arrived before our own ships did.”
From an October, 2003 article in Counterpunch: “Israel’s Attack on the Liberty, Revisited” by Jeffrey St. Clair
You can see why countries become isolationist, can’t you?
Thank you backwardsevolution. I knew I read that somewhere about the Russian destroyer coming to the aid of the battered USS Liberty….and now I rediscovered it due to your comment reference thanks Joe
Here is another good article about the USS Liberty….
http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-liberty_tuesoct02-story.html
left out of all this stuff about assad’s atrocities is the dreadful american butcher of 500,000 of his own people in the american civil war, when poor rebels who only wished to live under their own rules were savagely destroyed by the arch-fiend mass murdering abe lincoln..and he did it all without barrel bombs!
I loved this article. But, yes, everyone, even people who should know better, got on the Assad is evil bandwagon. They don’t know, or forget, that Syria under Assad is a secular country with religious freedom for all. The lies of Amnesty International on Democracy Now! were sickening. One could know after a few minutes into the interview that the stories of Assad’s brutality were lies; the White Helmets have been thoroughly discredited as well. No one I ask has ever listened to Assad and knows his philosophy. The same, by the way, goes for Putin. Russia is always referred to in MSM as “a know enemy” or “a known adversary” when in fact Russia is willing to be a partner, not just to Europe, but the US as well in seeking peace instead of war. Trump is a buffoon, bully and boor, but when he said things in his stumping about NATO, Russia, Saudi Arabia, I thought if elected he would at least prevent a war with Russia which Hillary was eager to wage. I’m also sick to death over the steady, relentless slamming of Iran which is filled with modern, peaceful people, and who has never attacked anyone.
A terrific piece of analysis here and more valuable history. The following site offers an optimistic view of what’s happening in the Syrian desert toward al Tanf in recent days, with lists and graphics. Re: Daniel’s flashpoint #2:
https://syrianperspective.com/2017/05/the-syrian-desert-will-be-fully-liberated-soon-huge-saa-and-allies-progress-aleppo-province-about-to-be-isis-free.html
excellent link thanks 5-5
ps..u wouldnt own a 5-5 chevy would you?
I am sure Trumpenfuhrer envies the Saudi royals’ lavish life style; it is right up his ally, except for the religious bullshit. Birds of a feather flock together. They gave him quite a show and the uber con-man himself was snowed. Besides, they are oil people and he loves oil people.
What was MLK’s power? He spoke the truth.
The United States is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. You are still right about that Martin Luther King.
The US is a military dictatorship in all but name.
I’m throughly convinced that no president can overcome the Deep State which owns our government from functioning as it does. Remember on 911 how George W Bush was left out of the loop on Air Force One, while Dich Cheney with his wife by his side ran the government? Well that may have been one of the rarest visuals to give us a view of how our nation really does operate. Like Daniel Lazare said Obama handed Hillary the State Department. This was no accident of choice by Obama, as much as it was an instructive on how life goes in the White House. How can anything change, as long as our government is controlled by the Military/Security Industrial Complex?
Good point; the question is who is Trump’s Dick Cheney; certainly not Pense? Maybe the position is still open which is why his policies are so inconsistent and bungling.
I am seeing some hope, especially after his latest tour of the fool, that US’ European sycophants will act like adults and give up cow towing to Washington’s insane policies on war, Russia and economics. Merkel’s comments at the G7 were diplomatic, polite double speak for ,” this guy is thick as a brick”..
Read this…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-28/watershed-moment-merkel-says-germany-can-no-longer-rely-america
Yes, very interesting indeed, especially because the speech was made at a CSU rally. The Bavarian sister party of Merkel’s CDU has been pressing for good relations with Russia for a long time now, and I imagine that Frau Merkel wanted to please the Bavarian crowd before the elections. But it is still encouraging to see that Trump’s erratic discourse may produce the unintended consequence of pushing the European leadership out of their present colonial status.
I thought it a cool observation.
Read this…
http://journal-neo.org/2017/05/27/eastern-europe-tilts-to-obor-and-eurasia/
Joe Tedesky
Good read. Just this morning in reply to several news stories informing people of Merkles statement that Germany and Europe could no longer rely on the US and the UK, I made the observation that in reply to Trumps arrogance that Merkle finally turned and looked East at China´s OBOR project and realized that indeed Germany and Europe have an alternative choice rather than being tied to the USA, UK and the Western Capitalist System. It is a small crack in the usual solidarity between Europe and the USA, but it is none the less a crack and can only widen so long as Trump is President and looking at the dysfunctional society that is the USA the next President will not be any better.
The world is getting sick of hearing about American values when all America does is war.
Read this…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/world/asia/china-south-korea-moon-jae-in.html?_r=0
Just as a point of linguistic interest, the expression “kowtow” (to grovel, scrape, and bow) comes from a really bad romanization of a Chinese word (most likely, Cantonese) and has nothing to do with towing cows. Just FYI…
SPECIFICALLY..WHO AND WHERE?
Daniel Lazare’s article “Trump Submits to Neocon Orthodoxy” provides
excellent insights in this administration’s foreign policy as well as its
roots in actions of previous US administrations.
In making absolutely clear the marketing of weapons to Saudi Arabia,
it would be of great help to name the precise corporations, their
weapons-to-be sold, their locations in the US (leading to likely
Congressional support). If amount of profit to these corporations
is available, it would be helpful but the availability of this information
may be difficult to get.
The moves with regard to the “Arab NATO” should be placed
within the context of our deteriorating retationship to Europe.
As Assistant Secretary of State in the preceding administration
(Victoria Nuland) once said: “Fuck Europe!” After Trump’s
visit to Europe, this could just as easily be a description
of the Trump Administration’s current policy toward Europe.
The critical statements of the heads of France and
Germany are not the result of any great salesmanship by Trump.
But then salesmanship so often involves negotiation, an approach
evidently opposed by Trump as a proof of “weakness”.
The roots of suspicion of the US go back and pre-date actions
of the Trump Administration. Such suspicions are kept ablaze
by economic problems of Europe today. (Trump made
no attempt to address these areas in his school bully lectures
to Heads of State. This is a subject I referred to briefly
in a previous comment. For in-depth background see Joyce
and Gabriel Kolko’s landmark work THE LIMITS OF POWER.)
Regarding “peace” in Palestine/Israel, Trump’s remarks reflecting
the views of Israel emphasized Palestinian willingness
to “compromise and make the tough decisions.” It consistently
amazes this writer that compromises and tough decisions
are always a code for Palestinian capitulation and surrender.
They NEVER refer to compromise and tough decisions by
Israel such as retreating to the 67 border,eliminating
all military power over Palestine, eliminating the
blockade, prohibiting all right of entry of Israeli
military forces for any reason whatsoever into Palestine,
eliminating all so-called “settlements” without the specific
permission of the State of Palestine, recognition by Israel
of the sovereignty of the State of Palestine with all
exclusive rights accorded such entities etc.
Admittedly these would be “tough decisions” for Israel
and therefore are not even under consideration.
Touch decisions and compromise are reserved for
the conquerred and oppressed.
—Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
Trump is a result of a country whether it be by hook or crook has finally become so arrogant with it’s power that it offers it’s electorate no sufficient candidates upon whom to rally behind. Seriously the American voter who hasn’t mattered in effect for a very long time, is finally locked into a continuity of irrelevance, and that’s a fact. Nice to hear from you Peter take care Joe
You’re right, Joe .. No president after John F. Kennedy can overcome the Deep State, a shadowy gov’t. that owns the USG and runs the show. Yes, I remember on 9/11 how George W. Bush was left out of the loop on Air Force One, which took him down to Florida to read a children’s book “My Pet Goat” to a classroom filled with 1st and 2nd graders, while Dick Cheney, with his wife by his side, ran the gov’t. This could’ve been one of the rarest visuals to give us a view of how our nation actually does operate. As Daniel Lazare said, Obama handed Hillary the State Dept. (Hillary then used it to bomb Libya and murder its leader, Muammar Gaddhafi). This was no accident of choice by Obama, as much as it was an instructive on how life goes on in the White House. Nothing can change, so long as our gov’t. is controlled by the Military/Security Industrial Complex.
The late President Dwight D. Eisenhower was beginning to see how the MIC was beginning to insert itself into the USG .. After all, he had been Allied Supreme Commander in Europe during WWII. His farewell address at the end of his 2nd term as POTUS says it all, giving a dire warning that if the MIC wasn’t reined in, dire consequences would eventually befall the nation.
The Nov. 22, 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy showed just how powerful the MIC had become, and no succeeding president has ever dared to confront it since, not even our current one, Donald J. Trump.
Interesting article:
——————————————————
Therefore I ask: “Has Trump become a Chump for the War Criminals”?
[Much more info at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/04/has-trump-become-chump-for-war-criminals.html
Yes he submits to Israel.