Exclusive: By pushing the Russia-gate “scandal” and neutering President Trump’s ability to conduct diplomacy, Democrats and Congress have encouraged his war-making side on North Korea, writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
There was always a logical flaw in pushing Russia-gate as an excuse for Hillary Clinton’s defeat – besides the fact that it was based on a dubious “assessment” by a small team of “hand-picked” U.S. intelligence analysts. The flaw was that it poked the thin-skinned Donald Trump over one of his few inclinations toward diplomacy.
President Trump delivers his brief speech to the nation explaining his decision to launch a missile strike against Syria on April 6, 2017. (Screen shot from Whitehouse.gov)
We’re now seeing the results play out in a very dangerous way in Trump’s bluster about North Korea, which was included in an aggressive economic sanctions bill – along with Russia and Iran – that Congress passed nearly unanimously, without a single Democratic no vote.
Democrats and Official Washington’s dominant neocons celebrated the bill as a vote of no-confidence in Trump’s presidency but it only constrained him in possible peacemaking, not war-making.
The legislation, which Trump signed under protest, escalated tensions with those three countries while limiting Trump’s power over lifting sanctions. After signing the bill into law, Trump denounced the bill as “seriously flawed – particularly because it encroaches on the executive branch’s authority to negotiate.”
As his “signing statements” made clear, Trump felt belittled by the congressional action. His response has been to ratchet up bellicose rhetoric about North Korea, bluster appearing to be his natural default position when under pressure.
Remember, in April, as the Russia-gate hysteria mounted, Trump changed the subject, briefly, by rushing to judgment on an alleged chemical-weapons incident in Khan Sheikhoun, Syria, and firing off 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian military base.
He immediately won acclaim from Official Washington, although Hillary Clinton and other hawks argued that he should have gone further with a much larger U.S. invasion of Syria, i.e., establishing a “no-fly zone” even if that risked nuclear war with Russia.
What Trump learned from that experience is that even when he is going off half-cocked, he is rewarded for taking the military option. (More careful analysis of the Khan Sheikhoun evidence later raised serious doubts that the Syrian military was responsible.)
Schoolyard Taunts
So, we now have President Trump in a bizarre exchange of schoolyard taunts with the leadership of North Korea, with Trump’s “fire and fury like the world has never seen” rhetoric possibly plunging the United States into a confrontation that could have devastating consequences for the Korean peninsula, Japan and indeed the whole world.
Marine Corps Cpl. Justin Morrall prepares for night stalking during Korea Marine Exercise Program 17-6 near Camp Mujuk, Pohang, South Korea, March 30, 2017. (Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Ally Beiswanger)
Given the fact that the world has already seen the U.S. nuclear destruction of two Japanese cities at the end of World War II, Trump’s loose phrasing seems to suggest that the United States is prepared to use nuclear weapons against North Korea (although he may be referring to “just” carpet-bombing with conventional ordnance).
If nuclear weapons are brought into play, it is hard to fathom what the long-term consequences might be. It’s unlikely that Trump – not known for his deep thinking – has even contemplated that future.
However, even a “limited” war with conventional weapons and confined to the Korean peninsula could kill hundreds of thousands of people and severely shake the world’s economy. If North Korea manages to deliver retaliatory damage on Japan, a human catastrophe and a financial panic could follow.
Many thoughtful people are now expressing alarm at Trump’s erratic behavior, but many of those same people cheered the promotion of Russia-gate as a way to corner Trump politically. They didn’t seem to care that the “scandal” was built on a foundation of flimsy or phony evidence and that a key argument – that “all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies” concurred in the Russian-hacking conclusion – was false.
Once that fake “consensus” claim disappeared – after President Obama’s intelligence chiefs acknowledged that the Jan. 6 “assessment” was the work of “hand-picked” analysts from only three agencies – there should have been a stepping back from the Russia-gate groupthink. There should have been demands for a reassessment of the underlying assumptions.
However, by then, too many Important People, including editors and executives at major news organizations, had accepted Russia’s guilt as flat fact, meaning that their reputations were at risk. To protect their estimable careers, all doubts about Russia’s guilt had to be crushed and the conventional wisdom enforced.
That self-serving defensiveness became the backdrop to the Russia-Iran-North Korean sanctions bill. Not only could no rethinking be allowed on Russia-gate but Trump’s resistance to the groupthink had to be broken by neutering him along with his presidential powers to conduct diplomacy.
Still eager to please the Democratic #Resistance which sees Russia-gate as the pathway to Trump’s impeachment, Democrats – from neocons like Sen. Ben Cardin to anti-interventionists such as Rep. Tulsi Gabbard – joined in the stampede for the sanctions bill.
In their rush, the Democrats even endangered Obama’s signature diplomatic accomplishment, the international agreement blocking an Iranian nuclear weapon. Obama had promised Iran sanctions relief, not more sanctions. Now, the prospects for the accord’s collapse are increased and the neocon dream to bomb-bomb-bomb Iran revived.
And, by tossing North Korea into the mix, the Democrats left Trump few options other than to unleash his warmongering side and plunge the world toward a potential cataclysm.
So, this is what the Russia-gate opportunism has wrought. The logical flaw in Russia-gate may turn out to be a fatal one.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).
“But [the Nation] article is neither conclusive proof nor strong evidence. It’s the extremely long-winded product of a crank, and it’s been getting attention only because it appears in a respected left-wing publication like The Nation. Anyone hoping to read it for careful reporting and clear explanation is going to come away disappointed, however.”
http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/08/the-nation-article-about-the-dnc-hack-is-incoherent.html
Bernie voted against the sanctions bill.
Oh right, got it, “… passed nearly unanimously, without a single Democratic no vote.” Technically Bernie sits as an independent. But he’s not exactly not a part of Democratic Party.
1.NYT used to show a graphic that the probability of H.clinton winning as 85-95 % till the last day of polling.every media was supporting H.clinton except 2 to 3 news papers.
2.Since every media org.is supporting H.clinton should that support counteract russia propaganda.
3.Trump won Rep.nomination on his own then is he not a legitimate candidate as president of USA?
4.Russian fake news,if any, had no effect it seems because H.clinton won popular vote and lost by a thin margin in those industrial belt states. if there was some effective fake news by russians it would be distributed nation wide but only few states flipped by a small margin.i think No fake news through internet can be that effective .
“Democrats and Official Washington’s dominant neocons celebrated the bill as a vote of no-confidence in Trump’s presidency but it only constrained him in possible peacemaking, not war-making.”
Wasn’t that the point of the bill? Those who masterminded the bill did it to constrain his peace making. Many of us grew up with the idea that Congress served as a buffer to catastrophic mistakes simply because divergent opinions created a richer outcome. When the all behave like lemmings, it becomes a monster. unless by some miracle they get pointed in the right direction. That is not the case.
I’m sorry. Robert Parry is a great journalist. I respect 95% of what he publishes. But this article falls into the 5% that I think is BS. There’s only one person to blame for the escalating war of words between Trump and North Korea. And that person is Trump. Blaming Democrats for forcing Trump into this is every bit as much of a lie as blaming Russia for Hillary’s loss. If Trump doesn’t want to escalate the situation with North Korea the solution is simple. He can stop fucking escalating the situation. Even the most aggressive neocons will support him.
It’s natural that not everybody is going to agree with Mr. Parry on every single issue – I know I sure don’t.
But I do believe you misunderstand what he is getting at here. President Donald John Trump is in the White House only because he was fortunate to have as an opponent somebody who most voting age citizens viewed as an even worse alternative.
Which means “pretty darned bad”, for DJT is an old, spoiled-rotten bully with extremely elastic ethics who has spent his entire life eating caviar with solid silver utensils from solid gold plates. To top it all off, he is both arrogant and ignorant to the extreme. There is no complexity to the man at all, and on that account he has been really easy to “dope out” by the platoons of wig pickers assigned to his case. That matters, because their reports have enabled just about any interested parties with a smidgeon of wealth and power to play him like a fiddle.
While writing this post I thought of a 1959 short story {Panic Button} by Eric Frank Russell wherein some clever Earthmen outfoxed an alien race. The ending goes like this:
I know this is a minor quibble that I should probably get over, but I think it’s still worth pointing out. Most “voting age citizens” didn’t view Clinton as a worse alternative. By nearly 2.9 million votes they actually considered Trump to be the worse alternative. It’s just that they didn’t happen to live in the right geographic regions.
Which, to my way of thinking, means that even if voters viewed Clinton as “pretty darned bad” they viewed Trump as “Significantly worse.”
To be clear, I agree with virtually everything you posted, so I’m not trying to start a fight. My only concern is that the people who are (quite correctly) mocking the Russia-gate hysteria might be on the verge of making a similarly hysterical counter-argument. Specifically: just because Russia isn’t to blame for the results of the 2016 election doesn’t mean that Russia-gate is to blame for all of Trump’s f*ckups. IMO he owns the failures of his administration 100%.
Also, even if the DNC was a leak, it does not take away the Russian influence in anti Hillary propaganda, countless meetings with Russians from the Trump campaign, or possible obstruction of justice by President Trump! Ugly Election, are either of them innocent…probably not!
Seriously? Are you really saying that if it were not for the Democrats and the Trump Russian scandal, Trump would be a level headed great leader using all of his faculties? Are you kidding!? Right now the investigation is still ongoing and has not reached a conclusion. Maybe it’s best if we give it a bit for it to play out? Also, beyond the Russian thing, Trump has shown his utter incoherence, inexperience, disdain for ordinary Americans, and let’s not forget, is so Alt-Wrong!
Wow! You’re letting the man off mighty easy.
All kidding aside, if it wasn’t for the Democrats and their fake-Russia scandal, Trump would still be exactly who he really is. But there were and still are a lot of indications that his isolationist tendencies would have kept him from doing some of the nuttier stuff he’s being pushed to do.
That may not be a correct statement, but in my opinion it’s far more likely than DJT being a totally loose cannon.
I’m out of here — everything I post is “in moderation” … bye.
Susan, I hope you’re not gone, and I totally understand your frustration. The in moderation thing radically slows everything down as to an ongoing flow of discussion, and also slows it (and diminishes it) if we must resort to avoiding URL’s and require readers to use search engines to get to sources referenced. And since we can do that what is the point of this robot censoring?
But pointing this out repeatedly by numerous commentators has done no good as to an explanation of the policy and what the difficulties/obstructions are as necessitating this policy mechanism.
Mr. Parry, what are you waiting for? Why not clarify this obvious impediment to what your website is officially trying to encourage?
I noticed that at least one of your posts had two links. That guarantees moderation, no matter what the topic. I suspect the “sensitivity” level of the moderation is variable – sometimes one link will go right through, and sometimes it won’t. Possibly some topics threaten to attract too many nuts.
I’d suggest biting the bullet and waiting if you feel you must have several links in your post. And for those which don’t, cut/paste the exact title of the article you want as a reference and maybe “bold” it with the html operator. Which of course the forum software won’t allow me to demonstrate!
:)
That way anybody can locate your source material with a simple search engine lookup.
Susan,
I agree with you that it’s annoying that comments sometimes are “in moderation”. Nevertheless, this shouldn’t be a reason to leave this web site or to abstain from participating in the comment section. Often several comments are as important as is the published article. More than once another point of view, a reference or a link helped me to better understand interdependencies.
I hope we will read you again in future discussions.
Mr. Parry’s analysis is, as usual, spot on – except – for one thing: All our wars are great successes. Our glorious wars have done nothing but help the people we are there to help! Because? That’s. Why. We’re. There!!! We dropped 26,171 bombs (3-per-hour, 24/7/365) on defenseless little brown people near Israel last year only because we are trying to help them have glorious Democracy. Just like us!
“Thoughtful people” – full of it, alright.
A more universal principle seems to be underlying this: whenever truth is being violated beyond a certain threshold, war and violence will follow quickly in its wake. Has to follow! It’s a matter of the proportions of things, of our internal order getting out of whack. By violating a rational order with actions based mostly on some emotional reflex, the counter reaction will be arriving swift and deadly. In other words: the more irrationality is being poured into the system, the more the drive to war will grow, as justification, as lightning rod, as escape hatch for people in power to blow off the over-pressure, to remain seated. This is the mechanism of how the backlash against the organized attempts to disable or impeach Trump is only adding fuel to the fires of war.
You mean liberals care about what their actions bring about? They only care about looking good to their fellow liberals.
Its pretty clear that the establishment wanted war with Russia, not NK. Even though NK got nukes now, they believed NK was contained anyways. So now they are doubly angry that this NK spat has helped take some of their heat off Russia. We have really seen who runs DC and the country in the last 6 months and its not the President of either party. But it helps when the President is already an excepted member of the establishment. If is was not for Reagan’s landslide victory and legistlative victories, he would have been treated the same way but not as publicly.
HpO, naturally that’s Trump’s stance, as it was all along. During the campaign, too. Personally, i think he helped catalyze the madness that was already latent. Are humans that fickle as to lose it because of Trump?
I hope you don’t mind, but I posted what follows in comments on “Evangelicals, Trump and the politics of redemption”, by Peter Wehner in Religion News Service, August 11, 2017:
BLUSTER best describes Trump’s presidential demeanor of late, according to Robert Parry, the veteran and best American investigative journalist there is:
“We’re now seeing the results play out in a very dangerous way in Trump’s BLUSTER about North Korea, which was included in an aggressive economic sanctions bill – along with Russia and Iran – that Congress passed nearly unanimously, without a single Democratic no vote. … As his ‘signing statements’ made clear, Trump felt belittled by the congressional action. His response has been to ratchet up bellicose rhetoric about North Korea, BLUSTER appearing to be his natural default position when under pressure.” (Robert Parry, “Russia-gate’s Fatally Flawed Logic”, Consortium News, August 12, 2017.)
K, you’re not alone! It seems impossible to get through to these corrupt politicians, and, yes, what they are doing is unconstitutional and treasonous. I am just finishing reading James W. Douglass’ “JFK and the Unspeakable” and am fully convinced that JFK was the last President to desire peace, and we know where that went.
How do we get across anything to these crooks? I think it will have to be through a major economic downturn, heading for collapse. Messages are also coming from Nature, but they’re not being heeded. Perhaps that Yellowstone supervolcano will erupt, it’s had 1500 quakes in swarms since June 12.
Even Putin, who seems like a very smart man, hails nuclear power, just met with Finland’s president about a new plant. Nuclear power is very dangerous, and we have Fukushima already to show us just how dangerous.
I just read an article in “Nexus” magazine about the new 5G telecommunications plans. It is to be put into everything, microchips to bathe us in microwave radiation, plans are for everywhere, and that includes RFID microchips implanted into people.
Big Brother is definitely here. We must resist. What we are seeing now is madness of humans, and especially the so-called leaders, many who are actually evil.
Evil is a correct designation for most of our “leaders”. The scum rises to the top.
Here’s my issue with all of this:
1. Why in God’s name is someone not lobbying Democrats with this information???
2. These same intelligence agencies lied us into Iraq too. This is eerily similar to WMD, with help from the reigning pressititutes, the American ignorant and traumatized, were blatantly lied into Iraq.
3. I believe that 9/11 (building 7) was a major false flag operation carried out by Israel, the Saudis and the Bush Administration, to justify war in Iraq. Exploitation of racism and bigotry were used to demonize and scapegoat brown Muslims to the American people to help the government elite ( and CIA, FBI etc) to build the case for the faux war on terror and for going into Iraq. This, of course was also used for legislation that began to unravel our constitutional rights, privacy rights and to fight Israel’s wars in the middle East. Our aid to Israel is blinding.
This is exactly whats happening with Russia gate. Although there is not yet the false flag operation like 9/11, the Russia gate story IS a false flag operation to justify war in Russia, Iran and N. Korea. The same elements are in place. Including corporate media presstitutes pushing Russia gate 24/7.
All of it at break neck speed.
This means that the sanctions are fraudulent. Why in God’s name is this still ongoing? And why is Congress, especially Democrats not called out on this? They know it’s FALSE, as it was the DNC and the Clinton campaign as well as the Obama administration that committed election fraud, in what amounts to me, to be nothing less than a corporate coup.
I feel completely helpless.
Why is nothing being done? Is this not treason???
The media is intentionally sowing the divisiveness, hatred and dischord. All to hang onto their ill-gotten gains aquired via their globalist puppet masters. More and more people are waking up to this fact. Whether one is left or right or in the center off the aisle, it matters not to the corrupt Deep State controlled mainstream media. All that matters to them is cretaing the smokescreen of what is really taking place and protecting their cashcow. People of both sides of the political aisle need to resist this divisiveness and come together. More proof that they openly lie to the public is here: #WhitehelmetsEXP Intertwined?—?The White Helmets and FSA Terrorist Groups?—?Evidence of Collusion -Part 1 https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/08/13/intertwined-the-white-helmets-and-fsa-terrorist-groups-evidence-of-collusion-part-1/
Hello All,
I do not read this site too often now as it seems that the current American discourse kinda rotates around the same old the same old. It is like the Groundhog day, really. The same Russia did it song from that radio clock, an attempt to snooze or break it, and then – here you go again next morning. Chances of showers are 100%. But now, after Charlottesville, all this somehow looks different to me. In fact, in trying to ignite color revolutions all over the world, you seem to brew one in your own country. The Trump opposition and the media and the militant left – they do it all according to the color revolution manual. In fact, the whole sequence of events starts to remind me of Ukraine a few years back. President Yanukovich was elected in contested elections, there were constant attempts from inside and outside to weaken his powers from all sides, supported by powerful elites, media and oligarchs, constant attempts to rewrite history and destroy unsuitable monuments, and – finally – open civil dissent and unrest in a deeply divided country. You know what happened next. You here probably will not understand me, you still think that your own country is strong and can prevail. I sincerely hope it is going to be like that, but I honestly do not know what will happen if you continue to destroy your country and your government like that. Back when I was 25 years old and lived in the former Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin thought he could win power by weakening the central government so he started to fight against it, pretty much like your Dems fight now against Trump. Yeltsin thought he could then tighten it all back, but he gravely miscalculated. That’s how the mighty USSR was brought to its knees: by the combination of internal dissent and power struggle among elites, weak President, weakened and defunct government, and unfortunate economic developments too. Nobody saw it happening at that time, as you will not see it happening to the mighty USA now. Again, I wish you all the best, but if you have some brains on those shoulders of yours, you ought to be concerned. Thanks.
Oleg, I’ll assume you’re not trying to be insulting, so I’ll let that pass, but thanks for telling us what we already know all too well.
No, I did not want to insult anyone, quite the opposite, I am concerned and wish well.. but let me ask, what if I did? What would you do? Suppose I ask you not to let that pass. What you gonna do? Empty threats do not help much, you know.
What I find terrifying is how willing all sides are to condone lawlessness and even violence when it advances their agenda … there has been tipping point in the erosion of “principles” we’ve seen, I’d say, since the Greed is Good roaring 1980’s (when there were still enough veterans of both the World Wars and the Great Depression — the real one — to understand how bad it can get and how quickly).
The telecommunications revolution has made visible images and stories that would have taken days to reach most folks in any complex formulation — relying on their 6 o’clock evening news and daily local newspaper — and events and issues were allowed time to “ripen” and be assimilated. It’s now a bombardment of hot-takes and screaming headlines — and outrage that old-fashioned professionals would not have dared, lest they be accused of being propagandists or demagogues or — gasp — politicians.
What happened in Charlotteville needs more than a breathless horror … there are many issues … and it appears the situation was permitted to spiral to out of control hours — even days — before the car rammed the protesters.
I suspect I’m not alone in wondering how long it would be before our “more radical elements” began adopting terrorist tactics. Funny how the knife attacks in Britain have not been linked to the Knife intifada, nor the acid attacks to similar waves of attacks in India/Pakistan. Inspiration comes from all over.
Susan, thank you for your comment! My point exactly was how dangerous it is when a society is divided to a point when no one is willing to hear the other side, to say nothing about looking for a compromise solution. I do not know exactly what are those guys that are called suprematists and maybe they are really bad and such. But if so, why aren’t they outlawed? And if the people who gathered in Charlottesville were not outlaws and were within their rights, then why the other side went to the same place to clearly ignite violence and conflict? Which, unfortunately, promptly happened and people were killed and injured.
I had once commented on the NYT web site and they now bombard me with all kind of ridiculous e-mails. They so clearly use the mobilization tactics described in the color revolution manuals. You probably never had good reasons to read them, but I did. It is exactly a technique, a very powerful technique of manipulating people and societies, and constant bombardment with screaming headlines is just one tool. You see, they even did not invent this, Hitler did. Very few people now have read his book, Mein Kampf, it is even unlawful in many places. I did not read it in full too, it is just too difficult for the psyche, but I did read a few passages about propaganda. Hitler wrote, one needs to tell big lies, and outrageous lies at that, to get through the natural rational barrier of our brain. The goal of propaganda is to make people think irrationally, on an emotional level, simple emotions, aggression, xenophobia, us against them, this kind of things. To overwhelm rationality. And big lies, lies repeated and repeated again (do not allow people to find time to start thinking), are just marvelous tools for that. Like Russia hacked the US elections, or Trump is pure evil, etc, etc, etc. The race relations in the US, they are also so emotional and irrational. For so many years now. You know, one cannot help but think, if such a great and powerful country as the US really wanted to solve the race problem, you would, would you?
I have just found the answer to my last question, why the US did not solve the race problem long ago, in the excellent article on the same very site by Keri Leigh Merritt. You did not want to solve it because you benefit from it. It is much easier to call a long dead general a racist and slave owner and remove his monument than to really do something about the race inequality. And I agree, it all starts from schools. Is it all that difficult to fix? Perhaps just skip building a few aircraft carriers and missiles and stop picking fights with the whole world – leave us in Russia alone in particular – and do something to improve your educational system for the poor. Why not?
used to be that children (at least I was) taught that “all men are brothers under the skin” and that all people have more in common than they have in differences — need for security and essentials, the desire for one’s children’s happiness and security, etc — that these crossed all borders and boundaries … Russian parents love their children as American parents love theirs, as Koreans and Chinese love theirs … these “universal values” have faded into “insignificance” as we’ve seen with the disregard for the possible victims in Korea, in Venezuela, in the (to be armed) Ukraine, in Syria, in Iraq, in Yemen … all those “others” — innocent civilians — no longer seem to matter to anyone (except perhaps as an embarrassment when it is announced that “we” have once again “accidentally” killed another dozen or two.
The supremacists have the same first amendment rights (within the same constraints wrt inciting violence, etc.) as all other citizens … that’s part of how America is different from, say Europe, where holocaust denialism has been criminalized. …
We’re at a difficult place with various groups “on both sides” trying to use the system to deny “the other side” forums or platforms … the opportunity to give speeches, talk to the faithful, try to recruit the curious, etc. It was not wrong for the supremacists to rally, nor was it wrong for the counter demonstrators to assemble.
The situation (I gather) began to be “unmanageable” the day or evening before the day of the car attack… which, it is entirely possible, could not — in reality — have been prevented. Demonstrations (of all kinds) attract counterdemonstrations and “your safety really cannot be guaranteed. Sounds like security was inadequate (not based on the car attack but on other violence and confrontations)
I grew up on picket lines with my mother — Ban the Bomb and for civil rights — as a child … When I saw Martin Luther King speak, there were Nazis in full uniform counterprotesting outside the arena.
This may turn out to be a positive “reality check” … as Seattle woke up some to the down-side of radical anarchist tactics and “revolution for the hell of it” … or it may be Act II of the repression we saw in the gross over-charging of demonstrator at Trumps inaugeral … sharpening the contradictions … everyone will want to use this incident to push their agenda … because politics is very shallow these days.
Oleg,
I wouldn’t be so sure if those tactics had been invented by Hitler. Aside from German oligarchs, US corporations / oligarchs helped him rise to power (read Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler by Antony C. Sutton). His race laws had been inspired by US laws (Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law by James Q. Whitman). Internment camps are no unique German invention – the US was first. Goebbels got his inspiration from Edward Bernays. Eugenics started in the UK, gained traction there and in the US and found its way to Germany (with the help of the Rockefeller Foundation).
I’m guessing here, but I think Germany used Lenin to make sure that it could focus on the Western front and that no Eastern Front would emerge again. According to Antony C. Sutton Trotsky and Lenin also got assistance by GB and the US. Probably the successful Bolshevik revolution was what people would call “blowback” nowadays. Why did the US invade Russia in 1918? Did they attempt to get their hands on Russia’s natural resources? After the successful revolution Russia couldn’t be looted by outside forces anymore. In my opinion Hitler was a useful tool in fighting Communism. (If I remember correctly then Nikolai Starikov also once mentioned that Hitler had been used as a tool to fight against the USSR.)
The game of divide et impera isn’t really that new, but Oligarchs still like to play it. If the masses realize that they’re being screwed, they might revolt. So, the best way is to keep them occupied with issues that are of no importance. Distract them with TV, etc. If TV doesn’t work, then divide them. The second last resort to save the Oligarchs is to know what’s going on (spying of NSA) and trying to predict (computer simulations that try to predict human behavior) who may get politically involved with the wrong party. As a last resort a militarized police shall provide the needed security.
It has nearly always been a fight of the haves against the have-nots.
I forgot to mention the example for the US invention of constant bombardment with screaming headlines. Hearst (and Pulitzer) played a larger role in beating the drums for the upcoming Spanish–American War.
Yes, it was 14 years ago (2002-2003) that GWB when through the Kabuki charade of “deciding” whether to invade Iraq over WMD. Straight out of “Manufacturing Consent”, many who began skeptical in August 2002, were convinced by the daily drip-drip-drip of experts and “evidence” that Saddam and his WMD 9,000 miles from NYC was an “existential threat” and that the government would not create such an elaborate “case” for war if this were not “true” … even as many”facts” presents with evidence were being debunked in ongoing fashion … readily available information ignored in favor of the “official story” … and enforced by fears of having one’s “patriotism” challenged if one publicly expressed doubt…
Oleg, you and I have written comments to each other in the past, as I’m assuming you are the same Oleg as before. You may remember me, I left you a link to a Slavyangard article ‘The Russia They Lost’, and you liked it.
Anyway, I appreciate you relating your experiences with ‘color revolutions’, and well intended advice is never a bad thing. I’m not even going to start to say, how you maybe wrong on this one. Instead, I will say this, that in the U.S. the struggle to observe everyone’s civil rights is a historically long and arduous goal for America to achieve.
I read back in 1968 right after Martin Luther King’s assassination, to how America would continue to gain race equally, and that these experts at that time thought it would be at least another five generations, before the melting pot would finally melt into one. If we use that expert advice from almost 50 years ago, and if you count a generation as it’s duration being 25 years, then America has another 75 years to go.
I personally feel, that the urgency for equal rights is like now, that is if America is ever going to get this right. So, what took place in Charlottesville Va, as difficult as it is to watch, is no more than a happening which will continue to happen, that is until the racist are dwindled down to so small of a number, that their voice will be but a whisper.
In 1967 Mildred Loving (a black woman) and her husband Richard Loving (a white man) were sentenced each to a year in jail by the State of Virginia, since interracial marriage was prohibited. In 1967 the U.S. Supreme Court found that the 1883 case of Pace v. Alabama which set the standard against biracial marriage, was found then to be unconstitutional. Earlier the Supreme Court decided like wise that this standard was unconstitutional in the 1964 case of McLaughlin v. Florida. So using the generation table I pointed to earlier, the McLaughlin v. Florida case of 1964 took 3.24 generations before this anti-biracial law was overturned.
I’m not sure that Charlottesville rates as being a color revolution. Although, I’m waiting to hear the news that George Soros was somehow involved. Even if Soros was, this racial divide is enough to start a riot to whereever the next ‘White Supremacy’ movement should show up. This type of protest has been going on for quite some time now, and I’m sure America hasn’t experienced the last of these protest either. Again, I won’t discount that subversion against the Trump Administration isn’t in the mix, but I must point out to you Oleg, that the blending of America’s racial composition and it’s peaceful implementation is on going, and very hard to make work at times. Here, is where perseverance to make civil rights equality a reality, where all may enjoy this right, is still a work in progress.
Except for Trump’s poor response, I don’t think that at the heart of it, that this was specifically about Trump. Not to say that Trump’s words and actions haven’t emboldened the likes of David Duke, but this isn’t the first time we Americans came to see the ‘White Supremacist’ march on our city streets.
Oleg, as you know myself and many others here who post comments on this site, are wishing and hoping, and some are even praying, that someday soon that our country the USA will join hands with your Russia, and hopefully together our two countries will do some amazing things to make life a better experience, which the world is a waiting for.
Take care my friend Joe
Hello Joe,
Yes, that’s me, thank you for replying and sharing your thoughts with me. Maybe I need to explain myself more clear. The goals of every color revolution are to divide the society and to weaken the government. The second goal is actually more important because there is always some dissent. You can have race or whatever debates and this will be just a symptom of a healthy society. If your government is strong and respected. It may be not the President, it may be the Congress, or even the Press, as it was the case with the Watergate scandal. But there should be some trusted and respected people and institutions at the helm of the country. Let me ask you now, do you think this is the case in the present-day America? You in the US always think you are exceptional, but you are not, and the laws of nature and social development apply to you as well. Charlottesville is a minor unfortunate event when the society and the government are strong and healthy. Or it can became the beginning of something totally different in a divided society with weak and divided elites. Maybe you are not one – yet. We’ll see. And you do not need Soros to start a color revolution. One of the main tools of a color revolution is to create a critical mass of young people educated and indoctrinated in certain ways. You will not see it as clear as I see it, I think, but in advancing these sorts of things across the globe you also brought up your own young generation in the same way. And they are now going to Charlottesville and other places to fight with the people who do not think like them, and they feel they are right. Tolerance, respect for law? Freedom of expression? Not American values anymore? Why do you want to take down the monument to General Lee? Because these new people feel now they are absolutely and totally right about everything and that they can judge people who lived in a totally different era. They feel it is OK to impeach Trump on ridiculous and invented charges because he does not think like them. Their brains are not smart enough to see that in destroying Trump and monuments they also put at risk their own country. I wondered if perhaps here, where one rather meet old-school dudes like myself, people would be smarter.
Take care you too! Oleg.
Well Oleg, you are pointing out a whole other perspective, and frankly not a perspective I have given much thought too. Between your comment, and Average Joe’s comment, I’m starting to see where you are coming from. I will admit this is my first time ticket to ride on a traveling society, who is moving in the direction of civil unrest leading to a possible collapse of its existing system. Although at my age I thought I might have experienced everything, it looks like I haven’t. It would probably be wise and prudent of me, if I were to hang with such people as you Oleg, and Average Joe. Who knows maybe I would retain at less enough after reading what you guys have to say, and that would be to my advantage for me to understand where this is all going.
It’s kind of early here, and I haven’t put my thinking cap on yet, but I can assure you I will read your comments again, and maybe even another time, until what you said here sinks in.
As always Oleg I enjoy corresponding with you. Joe
Oleg, having read more of your comments I see a little more of where you are coming from, and it would seem I was over-sensitive and a little too easily annoyed. You hit a burn button for me when you say things like “You in the US think you are exceptional, but you are not” etc. whereas such remarks generalize your audience here about what we continually discuss and try to resist. I would speculate most commentators here are appalled with the “exceptional nation” BS out of Obama’s mouth, and other such statements and simplifications you are ascribing to us in this forum, as though we are the ones responsible for the state of this country at this time, instead of our seeking, continually, to critique these problems. It is also quite possible you would not have responded well to self-righteous comments about what you should have done when you were under the control of the Soviet Union.
We now see the US as a similar politically oppressive, controlling State–or moving toward fulfillment in that direction. It is also a mistake to think that somehow, prior to this moment historically, the US was much different. It wasn’t, except for a brief moment in the 60’s when a cultural revolution appeared to be in progress, backed by powerful MSM voices of that time and an astonishing popular music echoing the need to resist Wall Street, racism, and war. That however quickly died and in the 1970’s started downhill, accelerated by Reagan in the 80’s, then enhanced in the 90’s under the neocon playbook to control the globe following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The power of capitalist consumer controlling is formidable in its dumbing down and subduing (including in its supposed education systems) as a similar type of totalitarian control, as you know well.
My first response to you occurred because it seemed similar to my saying, Hey, Oleg, why didn’t you do something about Yeltsin and what happened to Russia in the early 90’s (implying why were you so stupid?), which in my view, if I did say this, would be similar to your way of addressing us here in this forum. So let’s get over that and be friends and try to communicate. I appreciate your being here, and welcome your view, but do not appreciate being associated with the very forces I’m trying to resist, or at least do disapprove of.
I have just assumed that most if not all the posters have read one of the two excellent on the Dulles brothers, John Foster and Allan. It shows the emergence of the Imperial state now usually referred to as the Deep State, how power was used to secure monopoly markets across the globe through the CIA. How the brothers ran foreign policy and US power and duped and manipulated Eisenhower into doing their bidding. One is titled The Brothers, the other is The Devil’s Chessboard.
What really shows through in The Brothers is how they justified all this killing and brutality with the Christian values of the protestant reformation – Calvinism being most dominate (although they were Presbyterians Calvinist ideology is fundamental.)
Eisenhower himself said later, I wanted a legacy of peace but the Dulles brothers left me with a legacy of ashes.
These books are well worth the time and effort and invaluable to understand the post WWII global empire.
If they could do that to Eisenhower, a war winning general, don’t you think the “coup” against any unwanted policies by Trump is well and truly a done deal.
And this morning the Guardian is declaring the “deep state” the Trump Administration’s paranoid delusion. … gosh seems like only last fall I was arguing with Democrat loyalists’ contention that “neoliberalism” was a meaningless word.
Also, of course, Korea is a newly acute Trump era problem because of “HIS” lack of diplomacy … because of course Obama and Bush had such vigorously effective diplomatic missions to North Korea (kidding) … while yesterday’s New York Times talks about multiple diplomatic “back channels”
The Guardian’s article is almost entirely an analysis of that bat-shit memo authored by Rich Higgins, that was leaked to Politico ..
…. That last paragraph should be whispered into the DNC’s ear as well … and repeated to the last several administrations who treated North Korea, Iran and increasingly Russia in just such a manner …
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/13/donald-trump-white-house-steve-bannon-rich-higgins
Disappointing how derivative the Guardian’s late-to-the-game article is … despite politico’s 08/10/2017 publishing date … news of the memo has been circulating since 08/02/2017. … when Higgins was dismissed.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/a-national-security-council-staffer-is-forced-out-over-a-controversial-memo/535725/
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/344984-nsc-aide-fired-after-producing-memo-that-alleged-political-warfare
Robert, you have to get over this feeling that Trump is not intelligent. You do not build a billion dollar empire by luck.
He is smart enough to know all this Russia nonsense is intended to tie his hands. He is smart enough to know how far he can go. He is smart enough to call it a bad sanctions bill but still sign it. Give him more credit until he actually does something stupid, like send troops to Syria.
Trump and Mattis have ratcheted up the secrecy that even Trump’s declaration that he has stopped the “secret” arming the syrian rebels program with a grain of salt …apparently we have more or expanded “troops on the ground” in Yemen …
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/08/04/u-s-troops-are-on-the-ground-in-yemen-for-offensive-against-al-qaeda-militants/
(peculiar because we were fighting with Al-Qa’eda and KSA against the dreaded Houthis — and allegedly Iran — only months ago)
and back in March, he sent 1000 more troops into Syria
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/03/15/u-s-military-probably-sending-as-many-as-1000-more-ground-troops-into-syria-ahead-of-raqqa-offensive-officials-say/
you were saying …
Dear Patrick — If you are joking, I missed the joke (my response to you is in moderation) and I apologize in advance to your reading it. This is not some new iteration of the boy and the shovel and the room full of horse manure … really, there’s no pony.
Thank you Susan.
I have mentioned before that I think the Russians had not nearly the involvement of which they are accused. Today in Spudnik Guccifer 1 was interviewed and he indicated he felt that the Guccifer 2.0 was US sponsored, by the State, the NSA (see vault 7) and the CIA. It’s hard not to believe this. He was asked, as he said, what would happen if a Guccifer 2.0 appeared? I’m sure the question was not rhetorical.
Now, he may be fabricating some of the story for personal reasons, but I have always attested on this site that if one reads vault 7 it is not hard to believe this entire Russian drama was a set up of mass proportion. It’s just a shame so many people are willing to believe it. My guess is many don’t have passports in these research data bs papers, and have never traveled to Russia, which is quite a shame. I never thought ethnocentricity could be so rampant and controlled as it is now in the US. The flow of information is becoming more and more constricted like a boa around the necks of people in the US. Thank you for Consortium News and Mr. Parry for taking on the masses of uninformed, yet self-described faux intelligencia, who seem to have every argument preformulated without the hint of self reflection and the ability to question the current dogma regarding Russia and our inability to have a sensible discourse on some very important subjects.
Russia the Aggressor has been used for over 40 years and for some reason the US fish brains still take the bate.
And I thought they only didn’t teach critical thinking in Texas. I was wrong.
The plan is to arm the Ukraine …. and it’s not Congress’ plan … it’s oval office
https://www.apnews.com/2aebafdeed2946569ab428310f22539c
Not to sound too contrarian, but if Trump does go more hawk down the road, we shouldn’t just simply blame it on anti-Russian American sentiment, because after watching Mr tv reality show for over 40 years, we should all by now have learned enough about this gigantic ego of a being, and come to the conclusion that this man is crazy.
Several people have been asking about guccifer2. Someone like Kim Dotcom might be able to answer those questions. You could locate him on the Internet or on Facebook or Twitter. Or just do research on guccifer 1 and 2. It is confusing.
So disappointed in the vote on the sanctions. Even Tulsi. Bernie did the right thing, as usual.
Charles I don’t wish to make excuses for Tulsi Gabbard, but after I heard about her signing onto the Russia-Iran-N Korea sanctions bill I too was upset. Then I realized that possibly Gabbard signed on, because of N Korea. I’m not sure this was, or is, Tulsi’s reason for signing the sanctions bill, but N Korea is awfully close to Hawaii. If I’m wrong, then Tulsi will also end up on the pile of American political disappointments. Damn!
Mr. Parry – excellent job! I agree with what you’ve said.
I think Trump is just giving the neocons what they want: to threaten North Korea. It sells more weapons, newspapers, gives CNN something to talk about endlessly. It scares the citizens. I don’t think for one second that Trump is going to bomb North Korea. And unless this retired army colonel is wrong, it sounds like North Korea couldn’t hit the back side of a barn, let alone the United States.
“First, let me dismantle some of these ridiculous claims. President Trump is absolutely right. In the early 1990’s, when this issue was boiling over once again in North Korea and they had begun trying to develop nuclear weapons, General Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, stated quite clearly, publicly, ‘If a nuclear weapon is ever launched by North Korea, we will turn the country into a parking lot.’ The North Koreans know that to be the case; they are frightened. So let’s get that off the table.
Secondly, these missiles that they’re talking about, the four of them, are liquid fuel rockets from the 1970’s. This is old technology. It’s not precise. They couldn’t hit Guam, they couldn’t hit anything with any reliability. And as far as the range is concerned, they can’t carry any warheads and hit anything because the rockets would run out of fuel long before they ever got close to Guam, and Guam is 2,100 miles from North Korea. We’ve been treated to these kinds of boasts and hot air for a very long time, so we need to dismiss a lot of this.”
And Trump has recently achieved this in Syria:
“At the G20 summit, he negotiated a cease fire with Vladimir Putin for southwest Syria. Last week he ended a CIA program that armed Syrian jihadists fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime.”
https://straightlinelogic.com/2017/08/06/is-trump-winning-by-robert-gore/
So some progress is being made. But I realize a few neocon false flags thrown in here and there could change things. I hope Trump has been thoroughly briefed on what the neocons are capable of and not to fall for it.
Here’s something to think about, if the U.S. had not treated Russia the way it has, and did, would we now have Russia on our side to negotiate with China, and naturally this could have given the U.S. the leverage to work with an allied Russia against the odds. Hypothetically it would even be better to have Russia, China, and the U.S. on the same page, especially when it comes to dealing with N Korea and Kim Jung un.
I still think Russia-gate, while likely untrue and potentially dangerous since it could lead to a military confrontation with Russia, is being given too much credit for influencing Trumps foreign policy in other areas. His hostility to North Korea, as well as Iran, was evident early in the primary season, before Russia-gate took off, as was his fascination with nuclear weapons and his generally erratic behavior. One doesn’t have to look beyond Trump himself to find the origins of this crisis.
It still frightens me when I see the vaunted “free press” of the U.S. march in lock step against an incumbent president in his first 6 months on the job. He was attacked as unfit before he was sworn in, just like Obama. I don’t find it any more palatable because I voted for Obama and against trump. It feels too much like regime change in Latin America or 1953 Iran.
We used to do things differently here but in the last 3-4 decades that has changed to where we behave more and more like the “banana Republics” we used to criticize roundly with racist overtones. It is similar because south American government was always about the money and who got to keep theirs and whose you were going to take. American government has began to imitate that and the election is now more about spoils and keeping power than leading the nation in a direction that benefits all Americans. Russia gate is a dangerous distraction so that the neo-cons can stay in power and remain relevant. They need to go.
I had an email exchange with a friend today and told him what true liberals and true conservatives have in common is a concern for respect of the rule of law and the US constitution. The neocons and the liberal interventionists pay only lip service to both. It is basically an ideological war between Nationalists and Globalists.
Michael you are right, because once upon a time, even through the thick and thin of it, at least good governance hid behind the rule of law, but now we have devolved to using the media, and making accusations without any evidence. I tell people who find my angst over the recent attacks on Trump, that in order to understand what is really going on, to forget who’s our president. Recently over a table discussion with a few people when I said this, that leaving Trump out of this analogy, worked rather well to further make my point. What I find where people get anxious to impeach Trump, is in their eagerness to run him out of office their minds become clouded by their hate of Trump. Trump haters overlook the basic foundations of our government where we judge people with evidence, and all are innocent until proven guilty. Somehow we need to bring these fellow Americans back down to earth.
There’s such an obvious flaw in the discussion of military action of N.Korea – no S.Koreans are ever included. Are they not flesh and blood? Have they no opinion or say in the potential destruction or contamination of their neighborhood? I find it obscene that a bunch of American media darlings discuss this like no one lives there with a brain. There was an RT news bit last week asking Americans to point out Korea on a map. You can guess the results. I wonder how far from the truth they were?
In the eyes of the neocons, the South Koreans are expendable. They are mere vassals, and slanty-eyed vassals at that. As for finding Korea on a map, seven percent of americans (17.3 million people) think chocolate milk comes from brown cows. As Ron White says “You can’t fix stupid.”
Okay Skip, then where does chocolate milk come from?
hahaha… We don’t need cows. We have condensed chocolate milk!
Good point. I sure haven’t seen any stories talking about SK attitudes and reactions. I wonder if there are any reliable English-language SK news sites?
One of my thoughts is that many violent incursions into another country have been set up (or excused by) misinformation. Someone or many that want to go to war even a false excuse will work if enough people can be convinced it’s true. “What does truth have to do with it?” Power seems to exert itself when possible, and at least enough American’s have Trump believing America is behind him no matter what he says or does. All one need to do is watch an listen to him (and read his tweets :).
Russia-gate is about evidence gathered from FISA warrants giving probable cause to authorities to investigate the Russian influence on our election and president.
Mr. Parry, you misstate the issue. I am cynical enough to believe you do this to create material to write another article. Your article reads like the hysterics of a 14 year old child instead of the musings and observations of a seasoned reporter. I take no pleasure in writing that.
watch out everybody, the mind-readers have arrived
Your confidence in authorities and wishful beliefs on government operations and investigations is touching. Put in a good word for me with Santa Claus when you see him. But remember to leave the adults alone while you play at understanding the world; we have work to do.
Probable cause? That is a matter of interpretation and to claims this on such thin evidence only shows your bias to lower the bar of justice and the freedoms guaranteed in the constitution.
Another possible interpretation of the situation is that your dosage of Xanax is just a mite bit high.
From his wiki:
Robert Parry (born June 24, 1949)…
That would have made Mr. Parry about 13 years old when the Cuban Missile Crisis started. I’d imagine it scared the hell out of him – it did most everybody else who was alive at the time. Being all laid back about the prospect of a nuclear war probably isn’t something he and other informed Baby Boomers can manage. Unless they’re slightly overdosing on the Xanax, of course.
h**p://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20170811/how-nuclear-attack-fears-are-boosting-business-at-survival-stores
Quite a few people are freaking out – survival sites and stores are working double shifts trying to keep up with orders.
Mr. Parry has, like many others, begun to understand that Donald Trump can be “managed”. DJT is being pressured from all directions, and the “handlers” are like some coordinated sheepdogs working a clueless and ignorant “lamb”. All the evidence I’ve seen suggests they’re getting pretty good at it.
I believe what we are seeing daily is a dirty diversion designed to hide the treachery of western war criminals. And this diversion is aided and abetted by the corporate media….
[read more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/03/is-blaming-russia-diversion-designed-to.html
Thanks Stephen J, you’re the best at sifting through this stuff. I especially liked Dennis Kucinich’s thoughts at : Intel community trying to undermine Trump’s presidency?
Donald Trump’s hands are not tied when it comes to negotiating with North Korea. DailyPUMA has already suggested a course of action unthinkable by all. Give North Korea special MNNA status, Major Non Nato Ally, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_non-NATO_ally in exchange for the dismantling of their nuclear weapon’s program. This would be a huge victory for Kim Jong-UN and the world.
If it is true that Donald Trump owes Russian Oligarchs 2 to 3 billion dollars and that info may be culled from his IRS filing over the past 20 years, then your position becomes stupid, no?
So why not hedge your position now by demanding that Trump release all of his tax returns since 1995 so that he can pre-warned before he makes a move that looks like he is putting his own interests ahead of the U.S., and the U.S. voter can be assured he is not been compromised via debt by any country.
Robert Parry and other investigative journalists are my daily dose of sanity. I don’t trust CNN, MSNBC the Washington Post or you-name-it. As much as I dislike Donald Trump I believe we must come to terms with the fact that there is a silent coup going on. Democrats have joined right-wing neocons in trying to do him in. They are willing to spread endless lies and exaggerations. There is a censorship of evidence showing that Russia-Gate is a hoax. Endless propaganda is being thrown at the American people. The supposed link between Trump and the Russians has caused a national mad, hysterical demonization of Putin and Russians in general. It is just as bad about the hype about Saddam Hussein and his nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. Maybe worse. No one wants diplomacy. No one wants detente. Democrats nationally have lost all sanity. They suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. I fear its going to get us all killed.
Google is cooperating with the Deep State to try to shut down Consortium News. Their new algorithms, purported aimed at stifling “fake news,” have caused a drastic drop in visits to this and similar sites.
Fight back any way you can think of.
Social media is something I don’t do, but perhaps commenting about a story and providing a link would work. Or it might not if Facebook and the others are in with Google in muzzling opposition to the Deep State.
Emails work for sure, at least for now. Send everybody you know a link and praise for a particular story. If they decide they like it most people are going to bookmark the site. There are ways the Deep State can handle that, but they have to get pretty darned blatant.
It’s a shame that Consortium News doesn’t have a specific IP address which would allow us to bypass censoring servers. A site I try to check at least once a week is Survival Blog. Mostly the stuff comes across as totally crazy, but every now and then there is a really good bit of advice. Or a link to a horror story Google News and the rest are ignoring. Remember, this is an illustration, not a recommendation!
185.8.177.142
Just cut/paste the number into the address bar and press “enter”. That would be a nice “backup” feature here.
What the US needs above all else is to irradicate this “SLAM DUNK” certitude from it´s thinking , both on the civilian and military establishments sides. No war is a “SLAM DUNK”. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lybia, Syria none of these were “SLAM DUNKS” so why in the world does this thinking still prevail on the Beltway. Is everyone that works there mentally retarded?
Another good question , why in the world is the US MainStream Media cheerleading this hubristic thinking on. Do they not see the dangers in believing that their military is invincable? Are they willing to contemplate the total destruction of every major city and town on the US Mainland with hundreds of millions of American deaths? This is not a game and fooling around with the idea that a war with Russia and China ” Would be fought over there” that ” millions would die, but they would die over there” is childishly simplistic thinking. War with Russia and China would be the end of the USA and the world. Not just the death of Russia and China.
Just a footnote, North Korea, borders on both Russia and China. China has already stated that they will intervene if the US decides to go the regeime route, or attacks North Korea.. Russia will certainly follow if the US should decide to use even a single nuclear weapon in that attack or even if Russia should decide that that is the last straw so far as having the US Military on it´s doorstep in even one more country. As most everyone with an ounce of intelligence has been repeating over and over , this could spiral out of control quickly and with catastrophic results.
Dan – “No war is a “SLAM DUNK”. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lybia, Syria none of these were “SLAM DUNKS” so why in the world does this thinking still prevail on the Beltway?”
I think that’s the plan, Dan – perpetual war. They don’t want a “slam dunk”. They don’t make money off of slam dunks. They want prolonged engagements, the longer the better. They want perpetual war. It’s a business plan.
I’ve been reading about the Chinese statement, but since I never saw a link I looked it up. Here is what I found towards the bottom.
h**p://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1060791.shtml
The bolded terms mean to me that all of the things must happen. In other words, China is saying what it did during the Korean War – that it will not tolerate the US altering the basic political situation. No “regime change”, and no “unification”. “Prevent” means it will go to war if necessary. Short of that, it seems to me that China would consider other measures to curb North Korea. After all, China is – along with Japan and South Korea – a nation which could suffer greatly from North Korean “adventures”. Floods of refugees, nuclear fallout, or perhaps even worse. Having an unpredictable nuclear power right on your door step can’t be something China really wants.
The point Mr Parry leaves out of consideration is why would Kim use nuclear weapons? All the nuclear scaremongering postulates a Hiroshima-style attack on a city. What would be the point of such an attack? Cities are worthless as military targets and an attack on one has no effect whatsoever on the enemy’s military capacity to respond. Why waste expensive missiles on such a useless task? Nuclear weapons are, in fact, militarily useless. They are weapons of terror and no one is terrorised unless they want to be! Surely Kim must be intelligent enough to know that if he attacked a US city, Americans wouldn’t lie down and beg for mercy. The reaction would most likely be a Pearl Harbor-9/11-type rage which would probably bring down nuclear retaliation on his head and destroy his regime. Moreover, why would Kim “retaliate” against a Japanese city? Japan hasn’t attacked him and common sense would tell him to divide his enemies, not drive them into each other’s arms. And why would Kim believe that the US would come to Japan’s aid and retaliate against him on its behalf?
Michael the questions you raise are valid, and worth analyzing. I might add, that the question all this raises, is why is Trump taking the bait. Kim Jung un knows what he’s doing. Kim is aware, that his shaking the proverbial tree gets him attention, and it puts a heavy burden onto his S Korean American supporters.
Here is but one opinion that may make sense.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/08/11/avoiding-nuclear-war-why-kim-jong-un-strategy-makes-sense.html
I was listening to MSNBC last night (other side of the room) and they explained that all that is exceptional about the current round of North Korean threats is TRUMP … apparently NK threatens Guam regularly …. and we threaten retaliation … and life has gone on in this cycle for years … They explained this to explain why there was so little panic evident in the halls of power (even the UN or EU) despite the news medias constant whipping up anxiety …
I give them credit for the coverage (although I don’t know / remember which show it was)
Some fellow who speaks Korean on another forum said that Washington and the media are misrepresenting what North Korea said about missiles and Guam. Washington says that NK has threatened to nuke Guam. The individual conversant in Korean said they merely apprised Guam that a test missile would be vectored in their general direction, but not directly at them and not carrying a warhead. So, take anything out of Washington or via its media mouthpieces with a pillar of salt.
Yes, we’re being double teamed by the media in search of ratings and by Trump seeking our undivided attention (apparently) as he proves to his faithful just-how-tough he is … apparently we have ex-pat Koreans eager to their president to smite Kim Yung Un (NYT frontt page) … our media always loves our Brand-New-American expat
communities cheerleading our interventions / regime change
In other news, in human smugglers in our very own R2P intervention recipient Libya have so threated MSF with violence to the point where they are docking their rescue boat … and the show-must-go-on
Susan and Realist – exactly. The media are making a mountain out of a mole hill, IMO. They have gone over the edge. I would not believe for a second what they are saying; they’re are trying to stir up a fight.
Susan from all that I read, and from all of what we have learned about N Korea in our past, is that Kim Jung un is just doing what is standard operating procedure in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Kim’s game is not much different today that it was yesterday, and between the media hyping up these DPRK Missile test, and Trump’s jingoistic taunts, this whole thing could get out of hand. I personally don’t think we will see WWIII start here, but there again one may never know to what spark could make this tinderbox ignite.
Joe (and all the other readers),
there seem to be 6 to 7 Trillion reasons ($) to vilify NK. Have a look at the following links (at least at the headlines):
http://www.mining.com/largest-known-rare-earth-deposit-discovered-in-north-korea-86139/
http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-is-thought-to-be-sitting-on-6-trillion-worth-of-rare-earth-metals-2012-8?IR=T
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/north-korea-trillions-mineral-resources-nuclear-iron-ore-a7818651.html
Joe,
I have to agree and have felt ths way for a long time. NK has very little to gain by an attack as they would be nuclear toast for any country with the capability to retaliate. why doe he do this? One report states they still haven’t figured out the 3,000 degree re-entry heat issue without breaking up whatever missle or warhead they may have. The Russians have said it’s not an ICBM, as the US claims, and only traveled 750km while breaking up in the Sea of Japan. I believe them, not the US proaganda involved.
Kim just doesn’t want to become another failed state on the list of the many US failed states, so it’s bravado, which may help keep some people at bay.
The US needs reasons to spend more money on their military, and they come up with excuses all the time, for the sake of US security of course. I’m reminded of the time Colin Powell returned from SK and said,of course, the US has the manpower to fight wars on two fronts after he was asked about Korea. How long ago was this? And it was also after the 2003 illegal invasion of Iraq. (I’m sure it’s still on Youtube somewhere) The military dogma hasn’t changed in decades, and they just look for new reason to increase their budget. It’s a very sad and fearful game the US plays.
So what is different from Powell’s assertion and the generals of today? Just money grabs. Having been at the DMZ (Panmunjom) myself I have heard the same argument over and over again, but lets spend the $6,000/hr+ for a fly over of a B-52, 0r B-‘to be named” just so the people in the US who don’t even know where Korea is on the map have a sense of security.
I’m waiting for the Generals who have the courage to stand up and say, we have most of the threats under control unless we created the threats, and let’s take 200 billion of our budget and fix the US and get rid of 800 of our bases around the world since we can re-fuel in mid air and don’t need them as we did before. Courage from a 4 star general? Laughable.
Well Curious beings that we need to rely on misinfo-spook news outlets like the WaPo to translate for the Kim government, we will consider no matter what we hear back from Kim about his replying to a Trump threat, we will just need to consider the source of our info, and then deduct points for that.
I had a crazy thought to what if Trump, by making his jingoistic taunts to Kim, is really floating this tough guy image for his appraisal of all of our reactions? Like Trump putting up a trail ballon to see who’s with him, or who’s against him? I mean we are talking Trump, here.
I worry though, that with all the tender spots the U.S. is engaged in, and adding Venezuela of late, and China saber rattling with India, the new Russia-Iran dominated Middle East, Ukraine, never forget because no one ever talks about it Africa, and who I’m I leaving out….the global trap maybe set, is all I’m saying. The U.S. could become a thousand tiny armies, for the sake of being globally big. Who knows?
Parry’s analysis is sound: “If North Korea manages to deliver retaliatory damage on Japan, a human catastrophe and a financial panic could follow.”
Japan is the world’s third largest economy, having ceded the second spot to China in 2010. With an economy of $4.4 trillion, Japan represents almost 6% of the world economy.
Tokyo is the world’s largest metropolitan area, with a population of 32.5 million people. Despite having an area close to the size of California, Japan is the world’s tenth largest country by population, with around 127 million people.
Japan largely relies on the U.S. for protection against external threats. Under the 1960 Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the U.S., the U.S. has agreed to defend Japan if the country or any of its territories come under attack. Roughly 40,000 U.S. military personnel and civilians in defense roles are stationed or employed on U.S. military bases located across Japan.
The majority of U.S. military personnel in Japan are stationed on the main island of Okinawa Prefecture in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, where U.S. military bases occupy about 18 percent of the territory. Japan pays roughly $2 billion as annual host-nation support to cover the costs and defense services of the U.S. military presence in Japan.
The military and economic reasons why North Korea may retaliate against a U.S. attack by launching a nuclear strike on Japan are clear and obvious.
NK is not likely to make a first strike because it cannot win and has no second-strike deterrence. It is retaliatory capability that they seek, the ability to deter another “conventional” carpet-bombing like the US made there after being pushed back to the SK line in 1953, which killed about two million innocents in NK. They can now threaten the like destruction, although apart from deterrence, it would gain them nothing but revenge.
The explanation is so straightforward that a caveman could understand it, Mr. Kenny. North Korea has not developed nuclear weapons in order to attack the United States or any other country. They know that to invade South Korea or to launch a first strike against America or its interests would be suicidal, and they are not suicidal or crazy. The concept in play is known as “deterrence.” What they are telling the United States is that, if you invade or attack us, there will be a price to pay. North Korea knows their nukes would not enable them to “win” or “beat” the United States, not even to prevent the United States from demolishing their country and exterminating their people. They are simply saying to the U.S., if YOU are intent on taking us out, you and your allies in South Korea and Japan must be willing to pay the price of several million of your own dead. The rationale is that Washington will not be so rash as to carry through on such a plan. What is it that is so difficult for you to fathom about this, Mr. Kenny? It’s the same reason of lot of Americans keep a loaded gun in their house–to deter intruders who might break in from harming family members, though the efficacy of that is probably less than Kim Jong Un’s strategy to keep Washington at bay.
But you probably knew that before you submitted your daily assigned 250-word composition.
The WMD hoax killed a million innocents but enabled its sponsors to reap billions in windfall war profits. The logic behind the WMD and Russiagate hoaxes is straight out of Hitler’s Mein Kampf: “The primitive simplicity of their minds [referring to the general public] renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell a big one.” Do rank-and-file democrats parroting the Russiagate Big Lie really believe it? I would bet they do and that they are willing to go to war over it. The neocon instigators obviously know it’s pure fantasy. When Madeleine Albright infamously stated that the half-million dead Iraqi children caused by U.S. sanctions “was worth it,” she meant “worth it” to U.S. war profiteers, warmongers, defense contractors, etc., that is, all those who benefit financially from war in a war-driven economy. Dead children count for exactly zero in their calculations. The goal is more war. The hoax is proceeding according to plan.
Trump was not paying attention that day in Presidenting school, rather his attention drifted after he saw how 09/11 revived GWB’s popularity and allowed him the freedom to gloriously invade not one country (Afghanistan), but two (Iraq) …. with — get this — massive support of a coalition of nations …
Unfortunately for him (but probably good for the planet), even if not much reported (because it’s a subject being avoided) is that our “allies” are giving Trump the side-eye and talking amongst themselves … and their much-talked-about populist movements seem unlikely to stand still for pledges of assistance to this new March of Folly … and — oh look — shiny — one belt one road …. and massive chinese investment in both Africa and South America as well as that belt/road from eastern-most Asia to Europe …. Funny how most people don’t consider US “lily pad” military bases as “infrastructure investment”
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-ventures-america-s-backyard-latin-america-n740001
Trump may barge ahead but then again — look shiny — he may decide to “concentrate” on some other agenda item … and forget all about it, having left it in Tillerson or Mattis’ or McMaster’s hands … what will happen if/when they resign or are fired (and he gets B-string appointees) is anyone’s guess.
On the “flawed logic”–with all due respect I think we’ve been treated to hysteria, nothing logical, flowing out of what we were discussing yesterday–DNC corruption followed by further damage re The Clintons, and the need to divert from those problems. Hysteria is not prone to logical sequential steps, and sometimes your tantrums may explode in your face as with road rage as another example of this sort of behavior. Prediction disappears into a black hole. Anyway, CN, how about next turning to Clinton Foundation questions?
D5-5 – “…how about next turning to Clinton Foundation questions.” Yes!
How about some deeper and more skeptical reporting and real investigating of the “Assad dropped Sarin gas bombs on his own people” story? Like the bogus Russian “hacking” story this too is accepted as gospel fact by the MSM.
Robert Parry and Seymour Hersch remain America’s foremost investigative reporters, because they combine factual reporting with analytic conclusions which are irrefutable.
Ditto, Michael. They are the best sources we have. This site is particularly excellent, too, for the erudite comments that follow an article.
As for North Korea, if Jill Stein had been elected, I’d hope she would have told Kim Jong Un:
1. The Korean War was never ended and NK and the US should sign a formal treaty ending it.
2. All sanctions against North Korea will be lifted and he can trade with other countries as he wishes.
3. It’s understandable that North Korean would make nuclear weapons since the US has them,
but the US will never make a first strike on NK. If North Korea strikes first, we will retaliate.
4. The U.S. will no longer practice threatening war games annually with South Korea.
How about that? Too diplomatic?
No doubt that would have been Jill’s position, which is why she was excluded from MSM coverage with the exception of one very notoriously edited interview with Judy Woodward. Only those “evil Ruskies” gave her any honest coverage, which just proves that they meddled in our election. Those dirty dogs even covered the “Occupy” movement.
As I have been reviewing history sense WWII recently two thing have stood out.
1. The astonishing number of times legitimate and worthwhile proposals for peace were offered the US which it promptly rejected or ignored. (See NK saying for years they would stop the rocket/nuke programs if the threats on its border would stop.- US “not a chance”)
2. That the American culture and value system has justified the atomic bombing of two cities and the continuous slaughter of innocent people EVERY SINGLE DAY from the atomic bombs to the use of starvation and disease as weapons of war against the people of Yemen. With the intermediate step of extensive use of chemical weapons for over ten years in SE Asia.
The US 72 year reign of slaughter around the world by the United States of America must stop.
Blaming the Democrats for Trump’s NK outbursts is like blaming a rape victim for dressing provocatively – they may have provided some of the proximate motivation, but the moral responsibility lies squarely on Trump’s stupidity, narcissism, and lack of executive cerebral function. Not to mention Kim Jung Un. Those two deserve each other, too bad they can’t take their quarrel to another planet.
Trump may be a loose cannon but the Democrats’ game of Russian roulette may well backfire the discharge in more directions than they anticipated.
The corporate (MSM) press must be torn. On the one hand they despise Trump and won’t him gone. On the other hand, Trump has quickly shown that he is a more than proactive/reliable neocon who will definitely advance the perpetual warfare agenda. For some bizarre reason, even the “liberal” press seems to love the warmongering, and certainly does all it can to develop the requisite scare-mongering to make new wars much more likely. In many respects, the president they won’t gone is doing just what they want. Still, they attack Trump on a daily basis, but will cheer him louder than anyone when he starts another war.
You’re right Bill In Montgomery, and that’s what leads me to believe that the consensus is for V.P. Pence.
Bill & BobV…they are cheering because they believe they will be the beneficiaries of his elimination…but somehow I don’t think that’s the case.
A perceptive, incisive and chilling summary by Robert Parry!
I arrived in Seoul in August of 1994 to very similar tensions as at this time. I was told, “Don’t go there, you will die.” I went (job related) and was interested to find how ho-hum the South Koreans were in responding. In nightclubs they still had acts depicting the horrors of the 1950 war. They are a tough people, good-humored, possibly in your face a little too much at times. Then Jimmy Carter arrived and the crisis eased and passed. A “sunshine policy” was soon to start under a new South Korean president and several years of what looked like progress. This halted with Cheney and the Bush administration, and the “axis of evil” policies, all in line with the neocon playbook of the 90’s and the one-worldism doctrines. But what this brief spell between 94 and 02 illustrated was the falsity of depicting the North Koreans as equivalent to your local pitbull eyeing your ankles. All pretext as with continuing today as justification to maraud into the globe. What we need to watch for now, I think, is yet another of the tried and true false flag incidents providing Trump with an excuse to do another Syria Air Base type of strike while he blubbers over beautiful little babies.
Would like to recommend this excellent analysis:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-11/does-kim-jong-uns-strategy-make-sense
Re Russia Hysteria: “The flaw was that it poked the thin-skinned Donald Trump over one of his few inclinations toward diplomacy.”
Flaw? Instead, how about precisely the intended outcome?
The entire ruse was/is an effort to put HRC’s foreign policy, especially regarding Russia, into effect even in her absence.
As this was one of the more obvious areas in which she, as pres, would have “gotten things done with Republicans,” the virtually-unanimous, reckless congressional viciousness has been given free reign by the media drumbeat.
To what purpose? Retaining war profiteer donors and those who gain from sanctions. Don’t forget keeping afloat the insidious Clinton Foundation.
Don’t forget the zionist warmongers who want to expel Russia to break the Iran-Iraq link to Syria-Lebanon and Hezbollah. Zionists control the DNC and mass media, and were Clinton’s top ten donors. The Saudis in league with them were also heavy donors. This has been the cause of the immensely destructive and costly US policy in the Mideast, which serves no US interest at all. War profiteers would be just as happy fighting anywhere else, if politicians were bribed to do that instead.
If there has ever been a more despicable collection of narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths running an empire in any age in human history I am certainly not aware of when and where that might have been. Doubling down on lies and stupidity seems the collective “wisdom” of Washington these days. The amoral, shameless, greedy, violent, neoliberal neocon nature of both parties is on full display for all to see! This reality should destroy the illusions anyone might have retain about lining up for any future forays into the “hopey changey” territory of Democratic party oblivion.
very well said!
History repeats in cycles: Caligula’s Roman Empire came before the USA.
As the great-nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, he succeeded him.
During the first six months of his reign, he was noble & moderate, but soon his cruelty, sadism, extravagance, and sexual perversity, outted him an insane tyrant.
He sent troops on illogical military exercises, turned the palace into a brothel,and made his horse a consul & appointed him a priest.
He directed much of his attention to ambitious construction projects and luxurious dwellings for himself.
When a financial crisis emerged in AD 39, Caligula’s political payments for support, generosity and extravagance had exhausted the state’s treasury. Caligula began falsely accusing, fining and even killing individuals for the purpose of seizing their estates. Caligula asked the public to lend the state money.He levied taxes on lawsuits, weddings and prostitution. Caligula began auctioning the lives of the gladiators at shows.
In the first year of Caligula’s reign he squandered 2.7 billion sesterces that Tiberius had amassed.
Well said indeed.
I would pay to know what the argument was that made all the Democrats fall in line. Getting rid of Trump doesn’t seem good enough.
Gregory, you can keep your money, but I would imagine that the forever in power scandal ridden Clinton’s would be able to threaten, and cajole, a lot of the creators in the D.C. Swamp to do as the Clinton establishment tells them to do. If the Clinton’s are enough, you can always rely on the ZioMedia to help ruin the American experience all the more. Patriotism is just a word on a bumper sticker.
Gregory and Joe, there is a fine article by Rob Urie that explains a lot on week-end CounterPunch. I’ll link it.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/08/11/the-clintons-trump-and-white-backlash/
my theory has been pay-back/payment due … the deep state threw it’s support to Clinton, who failed to win, but they still demanded support for the war(s) that they were counting on Clinton to wage as POTUS … it’s like the mafia, nothing erases the debt but payment due.
Payment to the Democrat’s true masters … evidenced by these appalling deep Intelligence Community leaks … which are mostly rumor, gossip (Flynn — no document was actually leaked to the public) or embarassing (the Mexico/Australia phone calls and various leaksk to contradict congressional testimony, so far without pay-off).
The contradicting congressional testimony — he did tooooo have meetings he denied or omitted, that may or may not have been significant but was almost certainly not illegal or even “improper”
On the eve of the election, while the Clinton camp was hperventilating about Comey, I saw a headline that Manafort was about to be indicted for tax evasion …. still waiting … except now it’s supposed to be money laundering and tax evasion … or something, unless he turns state’s evidence and skates … my money’s on the latter.
eta: It has occurred to me that the “jokes on them” since they wanted a “final showdown” with Russia and they’re getting Korea instead …. with Venezuela as chaser …
Oh, John Batchelor has a wingnut insisting Venezuela is part of some Castro inspire domino effect (plot for commie world domination) in South America — “Castro must be stopped!!!!”
Susan – I agree with much of what you have to say. The elite backed Clinton, they shelled out a ton of money in order to get special favors when she got elected. She was supposed to win, dammit, but they don’t care – they want their rewards, anyway.
More arms sales, more weapons manufacturing, oil and gas sales to Europe. Just think of the extra orders that came in because of Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, and of course outfitting all of the bases now surrounding Russia.
How dare Russia want to sell their oil and gas into Europe! How dare Trump want peace! Why, we’ll tie Trump’s hands with a phony, made-up Russia-gate story, get the bought-and-paid-for politicians who are beholden to the corporations to pass a law that even Trump can’t undo. We’ll hold the threat of impeachment over Trump’s head so that he dances to whatever we demand of him.
So the politicians are definitely not making the decisions, neither is the President, and the intelligence community are probably just taking orders as well, along with the judiciary. So who is really running the show?
The ones who draft all of the laws? The multinational corporations, along with Israel?
The way to do so is suggested in this article – by blowing apart the Russiagate hoax. The V.I.P.S memo of July 24, first published on this website and now picked up by The Nation, exposing the “hacking” as an inside job, has given us the basis to do so. Now it’s a matter of getting it done. The consequences of failure, and of a coup against President Trump, would put us back on a trajectory toward confrontation and war with Russia, only forestalled by Trump’s upset of Hillary Clinton. .
If this is true it is freakin’ epic , and Seth Rich will blow a gigantic hole thru Russia-gate , from his grave :
Transcript of his last phone call , to “girlfriend” Kelsey Mulka :
https://twitter.com/TruthinGov2016/status/896653955173945344
To have Robert Parry point out this manipulative manner that the Russia haters have maneuvered Trump towards, is a treasure if your interested in going deep to try and understand our ever so bombastic leader. No where in the MSM will you have such a analytical study, as the one that Robert Parry presents here today. I might point out, this is all the more reason to read consortiumnews.
I do find it interesting to have someone like Robert Parry point out to how the Russia haters, whether knowingly or unknowingly, have painted Trump into this geopolitical corner, we all find ourselves in. This wouldn’t be all that surprising, but it is plain to see that Trump helped the Russia haters, to paint himself into that very same corner. Now liberals like Bill Maher are freaking out, as he points out to Kim Jung un to not bomb Los Angeles because Kim’s friend Dennis Rodmsn lives in LA. Not to take any responsibility off of President Trump, but maybe the pseudo liberals such as Maher should start reading Robert Parry, and they should quit taunting the bully tv reality show star.
Getting tough with Kim Jung un, is like playing into the DPRK’S hands. Kim will have the support of the PRC, and because S Korea is home to the American made THAAD missile system, relations between the South of Korea will suffer with the PRC. All of this adds up to making the Americans look uninvited, and this aids towards the average Korean, whether in the north or the south, to resent the unwanted Americans all the more.
Plus, it appears to me that outside the late night talk show circuit, that no one under Trump is taking his bluster that serious….at least that’s my take on it.
Read what Federico Pieraccini has to say….
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/08/11/avoiding-nuclear-war-why-kim-jong-un-strategy-makes-sense.html
Probably the most compelling reason for refraining from attacking North Korea is that South Korea would not exactly appreciate the gesture, considering the consequences it would suffer. Annihilation of Seoul might simply be collateral damage as far as Washington is concerned but it is more consequential to the South Koreans.
A good question is, would Washington remove its THAAD missiles, indeed, would it remove ALL of its troops from South Korean soil if requested to do so by the S.K. government? Say, for example, if China were able to broker and guarantee a lasting peace between the two Korea’s with the key bargaining points being N.K. gives up its nukes and S.K. kicks the U.S. out of its territory. China could promise additional aid to N.K. and trade with S.K. to sweeten the deal. Such a deal would be win-win-win for those three parties. It would also probably be a win for Japan if it can be assured that N.K. is no threat to it and, in fact, a developing market for its products.
The odd man out would be the United States, which would really lose no more than a pretext to keep its THAAD missiles in the region pointed at China. Would it sacrifice that leverage to allow easing of tensions for everyone else in the region? Frankly, I doubt it, as some believe that the presence of those GI’s and those missiles, practically on China’s border, are the whole point of this imbroglio.
Yes Realist, if it were all about forging a peace, then ‘yes’ the U.S. could negotiate a suitable peace, and then pack up and go home….yeah, like that’s going to happen. I can’t see that happening unless Raytheon were to have a replacement business to fall back on, or the U.S. were to put THAAD missile batteries in some other far off distant land to offset Raytheon’s loss, then I don’t see peace ever coming to the Korean Peninsula. Even with that the bigger question for the U.S. strategic mind is what to do about China, and Russia? These two countries pose a threat to the U.S. by them just being themselves. So until China and Russia decide to hand the keys of their banks over to the U.S. then peace will need to take a backseat everywhere until they do.
“Once weapons were manufactured to fight wars, now wars are manufactured to sell weapons” – Arundhati Roy
How true.
I don’t believe the US Deep State oligarchs would allow the South Korean president that much latitude. If the warmongers got word that such a deal might be in the works, they would probably start bombing North Korea immediately. I believe you are right that the whole point of our presence in South Korea is to threaten China. Between the crazy neocons and thin-skinned Trump, I think this is the scariest time in my life, even worse than the Cuban missile crisis when I was a kid.
If Kim Jung un’s N Korea continues with this garbage, then they better watch out, because John Brennan may just up and decide to send in his ISIS & al Queda squads to do America’s dirty work.
I can see them crossing the Yalu river in some amphibious Toyota pick-up trucks. Allahu akbar!
Yeah Skip, no doubt the terrorist will be driving new Toyota’s, unless they end up with nothing else to transport their terrorism with other than a used Texas plumbers used pickup truck. Which leaves me to wonder to if the Patriot Act applies to car dealerships.
That’s what the Uighurs (pronounced “wiggers”) and the Kyrgyz in the west of China, in Xinjiang Provence, are for, operating near Afghanistan. British Intel community has been figuring out a way to break China since the Opium Wars of the 1840s. Since they’ve captured our Intel community using their Wall Street assets immediately after WWII, they direct our “big guns” and $ toward ends favorable to The Western Empire of the Trans-Atlantic Community…what the Oligarchy of former colonial masters of Euro-Empires have morphed into, having thoroughly captured us, playing upon the “special relationship” between Britain and America. Search for “Uighurs” and “Xinjiang” in EIR website search box.
Come to think of it, this Korea thing in the East of China may be the magician’s distraction for operations in the West of China.
Defending South Korea is a ruse for other purposes, as well explained in the zero hedge article referenced in thread comments today (see my link below). South Korea actually has a formidable military of its own, so the South offers a convenient location of American bases as part of its global encirclement and contain China-Russia program. The people of both South and North Korea long for an end to the continuing decades-long hostility. As in Okinawa, the people in South Korea are not happy with American troops, some of whom unfortunately behave insultingly as well as at times as criminals preying on the locals. This hostility varies in location, and is particularly noticeable in Seoul, Kwangju, and Chejudo Island. So the notion of an actual sensible solution is going to be stalled by the real, under-the-scenes purposes of the militarism just as much here as anywhere else on the globe.
Perhaps some have the intent of surrounding and harassing China enough to obstruct its trade with the US, to force a revival of rust belt industries or trade with other regions. That would have to be hidden from businesses that depend upon the trade, and consumers whose prices would jump.
I have heard no plausible case that China seeks to obstruct nearby navigation, in fact it is worried that others might do so, and doubtless supports treaty obligations. Nor could it seek to control Australia’s northern deserts, with Indonesia’s 300 million Muslims in the way. Nor is there a plausible case that it wants more of the Himalayas toward India, or the Gobi desert toward Russia. No SE Asia dominos fell after the Vietnam War, just dictators deposed in popular rebellions.
The same arguments apply to Russia, which the US seeks to surround and harrass, with no cause whatsoever.
The ancient and inapplicable commie-hatred seems to go on in the US oligarchy with no cause whatsoever, unless it is really grounded in their fear of socialism in the US.
Sam F I’ve thought for a while now, that with quite honest and above board, formal international Negotiations, the World could Actually get along quite well. I think that’s the Big Secret, that we are supposed to, Not Know. The UN, was supposed to trend in that direction but I think, primarily due to obfuscation of TPTB, (l’m not Sure who that is) has not allowed that.
Clearly, the Key is resource allocation and management. We’re ruining the Environment and probably have already jeopardized life on Earth but it would be exciting to Try to be Good Stewards. After all, we don’t have another choice…
Yes, majorities everywhere lose with confrontation, and win in negotiation and benevolent assistance. Few gain with confrontation, always the MIC and usually the zionists. The US has been a disaster in its control of the UN and its aggressive foreign policies.
“The logical flaw in Russia-gate may turn out to be a fatal one.”
I hope that expression never becomes more than a rhetorical device. The fatalities from such a war would be enormous even confined within the Korean peninsula. They become inestimable if other countries get involved, including China which has now promised assistance to North Korea if Washington initiates a first strike against it.
The Democrats prove more every day how they are mainly interested in taking revenge against Trump for winning that election than in stable governance of our country and peace in the world. In trying to make Trump fail they are willing to blow up the world, as long as he gets the blame. They know he is hotheaded and they are deliberately trying to get under his skin, ham-string his ability to carry out diplomacy with our former “partners,” now declared “enemies” Russia and China, and to provoke him to take some rash action against North Korea or Iran for which he can be blamed, impeached and removed from office, if there still is such an office in the aftermath of a potential nuclear conflagration.
Wow. this is excellent…..tho I think Trump does in fact quite often think deeply and strategically……at leaset some of the time.
SUGGEST YOU BUMP THIS TO “The Nation” for some follow-up by them??? Our first MSM breakthrough on the phoney
“RUSSIAGATE” stuff.
Link to The Nation article :
https://www.thenation.com/article/a-new-report-raises-big-questions-about-last-years-dnc-hack/
Thanks to The Nation and Mr. Parry for proving their are at least two “adults in the room.” The sanctions vote, virtually unanimous in bodies with 535 voting members, is ominous for anyone who still values peace and the “search for truth.” The fact that 100 percent of the corporate media also buys into policies based on lies is probably even more disturbing. Dissenting views, and evidence, apparently are not allowed. Welcome to 1984.
Thank you Robert Parry, no one currently reporting can summarize our condition as well as you can.
One big thing that I have learned by concentrating intensely on the Kennedy Administration, is that the White House is an isolated environment. President Kennedy was just as isolated by his military advisors as is President Trump. President Kennedy, however had Bobby and his Boston Entourage to empower him outside the Sit-Room. Even at that, it was all he could do to restrain his Military. Seriously, I don’t think President Trump is up to the task, But, having said that, I wouldn’t want President Pence calling the shots either. I’m afraid we’re in a major jam. Time for important Peace Makers (Whom ever that might be) to step up…
Yes, once more an essential counterpoint to the mass media propaganda.
Those who would like to petition the NYT to make Robert Parry their senior editor may do so here:
https://www.change.org/p/new-york-times-bring-a-new-editor-to-the-new-york-times?recruiter=72650402&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
While Mr. Parry may prefer independence, and we all know the NYT ownership makes it unlikely, and the NYT may try to ignore it, it is instructive to them that intelligent readers know better journalism when they see it. A petition demonstrates the concerns of a far larger number of potential or lost subscribers.
The author makes an important point about group think in the press and editors being unwilling to risk any Reassesment of thinking due to likely damage to their credibility. This occurs over and over with issue after issue. No “watchdog journalists” seem eager to just report the truth, or punch holes in untruths that quickly become conventional wisdom or “fact.” This trend of a gullible or complicit press is what really scares me about the future of this country. And someone DOES need to investigate the investigators.
You’re certainly right Bill in Montgomery, just keep engaged and Erik G., I signed the Petition.
I don’t think it’s ‘Democrats and Congress’ stalling constructive diplomacy, but rather CFR foreign policy hardliners and their coopted media who want to ‘educate’ Trump (see illustrations at https://cfrmedia.com/). And it looks like they have already succeeded in manoeuvering him onto the war path, ironically with many of his ‘isolationist’ supporters cheering.
Mr. Parry outlines actions of “Democrats and Official Washington’s dominant neocons” in blocking a Trump detente with Russia, and forcing him into military adventurism. Many Dems went along with the Russia-gate warmongering by mass media seeking wars for Israel, including wars anywhere to distract Russia from the mideast. Perhaps N Korea is merely a Trump counter-distraction.
An actual attack on NK, even “conventional” carpet-bombing, would expose the US firebombing of NK after being pushed back to the SK border in 1953, killing up to two million innocents, an international disgrace that fully explains the defensiveness of NK today. Let’s hope that exposure of that now prevents a repetition.
Don elve priestly trump … is a proper showmen.
;()