A common refrain is that the West must “do something” to help Syria, but this is like arguing that the gasoline that was used to start a fire can also be used to extinguish it, explains Caitlin Johnstone.
By Caitlin Johnstone
“We’ve got to do something about Syria!” goes the common Western refrain.
Actually, no you don’t.
“What? You’re saying we should just do nothing??” goes the common response.
A protest placard in the Kafersousah neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 26, 2012. (Photo credit: Freedom House Flickr, CC BY 2.0)
Yes. Yeah that’d be great. Definitely please get as far away from Syria as possible, thanks.
Arguing that the Western war machine is a good way to bring about peace and justice is like arguing that a bulldozer is a useful tool for brain surgery. Arguing that the Western war machine is a good way to bring about peace and justice in Syria is like arguing that the gasoline which was used to start a house fire can also be used to extinguish it.
The cutesy fairy tale you will hear from empire loyalists is that what started out as peaceful protests slowly morphed into a battle between the Syrian government and various terrorist factions, with the West only backing the terrorists later on in the conflict. This is false.
Last October, former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani admitted on television that the U.S. and its allies were actively involved in shipping weapons to violent extremist groups in Syria from the very beginning of the war there in 2011. In an article titled “The day before Deraa,” the American Herald Tribune’s Steven Sahiounie documents how CIA-backed foreign mercenaries/terrorists were already in place ready to go prior to the outbreak of violence in Deraa in March 2011. It is now an openly admitted fact that the CIA and U.S. allies have been arming known terrorist factions in Syria. If you know anything about the CIA and the Western war machine, none of this will surprise you.
The violence in Syria that you see today is the direct result of a deliberate and ongoing destabilization campaign by the Western empire against a nation it has had marked for regime change for a very long time. The war machine that ignited this fire is working to manufacture public support for hosing it down with gasoline.
I am not an isolationist. I do not oppose NATO interventionism in Syria from any kind of right-wing paleocon perspective that nation-building and interventionist wars ought to be avoided because they are expensive and create refugee crises. I oppose US-led regime change interventionism in Syria because the empire started the Syrian war and is now using lies and propaganda to manufacture support for additional use of military force with the goal of preventing Syria and its allies from restoring stability to the nation. These hand-wringing “won’t someone think of the children” intervention advocates are calling for even more killing and destruction by the very empire which ignited and perpetuated the killing and destruction in the first place.
If you ever want to make sure you’re on the correct side of history regarding foreign policy, just look at what the neocon think tanks and liberal interventionists are advocating, and then advocate the exact opposite. U.S.-led regime change interventionism always makes things worse, never accomplishes what its proponents claim it will accomplish, and inflicts additional death and suffering upon innocent people in a way that always benefits the rich and powerful of the Western empire. And when the intervention fails to unfold as its proponents promised, as it literally always does, they say “mistakes were made” and blame it on the mismanagement of whomever happened to be in charge at the time.
It’s a brilliant scheme, really. All these predators needed to do was secure the congressional Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists in the wake of the September 11 attacks, and now the U.S.-centralized empire can set up permanent military encampments in any strategic location by simply flooding the area with terrorists. This is exactly what it did in Syria, and now the U.S. has a permanent military presence there with the stated goal of effecting regime change.
This has never been about “saving children” – this is about money, power, and resources, which are all of course ultimately the same thing as far as the empire is concerned. Longtime U.S. rival Russia has recently been awarded exclusive rights to oil and gas production in Syria in return for its efforts in helping its longtime ally stop the regime change, a predictable step in the fight for fossil fuel dominance in the region.
Syria’s border dispute with Israel over the Golan Heights means that Israel has every reason to want to keep Syria destabilized, not only because the Golan Heights contains oil but because it provides a third of Israel’s water supply. Bashar al-Assad also launched what he called his “Five Seas Vision” in 2004, a strategy to use Syria’s supreme geographic location to become an economic superpower. Such a plan wouldn’t sit well with the U.S. hegemon, which can only maintain its dominance by keeping other nations down.
“Once the economic space between Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran becomes integrated, linking the Mediterranean, the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea and the Arabian Gulf, will not only be important in the Middle East,” Assad once famously said in 2009. “When these seas are connected, we will become the inevitable intersection of the whole world in investment, transportation, and more.”
It’s not hard to imagine how the imperialists would suddenly accelerate the urgency of removing Assad once he began speaking like that. Go try and find anything damning about Bashar al-Assad in the Western mainstream media prior to 2009. You’ll find a bunch of positive expressions, including a nomination for honorary knighthood in 2002 by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Interesting how he then suddenly transformed overnight into a bloodthirsty sexual sadist who gets off on gassing children to death for no reason.
Every time there’s a crucial conflict unfolding in Syria where the government is trying to fight the violent extremists the empire inflicted upon that nation, we are saturated in propaganda about how much Assad loves murdering children. At the end of 2016 it was Aleppo, about which we were lied to extensively. Now it is Eastern Ghouta, about which you’ll see establishment loyalists from The Guardian and Mother Jones attacking anyone who expresses any skepticism of establishment narratives while cranking out articles with titles like “Waiting for Putin and Assad to run out of people to kill. Is that our plan?”
Rank-and-file victims of western mass media psyops believe that the west ought to “do something” in Syria because someone needs to rescue those poor children, but the reality is that their own government is responsible for creating and perpetuating that violence and they only believe what they believe about Syria because the oligarchs can’t come right out and say “We need to keep that region destabilized or effect regime change in order to secure resource control and geopolitical dominance over our rivals.” They make it about rescuing children because the truth would make any decent person fall to their knees vomiting.
Be very clear what you are demanding when you say “we need to do something” about Syria. You are not saying we need to go in and hug children and hold umbrellas over the heads of civilians to make sure that they don’t get hit by explosives in the crossfire. You are saying we need to go in there and kill anyone who gets in the way, kill Syrian soldiers, kill Assad, and take control of the nation in a way that will benefit nobody but a few wealthy elites, all while causing even worse civilian casualties than are currently being experienced because that’s what war does. That’s what your cutesy little “we must do something to save the children” sentiment is calling for.
Acknowledging this doesn’t make you an “Assadist” or a “Putin puppet” or a crazy conspiracy theorist, it makes you a normal, healthy human being. The western war machine has an extensive history of using lies, false flags and propaganda to manufacture support for lucrative military interventions, and it is undoubtedly lying to us about Syria today. The only just outcome in this conflict is to allow the Syrian government and its allies to restore stability to the region and undo the damage that the West has done.
The fact that the U.S. and its allies are now openly admitting to having armed known terrorist factions in Syria and are still somehow asking you to trust them should elicit nothing other than a full belly laugh right in their face. Anyone in a NATO-allied country saying “we need to do something in Syria” should receive the same instant recoil as a known child rapist asking you to let him babysit your kids. No, Western empire, you do not need to “do something” in Syria.
You need to get the fuck out and stay out.
Caitlin Johnstone is a rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper who publishes regularly at Medium. Follow her work on Facebook, Twitter, or her website. She has a podcast and a new book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. This article was re-published with permission.
Brilliant. Never read a more incisive and eye-opening appraisal of the saga of Bashar al-Assad and his struggle against the demonic forces that have slashed and burned the middle east for the last 100 years.
Paraphrase: “wringing their hands about the children, save the children”. Well, the part left out of this great article is that they are TAKING children. Let’s not forget the human trafficking aspect of all this. And it is a very lucrative business to be in for imperialist/capitalist psychopaths. Why so many people(I use this term loosely; humanoids a better term?) are involved in it. The connected or high enough up in hierarchy do not wait for organs. They want/need they get it, now. So, someone must die, so what ever it is is fresh, and be dissected so they get their wants and do not wait in line. Morbid, yes, but it is the truth of the matter.
natalie nougereyde in guardian newspaper doesnot mention US& it’s Arab allies role in syria.she is coparing it to yugoslav wars .this time syria is outside EU& will not join EU
Another fine article from Caitlin Johnstone. The terrorists are getting whacked in East Ghouta, i am expecting a false flag operation to discredit the Syrian Army that, with Russian support, fights to liberate this suburb of Damascus. The terrorist fallback plan could well be another chemical attack that they will try to pin on the Syrian Military and Assad. Yet again another attempt to get the US to bomb Syrian Army and Air force positions. The US, in connivance with the terrorists in this planned chemical attack, will try to move forward with regime change. Should the terrorists resort to a chemical attack, we can hope that experts such as Ted Postel are brought in to investigate and then debunk the narrative the American Generals will push.
As the insidiously CIA funded NGOs cry, do something , children are dying. Not these children in Alabama infested with hookworms spawn in privatized savage and water system but those in Aleppo, Hama or East Ghouta
And hence I will focus here for exactly on “do something” propaganda techniques of CIA mostly propaganda of do something: like do something stupid, useless, misguided and designed to fail and induce even deeper state of depression among suffering people insidiously aimed at convincing them of futility of resistance and impossibility of change they seek , blaming lack of activists’ creativity in their “actions” while ignoring utter brutality of the regime, killings, intimidation , survelliance, $billion dollar a day propaganda of word not deed and repeating wars and economic crises torture as harsh preventive counterrevolutionary measures this abhorrent regime implements daily to stay in power.
Try something that really threatens the regime or instill real change and you are dead. Marching aimlessly you only will be beaten and get felony conviction probation for nothing as Occupied movement people got as a warning and intimidation to shut up do they did.
People first must liberate their consciousness from liberal ethics of exploitation and aesthetics of domination that underlie liberal politics that serve ruling elites as a spectacle of mass manipulation of Meddlesome spectators of governing process as W. Lippmann posited almost a century ago.
We must stop this spectacle of war murder and mayhem and let people leave this political theater of Absurd , free their minds and self govern.
Excellent assessment and explanation of propaganda and psychological operations. I concur Kalen.
The American Herald article cited is completely wrong in its timeline regarding events in Libya. The protests in Libya started in February 2011. Western military action began in March 2011.
The American Herald article states that Libyan terrorists were done in Libya by this time and that the US had supplied them with weapons seized from the Libyan govt. No way that could have happened in that timeframe. Gaddafi was killed October 2011.
See the discrepancies ?
The article “The day before Deraa: How the war broke out in Syria ” by Steven Sahiounie states that “Libyan terrorists, fresh from the battlefield of the US-NATO regime change attack on Libya, were in Deraa well ahead of the March 2011 uprising violence”.
This statement by Sahiounie is not imprecise but generally correct. The United States government was a primary actor in the “regime change” events known as “Arab Spring”.
The Libyan armed conflict began in Benghazi on 15 February 2011. The anti-government attacks in Tripoli from 20-25 February 2011, subsequent attacks on Libyan security forces throughout the country, and the formation of armed fighting groups were all backed by the U.S. before Western military action “officially” began in March.
The article “The day before Deraa: How the war broke out in Syria ” by Steven Sahiounie states that “Libyan terrorists, fresh from the battlefield of the US-NATO regime change attack on Libya, were in Deraa well ahead of the March 2011 uprising violence”.
This statement by Sahiounie is generally correct in terms of the armed conflict in Libya..
The United States government was a primary actor in the “regime change” events known as “Arab Spring”.
The US-NATO regime change attack on Libya began with riots staged in Benghazi on 15 February 2011.
Anti-government attacks in Tripoli from 20-25 February 2011, subsequent attacks on Libyan security forces throughout the country, and the formation of armed fighting groups were all backed by the U.S. well before Western military action “officially” began in March 2011.
Russia’s air force operations in Syria are one of the few truly “humanitarian interventions” of the last 30 years. Goes right up there with Cuba’s intervention in the southern region of Africa in the 1970s against racist rule.
It really is hard to believe the inhuman,murderous and obscene actions that this bunch of American neocon psychopaths in Washington can so easily perpetrate on mostly unarmed,innocent people all over the world.I can’t take it in.They are so obviously sick yet have so much power and control in the country.
“Preparations for the overthrow of Iran stretch back well over a decade and have transcended multiple US presidential administrations – both Republican and Democrat – including the current administration of US President Donald Trump and his predecessor, US President Barack Obama.
“The Brookings Institution in its 2009 ‘Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran,’ laid out extensive plans for undermining and overthrowing the Iranian government.
“Chapters in the paper included:
Chapter 1: An Offer Iran Shouldn’t Refuse: Persuasion;
Chapter 3: Going All the Way: Invasion;
Chapter 4: The Osiraq Option: Airstrikes;
Chapter 5: Leave it to Bibi: Allowing or Encouraging an Israeli Military Strike
Chapter 6: The Velvet Revolution: Supporting a Popular Uprising;
Chapter 7: Inspiring an Insurgency: Supporting Iranian Minority; And Opposition Groups and;
Chapter 8: The Coup: Supporting a Military Move Against the Regime.
“It should be noted that each and every option has been pursued since 2009, either against Iran directly or against Syria in a bid to spread conflict over Iranian borders. This includes Washington’s use of Israel to carry out airstrikes on Syria while the US attempts to maintain plausible deniability.
“Within these chapters, detailed plans were laid out to create and back both political opposition organizations and armed militant groups. It laid out a variety of economic sanctions that could be used to pressure Tehran and create division and discontent among the Iranian population. It also proposed methods of attacking Iran militarily both covertly and overtly as well as possible ways of goading Tehran into full-scale war.
“The paper was written shortly after the failed US-backed ‘Green Revolution’ during that same year – a US-engineered protest that was larger in scale and duration than the most recent protests.
“US Sought to Draw Out and Overextend Iran Ahead of Subversion
“Another paper – by the RAND Corporation also published in 2009 – titled, ‘Dangerous But Not Omnipotent: Exploring the Reach and Limitations of Iranian Power in the Middle East,’ noted that Iran’s foreign policy was pursued mainly in self-defense. […]
“The paper discusses Iran’s extensive ties to Syria and Lebanon’s Hezbollah as well as its growing ties with Iraq. These ties – according to the RAND paper itself – were pursued to create a buffer in Iran’s near-abroad against regional US military aggression.
“By 2011, the US was pursuing a proxy war consuming the entire Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) with Libya overthrown and left in perpetual ruination by the end of the year and Syria consumed by nationwide conflict as foreign-funded and armed militants flooded the country from Syria’s borders with Turkey and Jordan.
“The fact that Libya was overthrown first, then used as a springboard for the proxy invasion of Syria illustrates the wider regional context that drove the US-NATO intervention in Libya.
“In essence, the US was attacking the pillars of Iran’s national defense in its near-abroad. Knowing how critical Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq were to Iran’s national defense strategy of hindering US encirclement and keeping in check Washington’s regional allies particularly in the Persian Gulf – the region-wide destabilization was designed to draw the Iranians into a costly regional intervention.”
Why US Subversion Flopped in Iran
By Tony Cartalucci
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2018/02/why-us-subversion-flopped-in-iran.html
Very good points however comma the US will fail in it’s assault on Iran because, unlike the rest of the Middle East that was hacked up by Picot/Sykes leaving the resulting countries without a homogeneous population, modern Iran is the core of the old Persian empire. The Iranians know they are Persians and not Arabs and the inheritors of the Persian empire, such as it is. They are a much more cohesive society than the rest of the Middle East. And while Nikki Haley, the clueless wonder, can babble on about freedom and oppressed Iranians, the Iranians know better. They’ve seen American support for freedom first with the Shah and then with their proxy support for Saddam Hussein’s war against Iran while the US withheld support for their American military gear that they needed to defend themselves. The US government is remarkably stupid.
Abe and Jeff, it is remarkable that the US ever thought that more than a few Iranians would rebel on US inspiration, after the US overthrew democracy there in 1953. The demonstrators must have been well paid. Originally the US just wanted a cut of the oil concession, no doubt for campaign bribes from oil companies. Now it conspires against Iran throughout the Mideast and Afghanistan, for those campaign bribes from zionists. All for Democracy™ and saving children of course. Let us hope that it all fails.
Congratulations to Ms. Johnstone as this is the best essay on Syria to appear anywhere in several years. Spectacular, exquisite, superb, masterful —
thank you ever so much Ms. Johnstone.
This phenomenal piece is in the tradition of Robert Parry, Michael Parenti, Alexander Cockburn, and James Petras. Genuine intellectual nourishment.
Ms. Johnstone, so glad to see you here. Been following your work for a long time. Very powerful writing, right down to the expletives. Sometimes the f-word just needs sayin’! You’re one of my faves. Keep it up!
Please don’t call the Persian Gulf by any other name.This has been the name for ever.
Please don’t give them a reason to incite violence
In your link to the article written by Steven Sahiounie, he writes:
What Steven doesn’t mention is that Syria served as a staging area for jihadists to enter the war in Iraq after the US invasion. According to Middle East Eye (Iraq asked Syria’s Assad to stop aiding ‘jihadists’: Former officialhttps://shar.es/1PG0Hx via @MiddleEastEye):
And the New York Times (“Syrian Rebels Tied to Al Qaeda Play Key Role in War”, December 8, 2012):
This may be a case in point of what goes around comes around. In the linked article, Sahiounie offers no proof or even a single link to back up his assertions. As the linked article stands, it has absolutely no credible sources. In fact, much of what he stated could be false.
I am not quite sure how you can expect the reader to not only accept that Bashir al-Assad was an innocent bystander, but almost heroic in defense of the “terrorists” that suddenly without provocation descended on Syria. You didn’t even mention the Arab Spring as if that was a CIA concoction for regime change.
“You didn’t even mention the Arab Spring as if that was a CIA concoction for regime change.”
It very quickly became exactly that in Libya and Syria. In the Gulf states, though, it was stomped down fast with extreme violence and the highfalutin U.S. muckyety-mucks didn’t blink as they shared cocktails with the Gulf state oligarchs in skyscraper hotels.
It seems unlikely that Syria would funnel Sunni terrorists to Iraq, and then be victimized by Sunni terrorists.
And their Iraq border is mainly Anbar province, all Sunni, so not a good place to send Shiite terrorists.
Is it not more likely that some of the Sunni refugees were armed by KSA/UAE/Qatar and sent back as terrorists?
KSA has plenty of border with Iraq at Anbar, to send terrorists in, which the US media studiously ignored.
Assad was fully capable of taking advantage of the very same jihadists he is fighting in Syria today. According to London Review of Books (Peter Neumann; https://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n… via @LRB):
This makes a lot of political sense.
Thank you for the peroration. I think that all who call for somebody to do something in Syria (besides the obvious – get the fuck out) should be required to read this:
https://warprayer.org/
before that make that call again.
When we pray to our War God, we don’t pray for peace and compassion, we pray for death and destruction. Which God we pray to, knowingly or unknowingly, will determine our fate……..
Didn’t read Twain’s war prayer, didja?
Yes I did.
“Technology, it can be used to subjugate or to liberate. The choice is up to us.”
~ Henry Wallace
It was about 10 years ago, that I read a study by the American Psychiatric Association in which they analyzed our television airwaves for violence. They concluded that the average 18 year American had witnessed 40,000 murders, and over 200,000 violent deaths on their airwaves.
I then wondered, just how many returning fallen soldiers had the average American witnessed on their airwaves?
Also, here in the U.S., I wonder, just what is the percentage of citizens, who can name their City Council members, their County Supervisors, their District State Legislators?
.. But then “our” airwaves are used in spades every 4 years for a Presidential race, in which the messages of both of the major Parties Candidates are eerily similar, and where for 500 continuous days we are pummeled over and over, with paid infomercials, that always include just who to kill next.
My mother, she spent her career in health education. And, it just may be, that for me as an individual, the best health advise she ever consulted me with, was to “turn off” the airwaves that we supposedly own.
And Henry, he obviously meant with his statement, that we as a society could overcome the usurpation’s of organized money. And I agree with him, that someday we will.
But until that day comes, ty all at CN!
General Votel the head of CENTCOM, just wrote a lengthy essay on his perspective on his situation in the middle East and Syria.
It reads as the activities of an intelligent, dutiful soldier doing his best to support the US interests in the region. What struck me was his repeated reference to US interests, with no reference to what US interests are. For our system to work, US interests, should be the will of an informed democracy. A far more accurate phrase, however, would be that he is working on behalf of US special interests. These special interests in no way reflect the will of the American people as they are often poweful, moneyed interests organized specifically to benefit a small number of people at the expense of the majority.
Deniz:
To “sell” an intervention to the public, the U.S. always purports to be furthering its values, when in reality it is pursuing its interests.
This is commonly referred to as fraud.
The sad truth and I am going out on a limb on this one is I believe Trump truly does want to end the war in Syria and restore at least some credubility and honor to the United States in the region but he is being tricked and lied to by the intelligence and military. The best thing the US could do at this point is end any military presence in Syria unless requested as a peace keeping mission by the Assad government in conjunction with Syrian and Russian forces and join in as part of the peace negotiations being led by Russia.
I think you’re right, freedom lover.
Despite his tin-soldier-complex love of uniforms, parades, and “armadas”, Trump has never in his life, to my knowledge, manifested any enthusiasm for war itself or for the U.S.’s compulsive military adventurism. This is one of his vanishingly few good qualities, and one the media has relentlessly tried to bury under “madman with his finger on the button” scare stories.
But (and in the words of Cloris Leachman in “Young Frankenstein”, *und diss iss a big but*), how much good can that pre-disposition do in someone so devoid of character, knowledge, or intellect?
It is true that if the Beltway establishment were interested in steering Trump away from war, he’d pose no danger. But thirteen months into his administration, it’s pretty clear he is incapable of resisting them as they do the opposite.
Last year they got him to order that cruise missile strike – and the media promptly rewarded him with accolades of how “presidential” he had shown himself to be.
Just this week, Trump again said the U.S. mission in Syria is to destroy I.S. and come home. Meanwhile, the whole rest of the government, including his top appointees, continue to try to effect “regime change” and create a loyal statelet in a quarter of the country to host U.S. forces forever.
Will he do anything about it? Does he even realize it? If “Fox & Friends” or “Morning Joe” highlighted the contradiction, things might get interesting. That’s why they never will.
And in the final analysis, if starting a war would put a dollar in his pocket, or get him a column inch in the NY Post, Trump wouldn’t hesitate to do so. Not someone to bank on (as his creditors have repeatedly learned over the years).
My thoughts exactly. Thanks for your wise analysis
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was one of the first heads of government to go to the United States to meet Donald Trump on February 16 [2017], in Trump’s new role as President. After the event major media focused on the themes of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the Iran nuclear deal or a Palestine two-state solution.
“Virtually no mention was made by CNN or other US mainstream media of the most strategic point the two discussed. Netanyahu asked the US President to recognize the Israeli illegal occupation of Syria’s Golan Heights, something no US President has done since Israel openly declared it theirs in 1981.
“What has unfolded in the region since Netanyahu’s February 16 [2017] Trump talks gives reason to believe the US and Netanyahu’s Israel covertly agreed to a strategy to allow Trump to recognize Israel as the de facto occupier of Golan Heights amid what they will call the growing chaos of the Syrian ‘civil war.’ […]
“Some days after Netanyahu left Washington, in an OpEd in the Rupert Murdoch Wall Street Journal, Mark Dubowitz, Executive Director of the Washington pro-Israel think-tank, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, argued that American recognition of Israel’s control of the Golan ‘would provide the Israeli government with a diplomatic win while helping the Trump administration signal to Russia and Iran that the US is charting a new course in Syria.’ Dubowitz is an adviser to the Trump Administration on Iran and the Middle East. Other neo-conservative editorials echoed the theme. There is big change brewing in Washington and it looks ugly in terms of a possible US-backed war with Israel against Russia ally, Syria, over the Golan Heights. That immediately poses the question what Russia would do if it materializes. […]
“Israel is carefully setting the propaganda stage that will now let it claim that a coalition of Russia, Iran, Syria and Hezbollah are preparing to forcefully retake the Syrian Golan Heights from the illegal Israeli occupiers. It’s a tried and tested Israeli IDF method of provoking an opponent, here Syria, then using the opponent’s predictable reaction to provocation as pretext for military strikes that escalate a confrontation they, the IDF, initiated in the first place.”
Golan Heights, Israel, Oil and Trump
By F. William Engdahl
https://journal-neo.org/2017/03/30/golan-heights-israel-oil-and-trump/
Let us use that opportunity. This fine summary by Caitlin Johnstone shows the outright lies of the warmongers. What we must do about the Mideast must be done in the US, which is to restore democracy here; that cannot be done without destroying the oligarchy. Money control of mass media and elections has robbed the people of their country. We must get rid of money control of these essential tools of democracy, as our top priority.
Only the zionists want these wars in the Mideast; they are by far the worst enemies of the United States. Zionists have started every US war in the Mideast by seizing control of mass media to propagandize the people; they are enemies of the United States, and should be deported to Israel.
The MIC wants war anywhere, and must be cut down by 80 percent, by re-purposing the military to the building of roads, schools, and hospitals in the poorest nations. Foreign wars are not within the federal powers except by treaty, and our fake “defense” treaties should be revised as purely defensive. No excuses for imperialist wars.
We must eliminate these unconstitutional “AUMF” bills that are not within the powers of Congress. The belief of presidents that they may initiate foreign wars at their pleasure, the refusal of Congress to stop this, the conducting of secret foreign wars, all are the most extreme violations of the Constitution, tantamount to treason under the Constitution. All of these warmongers in office and the mass media should be imprisoned for life.
Here’s another rather long quote from the site mentioned above:
“In 1492, Chemor, Chief Rabbi of Spain received the following reply from the Grand Sanhedrin (elders of Zion) to his plea for advice on how to deal with their threatened expulsion under Spanish Law; it illustrates well how the same ancient agenda was still being adhered to by the elect at this time:
‘Beloved brethren in Moses, we have received your letter in which you tell us of the anxieties and misfortunes which you are enduring. We are pierced by as great a pain to hear it as yourselves. The advice of the Grand Satraps and the Rabbis is the following:
1. As for what you say that the King of Spain obliges you to become Christians: do it, since you cannot do otherwise.
2. As for what you say about the command to despoil you of your property: make your sons merchants that they may despoil, little by little, the Christians of theirs.
3. As for what you say about making attempts on your lives: make your sons doctors and apothecaries, that they may take away Christian’s lives.
4. As for what you say of their destroying your synagogues: make your sons canons and clerics in order that they may destroy their churches.
5. As for the other vexations you complain of: arrange that your sons become advocates and lawyers, and see that they always mix in affairs of State, that by putting Christians under your yoke you may dominate the world and be avenged on them.
6. Do not swerve from this order that we give you, because you will find by experience that, humiliated as you are, you will reach the actuality of power.
(Signed) Prince of the Jews of Constantinople
(Julio-Inigrez de Medrano—”La Silva Curiosa” 1608).'”
He receive a reply 116 years before it was written?
It was in the 1400’s that many ‘jews’ were run out of Spain, France, elsewhere and went to the Netherlands and established what we have as the modern banking and market systems. The Khazars never stopped trying to expand their Nation, and today, re-establish it. Excellent posts Virginia, a big thanks.
John W. Glad you found The Protocols important, as did I.
Amen Sam F. From your mouth to God’s ears.
“Virginia” is an Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Israel” / “anti-Zionist” and fake “anti-Jewish” / “anti-Semitic”) propaganda troll.
The primary aim of both Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Israel” / “anti-Jewish”) and Conventional Hasbara (overtly pro-Israel / pro-Zionist) propaganda troll activity is to discredit fact-based criticism and critics of Israeli policy, the pro-Israel Lobby, and Israel’s efforts to influence American politics.
Many “anti-Semitic” claims are influenced by The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious forgery first published in Russia in 1903. Purporting to be an expose of a worldwide “Jewish conspiracy”, the Protocols claimed that the Jews had infiltrated Freemasonry and were using the fraternity to further their aims for global domination.
Hasbara propaganda trolls seed online commentary with obvious lies (claims unsupported by facts), lunacy (illogic and looney “conspiracy theory”), and offensive racism (virulent “anti-Jewish” rants, “Holocaust denial”, et cetera).
The dismal lack of success of so much the Conventional Hasbara (overtly pro-Israel / pro-Zionist / pro-Jewish) form of propaganda led to the development of Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Israel” / “anti-Jewish”) propaganda.
Hasbara lies and lunacy are used to distract, divert and dilute legitimate critical discussion of efforts to manipulate US politics and foreign policy on behalf of Israel.
Consortium News readers are alert to Hasbara dis-information in its two forms – both Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Israel”) and Conventional Hasbara (obvious pro-Israel) propaganda.
You like to expose people who happen to have different perspectives and dob them in here on this website for all to see as if they are antisemitic. You did it to me several times and refer to some texts you found to be correct.
In answer to the latest one, here is the response that shows who you are supporting and who has no comparison to the scholarship of somebody you disagree with without reading his work. not everybody is a troll, inverted or not, when they don’t agree with you: http://vho.org/GB/c/CM/Risposta-new-eng.html
The Protocols of Zion go back to the mid 1800’s. The Zionists, or Khazars, wanted a new State, and the Middle East was not just their first choice, but one of several. Central Asia was decided on at last for the geopolitical and economic potential. Specially the Suaz Canal. Do not forget the Balfour Declaration in the mid nineteen teens during WWI.
John W mentions “Khazars”. This is a reference to the Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry, often called the “Khazar myth” by its critics.
The Khazar hypothesis has a complex history and has been used at times by Jewish Rabbis, Jewish historians, Jewish secular Zionists, anti-Zionists, and anti-Semitic racists.
Shlomo Sand, an Israeli Emeritus Professor of History at Tel Aviv University, is author of The Invention of the Jewish People. Originally published in Hebrew in 2008 and translated into English the following year, the controversial book repeats the claim that Ashkenazi Jews are descended from Khazars, who purportedly converted in the early Middle Ages.
https://consortiumnews.com/2012/11/19/israeli-scholar-disputes-founding-myth-2/
In 2010, when Harry Ostrer, a professor of genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, announced the results of a DNA study showing “powerful genetic markers of Jewish ancestry,” Sand told Science Magazine that “Hitler would certainly have been very pleased.” Writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Josh Fischman noted that Sand’s argument in The Invention of the Jews that Jews arose from multiple conversions among various communities in Europe and elsewhere contradicted work by Harry Ostrer which argued that “geographically and culturally distant Jews still have more genes in common than they do with non-Jews around them,” and that such genes were of Levantine origin,” including the area where modern Israel is situated.
Ostrer himself took offense at Sand’s attack on his work: “Bringing up Hitler was overheated and misconstrues my work,” he said. Sand reiterated his criticism, writing in an email to Fischman that “It is a shame for somebody who defines himself as a Jew to look for a Jewish gene.”
Geneticist Dr. Eran Elhaik has published two research papers which cite Sand’s work extensively. The first, “The Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian Hypotheses” (December 2012) argued that genetic evidence points to a “mosaic of Near Eastern-Caucasus, European, and Semitic ancestries” within the founding population of modern European Jews. The theory proved highly controversial, and was contested by a number of historians and several geneticists.
Elhaik’s second paper, written in collaboration with others (March 2016), similarly used Sand’s work and concluded that the Ashkenazi descend from “a heterogeneous Iranian population, which later mixed with Eastern and Western Slavs and possibly some Turks and Greeks in the territory of the Khazar Empire around the 8th century A.D.”
The scientific or historical evidence remains inconclusive, but various parties continue to use their preferred hypotheses, narratives and myths to advance their agendas.
In addition, Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Zionist” and fake “anti-Semitic”) propaganda trolls insert Khazar myth references into the comments section to see if a li’l soft-core “anti-Semitism” will get some play.
John W repeatedly mentions “Khazars”. This is a reference to the Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry, often called the “Khazar myth” by its critics.
The Khazar hypothesis has a complex history and has been used at times by Jewish Rabbis, Jewish historians, Jewish secular Zionists, anti-Zionists, and anti-Semitic racists.
Shlomo Sand, an Israeli Emeritus Professor of History at Tel Aviv University, is author of The Invention of the Jewish People. Originally published in Hebrew in 2008 and translated into English the following year, the controversial book repeats the claim that Ashkenazi Jews are descended from Khazars, who purportedly converted in the early Middle Ages.
https://consortiumnews.com/2012/11/19/israeli-scholar-disputes-founding-myth-2/
In 2010, when Harry Ostrer, a professor of genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, announced the results of a DNA study showing “powerful genetic markers of Jewish ancestry,” Sand told Science Magazine that “Hitler would certainly have been very pleased.” Writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Josh Fischman noted that Sand’s argument in The Invention of the Jews that Jews arose from multiple conversions among various communities in Europe and elsewhere contradicted work by Harry Ostrer which argued that “geographically and culturally distant Jews still have more genes in common than they do with non-Jews around them,” and that such genes were of Levantine origin,” including the area where modern Israel is situated.
Ostrer himself took offense at Sand’s attack on his work: “Bringing up Hitler was overheated and misconstrues my work,” he said. Sand reiterated his criticism, writing in an email to Fischman that “It is a shame for somebody who defines himself as a Jew to look for a Jewish gene.”
Geneticist Dr. Eran Elhaik has published two research papers which cite Sand’s work extensively. The first, “The Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian Hypotheses” (December 2012) argued that genetic evidence points to a “mosaic of Near Eastern-Caucasus, European, and Semitic ancestries” within the founding population of modern European Jews. The theory proved highly controversial, and was contested by a number of historians and several geneticists.
Elhaik’s second paper, written in collaboration with others (March 2016), similarly used Sand’s work and concluded that the Ashkenazi descend from “a heterogeneous Iranian population, which later mixed with Eastern and Western Slavs and possibly some Turks and Greeks in the territory of the Khazar Empire around the 8th century A.D.”
While the scientific or historical evidence remains inconclusive, various parties continue to use their preferred hypotheses, narratives and myths to advance their agendas.
In addition, Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Zionist” and fake “anti-Semitic”) propaganda trolls insert Khazar myth references into the comments section to see if a li’l soft-core “anti-Semitism” will get some play.
Although the focus is where it belongs, this “Protocols” source is not considered to be authentic, but rather a fiction designed to encourage anti-Jewish fears or feelings, which should not be the intent of careful thinkers. After all, most zionists, who advocate special rights for Israel, are not Jewish, and many Jews are not zionists.
Of course there are many wonderful Jewish people, as in all groups, and many scoundrels among all groups as well. No racial.ethnic/religious criticism of any kind is implied by criticism of zionism.
Although zionism long predated the Nazis, the Jewish casualties of WWII led to a tragic reversal of roles. Just as the bullied may become the bully, the tyrannized population becomes susceptible to the leadership of tyrants, promising to defend them against the original bully. Every group has its tyrants, those who create or capitalize on foreign threats, which they use to demand domestic power and to accuse their opponents of disloyalty. So the zionists have led Israel by causing and exaggerating foreign threats, and so they tyrannize both Jewish and non-Jewish groups in the US, accusing all who would deny them special rights, of harboring secret designs against all Jewish people.
Which is not to suggest that the US does not have a plentiful supply of other tyrants and opportunists, just that they have not been able to take control of mass media and elections to such a degree. But we need to be careful to designate zionism, to avoid any confusion with the Jewish.
I know that you are not a troll; just wondered about the Protocols reference.
Hi Sam F,
I’ve seen many times how the commentators here at CN distinguish between the Zionists and the Jews. I thought everyone here bore that in mind. I do. Do you think it necessary to spell it out each time? I don’t. But just in case anyone may misunderstand, I agree with your comment above. Except, I’m not writing off the Protocols. (The Protocols I read did not confine their program strictly to Jews/Zionists. That was made clear.) I’m not ducking my head under the sand. So we’ll see. Unfortunately, we’ll see!
I totally agree with you here, as the tendency to put you in a corner of the old slur of being “antisemitic” is still around, including on this site. Some people should read what Israelis themselves say when they are daring to be critical, like Miko Peled (who wrote the excellent The General’s son, eBook and on YouTube lectures) or prof Shlomo Sand from Tel Aviv and of course, Noam Chomsky, the first to be called a “self-hating Jew”.
Whenever I write here I get some rebuttal and get cornered as antisemitic, therefore may I say I am not and my grandfather was executed by the SS in Amsterdam (and they hid Jews in their house). He gave his life for helping them and being in the resistance, like my father. I can only say I hope I would dare to give my life for a Jew in trouble, but I do not wish to be cornered here or put on the gallows-tree for all to see and called “antisemitic”.
(see also my response to Virginia below)
I know that you are not a troll; just wondered about the Protocols reference, so thought that I should clarify for first-time readers.
And I just replied to you for the same purpose, …clarification.
I hope you, Sam F, will take a look at my last reply below to Abe. (And that will be my last to Abe ever!)
All the best to you!
Sam F — You make a “good” moderator!
For what it’s worth, congress is holding hearings on the AUMF that has been used to march from one country to another. And Bernie along with a few other congress members are trying to stop our support for the Saudis who are committing genocide in Yemen. I don’t know if anything will come from this, but at least they’re discussing it.
I agree that it’s been Israel who has been pushing us to overthrow every country that they think threatens them. I don’t understand why Israel can’t use its own troops and money to do that. But as long as the congress members who have dual affiliations are running the show, I don’t think that the wars are going to stop.
Because Israel is a Banking Family State. And like all good Imperialists/capitalists, they use public money, or as much as possible, to fund their campaigns for what ever whims they come up with and to continue building wealth. That is why all economic models are built on ever expansionism, if one elite family decides they have amassed enough wealth and stop playing, all families below them on the hierarchy will soon over take them in ‘power’ and that family in a generation or two, may find themselves outside looking in, no longer wealthy and part of the ‘peerage’.
“I agree that it’s been Israel who has been pushing us to overthrow every country that they think threatens them. I don’t understand why Israel can’t use its own troops and money to do that.”
They tried to do that in 2006, but they had their butts handed to them by Hezbollah. The only success the Israeli’s have in war is when they fight unarmed women and children.
Good perspective on what is really happening. a huge percentage of Zionists are in control of mainstream media and we’re being fed lies all over the West because of them. Amazon does not sell books that are critical of them; we don;t get the real story and all wars seem to go on with impunity: after WWII there were so-called Tribunals, but nothing like it ever happened before in history while nowadays the US and Israel always get away with their black propaganda and lies and therefore, murder all over the Middle East. dare speak up and you’ll get abuse as being antisemitic.
Very well said Sam F. I am in complete agreement with you on your assessments and ideas.
I completely agree. People need to read that. Also, they need to read the Agenda 21 as well. They both coincide. I hope people that do not know, haven’t read The Protocols, follow your links and do so. I have it saved on my computer.
CN is suddenly awash in propaganda troll “comments” peddling buckets of conspiracy theory bilge.
From the “Protocols” enthusiast “Virginia”, to “Agenda 21” scaremonger “John W”, to “murdering monsters of evil” ranter “mike k”, it’s one big parade of diabolical conspiracy theories without a single verifiable fact.
But all that’s no surprise: the Israeli-Saudi-US assault on Syria is the topic of discussion.
Agenda 21 is a non-binding, voluntarily implemented action plan of the United Nations with regard to sustainable development.
Adopted during the Earth Summit (UN Conference on Environment and Development) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992, Agenda 21 is an action agenda for the UN, other multilateral organizations, and individual governments around the world that can be executed at local, national, and global levels.
https://www.alternet.org/story/153554/how_right-wing_conspiracy_theories_may_pose_a_genuine_threat_to_humanity?
Tea Party movement activists and others have promoted the conspiracy theory that Agenda 21 was part of a UN plot to deny property rights, undermine U.S. sovereignty, force citizens to move to cities, and “subjugate humanity under an eco-totalitarian regime.”
Agenda 21 fears have played a role in opposition to local government’s efforts to promote resource and land conservation, build bike lanes, and construct hubs for public transportation.
In 2012, conservative media pundit Glenn Beck, well-known for echoing the decades-old right-wing extremism of the John Birch Society, co-wrote a dystopian novel titled “Agenda 21”. In the same year, Agenda 21 paranoia “went mainstream” when the Republican National Committee adopted a platform resolution stated that “We strongly reject the U.N. Agenda 21 as erosive of American sovereignty.” Several state and local governments have considered or passed motions and legislation “opposed” to the purported evils of Agenda 21.
Agenda 21 and the Protocols do indeed “coincide” – as brands of conspiracy theory bullshit peddled by propagandists in order to distract from meaningful fact-based information and analysis of the Israeli-Saudi-US assault on Syria.
A superb essay. The raw, materialist political calculations and the consequent barbarous killing forces she describes vis-à-vis the wreckage of Syria has in her argument’s course so many of the crucial interrelated facts clearly visibly at hand. The conclusions drawn from this exposition show, if only in contrast, the devolution of the general media–their almost uniform attenuation of viewpoint to almost a single one, a monotone they nonetheless vastly spread. How hopeful and amazing Caitlin Johnstone writing as one individual is seeing more and telling more than all the king and queen’s men. Johnstone has already become one of the clearest and dependable voices in actual political writing.
Let me put it as simply as possible. We live in a post rational world. Orwellian sloganeering has replaced journalism in what are now mainstream propaganda organs each aimed at somewhat different demographics. Even in every day matters people distrust any sort of expertise in any areas outside strictly technical areas. This anti-reason trend includes most intellectuals.
When the Soviet Union collapsed I had the immediate fear that the US would gradually become the SU or at least take on its attributes. Well, it has finally happened.
Hello! Remember Slavery and Native Genocide?
Yes–The U.S. far outshines the Soviet Union in brutality, from its inception.
Thank you Banger, I agree. It’s absolutely essential that an accurate view of history be pursued subject to a continued revision regarding new information. Thus it becomes a sort of living thing. That is precisely why secret decision making and disinformation is so damaging to a free society. Thank you.
If anyone thinks destroying a country’s infrastructure killing it’s women, children, men and pets while creating millions of refugees is helping anyone but the military industrial complex, will companies and Netenyahoo create a greater Israel is CRAZY. The US started the internal strife in Syria to destabilize the country. Has continually lied about gas attacks by Assad on his people when the UD knows he was innocent. The unprovoked attacks on middle East countries has to stop.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/eastern-ghouta-syrian-government-forces-clash-rebels-180228104233521.html
Bad Russians. Good Saudis:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/deadly-airstrikes-pound-houthi-held-hodayda-180225142542444.html
How does the Devil laugh?
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/02/27/ex-cia-director-thinks-us-hypocrisy-about-election-meddling-hilarious.html
“Come Home America” was Mondale’s campaign theme; and now this means leave behind the thousand military bases and the Geopolitics of the old Euro Empires of the past which leads to all of these wars, focus on rebuilding USA, like FDR wanted to, before WWII rudely interrupted his policies. I believe Mondale was the last New Deal-type democrat to be in a general election. Dennis Kucinich and Bernie are cut from the same New Deal cloth, but they couldn’t get past the primaries. The Clinton machine has locked them out, and the “Scoop Jackson” Faction of corporate fascist democrats have been revived. The Western Empire is Wall Street and City-of-London; the Two Towers of snarling, mutant Orcs that prey upon the World. A Corbyn/Sanders/Kucinich Bloc has to take the Towers down. Trump made sounds of being of this frame-of-mind during the campaign season (NATO useless, make friends with Russia/China, get back to real, agro-industrial economics since this is the actual substance of “great again”, get the nation out of the “casino business”, etc…).
Type in “Scoop Jackson” into the Executive Intelligence Review search box for some interesting reading.
Good piece, as ever, Caitlin with the truth on her side. I’d just throw in a reminder that the Western narrative on Syria penetrates deeply throughout the so-called liberal order, it’s not simply the Trump administration, or the DoD, or NATO, it’s the leading institutions of an entire bloc. For example, this was tweeted yesterday by Carl Bildt, former leader of Sweden:
“Obvious that Assad wants to get control of Ghouta. The conditions of the limited cease fire announced by Putin shows the same aim.”
I, along with many others, did respond to point out that Assad, as leader of Syria is, indeed, aiming to take control of his country, an utterly unremarkable fact. If the West thought the public would swallow it, we’d be hearing of Assad ‘annexing’ E Ghouta.
Good catch!
Sweden’s status as a neutral country seems like an empty fiction at this point. I search in vain for any recent instance of their diverging from the NATO playbook.
It is sadly true, all in all.
“If you ever want to make sure you’re on the correct side of history regarding foreign policy, just look at what the neocon think tanks and liberal interventionists are advocating, and then advocate the exact opposite.”
Best advice ever! Congratulations Caitlin Johnstone and thank you CN for helping spread the news…
Yes. The establishment is always wrong, is a good rule to follow. Authority always lies, because authority is a lie. Krishnamurti was right: “There is no authority.” Claims of authority are a hoax.
Do not believe anything until it has been officially denied.
“If you ever want to make sure you’re on the correct side of history regarding foreign policy, just look at what the neocon think tanks and liberal interventionists are advocating, and then advocate the exact opposite.”
Best advice ever! Congratulations Caitlin Johnstone and thank you CN for helping spread the news…
“If you ever want to make sure you’re on the correct side of history regarding foreign policy, just look at what the neocon think tanks and liberal interventionists are advocating, and then advocate the exact opposite.”
Best advice ever! Congratulations Caitlin Johnstone and thank you CN for helping spread the news…
After a bit of digging in the Wikileaks Cablegate and Hillary Clinton email archives, it really becomes clear what the agenda in Syria is. Two themes turn up. One, it was about forcing Assad into an economic partnership with the US Empire that would exclude Iran. Two, it was about serving Israeli ambitions for more land grabs along its northern border by isolating Hizbullah from Iran.
On the first issue, here are some supporting wikileaks Cablegate quotes about the US State Department’s efforts to cut ties between Iran and Syria, who had signed extensive deals on oil and gas, electricity, railroads and ports, etc. Note also, at that time France’s Sarkozy had negotiated a deal for France’s Total to develop the Deir Ezzor oilfields (c.2008). All this economic development outside of US influence seems to have upset Washington:
“The major challenge ahead is to prevent Syria from using closer relations with Turkey as a means of resisting U.S. influence and pursuing policies that would make comprehensive peace less likely. In the long run, Asad’s increasing trust of PM Erdogan offers the best hope of luring Syria out of Tehran’s orbit.” – 2009 Oct 28
“After more than 30 years of close relations between the two regimes, it remains unlikely in the near term Syria will forsake its relations with Iran. But as Damascus seeks additional strategic options through warming relations with neighbors like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon, U.S.-Syrian engagement may only add to Iranian concerns that additional options for Damascus may mean a lessening of the latter’s reliance on Tehran.” – 2010 Feb 3
On the second issue, we see the way in which Israeli agendas control the actions of US diplomats; the Clinton message to Assad is interesting (recall that Haim Saban, Israeli billionaire, was among Clinton’s top donors, just as Sheldon Adelson, Israeli billionaire, was among Trump’s top donors):
“Tensions with Syria burst into a war of words February 3-4. After weeks of top-level Israeli complaints behind closed doors that Syria is expanding its military cooperation with Hizballah, Defense Minister Barak was widely quoted February 1 as having told a group of senior IDF officers that “in the absence of an arrangement with Syria, we are liable to enter a belligerent clash with it that could reach the point of an all-out regional war.” – 2010 Feb 4
“Referring to Hizballah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah’s February 16 speech, [Syrian Vice FM] Miqdad emphasized that Hizballah was responding to Israeli threats and clearly conveyed Hizballah’s intent to respond only if Israel attacked first. Syria believed in and supported the role of UNIFIL, and was using its contacts with the Lebanese Government to “insist” on Lebanon’s full cooperation with UNIFIL. Miqdad insisted Israel, not Syria or Lebanon, was issuing provocative threats and using Hizballah as a pretext.” – 2010 Feb 25
“Iran and Hizballah both have interests that are not in Syria’s own strategic interest. I know you are a strategic thinker, which is why I want to underscore for you that, from our perspective, your operational support for Hizballah is a strategic miscalculation that is damaging your long-term national interests.” – Clinton message to Assad, 2010 Feb 25
After the deliberate destabilization campaign was initiated in Syria, (involving arms transfers to jihadist groups via the CIA in Libya, Qatar to Al Qaeda, and Saudi Arabia to ISIS), the Israelis were enthusiastic about the prospects for regional destabilization by 2012:
“One particular source states that the British and French Intelligence services believe that their Israeli counterparts are convinced that there is a positive side to the civil war in Syria; if the Assad regime topples, Iran would lose its only ally in the Middle East and would be isolated. At the same time, the fall of the House of Assad could well ignite a sectarian war between the Shiites and the majority Sunnis of the region drawing in Iran, which, in the view of Israeli commaders would not be a bad thing for Israel and its Western allies.” – 2012 Jul 24
Will we see this narrative discussed in American and British corporate media? Of course not. . . It demonstrates that the agenda was to disrupt economic cooperation between Syria, Lebanon and Iran, as well as to foment a war for Israel’s benefit, one that killed half a million people and sent millions of refugees into Europe, Turkey and Lebanon, with all the political destablization that entailed.
Thanks for sharing this.
We need to realize that Capitalism and War are not two different things. They are one and the same.
My only criticism for this article is about Johnstone’s phrase “neocons and liberal interventionists.” The word neocon was not created to describe people like Dick Cheyney. He is simply a conservative. The word neocon was created to describe democrats who opposed the antiwar movement during Vietnam who were also socially liberal, hence neocon. Liberal interventionists are neocons.
You’re right on the history, but at this point “neocon” merely labels the pro-war, pro-empire types who identify as Repub, while “liberal interventionist” covers the ones who get their bread buttered by the Dems.
It would probably be better to acknowledge their uniformity of opinion by dropping the pretense that the two terms describe distinct outlooks.
I think the distinction lies solely in different views on “identity politics”, and other marginal issues. They are both “all in” on the warmongering. The liberal interventionists like to pretend that we’re somehow protecting human rights by bombing and droning MIC targets. The neocons are perhaps a little more honest about our so-called “vital National Security interests”.
It is seriously saddening that it even needs to be pointed out that the west’s political media elite are sociopaths, who could not care less about the people of Syria, but are motivated solely by the interests of the neoliberal corporate elite. Their hypocrisy is so blatant, one would have thought even a child would notice.
http://viewsandstories.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/on-motes-and-beams.html
1) The Western media talks about the innocent, peaceful, pro-democracy activists in East Aleppo and East Ghouta murdered by the 3 evil regimes because they hate democracy. The Eastern media, which has reporters in Syria and not clips provided by al-Qaeda, reports of mortar and rocket attacks from East Ghouta and East Aleppo that have killed many civilians, including children, in Damascus and West Aleppo.
2) Bush, jr identified the perpetrators of 9/11: it was ordered by the Ayatollahs of Iran and carried out by their co-religionists in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, North Korea, and Cuba. Bush, jr’s narrative was completely accepted by both Obama and Trump. Also, according to Friedman of the New York Times, the US efforts in Iraq and Libya transformed two impoverished, brutal dictatorships and state sponsors of terror who were both developing nuclear arsenals and planning an attack on the US that would have made 9/11 seem like a fender-bender, into peaceful and prosperous democracies. Republicans accept Bush, jr’s version of 9/11, Democrats accept Obama’s acceptance of Bush, jr’s version, and both neocons and neo-liberals accept Friedman’s narrative, even though every word of both the Bush, jr and the Friedman narrative is false, including the articles and conjunctions.
Ms. Johnstone does have a way with words and an ability to get right to the heart of the matter. While all of this information and the points she made has been out there from the beginning of the “civil” war, she puts them together very well.
” This is exactly what it did in Syria, and now the U.S. has a permanent military presence there with the stated goal of effecting regime change.”
Says it all. It is a testament to just how corrupt, cynical and cruel those engineering this tragedy are .It is also testament of how collectively stupid and uncaring we are as a nation that we allow our information control to rest in such hands
The US controls 25% of Syria including much of the oil fields. Theyn now have two bases in Syria. Blatant agrrression is the new norm.
Blatant yes I hadn’t heard the figure of 25% before. My guess, the decision for the US to violate international law and occupy Syria territory was predicated on the realization that Syria may be successful, with the help of the Russians, to restore control of their country;the only outstanding exception the Golan Heights. Having failed thru proxies the decision was made to do regime change ourselves. The goal of destroying Syria as a nation didn’t change, only that we had to come from behind the curtain and do it ourselves. In effect, we pushed the panic button when Syria was about to give us a black eye and Russia was going to be reason. Are we doing this for America? I don’t think so.
I’m going to expand the part you quoted:
Corrupt, cynical, and cruel? Yes, it is all that. But as the author says, it’s also brilliant. In fact, I like that word so much that I’m going to also assign it to her for the brand new insight into the situation. Trucking in terrorists to any region where ‘we’ want to put some troops – or to do a “regime removal” – is a viewpoint I’d never previously considered.
Great overall essay with some especially good parts.
Empathy has been systematically deprogrammed from USAans moral makeup by media, video games, wars, sports and propaganda.
Very true, and an important point in itself. Often I see this in the conduct of young people among the upper middle class and upper class especially, and opportunists seeking money. The scoundrel seeks all means to discredit the moral citizen who embarrasses him, such as the attacks upon major charities for having a few bad staff members here and there. The US has shown that when mass media is controlled by oligarchy, morality is systematically opposed, impugned, and ridiculed, while killing, warmongering, militarized policing, and militarism for the oligarchy is worshipped. All targets deserve to be attacked, all those attacked were guilty, no one has rights, and no one accused is innocent. Just stay with gang and you will be safe.
And government has so descended into a gang operation, the Constitution abandoned by all branches of federal and state governments at all levels, both Reps and Dems, and the mass media. Moral concern exists only as an excuse for foreign policies designed solely to serve the immoral.
Moral education is the function of families, community, and literature, where religions have become irrelevant due to their insistence upon irrelevant traditions, their causing of irrational group conflicts, and their serving as a disguise for immoral opportunists of all kinds. But literature has abandoned moral education, and is now seldom read, while movies and other media are either too vague for moral education, or are controlled by the immoral oligarchy. Families and community are impaired in moral education without morality in literature, the public forum, and mass media.
Sam F and CN regulars. Sam F. I wanted to quietly step aside the general thread (or thinking) here to acknowledge your genuinely erudite commentary and obvious decency. I point it out here not to embarrass you but to add that it was this feature that attracted me originally to this site in the truly wonderful reporting of Robert Parry.
If we are to have hope of emerging as a unified country it will only be through knowledgeable and flexible conversation practiced through the dirge of disinformation that has long been the very feature of Consortiumnews. Keep up the very good work; serious people are “listening”…
Sam F and CN regulars. Sam F. I wanted to quietly step aside the general thread (or thinking) here to acknowledge your genuinely erudite commentary and obvious decency. I point it out here not to embarrass you but to add that it was this feature that attracted me originally to this site in the truly wonderful reporting of Robert Parry.
If we are to have hope of emerging as a unified country, it will only be through knowledgeable and flexible conversation practiced through the dirge of disinformation. I like to say that the truth jumps of the page, and I sincerely believe it does. Keep up the very good work; serious people are “listening”…
Thanks very much, Bob; we are indeed fortunate to have the conversation of CN, and I too was attracted by Robert Parry’s cautious balance and command of the facts. We are much indebted to Nat Parry and Chelsea Gilmour for their efforts to build CN and “keep up the very good work” for as you note, serious people are listening and learning.
I will be reviewing “Neck Deep” (on the disastrous GWB presidency) on which Nat Parry collaborated with Bob and Sam, as they did in launching CN. It would be good to hear from Nat on their contributions and experiences in creating the book.
“Many thanks to CN for continuing to reprint Caitlin’s articles”
Yeah. Great.
Wonder if Robert Parry knew Nat intended to turn consortiumnews into BreitbartLite once he was alone at the helm?
However, if he ever wanted to add an astrology column, now is the time.
BobS-
I’m sure I won’t be seeing you at the re-education camp, you’ve already learned to love Big Brother.
“Israel, much like London, is on the frontlines of our current cultural and political war”
– Breitbart Executive Chairman Steve Bannon, announcing the launch of Breitbart Jerusalem in November 2015
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/11/17/breitbart-news-continues-international-expansion-with-launch-of-breitbart-jerusalem/
The lastest fetish of Hasbara propaganda troll “BobS” is the “BreitbartLite” label.
In fact, the Breitbart site originated as a Hasbara propaganda site. Despite its “alt-right” associations, Breitbart continues to dispense pro-Israel narratives.
During a visit to Israel in mid-2007, the late Andrew Breitbart conceived of the idea of founding Breitbart News Network, with “the aim of starting a site that would be unapologetically pro-freedom and pro-Israel.”
Breitbart loudly declared that he was “were sick of the anti-Israel bias of the mainstream media”, despite the fact that the mainstream media bias is overwhelmingly pro-Israel.
Breitbart soon became notorious for publishing a number of falsehoods and conspiracy theories, as well as intentionally misleading stories.
The current editor-in-chief of Breitbart, Alexander Mason Marlow, has stated “that we’re consistently called anti-Semitic despite the fact that we are overwhelmingly staffed with Jews and are pro-Israel and pro-Jewish. That is fake news.”
Consortium News and other independent investigative journalism sites obviously are the antithesis of propaganda outlets like Breitbart.
But “BobS” and his Hasbara troll pals will keep at it.
Breitbart remains an enthusiastic Hasbara propaganda media outlet.
For example, Breitbart recently published a series of articles by American-born Israeli propagandist Caroline Glick
http://www.breitbart.com/author/cglick/
Glick is a Senior Fellow at the pro-Israel Center for Security Policy, a Washington, D.C. neocon think tank described by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2016 as a hate group and “conspiracy-oriented mouthpiece” for the anti-Muslim movement. She also is a lecturer in tactical warfare at the IDF’s Command and Staff College, and a columnist for the Jerusalem Post. In her book The Israeli Solution (2014), Glick claimed that Israel could annex the West Bank and still maintain a Jewish demographic majority.
Another Hasbara propagandist “contributor” at Breitbart is Israeli “media consultant” Deborah Danan, who moved from London to Israel in 2002.
Breitbart describes Danan, who moved from London to Israel in 2002, as a “freelance journalist” and mentions that she was editor of The Jerusalem Post’s Oped page
http://www.breitbart.com/author/deborah-danan/
However, Danan’s bio at the Jerusalem Post accurately identifies her as a “communications consultant who works with the government”, and the Algemeiner acknowledges that she serves as a “foreign media consultant to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” in Israel.
During the tenure of Breitbart executive chair Steve Bannon, Danan churned out pro-Israel propaganda at Breitbart starting in the November 2015.
On 17 August 2016, Bannon was appointed chief executive of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. On 13 November 2016, following Donald Trump’s election victory, Bannon was appointed chief strategist and senior counselor to the President-elect. Bannon’s appointment drew opposition from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Council on American–Islamic Relations, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Democrat Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, and some Republican strategists because of statements in Breitbart News that were alleged to be “racist” or “anti-Semitic”.
A number of prominent Jews defended Bannon against the allegations of “anti-Semitism”, including Ben Shapiro, David Horowitz, Pamela Geller, Bernard Marcus of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Morton Klein and the Zionist Organization of America, and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. The ADL admitted “We are not aware of any anti-Semitic statements from Bannon.” Shapiro, who previously worked as an editor-at-large at Breitbart, said he had no evidence of Bannon being “racist” or an “anti-Semite”, but that he was “happy to pander to those people and make common cause with them in order to transform conservatism into European far-right nationalist populism”.
Breitbart and numerous other media organizations continue to make “common cause” with Israel and serves as a enthusiastic outlets for Hasbara propaganda.
Another Hasbara propagandist “contributor” at Breitbart is Israeli “media consultant” Deborah Danan, who moved from London to Israel in 2002.
Breitbart describes Danan as a “freelance journalist” and mentions that she was editor of The Jerusalem Post’s Oped page
http://www.breitbart.com/author/deborah-danan/
However, Danan’s bio at the Jerusalem Post accurately identifies her as a “communications consultant who works with the government”, and the Algemeiner acknowledges that she serves as a “foreign media consultant to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” in Israel.
During the tenure of Breitbart executive chair Steve Bannon, Danan churned out pro-Israel propaganda at Breitbart starting in the November 2015.
On 17 August 2016, Bannon was appointed chief executive of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. On 13 November 2016, following Donald Trump’s election victory, Bannon was appointed chief strategist and senior counselor to the President-elect. Bannon’s appointment drew opposition from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Council on American–Islamic Relations, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Democrat Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, and some Republican strategists because of statements in Breitbart News that were alleged to be “racist” or “anti-Semitic”.
A number of prominent Jews defended Bannon against the allegations of “anti-Semitism”, including Ben Shapiro, David Horowitz, Pamela Geller, Bernard Marcus of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Morton Klein and the Zionist Organization of America, and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. The ADL admitted “We are not aware of any anti-Semitic statements from Bannon.” Shapiro, who previously worked as an editor-at-large at Breitbart, said he had no evidence of Bannon being “racist” or an “anti-Semite”, but that he was “happy to pander to those people and make common cause with them in order to transform conservatism into European far-right nationalist populism”.
Breitbart and numerous other media organizations continue to make “common cause” with Israel and zealously serve as outlets for Hasbara propaganda.
“Israel, much like London, is on the frontlines of our current cultural and political war”
– Breitbart Executive Chairman Steve Bannon, announcing the launch of Breitbart Jerusalem in November 2015
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/11/17/breitbart-news-continues-international-expansion-with-launch-of-breitbart-jerusalem/
Abe, As you know, the Zionists intentionally hide under other labels. It’s hiding in public, or in plain view. Thanks for you many informative posts.
Abe, As you know, the Zionists intentionally hide under other labels. It’s hiding in public, or in plain view. Ergo BobS, whom you exposed, as have others at CN.
Thanks for you many informative posts.
“Virginia” is an Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti-Israel” / “anti-Zionist” and fake “anti-Jewish” / “anti-Semitic”) propaganda troll.
The troll “Virginia” jumped on the comment by Sam F above, and made a similar attempt here.
Hasbara propaganda indeed does hide under other labels, including “anti-Semitism”.
Given the frankly racist nature of Israeli Apartheid, pro-Israel propagandists have no misgivings about masquerading as “anti-Jewish” racists.
Sorry, Abe, if I’m misinformed, but I doubt anyone here thinks I’m a troll.
Also, whenever one posts twice here, it’s usually because of moderation, as was in my case. Good day.
A “misinformed” person will disavow the posts and request that the CN editor remove the “rather long” quotes from that notorious “anti-Semitic” forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Then everyone here will see you’re not a troll. Better get right on it.
But, Abe, I’m not certain I’m misinformed. I actually said “If” I’m misinformed …! That’s different. But no need for us to go at each other in anger, is there? We don’t have censorship here, do we? at least not yet. I obviously touched a chord! That was not my intent, but this was:
I believe the readers here at CN are already well informed; they have certainly pointed me in right directions many a time; and if I can offer something I think is important, I wish to be free to do it. We’re thinkers. We can decide for ourselves what to believe and what not to. The case you make for the Protocols being a forgery, well that hasn’t been proven. There was a trial or two, but it was not proven a forgery. I see a parallel with the way things are playing out in the world with the Protocols suggestions. Maybe I’m the only one. We won’t know till others read them and comment, will we? But I’d like to hear what others think — those who may be able to read them objectively.
We’re not racists here. We’re not any of the evil names you called me (and frankly, I don’t even know what they mean). But it is sometimes difficult to tell if one is truly offended by a comment or an article, or if one is acting out to cover up something, to hide in plain view! (Which, by the way, is a tactic of the Protocols!)
I think that you both have very good intentions, in a somewhat confusing context. Both of you make excellent points in your comments. Familiarity brings understanding of anomalies and differences, and with that, congeniality.
Sam F, there is absolutely nothing “confusing about the context” here.
Every Hasbara troll likes “to hear what others think”, tries to keep the propaganda garbage in play as long as possible, and shrieks about “censorship”.
“Virginia” is just the latest masquerade.
There is nothing “confusing” about the context here.
Funny how every Hasbara troll likes “to hear what others think”, tries to keep the propaganda garbage in play as long as possible, and shrieks about “censorship”.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a fabricated document purporting to be factual.
The notion of a Protocols-esque international Jewish conspiracy for world domination was minted in the 1860s. Jacob Brafman, a Russian Jew from Minsk, had a falling out with the local kahal agents and consequently turned against Judaism. He subsequently converted to the Russian Orthodox Church and authored polemics against the Talmud and the kahal. Brafman claimed in his books The Local and Universal Jewish Brotherhoods (1868) and The Book of the Kahal (1869), published in Vilna, that the kahal continued to exist in secret and that it had as its principal aim undermining Christian entrepreneurs, taking over their property and ultimately seizing power. He also claimed that it was an international conspiratorial network, under the central control of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, which was based in Paris and then under the leadership of Adolphe Crémieux, a prominent freemason.
Brafman’s work was translated into English, French, German and other languages. The image of the “kahal” as a secret international Jewish shadow government working as a state within a state was picked up by anti-Jewish publications in Russia and was taken seriously by some Russian officials such as P. A. Cherevin and Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev who in the 1880s urged governor-generals of provinces to seek out the supposed kahal. This was around the time of the Narodnaya Volya attempted assassination on Alexander II of Russia and the subsequent anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire.
In France, Brafman’s work was translated by Monsignor Ernest Jouin in 1925, a proponent of Catholic intégrisme, who was also a supporter of the Protocols. In 1928, Siegfried Passarge a geographer active in the Third Reich, translated it into German.
Aside from Brafman, there were other early writings which posited a similar concept to the Protocols. This includes The Conquest of the World by the Jews (1878), published in Basel and authored by Osman Bey (born Frederick Millingen). The author, Millingen, was a British subject of Dutch-Jewish extraction (the grandson of James Millingen), but served as an officer in the Ottoman Army where he was born. He traveled around much, spending time as a Muslim before ending up a Russian Orthodox Christian. He was last seen alive in Paris in 1901. Bey’s work was followed up by Hippolytus Lutostansky’s The Talmud and the Jews (1879) which claimed that Jews wanted to divide Russia among themselves.[5] Incidentally, in a 1904 edition of The Talmud and the Jews, Hippolytus directly quoted verbatim the first, little-known 1903 edition of the Protocols.
Source material for the Protocols forgery consisted jointly of Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu (Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu), an 1864 political satire by Maurice Joly; and a chapter from Biarritz, an 1868 novel by the antisemitic German novelist Hermann Goedsche, which had been translated into Russian in 1872.
A major source for the Protocols was Der Judenstaat by Theodor Herzl, which was referred to as Zionist Protocols in its initial French and Russian editions. Paradoxically, early Russian editions of the Protocols assert that they did not come from a Zionist organization. The Protocols text, which nowhere advocates for Zionism, resembles a parody of Herzl’s ideas.
And I always thought you knew so much, Abe!
I’m holding my position and suggesting that readers here do their own research for a more accurate history of the Protocols than the one you just gave. A history that makes sense. The dots line up and connect, and I for one would not want to keep anyone from reading them. I encourage it.
It’s a great risk to neglect opportunities to inform each other of evils we see. If seen, there’s a greater possibility that we can thwart evil’s plans. And such warnings cannot be taken personally. They have nothing to do with race but with an evil element of thinking that may or may not be associated with a particular group who happen to have a sphere of influence. The warnings are for the good of all humankind.
Hasbara propaganda aims to discredit fact-based independent investigative journalism and critical commentary that addresses Israeli government policy, the pro-Israel Lobby, and Israeli influence on American electoral politics, and Israeli interference in US foreign policy.
The Israeli-Saudi-US Axis is busy promoting its next Middle East war.
Both Conventional Hasbara (overtly pro-Israel / pro-Zionist) propaganda and Inverted Hasbara (false flag “anti Zionist” / “anti-Israel” and fake “anti-Jewish” / “anti-Semitic) propaganda have shifted into overdrive.
Hasbara propaganda trolls frequently post claims unsupported by facts.
Our latest example: Inverted Hasbara troll “Virginia” claiming that “dots line up and connect” in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
The defensive tone of the rticle speaks volumes. We all know that the real reason why the author wants the US out of Syria. Hundreds of similar articles have appeared on the US internet. Putin has to be allowed to win in Syria so that he can win in Ukraine and since he can’t win, the US must be manipulated into capitulating to him. Thus, the point is not “doing something about Syria” but doing something about Putin.
Many thanks to CN for continuing to reprint Caitlin’s articles. I can only hope that websites like this won’t fall victim to the efforts to censor them. What PCR calls the presstitute media has already banned truth-tellers like Seymour Hersh, Christopher Hedges, Glenn Greenwald, and many others. Already sites like CN have been negatively impacted by Google, Facebook, and Twitter employing algorithms. Big Brother is here, and he is out to get us. See you all at the re-education camp.
Skip–I look at CN several times a day and yet it never shows up in my search history!
Wow! I didn’t know they’d gone that far. What browser are you using?
Chrome Google.
You mean, the Death Camp?
https://off-guardian.org/category/guardian-watch/
“The Guardian today is running an opinion piece written by Raed Al Saleh the “head of the White Helmets” in which he pleads for intervention in eastern Ghouta. The same newspaper that denied a platform to Vanessa Beeley nd Eva Bartlett to respond to the attacks made on them by Olivia Solon, has now given carte blanche to the spokesman for an organisation which, at very best, has terrorists and terrorists sympathisers in its ranks, and at worst is a front and shield for al Nusra and ISIS in Syria. To the surprise of very few the article is not open for comments. So, if you would like to tell the Guardian what you think of the article or of their decision to give this man a platform, feel free to comment here on: My staff are trying to save lives in the rubble of Ghouta. Who will help us?”
The faux Left Guardian has never been anything more than a piece of Zionist toilet paper. It was shilling for Israel even before Israel existed.
The hypocrisy of The Guardian is standard practice. Here’s the latest:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/25/syrias-return-to-bombing-as-usual-is-down-to-russia
Even for articles which allow comment, censorship is the norm if you don’t agree and express a critical opinion.
Thanks again consortium.
It’s happening at CN, too, mijkmild.
That remark by “Virginia” is false and a slur.
The repeat violators of CN comment policy and trolls who have their comments removed loudly complain that they’re “censored”.
Everyone at CN is free to exchange information, ideas, and views.
But efforts to hijack the conversation with allegations unsupported by facts and other violations can be brought to the attention of the site moderator at [email protected].
Caitlin’s article should be forwarded to Angelina Jolie. Maybe she will take it to heart and stop supporting these criminals “White Helmets”. Unfortunately people in America listen to celebrities long before honest journalists and people such as yourself.
Jonathan Cook is on the same page as you Anna.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/28/the-authoritarians-who-silence-syria-questions/
As is Finian Cunningham.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/02/24/western-lies-about-lies-over-syria-east-ghouta.html
Anna,
It seems like that East Ghouta controlled by West-supported Terrorists groups as it is , their actions and attacks on Damascus were preplanned. London, U.K. is the center of these kind of new colonial adventures/war schemes, with Paris, France as the secondary outpost – orchestrated by U.S. the distant outpost. Dutch, Germans, Swedes, and other Vassal States are from the behind accomplices and supporters of these regime change projects. British Rulers, the longtime biggest Imperial Power has lot of experience in it; in fomenting sectarian Wars, and controlling over those countries and their populations. One can put Israel at the top of it all – this whole pyramid.
Saudi Arabia, the West’s vassal state; that evil monarchy which has spread its Wahhibism all over the world, needs to be reformed, and democratized into an independent sovereign state. And same has to be done in all those other gulf monarchies – all vasal states of The West. Lebanon, Syria – whatever is left of it – are the only secular states left in the ME following independent foreign policy.
There was this Frontline two piece presentation on PBS, one last night and the other last week about Saudis, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Yemen conflict. As usual, these are largely propaganda pieces. Looking at those pictures of cities in Iraq and Syria – Ramadi, Mosul, Aleppo, Raqqa, and many others – these countries have been utterly destroyed. In all likelihood, they, The West, are planning more Wars in Syria, Iran, and possibly in Lebanon and Iraq too, in the very near future And there is the other very brutal war, and this destruction being inflicted by the Saudis in Yemen – the whole of their infrastructure has been destroyed by Saudi bombing. The population there is on the verge of starvation.
I do not know how People in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen are going to rebuild their homes, businesses, and infrastructure. If these new wars are started, there are going to be millions of more refugees. The only solution is to open the gates and let the flood of these refugees be allowed into Western Europe. Their homes destroyed, these victims of wars started and funded by “The West” and their vassal states, have no place to go. To keep them in refugee camps, where many of them have been for six or seven years now is unjust.
This is the only way “The West” will come to its senses – if they ever will.
Remember the seven nations on the USA hit list as revealed by Gen. Wesley Clarke in 2003 are Iraq, Libya, Iran,Somalia, Lebanon,Syria and Sudan. Only Iran and Lebanon have not been extensively destroyed since 2003.
BannanaBoat — People should keep Gen. Clarke’s comments on the USA hit list before their thoughts continually. But the Biggies (the Big Bankers, The Elites, The Deep State) by whatever name, support both sides in wars. They want the fighters to kill each other, wear themselves out, and dismantle countries so the 1% can move in, take possession of and exploit the resources. Then move new and old mercenary forces onto the next venue to start all over again. Really, there’s no longer any secret here. Open your eyes, Americans; peoples of the world! And ask yourself, Americans, “Who benefits?” Not you! Not the middle class! Not ordinary you!
Try this: Tell someone — better yet, show someone the video of General Clarke telling of his discovery of the hit list and what it said. See if you have this experience: initially that person looks startled; can hardly comprehend it; then glazes over pretty quickly. The next time you see that person, see how much recollection he has of that and if it has bothered him one bit. Usually people have a hard time remembering it, in my experience; and they haven’t given it any further thought. That’s “denial.”
The commentators here are holding watch over the world. We care. We seek ways to turn the hit list topsy turvy and upset the established plan led by those who benefit. (Said with “political correctness” in mind.)
“These hand-wringing “won’t someone think of the children” intervention advocates are calling for even more killing and destruction by the very empire which ignited and perpetuated the killing and destruction in the first place.”
Mothereffin bingo, Caitlin.
Only one country (according to International law) is in Syria Legally and that is Russia. NOT Israel, USA, Turkey.
Well, Iran too.
I fully support ‘doing something’ about Syria – specifically removing the North American Terrorist Organisation and its allies, eradicating all the wahhabists, showing the Kurds once and for all the the US / Israel cannot be trusted, and restoring Syrian territorial integrity.
Your definition of NATO would be a fine slip of the tongue for a diplomat – to be hastily corrected.
Gen. Jack D. Ripper-
“… I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
“Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk… ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children’s ice cream…..”
All the bottled water Nestle and other companies are putting out. My buddy told me he only buys bottled water and I told him ‘you know they’re putting that shit in there as well don’t you?’.
Do Something = Take over another country
If only there were an international court who had enough enforceable teeth to bring this injustice worldwide to an end. The world is so helpless to stop the ever invading U.S. Coalitions of war, that other nations stand by as American leaders lie away their reasons to invade targeted countries for what is always called ‘regime change’. Does every American believe in this style of hegemonic control? Of course not, but who at the top listens to America’s citizens? So here we answer a question with a question, but god save us that we do it for the children. It’s always about the children when the ‘Powers That Be’ go to work for their donor’s, who launder their huge casino profits for death, and destruction.
The real tragedy is that the world had every reason to hope for an era of peace and prosperity and global cooperation after the Cold War ended. American politicians like Bushdaddy were even preaching the “peace dividend” we could all expect, since there was no longer any reason for shooting wars, proxy wars, hybrid wars, etc. Just think, no one had to die and we’d even get some cash back. What a deal!
In reality, what the world got was Frankenstein unchained when the Washington deep state was no longer constrained in its actions by any counterbalancing world power. It had absolute military hegemony and, by jingo, it was going to use it wherever and whenever it pleased. Since there was no other credible force left standing to threaten it, it would have to orchestrate false flags and create, through recruitment, training and funding, the very opponents it would feign to fight in an expansive “war on terror.” As many have noted, that ruse has pretty much been mined out.
And so, attention has turned to painting Russia, China, Iran and North Korea as rogue states, threatening the American way of life, purportedly hating us and foolishly trying to vanquish us even as they try like the dickens to sell us their wares and integrate into our economic system. Clearly the whole rationale for this clash of civilisations painted by the MSM propagandists is a load of rubbish. None of those countries are suicidal and benefit not a whit from either a new cold war and especially not from a kinetic one. All the provocations, wherever you look–whether in Georgia, Ukraine, the Baltics, the Balkans, the Korean Peninsula, the South China Sea, the Persian Gulf–have been hatched and carried out under the direction of Washington, Arlington, and/or Langley, while all the string-pullers and their hangers-on get rich from the collateral contracts.
The scary part, is that this phase of the operation must have an end point too, just like the played-out legend of the ubiquitous Islamic terrorist. They are getting close to the point where, to maintain their credibility in this elaborate long con, they will have to pull the trigger and initiate a shooting war with these straw men they have created. It won’t be a conventional war because none of the sides actually has the capability of invading and occupying their adversaries home turf. It won’t even be a redux of Gulf War I, the war of ten thousand sorties, smart bombs and cruise missiles, delivered from the American blue water fleet, because of the new generation of ship-killer missiles the opposition has developed.
No, it will start out as a contest of strategic missile shots, with conventional warheads at first, but once America experiences actual war damage on its home soil for the first time since the 1860’s, it will over react and the nukes will fly whilst the cheers roar and flags wave in patriotic fervor. The few survivors without a power grid and no hope to rebuild one for generations will steadily freeze, starve and puke to death from radiation sickness in the darkness of a nuclear winter. As in the novel, Frankenstein will have become the victim of his own creation. The will to amass god-like power never leads to a happy ending. Even the ancients knew that. Do you see any American politicians who might? I don’t recognise any. Not even any phonies like Obama or Trump. America’s already high baseline of fear and loathing is being systematically stoked for war fever. Catch it!
Well said.
Realist terrifically put, well said. I might add, why is it when you compose just the right comment, with just the right words placed in all the right places, and then your comment goes into moderation?
You brought up the end of the Cold War, read this excerpt from Larry King’s 1992 interview of Richard M Nixon.
“NIXON: The responsibility is greater. It is greater because before, when we had the rivalry of the Soviet Union, it meant that we could mobilize the West against what they were doing; and people could get charged up to do what we needed to do to keep ourselves strong economically, politically, and of course, militarily.
Now, with the enemy gone — although we cannot assume that five centuries of Russian expansionism is forever gone, simply because we’ve had, for almost a year, a Democratic government in power. But with that danger gone, it is much more difficult to mobilize the people of this country in support of an effective foreign policy, but we need an effective foreign policy now, because we are the only super power — because there are other dangers in the world. Let’s look at the world. Since the end of World War II, there have been 140 wars, and in those wars, eight million more people were killed than were killed in World War I. Now, that’s going to continue. Nuclear weapons…
KING: Wars are going to continue?
NIXON: That’s right. Wars are going to continue in the future. Iran/Iraq — the Iraqi war that we’ve been through just recently. All over the world today, there are places that could explode. The Mideast is explosive.”
Here’s the whole thing.
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0102/04/lklw.00.html
I find Nixon’s Comment; “because we are the only super power — because there are other dangers in the world.“ confirmation to what so many on this comment board have written about so much, and so often, very telling to how we all read America’s foreign policy. So there you have it, America is a war machine. I use to think that America stood for baseball, muscle cars, and Elvis Presley, but now I know, ‘America stands for war’. Sad when I see so much good around me, and even sadder that our kindest goes to waste while our bombs speak a message all of their own.
We are a nation plagued with violence. We can’t understand why our youth shoot up our schools killing fellow students, but while making no excuses for the killer, I dig deep to figure out this culture of ours. It seems that everyone is at each other’s throats, and I once again will ask you why? Is it because we have loss the ability to negotiate, have we no patience to compromise any longer? Maybe it’s our news media always stirring the pot of discontent, as controversy sells better than peaceful coexistence? You tell me, because I’m like an old blues singer who’s been up the hill and back again only to go up the hill one more time to find my broken heart shattered by the one I love.
Lately my patriotism has been questioned. Well I’ll just say this, don’t get patriotism mixed up with being stupid. Joe
Great contribution, Joe. Nixon was never stupid, just ruthless in pursuit of his vision for America. And, you are right on point in saying, in different words, “don’t think that patriotism requires lockstep stupidity,” because Nixon’s words were in essence saying that the great power of this country was heretofore co-opted by con artists who could scare you with Bogeyman Russia, but that convenience was now lost since the Cold War was ended. It would henceforth take greater theatrics to mobilise the will of the American public to go to war, or to support wars not in their own interests.
As I’ve said before, Joe, you are a regular history machine, coming up with the precise example that most people would never remember, or had never heard about to begin with, to make a fine point. Yup, Nixon was saying that American politics are fortuitously structured to allow the very wealthy to control all the levers of power with an ease that would never be achievable if the country were a monarchy or a dictatorship. All that’s needed is to fool the people, preferably to scare them, and without a monster under the bed like the Soviet Union that had just become a little harder.
Well, that was worth waiting for. Too bad we can’t simply say our piece without getting permission. Fingers crossed as I hit “post comment”…
You said it best Realist when you said this, “The real tragedy is that the world had every reason to hope for an era of peace and prosperity and global cooperation after the Cold War ended.’
You had it right that every reason for hope for a peaceful existence was there, and yet we Americans blew it. But we should endeavor into the why for why we Americans blew it. Like allowing the Project for the New American Century to literally take over our country’s foreign policy. Another example of America’s false hubris was found in the way the Clinton Administration ignored the promise made to Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not place one more missile to within even one more inch closer to Russia’s borders, and then we Americans sign on 27 more Eastern Block countries into our NATO madness, and there in we find those missiles we promised never to advance their deathly position to that even one more inch closer. Then the same President reigned over a suffering Russian economy with savage Wall St Shock Doctrine policies which left the Russian people with little else, but to watch their nation’s assets dwindle down to nothing.This could have all been different had not the U$A sent in it’s Economic Hitmen to only rape the Russian financial landscape of it’s country’s precious assets, and the Russian people be damned.
It is said of how no one likes a poor loser, but in the case of America’s actions in review of the Soviet Unions demise no one can believe the audacity of a nation who’s extreme exceptionalism has convinced itself that they can do no wrong, and with that I ask you what is so right about that?
Always fun to correspond with you Realist, have a great day and a wonderful evening. Joe
It’s too bad Larry King couldn’t have asked the questions that Nixon’s statements begged for. What are our responsibilities? What particular dangers need to be addressed–and how? Are you implying that “an effective foreign policy” is one which addresses the world’s “dangers”, or do you have something else in mind? Don’t you think the American people would support an “effective foreign policy” were our leadership to clearly explain the “dangers” and set forth the means needed to ameliorate or eliminate those dangers? Do we need an “enemy” to appeal to a sense of responsibility? Is there something we can do to make the Mideast less “explosive”? Is continued warfare really a foregone conclusion–or do you see a way forward in which at least the pace and scale of war will recede?
I guess we’ll never know, will we?
Realist I answered you, and guess what… if you guessed my comment went into moderation, well you get to pick from all of the stuffed animals on the middle shelve. Joe
Since I’m obviously a pinko commie, I’ll take the “fancy bear,” which seems to be quite the conversation piece among true patriots these days.
Realist – An excellent summation of post Soviet Era. If you back at it, the Soviet Union’s military power, in a way, saved the Third World countries from the fate they are in now. Today, It is almost like the days when the Mongol hordes with their horses and weapons, with utter brutality were running roughshod over Russia, and other countries in that part of the World – there was no protection against their brute Force.
I agree. The Soviet Union actually provided a sort of check on U.S. imperialism. And the countries they “meddled” in (Afghanistan, Yugoslavia for instance) had a much better and more stable way of life than they do now.
Not that I was a fan of the Cold War but the “peace dividend” certainly ended up being a big difference.
Not difference–disappointment.
Auto-fill strikes again!
A correction. “. . . If you look back at it, . . .”
I concur. A snake eating it’s own tail is a metaphor I like to use. That and insanity. When are these humans going to evolve, or grow up even, from their primitive mind sets of ‘power, rule, and sovereignty’? They act animalistic, what we call psychopathic clinically. In my mind these Imperialists, are the primitive ones.
Oh, jeez, the moderators don’t want you to hear my reply yet again, Joe. Look for it later, it only recounts a few inconvenient truths of how we were led to expect one outcome and have been subjected to a quite different history since the end of the cold war and our expected “peace dividend.”
I seriously think there is hacking and interference on these forums, and it’s not by the Russians. Anything I try to post on ICH is now pre-emptively deleted by the “administrators.” No one even gets to evaluate my attempt at a rational analysis of reality. Truth is considered too dangerous a weapon to handle, I surmise.
I’m sorry to hear about your troubles with the “administrators”. I always value your insightful comments. I’ve had comments held up, but the only time they were deleted were when they were part of a string that the moderators objected to. I wasn’t the target. Anyway, keep trying. Maybe try contacting them via email, and ask wassup?
The “trouble” is that your statements ARE analytical, rational, focused, and concise…there’s power and beauty in striking quickly to the heart of truth–particularly when exposing “hidden” malevolents that pose as beneficients. It’s an artistic talent to make an appeal to sensibilities and imagination. I dare say you have that talent–and are evidently are on the right track if censors are out to suppress you.
Realist — Copy your comments and post them again (if moderation occurs). We don’t want to miss out of them. We’re all having moderating problems!
Thanks, folks. Let me just say that I believe that Nat Parry is 100% on our side, as is Tom Feeley over at ICH, and that any “glitch” in the system is not their fault. However, any digital communication can be hacked (and not just by Russians–heaven knows we have enough homegrown neocons and wing nuts to meet the need for intrigue). Any screening device can be corrupted or have hidden bugs in its code. How many times have any one of us found a critical email hiding in the spam folder? I will never stop trying to post here, though I sometimes feel remiss at the paucity of my contributions relative to some of yours. If only we could get noticed by a wider audience. I used to be among the daily top ten contributors on the NYT forum (under a different name), but that was before the establishment decided it wanted a new Cold War, along with all the propagandist accoutrements that the mass media could bring to the game. Back then NYT readers loved what I had to say. Being mostly loyal Democratic sheeple, today they’d hate it. Just a matter of time till they all go down with their Schiff.
I responded to you about a few things and agreed with you, but nothing I said gets through the censorship here.
Moderation is fine, but complete censorship whenever the word (starts with a capital Z) …. is mentioned it goes to to the waste basket. Such a shame while this is a website with great authors, but comments are only restricted to a small group of people who know each other and who manage to say nothing too critical.
Consortium News welcomes substantive comments about articles. There is no “censorship” here at CN.
However, in accordance with the comment rules, commenters should avoid allegations that are unsupported by facts, racial or religious slurs (including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia), and abusive language.
If CN notices violations of the comment policy, they will take down such comments. If CN readers spot such violations, they can be brought to the attention of the site moderator at [email protected].
It’s funny how comment violators loudly complain about “censorship”.
In addition, CN has installed a SPAM filter that uses algorithms to detect SPAM. The filter does a good job at this, but sometimes catches legitimate comments by accident.
During the day, CN tries to recover these comments, but please do not be upset if one of your comments suffers this fate.
I have that happen a lot, but usually on other websites that use Disqus as their social commenting platform. I can relate Realist.
Distressing news from ICH. I just revisited the site and numerous people are reporting that their postings are being summarily deleted. My originally blocked posts are now up (under a different name), but anything new is still being blocked. Speculation by the readers is that someone is hacking the site. Some think that the social media portals they use (like Yahoo, Disqus, etc) are deliberately deleting their attempts to post. If it can happen at ICH, it could happen here. Hope not. Would be sad to have to forego all input, like at Counterpunch. Those who would steal our liberties are quite persistent. (I would bet the family farm, if I had one, that it’s NOT the Russians doing this hacking.)
Yes, I thought that Caitlin’s line “these hand-wringing ‘won’t someone think of the children’ intervention advocates” was especially evocative of the deep hypocrisy of this pseudo-humanitarian warmongering.
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
Thanks, Caitlin.
There are no good intentions on the part of the US government anymore, it worships power pure and simple – and that is way of evil. Might makes right, and anything goes are the mantras of our rulers. Twisting truth and goodness into tools for evil power over others is their MO. They are turning our world into an unspeakable dystopia. They define accepting their lies as sanity, and truth as “conspiracy theories.” Their propaganda is crazy-making and gaslighting. Ordinary people are caving in to their relentless lying propaganda.
You are absolutely correct, Mike. The blame rests on the propagandists, as well as on the parts of the public who swallow it whole, never considering the damaging “stuff” it represents, and give silent consent to the warmongers.
Yes indeed. . . In the Middle East, the road to hell is paved with the bones of the innocent victims of neoimperial strategies coordinated by Israel, the Unites States, and their GCC allies – strategies that must be presented to the American public as ‘humanitarian pro-democracy interventions’, aka ‘our good intentions and our values’. As Orwellian as it gets.
Yes. The first thing people must realize about the U.S. government is that it NEVER has good intentions. Not in Syria, not in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Venezuela, etc. etc. If anything positive should ever result from U.S. meddling, it is pure coincidence.
It’s a hard thing for naive, uninformed Americans to accept.
Right on, Nancy! And double right on to Caitlin who has put it succinctly and strongly, and, as usual, has wonderful informative, “on the nose” links to back up what she says.
Even food aid was sometimes used to destroy local farmers.
BannanaBoat — I couldn’t reply to you above where you pointed out the date issue, which sent me back to the site. My quotation marks didn’t correctly represent the statement. The letter with its six points was published by Julio-Inigrez de Medrano in his “La Silva Curiosa” in 1608. In that work Medrano quoted the letter written (and signed) by Prince of the Jews of Constantinople in 1492. You can find this at https://biblebelievers.org.au/proof.htm#01. And the quoted citation about 1/5 the way down the page. Thanks for pointing that out.
Excellently said Nancy. The people are starting to awaken, but just so. By the time reality actually sets in, it will be their doors being kicked in at 3 am.
The truth that Caitlin spells out about Syria is so simple, compared to all the convoluted lies we are told by our MSM, CIA, and Government. It gives you a fresh appreciation for how Occam’s Razor cuts away all the BS, and allows you to see clearly the murdering monsters of evil who are our rulers, hiding in their expensive suits, pretending to be so virtuous.