Proponents of the Russia-gate conspiracy got what they wished for when Donald Trump risked war with Russia with his Syria strike, comments Norman Solomon.
By Norman Solomon
Politicians, pundits and activists who’ve routinely denounced President Donald Trump as a tool of Vladimir Putin can now mull over a major indicator of their cumulative impact: The U.S.-led missile attack on Syria before dawn Saturday is the latest benchmark for gauging the effects of continually baiting Trump as a puppet of Russia’s president.
Heavyweights of U.S. media — whether outlets such as CNN and MSNBC or key newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post — spent most of last week clamoring for Trump to order air strikes on Syria. Powerful news organizations have led the way in goading Trump to prove that he’s not a Putin lackey after all.
One of the clearest ways that Trump can offer such proof is to recklessly show he’s willing to risk a catastrophic military confrontation with Russia.
In recent months, the profusion of “war hawks, spies and liars” on national television has been part of a media atmosphere that barely acknowledges what’s at stake with games of chicken between the world’s two nuclear superpowers. Meanwhile, the dominant U.S. news media imbue their reporting with a nationalistic sense of impunity.
Putin and Trump in Hamburg, July 7, 2017. (Screen shot from Whitehouse.gov)
On Saturday morning, the top headline on the Times website was “U.S. Attacks Syria in Retaliatory Strike,” while the subhead declared that “Western resolve” was at work. The story led off by reporting that Trump “sought to punish President Bashar al-Assad for a suspected chemical attack near Damascus on [April 7] that killed more than 40 people.”
Try putting the shoe on the other foot for a moment. Imagine that Russia, with a similar rationale, fired missiles at U.S. ally Saudi Arabia because the Kremlin “sought to punish King Salman for his country’s war crimes in Yemen” — with such reportage appearing under a headline that described the Russian attack as a “retaliatory strike.”
The latest U.S. air attack on Russia’s close ally Syria was as much politically aimed at Moscow as at Damascus. And afterwards, the televised adrenalin-pumped glee was as much an expression of pleasure about striking a blow at Putin as at Assad. After all, ever since Trump took office, the U.S. media and political elites have been exerting enormous pressures on him to polarize with Russia.
But let’s be clear: The pressures have not only been generated by corporate media and the political establishment. Across the United States, a wide range of people including self-described liberals and progressives — as individuals and organizations — have enthusiastically participated in the baiting, cajoling and denouncing of Trump as a Putin tool. That participation has stoked bellicose rhetoric by congressional Democrats, fueling the overall pressure on Trump to escalate tensions with Russia.
What’s really at issue here is not the merits of the Russian government in 2018, any more than the issue was the merits of the Soviet government in 1967 — when President Lyndon Johnson hosted an extensive summit meeting in Glassboro, New Jersey, with Soviet Premier Alexi Kosygin, reducing the chances of nuclear war in the process.
Summit at Glassboro (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
If you keep heading toward a destination, you’re likely to get there. In 2018, by any realistic measure, the escalating conflicts between the United States and Russia — now ominously reaching new heights in Syria — are moving us closer to World War III. It’s time to fully recognize the real dangers and turn around.
This commentary originally appeared on Truthdig.com.
Norman Solomon is the coordinator of the online activist group RootsAction.org and the executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of a dozen books including “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.”
Donald J. Trump and his dealings with Russia and Putin are STRICTLY crafted to add value to his own BRAND.
What a shame you, Norman Solomon, won’t recognize this.
You, Norman Solomon were among my Champions whenever I heard Lilia Garret speak to you on KPFK radio, during the GW Bush years of the Cheney/Rumsfeld, Bush USA takeover of Iraq’s OIL FIELDS after years of PURPOSED Use of Saddam in our Targeted PROXY war against Iran in the 1980’s Reagan years where/when we FAVORED Saddam and Prompted him into a shooting war against a REUNITED Iran and US inspired (Greedy) Western AGGRESSIVE Mass-Murder of innocent civilians , men-women & children decimated / lives destroyed / caught up in the Hostile Takeover of their sovereign social order by means of MILITARY FORCE.
We do this MASS MURDER under the Banner of / under the Cover of === “Protecting Our Freedoms” === !
and you sleep-walking Americans worship the fallacy of ‘ exceptionalism ‘ while our “enemies” in oceans-wide worlds of existence RETREAT (cower) IN GRAVE FEAR OF OUR MILITARY AGGRESSION AGAINST their humble ways of life.
You exceptionalist Americans!
You Grand Imperialists!
The Whole World Is Yours,
you “chosen people”
–You Americans… .
This is an excellent article on how Putin directed the Syrian attack and how he has derailed the USs goals in Syria.
Putin was able to make sure that the strikes didn’t do too much damage to Syria, but he also derailed the regime change plan that Trump was cooking up. If Trump had his way we’d be in an all out war with Russia right now.
Now imagine if Hillary was president instead of Trump. The Syrian no fly zone would have been established already and it’s possible that we’d be getting bombed here at home because of her warmongering ways.
https://ejmagnier.com/2018/04/15/the-us-secret-plan-on-damascus-foiled-the-russian-role-before-and-after-the-us-uk-france-attack-revealed/
Here’s a question to ponder. The Barzeh facility that was the primary target of the attack on Syria was ostensibly a chemical weapons facility. So what kind of fool would bomb a chemical weapons facility knowing that bombing such a facility would release the chemical agents stored within it?
Trying to destroy chemical weapons with bombs is the equivalent of trying to put out oil fires with water.
Or perhaps the Pentagon knew all along it wasn’t a chemical weapons facility so they just went along with it for the fun and profit. (More war, more money.)
The tales that get told. The President of Syria, commander of a people’s Army, retains the support of that Army and the general population from which it is drawn throughout a 7-year struggle taking considerable casualties.
But we are told that the Syrian people want to be freed from a brutal oppressor.
The Syrian Army comes to a point whereby it has successfully ridded an eastern suburban region of Damascus of the occupation and control of terrorist factions. Assad and his Army have negotiated and allowed the safe passage by bus of surrendering factions to Idleb province. But a faction remains ensconced in Dourma and we are supposed to believe that Assad would launch a chemical attack endangering civilians in Dourma even though the terrorists–who have for years been the bane of civilian existence in Damascus through the indiscriminate launching of mortars–are on the brink of defeat and are allowed to be spared when negotiating surrender. Even though using indiscriminate methods that unnecessarily put civilians at risk and are wholly unneeded and unproductive in regaining territory would surely be unacceptable to the Syrian people.
The use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government has never made sense and has been readily debunked on the other two occasions that it has been accused. The government allows surrender in order to protect the remaining civilians held by terrorists.
What is more…the evidentiary “foundation” of the Dourma “chemical attack” is based upon an Atlantic Council prop who takes blood money to tweet and twist untruths from a laptop in Britain and video fakery posted on social media by the British intelligence and State Dept P.R. flacks for terrorist mercenaries a.k.a the White Helmets. Real confidence builders.
So after all the handwringing about protecting civilians from the “Animal” Assad, we are told that a world-renowned research facility which had housed an office for the OPCW just six months ago is now Chemical Weapons Central. And so to prevent the Animal from “gassing” more civilians we have to make certain civilians get indiscriminately exposed to hazardous material by bombing the hell out of said facility!
I would say you can’t make this shit up. But they do.
https://www.opcw.org/fileadmin/OPCW/EC/88/en/ec88dg01_e_.pdf
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barzah_scientific_research_centre
“I would say you can’t make this shit up. But they do”
Indeed. Nikki Haley has said that Assad has used chemical weapons against his own people at least 50 times, not just the three that most people cite (all debunked, as you said).
Either Nikki has a privileged conduit to a higher truth, or she just makes shit up.
Maybe Trump will receive the Nobel Peace Prize for this bombing run. Just announced that the NYT and the WaPo both received Pulitzer Prizes for “Russiagate” investigative reporting, proving how corrupt American society has become from top to bottom. Even the organisations that are supposed to stand for integrity and sit in judgment of professional standards are in on the fix.
Excellent post Gregory. People are brainwashed by the MSM, pure and simple.
last time Trumpkin bombed Syria he gave the Russians (and Syrians) at least half a day’s notice so they could move their equipment and personnel. As some will recall, the bombed airbase was functional within hours of the attack. this time Trumpkin gave the Russians and Syrians almost a week’s notice to do the same…and of course, we have to take Trumpkin’s word that we’ve accomplished anything with this raid. meanwhile…Eric prince name is coming up a again…along with that Cohen fella.
All you can do is firmly, vigorously push back on those kool-aid drinkers, telling them firmly with no vocal hesitancy, that you are being lied to. People are so misinformed and either don’t have time to go beyond sound bites, or will not. .
All the signs are in place that the US superpower status is failing because of decades of bad decisions that allowed the people to be parasitised by a few, and these are the political theater of the political puppets, disastrous as it is. Plenty of internet articles and videos about that. But if Americans are so arrogant as not to entertain the possibility of their country’s collapse, despite history’s ample records, they will pay the price. All the USA uses is guns as its solution to fix its internal problems.
Those who live by the gun……………
Right now the corporate owned media is propagating the whole notion that Russia/Assad are deliberately keeping the inspectors out of the site of the Douma “chemical attack”.
I already have Maddow kool-aid drinking Russophobic friends and acquaintances jeering at me, “I told you so!”
When will this madness end?
It just shows you how utterly unsuitable & unqualified this buffoon, Donald Trump is, to be POTUS? And the Russians are playing this out all wrong & need to seize the initiative & play into America’s hysterical, Russophobia lunacy? If I was Putin I would go on the attack & go out of my way to get Trump impeached & thrown in jail, it would be so easy to do? I’d tell American’s what they want to hear, that Trump was put in power by Putin & that he’s a Russian agent & stooge & fake some evidence like the US & UK Govts do? Once this orange headed moron was “out of the way” & languishing in Guantanamo Bay, a more level headed POTUS Leader such as Pence, could take over? Putin would never do this though he’s a honourable, honest man, trying to do the right thing?
More caution with the prescriptions: Pence is worse, a fundamentalist zionist warmonger. No good options here.
It’s really hard to find anyone worse than Trump to be US President, he now has a proven record of Presidential idiocy.
Trump is not a dangerous idiot? John Bolton.
You nailed it!! So many impeach-Trump-fanatics have no clue what we would get with Pence/Dominionists/Kochs.
This is pure power projection on behalf of the US and its allies, using their control of information managed through a thoroughly complicit media. For members of the UN Security Council to present unverified and uncorroborated “open media” reports from groups which they themselves pay for, and claim such reports constitute “evidence” justifying military strikes – well, exactly that actually just happened.
With the Skripal case, the British government publicly identified a potential suspect – and quickly went on to declare final judgment not just without any evidence at all, but without even being able to piece together a coherent description of the alleged crime. The British government repeatedly lied about the suspected agent, lied about the medical condition of the alleged victims, has since sequestered the victims, and has threatened all employees of the Hospital with the Official Secrets Act. That the May government was not forced to resign in disgrace some weeks ago is mostly possible because the complicit media is so awful and unprofessional.
On another topic: Calling our President an idiot or a moron––which practically the entire main stream media does on a daily basis is equally dangerous for the U.S. No matter, pundits, comedians, movie stars, “journalists,” the democrats, and the ultra hawk republicans insist on telling the world this is the time to take advantage of the U.S. economically, and possibly militarily. I’m ashamed to say I’m an American when I travel overseas. One of the first statements I hear is: ” The Americans––yes, all of us–– are idiots.”
Thank God some of us can see that Trump is an idiot, and worse. It would be nice if the vast majority of Americans could see this simple truth and felt empowered to tell everyone about it.
It’s almost funny mike…there are a large number of people who despise Obama, and I’m one of them. But very few of those who despise Obama despise him for the reasons I do. And there are lots of people who see Trump as “dumb”, and I am increasingly persuaded of that opinion. But again, seems the reasoning behind that conclusion has a wide differential in terms of basis.
True. Disliking Trump because he “colluded with Putin” is a whole different cat from wanting him out because he is stoking by actions and inactions the present likelihood for a nuclear war “that nobody wants.”
Well if we really don’t want it, we better start doing something about it, including getting Trump out of office, on way or another. His presidency is just one train wreck after another, and I fear the Big One may be just around the next corner………
Gregory,
I don’t know if we’re coming from the same place or not, but I voted for Obama, twice, based on his promises to create a more peaceful and equitable world, where we all had the same rights and a decent (albeit not equal) shot at living the American dream. I didn’t think he yet deserved the Nobel Peace Prize when it was thrust upon him but that he would eventually earn the accolades.
I spent four years vigorously defending the guy against naysayers who claimed he was a fraud, claimed he did not engage in fighting for the principles he ran on, and, in the extreme, claimed he was not even born in this country–as though his parents owned a time machine and knew he could be president if only the facts were slightly re-jiggered. It seemed reasonable that one could explain his many failures on the cussedness and intransigence of the Republican opposition. Though this WAS wearing thin by the end of his first term.
Then his second term commenced and it became clear that, if he didn’t fight for progressive goals when he had 60% majorities in both houses of congress, he wasn’t going to do squat with Republican majorities. After back-to-back electoral wipeouts in the congress his most notable response was to shrug his shoulders and say “we just got shellacked.” In fact, he doubled down on supporting GOP fiscal legislation. It went beyond just ramming through a boon to the big insurance companies already existing in the form of Romneycare and calling it Obamacare, it now extended to supporting “free trade” agreements in both the Atlantic and Pacific arenas. It included creating the “Catfood Commission” and eagerly attempting to enact a “grand bargain” which would have sold out the rights of future generations to social safety nets like Social Security and Medicare. It included abandoning unions in their vain struggle to retain contractual agreements cavalierly dissolved by arch-conservative governors. There were numerous other sins on fiscal and tax policy that the guy also committed in betrayal of the middle class seemingly with gusto, now that the pressures of re-election were off.
But the most egregious and ill-considered deliberate actions on his part were the escalation of the many wars on his plate, including the creation of several new ones (at one point he actually bragged about waging seven wars simultaneously), and the worst of these was the needless hard-core confrontations he chose to have with Russia wherever he could find one–in Syria, in Ukraine, in the Baltics, in the Balkans, in the Caucuses, in the UN, in the EU, just across the entire globe wherever NATO was entrenched or wherever there was terrorism to be supported. All the while he was purposely goading and imposing sanctions on Russia in retaliation for flase flags and imagined narratives, he was simultaneously dismantling other countries in the Middle East/North Africa like Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. He clung firmly to Dubya’s primordial war in Afghanistan, even “surged” it, to use the current parlance for escalation. As if all that wasn’t enough carnage, the Nobel Peace Prize winner sought conflict with China in his much ballyhooed “pivot to Asia.” Clever use of catch phrases like that helps make the sleepwalking public think that you are smartly refocusing constructive attention on an area rather than plotting an attack against it. He was going to keep the sea lanes open with US carriers in the South China Sea, as if China had threatened to shut them down with its “One Belt, One Road” initiative to expand (not impede) trade.
As his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton was the mastermind behind much of this destructive foreign policy. She promised to actually double down on some of its most dangerous elements and he supported her enthusiastically in the elections, even as she cheated her way through the primaries. When she concocted “Russiagate,” first as a campaign strategy around the time of the conventions and later as an excuse for losing the election to a clueless amateur who ran on a peace platform in what was considered basically a sure thing by the entire world, including Putin and Russia, Obama again backed her to the hilt, blaming Russia for “hacking” (i.e., “stealing,” wink, wink, nudge, nudge) the election which inspired him to even greater heights of confronting and sanctioning Russia for something it clearly didn’t do.
As that was the man’s final outrageous dysfunctional parting gesture, I’ll stop counting his sins at that and merely characterise my conversion from eager supporter to bitter disillusioned opponent as based on all the lies and betrayal dished out to a public he thoroughly hoodwinked in two national elections. I must also confess feeling the same now towards Trump after giving him the benefit of the doubt when he ran as the peace candidate against Killery. Everything he stood for in the campaign has been sold out to the neocon warmongers. As a septuagenarian, I have finally come to realise that EVERY candidate in American elections will lie during the campaign and betray every promise he (or she) makes to the public to serve the interests of the wealthy donors who supported him and thus came to own him (or her). Over seventy years of seeing the same process reiterated time and again, I’ve finally decided to abandon the insane notion of believing any of them.
My conversion from staunch defender and eager supporter to bitterly disillusioned opponent comes essentially from the same place…a belief in fairness with regard to social, legal, and economic “playing fields”–a defender of “the commons”, safety nets, dignity for elders, protection for the sick, poor, and disadvantaged–supporter of educational opportunity—and the use of American diplomacy and influence to enhance prospects for peace and human dignity everywhere.
By 2012 my support for Obama had run thin for reasons you articulate so well. I went to the booth one more time to punch his ticket without even a faded semblance of the enthusiasm I had carried the first time. By the end of his second term I despised him as a blatant hypocrite and warmonger of the worst kind.
Though I voted for Stein and was not enthusiastic for the prospect of a Trump presidency, I allowed him the benefit of a period of “grace” and hoped for some good developments. I was and still am disgusted by the Democrats who immediately and with unrelenting venom went about undermining prospects for sanity in foreign relations. Obama played his part (unlawfully I think) and Clinton and her supporters turned into the worst sore losers one could imagine. Partisanship without regard for the good of our country is the disease of our two-party (in name only) ruse of a political system. Sheldon Wolin has it right…inverted totalitarianism.
Sad Trump…you haven’t even turned out to be half the man I thought you might be or a meager fraction of the man you might have been.
Trump’s approval rating up to 51% for an act of war? Reminds me of that old Protestant brainwashing hymn, “Onward Christian Soldiers, Marching as to War”!
Jessika – Trump’s approval rating was approximately 49% before the bombing, higher than Obama’s was at this point in his presidency.
As well, the same report said that 77% of the American public DO NOT believe what they hear on the MSM. If true, that’s a great step.
When Trump’s approval rating suddenly jumps up to 51% (https://www.rt.com/usa/424308-trump-approval-rating-rasmussen/) after his taking us to the brink of World War III, it really makes one wonder whether the American people are simply deep-seated life-long bigots who sincerely hate Russia or if the federal government and its mainstream media tools are so incredibly good at the propaganda they spew that they could get you to hate your own mother after watching a few programs of Rachel Maddow. Somebody should do a study to ascertain who it is that Americans hate in large numbers, why they hate them, when the bias was incurred and what were the main influences.
We know, on a gut-level basis, who the politicians have used as scapegoats and targets for the longest time, and that the media slavishly uses this animosity to either push an agenda or stoke hatred amongst Americans who might differ in their reception to the racist propaganda. Such a study probably wouldn’t get funded or published in American academic journals (because we can’t handle the truth, which is that we are deliberately manipulated in our every waking moment and that, consequently, many of us act like thoroughly biased ugly haters), but it would still be worthwhile.
The theory and practice of American indoctrination from cradle to grave needs to be fully characterised and shared with the world because it is a serious threat to that world, even more dangerous than the culture that spawned the Third Reich, yet the most attention it draws is occasional handwringing under the aegis of corporate infotainment or as ammunition in political speech aimed at getting the public to take sides. At best we are left to piece together an ad hoc narrative from wildly disparate sources.
Just why do Americans hate so much of our fellow man? Why do we accept bullcrap premises like “they hate US for our freedom?” And why are so many of us actually gleeful when our military is sent to blast the hell out of foreigners on the other side of the globe, especially when no other country in history has ever been as secure and unmolested as “fortress America?”
Very important observations and questions, Realist. Gurdieff had it right; humans are like programmed machines. On one level we forgive them, for they know not what they do (like crucifying the truth), but on the other hand we just wish they would wake the hell up! When asked just before WW1, what was going to happen, G. replied, “Millions of sleeping people are going to murder millions of other sleeping people.” And of course that is what happened.
The perennial question has been, “how do we awaken the masses?” So far partial awakenings have usually required a charismatic leader like Gandhi or MLK. As inadequate as these partial wake ups have been, they represent the best so far achieved. Right now we are lacking such a leader. One reason may be the disenchantment many folks have now with anything labeled religious or spiritual. The wave of skeptical materialism has undercut potential spiritual leaders from dealing with our dangerous cultural impasse. Many fail to see how Putin has put Russians on a better path, in large part due to his rehabilitating the role of religion in their culture.
Good points. On moral awakening, higher social contracts, and government reform:
The charismatic leader requires the right moment and spirit among the people, and the ability to communicate with them, the inability of oligarchy to silence the leaders or propagandize the people. India longing for independence from Britain was like the US in 1776: a large nation seeking unity, a long way from a small colonial power. MLK had speaking venues among people not reached by mass media propaganda, yearning for a respectable identity and political leader.
Skepticism of religious doctrine does “undercut potential spiritual leaders” but as you note, we do not have secular moral leaders either, because the mass media of materialism reject the moral educational role of literature. If we removed the influence of money on mass media (restricting their funding to limited individual donations) a moral awareness would slowly arise.
Moral conscience requires sympathy which develops with some (usually not severe) suffering that is lacking in much of the US. The amoral bully rises in business and politics because he is less encumbered. So we must also regulate business and elections to ensure that scoundrels do not succeed, that election funding is also fair (restricted to limited individual donations).
It is difficult to rehabilitate religion in modern society because it insists upon irrational precepts in addition to moral education, causing divisions and rebellion. Those who understand their religion best do not insist that the traditions are essential.
But moral education is not strictly rational: we pay a personal price for our responsibility. Our social contracts are most beneficial when they accept long-term payback of personal investments, when we must have faith that we will be rewarded adequately to make the investments tenable. The bully can always beat those results and advertises that we are the losers. But the society always wins when it beats the bullies.
We will win as a society when we have deposed and imprisoned the bullies who cannot be reformed. We have lost our democracy because we no longer have the tools of democracy, mass media and elections free of money power, and have lost our facilities for moral education to the lowest bullies among us, who have instead economically and socially imprisoned the moralizing “losers.”
If we had “Christian soldiers” they would seize the mass media, oligarchy parties, and halls of power by force. Of course of there were that many moral people of any religion that would not be necessary.
So we can only educate morally and politically, hoping that as the nation collapses into embargoed obscurity and relative poverty over the next 40-80 years, it reawakens morally, finds new moral leaders, seizes the mass media and elections somehow, and enacts the purges and reforms to restore democracy, and a higher social contract for the future.
The simple and short answer has to do with universities no longer producing well-rounded education steeped in the humanities and the techniques of critical, independent thought and research, a culture of disproportionate entertainment and amusement, a captured and subservient fourth estate, and very particularly to the point about “hate”–the widely successful application of the psy-op aspects of 9/11.
But on an optimistic note, I think the tide can turn. Despite all the “indoctrination”, this age of instant and widespread communication may slowly but surely break barriers and give “truth” some room to operate and influence. The situation in Syria is vital to this. The West is now desperate to control a narrative that they didn’t think they would need to hold together for this long. They thought Assad would be long gone by now and the ruse of the war on terrorism would continue to be an easy play. But many now know that it’s a ruse and that uncle sam’s use of terrorist mercenaries as proxies for political aims is the reality. The “truth” of 18 million Syrian people (guess?) who support their nation and have a much different story to tell about Aleppo, Ghouta and the war on Syria is going to be ever more difficult to suppress and contain–particularly if Syria can stabilize. That’s why the West is getting more sloppy with their ruses and more desperate to destroy Syria.
Those who hate are poorly educated, angry about their position in society, their background and limitations.
They need “them” targets: folks from another neighborhood or church, out of town or out of state, where folks look and talk funny, like angry foreigners who ain’t Christian, the TV says they hate us for our virtue.
They want violence because it shows you’re a man, you must be on our side, you can defend us against “them.”
They are led by demagogues who need “them” outsiders to pose with the flag as protectors to demand power.
The demagogues know how to organize loose conspiracies of Reps and now Dems to get their election funds.
Their organizers know who to grant state and federal funds o get campaign bribes back to fuel the machine.
Plenty of money from the MIC and zionists and rich Reps and Dems who owe us bigtime for government money.
End the hate and there is no one to run the show. End the corruption and there is no campaign money.
Educate the people and they will hate those rocket scientists coming in here and ordering everybody around!
Realist-
I have fantasized that one day we’d wake up and everyone’s TV would be broken and impossible to fix. It is like some kind of hypnotic demon that keeps peoples brains from functioning. No TV and people would start to come around like Rip Van Winkle.
We are in the hands of gangsters that are in control of the missiles of power.
More evidence about these criminals at article link below.
April 16, 2018
“Respectable War Criminals,” Child Killers, Gangsters, Etc. Add Your Own Epithet..
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2018/04/respectable-war-criminals-child-killers.html
These genocidal monsters are beyond any criminals we have known before. They are in an evil class beyond all others. We can’t invent demons worse than them, they are the worst humanly imaginable. And they dress and smile just like ordinary people. But underneath that false exterior, they are the frightening reality of pure Evil.
Great comment mike k.
Cheers Stephen J.
Thanks Stephen. I love your work.
a bit hyperbolic,Mike K…btw, when you’re not here (and you’re always here) what are you actually doing about any of this?
Thank you for that link!
Love those red pills! The blue ones just make you more sleepy.
Reply to Stephen J: I think it an interesting coincidence? that, according to the Veteranstoday mag, Russia’s Pantsir-S1 SAM’s were one hundred percent effective against this latest NATO attack on Syria. A coincidence, because the Pantsir-S1, was just a sketch on Putin’s drafting board, that is, until 2008 (the first year of the S-1’s production) . Wasn’t 2008, the year our financial system suffered yet another collapse? An old propaganda cliché now, come to the fore: It’s not that the “Russian’s are coming” rather it’s, they see us coming” …In reality this, Western Occident practice of lighting matches in dangerous places, are at the behest and instigation of those so called, “hidden hands” in Wall Street and London’s CBD’s. Never mind the occupy stuff, shouting, picketing and protests, we should throw a big net over the lot of them, drag ’em right into jail…Truly a blight on humanity!…there-aught-a-be-a law! DOJ ? where the hell Are YOU???
You happy now Maddow, DNC, Podesta, etc.?
They won’t really be happy until the can sit in their bunkers (if they make it there) and begin composing screeds blaming it all on someone else.
I couldn’t agrre more!I simply don’t know, what are they are thinking, if they are a thinking beings, anyway!
Sorry for the typing, and other mistakes!
The attacks won’t stop, its just a matter of when, where and what will the next incident be about?
Yesterday the insufferable Nikki Haley announced on a CBS interview that more sanctions would be coming Russia’s way.
An independent Swiss Lab identified that the substance used to poison the Skripals was an incapacitating toxin known as 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate or BZ. This chemical was not produced in Russia but was used by the US, the UK and other NATO states according to Zero Hedge. Where are all the MSM headlines blasting the UK?
The media has become so immoral, reckless and irresponsible. The so called journalists sit in their cubicles inundating people with articles perpetuating the lies without realizing that they won’t be getting an invitation to the elites luxury bunkers.
Yes, the attacks will continue. The would be rulers of the world can’t stop themselves. Something has to stop them, or we are all going to be nuclear fricasseed. Not pretty. Too sad…….
“On Saturday morning, the top headline on the [New York] Times website was “U.S. Attacks Syria in Retaliatory Strike.”
Retaliatory strike? — Seriously?! Retaliation for what? When has Syria attacked the US?
It looks that the Israel-firsters that own the New York Times can’t wait to see a mass slaughter in Syria.
Israel-firsters at the NYT are of the same moral caliber as those Israelis that arrange picknicks when their “most moral” thuggish IDF goes on murdering unarmed native Palestinians in the Gaza Ghetto.
What are the alleged victims of the chemical-agent false-flag in Syra? – 75 persons.
How many children has the IDF murdered during Menora Operation? – Several hundred.
It seems that we are bombing a wrong country.
The New York Times has become a veritable herald of the ziocon parasite that has infected and destroying the US.
Good one Anna!
“But let’s be clear: The pressures have not only been generated by corporate media and the political establishment. Across the United States, a wide range of people including self-described liberals and progressives — as individuals and organizations — have enthusiastically participated in the baiting, cajoling and denouncing of Trump as a Putin tool. That participation has stoked bellicose rhetoric by congressional Democrats, fueling the overall pressure on Trump to escalate tensions with Russia.” – – Norman Solomon
Let’s be clear, Trump narcissism, egoism and greedy lust for World-Wide “TRUMP TOWER” expansionism is at the heart of his banal Self-Perpetuation. His Bromance with Putin is conjoined with and related to his strong affection for Machiavellian Autocracy.
Donald J. Trump is on a power trip that, if not stopped, will lead to a decimation of American principles as theorized by our “Founding Fathers”. —
The man has displayed unconscionable disorder and disrespect for “American Principles” regarding ‘rule of law’ and/or respect for Administrative Agency Safe Guards and Protections that benefit the Nation and People of America.
If his corporate favoring tax cuts didn’t convince you, his obscene military budget, which DE-FUNDS many Life Sustaining benefits for the poor among us should have.
Donald J. Trump and his dealings with Russia and Putin are STRICTLY crafted to add value to his own BRAND.
What a shame you, Norman Solomon, won’t recognize this. …
Being facetious is usually considered a minor matter. But dredging up some way to critique Mr. Solomon for his brief and excellent article goes way beyond that – it is outrageous! Shame on you “grossly facetious.”
You wouldnt have to prove the author right. But thanks for that view into an indoctrinated, hypocritical mind.
In case you hadn’t noticed, a majority of Democrats voted to give Trump an 80 billion dollar increase in Pentagon spending which is more than he asked for. Those Democrats include my two senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey. So much for their progressive credentials.
What American principles and rule of law are you referring to? Last I checked, we don’t have any and it’s dead. And that was the case long before Trump got to the White House.
If you are unhappy about Trump, thank Hillary, the DNC, the media and the corporate oligarchy that owns them all, not Russia.
Thank you Lois! Excellent rebuttal.
“American principles” have long been disregarded, and Trump is only the last in a long line of offenders.
If anyone should wonder if the Zionists really think they are God’s chosen people, just ask them. And if you wonder if they are really in charge of our foreign policy, just ask yourself why the hell are we in Syria??
Exactly. Russia should retaliate against US proxies, but not against US launchers or in Kiev. Ideally they would counterattack Israel for its massacres, under threat of nuclear response if they retaliate, to show the US that warmongering for bribes does not pay off for its zionist masters. But as a prelude, an attack on KSA in response to “war crimes in Yemen” would show the US that Mideast warmongering has its costs. The US and Israel do not care about KSA, and Iraq/Turkey/Syria could ship jihadis south and sponsor them to overthrow KSA and cut off US oil. This could be extended to UAE, Qatar, or Jordan, and might deter the US from war against Iran.
They WERE God’s people ONCE, based entirely on the faith & loyalty of the Patriach’s, Abraham, Issac & Jacob, however they lost that right thanks to their rebellious nature & their rejection of God & the death of his son, the Messiah? All of this, was in fulfilment of Bible prophecy! Evidence of God’s withdrawal of divine favour on Israel was evidenced in 70CE when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem killing 1million & the remainder were sold as slaves? Jesus warning was given to Christians, when they saw a Army encircling the City, they should flee, which happended in 66CE when the Romans encircled the City then withdrew for no logical reason? The Jews remained & mocked the Romans withdrawal but then they returned in 70CE & the rest is history? And in our recent times, the Nazi’s genocidal murder of 6 million Jews! In the past, God would have intervened to stop this if Israel had divine favour but he didn’t raise a finger to save them, which absolutely confirms his rejection of them as a people & Nation? America’s sucking up & appeasement of the Nation of Israel is a lame attempt to curry divine favour with a Nation they believe is God’s people but the evidence proves otherwise!
Kiwi,
You might enjoy Tel Aviv U. archaeologist, Israel Finkelstein, and historian, Neil Silberman’s, “The Bible Unearthed” as well as UC – Long Beach historian, Robert Eisenman’s “James the Brother of Jesus”. Eisenman is an authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls and early Christianity and Islam.
The biggest question is why aren’t Israeli troops doing their own damn fighting? Is it because they are cowards and can only kill unarmed Palestinians? A lot of Israelis go to watch their troops killing their neighbors. This is beyond heinous.
Donald J. Trump and his dealings with Russia and Putin are STRICTLY crafted to add value to his own BRAND.
What a shame you, Norman Solomon, won’t recognize this.
You, Norman Solomon were among my Champions whenever I heard Lilia Garret speak to you on KPFK radio, during the GW Bush years of the Cheney/Rumsfeld, Bush USA takeover of Iraq’s OIL FIELDS after years of PURPOSED Use of Saddam in our Targeted PROXY war against Iran in the 1980’s Reagan years where/when we FAVORED Saddam and Prompted him into a shooting war against a REUNITED Iran and US inspired (Greedy) Western AGGRESSIVE Mass-Murder of innocent civilians , men-women & children decimated / lives destroyed / caught up in the Hostile Takeover of their sovereign social order by means of MILITARY FORCE.
We do this MASS MURDER under the Banner of / under the Cover of === “Protecting Our Freedoms” === !
and you sleep-walking Americans worship the fallacy of ‘ exceptionalism ‘ while our “enemies” in oceans-wide worlds of existence RETREAT (cower) IN GRAVE FEAR OF OUR MILITARY AGGRESSION AGAINST their humble ways of life.
You exceptionalist Americans!
You Grand Imperialists!
The Whole World Is Yours,
you “chosen people”
–You Americans… .
Click to Edit –
Somebody mistakenly allowed Professor Jeffrey Sachs to speak the truth about Syria, on television https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vwKk4pADCw&feature=youtu.be
Please don’t wake the American People – they’re sleeping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_Sycamore
It is amazing how easy it has been to convince the American people that they are exceptional Beings destined to rule the planet, and own everything on it. Hitler never had it so easy. Our sense of American special status and privilege is rivaled only by the Zionist Israeli’s, God’s chosen people. Maybe that’s why they are actually in charge of our foreign policies?
Plain and simple, just the way I like it. Keep demonizing Russia, and you are heading for WWIII. What else is there to say?? STOP IT!
Russia can demonize itself without anybody’s help. the worlds GDP is on average ,expected to decline by ~26% d/t global warming over the next 50 years while Russia’s GDP is projected to grow 400% because of improved access to mineral and fossil fuel resources in Siberia. That’s what Putin says and he has said he welcomes global warming. Kind of gives you insight into why so many American Russophiles surround Trumpkin-the perception that he could be the co-author of a future feast.
The citizens of the United States are to blame for this situation. They have failed miserably in taking back their country from the criminal elements that have seized their government. The entire planet should have a vote in their elections since their wars and financial crimes affect us all. Are we all to watch silently as they destroy the earth?
The hypocrisy is phisically nauseating. Remember when Israel used chemical weapons? Crickets from the media. No bombs… just an increase in money via tax dollars from the beggared population. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/25/israel-white-phosphorus-gaza
No take on Libya,Iraq,Afghan,Egypt or even israel,huh?zionists have other plans.ugh.
I agree with you 100%. The U.S. hypocrisy is sickening, especially when it comes to oppressive allies such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Honduras. And you are right about the rest of the world having a vote on U.S. foreign policies because the entire world suffers the consequences of those policies, especially because the pentagon is the single greatest contributor to the climate crisis.
Very true, Linda, the people of the US have failed to take back their country from the zionist-aligned oligarchy that controls mass media and elections. They live in ignorance, selfishness, hypocrisy, and malice, immersed in mass media fantasies and toys. What a great gain we would have if the rest of the world selected our leaders!
That is likely the future in effect, as US deficits and trade embargoes may push us to the collapse that will bring oligarchy to cut services to increase warmaking, which may bring out enough public anger and disillusionment to restore democracy. But history suggests that this will not be pretty.
If the public does ever rise up, the one thing we shouldn’t do is protest. This is what the PTB wants us to do and that’s why they have militarized the police.
What needs to happen is work stoppages, boycotts and other things that are peaceful. We saw how people were prosecuted after Trump’s inauguration and that was a message to the rest of us.
We need to be smarter than they are.
The British media have simply gone insane after this latest bombing run on Syria. They’ve not put it behind them as a one and done, let’s now move back to reality, event. They are presently braying about all the cyber-attacks that Putin has imminently planned in retaliation for the allied “retaliation” against Syria’s (clearly false flagged) “chemical attacks” on the children of “good” Syrian terrorists and on old Soviet double agents retired to Britain. Honestly, they’ve published entire front pages dedicated to the proposition that Putin is sure to do things such as shutting down the British power grid, crashing the hospital system, and creating traffic chaos on the roadways. The insincere bleating is so raucous, you know you are being telegraphed the opportunities for more false flags and a justification for British counter cyber-attacks to which May has already alluded. When the power goes down in London, the first logical suspect should be the MI-5.
I noticed that too, as if against all evidence of 18 years, Putin is going to act in the same insanely stupid way the USA or UK act. I find it interesting that the USA and UK tend to accuse others of what they are most likely to do-chemical and biological weapons, cyber attacks (helped of course by Israel -think about how much damage has been done to Iran).
Even during the Gulf War in 1991, the USA bombed a “biological weapons factory” in Iraq, which was in fact, and demonstrated to be, a baby- foods factory donated by New Zealand and built by the French!
Terrific comments completely summing up the situation? I believe most Americans are decent, peace loving people but they need to take your Country back from these cowardly lunatics running your Country?