NATO

Trust Our Brilliant Leaders? Are You Joking?

JD

We are now being treated to a predictable deluge of hand-wringing, grandstanding, virtue signaling, gaslighting, hysteria, pontificating and snide told-you-so commentary, most of it stating the obvious, most of it just repeating what we’ve known all along. Attacking Afghanistan was a big mistake. What a disaster! What an embarrassment! Our arrogant aggression and illegal retaliation against Afghanistan for 911 was WRONG WRONG WRONG!

Do you somehow feel more enlightened by this bilious bloviating?

I say: Enough with the smug finger-wagging, the weepy whining, the self-aggrandizing bellowing, the 24/7 autopsy of our disastrous 20 years in Afghanistan!

Here’s the real question we should be asking ourselves:  With what predictably unfolded there, why do we for even a split second trust the knuckleheads in charge of our military and foreign policy to handle anything going forward? Handle anything at all!

No question about it, there’s certainly a lot that needs handling. Serious challenges that need the immediate attention of informed, balanced, rational, honest, sane individuals, meaning thoughtful, scrupulous, patient, creative policymakers capable of finding optimal solutions which will avoid unnecessary conflict and serve the greater interests of humankind.

Instead we have no choice but to trust power-drunk, delusional, unhinged sociopaths to wrestle with new and ongoing crises. Do you really feel confident that Sleepy Joe, Kamala, our war-obsessed congressional leaders, and the rest of the buffoons in the State Department, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, CIA, NSA, FBI, and their mouthpieces in the media, can come up with anything sensible? Constructive? Positive? Solutions that will not further discredit our nation and humiliate us as citizens? Push the Doomsday Clock even closer to midnight? Accelerate the march to self-annihilation?

Here are some examples of what these incompetent fools are confronted with, much of it the result of their own prior and recurrent idiocy.

CRIMEA: Very recently, there was a conference called the Crimea Platform Summit. The premise, shaky at best, is that Russia forcefully annexed Crimea in 2014 and the world cannot allow this kind of thuggery to stand. The fact that in a referendum 95.5% of the people living in Crimea voted for reunification with Russia and that Crimea for most of its history was part of Russia somehow didn’t get mentioned. That Russia itself finds the whole matter non-negotiable was conveniently ignored. Ukraine must prepare for war! Save the 4.5% living under the boot heel of Putin’s tyranny! Mind you, the U.S. is supplying arms to the neo-Nazis now running the country. Gosh . . . it’s almost as if we WANT a war to start there.

POKING THE BEAR: This year has seen substantially more near incursions into Russian territory than last. These are not innocent joy rides but both reconnaissance flights and simulated bombing missions. They represent a dangerous and intimidating probing of Russian border defenses by fighter jets and nuclear bombers, as well as heavily-armed naval vessels, all “testing the defenses” of Russia. This is so brilliant, I’m tempted to find a skeet shooting range, run around with a bulls-eye painted on my chest, yelling “Na na na na na na! Go ahead, you pathetic losers, try to shoot me. Betcha can’t . . . betcha can’t!”

WAR GAMES: Such aerial and naval provocations go hand-in-hand with massive war games being conducted in countries neighboring Russia, sometimes right up to Russia’s actual borders. There’s no way to characterize these exercises other than preparation for war. If Russia were to be conducting war games in Canada and Mexico, including tens of thousands of troops, artillery, missile launchers, tanks, would the U.S. view it as innocent military exercises just to keep the boys sharp and give them something to do?

TAIWAN: Moving east — as Obama did with his Pivot to Asia — we have Taiwan. We’re arming them to the teeth, cruising battleships and aircraft carriers in The Taiwan Strait, the waters between Taiwan and mainland China, violating our own one-China policy, sending vague but portentous signals to Taiwanese separatist leaders that “We’ve got your back.” Is the U.S. seriously going to risk a world war over Taiwan? With insane, China-hating, chest-thumping, deranged exceptionalists pounding the war drums, I guess the question answers itself.

FONOPS SOUTH CHINA SEA: In the same tinderbox theater, under the pretext of freedom of navigation operations — FONOPs — we continue to taunt, dare, bluff, and browbeat China in the South China Seas. It’s arguably legal. So is jumping barefoot on a pile of broken wine bottles in the privacy of my kitchen. That doesn’t mean its prudent or in the least productive. It’s increasingly obvious that the U.S. is doing everything it can to militarily provoke China, hoping for an incident which will then be the excuse for launching the “inevitable war”. Military strategists — and with our phenomenal success in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, we know we know we can trust this brainy bunch — suggest the sooner the better. As time passes, China will be more capable of defending itself. We sure don’t want to screw this up. This is the BIG ONE! Lose to the Chinese? Inconceivable! By the way, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who I just interviewed for an article that will also appear here soon, says that — now pay close attention — every single war game simulation of a major armed conflict with China ends up in a nuclear war!  Need I say more about this insanity?

These are just the “big power” confrontations. The U.S. is of course still in Syria, Iraq, is poised for a war with North Korea and/or Iran, and has special operations — military and CIA personnel with military assets — in countless nations, none of which seems to ever make it into mainstream reporting. We’ve got somewhere around 800 bases of all shapes and sizes, our soldiers in faraway places always on alert and ready for action.

Let’s be clear. There’s no time out. Things are moving forward. That’s the inevitable trajectory of politics, both domestic and international. Yet the reality is, our record going back seven decades is abysmal! There is nothing positive or constructive to be found. Just countries and battlefields strewn with dead bodies, refugees, depleted uranium, land mines, and rubble.

This is what happens when you have delusional megalomaniacs making critical decisions about our place in the world and our relations with other countries.

We need to flush these war-obsessed, homicidal, demonstrably insane empire-builders out of power.

Let me start the list of people who NEED TO GO. We’re ultimately looking at numbers in the thousands. PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR SUGGESTIONS. There are so many incompetent, psychopathic fools in key positions, I’m just one guy and I can’t keep track of them all. Here we go . . .

THE HIT LIST (a work in progress)

Joe Biden

Kamala Harris

Anthony Blinken

Lloyd Austin

Mark Milley

Victoria Nuland

Jan Psaki

Mitch McConnell

Nancy Pelosi

Ted Cruz

Adam Schiff

Joe Manchin

Chuck Schumer

Tom Cotton

Tom O’Halleran

Lou Correa

Jim Costa

Mike Thompson

Charlie Crist

Stephanie Murphy

Sanford Bishop

Carolyn Bourdeaux

David Scott

Ed Case

Brad Schneider

Jared Golden

Josh Gottheimer

Mikie Sherrill

Kurt Schrader

Jim Cooper

Henry Cuellar

Vicente Gonzalez

Abigail Spanberger

Doug Jones

Richard Shelby

Lisa Murkowski

Dan Sullivan

Martha McSally

Kyrsten Sinema

John Boozman

Dianne Feinstein

Michael Bennet

Cory Gardner

Richard Blumenthal

Christopher Murphy

Thomas Carper

Christopher Coons

Marco Rubio

Rick Scott

Kelly Loeffler

David Perdue

Mazie Hirono

Brian Schatz

Mike Crapo

James Risch

Tammy Duckworth

Richard Durbin

Todd Young

Joni Ernst

Chuck Grassley

Jerry Moran

Pat Roberts

Bill Cassidy

Susan Collins

Angus King

Benjamin Cardin

Chris Van Hollen

Gary Peters

Debbie Stabenow

Amy Klobuchar

Tina Smith

Cindy Hyde-Smith

Roger Wicker

Roy Blunt

Josh Hawley

Steve Daines

Jon Tester

Deb Fischer

Ben Sasse

Catherine Cortez Masto

Jacky Rosen

Maggie Hassan

Jeanne Shaheen

Bob Menendez

Martin Heinrich

Tom Udall

Richard Burr

Thom Tillis

Kevin Cramer

John Hoeven

Rob Portman

Jim Inhofe

James Lankford

Bob Casey

Pat Toomey

John Reed

Sheldon Whitehouse

Lindsey Graham

Tim Scott

Mike Rounds

John Thune

Lamar Alexander

Marsha Blackburn

John Cornyn

Tim Kaine

Mark Warner

Maria Cantwell

Mitt Romney

Patty Murray

Shelley Capito

Tammy Baldwin

Ron Johnson

John Barrasso

Michael Enzi

John Kirby

Then there are the mutant VIPs without current official appointments, who run amok spreading propaganda, promoting their deviant, deranged world view, and infecting others with their toxic agenda, while they wait for their next cushy government assignment. Do we let confirmed, unrepentant, unrehabilitated murderers, terrorists and rapists run around free? Some people are simply too dangerous to mix with decent human beings . . .

THE LOCK UP LIST (Guantanamo? Where do they keep people pending trial or a lobotomy?)

Mike Pompeo

John Bolton

Nikki Haley

Samantha Power

Susan Rice

Donald Trump

Frank McKenzie

Arne Duncan

Wesley Clark

Michael McFaul

Robert Kagan

Jared Kushner

Steve Bannon

Then there are scores of individuals who are a mixed bag, may or may not have committed prosecutable crimes, certainly have done their share of lying and flip-flopping, perhaps have done some good but also did a lot of damage, and are always capable of building on their past failures to inflict greater setbacks to the common good. Frighteningly, many of them still have the public completely fooled. This could be a very long list!

HONORARY MENTION LOCK UP LIST (We’re keeping an eye on you!)

Barack Obama

Bernie Sanders

Hillary Clinton

Bill Clinton

John Kerry

Liz Cheney

AOC

The Squad

George W Bush

Condoleezza Rice

Henry Kissinger

Dick Cheney

Jake Sullivan

Sidney Blumenthal

James Clapper

John Brennan

James Comey

Neera Tanden

Paul Krugman

Michael Hayden

Rachel Maddow

Chris Hayes

Bill Kristol

Bill Maher

Glenn Beck

Listen, folks. I know these lists are woefully incomplete. But I did my best on short notice. Now I’m counting on YOUR HELP! That’s why we have a comments section below. GO FOR IT!

John Rachel – September 7, 2021

BOOK REVIEW … “No More War” by Dan Kovalik

JD

In an era where a man like Julian Assange can be mercilessly persecuted for just doing honest journalism, it takes a great deal of courage to expose the lies and misdeeds of America’s imperial ambitions. Yet they must be exposed and condemned for exactly what they have been and continue to be. No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using ‘Humanitarian’ Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests is a book that goes the extra mile in doing just that.

As with all of his excellent books, Dan Kovalik has packed this readable and well-researched work with an abundance of invaluable information and insight into the imperial war machine, the imperial diplomatic and PR juggernaut, the extensive predatory machinations reducing the rest of the world to rubble so that America’s corporations and its ravenous banking system can subjugate and exploit their populations and extract their material wealth.

We citizens, under the spell of the Western propaganda machine, slog through the malaise of censored news, disinformation and deceptions with our eyes wide shut, preferring to avoid at all costs acknowledging the nefarious role our “exceptional” nation plays in perpetrating some of the most sordid war crimes in history, thereby propagating unfathomable misery across the planet.

Though we might prefer to immerse ourselves in the bliss of this willful ignorance, as the folks who fund such misadventures with our tax dollars, and who implicitly support it by raising no serious objections, much less mounting actual resistance, we are ourselves responsible. We are culpable. We share the guilt of those actively engineering and promoting this tsunami of death and destruction, a reign of terror inflicted on any nation who would dare stand in our path of full-spectrum dominance and self-serving plunder.

How is it “we the people” are rendered so indifferent to these acts of aggression?

Not an excuse, but an incriminating explanation, provides the required insight: We are told — and gullibly believe — that somehow this orgy of violence, the bloodbaths and rubble which result from our military interventions, are in pursuit of a better world, one where democracy and freedom and justice for all reigns supreme. That it is the U.S.’s responsibility to stand up for and protect the citizens of other nations who are being deprived of the rights and privileges due to all of us as humans.

But as Kovalik proves beyond any doubt, for seven decades, our wars of aggression and fostering regime change around the globe have had nothing to do with the tragically laughable “cover story” that the U.S. is spreading democracy and protecting human rights, but rather are the direct, predictable, and inevitable product of America’s obsessive fixation on world conquest and unchallengeable global domination.

No More War covers a lot of ground, looking in detail at Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, the NATO aggression against former Yugoslavia, the Vietnam War.  We see 1) how disruptive and counterproductive U.S. meddling in such countries is, 2) how such interference in the affairs of sovereign nations contravenes both currently accepted norms and international law, 3) how this abuse of military prowess is rapidly overextending U.S. projection of power, 4) how it is making America a pariah in the world community, and 5) how this will ultimately result in a major confrontation with countries like Russia and China, two nuclear-armed nations which genuinely have assumed the higher moral ground in the world of geopolitics. Dan Kovalik also eloquently exposes the profound hypocrisy of the U.S. claiming to be standing up for human and political rights in other countries, as it ignores and violates within its own borders many of those same rights for its own citizens.

No More War is a powerful, informative book. While the well-crafted prose reads comfortably, conferring it with NYT best seller potential, its erudition demands that it be taken seriously. This invaluable volume begs to be used as a textbook for university peace study courses. For we can’t very well chart the right course without fully understanding where we’ve gone wrong . . . so very very wrong.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Norman Gleich

Grieving in ParisYou have to hand it to them.

When it comes to sewing confusion, creating chaos, overwhelming the public with distraction and disinformation, they are masters of the game.

There is no attempt here to marginalize the grief that people feel when they view the carnage resulting from terrorist attacks, both that of the jihadists and that by the Western powers who created this whole mess in the first place.

But we must never lose sight of who caused all of it, why it serves their sick agenda, and exactly what must be done to stop them.

And that is the challenge. The human mind, no matter how capacious or driven by concern and noble intentions, can only handle so much. So much killing, so much terrorism, so much bombing, so much war, so much death and destruction, so much cruelty, so much evil, so much blame, so much political posturing, so much lying and propaganda, so much scapegoating.

It’s truly overwhelming.

Yes, they have got our number.

They know how to play on our fears and sympathies.

They know how to wear us down.

They know how to desensitize us, divide us, debilitate us, dissipate our energies, destroy our resolve.

But at the same time, we know exactly what they’re doing!

It is this understanding that is the foundation of our strength.