Tag: war mongers

The War Whores of the Military-Industrial Complex are Lighting the World on Fire

The Biden administration has triggered another proxy war for Donald Trump to deal with when he becomes president next month. The U.S. deep state is fighting a proxy war in Syria, which appears to be waged with the intention of further destabilizing the Middle East and stirring up another front in World War III.

Syria is collapsing under the weight of another U.S.-sponsored proxy Civil War, with the US, Israel and Sunni jihadists on one side and Russia, Iran, Assad, and Shiite jihadists on the other.

Al Nusra (which is comprised of Al-Qaida and ISIS affiliates) is taking over the country with the help of Turkey, a U.S. ally and key member of the NATO military alliance. These rebels have seized the city of Aleppo and many smaller towns and villages.

M. Dowling at The Independent Sentinel notes that “Jake Sullivan has said Al-Qaida is on our side in Syria.”

Jake Sullivan is Biden’s national security adviser and a key enabler, along with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, of the anti-Russia obsessed deep-state club that shares one thing in common. They all belong to the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dowling notes that Syria’s civil war started in 2011 after an uprising against President Bashar Assad’s rule. The U.S., Russia, Israel and Iran all have a military presence in Syria. Forces opposed to Assad, along with U.S.-backed rebels, control more than a third of the country and now Russia and Iran have launched a counter-offensive. Russia is very upset with Turkey for instigating the coup against Assad, likely with the direct assistance of the CIA.

The false narrative being proffered by the US mockingbird media is that a rag-tag coalition of so-called “noble rebels” has somehow organically emerged to save Syria from the dictator Assad. No, what we have here are Sunni jihadists backed by the U.S. and NATO fighting Shia jihadists backed by Russia.

As Dowling points out, “All jihadists are bad guys.” They are bad because as soon as they get in power one of the first things they do is start raping the Christian women and executing the Christian men. It happened in Iraq after Saddam Hussein was overthrown and it’s happening now in Syria.

Congress funded jihadist rebels in Syria for years. The chief war whores of the military-industrial complex, Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain, led the way.

Graham is now turning on Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, because he’s afraid the Fox News host might not be fully on board with the U.S. forever wars.

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Trump Disinvites Haley and Pompeo From His Administration, and That’s Good

On Saturday evening, Donald Trump gave a strong signal of what his second term would be like, writing on Truth Social: “I will not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump Administration, which is currently in formation. I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” This was an unusual move that many ascribed to Trump’s personal pique against both, but there was more to it than that.

The New York Post reported Saturday that “since winning Tuesday’s election in a landslide victory against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump and his team have been working behind closed doors at Mar-a-Lago to staff the 47th president’s administration, with loyalty the primary job requirement.” Neither Haley nor Pompeo has been even close to loyal to Trump, and so that may be all there is to the kiss-off they got from the once and future president on Saturday, but the gulf between the incoming commander-in-chief and these two establishment Republicans is wider than a matter of personal loyalty. 

As recently as Oct. 29, Haley, despite professing her support for Trump, criticized his campaign for being “overly masculine.” According to the Daily Beast, “Haley not only said that the bashing of Puerto Rico that occurred at Trump’s rally over the weekend was problematic, but that the campaign also ‘needs to look at how they are talking about women.’”

The “bashing of Puerto Rico” was a major Harris campaign talking point in the waning days of the campaign, as leftists once again proved that they were humorless prigs who couldn’t take even the mildest jest. Why was Haley repeating, endorsing, and amplifying a claim that the Harris campaign was using as a weapon against the candidate she supposedly supported?

Haley added: “This bromance and this masculinity stuff—it borders on edgy to the point that it’s going to make women uncomfortable. You’ve got affiliated PACs that are doing commercials about calling Kamala [Harris] the c-word, or you had speakers at Madison Square Garden referring to her and her ‘pimps.’ That is not the way to win women. That is not the way to win people who are concerned about Trump’s style.” What? Where were commercials running calling Harris “the c-word”? If such a thing existed, what network would even have run it? In any case, Trump has made clear his rejection of trans madness and the left’s related insanities. Why should he bring on board someone who shares the left’s hatred of masculinity?

That wasn’t the first time that Haley had repeated Democrat talking points. Politico reported in Aug. 2020 that Haley had claimed in her memoir to have been “deeply disturbed” when Trump said that there were “very fine people” on both sides of the Charlottesville protest, and still stood by her statements. Old Joe Biden, of course, made the lie that Trump had called National Socialists “fine people” a cornerstone of his 2020 campaign, and repeated this frequently throughout his presidency. Yet Trump in the same remarks in which he said that there had been “fine people” at the Charlottesville rally, also said: “I’ve condemned neo-Nazis. I’ve condemned many different groups. But not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch.”

Thus the claim that he called Nazis “fine people” was always false, and Haley should have known that. Her tendency to endorse leftist claims without hesitation or due consideration places her in precisely the group Trump is signaling he wants to avoid this time around: Republicans who allow Democrats to set the agenda and even dictate the rules of the game, and simply raise minor objections here and there if they aren’t just rubber-stamping the whole leftist program.

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Buying Politicians is Easy

Last week, in “The Strange Story of Peter Thiel,” I examined Thiel’s history, from his upbringing in a globe-trotting family to his years at Stanford to the formation of the “Thielverse” to the creation of Palantir.

As you’ll recall from that exploration, by the time disgraced Admiral John Poindexter introduced Thiel (and his creepy Big Brother / Big Data surveillance company, Palantir Technologies) to the US intelligence community, Thiel was a full-fledged deep state actor, amassing power and influence in line with his billions of dollars of wealth.

But as incredible as that meteoric rise to riches and power was, it’s only the very beginning of a decades-long journey through citizenship shopping and shadow presidencies and war profiteering.

This is the continuation of The Strange Story of Peter Thiel.

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Media Hawks Make Case for War Against Iran

The media hawks are flying high, pushing out bellicose rhetoric on the op-ed pages that seems calculated to whip the public into a war-ready frenzy.

Just as they have done with Hezbollah (FAIR.org, 10/10/24), prominent conservative media opinionators misrepresent Iran as the aggressor against an Israel that practices admirable restraint.

Under the headline, “Iran Opens the Door to Retaliation,” the Wall Street Journal editorial board (10/1/24) wrote that Iran’s October 1 operation against Israel “warrants a response targeting Iran’s military and nuclear assets. This is Iran’s second missile barrage since April, and no country can let this become a new normal.”

The editors wrote:

After April’s attack, the Biden administration pressured Israel for a token response, and President Biden said Israel should “take the win” since there was no great harm to Israel. Israel’s restraint has now yielded this escalation, and it is under no obligation to restrain its retaliation this time.

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Reject the Failed Hawkish Consensus on Iran

No matter who wins the presidential election next month, US policy towards Iran seems likely to remain extremely hostile and confrontational. Both campaigns seem determined to out-hawk each other. The Iran policy debate in Washington, such as it is, is focused entirely on the same bankrupt coercive measures of sanctions, threats, and military action that are guaranteed to make things worse. There is no serious discussion of reducing tensions or resuming negotiations in the new year. The persistence of this failed hawkish consensus is dangerous for the US, Iran, and the wider region, and it needs to end.

The failed bipartisan hawkish consensus on Iran closes off paths for resolving disagreements peacefully, and it paves the way for unnecessary wars. The consensus embraces escalation as the solution to each new crisis, and it writes off diplomacy as naïve and useless. It is the same kind of bankrupt, outdated thinking that has dominated US foreign policy in the region for at least the last thirty years, and it is why US Iran policy remains so destructive and dangerous. We are desperately in need of some fresh and different policy ideas.

Unfortunately, both presidential candidates are content to keep the US on a collision course with Iran for the time being, and that means that the US will be stuck with the same rotten foreign policy in the Middle East for at least another four years. Donald Trump recently expressed support for an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. During the vice-presidential debate, Sen. Vance said that he would support whatever Israel wanted to do. On the Democratic side, Vice President Harris bizarrely claimed that Iran is America’s “greatest adversary” in response to a question in her interview with 60 Minutes. Harris asserted that Iran was an “obvious” candidate for being the greatest adversary because its government “has American blood on its hands.”

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Media Urge Expansion of Ukraine War—Nuclear Risk Be Damned

Ukraine has for months been asking the Biden administration for permission to use long-range US, British and French weapons to strike deeper in Russian territory, which would be a clear escalation in the war. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the move would cross a red line for him, and recently announced that he was loosening Russia’s nuclear doctrine for using nuclear weapons.

Despite the risks of such escalation—and a lack of evidence that it would shift the war in Ukraine’s favor—Biden’s public reluctance to loosen his limits has been met in the war-hungry media primarily with derision.

The US, Britain and France have all supplied Ukraine with long-range missiles, including Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS). But Biden has thus far limited their use to border areas. Britain and France are following Biden’s lead on range limitations.

Last month, in response to further advances by Russia into Ukraine, Ukraine launched a surprise invasion into Russian territory in Kursk. Since then, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pressed the US for more and longer-range missiles, Putin has increasingly raised the specter of nuclear retaliation.

Under its 2020 nuclear doctrine, Russia could respond with nuclear strikes to nuclear or conventional attacks it deemed a “threat to its existence,” if they came from a nuclear power. His new doctrine lowers the bar, so that a “critical attack” on Russia carried out with the “participation or support of a nuclear power” would be grounds for launching a nuclear response—including against the supporting power.

In other words, if Ukraine used long-range missiles supplied by a NATO power to launch an attack on Russia that it deemed “critical,” Putin could respond with a nuclear strike, against either Ukraine or against that NATO country.

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Nobody Can Stop Netanyahu: Top EU Diplomat Laments

Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy head, expressed dismay on Friday that there is nobody who seems capable of stopping Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from escalating wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

“What we do is to put all diplomatic pressure to a ceasefire, but nobody seems to be able to stop Netanyahu, neither in Gaza nor in the West Bank,” Borrell told a group of reporters at the UN, according to The Times of Israel.

He noted how Netanyahu said he would not stop until Hezbollah is destroyed, but, “If the interpretation of being destroyed is the same as with Hamas, then we are going to go for a long war.”

Netanyahu has not achieved any military objectives in Gaza and Hamas is still in possession of about 100 hostages. Netanyahu has escalated attacks in Lebanon as Hezbollah continued to launch attacks into northern Israel in defense of the Palestinians being massacred in Gaza.

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Netanyahu: Israel Is Fighting a War on Seven Fronts

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the UN during his remarks at the 79th General Assembly summit on Friday. He called the body a swamp of antisemitism while saying Israel needed to defend itself on seven fronts.

The Israeli leader’s speech was contentious. Before Netanyahu took to the podium, Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif blasted Israel for waging a genocide in Gaza and creating a war with Lebanon. As Netanyahu began his address, a large portion of the UN General Assembly body walked out.

During his remarks, Netanyahu referred to the UN General Assembly as a “swamp of antisemitic bile.” He went on to slam the International Criminal Court (ICC) for considering charging him with war crimes, adding the true war criminals are in Iran and its allied nations.

During his address, Netanyahu presented two maps, one titled “the blessing” and the other “the curse.”  The Israeli leader said Tel Aviv is still seeking a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia. He claimed that if Riyadh established official ties with Israel, the world would receive a “blessing,” but Iran represented a “curse” to the region.

The Israeli leader explained “the blessing” was establishing a “landbridge” from India to Israel. The blessing requires Saudi Arabia to enter the Abraham Accords and normalize ties with Israel. Netanyahu claimed that would have happened, but the October 7 Hamas attack prevented the deal.

In the map titled “the curse,” five countries were represented in black: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon. The Israeli leader claimed that Tehran was working to eliminate Tel Aviv using its allies in the region. Netanyahu presented the conflict as a battle between forces of civilization against barbarism.

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Cheney Backs Harris: The War Hawk’s Blessing Reveals Continuity in Foreign Policy

If there is one eternal rule in Washington, it is that “politics makes for strange bedfellows.” If you were to presume twenty years ago, that former Vice President Dick Cheney would one day endorse a progressive Democrat from California for president, you would be sent to an insane asylum. The idea that a diehard neoconservative and perhaps the biggest war criminal in recent American history would one day endorse someone like Kamala Harris would have been laughable. But due to the prevalence of “Trump derangement syndrome” amongst many neoconservatives, this has become the political reality.

As someone who generally considers himself a member of the political left and who does not support Donald Trump, “Trump derangement syndrome” is not a term I use flippantly. Nevertheless, I cannot seem to find any other phrase to describe the type of voter who would view an endorsement from Dick Cheney for Kamala Harris as a positive. Former Vice President Cheney’s support of Harris is emblematic of a deeper, unsettling continuity in American foreign policy that transcends partisan boundaries.

Dick Cheney is not the only member of his family who has thrown their support behind Harris. His daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney, has also endorsed Kamala Harris after voting for Trump in 2020. In a recent episode of System Update, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald pointed out that Liz Cheney – whose entire political career revolved around her defending her father’s depraved imperialism – has become a useful idiot for the establishment wing of the Democratic Party. This shift is par for the course, as proponents of military adventurism have increasingly found a home in a Democratic Party committed to providing endless military aid to both Israel and Ukraine.

This is not surprising as the GOP has moved towards isolationism, ostensibly at least in Ukraine, with Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance, stating that “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.” But both Liz Cheney and her father “care” about Ukraine, as they have an ideological interest in spreading the tentacles of American imperialism across the world. But in the modern Republican Party under Donald Trump, the Cheney family likely believes they have no tenable political future. Dick Cheney is a decrepit reminder of a time long ago, and Liz Cheney lost in the Republican primary for her district by 32 points.

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Butcher of Gaza Netanyahu Repeatedly Lied to Congress about Iraqi “Nukes,” and Now Wants US War on Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a master of misdirection, the technique master illusionists use to divert the viewer’s attention from the trick and to pull the wool over their eyes. He uses his slick American accent, his bulging eyes, his rhetorical flourishes, his maniacal certainty, to fool people whenever and however he can. 

Netanyahu, the Butcher of Gaza, boasted of destroying the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords that would have resulted in a Palestinian state and an Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Palestinian Territories by 1997. He has consistently attempted to annex Palestinian private property and covertly has paid for a movement of Israeli squatters onto Palestinian land. He has engaged in collective punishment of innocent noncombatants in order to quash any resistance to his vast acts of grand larceny. He bankrolled Hamas for a decade with Egyptian and Qatari funds deposited in Israeli accounts, which he transferred to Gaza, in hopes of taming the organization by giving it Gaza as a fief. He thereby hoped to continue to split the Palestinians, most of whom support instead the secular, nationalist Palestine Liberation Organization. Most Israelis recognize that Netanyahu’s brain-dead policies led to the October 7 terrorist attack.

One of the twenty-first century’s worst war criminals, responsible for more deaths of innocents and children than Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Netanyahu needs a bright shiny object to distract the world from the threat his racist, fascist Likud-led government, armed with 200 nuclear devices, poses to the planet.

Ben Norton at The Real News Network has reviewed Netanyahu’s long history of blatant warmongering lies:

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