Biden's 'Deterrence' Bombing In Iraq Is An Obvious Failure
As we wrote eight days ago:
On Sunday the U.S.bombed three positions of Iraqi Popular Mobilization Force at the Syrian-Iraqi border.
The U.S. had no right to do so. The legal reasoning the Biden administration provided for the attack is nonsense. As is the claimed rationale of establishing 'deterrence' against further attacks on U.S. troops by this or that Iraqi militia group. The last strike in that area in February was supposed to have fulfilled the same purpose but obviously did not deter anything. Sunday's strike was immediately responded to with missiles fired against a U.S. position in Syria. More such incidents will follow.
It did not take long until the failure of the claimed deterrence became obvious:
Iranian-backed Iraqi militias launched several rocket and drone barrages on facilities hosting American forces in Iraq and Syria on Wednesday, just nine days after deadly United States airstrikes on the armed groups that were meant to deter such attacks.US and local media outlets reported attacks on the Ain al-Assad air base in western Iraq, another facility in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil overnight and another attack on an oil field where American forces are positioned in northeast Syria.
At least two people suffered minor injuries after 14 rockets struck the massive military base at Ain al-Assad shortly after noon local time, a US official said.
...
Attacks on US facilities by Iranian-backed militia groups appear to be accelerating following the 28 June air strikes, which were in response to continuing attacks on American facilities in Iraq. At least four militiamen were killed in the US airstrikes, prompting raucous funerals and demands for revenge.Ain al-Assad was the target of a rocket attack on Monday, with no casualties. Late Tuesday an airport housing US troops in northern Iraq was also hit in a drone attack that caused no injuries.
Syrian state media reported on Wednesday that al-Omar oil field hosting US forces in the country’s northeast province of Deir Azzour was also hit with mortars.
Over the last weeks there were also at least five mine attacks on private contractor convoys which supply the U.S. forces in Iraq.
One Iraqi militia leader promised even bigger attacks:
The leader of an Iran-backed Iraqi militia has vowed to retaliate against America for the deaths of four of his men in a U.S. airstrike along the Iraq-Syria border last month, saying it will be a military operation everyone will talk about.
...
“We want an operation that befits those martyrs,” [Abu Alaa al-Walae, commander of Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada,] said referring to the four fighters killed in late June. “Even if it comes late, time is not important.”“We want it to be an operation in which everyone says they have taken revenge on the Americans,” al-Walae said. “It will be a qualitative operation (that could come) from the air, the sea, along Iraq’s border, in the region or anywhere. It’s an open war.”
Al-Walae spoke in an office decorated with a poster of Soleimani. On a table next to him, a framed photo shows al-Walae standing next to Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.
As Daniel Larison notes:
Now the leader of an Iraqi militia is threatening reprisals for the reprisal attack that the U.S. carried out against his men. As long as the Biden administration is intent on responding to any Iraqi militia attack with one of their own, you have a recipe for endless tit-for-tat strikes that build towards a larger conflict. If the U.S. will respond to any attack the same way no matter whether it is lethal or not, that will give Iraqi militias an incentive to carry out lethal attacks. The Biden administration is recklessly putting U.S. forces in Iraq in greater danger while pretending to be doing the opposite.All of this raises the obvious question: why are U.S. forces still in Iraq in 2021? ..
...
The U.S. has no reason to continue killing Iraqis, and the cause of the current conflict is the continued U.S. military presence in a country where we are no longer wanted. The U.S. is “defending” itself against the security forces of the government that it claims to support because its military presence is no longer welcome and it has repeatedly violated the sovereignty of the host country.
The Biden administration has plans to continue to its violation of Iraq's sovereignty:
The 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Carson, Colorado, will deploy approximately 1,800 personnel this summer to Iraq to support Operation Inherent Resolve.The Stryker unit will replace the 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, from the Louisiana National Guard. Inherent Resolve is the named mission to defeat the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
Major combat operations ended when ISIS lost its territorial caliphate in 2019, but the group remains active as an insurgency. Tensions between the United States and Iran-backed militias in the region also continue to garner headlines.
There will be more headlines to garner and more casualties as long as there are U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.
Posted by b on July 7, 2021 at 17:17 UTC | Permalink
Without a presence in Iraq it becomes logistically impossible to maintain US operations in Syria. Only alternative would be to go through Turkey — there are plenty of reasons that is not the current main route.
When US has to give up Iraq and Syria as well as Afghanistan even the jihadi nutjobs will be looking elsewhere for support. Israel will suddenly look less viable. For which cause the inevitable will be resisted. But it is inevitable.
Posted by: oldhippie | Jul 7 2021 17:48 utc | 2
@oldhippie | Jul 7 2021 17:48 utc | 2
Without a presence in Iraq it becomes logistically impossible to maintain US operations in Syria. Only alternative would be to go through Turkey — there are plenty of reasons that is not the current main route.
One reason might be that Bolton & Neocons target Turkey & Erdogan for regime change as described by Alexander Mercouris and Alex Christoforou. I agree it is not likely that Turkey could be used by the US for this purpose.
Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 7 2021 17:59 utc | 3
@psychohistorian | Jul 7 2021 17:43 utc | 1
How many bodybags?
Well since the ban on media covering the return of flag draped coffins my bet is a hell of a lot. So many that every American will probably need to know of a KIA (regular, guards or mercs) within 1 or 2 degree of separation before the American people will realize they're probably doing it wrong.
At which time an USA USA chant will surely kick off; then even more freedom bombs and seeds will be sent off.
Rinse, repeat.
So no, it ain't going to stop until USD is toilet paper.
Posted by: A.L. | Jul 7 2021 18:07 utc | 4
If the USA wants to keep calling itself a world superpower, it will have to continue in the game of the Middle East. It's too naive to think the USA will ever pull out of what is the single most important geopolitical region of the periphery - to do that would be an instant admission by the Americans they're no longer the sole superpower.
The obvious conclusion to draw is that the US is deliberately stirring up trouble because they intend to stay in Syria and as oldhippy (2) already pointed out, that means staying in Iraq too.
Posted by: MarkU | Jul 7 2021 18:31 utc | 6
Biden, like Hillary before him, simply cannot be happy unless some poverty-stricken, defenseless and preferably of a darker hue human beings are being killed by the US somewhere on the planet.
Posted by: AntiSpin | Jul 7 2021 18:31 utc | 7
AntiSpin@7, in addition to claiming the magical or God-given power to read the minds of Biden and Clinton, also possesses the divine omnipotence to re-write history, turning Hilary Clinton into the president. If AntiSpin's mutant telepathy reveals that it was Hilary who told Bill Clinton to wage war against Serbia, I can only conclude that AntiSpin has secretly re-vised the timeline so that when "Hilary" was bombing the Serbs, the Serbs were gratifyingly darker-hued...but they've gotten paler since!
Random insults indulging petty prejudices are no contribution to any analysis. Random insults imagining things against reality are a positive hindrance in my judgment.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Jul 7 2021 18:46 utc | 8
@3
also see [1][2]
all these withdrawals, are they just withdrawal or just mobilization for the end game? since the bombs are gender and race neutral, only a traitor would oppose it.
[1] https://twitter.com/turkish_project
[2] https://turkishdemocracy.com/about-us/
Posted by: throwa | Jul 7 2021 18:49 utc | 9
Picking up snippets from here and there, it seems that the US is parking significant elements of the forces it is pulling out of Afghanistan and also Qatar, into Jordan.
Maybe they are preparing themselves for the day that they lose access to their Syrian territory east of the Euphrates but are determined to hold onto their al-Tanf enclave.
Posted by: JohninMK | Jul 7 2021 19:11 utc | 10
Hmmm.... It seems the best question to ask in relation to events in Iraq and Syria is: How does the Outlaw US Empire's presence in the region contribute to its overall geopolitical aims? That seems easy enough to answer: the Empire seeks Full Spectrum Domination of the world's economic system, which is the focus of Hudson's latest paper that provides a preview of his forthcoming book. Hudson sees today’s new Cold War as a conflict of economic systems:
"Today’s new Cold War is a fight to internationalize this rentier capitalism by globally privatizing and financializing transportation, education, health care, prisons and policing, the post office and communications, and other sectors that formerly were kept in the public domain."
So, aside from Occupied Palestine, why the focus on Southwest Asia? Could it be the monetary value of the hydrocarbons located there? But isn't that already privatized? NO! While some aspects of hydrocarbon extraction are participated in by Western corporations, the actual capital base is owned by State Corporations, like ARAMCO. Why the 1953 Iranian Coup? To counter the nationalization of its oil sector. Why was Iraq really invaded by the Empire and Libya undone? To keep them within the hegemonic dollar system.
As I noted yesterday, Hudson's latest publication is taken from the first chapter of his upcoming book, Cold War 2.0. The Geopolitical Economics of Finance Capitalism vs. Industrial Capitalism. But today, we have another Hudson publication to read: a paper submitted to the Valdai Club co-written with Radhika Desai, Professor at the Department of Political Studies, and Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group, University of Manitoba: "Beyond the Dollar Creditocracy: A Geopolitical Economy." Although it's swept under the rug by BigLie Media and a falsified historical narrative, those pursuing serious inquiries into the source of Imperial power know that before military might comes financial power, the latter enabling the growth of the former and then financing its conquests--Super Imperialism wasn't an examination of the Outlaw US Empire's military strength; rather, it examined how the Empire used its control of international finance to further its imperialism.
But then why is the Empire cutting and running from its seemingly advantageous position in Afghanistan? Aside from cutting its financial losses and calming the domestic uproar about its Forever Wars, IMO Imperial planners think they have another way to gain control, which for the moment still remains a secret, but which seems to be the penetration of China's financial system so it can be taken over from the inside. So, let China BRI all it wants to as long as overall monetary control is retained by the Outlaw US Empire and its dollar hegemony. (The Valdai Club paper is 30 pages plus an 8 page forward that I've yet to completely digest.) Given the huge debt trap its created for itself, IMO the Outlaw US Empire would rather see the overall international monetary order descend into a chaos that allows a remnant of its control to survive versus a situation where it must subordinate itself and thus no longer have any control. And that's why the Empire's still in Iraq: For a few Dollars More.
RE: steven t johnson | Jul 7 2021 18:46 utc | 8
"Random insults imagining things against reality are a positive hindrance in my judgment."
Even more of a hindrance is reading things into a comment that are not in the comment. You could do everyone here a real service if you were to corral that wild, unrestrained imagination and begin dealing with that which is actually on the page.
Posted by: AntiSpin | Jul 7 2021 20:21 utc | 12
STJ @ 8
Put ‘Hillary Serbia’ into search bar and see what comes up on first page. Even MSM knows Hills was dripping down her leg imagining mayhem and slaughter in Serbia. What she lives for. If it is a life form.
Posted by: oldhippie | Jul 7 2021 20:21 utc | 13
Jerusalem is the center of the world, don't you know. Not London or Rome or DC or Paris or Berlin or Moscow or Bejing. Jerusalem is the center of the world. Ask them.
All US foreign policy is designed first with Israel in mind. No independent state can rise in the Middle East. Iran's choice is surrender or obliteration. Iraq is necessary to destroy Iran.
Let's not underestimate the insanity of those who pursue the Zionist cause.
Posted by: gottlieb | Jul 7 2021 20:23 utc | 14
karlof1 @Jul7 19:43 #11:
... why is the Empire cutting and running from its seemingly advantageous position in Afghanistan?
Some of us have questioned if they really are "cutting and running".
It's still unclear if the Empire is giving up or reordering for another round: Turkey's possible participation? ISIS in Afghanistan? NATO/USA statements of continuing support: air support; trainign; leaving a sizeable USA embassy presence; etc?
Let's not forget prior unexpected/inexplicable moves that were actually attempts to further Empire goals:
- USA support for ISIS' rise in 2014;
- US-Turk coordination in Syria
- USA retreated from the border to the oil fields and Turkey took the border area in NE Syria
- USA support for Turkey's occupation of Idlib (a safe haven for Jihadis)
- 2021 NATO moving into Iraq as USA moves out
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 7 2021 20:25 utc | 15
About those body bags mentioned by psychohistorian @ 1 and AL @ 4, it should be pointed out that they are exclusively Syrian and Iraqi.
I would argue that any deterrence failure lies squarely on the side of the resistance.
The US is leading a war of choice. It can pack up and call it a day whenever it wishes. And yet, here it is, more present than ever, unwilling to cede an inch to the sovereign owners.
Posted by: robin | Jul 7 2021 20:26 utc | 16
Don't worry, the US is about to turn the corner in Iraq and Syria
just like in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Perimetr | Jul 7 2021 20:33 utc | 17
The US forces will leave Syria and Iraq with their tail between their legs just like happen in Afghanistan, sooner or later
All run by the Zionist who infiltrates every administration to get their own agenda , very fool American administration who allow these things to happen .
America does not care about the countries or the people in the Middle East except for the people of Israel.
And they claim their Christian faith which is all hypocrisy and lies .
For the people in the Middle East : do not ever trust the Americans , even the stupid governments of Saudi Arabia and the rest of the golf states .
Good luck .
Posted by: Bobby | Jul 7 2021 20:47 utc | 18
Jackrabbit @ 16
This is how I see it also. The Syrian occupied north has become a giant pool of war labourers. A low cost, zero maintenance, foreign legion that can be recruited at sunrise and bused off to the next project like migrant workers picking strawberries.
Posted by: robin | Jul 7 2021 20:53 utc | 19
Jackrabbit @16--
IMO, it's very difficult to answer such questions when we're not 100% sure of who/what has written the music and is conducting the orchestra. Have Neoliberal Rentiers finally taken control of the Empire, shoving the few remaining industrialists and other traditional capitalists aside, thus culminating a coup that began over 40 years ago? Or are we still faced with a factionalized cabal with no real central direction or aim aside from its wanting to stay in command? Or is there another possibility? Something like Big Tech allied with the Financialists as Hudson has also suggested in numerous articles and interviews? Since we're not privy to the secret planning papers, we're relegated to determining what was planned by the actions we observe. The most obvious question IMO is: Is Biden's limited occupation policy viable? IMO, it's not at all; unlike Iraq, the Taliban won't allow any foreign fighter presence and will forcibly eject those that attempt to remain. CIA Drone strikes? From what bases since no regional nation will allow overflights? The locals have long demanded a local solution and it seems that's what they'll get.
of course Biden's bombing the wrong target is not going to work. Of course bombing the allies of the government is going to be a failure. What about Da'ish who are a problem? They bombed last week a power plant at Samarra, opened only a week before by Kadhimi. No intervention there.
Posted by: Laguerre | Jul 7 2021 21:02 utc | 21
JohninMK | Jul 7 2021 19:11 utc | 10
Three logistic US bases from Qatar into Jordan. Being "supplied" through Israel. This could cut the Syrian => Iraq route through Al Bukamal, by supplanting it as a way to increase their own contact with the E. Syria US occupied area.
Numerous US drones along the Euphrates today. Expect retaliation somewhere against "Iranian" elements (Even if they are Iraqis.)
****
Big explosion at Dubai. Jebel Ali port. No deaths reported.
Identification possible; "Ocean Trader", NOT the J Pioneer (Iranian) as first reported.
Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 7 2021 21:04 utc | 22
AntiSpin and oldhippie double down on the Hilary Clinton presidency, and on the honorary darkness of Serbs too.
And "dripping down her leg...?" Look, a neurotic obsession with sexual insults is not a political principle, it's lack of impulse control. You should be able to keep your sexual fantasies till your private time.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Jul 7 2021 21:07 utc | 23
thanks b... i agree with your headline....
i also agree with @ 21 karlof1 response to jr... the usa as a country and stooge for israel, ain't working.. all the signs are here.. they can reshuffle the deck on the titanic all they want... it ain't working...
thanks for the link to the valday paper karlof1...
Posted by: james | Jul 7 2021 21:17 utc | 24
@ 22 laguerre.. for all intensive purposes isis is the usa-israel-ksa army.... when these countries cave, the same is going to happen to isis.. until then - ongoing isis...
Posted by: james | Jul 7 2021 21:19 utc | 25
Russia leading the way to Amerikas down fall and as Amerikan it won't soon enough.
Russia’s sovereign wealth fund cuts US dollar reserves to ZERO — RT Business News
Posted by: jo6pac | Jul 7 2021 21:19 utc | 26
RE: steven t johnson | Jul 7 2021 21:07 utc | 24
"AntiSpin and oldhippie double down on the Hilary Clinton presidency, and on the honorary darkness of Serbs too."
Wrong on all counts:
1. Where in my comment did I say that Hillary had been president?
2. Where in my comment did I say anything about Hillary advising Bill about Serbia?
3. Where in my comment did I say anything about Serbians being dark-hued?
4. Please say that you have at least heard of Libya, haven’t you . . ?
Posted by: AntiSpin | Jul 7 2021 21:19 utc | 27
In my view, the US is on the edge of withdrawing from Iraq. The parliament has voted for it. Of course the US is placed militarily to pay no attention to what the local country wants. How long will that last though, when supply convoys are constantly attacked?
Posted by: Laguerre | Jul 7 2021 21:22 utc | 28
and -- as for you lecturing someone about acting on impulse, well, pot/kettle.
Posted by: AntiSpin | Jul 7 2021 21:26 utc | 29
Posted by: james | Jul 7 2021 21:19 utc | 26
Not so at present. Da'ish are not involved with the US as they stand.
Posted by: Laguerre | Jul 7 2021 21:30 utc | 30
1. It is the US president who decides on the wars. Hilary Clinton has never been president. Blaming her for war says she was responsible, i.e., president.
2. The word "if" was used, which changes the meaning. As it turns out, oldhippie's comment proves that someone would pull that BS, even if it wasn't AntiSpin personally.
3. The comment that Hilary Clinton preferred "dark-hued" victims, when the major victims of the US in the Clinton presidency were the Slavic, white Serbs.
4. The Libyan war was the scheme of Cameron and Sarkozy and Obama. Clinton was merely Secretary of State, and yes, that "merely" is a correct adjective. The national security adviser and the ambassador to the UN (Rice and Power, or was it Power and Rice?) had just as much influence as Clinton. If not more...quite aside from the president always wanting to keep control of foreign policy, away from the secretary of state, who is effectively just the office manager (except when supposedly negotiating some big peace deal that there is no real intention of fulfilling!) Obama and Clinton were not allies, but enemies.
AntiSpin is wrong on all counts.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Jul 7 2021 21:34 utc | 31
STJ @ 24
It is personal. Real personal.
My tailor back on 90s was Serbian. Orthodox of course. His wife was Bosnian Muslim. Marriage possible only in Sarajevo.Which has never come back.
The Wahhabis burned down his house. The wife badly burned. This in Chicago which was damn well a theatre of war during the Balkan campaigns. They both lost the will to live and died in months. He always said it was Hillary and that some day I would understand.
This is Chicago. Politics is breathing here. Have multiple other Hillary stories I would rather not tell. Too easy to identify principals. And some of them still alive. The creature is a monster. Pure evil. With little dancing demons prancing about. As on this page.
Posted by: oldhippie | Jul 7 2021 21:41 utc | 32
@ 31 laguerre... usa has a history of using isis beginning under obama... sure - they turn a blind eye, but like the un resolution that was agreed to for going after isis... isis is the gift that keeps on giving for the usa and friends... of course with friends like this, who needs enemies? lol..
Posted by: james | Jul 7 2021 21:45 utc | 33
karlof1 @Jul7 20:57 #21
IMO, it's very difficult to answer such questions when we're not 100% sure of who/what has written the music and is conducting the orchestra.
You don't need a weather-vane to tell which way the wind is blowing.
=
Have Neoliberal Rentiers finally taken control of the Empire, shoving the few remaining industrialists and other traditional capitalists aside, thus culminating a coup that began over 40 years ago? Or are we still faced with a factionalized cabal with no real central direction or aim aside from its wanting to stay in command?
The new Cold War is unmistakable. "Factionalized cabal"? The cabal that is in control (and one might argue, has been in control since the JFK assassination) has consolidated its position. They won Cold War I and chose to pursue ME domination for fun and profit. "End of History!", we were told. LOL.
Now these Cold Warriors are determined to reverse their failure and win Cold War II. That doesn't mean that we are doomed to have a World War. It does meant that we shouldn't expect that things are as they seem.
=
Or is there another possibility? Something like Big Tech allied with the Financialists as Hudson has also suggested in numerous articles and interviews?
I think such talk is fantasy; as misleading as partisan politics.
=
Since we're not privy to the secret planning papers, we're relegated to determining what was planned by the actions we observe.
We have plenty of observations, and they lead to a conclusion of extensive planning by a hierarchical power-elite of Empire-managers supported by Neocons, MIC, etc.
=
The most obvious question IMO is: Is Biden's limited occupation policy viable? IMO, it's not at all; unlike Iraq, the Taliban won't allow any foreign fighter presence and will forcibly eject those that attempt to remain.
It's not viable given your assumptions. A Turk-supported ISIS force in Afghanistan that fights the Taliban makes it much more viable.
=
CIA Drone strikes? From what bases since no regional nation will allow overflights?
Well some country has been allowing overflights. Perhaps we are seeing why the Turk-Azerbaijan corridor was so important?
=
The locals have long demanded a local solution and it seems that's what they'll get.
Perhaps. But nations contesting for global supremacy don't give up territory easily.
I'm not saying that your wrong. Just saying that we don't know with certainty what the outcome will be. I think we'll have some clarity by the end of this year.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 7 2021 21:55 utc | 34
And as previously stated put ‘Hillary Serbia’ in the search bar. Any search engine. See what comes up. Yes, President Rodham attacked Serbia. I didn’t rig those search engines.
Too many war pigs on this page.
Posted by: oldhippie | Jul 7 2021 21:59 utc | 35
@ karlof
Many thanks for the Hudson links! Much to think about.
@stj
I'm always receptive to good Marxist historicism but your arrogant sneering inserts an unnecessary obstacle. It comes across as the intellectual snobbery of the insecure. The correctness of Marxist analysis lies in its clarity not in slap-downs.
Posted by: Patroklos | Jul 7 2021 22:07 utc | 36
Bosnian Muslims aka "Wahhabis" burned down oldhippie's tailor's house in Chicago in the 90s? And they "lost the will to live" and died in months, because she was badly burned or because the house was gone?
oldhippies is so high income as to have a *tailor?* Personally I've been off-the-rack my entire life, so obviously I'm too much the loser to argue.
Nonetheless, the idea that people die from the loss of the will to live is sentimental twaddle.
The hitherto unknown war in Chicago really should be talked about. Secret history should be made public.
Hilary Clinton's role in Chicago politics, rather than Arkansas and D.C. is more secret history.
The dark hints that oldhippie dare not name names---for fear of retribution? Sorry this sounds more like a mixture of paranoia and grandiose fantasy. And I mean this, unfortunately, in a clinical way.
Thank God there are so many Steven Johnsons, lest this nut hunt me down.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Jul 7 2021 22:09 utc | 37
@ steven t johnson | Jul 7 2021 21:34 utc | 32
There is a lengthy document compiled by Hillary’s staff, titled “Tick Tock on Libya,” and published by Wikileaks, in which she travels the world and harangues her staff constantly for almost a year, to make sure that she gets the credit for the destruction of Libya, because she thought it would help her in her campaign for the presidency.
https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/23898
Aside from that, your pointless barbs and nonsensical maunderings grew tiresome long ago. You miss the target every time. It’s time for you to stop.
Posted by: AntiSpin | Jul 7 2021 22:10 utc | 38
If Biden is really in charge and trying to avoid war and exit losing positions then why is he bombing in Syria, stalling on re-joining JCPOA, and antagonizing China?
<> <> <> <> <>
If every US President is a good guy that loves peace, why do we have so much conflict in the world?
- Bill Clinton: I feel your pain.
- inflicts pain on Iraqi children (Albright: "We think it's worth it")
- Inflicts pain on Russia via "Economic Shock Therapy";
- GW Bush: Compassionate Conservative
- lies USA into Iraq War
- GWOT: global rendition & torture;
- Barack Obama: Change You Can Believe In
- lipstick on a pig: war via covert ops and drones;
- Donald Trump: Make America Great Again
- arms build-up & belligerence (China virus; assassination of Gen. Soleimani, etc.);
- Joe Biden: No Malarkey
-a phrase that harkens back to Cold War America (sympathetic with Trump's nostalgia for the 'greatness' of that time) - merely a coincidence?
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 7 2021 22:38 utc | 39
@40 Steven t Johnson
Thanks Steve, I will keep you in good memory, too! Our appearance on this Earth guarantees our vanishing!
Posted by: J-Dogg | Jul 7 2021 22:50 utc | 40
I dunno why so many even bother to read johnson/slothrop's irrational garbage. A rabid zionist posing as a socialist is never going to make sense. Given that imperialism, especially colonialist imperialism is the antithesis of marxist philosophy, he is just a very confused little man.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Jul 7 2021 22:50 utc | 41
Digging into the Valdai Paper, I've come to its thesis:
"However, these explanations, like most commentary on the dollar’s world role, is tangled in that combination of wishful thinking and wager that one of us identified as the international financial intermediation hypothesis (IFIH) (Hudson 1972/2003). It emerged from the difficulties that ended the dollar’s link to gold in 1971 to conjure up a new basis for the dollar’s world role. By making the so-very-clever argument that the US was no ordinary indebted country but the world’s banker and that its deficits were loans to the world, a public service the world should accept gratefully by lifting capital controls and deregulating finance, this interpretation attempts to normalise the transformation of the US economy from super creditor to super debtor. However, it was never more than a barely adequate fig-leaf.
"Our purpose in this article is to cut through this interpretation [Bolded text above]. Despite its faults, it dominates our understanding of the dollar system. In its place we reveal one that is theoretically sound and accords with the historical record, a geopolitical economy (Desai 2013) of the international monetary system of modern capitalism. We begin with a theoretical outline of how money operates under capitalism. We then consider how capitalism needs world money and, at the same time, makes its stable functioning difficult. We then go on to trace the fundamental instability of the modern international monetary systems based on national currencies of dominant countries, from the gold standard to the current volatile and predatory dollar-centered system, and their close connection to short-term and speculative as opposed to long-term and productive finance. We conclude by discussing of the key instabilities of the dollar system and the paths that various countries and international organizations are already taking to move beyond its destructive logics."
And off we go from that point. Again, here's where that paper's found. It should be noted that Canadian historian Matthew Ehret is barking up the same tree from a different direction, and numerous other historians have provided the many foundational details of our current dilemma which is Oligarchic instead of Democratic control of the Global System and the huge problems that's created. IMO, it's not just a Crisis of or by Capitalism; rather, it's a crisis in Human Morality/Ethics/Sensibility/Nature/Failings that has allowed this situation to exist despite the constantly recurring examples humans never seem to learn from, often because the lessons needing to be learned are suppressed by those who seek to use them for their own schemes--Greek Tragedies are merely reenacted, the only modifications are for current modes of dress and language--although one must well know their history to see such repetition. And therein lies the rub. Asians know they must include historical introspection in plotting a future path and thus seem to avoid the Greek Trap. Although it's not that Europeans haven't tried to gain their freedom from that Trap.
@43 Debsisdead
Spot on! Always good to hear from you.
Posted by: Haassaan | Jul 7 2021 22:56 utc | 43
Did Biden just kill the president of Haiti?
Haiti's President Moïse Was Killed By Foreigners 'Who Spoke Spanish', Preliminary Assessment Shows - Sputnik, July 7, 2021Haiti's acting President, Claude Joseph, told reporters Wednesday that slain former President Jovenel Moïse had been killed early Wednesday morning by a “group of non-identified individuals, some of whom spoke Spanish."
...Video circulating on social media on Wednesday purports to show the team of assassins outside the presidential mansion, who identify themselves as agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), a federal police agency that often operates in other countries. They can be heard speaking both Spanish and American English in the video.
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Jul 7 2021 23:15 utc | 44
Finnian Cunningham appraises what's happened post-Summit in anticipation of Russia holding "top-level discussions later this month with the United States regarding strategic stability and nuclear arms control." He continues:
"A dialogue between the two nuclear superpowers is absolutely paramount in order to try to normalize relations, reduce tensions and expedite better communication channels with a view to increasing 'stability and predictability', as the Americans would put it.
"The problem is 'stability and predictability' are qualities that Washington seems to expect solely from Russia while offering little in return about its own errant conduct. And the United States is far from stable or predictable from either a domestic or international point of view."
I reported Lavrov's complaint Cunningham echoes, that
"the Biden administration resumed its imperious rhetoric towards Russia, warning about consequences if Moscow did not improve its behavior, and so on."
And that's super important because:
"The duplicity in Washington makes it fundamentally difficult to build any dialogue because that duplicity is corrosive to finding any trust. It’s probably unrealistic to expect Washington and Moscow to be friends at this juncture, but there must at least be a modicum of trust in relations or in what has been agreed, otherwise, there is no point in holding dialogue in the first place."
In other words, it certainly seems the Outlaw US Empire remains incapable of agreement as it has since Obama/Biden. Cunningham reviews the recent series of provocations which include the various "war games" and says:
"In this context, it is hard to escape the fact that the United States and its NATO allies are engaging in conduct that is deliberately destabilizing the security conditions on Russia’s borders. And yet the Biden administration says it wants to have talks about 'strategic stability'."
Given the above and previous history, one can't fault Cunningham, myself, and a host of others for being pessimistic about anything constructive coming from the upcoming talks. Jackrabbit @41 asks if Biden's really in charge, to which the answer clearly appears to be no. Joseph Tainter's theory about The Collapse of Complex Societies posits that problems are solved by increasing levels of complicity until a point is reached where the returns provided by the increasing complexity become negative and thus generate further problems that snowball as more complexity is added to try and solve them too until a collapse finally occurs. Given the great complexity of the Outlaw US Empire's Imperial & Domestic Policies, IMO we are beginning to see the beginnings of such a collapse. Of course, time and events will be the adjudicators of my prognosis.
All --
The raving lunatic known as steven t johnson becomes more and more unhinged as his off-the-point diatribes are blown up in his face by the normal persons who inhabit this site. His slip-sliding around, off of, and away from rational points raised in others’ comments are intended just to provoke arguments and to keep arguments going as long as he can do so.
Probably best just to ignore him from this point onward.
Posted by: AntiSpin | Jul 7 2021 23:53 utc | 46
Antispin @ 51, agree!
Thanks also to Oldhippie and others.
James, agree with your thoughts on Isis.
Posted by: Gordog | Jul 8 2021 0:02 utc | 47
A propos de nada:
QUOTE
Bombing Serbia was a family affair in the Clinton White House. Hillary Clinton revealed to an interviewer in the summer of 1999, “I urged him to bomb. You cannot let this go on at the end of a century that has seen the major holocaust of our time. What do we have NATO for if not to defend our way of life?” A biography of Hillary Clinton, written by Gail Sheehy and published in late 1999, stated that Mrs. Clinton had refused to talk to the president for eight months after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke. She resumed talking to her husband only when she phoned him and urged him in the strongest terms to begin bombing Serbia; the president began bombing within 24 hour.
ENDQUOTE
SOURCE:
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/americas-benevolent-bombing-of-serbia/
Posted by: Sushi | Jul 8 2021 0:14 utc | 48
I usually avoid reading comments by steven t johnson. Unfortunately, many of his comments are so long that often I will have read paragraphs of his stuff before his signature becomes visible. And by that time I've already begun suspecting it's by him, because it's his typical nonsense.
Posted by: lysias | Jul 8 2021 0:19 utc | 49
@ Jackrabbit | Jul 7 2021 22:38 utc | 41:
If Biden is really in charge and trying to avoid war and exit losing positions then why is he bombing in Syria, stalling on re-joining JCPOA, and antagonizing China?
Well, as I'm sure you know, there's no reason to assume that Biden is really in charge. The frustrating thing about US government behavior is figuring out which faction has the upper hand in which sphere of activity at which given moment . . . and I'm sure the factions overlap.
But in all fairness (heh), there's no "stalling on re-joining JCPOA" on the part of the power centers known collectively as Biden. The USA's rejoining the JCPOA is simply inconceivable; it will never happen -- at least not as long as Iran insists, quite reasonably I might add, that all sanctions be lifted before she agrees to comply with the terms of the JCPOA. The USA not only will not agree to lift all sanctions -- in fact, the USA insists on new restrictions on top of those in the JCPOA (e.g., regarding missiles); the USA cannot agree to lift all sanctions, because a lot of these were imposed by Congress can can be lifted only by Congress, which will, quite simply put, never do so.
I'm sure the Iranians know this, and are negotiating at all because (1) it makes them look like the reasonable party, which they are anyway, and (2) because by doing so they can play for time. I'm not sure the Americans know this, however; I'm sure they're convinced that Iran can be carrot-and-sticked (mostly sticked) into submission.
Posted by: corvo | Jul 8 2021 0:32 utc | 50
Let me remind everyone of the excuse Amerikastan used to reinvade Iraq after withdrawal in 2011: ISIS started blitzing through Mosul and Fallujah and Amerikastan was to "protect Iraq". ISIS even obligingly didn't attack Baghdad, though they were close to it and the Amerikastani trained Iraqi "army" had run away, so that Amerikastan could bring in the reoccupation forces. Now ISIS is gathering strength again, so knows from where, and Amerikastan is attacking the forces that beat it last time. Interesting, isn't it?
Look to see a dramatic increase in ISIS attacks in Afghanistan, too, after Bidet "withdraws", but before the puppet child sex slaver Quisling warlord regime of Ghani falls.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Jul 8 2021 0:34 utc | 51
Steven T Johnson:
One doesn't have to endorse or like the Taliban to celebrate the victory that they earned over the Amerikastani Empire, or to cheer on the overthrow of the horrible puppet Quisling warlord regime in Kabul that chains child sex slaves to beds and sells justice to the highest bidder. That is precisely why the Taliban is popular across ethnic lines in 2021 when it was a hated Ghilzai oppressor even to Pashtuns twenty years ago. If the Taliban won't fight the imperialists and their slaves, who will?
One doesn't have to endorse the Shia theocratic resistance groups in Iraq to support them in their attempt to drive out the imperialist Amerikastani occupation, which is refusing to leave in direct contradiction of the demand of the Iraqi parliament. If the PMUs don't fight the imperialists and their slaves, who will?
I do not know if this is something you fail to understand or just choose not to.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Jul 8 2021 0:43 utc | 52
If memory serves, Obama wasn't terribly keen on a "humanitarian intervention" in Libya, but his Secretary of State (the one who eventually became famous for the "We came, we saw, he died" cackle) was among those vehemently arguing in favor of it, and of course won out.
In a rush, so I can't research this; confirmation or correction is welcome.
Posted by: corvo | Jul 8 2021 0:47 utc | 53
It's said that imitation is a form of unwarranted flattery used by detractors. But the question posed @50 is clearly legitimate given the level of naivete present within the public.
On increasing complexity(ies). It's often noted by observers and actors that despite its failure a policy is "doubled-down", which is a way of saying we'll try to improve it by making it more complex. Note that if the policy was to be lessened, that would be a simplification. Another example is the propensity of government "to keep at it until it gets it right," which is another method of making a policy more complex. Yet another is the practice of doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result from all those that were previously the same. One excellent example comes from the Fed policy of Quantitative Easing, which is said to be done to increase economic performance when it does the opposite. Same thing with the Neoliberal pumping of bubbles which in the modern era began with the criminal Alan Greenspan--here the reality is that the public's lied to so the filthy rich can become even richer while the public gets poorer, a phenomenon best reflected by essentially stagnant wage levels since 1970. Then we have outright government falsification of economic indicators through the process of making the calculations more complex so the desired lie is obtained, as with inflation, unemployment, and GDP.
Those are some of the basics. Another good one is deregulation that seems to imply a lessening of complexity when in reality it complicates the public's ability to oversee business so that it performs for the greater good, which is in line with the idea of constructing "a more perfect Union," when the actual and aimed for result is a debilitation in the Union solely for the benefit of an individual parasite or parasitic organization--the Military Industrial Congressional Complex being an excellent example. Of course, there're many more related to the very popular doubling-down on failed policies and others. But I'll allow the poser of the question to find them, which ought to be easy since they're so many.
It seems like the troll level is going up at MoA
We seem to have a troll that b has to continually delete comments from, meaning to me that they are using troll tools and continually attempting to disrupt ongoing commentary at the bar.
I think these efforts say way more about the state of the individual or the interests they represent than MoA barflies and side taking they are attempting to incite.
I love the smell of desperation on the Intertubes
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 8 2021 1:53 utc | 55
"All of this raises the obvious question: why are U.S. forces still in Iraq in 2021? .."
Looking for Iraqi WMD? Wait, may be the evidences of Wuhan Lab leak?
/sarc
Posted by: d dan | Jul 8 2021 2:08 utc | 56
Posted by: donkeyfuckface | Jul 8 2021 0:18 utc | 54
Chickenshits in other words. Too afraid to change the world while living the good life that western imperialism affords them.
So, donkeyfuckface, what are you doing to change the world?
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jul 8 2021 2:28 utc | 58
@ corvo | Jul 8 2021 0:32 utc | 56
RE: "But in all fairness (heh), there's no "stalling on re-joining JCPOA" on the part of the power centers known collectively as Biden. The USA's rejoining the JCPOA is simply inconceivable; it will never happen"
Negotiating anything in good faith wouldn't even occur to them.
Posted by: MarkU | Jul 8 2021 2:36 utc | 59
So, Afghanistan was invaded by NATO in 2001 to “destroy al Qaeda “, and 20 years later NATO imports al Qaeda into Afghanistan?
https://southfront.org/turkey-to-send-syrian-mercenaries-to-afghanistan-monitoring-group/
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Jul 8 2021 2:47 utc | 60
Biswapriya Purkayast @Jul8 2:47 #69
LOL. Insightful.
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 8 2021 3:00 utc | 61
It saddens me to see this level of vitriol coming from the commentariat. Please respect your host and his site and spread your misery elsewhere.
Posted by: MW | Jul 8 2021 3:01 utc | 62
@ Biswapriya Purkayast | Jul 8 2021 2:47 utc | 69
As the late Robin Cook claimed....
"Al-Qaida, literally "the database", was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians."
They started as CIA assets and there is no reason to believe that they have ever been anything other than CIA assets.
Posted by: MarkU | Jul 8 2021 3:04 utc | 63
Posted by: MarkU |Jul 8 2021 3:04 utc | 64
They started as CIA assets and there is no reason to believe that they have ever been anything other than CIA assets.
Indeed - and remarkable how so few want to follow that thread to 911.
Posted by: gottlieb | Jul 8 2021 3:11 utc | 64
@65 gottlieb
Very good point. But I don't think they were THAT well trained. It took some pretty skilled operatives with access and credentials over days or weeks to bring those buildings down.
In light of your observation, I could think the various dupes who were traced through the comedy of flight school and such were straight out of the Database. I could suppose they were to be the fall guys if it were to come to that.
The evidence for Israelis as the principal actors is persuasive - one can find this from Laurent Guyénot at Unz Review.
Posted by: Grieved | Jul 8 2021 3:25 utc | 65
Petri Krohn @ 44:
I would have thought the assassins of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse might have done a better job of disguising themselves by not speaking Spanish in a French-speaking country. Reading your comment, and given that Moïse's political background as head of PHTK, I was almost tempted to think they were supposed to have gone to another country to carry out a political hit-job there.
Posted by: Jen | Jul 8 2021 3:43 utc | 66
@ 44 petri / 67 jen... so what? is that a hit job from some group from miami yelling they are DEA? the yelling part looks like a foil to me... i doubt very much it is DEA..
Posted by: james | Jul 8 2021 3:56 utc | 67
Posted by: gottlieb | Jul 7 2021 20:23 utc | 14
Thanks gottlieb, you have summed up US foreign policy in a few words. The geopolitical imperatives, deployments and military campaigns follow your dictum and naturally flow from that.
Some pundits even assert the US 'follows its own interests.' If only it did.
Posted by: Paul | Jul 8 2021 5:28 utc | 68
Well, Lebanon 1983 demonstrated what was needed to declaw the hegemon.
It will likely take something similar to turn the media narratives towards negative.
Otherwise it is just more cat and mouse games.
Posted by: imo | Jul 8 2021 5:39 utc | 69
I'm wondering what others of you think about the many recent stories in the Western MSM that the HMS Defender's violation of Russian waters off Crimea NEVER HAPPENED? [Just google "HMS Defender spoof" to see dozens of such stories, mostly all simply repetitions of one another.]
The staggering fraudulent claim, repeated in all such stories, is that in "truth" the HMS Defender was still moored in Odessa at the time of the "alleged" intrusion incident, that the Russians in fact neither trailed the ship with coast guard vessels, nor fired warning shots nor dropped a small bomb, nor buzzed it repeated with aircraft, nor sent it the many radio warnings to leave the waters captured at the time in a report submitted by a BBC reporter -- who evidently merely "claimed" to have been onboard the ship! -- but that the entire "fake" incident was in fact all just a big "spoof" conjured up by nefarious Russian hacking of the ship's location data to make it appear that the ship had left Odessa and passed close to Crimea when in fact it was still tied to a dock in Odessa.
This has to be one of the most brazen BIG LIES I have ever heard, a truly ridiculous attempt to extricate the UK military and its duplicitous leader, Boris Johnson, from the mess they created through their deliberate provocation -- also confirmed by the BBC reporter onboard the vessel -- and escalation of their endless hostility toward Russia and Vladimir Putin! Truly amazing stuff, and not ONE of the many MSM outlets repeating the WACKO fairy-tale story seems to have bothered to investigate its veracity but merely hurried not to be left off the big lie bandwagon!
Posted by: Billosky | Jul 8 2021 5:39 utc | 70
“We came, we saw, he died”, as we say in Spanish, a simple button will give away the suit. Assuming all her other actions where angelical that statement alone reveals more than an encyclopedic study about the character.
Rozhin has a translation of a 2016 article about the Queen of Chaos, aka Hillary and Haiti, a few interesting details in it now that the most unfortunate country in America is front page news, -remember, America is a whole continent, not just a country on its way to become a shit hole-. Now to find out the real news about the USA one has to read Russian media ;)
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2016/11/what-the-clintons-did-to-haiti
“El País” this morning, -let us keep on reading foreign media-, suggests that Moïse was an enemy of Bolivarians, so how convenient that the hit squad spoke Spanish, some linguist will be hired and he/she conveniently will attest that the accent is from La Guaira, Venezuela, and nowhere else, sort of like the geologist that was investigating the stones behind OBLaden on his public appearances, to localize the culprit. The fish rots starting with the head, we are getting close to the tail now.
Posted by: Paco | Jul 8 2021 5:40 utc | 71
Posted by: Billosky | Jul 8 2021 5:39 utc | 71
It seems to me thay have been becoming more brazen in their lying for some time, particularly the British, but our US spoks too. And I think that is mostly because anything sensible will not be accepted as an explanation for the bizarre events. For some things, a ridiculous excuse is more likely to be accepted than something well-known. "Desperate times call for desperate measures."
Posted by: Paco | Jul 8 2021 5:40 utc | 72
Yes, I stopped using US media for news a long time ago. ANd the last couple years I've been checking out Russian media mostly to find out what is going here and internationally because the US media are all corrupt and infantile. I'd actually prefer to read US news media, but they all got bought out.
Posted by: Bemildred | Jul 8 2021 7:12 utc | 72
Grieved | Jul 8 2021 3:25 utc | 66
OT a bit, but I have always thought that there were three groups involved in 9/11. "Set-up and cover-up" => Israel (1). "Follow the money" => Rumsfeld and Cheney (2), Fall-guys", or the "data-based" Saudis (3) etc.
A quick breakdown
(1), Only they have the resources and motivation to set up such a situation. This part includes whatever form of explosives used . ie. I think one of the most plausible is the use of false ceiling plaques (6kg of explosives each plaque) every two floors, which were installed in the couple of weeks prior to the act. (In the twin towers but not 7).
Cover-up Their control of the media etc, and having many well placed operatives who enabled the total cover-up afterwards. (Mueller and Guilliani are two examples)
(2) The cash; Rumsfeld and the Pentagon missing trillions. Cheney was the one who "stood down" the airforce, and organised the remarkably similar "exercise" beforehand - so that the unknowing military would be fooled into thinking this was just a continuation of it.
Cheney then moved Haliburton to Doha. Odd that, things repeat themselves.
This part of the operation was not so successful as it "lost" one plane, (presumably the one which would have targeted No. 7) and the other hit the Finance department of the Pentagon (Element of doubt there, as there could have been interior explosives as well). The hit squad on No. 7 used a direct demolition method.
(3) CIA or FBI, and the Art students (Israeli) and various Flying schools. The Saudi contingent was well "covered" along Shakespeare road, by the neighbours (Mossad). etc. The motivation of Ben L and setting him up to take action against the infidels (the US) near Mecca/Medina.
****
Update idea; The Wahabis could have been promised or knew about the countries planned to be attacked later. Iraq, Syria etc. etc. This would have been their "reward" for being the fall guys. Wahabi vs Shia.
*****
There still has to be a reckoning to come for the last twenty years.
****
I missed the biggest part; The taking over of the "Provisional" Government by Cheney as Bush was still in the air, and as the "anti-military expansion" Senators were hidden in Bunkers with no outside access...... Some other time.
Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 8 2021 9:03 utc | 73
re Bemildred | Jul 8 2021 7:12 utc | 73
Yeah it's tough, the only solution is to read as much as you can from everywhere then after absorbing all those frequently conflicting 'facts' form your own opinion.
I dunno your take Bemildred, but as far as I can tell all major news outlets everywhere in the world peddle their own brand of bulldust. For us englander speakers the tossage that the USuk media vomit out 24/07/365 is the most blatantly deceitful. However that said, we would have to be mugs to accept all the spiels which news sites from other non-USuk communities spruik.
Sure on the evidence those sites are gonna seem much more enamoured of truthiness than the USuk sites, nevertheless we must employ the same critical thinking when we consider their 'facts'. Those that we use when absorbing then analyzing USuk deceits may be accurate yet still mislead.
IOW it is the same now as it has ever been - any possible 'leader' can spout whatever standardized take on our shared reality that best suits his/her ambitious agenda.
Some will call it cynicism or a psychosis induced disbelief of 'the one thing which could save us' but most will see that healthy mistrust of the didactic know-it alls, aka politicians, as being the best chance for ordinary citizens to sort the shit from the clay & then build something free of the self serving know-it-alls' delusions.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Jul 8 2021 9:38 utc | 74
Debsisdead | Jul 8 2021 9:38 utc | 75
"Some will call it cynicism or a psychosis induced disbelief of 'the one thing which could save us' but most will see that healthy mistrust of the didactic know-it alls, aka politicians, as being the best chance for ordinary citizens to sort the shit from the clay & then build something free of the self serving know-it-alls' delusions."
At last, a statement that I can totally agree with. But a question; how many at MoA learnt this at an early age? (I "lost faith" in authority at the age of four, sitting behind cold semolina puddings without jam, with a nut job "teacher" trying to face me down and get me to eat it, during complete afternoons. I think I won, but I still cannot stand semolina)
Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 8 2021 9:53 utc | 75
Stonebird @ 74
OT a bit, but I have always thought that there were three groups involved in 9/11
Well, Joseph P. Farrell thinks so too, and he's the only one I've ever read who really went out on a limb with such conjecture.
The physics signature must be explained...the empirical evidence demands it...
Posted by: john | Jul 8 2021 10:33 utc | 76
@Stonebird | Jul 8 2021 9:03 utc | 74
Re your (1). I am a structural engineer, and I just don't find it plausible to explain it using ordinary explosives on every second floor as you suggest, for several reasons including complexity and risk of failure. I agree with john @77 when he says the physics signature must be explained. You have to account for such things that most of the steel structure turned to dust, the melting of the bedrock under the towers, the melting of engine blocks in cars nearby while paper was unaffected etc. To me it looks like some kind of resonance effect ripping solid material into dust, I guess the most likely candidate for the source of the energy required is a low yield nuclear device.
Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 8 2021 11:18 utc | 77
@Stonebird | Jul 8 2021 9:53 utc | 76
a question; how many at MoA learnt this at an early age? (I "lost faith" in authority at the age of four, sitting behind cold semolina puddings without jam, with a nut job "teacher" trying to face me down and get me to eat it, during complete afternoons. I think I won, but I still cannot stand semolina)
I grew up with a father-in-law who turned out to be a psychopath (his mother told me so later). I couldn't figure out what was going on for a long time, but I knew something was very wrong and I was pretty sure it wasn't me. I will not bore you with details, but the typical characteristics of a psychopathic mind was very clear as I got older. To live through something like that as a child or teenager either drives you mad or makes you stronger. For sure it taught me a lesson not to trust people too much. I have met other people with such characteristics once or twice since then, then my alarm bells were ringing loudly as others didn't know what they looked at. It is clear to me that there is an over-representation of people with such characteristics in politics and other positions of power.
Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 8 2021 11:29 utc | 78
john | Jul 8 2021 10:33 utc | 77
Norwegian | Jul 8 2021 11:18 utc | 78
Although, as both of you say, the physical effects have yet to be explained. My reflection was based on the "simplest" answer. (Known) ie There were some "workers" who ostensibly changed the panels in the two weeks before 9/11, while the security cameras were turned off. (unknowns) Of course they could have installed other explosives. Nobody could identify them or see what they actually did.
I related that to the "dancing" Israelis who were seen celebrating and let go after being "questioned".
The reason for the "every second floor" - is that if there were explosives on EACH floor, the timing would have led to the slowing down of the collapse. The pressure build-up would have worked against the descent of the upper floors. (I also read that the Bang-2 approach would have enabled the pressure wave to increase).
So, yes there are many other things that do not add up. indestructible passports being the comedy act. Since then we have also learnt that there are "dial-an-output" nuclear weapons. Must count them in. I am at a loss to explain the car burn-ups which appear as "unrelated". To explain why the results are so diverse, I suppose that the easiest explanation was the use of multiple "means of massive destruction" (MoMD), just to make sure.
The excessive residual heat CANNOT be explained by the collapse. But what exactly was the cause is another problem.
No bodies, concrete dust? Miami ? Curious.
**
Joseph P. Farrell;
He brings in too many new possibilities. Sure, there will be some, but even with only three choices, certain people may have two or more functions. ie. Cheney was the person who took over the provisional Government, was with Rumsfeld in hogtying the normal military and airforce and was a "Zionist", and loves money. He belongs in several groups at the same time.
***
A bit for Norwegian. That film on the Pyramids (I only got up to two hours in two seances); OK with the idea of "concrete" blocks, but I really can't believe in his "solar" power to dissolve granite with 5 metre wide sunglasses.! BUT, he carefully avoids WHERE the knowledge came from to start with.
Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 8 2021 12:05 utc | 79
Norwegian | Jul 8 2021 11:29 utc | 79
I think I "won" as she really did end up in an insane asylum at the end of school!
***
People like that can have a "public" face that is the complete opposite of their true character. I am a bit slow to recognise such people, Luckily my wife was born with a sixth-sense for danger, and has saved us (literally) by knowing when to bolt.
The only time I acquired a real sixth-sense was in PNG, where first impressions are the correct ones. Intuition is something that we need to use more often. Back to "natural reactions" has it's advantages.
Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 8 2021 12:18 utc | 80
@ Norwegian | Jul 8 2021 11:18 utc | 78
It seems you have fallen for that science fantasy garbage started by Judy wood and promoted by 9/11 truth movement saboteur and probable intelligence asset Jim Fetzer.
"most of the steel structure turned to dust" My arse.
As for 'resonance effects' and 'low yield nukes' Making shit up as you go along is not science.
Anyone who has seen the interview between Greg Jenkins and Judy Wood would have seen that Judy Wood had absolutely nothing to back up her claims apart from a cherry picked photo that looked eerie but was only a line of sight effect. The last thing the 9/11 truth movement needed than or now is fantastical speculative garbage.
Posted by: MarkU | Jul 8 2021 13:10 utc | 81
Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 8 2021 11:18 utc | 78
The explosives is thermite high velocities explosives. It's a controlled demolition. Not some wacky low yield nuclear promoted to discredit the 9/11 civil investigators. They've been used very successfully in all case of civil demolition. Why would they use low yield nuclear that is both harder to controls for precise demolition and harder to conceals during the explosion and resulting aftermath.
Posted by: Lucci | Jul 8 2021 13:26 utc | 82
"I dunno your take Bemildred, but as far as I can tell all major news outlets everywhere in the world peddle their own brand of bulldust. For us englander speakers the tossage that the USuk media vomit out 24/07/365 is the most blatantly deceitful. However that said, we would have to be mugs to accept all the spiels which news sites from other non-USuk communities spruik.
Posted by: Debsisdead | Jul 8 2021 9:38 utc | 75
Yes. I eventually arrived at the idea that it is easier to just admit everybody lies from time to time, some people more than others, some less. Looking around the bar you know who is who. I certainly have not felt any obligation to be candid on the Internet for a long time now.
But they lie about different things. I started out reading "progressive" sites, maybe 25 years ago, after the bulletin boards became obsolete, opposing Bush the Lesser's Wars. Now after a long evolution I read a few news aggregators and discussion sites like this one that provide useful links, and lots of US' enemies and forbidden writers. US' friends are useless. US media itself will lead you into the ditch. You try to find ones that do no allow too much ranting and other non-content.
So that seems to be the best way to discern what we are up to and what everybody thinks about it.
But they all will dissemble. I trust Jesus, and that is about it. You just cannot be too cynical when it comes to politics.
Posted by: Bemildred | Jul 8 2021 13:41 utc | 83
Posted by: Debsisdead | Jul 8 2021 9:38 utc | 75
And thank you for your comment.
Posted by: Bemildred | Jul 8 2021 13:42 utc | 84
@Stonebird | Jul 8 2021 12:05 utc | 80
A bit for Norwegian. That film on the Pyramids (I only got up to two hours in two seances); OK with the idea of "concrete" blocks, but I really can't believe in his "solar" power to dissolve granite with 5 metre wide sunglasses.! BUT, he carefully avoids WHERE the knowledge came from to start with.
I agree that that film is not to be regarded as believable. Yes, it is ridiculous with the solar power you mention. I think Davidovits' core idea regarding limestone blocks in the pyramids being "geopolymer" concrete blocks is worth considering, but I totally reject claims that it happened during dynastic times (i.e. by the pharaos). They simply did not have the engineering capacity nor technological level to do anything near that, regardless of building method. So I still contend, in agreement with the estimated time of the Sphinx enclosure that the pyramids were built by someone else than the dynastic Egyptians, a society with much higher technology, living before the Younger Dryas 12900 years ago, and thus at least 8000 years before the first Pharao.
We are today much closer in time to the Egyptian pharaos than the pharaos themselves were to those who built the pyramids.
Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 8 2021 15:06 utc | 85
the cause of the current conflict is the continued U.S. presence {in foreign lands}. <=foreign is also the cause of the current economic problems in USA governed America.. .. Americans are unaware of troop deployment, private mercenary, and private commercial enterprises d/business in Foreign lands.
A. L @ 4 says "It ain't going to stop until USD is toilet paper."
<= Agree.. The global unseens have decided to rape first
then destroy domestic America, just as they did the Spanish
Empire, the Ottoman Empire, then Germany, then Japan, and
then Viet Nam and then Iraq. The local nation state leadership
is replaced with rape and destroy Trojans; MSM blinds the
nation state governed populations.. financial and social
impoverishment ensures; Unrest and Chaos builds. The model
emulates the run-up to the Bolshevik revolution. All is
well that ends badly.
JohninMK @ 10 elements from Afghanistan are being redeployed
to Jordan.. <= Leave behind billions in military equipment is
standard way to transfer military equipment to new invaders .?
thanks @ 61 for link in point..
MarkU @ 64: <=when it walks like a duck, talks like duck,
swims like a duck it might be a duck" <=thanks for the duck talk.
Karlof1 @ 11 says ."IMO Imperial planners .[seek to]. gain control, ..
of China's financial system .. from the inside." <= Sanctions applied
against third party outsiders have worked in China's favor.. deep
penetration of target nation state institutions <= is a CIA art
form..already the Trojans own wall street..
Karlof1 @ 42 .. it's a crisis in Human Morality/Ethics/Sensibility/Nature/Failings ...suppressed by those who seek to use them for their own schemes--
<=Do you mean Chaos is used as a game changer?
karlof1 @ 44 says "..the USA and its NATO allies ..is deliberately
destabilizing the security conditions on Russia’s borders." <= today
MSM <= Russia responsible for billion dollar ransomware .. exploits
and by: Billosky @ 71 talks about the HMS Defender propaganda..
Psychohistorian @ 56 says "It seems like the troll level is going up at MoA" <=Disruptive intervention converts "social success" into "chaos". ?
Posted by: snake | Jul 8 2021 15:11 utc | 86
@Stonebird | Jul 8 2021 12:18 utc | 81
People like that can have a "public" face that is the complete opposite of their true character.Indeed, that is a core characteristic and my father-in-law was just like that. Nobody believed me when I tried to explain what was going on because "he is such a nice person".
Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 8 2021 15:12 utc | 87
@MarkU | Jul 8 2021 13:10 utc | 82
If you have any factual arguments it would be a good idea for you to present them.
Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 8 2021 15:15 utc | 88
Iranian sources claim 8 American deaths in Ain al-Assad. Makes sense when you think of it, that mother of a barrage wasn't obviously launched as fireworks for the pleasure of the occupiers. US occupied Conoco oil field in Syria was hit by something comparable to a barrage of grad missiles, or maybe it was. There must have been at least some serious injuries (brain injuries?) That the Americans as usual would want to keep secret.
Posted by: mikhas | Jul 8 2021 15:17 utc | 89
@Lucci | Jul 8 2021 13:26 utc | 83
The explosives is thermite high velocities explosives. It's a controlled demolition. Not some wacky low yield nuclear promoted to discredit the 9/11 civil investigators. They've been used very successfully in all case of civil demolition. Why would they use low yield nuclear that is both harder to controls for precise demolition and harder to conceals during the explosion and resulting aftermath.
Speculating in motives is not a useful approach when trying to establish the facts of what happened. Instead observe the facts and see which hypotheses are contradicted by the facts.
The thermite idea does not explain the observations I mentioned earlier, melted bedrock and melted engine blocks etc.
"If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong"
Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 8 2021 15:31 utc | 90
@ Norwegian | Jul 8 2021 11:29 utc | 79
"It is clear to me that there is an over-representation of people with such characteristics in politics and other positions of power."
Well, you're absolutely right.
You can self-validate those thoughts by reading "Political Ponerology -- A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes" by Russian psychologist Andrew Lobaczewski, and/or "Snakes in Suits -- When Psychopaths go to Work" by Paul Babiak, Ph.D. and Robert D. Hare, Ph.D.
One of the things that will be learned by reading those books is that psychopaths form about four percent of the human society, but that their ghastly mentality allows them to rise to positions of power more easily than normal folks do.
Posted by: AntiSpin | Jul 8 2021 16:13 utc | 91
@Antispin and @Oldhippie why are you feeding STJ?
Ignoring them is THE best way.
Posted by: Per/Norway | Jul 8 2021 16:57 utc | 92
MarkU @ 82
Judy Wood compiled over 500 pages of empirical evidence from ground zero, and as yet no-one has debunked any of it. Perhaps you can be the first, but as Norwegian points out, you'll have to get back to us with something meaningful.
Posted by: john | Jul 8 2021 16:57 utc | 93
Terrific piece. Joe Biden oversees an American Empire- 1) mired in astronomically expensive strategic debacles in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen; the Pentagon is incapable of extricating itself from these conflicts, as doing so is an admission of failure and by extension military weakness, 2) in terminal economic decline, accelerated by the Covid19 pandemic- since Mar, 2020 US government debt has ballooned to $8 trillion; total government debt exceeds $28 trillion; obviously unsustainable, and 3) confronted with a rising global south and a Russia-China-Iran alliance that has attained military/economic parity with the US. The decline of late-stage American capitalism has progressed to the point where its very survival is contingent upon constant debt monetization (aka money printing) to prop up financial markets and the military. This is becoming increasingly tenuous as this orgy of money printing and debt has increased inflation and threatening to derail the dollars role as the world reserve currency. The US has nothing left but issuing constant bellicose threats and economic warfare against Russia, China, Iran and any other country deemed an obstacle to US global power. It appears that Biden has persuaded US vassals- Japan and India to prepare for the upcoming war with China. This will lead to WWIII. See- Japan “Preparing to Fight” China Over Taiwan by Alexander Mercouris July 8, 2021; Link: https://theduran.com/japan-preparing-to-fight-china-over-taiwan
@psychohistorian (1) Body bags are of little concern to the U.S. military and to the American public, it would appear. The level of anti-war sentiment within the United States approaches zero, even amongst most left-liberal activists and media publications. Yes, the U.S. is removing active duty forces from Afghanistan, but mercenary forces and aerial bombing will continue indefinitely. When the U.S. will leave Iraq and Syria is anyone's guess, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for it to happen.
Posted by: Rob | Jul 8 2021 19:55 utc | 95
Wiki
Mazar-i-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railway line is a proposed rail project signed in February 2021 by Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It will have an estimated length of 600 km of 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) Russian gauge track.[1][2][3][4]
Damn Ruskies! Why they did add 5/27'' to their rail gauge to get nice round 5'? Seriously, such a railroad could facilitate trade and many mining projects, I wonder who would found it -- the three countries mentioned above do not have excess capital. Russia and China?
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 8 2021 20:04 utc | 96
typo: they did not add 5/32" to their rail gauge
There is a legend why Russia chose to use a wider gauge than Germans and other Europeans. Tsar was asked for an opinion, and he tersely replied: [...] wider? [...] is a name of a body part -- of widely variable size, and the expression can be understood "why the heck wider" or "wider by [...]", the first interpretation would be vulgar, so the engineers decided to use the second interpretation.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 8 2021 20:08 utc | 97
Japan fight for Taiwan?
Only in the masturbatory delusions of ignorant neo-con writers.
Japan won't even fight for itself and acts like the subservient vassal of the USA. As that jackass Trump said, we dropped nukes on them, but they love us so much.
Forget Japan. The JSDF only fights in movies and anime.
And China will never actually invade Taiwan because the Chinese govt will never shed the blood of its soldiers for a dumbass worthless symbolic gain like that. Their plan is to constantly threaten Taiwan so that the Taiwanese govt, which is weak, corrupt and subservient to the USA, is too scared to do the full Monty.
No one is willing to die for Taiwan. And if the weak and corrupt Taiwanese govt isn't willing to die itself, nobody is dumb enough to do it for them.
At the very most, China will blockade, sanction or even bomb/attack some Taiwanese ships or planes, but there will be no ground invasion. China is too smart to do something dumb like that.
China will just escalate and say, it's your move now.
This Taiwan issue is a loser for the USA. At very most, the USA can use Taiwan to poke China. But beyond that, there's nothing of value to the USA, which would do better to lift up its own people, infrastructure, jobs and real economy instead of playing dumbass masturbatory wargames with China, Russia and Iran.
But that will never happen because the US war-machine needs money and the US establishment has never cared about Americans, but only to preserve its own power.
Posted by: GreatSocialist | Jul 8 2021 21:02 utc | 98
Debsisdead | Jul 7 2021 22:50 utc | 41
I dunno why so many even bother to read johnson/slothrop's irrational garbage.
Yes, don't feed the troll! A tedious waste of time, reading his stuff. Answering such garbage is just encouraging him.
Posted by: foolisholdman | Jul 9 2021 9:33 utc | 99
GreatSocialist | Jul 8 2021 21:02 utc | 99
Russian FM Sergey Lavrov: "What is of concern is not the US-Japan Alliance itself but who it’s directed at. Japan assured us many times they’ll never allow threatening weapons deployments on their territory, but now they’re doing it and the US declared Russia an adversary."
China may not be the only objective in rearming japan. The Kuril Islands and the Russians may be more "attractive" for pentagon planners. The Russians won't declare "peace" as the Japanese would (are at the minimum suspected of...) place US missile in bases on the islands. Thereby controlling access to the sea of Okhotsk and Sakhalin.
Vladivostok is directly opposite Japan.
Posted by: Stonebird | Jul 9 2021 10:18 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
Thanks for the posting b....ZH has a recent story up about the same situation but not done quite like yours so I don't think it is a rip-off.
I pity the poor 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Carson, Colorado being thrown into the meat grinder...
How many bodies in bags returning will it take to kick empire entirely out of Iraq?
How many bodies in bags returning will it take to kick empire entirely out of Afghanistan?
How many bodies in bags returning will it take to kick empire entirely out of Syria?
The shit show continues until it doesn't and I am liking the trend.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 7 2021 17:43 utc | 1