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February 3, 2024
Ending The U.S. Presence In Middle East

The Biden administration, in its utter stupidity, is launching a(nother) full fledged war throughout the Middle East.

U.S. launches retaliatory strikes after deadly attack on Jordan base – Washington Post – Feb 3, 2024
The operation, targeting numerous sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian forces and its affiliates, followed the killing of American troops last weekend

> U.S. forces launched a broad attack against Iran’s powerful military wing and affiliated militias in Iraq and Syria on Friday, delivering a blow to armed groups that Washington has blamed for killing American troops in Jordan and a surge of violence across the Middle East. <

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Daniel McAdams @DanielLMcAdams – 11:01 UTC · Feb 3, 2024

The Biden Administration just literally just blew up all the weapons of the Iraqi brigade that was fighting ISIS!
Let that sink in…

Hawkeye1812Z @Hawkeye1745 22:09 UTC · Feb 2, 2024

🇺🇸💥🇮🇶Footage shows the explosions of the headquarters of the Anbar Operation Command & the headquarters of the 13th Hashd al-Sha’bi Brigade, after it was targeted by US raids, in the Anbar province of Iraq

That is is unit which is fighting ISIS … 🤔
Embedded video

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Secretary Antony Blinken @SecBlinken – 21:01 UTC · Feb 2, 2024

I am returning to the Middle East this coming week to continue working with our partners on how to achieve durable peace in the region, with lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

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President Biden @POTUS – 22:45 UTC · Feb 2, 2024

Today, at my direction, U.S. military forces struck targets in Iraq and Syria that the IRGC and affiliated militia use to attack U.S. forces.

We do not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world.

But to all those who seek to do us harm: We will respond.

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Elijah J. Magnier @ejmalrai – 14:11 UTC · Feb 3, 2024

The US: We don't want to escalate the war in the ME, but we bombed Yemen & killed 10 Yemenis, we bombed Syria & Iraq & killed 16 Iraqis, 7 Syrians, but please de-escalate coz we will bomb you more in the coming days. In the meantime we are sending bombs to Israel to bomb Gaza.

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In 2020, after the U.S. assassination of General Qassam Suleimani, the leadership of Iran announced that, in consequence, the U.S. presence in the Middle East will be ended. Iran and its allies have since diligently prepared themselves to achieve that aim.

The hot phase of the process itself was initiated primarily by Hamas on October 7 (which followed the October 2 desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Zionist settlers). The secondary and tertiary steps were launched by Ansarollah in Yemen and Kataib Hizbullah in Iraq.

In each cases the U.S. and its Israeli proxy responded with harsh escalations.

It was the biggest mistake they could make.

agitpapa @agitpapa – 15:07 UTC · Feb 3, 2024

Harakat al Nujaba PMF declares that it will not be defeated or subdued by US airstrikes and vows to teach the US humility with fire, says it has surprises in store.
Attached image

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Syrian military statement: US occupation cannot persist – Al Mayadeen – Feb 3, 2024
In its statement, Syria's military emphasizes that the US is working on reviving ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

> The statement also affirmed that the Syrian army will continue to defend Syria's land and people, and strike all terrorist groups, regardless of how much their sponsors and supporters try to obstruct this goal. It added that it is determined to liberate the entire Syrian territory from all terrorism and occupation, including the US occupation which "cannot persist." <

The Axis of Resistance is present throughout the Middle East. It has its own economic and social networks. It produces its own weapons and its fighters are well trained to fight under the local circumstances. This is an enemy the U.S. can not defeat.

As Aaron Maté explains:

These groups’ decision to strike US forces in response to the Gaza genocide follows a well-entrenched pattern of resisting joint US-Israeli aggression, or what the Journal describes as efforts to “push back against American and Israeli influence” in the Middle East. And contrary to US claims that Iran’s main regional allies – Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ansar Allah in Yemen (the Houthis), the PMU in Iraq, Hamas/Islamic Jihad in Palestine, and the Syrian government — are all mere Iranian “proxies”, these groups “have domestic agendas of their own and operate with some measure of autonomy,” the Journal notes. US intelligence analyst Brian Katz concurs. Iran’s allies “are no longer simply Iranian proxies,” Katz writes. “Rather, they have become a collection of ideologically aligned, militarily interdependent, mature political-military actors committed to mutual defence.”

The conflict has boiling on a low flame for some time:

As the Washington Post notes, Iranian allies in the region “began targeting U.S. interests in 2018, after then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran” as part of a hawkish policy of “maximum pressure.” Rather than return to the Iran nuclear deal upon taking office in January 2021, Biden continued the Trump agenda – and knowingly endangered US troops in the process.

When Biden “ordered airstrikes on militia groups” in Syria, the Washington Post reported in August 2021, that ended up “sparking a fresh cycle of reciprocal violence, with militiamen firing at a facility housing U.S. troops and American forces responding with artillery fire.” Biden’s support for Israeli aggression against Syria yielded the same result. When a drone strike hit a US military base located in southern Syria in October 2021, US and Israeli officials acknowledged that it was “Iranian retaliation for Israeli airstrikes in Syria,” the New York Times reported.

In launching and encouraging attacks on Iranian allies in the region, Biden was pursuing an arrangement that he forged with the Israeli government In August 2021, then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged Biden to pursue “a death by a thousand cuts” strategy, in which the US and Israel would “[counter] Iran through a combination of many small actions across several fronts — both military and diplomatic — instead of a single dramatic strike,” Axios reported. The goal would be to put Iran’s “regional aggression” – a euphemism for resisting US-Israeli hegemony – “back in the box.” Toward that goal, one of Bennett’s key requests was that “Biden not to pull U.S. forces out of Iraq and Syria,” which the Israeli delegation felt quite “optimistic” about. In Biden, Bennett gushed, “I found a leader who loves Israel, knows exactly what he wants and is attuned to our needs.”

In opposite to those plans it is the Resistance which is using small and increasingly larger cuts to eliminate, over time, the U.S. presence in the Middle East. It is dead serious.

As Aleks of Black Mountain Analysis writes:

I would like to ask you now to understand the following: It is not what I want or my opinion; it is the ice-cold reality: On October 7th, a war was started by the Axis of Resistance. It was started against both Israel and the Western occupation of the Middle East. As stated above, it will not end before all occupation forces are out of the Middle East, the Two State Solution has been implemented in Israel, or all people in the Middle East are dead … period.

I have no emotions here; I’m not invested in the region. This is a logical assessment of what is currently happening in the region. It is not going to stop until one of the scenarios is implemented.

Other interested powers are already positioning themselves for a new situation in the Middle East.

Give it two, three or maybe even five years. But the envisioned results WILL be achieved.

Posted by b on February 3, 2024 at 15:38 UTC | Permalink
Comments

I had the same harsh reaction to such an awful idea: Minsk I-II Redux, on a much vaster scale, so the empire and the Zionists can gain time to regroup, do their usual co-optations and divide-and-conquer, and relaunch their war of aggression from what they hope would be a more advantageous position.
Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Feb 3 2024 18:38 utc | 78
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My reaction then and still is that it is a form of viertue-signaling to buy enough time to get Joe Biden re-elected.
No chance on God’s green earth of anything coming of it other than talk talk and ‘hopes.’ BTW, Hamas was not invited to that conversation. I mentioned it and am not waiting for S to give it any ‘thought’.

Posted by: Acco Hengst | Feb 4 2024 0:38 utc | 201

First off let’s dispense with the idea that Israel is a client state of the USA. Quite the opposite. The USA is a vassal state of Israel. The vast majority of our “elected” representatives are sexual deviants with a Mossad/Epstein child rape blackmail video hanging over their heads (in yesteryears the Sword of Damocles. Today, the Penus of Mossad). Notwithstanding, all of them are subject to AIPAC funding which is nothing more than repurposed American tax dollars.
USA foreign policy is fully owned by Israel. Once you understand this, things begin to make more sense. The Jews of Israel want to drag the USA into a regional war in the Middle East. Their cousin Jews in the Ukraine want to drag the USA into a war with Russia.
Equally with Israel, Jewlinsky has oh so much blackmail material on US politicians. The Biden family in particular.
God’s chosen people. Ready for your sons and daughters to get drafted to go and die for this Jewish bullshit? Get ready. Because they are going to reinstate the draft. And the Jews will conscript your white goyim sons and daughters to be sent off to die by the millions. Jewlinsky the piano penus jew was all too happy to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Christian Ukrainians, smashing themselves up against the active defenses of the Orthodox Christian Russians who lost tens of thousands. How many Ukrainian Jews have lost their lives in this war? Honest question. I’ll hazard to guess little to none.
So if the Jews manage to drag us into one or both of these wars what is going to transpire? Allow me to disabuse those with commonly held fallacies. I’m a veteran of Desert Storm, OEF and OIF. I enlisted in 1989 as an e-1 private and worked my way up to the Tier One.
Bottom line up front. We will be decisively defeated. In either one of those theatres not to mention both.
In 1989 we were still in the Cold War. Combined arms maneuver warfare against the Soviet Union was all we trained for. Period. Desert Storm cooks off and the majority of the Iraqi military surrendered in four days. On paper, Iraq had the third or fourth largest military in the world. Impressive. On paper.
Fast forward to 1999. I’ve done my Team time on multiple SFODAs. Now I have to serve my obligatory time at the Special Warfare Training Center selecting and training Green Berets as a cadre.
Being a Green Beret and serving my Country was my life. It was everything. I truly believed that a Green Beret should be able to benchpress 400lbs, run a 5minute mile, speed march 40 miles over adverse terrain while carrying 85 lbs and have a 4 minute breath hold. Those were the minimum standards. And I enforced those standards. My candidates were sent to Womack hospital with rhabdomyolysis on a regular basis. But for the record none of my candidates ever died.
Consequently people complained and I was summoned to the Command on a regular basis. But I never backed down. All I ever said is that Green Berets are required to be the baddest motherfuckers on the planet. The tab don’t say “ordinary forces.” The Tab says “Special Forces.”
Then one day during one of my routine call-ins, the Command SGM said something that broke me. He said “Captain, why are you pushing these men so hard? The whole world saw what happened in Desert Storm. Nobody is ever going to fuck with the United States again.” You need to understand that this was and has been and is the mentality of our military brass for the last three decades. We have not innovated or progressed. We have ridden on our laurels.
With that discussion I decided to punch out and go somewhere more serious.
Less than two years later the 9/11 attacks happened. I get recalled to command an SFODA in Afghanistan. I was ecstatic! I’m going to track down every last one of those motherfuckers and kill them! Mass formation psychosis. The whole damn western world fell for the Bush false flag. And as a young Green Beret I was no exception. Nobody paused to consider the alleged terrorists were Saudis, not Afghans or Iraqis. Let’s just fucking slaughter Muslims. And oh how Bibi and the Israelis rejoiced!
And I tell you that story in order to address this most current and prescient question. What will happen if we become decisively engaged with the entire Middle East or Russia in the Ukraine or China in Taiwan? We get slaughtered. In any scenario.
From the the chick who was the first fighter pilot who flew an F-14 Tomcat off the side of an aircraft carrier 25 years ago to the chick that flew an F-35 off the side of an aircraft carrier a few months ago.
Let me tell you my own experience with unqualified affirmative action bitches flying airplanes. My Team was infilled and linked up with a Northern Alliance General. We relieved a Team who told us that the vehicles were roached out and barely operational. So we infil with a basic load of seven mags with a promise from command that they would immediately fly in new vehicles and ammo, supplies etc.
So there we sit waiting for the promised resupply for a couple of weeks. Ah! Ok Command says resupply enroute. Fuck yeah!. Beans and bullets and trucks. We can finally get in the fight! We setup on an old Soviet airfield.
Of course it’s got to be done at night. We’re in a combat zone ostensibly controlled by the Taliban. All sides of the landing strip are heavily mined. But no sweat. We put out IR strobes lining the runway. We are “lassoing” the sky with the IR lasers on our M-4s. Can’t see anything with the naked eye but under NVGs it looks like Las Vegas skyline.
We hear the C-130 inbound. Awesome. We’re finally gonna get our food, water, ammo and some fresh vehicles. Now we can do some ops!
Female voice comes over the radio “I can’t see the airstrip.” Bullshit. This cunt was incapable landing a C-130 on a blacked out airfield in a denied area in a war zone in order to deliver supplies. Which is the exact mission of an C-130 pilot. Affirmative action bitch flies off with our food, water ammo and vehicles.
And this happened two more times with a female pilot. I don’t know if it was the same affirmative action incompetent bitch or a different one but it didn’t matter. We had to get shit done.
Luckily I had a big opfund so I bought Toyota Landcruisers and pickups out of Iran and got them smuggled into Afghanistan. I hired an Afghan welder who helped us fabricate gun mounts on our Toyotas for the M2s and 240s. Then we finally started doing ops. We went full native. And that’s fine. US Army Special Forces are trained to operate behind enemy lines indefinitely and without support.
Yeah we ate goat, watermelon, figs and long rice. Drinking out of the mountain streams. Cut off from the toxic MREs. I really started to feel good. Totally organic!
But we’re still waiting on our ammo and batteries etc. without those items our American weapons don’t work. No joy. But we’re Special Forces. And there are so many weapons caches that we are finding in the caves. New DShK “Duskas”, ZU-23s and AK-47s still packed in cosmoline. Brand fucking new. So we started using that shit. Because we didn’t have a choice.
Would I rather have an M4 with an IR laser that can only be seen under my NVGs? Or an AK-47? The former is a death dealer. The latter is a caveman gun.
And yet we still kicked ass. What was the Pentagon’s response? “Why are these Special Forces cowboys carrying AK-47s and why aren’t they adhering to AR 670-1 uniform and grooming standards?
Because you assholes with your affirmative action bitch pilots can’t resupply us! And where the hell are we going to get razors and shaving cream in Afghanistan?
Same deal about six months later. We were in Paktika province. Bringing down scuniun on the last remaining Taliban in Naka valley.
On our daily sitrep we would sarcastically ask for steak and lobster for resupply. Fuck the command. They can’t even get us food, water and ammo.
Then one night we had a bundle drop. Haha! Fuckin hell! Steak and lobster. We fabricated some grills and had a feast. My understanding is that was Eric Prince/Blackwater that dropped them bundles out of CASA 212s.
My point? Do you think that a military that is as fucked up and Marxist as our’s can take on the white alpha male Russian Christian soldiers? The Persian alpha male Iranian soldiers? The Han Chinese alpha male soldiers? Do you think that any of those militaries are worried about how many women, blacks and trannies are in their ranks?
Nope. Send in the women, trannies and blacks. Diversity is your strength. Me and my white children got our popcorn. We just gonna sit back and watch.
Go off to the slaughter young Goyim. At the behest of your Jewish masters.

Posted by: RLTW | Feb 4 2024 0:53 utc | 202

You can add the Olof Palme, Folke Bernadotte and Dag Hammarskjöld assassinations just for good measures.
Posted by: blueswede | Feb 4 2024 0:18 utc | 196
Folke Bernadotte is a no-brainer in terms of Zionists being behind his assassination and I guess Hammarskjöld and Palme follow suit.
The Bernadotte Plan aimed to address the grievances of both Israelis and Palestinians and achieve a lasting peace in the region. Bernadotte was assassinated in September 1948 by members of the extremist Zionist group Lehi (also known as the Stern Gang), and his plan was never fully implemented.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Feb 4 2024 0:58 utc | 203

Olof Palme left a lasting with his Palestine policy. Sweden is the only EU member state to have recognized the Palestinian state.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Feb 4 2024 1:05 utc | 204

Article from the Daily Mail (UK newspaper).
Royal Navy chiefs have been left red-faced after a multi-billion pound aircraft carrier suffered a ‘mechanical fault’ just hours before it was due to set sail to join a major NATO wargame.
The £3.5bn aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth was due to undertake a NATO drill in European waters, but could have been diverted should a threat have arisen from Houthi rebels to cargo ships and tankers in the area.
But engineers have found a ‘significant issue with her starboard propeller shaft’, meaning the British warship could be docked for ‘a couple of months’ while it is fixed, according to naval experts.
HMS Prince of Wales will now be readied to replace the faulty ship – a move viewed by some as ironic given the aircraft carrier only went back into service last July after also undergoing repairs that took nearly a year.
Just three days ago, Royal Navy chiefs were celebrating after ministers finally agreed to send an aircraft carrier to the Middle East to support US warships deployed in the Red Sea.

Posted by: Siddhartha | Feb 4 2024 1:08 utc | 205

The reason the Palme and Hammarskjöld assassinations have remained unresolved is the same reason why nobody knows who blew up the Nord Stream pipeline. It is pretty obvious once you see the pattern.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Feb 4 2024 1:10 utc | 206

Posted by: watcher | Feb 4 2024 0:11 utc | 194
Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | Feb 3 2024 23:25 utc | 180
Worrying PA
I just agreed with Nemesis – but yes I guess I was surprised I agreed, because he/she is a NAZI.
Now Scorpio is I think not a NAZI but an old style (about 1650 I think) Monarchist. From the little bit he has told of himself I think he is upper class UK and quite possibly has some high level connections. I was totally shocked when he espoused actual monarchist views- something that died in the UK with Charles I’s head but I guess it is a point of view. It is not NAZI though.

There is a difference between questioning some of the narratives about WWII Germany and being a Nazi. Just as there was a difference between the two million international Waffen SS volunteers and hard core Nazi SS enforcers. Like most people back then they sincerely believed the stories about the Red Terror, forced famines and Stalin’s purges and gulags and believed this is what Stalin had in mind for them. Now, ignorant people mock their sacrifice, not knowing any better. Whether misguided or not, I honour such sacrifice though I believe the entire War an elites-driven catastrophe.
Muller, the Head of the Gestapo Intelligence Division who spied on Russia, has some VERY interesting things to say about both Germany and Russia, though naturally skepticism is warranted. Of course most, like Pacifica, are too brainwashed to even consider judging for themselves. Even with the Kindle only costing $5.00 a volume…
Monarchy: I regard monarchy as a classic, but not the only, way of joining governance with sacred perception in society, thus a good antidote to the destruction of civilization materialism inevitably engenders. Although the current British Monarchy is little better than a castrated remnant, yet clearly the principle lives very much alive and well in the hearts of millions of Brits because Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses somehow resonate despite the obviously compromised, performative system in place since the Banksters took over in the 1600s. (Also, have personal experience with both Thai and Bhutanese royalty though they too are now watered down.)

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 4 2024 1:13 utc | 207

Re: pattern
Which country was it that gave Assange his first real legal trouble? Sweden. Reason: rape or whatever.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Feb 4 2024 1:13 utc | 208

psychohistorian | Feb 4 2024 0:37 utc | 199–
While travelling, I found time to post three important articles not being discussed at the bar, “Three Quick Items About West Asia”, that directly relate to this thread’s topic.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 4 2024 1:18 utc | 209

@ Menz | Feb 3 2024 22:32 utc | 160
Albanese is beyond disgusting and a complete fucking moron. Are most Australians OK with this?

Posted by: tawharanui | Feb 4 2024 1:20 utc | 210

William Gruff | Feb 3 2024 17:07 utc | 27
*** Why is the fourth option always dismissed? That option being the “One State Solution”, where that state is a modern, secular and pluralist one with equal rights for all?***
Because that would be heresy against the comparatively new, compulsory ‘religion’ of the carefully pre-selected “Western” political and ruling class….
That ‘religion’ basically amounting to fanatically devoted servitude to Zionist/Jewish exceptionalism and its self-identification as the master-race.
In return for substantial cargo-cultist personal rewards, though in some cases the prospect of “Armageddon” is an added bonus.

Posted by: Cynic | Feb 4 2024 1:29 utc | 211

It seems only yesterday, but it was a decade or so ago that we were discussing, in these hallowed halls, the curious way in which the United States was going out of its way to consolidate its opponents and critics into an unshakeable opposition bloc.
Iran, dominated by shiah clerics, had almost nothing in common with Russia, still longing for partnership with the macho, capitalist west, like an elegant aristocratic lady longing for the embraces of a rough cowboy.
And then there was China, defiantly secular, without any particular affinities either with turbo capitalist Moscow or Tehran and its mullahs.
Any one of them might easily have become an ally of the United States- Russia a northern and western threat to the Communist descendants of the Ming and the Song; China a long established thorn in Russia’s flesh, its opponent in the years of its decline and the Iranians, neither Christians nor communists.
And yet, it seemed in here, as we watched the State Department, apparently quite deliberately, driving the odd trio into each others arms, and dragging the tectonic plates of the world with them, that a new Axis-which nobody then had the prescience to call ‘of Resistance’ was being formed.
In the face of US bullying and sanctions, flirtations with seaparatists in Chechnya, Xinkiang, Taiwan, Georgia, Hong Kong and, of course Balochistan and the promotion of MEK (cleansed of terrorist guilt and Marxist ideology) the three powerful regimes were driven to form alliances in their own defence.
Those who talked of the doctrine of “Divide and Rule” were reminded of Frederick the Great’s remarks regarding the convenience of enemies sharing a single neck- it looked as if the US was so overcome by hubris that, rather than knocking off its rivals one at a time, it was herding them together to have at them all at once.
Years later it is still amazing to me that this, every anti-imperialist maiden’s dream, could have happened.
But it did and BRICS- the ICJ ruling- the SCO and the impending defeat of NATO in the Donbas are all among the results of Washington’s inspired idiocy, and a reminder that the reason that nobody there looks at the Atlas is because only in the States and the territories (and places like Russia and China are neither) are votes for Congress or the Presidency counted. So they alone matter and if the mouth breathers of west Texas or Philadelphia get kicks from sneering at Eye-ranians, or Commies then they deserve feeding in the way of wahhabi militias sic-ed on to their borderlands. Or Magnitsky Acts or soap operas such as that in which the Skripals (may the sun shine brightly on that dungeon and those poor victims) were torn apart.
Now the same tragedy, formerly featuring three of the largest and most populous states, is being reprised as the farce of transforming the popular resistance movements of Gaza, southern marginal Lebanon and its poorest people, the Ansarullah forces of Yemen- still active after years of being attacked by US proxies and mercenaries- the Syrian Arab forces, mobilised to defend against Daesh and their equivalents in Iraq, also organised to prevent the imperialists from using takfiris to destabilise the remains of their country.
Again, these are forces which have very little in common- ten years ago Hamas was at war, in cahoots with the US and Israel, killing Hezbollah militants in Syria. Ansarullah, whose differences with the Iraqi ‘Twelvers’ have been treasured for a millenium has spent all its energies for many years on not getting involved with imperialism, and saving the scraps of sovereignty and territory that the British and Americans have not pilfered from them.
And yet, here we are in 2024 and they are all lined up- and very likely soon to be joined by many others in the Arab world- in self defence against the United States, its creature Israel and the more suicidally inclined of the neighbouring monarchies and dictatorships.
One is tempted to say, as b does, that it is just a matter of time before the US and its allies are kicked out of the Arabian peninsula. But it is more than that: the process is one to which the United States seems absolutely committed, so that if the “Resistance” should seem to be faltering, US diplomacy and power will throw its weight behind them.
I am reminded of the notorious fact that all of those slogans painted on the walls of the Crater and the strreets of Steamer Point in Aden- “Tommy Go Home” and “English GO!” were painted by National Service conscripts in the RAF and the army sick of the place and longing for Blighty. Maybe something similar is at work among the Americans in Iraq. The best way to check is by looking at the spelling.

Posted by: bevin | Feb 4 2024 1:30 utc | 212

Posted by: RLTW | Feb 4 2024 0:53 utc | 201
A great account, and right on. My only quibble is what you call ‘Marxist’ is really faux-left neo-liberal wokism and about as far from what Marx was on about as you can possibly get. The only antidote is to read Marx and realise he was a 19th century scientist who nailed the basis of historical capitalism, including most of the neo-liberal managerial BS you had to deal with. But your story is compelling and an eloquent description of why western militaries are fucked. When the decisions are being made by 26 yr old sociopathic marketing majors with no understanding of history or human empathy, who’ll climb over bodies to fail their way to the top, then we can feel the decadence oozing out of the whole corpulent rotten mass of our stinking culture. Taylor Swift for President!

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 4 2024 1:34 utc | 213

Posted by: RLTW | Feb 4 2024 0:53 utc | 201
And yet we still kicked ass. What was the Pentagon’s response? “Why are these Special Forces cowboys carrying AK-47s and why aren’t they adhering to AR 670-1 uniform and grooming standards?
Because you assholes with your affirmative action bitch pilots can’t resupply us! And where the hell are we going to get razors and shaving cream in Afghanistan?

HA HA HA!!
Great story. Thank you!
I think all sides know the US Tranny Forces can’t cut it. Looks like the US is being prepped to crumple from within so there will be civil strife/chaos/war/lockdowns/riots – mayhem. And there are now so many factions and genders that no way ‘We the People’ will come together, more like they will start attacking each other; and if they don’t attack each other false flag attacks will have at ‘white supremacists’ and after a while it’ll be ‘game on!’ There is only so much injustice people can take before pushing back, then come crack-downs, martial law and suddenly you’ll look up and all those military aged Chinese males streaming over the border for 3 years now will have been signed up into a military now allowed to function on domestic soil because ‘national emergency’ and those FEMA camps aren’t a Q conspiracy after all, and then China will occupy California – to keep world peace of course….

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 4 2024 1:35 utc | 214

People needn’t get too concerned about the US spunking away a few hunny-milly’s worth of ordnance on face-saving kayfabe/balagan.
This “retaliation” wasn’t just telegraphed. The very co-ordinates of the “strike” were given to all affected parties days ago.
This piece of theatre was for the mouth-breathing TV audience in the Empire of Lies.
Honour (such honour as is possessed by the vermin of USgov) must be seen to have been satisfied.

Posted by: Kratoklastes | Feb 4 2024 1:42 utc | 215

Scorpion | Feb 4 2024 1:13 utc | 206
One has to respect the way that by way of denial of your neo-Nazi views you simply repeat them with the explanation that they are reasonable and true.
On the other hand the trump card that you seem to be playing is that you know absolutely nothing about the subject, which means that you can, without a blush, justify the the most criminal elements of the military alliance that followed in the Wehrmacht’s path and pioneered new ways of massacring innocent people by the hundreds of thousands.
Did you miss the latest Postil Newsletter? It has this, by no means flawless article by Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe: “The Genocidal Violence of Ukrainian Nationalists.”
Apologising for the people who carried out the Holocaust and deliberately killed tens of millions of peoole during the war on the Eastern Front, is a shameful and and dangerous activity. To do it merely in order to ‘listen to the sound of your own voice’ is something worse.
This link might work
https://www.thepostil.com/

Posted by: bevin | Feb 4 2024 1:42 utc | 216

Posted by: bevin | Feb 4 2024 1:30 utc | 211
Yes, the USA is locked in the maniacal stare of a Freudian death drive. Have you ever read George Bataille’s Accursed Share? He offers a brilliant theory of sacrifice that explains, inversely, why the USA is doomed: it is running headlong into the asymptote of unlimited accumulation, breaking the symbolic rule that nothing can exceed the game itself. Let me explain: if you build a supercomputer that can immediately win any game of chess then all you’ve achieved is the death of chess, for the game itself is annihilated by the computer’s existence. The only solution is to destroy the machine, i.e. to immolated the accursed share. But, secretly and unconsciously, the machine knows it is an abomination and longs for its own death, for, when switched on it sits alone and celibate. No one will play it. By becoming God the machine’s only solution is to become human again and sacrifice itself… The USA is that machine…

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 4 2024 1:43 utc | 217

Siddhartha | Feb 4 2024 1:08 utc | 204
Interesting. The mighty British empire is not what it used to be. Dump some faulty f-35s on the deck and it’ll be good to go.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 4 2024 1:57 utc | 218

Posted by: bevin | Feb 4 2024 1:30 utc | 211
It seems only yesterday, but it was a decade or so ago that we were discussing, in these hallowed halls, the curious way in which the United States was going out of its way to consolidate its opponents and critics into an unshakeable opposition bloc.

It seems the old fight between the nationalist socialists / Stalin and internationalist socialist-communists / Trotsky lives on.
Some believe the US is slowly being taken over by ‘globalists’ who want a New World Order run by the US Empire and the multipolarists have banded together to prevent this.
Others believe that the globalists want to do away with all nation states in order to create a (Utopian) New World Order, a totalitarian technocracy perhaps, in which case their US elite members are working with the multipolarists to bring down the Big Dog Imperial nation state USA from within both economically, politically, financially and culturally.
So you may be right that the Trotskyoid Globalists have indeed engineered what you are marveling at because their first priority is to take down the heir of the British Empire, her wayward and more powerful offspring the U.S.Empire, and in so doing prepare the ground for a New International Soviet at which they will get a seat at the Round Table. (Otherwise: why are they working so hard to bring their own nation, America, down which clearly they are doing?)

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 4 2024 1:59 utc | 219

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 4 2024 1:34 utc | 212
You come across to me as an ageist, pseudo-intellectual snob.

Posted by: Siddhartha | Feb 4 2024 2:00 utc | 220

Patroklos | Feb 4 2024 1:43 utc | 216
No I have not read it. I am in France next week so I will save it for then. Greetings and thanks.

Posted by: bevin | Feb 4 2024 2:01 utc | 221

Lets be clear i’m not including the American public. They are victems to, but arent so awre…. media public perseption manegment.
Posted by: Mark2 | Feb 3 2024 16:42 utc | 18
==================
Some barflies might enjoy this song, “Didn’t know I was un-American,” which was written back in 2003. It became the sound track for a video about the Feb. 15, 2003, demo and protest that took place in NYC—one of hundreds of protests worldwide against the (impending) Iraq War and the obvious lies that had been told to justify it.
https://sonichits.com/video/Ian_Rhett/Unamerican_(Didn%27t_Know_I_Was)?track=1
I can’t recall the name of the film-maker nor of the film, so I cannot locate it online. I had a copy on my hard drive (I appeared in a few frames in the middle of the NYPD charge sequence), but 2003 was few computers ago.
I took the bus to NYC for the demo—it was a very cold day. People had to take a 10-minute break in St. Patrick’s just to warm up a bit. The police penned in the protesters so that they couldn’t reach the site of the rally, at the UN Plaza, on Manhattan’s East Side on the East River. That is, there were barriers and police guarding them at all all of the intersections of the avenues with cross streets where protesters were trying to walk east. So the UN Plaza and the rally was practically empty and it made it easy for the media to play the demo as a failure. I was stuck at an intersection with Third Avenue where a troop of mounted NYPD charged at people who weren’t doing anything wrong. I practically got pushed into a large hole in the ground created to work on the sewers or something.
The war started about a month after that huge worldwide demo. Some analysts think that it did have limited positive effects on certain governments. Canada didn’t send troops to Iraq. But I think most people got the message that there was little point in protesting.
I believe it was the first instance (in the USA) of protesters being “caged” by police so that they didn’t actually disrupt anything and the protest was more or less aborted. Similarly at the National Democratic Convention in Boston in summer 2004 (where Barry O. made his national debut), protesters against the Iraq War were penned in a holding area so the VIPs didn’t have to be confronted by the citizens.
The “penning” policy seems to have worked: People just became too discouraged to expend any energy protesting, especially when it involved longish bus trips. But perhaps the horrific situ in Gaza is once again galvanizing protest energy. TPTB fight back by pretending that nothing happened and not reporting on protests.
But the song is still relevant!

Posted by: Jane | Feb 4 2024 2:01 utc | 222

Posted by: jef | Feb 3 2024 16:16 utc | 11
“Strategic patience” is all very well but by the time the “envisioned results” are achieved, all the Palestinians will be dead.
A case of “the operation was a success but the patient died”.

Posted by: bluesolent | Feb 4 2024 2:03 utc | 223

On Friday night, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby claimed the US informed the Iraqi government about the strikes before they were launched. Baghdad says US warplanes hit the positions of Iraqi security forces in Akashat and Al-Qaim, as well as neighboring civilian places.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 3 2024 19:24 utc | 98
===============
WTF? I don’t believe him.
Sounds/looks like spin—postcoital regret.

Posted by: Jane | Feb 4 2024 2:04 utc | 224

Taylor Swift for President!
Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 4 2024 1:34 utc | 212
____
We’ll never find out for sure, of course, but I can’t imagine her being any worse than Biden, Trump, or RFK Jr. Or maybe that’s what you had in mind?

Posted by: malenkov | Feb 4 2024 2:10 utc | 225

@ Jane | Feb 4 2024 2:04 utc | 223 calling me out about Iraq being told before the bombing……did you read my couple of comments later one refuting that claim by a posting from The Cradle?
I am just an occasional piano player….I’ll try and do better

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 4 2024 2:13 utc | 226

Posted by: bevin | Feb 4 2024 1:42 utc | 215
Like I said, all sides were bad. You seem to think only one side was and that everyone should always and only denounce them or be called out. I am an equal opportunity denouncer: the British, Americans, Germans, Russians, Chinese, Japanese and more…all villains. Now you might argue that the Russians were innocent and were attacked by the Nazis (because Suvorov is a liar) but then you must also pretend – as you have done here, shamefully – that the Red Terror never really happened, but also more importantly that nobody believed it happened even though clearly millions did, and that this belief had no effect on other nations including Germany where the communists were about to win elections, and you also have to deny how Germany got royally screwed after 1918 – with over a million starved to death in 1919 alone and so on. No, just blame it all on Evil Fascists!
The Germans have been greatly lied about so I’ll not take any lectures from you, dear Sir, about my relative ignorance. I may not know as much as you but also you also have huge gaps as well due to left-leaning bias. That’s fine, it’s your right, and we all are biased to some extent; but not all of us get up on high horses to lecture others. If you have an argument, make it; if you have only insult, then, Sir, please know your place and shut up and sit down!
PS Did you notice the article in the Postil tearing down old family friend Perry Worthsthorne? I think you’ll like it!

Posted by: Scorpion | Feb 4 2024 2:23 utc | 227

Russia cannot do all the heavy lifting the ME needs–although they have done their part. Nor can Yemen be expected to fell Goliath alone.
The Middle East themselves might want to take up these two true exemplars and to step up in significant unison or just continue to pound sand in cowardly perpetuity and let the whole place go to hell.

Posted by: Elmagnostic | Feb 4 2024 2:23 utc | 228

Posted by: Jane | Feb 4 2024 2:01 utc | 221

I took the bus to NYC for the demo—it was a very cold day. People had to take a 10-minute break in St. Patrick’s just to warm up a bit. The police penned in the protesters so that they couldn’t reach the site of the rally, at the UN Plaza, on Manhattan’s East Side on the East River. That is, there were barriers and police guarding them at all all of the intersections of the avenues with cross streets where protesters were trying to walk east.

I was at that demonstration too. There were baseball fences along the sidewalks from Grand Central on 42nd, uptown to maybe 57th along I think Lexington, then East to Second or First Ave, and then back downtown to where they ended at 42nd again, or maybe near the UN on 44th? Something like that. The shops were available along the sidewalks but the street itself was full of cops.
Very cold I agree! I was struck by the variety of “protestors”, from young people, parents with children in strollers, to older folks.
There was some kind of a rally at the end, but we couldn’t see and could barely hear the speakers.
The crazy thing was that they called this fiasco a “free speech zone.” With the free people literally in cages.
It reminded me of what they did to Manhattan below Canal Street for the year after September 11, 2001. Cages along the sidewalks, leading from the subway exits to the buildings where your ID would be checked and bag scanned before entry. And again, cops and military everywhere.
The cops had a headquarters somewhere, I don’t recall now, and the military took over Battery Park.
No vehicle access, train only. NYC died for me that year.

Posted by: jonku | Feb 4 2024 2:26 utc | 229

2 says not available as it’s from a protected account. Ie guy got x jailed for saying/showing something Zionists didn’t like

Posted by: Hankster | Feb 4 2024 2:27 utc | 230

Talk about counting chickens before they’ve hatched! I would love to believe that FukUS will finally piss off outta West Asia but I see two obvious flaws in the reasoning. The first is that plans only last as long as first contact with an adversary; the second that in confronting FukUS, the people of West Asia (a geographic description I’m not sure I go along with but that’s another story) are wrestling with the most deceitful, hypocritical bunch of arseholes the world has yet seen. Who knows what band of humans these lowlifes will bully, blackmail or bribe into dying for their ’cause’.
I do not know and neither I suggest does anyone else. What we do know is that no crappy move is beneath them and they won’t go quietly.
I hope I’m wrong. I want to be wrong yet everything these creeps have done over every decade of my existence tells me otherwise.
These are slugs who see all normal humans as eminently disposable mere flickering numbers on a screen. Put simply they don’t give a flying fuck about anyone but themself and are prepared to sling anyone/thing off the sled if it means living longer.
The axis of resistance could succeed but that is by no means certain.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Feb 4 2024 2:27 utc | 231

Talk about counting chickens before they’ve hatched! I would love to believe that FukUS will finally piss off outta West Asia but I see two obvious flaws in the reasoning. The first is that plans only last as long as first contact with an adversary; the second that in confronting FukUS, the people of West Asia (a geographic description I’m not sure I go along with but that’s another story) are wrestling with the most deceitful, hypocritical bunch of arseholes the world has yet seen. Who knows what band of humans these lowlifes will bully, blackmail or bribe into dying for their ’cause’.
I do not know and neither I suggest does anyone else. What we do know is that no crappy move is beneath them and they won’t go quietly.
I hope I’m wrong. I want to be wrong yet everything these creeps have done over every decade of my existence tells me otherwise.
These are slugs who see all normal humans as eminently disposable mere flickering numbers on a screen. Put simply they don’t give a flying fuck about anyone but themself and are prepared to sling anyone/thing off the sled if it means living longer.
The axis of resistance could succeed but that is by no means certain.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Feb 4 2024 2:27 utc | 232

“Strategic patience” is all very well but by the time the “envisioned results” are achieved, all the Palestinians will be dead.
A case of “the operation was a success but the patient died”.
Posted by: bluesolent | Feb 4 2024 2:03 utc | 222
So you would prefer to do something impatient and self-destructive, and lose the strategic context? How many Palestinians will that save?

Posted by: Honzo | Feb 4 2024 2:29 utc | 233

Scorpion espoused actual monarchist views- something that died in the UK with Charles I’s head but I guess it is a point of view. It is not NAZI though.
Posted by: watcher | Feb 4 2024 0:11 utc | 194
Yes it is. Look closer and drop the blinders. They are one and the same. The differences are only makeup and lipstick on a pig.

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Feb 4 2024 2:31 utc | 234

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13042129/Britains-Navy-destroyers-GYMS-land-attack-missiles-weapons-expensive.html
British warships found a missile system too expensive so the space for them has a gym instead.

Posted by: Hankster | Feb 4 2024 2:39 utc | 235

…the preconditions for the re-foundation of a radical mass movement, rooted in the masses themselves…are more obvious than they have ever been. A few aspects…
Posted by: bevin | Feb 3 2024 22:14 utc | 149
Forgive my brutal edits, I’m not trying to represent your thoughts but to point you at that which I’m addressing.
I’m afraid that I don’t share your optimism. Electronic communication is controlled by the enemy. Local, face to face encounters of the kinds where relationships of trust are built are increasingly attenuated. While a vast sea of workers in white collar jobs have been technically proletarianized, they are not involved with the means of production, they are involved with services and commerce, and their worldview remains stoutly bourgeois. Lower-level service employees have been always had a delicate relationship with the core proletariat, despite their working conditions being very similar, because again, they are petite bourgeoisie. Marx’s ideas of the origin of class consciousness not only still prevail in operation but are increasingly evident.
Of course, all of this takes place in a context of fifty years of deliberate destruction of the industrial work force within the borders of the US, the gutting of the school system, and the consolidation of media control in all media, so it’s hard to show that this relationship to the means of production is the sole, or dominant, component, but the results are easy to observe.
There is also a mass process of lumpenization going on in every class, from top to bottom. The ranks of every class but the completely impoverished and dependent are being thinned rapidly. This is a formula for fascist reaction, not revolution. This would appear to me to be the death spiral of capitalism, but not the birth of an American socialism. Some form of reactionary authoritarianism will emerge this- possibly theocratic fascism, possibly techno-feudalism, which has the advantage of appearing ‘revolutionary’ to gadget enthusiasts in the lower bourgeoisie.
Fortunately I am unlikely to be around to know whether my realism or your optimism is manifested.

Posted by: Honzo | Feb 4 2024 2:55 utc | 236

“…Scorpion espoused actual monarchist views- something that died in the UK with Charles I’s head but I guess it is a point of view. It is not NAZI though…” watcher | Feb 4 2024 0:11 utc | 194
Scorpion is a guy who plays with neo-nazism, which is very much in the skinhead tradition- a strategy designed to shock the grown-ups and not to be taken too seriously, Certainly not seriously enough to waste any time studying.
But you are, in my view wrong about monarchism in England- remember that both Laud and Charles opposed the acceleration of enclosures and the purloining of the Commons. It was part of Charles II’s settlement with the regicides that he did nothing to disturb the considerable advance in the power of the gentry, and the defeat of the Levellers, during Cromwell’s reign.
The tradition of recognising that the real power in the land lay not with the Monarch but with the Parliament- what Disraeli who played around with these ideas like the talented dilettante of politics that he was, called the Venetian system- and The City (still long after its passing the object of dread)- the oligarchy of Wealth, the landed Aristocracy, the Merchants and the Bankers.
For those like Swift, Pope, Bolingbroke and Gay, the enormous opposition to Walpole, the Septennial Act, the corrupt Whigs and the Hanoverians (with their Jacobite leanings or temptations) the King (across the water?) might serve as a figurehead in the fight for freedom from wealth and the tyranny of the Dukes and terrritorial magnates.
That was what George III’s early essays into independence and disastrous rule over the Colonies were all about: Throne and People united against the British Boyars. It is a familiar enough story. But in the case of England it is continued in the early (but not the earliest!) works of the great politico-literary genius of the race- William Cobbett.
Traces of this populist royalism have never completely disappeared, though it is a long time since the intellectuals were involved in it-that would have involved far too much thought and every possibilityof mingling with the hoi poloi.
In Canada there is an echo of this sort of Monarchism in the determination of many Canadians not to succumb to the ever present enemy determined to turn them into USians and their country into another blah vulgarity, parodying every form that freedom ever took.

Posted by: bevin | Feb 4 2024 2:58 utc | 237

Do you have any guidance on a better “way-out of this mess” than voting (or not voting)? Withdrawal of consent, non-cooperation, and resistance can happen individually as well as socially. I don’t have to wait for a general strike to make a stand, but it sure wouldn’t hurt to see some effective antiwar energy from my fellow US Americans.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Feb 3 2024 23:00 utc | 173
I don’t believe I have the stature to offer any ‘guidance,’ but I think that ‘defection’ is the key tactic of the moment. As you say, non-cooperation, withdrawal of consent- and as much as possible, non-participation. Have as little to do with major capitalist institutions and their supporters as you can, and attempt to build relationships of trust, face to face, one at a time, without advertising for help from the FBI. In the past, the maximum of coordination has been the key to effective resistance. In the future, I believe, distributed resistance, coordinated only like-minded people paying attention to the unfolding of events in their own backyards. At some point, such atomized movements will coalesce, but if they do so prematurely, they’ll be smashed, as always. Low-intensity disruption, a bit of sand in the gears, will accelerate things more than a hundred thousand people marching in the streets.
I used to leave Marxist tracts in phone booths alongside the Christian missionary tracts, but alas, there are no phone booths any more…

Posted by: Honzo | Feb 4 2024 3:11 utc | 238

It feels as though every adjective in the MSM has been replaced with ‘Iranian-backed’.
Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 3 2024 21:55 utc | 142
Patroklos, you have to remember there is a Iran-deranged psychosis in the empire. Iran is viewed with a forked mind: always powerful and directs all nefarious actions against the empire, but at the same time is too weak to stand the empire’s onslaught. See Linsey G.’s prescription to attack Iran’s oil infrastructure, as if Iran was not going to respond.
They are still lamenting about who “lost” Iran.
As if Iran was ever “owned” by anyone, other than Iranians.
Neocon/rapturist wet dream is to get on with Iran, so that they can bring on the messiah. That dream is becoming a nightmare as Iran grows, and the empire gets weaker. They want it now, before the empire gets any weaker.
Iran’s strategy is to kick the empire out of west Asia. Afghanistan down, more to go. See my ‘sitting duck’ comments in the previous thread.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Feb 4 2024 3:21 utc | 239

I am hearing strange rumours that V. Putin is offering to take in one million Palestinians and that part of the deal is that Netanratglue will finish off the remainder.
I presume this is pure fake news disinformation broadcast to South Asia by Facebook as 4th generation warfare, I.e. announcing enemy defeat to undermine enemy resolve.
Facebook plays a large part in influencing political opinion world wide. A toxic brand which unfortunately the world is addicted to.

Posted by: Giyane | Feb 4 2024 3:29 utc | 240

– The US should (have) (and still can) shoot (shot) say 10 missiles into Israel followed by the warning that that was a warning to Israel to stop their war in Gaza. And if Israel doesn’t stop then more missiles would hit more targets in Israel. That would have brought Israel to its senses. But I assume such a thing wouldn’t happen at all.
– I expect that after the US has left the Middle East, the “unrest” in the Middle East will continue. But now the violence will be between the populations of several countries in the Middle East and their governments. As I have pointed out more than once on this blog, the Middle East and North Africa are (heavily) overpopulated. As a result of that somewhere in the (near ???) future the violence will flare up again. And then what is the US then going to in such a situation ? Bomb an entire country back to the stone age ?

Posted by: WMG | Feb 4 2024 3:44 utc | 241

Schmuly yank yer shekel listed as one of usa more prominent rabbis weighs into Trans ideology with this gem.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/were-adam-and-eve-black-transgender-refugees-2/

Posted by: Hankster | Feb 4 2024 4:05 utc | 242

@ Sakineh Bagoom | Feb 4 2024 3:21 utc | 237
sakineh, i liked your analogy of the flea attack that was an ”iranian backed flea attack” the other day… that sums up this insane madness the western msm would like to inflict on us all, as if we are supposed to be stupid enough to swallow it all.. i happened to see an article on yemen today in cbc news and it was all the same – ‘iranian backed’ this that and the other thing…

Posted by: james | Feb 4 2024 4:07 utc | 243

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 4 2024 1:43 utc
… The USA is that machine…
********
Finally I understand how and why the US is destroying itself – philosophy that even I can understand.
Thanks for hanging around. (Most of) your contributions are greatly appreciated.

Posted by: General Factotum | Feb 4 2024 4:12 utc | 244

Sakineh Bagoom 237
The West always portrays Iran and India as backward countries. But for Iraqi Kurds these two countries both provide excellent medical facilities, Kurdistan doing nothing for its population except squeezing gas and oil from its soil for USUKIS. The concept of responsible government is completely missing in USUKIS colonies.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that Iran and the US are enemies. Iran is modern and Westernised more than the US which has gone into full vampire mode.
Blinken and Biden don’t appear to have the foggiest idea of what they are trying to achieve, other than playing with military toys.

Posted by: Giyane | Feb 4 2024 4:14 utc | 245

Posted by: General Factotum | Feb 4 2024 4:12 utc | 241
Thanks dude.
Posted by: Siddhartha | Feb 4 2024 2:00 utc | 219
Sorry you feel that way. Go fuck yourself. Un-intellectual enough for you?

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 4 2024 4:20 utc | 246

i liked your analogy of the flea attack that was an ”iranian backed flea attack” the other day…
Posted by: james | Feb 4 2024 4:07 utc | 240
Thank you, james. Let’s not forget the dash “-“ between the words Iranian, and backed — Iranian-backed — makes it sound more menacing.
Cheers.

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Feb 4 2024 4:38 utc | 247

You can add the Olof Palme, Folke Bernadotte and Dag Hammarskjöld assassinations just for good measures.
1. S African BOSS
2. Zionist
3. CIA

Posted by: Ray | Feb 4 2024 4:45 utc | 248

The latest/next “Iran-related” attack posting title as reported by Reuters
US, Britain wage strikes against Iran-linked Houthis in Yemen
More Shock and Awe from empire…any think it is working? hasn’t seemed to have so far but those B1’s Oooohhhh!

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 4 2024 4:48 utc | 249

RE @ Ahenobarbus | Feb 3 2024 17:49 utc | 55
You misunderstand “Ahenobarbus”. I do not celebrate the lack of opposition to the imperial regime, I point out the sad reality of its unchallenged dominance. If one is aware of verified massive discontent, one should provide some indication.
You correctly point out that there isn’t a political vector for dissidents to participate and therefore they are unable to express their hostility towards the neoliberal imperialist elites. Well, that is precisely my point. […]
And one of the most important tropes it pushes is the sublime qualities of the white liberal that make one a superior westerner, a Homo Occidentalis. As far as supremacist ideologies go, this has been the most insidious and until now spectacularly successful.
Posted by: Constantine | Feb 3 2024 23:33 utc | 184

I can’t argue with that C. Any notions that the Western Racist Neoliberal Neocon Fascist Colonial Imperialists and the MICCIMATT Cloud Capital Transhumanist Globalist Oligarchs are on their knees and ‘the People are Rising Up!’ is codswallop fantasy!
My adjectives post of the day!

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Feb 4 2024 4:49 utc | 250

Hi, Jonku (228),
I lived in NYC for a decade (well before Feb. 2003) and was used to walking everywhere in Manhattan (esp. during the subway strike—from West 51st down to the Village in 45 mins! I could just about do one block per minute). I was sure I could find a chink in the police barriers somewhere. I walked north of 57th trying to walk east, then back down, far south of 42nd—Nada. Couldn’t get through. It was really something. At least all the walking kept one sort of warm.

Posted by: Jane | Feb 4 2024 4:56 utc | 251

but it sure wouldn’t hurt to see some effective antiwar energy from my fellow US Americans.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Feb 3 2024 23:00 utc | 173
and @ Honzo | Feb 4 2024 3:11 utc | 236
Protests of any moment or anti-war actions are never going to happen in the US (or the general West for that matter.)
You’ll just have to wait until the military invasions finally come…. or put yourself out there to be shot dead on the street.

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Feb 4 2024 4:59 utc | 252

@ Lavrov’s Dog | Feb 4 2024 4:49 utc | 247 who seems to be saying that the axis of resistance is codswallop fantasy…is that correct?
just asking for a friend….

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 4 2024 5:00 utc | 253

@328 Scorpion.
De onde você tirou a informação de que os comunistas ganharam, ou tinham chance de ganhar (a tradução não ficou clara) eleições na Alemanha em 1918.
Só posso supor que você está confundindo os comunistas, que tiveram seus principais líderes(como Rosa Luxemburg e W. Liebkneck)assassinados nesta época, com o SPD, que é o mesmo partido de traidores que está no poder hoje em dia na Alemanha.

Posted by: Soviético | Feb 4 2024 5:07 utc | 254

Desculpe…
@326

Posted by: Soviético | Feb 4 2024 5:11 utc | 255

@ psychohistorian | Feb 4 2024 5:00 utc | 250
who seems to be saying that the axis of resistance is codswallop fantasy…is that correct?
—————
No. How do you get that from what I wrote? I am saying thee will be no “protests” or “anti-war movements” of any note in the West particularly America.
Read it again … albeit overly adjective laden with intent.
The axis of resistance are genuine armed fighters in the ME last I looked

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Feb 4 2024 5:13 utc | 256

AND more to @ psychohistorian | Feb 4 2024 5:00 utc | 250
My 247 goes with my 249 …. both are about the US political status quo of inaction and anti-protest norms and nothing changing nothing being done.
as per more quotes from @ Posted by: Constantine | Feb 3 2024 23:33 utc | 184 to whit I was responding:

The main political representatives for the masses are the various factions of the neoliberal uniparty and that is the case in almost every country in the western world. And it is hard to look elsewhere, since the main source of information for far too many folks are the mainstream media manned by systemic presstitutes and lickspittles.
“Lysias” makes the case for Jill Stein and Cornel West. Yet both are very weak candidates as they have failed in basic issues of organizational and ideological nature. Stein is admittedly a better option as Dr West is sinking in the mire of identity politics and his team is a bunch of jokers that typically comprise the standard type of western leftists. But no few Greens appear compromised too.
Now, I would love to see a political formation capable of mobilizing significant numbers against the regime in the US of A, but there is little hope for that.

That’s two short polite comments which imo clearly explain / pointing out what I actually said, why it was said and the context in which it was said.

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Feb 4 2024 5:22 utc | 257

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Feb 4 2024 5:13 utc | 253
Lavrov’s Dog, I read it again, and I’m with ph on this. Removing the adjectives, it sounds like you did say that.

I can’t argue with that C. Any notions that the Western Racist… are on their knees and ‘the People are Rising Up!’ is codswallop fantasy!

Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Feb 4 2024 5:30 utc | 258

Nope. Send in the women, trannies and blacks. Diversity is your strength. Me and my white children got our popcorn. We just gonna sit back and watch.
Go off to the slaughter young Goyim. At the behest of your Jewish masters.
Posted by: RLTW | Feb 4 2024 0:53 utc | 201
Do you have a problem with how black people have availed themselves in battles for the US of A, having been way out represented in the infantry, but also having been extremely successful and skilled fighter pilots when ALLOWED to be?
One wonders – why specifically did you group blacks in there? In many cases they have been far better fighters than American whites. So what made you think of that in this particular context? Pure cowardly bigotry? Do you think it speaks badly of black people that there were 3 blacks killed in their sleep in the “Jordan” drone attack, or does it speak to the (banal and typical, historically) stupidity of US whites in the same positions or command structure? Do you think they WANTED to be in “Jordan” (quotes because it was in fucking Syria, but immaterial to my questions).

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 4 2024 5:42 utc | 259

Posted by: Siddhartha | Feb 4 2024 2:00 utc | 219
Sorry you feel that way. Go fuck yourself. Un-intellectual enough for you?
Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 4 2024 4:20 utc | 243
In case my earlier comments about spats and all that weren’t specific enough, I definitely had “Siddharta” in mind. This person is clearly only here to sow discord and they are trying to subtly turn one person after another against other people. Notice their veiled attempt to draw me in on the first page of comments, over something completely unrelated to what I was saying or the topic. That person is best ignored. Do not take the bait.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 4 2024 5:45 utc | 260

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 4 2024 1:34 utc | 212
On second thought, you give credence and props to a moron who doesn’t even know what “marxist” is and proceeds to throw in casual and totally inaccurate bigoted ideas about American blacks serving in the white man’s wars? I dunno, maybe it was RLTW’s fucking novel length comment that threw you off and you didn’t read to the end (Instead, with the proliferation of long-winded idiots here now, I go straight to the end now and check names first).
But come on Patrokolos. 1) Do not feed trolls or infiltrators and 2) Do not encourage bigoted losers like this who also happen to be typical American rightwing losers.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 4 2024 5:48 utc | 261

Protests of any moment or anti-war actions are never going to happen in the US (or the general West for that matter.)
You’ll just have to wait until the military invasions finally come…. or put yourself out there to be shot dead on the street.
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Feb 4 2024 4:59 utc | 249
What, specifically, do you mean by ‘protests of any moment’? If you mean protests that overthrow the state, I concur. However, there is a significant movement toward defection- people don’t want to work, they continue to lose interest in voting and other civic matters, and they aren’t joining the military. The states are becoming increasingly restive because of misrule from the center, are offering up various forms of defection, non-compliance, malicious compliance, and open obstruction of Federal policies. Texas, of course, is the prime example at the moment, but 22 governors have signed a letter of support and several are contributing national guard troops to the Texas border project.
There are, of course, no revolutionaries there, there are simply different tiers of exploiters co-opting the struggles of the peons to enhance their own power, but they are espousing principles that are, ultimately, revolutionary in the process, to activate their base. As that global economy goes in the shitter, some of the useful idiots might believe enough of these high-flown phrases to take action to manifest them. In the magic of politics, even astroturf can acquire a life of its own.
If these trends continue far enough, protests will indeed be able to overthrow the state- but to what end? Who among the currently known dissidents would be any better leaders than the ones we’ve got?

Posted by: Honzo | Feb 4 2024 5:51 utc | 262

This is the latest attempt by the Atlantacists to destroy any resistance to a gulf gas pipeline from the gulf and gaza to Europe.

Posted by: Kelly Em | Feb 4 2024 5:54 utc | 263

Sunday morning, end of thread, prolly not many will read, but I think the last half of the
thread has been quite worth waking up to.
Pac Advocate, bevin, Patroklos, Aleph, Honzo, L.Dog, and of course some others have made good posts. But the line I like best is bevin’s @ | Feb 4 2024 1:42 utc | 215:

“Scorpion | Feb 4 2024 1:13 utc | 206 One has to respect the way that by way of denial of your neo-Nazi views you simply repeat them with the explanation that they are reasonable and true.”

That poster has messed up more threads than a bent needle in a Bangladesh underwear factory. There are more of that ilk than him here fer sure, but good to see the bar exposing the neo-Nazi crap!
See yas on the WiR.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Feb 4 2024 6:00 utc | 264

Why is the fourth option always dismissed? That option being the “One State Solution”, where that state is a modern, secular and pluralist one with equal rights for all?
Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 3 2024 17:07 utc | 27
My thoughts too.
So, why haven´t the UN already forced a flight free zon above the area, entered with UN peace forces from North to the South, East to the West, until that Government/ System are up and running?
Well, I guess we know the answer…

Posted by: Facts | Feb 4 2024 6:01 utc | 265

fyi,
https://twitter.com/Sprinter99800/status/1753991498775802018
Spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces in the Sanaa government: The American-British aggression aircraft launched 48 air strikes during the past hours, distributed as follows:
– 13 raids on Amanat Al-Asimah and Sana’a Governorate.
– 9 raids on Hodeidah Governorate.
– 11 raids on Taiz Governorate.
– 7 raids on Al Bayda Governorate.
– 7 raids on Hajjah Governorate.
– A raid on Saada Governorate.
These attacks will not deter us from our moral, religious and humanitarian stance in support of the steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and will not go unanswered and punished.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/us-uk-aggression-targets-sanaa–a-number-of-governorates–ye

Posted by: michaelj72 | Feb 4 2024 6:44 utc | 266

Siddhartha @ 204, Peter AU 1 @ 217, Hankster @ 233:
I can’t help snickering at the thought that due to past British neoliberal policies, initiated by Thatcher 40+ years ago and continued by her successors, the British armed forces have declined to mere shadows of their supposed former greatness.
Rishi Sunak will have to appeal to Narendra Modi to supply Punjab Sikh soldiers if the British general public rejects conscription and ISIS can’t spare any jihadis to fill the vacancies in the armed forces, in the event that Ukraine finally and formally surrenders to Russia some time this year.
Although our execrable Prime Minister Anthony Albanese might jump and offer up the entire Australian population to fight for the UK, before he even knows what he’s going to say.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Feb 4 2024 6:58 utc | 267

I keep seeing Zionists openly saying this sort of thing and think . Wow they don’t care they are so sure they can keep getting away with it all.
“Yes, we set fire to houses. As much as possible. And we are proud of it.” said Director General of the Religious Zionism party, Yehuda Vald, who also participated in the invasion of Gaza, affirms an Israeli article that reveals Israeli generals commanding soldiers to burn down Palestinian houses in Gaza.
If that isn’t direct command for war crimes openly recorded in a public audience , what does count as evidence?

Posted by: Hankster | Feb 4 2024 7:01 utc | 268

What, specifically, do you mean by ‘protests of any moment’?
Honzo | Feb 4 2024 5:51 utc | 258
OK, fair question and I read your lengthy comments of what you’re seeing/feeling.
1) The thread is about ending-us-presence-in-middle-east – so one that’s my framing and context re “protests”
2) This seemed in line with your comments Aleph_Null | Feb 3 2024 23:00 utc | 173
and @ Honzo | Feb 4 2024 3:11 utc | 236 which I ref’d to
3) My comment @ Lavrov’s Dog | Feb 4 2024 4:59 utc | 249 included such things as – “Protests of any moment or anti-war actions are never going to happen in the US ….”
4) Again this indicates the framing is about anti-war / middle east issues, eg Gaza Israel as per B’s article above
5) but specifically my narrow topic/view here, my observations over time are that there is nothing of any sustained significance occurring in the US in regard Anti-War Protests
I chose (for some weird reason I cannot fathom), to use the word “moment” instead of others–
eg MOMENT , Noun
importance
Example: the issues were of little moment to the electorate
a time of excellence or conspicuousness
significance, weight, magnitude, momentousness
influence, importance, essential factor,
importance in influence or effect
import, consequence, magnitude, gravity
value, substance, seriousness, note
iow “of moment” meaning much more than simply importance or significance. I hope that clarifies my intent better. Cheers.

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Feb 4 2024 7:05 utc | 269

what does count as evidence?
Posted by: Hankster | Feb 4 2024 7:01 utc | 264
Well if it was said by someone, say from, Russia, Iran, Hamas, Cuba, Venezuela, or China, Hezbollah, Syria, or the Houthis …. then it might count. 🙂

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Feb 4 2024 7:10 utc | 270

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 4 2024 5:48 utc | 257
OK, OK, I hear you. I did overlook the racism and on second thoughts I certainly don’t agree with the blanket view that women cannot be effective in combat roles. I was caught up in other aspects of the post but take your point 100%.

Posted by: Patroklos | Feb 4 2024 7:28 utc | 271

Posted by: bevin | Feb 4 2024 1:30 utc | 211
Wonderful text! Thank you, Bevin.

Posted by: Elber | Feb 4 2024 7:28 utc | 272

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 3 2024 21:23 utc | 125
As Passerby mentions it was the original King Saud, and the encounter is detailed in Daniel Yergin’s tome ‘The Prize’, one of if not the definitive work about the history of the oil industry.

Posted by: Planner | Feb 4 2024 7:34 utc | 273

The ranks of every class but the completely impoverished and dependent are being thinned rapidly. This is a formula for fascist reaction, not revolution.
Posted by: Honzo | Feb 4 2024 2:55 utc | 234
Exactly! Marx had expected the revolution to take place in western Europe (I have heard it said) but would have been surprised to see western Europe turn fascist and the revolution to take place in backward Russia where the leap from feodalism to a new kind of society could still place – this time not to bourgeois but to socialist society.
And the signs are already there that the history is going to repeat itself in the west. In fact I encountered a more or identical observation in MSM only yesterday (in The Globe and Mail) though the piece saw the problem against the background of mass migration and the populations’s reactions to it. A slightly different angle but only minimally so.
AfD and Trump were mentioned but of course Canada has also woken up to the reality of increased migration and the social challenges it entails. Since one commentator has expressed his support for AfD and the genocide in Gaza these phenomena are obviously interlinked. Yes I think trolls do add value: indirectly and perhaps inadvertently they support the view that Zionism is fascism and nazism and that Zionism functions as a fig leaf.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Feb 4 2024 7:53 utc | 274

Posted by: Constantine | Feb 3 2024 23:33 utc | 184
The White liberal identity is subtly shown in propaganda as the morally correct one and in real life it is the one that leads to prosperity through college admissions gatekeepers (and reinforcement later after admission) and gatekeeper corporate HR departments.
They are the functionaries of the judeao western world. The middle management enforcers.
And the beautiful middle aged women in the HR departments are the Politburo that doom your career if you dare express politically incorrect views.
Its not that people buy into the system or hold themselves in high esteem. Its that the system gives you a false moral authority to fanatically enforce the values expressed in the propaganda or else you can go be an electrician or a plumber.

Posted by: ryanggg | Feb 4 2024 8:04 utc | 275

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 4 2024 5:42 utc | 255
Blacks can go fight for ZOG because they actually get something from the system.
Anything else you say is just a guilt trip to try to get Whites to go fight. Made wittingly on your behalf or perhaps you are just repeating rhetoric from elsewhere.
The simple, single sentence fact that is relevant today is this:
People who actually get something from ZOG can go fight for it.
We Whites will not.

Posted by: ryanggg | Feb 4 2024 8:11 utc | 276

The latest attempt to disable Houthis came amid the release of a landmark report which shows that British forces are ‘increasingly over-stretched’ and ill-prepared for war.
(The Telegraph)

Posted by: Jonathan W | Feb 4 2024 8:28 utc | 277

British forces are ‘increasingly over-stretched’ and ill-prepared for war.
Posted by: Jonathan W | Feb 4 2024 8:28 utc | 273
—

British carrier unable to deploy due to ‘mechnical issue’
In a sudden change of plans, HMS Queen Elizabeth will not participate in the upcoming NATO exercise Steadfast Defender, due to a mechanical issue identified in the starboard propeller shaft.
The Fleet Commander elaborated on the situation, stating, “Routine pre-sailing checks yesterday identified an issue with a coupling on HMS Queen Elizabeth’s starboard propeller shaft. As such, the ship will not sail on Sunday. HMS Prince of Wales will take the place of HMS Queen Elizabeth on NATO duties and will set sail for Exercise Steadfast Defender as soon as possible.”

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/british-carrier-unable-to-deploy-due-to-mechnical-issue/

Posted by: too scents | Feb 4 2024 8:37 utc | 278

https://www.palestinechronicle.com/icj-ruling-is-not-good-enough-and-this-is-the-way-forward-ilan-pappe/
ICJ Ruling is Not Good Enough, and This is the Way Forward – ILAN PAPPE
…

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Feb 4 2024 8:44 utc | 279

Too scents @ 274
What you might call a lame duck.

Posted by: Mark2 | Feb 4 2024 8:45 utc | 280

274 too cents, it’s a clown show. Their carrier that was headed to the gulf had 8 planes on it anyway

Posted by: Hankster | Feb 4 2024 8:46 utc | 281

I strongly suggest reading karlof1’s latest sub-track piece
Two from Crooke – and the third – very insightful piece on changing political landscape in Yemen … all very relevant to this thread including the Astana meeting between Russia,Iran and Turkey
Three Quick Items About West Asia
{…] The first I’ll copy/paste because some can’t access Al-Mayadeen and the crucial item Crooke wrote for his column, “ICJ Contests Assertions of Unassailable Moral Purpose, Shaking Western Power-Structures,” that was published January 31. That will be followed by Crooke’s earlier than usual SCF essay published February 2nd, “The Three Strands to the ‘Swarming of Biden,’” and at the end is an excellent essay from The Cradle, “Yemenis ditch UAE–Saudi coalition for Gaza,” published February 1st. ”
Read on: https://karlof1.substack.com/p/three-quick-items-about-west-asia

Posted by: Don Firineach | Feb 4 2024 8:47 utc | 282

Probably the best 3 minutes speech about zio usa power I’ve heard sums it so well. Worth the watch
https://youtu.be/XeorNDXISds?si=s5l1pCbHPsKE9Ig4

Posted by: Hankster | Feb 4 2024 8:53 utc | 283

@ watcher , Bevin, James, others:
Just a quick reminder that European nobility/“aristocracy” pretty much universally lined up in support of the fascists/Nazis, back in the early 1930s. Italy, Spain, all of the Germanic countries (with perhaps the exception of Denmark and Holland), the UK, Poland—all of those Kingdoms and their genetically-linked staff-in-waiting lined up in support of the Nazis, right along with perhaps as much as 60% of the US oligarch capitalists. Ford? The Dows? The Gettys and Rockefellers? JP Morgan-Chase? General Electric? Alcoa?

Posted by: Pacifica Advocate | Feb 4 2024 10:02 utc | 284

A message to Genocide Joe from a Zionist witch: https://t.me/myLordBebo/21830

Posted by: Apollyon | Feb 4 2024 10:17 utc | 285

@Pacifica Advocate
“Just a quick reminder that European nobility/“aristocracy” pretty much universally lined up in support of the fascists/Nazis (…) (with perhaps the exception of Denmark and Holland)”
The Dutch aristocrats are the worst fascists:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67017311
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/junta-killing-charge-still-haunts-father-of-princess-1.446193

Posted by: Apollyon | Feb 4 2024 10:25 utc | 286

bluesolent | Feb 4 2024 2:03 utc | 223
“”Strategic patience” is all very well but by the time the “envisioned results” are achieved, all the Palestinians will be dead.”
Bullshit! You simply can not say that.
Over the last 10 years Israel has killed on average 200 to 300 Palistinians a year. (god I hate talking about humans that way).
Israel has killed a hundred times that many in this operation.
In case no one has noticed the world is rapidly changing, particularly in the middle east. It would perfectly reasonable to expect things to get much better for west asian countries and see the US pulling out of the region due to unrelenting pressure.
The Collective west and Israel simply can not allow that. So who has the most motivation here. Israel has Nukes, no way Iran would be stupid enough to instigate a full on conflict with them. They will fight if need be but heaven help us if it comes to that.

Posted by: jef | Feb 4 2024 10:46 utc | 287

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Feb 3 2024 17:28 utc | 43
Quit simplicious a while back too. Check on his blog once in a while just to be reminded what I don’t like.
His sources are dubious at best, open propaganda at worst (rybar, ukie psyop blogs) so no wonder his conclusions are ridiculous. Like a while back when he stated with 1000% certainty that ukie is having rough, but still leads in development and production on all drone related stuff in SMO.
His ME conclusions are beyond ridiculous. His sources are garbage and his agenda is in dark.

Posted by: Abe | Feb 4 2024 10:54 utc | 288

This is a VERY dangerous development for the US. Iraq wants to change the way they are being paid for iraqi oil. I.e. they don’t want to be paid in US dollars for their oil. Remeber that one reason the US invaded Iraq was the threat to the PETRODOLLAR posed by one Saddam Hoessein.
https://thecradle.co/articles/iraqi-parliament-calling-to-ditch-us-dollar-for-oil-trade
This is the BIGGEST threat for that system called PETRODOLLAR. This is a much bigger threat than any (financial) commitment(s) the BRIC countries make to ditch the USD. I fear the US won’t take this “laying down”. No wonder Jake Sullivan is holding “emergency talks” with China. I fear that we will see more “turmoil” in the Middle East in the coming week, weeks & months.

Posted by: WMG | Feb 4 2024 11:00 utc | 289

PETRODOLLAR & Saddam Hoessein:
https://www.thepamphlet.in/english/did-saddams-debunking-of-the-petrodollar-system-led-to-his-execution

Posted by: WMG | Feb 4 2024 11:13 utc | 290

Re: Jonathan W
Olof Palme was the last Swedish elected politician who showed some integrity and sovereignty, often in stark contrast to the anglo-zionist narrative, with regards to Vietnam, South Africa, Palestine and the Soviet Union (with the last one eventually getting him killed).
Since then, each and every one of the puppets occupying public positions in Sweden have been Zio-obedient chihuahuas, with the latest proof being the Swedes’ joining in with their genocidal anglo-zio masters in withdrawing their financial support for UNRWA!

Posted by: ThirdWorldDude | Feb 4 2024 11:16 utc | 291

“It looks like the Americans are trying to build a land corridor from at-Tanf to the Euphrates. Over the years, a lot of the sporadic airstrikes have been in that area, basically I assume, to assist their ground force which is ISIS.”
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 3 2024 17:39 utc | 48
Actually, its not a land corridor but bases set along the road from Iran to Syria to interdict military supplies from Iran to Syria. As well this ‘corridor’ is also used to have Israeli bomber to fly along the corridor using the Empire Air Defense assets to cover them as they bomb neighbours.
So if Iran wants to supply their allies to the West they have to fly the supplies in which is extremely expensive.
Anyways, this young guy, below in the video, describes it well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j7G0JOlSRo

Posted by: canuck | Feb 4 2024 11:37 utc | 292

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Feb 3 2024 17:18 utc | 35
If you believe that the US American workers are against the imperial regime in critical numbers, I must say you are deluded Ahenobarbus. Or at least you must provide some credible reference.
The unfortunate reality is that despite the negative attitudes of many in the US and the west in general towards “the government”, there is an overall aupport for the imperialist policies or at least a silent acquiescence. The Anglo-American regime is drenched in the blood of entire nations and yet most go along with it, even when it actively harms their interest. Finland is a recent, but prime example of this trend.
It’s a crappy state of affairs, but one has to deal with this sad reality.
Posted by: Constantine | Feb 3 2024 17:35 utc | 47
Well, either you or I are deluded Constantine. History will decide.
But, for evidence, look up any poll on war. Again, every worker in America can oppose the imperial foreign policy but it will continue. That’s the system we have.
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Feb 3 2024 17:43 utc | 50
Ahenobarbus is correct, Constantine is delusional on this point.

Posted by: canuck | Feb 4 2024 11:40 utc | 293

“Such things as pensions, free education, healthcare, both public and individual health sectors and the provision of social housing and the expectation of full employment, reduced the capacity of the ruling class to rule, just as strong unions in the factories and workshops reduced the powers of management.”
Posted by: bevin | Feb 3 2024 22:14 utc | 150
You are quite inaccurate here, in my opinion.
Germany was the first modern Western country to initiate pensions and welfare systems. Here is what the Krupp family did in the 19th century for its employees:
“Recognizing early the human problems of industrialization, Alfred Krupp created a comprehensive welfare scheme for his workers. As early as 1836 he instituted a sickness and burial fund, and in 1855 he established a pension fund for retired and incapacitated workers. In 1861 he began to build housing settlements, hospitals, schools, and churches for his employees. His workers became fanatically loyal to him. He had started his steel plant with seven workers; at his death the enterprise was employing 21,000 persons.” (1)
Bismarck expanded what the Krupps had begun and introduced ‘socialism’ to all German worker in 1881:
“Prussian nationalism was the foundation for Bismarck’s injection of socialist ideas; which facilitated accusing the internationalist socialists as “un-German.” In a sense, the Bismarckian experiment was a precursor of Hitler’s National Socialism. In fact, the Nazis claimed to follow Bismarck and Hitler considered himself “a second Bismarck.”[1] This time, the Jews were the ones called “un-German.” In both instances, a managed economy and a powerful state were promoted to defeat movements with claimed intolerable foreign allegiances. As is often the case, socialism hides behind other ideas. Ho Chi Minh confirmed this much later when he said, “We have a secret weapon…it is called Nationalism.
Bismarck stunned Germany in 1881 by introducing in the Reichstag a legislative program of welfare reforms such as a national health and accident insurance, as well as retirement pensions for German workers. In doing so, Bismarck planted the seed of doubt in the capacity of the market to provide jobs and security for all and thus initiated the slippery-slope of government interventionism that will eventually confirm the socialist analysis of capitalism.
The insecurity that drives individuals into action was seen as a hindrance and a threat to human dignity. Insecurity creates a sense of helplessness and entitlement was proposed as the solution for the illness of insecurity. Bismarck affirmed that the state should offer the poor “a helping hand in distress…. Not as alms, but as a right.” He called his system Staatssozialismus or “state socialism.”
Conceived in Germany, the idea rapidly spread throughout industrialized Europe under the same rubric of protecting workers and shielding families from the perceived hazards of industrial society. Little by little, the free market system was assaulted in the name of saving it. Socialists all over denounced the welfare state as a new capitalist tool of oppression. It was seen as another facet of the capitalist system, intent on moderating the tensions of class conflict by pacifying the workers and controlling the conditions under which capital is organized. In effect, however, the policies helped the socialists destroy capitalism without the need for total war.
To the contrary, in capitalism security is not granted as a right. Insecurity becomes the great engine of motivation to thrust forward and risk. Instead of being a social illness, insecurity shows a healthy heart that pumps life into the social arrangement. It is insecurity what allows men to create a universe in their minds and then move to actualize it. If you take away insecurity, you destroy the system piece by piece.
Destroying the free market economy has become the hallmark of American statists who have looked to Bismarck for inspiration. For example, as Professor Anthony Bradley of The King’s College tells us, Bismarck is praised as a visionary on the official U.S. Social Security Administration’s website. The site says the following about Bismarck:
“Despite his impeccable right-wing credentials, Bismarck would be called a socialist for introducing these programs, as would President Roosevelt 70 years later. In his own speech to the Reichstag during the 1881 debates, Bismarck would reply: ‘Call it socialism or whatever you like. It is the same to me.’”(2)
So the leader in ‘socialism’ in the West became the aggressor in the next two world wars. In fact Hitler called himself ‘the new Bismarck”
Hence, as we clearly see above the rulers in Germany had even greater powers over the populace which fully disproves your point, bevin, that ‘rulers’ have less power over their citizens when they institute socialist policies for their workers.
1. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Krupp
2. https://fvinstitute.org/bismarck2017/

Posted by: canuck | Feb 4 2024 12:19 utc | 294

/chirp, chirp
… {I wonder if I can get a military government contract for combat platform heels? Unisex, of course, ideally in sparkly camo. I like shiny things. And how much grub and birdseed could I receive for it?
Oooh, a spiderweb! That’ll help glue my nest together!}
/cheep
/flies away

Posted by: titmouse | Feb 4 2024 12:29 utc | 295

Posted by: canuck | Feb 4 2024 12:19 utc | 294
Interesting! But…
Jakob Fugger, who is reputed to have been the richest man in world history, was also the one who established the Fuggerei, the world’s oldest public housing complex still in use, in his home town Augsburg in 1521. Fugger also financed the Holy Roman Empire under the Habsburgs.You might dismiss all this as a clever ploy or you might commend it as something the rulers and the “most fortunate” were supposed to do with regard to the “less fortunate”. I think reading history, like anything else, through the lens of “hermeneutics of suspicion” is a product of the late 19th century. In other words, there is a lot of Nietzsche in what became Marxism and perhaps also in reading what Bismarck did invluding even his own self-understanding.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Feb 4 2024 12:41 utc | 296

Posted by: canuck | Feb 4 2024 12:19 utc | 294

So what you’re basically claiming is that the calf is older then the cow…

Posted by: ThirdWorldDude | Feb 4 2024 12:52 utc | 297

@ canuck | Feb 4 2024 12:19 utc | 294
My understanding is that Bismarck introduced such a socialist measure to undercut the German socialist movement and reinforce the working class’s devotion to the German state.
This may or may not be an index of weakness, and I tend to think it was not. Consider how quickly and eagerly even German socialists abandoned their internationalist aspirations in 1914.
There’s also a school of thought that a similar motivation was behind the New Deal.

Posted by: malenkov | Feb 4 2024 12:53 utc | 298

First the US/CIA created ISIS
then the US/CIA joined forces with Iraq’s PMF (Popular Mobilization Forces) and crushed ISIS.
Once ISIS was defeated the US was asked to leave Iraq
and so the US is now attacking Iraq’s PMF.
Is there a pattern here?
How soon until we witness the resurrection of ISIS. (no question mark needed)

Posted by: librul | Feb 4 2024 12:59 utc | 299

@ canuck | Feb 4 2024 12:19 utc | 294
“My understanding is that Bismarck introduced such a socialist measure to undercut the German socialist movement and reinforce the working class’s devotion to the German state.
This may or may not be an index of weakness, and I tend to think it was not. Consider how quickly and eagerly even German socialists abandoned their internationalist aspirations in 1914.
There’s also a school of thought that a similar motivation was behind the New Deal.”
Posted by: malenkov | Feb 4 2024 12:53 utc | 298
Yes, you are right-a big part of Bismarck’s idea to go socialist wasn’t altruistic a was a reaction to the 1878 assassination’s attempt on William 1 German Emperor.
And I read a book, can’t find it now, that proclaimed the blue blood Roosevelt’s New Deal was a sop to ‘pacify’ the Serfs. Geez Franklin marrying into the Delano family (1), who made their money smuggling opium to China, supplies further truth that Roosevelt was like a Caesar giving ‘bread and circuses’ so that the Elite could go on dominating and pillaging at their pleasure.
My post was to illustrate to bevin’s idea that more social welfare leads to less power on the behalf of the Elites, is a delusion; in fact, the opposite is true.
The social, economic and military history of late 19th century and 20th century Germany starkly supports my point.
1. https://lc-digital.conncoll.edu/exhibits/show/gold-journal/essays/delano

Posted by: canuck | Feb 4 2024 13:22 utc | 300

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