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Bipartisan panel: US must prepare for “horrendous,” “devastating” war with Russia and China

by Andre Damon, 16 November 2018, via WSWS

A bipartisan commission appointed by Congress issued a lengthy report Tuesday backing the Pentagon’s plans to prepare for a “great-power” war against Russia, China, or both, making clear that the Trump administration’s belligerent policies are shared by the Democratic Party.

Safe in the knowledge that its findings will never be seriously reported by the mass media, the authors of this report do not mince words about what such a war will mean. A war between the United States and China, which according to the report might break out within four years, will be “horrendous” and “devastating.” The military will “face greater losses than at any time in decades.” Such a war could lead to “rapid nuclear escalation,” and American civilians will be attacked and likely killed.

U.S. B-52 Stratofortress aircraft [Credit: US Air National Guard]

It is impossible to understand anything in American politics without recognizing one fundamental reality: the events and scandals that dominate political discourse, which make it onto the evening news and into headlines on news sites and social media feeds, have precious little to do with the considerations of those who actually make decisions. The media talking heads play their assigned roles, knowing that the most important topics can be discussed only within very circumscribed limits.

Those who actually make policy—a select group of high-ranking members of Congress, Pentagon officials, and think-tank staffers, as well as White House aides—speak an entirely different language among themselves, and in publications they know the general public will not read, and the media will not seriously report.

These people all accept as plain, self-evident fact, statements that, if they ever made the evening news, would be dismissed as “conspiracy theories.”

The latest example of such plain speaking comes in the form of a new report published by the National Defense Strategy Commission, a body set up by Congress to assess the Pentagon’s new National Security Strategy, issued early this year, which declared that “great-power competition—not terrorism—is now the primary focus” of the US military.

The findings of the panel, published as a report titled “Providing for the Common Defense,” can be summarized as follows: The US military is entirely correct to prepare for war with Russia and China. But the Pentagon, which spends more each year than the next eight largest national military forces combined, requires a massive expansion in military spending, to be paid for with cuts to bedrock social programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

The report is, in other words, a congressional rubber-stamp on the Trump administration’s military build-up, putting into words what the Congress did in deeds this year when it passed, with overwhelming bipartisan support, the largest military budget increase since the Cold War.

But beyond the recognition that the United States should prepare for an imminent, “whole-of-society” war with “devastating” impacts on the American population, the document is a stark warning of another basic reality: The United States could very well lose such a war, which requires, in effect, the military conquest of the entire planet by a country with less than five percent of the world’s population.

The United States “might struggle to win, or perhaps lose, a war against China or Russia,” it declares. These wars would not just be fought overseas, but would likely target the American population: “it would be unwise and irresponsible not to expect adversaries to attempt debilitating kinetic, cyber, or other types of attacks against Americans at home while they seek to defeat our military abroad.”

It adds, “Should war occur, American forces will face harder fights and greater losses than at any time in decades. It is worth recalling that during the Falklands War, a decidedly inferior opponent—Argentina—crippled and sank a major British warship by striking it with a single guided missile. The amount of destruction a major state adversary could inflict on U.S. forces today might be orders of magnitude higher.”

To drive the point home, the report outlines a number of scenarios. The first involves Taiwan declaring independence from China in 2022, prompting Chinese retaliation. “The Pentagon informs the President that America could probably defeat China in a long war, if the full might of the nation was mobilized. Yet it would lose huge numbers of ships and aircraft, as well as thousands of lives, in the effort, in addition to suffering severe economic disruptions—all with no guarantee of having decisive impact before Taiwan was overrun … But avoiding that outcome would now require absorbing horrendous losses.”

The solution, the report concludes, is a much bigger army, funded by consistent, multi-year increases in spending. “There is a need for extraordinary urgency in addressing the crisis of national defense,” it writes.

The army needs “More armor, long-range fires, engineering, and air-defense units.” The Air Force needs “more stealthy long-range fighters and bombers, tankers, lift capacity, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms.” The nuclear forces need more missiles. And so on and so forth.

To pay for all this, social services are to be gutted. “Mandatory entitlement programs drive spending growth,” the report complains, demanding that Congress address these programs, which include Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. It warns that “such adjustments will undoubtedly be quite painful.”

And finally, all of society must be mobilized behind the war effort. A “whole-of-nation” approach must be adopted, including “trade policy; science, technology, engineering, and math education.” Everything from private corporations to academic institutions must be brought to bear.

In listing the various challenges to the United States fighting and winning a war against Russia or China, none of the distinguished members of the committee arrived at the seemingly obvious conclusion: that maybe the United States should not fight such a war.

But in this they represent the overwhelming consensus within American policy circles. In his last days, Adolf Hitler was reported to have declared over and over again that if the German nation could not win the Second World War, it did not deserve to exist. The American ruling class is entirely committed to a course of action that threatens the obliteration of not only much of the world’s people, but of the American population itself.

This is not the madness of individuals, but the insanity of a social class that represents an outlived and bankrupt social order, capitalism, and an equally outlived political framework, the nation-state system. And it can only be opposed by another social force: the world working class, whose social interests are international and progressive, and whose very existence depends on opposing the megalomaniacal war aims of American capitalism.

Copyright © World Socialist Web Site


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Stephen Henry Rose
Stephen Henry Rose
Jan 4, 2019 11:59 AM

Has always seemed weird to me that the USA has fought proxy and cold wars against these two countries, in an effort to get them to become capitalist, and when they do …and do capitalism better than the US, then another reason to hate them is found.

John Rachel
John Rachel
Dec 22, 2018 1:31 PM

Let’s stop dancing around the corruption and fraud endemic in the DOD. In the first place, Congress in its current composition WILL NEVER address this grotesque malfeasance and the inherently skewed priorities of our military posturing. Only the citizenry united behind a focused strategy for taking on the MICM complex can stop the military madness. The only way to stop this abuse is to drain the funds. Fortunately, we have the facts and the Constitution on our side. But combating something of this scale requires an unprecedented, completely outside-the-box approach, one that will force the crooks and liars out of office, and reshape the entire federal budget. This is a tall order but with some creativity it can be done.

Please look at this … “Dealing With A Shark Attack” http://jdrachel.com/2016/09/30/dealing-with-a-shark-attack/

To further see how this approach can be a watershed for a host of progressive reforms, please also refer to these five articles …

http://jdrachel.com/2016/09/19/the-peace-dividend-concept-now-a-book/
http://jdrachel.com/2016/10/12/paying-for-the-peace-dividend/
http://jdrachel.com/2017/02/20/the-peace-dividend-could-it-really-happen/
http://jdrachel.com/2017/02/25/peace-dividend-candidates/
http://jdrachel.com/2017/03/03/the-peace-dividend-some-perspective/

This is not a gimmick. It’s a paradigm-shifting, game-changing mechanism for redefining our national priorities. But first we need to “starve the beast” before it destroys us.

The details are all there for the asking …. http://peacedividend.us

Molloy
Molloy
Dec 20, 2018 1:03 PM

.

(sighing) . . . . . all as clearly predicted in ‘1984’.

War mongers. Prison. Now.

.

vexarb
vexarb
Dec 20, 2018 7:57 AM

Appeal to The World Community to stop the cookie U$ war against Russian speakers:

“Work is underway to create in Ukraine an analogue of the Syrian “White helmets,” who, according to the authors, would record the consequences of poisoning of the [Ukraina’s Russian speaking] population and falsify video materials allegedly proving involvement in these inhuman actions of the militia forces and Russia.”

We appeal to the world community, the UN, the OSCE and other humanitarian missions to prevent the outbreak of large-scale hostilities in the Donbas. We do not want any casualties among the innocent civilian population.

https://thesaker.is/the-head-of-dpr-appeals-to-the-world-community-to-prevent-an-outbreak-of-large-scale-hostilities-in-donbas/

vexarb
vexarb
Dec 19, 2018 7:56 AM

Meanwhile in the real world, more indication that Syria is re-gaining its position in the region and that Big NATZO’s plans to dismember Little Syria are beginning to crumble. True large parts of Syria including the Golan remain occupied by Uncle $cam and henchmen, but also true that the new Iraqi president is coming to Syria for a visit… and this bodes well.

ليث ابو بطيخ
@leithfadel
·
Breaking: Iraqi President to visit Damascus in next few days. Barhim Salih will be the second Arab president to visit Syria now that the NATZO invasion of 2011 has been repelled. Iraqi president, Barhim Salih, is Kurdish, not Arab. Significant is that the head of the Iraqi state is paying a formal visit to meet the head of the Syrian government in Damascus.

A quite visible symbol of diminishing U$ influence. Uncle $cam, as before in Vietnam, giving his people another Paper Tiger moment in history….

Uncle ponders; tweets, “Might be a good the time to think about tackling Russia & China”

vexarb
vexarb
Dec 19, 2018 7:31 AM

Cut&Paste from Anon BTL Saker: “Sounds crazy to me, but most of what they say anymore sounds crazy. So, maybe they really are crazy enough to think hey, we are better than Napoleon or Guderian, so hey, a winter war in Russia is going to be a cakewalk.”

John2o2o
John2o2o
Dec 19, 2018 12:06 AM

“it would be unwise and irresponsible not to expect adversaries to attempt debilitating kinetic, cyber, or other types of attacks against Americans at home …”

WTF is a “kinetic” attack?! (lol) and I’m still not sure what a “cyber” attack might be. The ageing nutjobs that come up with this crap belong in mental hospitals where they can do no damage.

Seriously. This stuff is insanity. The above also has a false premise: that you have adversaries. This is a paranoid delusion. You assume you have adversaries that you could never be friends with. That’s pure projection, America.

I’ll be “unwise” and “irresponsible” if I want to. And I will stay alive – thanks all the same.

Badger Down
Badger Down
Dec 20, 2018 1:40 PM
Reply to  John2o2o

A kinetic attack is when your opponent actually moves; a cyber attack is when e stares at a screen and curses. Why do USers want to rule the world?

Ellen Lattz
Ellen Lattz
Dec 18, 2018 5:30 PM

You keep trying to start a new war.. Stupid people.

vexarb
vexarb
Dec 18, 2018 5:26 PM

From Pip BTL today’s Saker, more on Putin’s speech re Russian aerospace hypersonic missiles. Same with underwater guided missiles, new Sukhoi models, and intense partnerships with China, Iran, Serbia and Venezuela ensure Russia must now be considered the dominant world power.

Russia now largest food exporter and self sufficient in nearly all areas. China has a bigger economy, it is not yet self sufficent. Xi is working hard to reduce the pro western corrupt influence. No wonder Latin America and Africa voted against or abstained from the anti-Russia and anti-China votes at the UN. _Sad however that so many good Slavic Europeans are happy to go down with the sinking Anglo Zionist ship_, when the door is wide open for them to the multipolar world’s Belt and Road Initiative.

And now Russia and China satellites have the ability to disrupt all enemy radio communication.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/2178214/china-and-russia-band-together-controversial-heating-experiments

John2o2o
John2o2o
Dec 19, 2018 12:08 AM
Reply to  vexarb

“And now Russia and China satellites have the ability to disrupt all enemy radio communication.”

– Paranoid bullshit.

If they have it the Americans would have had it long ago and they would have used it.

vexarb
vexarb
Dec 18, 2018 5:07 PM

Cut’n’Paste: “Putin: Russia’s advanced weapons. Serial production Avangard hypersonic missile systems. Successful tests Russia’s most advanced Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile. Kinzhal air-launched precision hypersonic weapon successfully placed on combat duty. Peresvet combat lasers have entered duty. Putin emphasized, these weapons significantly increase potential of the army and fleet, thus reliably ensuring Russia’s security for decades to come. These developments strengthen balance of power & global stability.
http://tass.com/defense/1036587

BigB
BigB
Dec 18, 2018 4:36 PM

The Commission that wrote this shite was established by the late, great, (‘insane in the membrane’) McCain: with participation Roger, son of Dov Zakheim. From such a psychopathological gene pool: who would expect anything different?

Michael McNulty
Michael McNulty
Dec 18, 2018 3:19 PM

America will start the war that kills a billion. And lose.

wardropper
wardropper
Dec 18, 2018 4:22 PM

We all lose.
This can’t happen.

John2o2o
John2o2o
Dec 19, 2018 12:10 AM

A war that kills a billion has no winners.

Badger Down
Badger Down
Dec 20, 2018 1:42 PM
Reply to  John2o2o

The US will lose.

olavleivar
olavleivar
Dec 18, 2018 3:12 PM

You eat the Cake while You try to keep it …
Bottomline You are GLOBALIST … which means YOU ARE AGAINST THE COMMON PEOPLE of ANY COUNTRY.. and in spite of Your Efforts of masquerading this FACT by swades of empty Words .. those among us … who still can think … RECOGNIZE YOU FOR WHAT YOU ARE :

In the pocket of the GLOBALIST ELITES … like Your BUNCH of TRAITORS to the PEOPLE always have been … under a cloak of catchy and selfrighteous but empty Slogans …
PLEASE : STICK YOUR MARXISM UP WHERE IT BELONGS .. in YOUR ASS-HOLE ! …..

If You want to be ” SOCIALIST ” ….
Your only HONOURABLE choice would be the NATIONAL SOCIALISM of GERMANY … who ran Policies quite similar to the current Policies of China and Russia .. today .. but far more comprehensive , intelligent and successfull — which also was the REAL reason , why Hitler Germany had to be destroyed …
but You neither have the GUTS and probably not the INTELLIGENCE or INTEGRITY to dare to slaughter this HOLY JEWISH CASH COW : ..
And as long as that is the Case … YOU ARE A LOOSER !

IF You really want to prevent WW 3 .. You must recognize that both the USA as well as the UK in reality are JEWISH VASAL STATES … the UK since 1694 and the USA definitely since 1913 .
They have been the ones who have instigated all major wars in the last 200 Years ! … At Least …
Thats where You need to start ….IF .. you in reality would like to prevent Wars …
You dont .. and THAT tells the informed person .. that You are a LIAR and in reality in the Pocket of those You claim to oppose !

Molloy
Molloy
Dec 18, 2018 4:15 PM
Reply to  olavleivar

.

Better a Marxist philosopher than Racist Bigot.

.

¡No pasarán!

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::

lundiel
lundiel
Dec 18, 2018 12:05 PM

I wonder, is a bipartisan commission appointed by Congress anything like our select defence committee? I say this because the make up of our select defence committee is guaranteed to make decisions maintaining the status quo, whoever is party leader. The idea that Ruth (CIA asset) Smeeth should be within a million miles of foreign policy under Corbyn is tragicomic.

John2o2o
John2o2o
Dec 19, 2018 12:12 AM
Reply to  lundiel

She’s got more chance of being foreign secretary for the Conservatives.

Archie1954
Archie1954
Dec 18, 2018 7:12 AM

The US should just change its name to Sparta and start producing more male children to die for the elites!

axisofoil
axisofoil
Dec 18, 2018 8:11 AM
Reply to  Archie1954

We are much more creative. This is a great opportunity for immigrants to gain citizenship. Then we can get rid of them at the same time. Same way we used the Irish for the Civil war.
We could even bring in lots of the criminal types, the poor uneducated ones the other countries don’t want anyway. Like ‘McNamara’s morons’. A win – win. Clothing, arming, drugging, transporting, feeding…. think about the possible corporate profits here. IBM is sure to give it all a smart interface like they did for Hitler.
We could even have a pay per view War channel 24/7 with combatants micro chipped so their family members could track them with GPS through each battle, right there on streets mapped by google earth.
Just like Vietnam, there could be a constant ‘body count’.Then we could gamble on the lottery spread at 7-11. 3 Americans / 2,122 Chinese……..Tuesdays Winner! Better than war bonds for money raising, and could there be a more patriotic game?
There is so much opportunity for profit here. We know how to do war. Let’s get this war going.

Badger Down
Badger Down
Dec 20, 2018 1:46 PM
Reply to  axisofoil

The US has fought wars “over there” for too long. Next time, the US will be damaged.

wardropper
wardropper
Dec 18, 2018 4:24 PM
Reply to  Archie1954

The Spartans had a sense of honour.
Our modern elites have a sense of money.

George Cornell
George Cornell
Dec 19, 2018 1:28 PM
Reply to  Archie1954

You might have said more poor, uneducated, otherwise unemployable black children.

axisofoil
axisofoil
Dec 18, 2018 6:15 AM

Social security will not be touched. To accomplish all of this we need only to print lots of money. We have a great press. Really great.

Robbobbobin
Robbobbobin
Dec 18, 2018 4:31 AM

Between now and next 11/11 I’m going to be saving up every penny I can. When we get there, it’ll be a quick breakfast then onto those Chinese web sites for the rest of the day and it’ll be all spend, spend, spend before we blow the fuckers away.

P.S. They can’t take it with them. Ha! Last laugh any way.

lundiel
lundiel
Dec 17, 2018 7:59 PM

What, I wonder, does America consider to be “winning a War”? They will never commit troops to invade Russia or China, to do so would be suicide. So, they intend to fight Russia in Europe and China? I can only imagine them going straight for the nuclear option and the annihilation of as many civilians as possible in a first strike. To try and communicate this to the British people is hopeless, I hope I, and mine, get incinerated in the first hour. Thanks America.

vexarb
vexarb
Dec 18, 2018 1:02 PM
Reply to  lundiel

@Lundiel: “What, I wonder, does [North] America consider to ,be “winning a War”? ”

I would would say they had won if there were any Yanks or Canucks left after Russia’s superior missiles came over the Poles (the latest ones can enter North America from either North or South Pole trajectories) and China’s superior manpower supplemented the Russians coming over the Baring Straits.

If we in Western Europe keep our noses clean we can step back, sit out and watch the greatest historical spectacle since the Sack of Rome by Alaric the Goth and Attila the Hun.

wardropper
wardropper
Dec 18, 2018 4:27 PM
Reply to  lundiel

It’s typical of corrupt politicians that when they have conquered everything they want to conquer, they turn on each other.
The nepotistic rewarding of overgrown children is the cause, and it’s amazing that such an old story is still controlling our lives.

Maggie
Maggie
Dec 18, 2018 6:30 PM
Reply to  lundiel

@Lundiel – When America speaks of winning a war against Russia or China,they mean using the ‘gang’ of pawns they have set up throughout Europe/ME to do the fighting for them and annihilating and culling their populations in the process. Then – when the fighting is almost over.. they will ride in on their new Humvees and claim victory, just as they did WW2.
They have been very good at duping ignorant people with their propaganda and lies, but they are absolute cowards through and through, fit only to kick the door of a shack in and rape and murder the inhabitants, like they did in Vietnam and Afghanistan.
But Russia and China are far bigger fish.

They are exposed for the rotting carcass they are.
Time now to boycott all that is American, especially their imported moronic propagandised TV programmes and films, Coka Cola, MacDonalds and Ford cars….
etc.. Oh, and all the MK Ultra programmed Disney babes, like Britney, Christina Aguilera, Katy Perrie, Gaga.. and the latest Arianna Grande…. Who have done more to pervert our young people than anyone in the whole of history.
Kick them all into touch and get a full body and mind cleanse…Now..

Philpot
Philpot
Dec 17, 2018 5:29 PM

These people are bonkers. This is what happens when you put ugly people (who can’t get a burd) in power: they think they aren’t missing anything if the world is nuked, and probably relish the jealous thought of all those with burds getting wiped out!

Makropulos
Makropulos
Dec 17, 2018 4:57 PM

I love this reference to social services as “entitlement programs” – as if the relentless squandering of revenues on the psychopathic accumulation of greater and greater weapons did not already indicate a parasitical class who automatically feel entitled to do whatever they want with the wealth.

harry stotle
harry stotle
Dec 17, 2018 8:26 PM
Reply to  Makropulos

Yes, its quite extraordinary – destroy the social fabric then point the finger at those harmed by destruction that has been inflicted.

Exactly the same principle seems to operate on the international stage as well – too many people blaming ‘terrorists’ rather than unilateral acts of aggression that lead to extremism.

Maggie
Maggie
Dec 19, 2018 11:26 PM
Reply to  harry stotle

Hi Harry Stottle
here is an enlightening video that I know you will relish:

Ken Kenn
Ken Kenn
Dec 17, 2018 10:15 PM
Reply to  Makropulos

The irony of this great power competition is that the very power they wish to hold over their challengers post apocalypse will be a burnt and useless earth.

Once they come out of their bunkers after it’s over..

I can imagine them now saying: ” See those ashes – they are our ashes – we won those ashes.

One thing’s for sure – no winning power can rule the earth from a post nuclear bunker.

They will have to come at at sometime and breath the air of ” Freedom”

harry stotle
harry stotle
Dec 18, 2018 8:10 AM
Reply to  Ken Kenn

“Mr President, it would be foolish and naive in the extreme to dismiss this problem. We cannot allow an ashes gap”
General Buck Turgidson, USAF Chief of Staff.

George cornell
George cornell
Dec 18, 2018 8:13 PM
Reply to  harry stotle

Kubrick nailed it. But was that not a mine shaft gap?

Gary Weglarz
Gary Weglarz
Dec 17, 2018 4:56 PM

When I was still a kid the top U.S. military leadership called the Joint Chiefs of Staff, came to John Kennedy with the plan for what was called – Operation Northwoods. The plan was to create false-flag terrorism in the U.S., blow up planes, kill people and blame Cuba to justify an invasion. Kennedy rejected the plan. The Joint Chiefs also attempted to persuade Kennedy to initiate a “surprise” nuclear first strike on Moscow and Havana. Kennedy refused that plan also and in disgust commented “and we call ourselves the human race.” Kennedy gave a speech at American University the summer before they killed him in which he turned away from the Cold War and reached out to the people and leadership of the Soviet Union. The speech was translated and played throughout the Soviet Union. For a brief period in my childhood it appeared that a peaceful world might become possible.

Kennedy was then killed by that famous – “magic bullet” – and we Americans have been reduced to simple idiots believing in magic bullets ever since – least we be morally required to hang the group of scoundrels who assassinated our president. The cabal of military & CIA & FBI leadership that killed Kennedy continues to rule the U.S. today. No U.S. president can challenge them. When their power waned after the disintegration of the Soviet Union they created the 9/11 false flag to regain power and access unlimited money from U.S. taxpayers for their wars. This episode required that the American people cease to believe in the “laws of physics” if we are to trust the official 9/11 story. Mission accomplished. Given our belief in such utter propaganda fantasies it is difficult to argue against the notion that we “Americans” truly are a rather – “exceptional” people!

The cabal of military and intelligence psychopaths running the U.S. since JFK’s murder are a cancer disconnected from both reality and from those traits of empathy and compassion that make us human. We will either stop them in their obviously insane game of global domination or they will destroy us all.

The “bi-partisan” report discussed evidences the total amoral depravity of the U.S. leadership class.

Frankly Speaking
Frankly Speaking
Dec 18, 2018 12:45 PM
Reply to  Gary Weglarz

Spot on.

Norcal
Norcal
Dec 18, 2018 2:26 PM
Reply to  Gary Weglarz

Greater (More Truthful) words were never spoken. Thank you Gary Weglarz.

bc
bc
Dec 17, 2018 4:15 PM

The merest glance at what happened in Vietnam would tell any American of sound mind they would lose. Badly.

Maggie
Maggie
Dec 18, 2018 1:40 AM
Reply to  bc

@ bc, 70% of Americans believe that the US won the Vietnam war???
And are completely brainwashed by the box on the wall and the MSM presstitutes, and can’t tell what is real and what isn’t owing to all the predictive programming rammed down their throats in desensitising films and vicious war games..

Narrative says:
As sure as hell, there are forces that are:
– deliberately stirring constant social malaise
– deliberately engineering political upheavals
– deliberately playing dangerous economic games
– deliberately pretending ecological disasters are not happening, and
– deliberately stoking military conflicts on a daily basis in every corner of the planet.

These forces are Trojan horses: designed to appear as gifts, but containing secret trap doors through which hidden forces can enter any country and covertly undermine the governments in question.
This explanation only sounds outlandish to those who look no further than their names and have no idea of their history of operations.

Take USAID, for example. Created in 1961 by a JFK ‘executive order’, who I think believed that the Government Agency would work “to end extreme poverty and to promote resilient, democratic societies while advancing our security and prosperity.”
To provide humanitarian aid and disaster relief to countries in need… but evolved throughout the 1980s and the 1990s and more into the 21st century as the political arm and a funding branch of the US/CIA for what they call “promoting democracy.”
But it’s now an integral part of US COUNTERINSURGENCY CAMPAIGNS that directly involve the Pentagon and State Department, in terms of diplomacy and obviously war activities.
http://rogerannis.com/plunderers-and-prey-usaid-in-afghanistan/

USAID was kicked out of Bolivia in 2013 for running a program through its remarkably frankly-named ”Office of Transition Initiatives” that provided $10.5 MILLION of funding for “Strengthening Democratic Institutions” and (de)stabilizing a country.. a thinly veiled euphemism for “overthrowing the government.” (a coup)
Small beer when compared to the $5 billion Nuland ‘gifted’ to Ukraine from the US, not to mention the creation of some 40,000 NGOs (Blackwater/mercenaries) to spread the “democracy” of U.S. imperialism
On March 4, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Kiev in a further attempt to shoulder aside EU competitors (and Russia?) in a deal. Kerry offered $1 billion in loan guarantees to the Ukrainian coup-makers and promised to send in a host of U.S. “technical experts” to help re-align the country’s national Bank and Finance ministry.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/10/us-imperialism-and-the-ukraine-coup/

They don’t even hide now, they are so sure that the dumb public won’t even notice.

USAID’s black ops programs for undermining foreign governments go all the way back to the founding of the agency itself. Like USAID’s “Office of Public Safety”running a CIA front program for training foreign Police in torture and terror tactics in Latin America. Co-funding (with the CIA) the opium-smuggling Xieng Khouang Air Transport, a private airline for narcotics trafficker (and CIA point man in Laos) General Vang Pao.

And co-funding opposition groups in UKRAINE (prior to the 2014 coup) with Glenn Greenwald-backer Pierre Omidyar and, of course, George Soros.
SOURCE: George Soros admits playing an integral part in the Ukraine crisis

But this NGO/TROJAN HORSE problem is by no means confined to USAID and its associated organizations. There is now another seemingly innocuous organisation, The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in the mix.
The official story is that the NED was created in 1983 by an ‘act of Congress’ in order to “encourage the establishment and growth of democratic development” in TARGETTED countries around the world in line with US foreign policy goals.

The TRUTH of the story is that the Government funded NED was expressly created as a FRONT for funding CIA activities inside target countries, a fact that ALLEN WEINSTEIN, son of Russian Jewish Immigrants… one of the members of the study group that led to NED’s founding, ‘openly bragged’ about in The Washington Post: “A lot of what we do today, was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA,”
(Thankfully he died in 2015} But was replaced by snide hawk Carl Gresham
https://thepolitic.org/an-interview-with-carl-gershman-65-president-of-the-national-endowment-for-democracy/

Even more blatant is an admission by then-Director of Central Intelligence William Casey, who wrote a memo to the White House advocating the creation of NED but cautioning that “We at the CIA should not get out front in the development of such an organization, nor do we wish to appear to be a sponsor or advocate.”

EDUCATION IS THE KEY TO DEFEATING THIS HYDRA.
INFORMATION IS POWER…
Spread it far and wide.

John2o2o
John2o2o
Dec 19, 2018 12:16 AM
Reply to  Maggie

Uh-huh

David Eire
David Eire
Dec 17, 2018 3:54 PM

The US is the greatest threat to world peace and human survival we have ever faced. The US is preparing its military and Western populations for a world war and our European misleaders are going along with it, even though they know Europe will be a primary battlefield and will be utterly devastated. It will be far worse than WW2.
I see very little hope. I see no possibility of rational visionary leadership emerging in Europe or the US. The ruling Western ideology is a fundamentalism which effectively prevents rational leadership emerging.
If humanity survives the 21st century it will be by sheer good luck.

DunGroaning
DunGroaning
Dec 18, 2018 1:32 AM
Reply to  David Eire

A friendly down tick.
There is always hope.
Despair is a weapon just like fear. It is a subtle knife that they make you use on yourself! But then they have many centuries of knowledge of war.

Remember – sticks and stones.

Keep your humour. Sing a song.

They are the few – we are the many.

Molloy
Molloy
Dec 18, 2018 8:36 AM
Reply to  DunGroaning

.

DG — My friend, it is Molloy from the other site?

Am sure you have frequently spotted as well. More and more as if taken over by the regime psyops. . . . . any thoughts my friend?

Am in touch with the ex Uzbekistan man. He says he is tired and will examine his mods (all my comments modded now). . . . then never gets back to me.

Any chance you me can discuss ‘false-hope’ psyops away from public gaze?

If only to confirm our man is not being screwed over?

.

All best, Molloy

.

Loverat
Loverat
Dec 17, 2018 2:32 PM

The thing about countering lies and media misinformation is you need to be smart and clever. Ex-Ambassador to Syria, Peter Ford has the right idea in one sense. I recall at a presentation he explained ways he plays the media at their own game. But this in the MSM newsroom where he’s more concerned about ensuring he doesn’t get steam-rollered. A defensive move,

If you understand the thinking of the people we are up against, there are several ways of proceeding – but these have to be offensive.

One of my ideas over Syria was to utilise the foreign media but in a very specific way. In the climate of competing agendas in UK ‘peace movements’ this idea has not got off the ground. But we all need to open our minds to different approaches,new ideas and be more clever.

Yarkob
Yarkob
Dec 17, 2018 2:17 PM

call me a contrarian, but I really don’t think there will be a war with anyone. Not in the way this article speaks of. It’s a confidence racket. A scam, if you will, as suggested by Kavy below.

It’s been the oldest trick in the book for decades. It works to everyone’s advantage as they get to control their constantly fearful populace. And they get to line their own pockets with dividends from the plethora of MIC stocks they all hold. It is the same for Russia \and China. Panic all you like, but I’m not for panicking.

Problem.
Reaction.
Solution.

Frankly Speaking
Frankly Speaking
Dec 18, 2018 12:53 PM
Reply to  Yarkob

Fair point Yarkob, but let’s not forgetthat on the receiving end of all this build up and threats are Putin and Xi. They may not risk their countries, and may assume that this is just a game, instead seeing the threat as real and launch pre-emptive nuclear strikes.

Yes, that would be a lose-lose situation, but where the Mad Neocons have already allowed themxelves of a pre-emptive strike against a potential foe, the least bad situation for Russia and China, even a logical one, might feasibly be seen as a pre-emptive strike by them.

Time to stock up on supplies…

John2o2o
John2o2o
Dec 19, 2018 12:29 AM

I’m glad you’re not running for high office anywhere. Frankly speaking.

Only one country has ever decided to kill a quarter of a million people in one go by using nuclear weapons. (Guess which one?) And that was over 70 years ago.

I’ll give Putin and Xi the benefit of the doubt on this one.

John2o2o
John2o2o
Dec 19, 2018 12:21 AM
Reply to  Yarkob

You’re a contrarian.

John2o2o
John2o2o
Dec 19, 2018 12:23 AM
Reply to  Yarkob

So, the American military are playing tiddlywinks with the natives in Afghanistan?

Kavy
Kavy
Dec 17, 2018 2:04 PM

It’s a protection racket. They make up pretend enemies, then pretend to protect us if we pay up – with taxes. A money making racket! They are evil. Dr No, Goldfinger.

ZigZag Wanderer
ZigZag Wanderer
Dec 17, 2018 3:17 PM
Reply to  Kavy

Completely agree . Here in the UK the Skripal fundraiser was particularly successful with large amounts of citizens money now being diverted onto the Military Intelligence gravytrain.
New anti russian cyber warfare centre being built will provide hundreds , perhaps thousands , of jobs for carefully selected Oxbridge wannabee spooks.

vexarb
vexarb
Dec 20, 2018 11:30 AM

Update re Skripal, from interview with Lavrov in today’s Saker Vineyard:

https://thesaker.is/lavrovs-interview-with-radio-komsomolskaya-pravda/

There is the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which makes it mandatory for the British government to grant us access to a Russian citizen. Sergey Skripal is an arguable case because he has dual citizenship, but Yulia Skripal is only a Russian citizen.

Question: But we can apply to the British court, can’t we?

Sergey Lavrov: There is an international obligation, the Vienna Convention, which is absolutely irrevocable. And we will demand that it is obeyed.

In this instance, when we demanded information on the Skripals that was linked, among other things, to the British exploiting the Skripal theme at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, we got an official reply to the effect that this issue was related to British security. For this reason, it is not subject to any disclosure or London’s meaningful reply.

Question: But international law has precedence over their law, hasn’t it? Does the Vienna Convention have precedence?

Sergey Lavrov: Yes it does. We will continue to press for a meeting with our citizen.

Question: But isn’t it their minister who said that Russia should “shut up and go away?”

Sergey Lavrov: He (the UK Defence Secretary. – Ed.) is a man whose oversized amour propre is superimposed upon an inferiority complex. I saw his colleague too, and it is very sad that the UK assigns foreign ministers of this class to handle foreign policy.

Jim Scott
Jim Scott
Dec 22, 2018 10:19 AM
Reply to  Kavy

Kavy you are correct it is a protection racket. We were calling it the fear industry 20-30 years ago but now most people have been politically disenfranchised by politicians of all stripes who have become cheerleaders for the military industrialists because its an easy way to build exports and the corporations are happy to bribe both sides of politics.Equally the media has never been so compliant and proactive in supporting illegal wars.

Narrative
Narrative
Dec 17, 2018 1:16 PM

Hillary Clinton, March 2009, US secretary of state: “How do you deal toughly with your banker?”
Australian prime minster Kevin Rudd: “China needed to be integrated into the international community, but that countries should be prepared to deploy force if everything goes wrong“.

Let’s see if everything is going wrong …

As sure as hell, there are forces that are:
– deliberately stirring constant social malaise
– deliberately engineering political upheavals
– deliberately playing dangerous economic games
– deliberately pretending ecological disasters are not happening, and
– deliberately stoking military conflicts on a daily basis in every corner of the planet.

Are things going wrong?
It looks, everything is being engineered to go wrong.

George Cornell
George Cornell
Dec 17, 2018 2:21 PM
Reply to  Narrative

Australia, the homophobic, xenophobic US mini-me can always be counted on to suck up and enthusiastically ask “How high”?

Jim Scott
Jim Scott
Dec 22, 2018 10:28 AM
Reply to  George Cornell

Australian politicians that is. The Greens are correct we should have a full debate by Parliament before allowing the Government to attack another country. Certainly if an attack is on us the military shold be able to retaliate immediately. However Turnbull sent Australian planes to bomb Syrian cities without even informing us of his intentions, let alone seeking approval of the Parliament. Quite clearly the Syrian Government did not attack us or threaten us so our attack on them was a war crime for which the Austalian cabinet should be charged with war crimes. Just because the USA illegally attacked Syria and gave significant support to other players to attack Syria it does not give Australia the right to support them.

George cornell
George cornell
Dec 22, 2018 12:26 PM
Reply to  Jim Scott

Well put. But what accounts for the endemic hero worship of the US in Oz? Almost everyone else thinks they are madmen. And why do Aussie parents let their boys be cannon fodder for the loathed Yanks? Wasn’t Gallipoli enough?

Jim Scott
Jim Scott
Dec 22, 2018 3:21 PM
Reply to  George cornell

George I think that most Australians think that the USA is the worlds biggest problem but there are those that John Howard cultivated namely the aspirational class, who get carried away with emulating what they believe is the go getter or American exceptionalism myth. They believe they have to succeed in the US because “that’s where its at”. However most people i have in my own orbit despise our governments boot licking obsequiousness to the USA. Currently the Coalition Government is dominated by the hard right who are I believe, trying to build an American military culture in Australia that mirrors that of the US. It freaks me out to think we might be channeled in that dead end direction especially as it is stuffing up our relationships with our Asian neighbors.

Robyn
Robyn
Dec 17, 2018 12:34 PM

Is there anyone or any organisation of influence to counter these amoral lunatics? Anyone or any organisation of influence promoting PEACE? Anyone or any organisation to bring ordinary citizens of all countries together to demand an end to war and military spending?

FS
FS
Dec 17, 2018 12:58 PM
Reply to  Robyn

You might as well be asking if there’s any way to hang the ruling elite from the nearest tree. Since they’re clearly accountable to no one – neither to the law nor to God, not to their Higher Selves, apparently – it’s only their extinction that could possibly end our present suicidal trajectory. Nothing else.

Brutally Remastered
Brutally Remastered
Dec 17, 2018 2:51 PM
Reply to  FS

“Higher Selves”? Very funny.

wardropper
wardropper
Dec 18, 2018 4:38 PM
Reply to  FS

Needless to say, they will never voluntarily render themselves extinct.
Only outside forces can achieve that.
Which is why our modern educational establishments are not very keen on guiding people in the direction of being able to think for themselves.
Thinking for yourself brings the knowledge that it is we who are the outside forces.
Not a very comfortable thought, but then neither is surgery, which can cure many diseases today.
We just need to educate more doctors who specialize in curing systemic corruption.

Loverat
Loverat
Dec 17, 2018 1:43 PM
Reply to  Robyn

I didn’t really follow the Paris disturbances but I was skimming a few articles which mentioned the protesters political positions were across a spectrum. And their demands were posted on another thread on here – also compliance with international law and stop promoting wars.

I think our day may come if we can forget partisan politics and silly issues and distractions like BREXIT. You just need to get one thing to spark off a rebellion. Single narratives (like Iraq) have crashed before – and its not impossible that the whole criminal narrative could collapse very suddenly. That’s why the mainstream media are so busy smearing independent journalists and academics. This time around their role in regime change and mayhem won’t be forgiven or forgotten. They’re are scared to death.

Make no mistake, our government and media combined are the two most likely triggers for wiping humanity off this planet. These people are potential killers and there are some signs we might not be here this time next year. The Douma staged attack earlier in the year at one point looked like kicking it off so it’s a miracle we’re still here.

But on a positive it may take one event, imaginative idea – or something remarkably simple that will change things if only the UK independent media/academics/peace movements could work together better. Until they do, we have to look to the French for hope.

Jezzwecan
Jezzwecan
Dec 18, 2018 1:37 AM
Reply to  Robyn

The current UK Labour party and it’s well over half million members.

John Jeffery
John Jeffery
Dec 17, 2018 12:18 PM

Boycott all US products. Google facebook twitter etc ditch them.

Haltonbrat
Haltonbrat
Dec 17, 2018 10:18 PM
Reply to  John Jeffery

They are Israeli controlled.

Seamus Padraig
Seamus Padraig
Dec 18, 2018 11:25 AM
Reply to  Haltonbrat

So’s the US govt.

mohandeer
mohandeer
Dec 17, 2018 11:24 AM

“But the Pentagon, which spends more each year than the next eight largest national military forces combined, requires a massive expansion in military spending, to be paid for with cuts to bedrock social programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.”
Everything from planes, trains, drains, power mains, in fact all infrastructure in the US is so outdated that most of it needs replacing and the insane foreign policies are the only considerations of the “exceptional” US?
Also not mentioned in this article is the US propensity to use proxy warfare and useful idiots to perform their dirty wars. The biggest and by far the most stupid is NATO. If the US were to decide on a war with Russia, the nukes would start falling across the whole of Europe(well that’s one rival dealt with)and Russia would not be to blame. Also not to be forgotten is the US ability to score “own goals” and their absolute inability to fight wars without killing their own and allies troops. I remember some years ago, the US was showing off with 8 helicopters who were going to “kick ass” and what happened? The helicopters all crashed into each other. The only asses that got kicked were their own.
God defend us from the imbecilic Americans, because I don’t think anyone else can.

George Cornell
George Cornell
Dec 17, 2018 2:13 PM
Reply to  mohandeer

The US voter, ordinarily capable of injecting some reason, has been neutered by the disgusting gaming of democracy in favour of the MIC. So only two parties, led by screaming psychos, wrapping themselves in the flag, badmouthing the rest of the world, the election of either inevitably leading to more world aggression. Both parties funded by enemies of the people, letting the infrastructure of an entire country disintegrate, just so long as the MIC can continue to steal, pillage and stay in control. How can this possibly end well?

Roberto
Roberto
Dec 18, 2018 1:38 AM
Reply to  mohandeer

The US and several of the old British Commonwealth nations ARE the useful idiots.

Grafter
Grafter
Dec 17, 2018 11:12 AM

Total insanity written by paranoid psychopaths. Great news for the arms manufacturers as war is their raison d’etre. Human beings who think in these terms need to be certified and locked up for the safety of our planet.

Antonym
Antonym
Dec 17, 2018 10:45 AM

Makes sense if you are nuts. US hawks couldn’t even beat non nuclear Syria or Vietnam. Those mushroom clouds tend to ruin the home economy too.
Even Kissinger was clever enough to split Russia from China peacefully instead of corralling them by force.

Paul Carline
Paul Carline
Dec 17, 2018 9:54 AM

Reminds me eerily of the PNAC letter to Clinton of 2000 which also argued for a massive increase in military spending (purely for ‘defense’ of course) … and, as is well known, the letter concluded that the public would very likely not support the allegedly necessary increase “absent a catalyzing event – such as a New Pearl Harbour”.

We all know what happened next. Of course, that “catalyzing event” had already been long in the planning and was almost ready to roll out when the PNAC group of predominantly dual American-Israeli citizenship holders penned their letter.

There’s a big difference between then and now, of course. 9/11 led to the fake “War on Terror” and to relatively limited warfare far away from America’s shores and using largely conventional weapons.

The next one would likely engulf the planet and potentially make it uninhabitable.

George Cornell
George Cornell
Dec 17, 2018 9:54 AM

If anyone doubted how crazy these people are, this should put those doubts to rest. No mention of the planet of course or of the “collateral damage” to noncombatants. No mention of what they would be fighting over. Sandbars? Invasions by the US? False flag schemes? Protecting Jeff Epstein? These are all of course what really matter to the American people.

Fair dinkum
Fair dinkum
Dec 17, 2018 9:32 AM

Two points the psychopaths who compiled the report neglected to mention.
>The prospect of a nuclear winter.
> And where are those mad fuckers and their masters gonna hide when the gun toting vigilantes come after them?
As they used to say back in the sixties: ‘In case of nuclear attack, stick your head between your knees and kiss your arse goodbye’

John
John
Dec 17, 2018 9:28 AM

America is thee greatest threat to the world

Maggie
Maggie
Dec 17, 2018 4:35 PM
Reply to  John

@ John,
America is THE ”ONLY” THREAT TO THE WORLD.
Time to name and shame the cowards who hide behind the MSM presstitute’s call to arms.
Once exposed they can be dealt with.

Antonym
Antonym
Dec 18, 2018 3:39 AM
Reply to  Maggie

It was for the last 50 years, but times are changing: soon a guy named Xi will take over next in the long line of “threats to the world”. Mercantile Britain was the one before the US and Islam the one before them, etc. The old imperialists were mostly active in the physical world; now the realms include ideology and virtual space.

Jim Scott
Jim Scott
Dec 22, 2018 1:09 PM
Reply to  Maggie

America is a significant threat to the world but the biggest threat is human stupidity and greed. This is a time when we must work together to prevent the destruction of our planet that enables our lives. climate change and ecological destruction combined with over population growth is the severest threat. Unless we stop warring and plundering we will destroy ourselves. We must choose peacemaking politicians who solve problems politically not violently. Bombing the crap out of countries is destroying our capacity to survive and turning the planet into a polluted mess not suitable for life. Lets hope the young politicians recently elected in the USA like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can turn the USA towards sanity.