Lessons of the past
Kevin Smith
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, and then as farce”.
Karl Marx
As a history student years ago I remember our teacher explaining how past events are linked to what happens in the future. He told us human behaviour always dictates that events will repeat in a similar way as before. I remember we studied 20th century history and discussed World War I and the links to World War II.
At this time, we were in the middle of the Cold War and in unchartered waters and I couldn’t really link past events to what was likely to happen next.
Back then I guess like many I considered US presidents more as statesman. They talked tough on the Soviet Union but they talked peace too. So, the threat to humanity was very different then to now. Dangerous but perhaps a stable kind of dangerous.
After the break up of the Soviet Union we then went through a phase of disorderly change in the world. In the early 1990s the war in the Former Yugoslavia erupted and spread from republic to republic. Up until the mid-to-late nineties I didn’t necessarily sense that NATO and the West were the new threat to humanity. While there was a clear bias to events in Yugoslavia there was still some even-handedness or fairness. Or so I thought.
This all changed in 1999 with the war in Kosovo. For the first time I witnessed shocking images of civilian targets being bombed, TV stations, trains, bridges and so on. But my wake-up call was the daily NATO briefings on the war. The NATO spokesman boasted of hundreds of Serbian tanks being destroyed. There was something new and disturbing about his manner, language and tone, something I’d not encountered from coverage of previous conflicts. For the first time I found myself not believing one word of the narrative.
When the peace agreement was reached, out of 300 Serbian tanks which had entered Kosovo at the start of the conflict, over 285 were counted going back into Serbia proper which was confirmation he had been lying.
From this conflict onwards I started to see clear parallels with events of the past and some striking similarities with the lead up to previous world wars. This all hit home when observing events in Syria and more recently Venezuala.
But looking around seeing people absorbed in their phones you wouldn’t think the world is on the brink of war. For most of us with little time to watch world events there are distractions which have obscured the picture historians and geopolitical experts see more clearly.
Recent and current western leaders haven’t been short people in military uniform shouting. That would be far too obvious. It’s still military conflict and mass murder but in smart suits with liberal sound-bites and high-fives.
Then the uncool, uncouth conservative Trump came along and muddied the waters. Briefly it seemed there might be hope that these wars would stop. But there can be little doubt he’s been put under pressure to comply with the regime change culture embedded in the Deep State. Today, through their incendiary language we see US leaders morphing into the open style dictators of the past. The only thing missing are the military uniforms and hats.
Every US military action and ultimatum to a foreign state has been aggressively pushed by the losing Democrats and particularly ‘liberal’ mainstream media, any dissent met with smears, censorship or worse.
I would argue that today similarities with events leading up to previous global conflicts are too striking and numerous to ignore.
Let’s look at some of these:
1) Military build up, alliances and proxy wars – for all the chaos and mass murder pursued by the Obama Administration he did achieve limited successes in signing agreements with Iran and Cuba. But rather than reverse the endless wars as promised Trump cancels the agreements leaving the grand sum of zilch foreign policy achievements.
NATO has been around for 70 years, but in the last 20 or so has become obsessed with military build up. Nowadays it has hundreds of bases around the world but keeps destablising non-aligned states, partly to isolate Russia and China. And Syria sums up the dangers of the regime change model used today. With over a dozen states involved in the proxy war there is a still high risk of conflict breaking out between US and Russia.
The motives for military build up are many. First there are powerful people in the arms industry and media who benefit financially from perpetual war. The US while powerful in military terms are a declining power which will continue, new powers emerging. The only return on their money they can see is through military build up. Also there are many in government, intelligence services and media who can see that if the current order continues to crumble they are likely to be prosecuted for various crimes. All this explains the threatening language and the doubling-down on those who challenge them.
In 1914, Europe had two backward thinking military alliance blocks and Sarajevo showed how one event could trigger an unstoppable escalation dragging in many states. And empires such as Austro-Hungary were crumbling from within as they are now. So a similar mentality prevails today where the powerful in these empires under threat favour conflict to peace. For these individuals it’s a last throw of the dice and a gamble with all our lives.
2) Israel and its US relationship – I think Syria is where global conflict is still likely to start. As Syria has been winning, the involvement of Turkey and Saudi Arabia appears to receding. More recently Israel have taken their place and is relentless and unyielding and has its own wider, destructive plans for the Middle East. Israeli influence in the US is now so great that the US has more or less ceded its foreign policy in the Middle East to Israel.
In 1914 Austro-Hungary pursued a series of impossible demands against Serbia managing to drag its close and more powerful ally Germany (led by someone equally as obstinate and militaristic as the US leadership) into World War I.
Incidentally, some readers may have noticed the similarity between the 1914 diktats and modern-day US bullying towards Venezuala and other states – and perhaps most striking, by Saudi Arabia in its dispute with Qatar not long ago.
3) Ideology, paranoia and unstable leaders – history tells us that ideology, paranoia and power are not a good mix and this is in abundance in western elites and media. These establishments are rabidly hostile to Iran and Russia.
In addition we face a situation of highly unpredictable, ideological regional leaders in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel. Most worrying of all, the language, threats and actions of Trump, Pompeo and Bolton suggests there are psychopathic tendencies in play. Behind this is a Deep State and Democrat Party pushing even harder for conflict. The level of paranoia is discouraging any notion of peace. 30 years ago Russia and US would sit down at a summit and reach a consensus. Today a US leader or diplomat seen talking to a Russian official is accused of collusion. When there are limited channels to talk in a crisis, you know we are in trouble.
In Germany in the 1930s, ideology, propaganda and creating enemies were key in getting the population on side for war. The leaders within the Nazi clique, Hitler, Goring and Himmler look disturbingly similar to the Trump, Pompeo, Bolton line up.
4) Media deception and propaganda – The media have been responsible for getting us to where we are today. Without them, the public would have woken up long ago. Much of the deception has been about the presentation of the narrative and the leaders. And it’s been a campaign of distraction on our news where the daily genocide in Yemen gives way to sensationalised non-events and celebrity trivia.
The terms and words; regime change, mass murder and terrorist have all been substituted by the media with ‘humanitarian intervention’, ‘limited airstrikes’ and ‘moderate rebels’ to fool a distracted public that the victims of the aggression are the bad guys. Western funded ‘fact checking’ sites such as Bellingcat have appeared pushing the misdirections to a surreal new level. Obama was portayed in the media as a cool guy and a little ‘soft’ on foreign policy. This despite the carnage in Libya, Syria and his drones.
Sentiments of equal rights and diversity fill the home affairs sections in the liberal press, while callous indifference and ethno-centrism towards the Middle East and Russia dominate foreign affairs pages. In the press generally, BREXIT, non-existent anti-Semitism and nonsense about the ‘ISIS bride’ continues unabated. This media circus seeks to distract from important matters, using these topics to create pointless divisions, causing hostility towards Muslims and Jews in the process.
The majority of a distracted public have still not twigged largely because the propaganda is more subtle nowadays and presented under a false humanitarian cloak. A small but vocal group of experts and journalists challenging these narratives are regularly smeared as Putin or Assad “apologists”.
UK journalists are regularly caught out lying and some long standing hoaxes such as Russiagate exposed. Following this and Iraq WMDs more people are starting to see a pattern here. Yet each time the media in the belief they’ve bamboozled enough move on to the next big lie. This a sign of a controlled media which has reached the point of being unaccountable and untouchable, deeply embedded within the establishment apparatus.
In the lead up to World War II the Nazis ran an effective media propaganda campaign which indoctrinated the population. The media in Germany also reached the point their blindingly obvious lies were rarely questioned. The classic tactic was to blame others for the problems in Germany and the world and project their crimes on to their victims.
There are some differences as things have evolved. The Nazis created the media and state apparatus to pursue war. Nowadays this is the opposite way around. Instead the state apparatus is already in place so whoever is leader whether they describe themself as liberal or conservative, is merely a figurehead required to continue the same pro-war policies. Put a fresh-looking president in a shiny suit and intoduce him to the Queen and you wouldn’t think he’s the biggest mass murderer since Hitler.
Although there are some differences in the propaganda techniques, all the signs are that today’s media are on a similar war-footing as Germany’s was just prior to the outbreak of World War II.
5) Appeasement – because of its relative weakness and not wanting a war, Russia has to some extent appeased Western and Israeli aggression in Syria and beyond. To be fair, given the aggression it faces I don’t think Russia has had much choice than playing for time. However at some point soon, with the West pushing more and more, something will have to give.
Likewise, in the 1930s a militarily unprepared UK and France appeased Germany’s expansion. The more they backed off the more Germany pushed until war was the only way.
6) False flags – for those watching events in Syria know that the majority of the ‘chemical attacks’ have been carried out by Western supported opposition. The timing and nature of these suggest co-ordination at the highest levels. Intelligence Services of the UK and other agencies are believed to co-ordinate these fabrications to provoke a western response aimed at the Syrian Army.
On more than one occasion these incidents have nearly escalated to a direct conflict with Russia showing the dangerous game being played by those involved and those pushing the false narrative in the media. The next flashpoint in Syria is Idlib, where it’s highly likely a new chemical fabrication will be attempted this Spring.
In the 1930s the Nazis were believed to use false flags with increasing frequency to discredit and close down internal opposition.
Summary – We now live in a society where exposing warmongering is a more serious crime than committing it. Prisons hold many people who have bravely exposed war crimes – yet most criminals continue to walk free and hold positions of power. And when the media is pushing for Julian Assange to be extradicted you know this is beyond simple envy of a man who has almost single-handedly done the job they’ve collectively failed to do. They are equally complicit in warmongering hence why they see Assange and others as a threat.
For those not fooled by the smart suits, liberal platitudes and media distraction techniques, the parallels with Germany in the 1930s in particular are now fairly obvious. The blundering military alliances of 1914 and the pure evil of 1939 – with the ignorance, indifference and narcissism described above make for a destructive mix.
Unless something changes soon our days on this planet are likely be numbered. Depressing but one encouraging thing is that the indisputable truth is now in plain sight for anyone with internet access to see and false narratives have collapsed before. It’s still conceivable that something may create a whole chain of events which sweep these dangerous parasites from power. So anything can happen. In the meantime we should keep positive and continue to spread the message.
Kevin Smith is a British citizen living and working in London. He researches and writes down his thoughts on the foreign wars promoted by Western governments and media. In the highly controlled and dumbed down UK media environment, he’s keen on exploring ways of discouraging ideology and tribalism in favour of free thinking.
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How deep are you willing to go? Perhaps to the depth of an insanity that calls to be undone in you? A crap film can sometimes seem to start with a promise that not only doesn’t deliver, but the whole movie becomes forced and false. The false and forced narrative illusion is in a sense both desperate and smug. Desperate because its nature IS war and can only seem to survive if we buy or invest in it as power and protection for our peace. Smug because arrogance is its conviction in hate born of fear and guilt as dependable leverage or indeed power to be as gods. But the parasitic mind grown upon the act of denial must have a host because in and of itself it is but a lie and the father of it – which is your wish to become MORE than you are – and… Read more »
3- ‘Ideology, paranoia and unstable leaders’. It is simply not true that the Western elites and media are ‘rabidly hostile’ to oligarchic Russia and Iran. On the contrary, the Iran Nuclear Deal and its commercial spin-offs, demonstrate that the corrupt and immigrationist Western elites are extremely keen to save Iran at any cost. Even by allowing Iran to become a, de facto, nuclear power and an Empire in the Middle East. As for Russia, nobody can forget that Putin was the dolphin of Yeltsin, a President that was SAVED by American doctors. The talk of ‘paranoia’ and madness, is the talk of the corrupt elites and their media against the new resistance and struggle of the Working Class against their regime of globalised and immigrationist exploitation. Surrendering to that kind of psychological insults and disqualifications, invented by the exploiters, shows a deep level of political ignorance, cowardice and ideological castration.… Read more »
Reptiles are not psychopathic sport
2- ‘Israel and its US relationship’. The ‘hands off’ policy of the Western powers, guarantees that Syria cannot even be a trigger to any ‘global conflict’, supposing that a ‘global conflict’ was on the cards, especially when Russia is just a crumbling shadow of the USSR and China a giant with feet of clay, heavily dependent on Western oligarchic goodwill, to maintain its economy and its technological progress. In 1914, the Serbian crisis was just trigger of WWI and not a true cause. It is not even clear if it was Germany that dragged Austria-Hungary into the war or Russia. Although there was a possibility (only a possibility), that a swift and ‘illegal’ attack by Austria-Hungary (without an ultimatum), would have localised and contained the conflict. There is no similarity whatsoever between the 1914 ‘diktats’ and modern US policy, as the US is the sole Superpower and its acts are… Read more »
N. Korea is nobody’s colony.
You should go back in Time and STUDY what really happened .. that means going back to the Creation of the socalled British Empire ..the Bank of England , the British East Indian Company , the Opium Wars and the Opium Trafficing , the Boer Wars for Gold and Diamonds , the US Civil War and its aftermath , the manipulations of Gold and Silver by socalled british Financial Interests , The US Spanish Wars , the Japanese Russian War , the failed Coup against Czar Russia 1905 , the Young Turk Coup against the Ottoman Empire 1908, the Armenian Genocide , the Creation of the Federal Reserve 1913 , the Multitude of Assinations and other Terror Attacks in the period from 1900 and upwards , WHO were the perpetraders ? , , WW 1 and its originators , the Bolshevik Coup 1917 , the Treaty of Versailles and the… Read more »
1- Military buildup, alliances and proxy wars. It was your Obama that ‘persecuted’ Mr Assange…!!! Syria demonstrates that there has NOT been a Western strategy for regime change (specially after the ‘defeats’ in Iraq and Afghanistan), let alone a proxy war, but, on the contrary, an effort to keep the tyranny of Assad in power, in a weaker state, to avoid any strong, ‘revolutionary’ rival near Israel. Russia has been given a free hand in Syria, otherwise, if the West had properly armed the resistance groups, it would have been a catastrophe for the Russian forces, like it was in Afghanistan during the Soviet intervention. Trump’s policy of ‘equal’ (proportional) contributions for all members of NATO and other allies, gives the lie to the US military return ‘argument’ and should be understood as part of his war on unfair competition by other powers. The ‘military’ and diplomatic alliances of 1914… Read more »
Lessons of the past, like ‘Saving Syria’s Children’ or Bana. The Greta pushback starts today, from the hard right climate change deniers. Robert Stuart links to Morningstar’s work below a Medialens tweet that quotes from a Guardian piece: ”Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist, has given her support for a general strike for the climate, saying the student movement she inspired needs more support from older generations.’ But what does this even mean, ‘a general strike for the climate‘ ? Is it proposing a strike for a specific policy demand or set of demands, but nebulously ‘for the global ecosystem’. Have people like ML lost their political reasoning ? Is it a proposed general strike for the Green New Deal, the Paris Accords ? Is it a strike demanding the financialisation of nature to ‘save nature’ ? Is is a strike to bring in a world communist government and… Read more »
Caroline Lucas tweets: Opposition politicians genuinely co-operating cross party today to listen to @GretaThunberg and key voices from #Youthstrike4climate about what needs to happen to tackle our climate emergency. What the fricking fuck does that mean for fucks fucking sake? Greta, god bless her, is a determined schoolgirl. She does not know anything about ‘what needs to happen to tackle our climate emergency’. She is not an environmental economist. She is not a poltical strategist or a power broker. She has no mandate except teen celebrity status bestowed by some shady characters. I’ve seen myth making in real time before, but this is getting off the scale weird. Thunberg is a stage prop put out front whilst they re-arrange everything from the economy and the state, to how our minds work in the backroom. Right on cue, Monbiot smears Cory with a straw man fallacy and then runs for cover.… Read more »
Crank
What is Monbiot’s game? I’ve never been able to square the NATO apologist and “genocide denier” Torquemadan accusator role with his ‘leading environmentalist’ role. I hate Frankie Boyle – with a loathing – but I forced myself to watch Monbiot the other week, and I was actually surprised that he made sensible proposals. But what the fuck would a ‘rewilded’ NATO look like! One minute he is attacking capitalism, the next defending it. Is he schizophrenic?
Monbiot a godamned mystery to me. One of the most prominent climate deniers in the UK is his cousin Nigel Lawson. Work that one out.
Sometimes I do think it all a big game.
I guess that if you buy the line of ‘rewilding’ as part of an elitist circle jerk’s response (5G’d, E cash, networked, natural capital) then it kind of fits. Monbiot could be a kind of agent provocateur, going on the Beeb to say ‘We must overthrow capitalism’ ….only….with …..err……a teenage girl from Sweden supposedly showing us all how to sort our gargantuan pile of shit out.
Glad to see some sanity from the likes of the Syrian sceptics (Hayward et al). After all it is the same players again.
‘Indestructible….indestructible…’
Today was the day that “”capitalism got fully on board with extinction rebellion””.
The clueless Medialens warned that there would be a media backlash against Saint Greta coming to the dragon’s layer today, but instead I read that the Daily Telegraph and the CBI are fully on board ! As are Unilever and Hillary Clinton. Yeeehaaaa.
Turns out that Capitalism will reform itself after all, and I can have a nice cup of cocoa and go to bed with teddy.
Will someone read me a story ?
Or perhaps wake me the fuck up ?
AAARRRGGGHHH
..a story…
like Pippi Longstocking maybe?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippi_Longstocking
There are all these contradictory logics. On the one hand, capitalism has all but admitted that it has no future as a productive force, able to meet humanities needs. They have attempted to decouple finance from labour by hitting ‘print’ – inflating asset prices whilst cannibalising any future productive forces – abandoning humanity in the process. Then you have the AI-tech-utopia which needs no real workforce – making humanity redundant – again. Then you have the current trend to avoid secular stagnation by privatising nature – and extracting rent for environmental services. From whom? If humanity is redundant – who is the consumer? In a post-work scenario – it can’t be the surviving corporations …because no one can afford their goods. And what is a state that cannot levy taxes to sustain itself. It can’t afford Basic Income if there are no jobs and no taxes. Then there are no… Read more »
They are looking at trillions in the new market
https://winteroak.org.uk/2019/04/23/rebellion-extinction-a-capitalist-scam-to-hijack-our-resistance/.
Pensions ?
What about they release a virus and reduce the population drastically and thereby release huge assets from the ‘dearly departed’ ? Sounds mad ?
Maybe they just have too much capital with nowhere to go because they cannot increase production because we are ‘sucking the carpet’, so they need to legislate to secure returns on major ‘green infrastructure’ investments ? [Didn’t N ahmed predict all this a couple of years ago – a major roll out?] Maybe they are desperately clueless idiots floundering like dying fish?
Either way, we know who will pay (with our lives or our lives).
I have no idea what is happening beyond muesli tomorrow morning.
XR starts to makes sense : the easy going policing, the Attenborough doc, the rune (?) ,Carney….
Whatever is coming is coming soon, because this cannot go on much longer:
$SPX is acting totally normal folks. 21 straight sessions without a losing session greater than .55% 50 of 77 trading days closed positive since January 1 Despite rising 11% from Jan 1 to Mar 22, 18 of the last 30 days positive Oh yeah, global and domestic data worst since 09.
Overproduction of capital – seeking a high, no risk return – is a certainty. Especially with continuing QE. There is no end game now. That capital will find its way into derivative casino capital gambling – of which only 2% ends up as a commodity changing hands. The rest is hidden toxic exposure making the banking system untenable. Other outlets include mergers and acquisitions (toward oligopolies of power); leveraged buyouts; and asset stripping …destroying any last real productive capacity for short term ‘Global Death Protocol’ (GDP returns – one of the sensible points Monbiot made …it is no substitute Human Development Index). Pension fund raiding: there is thought to be a $30 tn black hole already – now they want to release $90tn ‘locked assets’ without even the slightest chance of ever getting an ROI. Overproduced capital will also find its way in to the tech bubble – funding our… Read more »
I’m perfectly in agreement about Boyle. I just caught a few seconds of him “jesting” that the Labour Party love Easter because “a Jew dies”. The most excrutiating thing about this is that it passes as “brave” “cutting edge” humour. I must take care not to catch any of that shit again.
Thunberg is just another Baana.
What in Gods name happened during the Industrial revolution when the air was thick with pollutants? Which somehow the Universe dealt with? And mankind survived. ”The Last time the Globe Warmed.” If you actually want to know what is happening, and has happened throughout the life of this Earth: The Universe is a living entity. Is an Ice Age Coming? NOTHING ‘we’ do or can do will prevent the natural progression of the Earth. And approval of ”Carbon Rationing” will ensure that Governments succeed in increasing their control over populations by taxing them to breath? Taxing will NOT stop the rot, bit it will make them rich.. And at least the debates and protest will keep our attention from the real issues….. MINING Metals like aluminium, copper, gold; diamonds and oil are mostly found below the ground of rainforests. So to obtain these metals we have to clear up the… Read more »
If we want to understand the past: we have to understand the present …by looking deeply into it. Ditto, the future. If we look deeply and penetratively into the present: it can be seen that all time is present. The three modalities of time – past, present, and future – co-exist as a continuum. This has been called ‘concrescence’ by A N Whitehead, Bergson, James, and most eloquently by T S Eliot in Burnt Norton: What might have been and what has been Point to one end, which is always present. The common linearised sequential of past, present, future – as a logical order can only be abstracted as a heuristic device. This has been called a ‘durational bloc’ by Husserl – where the past segues into the future into the past …through the primal impression of the lived moment. The past is always becoming the future, and the future… Read more »
“Because I know that time is always time and place is always and only place and what is actual is actual only for one time and only for one place, I rejoice that things are as they are (…)’
T.S.Elliot
Generally attributed to Senator Hiram Warren Johnson in 1918 that ‘when war comes the first casualty is truth’ is as much a truism now as it was then. I’m more inclined to support hauptmanngurski’s proposition that the members of the armed forces, from both sides, who return from conflicts with life-changing injuries or even in flag-draped caskets defended only the freedom of multinational enterprises and conglomerates to make and continue to make vast profits for the privileged few at the population’s expense. As Kevin Smith makes abundantly clear we are all subject to the downright lies and truth-stretching from our government aided and abetted by a compliant main stream media as exemplified in the Skripal poisoning affair, which goes far beyond the counting of Serbian tanks supposedly destroyed during the Balkans conflict. The Skripals’ are now God knows where either as willing participants or as detainees and our government shows… Read more »
As Kevin has said we should all keep positive and carry on exposing these murderers in suits. Things are coming to a head so let’s keep pressing on
Looking on the bright side, human extinction is an excellent thing for the planet anyway 🙂
The ceding of democracy to an unaccountable deep state in the US is at the heart of many of the world’s woes. ‘The Devils Chessboard’ (by DAvid Talbot) provides a riveting account of how cold war paranoia became the engine to so much US thinking culminating in the murder of JFK (by the CIA) once Kennedy became the first president to meaningfully challenge the authority of the security apperatus. The murderous policies Kennedy tried and failed to confront have only mushroomed since then so that today we have a form of cryptofascism in the US that the media are in absolute denial about. JFK was gunned down. Julian Assange will be consigned to solitary if the deep state has it’s way. But this doesn’t stop MPs like jess Phillips, hacks like Hadley Freeman or other assorted phonies in the ‘liberal media’ cheering them on – this is what we are… Read more »
Except JFK didn’t do anything of the sort: and conducted a fair few murderous policies of his own – inter alia: against Cuba and South Vietnam. But I am tired of arguing the point with actual facts. What I will say, is that this pseudo-historic construct hides the and heroifies the crimes of Empire and Unpeoples more than half the world. And normalises Armageddon as a game of nuclear brinksmanship. We won’t be so lucky again following the satandardised diplomatic “13 Days” diplomacy. [That was a typo: but its staying as far more eloquent than ‘standardised’]. A point I have made consistently for about two years: with evidence. But opinion is averse to contradictory facticity. It would be nice to see a symmetric history emerging: one that returns the humanity to the dehumanised of the world. Not one that focuses on and normalises the murderous hagiography of the Great Men… Read more »
What we do know is that JFK was preceived as sufficiently threating (to the interests of the deep state) that the CIA blew his brains out. It is this fundemental power dynamic that I am mostly alluding to – in other words the way in which the intelligence apperatus rose above the law so that by ’63 even the president of the USA was not safe from their nefarious scheming. By comparison a whitleblower is a far more vulnerable target and it appears the CIA have been prepared to bide their time while a sham legal process goes through the motions in order to create an illusion that justice is being served when in facts it’s not, because as we all know Asssange’s fate has already been sealed. I take your point about JFKs failings but given the fascistic nature of US power it is very unlikely that an untainted… Read more »
With all due respect, Harry, we do not know that JFK was perceived as a ‘threat’ at all. That is a retroactive conclusion drawn from a fabricated virtual JFK. I’ve shown he was not turning to peace, not withdrawing from Vietnam, the MIC was doing rather well out of him – particularly the Rand Corporation that was driving policy in Vietnam. He doubled the nuclear arsenal and ordered a whole fleet of Polaris subs, alongside massively strengthening his conventional forces – including his counterinsurgency forces that were currently raping, torturing and murdering their way round any designated ‘gooks’ in Vietnam. He even gave them a valedictory shoutout in his last recorded speech. And added that Vietnam would fall overnight without them. Millions of man hours and a trillion dollar industry have shone very little light on the why. Speculation abounds. What he did do was really piss off a whole… Read more »
BigB. Wrong again. A Washington journalist 3 weeks before the assassination wrote about the CIA being out of control in Vietnam. His highly placed source reckoned too that a coup would more likely come from the CIA before the Pentagon. The source in all likelihood was JFK. Just because you are ignorant of something doesn’t mean it wasn’t so.
Well, Hugh – what can I say? You have steadfastly refused to even contemplate that the Douglass pulp fiction is tripe. I have offered to go through the key pages and cross-reference with any of Sheldon Stern’s Excomm books – that show how contrived a narrative fiction it is. You will not hear it. Nor will you hear anything of the murderous policies of the Diem clan – and their forced Catholicisation and cultural genocide. Now you are countering what I have adequately referenced in the past with “a reporter said”. Reporters say a lot of things: not necessarily linked to reality. Can you substantiate what this anonymous reporter said? His well chronicled persecution of, inter alia, the Cubans and the South Vietnamese speaks volumes to those who have ears to hear. I believe the first thing he did was sign a counterinsurgency order against North Vietnam – but I… Read more »
https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389×6918706 The reporter was one Richard Starnes (I had limited internet access earlier). I was challenging your claim to Harry Stotle that JFK was not perceived as a threat:- “…With all due respect, Harry, we do not know that JFK was perceived as a ‘threat’ at all. That is a retroactive conclusion drawn from a fabricated virtual JFK…” The only defence I was making was to the truth of the matter. I cannot defend JFK for anything he did. However, whatever crimes he committed were doubtless committed by every other POTUS so he is not exceptional in that respect. However, since has assassinated by the CIA which crime has been covered-up by the MSM ever since, then surely that betokens there was something in him worthy of some respect on our part? I shall keep it nice and easy for you: “Who killed JFK and why?”. It’s Litmus Test time.… Read more »
On the truth of the matter: ” I’m convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered. “ From your link: scroll down half a page and you will find the rest of this speech by MLK. It chronicles the American intervention from 1945. What it doesn’t mention is that Thich Nhat Hanh had become MLK’s close confidant, and persuaded him to merge the Civil Rights Movement with the anti-war movement. This speech was the result of that collaboration. The silent partner behind this was Thomas Merton. If you recall,… Read more »
BigB. What can I say? Firstly, credit where its due: you did follow up the link I sent which categorically destroyed your claim that JFK was not seen as a threat at the time – though you omitted to acknowledge that bit. At least now we know that you are not ignorant of the truth of that particular matter. Whilst you have my whole-hearted support for your nobler indignations, you keep blowing it on the Litmus Test: “Who killed JFK and Why?” Can’t you see that you lose every shred of credibility you might once have had by your final paragraph? Both JFK and MLK were murdered by the PTB because of their opposition to War. If you cannot admit that, then nothing I can say can help you.
A very long-winded and naïve way to defend outlaw Assange…!!! President Moreno and Ecuador are right…
Outlaw? Get over your Killary losing.
In addition to siphoning money into his offshore investment accounts in tax havens Belize and Panama that his brother manages, and agreeing to sell Julian Assange to the US for US$4.2 billion in IMF loans, Lenin Moreno adds lying to his evergrowing list of sins.
Never easy to deal with a closed mind, but perhaps Roger Waters can persuade you that your claims about Assange, and US puppet, Moreno, are entirely delusional?
Well old chap, if you’re going to be outrageously provocative you should expect your audience to wonder who exactly you are working for. My guess is a CIA, Mossad or MI6 plant.
There is a new militarism sweeping the globe which draws in the youngsters through creating fear. In Australia 12 year olds are recruited because ‘the Chinese …’. In Russia the youngsters are recruited with fear of Americans. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/04/17/russias-fast-growing-youth-army-aimst-to-breed-loyalty-to-the-fatherland-a65256 In Europe it is fear of Russia that militarism uses. America must manufacture weaponry or millions would be unemployed. But the real rub is Wall Street. Most of the companies are listed on the NYSE. If there’d be no war production, a pure military production company like for instance Raytheon would go broke, be delisted, and the stock market would crash. They need war production and since they cannot store all things produced they need to carve out wars that makes room in warehouses. That is the lesson from the Obama years. We have no other possibility than to refuse military service. They all come back damaged, bring suffering, and cost the… Read more »
Forgot to say – look at the video only even though the voice over is in Russian. I don’t know what it says.
Do you really give any credence to what the Moscow Times says about Russian affairs? The Moscow Times, which once boasted that it was “Moscow’s only English language daily” has long only appeared weekly online. They couldn’t even give away the printed version, piles of which could be seen in up-market hotel foyers, and the reception areas of global businesses such as KPMG, BP etc. and assorted Moscow “Irish Bars” and “English Pubs”. There has never been, in my over 25 year-experience of seeing that rag, an article in MT that has not had an anti-Russia slant. Needless to say, Harding of the Guardian often quoted MT as as though it were a respected and reliable source of news in Russia.
The Moscow Times is owned by a body calling itself the ‘Dutch Foundation’ a rather vague and shadowy organization. Odds-on that it is funded and controlled by western intelligence agencies.
I used to work 20 years ago for the publishing organization “independent Media”, owned at that time by the founder of MT, Dutchman Derk Sauer, who, when I was employed there, said in an interview that Russia has only two cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg: the rest of the towns and cities in 1990s Russia he considered to be villages.
‘new militarism…’ Not really. The UK’s Army Cadet Corps for youngsters between 12 and 18 has been around for 150 years. Added to that there is the Sea Cadets, the Air Training Corps and the Combined Cadet Force. All these organisations are sponsored by the Ministry of Defence and senior military forces. Their activities are much the same as the Russian youth activities, including learning to shoot rifles, but of course in the UK they are ‘fun and character building’ and not for the purpose of ‘patriotic brainwashing’ for which they are, of course, cynically used in Russia and China…or anywhere else that the West wishes to demonise. I’m afraid this old chestnut about Russian exploitation of its youth population is recycled every 12 months or so and it has become somewhat tiresome. I’d have thought the newspapers who indulge in repeating it would have more important things to report… Read more »
The REAL threat to world peace today is the American Military Industrial Complex/CIA, and the people who have taken control of the American Government, by subversion, bribery, and absolute corruption. NATO has become America’s occupation army in Europe, doing dirty deeds in Ukraine, Libya, Kosovo, etc etc. Venezuela is under ‘attack’ by U.S. Sanctions, as is Iran and anyone else the Lunatics in Washington decides.
The ‘Bad Guys’ are the ones who used to be the ‘Good guys’, and we are ALL going to pay the price…….
If it’s Reptilian mind control then it’s not truly human behaviour. See Utsava’s and David Icke’s vids