Rumors of war: Washington is looking for a fight

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Warmongers left and right, have Russia and Iran in sight

by Phil Giraldi

[ Editor’s Note Phil Giraldi is nothing if not “old school”, one of those with a long history of America’s conflicts, in uniform and not. Like so many here at VT we have been there and done that, and know what really happened back then, and why.

That makes us either popular or unpopular, depending on who is running the US war machine. But as Phil describes below, and painfully so, we have baseless, hysterical Congressional war bills being introduced that could be the lead in for a Hollywood fictional movie script on current times, but which have Republican and Democrat names on them.



Phil Giraldi

I have mentioned in the past that VT knows of no respectable person in the military or intelligence community who feels that either Russia or Iran represents a feasible national security risk to the US public, one they could explain to us. But few will go public with that view, which makes those who will a special commodity.

Both Russia and Iran have their hands full, devoting all their potential military resources to defending themselves from the massive military superiority of the West. But the problem we have is not so much that the war fever is catching on even with the Dems, but that their constituents seem to be asleep at the wheel over it.

We see no protests anywhere, no challenges to them at local meetings. US media seems in the bag. The Vet orgs never police the warmongers, despite their own needless victims having been manufactured by such policies in the past, when they should be leading the charge against them now.

Don’t be surprised to see Democratic candidates trying to outdo Repubs in the 2020 races with their signing on to any crazy charge against Russia or Iran. American jingoism is alive and well in the 21st century and a disgrace to what this country once stood for, if that could even be found today.

Sure, the US lost 350,000 in WWII. Russia lost three times that number just in Leningrad. And as for the Red Scare of Communism, I will try to get video done on that with Gordon later in the year about where the bonds were sold to fund the Five Year plans under Stalin.

You guessed it…right here in the good ole’ USA; and there are plenty more of those stories, most all of them hoovered out of the history to make future Americans easier to dupe. That said, we will keep doing what we do to expose the fake patriotsJim W. Dean]

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Some served honorably, and some did not

– First published – April 18, 2019, …from the Unz Review –

It is depressing to observe how the United States of America has become the evil empire. Having served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War and in the Central Intelligence Agency for the second half of the Cold War, I had an insider’s viewpoint of how an essentially pragmatic national security policy was being transformed bit by bit into a bipartisan doctrine that featured as a sine qua non global dominance for Washington.

Unfortunately, when the Soviet Union collapsed the opportunity to end once and for all the bipolar nuclear confrontation that threatened global annihilation was squandered as President Bill Clinton chose instead to humiliate and use NATO to contain an already demoralized and effectively leaderless Russia.

American Exceptionalism became the battle cry for an increasingly clueless federal government as well as for a media-deluded public. When 9/11 arrived, the country was ready to lash out at the rest of the world. President George W. Bush growled that “There’s a new sheriff in town and you are either with us or against us.”

Afghanistan followed, then Iraq, and, in a spirit of bipartisanship, the Democrats came up with Libya and the first serious engagement in Syria. In its current manifestation, one finds a United States that threatens Iran on a nearly weekly basis and tears up arms control agreements with Russia while also maintaining deployments of US forces in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and places like Mali.

Scattered across the globe are 800 American military bases while Washington’s principal enemies du jour Russia and China have, respectively, only one and none.

Never before in my lifetime has the United States been so belligerent, and that in spite of the fact that there is no single enemy or combination of enemies that actually threaten either the geographical United States or a vital interest. Venezuela is being threatened with invasion primarily because it is in the western hemisphere and therefore subject to Washington’s claimed proconsular authority.

Last Wednesday Vice President Mike Pence told the United Nations Security Council that the White House will remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power, preferably using diplomacy and sanctions, but “all options are on the table.” Pence warned that Russia and other friends of Maduro need to leave now or face the consequences.

The development of the United States as a hostile and somewhat unpredictable force has not gone unnoticed. Russia has accepted that war is coming no matter what it does in dealing with Trump and is upgrading its forces. By some estimates, its army is better equipped and more combat ready than is that of the United States, which spends nearly ten times as much on “defense.”

Iran is also upgrading its defensive capabilities, which are formidable. Now that Washington has withdrawn from the nuclear agreement with Iran, has placed a series of increasingly punitive sanctions on the country, and, most recently, has declared a part of the Iranian military to be a “foreign terrorist organization” and therefore subject to attack by US forces at any time, it is clear that war will be the next step.

In three weeks, the United States will seek to enforce a global ban on any purchases of Iranian oil. A number of countries, including US nominal ally Turkey, have said they will ignore the ban and it will be interesting to see what the US Navy intends to do to enforce it. Or what Iran will do to break the blockade.

But even given all of the horrific decisions being made in the White House, there is one organization that is far crazier and possibly even more dangerous. That is the United States Congress, which is, not surprisingly, a legislative body that is viewed positively by only 18 per cent of the American people.

A current bill originally entitled the “Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act (DASKA) of 2019,” is numbered S-1189. It has been introduced in the Senate which will “…require the Secretary of State to determine whether the Russian Federation should be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism and whether Russian-sponsored armed entities in Ukraine should be designated as foreign terrorist organizations.” The bill is sponsored by Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado and is co-sponsored by Democrat Robert Menendez of New Jersey.

The current version of the bill was introduced on April 11th and it is by no means clear what kind of support it might actually have, but the fact that it actually has surfaced at all should be disturbing to anyone who believes it is in the world’s best interest to avoid direct military confrontation between the United States and Russia.

In a a press release by Gardner, who has long been pushing to have Russia listed as a state sponsor of terrorism, a February version of the bill is described as “…comprehensive legislation [that] seeks to increase economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on the Russian Federation in response to Russia’s interference in democratic processes abroad, malign influence in Syria, and aggression against Ukraine, including in the Kerch Strait.

The legislation establishes a comprehensive policy response to better position the US government to address Kremlin aggression by creating new policy offices on cyber defenses and sanctions coordination. The bill stands up for NATO and prevents the President from pulling the US out of the Alliance without a Senate vote. It also increases sanctions pressure on Moscow for its interference in democratic processes abroad and continued aggression against Ukraine.”

The February version of the bill included Menendez, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina as co-sponsors, suggesting that provoking war is truly bipartisan in today’s Washington.

Each Senator co-sponsor contributed a personal comment to the press release. Gardner observed that “Putin’s Russia is an outlaw regime that is hell-bent on undermining international law and destroying the US-led liberal global order.”

Menendez noted that “President Trump’s willful paralysis in the face of Kremlin aggression has reached a boiling point in Congress” while Graham added that “Our goal is to change the status quo and impose meaningful sanctions and measures against Putin’s Russia.

He should cease and desist meddling in the US electoral process, halt cyberattacks on American infrastructure, remove Russia from Ukraine, and stop efforts to create chaos in Syria.”

Cardin contributed “Congress continues to take the lead in defending US national security against continuing Russian aggression against democratic institutions at home and abroad” and Shaheen observed that “This legislation builds on previous efforts in Congress to hold Russia accountable for its bellicose behavior against the United States and its determination to destabilize our global world order.”

The Senatorial commentary is, of course, greatly exaggerated and sometimes completely false regarding what is going on in the world, but it is revealing of how ignorant American legislators can be and often are.

The Senators also ignore the fact that the designation of presumed Kremlin surrogate forces as “foreign terrorist organizations” is equivalent to a declaration of war against them by the US military, while hypocritically calling Russia a state sponsor of terrorism is bad enough, as it is demonstrably untrue.

But the real damage comes from the existence of the bill itself. It will solidify support for hardliners on both sides, guaranteeing that there will be no rapprochement between Washington and Moscow for the foreseeable future, a development that is bad for everyone involved.

Whether it can be characterized as an unintended consequence of unwise decision making or perhaps something more sinister involving a deeply corrupted congress and administration remains to be determined.

(Republished from Strategic Culture Foundation by permission of author or representative)

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4 COMMENTS

  1. I’m not familiar with AVRs work, but I think that time period, the whole century is interesting in sort of negative way. Lots of dark and stinking back then and I think VT should investigate it. I used to think, that industrial revolution was a good thing like mechanical engineering, but I’m afraid I was death wrong and it was more about ethnosocial engineering.

    Say, Irish famine just prior mid 1800. British bankers forced a million Irish kids exiles to Canada, USA and Australia. Couple of decades later stupid American Civil War broke out and the strong working force, young men, strong enough to demand something, were set to their death as cannon fodder. Then after war appeared orphan trains. I think those were child slave trains. You can see photos of child labour in mines, factories and farmlands. During that time in Europe there was tens of thousands orphan houses, mainly for families who can not feed their children. It mabe millions of European children sent to slaves to the new continents.

    The difference being, that blacks had parents or someone reliable to tell them that they are slaves, while European kids had only hostile forces surrounding, bankers, royals, big businesses, politicians and Church, all in the same boat. Child mindset of former European child slaves in America. I saw a disgusting video about a young girl with 3 Dolls. Adult authority came by and asked if she could give that adult bitch a doll and she gave one. Then the authority asked second and the third and the girl gave them all. Then the authority asked for fourth, to which girl replied feeling guilty that I don’t have any more dolls.

  2. In the last six weeks Australia has deployed 3 lots of 300 specially trained troops that i know of to 2 large yank bases in Iraq to (i think to attack Iran) If they are silly enough to attempt that they are going to have to fight wars on 3 front. 1 Iran 2 Iraq, as the ground swell against the US to get them out o f Iraq is going up exponantionally and Iran will certainly supply the weapons. 3 Syria will take that opertunity to clean out the yank bases in their country and every yank base in the middle east will be destroyed and no i havnt forgotten about Isreal, believe me they will get their come uppence too. Turkey wll watch from the sidelines. Cheers JF

  3. The problem is that we are literally under foreign occupation with the Neocons and AIPAC supporting this bellicose policy that benefits no one other than the Terrorist, Parasitic State of Israel against Russia and Iran who have stymied the Greater Israel project for now. 9/11 was the act that unleashed the evil demon of Zionism which has been responsible for two world wars and possibly a third.

    It is easy to see that America is no longer run by the “consent of the governed” as most of the “governed” didn’t consent to giving the State of Zionist Parasites $11.7 Million a day while are infrastructure crumbles and we turn into a third world hell hole.

  4. I agree with the author that US congress is far more crazier place than the White house, and congress are pulling the russian scare like maniacs. Presidents like Clinton or Bush do not use NATO for this or that, it is the NATO that uses US presidents for various purposes. NATO is a giant carnivouros calamity and reaches far beyond the White house favorites.

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