RICH MAN’S WAR, POOR MAN’S BLOOD - The Burning Platform

 “War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.” – General Smedley Butler

I don’t need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin’ soldiers
In a human grocery store

Guns N’ Roses – Civil War

Whether it is a distinguished general who came to his senses in 1935, after doing the bidding of the monied interests by initiating conflict throughout the world to fill their coffers with blood money, or a rock & roll star fifty years later writing a hit song about the exact same theme, the song remains the same. The wealthy always benefit from war, the poor always die in their wars, and politicians are bribed to continually foment conflict, hate, and railing against whoever their puppet masters choose as the enemy of the moment. This is not a recent development, it has spanned centuries, just the sums of money feeding the military industrial complex are now astronomical.

The 20th Century began with Butler doing the bidding of the monied classes in South America, Mexico, and Europe, disguised as keeping America safe for democracy – the usual propaganda fed to the masses when they are running their racket. Just as Edward Bernays clearly laid out in his 1928 book – Propaganda – that the world is run by an invisible government who manipulate the minds of the masses to do as they are told, Butler unequivocally described why we are perpetually at war and who benefits from perpetual warfare. The invisible government/insiders run this world and have always run this world. Once you reconcile yourself to this fact, you will be well on your way to understanding all of the major events happening in the world today.

“A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes. In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War.”  – General Smedley Butler

It seems many more millionaires and billionaires have been created since World War I, the war Wilson promised not to enter. What a coincidence the Federal Reserve was created in shadowy back rooms on a secretive island in 1913 by men constituting the invisible government (bankers, corporate executives, corrupt politicians), just before the outbreak of the Great War. Of course, it was only great for the bankers, arms dealers, and corporations getting rich off the blood of the 20 million innocent soldiers and civilians who died to fill up their war chests with gold. Once the politicians, bankers, and connected corporations had the ability to use a central bank to print fiat and fund their wars for eternity, we’ve had over a century of total war.

“It is no coincidence that the century of total war coincided with the century of central banking.” – Ron Paul

“War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.” – George Orwell

The moneyed classes profit from warfare no matter who wins. But even better, they profit the most when no one wins and the war is perpetual. Perpetual war equals perpetual profits. The United States has not been invaded by a foreign enemy since the War of 1812. The $1.8 trillion allocated to the Department of Defense in 2023 exceeds the GDP of most countries in the world and is a self sustaining mechanism where politicians: approve the trillions in blood money while promoting chaos and war around the globe; become multi-millionaires from bribes accepted from the corporations enriched by the military industrial complex; accelerate the downfall of America by enslaving future generations in chains of unpayable debt; and then convince the poor to become cannon fodder in their bloody game of thrones.

“Every war, when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.” – George Orwell

The propagandists for the military regime always need a “bad guy” to justify their wealth generating wars. First it was Hitler, even though corporate leaders like Ford admired and profited from his rebuilding of Germany. Then it was the generic “communist” which was used by the war profiteers to justify Korea and Vietnam. Keeping the world safe for democracy and corporate profits, at the cost of only 100,000 American lives and several million natives. Evidently a beneficial trade-off for the American Empire and the military industrial complex, warned about by Eisenhower.

The modern day “homicidal maniacs”, who threatened the peace that the American Empire has spread at the point of a gun and demanding use of their fiat currency, have included: the Ayatollah Khomeini when fighting our ally Sadaam Hussein, until Sadaam Hussein became the “homicidal maniac”; Soviet leadership in Afghanistan fought by our ally Osama bin Laden until bin Laden became the “homicidal maniac” blamed for 9/11; Muammar Gaddafi when he dared not fall in line regarding the USD; Bashar al-Assad when gas pipelines were needed to keep profits flowing; Vladimir Putin for revealing U.S. and Biden family corruption in Ukraine; and now Hamas because they tired of living in the open air Israeli prison of Gaza.

None of these “homicidal maniacs” has ever threatened the American homeland with invasion or meaningful attack. But they did provide justification for the Patriot Act, a never ending War on Terror, doubling of military spending, sacrifice of American lives for nothing more than oil and mammon, and creation of new eternal enemies across the globe (aka blow back). You see the regime propaganda media declare we are running low on bombs, missiles and military hardware because we’ve sent over $100 billion worth to their anti-Putin puppet Zelensky (with 10% for the big guy), and now we need tens of billions more to give to Netanyahu to aid in his genocide of Palestinians. What if the trillions spent on destroying things and killing people over the last seventy five years had been used for productive purposes?

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

The arms dealers who keep the war machine killing are more than happy to ramp up production to support the ongoing Ukraine debacle and now the powder keg in the Middle East which threatens to explode into World War III. Imagine the corporate bonuses if we get ourselves a new world war. Politician’s coffers will be filled with blood money. And if the neo-cons can just get China to attack Taiwan, champagne corks will be popping all over Washington DC. Since the Biden/CIA provoked Ukraine war began in early 2022, defense contractor stocks have soared (BAE Systems: +100%; Lockheed Martin: +36%; Northrup Grumman: +32%; General Dynamics: +26%), while the overall stock market was down 8%. It’s good to be the kings of war.

Our dementia ridden puppet president let the truth slip last week by saying these wars are good for the economy. And by good for the economy, he means good for the bankers, mega-corporations, military industrial complex, and the bank accounts of politicians bought off by war loving donors. What it is not good for are the bank accounts of average Americans, as relentless inflation created to wage these wars destroys their purchasing power as they spiral towards impoverishment. It’s not good for the poor who enlist and get to shed their blood for no good reason at all. It’s not good for the innocent civilians across the globe killed by the promoters of endless war and declared collateral damage by the likes of Dick Cheney, Lindsay Graham, Victoria Nuland, Hillary Clinton and Nikke Haley. It’s not murder if you are waving the flag of neo-con justice.

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” – Voltaire

The absurdity of allowing rich men to decide millions should die for a fake cause in order to sustain their wealth, power and control, infuriates me and is why I hold out little hope for a positive outcome to this Fourth Turning. How could so many be so obtuse as to not see what is happening right in front of their eyes? I have no animosity towards average Russians, Ukrainians, Chinese, Iranians, Syrians, Turks, Palestinians, Israelis, or anyone on this earth trying to live normal lives. It’s the rich and powerful rulers of countries, kingdoms, and empires who I despise. Despite having no personal quarrel against anyone, the shadowy psychopaths in suits behind the curtain use religion and psychological manipulation to convince the masses they should hate and kill an enemy they are instructed to loathe and fear.

“What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder one another in cold blood.” – Aldous Huxley

Whether it was World War II or what is playing out before our very eyes today, the song remains the same. Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight.

Most have not come to the realization we are already in the midst of World War III. It began in the spring of 2022 when Boris Johnson was instructed by the globalist cabal to stop Zelensky from signing an agreed upon treaty between Russia and Ukraine to end the conflict. There was billions in war profits to be made and the opportunity to bleed Russia of financial resources. When this disastrous venture, which has killed 600,000 innocent victims, began to run out of steam and the enthusiasm of clueless dolts with their “Support Ukraine” lawn signs began to wane, miraculously Hamas attacked Israel. How convenient for the war machine.

World War II started in September 1939, but Americans set the date at December 7, 1941. In reality, the U.S. was already at war in 1939, as we supplied the UK with arms and financial support, while provoking Japan into attacking through economic sanctions. It is exactly the same situation today. We have been at war with Russia for over a year through our puppet proxy, the actor Zelensky. We are now at war in the Middle East through our Israeli proxy point of the spear. None of this is declared, but anyone with critical thinking skills knows we are calling the shots. What the military industrial complex is now actively seeking is a new Pearl Harbor, Gulf of Tonkin, or 9/11. They need a horrific event to usher in World War III. They are gathered in black masses, plotting death and destruction, while feeding their insatiable desire for mammon.

Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerer of death’s construction

In the fields, the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
Oh lord, yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor, yeah

Black Sabbath – War Pigs

So here we are, on the edge of Armageddon, waiting for the next shoe to drop. I don’t believe a word my government tells me. I consider those who are running this country, whether they be “elected” politicians, shadowy billionaires constituting the invisible government, or the globalist cabal seeking a new world order, to be my sworn enemies. When they initiate the false flag, designed to falsely generate the patriotic spirit of the masses and mobilize them for war against the enemy of their choosing (likely Russia, China or Iran), I will not be obeying, complying or sacrificing my three sons as cannon fodder for their evil agendas and wars for profit. The only ammo fired by my family in this coming conflict will be at any government thug attempting to invest my sons in their wars. That is my red line and I will die defending it. Time to prepare for the real war against the real enemy.

My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride

My hands are tied
For all I’ve seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by

Guns N’ Roses – Civil War

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2023/11/14/rich-mans-war-poor-mans-blood/#more-319806

Asymmetric Response and the Perp Walk to World War III - Author: Tom Luongo

 Have you ever tried to break out of the orbit of a narcissist? It’s damn difficult. Their pattern of emotional abuse is designed to make you feel like the abuser, demoralizing you, sapping you of your vitality and agency.

They weaponize your humanity and feed off your guilt. When you finally summon the courage to divorce yourself from them that’s when the fangs really come out. That’s when their true face is revealed. And it’s nothing but scorn, derision and unfettered hatred.

Narcissists don’t love you. They love themselves.

I’m opening this article with that quick reminder of human psychology to set the stage for this week’s discussion of all things geopolitical. There ain’t no art in this piece folks, I’m too damn exhausted to craft the language.

Why am I exhausted? Running behind narcissists as they perp walk us towards World War III saps the energy of even the most resilient personality. The truly malignant narcissists that think they operate the levers of power over the world have realized that we are walking away from them.

And they are fucking angry. The feeling is very, very mutual.

Since the firing of VicToria “Cookies” Nuland from the State Department on March 5th (and make zero mistake she was fired) events surrounding Russia are accelerating. Last weekend’s attack on the Crocus Concert Hall in Moscow was supposed to originally happen on March 9th, apparently. It was to be timed with Joah BIi-Den’s! State of the Union address and meant as a severe warning to Russians to ‘make the right decision’ and vote against Vladimir Putin a week later.

That day the State Department issued a warning to all Americans to stay away from meetings, concert halls, etc. I think this was us finally acting like a grown up, because it begs a major question that doesn’t comport with unlimited US aggression towards Russia.

Why would we issue this warning knowing full well the Russians would respond to it and stop the attack?

It literally makes no sense. When Nuland is fired from the State Department, our first reaction was to see it as a shift in US foreign policy away from Russia and towards China. Toria lost a power play. See you at the auto show.

That sounds neat and compact… but is it the whole story?

Because then the attack actually happens two weeks later. A bunch of Tajiks go in, like the professional soldiers they are, shoot the place up and make their escape. Acting not at all in character for the ISIS head-choppers who were immediately blamed for this.

Pepe Escobar’s recent article on this is excellent and is worth the read. He goes through the timelines and traces a lot of important connections. But, as I was reading it I noticed that he ‘buried the lede,’ as i saw it.

Ace Russian war correspondent Marat Khairullin has added another juicy morsel to this funky salad: he convincingly unveils the MI6 angle in the Crocus City Hall terror attack (in English here, in two parts, posted by “S”).

The FSB is right in the middle of the painstaking process of cracking most, if not all ISIS-K-CIA/MI6 connections. Once it’s all established, there will be hell to pay.

But that won’t be the end of the story. Countless terror networks are not controlled by Western intel – although they will work with Western intel via middlemen, usually Salafist “preachers” who deal with Saudi/Gulf intel agencies.

The case of the CIA flying “black” helicopters to extract jihadists from Syria and drop them in Afghanistan is more like an exception – in terms of direct contact – than the norm. So the FSB and the Kremlin will be very careful when it comes to directly accusing the CIA and MI6 of managing these networks.

Because the GGnG community sniffed out this angle almost immediately, linking in Khairullin’s post for us to ruminate on. This isn’t meant as a slight to Escobar. He was working a lot of angles in this story, parsing through everything to lead to a conclusion. That takes time and I’m glad he took it.

But for me, the MI6 angle is the first one to be considered in this attack, not the last one.

And the keys lie in that very timeline. Because, as opposed to assuming that the US is the catalytic agent for events here — easy to think because Nuland is involved — reframing this as a distinctly British operation (with help from rogue elements in the State Dept. and CIA, of course) yields a far more coherent narrative.

Remember, we’re dealing ultimately with narcissists here. Then let’s remember cui bono.

Because without assessing who benefits from this attack, we aren’t doing the analysis right. Moreover, I’m not trying to blame shift here away from the US. We are definitely a player here. But it’s defining who ‘we’ in the US is where the nuance lies.

What if Nuland was fired because knowledge of this attack finally reached the right people at State and the DoD? And they realized, rightly so, that an attack like this would make it nearly impossible for Putin to ignore and force his hand politically to escalate the war in Ukraine to a level that would justify to the people of the West that it was finally time for us to get involved over there.

You can hear the growing chat of “Putin must go” emanating from the think tanks on K Street and the halls of GCHQ.

Who wants that outcome? Who has been begging for that outcome for over two years? Who has staged provocation (Kerch, Nordstream, Bucha, hitting Russian ships in the Black Sea, ZNPP, etc.) after provocation to get Putin “on tilt?” Outside of Victoria Nuland’s office and Lindsay Graham, no one in the US has been fully committed to this the entire time.

Nikki Haley was finally forced out of the presidential race.

If anything, the longer this war goes on the less support Ukraine has gotten from the US, even from Bii-Den!. The shift in the US attitude towards Ukraine has been happening for over a year.

No, the people who have made the most noise are the gods-damned British, who Nuland certainly works hand-in-glove with. The French and German Greens have been just as full-throated, so continental Europe isn’t being spared here either.

So, now here’s what I think the real story is surrounding Crocus. Nuland, MI6, and likely the Turks put this thing together using ISIS-K Tajik mercenaries to kill a bunch of Russians. The operational goal was to keep the US from turning its back on the malignant narcissistic colonialist assholes in Europe who need this war but cannot fight it. That’s the Yanks’ job.

US leadership, already deep in plans to extricate themselves from Europe and pivot to China, warn the Russians on March 7th which scrubs the March 9th operation after sending the major signal that things in Ukraine will calm down by firing Nuland on March 5th.

This is what real statecraft looks like.

After that, the operation is still going forward but under someone else’s guidance (or just on auto-pilot). Nuland’s fingerprints are all over it. The US looks guilty as hell. What does evil do? It doesn’t sleep, it waits. And then we get the actual attack last weekend, after Putin wins a massive re-election. It still serves it’s primary purpose, force Putin’s hand.

Now, the kicker. Who issues notes of condolences to Russia for the attack? Shockingly, the US and NATO. In the past three years there hasn’t been one conciliatory utterance from Sec. of State Antony Blinken’s pie hole when it comes to Russia. He’s been the epitome of the anti-diplomat.

And yet, here he is issuing condolences to Russia. Then the US abstains from the UNSC council vote against Israel, another British project going completely haywire.

None of this tracks with the US and Russia are implacable enemies narrative folks. Not. One. Single. Bit. Of. It.

Now, guess who refused to even acknowledge the Russian loss of life? Yup … the UK.

Here’s Jeremy Hunt:

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has told Sky News that Britain has “very little confidence in anything the Russian government says.”

“We know that they are creating a smokescreen of propaganda to defend an utterly evil invasion of Ukraine. But, that doesn’t mean that it’s not a tragedy when innocent people lose their lives, when you have horrible bombings,” Hunt said. Hunt further emphasized that London takes “what the Russian government says with an enormous pinch of salt… after what we have seen from them over the last few years.”

Can you not feel how dirty Hunt felt having to even half-heartedly lament dead Russians? It’s beyond pathetic and inhuman, but then again, he’s a member of the British Political Elite… what else can you expect from these bloodless ghouls?

David Cameron has done nothing but lambaste the US for not ponying up more money for Ukraine. In effect blaming us for Ukraine’s losses. This is classic narcissistic bullying of the victim here.

But, the real revelation came from top EU diplomat Josep Borrell, who can always be counted on to show the world how one contracts foot-in-mouth disease. In a shocking display of truth telling Borrell finally told the world the reality behind Ukraine:

Remember, narcissists don’t love you. They love themselves. Note the direction of the clip, when Borrell is imploring Americans, cue the one-shot and the close up. This is all staged, my friends. This is the real truth and it’s a warning from Borrell.

So, in this context, Blinken’s condolences have to be taken as a real fig leaf to Putin. Sadly, both sides have to continue gearing up for future conflict because it’s the prudent thing to do, even if neither side wants it. Sound familiar? It’s reminiscent of the story of WWI.

The US was led into the trap in Ukraine by Nuland and her co-collaborators in MI6 and Europe over the past decade. All three players, the US, UK and Europe had reasons for Ukraine, but all were ultimately different.

In this month’s Gold Goats ‘n Guns Newsletter I laid out the full argument from all three sides:

Ukraine became the battleground physically for this. To the EU, the US and the UK, through their influence in Poland and the Baltics, were used to foment this war. Bankrupting them through war forces them back to being subjugated sources of raw materials while exporting EU laws and rules to those places which have the privilege (from their perspective) of doing business with them.

From all three players’ perspectives if Ukraine beat Russia, then they win. Putin is eventually deposed, Russia is humiliated, and the long-desired breakup of their land-based empire would commence. Europe gets their Great Reset. The UK gets to maintain control over the maritime empire, reclaiming NATO
control over the Black Sea, and forcing the Arab oil producers back in line. The US gets to leverage a fallen Russia to weaken China and stop the further integration of the BRICS into a competitor.

In short, the world would go back to the 1990’s when guys like Bill Browder were running around buying up everything and the Russian oligarchs Putin beat would be restored to power. Fukuyama would finally be right.

But, as I said, the real goal of this war wasn’t just getting Russia, they had to maneuver the US into a terminal state as well, through the costs of fighting a war we weren’t capable of sustaining. And that was the bridge too far for US interests not beholden to the ghost of Trotsky and the tears of Bill Kristol.

And now you have the ‘who benefits’ from this operation. The US saw no upside in brutally killing hundreds of Russian civilians, knowing full well it would be US doing the majority of the fighting. The UK and EU need the US to do this because if the US comes out of this war unscathed (like in WWII) then the current arrangement will continue, and their plans for domination will fail.

And this is why these people have become so unhinged and so histrionic in the past few months as the US refuses to send more aid to Ukraine. It’s why Emmanuel Macron is pushing all-in, he’s a lame duck president easily sacrificed here. It’s why British perfidy behind the scenes has to be your first suspect in any act of horror. It’s why Germany is politically paralyzed between its gasping industrial class and the revolutionary Greens who actually run the government.

It’s why their hatred for the US is so nakedly apparent now. The US is trying to walk away from the old, sclerotic, malignant narcissists of Europe and they cannot handle it.

It’s almost like they are villains from the old Scooby Do cartoons… “And I would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those damned Russians.”

So, nothing…. not one fucking thing… is off the table from them. They have the motive, means, and opportunity. On the US side of the ledger, Nuland’s actions can be understood through her genetic hatred of Russians. For the UK and Europe it’s their seat at the post-Globalism geopolitical table.

Removing Nuland removes a lot of the bureaucratic momentum. But it doesn’t mean that things change on a dime. Course corrections take time. This operation in Moscow was a long time in the making. It wasn’t going to be stopped. Delayed? Sure. But it actually happening speaks more to the other players involved not the US.

And that brings me to the Francis Scott Key bridge. As an event it deserves its own article, but I think you know where I’m going with this. There is a vanishingly small probability that this was an accident caused by an old ship with a spotty maintenance record, a Ukrainian captain, and an Indian crew.

All of those things are, in movie terms, “set dressing,” to create a plausibly deniable narrative. Bullshit, in other words. I have to hand it to whoever put this one together, it looks better thought out than the last half-dozen of these things. I guess the Writer’s Strike in Hollywood is actually over.

This was an attack on US soil by a foreign power. And the first group of people we’re supposed to think who did it was the Russians. Why? Revenge for Moscow, after we were set up to look like the ones who did that, to the people who matter… the ones making the decisions.

The fact that the US and Russia both have tried to deflect blame for both of these incidents away from the other is a very big tell. It says clearly that both sides are aware of the dangers these attacks on their sovereignty represent and are unwilling to use them as a casus belli. It’s the most encouraging part of all of this. Rational people are still trying to slow the climb up the escalatory ladder.

The problem is they aren’t in control of the situation. If the US wanted war with Russia, we’d already be there. That means someone else does.

Note the lack of “Russia did it!” coming from the US. Note now the FBI came out immediately, with no investigation, and said this was an accident, not an act of war, which it most likely was.

The question then is, “who committed the act?” We will never find out the truth to this but our prime suspect has to be the one who has the motive to get the US to go “on tilt” and move into position to defend Ukraine openly.

I’m not saying that Russia didn’t do it. Far from it. As a piece of 4th generational warfare, taking out this bridge at this moment in time is absolutely one of Russia’s best moves on the board, especially if Putin really is getting ready to up the ante on Kiev in the coming weeks. And I expect him to do just that.

Paralyzing the US logistically is the right move. But it also then invites a counter-attack from the US that Putin has studiously avoided for over eight years since he first put Russian forces into Syria in 2015.

No, I think this again is one of those “orgies of evidence” to frame Russia for something someone else did for very different reasons. And that reason is pure, unfettered, narcissistic revenge for the US having the temerity to walk away from its responsibilities (as they have defined them) in Europe.

These people have been very clear now for years, either the US goes along with their plans for the future or it will be destroyed from within. This attack on the Key bridge in Baltimore is a nightmare event, meant to be a catalyst for a breakdown of the US economy, creating chaos during an election year.

It could easily ripple through our property, debt and equity markets in the coming weeks. Attacking the US puts pressure there while lifting some of the focus away from the deterioration of Europe’s economy.

This is an event that the more I think about it the more it turns into an Agatha Christie novel, with everyone having motive to attack the US for entirely different reasons. So, I won’t come to any definitive conclusion here, even though you know who my prime suspects are.

But, suffice it to say that in the rage of narcissists, we will be spared nothing while being blamed for their slow, painful perp walk towards WWIII.

https://tomluongo.me/2024/03/29/asymmetric-response-and-the-perp-walk-to-world-war-iii/

Who Wants a Hot War with Syria and Iran? - PHILIP M. GIRALDI ( You might also want to scan the other headlines at this site.)

There is something very wrong with what is going on currently in the United States.

There is a vast industry in the United States that wants a hot war with Syria and Iran as well as increased confrontation with Russia and China. It is appropriate to refer to it as an industry because it has many components and is largely driven by money, much of which itself comes from Wall Street and major corporations that profit from war related business. Some prefer to refer to this monster as the Military Industrial Complex, but since that phrase was coined by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1961, it has grown enormously, developing a political dimension that includes a majority of congressmen who are addicted to receiving a tithe from the profits from the war economy to finance their own campaigns, permitting them to stay in office indefinitely and retire comfortably to a lobbying position or corporate directorship.

The defense industry also has spawned hundreds of so-called think-tanks whose sole business is promoting war. Some, like the neoconservative Institute for the Study of War, have a clear agenda, but the most powerful rely on euphemisms to conceal what they are doing. They include the American Enterprise Institute and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, both of which promote a hard-line foreign policy directed against Iran and Russia, to include intensified confrontation with both in Syria.

The national media, which also benefits from the same food chain, is also complicit in the process, knowing that the public can easily be deceived by pronouncements coming from alleged experts in Washington. Leading politicians like Senators Lindsay Graham and John McCain lead the pack but there is no shortage of lesser known congressmen to also raise the cry about foreign threats to national security. Regarding developments in Syria, Graham advised last weekend that Trump must attack and destroy the Syrian Air Force or “look weak” while McCain said White House talk of pulling troops out of the country had “emboldened” al-Assad.

Unenlightened self-interest prevails in the White House over the formulation of policy, with the public interest completely lost from sight as high officials jockey in support of the agendas being promoted by those with money and access to those in power. There is no other explanation for the astonishing performance last weekend, which pushed the United States closer to a new war in spite of Trump’s earlier expressed claims that he wants to exit from Syria, a comment that he quickly backed away from under pressure from the Israelis and Congress.

But now we have a dubious narrative of a horrible new chemical weapon attack in Syria and the Israelis, who have spent the past two weeks shooting two thousand unarmed demonstrators, have attacked a Syrian airbase, killing 14, pretending that they care about civilian casualties when all they really want to do is jumpstart a seven-year war which has been winding down.

Anyone could see there was something not quite right about this latest “chemical attack,” supposedly implemented by Bashar al-Assad just as his troops are about to finish off the last rebels near Damascus. But Donald Trump apparently could not appreciate that the Syrian government had no motive to use chemical weapons, while the rebels, who control the space where the attack supposedly took place, have every reason to motivate an international coalition to attack the Syrian Army.

At 8 a.m. on Sunday morning the President of the United States sent out this tweet:

Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay…

Donald Trump could not have possibly known who staged the gas attack so soon after it occurred, but he felt compelled to tweet something anyway. And it was not as if other observers hadn’t suspected that a big lie was coming. Days before the staged attack, the Russian Defense Ministry warned that a false flag incident was being prepared.

One hour later, the Sunday morning talk shows in the US were full of reports about the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons. No one contradicted that narrative and the news was soon headlined in the late editions of the Sunday newspapers. “Fake news” had won out again, in spite of a complete lack or evidence or credibility. This is completely crazy. There is something very wrong with what is going on currently in the United States.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/04/12/who-wants-hot-war-with-syria-and-iran.html

What Can Be Done? — Paul Craig Roberts

It is up to Europe whether or not the Earth dies in nuclear Armageddon.

European governments do not realize their potential to save the world from Washington’s aggression, because the western Europeans are accustomed to being Washington’s vassal states since the end of World War 2, and the eastern and central Europeans have accepted Washington’s vassalage since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Vassalage pays well if all the costs are not counted.

By joining NATO, the eastern and central Europeans permitted Washington to move US military presence to Russia’s borders. This military presence on Russia’s borders gave Washington undue confidence that Russia also could be coerced into a vassal state existence. Despite the dire fate of the two finest armies ever assembled—Napoleon’s Grand Army and that of Germany’s Wehrmacht—Washington hasn’t learned that the two rules of warfare are: (1) Don’t march on Russia. (2) Don’t march on Russia.

Because of Europe’s subservience to Washington, Washington is unlikely to learn this lesson before Washington marches on Russia.

Washington in its hubristic idiocy has already begun this march piecemeal with the coup in Ukraine and with its attacks on Syrian military positions. As I wrote earlier today https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/04/30/syrian-cisis-escalates/ Washington is escalating the crisis in Syria.

What can stop this before it explodes into war is eastern and central Europe’s decision to disengage as enablers of Washington’s aggression.

There are no benefits to Europe of being in NATO. Europeans are not threatened by Russian aggression, but they are threatened by Washington’s aggression against Russia. If the American neoconservatives and their Israeli allies succeed in provoking a war, all of Europe would be destroyed. Forever.

What is wrong with European politicians that they take this risk with the peoples that they govern?

Europe is still a place of beauty constructed by humans over the ages—architecturally, artistically, and intellectually—and the museum should not be destroyed. Once free of Washington’s vassalage, Europe could even be brought back to creative life.

Europe is already suffering economically from Washington’s illegal sanctions against Russia forced upon Europeans by Washington and from the millions of non-European refugees flooding the European countries fleeing from Washington’s illegal wars against Muslim peoples, wars that Americans are forced to fight for the benefit of Israel.

What do Europeans get for the extreme penalties imposed on them as Washington’s vassals? They get nothing but the threat of Armageddon. A small handful of European “leaders” get enormous subsidies from Washington for enabling Washington’s illegal agendas. Just take a look at Tony Blair’s enormous fortune, which is not the normal reward for a British prime minister.

Europeans, including the “leaders,” have much more to gain from being connected to the Russia/China Silk Road project. It is the East that is rising, not the West. The Silk Road would connect Europe to the rising East. Russia has undeveloped territory full of resources—Siberia—that is larger than the United States. On a purchasing power parity basis, China is already the world’s largest economy. Militarily the Russian/Chinese alliance is much more than a match for Washington.

If Europe had any sense, any leadership, it would tell Washington good-bye.

What is the value to Europe of Washington’s hegemony over the world? How do Europeans, as opposed to a handful of politicians receiving bags full of money from Washington, benefit from their vassalage to Washington? Not one benefit can be identified. Washington’s apologists say that Europe is afraid of being dominated by Russia. So why aren’t Europeans afraid of their 73 years of domination by Washington, especially a domination that is leading them into military conflict with Russia?

Unlike Europeans and Russians, Americans have scant experience with wartime casualties. Just one World War 1 battle, the Battle of Verdun, produced more casualties than the battle deaths that US has experienced in all the wars of its existence beginning with the Revolutionary War for independence from Britain.

The World War 1 Battle of Verdun,which took place prior to the US entry into the war, was the longest and most costly battle in human history. An estimate in 2000 found a total of 714,231 casualties, 377,231 French and 337,000 German, for an average of 70,000 casualties a month; other recent estimates increase the number of casualties to 976,000 during the battle, with 1,250,000 suffered at Verdun during the war.

In contrast, US casualties for World War 1 after US entry were 53,402 battle deaths and 200,000 nonmortal woundings.

Here is the list of US battle deaths from the War of Revolution through the “global war on terror” as of August 2017:

American Revolution: 4,435
War of 1812: 2,260
Wars against native Americans (1817-1898): 1,000
Mexican War: 1,733
War of Northern Aggression :
North: 104,414
South: 74,524
Spanish-American War: 385
World War 2: 291,557
Korean War: 33,739
Vietnam War: 47,434
Gulf War: 148

This comes to 561,629 battle deaths

If we add the battle deaths of the global war on terror as of Aug. 2017—6,930—we have 568,559 US battle deaths in all US wars. See: https://www.infoplease.com/us/american-wars/americas-wars-us-casualties-and-veterans

That compares to 714,231 casualties, from which I am unable at this time to separate battle deaths from nonmortal wounds and maiming from a single World War 1 battle that did not involve US soldiers.

In other words, except for the Confederate States and native Americans, who endured enormous Union war crimes, the US has no experience of war. So Washington enters war with ease. The next time, however, will be Armageddon, and Washington will no longer exist. And neither will the rest of us.

US deaths in World War 1 were low because the US did not enter the war until the last year. Similarly in World War 2. Japan was defeated by the loss of her navy and air force and by the firebombing of Tokyo and other Japanese cities, which required few US battle deaths. The nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were gratuitous and took place when Japan was asking to surrender. Approximately 200,000 Japanese civilians died in the nuclear attacks and no Americans except prisoners of war held in those cities. In Europe, as in World War 1, the US did not enter the war against Germany until the last year when the Wehrmacht had already been broken and defeated by the Soviet Red Army. The Normandy invasion faced scant opposition as all German forces were on the Russian front.

If there is a World War 3 the US and all of the Western world would be immediately destroyed as nothing stands between the West and the extraordinary nuclear capability of Russia except the likelihood of complete and total destruction. If China enters on Russia’s side, as is expected, the destruction of the entirety of the Western World will be for all time.

Why does Europe enable this scenario? Is there no humanity, no intelligence left anywhere in Europe? Is Europe nothing but a collection of cattle awaiting slaughter from the machinations of the crazed American neocons? Are there no European political leaders with one ounce of common sense, one ounce of integrity?

If not, doom is upon us as there is no humanity or intelligence in Washington.

Europe must take the lead, especially the central Europeans. These are peoples who were liberated from the Nazis by the Russians and who have in the 21st century experienced far more aggression from Washington’s pursuit of its hegemony they they have experienced from Moscow.

If Europe breaks away from Washington’s control, there is hope for life. If not, we are as good as dead.

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/04/30/can-done-paul-craig-roberts/