May 18, 2019
President Donald Trump claimed this week that he does not want war with Iran. If he really believes this, the president ought to look into what his subordinates are doing.
Among their bellicose actions are deployment of the ‘Abraham Lincoln CVN-72’ carrier task force to the coast of Iran, massing a strike package of B-52 heavy bombers in Qatar, just across the Gulf from Iran, positioning more US warplanes around Iran, readying a massive cyber attack against Iran, and trying to stop the export of Iranian oil, upon which its economy depends.
Plus repeated attempts to overthrow the government in Tehran – something the US already did very skillfully in 1953.
If all this is not war, according to Trump, then what is? It’s war by another name. Just what the US did to Cuba, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, Nicaragua, Syria, and, since 1979, Iran. Like a shark, the US warfare state has to keep moving. So it finds threats popping up all over.
The latest alleged grave ‘threat’ to America’s security was an ancient wooden dhow. Spotted by US satellites, this decrepit old sail-powered tub was claimed by Washington war promoters, led by the enragé John Bolton, to be carrying Iranian missiles. What unbelievable rubbish.
Many moons ago, I used to oversee dhows based in Dubai smuggling expensive Western luxury goods and small gold ‘ten tola’ bars into India and Iran. They would dodge Indian and Pakistani patrol boats; if caught, ‘baksheesh’ (bribes) were paid. Some of the smuggled goods even found their way into the Soviet Union, via caravans through Afghanistan.
All this was worthy of Sinbad the Sailor and the Arabian Nights. Great fun and profitable, but hardly of any strategic consequence. But now, Washington’s war-mongers claim the dhows will threaten ‘US interests’ in the Gulf region. ‘US interests’ are, of course, whatever and wherever Washington says they are.
This is yet another charade that will be amplified by the tame US media, and gobbled up by the credulous public unsure if the Gulf is off Texas or Iran. It joins the huge lies about World War I – ‘Belgian babies spitted to German bayonets’ – Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, anthrax attacks, and Saddam’s ‘drones of death.’ Some cynics would add 9/11 and Osama bin Laden to the cast of manufactured villains.
We now know that all the reasons cited for attacking Iraq in 2003 where false. Pure lies. War propaganda. President George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Tony Blair led us into a war by a campaign of lies that fed off one another. Media that supported the war with false news was equally guilty.
Yet we still see, for example, the Murdoch-owned media, New York Times and Washington shamelessly promoting more war in the Mideast. US media has made little progress since the yellow journalism era of William Randolph Hearst. As the great Mark Twain said, ‘if you don’t read the daily newspapers you are uninformed. If you do read them, you are misinformed.’
Which leads us to ask the question: given all these lies, is it not time for us to begin questioning the official narrative about World War II?
Trump is playing with fire by making threats against Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Libya, Cuba, North Korea and China. He appears well on the way to a major war by either plan or accident. He is provoking and trifling with two major, nuclear-armed world military powers, Russia and China. Instead of capable diplomats, Trump keeps consorting with men of low character and even lower knowledge. It’s like the hostess who will never invite to her party another woman who is younger and more attractive.
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2019
Thanks to the internet, we have been able to also read the other pages of history, not just the odd numbered ones, but the even numbered ones as well. And what I read on these pages and compare their information with my personal experiences during WWII and learned about all the wars since, I can only conclude, that a gigantic force behind the scenes is manipulating the full planetary theater for the pure benefit of a tiny fraction of ultra rich self proclaimed elites, who like to enslave the world population, regardless of race, region, country or religion. George Orwell of 1984 fame may very well turn out to be the greatest visionary of all time. Religions will be declared redundant, because their purpose of keeping the populace scared of an imaginary extra terrestrial power, is no longer needed and the people will no longer have to be divided in order to be able to manipulate them. In fact they will have to be united in their slavelike subservience to that group of elites. One of the greatest milestones on the way to this goal was the signing of the Federal Reserve Act on December 1913 by president Woodrow Wilson, who in the evening on that date was alone in his office and was ‘coerced’ into signing that fateful act, about which he later said: “I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.” And as long as this group of men is allowed to keep this power, the US will be in a state of bankruptcy, because of the interest charged on loans to the government and even compounded interest. All the big corporations are owned by the banks via loans they have to take out to be able to stay alive. And countries are turned into vassal states of the US via the IMF. And then there is NATO, a pact by which member states have a military obligation to fight, finance and sacrifice on behalf of the US and its never ending wars, financed with virtual money created out of thin air and owed back with interest to those bankers, who also control the only 2 parties the US has, which are two faces on the same coin. And that is supposed to be democracy. Maybe the blockchain and the bitcoin will lift this cruel burden off of the backs of ‘we the people’. If mental ability and stability are prerequisites for the presidency, we would never had ended up in this quagmire in the first place, nor would we have done so much harm to our true God “Mother Nature”, who is about to punish us for our errant ways.
Thanks, Cicero…
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Dik
“President Donald Trump claimed this week that he does not want war with Iran. If he really believes this, the president ought to look into what his subordinates are doing.”
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If anyone believes this Clown, I’ve got a ‘bridge to sell you’. Donald Trump continues to lie and it’s questionable if he knows what the truth is. The number of lies since he took office exceeds 10,000 and there is not a slip in decimal point. Would any adult want their children to suffer from the same ‘illness’. My parents may not have liked the answers, but, they were truthful. I sometimes think my dad didn’t ask because he really didn’t want to know.
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All the Americans’ actions are leading up to war. Iran desperately needs a huge missile defense system… both, surface to air and ground to ground. If they had thermonuclear weapons, that would help immensely. It is for this very reason that they should have them. I’m afraid it’s a little too late for Russian and Chinese assistance.
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Warmongers like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo should be removed from office. That wouldn’t suit Trump because he’s against starting another war, anyway. All three should be SAPO’d. If there really is a hell’, all three should report there immediately. My wife, who was a little more religious than myself would have simply shaken her head and said ‘the End Times’ are upon us.
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That the UN sits back, and doesn’t say a word, speaks volumes. Time for them to be repaired, and it couldn’t happen sooner.
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“Which leads us to ask the question: given all these lies, is it not time for us to begin questioning the official narrative about World War II?”
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When I grew older and learned that Pearl Harbour was a consequence of an American embargo on Japan, the attack meant more sense. That the prez at the time ‘hated’ the Japanese and was concerned about their industrial growth added to the melee. One of my colleagues said the reason was because Japan was at war with China… Strange that the Americans did not start supplying the Chinese with war materials until after Pearl Harbour.
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The same could be said about WWII… the cause of which was Germany marching into Poland. At the end of the war, the allies gifted Poland to the Russians. At that point the reason for WWII became suspect.
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“Trump is playing with fire by making threats against Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Libya, Cuba, North Korea and China. He appears well on the way to a major war by either plan or accident.” The UN sits by and does nothing. I keep saying it needs desperate repair, but, no one seems to listen.
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“It’s like the hostess who will never invite to her party another woman who is younger and more attractive.” If brightness was the criteria, it would be difficult for Trump to find anyone to invite.
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Dik
Fire these nutcases … to be replaced by another set of nutcases? I would suggest that not only the government is riddled with people pushing this point of view, but so are the people behind both parties, the media, the deep state bureaucrats, educators, religious figures and industrialists. Simply firing anyone is no longer an option, what is called for is more of a purge. Such a change is not possible under the present system, the only possible course change can only come about in three circumstances. 1. The US was to go to war alone and lose so badly that an isolated and economically ruined US collapses. The rest of the world gets together in isolating the US politically and economically crashes the US economy and closing its bases and access overseas, this also leads to collapse. Or three… a civil war breaks out in the US where not only the well-armed populace takes a stand against their government but the military breaks into factions as well. Shy of that the only thing that will change is the time table.
Reply to Mike Smith:
America is so deeply entangled in the international order that its demise will certainly create risky power vacuums which could hurt humanity more than the status quo.
The world cannot afford to wish ill for the American Empire, because the alternative is a total global chaos; where too many middle powers will be struggling to fill the gap of the power vacuum – trying to score against each other at the expense of their civilian populations, because every middle power aspire to expand its own sphere of influence – either directly or by proxy wars – resulting in more misery for millions of civilian population whom will be caught in the crossfire; something like Syria or Yemen war today but multiplied by a factor of 100. So, we would be seeing a Syrian type chaos in every corner of the globe.
But there is certainly hope through empowering of the UN executive and military capabilities, for instance; the US could slowly relinquish its “Policing Role” to the UN by empowering the UN military force, enabling the UN executive process and respecting the new international order under the UN elective leadership. In fact, this was the original idea behind the creation of the UN in 1945 which the US had fully supported, and invited the UN headquarter to set up offices in New York.
As it stands, the world cannot afford to wish ill for the the US, the power vacuum poses much greater risk to the humanity than the status quo.
I think it would be painful for a bit, but, manageable. I’m not sure WWIII is any less pain. It’s time these bullies were restrained for the harm they are causing on a global scale.
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Dik
You miss out on the staggering number of proxy wars initiated by the Americans, the chaos and misery created by their foreign policy… it is hard to think of any in the last fifty years that doesn’t have the fingerprints of the US on it in one way or another… and with the security council veto the UN is completely useless in any effort to contain the Americans or their vassals / masters the Israelis, the Saudis, the Egyptians and dozens of other petty dictatorships that follow their lead.
Any new international order that is not simply ran from Washington will need to be built from the ashes of the United States… far from ill will I wish for their country to break apart into three or four separate states even if a bloody civil war is needed to accomplish this. Watch Out America, karma is calling… and she ain’t pretty
“The world cannot afford to wish ill for the American Empire, because the alternative is a total global chaos…”
The history of the World did not begin with the establishment of the USA and will continue with or without it. It would be a futile speculation to answer the question whether the World would be any more chaotic without the US dominance. Just try to imagine Russia and China as insignificant players leaving US as the only power. Milk and honey for the World? Nothing in the history of this nation would convince me so.