Default Editor Patrice de Bergeracpas

MOTI NISSANI—Or take the curious case of Crimea. Any decent person who knows what really happened in the Ukraine since the 2014 CIA regime-change operation would agree that the people of Crimea—mostly anti-fascist Russians—had a right to secede from Ukraine and join their historical Russian home. Instead, the official policies of all Western countries is that this act of Russian “aggression” calls for nuclear brinkmanship that could cost—deliberately or accidentally—the lives of billions. Only a central authority controlling all these countries could bring about such suicidal compliance.

MOTI NISSANI—In the USA, bribery is institutionalized. In fact, if one looks only at the sheer quantity of wealth being stolen from the people, one can perhaps surmise that the USA is the most corrupt country that has ever existed. Bribery is implemented principally through campaign financing, then complemented by such things as lucrative speaking and publishing arrangements after leaving office and by invitations to serve on the boards of the corporations that benefited from the ex-politician’s or ex-judge’s duplicity. (Has anyone heard of Hillary Clinton’s and Barack and Michelle Obama’s ridiculous book contracts and speaking fees?—Ed).

GILBERT MERCIER—Nicolas Maduro’s predecessor and mentor, Hugo Chavez, had in Fidel Castro a source of inspiration and the guidance of a father figure. Chavez, like other neo-Marxists, looked up to Fidel for leading a successful revolution, through military action, which had toppled the corrupt regime of Fulgencio Batista. This regime was not only a docile servant of the US government but was also directly associated with the Mafia’s criminal activities in Cuba in the era of Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky. With Batista’s complicity, American gangsters had turned Cuba into a gambling and prostitution paradise where the US’ unscrupulous rich went to play. Castro shut down the bordello that had become Cuba and proudly rebuilt his island, and he consciously set out to transform Cuba slowly and steadily into a socialist country.

This desire to grasp what was happening would appear to be one of a number of differences between reactions to this Gulf War and that in 1991. While in 1991, there were objections to the way the war was presented in the media – i.e. as akin to a video game – bourgeois journalists remained relatively uncritical of the justifications for the war itself. This time round, however, the size of the movement of opposition to the war, and the fact that the world bourgeoisie was not united behind it, encouraged a much more critical tone in much of the media. The lack of a decisive conclusion to the war, with no arsenal of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ (WMD) being found, and the quick victory turning into a bloody messy occupation, has led to a questioning of the motives behind and reasoning for the war.

Abrams’ appointment as special envoy to Venezuela comes as somewhat of a surprise. First of all, he strongly criticized Trump in 2016 when he wrote an article titled When You Can’t Stand Your Candidate. But more importantly, Abrams was convicted in 1991 (and given a slap on the wrist sentence) for attempting to cover up details of the Iran-Contra scandal while speaking to Congress. (He was not convicted of crimes against humanity, which is his real crime). Last year, Sen. Rand Paul warned in an op-ed not to let Abrams anywhere near the State Department. “Crack the door to admit Elliott Abrams,” Paul continued, “and the neocons will scurry in by the hundreds.”