ABOMINATIONS

WILLIAM ASTORE—Quite honestly, the who, the how, and the why depress me. The “who” is simple enough: the military-industrial-congressional complex, which finds genocidal nuclear weapons to be profitable, even laudable. Leading the charge of the latest death brigade is my old service, the Air Force. Its leaders want new ICBMs, several hundred of them in fact, with a potential price tag of $264 billion, to replace the Minutemen that still sit on alert, waiting to inaugurate death on an unimaginable scale, not to speak of a global nuclear winter, if they’re ever launched en masse. Not content with such new missiles, the Air Force also desires new strategic bombers, B-21 Raiders to be precise (the “21” for our century, the “Raider” in honor of General Jimmy Doolittle’s morale-boosting World War II attack on Tokyo a few months after Pearl Harbor). The potential price tag: somewhere to the north of $200 billion through the year 2050.

JACOB HORNBERGER—I must admit that I couldn’t help but smile when I read that Putin was threatening to send Russian troops to Cuba and Venezuela in response to U.S. attempts to absorb Ukraine into NATO, which would enable the Pentagon and the CIA to send U.S. troops, missiles, and tanks to Russia’s border. When I read Putin’s statement, I knew immediately what the U.S. response would be  … and that it would not be a principled one. Not surprisingly, U.S. officials didn’t like Putin’s idea at all

Max Blumenthal and geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar discuss the violent coup attempt in Kazakhstan, and its crucial importance as an ally of Russia and the center of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Pepe addresses US and Turkish meddling, and why this massive and misunderstood country is suddenly at the heart of the new cold war. They also talk about the failure of the US-Russia talks in Geneva and if war could be on the horizon.

STANSFIELD SMITH—During the 21st century, the US, working with corporate elites, traditional oligarchies, military, and corporate media, has continually attempted coups against Latin American governments which place the needs of their people over US corporate interests. US organized coups in Latin American countries is hardly a 20th century phenomenon.

However, this century the US rulers have turned to a new coup strategy, relying on soft coups, a significant change from the notoriously brutal military hard coups in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and other countries in the 1970s. One central US concern in these new coups has been to maintain a legal and democratic facade as much as possible. 

J.G. HORNBERGER—Don’t count on the U.S. Supreme Court to order a shutdown of Gitmo. Yes, I fully realize that the Constitution does not authorize the federal government to operate a torture and prison center and a military-tribunal judicial system. I also understand that the policies of indefinite detention, torture, denial of due process, denial of speedy trial, and denial of trial by jury at Gitmo violate the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. That makes no difference. The Pentagon and the CIA are exempt from those restrictions. The Supreme Court knows that it’s the Pentagon and the CIA that are in charge at Gitmo. There will be no substantial judicial interference with Pentagon and CIA operations at their imperial base in Cuba.