ERIC ZUESSE—READ THE STUNNING DISARMAMENT PROPOSAL THE SOVIETS TENDERED AT THE END OF WW2
Who benefited from America’s refusal even to discuss what had been U.S. President FDR’s aim for the post-WW-II world? The beneficiaries are what Eisenhower when leaving office called the “military industrial complex,” and are basically America’s hundred largest military contractors, especially the owners of the largest weapons-manufacturing firms such as Lockheed. Ike had served them well, and then three days before leaving office warned the public about them so as not to be blamed (along with Truman) by historians, for having created it.
ANTI-COMMUNISM
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Hollywood’s Dangerous Afghan Illusion: “Charlie Wilson’s War”. Legacy of the late Robert Parry
42 minutes readTHIS IS A REPOST
ROBERT PARRY—First, there was the ascendance of propaganda over truth. The U.S. government was well aware of the gross human rights crimes of the Afghan “muj” but still sold them as honorable “freedom fighters” to the American people. Second, there was the triumphalism of Gates and other war hawks, who insisted on rubbing Moscow’s nose in its Afghan defeat and thus blocked cooperation on a negotiated settlement which held out the promise of a less destructive outcome. -
MAX BLUMENTHAL—There are three major factors behind the shift: first, many on the right have begun to share the same sense of disgust and indignation with Israel that progressives have. Who can suppress the pangs of outrage when confronted with the live-streamed industrial level Israeli butchering of children each day for the past 6 months?
Second, more American Christians recognize the threat Zionism poses to Palestinian Christians, whether in Gaza, Bethlehem or Jerusalem. The Christ at the Checkpoint Initiative Munther Isaac helps to lead and US groups like Sabeel have provided a critical network for connecting US churches to Palestine.
Finally, American conservatives are recognizing that the Israel lobby’s influence runs counter to the ethos of America First, and that many of the most heavily promoted right wing influencers are just controlled opposition projects whose careers were astroturfed by pro-Israel billionaires.
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EDITOR—A wide-ranging discussion on imperialism. The panel discusses the nature of Western imperialism and its nasty tendency to use all manner of dirty tricks, from global demonisation to blackmail, regime change ops, including organising proxy groups such as ISIS, economic warfare (sanctions), long-term insurgencies, and vicious targeted terrorism. Billy Bob clarifies that usually “imperialism” is chiefly understood in two forms: The Marxist-Leninist way which sees imperialism as merely the latest and most developed (and decaying) phase of capitalism, finance capitalism, and the more bourgeois, liberal interpretation, which sees imperialism simply as a big nation oppressing and exploiting weaker ones. In general, the panel agrees that, as a rule, imperialism exists when an entity—Britain, France, the US—uses the powers of the state to conquer and maintain markets around the globe, largely because capitalism, especially in the imperialist phase, needs constant expansion to survive. Carlo and Ian point out that from domestic labour disturbances, where the state can intervene in favor of the oligarchs, or allow private armies (i.e., Pinkertons, etc.) to be used against the working class, to open international intervention using national state resources such as the armed forces (Marines, navy, army, etc.) the capitalists who control the bourgeois state as a class, utllize the national might to benefit their own interests, often at the expense of the masses.
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EDITOR—Touchy issues of sex, gender, LGBQT politics, direction of the military, etc., are discussed with Gen. Anthony Tata (Ret.). Note that Gen. Tata is apparently deeply disliked by the Deep State. This is reflected in a highly inflammatory and tendentious Wikipedia page, a reliable barometer of what the hidden establishment thinks of public figures. Tata, unfortunately, like many senior members of the US military and countless people of right-wing/conservative persuasion, is unfortunately poisoned by the (unofficial) religion of America, hatred of communism, a doctrine he, like many others in the same tribe, knows practically nothing about, except the caricaturesque indoctrination all Americans receive in schools, media and other opinion-shaping institutions. Thus he, like Trump, et al can call capitalist/imperialists like Obama, “a communist”. Or, believe, like Trump has declared, that Putin would have never invaded Ukraine on his watch out of fear of American retaliation. Which is patently ridiculous, besides showing massive ignorance about the basic realities of international affairs. Fortunately, Jimmy Dore dispenses straightforward correctives to all this nonsense, while schooling the general and the audience about the essential facts.