RICHARD MEDHURST—British journalist Richard Medhurst reports on the Iranian response to Israel’s bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus on April 1. This violation of the Vienna Convention (1961 and 1963) went unanswered until today on April 14 The world has watched anxiously in anticipation of Iran’s response. Now Iran fires a volley of drones and missiles at Israel, accompanied by an orchestra of similar calibres out of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq. Whether the alliance was holding more serious weapons for later is not known at this point.
CAPITALISM & SOCIALISM
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Texac is Missing. Russell Bentley’s whereabouts unknown after 5 days of fruitless searches
10 minutes readPATRICE GREANVILLE—Russell Bentley, quickly nicknamed “Texac” after he first touched Slavonic ground, has always. been a highly improbable character. A native son of Texas and a Communist, gifted with more than his share of valor and audacity, but above all a man of action, he didn’t have to meditate too long to figure what he needed to do when he heard about the US coup in Kiev in 2014, and the ensuing war by the new neo-Nazi regime on the rebel republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Echoing the International Brigades, he simply packed his things and made his way at his own expense to the Donbas, via Russia. Once there, to the surprise of many (he was certainly not exactly in his prime), he offered his services as a frontline soldier and soon enough was involved in several (by now) almost legendary battles in the first war between the young but tough little republics and the much larger but apparently tactically deficient (though still vicious) Ukrop army.
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WILLIAM SCHRYVER—Naturally, the rapidly waning global hegemon is not inclined to relinquish its throne without a fight. What form that fight takes remains to be seen. But if the empire attempts to preserve its so-called “rules-based international order” via force of arms, it is essential to understand this incontrovertible reality: In order for the United States to make war against any ONE of Russia, China, or Iran, it would be necessary to effectively vacate every major US base on the planet in order to concentrate enough military power to undertake the mission. In a putative war between the United States and Iran, both Russia and China would actively support Iran.
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BILLY BOB—The truth is that the ruling Western establishment is not agile enough. It is not organized well enough to manage, much less save, a crumbling empire. Sure, it can wreak havoc, it can sow destruction, it can reap misery, it can double down on failure, avoiding and projecting responsibility onto others for the humanitarian catastrophes that result from its own policies, but it can’t build anything worthwhile or develop and prosecute a plan that seeks to turn all the current losses into wins. They are too fractured, they are too incompetent, there is too much chaos, there are too many independent interests and centers of power that are too adamant (and selfish) in the violent pursuit of their own narrow interests, for any sensible or rational plan to congeal.
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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.