JIMMY DORE SHOW—Less than two weeks after an Israeli strike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus that killed a top Iranian military leader, a possible response came in the form of Hezbollah rockets fired from Lebanon into northern Israel. The Iron Dome defence system appeared to intercept the incoming rocket fire, but even with minimal damage this airborne assault represents another escalation in the Mideast conflict. Jimmy is joined by Due Dissidence’s Russell Dobular to discuss how there’s typically not a single great event but rather a series of small escalations that tend to lead to global conflicts.
CITIZENS COUNTER-PROPAGANDA
-
-
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.
-
DON HANK—During the early days of the ISIS’s rise, Turkey’s open border policy was instrumental to foreign terrorists flooding into Iraq and Syria. In fact, Turkey’s involvement with ISIS runs so deep that in 2016 David Phillips, an ex-State Department and Columbia University researcher, published a comprehensive study on Turkey’s support for ISIS. The study found evidence of Turkey providing military equipment, transport and logistical assistance, training, medical care to ISIS fighters. But that’s not all. The study determined that Turkey supports ISIS financially through purchasing oil and assisting ISIS recruitment. The report also said Turkish forces fight alongside ISIS fighters (specifically referring to the Battle for Kobani). Phillips attributes all this to the idea that Turkey and ISIS share a common worldview. Saudi Arabia — another U.S. ally — covertly supports ISIS while publicly opposing the terror group.
-
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.
-
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.