CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—This is a crucial distinction. Russiagate was constructed by the US intelligence community and pointed at Trump in 2016, but now that he’s demonstrated he’ll be a good little boy and play along with pretty much every one of their agendas they haven’t been targeting him. They don’t need to. They never cared about impeaching Trump, they cared about getting their new cold war and crippling the Russia-China tandem. Since they don’t have to get the sitting president impeached to accomplish that (a very risky move anyway), they’re content to work with him until the next presidential puppet rolls into office. It’s the Democrats and their allies who are fueling the Trump-Russia collusion narrative at this point, not the deep state.
US MILITARY
On The Syria Occupation And The New Face Of Imperialism
10 minutes readCAITLIN JOHNSTONE—The US is an invading, occupying force that is in Syria without the permission of its government, yet it is claiming that the air strike was an act of “self-defense” against an “unprovoked attack” upon the US-backed SDF, a mostly Kurdish militia which had occupied an area of Syrian land. No Americans suffered any injuries or deaths in the attack. The SDF suffered a single reported injury. It’s a bit like saying you broke into someone’s house and strangled them from behind with a garrote in self-defense.
Trump’s parade and the threat of military dictatorship
12 minutes readBIL VAN AUKEN—Some media reports have attributed Trump’s demand to his envy of a military parade he attended in France with French President Emmanuel Macron, watching French troops march down the Avenue des Champs-Ḗlysées along with tanks and other military vehicles on Bastille Day last July. While there have been critical and ironic pieces published in the corporate media about the planned parade, one can count on all of the major newspapers and broadcast networks to become willing cheerleaders once the troops and tanks are parading down Pennsylvania Avenue.
PETER KOENIG—It is our obligation towards humanity to stop this onslaught of genocides around the globe, always by the same perpetrator and his puppets and mercenaries – The United States, her vassals, Europe and NATO. Be sure of one thing, the US will never let go. They have a target and they pursue it to the end – and the end can only be Full Spectrum Dominance, or, else, the end of empire. The dark commandeering forces behind the US and allied military have no scruples whatsoever to commit gigantic genocide in order to reach their objective.
ERIC ZUESSE—In other words: the NPR (meaning Nuclear Posture Review, not National Public Radio) is based upon using nuclear weapons in order to win a nuclear war. That has actually been America’s real nuclear strategy ever since at least 2006. ‘Small’ nukes will now be used instead of conventional weapons, to “warn” “the enemy” against using “small nukes.” The problem with this line of thinking is that it ignores that, regardless of whether the conflict starts with regular weapons or with “small nukes,” the response to it will necessarily be a total blitz release of the other side’s entire strategic nuclear stockpile, because the first side to release its entire nuclear stockpile against the other will be the one that suffers the less harm.
