OpEds
Daniel Wirt
Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, first Earl of Midlothian and later British Prime Minister. Among many other distinctions and privileges, “Rosebery was one of the last undergraduates of Christ Church who wore the gold tassel, known by the name of ‘tuft’, which was the distinguishing mark of noblemen and the sons of noblemen.” Despite fleeting lapses into a semblance of a populist tribune, Rosebery, eccentric by design, incarnated the essence of all haughty toffs.
Physicians gravitate to certain cases of disease, usually because they represent exceptional, classic examples of known pathophysiology for teaching purposes, and sometimes because individual cases or small groups of cases provide clues to the underlying pathophysiology of poorly understood disease states. Examples of this process of case reporting leading eventually to detailed pathophysiologic understanding abound in the history of medicine; for example, the thread of knowledge extending from case reports of acromegaly to the eventual discovery of pituitary adenomas producing excess human growth hormone and the biochemistry and physiology of growth hormone.
I am submitting the following case to the Annals of Imperial Sociopathy as an outstanding case for teaching purposes. The role of academia in the Military-Industrial-Media-Academia complex is well known. The academic institutions of the imperialists produce the compliant workers and propagandists for Western (Atlanticist) hegemonic imperialism, necessary to justify and maintain the militarism and fascism inherent in and required by late-stage capitalism. These academic institutions and their associated think tanks produce thoroughly indoctrinated courtiers of the corporate oligarchy/plutocracy which is the controlling force behind the puppet politicians and the governments in the United States and the several lesser imperialist lapdogs of the U.S. In exchange for the juicy bones thrown to them by the plutocracy, these courtiers and puppets are faithfully compliant, deviating from the script only rarely — and the punishment for deviation is severe.
Here is an outstanding case of bringing up baby courtiers of imperialism, not at Harvard or Yale or Brown University in the U.S., but in Great Britain: bringing up baby at the University of St. Andrews in Perfidious Albion. Why is this an example of imperial sociopathy?
Sociopaths have the capacity to harm others without being restrained by a sense of conscience or with a defective sense of conscience. They variably lack empathy. They employ several defense mechanisms to avoid taking responsibility for their harmful behavior, including denial, rationalization and projection. They are unburdened or insufficiently restrained by conscience and empathy because of these defense mechanisms. The lower class of sociopaths includes the street thug who mugs old ladies, snatching their purses, knocking them down, causing femoral neck fractures, even blaming the victim (“if she had just given me the dollar I asked for… but she called me a thug…”). The upper class sociopaths include imperialist thugs trained at prestigious academic institutions in the West.
In order to play French resistance fighter, one must have the proper accoutrements.
M. Jon Morgan Barth play-acting maquisard — French Resistance Fighter — in 2013. What would real French Maquis — like Jean Moulin — think of M. Barth’s 2015 essay disparaging the anti-fascist fighters in the Donbass region of Ukraine? (See Text Below)
Real French Maquis, tactically modern guerrillas: their backgrounds were diverse, with a predominance of leftwing militants, anarchists, and young men fleeing the Nazis’ Obligatory Work Service (STO). Their formal name was FFI, or Forces Françaises del l’Interieur for “French Forces of the Interior”. Of Note: “Some Maquis bands that operated in southwest France, were composed entirely of left-wing Spanish veterans of the Spanish Civil War.” (Further historical documentation of the important role that foreign volunteers have played in the fight against fascism.)
Jean Moulin (1899 – 1943), leader of the National Council of the French Resistance. Codenamed ‘Max’, he was arrested by Klaus Barbie of the Gestapo in 1943 and died in custody after weeks of torture.
Observe imperialist shills-in-training at one of those academic institutions — the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, members of the St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Society, writing for their student publication, Foreign Affairs Review (http://foreignaffairsreview.co.uk/about/). There are numerous specimens here to examine under the dissecting microscope — young courtiers of imperialism in intellectual short-pants tottering along on their two-wheelers with training wheels, earnestly learning their Orwellian craft.
For example, go to The Foreign Affairs Review website and put “Putin” in the search engine. One is treated to the following (and these are just on the first page of the search results):
[dropcap]M[/dropcap]y initial response to these pieces is to refute the errors of omission and commission, the claims unsupported by evidence and counter to abundant evidence, the outright falsifications —- but to do a comprehensive job of this would require a lean 10,000 word article. Theirs is an amazing job of intellectual laziness and dishonesty. These short essays are a confused tangle of faulty premises and non sequiturs. No doubt these students pleased their professors, however, regurgitating the standard, worn falsifications of the western Russophobes and anti-communists, in that long line of liberal fascists reacting at a spinal cord reflex level to any socialist ideology threatening the hegemony of their viciously exploitative capitalism, mandatorily married to imperialism and fascism like a conjoined twin joined at the head, chest and abdomen. Virtually every sentence is a monument to intellectual dishonesty and disregard for evidence, a Mobius strip of Orwellian Doublethink. I’ll forego the detailed deconstruction of the gems cited above and just mention a few of the clinkers:
-“Nonetheless, the tentative winding down of the conflict in Ukraine and the simultaneous ramping up of conflict in Syria should be seen as presaging the final desperate chest-thumping of the Putinist ideology… War and propaganda are the political solutions that Putin provides to the country’s economic problems. For most of his fifteen years in power, Putin has been able to garner support by creating the perception of Russia as locked in inextricable conflict with the West. Cultivating a siege-mentality has enabled the Kremlin to present sanctions and a declining economy as an international conspiracy against Russia… With a tumbling economy and a violent quagmire in Syria, Putinism may finally run out of money and options.”
-Characterization of the response to Pussy Riot’s desecration of an Orthodox Church as evidence of “increasing repression”. No mention of the massive harm done to the Russian people in multiple spheres after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, engineered by Gorbachev, in the Yeltsin era of grand theft by predatory capitalists — Yeltsin, a corrupt, alcoholic stooge for US imperialism (for example, see here, here, here and here). Then there is the obligatory, standard demonization of Stalin with no context. “Sixty years ago Stalin died, putting an end to twenty-seven years of terror, disappearances and arbitrary killings.”
-And the uncritical propagation of the Holodomor (deliberate famine) myth, a proven hoax to a high degree of historical certainty. “Since 2006, Ukrainians have commemorated the Holodomor on the fourth Saturday of November. This year will mark 82 years since the 1932-33 famine that occurred, in the words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, ‘without drought and without war.’ The commemoration comes with the knowledge that the devastating famine was more than a naturally occurring event – it was a deliberate policy of the Stalinist regime to exterminate the Ukrainian population. The Ukrainian government recognises that the famine was caused by state practices and this view has been widely accepted by historians. More than two thirds of the Ukrainian public subscribe to this view of history, according to a poll in October 2013 carried out by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Democratic (sic) Initiatives Foundation and the Ukrainian Sociology Service.”
It is not surprising that these students are content with simply parroting and regurgitating the lies of rabidly Russophobic Ukrainians, ideological descendants of Ukrainians who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, and the falsifications of historians such as Robert Conquest and Timothy Snyder. After all, these are not history students — they are not interested in how an appropriate level of historical certainty is derived from the weight of PRIMARY source evidence. As shills-in-training for imperialism, they are not interested in historical accuracy or context — they are interested in propagating the most effective lies to maintain the momentum of mass brainwashing, as required by the masters of the corrupt system to which they aspire to become privileged and comfortable members.
The test of intellectually honest historians is reliance on evidence and data from PRIMARY sources to support an appropriate level of historical certainty. Conquest repeatedly failed the test. Like Timothy Snyder, Robert Conquest was not intellectually honest in his use of sources, and thus produced falsifications, not history. Conquest was a political prostitute, in the service of some very unsavory anticommunists — a very prolific imperialist shill, an Energizer Bunny serving the imperialists. A good student would check all the source footnotes of Conquest and Snyder (which would require fluency in Polish and Russian). In fact, Dr. Grover Furr has done just that and published a book about it, “Blood Lies: The Evidence that Every Accusation Against Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union in Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands is False”. What Dr. Furr has found is very revealing. Dr. Furr has done an incredible job peeling away the scandalously cynical crust of lies deforming the history of Russia and Stalin, not to mention staining the very idea of socialism.
I seriously doubt if any of the St. Andrews students writing these shoddy essays would have the intellectual curiosity and integrity to even read “Blood Lies”, let alone have the gonads to challenge the imperialist propaganda line — I’m sure they have a keen sense of which side their bread is buttered on. Thus, these “tuft-hunters” of St. Andrews will probably never understand the lies vs the truth regarding: the Famine of 1932-33, the “Polish operation”, the “Great Terror”, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the “Soviet Invasion of Poland”, the “Katyn Massacre”, the Warsaw Uprising and “Stalin’s Anti-Semitism”. Their livelihoods require that they regurgitate the lies and disregard the truth. Historical truth (via intellectually honest evaluation of primary source evidence) need not apply. “…but at the length truth will out” (1-4)
[dropcap]B[/dropcap]ut the sociopathic pièce de résistance among these intellectually shoddy essays is that of Jon Morgan Barth, titled “Microcosm of Radicalism: Foreign Volunteers in Donbas”
(http://foreignaffairsreview.co.uk/2015/10/microcosm-of-radicalism-foreign-volunteers-in-donbas/ and copied in the sidebar below). This is truly an epitome, a perfect teaching case demonstrating all of the defense mechanisms of denial, rationalization and projection in the service of imperial sociopathy. Barth argues that the foreign volunteers fighting in Donbass pose a terrorist threat to their home countries and deserve to be prosecuted in their home countries. He is dismissive of the claim that the struggle in Donbass is against fascist aggression, without providing any evidence about the etiology or nature of the conflict or identities of the fighters. His Russophobia is evident. He is also dismissive of the parallel between the international volunteers in Donbass with the international volunteers assisting the Republican side against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War — I get the distinct impression that he does not view the latter as a noble effort. He certainly does not mention the international volunteers assisting the Republican side against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War in any positive light or context. Ironically, if Barth had studied his history with the same care that he devoted to his French Resistance costume, he would know that “Some Maquis bands that operated in southwest France, were composed entirely of left-wing Spanish veterans of the Spanish Civil War.” In other words, foreign volunteers helped the Republicans fight the fascists in the Spanish Civil War, and Spanish volunteers returned the favor by volunteering in France to fight the Nazis — further historical documentation of the important role that foreign volunteers have played in the fight against fascism — a role that continues to the present (in Donbass…).
Sidebar: Read here M. Barth’s essay, in toto. Click the bar below. IF FOR ANY REASON YOU CANNOT OPEN THE BAR WITH JON MORGAN BARTH’S ARTICLE, PLEASE READ IT BELOW, ON PAGE 2.
MR. MORGAN BARTH'S COMPLAINT —EXAMINE IT HERE
Microcosm of Radicalism: Foreign Volunteers in Donbas
by JON MORGAN BARTH on Oct 22, 2015
With the conflict in Ukraine seemingly settling into a frozen state, countries will have to be vigilant as fighters try to return home as they quickly discover that a war, which was not theirs, is winding down. More than an annoyance for the authorities in their home countries, these volunteers put forward a unique perspective in how the conflict in Ukraine is perceived internationally. These foreign volunteers will affect the domestic affairs of the home countries, and will present difficulties as attempts are made to prosecute them.
‘Politics makes for strange bedfellows’ goes the old adage, and the current milieu of foreign volunteers fighting for the separatist cause in Donbas could not better illustrate this. French socialists, Indian Communists, Spanish secessionists, American pot-legalization activists, and Scottish unionists have all found a home in the current conflict in Donbas, and are actively fighting for the separatist cause.[1] The volunteers seem to represent the entire political spectrum, but share skepticism or outright hostility towards perceived expansion of ‘Imperialist’ Western powers, though some admit they simply came for a dose of adventure. The prevailing narrative however, is that by fighting in Ukraine, these foreigners are standing as a bulwark against an international cabal composed fully, or in part by the CIA, the European Union, free masons, NATO, corporate capitalism, or Zionism.[2] In short, almost any political grievance or disenchantment with perceptions of creeping globalization can be incarnated in the forces opposing the nascent “Peoples’ Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.”
While the parties these volunteers claim membership or sympathize with represent the political fringes of their home countries, they still pose a threat. With radicals from such groups gaining military experience, along networking and making contacts within both the Russian armed services, and political and intelligence communities, the countries the fighters originate from face the threat of trained paramilitaries with foreign sympathies coming home, or else directing subversive activities from outside the country. Russia has made concentrated efforts to expand its influence in both European and global right wing, nationalist, and ultra conservative groups, recently hosting a forum for such groups in St. Petersburg.[3]
Even if prevented from returning home, foreign volunteers still pose a threat in the digital realm. Several foreign fighters have received media attention, which they have handled with varying levels of success. Russell Bonner Bentley, an American volunteer, and former marijuana-legalization activist who ran for a congressional seat in Minnesota, is one the most well-known foreigners fighting for the separatists. Bentley muddled through an interview with Simon Ostrovsky of Vice News five months ago, dodging hard questions and defending the prevailing notion that the fighting in Donbas was a struggle against fascism.[4]
While this poorly handled interview does not cast a good light on the supposed ‘anti-fascist resistance,’ it did provide exposure for the separatists’ worldview and cause. Bentley has subsequently left the front lines during the current lull in the conflict, and is serving as a public relations officer, uploading videos on YouTube, visiting schools in Donetsk, and writing articles for separatist-friendly Russian news outlets.[5] While his following is not particularly large, some of his videos have more than 1000 views. He is playing an essential role in normalizing the separatists official line that the conflict is a struggle against a ‘fascist junta’ installed by EuroMaidan protests, and Russia, the separatists, and foreign volunteers are justified in their actions, as they are ‘preventing a Third World War.’[6]
Should they decide to return to their home countries as the conflict continues to settle into a frozen state, these foreign fighters’ legal status is a conundrum. With no country, not even Russia, willing to acknowledge the breakaway regions as independent states, foreign fighters are not technically serving in foreign armed forces, which for the U.S. volunteers means that they have not relinquished their nationality. While it is doubtful these Americans can return home, they cannot be prosecuted unless they return to the U.S. or are extradited. However, their foreign compatriots can and already have faced legal consequences. A number of Spanish volunteers who served in the separatist forces attempted to return to Spain, and are now facing terrorism charges.[7] Most volunteers acknowledge that they will not be able to return to their homes without facing prosecution for terrorism, and many have expressed a desire to settle on the separatist region.
Several Eastern European states should be concerned with the possibility of fighters returning home and exerting influence, particularly Bulgaria and Hungary. Both have seen a number of their citizens join the separatist cause, with the Hungarian far-right Jobbik Party openly supporting the separatists.[8] Jobbik has been at the forefront of Hungarian politics recently, having won 20% of the 2014 Hungarian parliamentary elections, making them the third largest party. Their harsh anti-migrant stance certainly influenced the Hungarian government’s attempt to close their borders to prevent refugees from entering the country. Bulgaria also suffers from the same prospect of increased Russian influence through domestic radicals. While the far right has much less influence in national politics, the possibility of militants making headway in national politics is frightening.
Hungary draws most of its cultural sympathy towards Russia from the fact that they are both predominantly Orthodox nations. With its former East Bloc ties, along with a shared religion, Bulgaria could easily find itself slipping further into the Russian sphere of influence, or even finding Russian troops on its doorstep. It is not inconceivable that Russia would decided to step up its role as intervener in Eastern Europe, and fulfill its commitment to defend its co-religionists and those who share ‘Slavic values,’ using the rhetoric often used to justify Imperial Russia’s forays into European portions of the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century. Some volunteers will certainly engage in national politics, or find other ways to continue to exert political influence. To offer a historical parallel, Josip Tito, president of Yugoslavia from 1953 to 1980 and longtime Kremlin favorite, began his forays into international politics while organizing leftist volunteer fighters from the Balkans to aid the republican government the Spanish Civil War, a conflict to which many on the separatist side rarely fail to draw parallels.
Having a number of radicals return home with military experience and connections to the notoriously right-wing sympathetic Russian intelligence services is a dangerous prospect for any nation, and will have to be a concern as the fighting in Eastern Ukraine draws down. Even if they are unable to return home, foreigners fighting for separatists may still exert influence through media, such as news outlets sympathetic to, or controlled by the Kremlin, social media, and online video sharing. Subsequent prosecution for their actions during the conflict present challenges as international legal norms vary from state to state. In short, foreigner volunteers will remain a dangerous force, even as the conflict they participate in draws to an unsatisfying conclusion.
[1]http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/24/ukraine-conflict-donbass-russia-rebels-foreigners-fighting
[2] Ibid
[3] http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-european-far-right-parties-converge-in-st-petersburg/517839.html
[4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cA9cGUGr00
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXyvbeKAbNo
[6] http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/24/ukraine-conflict-donbass-russia-rebels-foreigners-fighting
[7] País, Ediciones El. “Eight Spaniards Arrested after Returning from Combat in Ukraine.” EL PAÍS, February 27, 2015. http://elpais.com/elpais/2015/02/27/inenglish/1425033238_750840.html.
[8] http://urfo.org/policy/500494.html
END OF SIDEBAR
The evidence regarding the identity and nature of the aggressors in Donbass is massive and incontrovertible — many tens of thousands of witnesses and pieces of documentary evidence. In light of that evidence, the failure to clearly identify and distinguish the victimizers and the victimized is an exercise of denial and rationalization — effectively excusing the victimizers and avoiding the true explanation. This then allows the projection of the terrorist threat from its true source — the fascist and neo-Nazi-riddled Kiev junta and its supporters and handlers in the U.S. and Europe — onto the victims and defenders of Donbass. This complete Orwellian inversion of victimizer and victim, terrorists and terrorized, aggressors and defenders is a standard tool in the toolbox of the imperialists and fascists — those attempting to defend the victims and even the victims themselves are identified as the terrorists in the propaganda of the imperialists and fascists. Barth is clearly projecting when he identifies the defenders of Donbass as a terrorist threat and ignores the real terrorists — the Kiev junta even calls their assault on Donbass the “ATO” (“Anti-terrorist Operation). Donbass has not moved heavy weapons to Kiev. It is the Kiev junta that has surrounded Donbass, the separatist southeast and ethnically Russian region of Ukraine, and relentlessly targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure with heavy weapons, killing and horrifically injuring thousands and creating hundreds of thousands of refugees (5).
“This complete Orwellian inversion of victimizer and victim, terrorists and terrorized, aggressors and defenders is a standard tool in the toolbox of the imperialists and fascists — those attempting to defend the victims and even the victims themselves are identified as the terrorists in the propaganda of the imperialists and fascists.”
The Atlanticist West has a long history of apologetics and support for fascism, and this essay by Barth fits in this genre (in the subcategory of ignoring who the fascists are and identifying those actually resisting and fighting against fascism as terrorists — employing projection). Prior to the University of St. Andrews (Class of 2019), Barth was a student at the Hotchkiss School (Class of 2015), a private college preparatory boarding school in Lakeville, Connecticut in the New York metropolitan area, with tuition of about $50,000 per year (6). Barth is apparently from Alexandria, Virginia, and is likely a U.S. citizen, but it doesn’t matter where Barth holds citizenship. After graduating in 2015 from this exclusive private college preparatory boarding school in the Northeast U.S., he wrote his essay as a freshman student in a prestigious university in Perfidious Albion, the oldest university in Scotland (7). It is not difficult to identify strong support (currently and historically) for fascism and Naziism in both the U.S. and Perfidious Albion. Many Americans and Brits [including Churchill who urged this position as official policy] supported the Nazi scourge as long as it was pointed east, and only belatedly fought against it when it veered west (8,9). Regarding international volunteers fighting on the side of the Republicans against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War, it is understandable that apologists for and supporters of fascism would be hostile, but for anti-fascists, their actions were highly moral, noble and courageous (10,11).
I note Barth’s dishonesty in his citation of the El Pais article. Barth says, “A number of Spanish volunteers who served in the separatist forces attempted to return to Spain, and are now facing terrorism charges.[7]” (emphasis added). In fact, the El Pais article DOES NOT say that these Spanish volunteers are “…facing terrorism charges” — it says, “The eight detainees are suspected to have participated in armed conflict in the Donbass region, and will be facing charges of compromising the peace and interests of Spain, homicide, and possession of arms and explosives.” The issue of whether it is illegal for American volunteers to fight in Donbass is complex and an issue that Barth, as an undergraduate (class of 2019) is undoubtedly not qualified to analyze definitively (12,13).
However, perhaps the biggest contradiction in Barth’s essay is to fixate on the MYTHICAL terrorist threat of a few brave souls with a strong sense of empathy for the victims of fascism in Donbass, who are volunteering there to fight the fascists — instead of addressing the REAL terrorist threat of ISIS, which has resulted in a flood of refugees fleeing ISIS Takfiri terror in Syria and a long string of terrorist bombings, both significantly antedating Barth’s essay — the ISIS bombings in Beirut and Paris and the Russian Metrojet bombing being only the most recent examples in a long history. This is particularly ironic given that Perfidious Albion, France and the U.S. in particular bear great responsibility for the genesis and support of Takfiri terrorists in the Middle East.
ISIS mass execution of Syrian soldiers at Palmyra. Real, cold-blooded terrorism as propaganda spectacle.
FOR THE RECORD: ISIS terrorist (of the real kind) beheading a prisoner. These are the kind of murderous lunatics and mercenaries that Washington and its accomplices in Europe and the kleptocrats in the Gulf support while pretending to fight them. Useful idiots serving the empire as proxy armies, unfortunately, in a broken down world, they abound.
Furthermore, it is particularly ironic (and distasteful) that Barth should produce this defamatory hit piece about courageous antifascist volunteer fighters in Novorossiya (Donbass), risking their lives to protect ethnic Russian civilians from savage attacks by fascists and neo-Nazis. It is dangerous and unpaid, but highly moral and noble work. Russell Bonner Bentley is singled out by Barth. Bentley is in his 50s and has sacrificed a great deal in order to volunteer as an anti-fascist fighter in Donbass. Why do I say, “particularly ironic”? Because it turns out (as earlier images illustrate) that Barth likes to dress up and play French Resistance fighter — and let’s see… Oh yes, now I remember — the French Resistance were fighting against fascists and Nazis. So it turns out that Bentley is a real anti-fascist fighter, Barth plays anti-fascist fighter, and Barth defames the real anti-fascist fighter. And the real fight is dangerous indeed. “Owl” was only a couple years older than Barth when he was killed in action recently, but obviously the moral antithesis of Mr. Barth (https://www.greanvillepost.com/2015/11/28/texacs-chronicles-donbass-front-no-9/).
Fedorov Ruslan Petrovich, “Eagle Owl”. Donbass fighter and exemplary patriot. What kind of deformed moral compass can call such men and the foreign volunteers fighting alongside them “terrorists”?
Prior to playing French Resistance fighter against the “Bosch” [Germans; (14)] at the “Tank Farm” (15) in 2013, Barth was playing war games in 2011 at the “Tank Farm” as documented at “Red Alliance, Eastern-Bloc Airsoft, Militeria and Reenactment” (16).
But who is M. Jon Morgan Barth anyway? Perhaps Sir Walter Scott’s line from his epic poem Marmion applies: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave / When first we practise to deceive!” How can his essay for the St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Society be reconciled with his posts in the Facebook groups “North American Support for Donetsk and Luhansk” and “Communist Discussion” (in 2014) which indicate sympathy for Donbass, even suggesting “…help(ing) to channel material aid to Donetsk…”? (See images below).
Was Barth just acting as a mole in these groups? Did he write this essay in 2015 to please new professors, trying to match the ideological bent of a professor or department and not really believing what he wrote? Or did he have a profound ideological epiphany shortly after beginning studies at St Andrews, and this essay accurately represents his ideology? Or was the epiphany not ideological but practical and realistic — a surrender to the reality of which side the bread is buttered on in academic institutions such as St Andrews, suppressing his previous idealism and ideological path as self destructive and impractical in terms of academic and career advancement, an inner split that might manifest itself in various ways depending on the level of suppression?
(I suspect this is the psychological mechanism behind the “balance” that many in academia and the mainstream media advocate and manifest in their analyses and reporting, a function of the cognitive dissonance that results from these inner and external forces. Perhaps we will see additional exercises of “balance” in future essays from Barth… But, to borrow from “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”, we don’t need no stinkin’ balance. Bias is desirable and necessary if it is supported by good evidence. We need to go wherever good evidence leads. We need evidence, not “a curse on both your houses” balance in the service of career advancement.)
CLICK IMAGES FOR BEST RESOLUTION
ABOVE: Wherein M. Barth appears keen on helping the Donbass resistance! Allons-y, brave maquisard! (Click for best resolution)
No matter what the explanation, Mr. Barth owes the international volunteers resisting fascist aggression in Donbass, as well as the victims of that fascist aggression, an unequivocal apology. His essay defames and disrespects both the anti-fascist fighters and the victims of the fascist aggression by the Kiev junta, supported/directed by the U.S. and E.U.
Considering his obvious gifts, what happened to Barth? A year or two before beginning studies at St Andrews, here is what he thought about Cuba:
According to Moon, Cuba is safe and comfortable, with a low crime rate. Jon Morgan Barth ’15, who also traveled with Moon to Russia in 2012, said the Cuba experience was “incredibly powerful.” The two saw Lenin’s tomb together, then two years later, the Plaza de la Revolución in Havana.
Happy traveller in Cuba. Screengrab from posted video of the school trip to the island. Barth is second from right. Hotchkiss has a reputation for intellectual integrity.
“It was a joy to see a place I had read so much about,” says Jon Morgan. “What astounded me most was the fact that the whole country seemed to be on track. Too often we, as Americans, think of Cuba as a Caribbean backwater, ruled by an outdated and flawed system. The Cuba I saw was instead one where the people honestly embraced a system that has benefitted them as individuals, and as a nation. There was genuine affection for the Castro brothers and the other heroes of their Revolution who helped turn an exploited pawn in the international game into a prosperous nation with a thriving culture, a system that provides for those who work, and freedom from exploitation.”
The acquisition of imperialist/fascist ideology in Western academic institutions is analogous to the process of malignant transformation, progressing through dysplasic, in situ and invasive phases, and then finally to a lethal metastatic stage (graduation?). Or perhaps there is some virulent moral/intellectual hemorrhagic fever virus infecting academic institutions in the West, a kind of moral/intellectual Ebola. Whatever it is, neoplastic or infectious, I think the student essays cited above are a relatively early stage in the disease process, although it is certain that these students come to university primed (burdened) with the indoctrination of the Media element of the Military-Industrial-Media-Academia complex.
“Bringing Up Baby” is a comic masterpiece (17), but the indoctrination and acculturation of students in Western educational institutions to the dominant culture of imperialism (with its conjoined twin of fascism, driven by end-stage capitalism) is no laughing matter. The features of the case described are consistent with an early step in the evolution of that acculturation in a prestigious university.
POSTSCRIPT
The disconnect between Jon Morgan Barth’s essay in Foreign Affairs Review and his previous expressions of sympathy for Donbass is further evidenced by the following messenger conversation in June 2015 between Mr. Barth and Russell Bentley. The real nature of Barth’s ideology regarding Western imperialism/fascism and the reasons and motivations for the obvious disconnect between his essay and his previous various expressions of sympathy and support for Donbass are uncertain at this point in time. Perhaps Mr. Barth did travel to Donbass as “…an independent photojournalist… trying to capture the stories of the international volunteers and citizens of Donetsk… (to) tell the REAL story of what is happening to the people of Donbas…” If he did travel to Donbass, he did not meet with Russell Bentley (and thus he wrote his essay without interviewing Russell Bentley either electronically or in person). If he did travel to Donbass, The Greanville Post invites him to submit a report of his trip for consideration for publication at The Greanville Post.
Dateline: Jun 9th, 9:28am (2015); situ: Facebook
(https://www.facebook.com/jon.m.barth )
Hello Mr. Bentley, Sorry for taking down your post! While the sentiment is appreciated, keeping my support for the donbas on the down low is pretty important. I’m sure you know ho well the government treated the Americans who came back from Spanish Civil War, and in these day and age, they can get paint you as anti-American for being anti-fascist. I’m an independent photojournalist who will be in Donbas later this summer, trying to capture the stories of the international volunteers and citizens of Donetsk. While I am still working out logistics, I would love to get to meet you. I’ll be in Donetsk as a guest of the Interbrigada group, who are a branch of the Other Russia party. Good communists, and anti-fascists! My major concern at this point is getting to Donetsk. I’ll be coming from Ukraine, and crossing into Donetsk, rather than flying to Russia and going from there. While the Ukrops instinctively love Americans, I’m worried about getting through checkpoints manned by NAF troops. Do you know anyone I could contact to help with that? Stay safe, and best of luck, Jonathan
(Russell Bentley)
No. If you want to cone to Donetsk, you would be foolish not to come via Rostov. To come here and have not made arrangements with Ukrop gov to be a spy, THEY will give you trouble. If you are planning to come here as an American, that’s already one strike against you. Your named after a Confederate general who was also a Freemason. I know history, and mos Russians and Novorussians know history better than me. Or you. If you come through the Ukrop lines, you will find it very hard to earn their trust. Or mine. Which interbrigada group? There are several. I will tell you now, not all the guys fighting the Kiev fascists are good guys, It is Big Boy Rules here, and you have to be creful who you trust.
Jun 9th, 2:37pm (2015)
(https://www.facebook.com/jon.m.barth)
I’ll be registering as a journalist with the Kiev authorities, and have spoken with other American journalists who have done the same. They were all solid guys who were sympathetic to Novorossiya, but still got through. My contact in Interbrigada is guy named Valeriy Kolotsei, who painted himself as a moderate member of the Other Russia group, which was an evolution of the National Bolsheviks following Alexander Dugin leaving and the party losing its radical right branch. The issue with going through Rostov is that I’d need a visa to get to Russia in the first place, then papers allowing travel. The visa process is really daunting, from my understanding, and not cheap.
(Russell Bentley)
You will not be trusted by anyone here, including me, if you come through Kiev. PERIOD. You are obviously from a rich family, so the cost is a bullshit excuse. Visa takes about a month, and 3 or 4 hundred bucks. Americans who come from Kiev side are not liked or trusted by anyone here, including me. Like I tell volunteers, getting here is the easy part. It is serious business here. If you are on the up and up, come through Rostov. If you are thinking about being a junior James Bond, DO NOT COME. We do not play games here. I hope you understand and make the right choice. удачи.
Jul 14th, 12:06am (2015)
(https://www.facebook.com/jon.m.barth)
Hello again. After a lot of soul searching, I have decided to come to Donetsk, to serve as a photographer and journalist, and most importantly, tell the REAL story of what is happening to the people of Donbas. I have plane tickets to Rostov and will be getting my visa back in two days. My flights in Rostov on the 22nd of July and fly out on the 5th of August.
APPENDIX
What is this tribe we call “tuft-hunters”?
“toffee-nosed”
“If it’s a lady and gentleman, then we cries, ‘A toff and a doll!’
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t is widely agreed amongst etymologists that ‘toff’ was a corruption of ‘tuft’, which has a clear aristocratic pedigree, being the ornamental tassel on an academic cap. Specifically, a tuft was the gold tassel originally worn on academic caps at Oxford University by the sons of those peers who had a vote in the House of Lords. They were worn on the celebratory ‘Gaudy Days’, that is, the university’s twice-yearly feast days (which sound a good deal more fun than ‘Dress-down Fridays’). The wearers of the prestigious tufts became known as tufts themselves, even having their own sycophantic crowd of wannabees, known as the ‘tufthunters’.”
[“The meaning and origin of the expression: Toffee-nosed: See the full explanation here.]
Additional example of a toffee-nosed imperialist-in-training elsewhere in Perfidious Albion: Durham University (https://www.dur.ac.uk/about/)
And here, Harpal Brar (Indian-born communist politician, writer and businessman based in Britain, who is the Chairman of the Communist Party of Great Britain) deconstructs the anti-communist / anti-Soviet propaganda, including intentional famine
BELOW: This lecture by frequent correspondent Caleb Maupin also does an excellent job of combatting long-implanted lies about communism as a viable alternative to a bankrupt capitalism.
REFERENCES:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
OpEds
Thomas Baldwin
PROGRESSIVE ACTIVISTS VOICE
From the cover of an Ebook, “Is It Fascism Yet” by Jill Dalton.
BACKGROUND
Much has been written about the chronic corrupt, corporate infested two party political duopoly. Each election cycle, Americans begin again wringing their hands when the campaign season begins as the corporate media bombards us with talk shows arguing which political party is least corrupt and present us with candidates who represent the “lesser evil”. Of course, the talking points are designed and prepared by high-priced marketing consultants who paint a picture of a flawless candidate running against corrupt others whose lies have been well polished. The truth is seldom revealed and replaced with an even bigger lie. The electoral system has no integrity and yet Americans are asked to select leaders whom they “trust” to best represent them.
This dilemma of what to do seems to get larger and larger each election cycle and now with much greater access to information through the internet, including social media, nearly everyone can choose to participate in sharing their thoughts and those of others. Information overload is becoming an increasing problem and may force some to just drop out. In 2014, an off presidential election year, there was a near record of non voters, with about 65%, or nearly 2/3 of eligible voters, not participating.
The Democratic Party suffered large losses in members of Congress, losing control of both the House and Senate. Approval ratings of Congress had reached all time lows of about 7% and now typically ranges between this low and “highs” of about 14%. In other words, well over 80% of Americans are consistently quite unhappy with the performance of Congress no matter which political party is in control and yet elections fail to significantly change because nearly 90% of incumbents are returned to Congress! And those are the ones who spend the most money being re-elected.
The wealthy elite who make up the “ruling class”—yes, America, there IS a ruling class— realize that and don’t hesitate to spend larger and larger sums of money to elect (or bribe) THEIR PERSONAL representatives.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he principal problem has been recognized, written and spoken about often in the “alternative” media. And that problem is the total corporate control through the wealthy elites of all aspects of our political system. The Supreme Court with its Citizens United decision in 2010 made it worse by refusing to set limits on campaign contributions, declaring corporations as “persons” and money as “free speech”. In effect, they opened the door wide open for Corporate Fascism—the complete merger of corporations with the state, thus giving these corporate owners a license to bribe public elected officials with unlimited amounts of cash, which they naturally have in abundance, thanks to the grotesque amounts they siphon off our income via a multitude of policies and devious maneuvers.
Several of us have written about this severe problem for a supposedly democratic republic, the presumed government of the U.S. But this illusion of a “democracy” is nothing but a giant farce, a big lie, and our corrupt electoral system continues to propagate this lie by its very existence in its current form.
In 2014, two professors, Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page demonstrated through a thorough research project that ordinary Americans—the overwhelming majority, including the middle class— had essentially zero influence on nearly all legislation being considered by Congress.
Eric Zuesse in Common Dreams summarized that reseach with an article entitled “The U.S. is an Oligarchy, Not a Democracy, Says Scientific Study”:
“A study, which will appear in the Fall 2014 issue of the academic journal Perspectives on Politics, finds that the U.S. is no democracy, but instead an oligarchy, meaning profoundly corrupt, so that the answer to the study’s opening question, “Who governs? Who really rules?” in this country, is:
“Despite the seemingly strong empirical support in previous studies for theories of majoritarian democracy, our analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts. Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association, and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But, …” and then they go on to say, it’s not true, and that, “America’s claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened” by the findings in this, the first-ever comprehensive scientific study of the subject, which shows that there is instead “the nearly total failure of ‘median voter’ and other Majoritarian Electoral Democracy theories [of America]. When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”
To put it short: The United States is no democracy, but actually an oligarchy.
The authors of this historically important study are Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, and their article is titled “Testing Theories of American Politics.” The authors clarify that the data available are probably under-representing the actual extent of control of the U.S. by the super-rich:
Economic Elite Domination theories do rather well in our analysis, even though our findings probably understate the political influence of elites. Our measure of the preferences of wealthy or elite Americans – though useful, and the best we could generate for a large set of policy cases – is probably less consistent with the relevant preferences than are our measures of the views of ordinary citizens or the alignments of engaged interest groups. Yet we found substantial estimated effects even when using this imperfect measure. The real-world impact of elites upon public policy may be still greater.”
(On this topic, we also suggest this: Inequality in America: The Fish That Rots from the Head)
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n his most recent book and accompanying speeches entitled “Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt (2015)” Chris Hedges has stated clearly that we must overthrow the corporate state as an imperative. In several articles, I have been advocating for at least three years that we must “destroy the two party corporate fascist duopoly”. The electoral system, elected bodies, political parties, legislation, the judicial system and all aspects of our political and judicial systems are all owned and controlled by large corporations and their wealthy owners. Outside of the political system (and even some few places inside) there is a strong consensus that this conclusion of corporate ownership and control is accurate. Ralph Nader and Abby Martin have recently summarized that in an excellent video segment.
The corporate state, the two-party duopoly system, corporate media, etc. are all one and the same “body”; in effect they constitute a “Corporatist Political Party” monopoly. It doesn’t matter who wins an election because it’s only an illusion that you are making a choice. Policies don’t significantly change. Individual citizens are not even recognized as part of that system and thus have no influence. It is far past time that “We the People” recognize that and come out of our delusional state of denial! In fact, if we are logical, voting amounts to an act of complicity that you are participating in the prevailing corruption which permeates all major institutions in America. As George Carlin explains (with rather blunt language) in this brief clip on “The American Dream”, the politicians and the corporations have their own “club” and you ain’t in it!
METHODS TO ADDRESS THE CORRUPTION
[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n social media and via many articles and blogs, there is an active discussion occurring about how to address this documented worsening corruption of the political system. Methods include support for “third parties”, boycotting elections, formal methods to overturn or overule the Supreme Court Citizens United decision, and even dropping out and ignoring the criminal abuse. However one thing is very clear to me: For things to have a chance to improve—at all—there must be an intervention, disruption, or destruction of the two party corporatist Duopoly.
If we had a system of justice, which we don’t, the Duopoly would be dismantled. But those who have the power to limit monopolies or duopolies through antitrust measures (rarely exercised!), are the same political forces in Congress and the Executive Branch who want to perpetuate it. It’s naive to expect the same forces which are the problem to do something about it!. Thus it’s safe to expect that their absolute addiction to enrich themselves from corrupt practices will continue, and, if unopposed, grow ever more malignant.
In the Democratic Party establishment, it does not matter that their principal candidate, Hillary Clinton, has been amply shown to violate federal law in her handling of confidential or even secret emails (a minor issue in any case considering the magnitude of the real crimes we witness every day) until the FBI investigation leads to an indictment. Some have naturally expressed doubt about the Obama administration ever enforcing penalties issuing from such findings.
Along the same lines, it does not seem to matter to the establishment that Bill and Hillary Clinton have used their power to control the electoral process, including having their stooge, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, as the Democratic Party Chairperson, to manage even the debates to favor Hillary. It doesn’t matter that Clinton has blatantly pandered to Wall Street for support and huge donations, even though those entities are clearly responsible for the 2008 financial crash which ruined the lives of millions of Americans and have a noxious influence on all manner of national policy, including the country’s foreign posture. None have been prosecuted by the Obama Justice department.
Along the same lines, it doesn’t seem to matter that the Clintons have used their (non profit) foundation to build a multi-million dollar campaign chest and acquire huge personal wealth. It doesn’t yet matter enough that the head of that party and president, Barack Obama, is strongly championing his trade agreements like TPP, TPIP, and TISA, which allow corporations to use their own private courts to challenge U.S. and other laws which impede their profits, offshore jobs, destroy civil liberties, and labor and environmental laws which protect workers and the public. Passage of these agreements will cement the complete corporate coup which has been enabled and supported by both political parties.
Meantime, as mentioned earlier, every criminal foreign intervention, war and deprivation of constitutional rights, is “justified” in the name of “National Defense”, whether Constitutional or not. Things are actually worse than they were under George Bush, but the Democratic Party ignores Obama’s actions because they have a “D” under their name.
However, in the Republican Party, the establishment faces a challenge by a very wealthy outsider, Donald Trump, who is financing his own campaign for election. In effect, whether one agrees or disagrees with his statements and the divisiveness they create, he is acting as a one man “disruptionist” to the established Republican order by drawing many disgruntled and unhappy people to his tent. There is still a question, of course, as to whether this trend will continue as Ted Cruz is currently one of Trump’s main challengers and he is uniformly disliked by the party establishment as well.
The situation sketched out above is a clear portent of worse things to come.
Everything occurring within the political system signifies another strong shift to the “right” and more support for Neoliberal and Neoconservative policies and practices—more wars, more corporate and wealthy elite control, more obscene capitalist rule, and away from support for social systems for the 99%, not to mention the environment and global peace. In effect, as the American “democratic” republic declines, the republic is lurching full speed ahead toward death and destruction on an unprecedented scale.
[dropcap]S[/dropcap]o what are “we the people” to do? Continuing to do the same things year after year is not an option unless one is content to admit helplessness and insanity as an option. Things are only going to get worse if this closed system is allowed to prevail; that is nearly guaranteed! Even the basic laws of the universe tell us that: The Law of Entropy says that in a closed system, the “energy” to do useful work is continually diminished until the system eventually dies. Many of us had been led to believe in Obama’s promise of “Hope and Change.” Guess what: It didn’t happen! If eight years of one disaster and broken promise after another, of empty posturing, do not convince you, nothing will.
Thus we need to focus on the overthrow of the corporate state and the associated destruction of the political duopoly. Until we build a strong political movement which emanates from a strong unified “movement” it will not happen —and it certainly won’t happen according to the rules of the existing political electoral system.
Even then, the movement —to have a chance of success—must have clearly defined values and goals shared by a sizable portion of the electorate. Movemeents which are showing signs of building strength include the climate movement (anti fossil fuels and toxic gases of any kind); various justice movements, the antiwar/anti imperialism movement, income/wealth inequity movement, etc. These are groups emphasizing common values and principles which stand for peace, justice, human rights and sustainability. They are also groups which already recognize that our capitalistic economic system—the much vaunted “free enterprise system”— is failing the vast majority of the population, regardless of religion, creed, nationality or ethnicity. Simply put, the problem confronting all Americans who are not in the 0.00001% of the population is class privilege, yes, it’s a class question. These movements —as a whole— constitute a paradigm shift away from our tolerance of greed, excessive consumerism, and lack of concern for the welfare of people.
For the immediate future we have to actively protest and boycott the current electoral system and the 2016 elections, refusing to donate money to these parties while recognizing that a “third party” is extremely unlikely to represent anything but a protest action.
The corporations and the wealthy elite control the money on the front end and the money to bribe elected officials. Actions against individual policies and measures must be demonstrated with protests in the streets and civil disobedience starting right now with opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement (TPP) which is likely to be imminent thanks to Obama’s unrelenting efforts and political shenanigans.
We must also actively protest our utterly criminal foreign policy of advocating for “regime change”, especially in the Middle East, and in other nations in turmoil such as in Latin America, in the name of “national security”, not to mention our lies about “humanitarian relief” for “victims” of government which refuse to follow our every wish and command.
Show your support for those who continually educate and advocate these changes, such as Chris Hedges, Ralph Nader, Tim Anderson, Jeff Brown, Caleb Maupin, Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers (Popular Resistance), Naomi Klein, Eric Draitser, Eric Zuesse, Andre Vltchek, Russell Bentley, and the editors and writers of publications such as this. These are some of the real leaders and not just political hacks with their slogans. Join their groups and write your own articles and blogs; create the image that a real “progressive” movement which stands for values and principles is both afoot and growing! Urge cooperation and sacrifice! This will be the real war of our lifetimes!
ABOUT THE EDITOR AND AUTHOR: THOMAS BALDWIN
Thomas Baldwin holds a Ph.D in Physics and an MBA in Management. He was a Solid State researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory specializing in neutron radiation damage of metals. In 1969 he received the national Sidhu Award for being “an outstanding young scientist for contributions in the field of diffraction.” He went on to Southern Illinois University to become a professor and Chair of the Department of Physics. In 1980 he moved to Boulder, Co., and became an independent consultant in energy related issues at the Colorado Research Institute. He is now formally retired and focusing on writing blogs on the political sector at his blog site:
www.proactvoice.wordpress.com He resides in Biloxi, Mississippi. His chief focus remains problems with democracy, capitalism and socio-economic issues. He can be reached at doctom2010@yahoo.com
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//
= War Diary by Russell “Texac” Bentley =
Christmas was celebrated by Orthodox Christians last week, on January 7, 2016 in the Gregorian calendar — December 25, 2015 in the Julian calendar.
Last year, in December 2013/January 2014, Texac was fighting the Kiev fascists in Yasynuvata (outskirts of Donetsk) and Troishka (Donetsk Airport), and it was hot, despite the cold weather.
In the Christmas/New Year season this year (December 2014/January 2015), although the fascists are still killing Novorossiyan civilians in the outskirts of Donetsk, the intensity of the attacks has (perhaps only temporarily) decreased, allowing for more normal Christmas celebrations, at least in central Donetsk, as readers can see in the three videos below. (The Kiev fascists are still massed on the front in the outskirts of Donetsk, and they could resume a full-scale attack at any time.)
RUSSEL BONNER BENTLEY, Senior Contributing Editor, Novorossiya Correspondent, Donbass Chronicles Most of our editors and contributors are gifted in many areas, but few merit the label of “polymath” as richly as our Novorossiya correspondent, Russell Bentley, “Texac”. He has been called poet, musician, soldier, political activist, outlaw, smuggler, convict, fugitive, philosopher, lover, teacher and friend—and, indeed, he is all those things, but his course is always guided by an unswerving commitment to the construction of a better world in which peace, genuine freedom, and social justice reign supreme. A native of Texas, Russell joined—at the tender age of 54— the Novorossiyan Armed Forces (NAF) to fight what he sees as the attack on the Donbass people by an illegitimate fascist entity: the Kiev regime installed and supported by the US after a thinly-veiled coup. His example evokes the deeds of the Lincoln Battalion, the American volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War. As his writing gifts abundantly prove, he also channels John Reed and Hemingway in a rare, seamless, package.
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Our correspondent Russell Bentley has been filing his dispatches from Donetsk for over a year now. In the process, and chiefly due to the fact he often does his writing literally from the frontlines of the war in Eastern Ukraine, as a regular soldier in the Novorossyian Armed Forces (NAF), the priorities in the publication of his materials have sometimes shifted. This is a report filed by him about one year ago, and subsequently modified. Passages may have been published before. But what he has to say—as always— remains relevant, fresh, and inspiring. —PG
Inside my sleeping bag, I was fully clothed in the Russian Army winter fatigues I had bought, along with the sleeping bag, in Rostov before crossing the border into Novorussia. Disrobing for sleep the night before had consisted of removing my boots, steel Class IV armored vest and kevlar helmet and hanging my AK-74 on a hook with my webgear. Across the room from me, in the frozen pitch black darkness, snored the two Italian volunteers, Spartak and Archangel. Below me, Lataishik, the sniper, and in the bunk next to his, Bielka, the PKM machine-gunner. Above them, the only guy on a top bunk, lay Texas, the New Kid on the Block, who wasn’t from anywhere around there. That would be me, your humble narrator…
ABOVE: The Monastery in 2008. "This church is a part of the monastery and is almost out of the town. Right next to the airport. Normally people came here because of their relatives’ death. There is a cemetery at the church. Now there is no church, no monastery, no cemetery. On May 26th the shelling began. On the 27th there was Easter and many thought we would not survive. But we survived. More people started to come to the church when the war broke out – perhaps because people realized, that we could easily lose our church soon. Sisters lived in the monastery under the shelling for two months. When the danger got extremely high, we took sisters to Larinka. Then several sad pieces of news reached us – on the Internet, we found a video, showing how the monastery was shelled. Later on a fire broke out in the church. After the fire almost all the icons were evacuated. The monastery is destroyed, and the military people are there now, but we believe, everything will be alright. All who are guilty will be punished by God."
The Kalashnikov series of rifles are among the best combat weapons ever produced, and their superior quality has always been their reliability. I thought that either a Ukrop bullet had hit my rifle, or a bad bullet had exploded in the chamber. I went downstairs, not relishing the idea of sitting out the rest of the raging firefight with an inoperable weapon. I showed my rifle to Mongoose, the commander. He also tried to get it to function, to no avail. So he gave me an RPK that was in the arms room, and I continued the fight with that. The battle continued for several hours, until the Ukrops finally withdrew back to the control tower complex. We gathered in the arms room to reload and to smoke cigarettes. It was about midnight, and it had been a long night. I left my AK in the arms room, and took the RPK with me to my bunk. I removed my webgear, helmet, boots and vest, and crawled up onto my bunk. The room was still of course freezing cold, no fire in the stove, only a candle for illumination. I slid into my bag, said a prayer of thanks, and went to sleep, with only my nose sticking out. Tomorrow would be another busy day.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hey had a basement there that was to be used as a bomb shelter, but was filled with junk, old food and other miscellaneous debris. Our job was to clean the basement. Although it was a punishment mission, the weather was clear and not too bitterly cold, and we were several hundred meters back from Troishka, in relative safety. It was almost a holiday. We spent a few hours working hard to clear out the basement, then lounged around in the sunlight and clean, crisp, smoke-free air. While we were there, Somali Brigade brought up several tanks and began a sustained fire attack on the control tower. Just after lunch, it was cut down. The ukrops still held the buildings in the control tower complex, but had been deprived of an important observation post, at the probable cost of several of their lives. Another major victory for us. We were kickin’ ass and taking names…
