by Paul Craig Roberts
The Saker reports that Russia is preparing for World War III, not because Russia intends to initiate aggression but because Russia is alarmed by the hubris and arrogance of the West, by the demonization of Russia, by provocative military actions by the West, by American interference in the Russian province of Chechnya and in former Russian provinces of Ukraine and Georgia, and by the absence of any restraint from Western Europe on Washington’s ability to foment war. http://sakerlatam.blog/the-saker-files/how-russia-is-preparing-for-wwiii/
Like Steven Starr, Stephen Cohen, myself, and a small number of others, the Saker understands the reckless irresponsibility of convincing Russia that the United States intends to attack her.
It is extraordinary to see the confidence that many Americans place in their military’s ability. After 15 years the US has been unable to defeat a few lightly armed Taliban, and after 13 years the situation in Iraq remains out of control. This is not very reassuring for the prospect of taking on Russia, much less the strategic alliance between Russia and China. The US could not even defeat China, a Third World country at the time, in Korea 60 years ago.
Americans need to pay attention to the fact that “their” government is a collection of crazed stupid fools likely to bring vaporization to the United States and all of Europe.
Russian weapons systems are far superior to American ones. American weapons are produced by private companies for the purpose of making vast profits. The capability of the weapons is not the main concern. There are endless cost overruns that raise the price of US weapons into outer space. The F-35 fighter, which is less capable than the F-15 it is supposed to replace, costs between $148 million and $337 million per fighter, depending on whether it is an Air Force, Marine Corps, or Navy model. http://www.cnbc.com/2014/07/31/how-dods-15-trillion-f-35-broke-the-air-force.html
A helmet for a F-35 pilot costs $400,000, more than a high end Ferrari. http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/2015/10/26/f-35-helmet-costs-400000-4-times-predecessor/73826180/
(Washington forces or bribes hapless Denmark into purchasing useless and costly F-35: http://sputniknews.com/news/20160528/1040395012/denmark-f-35-military-nato-lockheed.html)
It is entirely possible that the world is being led to destruction by nothing more than the greed of the US military-security complex. Delighted that the reckless and stupid Obama regime has resurrected the Cold War, thus providing a more convincing “enemy” than the hoax terrorist one, the “Russian threat” has been restored to its 20th century role of providing a justification for bleeding the American taxpayer, social services, and the US economy dry in behalf of profits for armament manufacturers.
However, this time Washington’s rhetoric accompanying the revived Cold War is far more reckless and dangerous, as are Washington’s actions, than during the real Cold War. Previous US presidents worked to defuse tensions. The Obama regime has inflated tensions with lies and reckless provocations, which makes it far more likely that the new Cold War will turn hot. If Killary gains the White House, the world is unlikely to survive her first term.
All of America’s wars except the first—the war for independence—were wars for Empire. Keep that fact in mind as you hear the Memorial Day bloviations about the brave men and women who served our country in its times of peril. The United States has never been in peril, but Washington has delivered peril to numerous other countries in its pursuit of hegemony over others.
Today for the first time in its history the US faces peril as a result of Washington’s attempts to assert hegemony over Russia and China.
Russia and China are not impressed by Washington’s arrogance, hubris, and stupidity. Moreover, these two countries are not the native American Plains Indians, who were starved into submission by the Union Army’s slaughter of the buffalo.
They are not the tired Spain of 1898 from whom Washington stole Cuba and the Philippines and called the theft a “liberation.”
They are not small Japan whose limited resources were spread over the vastness of the Pacific and Asia.
They are not Germany already defeated by the Red Army before Washington came to the war.
They are not Granada, Panama, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, or the various Latin American countries that General Smedley Butler said the US Marines made safe for “the United Fruit Company” and “some lousy bank investment.”
An insouciant American population preoccupied with selfies and delusions of military prowess, while its crazed government picks a fight with Russia and China, has no future.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts’ latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West, How America Was Lost, and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order.
“All of America’s wars except the first—the war for independence—were wars for Empire.”
I’m not at all sure about excluding that first one. It was, at least in part, motivated by the westward expansionists and land speculators (G. Washington among them) who felt themselves impeded by existing imperial treaties and decrees governing lands they wanted for themselves. In any case, it didn’t diminish any global imperial aims per se and certainly not any of the brutality. Just ask the indigenous populations. Poor, mad, old George III of England, restrained as he was by at least a few parliamentary considerations, could only dream of unrestricted powers to kill and torture people and start “full spectrum dominance” wars that are now exercised by his U.S. imperial successors.
@ Arvy
100% true.
It is all well documented in http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html , by a distinguished historian. The book deserves a full reading.
…
…
Chapter 4: Tyranny is Tyranny
Around 1776, certain important people in the English colonies made a discovery that would prove enormously useful for the next two hundred years. They found that by creating a nation, a symbol, a legal unity called the United States, they could take over land, profits, and political power from favourites of the British Empire. In the process, they could hold back a number of potential rebellions and create a consensus of popular support for the rule of a new, privileged leadership.
…
When the Declaration of Independence was read, with all its flaming radical language, from the town hall balcony in Boston, it was read by Thomas Crafts, a member of the Loyal Nine group, conservatives who had opposed militant action against the British. Four days after the reading, the Boston Committee of Correspondence ordered the townsmen to show up on the Common for a military draft. The rich, it turned out, could avoid the draft by paying for substitutes; the poor had to serve. This led to rioting, and shouting: “Tyranny is Tyranny let it come from whom it may.”
…
…
@ Petar
Thank you for the excerpt, it discloses the preface of empire building. I had suspected as much but never had a chance to confirm.
Kim
Would that, by any chance, be the same Declaration of Independence that so sadly bemoaned and strongly condemned a previous empire as having “plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people”? Just imagine what they could have done missiles, cluster bombs, predator drones, white phosphorus and depleted uranium munitions.
Actually, I guess imagination isn’t really needed. One need only visit the aftermath of any of the current empire’s recent “humanitarian interventions”.
People in the U.S. and the world have many very wrong ideas about the U.S. history, so successful has been their deceptive propaganda.
For instance. There is a general impression that slavery in that country was “a thing of XVIII century and before”, waning during the 1800s to the point that by the start of the American Civil war in 1861 it was next to gone, so that the war merely did away with whatever little was left in the south.
However, the above professor Zinn’s book reveals that from 1800 till 1861 the number of African slaves in the U.S.A. had actually quadrupled! It was a flourishing “business” in that entire country, with active participation of northern states, in fact, the American point of shipment of slaves from Africa was Boston harbour. Neither was the Civil war fought “for the purpose” to abolish slavery… Etc.
It is not propaganda that does it. It is the 12 years of government indoctrination camps during the “formative” years of childhood. It is very difficult to overcome that kind of training. Only the people naturally born to question overcome this and even then must spend years “uneducating” themselves.
@ goldhoarder
You are right, that is the US “schooling” (indoctrination camps, correct) that does it. In some very broad sense it goes under the aegis of propaganda too, but is much deeper.
At the same time, it is amazing how those same “general impressions” about the US history are successfully planted into so many people elsewhere in the world. Now, that’s propaganda, effected not nearly as much through MSM channels as by indirect means. Hollywood movies, of all types, and TV movies, take the most prominent place. (Recall how the brunt of McCharty’s 1950s purges was the US movie industry, blacklisting dissenters?) Then, the other “art” forms that emanate from that hell pit (pop music, jazz …) have been “winning the hearts” (and consequently the minds, via the laws of elementary psychology).
Also, don’t forget how during the USSR times, VoA and like outfits were feeding the information-starved Eastern European masses by any lies and fables they could possibly concoct. The echo of that “big bang” still reverberates there…
@wars for Empire… NOT excluding that first one.
Indeed, the colonization of America was a war against the colonial empires of Spain and France.
“On the 28 of May 1754, a 22-year-old lieutenant colonel of the Virginia militia named George Washington successfully defeats a party of French and Indian scouts in southwest Pennsylvania as Virginia attempts to lay claim to the territory for its own settlers. The action snowballed into a world war and began the military career of the first American commander in chief… Washington discovered that a scouting party led by the French ensign, Joseph Coulon de Jumonville was nearby. Fearing that Jumonville was planning an attack, Washington struck first, successfully ambushing the small party. In one of history’s murkier moments, Jumonville was murdered by Washington’s Indian ally, Tanaghrisson, while the monolingual Washington struggled to interrogate the French-speaking Canadian.”
WizOz
I think you are right! it was all about the installation of the chrisitianity version that supported usury! Protestantism, or Calvinism, if you prefer.
This just gave the ideological frame for what came afterwards (Freemasonry and the Independance of the spanish colonies in SA).
It is also to be noted, that Putin is reversing the whole thing now with his visit to Mount Athos. Quite interesting…
Right.
Although the history of FM is a murky one, a few ‘coincidences’ cannot fail to attract our attention:
“George Washington was initiated into the Lodge of Fredericksburg in 1752”
“Ben Franklin has long stood as one of the patriarchs of American Freemasonry… Benjamin Franklin was not only involved in Freemasonry in the United States; he also traveled abroad to take part in meetings and lodges which came about in his diplomatic missions to Europe. ”
“A French trader, by the name of Estienne Morin, had been involved in high degree Masonry in Bordeaux since 1744 and, in 1747, founded an “Ecossais” lodge (Scots Masters Lodge) in the city of Le Cap Français, on the north coast of the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). Over the next decade, high degree Freemasonry continued to spread to the Western hemisphere as the high degree lodge at Bordeaux warranted or recognized seven Ecossais lodges there…. In Paris in the year 1761, a patent was issued to Estienne Morin, dated 27 August, creating him “Grand Inspector for all parts of the New World… Morin returned to the West Indies in 1762 or 1763, to Saint-Domingue, where, armed with his new Patent, he assumed powers to constitute lodges of all degrees, spreading the high degrees throughout the West Indies and North America”
“The one man who was most important in assisting Morin in spreading the degrees in the New World was a naturalized French subject of Dutch origin named Henry Andrew Francken… Francken traveled to New York in 1767 where he granted a Patent, dated 26 December 1767, for the formation of a Lodge of Perfection at Albany, which was called “Ineffable Lodge of Perfection”. This marked the first time the Degrees of Perfection (the 4th through the 14th) were conferred in one of the thirteen British colonies….
“While in New York, Francken also communicated the degrees to Moses Michael Hays, a Jewish businessman, and appointed him a Deputy Inspector General. In 1781, Hays made eight Deputy Inspectors General, four of whom were later important in the establishment of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in South Carolina:
◊_ Isaac Da Costa Sr., D.I.G. for South Carolina;
◊_ Abraham Forst, D.I.G. for Virginia;
◊_ Joseph M. Myers, D.I.G. for Maryland;
◊_ and Barend M. Spitzer, D.I.G. for Georgia. Da Costa returned to Charleston, S.C., and established the “Sublime Grand Lodge of Perfection” in February 1783. After Da Costa’s death in November 1783, Hays appointed Myers as Da Costa’s successor. Joined by Forst and Spitzer, Myers created additional high degree bodies in Charleston and, by 1801, the Charleston bodies were the only extant bodies of the Rite in North America.”
*A little revealing story about ‘Boston’s most prominent 18th-century Jewish citizen’: “In 1775, seventy-six men in Newport were asked to sign a declaration of loyalty to the American colonies that included the phrase “upon the true faith of a Christian.” Hays publicly objected to the phrase and refused to sign, standing firm on the philosophy of “all men created equal”. Instead he offered a letter affirming his belief that the Revolution was a just cause. Hays signed when the Christian portion of the oath was omitted.”
There are little doubts that Estienne Morin was of “Sephardi origin”.
Amazing. All comes to place, slowly but surely.
Just today I found this article. The information is all over the internet, and fishing for it is quite a task sometimes.
https://politicalvelcraft.org/2011/12/08/president-adams-law-prohibiting-freemasonry-aka-zionist-operation/
i don’t understand. what independence? for Keysone xl pipeline there was bilboard somewhere in USA, Texas maybe, * land property of spanish crown* it is still property of spanish crown. it is not property of americans. never was american.
i rather beieve in Santa than in history books about *house on the hill*. *beacon of freedom* and other nonsense. there was allways interest from first foot landing on teritory of American continent. greenbacks, money without debt, were reason for revolution. they wanted business out of English crown and free of taxes they had to pay to crown. nothing noble there. quite vulgar history and present time.
Be careful folks. Don’t assume that Americans concerned about the NWO and Davos b.s. take kindly to folks bashing our Revolution and military on Memorial Day! Nip this crap in the bud because it is counter-productive to our efforts. That includes you P.C.R.!
Memorial Day ?? Do you have a minute of silence on Memorila Day for the victims of USS Liberty murdered in June 1967, by the most moral air force in the world of the only democracy in ME ???
Did you have the minute of silence Thorax ??
Most Americans don’t have the honesty to question their (false) religion of Americanism, the Founding Fathers, or their war machine that “defends” their parasitic American empire.
What’s more is that America’s Founding Fathers themselves weren’t exactly the great Christians that US propaganda portray them as.
Indeed, many of these men were Masons including the father of the USA himself, George Washington. Even the architectural layout of Washington DC has been described as Masonic in design. And to top it off, you have the occult symbolism that permeates American institutions like the “all-seeing eye” and pyramid on the US Dollar bill.
In short, the United States is an occult empire, though cunningly concealed behind its freedom and democracy propaganda.
There are genocidal maniacs in Washington that think: “Victory is possible”.
“Victory is Possible
by Colin S. Gray and Keith Payne
…
If American nuclear power is to support U.S. foreign policy objectives, the United States must possess the ability to wage nuclear war rationally.
…
Surely no one can be comfortable with the claim that a strategy that would kill millions of Soviet citizens and would invite a strategic response that could kill tens of millions of U.S. citizens would be politically and morally acceptable. However, it is worth recalling the six guidelines for the use of force provided by the “just war” doctrine of the Catholic Church: Force can be used in a just cause; with a right intent; with a reasonable chance of success; in order that, if successful, its use offers a better future than would have been the case had it not been employed; to a degree proportional to the goals sought, or to the evil combated; and with the determination to sparre noncombatants, when there is a reasonable chance of doing so.
…
Small, preplanned strikes can only be of use if the United States enjoys strategic superiority — the ability to wage a nuclear war at any level of violence with a reasonable prospect of defeating the Soviet Union and of recovering sufficiently to insure a satisfactory postwar world order.
…
The United States should plan to defeat the Soviet Union and to do so at a cost that would not prohibit U.S. recovery. Washington should identify war aims that in the last resort would contemplate the destruction of Soviet political authority and the emergence of a postwar world order compatible with Western values.
…
Strategists cannot offer painless conflicts or guarantee that their preferred posture and doctrine promise a greatly superior deterrence posture to current American schemes. But, they can claim that an intelligent U.S. offensive strategy, wedded to homeland defenses, should reduce U.S. casualties to approximately 20 million, which should render U.S. strategic threats more credible. If the United States developed the targeting plans and procured the weapons necessary to hold the Soviet political, bureaurcratic, and military leadership at risk, that should serve as the functional equivalent in Soviet perspective of the assured-destruction effect of the late 1960s.”
http://home.earthlink.net/~platter/articles/80-summer-payne.html
“The Rise of U.S. Nuclear Primacy”
http://web.archive.org/web/20060511183633/http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20060301faessay85204/keir-a-lieber-daryl-g-press/the-rise-of-u-s-nuclear-primacy.html?mode=print
Ted Postol on US “conventional” war planning with nuclear weapons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pXPgK9Pld8&t=91m25s
So, the sociopaths are claiming divine backing for destroying divine creation? Also, they call it rational?
I start thinking a massive first strike is in orders Mr. Putin.
Kim
sorry, but could no resist to share this…
https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13256439_973694132679488_5315071206367063467_n.jpg?oh=94008451b31a43652322eb777e1851f3&oe=57E0BF10
Dear Kim
now, this is quite upsetting…and it’s not helping the cuase, at leat not ours
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNr5czZKEdk
Kim’s anger is understandable, but his blowing off steam won’t affect Russia’s better judgment, nor will it get a band wagon going here.
I have petitioned with political petitions in the 1980’s in San Diego and other parts of California, as far north as Redding and that is why the many signers of the absurd petition in Vercia’s video does not bother me, because of the fact that most Californians will sign anything just to make the petitioner feel good and feel that with their great act of scribbling their name they have done their duty as citizens, and have “been political” for a few seconds, which is a lot more than most others around them have done. In with the hundreds are 3-4 gems.
That extremely pitiful standard is what always alarms me. Try getting them to do more and many will get truly offended. (Don’t worry, I offended thousands of them, and only got bit on the arm once and swung at once. He missed. Being 6′ 5″ allows one to ramp up the pressure with a little less risk………. )
But knowing that those fools in the video didn’t even focus their attention long enough to hear what the petitioner said, and they do not want to blow up the world is very small consolation. It’s still an abysmally low level of consciousness, generally. Mind control. If they have a TV on for more than the weather, they are toast, very rapidly.
I really was shocked, exactly because some of them didn’t even finish listening to the question (!)
They would be probably more than ready to go to actual war…sad and terrible
If more american rightwingers paid attention to people like PCR instead of the zio-gays on “hate radio”, the usa would have a chance of becoming a civilized nation.
Been reading Dr. Roberts for years. Always succinct and to the point.
Agree. PCR just gets to the point. Always interesting to read and listen to.
Shaky Empire story
http://forbiddenknowledgetv.net/brexit-the-movie-full-film-27695
I’m going to have to disagree with this one. The last time I heard this holiday is not about any organization civilian or military, it is to honor those who served and those who made the ultimate sacrifice, be that sacrifice made willingly or not.
There are times when it is simply not correct to politicize events and ceremonies who honor those who served and this is one of them. For once shaddap about politics, societal turmoil, the ‘they are coming to get us’ or ‘we’re going to get them’ mantras, the ‘Monaco has a stronger army than we do so we’ll have arm up to fight’ foolishness.
Take this day to honor those who served and I would say to honor not only American soldiers but all soldiers. They all served whether they wanted to or not and most served honorably. Take a fist full of flowers, walk up to a veteran, shake his/her hand and simply tell them ‘Thank you’.
‘God hates all war and God loves all soldiers’.
Auslander
Author
Never The Last One https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZGCY8KK
An Incident On Simonka https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ERKH3IU
Take this day to honor those who served and I would say to honor not only American soldiers but all soldiers. They all served whether they wanted to or not and most served honorably. Take a fist full of flowers, walk up to a veteran, shake his/her hand and simply tell them ‘Thank you’.
Here I respectfully disagree. If a veteran or a solider fought for his country, his people, his family or his house, to protect them from an attacking enemy, then yes, I will thank him. But if the veteran fought in somebody else’s country and far away from his own home, if he fought in defense of imperialistic, political and corporate interests – then no, I will not thank him. Why should I? Just because he obeyed his orders? That is not good enough for me. The SS had Meine Ehre heißt Treue (“My honour is called loyalty”) as a motto – should the world also give them flowers for their (often very real) sacrifices?
‘God hates all war and God loves all soldiers’.
I very, very, very much doubt that. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. and the other Beatitudes strongly suggest otherwise. True, He did say Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. but that refers to the man (solider or not) who died for his friends, not an empire, the 1%ers and their corporate interests.
Take this day to honor those who served
Those who served the weak, the sick, the unjustly persecuted, the suffering – yes, absolutely. But not those who served Mammon (No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.).
Sorry, old friend, here we will have to agree to disagree.
Hugs and cheers,
The Saker
Well, I think Roberts has in mind the intention of the average soldier, who is politically naive, after all. Intention and courage. The average soldier really does think he is serving his country.
Yes, my friend, we will have to agree to disagree on this one.
In my opinion nothing in this world is completely black or completely white, everything seems to be grey one way or another. I said to honor the veterans you see on this day not in particular recognition of what he may or may not have done but simply because he lost his friends and comrades and today is a day in memory of those who are no longer with us.
I and my wife will honor them even though today is not a local holiday. Flowers will be laid at the monuments for the wars at St. Nikolas before the service and we will also lay flowers at the Kursk Monument to honor those poor boys, they died serving, too.
In a few days the flowers will wilt and be picked up by the grounds keepers and most will forget about this day until next year. I never forget and never will forget those I knew when I served and I will always honor them even though almost all are gone now.
Auslander
Look, I understand that a veteran might have been mislead, or that he sincerely believed that obedience to orders is a soldier’s honor. And I realize that many veterans have suffered during and after wars. And for all that, I would give them a hug, show them sympathy. But not *thank* them. Thanking them means that I am grateful for what they did. How could I be grateful to somebody doing something wrong, immoral and even often illegal? That makes no sense to me. I have friend who fought in Afghanistan and I respect them. They fought courageously in terrible circumstances. And I think that they deserve respect for their courage. But I will never EVER say to them “your cause was just” or thank them. I will only thank a person who did something good, honorable, decent.
But that’s me I suppose.
Hugs and cheers anyway :-)
The Saker
Saker. You and I are friends, we have broken bread together, you have opened your home in hospitality to me, your family has been very kind and polite to me as you have been. You know me well enough to know where I am coming from.
Honoring the fallen is not the same as thanking them, far from it. On the other hand how am I to know who is in those vast unmarked graves at the German Cemetery south of Yalta Ring, how am I to know who are those in the equally vast and unmarked mass graves at St. Nikolas dating back to the War of 1854? What did each individual do, was he kind to civilians or did he participate in the pillaging and rapine extant at the times and forever before and after? I don’t know but as far as I’m concerned they will all be honored for their service and sacrifice, side don’t matter, individual actions that we have no way of knowing of don’t matter, good or bad.
This day is simply to honor those who did not return, pure and simple. It’s like Memory Day on 22 June. We uniform up and saddle up and go to the outlying villages to pay our respects to the dead and to honor the fewer and fewer living veterans from that war. What did those still living do when they entered Poland and Germany? I don’t know and don’t care now, they were all soldiers, good or bad, saints or devils. ‘He’ will judge them, not me, my task during the treks and my task personally is to honor the dead, period. I’ll leave it to others, most of whom have not served at the tip of the spear, to judge all. Such judgment is not for me.
Kind regards
Auslander
This day is simply to honor those who did not return, pure and simple.
I will mourn their death. I will honor them as fallen human beings. But I will not honor them as soldiers unless I know that the war they fought in was just.
Hugs,
The Saker
Fair enough, my friend, we’ve got a deal.
@ Saker
Good on you old mate! The amoral soldier’s excuse for his crimes is that he followed orders. Natural law and even the Nuremberg said that is no defence, although that only applied to the Germans. The mass murders of Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki became heroes instead.
Kim
I’ll have to respectfully disagree a little bit in turn with you when you state the following :
[But if the veteran fought in somebody else’s country and far away from his own home, if he fought in defense of imperialistic, political and corporate interests – then no, I will not thank him. Why should I? Just because he obeyed his orders? That is not good enough for me. The SS had Meine Ehre heißt Treue (“My honour is called loyalty”) as a motto – should the world also give them flowers for their (often very real) sacrifices?]
Being loyal is a virtue, certainly if the goal is a noble one, like f.i. being loyal to your wife and family in christian marriage.
As for going to war being a virtue, it depends in my view. I wouldn’t put all those young men « dans le même panier ».
If young foreigners for instance, « dans la fleure de l’âge », once went to fight in Germany, it was in many cases not so much a matter of wanting to serve Germany or Hitler but rather a matter of going to fight against the communists on behalf of their christian belief. These young boys were encouraged to do so by the local priests, preachers and their teachers in school and college !
Who is to blame then : these preachers and teachers who told them young idealistic and naive boys to go to war for the christian belief and cowardly betrayed them afterwards when the situation on the battlefield changed, or these young boys who died on the battlefield or were put in prison or repressed when they came back home?
Sacrifying your life for the christian belief is something else than joining the army by motives of big money or pursuing an easy life, like it is the case for many soldiers in the European countries, and afterwards nolens volens being forced to go to war.
Who are we to judge these young men ? Only God knows what went on in their mind and soul.
This talk about christian beliefs is absolute bs., HItler never encouraged christianity, on the contrary Stalin opened many churches.This talk about christianity is propaganda used in 3rd. world countries to install military dictatorshipssubservient to murican corporations. Religion is a tool for the Empire and the ‘opiate of the peoples.’
Good for you, if you believe religion is opium for the people ; wish you good luck with that one !
When the killing is going on daily basis, the political ideology is long forgotten for the usual soldier. He wants to survive, and when he kills in anger, is because of his comrades, who are in fact a substitute of his family, being as brothers, fathers mothers and sons in one, for he’s life is totally dependent on them. As in every war, there are and will be murderers who, by the way, in civilian clothes were no ones, now in uniform and in war, the “perfect” situation is there for them to murder, rape, stole. Where the bleeding, death body lays, the hyenas come for days.
Nazies were christians and their mission was to defend chritianity?!!! How little you know about nazy beliefs!
@ anonymous (why being afraid of wrting your real name ?)
Not sure your comment was directed to me, but in case it was, why not read my first comment again and ask yourself if I actually used the word « nazi » or did suggest Hitler’s mission was to defend christianity ?
My comment was referring to the historical context of events which happened on the local level in certain European countries, which saw a bunch of their promising young people abruptly leaving their family for not seldom exactly the reasons I wrote in my first comment.
Wether you can find that context reported in the history books or not, is another thing.
Not sure where exactly on this thread where this comment belongs, but anyways. I just took my elderly parents to the graves of two of their children (my brother and sister) who died as infants. As I helped dad place wreaths on the grave, I couldn’t help but notice all of the American flags. To me the flag represents one thing — maybe the spiritual heritage of the East India Company, or the Boston Tea Party where the low British tax on tea made smuggling unprofitable or something– but to others it has a different meaning, less critically informed, maybe less over-analysed — I am thinking of the Johnny Cash song about the old ragged flag. This meaning is tied intimately to loss, not too far removed from what has been called “the cult of the ancestors” though this term always applies to other peoples, never to oneselves. And then my thoughts went to “product placement” and the “cold cruel monster.” I knew that I was being a bit cynical, and then a woman who was also there morning walked up to me and patted me on the shoulder.
Saker,
I fully agree with you here.
To quote the words from Borat’s song “In my country there is a problem…”… There is indeed a problem, from the times of Vietnam war. Then, there was a general compulsory draft in the U.S., when well over half a million of unwilling very young people (all in their teens and early twenties) were dragged by force to fight a monstrous genocidal imperialist war half a Globe away. And over 55,000 of them died there on behalf of the big corporations, that the “government” represents since its inception in 1776. Multiples of that number were maimed for life, and a hefty portion of those who returned home were addicted to drugs.
And all those who returned are now – correctly – called veterans.
Veterans Administration Hospitals are full of them. I see and meets them all the time. Their misery has been passed on their children in a myriad of ways. Not least one of those ways is “agent orange”, which caused not only horrible lifelong health problems to the exposed soldiers (a huge percentage were exposed), but caused severe hereditary problems, convicting to lives of suffering their children who had never even seen a war. I know personally many cases.
Memorial Day should be called by its proper name, a Government’s Victims Condolence and Commiseration Day, or something equivalent. Or perhaps every day should be called so.
@Auslander — “The last time I heard this holiday is not about any organization civilian or military, it is to honor those who served and those who made the ultimate sacrifice, be that sacrifice made willingly or not.”
I don’t doubt that you’ve heard that and may thus perceive the holiday’s significance personally, but the sad fact is that there are broader political ramifications of all “honour the troops” promotions of militarism in support of imperial aims. Naïve loyalty and willingness to sacrifice may have some commendable, if questionable, aspects as character traits, but the consequences have almost always been and remain far from commendable in global terms.
The fact is this holiday is to honor those who did not return, the reason for not returning does not matter and I fail to see any great political scheme in simply honoring those who are gone. If you see no point in this remembrance then no one is forcing you to do anything in it’s regard.
I fail to see where my loyalty and willingness to serve and sacrifice is naive in the least, it is born of serving and fighting shoulder to shoulder with my comrades, nor do I see it as commendable, it is simply what we do.
First, I apologize most sincerely for any personal slights that you may have felt were implied by my comment. It was certainly not intended to diminish or denigrate your own loyalty to comrades, nor anyone’s else’s sacrifice on behalf of their comrades of any nationality for that matter. And I certainly didn’t say or mean to say that there was “no point” in remembrance.
But what is being remembered and the real point of that remembrance is precisely the problem. Comradeship may have been and may continue to be an individual motivation (unquestionably was and is in your own case) along with many other noble personal aims of “protecting hearth and home and family”. What is naïve at best, however, is to think that any such motivations truly underlie geopolitical events in which those motivations are actually manipulated and misused. Perhaps just as sadly, public events of “remembrance” are seldom inspired or have much if anything to do with you or your comrades of the past. They’re aimed at celebrating and promoting for future misuse that same badly mistaken and misled willingness to sacrifice.
Arvy
Not to worry, I am not offended in the least. You told your thoughts and I told mine and I have no reason to be offended by your words.
However, you fail to understand where I am coming from and no matter what you say you will never dissuade me from honoring those who have fallen, side don’t matter, time frame don’t matter, my comrades and friends or my enemies. We are all the same, soldiers, and we always have and always will remember and honor those of us who have fallen.
Kind regards
Auslander
I am reminded of a quote from a movie my wife recently had on the tv, “When 2 elephants fight it is the grass that suffers.” We can remember the grass that suffers, the soldiers who served and died, but still work for peace to prevent more suffering.
@Auslander — Well, I thought I understood at least some aspects of your perspective. But maybe you’re right. Maybe I don’t understand it at all. If you would honour the remembrance of someone (comrade or not) who, in loyal soldierly obedience to his orders, breaks his skull by falling off his stool in some remote bunker whilst aiming a drone missile at some kids gathering firewood or at the ambulance crew trying to save them “all the same” as you would honour those who have died while actually defending their own country, then I guess you really have lost me completely.
On the other hand, that also seemed to be Reagan’s attitude at the Kolmeshohe Cemetery where SS troops are buried at Bitburg. So I guess you’re not alone.
Arvy
OK, let’s make a deal. You come here and supervise the excavations when we find graves, single or mass, some going back to Ekatarina the Great’s time, and you tell me which ones in those graves I and we should honor and which ones not to honor. You decide how we treat the women and children often found buried with the soldiers from all sides, some of them, women and even children, found with weapons. You decide what we do with the remains of those you choose we not honor. Do we dump them back in the hole after we finish, do we toss them over the cliffs in to the Sea at Battery rather than reverently put them all in the mausoleum at Battery as they patiently wait for the twice yearly burial ceremonies in the Wall of Honor at Battery?
You decide.
There is nothing good about mindless loyalty and servitude to an immoral government. Saker gets it right on this one. How is it harmful? Just watch all the John Wayne propaganda movies this weekend.
Not to mention the frequent recitations of John McCrae’s In Flanders Fields which some people seem to think was an anti-war poem. It certainly wasn’t. In fact, it contains some of the most powerful lines still used today for inspiring and manipulating blind loyalty in “remembrance” of comrades so that their willing sacrifices of the past “shall not have been in vain”:
Arvy
I don’t know where you live, what is your age. But, if you are a young man, eligible for military duty for your country and you became an order from your state, I can hardly believe that you will say “No”
in that case you’ll be punished, put in jail or sent into a military discipline-compound. And if the country still needs you, will be sent to the front line – not in the best company. Anyway, if you say “yes” or “no”, there is no escape if “the country needs you”.Once you are in uniform, all your life has changed : you are no more than a number on paper, your life is not so important, you will discover that very quickly, and you will not recognize yourself in your deeds, ’cause you will want to survive.
After a while, you’ll discover that your enemies are as same as you are and they also want to survive. The death will have other character, other meaning for you, even the death of your enemies. If you will survive the war, you will have other feelings towards your former enemies.
Even young men have a choice http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/conscientious-objectors-in-their-own-words
@ioan — As you say yourself, you know nothing about me. One can always say no if one is courageous enough to face the consequences. Ever heard of conscientious objectors? Some of them died too, and sometimes very bravely in obedience to their own conscience. I’ll save my highest “comradely” remembrance for honouring their true heroism if that’s okay, followed by those who were actually defending their homes and families, and none at all for those whose purblind “loyalty” and obedience enabled and aided aggression.
Which of you, or who among us on this blog, is to decide which war is right and just and which war is wrong and aggression against which we defend?
Who decides you are a conscientious objector or a ‘coward’ (nothing personal, just the term used by governments for those who do not wish to serve) shirking his duty to his threatened country?
Surely not me. However, I’ve got news for all of you. These wars will not end in our lifetime, that is well and true fact. For those who are threatened their fight is always perceived as right and just whether their country is victorious or not. Defeat, and victory, always comes with a price paid in lives and many times the cost is hideous. So be it, it is not for me to judge any of the dead.
Honor them as you wish, as men and women, as soldiers and sailors, but honor them if and as you so desire. If you chose not to do so there are no hard feelings from me.
Auslander
which war is right? start from the basis that they are all wrong – i.e. that someone wants to use you – and then only after deep due diligence make a decision to the contrary.
Only yourself comprehends whether you are conscientious objector or a ‘coward’ and ultimately that is all that matters.
I see the two points of view here, and can identify with both. I think that it might be useful to compare the American Memorial Day with the Russian commemoration of the “Immortal Regiment”. Both honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, and both causes can be criticized for the less savory goals and actions of the “1%” rulers that used and abused the ones who fought and died. In the end, those from both America and Russia who fought and died in WW2 did defeat an evil worth defeating, though there may be valid criticisms of the leaders that manipulated events to result in war to satiate their own lust for power, empire, and wealth.
Zinn, Buchanan, Suvorov, Solonin, Starikov and many others have indeed criticized Allied leaders from both the West and the East for manipulating events into war for their own agendas. The commemoration of Memorial Day and also of the Immortal Regiment is a reminder and remembrance of the cost of war, and a call to work to bring an end to these conflicts.
Dear Auslander, and Saker and also Wilfried
I have been several times visiting Germany and Austria. Normally, as well as in Switzerland cementeries are located behind on next to churches, so we also walked around there and saw several times de graves of these countless beautiful (some graves have even potographs) young men, almost children. I still feel the stitch of pain and sadness I felt then. Endless sadness for those who gave all, and never came back to their mothers, sisters, girlfriends, children…those who are not even allowed to being remembered for not being on the winning side…that stitch again…these blood of one Volk who gave so many wonderful gifts of art, philosophy and scince to mankind…I personally cannot get over it. Although I quite well understand Saker’s also hard gained insight..I still cannot get over it. I do not feel sorry for them, but inmesely sad, for their supreme sacrifice and for having been misled…twice betrayed. My love to them and their memory
They serve the 1 percent.
‘God hates all war and God loves all soldiers’. Nobody knows if this is true.
Besides, the retailers need to have those big Memorial Day sales to honor the fallen. How many veterans have to work on this national “Holiday”?
Very important audio Interview:
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts : Vote Brexit – End the EU, a CIA Covert Operation
“Remain” or “Leave”? What does the UK’s EU Referendum—scheduled 23rd June—really amount to? Is it simply the opportunity for UK citizens to decide if Britain should stay in the European Union? Or is it something of greater significance, with broader and more serious implications? And just what is this thing called the EU anyway?
Joining us, once again, to discuss these questions is Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former US Assistant Secretary to the Treasury for Ecomonic Policy, who explains the EU’s beginnings as a project of the CIA, and assesses its current role as as an anti-democratic tool of corporate control. Whether or not a majority “leave” vote will actually lead to Brexit, Dr. Roberts argues that a decisive rejection of EU membership by UK citizens could embolden other EU member states to follow suit, thus precipitating the break-up of NATO, and in turn, bringing an end to Washington’s crazy designs for a New World Order.
http://themindrenewed.com/interviews/2016/885-int109
Interview Notes:
http://themindrenewed.com/interviews/2016/22-interviewnotes/886-int109n
@James
Let’s hope that the British people will come to their healthy mind and will vote Exit from EU. EU is nothing just a fascist based tyranny and absolute control about a Europe.Meaning of EU is totally destroy the culture and traditions of the selected European countries and let them to be controlled under the name of NWO by the people who were never elected and working /pretending the work / for enormous salaries . Absolutely totalitarian regime made by self elected idiots, who are making the rules even how thick should be a toilet paper.
Hopefully after exit of British people it will be dismantled very quickly.
Let’s hope that, unlike USA voting machines with untraceable code and ballot counting, the vote is fair and accurate.
It is highly likely that the vote will be rigged against Brexit, just as many suspect that the Scottish vote for independence was rigged.
you tube has video evidence of dubious actions regarding
the scotish referendum, including piles of no votes with
in plain view, yes votes on the top of the packets, and
some woman sorting yes and no, pulling some from
yes pile onto the no pile numerous times.
there is also a shot of a pallet of yes votes being
wheeled away to god knows where.
even with all that the result was ‘close’.
never heard any results of complaints about
rigging or ‘enquiries’. down the memory hole it goes
My military Guru sends me notices every once and awhile as a kind of pay attention alert and today I received this one:
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/28/europe/putin-threatens-romania/index.html?ref=yfp
current warnings on record:
1 . keep your transponders on when your military planes approach Russian airspace
2. Romania and Poland– be prepared for retaliation
3? and as it is said in Spanish: a la tercera, va la vencida.
Eh? — “He [Putin] is a very maniacal personality and we’re not quite sure how he’s going to react to this…” (cnn link)
What crap!
Putin is the most unmaniacal personality on the world stage — and probably far beyond that as well.
If Russia wanted to avoid ww3 they could. Just start handing out info on all sorts of crap the west has been hiding. They prolly no more about what our government has really been up to better than most in our government.
Its the time tested and proven way to deal with liers. Always check thier story. Same way good parents raise children that dont lie.
This is not complicated stuff its just plain ol bullshit. On a global scale sure, still its bullshit.
What happened with this? It was announced, and ……. now what???
http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/04/putin-to-declassify-documents-that-bear.html?m=1
It is not about information.
It is about failed economics.
The western capitalist system (for want of a better term) is bankrupt and needs war to clear the books.
The US economy is: printing money; military-security industry; and IP patients that scour the planet for digital tribute.
The jerks in control are not under the democratic control of the masses — it is not democracy: it is corporatism facilitated from the get-go in the now corporatised education-training system.
The word was fascism.
The lack of policy difference simply reinforces the focus on personalities.
The same ideology rules and the ‘owners’ run the show.
It’s a club and you and I are not in it.
Good question, you’re not alone who is curious. Something else : Sarah Wagenknecht becomes a cake on her face thrown by an idiot because “she is anti-immigrant “
Yes, saw that.
The german so called Left party is in shock over their worse and worse voting performace, and what’s their reaction: Instead of bringing the entire party on track again (simply follow Sarah Wagenknecht, pro Russia, anti-NATO, anti migrant wave) they do the opposite: More Anti-AfD, less Russia-friendly and now even a cake thrown at the only sane mind left over among them (the second one is Oskar Lafontaine, her husband).
Gysi – I’m desillusioned, it turned out that he was a bought puppet all the time.
The only ones are really Sarah and Oskar.
Fully agree. Gysi os a rat…and as goo one managed to leave the ship before it started to sink.
I am outraged by this disgusting act towards a fine and overall intelligent Lady, so far an exception to all european left precisely in her position towards uncontrolled migration. BTW, we do have a name for Merkel, we call her Ferkel
@Vercia: No insults against dear cute Ferkel’s please!
As I said earlier, comparing Merkel against anybody will always be the equivalent to insulting innocents. There is no word for Merkel. But then again- this world alone is an insult and a stigma, so it fits Merktnix well: Merkel
Here is why _not_ to call it (her?) Ferkel:
Ferkel
https://www.google.de/search?q=ferkel&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjS-53E7YHNAhWMWSwKHUuFAaIQ_AUIBygB&biw=1280&bih=851
Dieses fröhliche Ferkel fühlt sich sauwohl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojk7_QDa1Aw
My theory: Murksel in dead for at least more than 4 decades, her remains have been used in an alien field study for artificial stupidity.
Turns out that it works as expected.
Beware: Such hybrid robots have a life expectency of up to 800 years, if maintainence repairs are performed on schedule. Warrenty ends after 500 years, though.
Martin you really made me laugh!! you are absolutely right, these cute little beings have nothing in common with this mm? woman? OMG…there is really no word for this…
Ah, damn me.
I missed the required default disclaimer for Ukrainian TV channels: It was fiction, a joke! omg, you already broadcasted it in the main world-news??
Forgive me …
But rest assured: Nobody domestically noticed it …..
“As Our Past Wars Are Glorified…”
No nation is immune for this attitude of glorification of past wars. Not USA, not UK, not France, not Germany (of course), not Russia, not China, not Japan (of course), not Spain, not Turkey, not smaller nations including Poland, Ukraine, Israel, Afghanistan, Serbia, Hungary, Sweden, Finland, Portugal…
I’d recommend everybody not focusing the situation after armistice immediately. Instead everyone should take at least one or two generation perspective to see real consequences of era of slaughter. War has its long shadow. What really matters is the question: who won the peace and how?
Nuclear war is unthinkable even given a conflict or core interests of competing powers; it becomes an horrific farce to even contemplate when it is thought (by some) an applicable strategic policy because some states disapprove of the internal governance of others. The idea that NATO should get ready for nuclear war against Russia simply because Estonia or Poland have issues with Russophobia is beyond ludicrous.
These types of beliefs are held by fanatics who are on a crusading mission to make the world ‘good’ in their eyes at least. The costs, as is the case with all religious zealots are simply discounted, in addition to mundane practicalities like nuclear winter and mass starvation.
In this sense there exists the same sub-schizophrenic mindset – a mindset shared by both the neo-cons and ISIS.
Will reason prevail. I don’t know but the odds seem to be moving in the wrong direction.
May 18, 2016 WAR IS PEACE — Nobel Prize-Winning Obama Becomes Longest War-Time President In US History
If presiding over the greatest transfer of wealth in history from the middle class to the 1 percent wasn’t enough of a trophy for Obama, another dismal achievement will mark his presidency. Obama has been at war longer than any president in U.S. history. That would include George W. Bush, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon and even Abraham Lincoln who oversaw America’s civil war.
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/nobel-peace-prize-president-officially-longest-running-war-president/#Vq4AobE5z23ep0yO.99
The realities in action. The Kurds take out a Turkish MRAP in a convoy using an IED.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m85qiNtkZFM
An ISIS leader known as Al-Shishani has been filmed fighting at Fallujah. He is red-bearded Georgian veteran. He been reported killed many times by the US military.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaBTAO1iQMc
Great article again! Totally agree, going to war would be suicide for the ‘Americans’. And as they have never had much to suffer from a war inside their borders, they are hopelessly ignorant about the implications. The article resonates with me, except maybe that the general(s) in the Korean war were not allowed to win by orders from higher up. Dirty history indeed. Cold wars are profitable.
The tide has already turned. Hillary is being called out on her email server(they haven’t even started on Benghazi and ambassador Stevens etc). Trump invites Sanders to debate him(not Hillary, who refused a debate)… Hillary, the neocons and the military industrial complex together with the banking cabal have been called out and they are no longer a factor in this coming election.. If they want to keep power they’ll create some sort of emergency and declare Obama dictator! They can do nothing else. The people are fed up and won’t take it any more! (On the other hand, why were the FEMA camps built?) Did the establishment plan for this to happen?
When one has unlimited fiat money on tap, the media in the bag, and a lazy, distracted public; One can make many elaborate and expensive contingency plans.
I know Paul Craig Roberts doesn’t like replies – but I think he is a Top Geezer (that’s East London slang – I think)
Maybe he will understand this that I just wrote
“I am a little bit happy and I don’t know how to explain to people who haven’t experienced these things…I don’t have any answers. I do not know how she perfectly described me – what I was doing to all our friends today – when I wasn’t there…
Its the last thing she thought I would do…
And I was doing it when she was telling everyone I was doing it
How Did She Know?
She must have been reading my mind again
I do not know how it works…
Maybe you just still have to be in a state of love.
Like I am.
I Love My Wife”
Paul Craig Roberts – Medal of Honour (Lancashire, England, UK)
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/
Tony
Paul Craig Roberts Links to Glenn Greenwald’s article in the Intercept!
[link to http://www.paulcraigroberts.org]
[link to theintercept.com (secure)]
In Brazil the country’s largest newspaper has published a transcript of a secret recording leaked to the newspaper. The words recorded are the plot by the rich Brazilian elite, involving both the US-corrupted Brazilian military and Supreme Court, to remove the democratically elected president of Brazil under false charges in order to stop the investigations of the corrupt elites who inhabit Brazil’s senate and bring to an end Brazil’s membership in BRICS. The Russian-Chinese attempt to organize an economic bloc independent of Washington has now lost 20% of its membership.
Democracy has been overthrown in Brazil as in Ukraine, Honduras—indeed, everywhere the dirty evil hand of Washington falls, including the US itself.
Glenn Greenwald reports on the extraordinary leak of the 75-minute recording of the conversations between Brazilian elites laying out the plot to frame the President of Brazil in order to protect themselves. [link to theintercept.com (secure)]
Oh this articles tight and on point
As evident in some comments, the debate arises from the open-ended meaning of “memorial.” This is but one of many occurrences of lexical ambiguity. Those who profit by a specific, even twisted interpretation of the term, will ensure, by any possible spectacular means, the predominance of that interpretation. In the instance, flags, parades, ribbons, bells, bands and trumpets, perfectly fit the bill.
Even so, the ambiguity remains, hence the discussions, reflected in the many interesting comments. Words elicit emotions and emotions are akin to physiological sensations of comfort or discomfort.
Probably most, if not all, agree that, at least since the second half of the 18th century, the primary prompter of wars is the Marxian conflict between divergent financial-capital interests.
The interested parties prepare the ground, waiting for a signal event to trigger the war. After which, the majority, especially those who die, may not and will not even think of questioning it. And if they did, they could be shot.
Not much historical research has focused on the final moments before each war and/or on who were the first to put up the money for the first shots.
With the wars for American independence, the first documented financier was John Hancock, who – remarkable coincidence – financially suffered from the sudden un-competitiveness of contraband tea. As mentioned in another comment, the British had a surplus of tea in London, therefore even by imposing the ‘tea tax’ it was cheaper than contraband tea. Hence the historical maxi-fib of the Boston tea-party, still extant and usable today.
In Italy, Mussolini’s first financiers were a group of Milanese industrialists, eager to crush the working proletariat of the North, through his brown shirts.
For, as we know, fascism is an attempt by the bourgeoisie economy to defend itself from the dual threat of crisis and proletarian subversion. The bourgeoisie “castles the king” by entering in a state of siege, a means of survival through the administration of an emergency dose of massive state intervention in its management.
In this sense, Russia’s victory in the patriotic war was akin to a gravitational wave that curves space and warps time. Only when Germany was on the ropes, the West intervened in Europe – and not as successfully as Hollywood explains. Finance-capital had to wait 60 years before re-asserting itself and preparing the foundations for the next major conflicts (for total world-domination).
In my view a sober and verecund silence best fits the day of memorial. Realizing that it is no more realistic than “turning the sun to ice, with fanning in his face with a peacock’s feather.” (King Henry V)
Unless it is an indigenous uprising against occupation, enslavement or invasion ‘ war is a racket’ (General Smedley Butler).
Saker and Auslander,
both fair points, but don’t get dogmatic/fixed on your point.
as context here,
in nov. in the UK we have DDay remembrance, there is a service by the services at the Royal Albert H all and it is very moving. But last november as i watched and it drew to a close i suddenly thought
wait a moment here,
we are actually paying homage here to the Queen, the monarchy and the rulers.
We remember our people who sacrificed everything, and then end it with ‘Hail Ceasar’ effectively.
Actually three cheers for the Queen.
We all unite behind (and below ) the Queen.
As much as we should remember our dead it is a rallying cry for our leader.
My father who was born in 1923 joined up/enlisted in the army in 1939 when he was 16 years old.
He told me that he and 2 freinds enlisted in the service that they preferred. That was there choice, there only choice other than constientious objector which was never considered and was viewed as unpatriotic, and would lead to your ostracising yourself from the society you lived in .
you were viewed as a cowerd. So his choice was the army. One freind chose the navy, and i believe another chose the airforce. I also have an uncle who flew in the Lancaster bombers.
My father lived his whole life (80 years) believing the official narrative propaganda, that was his generations reality. I also believed, with growing reservations and mounting questions until Tony Blair’s Iraq war. As a citizen, although not a labour type socialist tony blair accolyte, I backed The Blair creatures call to war because he/our prime minister told us of a great threat to our country etc.
In the ensuing years, the truth (the light dawned, although somewhat hazy at times ) appeared to be somewhat differrent.
So onward and regarding BREXIT.
I rather suspect that,
we will be corralled into the result, that they requie and,
whatever the result is we will not withdraw from europe, because the objective is to strengthen our position in/over europe,
which will be greatly enhanced with the ‘will of the people’ behind the ‘guvnmint’.
The only other possible eventuality would be that we are withdrawing from the chaos and madness that is descending pulling up the drawbridge, but that’s just overly defeatist is n’t
it.
And to refer back to Saker’s submission that there may be a conflict going on at the top, a power struggle between the elite’s, the neocon’s , the crown and/or….
it make’s it difficult to peer through the fog often, but
somebody’s keeps having a go at prince andrew, anybody notice this?
kind regards to all
Nick (from NW.UK)
The Clintons are Criminals and Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton should be in prison, and they Know that the American Presidential Nuclear Bunker is the most Luxurious prison with over 50 years of supplies including drugs and alcohol, and alcohol can be manufactured from plants using artificial lighting, and this is more than enough for the old Clintons, and is a much better deal for the Clintons than an above ground American prison, even if they are among the few People on the Earth after WW 3.
The Corruption and Scandal Ridden Callous and Evil Clintons who care Only about themselves, will prefer the Luxurious prison of the American Presidential Nuclear Bunker to a Court Trial, and to prison facilities above ground in America, and this is why Morality or Honesty matters with regards to Elected Representatives and Appointed Public Officials, and Especially for President of America, and this is why there are American Social Democrats who think that the Congress should Impeach any Attorney General that hinders a Court Trial for Hillary Clinton.
The Clintons may have promised certain Media Owners who control their Journalists and a few other Democratic Party Leaders and their families a place in the American Presidential Nuclear Bunker, because it is a Very Large Facility and can accommodate several People for over 50 years, and perhaps the Clinton Foundation Money has built underground facilities or the Clintons could modify American Navy submarines that can join together as modules to make an underwater city and storage facility that can rise to the surface to send up wind turbines and large fiber optics for sunlight, and where tidal motion creates energy for that city, and which can last for decades under the ocean, and where the radiation is always low, because the oceans are very large and dilute the radiation, and these Facilities use Recycling Technology of the Mars Manned Mission Program Research for this.
We Know that Hillary Nixon Clinton was involved in the Watergate Impeachment Committee to Investigate President Nixon, because President Nixon had Lied by saying that he had revealed All of his Secret Tape Recordings of People, but he Lied and he was being Investigated by an Impeachment Committee, and it is said that the Chief of Staff of the House Judiciary Committee Jerry Zeifman said he found that Hillary Clinton is an Untrustworthy Liar, and that she is Unethical.
Hillary Nixon Clinton was on the Watergate Impeachment Staff in 1974, and we can assume that she thought of how much better Nixon could have Advanced his Career with his Tape Recordings, had he done things differently.
Hillary Clinton is a Lawyer, who began working at the Rose Law Firm in 1976, and so she has heard much regarding the Schemes of Criminals, as has Bill Clinton who is also a Lawyer.
The thoughts on how President Nixon could have done things differently may have come to Hillary Clinton’s mind before Bill Clinton became Governor of Arkansas in 1979, and the Lying Clintons Know if the Governor’s Mansion in Arkansas was used to have Conversations Secretly Recorded or Secret Films of People in Embarrassing or Criminal Acts of certain People that the Clintons wanted to Blackmail and make them their Puppets during the Arkansas Governorship of Bill Clinton.
Perhaps Hillary Nixon Clinton may have thought that if President Nixon had Secretly Tape Recorded or Filmed a Political figure in an Embarrassing or Criminal Act, then Nixon could Blackmail him or her to be his Puppet, and perhaps Nixon could have done this with Journalists to make them his Puppets to help him Politically.
Hillary Nixon Clinton Knew that she Needed Bill Clinton for her Ambition to be the President during her Co Presidency with Bill Clinton’s Presidency of 1993 to 2001, and she would Need Bill Clinton to Campaign for her this year.
We heard Bill Clinton say that Hillary Clinton was a Co President with him, and because the Clintons wish to occupy the White House again, then Hillary Clinton may want to Secretly Record or Secretly Film People to make them her Puppets, and Many People think the Clintons have already made Many Puppets, by Luring them into Temptation and Secretly Filming those they want to be their Puppets, while these People thought they had Total Privacy, and that this is why the System has become Thoroughly Corrupt.
Hillary Clinton Knows that those who read National Secrets and who are Entrusted to Keep National Secrets, can be compared to Olympic Cyclists who do Not need training wheels on their bicycles.
Hillary Clinton saying or implying that she needed others to mark State Department Material as Classified, is admitting that she either did not know what should be kept Secret until others told her, or that she did not know that she lacked the qualifications to be Secretary of State, and that she did not know that she should inform someone like a High Official in the State Department of this problem, because she was too unaware of it to notice that problem of her being Unqualified for Public Office.
The Facts of the matter are that Hillary Clinton Deliberately acted Corruptly and Illegally, and Pretended as Much as possible to act in ignorance and without any intentions to commit Espionage or do anything wrong, but Patriots are Not expected to be mind readers, and so the Espionage Act is there to Provide Incentives for High Public Officials to Act with Integrity and Honesty and Competency, and People can Understand what the Motives of the Clintons were by following the Clinton Foundation Bribes.
Hillary Clinton did Not want to be held accountable, and this was the Real Reason for the Private Email Server, and Hillary Clinton had to keep those State Department Emails and the so called Personal Emails, in case she was asked to account for them one day, and because the way she handled the Private Server matter is better for her than having no Emails to show, because that would be Definite Criminal Activity, but there were Many Clinton Emails that are said to be Personal but are in Fact Evidence of Deliberate Criminal Activity, and these Incriminating Emails are the Emails that Hillary Clinton Especially did Not want others to see, while there would be a small percentage of those Emails which were genuinely personal, but Hillary Clinton does Not care about her personal Emails, as much as she does about her Incriminating Emails which are Evidence of her Crimes.
If it was Not for the Benghazi Hearings, then Hillary Clinton would have continued to keep her Private Email Server and her Crimes a Secret, and this is why she wants to became President to avoid a Court Trial.
Those Candidates who want to be someone for America, must be Much for America and little for themselves, and Hillary Clinton is 100 % Clinton and 0 % American.
Hillary Nixon Clinton who was on the President Nixon Impeachment Committee learned something from that Experience, and that was that if a Power Addicted Unethical Person or Persons could place Secret Recording Devices in the White House so that they could Listen to and Record and to Blackmail and Puppetize President George Bush the second, while he was at the White House, and Listen to and Record and to Blackmail and Puppetize President Barack Obama.
The Clintons set up the Secret Listening and Secret Recording System at the White House, and they were able to Blackmail and Puppetize President George Bush the second very quickly, and they have done the same to President Barack Obama.
Perhaps the Clintons have been the Real Presidents with President George Bush the second, and perhaps Hillary Clinton ordered the Iraq War, and made it look like it was all the fault of the Blackmailed and Puppetized Resident at the White House who is also known as President George Bush the second, and so the Clintons have been Presidents since January 1993, and the Clintons with the Dominant Hillary Clinton want another 4 years as Presidents.
We Know that whether something is done deliberately or unintentionally, then the Result is the same, and that is why the Espionage Act says that there is No need to prove or even consider if there was any intention for there to be a Violation of the Espionage Act, and those who Know the Clintons, Know that the Clintons are Hardened Untrustworthy Liars and Devious Criminals who Know what they are doing, because they are longtime Lawyers.
We Know that the Blackmailed and therefore Puppetized President George Bush the second called Bill Clinton his brother and said that Hillary Clinton is his sister in law, and President George Bush the second Campaigned for the Clinton Foundation at http://assets.bwbx.io/images/iwqGD6mTY9iY/v1/1200x-1.jpg .
We Know that Resident Barack Obama of the Clinton’s Puppet Obama Administration wants to protect his own Secrets, and he is a Resident at the Whites’ House, and these Whites are the Clintons, and if this is the case, then Obama will instruct the Department of Justice not to Indict and Prosecute Hillary Clinton over her Obvious Crimes, and Clintons who are Lawyers Know how to Threaten, Blackmail, or Bribe Guccifer the Computer hacker to make Hillary Clinton appear to innocent, even though she is Obviously Guilty.
We Know that President George Bush the second had a female Secretary of State who was unmarried at the time she was the Secretary of State, and on one occasion she referred to President George Bush the second as her husband, before changing her statement after she Realized what she unintentionally let slip, because President George Bush the second already had a wife, and Perhaps Rancher and President George Bush the second, who some People compare to a Plantation Owner from one of the former Confederate States was playing House or Whites’ House with his second wife who was his Secretary of State.
People think that it is Logical that the Clintons have certain types of Secret Recordings at the White House of President George Bush the second and his Secretary of State.
We Know that the Clintons were able to Puppetize their Political Opponent President George Bush the second, and Hillary Clinton said that the President Barack Obama who the Clintons have also Puppetized will Act Corruptly and Not allow her to be Indicted and Prosecuted for her Crimes and Treasons, but that he could endorse her to be President, and Resident George Bush the second campaigned for the Clinton Foundation.
President Barack Obama Knows that the Clintons are Blackmailing him to keep the Secret Listening Devices at the White House for both himself and for the next President if somehow Hillary Clinton is not the next President of America, and if the Clintons get back into their Whites’ House, then they will continue to Upgrade their Listening and Recording Devices at the White House.
There are Many People who for good reasons are Concerned that the Extensively Travelled Clintons are being Blackmailed to try to win the Election, so that the Extensively Travelled Clintons can continue to Sell America’s Top Secrets to those who may have Secret Films of the Clintons in a Criminal Act or an Embarrassing Act, for which they can be Blackmailed, and so the Clintons Cannot be Public Servants, but Puppets of their Puppet Masters, but the Clintons have Never been Public Servants but Only Self Servers.
There are Many American Social Democrats who Know that the Undemocratic Primaries of the Undemocratic Party are Rigged and Corrupt with the Clinton Campaign using Slanders against Senator Sanders, Vote Rigging, Voter Suppression, and Many Dirty Tricks, including the Refusal to Debate matters, along with the Corrupt Selection of the Undemocratic Party Super Delegates.
There are American Social Democrats who think that if the Undemocratic Party had followed Democratic Principles then Senator Sanders would have more Pledged Delegates long ago than Hillary Clinton has, and if Hillary Clinton wants to be Democratic, then she should retire from the Democratic Primaries Campaign, and Senator Sanders should be the Democratic Party nominee for Presidential Candidate, and if Hillary Clinton does not want to debate Senator Sanders, then perhaps Senator Sanders should give a Speech on Television.
This matter would Not be mentioned, except that Hillary Clinton wants to be President of America, and we Know that Bill Crosby is a Good Friend of the Clintons, and we can see that as with Bill Cosby, that other Clinton Secrets may become Known to Americans, and this is yet another reason in a long list of reasons why there are American Social Democrats who want Anyone But Clinton to be President of America at https://www.the-newshub.com/us-politics/i-wont-vote-for-clinton-and-will-encourage-sanders-to-run-a-third-party-bid-for-president .
“It is entirely possible that the world is being led to destruction by nothing more than the greed of the US military-security complex.”
What fuels the the US military-security complex other than forces that are evil, as the inanimate object cannot by itself posses greed. Humans have created the death machine that is out of control.
Recognition disarms the devil.
Can’t put it more blunt (realistic) then this. The most “cultural depraved” should understand this.
Unfortunately those who could use this info are not reading this.
I know a lot of sweet people but they are just capable of picking up the loud humdrum around themselves, they don’t see a need to look, think or even be a individual and act accordingly.
Simply put they don’t live they are being lived.
Bizantura
That’s the big calamity of our human societies today.
Can anyone tell me which war us has won? Corea? Vietnam? WWII (it was the Red Army who defeated Hitler)?. Iraq? Syria? Ah yes sure that small island Haiti I think it is called, and some of their neighbors.
Naw when I should be forced to bet on the winner of a war between us and Russia, it’s Russia no doubt. And it will be done in some few days. Promised!
May 17, 2016 Obama Has Been At War Longer Than Any Other President In History
Bush was a horrible president. At the time, I thought he was the worst president in American history. But Obama has made a lot of firsts himself.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2016/05/obama-presided-war-longer-president-history.html
Here another view of Memorial Day. Some (forced to be) unknown heroes for whom a Memorial Day should be held, at least together with the official heroes.
http://www.theeventchronicle.com/editors-pick/10-truth-related-murders-remember-memorial-day/