Don’t lose sight of the fact that in the Arab world (although Iran is largely Persian) the “strong horse” characterization hold tremendous sway in that culture when negotiating or picking sides. It’s not so much about right or wrong, moral or not, it’s who is most powerful. That could be the strategy behind the military build up. After 2 decades of stalemate in ground fighting, air power is still nothing they for certain have an answer to.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait have all told the US they will not permit their airspaces or territories to be used as a launchpad against Iran, including for refuelling and rescue operations, a senior US official told Middle East Eye.
In order to bleed US taxpayers to death, a permanent enemy needed to be invented. Truman got the ball rolling in 1945 by declaring it was US "policy" that USSR was bad and must be defeated. Later on we were told that Russia was just as bad. So in 1990s US elites plundered newly independent Russia, left it for dead, laughing about how it had sold "sh-t" to Yeltsin. In 2000 Mr. Putin arrived and saved his country. It wasn't very polite of Truman to stab US ally USSR in the back since USSR had just defeated Hitler, lost 25 million of its citizens doing so as well as having lived under German occupation for over a year. After WWI and before Truman, US citizens knew the US government and Wall St. were set on "internationalism," then a euphemism for selling weapons and sending US boys over oceans "over there" to die on foreign soil. In vain US citizens desperately begged instead for "neutrality" via "Neutrality Acts" in the 1930s. But US rubes were no match for scarlet and ermine of the UK monarchy. UK King George VI appointed Churchill to PM and assigned him to travel to the US to beg US government to convert US rubes to war slaves. Forget about the big oceans that protect us on 2 sides, it was simply being "isolationist" not to be war slaves. After Truman dropped two A-bombs on Japanese civilians Churchill traveled to the US and gushed over how great it was that US and UK controlled the bomb because, unlike others, we'd only use it for good, and after all US and UK effectively were one citizenship. (Hey, lets join the British Commonwealth! Who doesn't love King Charles and Camilla!)...From WWII to 2014 the US attempted to overthrow at least 57 foreign governments....https://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the- master-list....2013, "The United States war machine has been on auto pilot. Since World War II, the world has believed that US foreign policy means well, and that America’s motives in spreading democracy are honorable, even noble....The Anti-Empire Report, demonstrates that nothing could be further from the truth....Until people understand fully the worldwide suffering American policy has caused, we will never be able to stop the monster."...2013, "America’s Deadliest Export: Democracy," by William Blum
"O’Neill ... spent years building relationships across the political spectrum and earning credibility with leftist groups.
[Beginning in February 2010] O’Neill hosted small dinners of 10-15 people in Washington, D.C. and New York with a diverse flock: Quakers, Code Pink, The American Conservative, Koch Industries, The Nation and the Cato Institute all breaking bread.
...proving to himself people of disparate points of view could work together on the war issue."
- not capable to fight Russia either, there is little to nothing to negotiate
The US is in the position of having to pay Ukraine to kidnap every civilian possible and force them to fight, as soon as the Ukrainians run out of live bodies, the war will end. No one, Not EU not US is sending in soldiers - they are incapable
China cannot get across the ocean unseen and fight on US soil. US cannot get across the ocean unseen and fight on China soil. It is really that simple [ in WWII you could, but now you can't - the idiots in the US seem desperate to ignore that ]
He warned, however, that the US is not currently in a position to respond to the perceived threat. “Unfortunately, at this critical moment, the Joint Force is contending with an acquisition process and defense industrial base that are not optimized for protracted conflict. The US does not have the throughput, responsiveness, or agility needed to deter our adversaries,”
”The threat posed by China to American interests in the Indo-Pacific is real and growing. The US needs to work with allies and partners to deter China’s aggression in this region,”
I wish he would have said just what interests we have there, other than TSCM, which I have heard is building a factory in Arizona, anyway. If tariffs are meant to bring our industrial capacity back "home" what do we care about China and Taiwan and supply chains and the whole area? Or is it just that we are dead set on continuing to be the global hegemon?
At least he recognizes we are in no position to fight China. But the implication is that we need to act like the Europeans vs. Russia: Spend money we don't have to re-industrialize our military base so we can go to war. So he's a realist but still insane (IMO).
But who defines what antisemitism really is? Zionists. Does anyone care about anti-Gentilism? Where's the outrage, crickets, what's that? The Jewish left (and the few on the right) feel fully confident they can smear white America at any time with no recourse, and now it's fashionable to smear blacks who veer to far right or criticize them so they try to ruin their lives (I am thinking of you Candace Owens, or Justice Thomas, et-al), and they tagged us with term Islamaphobia. Now Zionists have a new term to chew on Islamo-Fascism just a subset of the fascism of the right-wing (eyeroll). Cuz October 7, bad Hamas must kill all Amaleks. Isn't that all non-Jewish people?
I stumbled across this doing a search on Antisemitism and found it interesting.
If only we had diplomats who have decades of experience negotiating in world "hot spots," who are necessarily objective in their treatment of adversarial parties, and who have the skills to lead such parties to conciliatory actions, compromise, and agreement to end conflicts.
People like Chas Freeman, for example. Ivy league undergraduate and post graduate degrees. Decades of experience in foreign service. High level positions representing the U.S. in its relationships with China and as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Resolved conflicts in Africa. Yes if only we had someone like him. Do read his Wikipedia bio in its entirety - it is quite eye opening:
Unfortunately, you will find in that bio why the "best" people like Chas Freeman may not end up being in senior foreign policy or intelligence positions in our government, and in particular in the Trump admin:
"On February 26, 2009, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dennis C. Blair named Freeman as chair of the National Intelligence Council.[19] Blair cited Freeman's "diverse background in defense, diplomacy and intelligence."[20]
But the earlier reports of the nomination had already mobilized a wide campaign against it, which was prodded along throughout by Steven J. Rosen who published 19 blog posts on the topic over the two weeks after February 19. In a late March article in the London Review of Books, professor John Mearsheimer cited articles written by a number of influential pro-Israeli writers that had appeared between February 19 and 26.[2][21][22][23][24] On February 25, the Zionist Organization of America publicly called for rescinding "the reported appointment."[25] Representative Steve Israel wrote to the Inspector General of the Office of the DNI calling for an investigation of Freeman's "relationship with the Saudi government" given his "prejudicial public statements" against Israel.[26] All seven Republican members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence signed a letter raising "concerns about Mr. Freeman's lack of experience and uncertainty about his objectivity"
You know the rest of the story already. Funny - not in the haha sense - how little has changed in 15 years. Here's what Ambassador Freeman had to say about the matter of his aborted appointment:
"The libels on me and their easily traceable email trails show conclusively that there is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired. The tactics of the Israel lobby plumb the depths of dishonour and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth."... "The aim of this lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision by Americans and our government other than those that it favors."
Yes we need people like him (if any still exist). But even if they exist will they ever be allowed to be true diplomats and objective negotiators? Rhetorical question.
diss, thanks for your comments. I know Mark has mentioned him numerous times in past articles and I knew only a little about him, but was curious as to why he harbored so much disdain for Trump. Well, I am beginning to understand and as things unfold with his administration, it's becoming clearer. Your post reiterated a lot of what i was learning about him.
I've written this before, on several occassions, but it bears repeating. My wife's Greek cousin was part of Greece's diplomatic corp and his criticism of US diplomacy centered on the fact our diplomats are often untrained political appointees. They are generally undiplomatic, self-serving, and do the business not of the country, but for private parties. Again, that is playing out in real time.
Ha! That's it. BTW.....you just made me think of "The Wire." All those corner boys with burner phones coming from some corner market, bought by the bundle then tossed away to leave no trace.
Read Douglas Reed's Controversy of Zion. The Zionists did WWI, then WWIII, then they would do WWIII, which is where we are right now. Trump is a puppet. But they won't win. Rothschild and the City will try anyway.
Positively demoralizing. And here I thought Trump was his own man - that is what made him so appealing - and he is taking on the Deep State, but not beyond our shores. His actions and reactions do resemble that of a puppet being yanked in one direction, then another.
I was of similar thoughts, but I am realizing perhaps what he means by going after the Deep States, is that he wants to dismantle it to set up one more in line with his backers policies.
‘…What I think the Trump Administration needs to do if it really wants peace--I'm not sure that they do, by the way,…’ - I think the zionists in the City of London are the decision-makers, not the news-maker politicians and envoys who scurry around as if they have any power to influence outcomes at all. Everything is decided already from above, and I wonder how well this sits with PDJT - maybe like a bone in the throat?
"Democrats have made sure there were wars going on somewhere during **every** administration"
So it was Dems who made sure there were wars going on during Dubya's eight years--the forever wars that started back then? Who made sure that Dubya fomented war with Russia by supporting NATO entry for Ukraine and Georgia? Who armed Ukraine to the teeth and piled on sanctions on Russia during the period 2017 to 2021?
I do not understand -- change that: Do not AGREE WITH Larry Wilkerson adulation of G H W Bush. Book by Jeff Engel, Into the Desert, reports that Gorbachev phoned Bush repeatedly, urging him NOT to go to war in Iraq/Kuwait. AND Jordan's king worked with fellow Arabs for a solution, but Bush rejected: GHBW needed to take advantage of Unipolar moment to prove "USA is still in charge." SO "killing 500 000 children worth the price."
Sadly, I was very pro-Bush I and II back in the day, that was before I became more active in my desire to understand what, why, where with respect to all our involvement in the Middle East. Imagine, it was something I read in the Progressive Foreign Affairs magazine that resonated with me. The reasons this author cited (I forget the name) was the fact we needed a foe, any foe real or imagined to keep the fires stoked and the money rolling toward the MIC and the support of imaginary allies like Israel. Why? Power, money, and greed among our politicians for a start, but it became more apparent we were doing the dirty work for the Oligarch's. But which ones? I am learning every day.
Sorry Kevin. Mark was being overly kind to the Zionist genocide squad in his administration - which is a serious blight on humanity and a true tragedy that is playing out in real time. Thank you Mark for calling out these people(?).
Don’t lose sight of the fact that in the Arab world (although Iran is largely Persian) the “strong horse” characterization hold tremendous sway in that culture when negotiating or picking sides. It’s not so much about right or wrong, moral or not, it’s who is most powerful. That could be the strategy behind the military build up. After 2 decades of stalemate in ground fighting, air power is still nothing they for certain have an answer to.
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/gulf-states-refuse-let-us-use-bases-airspace-iran-attack
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait have all told the US they will not permit their airspaces or territories to be used as a launchpad against Iran, including for refuelling and rescue operations, a senior US official told Middle East Eye.
In order to bleed US taxpayers to death, a permanent enemy needed to be invented. Truman got the ball rolling in 1945 by declaring it was US "policy" that USSR was bad and must be defeated. Later on we were told that Russia was just as bad. So in 1990s US elites plundered newly independent Russia, left it for dead, laughing about how it had sold "sh-t" to Yeltsin. In 2000 Mr. Putin arrived and saved his country. It wasn't very polite of Truman to stab US ally USSR in the back since USSR had just defeated Hitler, lost 25 million of its citizens doing so as well as having lived under German occupation for over a year. After WWI and before Truman, US citizens knew the US government and Wall St. were set on "internationalism," then a euphemism for selling weapons and sending US boys over oceans "over there" to die on foreign soil. In vain US citizens desperately begged instead for "neutrality" via "Neutrality Acts" in the 1930s. But US rubes were no match for scarlet and ermine of the UK monarchy. UK King George VI appointed Churchill to PM and assigned him to travel to the US to beg US government to convert US rubes to war slaves. Forget about the big oceans that protect us on 2 sides, it was simply being "isolationist" not to be war slaves. After Truman dropped two A-bombs on Japanese civilians Churchill traveled to the US and gushed over how great it was that US and UK controlled the bomb because, unlike others, we'd only use it for good, and after all US and UK effectively were one citizenship. (Hey, lets join the British Commonwealth! Who doesn't love King Charles and Camilla!)...From WWII to 2014 the US attempted to overthrow at least 57 foreign governments....https://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the- master-list....2013, "The United States war machine has been on auto pilot. Since World War II, the world has believed that US foreign policy means well, and that America’s motives in spreading democracy are honorable, even noble....The Anti-Empire Report, demonstrates that nothing could be further from the truth....Until people understand fully the worldwide suffering American policy has caused, we will never be able to stop the monster."...2013, "America’s Deadliest Export: Democracy," by William Blum
From the American Conservative.
War With Iran Is a Path to Destruction
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/war-with-iran-is-a-path-to-destruction/
Useful background on George O'Neill: https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/447233/How-a-Rockefeller-by-birth-man-initiates-legal-path-to-bypass
"O’Neill ... spent years building relationships across the political spectrum and earning credibility with leftist groups.
[Beginning in February 2010] O’Neill hosted small dinners of 10-15 people in Washington, D.C. and New York with a diverse flock: Quakers, Code Pink, The American Conservative, Koch Industries, The Nation and the Cato Institute all breaking bread.
...proving to himself people of disparate points of view could work together on the war issue."
Yep.
Russia will have defeated Ukraine before any peace agreement is made. lol
This is a well-thought-out article, Mark. Things will need to get a lot worse before any change for the better can happen, generally.
US not ready to fight China – Trump’s pick for top general
https://dailynews.co.tz/us-not-ready-to-fight-china-trumps-pick-for-top-general/#google_vignette
- not capable to fight Russia either, there is little to nothing to negotiate
The US is in the position of having to pay Ukraine to kidnap every civilian possible and force them to fight, as soon as the Ukrainians run out of live bodies, the war will end. No one, Not EU not US is sending in soldiers - they are incapable
China cannot get across the ocean unseen and fight on US soil. US cannot get across the ocean unseen and fight on China soil. It is really that simple [ in WWII you could, but now you can't - the idiots in the US seem desperate to ignore that ]
He warned, however, that the US is not currently in a position to respond to the perceived threat. “Unfortunately, at this critical moment, the Joint Force is contending with an acquisition process and defense industrial base that are not optimized for protracted conflict. The US does not have the throughput, responsiveness, or agility needed to deter our adversaries,”
”The threat posed by China to American interests in the Indo-Pacific is real and growing. The US needs to work with allies and partners to deter China’s aggression in this region,”
I wish he would have said just what interests we have there, other than TSCM, which I have heard is building a factory in Arizona, anyway. If tariffs are meant to bring our industrial capacity back "home" what do we care about China and Taiwan and supply chains and the whole area? Or is it just that we are dead set on continuing to be the global hegemon?
At least he recognizes we are in no position to fight China. But the implication is that we need to act like the Europeans vs. Russia: Spend money we don't have to re-industrialize our military base so we can go to war. So he's a realist but still insane (IMO).
If Trump gets into a Middle East war, I could see China reuniting with Taiwan.
In that case it seems there would be little to stop them.
. I Condemn Anti-Semitism
David Friedman """ I condemn anti-Semitism on the right and on the left, I'm an equal opportunity condemner of anti-Semitism-- """
yep, I do also. I candidly do not know anyone who does not.
I also condemn genocide and ethnic cleansing on the right and on the left, I am an equal opportunity condemner of genocide.
.
But who defines what antisemitism really is? Zionists. Does anyone care about anti-Gentilism? Where's the outrage, crickets, what's that? The Jewish left (and the few on the right) feel fully confident they can smear white America at any time with no recourse, and now it's fashionable to smear blacks who veer to far right or criticize them so they try to ruin their lives (I am thinking of you Candace Owens, or Justice Thomas, et-al), and they tagged us with term Islamaphobia. Now Zionists have a new term to chew on Islamo-Fascism just a subset of the fascism of the right-wing (eyeroll). Cuz October 7, bad Hamas must kill all Amaleks. Isn't that all non-Jewish people?
I stumbled across this doing a search on Antisemitism and found it interesting.
https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/why-i-am-an-anti-semite
If only we had diplomats who have decades of experience negotiating in world "hot spots," who are necessarily objective in their treatment of adversarial parties, and who have the skills to lead such parties to conciliatory actions, compromise, and agreement to end conflicts.
People like Chas Freeman, for example. Ivy league undergraduate and post graduate degrees. Decades of experience in foreign service. High level positions representing the U.S. in its relationships with China and as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Resolved conflicts in Africa. Yes if only we had someone like him. Do read his Wikipedia bio in its entirety - it is quite eye opening:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chas_W._Freeman_Jr.
Unfortunately, you will find in that bio why the "best" people like Chas Freeman may not end up being in senior foreign policy or intelligence positions in our government, and in particular in the Trump admin:
"On February 26, 2009, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dennis C. Blair named Freeman as chair of the National Intelligence Council.[19] Blair cited Freeman's "diverse background in defense, diplomacy and intelligence."[20]
But the earlier reports of the nomination had already mobilized a wide campaign against it, which was prodded along throughout by Steven J. Rosen who published 19 blog posts on the topic over the two weeks after February 19. In a late March article in the London Review of Books, professor John Mearsheimer cited articles written by a number of influential pro-Israeli writers that had appeared between February 19 and 26.[2][21][22][23][24] On February 25, the Zionist Organization of America publicly called for rescinding "the reported appointment."[25] Representative Steve Israel wrote to the Inspector General of the Office of the DNI calling for an investigation of Freeman's "relationship with the Saudi government" given his "prejudicial public statements" against Israel.[26] All seven Republican members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence signed a letter raising "concerns about Mr. Freeman's lack of experience and uncertainty about his objectivity"
You know the rest of the story already. Funny - not in the haha sense - how little has changed in 15 years. Here's what Ambassador Freeman had to say about the matter of his aborted appointment:
"The libels on me and their easily traceable email trails show conclusively that there is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired. The tactics of the Israel lobby plumb the depths of dishonour and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth."... "The aim of this lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision by Americans and our government other than those that it favors."
Yes we need people like him (if any still exist). But even if they exist will they ever be allowed to be true diplomats and objective negotiators? Rhetorical question.
diss, thanks for your comments. I know Mark has mentioned him numerous times in past articles and I knew only a little about him, but was curious as to why he harbored so much disdain for Trump. Well, I am beginning to understand and as things unfold with his administration, it's becoming clearer. Your post reiterated a lot of what i was learning about him.
I've written this before, on several occassions, but it bears repeating. My wife's Greek cousin was part of Greece's diplomatic corp and his criticism of US diplomacy centered on the fact our diplomats are often untrained political appointees. They are generally undiplomatic, self-serving, and do the business not of the country, but for private parties. Again, that is playing out in real time.
Same has happened with Macgregor and Danny D -
I remember that shameful episode well.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/another-leak-mike-waltz-set-up-least-20/
Mike Waltz’s Staff Set Up at Least 20 Signal Chat Groups to Discuss Ukraine, Russia, China, Middle East
Good grief...
This SHOULD be the end of him.
If only. He’s there for a reason, and it’s not a good reason. Is he the leash?
I think he's like a burner phone, he'll be replaced with another as needed.
Ha! That's it. BTW.....you just made me think of "The Wire." All those corner boys with burner phones coming from some corner market, bought by the bundle then tossed away to leave no trace.
Yes. A vote here for burner phone.
Read Douglas Reed's Controversy of Zion. The Zionists did WWI, then WWIII, then they would do WWIII, which is where we are right now. Trump is a puppet. But they won't win. Rothschild and the City will try anyway.
Positively demoralizing. And here I thought Trump was his own man - that is what made him so appealing - and he is taking on the Deep State, but not beyond our shores. His actions and reactions do resemble that of a puppet being yanked in one direction, then another.
I was of similar thoughts, but I am realizing perhaps what he means by going after the Deep States, is that he wants to dismantle it to set up one more in line with his backers policies.
‘…What I think the Trump Administration needs to do if it really wants peace--I'm not sure that they do, by the way,…’ - I think the zionists in the City of London are the decision-makers, not the news-maker politicians and envoys who scurry around as if they have any power to influence outcomes at all. Everything is decided already from above, and I wonder how well this sits with PDJT - maybe like a bone in the throat?
bone in the throat or a leash too tight, jerking him back when he fails to heel properly.
Great image!
Not Putin’s style.
"Democrats have made sure there were wars going on somewhere during **every** administration"
So it was Dems who made sure there were wars going on during Dubya's eight years--the forever wars that started back then? Who made sure that Dubya fomented war with Russia by supporting NATO entry for Ukraine and Georgia? Who armed Ukraine to the teeth and piled on sanctions on Russia during the period 2017 to 2021?
First Bush I then Clinton got the ball rolling when he bombed the Serbs. That set the table for what we see today.
The Bushes were the perfect example of compliant goyim.
I do not understand -- change that: Do not AGREE WITH Larry Wilkerson adulation of G H W Bush. Book by Jeff Engel, Into the Desert, reports that Gorbachev phoned Bush repeatedly, urging him NOT to go to war in Iraq/Kuwait. AND Jordan's king worked with fellow Arabs for a solution, but Bush rejected: GHBW needed to take advantage of Unipolar moment to prove "USA is still in charge." SO "killing 500 000 children worth the price."
Sadly, I was very pro-Bush I and II back in the day, that was before I became more active in my desire to understand what, why, where with respect to all our involvement in the Middle East. Imagine, it was something I read in the Progressive Foreign Affairs magazine that resonated with me. The reasons this author cited (I forget the name) was the fact we needed a foe, any foe real or imagined to keep the fires stoked and the money rolling toward the MIC and the support of imaginary allies like Israel. Why? Power, money, and greed among our politicians for a start, but it became more apparent we were doing the dirty work for the Oligarch's. But which ones? I am learning every day.
Sorry Kevin. Mark was being overly kind to the Zionist genocide squad in his administration - which is a serious blight on humanity and a true tragedy that is playing out in real time. Thank you Mark for calling out these people(?).
Hate free zone.