Wars Abroad, War At Home

Yesterday in his conversation with Judge Nap, Jeffrey Sachs—a professor at Columbia University—made the point that the American Empire’s increasingly unhinged pursuit of world hegemony through military supremacy is leading not only to wars abroad but also at home. Here’s my transcript of the gist of that:

What the US is trying to do--to assert military supremacy and hegemony around the world--cannot work. It will lead us into wars everywhere as it is doing, but because the public understands that this is completely the wrong course it means more and more internal suppression. So we're seeing the bottom line of this policy right now. An approach that is destroying Ukraine, an approach that supports genocide in Gaza, and an approach which leads to our campuses being overrun by the police. This is where we are heading right now. We are really on the brink and it's the security state which is our unbelievable threat, and it's their delusion that they run the world or *can* run the world that is the underlying mover of this disastrous approach which is getting us into wars everywhere.

For any readers who regard this as a bit hysterical, I would suggest that the coupling of the FISA expansion to facilitate surveillance at home with funding for wars abroad is not coincidental. The war at home, as is becoming clear, is a war on our constitutional order, and especially on the First Amendment.

Today, in a conversation with Chas Freeman on Danny Davis’ show, Freeman made similar points—excerpts:

Amb Chas Freeman 3 Things America Must Do to Redeem our Reputation Round the World

CF: I don't think very many people in Israel feel secure anymore. I think many of them feel that their government is not interested in their well-being or the release of the hostages but is playing games with them. I think many of them fear the establishment of a sort of Israeli version of the Islamic State, which carries out atrocities against nonbelievers and which makes the life of believers impossible. I don't think Israel can go on like this. Mr Netanyahu is rightly condemned for putting his own interests ahead of the people of Israel, and certainly ahead of world Jewry, because what he is doing--to the extent it evokes automatic support from Jewish communities around the world--puts them in jeopardy. You know, if you behave in an utterly despicable fashion you invite denunciation. You want to call that anti-Semitism? It isn't. It is a response to your own bad behavior.

CF: He's going to do it [attack Rafah] because, if he doesn't do it, his cabinet will repudiate him and he will lose office and he'll end up in jail for corruption--which goes to the point I was saying: this is a man with a great deal of vanity and self-esteem who's willing to sacrifice his own country for his own benefit.

CF: I think Secretary Blinken is absolutely correct. Our position hasn't changed. We have consistently enabled Israeli massacres, atrocities, and we continue to do so.

In the next excerpt Davis begins by playing a clip of Zhou claiming that the American Empire “shapes” events around the world—that’s our role as the world hegemon:

DD: These two scenarios that we've talking about here--one in the Middle East and one in Europe--we're not shaping anything. Everything's being shaped, well let me correct that. By and large Israel is shaping us. We're in the passenger seat, they're in the driver seat. In the the Russia situation we're kind of driving things, just not in a peaceful direction. How do you view his view of the world with the one that actually exists?

CF: Entirely militaristic, and very unrealistic. The world doesn't want more wars but that's what we do. We do military things. As I was describing earlier, we don't do diplomacy anymore. We don't even seem to know what it is. So, yes, we're shaping events. We managed to shape Europe into a war in which hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians as well as Russians have died. We are guilty of betraying our allies. I think the Nordstream pipeline is a great example of that. Although we've not had any investigation of that incident, it does appear that that was done by us. We did walk away from Afghanistan. We're being thrown out of Niger and Chad. We are under pressure to leave Iraq because we're doing things that violate Iraqi sovereignty. Yes, we're shaping the world into a completely lawless, might-makes-right, situation. We're shaping the situation with China in such a way that the Chinese see fewer and fewer alternatives to a war over Taiwan. We are shaping the situation with Iran so that they remain our eternal enemy.

For anyone looking for stimulating discussion of the assault on the First Amendment today, Judge Nap features severall videos. These two stood out:

Prof. John Mearsheimer : Genocide, Free Speech, and Academia

FWIW, Mearsheimer—professor at University of Chicago—believes the protests will not go away. It’s a very interesting conversation, given Mearsheimer’s long academic career and his own championing of speech on taboo subjects.

Phil Giraldi : Students Taking the Lead in Denouncing Atrocities

This next video, despite the title, does a deep dive into the Israeli role in suppressing speech in America—highly recommended. Just one example, Blumenthal exposes an undercover NYPD officer who has masqueraded as a professor at Columbia University. This is just one example of the close ties between Columbia U. and the Israeli national security state. Really a must watch.

Max Blumenthal : Palestinian Hostages in Israel