No Excuse For Ignorance

I’m well aware of the deluge of lies, misinformation, disinformation, historical amnesia, ideological bias, and pure tribal hatred for Russia and Vladimir Putin, which saturates the media, with any mention of Russia, Ukraine, NATO, and the EU, by politicians, celebrities, commentators, every talking head who gets shoved in our faces via TV and the internet.

I’m going to make an audacious, totally irrefutable, unequivocal statement about all of this: There is absolutely no excuse for the ignorance which has become new normal for our fake thought leaders and authorities. Moreover, there is no excuse for any thinking person, any citizen who can read at a high school level or above — any of us everyday folks — to be taken in by the current phony narrative about Russia and its relationship to the U.S.

It is degrading and insulting to the intelligence and common decency of anyone with a functioning brain to be so callously manipulated, so frightened, so stampeded into the group-think which unabashedly promotes hatred, suspicion, divisiveness, fear; requires unwavering agreement, silencing anyone from even asking sensible, obvious questions; which embraces perpetual war, even casually talks about nuclear war; which demands absolute, unbending loyalty and obedience, our bowing down to leaders and self-anointed authorities who are provably either clinically insane or colossally incompetent . . . or both.

The good news is we don’t have to go along with this charade.

Finding out the truth is simple. It will require: 1) turning off your TV, and taking a healthy break from social media, internet news, Twitter, chat groups, YouTube and its numerous spinoffs; and 2) reading three books.

These three books are not difficult to read. They are extremely well-written, accessible, full of vital facts, information, and explanations. They are not ponderous academic works. Read with genuine curiosity and open-mindedness, they are pleasurable reading.

I do have to caution you. Because much of what you’ll discover will not fit the “official narrative” — which last time I checked was 99 and 44/100 percent pure fabrication — you’re going to have your eyebrows raised quite a few times; you might occasionally get upset — because discovering people you trusted have been lying through their teeth is never pleasant; you will probably, and justifiably so, have a lot of thinking and rethinking to do. But trust me, it will be worth every minute of it. I believe much of what now troubles and puzzles you, what now leaves you confused and stressed about current crises and the prospects for major war, your understandable fears about the coming economic meltdown and what are the real causes for such a catastrophe, questions about who runs our country and what drives its current self-destructive policies, will finally get some sensible answers. At least you’ll understand why we’re in the mess we’re in, and have a good idea what needs to be done . . . for your own good and that of your family and community.

Here are the three books:

Just today I finished the late Stephen F. Cohen’s War With Russia? Sadly he passed away a little over two years ago. This was his last book. It’s an incredible work. He could have written it yesterday, because everything he says is totally relevant today, perhaps even more so. From the publisher: “Prescient and even more relevant than when originally released in 2019, this Memorial Edition of War With Russia? provides keen perspective to help readers understand the current Ukraine crisis. Are we in a new Cold War with Russia? Does Vladimir Putin really want to destabilize the West? War With Russia? answers these questions and more.”

Dan Kovalik is a dedicated peace activist, and has been a labor and human rights lawyer since graduating from Columbia Law School in 1993. He has represented plaintiffs in ATS cases arising out of egregious human rights abuses in South America. He received the David W. Mills Mentoring Fellowship from Stanford Law School, and has lectured throughout the world. The Plot to Scapegoat Russia is part of a series of excellent books which exposes the underbelly of U.S. foreign policy: The Plot to Attack Iran, The Plot to Control the World, The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela, and No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using ‘Humanitarian’ Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests.

Ron Ridenour was born in the US Military Empire, 1939. After four years in the Air Force, in 1961 he rejected the American Dream, and has since acted as an anti-war, anti-racist and solidarity radical activist (Long Hot Summer, 1964, in Mississippi; Wounded Knee AIM 1973; anti-Vietnam war coordinator in Los Angeles). He has lived in many countries and worked as a journalist-editor-author-translator for five decades, including for Cuba’s Editorial José Martí and Prensa Latina (1988-96). His The Russian Peace Threat: Pentagon on Alert is truly a seminal work, a must read for anyone who wants a solid understanding of how Russia became “the enemy”, plunging us into a second Cold War, the ugly fruits of which we now see in Ukraine.

We often heard it said that truth wins out. Yes, the truth will set us free.

That’s true. But only if we can get to it. In an age of false flags and fake news, psyops like MKUltra and Operation Gladio, coupled with the wholesale capture of “official” media — e.g. the New York Times and Washington Post — by the national security agencies, it most certainly isn’t always easy. At least in terms of the accelerating hostility and potential hot war between the US and Russia, I’ve tried to make it much easier.

If these books make you angry, that’s a good sign. It means you’re a rational, sensible, caring, morally sound person.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

No Excuse For Ignorance | John Rachel

War is the answer! But what was the question?

In the forums for our national conversation, there is no earnest discussion of peace and cooperation now … period! I’m not talking lip service or political posturing. I’m talking REAL DISCUSSION, widespread, inclusive, comprehensive discussion. In the media, by our leaders, among everyday people. NONE!

We have a war economy, a war on terror, troops fighting in seven countries (that we know of), over 800 military bases across the planet, countless secret missions and ops, soon weapons in space, and to add more gasoline to the fire are insulting and openly hostile to Russia and China — apparently to provoke them into a war. We the public are to believe the only available options are how much war and who to attack next.

There are no prominent media platforms, no high-visibility celebrities, no folk or pop songs being aired, no TV shows or movies, no major love-ins/teach-ins/sit-ins, no massive demonstrations, promoting peace.

If spectacle is out of the question because of Covid-19 lockdowns and social distancing, an effective peace movement would at bare minimum establish a national conversation about peace with the powerful tools that are available. But the current appeals for peace are a total washout. That’s the reality. There are sparsely-attended Zoom sessions, enthusiastic but isolated and very small clusters of activists, occasional listless street protests, none of which create enough buzz to be news to the greater mass of American citizens. They hear as much about peace now as they hear about powdered wigs.

As for our spokespersons at a federal level, all they officially talk about is “defending our national interest” — whatever that means — and the need for bigger, more powerful, more exotic, more expensive weapons. This salivating for a bigger badder military is bipartisan. Apparently blowing things up, creating animosity, and making more refugees are the only items the Democrats and Republicans can agree on.

But here’s the wrench in the gears of this doomsday machine: The simple, obvious truth is, all of the current talk about the urgent need to extend and expand our military is predicated on completely flawed thinking and a deceptive premise, one that we’re hearing belched out with teeth-gritting hysteria more and more these days. 

Here it is:

“We can’t win a war against China or Russia, much less both at the same time.”

Actually yes! This is completely accurate. 

BUT THE REAL TRUTH IS, THIS SHOULD BE A CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION. Because THEY can’t win a war against us either! It’s a perfect standoff. No one wins. No one loses. Why bother?

What a relief! There will be no war. Right?

Wrong.

Instead, it’s the basis of the further absurd claim that since we can’t beat Russia or China, we are militarily weak, vulnerable, lacking the necessary hardware and fire power. It’s used to promote expanding the military even more. 

Where’s the deception? The deception is the wording. It should be: We currently can’t win a war of AGGRESSION against them, attacking them on THEIR soil. The need for the pivot to Asia. Putting NATO troops and missiles on Russia’s borders. Our never-ending wars in the Middle East. Expansion of our military footprint in Africa. Our secret ops everywhere. All of this projection of power “over there” to confront and defeat our “enemies” on their soil, in their waters, in their skies, requires bigger and better weapons, more ships and planes, trillions more dollars to float the bloat.

This sprawl of U.S. fighting forces is predicated false assumption is that WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEFEAT ANYONE, ANYWHERE, AT ANY TIME. 

Who voted for this? Did you? I sure didn’t.

This mindset, this thinking comprises the essential core of exceptionalist madness. It’s the sort of delusion and arrogance that brings every empire down. And it obvious that it’s bankrupting our country . . . socially, morally, and economically. The self-sabotaging assumption that the U.S. should rule the planet is at the root of all of our geo-political machinations, misadventures, miscalculations. It’s making us the pariah of the world community and ultimately will destroy our unacknowledged empire from within. We will collapse from the weight of our hubris and recklessness. If we don’t push our adversaries too hard and too fast, ending up with a humiliating defeat on the battlefield, then eventually the waste of so much of our national resources on the pursuit of world empire will eviscerate America from within. We already see the shocking signs disintegration, the destruction of a functioning society every time we turn on the news. Some folks only need to look out their window.

THE BIG PICTURE, THE SOBERING REALITY.

Nothing will change, this self-destructive addiction to a failing world view and foreign policy will not go away, with the incentives now in place to perpetuate war, perpetuate empire, perpetuate the MISCM complex. NOTHING WILL STOP THE MADNESS! Yes, there will be minor adjustments, tinkering, fine-tuning. But it will always be tinkering and fine-tuning an out-of-control military, putting a pretty face on a thuggish foreign policy, and disguising our blood-drenched ham-fisted attempts at world conquest as a visit by the Democracy Fairy. 

Most importantly, the policies that have resulted in endless wars, rivers of bloodshed, mountains of corpses, and nation-shattering chaos across the world are choices that the vast majority of everyday citizens NEVER APPROVED OF, NOR WOULD THEY EVER if they truly understood what was happening.

Without a genuine national conversation which at bare minimum focuses on reducing our military footprint  and ending our wanton aggression, redefining the role of the military, promoting real peace, seeking genuine partnerships on a whole host of issues that require international cooperation, reaching out (as both China and Russia both do) to create win-win situations based on mutual respect and shared values, our current trajectory — a high-risk flirtation with nuclear war and other epic disasters — will continue unabated.

How do we begin a national conversation which seriously promotes peace?  

How do we begin a national conversation which marginalizes or axes the warmongers?

How do we the people insert ourselves into making the decisions that impact our lives and future?

It starts with emptying the seats of those now in power. Then filling them with individuals who are not captured by the psychosis of American exceptionalism, not beholden to the military-industrial-congressional-media complex, committed to representing the interests and promoting the general welfare of all citizens, determined to restore the proper balance of the branches of government as required by the Constitution, and invested in promoting cooperation and peace among the nations of the world community.

For that, we need the full support of at least 150 million everyday citizens, who demand to be heard and treated with dignity and fairness. Enlisting and engaging these individuals is the central goal of the Peace Dividend Project.

Its time has come.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

War is the answer! But what was the question? | John Rachel