Since leaving America August 2006, I have traveled to sixteen countries. A great deal has happened. This site is to share my thoughts, photos, music, writings, travel experiences, and developing political/social commentary with you. I hope you find it interesting and informative.
America’s current political leaders are addicted to war. They are obsessed with world conquest, drunk on power, convinced of their infallibility, have no respect for democracy or the will of the American people, believe other nations are “unexceptional”, meaning they regard them as inferior to the U.S. thus treat them with contempt. These megalomaniacs believe they are ordained by destiny to rule over the world and the people in it. They ignore treaties, scoff at U.S. and international law, doing whatever they deem necessary to promote their tyranny over the planet, including America itself.
None of this will stop, the wars will never end, the colossal waste of money, resources, and human capital will only accelerate until the vast majority of good, decent U.S. citizens unite and oppose their insane agenda. The “people” must embrace and execute a decisive, game-changing plan to remove our current ruthless, war-obsessed leaders from positions of power and replace them with individuals who will embrace peace and engage the rest of the world in a spirit of cooperation and harmonious co-existence.
This book offers just such an actionable, game-changing plan.
Please watch as much of the above video as you can handle. Dancing around the room is not only permitted, it is highly recommended!
Here are the lyrics to this happy bit of pop music fluff . . .
A recent article in RT tells us about the song. “The track was recorded by 11-year-old Svetlana Chertischeva, known as Betsy, and 12-year-old Maria Yankovskaya, two rising stars of Russian music. Released in November, the track was initially popular among elementary and middle schoolers, but later gained popularity among adults, and has since been featured in a number of meme videos.”
Okay . . . now the juicy part.
A member of the European Parliament from Germany, former school teacher turned social psychologist/politician Nela Riehl, is claiming: “’Sigma Boy’ is a viral Russian trope used on social media, which communicates patriarchal and pro-Russian worldviews, only one example of Russian infiltration of popular discourse through social media.”
It appears to me that we have to read an awful lot into these vacuous lyrics, quite typical of pop music faire, to find the cultural abominations Riehl is referring to. It seems like a bit of a stretch, for example, that ‘Skittles’ and ‘Snickers’ are Trojan horses for embedding love of Russia and deification of Putin into the minds of young music fans. And ‘get into my Bentley, get into my Beauty Box’ are seeds to destroy the West’s embrace of neoliberalism and love of democracy? Are we to regard ‘And you’ll make me yours someday’ a forecast of some sort of demon possession, the demon being Russian culture?
Riehl is so off-the-rails, I have to wonder if the brain damage is permanent or not. Is there any way to “unhinge” such a whacko?
Evidence of this pandemic of lunacy is also everywhere here in the US. Hatred of Russia and Vladimir Putin has reached epic levels. For anything resembling normalcy and productivity to return to our national conversation — and hopefully our foreign policy — we as a nation must return to our senses. Those would be the five senses which allow us to view and embrace reality.
The challenge is formidable. I do regular postings related to my War Is Making Us Poor campaign on social media. Sometimes the responses from Americans is discouraging, if not shocking. I posted my video indictment of Vlodymyr Zelensky on over 110 allegedly progressive Facebook political groups and got comments like . . .
“This is russian propaganda”
“This is utter bullshit. Fuck Russia, Fuck Putin, Slava Ukraini”
“Hey..shit poster… so what part of Russia are you from ??”
“This is one of the more disgusting posts I’ve seen recently. How would you have played the hand Putin dealt him? Ukraine invaded Russia? Get real.”
“This reads as a translation from a Putin propaganda hit piece. It’s ridiculous.”
“This needs to be taken down! ASAP”
“You’re fucking insane.”
“This site seems to have been taken over by Meta trolls”
Obviously, animus toward Russia is running very high. Here are some stats from Pew Research Center . . .
“Roughly six-in-ten Americans (61%) label Russia an enemy of the U.S.”
“Americans overwhelmingly rate Putin negatively: 88% say they do not have confidence in the Russian president to do the right thing regarding world affairs.”
These negative sentiments are shared across party lines . . .
“Republicans and Democrats are about equally likely to say they view Russia unfavorably (88% vs. 87%), although Democrats are more likely to have very unfavorable opinions of Russia.”
No doubt about it. The Deep State campaign to smear Putin and create fear and hatred of Russia has been extremely effective.
And I worry . . .
There’s a threshold where brainwashing becomes more of a lobotomy and is irreversible. I fear many Americans have crossed that threshold and are permanent residents of Hate-Russia-La-La-Land. There may be no effective remedy.
We might be able to mitigate the impact of such colossal ignorance. I’m just not sure we can mass produce enough of these . . .
There are so many answers to that question, it's difficult to know where to begin. But here are a few right off the top of my head, based on our current foreign policy and the thinking mapped out by the truly remarkable collection of political leaders currently at the helm. One of these real geniuses offers insights into the kind of guy he is in the above video.
Anyway, please stand at attention with your hands over your hearts, as I offer twenty-four of the reasons why we should wage war on Iran.
1) Because we can.
2) We have all these bombs.
3) What good is a military if you don't use it?
4) We love spreading chaos!
5) Destroy, divide, conquer.
6) Have you ever seen Hassan Rouhani on Dancing With The Stars? Obviously he hates our freedom and our television shows.
16) Donald Trump will get re-elected because when we're at war we have to rally behind the president (I think it's somewhere in the Bible: "Don't change horses' asses in the middle of a war." Leviticus? Corinthians?)
17) Hollywood needs new settings for its upcoming war movies.
Ron Ridenour’s masterfully-written indictment of U.S. militarism and its take-all-prisoners imperial project is of such breathtaking scope and astonishing depth, it would be hard to exaggerate its value and timeliness, as the foreign policy of the Empire of Chaos now as never before in recorded history, steers the world toward apocalyptic confrontation and puts the survival of the entire human race at risk.
Those readers still in the embrace of the most toxic pile of propaganda ever assembled by a world power, that America is a force of good, spreading democracy, defending human rights, standing with the oppressed and marginalized, should have medics in the room with them to apply emergency procedures as the truth pours off the pages of this book. Ridenour pulls no punches and with meticulous research and documentation, leaves little doubt that his narrative offers nothing less than the explicit and savage truth of over a century of exploits and exploitation. We see brutal, barbaric, merciless application of military and economic power, with the clear and unambiguous goal of world domination — the U.S. as the ultimate empire blessed by God and history and the Fates, exempt from the rules of international law and judgment by anyone who would challenge it. While the focus is Russia, this book covers a lot more ground, offering glimpses into many theaters of confrontation and conflict: China, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, of course the Middle East, as well as many countries in its more immediate sphere of influence, Central and South America. With its 800+ bases currently sprawling across the planet, we’re hard-pressed to find anywhere where the heavy foot of American power does not exercise its self-serving prerogative.
Those readers who already are familiar with the scope of U.S. hypocrisy, who understand that behind the smiley face of official beneficence and goodness lies an agenda that serves a ruling elite at the expense of the vast number of everyday citizens, both inside the U.S. and out, will still benefit enormously from this book. Much of it might constitute a refresher course, but I suspect many, myself included, will be pleasantly — or unpleasantly — rewarded with both disturbing factual knowledge and Ridenour’s fresh insights and analysis. It may be for such readers “preaching to the choir” but I’ve never heard a choir that didn’t need to be tuned up from time to time.
Ridenour quotes “The Naked Human”, a poem written by Gustav Munch-Petersen.
I am only a human but I shall one day raise earth’s mountains and let them shake in the ears of those who sleep
I am only a human but I shall one day take the sun down from heaven and light up all the dark holes with merciless white light
I am only a human but I shall one day steal the gods lightning and sweep the earth clean of dust
If I may do some metaphorical borrowing, I’d say that with The Russian Peace Threat: Pentagon on Alert Ron Ridenour has raised some mountains, taken the sun down from heaven, and stolen lightning from the gods. Let’s hope his exceptional scholarship and writing wakes up some people, lights up the dark holes, and sweeps away the dust.
Our survival as a species depends on it.
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
It's actually a death rattle. The low guttural burbling of a movement on its death bed.
The
sad truth is that the peace movement in America is in a coma, just a
whimper away from an inglorious burial in an unmarked grave behind the
county dump.
When is the last time more than a few hundred showed up at a massive rally for peace?
Is there hope?
I'd like to think there is.
But
we have to be realistic. If we're going to have a serious national
conversation about peace, ending the senseless self-sabotaging wars, and
taking America off permanent war footing, we must approach everyday
citizens in language they understand, in terms they can embrace, in a
way that is so powerful and over-the-top they can't possibly ignore it.
The Peace Dividendconcept
is just that. It's so extreme and outside-the-box -- not that that
discredits or invalidates it in the least -- it can only get traction
from two sources.
Either
a bold and charismatic politician makes it central to his public
oratory and serious political agenda. Obama, Sanders, and (I hate to
admit it) Trump would all be capable of "selling" it. Obama and Sanders
both love war. Trump is mentally challenged. Maybe there's another
MLK out there somewhere. We can dream!
Yet
another senseless war breaks out. Body bags are piling up. The
national debt begins skyrocketing. People have finally had it. They
are sick of empire building, endless wars, appalling waste. This
scenario could unfold sooner than we think. We have a tough guy
president who's just proposed a 10% increase in our already bloated
military budget, we have both major parties screaming for war. Major
confrontation with Iran, China, Russia -- or all three -- is on the
horizon.
Unfortunately,
when that happens all chaos will be unleashed, the fog and frenzy of
battle will roll over everyone like a toxic oil spill, the media will go
into hyper-drive to "support our troops", the imbeciles who led us into
the conflagration will be grandstanding and/or pointing fingers of
blame at everyone else, and clearer heads will be lopped off in displays
of fanatic super-patriotism as the media fills our eyes and ears with
tales of valor, sacrifice, and super-human acts of heroism. It will be a
bullshit storm of epic proportions.
We
could be doing this right now. There already exists a phenomenal
network of peace activism. But these organizations are totally
ineffective now because their message, 1) is not getting heard, 2) is
not engaging, 3) is stale and boring. I have contacted hundreds of
these groups and their spokespersons. No one is interested in new
ideas. These include a lot of very famous peace activists (you would
definitely recognize most of the names).
So . . .
Either I'm crazy.
Or . . .
These
peace creeps can't get their heads around the idea that for 40 years
now, continuing right up to the present, they have completely failed.
The old methods and battle cries from the Vietnam War days haven't
worked since the 70s. These folks need a new paradigm. They need new
memes. They need both a new message and better messaging.
Just look around. We just had a Peace Prize president who dropped 26,171 bombs last year
on countries we're not even at war with. The U.S. has engaged in
massive military aggression in eight countries since the peace dividend
was originally promised in 1992. We are now in an open-ended war on
terror that is making us and the entire world less safe. Our military
is the scourge of the planet!
Is the current peace movement actually going to claim they're making progress? That the demonstrations, petitions, bumper stickers are working? [Insert Einstein's definition of insanity here.]
The Peace Dividend concept is not some impulse, some catchy phrase developed over a bowl of hashish. It's a fully developed strategy. I've outlined what the approach entails, how it can be effected, how it can be paid for.
This last point is the important. The Peace Dividend refund, because
of its scale and the way it's underwritten, drives a host of other
progressive reforms. It is a watershed for massive realignment of our
priorities and use of financial resources. Seems like that would be
worth paying attention to.
If
you know anyone working in the anti-war organizations, please tell them
they absolutely must take a look at my plan. Singing Give Peace A Chance doesn't cut it anymore. Neither does getting a peace sign tattooed to your forehead.
The
world is rushing headlong toward world war, risking nuclear
annihilation and the end of the human race. Eliminating geopolitical
idiocy, imperial hubris, and monomaniacal delusions of conquest by
challenging our warmongering elites with an effective plan of action
should be what shapes and defines the struggle of those noble
organizations attempting to abolish war and promote peace throughout the
world.
A strategy like the Peace Dividend must be the centerpiece giving focus to their efforts.
Otherwise, the next time I file an update, the response will be . . .
"What peace movement?"
The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World is now available both as an ebook and deluxe paperback at all of the usual outlets.
You
prefer to remember the times he took you to the park, that amazing
camping vacation a few summers back, the funny things he often says at
the dinner table, that beautiful dog he gave you on your 12th birthday.
But you can't deny it any longer. The truth is painful. But . . .
Dad is an alcoholic and he beats mom.
Do you hate him? Do you reject him as your father?
No . . . but things have to drastically change and very soon.
This
is not actually the story I wish to tell. I'm merely drawing a
parallel. I'm talking about dealing with denial, facing reality,
accepting responsibility, taking action.
There are many situations in life for which the above scenario is a metaphor.
The parallel I'm making is the relationship between a citizen and a government gone mad.
We've
avoided it for a long time. We prefer to think of America as a beacon
of hope in the world, the fountainhead of truth and justice, a purveyor
of democratic values and human rights.
But we can't deny it any longer. The truth is painful. But . . .
I
won't talk about the millions of human carcasses piled on top of more
carcasses, the result of countless war crimes and merciless military
strategies which place no value on human life, whether the victims are
in uniform or innocent civilians. I've realized that the scale of the
horror is such that its incomprehensible to most good decent citizens. I
myself when confronted by figures like 3 million Vietnamese killed, 1.5
Iraqis killed, on and on, find my eyes glazing over in the deluge of
zeroes. I literally cannot grasp these numbers and apply them
meaningfully to the grief and physical suffering which they are supposed
to somehow encapsulate.
Let's instead look at a few simple very recent facts and try to put them in perspective.
Fact 1: The U.S. is not officially at war with any other country at this time.
Fact 2: The U.S. has not been attacked in any sense of the word in the last 16 years.
Fact 3: Last year the U.S. military dropped 26,171 bombs on seven different countries.
Mind you, these are the official figures. Who knows what the real totals are?
These
were not water-filled balloons or July 4th fireworks. At the end of
every explosion, there were body parts strewn all over the surrounding
area. Survivors were being crushed in collapsed buildings, or crawling
along the ground with limbs torn off, leaving a trail of blood squirting
out of severed arteries. Innocent people, men, women, and children
just going about the everyday business of living, were mangled by a
lethal mix of high-velocity shrapnel, and chunks of rubble created by
ton after ton of high-yield explosives dropped anonymously from the sky.
Rigorous studies
have made it very clear that well over half of the casualties of
current warfare are civilians. In what are called 'internal conflicts'
-- like Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia -- which now are
by far the most prevalent form of military conflict, the percentages
can be as high as 90% civilians.
These violent clashes are typically fought by proxies. In all of the
countries just listed, the aggressors are mercenaries paid by the U.S.
and its allies to enter and destroy a country in what is then
deceptively characterized as a civil war or "people's uprising". There
is very disturbing recent evidence, for example, that the U.S. through CIA back channels has been funding ISIS, Al Nusra, as well as other extremely barbarous terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria.
By
the way, that money they withhold from your paycheck? Or that
quarterly tax payment you regularly make? Think about it. This is
where a big chunk of your tax dollars is going. You're paying for this.
Does any of this make my point a little more comprehensible?
26,171 bombs . . . funding terrorism . . . innocent civilians die . . . all in a days work.
America can say with great pride that what it does, it usually does very well.
When we put our minds to something, we pull out all the stops.
Now we can put killing right up there in the Top 10.
We kill efficiently. We kill without remorse. We kill without hesitation.
NOTICE TO THE WORLD . . .
Beware! We are a nation of relentless savagery!
Then again, a lot of countries already know that.
I've said this many times before and I'll keep saying it until people get it . . . Peace will not come from the top. There are too many incentives and rewards
in our corrupt corporate kleptocracy to keep the wars going and the
wheels of the defense industry churning out more mechanisms of death and
destruction.
It is only when we everyday citizens finally have had enough of the carnage, enough of the military waste, enough of the chest-beating imperialism
which makes us less safe, enough of the empty rhetoric which claims to
embrace the noble virtues but is just more deception in the name of war
and imperial conquest, it is only then that America will turn around.
Maybe
there are detailed plans out there somewhere to mobilize the good
decent citizens of this country. I haven't personally seen any. So
here is mine. Yes, it is outside-the-box, some would say radical,
extreme. But if we are the nation we claim to be in the world and in
the eyes of God, isn't cruelly and senselessly dropping 26,171 bombs on
mostly innocent people extreme and radical? My
plan demands very little of us individually. We don't have to march on
the capital or mount a revolutionary insurrection. Despite that, it
could make all the difference in the future we leave to our children and
our children's children. All that is really required is that we listen
to the voice of reason and stand strong.
At
least take a look. Open your mind up to the possibility of a future
without the madness. Of a future without endless war. Of a future when
our hard-earned tax dollars don't go to fund the relentless savagery of
a military gone mad.
The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World is now available both as an ebook and deluxe paperback at all of the usual outlets . . .
How do you deal with a shark attack in a swimming pool?
You drain the water and watch the shark suffocate.
The Peace Dividend strategy does exactly that.
It
drains the pool of funds which our insane neocon-infested military
establishment -- which includes the DOD, NSA, CIA, DHS, Congress, and
the White House -- abuses with its never-ending wars and delusional
monomaniacal pursuit of world empire.
We take back all of the money they've defrauded us out of
for the past 24 years -- we could go back further but two-and-a-half
decades is a good start -- then watch them desperately gasp and struggle
as they try to persist in their aggressive bullying of the world.
No money. America will start waging peace instead of waging war.
Peace is something we can actually afford.
The Peace Dividend, the pool of money totaling $4.82 trillion which was paid in taxes -- by you and I
-- under false pretenses, collected on the basis of lies told us by our
government in support of wasteful D.O.D. extravagance and military
aggression on no less than eight foreign countries since 1992, is money
which will be distributed as a refund to each and every single American
citizen. It is our money, tax dollars paid in good faith by
decent hard-working folks who trusted their government to put it to
correct and proper use.
We were fooled.
We were lied to.
We were conned.
We were defrauded!
We were callously ripped off!
The Peace Dividend refund comes to $14,952 for each and every living U.S. citizen, paid out over three years.
That comes to almost $60,000 for a family of four.
This
is money which should have been ours to spend, and recovering it -- as
is completely within our rights in a government of the people, by the
people, for the people -- unlike the military madmen, we'll put it to
good use. We can buy some news clothes for the kids, pay down our
credit cards, replace that car that's falling apart, take a long overdue
vacation.
Am I crazy?
No . . . we are crazy if we don't stick up for ourselves.
We are crazy if we don't stop the abuse of power and hold our government accountable.
We are crazy if we don't reject and reverse this gross misappropriation of our tax dollars.
As victims of the worst crime in history -- the biggest tax rip-off ever -- we deserve full and immediate compensation.
Let's get started.
By the way, if anyone is tempted to ask me how a shark got into the swimming pool, I have a question for you . . .
The
Peace Dividend strategy is a direct attack on America’s systemic
addiction to war by appealing to the self-interest of its citizens,
literally INCENTIVIZING people to redirect their thinking and start
WORKING FOR PEACE!
The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World is now available both as an ebook and deluxe paperback at all of the usual outlets . . .
As
anyone who is familiar with my writings knows, for the past four years
I've expressed my alarm at the systematic disempowerment of everyday
citizens -- the 99% -- and the destruction of our democracy. I'm never
content to merely identify a problem without trying to identify a
solution. Thus my books Candidate Contracts: Taking Back Our Democracy (June 2015) and Fighting for the Democracy We Deserve
(September 2015) focused on ways to address these critical challenges,
even given the shredding of our personal liberties and the sabotaging of
normal mechanisms for implementing reform.
In
developing the ideas for these books, at some point I realized that the
militarization of our domestic police forces, our communities, our
media, our foreign policy, in fact, just about every aspect of our lives
and everything America now collectively does, was central to the
control the oligarchy now has over the country and its citizens. This
militarization finds its most obvious expression in the constant wars
and the insertion of U.S. troops all over the world, the open-ended and
ubiquitous War on Terror, and the pursuit of world domination by any
means necessary, all of which are steadily driving the country to its
own cataclysmic unraveling.
But
it also occurred to me that not only was this militarization the main
mechanism for reshaping America into an imperial autocracy, it offered
at the same time a phenomenal opportunity for its citizens to reclaim
their country. I believe that the war machine is its own Achilles heel
-- at least until voting has been outlawed and we're all locked away in
work slave camps -- in that its abuse of power is so ham-fisted, at core
so contrary to the best social and political traditions of our nation,
once the majority of citizens understand what is going on, the whole
destructive regime of the warmongers can be taken down and replaced with
one that serves the greater interests of all Americans. Of course, the
major challenge is finding a way to communicate it in a way that makes
sense and guarantees a significant number of people will pay attention
to it.
This
unfolds as my Peace Dividend concept, a historical and political
analysis of endemic institutional corruption and abuse in the
Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, the NSA and other national
security agencies, Congress and the White House, offering a strategy
for challenging and ending the egregious violations of public trust.
The Peace Dividend concept originally appeared and is explored in summary form in both of the two books mentioned above. With
the publication of my new book, it now has its own dedicated volume
with full explication, justification, and documentation . . .
The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World.
Here's
the premise: With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, American
citizens were promised a "peace dividend", i.e. less money for war, more
for peace and a good life for all. The U.S. military under misguided
leadership has attacked eight countries since then. The defense budget
has exploded, buying a lot of junk that doesn't work and military
hardware we don't need.
American
citizens have been grossly deceived about the real purpose and agenda
of our military exploits throughout the world. As I incontrovertibly
establish, we have had over $4.82 trillion of our hard-earned tax
dollars taken under false pretenses and wasted with cavalier abandon on
unnecessary wars and unneeded weapons. This transparent fraud on the
American people has been perpetrated for two-and-a-half decades.
It's
time to change all of that. It's time for a fresh new narrative, and a
vibrant national conversation. It's time to start thinking and talking
about peace again. This book explains why and exactly how we begin.
The
Peace Dividend strategy is a direct attack on America’s systemic
addiction to war by appealing to the self-interest of its citizens,
literally INCENTIVIZING citizens to redirect their thinking and start
WORKING FOR PEACE!
The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World is now available both as an ebook and deluxe paperback at many of the usual outlets . . .
President
Obama said the following publicly at a fundraiser, poking fun at
criticism of him by the Republican candidates during their first debate.
(You can watch the video here. Quote occurs around 4:48.)
“Have
you noticed that everyone of these candidates say, ‘Obama is weak.
Putin is kicking sand in his face. When I talk to Putin he is going to
straighten out. Just looking at him. He is going to be ...' And
then, it turns out they can’t handle a bunch of CNBC moderators.”
We've
come to expect this sort of cuteness from this charming man, who seems
to think his role as a comedian trumps his responsibilities as the most
powerful leader of the free world, whatever 'free' could possibly mean
in this age of 24/7 surveillance. This remark, while entertaining and
clever, is instructive in many ways. It says a lot about Obama as a
man, that despite his air of constant cool, he is vulnerable even to the
cheap shots of fools like the Republican candidates, and that he
personalizes the challenges which America's role in international
relations presents. It's been very obvious to me for a long time that
Obama perceives his differences with Putin as a schoolyard scrap, rather
than a profound confrontation of ideas and alternative actions. It
seems to escape him that in our dealings with Russia, we are attempting
to balance the national interests of two equally important and
determined peoples, not fighting over who's going to be quarterback of
the football team or who gets to take out the homecoming queen on a
date.
That
he uses the most visible public podium in the world to level cheap
shots at Putin, personal insults unworthy of a street thug, much less
President of the United States, is both dangerous and
counter-productive. He has squandered a ton of good will tendered by
Mr. Putin. Certainly a lesser man than Vladimir would have long ago
written off Obama as a childish dilettante. But as we've observed at
the G-20 meeting, he keeps insisting that he is open to cooperation and
constructive engagement whenever the U.S. decides to stop pouting over
its humiliation in Syria, and its horribly misguided and murderous
actionsin the Middle East now being judged by the world as the shameful disgrace they are.
On
an entirely different level, in broad strokes it says even more about
what is wrong with America's entire world view, its self-sabotaging
foreign policy, and its reckless insensitivity to the havoc and hardship
we as a nation inflict on the world, all while beating our chests about our duty and entitlement as leader of all humankind to celebrate a new historic Age of American Splendor and Enlightened Empire.
However,
lately we've seen an even more baffling dynamic playing out. We have
on one hand, the bellicose, dangerously provocative hyperventilating of
Ashton Carter, Samantha Powers, and the Devil Woman herself, Victoria
Nuland (the scary creature pictured here).
Carter lumps Russia in with ISIS as the greatest threat to America, Nuland blames the Syria conflict, the refugee crisis, the Ukraine, and probably her clogged kitchen drain on Putin, the increasingly shrill Samantha Powers
(see photo at the head of this article) is the MICs best friend with
her mad R2P obsession, putting her in Guinness Record territory for the
number of countries she would bomb into peaceful mourning . . . do I
have to go on? If you watch the news programs, you get pounded with the
insane rants of these saber-rattling war hawks. So you know.
At
the same time, our Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde president steps into a phone
booth, does a quick costume-change ala Superman, and becomes Mr.
Diplomacy, all ready to do the right thing and actually start fighting
terrorism in earnest. This is, of course, after he's wasted three years
bombing camels and sheep dip in the desert, while caravans of white
SUVs stretching as far as the eye can see, glide by on their way into
Iraq and Syria, full of weapons provided at least in part by the CIA, paid for by our allies, smuggled in through Turkey, or air-dropped by the U.S. itself.
What is this, the diplomatic version of good-cop/bad-cop?
Maybe it's the reincarnation of the Keystone Cops.
Why does anyone trust any of these people?
Yet here we see Obama, off in a corner, having a nice talk at the G-20 meeting with Putin, the same man he mocked and vilified both during his State of the Union address, and more recently with the eyes of the entire world watching at the United Nations. How cozy. How convenient.
Why
does Putin still intimate that Russia is open to working with America,
when time in and time out, America has proven it is entirely unreliable,
lacking any concept or intent of dealing with others in good faith? It
negotiates treaties, then violates or walks away
from them. It grandstands, teetering like a circus clown on the high
moral ground of dubious self-proclaimed righteousness, while destroying countries, inflicting unprecedented levels of chaos and carnage, at the same time preparing for a major war with China or Russia, maybe both. Is this hypocrisy, confusion, or just stupidity?
Moreover,
why should we as U.S. citizens for a second believe that Obama and the
motley collection of people HE CHOSE TO SURROUND HIMSELF WITH are at all
sincere about engaging Russia -- and of course the countries in Europe
we have flooded with refugees by bombing the Middle East for two
decades now -- in a serious discussion about a peaceful resolution to
this mess? Which one of these blowhards are we even supposed to listen to? Talk about mixed messages. This administration is at war with itself!
So
what are we to do now? Get our hopes up that things are turning
around? That policy makers have finally woken up and are ready to put
things right?
Then again, what choice do we have?
Wait until after the next election to see which psychopath will lead the charge?
I
guess we need to take stock and count our blessings. Maybe personally,
I should commit to being a dutiful patriot by firmly resolving to
respect Mr. Obama and honor his service as our president . . . to our
country . . . and to the world.
After all, he's the best smart-ass money can buy.
And as war criminals go, the guy can sure yuk it up!
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
"If you pull your trigger, my gun will instantly fire as well." "Yeah, I know what you mean. If you pull your trigger my gun will go off too." "My arm's getting tired." "Let's get this over with."
Appropriately named MAD
-- Mutual Assured Destruction -- it has been in place since the 1950s
and constitutes a strategy of deterrence whereby both Russia and the
U.S. refrains from using their vast nuclear arsenals because both know
their nations and probably the rest of the world would be destroyed.
This bilateral suicide pact has been keeping the world "safe" for over
half a century.
Now the U.S. in its quest for ultimate superiority and global supremacy is chipping away at it, installing ABM systems on Russia's borders, literally creating
a powerful incentive for them to "get this over with". It literally
makes it a rational choice for each side to get a jump on the other and
by initiating a pre-emptive strike.
I
don't think Russia will hit the launch buttons. Despite all of the
venomous anti-Russian propaganda and Putin-bashing going on right now in
the U.S., Russia has been militarily a defensive nation for several
hundred years. This is also true of China. Especially compared to the
U.S. and its allies, both Russia and China have been notably unaggressive in their pursuit of power and standing in the world.
That's
not to say either nation will cower before the chest-thumping of
America's relentless pursuit of military superiority and world
domination. Without any doubt, given what both countries have suffered
historically at the hands of aggressors both in the Asia and the Europe, one can be absolutely certain they will stand their ground.
Yet,
building on its almost perfect record of losing every conflict it has
either started or been involved with since WWII, the U.S. is creating
the conditions for confrontation with China with its "pivot to Asia", and pushing all the wrong buttons by starting the conflict in Ukraine, then prompting a number of countries on Russia's borders to station missiles and augment their military against an imagined threat of Russian aggression.
Hasn't the world had enough conflict, destruction and carnage?
Do any of these people read history?
Is there any way to explain all of the self-sabotaging maneuvering going on right now?
Let's
look at this with the the clarity and objectivity you and I have by
living outside the Washington DC bubble and imperious fantasy world of
our neocon government.
Who
in their right mind would come up with MAD, then destabilize it with
policies which replace its precarious, paranoid, hair-trigger
brinkmanship with more confrontation and a renewed arms race?
Aah . . . maybe I'm on to something!
Who in their rightmind . . .?
[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
