The suspect is a Ukro-maniac who’d been radicalized by the Mainstream Media into traveling to Kiev, trying to join the “International Legion”, and even recruiting former Afghan soldiers for it.
The authorities detained a man on Sunday who attempted to assassinate presidential frontrunner Donald Trump at his golf course in Florida. He was caught with an AK-47, a scope, and a GoPro camera. It turns out that he’s also fairly well known, being a former construction worker-turned-mercenary by the name of Ryan Routh. The New York Times even reported on him in spring 2023, mentioning that he’d spent some time in Kiev and was actively recruiting Afghan soldiers who fled to Pakistan as refugees.
CNN confirmed that he posted on social media shortly after the special operation began that
“I AM WILLING TO FLY TO KRAKOW AND GO TO THE BORDER OF UKRAINE TO VOLUNTEER AND FIGHT AND DIE…Can I be the example We must win.”
Routh also criticized Trump for wanting to “MASA…make Americans slaves again master”, among other rants against the former president. Quite clearly, he drank the Kool-Aid and was convinced that Trump was a ‘threat to democracy’ and likely also a ‘Russian agent’.
In many ways, his profile closely resembles that of the political extremist who was radicalized by the Mainstream Media into thinking similar falsehoods about Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, which drove him to try to kill the incumbent last spring in an assassination attempt that he only narrowly survived.
Both were obsessed with Ukraine, but Routh’s connection to it wasn’t just as a bystander, but as a participant in NATO’s proxy war on Russia given his time in Kiev and recruitment of mercenaries for it.
He was also almost certainly a member of “NAFO” too, the global troll network that’s connected to the Ukrainian, American, and other Western governments as documented by investigative journalists Moss Robeson and Alex Rubinstein, among others. The latter’s colleague Max Blumenthal also shared some brief additional insight into Routh’s ties with Ukraine’s “International Legion”. Those mercenaries are backed by the US Government, thus linking him to them as well.
The Ukrainian trace in the latest Trump assassination attempt is therefore impossible to ignore, as is the one to members of the US’ permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies (“deep state”), particularly those with a stake in perpetuating NATO’s proxy war on Russia through that country.
Trump has made the swift resolution of that conflict through diplomatic means a hallmark of his election platform, and his running mate JD Vance recently explained how that could work.
The gist is to freeze the conflict along the Line of Contact, heavily fortify the frontier (presumably in coordination with the many NATO members with whom Ukraine already signed “security guarantee” agreements), and then restore its neutrality in order to alleviate Russia’s concerns about NATO. For as pragmatic as this may sound to an average observer, it’s anathema to the maximalist goals of what can be described as the Ukro-maniacs, or those who’ve become politically radicalized in support of Kiev.
At the very least, the Mainstream Media’s false portrayal of Trump as a ‘Russian-backed threat to democracy who’s selling out Ukraine to Putin’ is enough to push psychologically at-risk Ukro-maniacs into committing acts of terrorism, especially when they’re being egged on by fellow extremists in “NAFO”. That global troll network is infamous for glorifying violence, and it’s an echo chamber for reinforcing people’s delusions about Trump, Ukraine, and Russia, up to the point of inciting violence too.
There’s no way that the earlier mentioned American “deep state” had no idea who Routh was after he’d already traveled to Kiev to try to join the “International Legion” and then openly told the New York Times about his plans to recruit Afghan soldiers that fled to Pakistan as refugees. He also brazenly boasted about how he’d purchase passports for them from there to facilitate their travel to Ukraine. The FBI might soon “do the meme” and admit that he was “on their radar”, but there’s much more to it.
Routh was arguably acting as an asset of that same American “deep state” in collusion with their Ukrainian proxies, and it therefore can’t be ruled out that members of one, the other, or both might have encouraged him – even if only indirectly – into taking Trump out in order to “help the cause”. This latest assassination attempt is therefore even more scandalous than the first from a few months back, but just like that one, it too might soon be memory-holed because it implicates Democrat-aligned forces.
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Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from Twitter
The original source of this article is Global Research
The Israeli military has desecrated at least 16 cemeteriesin its ground offensive in Gaza,… leaving gravestones ruined, soil upturned, and, in some cases, bodies unearthed…
In Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where fighting escalated earlier this week, Israeli forces destroyed a cemetery, removing bodies in what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN was part of a search for the remains of hostages seized by Hamas during the October 7 terror attacks. CNN
Why are they doing this?
The IDF has produced no evidence of hostages, land mines, tunnels, weapons-caches or Hamas militants. It’s all an excuse to destroy the plots of land where people bury their loved ones. But, why? These graveyards pose no security threat to the IDF or to the Israeli state. They’re just cemeteries.
CNN has reviewed satellite imagery and social media footage showing the destruction of cemeteries and witnessed it firsthand while traveling with the IDF in a convoy. Together the evidence reveals a systemic practice where Israeli ground forces have advanced across the Gaza Strip.
The intentional destruction of religious sites, such as cemeteries, violates international law, except under narrow circumstances relating to that site becoming a military objective, and legal experts told CNN that Israel’s acts could amount to war crimes. CNN
You can tell that the journalist covering this story is disturbed by what he’s seen. He’s disturbed because plowing up the withered remains of loved ones –and leaving them to rot in the sun among clods of dirt and broken headstones– is a shockingly callous and evil thing to do. We don’t expect humans to behave this way. We expect them to show some small amount of respect for the dead. But, here, we see the exact opposite. Here, we see corpses treated like garbage that must be disposed of so the settlement project can move ahead.
Here’s CNN‘s televised report:
The israelis have destroyed 16 cemeteries in Gaza, & unearthed dozens of bodies, under the pretext they were looking for the remains of israelis pic.twitter.com/1LZMxyE4oy
It’s worth noting, that other cemeteries in Gaza, that contain the bodies of Christians and Jews, have not been disturbed, which suggests that the policy is directed at a particular ethnicity, Arabs.
It’s also worth noting that the destruction of cemeteries is a clear violation of international law under the Rome Statute. This reinforces the claim that Israel is conducting a genocide, in fact, South Africa has referred to the IDF’s destruction of cemeteries in Gaza as evidence of genocide in its case at the International Court of Justice. Keep in mind, the definition of genocide goes beyond the mass killing of a particular ethnic group. It refers to “a policy to destroy a group, in whole or in part.” Raphael Lemkin’s Definition of Genocide helps to clarify this point:
… genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation…. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves….
The crime of genocide should be recognized therein as a conspiracy to exterminate national, religious or racial groups…. The formulation of the crime may be as follows:
“Whoever, while participating in a conspiracy to destroy a national, racial or religious group, undertakes an attack against life, liberty or property of members of such groups is guilty of the crime of genocide.” Raphael Lemkin’s Definition of Genocide, genocidewatch.com
Does the deliberate destruction of Palestinian cemeteries “signify a coordinated plan (aimed) at the destruction of essential foundations of the life….. with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves?
It does.
And is the destruction of cemeteries “an attack against life, liberty or property” of the Palestinians with the intention of “destroying the group in whole or in part”?
Yes, it is.
Then Israel’s actions meet the legal definition of genocide. This is from an article at The Atlantic Council:
When the IDF razes Gazan cemeteries, it also razes Palestinian heritage, culture, and claims to the land…..
white settlers in the United States frequently desecrated Indigenous burial grounds in a centuries-long campaign of cultural destruction and ethnic cleansing. Likewise, Nazis desecrated and destroyed countless Jewish cemeteries during the Holocaust, often using headstones as construction materials in a blatant effort to excise both Jewish people and Jewish heritage from occupied German territories….
the IDF’s alleged treatment of cemeteries outside of direct conflict with Hamas is also noteworthy, given cemetery desecration’s well-established place in the history of genocide. Cemetery desecration and genocide are so intimately linked that Raphael Lemkin, coiner of the term “genocide,” even recommended outlawing the practice in early drafts of the 1948 Genocide Convention. Razing the dead: Contextualizing IDF cemetery desecration in Gaza, The Atlantic Council
The desecration of cemeteries is such a malignant act, it’s hard to fully grasp. What sinister impulse motivates a nation’s leaders to direct their troops to obliterate their adversary’s burial grounds? It’s an act of pure barbarism bordering on criminal psychoses. The only conclusion we can draw is that Israel is not satisfied with merely obliterating the schools, hospitals, universities, mosques and vital infrastructure. They are not satisfied with merely slaughtering tens of thousands of civilians who are not connected in any way to the attacks of October 7. No. They are determined to eradicate any trace of the people who have occupied the land for the last two thousand years in order to concoct a fabricated history in which Zionist Jews are at the center of the narrative. This is from an article titled Necroviolence in Palestine:
….Jason De Leon brought forward the concept of necroviolence ..He defines it as:
“Violence performed and produced through the specific treatment of corpses that is perceived to be offensive, sacrilegious, or inhumane by the perpetrator, the victim (and her or his cultural group), or both.” – Jason De Leon in The Land of Open Graves, p.69[2] …
The Zionist regime’s use of necroviolence…. Demolition of historic gravesites
The Zionist regime has made the demolition of cemeteries a key arena for necroviolence to facilitate colonial expansion and historical erasure…. The regime has not only prevented the burial of Palestinian bodies, it has also gone to the extent of attacking the already buried, violating their bodies for further territorial expansion.
This also marks a step towards the complete erasure of the Palestinian experience, as many of these grave sites are centuries old, holding within them not only a history of Palestinian belonging, but one of resistance through the presence of martyrs who resisted decades of occupation. The Zionist regime thus denies Palestinians agency in one of the few forms it has left to exercise; that is, the traces of their heritage, identity, and history on ground.
Conclusion
Here, we gain insight into the logic of Zionist colonialism, which necessitates full control over every aspect of the Palestinian individual, both in life and death; in all forms of existence…., the regime’s exercise of necroviolence is a confirmation that Zionist colonialism continues long after death… Erasing all traces of Palestinian culture, heritage, and identity works as an attack on the legitimacy of the Palestinian experience…. Necroviolence in Palestine, Words of Solidarity
That pretty-well sums it up. Israel’s destruction of Palestinian cemeteries is a critical part of the ethnic cleansing campaign the goal of which is not simply to physically remove the native population but to expunge any trace of their historic existence.
It would be hard to imagine a more diabolical plan.
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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.
Michael Whitney is a renowned geopolitical and social analyst based in Washington State. He initiated his career as an independent citizen-journalist in 2002 with a commitment to honest journalism, social justice and World peace.
He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
Featured image: One of the hundreds of ‘targets’ bombed by Israel during its latest war on Gaza. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)
The original source of this article is Global Research
At the start of the Special Military Operation in February 2022 I warned of the blowback that, I asserted, would likely come if the West continued to pamper Nazi groups in Ukraine:
The U.S. aim is to create an insurgency in the Ukraine.
Since 2015 the CIA has trained Ukrainian groups for exactly that purpose.Forever Strong: A New,…Lyon, Dr. GabrielleBest Price: $13.22Buy New $13.45(as of 11:14 UTC — Details)
A new Nazi insurgency in eastern Europe is an exceptionally bad idea. Fascist groups from everywhere would join in. A few years from now it may well lead to Nazi terror in many European countries. Have we learned really nothing from the war on Syria and the ISIS campaign?
Me and Ivan Katchanovski were probably the only ones who had warned of this:
Katchanovski adds that, “This is also going to have a dangerous effect on Ukraine and potentially other countries because now, basically, Nazis in Ukraine are made into national heroes.” He also noted that Azov (as well as Western governments) has consistently pressured Zelensky — including with threats, and even before Russia invaded — not to seek a peace deal with Russia or withdraw forces from the Donbas region. In February, Azov branded Zelensky a “servant of the Russian people” after he suggested that he might negotiate with Moscow.
Katchanovski said that the valorization of the Azov Regiment is comparable to how the West initially supported the predecessors of the Taliban in their fight against the Soviet Union’s intervention in the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and also risks inspiring yet more far-right activists from other countries to join the conflict in Ukraine in order to gain military experience, potentially causing a blowback effect if they make it home.
Yesterday one avid U.S. supporter of the fascists in Ukraine tried to assassinate the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump:
EXCLUSIVE: Attempted Trump assassin Ryan Routh appeared in a propaganda video for the AZOV BATTALLION in May 2022 Embedded video
Routh, himself being too old to fight, had tried to hire foreign mercenaries to fight on the fascist side in Ukraine. He obviously targeted Trump because he had promised to dictate an end to the war in Ukraine.
We know little so far, but w alleged Trump shooter’s personal and public participation in military activity in Ukraine, it is hard to imagine this White House’s agencies can claim zero contact—”clean hands.” Something of an Oswald vibe, here. Congress should get answers. Images
As more people start to think about potential ways to end the war in Ukraine the far-right in Ukraine is threatening to use violence to prevent that:
⚡️Ukraine’s most feared drone warlord threatens Zelensky:
A serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the call sign “Madyar” openly and “without drama” threatens the Ukrainian government.
According to him, if someone negotiates with the Russian Federation “not in the interests of the Ukrainian people”, then a million fighters will return from the front and overthrow such a government. Embedded video
It turns out that the ‘so many’ Ukrainians are not so many but a small radical minority that is willing to use force against politicians who want to take the necessary steps to make peace:
Polling, however, shows that Ukrainians are not ready to give up their land, especially among those soldiers in Donbas who have been fighting for it for the past 10 years. … [W]hile only 7 percent said they would join an armed protest in case of territorial concessions, that number more than doubled among soldiers and veterans — including those who have been fighting for the past decade, who have seen Russian forces raze the Ukrainian cities they capture to the ground, and who are now grappling with the prospect of losing their long-contested homeland.
The Post cites only few named sources in support of its thesis:
Vitaliy Barabash, the head of Avdiivka’s military administration, has been fighting Russia since 2014. The city was finally captured by Russia this winter after a decade of fighting. … He does not believe that Zelensky would sign a peace deal that would “abandon” Donbas — and said that it would be a “stupid mistake” to reason with Moscow. “Most people are hopefully that we will return to Avdiivka. They are ready to live in tents and rebuild this city.”
A Jewish Ukrainian soldier in the besieged Azovstal plant in Mariupol called on Israel on Wednesday night to intervene to save the garrison.
In a Facebook video posted by Jewish Kyiv-based entrepreneur and activist Ilgam Gasanov, Vitaliy Barabash said in Ukrainian, “It’s hard for me to speak, so my speech for me will be said by my brother, on behalf of all Ukrainian Jews who are together with me here.”War, Christianity, and…Laurence M. VanceBest Price: $8.95Buy New $9.95(as of 09:10 UTC — Details)
Barabash, also known as Benya, held a Ukrainian flag up to the camera as his friend read his statement, a Star of David tattoo clearly visible on Barabash’s hand.
Members of Azov and other ‘nationalist’ groupings in Ukraine are now experienced fighters. The have the means to fight as there are lots of Ukrainian weapons in unaccountable hands (machine translation):
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine, more than 270,945 weapons have disappeared or been stolen. … In less than 2024, more weapons were stolen or lost than in the whole of last year – 78,217 units. At the same time, it is 4 times more than before the start of a full-scale war.
These weapons can be easily smuggled into Europe to target any politician who dares to pressure Ukraine into accepting an end of the war.
The attempted assassination of Trump is only one of the first of such incidents. (The motives for the assassination attempt against the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico are still unknown.)
Many such incidents, predominantly in Europe, are likely to follow.
For years, the US executed Israel’s regional destabilization program using phantom terrorists as justification for the ‘War on Terror.’ But 7 October 2023 killed Washington’s never-ending war project – with a flip of the switch, US adversaries have now turned the ‘Long War’ on Israel.
Colonization … is the best affair of business in which the capital of an old and wealthy country can engage … the same rules of international morality do not apply … between civilized nations and barbarians.
– John Stuart Mill, quoted by Eileen Sullivan in “Liberalism and Imperialism: JS Mill’s Defense of the British Empire,” Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 44, 1983.
The events of 11 September 2001 were intended to impose and enshrine a new Exceptionalist paradigm on the young 21st century. History, though, ruled otherwise.Un-Cancel Robert E. Le…Kerr, GibBuy New $18.99(as of 09:33 UTC — Details)
Cast as an attack on the US Homeland, 11 September 2001, immediately generated the Global War on Terror (GWOT), launched at 11 pm on the same day. Initially christened “The Long War” by the Pentagon, the term was later sanitized by the administration of Barack Obama as “Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO).”
The US-manufactured War on Terror spent a notoriously un-trackable eight trillion dollars defeating a phantom enemy, killed over half a million people – overwhelmingly Muslims – and branched out into illegal wars against seven Muslim-majority states. All of this was relentlessly justified on “humanitarian grounds” and allegedly supported by the “international community” – before that term, too, was renamed as the “rules-based international order.”
Cui Bono? (who stands to gain) remains the paramount question related to all matters related to 11 September 2001. A tight network of fervently Israel-first neocons strategically positioned across the defense and national security establishments by Vice President Dick Cheney – who had served as secretary of defense in the administration of George W Bush’s father – sprang into action to impose the long-planned agenda of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). That far-reaching agenda had waited in the wings for the right trigger – a “new Pearl Harbor” – to justify a slew of regime-change operations and wars across much of West Asia and other Muslim states, reshaping global geopolitics for the benefit of Israel.
US General Wesley Clark’s notorious revelation of a secret Cheney regime plot to destroy seven major Islamic countries over five years, from Iraq, Syria, and Libya all the way to Iran, showed us that the planning had already been done in advance. These targeted nations had one thing in common: they were resolute enemies of the occupation state and firm supporters of Palestinian rights.
The sweet deal, from Tel Aviv’s perspective, was that the War on Terror would have the US and its western allies fighting all these serial Israeli-profiting wars on behalf of “civilization” and against the “barbarians.” The Israelis couldn’t have been more happy or smug about the direction this was going.
It’s no wonder that 7 October 2023 is a mirror image of 11 September 2001. The occupation state itself advertised this as Israel’s own “11 September.” Parallels abound in more ways than one, but certainly not in the way Israel-firsters and the cabal of extremists leading Tel Aviv expected.
Syria: the turning point
The western Hegemon excels in constructing narratives and is currently wallowing in the Russophobia, Iranophobia, and Sinophobia swamps of its own creation. Discrediting official, immutable narratives, such as the one about 11 September, remains the ultimate taboo.
But a false narrative construct cannot hold out forever. Three years ago, on the 20th anniversary of the Twin Towers collapsing and the onset of the War on Terror, we witnessed a great unraveling in the intersection of Central and South Asia: the Taliban were back in power, celebrating their victory over the Hegemon in a discombobulated Forever War.
By then, the “seven countries in five years” obsession – aiming to forge a “New Middle East” – was being derailed across the spectrum. Syria was the turning point, though some would argue that the tea leaves were already cast when the Lebanese resistance defeated Israel in 2000, then again in 2006.
But smashing independent Syria would have paved the way for the Hegemon – and Israel’s – Holy Grail: regime change in Iran.
US occupation forces entered Syria in late 2014 under the pretext of fighting “terror.” That was Obama’s OCO in action. In reality, though, Washington was using two key terror outfits – Daesh, aka ISIL, aka ISIS, and Al Qaeda, aka Jabhat al-Nusra, aka Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – to try to destroy Damascus.
That was conclusively proved by a declassified 2012 US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) document, later confirmed by General Michael Flynn, the DIA’s chief when the assessment was written: “I think it was a willful decision [by the Obama administration]” when it comes to helping, not fighting, terror.
ISIS was conceived to fight both the Iraqi and Syrian armies. The terror group was an offspring of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), then renamed Islamic State in Iraq (ISI), then rebranded as ISIL, and finally ISIS, after it crossed the Syrian border in 2012.
The crucial point is that both ISIS and Nusra Front (later Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) were hardcore Salafi-jihadi Al-Qaeda offshoots.
Russia entering the Syrian theater at Damascus’ invitation in September 2015 was the real game-changer. Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to actually engage in a real war on terror in Syrian territory before that terror reached the Russian Federation’s borders. This was captured by the standard formulation in Moscow at the time: the distance from Aleppo to Grozny is only 900 kilometers.
The Russians, after all, had already been subjected to the same brand and modus operandi of terror in Chechnya in the 1990s. Afterward, many Chechen jihadis escaped, only to end up joining dodgy outfits in Syria financed by the Saudis.
The late, great Lebanese analyst Anis Naqqash later confirmed that it was the legendary Iranian Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani who convinced Putin, in person, to enter the Syrian theater of war and help defeat the terrorism. This strategic masterplan, it transpires, was to fatally debilitate the US in West Asia.
The US security establishment, of course, would never forgive Putin, and especially Soleimani, for defeating their handy jihadist foot soldiers. On the orders of President Donald Trump, the anti-ISIS Iranian general was assassinated in Baghdad in January 2020, alongside Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, deputy leader of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs), a broad spectrum of Iraqi fighters who had coalesced to defeat ISIS in Iraq.
Burying the legacy of 11 September
Soleimani’s strategic tour de force of setting up and coordinating the Axis of Resistance against Israel and the US was years in the making. In Iraq, for instance, the PMUs were propelled to the forefront of the resistance because the Iraqi military – US-trained and US-controlled – simply could not fight ISIS.
The PMUs were created after a fatwa by Grand Ayatollah Sistani in June 2014 – when ISIS began its Iraqi rampage – by imploring “all Iraqi citizens” to “defend the country, its people, the honor of its citizens and its sacred sites.”
Several PMUs were backed by Soleimani’s Quds Force – who, ironically, for the rest of the decade would be invariably branded by Washington as a master “terrorist.” In parallel, crucially, the Iraqi government hosted an anti-ISIS intel center in Baghdad, led by Russia.
The credit for defeating ISIS in Iraq went mostly to the PMUs, complemented by its help to Damascus via the integration of PMU units into the Syrian Arab Army. That was what a real war on terror was all about, not that misnomered American construct called the “War on Terror.”
Best yet, the indigenously West Asian response to terror was and remains non-sectarian. Tehran supports secular, pluralist Syria and Sunni Palestine; Lebanon features a Hezbollah–Christian alliance; Iraq’s PMUs feature a Sunni–Shia–Christian alliance. Divide and Rule simply do not apply in a homegrown anti-terror strategy.
Then, what happened on 7 October 2023 propelled the regional resistance forces’ ethos to a whole new level.
In one swift move, it destroyed the myth of Israeli military invincibility and its much-lauded surveillance and intelligence primacy. Even as the horrifying genocide across Gaza proceeds unabated (with possibly as many as 200,000 civilian deaths, according to The Lancet), the Israeli economy is being eviscerated.
Yemen’s strategic blockade of the Bab al-Mandeb and the Red Sea to any Israel-linked or destined shipping vessel is a masterstroke of efficiency and simplicity. Not only has it already bankrupted Israel’s strategic Eilat Port, but also, as a bonus, has offered a spectacular humiliation of the thalassocratic Hegemon, with the Yemenis de facto defeating the US Navy.
In less than a year, the concerted strategies of the Axis of Resistance have essentially buried six feet under the fake War on Terror and its multi-trillion-dollar gravy train.
As much as Israel profited from events after 11 September, Tel Aviv’s actions after 7 October rapidly accelerated its unraveling. Today, amidst massive Global Majority condemnation of Israel’s Gaza genocide, the occupation state stands as a pariah – tainting its allies and exposing the Hegemon’s hypocrisy with each passing day.Globalistan: How the G…Pepe EscobarBest Price: $17.22Buy New $20.83(as of 07:20 UTC — Details)
For the Hegemon, it gets even more alarming. Recall the 1997 warning of Dr Zbigniew “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski: “It is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges capable of dominating Eurasia and thus of also challenging America.”
In the end, all the combined sound and fury of 11 September, the War on Terror, Long War, Operation This-And-That over two decades, metastasized into exactly what “Zbig” feared. Not only has a mere “challenger” emerged, but a full-fledged Russia–China strategic partnership that is setting a new tone for Eurasia.
Suddenly, Washington has forgotten all about terrorism. This is the real “enemy” – now considered the top two US “strategic threats.” Not Al-Qaeda and its many incarnations, a flimsy figment of the CIA’s imagination, rehabilitated and sanitized in the previous decade as those mythical “moderate rebels” in Syria.
What’s even more eerie is that the conceptually nonsensical War on Terror forged by the neocons immediately after 11 September is now morphing into a war of terror (italics mine), embodying the desperate Hail Mary pass by the CIA and MI6 to “confront Russian aggression” in Ukraine.
And that’s bound to be metastasized into the Sinophobia swamp because those same western intelligence agencies consider the rise of China to be “the greatest geopolitical and intelligence challenge” of the 21st century.
The War on Terror has been debunked; it is now dead. But get ready for serial wars of terror by a Hegemon unaccustomed to not owning the narrative, the seas, and the ground.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.
Pepe Escobar is an independent geopolitical analyst and author. His latest book is Raging Twenties. He’s been politically canceled from Facebook and Twitter. Follow him on Telegram.
One of the most interesting commentators on the legal-political scene is the attorney Robert Barnes. Whenever Barnes discusses economic analysis and predictions he relies on Jeff Snyder, who in turn bases his reasoning on investigation of the Euro-dollar international system of exchange. In this video Snyder explains what the Euro-dollar system is. My takeaway from Snyder’s video is that the Euro-dollar system is a fractional reserve banking system based on Euro-dollars not backed (controlled) by the Federal Reserve. Thus, they are not Federal Reserve notes; i.e., US dollars. Snyder believes that Euro-dollars are the real worldwide currency (a good thing) that allow international movement of capital and goods.
Screen shot from Snyder’s video.Money: Sound and UnsoundSalerno, Joseph T.Best Price: $20.00Buy New $21.43(as of 03:59 UTC — Details)
In this video Tom Woods and Bob Murphy discuss inflation predictions and the relative lack of inflation after the Federal Reserve’s injection of money into the banking system after the 2008 financial crisis. Murphy explains that many Austrian economists, himself included, predicted more price inflation than actually occurred. I also expected more inflation. My post hoc analysis attributes the lower posted official inflation statistic to an understanding of the statistic itself. That is, the measure did not include the particular assets which were bid up by the created money, not in basic products for people because they didn’t get any of the new money, but to stocks and other speculations, parked in the banks, and of relevance here, the money went overseas.
Thus, in understanding the current economy and international geopolitics the Euro-dollar system might be a key element that most analysts miss. However, when listening to Snyder, or Barnes following Snyder, several questions arise that are critical to assess the true impact of this system. I hope these questions might be addressed by Snyder, Barnes, or anyone else who might come across this article.
My questions:The Mystery of BankingMurray N. RothbardBest Price: $2.23Buy New $7.57(as of 07:55 UTC — Details)
Am I correct that Euro-dollars are not the same as US dollars (Federal Reserve notes)?
If the Federal Reserve does not back the Euro-dollar system who does? That is, a fractional reserve system is sure to fail eventually without a government fiat backstop.
Can Euro-dollars be used equivalent to Federal Reserve notes in the USA?
Are Euro-dollars considered to be equivalent with Federal reserve note dollars in exchange for goods on the international market, in effect making the FRN dollars worth less in terms of real goods?
Can the US government control Euro-dollar international exchanges through the SWIFT system?
Are Euro-dollars included in any of the common money supply measures used for the US economy? (For example, see this classic article by Dr. Salerno.)
If Euro-dollars are FRN dollars, what is their percentage of total dollars?
The presidential “debate” last week had two outcomes – a thousand new cat memes, and Springfield, Ohio as a new political ground zero. Not exactly what the Harris/Walz front hoped for, hence a second assassination attempt on Trump? Who will throw the blob a life preserver?
The deep state, neoconservatives of both parties for 40 years, is betting on the least bad choice for continued unconstitutional war profiteering and oligarch-imperialism – and they see a financial clock ticking, if not a nuclear one. The despicable Cheneys have emerged to endorse this least bad choice, in their deep-state wisdom. As Tulsi Gabbard explains to Democrats who haven’t figured it out yet, a vote for Harris is a vote for Dick Cheney. Are there no self-respecting Democrats left in the US?Hated by All the Right…Zengerle, JasonCheck Amazon for Pricing.
Is Dick Cheney endorsing continued war, with joy, or simply the joy of continued war? Either way, it is a sign that the blob is internally disintegrating, not solidifying.
With the paired atrocities of the Federal Reserve and explosive government overspending, people cannot get what they want and need with the fiat they have. Dreams are delayed and abandoned – whether a reliable income that will support three hots and a cot, or raising children, or building a business, or buying a home or seeing that their kids get an education – starting with government kindergarten and its absurd premises. In none of these areas is the federal government “helping” anyone but bureaucrats and the blob. The American dream is denied because of federal confiscation of nearly 40% of the GDP, every day, much of it spent on reducing your lifespan and liberty, and the lifespan and liberty of billions of people around the world.
The flailing has begun. This election season is running out of time for a successful assassination, or a successful steal in the five or six important counties that matter to “our democracy.” We have the DC war on any contra with an X or Telegram account saying, filming, or writing anything that counters one of their increasingly rushed and irrational state narratives.
The lies repeatedly told from the White House are legion – and some of them are kind of fun, like no cats have ever been harmed by the deep state’s immigration policy. A more serious lie is that what’s going on in Gaza for the last 11 months is “NOT A GENOCIDE.” Anyone with a smart phone on the planet can take a look at the US Legal Code that defines “genocide.” Even if your only news comes from CNN or MSNBC, facts reveal the White House is not only lying, but violating of its own binding law with billions in aid to Israel fueling and funding this genocide. Whether you want to kill Gazans or not, whether you agree or not with US policy – no one who can read the law can deny the USG is lying to you.
It’s that simple.
DC cannot tell the truth about US-Israel pari-mutuel parasitism, or any other foreign policy it pursues. The pro-war brain worm has infected the blob, and destroyed its collective cerebral cortex. War addicts, like all addicts, lie.
It is not a crime to point out the nature of the DC parasitism, to comment on the deep state brain worm, and to discuss and publicize the lack of higher order thinking in Washington. It is not a crime to share the reality of US domestic and foreign policy, and connect the dots. But instead of defending its position, the blob has instead criminalized free speech and banned critical thinking. Washington, instead of putting in the hard work of manufacturing consent has lazily decided it will simply force us to comply.
To silence, to arrest, to ban, and to attack – with words or bullets – is the choice of a weak, and a very panicked deep state. While Americans are just now starting to wonder who is running their country, the rest of the world distinctly sees a hollowed-out empire run by a politically incestuous, self-appointed “team” of increasingly substandard intellect, bereft of recognizable ethics. All of this offers us a fresh look at Jefferson’s “Tree of Liberty” letter.
DC fears a coming loss of resources, legal prosecution for known and suspected crimes. More than loss of control, they fear the sheer unpredictability of a second Trump presidency. Trump’s public resistance to being told what to do by people he believes to be driving the country into the dirt, in conjunction with a global ability for everyone, including the populist and liberty movements to rapidly share images and analysis with their allies, is a real danger to any authoritarian construct. Thus we see a whack-a-mole approach to silencing state critics, be it by imprisoning Julian Assange or Ross Ulbricht, or charging and trying to arrest Pavel Duran and RT/Sputnik and its directors, and calling for suit and sanction of Elon Musk, for both his social media platform and his global satellite system.10-Minute Strength Tra…Deboo PT, EdBest Price: $17.51Buy New $9.29(as of 09:17 UTC — Details)
Our dying authoritarian regime is battling national and global fire teams, squads, platoons and companies – to use US Marine terminology. These “units,” like real Marines, seek to “overcome, improvise and adapt” and they can operate independently, or in concert. They constantly build on their skill sets, and importantly, are honed and shaped by the real world in which they practice and operate.
A good example of this phenomenon has occurred in the Red Sea. In the last 11 months, the Houthi have caused the US Navy to expend nearly $1 Billion in missiles alone, plus destroying eight MQ-9 Reaper drones. Despite this cost and effort by Washington, freight traffic there remains collapsed and vulnerable. Yet, even as the US strategy has expensively failed, the deep state has no alternative strategy, no way to save face.
Information “warfare” against authoritarian states operates the same way. It launches volleys of factual information, blowing holes in the hull of the prevailing state narrative. It never quits. DC believes that loudly complaining about the damage to the hull by information terrorists, and arresting and prosecuting and kicking down the doors, stealing the livelihoods and liberty of those they see as “information enemies” will somehow address the problem.
Two decorative impeachments, innumerable kangaroo court cases, and two assassination attempts have been conducted to stop Donald Trump from returning to the White House. More efforts will be made – not because his stated second-term intentions will save or sink the country, but because he channels an enormous and often amorphous public curiosity about blob itself. Asking a good question, whether it is answered or not, is always a crime in a state such as ours.
When Jefferson talked about the Tree of Liberty, just over two centuries ago, he saw that truth – widely shared, debated, and eventually understood by a whole country – is the only remedy that can heal the relationship between people and government. He noted, “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? [italics added]”
Instead of reactionary obedience to the state, we must challenge it, expose it, and at times, laugh at it. The alternative to free and bold criticism today is the spilling of the blood of patriots tomorrow – something our so-called “leaders” in deep state extremis are most certainly considering.
Karen Kwiatkowski, Ph.D. [send her mail], a retired USAF lieutenant colonel, farmer and aspiring anarcho-capitalist. She ran for Congress in Virginia’s 6th district in 2012, is a Fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network, and an Associated Scholar of the Mises Institute.
Donald Trump will eine entmilitarisierte Zone schaffen, um den Krieg in der Ukraine zu beenden. Sein Vizekandidat J.D. Vance gab aber nicht nur das preis. Er forderte auch, dass Deutschland den Wiederaufbau der Ukraine berappt.
Donald Trump (li) und sein Vizekandidat J.D. VanceIMAGO/ZUMA Press Wire
In einem Interview mit der Shawn Ryan Show, erklärte J.D. Vance: „Trump setzt sich hin und sagt den Russen, Ukrainern und Europäern: ‚Ihr müsst herausfinden, wie eine friedliche Lösung aussieht‘. Und die sieht wahrscheinlich so aus, dass die derzeitige Demarkationslinie zwischen Russland und der Ukraine zu einer entmilitarisierten Zone wird, die stark befestigt ist, damit die Russen nicht wieder einmarschieren können.“
Die Ukraine, so der Vizekandidat Trumps bei der diesjährigen US-Präsidentenwahl, „behält ihre Souveränität, während Russland die Garantie der Neutralität erhält, dass sie weder der Nato noch einer anderen verbündeten Organisation beitritt“.
In dem Interview sagte Vance auch, dass alle ein Ende des Krieges herbeisehnten: Ukrainer, Russen und Europäer, „die diesen Krieg nicht ausreichend finanziert haben, während die amerikanischen Steuerzahler den Ukrainern gegenüber sehr großzügig waren“. Und an diese Worte anknüpfend stellte Vance die Forderung in den Raum: „Übrigens müssen die Deutschen und andere Länder den ukrainischen Wiederaufbau finanzieren“.
Sollte er Präsident werden, würde Donald Trump in der Ukraine ratzfatz Frieden schaffenGETTYIMAGES/Photo by Ian Maule/
Trump könnte den Krieg in der Ukraine nach eigenen Worten binnen 24 Stunden beenden
Trump hat wiederholt betont, dass er imstande wäre, den Krieg in der Ukraine binnen 24 Stunden zu beenden. Einen konkreten Friedensplan hat er allerdings nicht vorgelegt. Der ehemalige US-Präsident (2016-2020) sagte auch, der Krieg hätte nicht stattgefunden, wäre er im Amt gewesen, als der Kreml im Februar 2022 in die Ukraine einmarschierte.
In einem Beitrag auf seiner Plattform Truth Social versprach er, Kiew und Moskau wieder an den Verhandlungstisch zu bringen: „Beide Seiten werden in der Lage sein, zusammenzukommen und ein Abkommen auszuhandeln, das die Gewalt beendet und einen Weg in Richtung Wohlstand ebnet“, so Trump.
Wladimir Putin hat die Truppenstärke Russlands auf 2,4 Millionen angehobenGETTYIMAGES/Contributor / Kontributor
Kasachischer Präsident zu Scholz: Russland sei auf dem Schlachtfeld unbesiegbar
Unterdessen hat Russlands Präsident Wladimir Putin die Truppenstärke der russischen Streitkräfte zum dritten Mal seit Beginn des von ihm befohlenen Angriffskriegs gegen die Ukraine angehoben. Die Zahl der beim Militär Beschäftigten solle ab Dezember bei 2,389 Millionen Menschen liegen, darunter 1,5 Millionen Soldaten (bisher 1,33 Millionen Soldaten), hieß es in einem Dekret des Präsidenten.
Ebenfalls am heutigen Tag verwies der Präsident von Kasachstan, Kassym-Schomart Tokajew, auf die militärische Überlegenheit Russlands in der Ukraine. Bei einem Besuch des deutschen Kanzlers Olaf Scholz, erklärte Tokajew, dass Russland auf dem Schlachtfeld nicht besiegt werden könne. Die Folgen einer weiteren Eskalation in der Ukraine könnten „für die gesamte Menschheit irreparabel“ sein, warnte er.
Der Friedensstifter 
