Kurds in Fateful Triangle as US Moves to Redeploy IS Terror Groups

Click here to access article by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation. (If you have difficulty like I had in accessing this article, you may find it also posted here.) (This commentary was edited for greater clarity at 7:30 AM CT.)

The Kurds have once again demonstrated (like in Iraq) that they know very little about the ventures they enter in, especially seeking an alliance with, and the protection of, US Forces. Their dream of establishing their own state carved out of Syria and Iraq is going nowhere fast. However, there is increasing evidence that their use by US Forces is another deception imposed upon the American public who are confused by the 24/7 bombardment of fake news. The author who is based in the Middle East offers more evidence that US actions in Syria are creating more mischief.

Kurdish fighters have been used by the US to ostensibly defeat the remaining Islamic State holdouts in eastern Syria. But what is emerging is not a final defeat of the terrorists, more a redeployment to further destabilize the Arab country.

Potentially, the Kurds could wind up not with the regional autonomy they desire, but as part of a rebranded American dirty war army whose ranks include the very terrorist the Kurdish militias have been successfully battling against.

President Donald Trump has been lately crowing about how US-backed Kurdish forces have wiped out the IS self-proclaimed caliphate around Baghouz in eastern Syria. “They’re losers… they’re gone tonight,” he boasted about supposedly vanquishing the jihadists.

However, things are not that clear-cut.

I have a hunch (only a hunch) that the US Deep State (read my commentary to this post) has leaned on (mostly by ignoring his policy decisions) Trump so much that he, in self-defense, has compromised away his nationalist policy decisions to approach those of the Deep State's neoliberal (transnational) policies. The appointments to key offices like Pompeo and Bolton are examples of this. I now consider Trump to be something like a "useful idiot" who has been forced to serve the neoliberal and imperial policies of the Deep State. I wouldn't be surprised if the latter doesn't mind his reelection in 2020.

Articles recommended for Friday, April 5, 2019

• 5G and the IOT: Scientific Overview of Human Health Risks from Environmental Health Trust.

• Iraq’s WMDs Found…In Russia by Bob Urie from CounterPunch. 

More tongue-in-cheek satire of the ruling class's fake news which attempts to mess with your mind.

• Assange ‘Will Be’ Arrested in ‘Hours to Days,’ WikiLeaks Says by Joe Lauria from Consortium News. 

• Be Ready To Act: WikiLeaks Source Says They’re Coming For Assange by Caitlin Johnstone from her blog.

Can We Feed the World without Destroying It?

Click here to access article by Eric Holt-Giménez, Executive Director of Food First. 

The author clarifies how the capitalist system affects food production, but has unrealistic hopes about the Green New Deal's ability to transform the present system into one that empowers all of humanity instead of capitalism which serves the needs of a tiny minority of "owners".

 He writes:

The food movement has been very good at developing alternatives, but it hasn’t been good at addressing the systemic barriers to good, clean, fair food for all. Some even seem to think that we can transform our food system in isolation of the larger, political-economic system in which it is embedded. That system is capitalism and it has co-evolved with our food system, so clearly we can’t change one without changing the other.

The good news is that the food system has always been a pivotal pillar in capitalism, so if we can push systemic changes within the food system, it will influence the rest of the system. That’s why things that seem utopic, like insisting on the human right to food and food sovereignty, are so important. To the extent we can ensure these rights, we dismantle capitalism.

But pins his hopes on the Green New Deal:

... whatever you are doing—studying, gardening, in a CSA [link], whatever—thank you, and keep doing it. Now, you need to do something else: change everything! Let’s catch the momentum of the Green New Deal to build a powerful, broad-based, working class and people of color-led movement for transformation. Let’s create the political will not just for reforms, but for transformative, structural reforms that put us solidly on the road to food sovereignty and to cooling the planet. [my inserted link]

Like the New Deal under the Roosevelt administration, the Green New Deal won't be allowed to empower people at the expense of capitalists. Only an organized revolutionary people can do that. The Green New Deal, under capitalist controlled political system, likes its predecessor, will only protect the present ruling class from any substantial changes. He essentially admits that in the first paragraph.

Articles recommended for Thursday, April 4, 2019

• Ecuador President Threatens to Decide Assange’s Fate Over Scandal by Elizabeth Vos from Consortium News.

• Biofuels: A pseudo-green scam that only enriches agribusiness, a review by Martin Empson of a new book entitled The Biofuels Deception: Going Hungry on the Green Carbon Diet by Okbazghi Yohannes posted on Climate & Capitalism. 

• Half a degree may make heat impact far worse by Tim Radford from Climate News Network.

The Green New Deal

by Ron Horn

I became aware of this phrase sometime late last year, and when I became aware that it was a push by members of the Democratic Party, most especially the newly elected Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I dismissed it as another ploy to distract ordinary people of the USA from the ongoing efforts of our capitalist ruling class to satisfy their addiction to wealth/power while pretending to confront climate destabilization about which a growing number of ordinary citizens are becoming alarmed. However, I became aware today after reading an article posted on System Change not Climate Change that it was having a distracting effect among people who are concerned about the issue much like the Russiagate phenomenon served to distract attention from all real issues.

Thus, I have perused online posts and selected what I regard as accurate information about the Green New Deal. Let me be clear: I do not entirely agree with all the opinions expressed in these articles. I still insist that nothing short of a worldwide, thoroughly democratic revolution that puts people in charge of the world's economies would be the solution to the climate crisis. Time is fast running out and I can't imagine this happening in time to avoid the destabilization of our climate and our own extinction as a human species (along with many other species).

In order to understand the terms used to describe Congressional actions, I've selected the following resources: Non-binding resolution and H.Res.109 - Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal.

The following are the online posts I've selected (some I've posted before):

• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Releases Green New Deal Outline by Danielle Kurtzleben from NPR. (2/7/2019)

• The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg – for Consent: The New Green Deal is the Trojan Horse for the Financialization of Nature [ACT V] by Cory Morningstar from Wrong Kind of Green.  (2/13/2019)

• The fallacies and evasions of the Green New Deal by Bryan Dyne and Barry Grey from World Socialist Web Site.  (3/5/2019)

• Democrats abstain from voting on their own “Green New Deal” by Genevieve Leigh from World Socialist Web Site. (3/28/2019)

• The Green New Deal, explained by David Roberts from Vox. (updated Mar 30, 2019)

Belt and Road Initiative in Full Swing in Europe

Click here to access article by Federico Pieraccini from Strategic Culture Foundation.

The author writes about his take on the recent visit by top Chinese officials to Europe to confer with the top European officials. China poses a threat to the Empire's uni-polar world as they dangle economic rewards that the Belt and Road Initiative offers to European capitalists. He writes:

No European capital – whether it be Paris, Rome, Berlin or London – intends to break the Atlantic pact with Washington. This is confirmed at every possible formal occasion. However, as Beijing becomes more and more central to questions concerning technology or the supply of liquid capital for investments or business expansion, the changes to the global order seem unstoppable.

The author reaches this conclusion:

It is no coincidence that for US strategists the two greatest dangers lie in the possibility of Moscow and Beijing, or Moscow and Berlin, cooperating and coordinating their efforts. The Berlin-Moscow-Beijing triangle, with the addition of Rome and Paris, represents a scenario for Washington that is unprecedented in terms of its challenge to US hegemony in Europe. 

Pentagon Obsession: China, China, China

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

Escobar provides considerable evidence that the Deep State (see my version in the commentary for this post, in Tony Cartalucci's post, and Peter Dale Scott's description), the board of directors of the USA, is obsessed with China and to the threats it poses to the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire's interests of world domination.  

Chinese nuclear bombers. Chinese hypersonic missiles. Chinese carrier killer missiles. Chinese cyberattacks. Chinese anti-satellite weaponry. Chinese militarization of the South China Sea. Chinese Huawei spying.

So many Chinese “malign intentions”. And we’re not even talking about Russia.

He continues on to argue that Russian officials have the expertise to effectively counter the Empire's methods of hybrid warfare, and Chinese officials are avidly studying these methods.

Articles recommended for Tuesday, April 2, 2019

• Mega Banks Tell SEC: Derivatives Could Blow Up Wall Street Again by Pam Martens from Wall Street on Parade. ("10-K" definition)

• Why Recycling is a ‘Pseudo-Solution’ to Reducing Plastic Waste by Anna Buss from CounterPunch.

• People Will Never, Ever Rebel As Long As They’re Successfully Propagandized by Caitlin Johnstone from her blog.

• NSA Whistleblower: Government Collecting Everything You Do. (22:07m video via YouTube.)

Abby Martin interviews former Technical Director of the National Security Agency, Bill Binney, who blew the whistle on warrantless spying years before Edward Snowden released the evidence. They discuss the US empire's mass surveillance program and dangers of the Intelligence Industrial Complex.

• A Russiagate Requiem by CJ Hopkins. The master satirist offers his sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek (def.) commentary on the latest propaganda hoax. 

The CIA Takeover of America in the 1960s is the Story of Our Times

Click here to access article by Edward Curtin from his blog Behind the Curtain.

Curtin provides an extended commentary on a new book entitled A Lie Too Big To Fail: The Real History of the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy by Lisa Pease.

As she rightly claims, the CIA takeover of America in the 1960s is the story of our time.  And our time is now.  None of this is ancient history.  That is so crucial to grasp.  For those who think that learning the truth about the 1960s assassinations is an exercise in futility reserved for those who are living in the past, they need to think again.  Our descent into endless war and massive media propaganda to support it is part of a long-term project that began with the elimination of JFK, Malcom X, MLK, and Robert Kennedy.  They were killed for reasons, and those reasons still exist, even if they don’t physically, but only in spirit.  Their killers roam the land because they have become far more deeply part of the institutional structure of government and the media.

This sums up the reaction of Curtin, myself, and so many others about these assassinations. Because Curtin is roughly of the same generation as I, he and I lived through these assassinations all of which presented major difficulties in their coverage by corporate and so-called public media (NPR, PBS, BBC, etc). Just as the Mueller report failed to find evidence of Russiagate which was pure propaganda, so they told lies about the assassinations back in the 1960s.

He writes:

If anyone wishes to understand what has happened to the United States since this coup, and thus to its countless victims at home and throughout the world, one must understand these assassinations and how the alleged assassins were manipulated by the coup organizers and how the public was hoodwinked in a mind-control operation on a vast scale.  It is not ancient history, for the forces that killed these leaders rule the U.S. today, and their ruthlessness has subsequently informed the actions of almost all political leaders in the years since.  A bullet to the head when you seriously talk about peace and justice is a not so gentle reminder to toe the line or else.

“But the way the CIA took over America in the 1960s is the story of our time,” writes Pease, “and too few recognize this."

As I wrote in a commentary for a post in 2017 regarding the rise of fascism in the USA before we entered WWII:

1938 Man of the Year in the January 2, 1939 issue of Time

 Many fascist capitalists in the evolving deep state at the time became aware that this war offered a splendid opportunity for US world dominance after the war was over. This informal project of the Deep State became known as the American Century, a term that was first coined by fascist-inclined Henry Luce, president of Time, Inc., a major multimedia corporation consisting of numerous mainstream publications, radio projects and newsreels. The publication of this article (by the same name) rallied the fascist wing of the US capitalist ruling class, which had previously hid under the label of "isolationism", to support the war against the Axis powers.

What I don't understand in Curtin's article is the following statement: "All that is now needed is a public tribunal, which is planned for later this year, in which the fundamental, clear-cut facts of these cases are presented to the American public." There have been calls from numerous Americans for Congress to re-open an investigation of these assassinations; but to my knowledge, there hasn't been any planned.

[Video] Thousands of students march in Brussels for action against climate change

Click here if you wish to access this video and brief introduction directly from Peoples Dispatch.

On Sunday, March 31, thousands of students marched in Brussels against the recent refusal by the Parliament to take action against climate change. This protest is a part of the series of demonstrations that have been taking place in Belgium and across Europe demanding action on climate change.

Land theft, ethnic cleansing, and Jewish supremacy: Israel’s settler colonialism in Syria’s Golan, the forgotten occupied territory

Click here to access article by Stephen Gowans from his blog What's Left.

Gowans strikes again! I mean this in the narrow sense that he pierces through the fog of the never-ending barrage of propaganda that Western academics who, while paying homage to their ruling class masters, imposed on us a highly distorted understanding of the history of that region since WWII. 

WWII was a pivotal event in world history. The old colonial powers quickly allied themselves after WWII with the intact and powerful USA to continue their old patterns of imperialism, that is, the desire to constantly expand their operations in pursuit of wealth and power over the rest of the world. WWII was merely a contest among fascist-inclined empires: the British Empire, the German/Italian empire (Third Reich), and the Japanese Empire. The British Empire was reduced to a shell of its former stature, but its ruling capitalists quickly allied itself with the ruling capitalist class in the US and created the state of Israel to obtain financial backing by fascist-inclined Jewish capitalists (Zionists) as well as a base in the energy-rich Middle East. 

Since then, the Empire's ruling transnational capitalist class has used technological advances to largely remove national boundaries that hindered their exploitation of working people all over the world in order to satisfy their insatiable appetite for greater wealth and power. Note that the latter clause implies what I firmly believe is an addiction.

I also believe, along with many others, that this historical development portends the end of the human species either in the short term as a result of a catastrophic nuclear war or in the long run (roughly 30 years) through the destabilization of our climate via the loading of our atmosphere with greenhouse gases because of the system's requirement of relatively cheap energy to satisfy this addiction.

Gowans performs a valuable service for us by his clarification of the often obscured history, especially since WWII, of this important region.

The Surrealism of the Information War (Another commentary on this excellent article.)

Click here to access article by Gilbert Mercier from News Junkie Post. (Final paragraph revised somewhat for greater clarity on 4/1 at 11:52 AM CT.)

This article is very thought-provoking, and I would like to share some of my thoughts in my commentary.

Humans since the beginning of civilizations (about 2% of human existence) have been plagued with ruling classes who have tried to convince the rest that it is "their way or the highway", that is, their subjects must always accept their truths or they will be banished or punished in one way or another.

Truth has always been a slow awakening to insights about how our world functions and our place in it. Our creation of scientific methods has offered us a much more disciplined method of discovering truths. As the result of our efforts, we have learned much during recent centuries.

Basically we have learned that we are only a minuscule part of our planet's nature that has produced so many life forms, and we are rapidly destroying our own habitat. This insight is opposed by the current ruling class of capitalists because their very system has not only enabled them to dominate the rest of us to our detriment, but is the culprit responsible for the ongoing destruction of our habitat. We are also becoming aware that their system is responsible for creating extremes of living standards, wars, and many other hazardous conditions for the majority. Is it so surprising that our ruling capitalist class are energetically fighting such truths and proliferating fake news about what is happening in the world?

One of the effects I've been witnessing of this ongoing campaign of fake news is that many occupants in nations controlled by the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire exhibit behaviors that can be described as "deer caught in the headlights". This metaphor suggests that many occupants of the Empire have become mostly immobilized and unwilling to act for their own survival. I especially see indications of this among people in the USA where I live. This troubles me very much.

I think that the ongoing fake news and propaganda spread by our ruling class is largely responsible for this behavior. My fellow Americans are thoroughly confused, and in their confusion, they adopt a "don't rock the boat" kind of attitude. This attitude clashes with relatively few more independent thinkers who are terrified about the dangers posed by our rulers and their system, and who want to act.

Watch My Speech On Assange’s Persecution For “Whistle-blowing, Wikileaks & the Future of Democracy”

Click here to access this speech on video by Australian Caitlin Johnstone from her blog.

She explains one weapon that the Empire directs against us by examining their efforts via their wholly controlled media to smear Julian Assange. This effort is only one example of the power to control us by controlling the narrative of any subject. 

Like Libya and Syria, Venezuela Is Not “Just about Oil”

Click here to access article by Andre Vltchek from New Eastern Outlook.

I agree with his argument that recent attacks, and earlier ones which also included various modes of regime change, against nations that tried to pursue too independent actions from the interests of the US/Anglo/Zionist transnational capitalist Empire. But I part company from him over his downgrading of capitalism as a role in these actions. He substitutes capitalism with the abstract term "culture" as the root cause of imperialism. Hence, he argues that Western culture is responsible for the sufferings of most people in the world.

Capitalism is a fundamental system that enables tiny capitalist ruling classes to align all institutions (hence "culture") of societies under their control to conform to their interests of profit and power. It seems so obvious to me that I won't belabor the argument.

Syria: Is US Fighting ISIS or Liquidating Assets?

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook. 

That the “final stronghold” of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS) resides in US occupied territory in Syria says it all.

From US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) memos dating back to 2012 noting efforts to create a “Salafist” [Islamic] “principality” [State] in eastern Syria precisely where ISIS rose and now clings to its “final stronghold,” to the obvious fact that ISIS’ fighting capacity was only possible through extensive state sponsorship – it was already clear that the US and its partners in regime change against Syria had been using terrorists including ISIS as proxy ground forces.

Now the US claims it has cornered and is on the verge of defeating ISIS – despite the terrorist group having been cleared out of virtually every other corner of the nation by Syrian, Russian, Iranian, and Hezbollah forces long ago.

Cartalucci tells it like it is in contrast to other writers in alternative media who still hedge this insight behind rather obscure, oblique (def.) words. I have at least 25 posts, many from US corporate media, that support his view about the US, and its allies in the Middle East, which were involved in creating and supporting terrorist armies in an effort to effect regime change in Syria:

US and Europe in 'major airlift of arms to Syrian rebels through Zagreb' - Telegraph Dept of Defense cites west support of Syrian rebels C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Rebels - The New York Times Al Qaeda Funded by Royal Sauds, U.S. Gov’t. Documents – The Greanville Post Bulgarian-NATO weapons reportedly end up in hands of mercenary-terrorist jihadists in Syria | the real Syrian Free Press M of A - US Empire's history of funding terrorist groups, now Syria Syrian Army Captures US Weapons Cache in Aleppo ISIS--US and allies fund them: Biden-Dempsey General Dempsey acknowledges US Arab allies | User Clip | C-SPAN.org Pentagon report says West, Gulf states and Turkey foresaw emergence of ‘IS’ | Middle East Eye Pentagon report reveals West’s support for ISIS Medium 2012 DIA ‘Islamic State’ Report Enters National Discourse after New York Times Coverage – Levant Report Mutual suspicion frays historic US-Saudi ties - FT.com (quote from late Prince Saud al-Faisal re ISIS.) M of A - Todenhöfer: Interview With Al-Nusra Commander "The Americans stand on our side" The Covert Origins of ISIS by the Empire Three Green Berets killed by ISIS infiltrator after CIA ignored warnings | SOFREP U.S. Relies Heavily on Saudi Money to Support Syrian Rebels - The New York Times Revealed: the £1bn of weapons flowing from Europe to Middle East | World news | The Guardian In Shift, Saudis Are Said to Arm Rebels in Syria - The New York Times Making a Killing: The 1.2 Billion Euros Arms Pipeline to Middle East | Veterans Today US contractors used: Spies-for-Hire Now at War in Syria BREAKING: At Least 14 US Coalition Military Officers Captured by Syrian Special Forces in East Aleppo Bunker 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency document: West will facilitate rise of Islamic State “in order to isolate the Syrian regime” – Levant Report Surviving Capitalism: 2012 DIA ‘Islamic State’ Report Enters National Discourse after New York Times Coverage Former DIA Chief Michael Flynn Says Rise of Islamic State was “a willful decision” and Defends Accuracy of 2012 Memo – Levant Report IMPORTANT DIA UPDATE: Former Defense Intelligence Director Michael Flynn Comments Publicly on 2012 DIA Islamic State Report – Levant Report WikiLeaks - The Podesta Emails New Revelations in the Syrian War | New Eastern Outlook Rise of Islamic State was ‘a willful decision’: Former DIA Chief Michael Flynn | Foreign Policy Journal Over 2,500 ISIS members transferred from Syria to Afghanistan - CSTO Pentagon report says West, Gulf states and Turkey foresaw emergence of ‘IS’ | Middle East Eye

Explained: Why Julian Assange & Chelsea Manning hold key to Free Press [updated with an additional post.]

This article features a video in which Patrick Henningsen of the US explaining to leftist-Brit Mike Robinson (and to us in alternative media) the importance of Assange and Manning in the cause of a free media. This was posted on 21st Century Wire.

All journalists and publications, be they mainstream or alternative, must step up now or risk losing these freedoms permanently.

This short segment with Patrick Henningsen (21WIRE) and Mike Robinson (UK Column) explains why it’s absolutely crucial and in the public interest to support Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning and WikiLeaks, as all three of these represent fundamental pillars of democracy – the right to publish, the rights of whistleblowers, and a free press. Watch:

Because I had contacted a number of left British websites regarding the importance of British activists to get involved in freeing Julian Assange and have to date received no response, I was especially interested in the reactions of Mike Robinson. I was disappointed that Robinson chose not to respond.

(You may also be interested in an insightful article entitled "Freedom Rider: Julian Assange and Robert Mueller" by Margaret Kimberley from Black Agenda Report.)

Courthouse News yanks article for its woefully fair and accurate coverage of 9/11 lawsuit

Click here to access article by Ted Walter from Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

This organization has been battling for nearly a decade to obtain information from government investigative agencies, especially the FBI, to disclose all the information they have regarding what happened on 9/11. They have initiated a lawsuit forcing the FBI to disclose information related to the death of a particular individual, Bobby McIlvaine, who died on that day as a result of the events of 9/11.

If you had to pick one example to best encapsulate the mainstream media bias and censorship that have contributed significantly to suppressing the truth about 9/11 for nearly two decades, it would have to be the extraordinary actions of Courthouse News Service earlier this week.

I've often wondered why the government under the control of the capitalist class's Deep State has permitted this lawsuit to go forward. Now it appears that their control of information--unless it was a simple mistake--through all institutions, both privately owned media and government, will be sufficient ability to prevent US citizens to learn about this legal action. Expunging the article from the Courthouse News may well be the first example of that control in this important legal case. From the website of Courthouse News we learn:

... other news organizations are increasingly relying on Courthouse News new litigation reports to help guide their news coverage, putting Courthouse News in a position similar to that of a pool reporter. All told, Courthouse News provides coverage of more than 2,000 courts around the country, spanning all 50 states.

Articles recommended for Thursday, March 28, 2019

• In recognizing Israel’s conquest of Golan, Trump reveals the truth about the United States’ relationship with its beachhead in the Middle East by Stephen Gowans from his blog What's Left.

• The EU bows to ‘systemic rival’ China: Slowly but surely, the EU is shifting its priorities to the East by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times (based in Hong Kong).

• Rendition Plane, Increased Police Presence Raise Fears for Assange by Elizabeth Vos from Consortium News.

Viet Nam’s Economics Miracle Haunts US-DPRK Talks

Click here to access article by Caleb Maupin from New Eastern Outlook.

The author argues that Russia, China, and other such states are socialist because they use central planning by their governments, have nationalized key industries, and allocated significant resources to acquire technological expertise. I would not identify them as socialist, but mixed economies. Also these countries have failed to take major steps to prevent the destabilization of the climate, but they are vigorously challenging a uni-polar world with the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire as the dominant power. Perhaps it can be argued that it was impossible to do both.

However, this may be an issue only of semantics. Otherwise his argument that these mixed ("socialist") economies perform much better than neoliberal economies, that is, the advanced capitalist economies that make up the Empire or that of former governments in eastern Europe that used central planning, sounds convincing. Regarding the latter, he writes:

In eastern Europe, capitalism, not socialism, brought about an economic collapse. As free market policies swept the region, the results were utterly catastrophic. Governments sold off state enterprises and let Wall Street and London set up shop. The result was mass unemployment; mass starvation accompanied a drastic rise in crimes such as the drug trade and human trafficking. However, amid the failure, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund thundered that “free markets” and neoliberalism were the only way forward. Milton Friedman and Jeffrey Sachs became the respected voices, and their policies of deregulation and economic plunder expanded far beyond the former Eastern Bloc. In South and Central America, and in Africa, the promises of free market capitalism creating prosperity and abundance never materialized. 

His main thesis that the Empire fears the success of DPRK's economy is well argued. 

(His reference to Jim Roger (sic) should have a link to Jim Rogers.)

An Iran-Syria ‘Belt & Road’: A Far-Reaching Geopolitical Strategy Unfolds

Click here to access article by Alastair Crooke from Strategic Culture Foundation. (I've had difficulties with this link and if you do also, I advise accessing the article via ZeroHedge.)

I encountered this article on Monday the 25th of March, but I didn't realize the full significance that it had. It appears to me that Crooke sees a series of bumbling attempts by the Trump administration that risks calamitous consequences for the Empire in their strategy to weaken Iran. Poised against this strategy is the China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Characterizing BRI as a "far-reaching geopolitical strategy" is perhaps an understatement as to its ultimate effects.

As we saw yesterday in Escobar's article and commentary I posted yesterday, President Xi of China is in meetings with the presidents of France and Germany to clear away their objections to BRI.  It is also very clear that both Macron and Merkel are very concerned about the tempting incentives presented by BRI for their own European capitalists. Thus, the meetings are critically important in this giant struggle for the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire to maintain their dominant position in the world. (See also an article by Deena Stryker.)

If President Xi should succeed, it will have a number of very adverse consequences for the Empire's anti-Iran strategies. Iran, as Crooke points out, is a key participant in China's BRI. Thus the Empire's transnational capitalist class would not only incur a devastating setback in its project to punish Iran, but far worse. China's BRI would link up Asia, Russia, and Europe and thus consolidate a victory for a multipolar world. Keep in mind that the Empire has already suffered a defeat in its Syrian campaign which struggle was really against Russian efforts to link Europe's economy with that of Russia.

Muddying this picture is the US Deep State's concern about their long favorable relationship with Saudi Arabia following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, an important Saudi citizen employed by the Washington Post, a key Empire newspaper. As Crooke points out, there is a section of the Deep State that is very worried about their longstanding relationship with Saudi Arabia which has been essential to supporting the US dollar as the primary world's currency following the Vietnam War when USA went off the gold standard.

Thus, Crooke concludes his article with this insightful statement:

Well, the pivot for countering this unfavourable US conjuncture rests on one man: MbS. America’s entire foreign policy, and that of its ally, Israel, has pivoted around this erratic, highly-flawed, psychologically-impaired figure. The NYT leak from CIA officials, with its unqualified endorsement through a NYT board editorial, suggest that the CIA and MI6 have concluded that US global interests cannot be left in such unreliable, unsafe hands.

What this ultimately might mean is unclear, but such a leak would suggest that it stems from a concerted CIA professional assessment (i.e. that it is not just a partisan party warfare). Trump may not concur, or like it much, but the CIA when it does form such a definitive view, is no force to be lightly trifled with.