Tag Archives: USA

North Korea Steadfastly Resisting US Hegemony

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by Kim Petersen / February 26th, 2021

 

I learned a while back to be especially skeptical of western mass media and their governments.1

My experience of life in China is nothing like how western demonization portrays it to be.

Therefore, I looked forward to the chance to experience North Korea first hand.

I traveled there with a Chinese group departing China. Starting out from Dandong, China, we crossed the Yalu River to Sinuiju, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

From Sinuiji we took a train to Pyongyang and explored other areas of the DPRK in 2017.

I wrote about this in “There Are Human Beings in North Korea. Neither Wealthy Nor Poor.”

My impression of North Korea was extremely positive, and I look very forward to returning there one day.

A.B. Abrams has written a comprehensive book, Immovable Object: North Korea’s 70 Years at War with American Power,2 that is extensively footnoted and details how American imperialism works.

Abrams does this by focusing on a United States-designated enemy state: the DPRK.

Abrams begins with the history.

He writes about the role of Lyuh Woon Hyung (aka Yo Un Hyung)3 and the seldom-mentioned grassroots formation of the People’s Republic of Korea at the end of World War II, a republic that was successfully functioning before the arrival of the Americans in Korea.

However, the “independence and nationalist character of the People’s Republic was seen as a threat to American designs for the Korean nation…” and the republic was deposed and outlawed. (p 14)

The US split the peninsula into northern and southern states.

The United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) ruled the southern half of the Korean Peninsula using the despised former Japanese occupiers to aid in ruling.

Later the US brought in an Americanized Korean, Sygnmann Rhee, to be a dictator.

The US staunchly opposed reunification fearing a democratic result that would bring about socialism in the entire peninsula.

North Koreans formed their own government and at the outset outperformed the Republic of Korea (ROK, i.e., South Korea) economically.

To maintain a grip, the Americans and Rhee government brutally suppressed socialism in South Korea, committing many massacres. (ch 6)

This helped set the stage for war on the peninsula.

Abrams casts serious doubt on the notion that the war in Korean was started by the North.

Several South Korean attacks on North Korean communities “confirmed by U.S. and British intelligence” and the seizure of the small North Korean city of Haeju initially confirmed by South Korean sources. (p 68)

Regardless of whichever side fired the first shots, Abrams posits this may be inconsequential to the actual casus belli. He points to

… the forceful abolishment of the Korean People’s Republic and later extremely brutal suppression of its remnants by the United States Army Military Government with the assistance of youth groups–described as terrorists even by their American allies–and with the backing of the Rhee government itself. (p 59)

After the onset of war, the DPRK almost achieved a quick military victory, but after the US landing at Inchon, the forces and military equipment of the US were too much for the small republic to withstand.

In addition, the DPRK was facing a United Nations coalition arranged to back the US.

The US pushed back and carried out a scorched earth campaign. General Douglas MacArthur of the UN Forces in Korea referred to the devastation as “a slaughter never heard of in the history of mankind.” (p 65)

Chapters 3 to 8 in Immovable Object are a must read to grasp the magnitude of the extreme brutality and gore fomented by US warfare; the killing of civilians (including South Korean political prisoners);4 widespread rapes and sexual violence; torture by US forces; its willfulness to lie for imperial ends; the obliteration of agriculture (to create famine), industry, cities, towns, and buildings; firebombing and the use of chemical and biological weapons along with the demands by the US military brass to use nuclear bombs.

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US wars are not only a function of its government and military. It is important to realize that the US carries out it warring and provocations against foreign countries often with overwhelming approval of the American populace.

Abrams writes that the majority of American citizens supported using nukes against North Korea.

(p 131) American public support for warring was also evident by support for intensified bombing by the US during armistice negotiations.

(p 224) That this American public support for militarism was not an anomaly was revealed during the US attacks on Muslim nations following 9-11, with 70% of Americans indicating a belief in Saddam Hussein being connected to Al Qaeda. (p 390)

 

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Massacres and gore were a staple of US-inflicted violence in Korea. Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and My Lai are just more recent accounts of the cornucopia of American war crimes. WARNING: The following accounts are graphic!

Kim Sun Ok, 37, the mother of four children [who had been] killed by a bomb, stated that she was evacuated in the village by Americans…. The Americans led her naked through the streets and later killed her by pushing a red-hot iron bar into her vagina. Her small son was buried alive. (p 175)

Kim Sen Ai, another 11-year-old girl…, said she was in the fourth class in school when American soldiers entered her village and apprehended her and her parents. Her mother was a member of the Korean Workers’ Party, and so earned special treatment–her breasts were cut off. Her father was tortured and thrown in a river, and her four-year-old sister was then buried alive. (p 177)

Jo Ok Hi, chairman [sic] of the Haeju women’s organization, was imprisoned and submitted to slow torture. Her eyes were pulled out, and after some time her nose and breasts were cut off. (p 178)

The Commission of the Association of Democratic Lawyers issued a report that concluded:

Taking the view that excessive murders are not the result of individual excesses, but indicate a pattern of behaviour by the U.S. forces throughout the areas occupied by them… the Commission is of the opinion that the American forces are guilty of the crime of Genocide as defined by the Geneva Convention of 1948. (p 183)

With the US military approaching the Yalu River despite warnings from China to steer clear, China entered the war and together China and the DRRK pushed the US-ROK-UN forces back to the middle ground of the peninsula.

China had recently emerged from a civil war, and the war on the peninsula was a costly proposition for China.

The middle ground represented a return, more-or-less, to the geopolitical border prior to the outbreak of war. Here was a seeming stalemate, perhaps a result that war-weary combatants could accept without loss of face.

But Americans threw a wrench in talks to end the war by

… what can only be described as gross violations of the law and serious war crimes.

These pertained to the brutal mistreatment of prisoners including killings, medical experimentation, torture and coercion of the most extreme kind to force them to remain behind enemy lines after the war’s end. (p 230)

China has trumpeted the end of the warring 70 years later as a victory for itself and North Korea. Abrams is more circumspect: “Which party, if any, ‘won’ the Korean War5 remains open to interpretation.” (p 240)

The results reverberate through to today as the clean-up for unexploded American ordnance is estimated to endanger North Koreans for another century. (p 66, 242)

An armistice has been signed but no peace treaty; therefore, the foes remain technically at war.

The DPRK has learned from its experience and has made itself militarily adept at defending itself.

North Korea has become a leader in underground fortifications, and has placed much of its armaments and materials deep beyond easy reach of missiles.

Northerners have also become technically proficient and have developed an intercontinental ballistic missile capability of striking anywhere in the continental US, including submarine-launched ICBMs.

These missiles can be topped with miniaturized nuclear devices and pose a most credible deterrent.

And a deterrent it is, as the DPRK has pledged no first use of nukes — unlike the US. As well, it is well known that the DPRK will not hesitate to respond to provocation.

The DPRK’s nuclearization has prevented any attack against it by a rational actor, as both sides would be extremely bloodied and damaged by such a conflict.

It is an important lesson that Iran ought to closely consider: the effectiveness of military strength, including nuclearization, as deterrence.

In fact, much of Iran’s missile capability and fortification resulted from cooperation with the DPRK. (p 289-295)

Libya paid the price for

… having ignored direct warnings from both Tehran and Pyongyang not to pursue such a course [of unilaterally disarming], Libya’s leadership would later admit that disarmament, neglected military modernization, and trust in Western good will proved to be their greatest mistake–leaving their country near defenseless when Western powers launched their offensive in 2011. (p 296)

Has South Korea Not Also Paid a Price for Trusting Western Goodwill?

Abrams examines how the ROK has fared as an independent and sovereign state.

Is South Korea independent and sovereign?6 Asked Abrams, “Could America claim to ‘liberate’ southern Korea while at the same time occupying it, forcefully dismantling its existing government and threatening those Koreans who did not abide by its will with death?” (p 310)

Abrams describes the “apparently sadistic pleasure [American] personnel took in tormenting the [South] Korean people…,” (p 312) the objectification of “servile Korean women,” (p 313) and the massive expansion of the Japanese system of comfort stations.

“Methods used to recruit comfort women to serve American soldiers involved rape and violence to disorient and break women in.

They would afterwards have little choice but to ‘consent’ to sex work for the U.S. Military.” (p 327)

In contrast,

Pyongyang not only abolished the comfort women system from 1945, but strictly enforced the outlawing of prostitution entirely and establishing formal legal equality for women…. [Thus] the nation’s dignity, pride and right to self-determination were never violated–neither were its women. (p 330)

DPRK Resilience

In the 1990s, the North Koreans were hit hard by weather calamities, crop failures, while the western sanctions continued to be applied, but the DPRK pulled through what they call the Arduous March.

How did the North Koreans resist? Early on, the war-ravaged homefront on the Korean peninsula ably put up a staunch defense, abetted by a Chinese peasant fighting force.

North Koreans practice Juche (self-reliance) and Songun, a military first posture that “is firmly rooted in resistance to external pressure as a means of safeguarding Korea independence.”

(p 553) To this end, the DPRK has emphasized modernization, advanced technologies, and providing for economic needs.

Pyongyang Photo: kim

The DPRK has a no first use of nukes policy, but any strike against the DPRK will result in a lethal counter attack.

It must be emphasized that the DPRK military’s orientation is: “among the most defensively oriented in the world, with its power projection capabilities negligible to non-existent–in stark contrast to the U.S. Military which is heavily oriented towards overseas power projection.”

(p 437) Along with having achieved a self-sustaining economy that provides the basics for the people, it would appear that the DPRK has withstood, and some would say triumphed, against US machinations aimed at the country and its system of governance.

To be fair, it is not just US warring against the DPRK. Every country that participates in the warring and sanctions against the DPRK, arguably, has sullied itself.

Take Canada, for example; Canadian peace activist James Endicott was harassed by his government for verifying American biological weapon use in the war, in which Canada was also a belligerent against the DPRK.

(p 141) Reporter George Barrett wrote that Canadian troops along with US troops committed “widespread and regular rapes.” (p 168, 184) Egregiously, Canada was also a destination for human trafficking of young girls and women from South Korea. (p 330)

It must also be pointed out that in stark contrast to western forces committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Korea, the Chinese and North Korean troops were highly disciplined in their conduct toward civilians and adversaries. (p 152)

A Highly Recommended Read

Abram has irrefutably laid bare the intentions of US imperialism. Immovable Object leaves no stone unturned.

The sordid history of the US toward Koreans, in the north and south, is scrutinized, detailed, and substantiated.

It is a battle of ideologies that drives Americans to pursue information warfare (actually a disinformation war) and economic warfare (sabotaging the economies of designated enemy states through sanctions, “a weapon of mass destruction,” and hence the well-being and lives of the people in targeted countries).

In the case of imposing US hegemony to Korea, it appears that while the US is succeeding in the ROK, it has suffered ignominious failure against the DPRK.

Immovable Object: North Korea’s 70 Years at War with American Power is a superb book that I most highly recommend.

There is so much more information and narrative to be gleaned from Abrams’s book that a review (even as lengthy as this) can touch on.

Abrams goes into western media disinformation and propaganda campaigns against the DPRK.

He answers why the DPRK state secrecy, media censorship, and why North Korean defector accounts should be regarded with deep skepticism.

Read the impeccably substantiated Immovable Object and find out for yourself what undergirds the DPRK’s resistance to US hegemony.

Bibi goes MAGA

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Trump and Netanyahu don’t wanna go

The prime minister is thus laying the groundwork for the day after the election, particularly for a scenario in which he loses. In April 2020, he threatened that were he to be disqualified from office, “there would be a call here to boycott the elections.”

Two years earlier, David Amsalem, one of the prime minister’s closest allies and then-chairman of the coalition, stated: “I understand that the prime minister is being set up and we cannot accept this… if someone decides to put the prime minister on trial over these delusional cases, millions of people will not accept it.”

January 13, 2021

“If, God forbid, Bibi loses, who supports doing what Trump’s supporters are doing?” asked a Facebook user last Wednesday on the popular “Likud Voters” group online, home to more than 14,000 members who support the ruling party in Israel. The storming of Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. was still taking place and Israelis, like the rest of the world, were watching the events mouth agape.

Since then, Israelis have been wondering aloud — including on social media — whether a storming of the legislature could take place here as well, should Netanyahu lose the upcoming elections on March 23.

Netanyahu himself has a vested interest in reversing this narrative; he has quickly sought to spin the story on its head and portray the protesters who have been demonstrating against him for months as violent extremists, a la the insurrectionists at the Capitol.

It is a spin that has further revealed the near-symbiotic relationship between the pro-Netanyahu right in Israel and Trumpist right in the United States.
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The new wave of demonstrations that began on July 14, 2020 was of course not the first against the prime minister.

But unlike previous rounds, the latest wave has been continuing on a weekly basis with tens of thousands of protesters taking to bridges and intersections across the country, with the most vocal taking place directly in front of the Prime Minister’s Residence on Balfour Street in Jerusalem.

The protesters have one thing in common: they all demand that Netanyahu resign over both his criminal cases and his failure to manage the COVID-19 crisis, which have created deep social and political polarization among Israelis.

From the moment the demonstrations began, the Netanyahu family has waged a stubborn campaign in an attempt to criminalize and delegitimize the protesters. They have been accused of anarchy, violence, hypocrisy, arrogance — even defecating at the entry to the Prime Minister’s Residence. Despite these attacks, police violence, constant harassment, and the coronavirus lockdowns, the demonstrations refuse to die down.

The recent events in Washington have once again shown the similarities between Netanyahu and Trump, and serve as a reminder of the degree to which Trump has directly affected politics in Israel in recent years. Like Trump, Netanyahu knows how to spot potential landmines, recover quickly, and turn them into opportunities to throw mud at whomever he perceives as his opponents.

A few hours after the beginning of the insurrection in Washington, at 10:30 p.m. Israel time, Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son, began to send a clear message to his followers: the anti-Netanyahu protesters are no different from those who broke into the Capitol — and they are dangerous. For months, he claimed, they have been threatening to break into the Prime Minister’s Residence and damage it.

Meanwhile, false rumors began circulating among Likud WhatsApp groups, social media sites, and right-wing sites that Antifa and Black Lives Matter activists had infiltrated the Capitol insurrectionists in order to frame the right.

These rumors were orchestrated by all the well-known channels and mouthpieces of the Netanyahu family — whether journalists associated with the family, Twitter users, news anchors, and hardline Netanyahu supporters. The ground was effectively being laid for what was about to come.

Two days later, on Friday night, what began as Netanyahu’s spin became a major news item on Israel’s flagship television stations. The three Friday evening news shows simultaneously broadcasted a shocking report that a week earlier, Netanyahu and his wife Sara were taken by Shin Bet agents to a secure compound in the residence, after protesters broke through a barrier at the entrance. The message was clear: just like in Washington, protesters are trying to breach the cradle of Israeli democracy, with security officials fearing for the lives of the prime minister and his family. Following the investigation, security was reportedly beefed up around the residence.

The media published the information — which they likely received directly from the Netanyahu family’s publicists — without checking its credibility. It was soon discovered that this was spin based on half-truths at most. While the protesters did get closer than usual to the prime minister’s house, they did not break through any barricades — because there were no barricades. They did not break through fences, nor did they climb walls or gates. They certainly were not armed, since these protesters have long ago declared their commitment to nonviolence, even in the face of police brutality. Sources within the police and the Shin Bet later clarified that the incident did not occur as presented by the media.

Needless to say, it is unlikely that anti-Bibi protesters will be storming any buildings should Netanyahu win.
‘Stalinist witch hunt’

Netanyahu’s spin may have been exposed, but the lie has still managed to convince his diehard base of supporters that something nefarious is afoot. They are now claiming they have further “proof” that, like his American counterpart, Netanyahu is being unjustly persecuted by a violent left-wing conspiracy that is trying to oust a sitting prime minister by all means necessary, including through lies, incitement, and silencing.
Israeli police arrest an anti-Netanyahu demonstrator during a protest outside the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem, December 27, 2020. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli police arrest an anti-Netanyahu demonstrator during a protest outside the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem, December 27, 2020. (Oren Ziv)

That is precisely why the decision by Twitter and other media corporations to shut down Trump’s ability to promote fake news led to an outcry among the Israeli right. Just like Trump supporters, the pro-Netanyahu right in Israel views the prime minister as an eternal underdog (even though he has been in power for the past 11 years). The social media shutdown has allowed the right to return to its familiar and beloved perch as the ultimate victim.

“The great advantage of this Stalinist witch hunt, which is now culminating, is that everything is finally on the table,” wrote Erez Tadmor, a prominent right-wing media figure and former Netanyahu spokesperson. “The masquerade is over and even the last of the eternally-astonished, naive, and purist right wingers will have to understand what we have been screaming for years: the left is all about the silencing and persecution of right-wingers to the bitter end.”

Tadmor linked the events at the Capitol to “the Stalinist witch hunt that the Saladin gang [a derogatory nickname for Israel’s Justice Ministry] and the media are conducting against the leader of the right-wing camp.”

Like Trump, who sicced his followers against so-called traitorous Republicans — and even his own vice president — Tadmor’s wrath was mainly targeted at right-wing Israeli politicians who do not openly stand behind Netanyahu. These, Tadmor says, are “the greatest asset of left-wing fascism. They are what enables the violent minority that controls the centers of power to divide and conquer the right-wing majority…”

The following day Tadmor warned:

The fascists of Silicon Valley managed to get Parler off the internet. Other companies are afraid to provide them with servers and cloud services for fear of a violent reaction from Apple, Google, and Amazon.

The left is now fulfilling its fantasy of completely silencing the right on the platforms under its control and suffocating to death any independent platform. Make no mistake, it’s on its way here too.

Ariel Kahana, political correspondent for the Sheldon and Miriam Adelson-owned newspaper Israel Hayom and one of Trump’s biggest supporters in Israel, took the debate to the next level, linking the riot in Washington to Yigal Amir — the Israeli right-winger who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995:

If after the raid on Congress many Republicans went on the defensive and [displayed] regret, now the [social] networks are actually pushing them to unify in the basic struggle for their right to express themselves. In addition (as per the Israeli experience in 1995) when venting becomes forbidden, deterioration into violence is only a matter of time.

According to Kahana’s logic, if only the left had allowed Amir to express himself freely and spread lies, disinformation, and incitement 25 years ago (as was possible until recently on Twitter), he would not have murdered Rabin.
Preparing for the day after

Today, Netanyahu is more vulnerable than ever. He is ruling over a crumbling coalition in the midst of the most serious health and economic crisis Israel has known; he is under constant criticism for his failure to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, and even top Likud members are abandoning him.

The prime minister is thus laying the groundwork for the day after the election, particularly for a scenario in which he loses.

In April 2020, he threatened that were he to be disqualified from office, “there would be a call here to boycott the elections.”

Two years earlier, David Amsalem, one of the prime minister’s closest allies and then-chairman of the coalition, stated: “I understand that the prime minister is being set up and we cannot accept this… if someone decides to put the prime minister on trial over these delusional cases, millions of people will not accept it.”

Netanyahu’s supporters are already embracing the Trumpian idea that should he be forced to leave Balfour Street, it will be because of widespread election fraud. The Israeli judiciary is entering this election cycle after years of being battered by Netanyahu’s efforts to undermine its authority in the public eye.

Meanwhile, the country is hobbled by a list of vacant positions — including a police chief and senior posts in the Justice Ministry — that leave the professional top brass enfeebled and dependent on politicians.

One can only hope that whatever is left of Israel’s democratic institutions, whose strength has always been in doubt, will know how to deal with such a situation.

From Russia with Love

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With united Europe MIA in its Covid-19 response, worst-hit nations turn to ‘evil’ Russia & China for help

And thank heavens for Russia and China, because if either Italy or Spain had been looking to the EU — or the USA for that matter — for real, on-the-ground assistance that would enable them to simply stop people dying in their thousands in overcrowded hospitals, then they would have found themselves waiting in vain.

Iran rejects Trump’s virus aid offer: “The American leaders are liars, manipulators, impudent and greedy … They are charlatans,” he said, also labeling them “absolutely ruthless” and “terrorists”. The American proposals “to help us with medicines and treatments, provided we ask for them, are strange”, he said, noting that the United States itself suffers from “a horrible shortage not only of disease prevention equipment but also of medicines”.*

23 Mar, 2020

Brussels has all but abandoned them to their fates, so is it any wonder that Italy, Spain and other European countries have turned to Moscow and Beijing for meaningful support in terms of expert advice and medical supplies?

When this coronavirus pandemic has passed and the nations of the European Union are counting the cost of decimated populations, shattered public health infrastructures and economic meltdowns, one thing is certain: the dynamics within the bloc will have changed forever.

Before the global outbreak of this killer virus, Russia and China were always the West’s undisputed bogeymen. Troublemakers, always up to mischief, playing dangerous geopolitical games intended to undermine Western democracies and divide allies in the EU and NATO.

The Chinese are not seeking to destroy Americans’ way of life. The Chinese accept fundamental aspects of our capitalist marketplace, and they have similar interests in halting climate change, fighting terrorists, and combating pandemics. China should be regarded as a serious rival as well as a crucial partner.

Many in the Western mainstream media are addicted to a daily fix of either Russian or Chinese conspiracy, so they probably don’t appreciate the irony here. Because things have changed.

In a big way.

It’s largely due to the generosity of these two “tricksy” outsider superpowers that some European nations, fully paid-up, long-term members of the EU, have even a remote chance of getting to grips with the immense public health demands caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus.

And thank heavens for that, because if either Italy or Spain had been looking to the EU — or the USA for that matter — for real, on-the-ground assistance that would enable them to simply stop people dying in their thousands in overcrowded hospitals, then they would have found themselves waiting in vain.

Sure, the ECB weighed in only last week, with an unprecedented fiscal bazooka aimed at reducing the economic impact that is being caused by the virus (ar at least by the measures governments are taking to try to stop it). But that’s fighting the virus in one manner only, very much after the fact and certainly not on the frontline.

This significance of that fiscal help will only really be apparent once the health crisis is over and the full, disastrous economic consequences are realized. And the fact that it is far from over right now is what needs immediate attention, like providing more medical staff, personal protection gear, ventilators, hospitals and, obviously, a vaccine.

But the message from Brussels to Italy, Spain and other EU members is clear: in dealing with the pandemic and the thousands of dead citizens it leaves in its wake, you are on your own.

The EU’s abject hopelessness and indifference started to become clear some weeks back in the face of the escalating virus, when the export beyond national borders of facemasks and medical equipment was banned by some EU members, including Germany.

US Deploys ‘Mini-Nukes’ in Deplorable Threat to World Peace

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Moscow has repeatedly warned that Washington is trying to incite a new arms race. It points to the undoing of arms controls treaties and the US weaponization of outer-space as evidence of such an agenda of provoking global insecurity.

February 7, 2020

The Pentagon confirmed this week that it has, for the first time, armed some of its submarines with long-range nuclear missiles which have a lower destructive power compared with existing warheads. These so-called “mini-nukes” represent – despite the diminutive-sounding name – an increased risk of nuclear war.

The newly deployed W76-2 warhead fitted to the Trident missile system is reported to have an explosive yield of five kilotons, or about 1 per cent of the existing W76-1 weapon.

The supposed lower-yield weapon is nevertheless an instrument of immense mass destruction, equivalent to approximately a third of the power of the bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945 which killed tens of thousands of people.

That puts in perspective the seemingly more usable “mini-nuke” missile.

However, with Dr Strangelove-type logic, Pentagon official John Rood, claimed the new device “would make Americans safer because it would deter the danger of nuclear war happening.” He also reportedly cited the weapon as a deterrent against alleged Russian aggression.

(It is lamentable, if not absurd, how American officials incorrigibly portray Russia as a bogeyman. When will they ever evolve?)

The official US reassurance is not the view of the US-based Bulletin of Atomic Scientists who said the deployment of such weapons actually increases the risk of an eventual nuclear war.

This is because the lower-yield W76-2 launched from US Ohio-class submarines will be indistinguishable from the existing Trident warheads. Therefore the danger of escalation to all-out nuclear war is increased.

Russia also condemned the US move. Sergei Ryabkov, Deputy Foreign Minister, said: “The US is actually lowering the nuclear threshold and conceding the possibility of waging a limited nuclear war and winning this war… this is extremely alarming.”

What is doubly perplexing is the wider context in which the Trump administration has abnegated arms controls treaties. Last year, the administration walked away from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, governing the use of short-range, or tactical, nuclear missiles.

So far, Washington has shown every indication that it has no intention to extend the New START accord with Russia governing long-range strategic weapons, which is due to expire next year.

The deployment of low-yield nuclear weapons as part of the strategic arsenal is bound to destabilize the global strategic balance.

Moscow has repeatedly warned that Washington is trying to incite a new arms race. It points to the undoing of arms controls treaties and the US weaponization of outer-space as evidence of such an agenda of provoking global insecurity.

It is tempting to speculate that the US is reacting to Russia’s development of hypersonic non-nuclear weapons which are said to be able to evade any anti-missile defense system. Moscow maintains that its arsenal is predicated on a doctrine of self-defense and not a first-strike objective.

The use of conventional bombs masks the use of the nuke bomb. The combined and simultaneous use of both types of bombs produces a confusing and complex picture.

In any case, it seems that the US having realized that it has lost out to Russia in development of hypersonic non-nuclear weapons has taken the tack of expanding its nuclear options. That move overturns decades of declared non-proliferation commitments.

It should also be noted that this week the Kremlin disclosed that an urgent call issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin for the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to convene a summit in order to address international peace has so far been ignored by Washington.

Last month, at a Holocaust memorial in Israel, Putin repeated a proposal for the UN founding powers – the US, Britain, France, Russia and China – to consolidate efforts for strengthening global security, non-proliferation and arms controls. This week, the Kremlin said this call has not received any response from the US (or the UK) to participate in such a forum.

Furthermore, next month sees one of the biggest-ever NATO war maneuvers in Europe, including a massive trans-Atlantic deployment of US forces. Russia’s Ministry of Defense has deprecated the huge mobilization as being akin to a rehearsal for an invasion of Russia.

President Donald Trump has previously stated his abhorrence of nuclear war and has called for negotiation of a new comprehensive arms control treaty between the US, Russia and China.

All empirical evidence shows that American rhetoric is completely and contemptibly detached from the reality of its threatening practices. The world is moving towards more insecurity and risk of catastrophic war. And the fault of that damnable dynamic lies entirely with Washington.

The Deal of the Century Show

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It is hard to believe that Trump or Kushner ever believed the Palestinians would accept a promise of “money for quiet” in place of a state based on “land for peace”.
Of course they did not. Their so-called «deal» was nothing but a dog-and-pony show designed to deceive the uninformed and frame the Palestinians yet again as intransigent when that jackboot is squarely on the other foot.

The results of Israel’s ongoing “peace process”.

The US administration’s call for both Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu and Kahul Lavan leader Benny Gantz to visit Washington to discuss with them the details of the deal of the century before putting it to the public is a provocative and hostile act that insult the international community in general and the Arab countries concerned in particular, because it deals as if they are not present in one of the most serious issues, that threatens if it continues without comprehensive and balanced solutions , stability and security in the region as well as international peace and security.

The US administration is promoting the mirage itself, so that none of the Palestinians can be a partner in marketing its poisonous and corrupted deal.

Tayseer Khaled, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO ), member of the Political Bureau of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, called on the administration of US President Donald Trump to stop behaving as outlaws and marketing Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of his far-right camp with successive gifts starting with the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, and attempt to liquidate the UNRWA , and the right of Palestinian people to return to their homes, from which they were displaced by brutal military force.

Since its inception on 1 May 1950 UNRWA started to produce photographic and film material of the Palestine refugees that had been registered with the Agency and lived inside or outside the camps in the five fields of UNRWA operations, that is Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Beside the film and photographic work done by the staff of the agency, outside contractors contributed with material that became part of UNRWA’s collections. The Palestine refugees were largely ignored by the world’s mainstream media in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

UNRWA has over time created one of the most comprehensive visual archives that cover the history of the Palestine refugees from the very beginning. 3.2.2.

Instead of remembering the Jewish holocaust of the past, as the Jews advertise year after year, decade after decade, instead, the Palestine holocaust should be exposed worldwide until it is stopped.

He added that the US administration’s call for both Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu and Kahul Lavan leader Benny Gantz to visit Washington to discuss with them the details of the deal of the century before putting it to the public is a provocative and hostile act that insult the international community in general and the Arab countries concerned in particular, because it deals as if they are not present in one of the most serious issues, that threatens if it continues without comprehensive and balanced solutions , stability and security in the region as well as international peace and security.

He continued, that the American administration, which promotes solutions that take into account the facts imposed by the occupation authorities on the ground over the years, according to its claim, completely ignores that these facts have been imposed by brute force, and does not see that the State of Israel is the only country in the world, that intensity uses live bullets, rubber bullets, and American-made gas and sound bombs over many years against peaceful demonstrators, who defend their lands, on which settlements and outposts crawl, which have turned into safe havens for Jewish terror organizations under full protection by the occupation army and various political, diplomatic protection provided by the US administration and its ambassador in Tel Aviv.

Tayseer Khaled stressed that the goal that the American administration is seeking from inviting Israeli leaders to Washington and presenting its so called the century deal plan , is to present a new free gift to Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right camp before the Knesset elections on the second of next March .

The US administration is promoting the mirage itself, so that none of the Palestinians can be a partner in marketing its poisonous and corrupted deal, and it is better for this administration to return to the United Nations Charter, the values ​​of the civilized international community and apply fully respect for UN Charta and international law and stop working out of the law.

Foreign Intervention Behind Iran Protests: CIA

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Lethally shooting around 20 or Iranians through New Year’s day, including at least one policeman, suggests foreign interference.

What’s going on resembles March 2011 protests in Daraa, Syria. US-supported armed protesters fired on police, instigating conflict.

Security forces responded to violent armed insurgents, killing civilians and police, attacking government offices.

What began in Daraa, spread elsewhere in Syria, things escalating into Obama’s war, unresolved nearly seven years later.

Events are also similar to late 2013, early 2014 Euromaidan violent protests in Kiev. The Obama administration’s coup involved snipers, killing and injuring hundreds of civilians and police, firing on them with automatic weapons from Kiev’s Philharmonic Hall.

Witnesses saw them carrying military-style bags used for sniper and assault rifles with optical sights.

Ahead of the uprising, Maidan leaders practically lived at Washington’s embassy in Kiev. US-supported putschists toppled Ukraine’s democratic government.

Fascist tyranny replaced it – the most brazen European coup since Mussolini’s 1922 march on Rome.

Events in Iran also eerily similar to earlier CIA-instigated street violence in Venezuela, scores killed, hundreds injured – a US-orchestrated color revolution attempt to replace Bolivarian social democracy with fascist tyranny.

Tactics included shootings, roadside bombs, arson and other vandalism against state facilities, barricades of burning rubbish, blocking roads, destroying a food storage depot, and holding a maternity hospital under siege.

Later, a helicopter attacked the Interior Ministry and Supreme Court. Other disruptive tactics were used.

Since early in Hugo Chavez’s tenure, Washington sought regime change. The Trump administration is committed to ousting President Nicolas Maduro, perhaps a renewed attempt to come this year.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Secretary Ali Shamkhani said a “proxy war” is being waged against the Islamic Republic on streets and via social media.

He blamed Washington, Britain and Saudi Arabia for what’s going on.

“Based on our analyses, around 27 percent of the new hashtags against Iran are generated by the Saudi government,” he explained.

Israel’s dirty hands are involved, long wanting its main regional rival eliminated, pro-Western puppet rule replacing the Islamic Republic.

A “small and minority group” is responsible for rioting, lawbreaking and violence, Rouhani said.

Reportedly, Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is now in charge of cracking down on elements responsible for violence if it continues – ongoing since December 28.

On Monday, a policeman was lethally shot, three others wounded from gunfire, the death toll mounting, anti-government armed gunmen responsible.

Maryam Rajavi from the so-called People’s Mujahedin of Iran called on Washington, Brussels and the Security Council to intervene. The CIA-supported group calls for toppling the Islamic Republic violently.

Trump and Netanyahu expressed support for protesters. Reportedly, Washington and Israel may try to assassinate IRGC al-Quds Force commander General Qassem Soleimani.

He’s in charge of Iranian anti-terrorist operations in Syria.

Things remain volatile. They bear the disturbing earmarks of an attempted US-orchestrated color revolution.

Iran is well aware of what’s going on, its security forces trained and able to confront made-in-the-USA violence and instability.

Jews Are Behind Homosexual & Transgender Movement

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The Jewish Daily Forward recently published its annual Forward 50, a list of the 50 most influential Jews in American life (could you imagine the outrage if an explicitly White news outlet published a list celebrating and commending the 50 most influential White people in American life?).

To introduce the list, Forward editor Jane Eisner describes the immense influence Jews have over American political and cultural life, essentially admitting in the process that Jews are the leading proponents of homosexual marriage, gay rights, and the disgusting, entirely degenerate and insane movement supporting transgenderism.

Due exclusively to Jewish influence and subversion, these Talmudic, degenerate cultural and social movements have become mainstream in American society today, a fact that Vice President Joe Biden once openly celebrated.

This is a year when American Jews are deeply, loudly and passionately embedded in some of the most pressing political and social issues in the nation.

Not that we were shy in other years. But a confluence of events allowed — or perhaps dictated — an outsized role for many of the Jews profiled in this year’s Forward 50.

Paul McCartney and Jewish Zionist wife. “They Threatened to Kill Me if I Played in Israel.” He just played THAT for Israel, lol.

From the debate over a nuclear deal with Iran, to the emergence of transgender identity in synagogues and on screen, to the groundbreaking acceptance of marriage equality, American Jews are playing a starring role.

The most obvious Jew to grab the political national spotlight this year is Bernie Sanders, the quirky, blunt talking, doggedly earnest independent senator from Vermont.

Bernie Sanders: “The Palestinians must fulfill their responsibilities to end terrorism against Israel and recognize Israel’s right to exist.” Like nearly the entire US and Israeli political class, Sanders is part of the problem, not the solution, not now, not ever. His disturbing record speaks for itself.- Stephen Lendman

It’s fair to say that his candidacy for president was considered no more than a quixotic adventure last spring — until summertime’s record-breaking crowds scrambled expectations and proved that a Jewish guy who still sounds Brooklyn can wow them in Iowa.

Beyond the never-ending presidential race the boisterous debate over the Iran deal found Jews negotiating (Wendy Sherman), opposing (Chuck Schumer), supporting (Jerry Nadler) and otherwise shaping the most serious foreign policy development of the year.

Chuck Schumer

Our influence goes well beyond politics. The legal framework to support same-sex marriage, which Evan Wolfson developed as a law student 30 years ago, was ratified at the highest level when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality in June.

Another human rights issue — ensuring that transgender Americans do not suffer discrimination — was championed in a Jewish day school by a remarkable bar mitzvah boy (Tom Sosnik), on the high-fashion runway (Hari Nef) and in the acclaimed television show “Transparent” (director Jill Soloway and actor Jeffrey Tambor.) […]

Suffice it to say, without Jewish propaganda, activism, lobbying, and support, none of these anti-White, un-Christian socio-cultural movements – homosexual marriage, gay rights, transgenderism, etc. – would be accepted, much less celebrated, in American society today.

This is what the filthy Jewish Talmud actually teaches. No wonder Jews are the leading proponents of transgenderism and homosexuality.

This is what the filthy Jewish Talmud actually teaches. No wonder Jews are the leading proponents of transgenderism and homosexuality.

therealistreport.com

Iran: Saudi Arabia Would Not Have Murdered Khashoggi Without [Zio] U.S. Protection

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Sheikh Imran Hosein on Saudi regime Analysis

haaretz.com Oct 24, 2018

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia would not have murdered prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi without American protection, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday Saudi authorities staged the “worst cover-up ever” in the killing of Khashoggi in Turkey this month, as the United States vowed to revoke the visas of some of those believed to be responsible.

“No one would imagine that in today’s world and a new century that we would witness such an organised murder and a system would plan out such a heinous murder,” Rouhani said, according to IRNA.

“I don’t think that a country would dare commit such a crime without the protection of America.”

U.S. protection has allowed Saudi Arabia to carry out bombings against civilians in Yemen’s war, Rouhani said, according to IRNA.

“If there was no American protection, would the people of Yemen still have faced the same brutal bombing?” Rouhani said.

Rouhani also called on Turkey’s government to conduct an impartial investigation into Khashoggi’s “unprecedented” murder.

With Syria lost, Daesh outlives its usefulness to Israel

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Given Israel’s proven collaboration with Daesh over the course of the Syrian conflict in order to aid its own regional ambitions, the recent decision to revoke the citizenship of 19 Israeli Daesh members is hardly the straightforward counter-terrorism measure it is being made out to be. Just more Zionist baloney.

While the recent decision to revoke the citizenship of alleged Daesh members has largely been framed as the Israeli government cracking down on terrorism, such narratives ignore Israel’s own past support for the terror group over the course of the Syrian conflict.

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TEL AVIV, ISRAEL — On Wednesday, Israel’s Interior Ministry announced that it would revoke the citizenship of 19 Israelis who are alleged to have fought on behalf of Daesh (ISIS). The move comes after a new law went into effect, giving Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri the ability to strip Israelis deemed to be members of foreign terrorist organizations of their citizenship.

The alleged Daesh members were identified by Shin Bet, Israel’s security agency, which provided the Interior Ministry with the names of 20 Israeli nationals who had joined Daesh. However, for reasons that are still unclear, one of the individuals on that list, who was left unnamed, did not have his or her citizenship revoked. Reports in Israeli media have claimed that the majority of individuals on the list were Israeli Arabs, though some were identified as Jewish Israelis.

Overall, Shin Bet estimated that 60 Israeli citizens have left the country since the conflict in Syria began in 2011 in order to fight on behalf of armed opposition groups, including Daesh and the Al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front. Fewer than 10 are believed to have returned to Israel since fighting in Syria began. The Jerusalem Post further notes that “dozens” of Arab Israeli citizens have been arrested by Israeli authorities in recent years for allegedly seeking to join terror groups like Daesh.

With Syria lost, Daesh outlives its usefulness to Israel

While the recent decision to revoke the citizenship of alleged Daesh members has largely been framed as the Israeli government cracking down on terrorism, such narratives ignore Israel’s own past support for the terror group over the course of the Syrian conflict.

Indeed, from early on in the conflict, Israel made it clear that it “preferred” Daesh’s presence in Syria to the presence of Syria’s legitimate government, a preference soon followed by a report published by an Israeli government-funded think tank that called Daesh a “useful tool” against Israel’s regional rivals — Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah.

Since then, considerable evidence, including a 2014 United Nations report, has shown that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have long been in regular contact with Daesh, even bringing wounded Daesh members into Israel for treatment. Particularly jarring was the 2016 statement made by Israel’s military intelligence chief, Major General Herzi Halevy, that Israel does not want to see Daesh in Syria defeated.

Even the very Israeli who declared ISIS an illegal terror organization, former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, later went on to candidly admit last year that Israel maintains open communications with a Daesh cell active in the Golan Heights, even though communicating with any group deemed terrorist by the state is, without exception, illegal under Israeli law. Not only that, but Ya’alon also went on to describe a specific incident in which Daesh apologized to the IDF after opening fire on an IDF position, suggesting that the Israel-Daesh relationship is deeper than “open communications.”

Given Israel’s proven collaboration with Daesh over the course of the Syrian conflict in order to aid its own regional ambitions, the recent decision to revoke the citizenship of 19 Israeli Daesh members is hardly the straightforward counter-terrorism measure it is being made out to be.

Instead, it is likely an indicator of the quickly approaching end of the Syrian conflict, which has seen the Syrian government largely reconsolidate its territory despite the efforts of largely foreign-funded opposition groups. Indeed, though Daesh was once a “useful tool” to the Israeli government, it’s failure to dislodge the Syrian government means that the group has outlived its usefulness — as have the handful of Israelis who joined the group over the course of the conflict.

The Wondering Jew: Is Israel an American Colony?

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Image result for israel/USA

’nuff said

haaretz.com

Comments on this article:

  • We are, quite unfortunately, the United States of Israel (USI) where its interests take precedence over everything else. Even the lives of American citizens are meaningless as long as Israel is the perpetrator.

Although Israel is not in reality a protectorate of the United States of America, you cannot ignore the tremendous influence that the U.S. has on Israel in all fields.

On the face of it, Israel is an independent state, but in practice, there is no decision that does not pass through the U.S. The economic/cultural/military dependence that Israel has developed in the United States in the last four decades, together with the flourishing of globalization and the free market in Israel in the 1980s made us a kind of US beneficiary.

With the election of the sympathetic Donald Trump, we returned to the glory days of the “Uncle Sam” Israel celebrated in its early decades. She was careful to cultivate a unique cultural character of her own with kibbutzim, Hora dances and the revival of the Hebrew language.

The fine European delicacies were swallowed up by McDonald’s. It seems like today, Israel is another one of the states of the U.S., with billboards advertising with slang–all in English. Add to that a decade with a prime minister who is more American than anything else, and you have basically become the 51st star on the U.S. flag.