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The New Year’s execution by Saudi Arabia of the Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr was a deliberate provocation.
Its first purpose: Signal the new ruthlessness and resolve of the Saudi monarchy where the power behind the throne is the octogenarian King Salman’s son, the 30-year-old Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman.
Second, crystallize, widen and deepen a national-religious divide between Sunni and Shiite, Arab and Persian, Riyadh and Tehran.
Third, rupture the rapprochement between Iran and the United States and abort the Iranian nuclear deal.
The provocation succeeded in its near-term goal. An Iranian mob gutted and burned the Saudi embassy, causing diplomats to flee, and Riyadh to sever diplomatic ties.
From Baghdad to Bahrain, Shiites protested the execution of a cleric who, while a severe critic of Saudi despotism and a champion of Shiite rights, was not convicted of inciting revolution or terror.
In America, the reaction has been divided.
The Wall Street Journal rushed, sword in hand, to the side of the Saudi royals: “The U.S. should make clear to Iran and Russia that it will defend the Kingdom from Iranian attempts to destabilize or invade.”
The Washington Post was disgusted. In an editorial, “A Reckless Regime,” it called the execution risky, ruthless and unjustified.
Yet there is a lesson here.
Like every regime in the Middle East, the Saudis look out for their own national interests first. And their goals here are to first force us to choose between them and Iran, and then to conscript U.S. power on their side in the coming wars of the Middle East.
Thus the Saudis went AWOL from the battle against ISIS and al-Qaida in Iraq and Syria. Yet they persuaded us to help them crush the Houthi rebels in Yemen, though the Houthis never attacked us and would have exterminated al-Qaida.
Now that a Saudi coalition has driven the Houthis back toward their northern basecamp, ISIS and al-Qaida have moved into some of the vacated terrain. What kind of victory is that — for us?
In the economic realm, also, the Saudis are doing us no favors.
While Riyadh is keeping up oil production and steadily bringing down the world price on which Iranian and Russian prosperity hangs, the Saudis are also crippling the U.S. fracking industry they fear.
The Turks, too, look out for number one. The Turkish shoot-down of that Russian fighter-bomber, which may have intruded into its airspace for 17 seconds, was both a case in point and a dangerous and provocative act.
Had Vladimir Putin chosen to respond militarily against Turkey, a NATO ally, his justified retaliation could have produced demands from Ankara for the United States to come to its defense against Russia.
A military clash with our former Cold War adversary, which half a dozen U.S. presidents skillfully avoided, might well have been at hand.
These incidents raise some long-dormant but overdue questions.
What exactly is our vital interest in a permanent military alliance that obligates us to go to war on behalf of an autocratic ally as erratic and rash as Turkey’s Tayyip Recep Erdogan?
Do U.S.-Turkish interests really coincide today?
While Turkey’s half-million-man army could easily seal the Syrian border and keep ISIS fighters from entering or leaving, it has failed to do so. Instead, Turkey is using its army to crush the Kurdish PKK and threaten the Syrian Kurds who are helping us battle ISIS.
In Syria’s civil war — with the army of Bashar Assad battling ISIS and al-Qaida — it is Russia and Iran and even Hezbollah that seem to be more allies of the moment than the Turks, Saudis or Gulf Arabs.
“We have no permanent allies … no permanent enemies … only permanent interests” is a loose translation of the dictum of the 19th century British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston.
Turkey’s shoot-down of a Russian jet and the Saudi execution of a revered Shiite cleric, who threatened no one in prison, should cause the United States to undertake a cost-benefit analysis of the alliances and war guarantees we have outstanding, many of them dating back half a century.
Do all, do any, still serve U.S. vital national interests?
In the Middle East, where the crucial Western interest is oil, and every nation — Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Libya — has to sell it to survive — no nation should be able drag us into a war not of our own choosing.
In cases where we share a common enemy, we should follow the wise counsel of the Founding Fathers and entrust our security, if need be, to “temporary,” but not “permanent” or “entangling alliances.”
Moreover, given the myriad religious, national and tribal divisions between the nations of the Middle East, and within many of them, we should continue in the footsteps of our fathers, who kept us out of such wars when they bedeviled the European continent of the 19th century.
This hubristic Saudi blunder should be a wake-up call for us all.
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of the new book “The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to Create the New Majority.”
Copyright 2016 Creators.com.
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On the money with this one Pat. There is nothing over there in the ME that an American should be asked to die for. Nothing. Everything the US might want from there is for sale and is cheap too.
To bring most of the US armed forces back to America, where they belong, would be the best thing for the nation and the people. Families together as they should be, money circulating amongst the people rather than the MIC gluttons and an America that Americans can start to be proud of again.
Make that a single issue in the election.
Oh yes, and round up the chicken hawks, war propagandists and people who’ve lobbied for policies with disastrous outcomes. String ’em up!
The United States has lost its moral fiber. Our leaders are slaves of the money flowing from Saudi Arabia, Israel, and other Middle Eastern monarchies. They have lost all sense of right and wrong. The press does not speak for American people either. The public itself has been lulled into a deep coma from which it shows no sign of coming out.
The fact that Israel, Turkey, and now Saudi Arabia can support our enemies (Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Al-Nusra, etc.) and are still considered our preferred allies speaks volumes about this nation’s moral bankruptcy.
People take part in elections like robots. Once the vote is cast they feel they have fulfilled their obligation and can go back and hibernate for four more years. There are no new leaders who can shake them out of this coma and break the chains of Israel and the Middle East monarchies.
A sad state of affairs. A land of the free and home of the braves, indeed.
I agree. But Jews don’t, and they got the power.
Very well said.
US foreign policy is cut from the same cloth as its current (defining deviancy down) social policy, and its “destroy the Middle Class” economic policy.
All of it is run by self-interested factions and shifting alliances, all shouldering each other to get at Uncle Sam’s seemingly ever-full tits.
It is the Mother of All Tragedy-of-the-Commons. Everyone knows that this can’t go on, yet collectively they can’t change their behavior…their survival, wealth and prestige all rest on it.
The USA is set up for an astonishing swan dive from a phenomenally high platform. The only questions that matter are found in the specifics as waves of financial, economic and social collapse begin soon to slosh around the globe.
Back in 1948 then Secretary of State George Marshall strongly advised Harry Truman to avoid involvement in the internal conflicts of the Middle East. He was supported in this regard by almost the entire US Foreign Policy Establishment at the time. Truman’s political advisor’s told him that getting involved on the side of Israel would secure Jewish support. Given a choice between the national interests and his own political interests Truman made his choice.
The political elite in America today has nothing but contempt for the American people. They will not hesitate to betray the American people for the rich if brutal Saudi tyrants.
The raison d’etre of NATO when it was founded in the late 1940s was to serve as a bulwark against the Soviet Union, which had overrun Eastern Europe and was feared to be about to do the same in Western Europe. Mainly, it served as a trip wire: It was understood that the armed forces of France, Great Britain, Italy, etc., might not be enough in themselves to deter the Soviets from attacking West Germany. With NATO in the picture, however, they would have to calculate that such an attack would provoke the full force of the U.S. against them.
When the Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1991, the obvious response was to disband NATO. Alas, our MI Complex instead searched for other dragons to slay and insanely sought to expand NATO to the east.
It is difficult to understand what the USA wants.
Those who have Saudi-Arabia, Erdo-“Khan’s” Turkey (Friend of Muslim-Brotherhood Mursi in Egypt),rich+decadent Gulf-States as “friends” and groups like AIPAC inside the US as the real rulers in the medias – those states need no enemies.
The USA does press the self-destruction button.
The USA is bringing deadly peace to Syria in supporting beheaders with “non-leathal” aid.
According to a Lebanese General most of this help for the FSA receives IS in the end.
Suddenly Assad is a bad guy although Syria,Libya,Egypt and Jordan did dirty Jobs for the US who were even in Guantanamo not allowed.
Where was the will of the US for Democracy in the 70’s and 80’s in Central and South- America with Dictators like Somoza,Duarte,etc. ?
With the support of 100.000 Freedom-Fighters in 1979 in Afghanistan (who changed into Taliban and Al Qaida) and with the illeagal War in Iraq and the non-existent Weapons of Mass-destruction ( Result: failed State and founding of IS) the USA did wake up a sleeping giant called radical Islam.
Instead of fighting the real terrorists and their supporters with Russia and the Shiite Iran the USA does the dirty Job of the radical Islamists.Europe has no own will and is a puppet of the US.Europe is flooded with people of these conflicts and has no chance with its demography.
Turkey and Saudi-Arabia laughing about so much naivety.
I never will forget a scene from the war in Afghanistan.A Mujaheed did fire a Stinger -Rocket to a Russian Helicopter and while he fired his rocket at the Russians he did scream :”Death to the Americans”.
USA wake up ! Know your enemies! But the US prefers friends like Saudi-Arabia, Turkey (as a NATO-Member !!!),rich+decadent Gulf-States and AIPAC as warmonger against Iran.
I think, Pat Buchanan must had too much of Vodka before writing this dumb piece.
America had been involved in Middle East bloodshed since May 14, 1948, when Washington recognized state of Israel and start pumping arms and over $3 trillion to that colonial entity.
America has been involved in all Israeli wars against its neighbors for the last 67 years against Palestinian, Iraqis, Lebanese, Syrians, Yemenis, and Iranians.
Saudi Arabia is the one which oils the US arms industry. Riyadh has spent over $300 billion to buy arms from the US, which it never needed, because like Israel, the Saudi ‘royals’ are protected by the US and British nukes.
Yes, Saudi executed 47 of its citizens – but didn’t had the balls to keep Karl Andree, British Jewish oil-millionaire in jail. The 74 old-fart was arrested for smuggling a few bottles of British whiskey into the “pure land”. A Saudi court had sentenced Andree to receive 350 lashes – but thanks Tony Blair and David Cameron, the Saudi King pardoned the criminal.
http://rehmat1.com/2015/10/13/uk-jew-to-receive-350-lashes-in-saudi-arabia/
Trouble is America is largely controlled by its all-powerful Jewish lobby. This means that America does what Israel wants. American interests are jettisoned. By itself the whole of the middle east is almost irrelevant to America. The USA actually imports very little of its oil from there. It is a canard that mid east oil is important to the USA.
“Had Vladimir Putin chosen to respond militarily against Turkey, a NATO ally, his justified retaliation could have produced demands from Ankara for the United States to come to its defense against Russia. A military clash with our former Cold War adversary, which half a dozen U.S. presidents skillfully avoided, might well have been at hand.”
Patrick, Putin was never going to take that course of action. He may have threatened, but it was mere posturing. He was not going to risk WWW3 over Turkey.
NoseyTheDuke—“Oh yes, and round up the chicken hawks, war propagandists and people who’ve lobbied for policies with disastrous outcomes. String ‘em up!”
Like those individuals who supported the Vietnam War?
MEexpert—“People take part in elections like robots…”
I imagine that you are running for political office, right?
The Priss Factory—“But Jews don’t, and they got the power.”
I thought the elites had the power. Or was it Wall Street? Or is it Hollywood?
dc.sunsets—“and its “destroy the Middle Class” economic policy.”
A feature of capitalism, I’m afraid. Now, what are YOU prepared to do about it rather than bitch and moan on a blog?
Jim—“The political elite in America today has nothing but contempt for the American people.”
I also imagine you will be joining MEexpert in seeking a spot in the House or Senate, correct?
you might’ve had one sentence that made sense.
No I am not running for any political office. I still have my principles.
Drag us into war?
What for?
US is already using its proxies to destroy the Middle East.
“Patrick, Putin was never going to take that course of action. He may have threatened, but it was mere posturing. He was not going to risk WWW3 over Turkey.”
So we should be comforted by the fact that Putin is not such a maniac as Erdogan or the King of Saudi Arabia and wouldn’t do anything rash that would risk WWIII? Wasn’t that the point of Pat’s piece? After all, Germany prior to WWI was not such a threat to its neighbors as long as Bismarck was in charge. The heading of his blog, after all, is “Will Mideast Allies Drag Us into War?” Pat is questioning the benefit of permanent military alliances with such backward folk like the Saudis and Turks that obligate the U.S. to come to the defense of such totally unworthy countries such as Turkey or Saudi Arabia in the event they engage in such provocative acts like shooting down a Russian bomber in Syrian airspace or beheading a Shia cleric who was never charged or tried for a crime. Why is it in the interests of the U.S. to give such reckless “friends” and “allies” such a blank check? You apparently are not bothered by Pat’s main point, which means that you are incredibly stupid. In fact, Pat is merely invoking what our first President, the great George Washington, declared in his farewell address to the nation, warning against such permanent military alliances with foreign countries and the dangers they pose to the U.S. The clearly obvious fact that you can’t grasp Pat’s message renders your entire exercise in coming to unz.com and delivering periodic machine-gun like reviews of many comments totally worthless. Out of curiosity, who ever appointed you as uber reviewer of comments on unz.com? I guess yourself. The fact of the matter is that your reviews suck big time.
Even the US vice-president Joe Biden, whose son-in-law and daughter-in-law are both Jewish, admitted that fact in September 2015. While addressing a gathering at Ahavath Achim synagogue in Atlanta, Biden said: “The only thing that would satisfy (US-Iran nuclear) deal opponents including Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is “a regime change” that could only come with US power.”
However, it took Joe Biden more than two decades to admit the Israeli agenda, which Netanyahu had been pursuing since 1992.
“An Iranian nuclear bomb was a lot further away 15 years ago when I started talking about. It was a lot further away 10 years ago. It was a lot further away 5 years ago. It was a lot further away five months ago. They’re getting there, and they’re getting very, very close,” Netanyahu told Fox News’ Jewish anchorwoman Greta Van Susteren, on March 7, 2012.
http://rehmat1.com/2015/09/05/joe-biden-netanyahu-wants-a-regime-change-in-tehran/
Remember that one of the first official acts performed by Hussein Obama was to fly to Saudi Arabia and publicly bow to the king thereby showing his true allegiance.
AIPAC+ADL+SPLC+ISRAEL+THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY+REPUBLICAN PARTY+EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN ZIONIST PASTORS+NOAM CHOMSKY=Number 1 existential threat to the continued biological existence of the Historic Native Born White Christian American Working Class.
The only viable game in town for The Historic Native Born White American Working Class is a full-blown economically progressive populist race-revolt!!!!!
more of Pat’s by now tired if predictable anti-Semitism. Why does this man hate Israel so much?
you don’t even have to see the implied quotation marks he wryly leaves out every time he says “our” security, as if we don’t all know what he’s trying to imply
now that is the kind of American patriotism that I’m talking about!
“No I am not running for any political office. I still have my principles.”
Another armchair warrior with no spine. Where are all the real (white) men?
“So we should be comforted by the fact that Putin is not such a maniac as Erdogan or the King of Saudi Arabia and wouldn’t do anything rash that would risk WWIII?”
Except Erodgan or the King are not “maniacs”, they are leaders pushing the envelope, just like every leader in the world has done at some point in their political careers, knowing full well that their conduct was going to draw criticism and condemnation, but not any physical retributions.
“Wasn’t that the point of Pat’s piece? After all, Germany prior to WWI was not such a threat to its neighbors as long as Bismarck was in charge.”
Bismarck was instrumental in unifying Germany. He was observably a MAJOR threat to British dominance on the continent.
Now, Putin certainly made it appear that he was contemplating it, and he may well have thought about it, but he was not going to pull the trigger. Assuming that Putin went outside the box and chose to respond, Patrick is ASSUMING the United States would have come to Turkey’s defense had Turkey made that request. Again, it’s posturing and speculating.
“The heading of his blog, after all, is “Will Mideast Allies Drag Us into War?” Pat is questioning the benefit of permanent military alliances with such backward folk like the Saudis and Turks that obligate the U.S. to come to the defense of such totally unworthy countries such as Turkey or Saudi Arabia in the event they engage in such provocative acts like shooting down a Russian bomber in Syrian airspace or beheading a Shia cleric who was never charged or tried for a crime.”
The Saudis and Turks are observably not “backwards” peoples. Furthermore, those two events you listed were events not remotely close to being the “straw that broke the camel’s back” to lead to military confrontation between us and the Russians. It’s rhetoric.
“Why is it in the interests of the U.S. to give such reckless “friends” and “allies” such a blank check?”
Nations have interests, not allies. It’s chess. You and I and even Patrick cannot even comprehend the magnitude of the complexity of the sociopolitical game being played, with backroom deals and backstabbing. Nations have interests, not allies.
“You apparently are not bothered by Pat’s main point, which means that you are incredibly stupid.”
Don’t flatter yourself.
“In fact, Pat is merely invoking what our first President, the great George Washington, declared in his farewell address to the nation, warning against such permanent military alliances with foreign countries and the dangers they pose to the U.S.”
When the United States became involved in imperialistic endeavors, that advice went out the door. You do realize that our foreign policies in a number of cases enabled our nation to become the best in the world, right? See the Panama Canal. See the Marshall Plan.
“The clearly obvious fact that you can’t grasp Pat’s message renders your entire exercise in coming to unz.com and delivering periodic machine-gun like reviews of many comments totally worthless.”
I am questioning Pat regarding the alleged response by American to Putin’s supposed reaction against Turkish aggression.
“Out of curiosity, who ever appointed you as uber reviewer of comments on unz.com?…
Ironic that you make this comment…
“The fact of the matter is that your reviews suck big time.”
and follow it up with this “insight”.
Rurik, out of curiosity, what is your background? Your name indicates Russian, but your command of English impresses me. You really have to have mastered a language in order to use humor the way you do so effectively. It’s sort of like you can judge a cook by the way he or she cooks fish, since fish is so unforgiving to error. If you can cook fish well, you are a good cook in my book. If you can make jokes in a language, you are in command of that language.
Hey tbraton,
thanks for the compliment, even tho I’m an American (USian), I’ll still grab it up, even if I’m not deserving under the circumstances. ; )
I started to post here as ‘Bob’, but then to my shock someone else was “named” Bob too!
I mean what are the chances?!
So I had to come up with something a little less common, and I picked Rurik specifically because I have that ancestral heritage (Norse) and also because my reason for finally speaking out on a wider forum than my small email list was to be a voice opposed to the Eternal Wars© I saw my country perpetrating. Too many people were getting killed and too much lucre was being looted, and there seems to be no end or sanity in sight. So by picking Rurik I hoped I’d be somewhat symbolically positioned between Russia and Ukraine. He was a Viking and a real king and was quite a figure back then, and so I hoped that I’d resurrect him in some small measure to be a force against the slaughter of these people who I care about. Both Russian and all Europeans. I have an amateur interest in history, and everything that I’ve read about the world wars makes me disheartened and dismayed, to say the least. As the new century dawned, I prayed in my own way that this one would be different. That perhaps we had evolved in some small measure beyond the petty tribal hatreds and resentments and the greed of those who foist wars for profits.
And then 911 happened and I lost hope. That event was a transformative one for me. It altered forever the trajectory of my life and I imploded my semi-successful small business I’d build from the ground up. I couldn’t countenance sending big tax checks to this fecal government.
And now I’m looking for where to go. Perhaps South or Central America. I love the country that I grew up in, but I knew and now know that the America I grew up in is dead. It’s been murdered. Even if it’s still twitching. The Fiend has got her by the short hairs, and it’s not going to let go.
So at least I’m one small voice of truth (as I see it, and always encourage everyone to point out when I’m in error) , but most of all against these evil wars to benefit evil people. That may sound like a judgment call, but looking at the carnage of WWII, and knowing that it was mostly all avoidable, and that there were people who wanted all of that to happen. And that there are people who are determined to see it all happen again in this century, and that these were the people who perpetrated 911- and have lied us into catastrophic war after war, and destroyed so many millions of people’s lives and seem to get a kick out of it
I have no problem calling them evil. I have a method for determining the goodness or evil of a person or agenda. If it’s intended to cause suffering, and especially if the suffering will give them pleasure, then to that exact degree I consider it evil. And conversely, if it’s intended to relieve suffering, and even better cause happiness, then to the degree it does I consider it ‘good’.
That’s my method.
Not that you asked.. lol.
but one other thing about me that I don’t have to tell you, is that I’m a bloviater. A hopeless, helpless, and incorrigible bloviater, and I know not the cure.
so sorry since this was waay more than you asked for ; )
(enjoy your stuff!)
“Truman’s political advisor’s told him that getting involved on the side of Israel ” – per Gore Vidal a suitcase with $1 million was involved.
im far from well off! I have no input to our pols! my little dream is acreage of my own. I care not of those peoples overseas! ME or EUR! my ancestors left GER in the LATE 1800s! they were all commies and follow the leader my ancestors said. obviously! as Hitler showed!
Bring our boys and women home from all over this planet! let the world duke it out! we are blessed and heavily armed! you want us come and get us! I don’t need the rest of the world! no matter how high the price of gas goes! Don’t count Zuckerberg and his minions, they are the new dictators!
How is pointing out that America should avoid entangling alliances “anti-Semitic”? That is a totally absurd thing to say.
Anon, I think you missed the humor in Rurik’s post. I think he had his tongue planted firmly in his cheek. He was being droll. I had to read his message twice to get his subtle humor, which prompted my inquiry to him. At least, that’s how I read his message. That last sentence responding to the WSJ comment was the clincher for me (“now that is the kind of American patriotism that I’m talking about!”). Sarcasm, dryly expressed.
“(enjoy your stuff!)”
Likewise, Rurik. Thanks for the response. I have enjoyed reading your posts, especially the ones with the humor tossed in. I agree with your response to the insane wars we have been launching around the world. Thanks for clarifying the origin of your name. FWIW, I think “Rurik” is a lot more interesting screen name than pain old “Bob,” so that other “Bob” probably did you a big favor. I wasn’t sure, judging from your posts, whether you had ties to Russia or Ukraine or both, and, now knowing you don’t, I can tell that your observations about that part of the world are not colored in any way by personal or ancestral ties. That is one of the great mysteries to me of the last 25 years: how Russia still remained our “enemy” after throwing off Communism. That is a point Phil Giraldi addresses in a current blog over on TAC. I grew up during the Cold War, and it was my understanding that our complaint with the Soviet Union had to do with the fact that it was Communist, not the fact that it was Russian.
The judgement of history will be that the American intrusion into world affairs led to unintended consequences which can only be characterized as catastrophic, indeed, cataclysmic.
America had its own great space to develop, and it squandered that opportunity to go abroad and wreak unprecedented havoc on the world. Woodrow Wilson’s decision to enter the First World War was madness; had the U.S. not intervened, the war would almost certainly have ended with a negotiated peace, and there would have been no break up of Germany, and no laying of the groundwork for the Second World War.
F.D.R.’s warmongering left Europe in ruins; the ridiculous narrative of the “Good War” is badly crafted fiction. It led to the destruction of most of Europe, which became an Atlanticist-Zionist colony, and to the dissolution of the administrative functions of the European colonial empires while retaining their predatory economic practices under the guise of “democracy”. And lest it be forgotten, the development of atomic weaponry (no doubt perceived by the usual suspects as a more effective way of genociding Christian Europeans) brought humanity to the brink of total destruction. To think, American “exceptionalism” led to the murder by incineration of hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians merely to intimidate our faithful “ally” Uncle Joe.
The Atlanticist-Zionist faction which controls the U.S., NATO and western Europe has done precisely what it accused Hitler of wanting to do: impose a tyrannical hegemony over most of the globe in the name of that most hateful of all ideologies: Talmudism, which parades under the mask of “liberty”, “equality”, “tolerance” and “justice”.
Hey tbraton,
And I again, I’m humbled by your praise and reciprocate in spades.
I just went over there and read it. Had some trouble with the site. Maybe they want to install cookies or something. And I see our Fran is over there too!
As for our relationship with Russia, I’ll try to add my two cents. I’ve had an interest in Russia going back to when I read books like The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment when I was quite young, and even used to participate on an English language Russian forum for a while. That was fun and a learning experience. Also I’ve read some books on Russian history and how it all started when the Vikings made their way over there. That’s where the name Russia comes from. This was an interesting bloke back then.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sviatoslav_I_of_Kiev
A real king. The kind who earned the respect of his hardened warriors by being harder and tougher and smarter and stronger than all the rest of them. (perhaps combined ; )
Anyways, the thing about Giraldi’s piece is I suspect, as I often do of many ‘mainstream’ contemporary writers, that they have to mince their words to comport to an unofficial narrative that ignores much of the realpolitik going on in the world today.
The short version is it’s complicated. You have many varied forces. People like Zbigniew Brzezinski who seem to have a pathological hatred for all things Russian. Lingering animosities between Russia and the former satellite states. And the US who wants to be Israel’s undisputed golem on the world’s stage, smashing and stomping down any threat, both real and imagined, and ensuring the current central banking system $ mega-fraud is never threatened.
For a while, when there was at least a putative interest in the fortunes of the American people, the US government was hostile to the Soviet Union. But then what happened was the wall came down, not because the Soviet Union had died, but because the Trotskyites had simply managed to take over the West too. So what was the point of the wall? But then what happened is Putin snuck into power over there, and did the unforgivable, and put Rothschild’s boy Khodorkovsky in prison. This was like a mini-Holocaust, and there was much outrage. But he was playing nice with the other oligarchs, and so even as John McCain and the neocons and Brzezinski were sticking needles in Putin by fomenting strife with the Chechnyans and having their stooges like Saakashvili moon him from Georgia, all was well enough. It came to it’s zenith of good relations when the chimp said he looked into Putin’s eyes.
But then what happened was the “Arab spring”, and how the world and Putin watched in horror as they saw that the ziocons were determined to destroy every country in the Middle East and bring tens of millions or more people into a dystopian hell on earth. Libya was the last straw for Putin, and he said ‘enough!’
So he put the kibosh on Syria. And that is where all of this strife is coming from. And that is what must not be said. Because Giraldi is saying Putin is acting like our partner and ally in Syria and nothing could be further from the truth. And Giraldi certainly must know this. Everyone must know that it is Americas (Israel’s) intention to do to Syria what was done to Libya. It’s the elephant in the living room, but no one wants to say the emperor is nekkid.
So that is why there is strife today between the ziocon occupied and dying west vs. Putin’s ascendant Russia.
That’s why Victoria Nuland and McCain are in the Ukraine.
That’s why all the handwringing over Russia’s (nonexistent) “persecution” of gays
That’s why they (the entire edifice of the institutions of the western world’s governments and media) all howled that ‘Putin shot down the plane!’ All knowing it was a despicable lie. Yet that’s how it is now. They speak with one voice. Just like the “dueling puppets” for going to war with Iraq, if you google that one.
So what’s happened is Rothschild has total dominance of the west, and it seeing to its slow destruction. But Putin is not on board for the whole deal. He’s not willing (like Toady Blair or the house of Bush/Clinton or Obama or Merkel) to sell out his country and its people for promises and guarantees of a lifetime of accolades and opulence from the Fiend. He’d rather serve the interests of the Russian people, and that is what they can’t even come to grips with. I think they’re still just wondering if he’s holding out for more, or something. Because it’s people like Putin, (or Ron Paul for that matter; men of integrity), that our leaders have no ability to even comprehend.
Well said tbraton. I don’t know why he comments here – he seems to hate everyone. He loves it. Can’t get enough of it. I imagine him resembling an 18th century woodcut of Rumpelstiltskin doing that dance Michael Stipe does in ‘losing my religion’ video after he’s done dumping his pseudo-academic invective on whoever has gotten his attention. I just skip his comments now, it’s improved the comments section considerably.
Rurik, I think you are being too harsh toward Phil Giraldi. I have been acquainted with his writings ever since I started reading and posting on TAC back in late 2009-2010. I just knew him by reading his periodic blogs on TAC until someone posted a message referring to him as “Dr. Giraldi.” I then decided to Google PG and discovered, to my surprise, that he he had worked for the CIA and served overseas in a number of posts and spoke 4 or 5 languages. I had been impressed by his blogs before I made that discovery. Needless to say, I was more impressed after I found that information. Just to give you an example, I stated once on TAC that we should have invaded Afghanistan after 9/11 but should have withdrawn within a year or two. PG responded that we should have withdrawn once we overthrew the Taliban and evicted them and Al Qaeda from Afghanistan. Once I thought it over, I concluded that PG was right and that we should have withdrawn within months rather than years. There was no reason for us to remain in that hell hole one day longer than necessary. So, not that he needs my endorsement, I think PG is a pretty solid thinker. I don’t like to tell anyone what to think any more than I like people what I should think, but I would suggest that you go back and review some of PG’s blogs from various years. I think you might want to change your appraisal of PG.
BTW I was going back and reviewing the messages unz.com has collected from me back in 2010 (I only started posting on unz.com around July 2015). If you click on my screen name, you will see a box to the immediate right showing the total comments posted by “tbraton.” If you click on the downward arrow to the right, you will see a further breakdown by year, going back to 2010 in my case when I first started posting on TAC. Well, I discovered that almost all the posts collected for me in 2010 were in response to Phil Giraldi (I posted many more than 35 posts on TAC in 2010). Here is one that you might find of interest:
https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/who-is-spying-on-whom/#comment-601079
hey tbraton,
I must have muddled up my opinion of Dr. Giraldi in my post. I have nothing but tones of respect for the man. I’m sure I comment more on his articles than any other writer. He’s great.
I just think that all these ‘mainstream’ writers, (and I don’t use the apostrophe as any kind of denigration, just that most of the writers here have not broken into let’s say Pat Buchanan’s level of renown) And in being mainstream, they are specifically more circumspect than for instance someone like me, who has no reputation or income from writing to worry about. So people like you and I can pretty much say whatever we want to. And speaking of, the only point I was trying to make is- that I don’t know if it would be prudent for someone like Phil to go to Russia and give a speech about how international Jews and Zionists and their stooges and lickspittles in the Western governments and press were deliberately trying to foist a calamitous war on Syria in order to bring down the legitimate government there so they could steal the Golan Heights and have one less stable country that might cause them some potential grief in the future. I think that would raise some eyebrows, no?
Or, perhaps more to the point, is your suggestion that we go to Afghanistan for only a year. But by what right could we go there at all? I’m certainly no fan of the Taliban, hell no, but any notion that the Taliban or even Osama was responsible for 911 is ludicrous. And reading what you wrote about Odigo and Carl Cameron and such, you ought to agree with that, no?
And this is the thing.. I suspect that Dr. Giraldi would agree as well (and Pat Buchanan for that matter). I have that sense about him. But in what universe could we or anyone expect him to go on record and be outspoken about such things? That’s all I meant about him pulling his punches. It’s simply prudent when you’re at his level, I would think.
America should be ashamed of herself, hanging around with the Jews the Turks and the Saudis, the absolute bottom of the barrel countries in the World [North Korea the only one worse]. Even the Arabs hate the Saudis, the saying “Turned Turk” didn’t come from nowhere and the Jews, well there’s nothing good there for sure. All because of Money! What a disgusting example they set, for heaven’s sake America grow a set, Man up and get rid of your gang of scum.
“It is difficult to understand what the USA wants.”
Let me rephrase the question.
The legitimate interests of the American people are twofold in this region:
Consistent secure access to energy at market prices.
A denial of territory to, and a suppression of, radical groups who might use “terrorist” attacks against the US.
They are best met by having strong, stable secular governments in the middle east.
The interests of Israel lie in having failed states with various rival militia and terrorist groups constantly at war to facilitate the ongoing theft of land.
Why did the US spend trillions of dollars turning what we had into what we have?
It’s the old Land Power versus Sea Power idea.
You should get up to speed on Mackinder’s “World Island” and its implications.
start here
http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/AD_Issues/amdipl_14/sempa_mac2.html
“Woodrow Wilson’s decision to enter the first world war was madness.”
Agree 100%. It was a European war fought in Europe by Europeans. It had absolutely nothing to do with America (or Canada either for that matter, but the Canadians were dumb colonials who provided cannon fodder). Had Wilson just minded his own business the war would have ended in a draw but his super-ego demanded he reshape the world. The results were a disaster.
“The judgement of history will be that the American intrusion into world affairs led to unintended consequences which can only be characterized as catastrophic, indeed, cataclysmic.”
First, who is doing this judging?
Second, ALL nations are involved in world affairs on some level. There is no “intrusion”.
Third, what are these “unintended consequences” that are “cataclysmic”.
See, you wrote an entirely ham-fisted, heavy-handed statement without any proper background or context.
“America had its own great space to develop, and it squandered that opportunity to go abroad and wreak unprecedented havoc on the world.”
“Woodrow Wilson’s decision to enter the First World War was madness…”;
Here is a primer on the matter. There was no “madness” involved.
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1914-1920/wwi
“had the U.S. not intervened, the war would almost certainly have ended with a negotiated peace, and there would have been no break up of Germany, and no laying of the groundwork for the Second World War.”
Almost certainly? No break up? No laying of groundwork? I’m sure you are able to offer the requisite evidence to at the very minimum back up your claims.
“F.D.R.’s warmongering left Europe in ruins…led to the murder by incineration of hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians merely to intimidate our faithful “ally” Uncle Joe.”
You must submit your hilarity to The Onion.
“The Atlanticist-Zionist faction which controls the U.S., NATO and western Europe has done precisely what it accused Hitler of wanting to do: impose a tyrannical hegemony over most of the globe in the name of that most hateful of all ideologies: Talmudism, which parades under the mask of “liberty”, “equality”, “tolerance” and “justice”.”
No, seriously. It’s gold, Jerry, gold!
As to who is doing the judging, Divine Providence.
Yes, all nations are involved in world affairs to some degree. Mostly via peaceful trade. Few aspire to be world gendarme, as that invariably leads to their decline. Rome’s empire lasted so long because its elite were wise enough to know the limits of Roman power. No attempts were made to act as world police in China, the hinterlands of Central Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Americas, or Sub-Saharan Africa.
The cataclysmic part starts when the desire for world hegemony led to the development of nuclear weapons – the first weapons system in history that actually had the potential to destroy the entire human population of the planet.
Yes, the war in Europe would have ended in a negotiated peace without the idiot Wilson’s blundering into European affairs to placate his Zionist blackmailers. Do you think that the exhausted French Army and the BEF could have marched on Berlin and dictated the terms of surrender to the Kaiser without the AEF and the fraudulent 14 Points? Remember, the U.S. still had a good reputation in 1918.
There is no question that F.D.R.’s utter ignorance regarding the situation in Europe in 1938 and geopolitics in general – so effectively (and need I add, amiably) addressed by Hitler in reply to FDR’s ridiculous telegram to Hitler and Mussolini of 1938 – led to the German – Polish border dispute and war of 1939 becoming the Second World War. FDR and the British War Party realized that National Socialist Germany’s economic policies and system of barter trade would have dealt a death blow to the economic hegemony of Wall St. and the City of London. British (and by extension, Anglo-American or Atlanticist) animosity and Germanophobia did not begin in 1933 or in 1914 – it began in 1870, when Bismark created the Second German Reich.
It is a fact that the British, with the full support of FDR, began the deliberate aerial bombing of civilian targets. As a matter of fact, this was openly boasted about by the British. Ever hear of the Lindemann Plan? Hitler only responded with the “Blitz” after three months of British attacks on German cities. The murder of European Christian (and inarguably many Jewish) civilians through area bombing was the real “holocaust” of the Second World War, not the contrived Allied propaganda of “gas chambers” which never existed.
Atlanticist-Zionist describes NATO/Dollar hegemony perfectly.
Indeed. Germany would have extirpated the Bolsheviks (particularly the radical Judeo-Bolsheviks) in Russia; the Middle East would never have been partitioned and divvied up like spoils from a poker night, and the American military industrial complex (brought to being by the likes of Theodore Roosevelt, Hay, and Mahan) would have been strangled in its crib.
The US is more independend from the Oil of the Middle East. Because of Fracking.
Denial of radicl groups – equal right for all. So the big Sponsors of Terror should feel the same consequences (Saudis,Gulf States,Turkey).
If strong secular governments should be established why the US is trying to remove Assad?
But in your next point you give already the answers – the interests of Israel.
But this time it doesn’t work.Even if Israel and the US would create 100 failed sstates.Because here it is a future fight against a worldwide Religion.The US and Israel have boosted this conflict.
Are the US-politicians really independent ? What will happen with politicians who act against these powerful groups like AIPAC? They will destroy the career af every politician with their power in the media and money-sector.
Also the relation between US and the Saudis.A lot of people with influence are on the payroll of the Saudi-connection.Politicians and other “specialists” are very well paid in similar institutes.
Saudis do buy them and since WW II there is a special Petro-Dollar -Connection.If the US is so proud on their values of Democracy why they are so well connected with the Saudis? Because if States like China and Saudi -Arabia support with their money the US and if they would take their money home and sell US-papers the USA would be bankrupt.
Turkey who is becoming more and more religious can do what they want.The US needs the Air-Bases.
So this is why the US has a double-standars with Israel,Turkey,Gulf-states and Saudi-Arabia.
“I just skip his comments now, it’s improved the comments section considerably.”
I generally follow the same wise path as you, Albino, but sometimes the temptation is too much to resist. In case you didn’t notice, that was one of his few posts where his initial comment was actually in response to the subject of the blog. That’s why I decided to respond. Otherwise, he follows the strange pattern of posting a compendium of little snipes and nitpicks against an assortment of posters, which is generally not worth reading, much less responding to. When he addresses the main subject, his superficiality becomes crystal clear. Like you, I hold his posts in very low regard.
“Otherwise, he follows the strange pattern of posting a compendium of little snipes and nitpicks against an assortment of posters, which is generally not worth reading, much less responding to.”
Actually, they a plethora of probing questions designed to hold a person accountable for their cornucopia of generalizations.
“Like you, I hold his posts in very low regard.”
Because the material I present is way above your pay grade.
“As to who is doing the judging, Divine Providence.”
And you know the manner by which He is judging? Like, as in His actual Judgement toward me and you and everyone? How do YOU know these verdicts? What about those individuals who practice a different religion? How are they being judged?
“Rome’s empire lasted so long because its elite were wise enough to know the limits of Roman power. “
You would be historically inaccurate—Being the Roman emperor had always been a particularly dangerous job, but during 200 and 300 A.D. it was a death sentence. Civil war thrust the empire into chaos. More than 20 men took the throne in the span of only 75 years, usually after the murder of their predecessor. The Praetorian Guard—the emperor’s personal bodyguards—assassinated and installed new sovereigns at will, and once even auctioned the spot off to the highest bidder. The political rot also extended to the Roman Senate, which failed to temper the excesses of the emperors due to its own widespread corruption and incompetence.
“Yes, the war in Europe would have ended in a negotiated peace without the idiot Wilson’s blundering into European affairs to placate his Zionist blackmailers.”
Again, do you have any source material to back up your claim? Who are these “Zionist blackmailers”?
“FDR and the British War Party realized that National Socialist Germany’s economic policies and system of barter trade would have dealt a death blow to the economic hegemony of Wall St. and the City of London.”
Listen, if you are going to speak with any authority on these matters, you must submit proof, not recycled conspiracy arguments.
“Ever hear of the Lindemann Plan?
Civilians are put at risk by their collective decision to go to war. They comprehend the consequences. They will be targeted. They will die. Of course there will be attacks that are deliberate in order for a nation to win a war.
“Indeed. Germany would have extirpated the Bolsheviks (particularly the radical Judeo-Bolsheviks) in Russia; the Middle East would never have been partitioned and divvied up like spoils from a poker night, and the American military industrial complex (brought to being by the likes of Theodore Roosevelt, Hay, and Mahan) would have been strangled in its crib.”
You can only make an (un)educated guess. By stating “would”, you are argument that you know for absolutely certainty. Ok, so how do YOU ultimately know compared to everyone else?
“The murder of European Christian (and inarguably many Jewish) civilians through area bombing was the real “holocaust” of the Second World War, not the contrived Allied propaganda of “gas chambers” which never existed.”
Niwdog’s Law—As an online discussion continues with multiple posters, the likelihood of a person making assertions that the Jews are behind everything in the world that is “bad” exponentially grows.
“Niwdog’s Law—As an online discussion continues with multiple posters, the likelihood of a person making assertions that the Jews are behind everything in the world that is “bad” exponentially grows.”
Who exactly is “Niwdog”?