by: Daniel Patrick Welch
My interview with PressTV on the poor victimized US having its little ship buzzed by the big bad Russians 7000 km from home (and 50 miles from Russian territory). I take pains to point out that it is the US who are the real Super Predators, and they must be brought to heel—along with the warning that an election has absolutely no hope of changing this shit. Nice touch, huh? Yeah I thought so. Please share. Audio at link. Transcript below.
- "It is so infuriating for any justice minded people in the world to hear how the United States is constantly coming out with these arrogant statements, calling Russian moves provocative for buzzing a US ship. The clear implication is that the US can do whatever it wants wherever it wants, and if anyone moves to push back or take a stance in defending their countries and their people, then they are in the wrong and they are the ones who are ’provocative. The fact is that this ship is 70 [nautical] miles from Russian territory, and the US has lied and betrayed its promises consistently since the end of the cold war—the promises and lies that were made under Gorbachev and Yeltsin that the US would not expand NATO eastward, would not continue to take over territory held by the former Soviet states.
"And we see time and time again that this was exactly the opposite of what their intention was all along; they are creeping ever closer to Russia with country after country moving into NATO. And now they’re doing the same thing with China—they’re encircling, militarily, anyone they perceive as an enemy. Who is the nation with this enormous gulag of army bases all over the world, in over 100 countries, 700 or 800 bases or something? This is a global empire bent on the control of the world, and if not, the destruction of the world. They have just been raining death on dozens of countries over the years. To say that the Russians are being provocative is an insult to human decency.
"The United States government is the original and champion super predator in the world, and has been for a very long time. It’s not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not ISIS—and it’s certainly not young black men at home. The fact that the rhetoric overlaps—the victim is the predator, domesctially and internationally—shows how bankrupt and cynical—I mean this is just incredibly cynical. The only way you could think you can get away with this is if you think that it doesn’t matter what you say. And there are no consequences to your actions and words don’t have meaning.
"What I find particularly depressing about this is that it also shows how glib and how unchanged this rhetoric is for more than a hundred years in this American exceptionalist ideal. The hope that it is going to change because of an election I think is more than a little delusional. This is stuff that has taken generations to build up, and who sits in the White House is not going to change it.
"You have this appalling lack of discussion in the presidential campaigns about foreign policy, except to outdo each other about how crazy they would get. And you have the one marginally progressive—at least in a mainstream sense—candidate who just fired a staffer for posting critical comments on Facebook about Bibi Netanyahu. There is no way that this is going to change from within. That is the thing that is very disappointing.
"But what you do have is change from without: The Russians pushing back—strongly, and in a military way. Solidarity with the other countries of the Global South and their people and governments is the only way we can provide any hope for the future to push back against this superpredation. There is nothing that can be done—pretty much—from within, except to support that solidarity that is happening over and above our heads. What happened in Syria is that the death squad machine was stopped by military pushback. The initial assault on Syria was stopped by shooting down US missiles.
"The only thing that is going to provide that hope is the continued economic, social, political and military integration of the countries that are pushing back against US imperialism. That’s the hope that at least I cling to that there can be some positive change coming up for the world—because it’s not going to come from the belly of the beast."
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian 
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