Saturday, 23 January 2021

Zone B exists, thus there is hope, I promise you!

 Source

Zone B exists, thus there is hope, I promise you!

The Saker

Today it appears that the triumph of our adversaries is total. I want to post this column saying that I don’t believe for one second that this is true. All I want to do today is explain why. Thus, just to make clear to those alternatively gifted, this is not a comprehensive analysis and I will be leaving many things out.

So, here we go:

First, notice how totally paranoid our adversaries are! Depending on how you count and whom you ask, they had 25k to 65k folks in arms “defending” them. Of course, the primary goal of this nonsense is to make it appear as if there was a terrible domestic terrorist force out there, ready to take over DC and open Gulags for minorities. This, in turn, will make it easier to sell a massive crackdown on civil liberties under the guise of “protecting” the (supposed but, in reality, already defunct) “democracy”. But the fact that they had to engage into a witch hunt even to carefully vet every national guardsman (and probably even more people) shows that they are truly afraid. I think that they are wrong, there is no credible domestic terrorist threat in the USA, other than the government itself, of course. But what matters here is not what I think, but what they think, and they seem to have developed a serious case of paranoia.

Second, while I don’t believe in the existence of US domestic terrorists, I do believe that millions of US citizens are convinced that the vote was stolen. These people are understandably disgusted and angry. Many might be desperate or even despondent. Let’s call them the “deplorables” and consider it a badge of honor. Well, these deporables won’t take DC by force, but they will never trust a Dem or GOP politician again, and neither will they ever trust the corporate media. One of the blessings in disguise of this stolen election is that the GOP and Fox News have shown their true faces, and their faces are evil, stupid and ugly. 4 years ago millions of US citizens did not so much vote for Trump as much as they voted against Hillary whom they (correctly) saw as a symbol and metaphor for the entire “deep state”, or “swamp” or “ZOG” or whatever other expression you prefer. These deplorables first trusted Obama (“change we can believe in”) and, later, Trump (MAGA). Now they know that both sides are equally evil and false.

In the past, both factions of the Big Money Party had safety valves (Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, Rand Paul, Tulsi Gabbard, Bernie Sanders, etc.). I think that now the two parties are literally standing naked and boy is that an ugly sight!

Third, and this point I primarily address to my readers in the USA and that will force me to make a sidebar primarily directed at them:

[Sidebar: the planet can be divided into 2 rough parts: ZONE A full controlled by the AngloZionist Empire and, ZONE B, which includes everybody else. The vast majority of Americans are only really aware of Zone A. Why? For the following reasons:

  • Most Americans have never traveled outside Zone A.
  • Those Americans who have traveled outside Zone A typically did so without speaking the local language, thus cutting themselves off the locals and the local media.
  • Most Americans get their news from US-based outlets, often combined with a few from elsewhere in the Anglosphere (UK, AUS).
  • US media outlets lie even more about what happens in Zone B than they lie about Zone A.
  • US schools have pretty much stopped teaching history, and when they do, it is all propaganda about the “city on the hill” and all the rest of the imperialist claptrap about how exceptional the US is. As a result, when most Americans are exposed to factoids about Zone B they are not equipped to understand their meaning or importance.
  • Most Americans simply assume that people in Zone B are very similar to those in Zone A. Most Americans also assume that most governments in Zone B are even more evil than Uncle Shmuel.
  • Most Americans also believe in what I call the “immigration fallacy”: the belief that people come to the USA from all over the planet because they prefer the USA to their home country and people. Anybody living in the USA and speaking Spanish knows that totally false this belief is, of course. But few non-Hispanic Americans ever speak in Spanish to the Hispanics in the USA (FYI – I do). Anglos generally seem to have a hard time with languages…
  • Sadly, most Americans are not educated by their parents, their religious leaders, their communities, or their schools. Most Americans get most of their education from watching TV. Since all the US TV channels offer almost the exact same mix of vulgar entertainment, propaganda and commercials, this “education” resulted in a huge amount of massively dysfunctional families and communities. This addiction to a flickering screen (be it the Idiot Tube or You Tube – same difference) gives them a very short attention span and a limited ability to process large amounts of written information, which is what is needed to be able to analyze a situation]

As a direct consequence of these factors, most Americans live in a “mental space” where Zone B simply does not exist, and when it is mentioned, it is invariable in the “same old clichés” mode.

Finally, considering all of the above, it is truly a miracle that the deplorables completely ignored a massive brainwashing campaign (waaaay worse than anything the Commies or the Nazis ever came up with!) against “Trump the New Hitler” and still voted for him twice, both in 2016 and 2020! It really goes to show that most Americans quietly but passionately hate the regime in DC and that they use every opportunity they get to at least to try to change their country and their lives by means of voting. Makes you wonder what these “disobedient” deplorables will do the next time around now that voting became clearly a waste of time, don’t it?]

Now here is the good news: Zone B does exist! In fact, it is huge, rich, truly diverse and it has long figured out that both the AngloZionist Empire and even the USA as we knew them have basically died, all that’s left from it is some residual momentum and many bad habits by ignorant, arrogant and delusional US politicians.

Why is that so important?

Because if we allow the Great Satan (actually a very good and exact expression, I think that it fits the new regime perfectly, I will use it more often) to convince us that reality is all contained in Zone A, we could really fall into despair. Yeah, the USA is screwed, and so is all of the EU. As for US colonies like AUS or NZ, not only are they screwed (say by siding with the USA against a much, MUCH more powerful China), they also seem to have a morbid desire to outstupid even the USA in terms of crazy laws and insane ideological positions (say on COVID, for example). But all this in ONLY true inside Zone A. Very few people in Zone B still believe that the USA matters a great deal. Most of them already know otherwise, even if this is never reported by Zone A media.

There is even more good news: neither the (rump) AngloZionist Empire nor the (rump) USA represent any credible threat to most countries in Zone B. Oh sure, US politicians can call Russia a “gas station masquerading as a country” or a “regional power”, the truth is that the united West has completely failed to break, or even meaningfully hurt Russia, despite 46 sanction packages (that’s just by Trump, not counting the “change we can believe in” crook). Heck, even COVID only marginally hurt Russia (which, unlike the flag-waving pseudo-patriotic crap spewed by western politicians took COVID seriously, very seriously in fact, as early as March and prepared the country for no less than two major outbreaks, both which happened, and both which Russia successfully dealt with; this is why the EU is now in full COVID-hysteria mode, while Russia does not bother to impose any lockdowns at all!).

Now let’s place two US propaganda items side by side and take a look, ok?

  1. The USA has the most powerful economy on the planet.
  2. Russia is the #1 adversary of the USA (at least according to the Dems, the GOP places China as #1 and Russia only as #2)

Do you see the problem?

If the USA is so powerful, how is it that it failed to crush Russia? What about Iran? Or, in extremis, Venezuela? Yet, even the the last case, the “best” this supposed World Hegemon did was send a few clueless ex-special ops to get caught and give case of hysterical laughter to the entire Latin American continent!

And these folks want to take on China or Russia?!

Peuhleeze!

So here is the other very good news: Zone A presents no real threat to Zone B!!!

Yes, of course, the USA can still nuke China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela or some other country. But let’s look at the consequences of such a strike:

  • Against Russia: the USA simply vanishes as a country. Completely and forever.
  • Against China: the USA as a society completely collapses for a very long time.
  • Against Iran: the USA gets stuck in a major regional war it can only lose with massive geostrategic consequences (still, the new regime might try to pull this one off, never say never, no matter how stupid this idea can seem to you – always remember that the ignoramuses in DC are as delusional as they are ignorant!)
  • Against the DPRK: the USA gets stuck in a major regional war it can only lose with massive geostrategic consequences.
  • Against Venezuela: the USA gets stuck in a counter-insurgency war it can only lose. The comprador regime in Bogota will not survive such a war and Colombia will also “fall”.
  • Against any other Zone B country: the US successfully nukes this/these country/countries only to find itself being treated like a pariah by the entire planet (including quite a few US colonies), including the real military powers. NATO and the EU will also collapse is that happens (the US being their cornerstone).

The bottom line is that while the US triad is still fully functional and capable of waging a full-scale nuclear war against any adversary (including Russia and, even more so, China), the truth is that all this triad really achieves is making it impossible for another nuclear power to use nukes against the USA. Which is not minor or irrelevant, the problem here being that the US nuclear triad provides with with exactly zero help when trying to deal with any adversary not using nukes (either because this adversary choose not to use nukes due to the effective deterrence of the US nuclear triad or simply because it has no nukes in the first place).

As I have mentioned in the past, the US submarine force is, along with the nuclear triad, the other truly effective and powerful force which the US can count on in case of war. However, other than launching large numbers of outdated and, therefore, easily countered cruise missiles there is little this force can do to assist a US ground (or, for that matter) air operation against anything but a very weak adversary. The problem with so-called “sub-peer” adversaries is that they have relatively few lucrative targets to strike with cruise missiles (think Venezuela here). Most of these subpeer adversaries do not have the air defenses needed to deal with any halfway determined US missile and bomb attack and the US can quickly destroy whatever air defenses such “sub-peer” countries have. So yes, I admit it. If tomorrow the USA wants a “short and triumphant war”, say to boost morale or distract from internal problems, they could still attack countries like, say, Antigua and Barbuda or Santa Lucia, but such a farce will hardly would qualify as “brilliant victory” of the “best armed forces in the galaxy”, now would it? Or maybe would, who knows? Ff the united propaganda machine wants to present that as a triumph for US forces, like they did with the Grenada invasion (one of the worst military operation in history!) they can do that, of course. But that would only serve to further ridicule that propaganda machine since 2021 is not 1983, there are now millions of deplorables out there who will never buy this kind of silly nonsense.

Besides, considering how the joint efforts of the USA, Israel and Saudi Arabia (the “Axis of Kindness”) completely failed to deal with the Houthis, my money would not be on any US invasion force in the Caribbean (with the possible exception of a re-invasion of Haiti or the Dominican Republic, but these are already US protectorates, what would be the point?!).

Why does all that matter so much?

Because the Dems are clearly up to no good. Next, not only will we see a wave of repression against free speech internally, but the Dems are already making noises about, you guessed it, China and Russia (again!) and, when that inevitably yield exactly zero results, they will turn to “hate on” Iran and Venezuela again. But even these comparatively weaker countries are now very much capable of making Uncle Shmuel pay an immense price in blood and hell to pay in terms of political blowback on to many fronts to count.

The “power” of a nation (or a coalition of nations) can be measured using very many different type of metrics, but the three most common ones would probably be: economic power, military power and political power. If we use those three to compare Zone A to Zone B, it would be reasonable to posit the following:

  • Economic power: more more or less equal, with Zone A quickly going down and Zone B quickly rising. Zone A still has A LOT of comprador regimes willing to defend it not only at the UN, but in most international bodies (including non-government ones like the IOC for example, or WADA).
  • Military power: Zone A very much weaker than Zone B (just think RU+CN+IN for starters!)
  • Political power: Zone A still stronger, but that is also changing fast. You can say that most world rulers are still serfs for Zone A, but most people worldwide have long switched their support for Zone B countries. The recent triumph of the people of Bolivia over their oppressors is a very telling sign of this trend.

And here is the key factor to keep in mind: there is nothing, absolutely nothing, the Biden/Harris Admin can do to change these trends. It is simply too late and when the initiation of the internal collapse of the USA, these trends will only accelerate.

Yes, the bad guys did win, but only over Trump and his clueless pseudo-allies (did they betray him faster than he betrayed them, or was it the other way around?), but they only won one a battle against the deplorables and they have won exactly nothing against Zone B.

The Dems are now busy with vengeance in all its forms. They also relish in humiliating Trump and those who dared to support him. This is the political equivalent of torturing people in basements, not winning glorious battles. But they don’t realize that, they are too vain, too ideologically hateful, and too cowardly to understand that.

Still, brainwashing, like torture (including mental torture!), is real. In this case, this is a battle for the minds of the deplorables who now have to be beaten down into a catatonic state of total submission and compliance. The Dems are using lies, their favorite weapon, but their assault is real, nonetheless. And this is the battle which we, those who opposed imperialism, have to fight – the battle for the minds of the people in Zone A: we need to show them that the pseudo-reality of Zone A has no real existence outside the Idiot Box and the vapid rhetoric of US decision makers.

We have to mentally prepare for a sharp increase in the amount and scope of the lies the US propaganda machine will be telling us (if you thought the last 4 years were bad, prepare for much, much worse; good example here). And, of course, expect LOTS of false flags, especially to demonstrate the reality of the alleged danger coming from the “domestic terrorists”. That will all go down against a background of a full-spectrum attack on free speech, dissent and any form of actual (as opposed to pretend) thought, really.

The irony is, of course, that the coming witch hunt (it will be way worse than Salem or McCarthy) will be waged in the name of diversity and ostensibly against “hate”. In reality, of course, what the regime wants is to crush real diversity because the leaders of the US Nomenklatura absolutely hate everything besides their sorry selves. Like all ideologues, what these folks want is 1) total power and 2) total uniformity. All those rejecting these modern dogmas will be branded has criminals, terrorists, heretics, racist and, of course, Russian and Chinese agents.

And that is why this regime will also fail.

Conclusion: diversity WILL win. The REAL diversity, of course!

Our planet is wonderfully diverse, especially outside the uniformity sector of Zone A. There IS a Zone B out there, and the leaders of Zone A will be defeated by our real common and shared humanity (and their hatred for us!). Somewhere between Obama and Trump, the world has moved on, and it is now very busy dealing with the immense challenges and opportunities facing it in Zone B. And no, neither Russia nor China is busy trying to sabotage or undermine the USA – US leaders are doing that much better job of that than any Russian or Chinese ever could. So why even bother (and nevermind the risks!)?

We cannot predict what will happen next, there are simply too many variables to do that. But what we can do is predict with a great degree of confidence that the new regime in power in DC will do no better than all the other regimes which came to power by means of color revolutions in the past couple of decades. There is no hope left for the Empire, as for the USA, there will be plenty of hope left for them, but only after a long and painful process of collapse and rebirth (both of which are inevitable by now). The truth is that US is not that unique as empires go, sorry, it is just your typical arrogant and narcissistic empire which will collapse just as all the other arrogant and narcissistic empires in history have collapsed, mostly under their own obscene weight. And those poor souls who sincerely believe that China (or Russia) want to replace the USA simply don’t understand that these two countries already have been empires, it was a disaster, thank you very much, and they have no desire to repeat their past mistakes. This desire for non-exceptionalism and normalcy will, with time, also become the object of a large social consensus in the USA. And, with time, the USA will finally be welcomed into a truly free Zone B or, should I say, a Zone-free world.


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Trump’s Opponents Succeeded With Their Government Coup (Ruslan Ostashko)

 January 20, 2021

Translated and subtitled by Leo.

A successful coup was staged by opponents of Donald Trump in Washington on January 6. Of course, Joe Biden’s inauguration has not yet taken place, but at the moment the incumbent head of the United States looks broken and surrendered, and the Democratic Party is triumphant.

I greet you, our respectable subscribers of PolitRussia and once again congratulate you on the New Year 2021 and the Nativity of Christ. While we were calmly and peacefully celebrating these remarkable holidays, in the USA, there was a dramatic event for Donald Trump supporters. I was asked to speak out and and post daily by many subscribers on the geopolitical results of last year’s events. And so in December, I voiced an assumption that the head of the White House might try to keep the Democratic Party from taking power, by using extraordinary methods.

Right now, with the first 10 days of January passing, I have to admit that this option is not allowed to become reality, and the chance of it happening is close to 0%. The reason for this deplorable position for Trump is because of betrayal from the vice president’s side, Mike Pence and the further failed attempt to protest inside the Congress about the electoral votes going in favor of Biden. The move of protesting could have changed the outcome, but the misfortune with Trump is that this move was easy to foretell. And the Democrats cut short the session in Congress to arrange the so-called “capture of Capitol Hill by Trump supporters on January 6th.” The logical version of what happened in the capital of the USA was outlined by publicist Alexander Rogers.

Alexander Rogers: “While Trump supporters were peacefully rallying in front of the Capitol Hill, a group of unknown people, among which some of them were identified as BLM and Antifa activists, broke several windows in the back portion of the building, and got inside. Notice how they did it without firearms. Under the pretext that the building was under threat of seizure, the session in Congress gets interrupted exactly in the moment where Republicans protested the acceptance of the electoral votes from one of the disputed states – Arizona. It was very convenient for Democrats if they were worried that they would not be able to push the much needed decision.”

The so-called “seizure of Capitol Hill” was a staged provocation comparable to the Nazis igniting the Reichstag on fire, is evidenced by many facts, which came out after the events. For example, people who portrayed themselves as leaders of the Trump supporters, everyone turned out to be mummers or crisis actors and activists hired by Democrats operating under what’s called a ‘false flag’.

Aleksandr Aksenov (Telegram social media): “The [horned] shaman turned out to be actor Jake Angel, and was the so-called decoy ‘gatekeeper’ who was called upon to provoke the supporters of Trump. Here he is with Nancy Pelosi’s son-in-law, Michael Voss. It really does look like the Reichstag fire setup.”

Vatnik (Telegram): *Picture of two ‘Trump supporters’ who resemble two members of phillyantifa.org* “Listen, but were there any actual Trump supporters there? It turns out that the whole vanguard were made up of BLM-Antifa-Demo Leftists, from decoy ducks to goat provocateurs. And if there were any Republicans there, then they stupidly ran towards them.”

Real backers of Trump of course were there too, and they were shot at. Even to death, like [14 year] veteran of the US Air Force, 35 year old, Ashli Babbitt. Killed inside of the Capitol Hill building. But first of all, they were allowed inside the regime’s building without any resistance by the police.

*Video plays* – 3:35

Alexander Rogers: “The video where it’s seen that police are themselves allowing the protesters to get inside the Capitol. The tactic is simple: Dress Antifa members up as Trump supporters and disrupt the presentation of evidence [of election fraud] in Congress. Now Trump is the enemy, and they are working on various options of how to get him out of the way, deprive him of power and attempts to get a second term. Too easy and too suspicious. The leftovers of democracy in the USA are over.”

*Video ends* – 3:59

All of this was arranged for the sake of creating a media image meant to intimidate Republican congressmen. And the maneuver succeeded.

Alexander Rogers: “’Terrorists’ and ‘insurrectionists’ (such a friendly manner in which the democratic medias have called them) are given 30 minutes to fool around and make funny photos with Nancy Pelosi’s stand from the congressional hall. Seriously, tens of unarmed idiots, which didn’t do anything, besides taking pictures in the seat of the congressional speaker, were labelled as a universal evil, terrorists and ‘threats to democracy.’ And all of the media, all the journalists and a bunch of officials and congressmen with the most pompous looking faces are calling them a ‘scary threat to our way of life and our values.’ After which, calmly without a fight or gunshots or even an intervention by Bruce Willis and Gerard Butler, these horrible terrorists are removed from the building. On the sly, Pence bypassed the president and made a decision to deploy the National Guard to the capital. What is it called? Right, a governmental overthrow. Or in English, a coup. Oh yeah, Trump’s Twitter was blocked for 12 hours, and his address to the protesters to peacefully disperse was deleted by Facebook. This is exactly how a coup happens.”

The head of the USA trivially had his mouth shut, and couldn’t do anything at all since he was in the information space that is fully controlled by Democratic Party. And his opponents frolicked through all of it. Here we have someone’s ears stick out for half a meter. The main Maidanite [supporter of color revolutions] on the planet, Henri Lévy, quickly dumped the method he typically uses.

Bernard-Henri Lévy - Agent of Israel | The photo dossier - Radio Islam

Bernard-Henri Lévy: “Terrible image of vandals in hunting hats assaulting the seats of Jefferson and Roosevelt at the Capitol. Thousands of women and men gave their lives for this Republic. Millions dreamt of it. And billions watch it besieged by grotesque fascists.”

Vatnik (Telegram): “The great argument of calling you Hitler: ‘What point is there to talk to you if you’re like Hitler.’ Oh God, oh God. And a lying discourse to go with it: ‘Either you’re fully for democracy in our way, or you’re a fascist!’ Arguments at full length.”

For that reason they needed the hired clowns and the depicted caricature rednecks. But a serious man and woman during that time were sharpening their political steel, not walking away from the high tribune.

Alexander Rogers: “Here, Pence and Pelosi show up and declare that the meeting will be continued. A portion of the Republicans are demoralized, they declare that they no longer support the demand of a serious investigation in falsification of the election. Which the conspirators had wanted to hear. Looking at the objections of the rest of the states is removed from the agenda. Very convenient, what else is needed? The congressional meeting continues, and the duty clowns read text from already prepared papers about condemning the ‘horrible terrorists’, they intensely imitate a hearing (even though everybody says the same thing.) After which, the Capitol Hill Police outside is given an order to disperse the crowd by using tear gas and special equipment. The extras are no longer needed, the picture of ‘terrorists’ has already been drawn.”

Trump clearly was not prepared for such a vile provocation, it became a blow under his hook. But the opponents didn’t let them come to their senses and quickly unloaded their flywheel of repression. Trump was banned from everywhere [with social platforms] he possibly could. (Image shows he got banned from Facebook, Twitter, Google, Spotify, Snapchat, Instagram, Shopify, Reddit, Twitch, YouTube, Tik Tok and Pinterest.) His supporters that participated in the rally started to get pressed. Including those who just attended, but didn’t follow the provocateurs to Capitol Hill. The hidden hand of the market presses them. For those who did follow them, the democratic American media went after those people.

Maria Butina (Previous victim of US foreign agent claims and smear campaign. Her Telegram account): “Washington DC police published a list on January 7 of 736 people being indicted in connection to the protests and the infiltration of the Capitol. Citizens are accused of organizing a riot and a call for disorder, violence towards police officers, non-observance of curfew, violation of police fencing lines, penetration into private territory, possession of unregistered firearms, threats of violence, damage to property, robbery or attempted robbery, obscene acts, urination or bowel movements in a public place, threats of kidnapping, infliction of harm to the person and many other things.”

Sanctions under these articles are up to 10 years of imprisonment. And you don’t need to be a genius to understand that the detained Trump supporters will be condemned to their maximum sentences to scare the rest.

Chinese Threat (Telegram): “If the United States saw what the United States is doing inside the United States, the United States would have invaded the United States to liberate the United States from the tyranny of the United States.”

I congratulate all the storytellers who for decades sang to us about how fertile the state system of the USA is. It’s only a shame that these storytellers mostly live not in the creepy progressive United States, but rather in our lovable Russia. Where the provocateurs like Navalny for years are advocating for a violent change in state structures, yet walk free. Maybe it’s time for our so-called horrible totalitarian regime to take an example from the Democratic Party and tighten the screws? What do you think? Well at least for now, the information agents of foreign influence have not tried to attempt a coup here.


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Friday, 22 January 2021

America’s First Revolution Is Happening Now

Paul Craig Roberts - Official Homepage

January 19, 2021 

Paul Craig Roberts

Hear me out and you will understand the title.

There is a difference between a rebellion and a revolution.  A rebellion is what occurred in the thirteen colonies in the late 18th century.  A revolution is what occurred in Russia in 1917.

A rebellion occurred in the colonies, because the subjects of the king in the colonies were treated differently constitutionally and in law from subjects of the king in England. The colonists had no representation in Parliament and no voice in how they were ruled.

The rebellion resulted in political independence but not in a change in the belief system. The colonists held to belief in the rule of law to which government is held accountable and to Blackstonian legal principles.  The legal and political principles that the English had fought for from the Magna Carta to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which established the people’s power to govern themselves through representatives in Parliament, were enshrined in the Constitution.  The United States is the Constitution. If the Constitution is set aside and not followed, the United States is a different entity.

For the United States to break from the Constitution is a revolutionary act in comparison to the 18th century rebellion demanding equal treatment for English colonists.

The essence of a revolution is a collapse in the system of beliefs that hold a country together.  

 A revolution is what occurred in Russia in February, 1917.  Most people think that the Czar was overthrown by Lenin and the Bolsheviks, but this is not the case.  The Czar was overthrown by the collapse in the belief system that defined Czarist Russia.  The collapse in the belief system resulted in the February Revolution.  The Czar’s military forced him to abdicate in March.  A Socialist Revolutionary, Alexander Kerensky became Prime Minister of a provisional government.  

The Bolsheviks’ October Revolution was directed against this provisional government.  It was not a revolution, because the revolution had already occurred.  It was an unseating.  The Bolsheviks’ question to the provisional government was: “Who chose you?”  The obvious answer was that they had chosen themselves.

If asked the same question, the American Establishment’s answer is the same as the Russian provisional government’s answer.

The structure of belief that defined Czarist Russia was destroyed by the Russian liberals who used the Czar’s need of their support for World War I against Germany to agitate for a Constitutional Monarchy, as existed in England, where the monarch retained some power, but legislation was in the hands of a parliament.  Rather than the source of law, the monarch was accountable to law.

The Russian liberals placed a high value on their agenda.  In their pursuit of their agenda, they became increasingly aggressive in their condemnations of the Czar’s resistance.  Unaware or dismissive of the Czar’s promise to his father not to alter Russia by relinquishing power, the liberals’ denunciations became unsettling to the mass of the Russian people, who kept expecting retaliation from the Czar against those committing sedition against him.  

But the Czar could not retaliate, because without the liberals and their organizations the war effort would be impaired.  The Czar did not realize the impact on the population of unanswered accusations.  Russians concluded that the accusations must be true as the Czar failed to act against his accusers.

I have given you a brief explanation. You can get the complete story if you can find a copy of Russia 1917, The February Revolution by George Katkov. 

As a post-graduate at Oxford University, I got to know George Katkov and benefitted from many conversations with him.  Katklov was a don at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University.  It was St. Antony’s that arranged for me to give a Special University Lecture at Oxford on January 20, 1969, a special treat for a graduate student.  Even then truth had to struggle its way.  Now it has little chance.

This brings us to America’s First Revolution now unfolding.  How did it come about?  It came about because decades of liberal assaults in the name of one “progressive cause” or another destroyed the structure of beliefs that define the United States.  Today we can see with our own eyes, if we open them, that there is no longer any such thing as academic freedom, free speech, freedom of association, privacy, due process.  People are fired from their jobs and sentenced to economic peril for merely expressing their opinions or attending the wrong rally or using disapproved pronouns.  Those who insist on electoral integrity, the basis of democracy, are demonized as “enemies of democracy.”  Legislation is pending that will be used to define any dissent from controlled Establishment explanations as subversion. 

You can add to the list.  But a long list is unnecessary to show that no important institution in America any longer believes in the liberties and protections guaranteed by the US Constitution or in democracy itself.  Not the universities, the bar associations, the media, the courts, the political parties or the Congress.  

It is this destruction of belief that constitutes the First American Revolution. The consequences are yet to be fully felt.


River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

ماذا يعني انتقال السلطة في واشنطن في ظلّ حراب الجيش الأميركي؟

حسن حردان

تجري اليوم، 20 كانون الثاني 2021، عملية انتقال السلطة في الولايات المتحدة إلى الرئيس الفائز في الانتخابات جو بايدن، في ظلّ حراب الجيش الأميركي، الذي حول، انتشاره الكثيف، العاصمة الأميركية واشنطن إلى ثكنة عسكرية، في قلبها البيت الأبيض والكونغرس، رمزاً السلطة بشقيها التنفيذي والتشريعي…

ماذا يعني ذلك وما هي دلالاته؟

أولا، للمرة الأولى منذ انتهاء الحرب الأهلية الأميركية وتحقيق الاستقرار وسيادة النظام الديمقراطي في عملية تداول السلطة عبر الانتخابات، يحصل مثل هذا الاهتزاز في العملية الديمقراطية… والذي تجسّد في اقتحام الكونغرس من قبل أنصار الرئيس الخاسر في الانتخابات دونالد ترامب، في محاولة يائسة وفاشلة لقلب نتيجة الانتخابات ومنع تسليم السلطة لـ بايدن، بدعوة انّ عمليات تزوير شابت الانتخابات، سرقت الفوز من ترامب.. الذي امتنع عن حضور حفل تسليم السلطة للرئيس الفائز، في تأكيد على رفضه الاعتراف بفوزه، وبشرعيته، وهذه سابقة تحصل للمرة الأولى في الولايات المتحدة..

ثانياً، من الواضح أنّ نشر أكثر من 25 ألف جندي من الحرس الوطني لتأمين حفل تنصيب بايدن، يكشف حجم القلق من إمكانية حصول عمليات عنف من قبل جماعات متطرفة مسلحة مؤيدة لـ ترامب، ما يؤشر إلى سيادة شعور لدى المسؤولين العسكريين والأمنيين بالقلق من حصول اضطرابات تعطل عملية تسليم السلطة، وتؤدّي إلى انتشار الفوضى وإقدام الجماعات اليمينية المتطرفة على اقتحام واحتلال المباني والمؤسسات الحكومية والبرلمانية في العديد من الولايات وبالتالي دخول أميركا في مسار من الحرب الأهلية…

ثالثاً، هذا المشهد يكشف إلى أيّ مدى تشهد الإمبراطورية الأميركية حالة من الانقسام والتصدّع في الداخل تهدّد وجودها بالتفكّك والدخول في صراعات داخلية تودي بوحدتها، دولة ومجتمعاً.

رابعاً، يظهر انتقال السلطة وسط احتدام الصراعات السياسية والعرقية، انكشاف أكذوبة الحديث عن النظام الأميركي كنموذج متقدّم في الديمقراطية واحترام حقوق الإنسان والمساواة بين المواطنين، يجب أن يُحتذى.. إنّ ما يجري يؤكد انّ هذا النظام إنما كان مطلياً بمساحيق التجميل الخادعة عن صورة الحلم الأميركي، الذي روّج له على مدى العقود الماضية، لا سيما بعد خروج أميركا من الحرب العالمية أقوى دولة اقتصادية وعسكرية، تتربّع على عرش العالم، وتحتكر المعرفة والتقنية.. لكن انتهاء عقود الازدهار الاقتصادي والرخاء والرفاه الذي نعمت به أميركا والطبقة الوسطى فيها، كشف زيف هذا الحلم، وأذاب مساحيق التجميل، وأظهر للرأي العام الطبيعة الوحشية للنظام الرأسمالي الأميركي الإمبريالي، القائم على التمييز العنصري، وتحكّم الأثرياء بالثروة، مقابل الحرمان والفقر الذي يرزح تحته عشرات الملايين من الأميركيين…

خامساً، يكشف تفجّر أزمة النظام الأميركي، انّ الأزمة التي تشهدها الإمبراطورية إنما هي أزمة بنيوية واجهت جميع الإمبراطوريات عبر التاريخ، والتي أدّت إلى اضمحلالها وتلاشيها أو تحجيم قوتها وحضورها ودورها العالمي، كما هو حال الإمبراطورية البريطانية اليوم… وهذه الأزمة مردّها غرق أميركا في الأزمات الاقتصادية والمالية، وعجزها عن حلّ هذه الأزمات عبر شنّ الحروب الاستعمارية الفاشلة التي عمّقت أزماتها بدلاً من حلها.. حيث تضاعف الدين العام إلى ما يفوق الـ 23 تريليون دولار، وتراجعت معدلات النمو الاقتصادي، مما أدّى تراجع المداخيل والعائدات المالية، في مقابل استمرار الإنفاق الهائل للحفاظ على نفوذ الإمبراطورية..

انطلاقاً مما تقدّم فإنّ ما هو متوقع ان يستمرّ الصراع ويحتدم بعد انتهاء حفل النصيب اليوم.. وهذا الصراع يتغذّى من الأزمات الاقتصادية والمالية والاجتماعية، والانقسام السياسي والشعبي، واستناد ترامب إلى تأييد كتلة شعبية يمينية متطرفة ستقف معه في مواجهة إصرار الحزب الديمقراطي، الذي بات مسيطراً في مجلسي النواب والشيوخ، على محاكمة ترامب بتهم التحريض على التمرّد واقتحام الكونغرس وإساءة استخدام السلطة والفساد.. وهو الأمر الذي سيؤدّي إلى زيادة الانقسام داخل الحزب الجمهوري بين رافض لمحاكمة ترامب، وبين مؤيد لها…

هذا يعني انّ إدارة بايدن ستكون من اليوم الأول لتسلمها السلطة في مواجهة تحديات كبيرة داخلياً، الى جانب تحدّي السعي الى ترميم الدور الأميركي العالمي وإصلاح الأضرار التي أصابته، وتسبّبت بها سياسات ترامب…


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The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Ayatollah Khamenei opened door of dialogue via his letters to Western youth: Lebanese analyst

January 20, 2021 – 10:50

TEHRAN – A senior Lebanese political analyst says that the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opened a door for dialogue between the Islamic and Western world via his letters to the youth in Europe and North America.

In a letter dated January 21, 2015, and another on November 29, 2015, Ayatollah Khamenei elaborated on the truth of Islam and malicious attempts by certain Western leaders to distort the image of Islam. 

“The door to dialogue that was opened by Ayatollah Khamenei is a constructive step and we always say the door to dialogue, even if it is half open, is much better than closing it completely,” Amin Hoteit tells the Tehran Times.

“Ayatollah Khamenei knows that the Western media is hiding the facts, and this media is in the hands of the malicious colonial groups that besieges the youth and their minds,” according to the Lebanese university instructor and researcher.

The following is the text of the interview: 

Q:    What are the implications of Ayatollah Khamenei’s letters to young people in the West when he urged them to examine Islam first hand rather than believe prejudiced views?

A: The two letters that the Leader of the Islamic Republic wrote to the youth in Europe and North America were a move in consistence with a sound Islamic principle, which is to show the truth and the Islamic call through dialogue. 

Ayatollah Khamenei knows that the Western media is hiding the facts, and this media is in the hands of the malicious colonial groups that besiege the youth and their minds. 

For this reason, he decided to address the youth, showing them the clear and shining truth, and not leaving them prey to a shameless, lecherous, malicious and unjust media.

Q: Do you think that the circumstances are proper for dialogue with Western youth and coming generations?

A: There is no doubt that when the youth receive this message, they will be in a position of tension between two currents: the false path led by the media and politicians, and the path of truth that these messages represent it.

I think that a large number of Western youths will follow what was mentioned in the message of Imam Khamenei if they use logic and common sense.

Since Ayatollah Khamenei is telling the truth, this message will have a good and effective impact on the hearts of young people, and it will make them more prepared to receive other messages and then confront suppressive governments.

Q:    How would you assess the dominance of the Western media over the thought of the youth and the average citizen in the West?

A: I think that the reason that encouraged Imam Khamenei to write these letters was the fabrication and forgery that we find in the paid media that claim freedom of opinion while in fact, they are confiscating free opinion.

Western outlets claim freedom of expression but they are misrepresenting the truth. Therefore, this move was correct and timely which will lead to important results.

The door to dialogue that was opened by Ayatollah Khamenei is a constructive step and we always say the door to dialogue, even if it is half open, is much better than closing it completely.

That is why I think that although the platform for peaceful dialogue is not available in light of this Western regime’s crimes, restricted dialogue in the existing circumstances is better than a break and turning our back.

Q:    How do you see the position of the resistance in the world in the light of Western media propaganda?

A: Unfortunately, Western thought is mostly a prisoner of the media, so you find those who are not biased for injustice heading towards neutrality and a rare few who openly adhere to the truth, contrary to what the media propagates. 

Today, when you find someone who lights a candle in this dark tunnel in which the West moves, the truth-seekers will receive this light, no matter how weak it is. 

Therefore, I believe that the direct speech from the Leader of the Islamic Republic to the youth can push their thought and logic to search the truth, meanwhile addressing their minds is a very important matter and should be followed up.

The resistance plays a prominent and important role in various fields, but we should be aware that the resistance, with its media, its fields of action, and its scope of works under siege by regional dictatorships and their media.

Therefore, we should not lose any opportunity to gain access to the hearts and minds of the youth in a smooth way despite the obstacles. By dictatorships and their flags.

Q: What is the message of the Islamic Revolution to young generations in the region and the globe?

A: The message of the Islamic revolution to the world and the youth, in particular, is a clear message based on four pillars: first, building a secure society, secondly building a society of cooperation and brotherhood among human beings, thirdly preventing maliciousness and confronting arrogance, injustice, colonialism and domination, and fourthly building our homelands and our countries with cooperation, benevolence and peace, and live a safer world full of peace and prosperity. 

Consequently, the message of the Islamic Revolution is completely opposite to the message of colonialism, which wants hegemony and domination to possess and usurp wealth.
 

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حزب الله اللبنانيّ وحزب الله الإقليميّ



ناصر قنديل

تجري محاولة بين عدد من المتعاطين في الشأن العام، وبعض الناشطين والسياسيين والإعلاميين، لتقديم مقاربة ثالثة تتميز بين المقاربتين السائدتين، المقاربة التي تعلن العداء لحزب الله وتتماهى مع الحرب المعلنة عليه من حلف تقوده واشنطن وتتجنّد له “إسرائيل” وتحرّض عليه وتموّله عدد من حكومات الخليج، والمقاربة التي تتماهى مع موقع وموقف حزب الله، في اعتبار قضية سلاحه وحضوره في لبنان والإقليم مصدر قوة للبنان، واعتبار كل محاولة لتحجيم هذا الحضور وجهاً من وجوه حرب الإلغاء التي سيدفع لبنان ثمنها إذا حققت أهدافها، كما عبر عنها الأمين العام لحزب الله السيد حسن نصرالله. وتقوم المقاربة الثالثة على محاولة إقامة فصل افتراضي بين مفهومين تسمّي أحدهما حزب الله اللبناني والآخر حزب الله الإقليمي، وتدعو حزب الله للتراجع التدريجي عن تمدّده الإقليمي لحساب هويته اللبنانية، وتدعو خصوم حزب الله لاعتبار هذا التموضع الجديد لحزب الله كافياً لوقف حالة العداء ضده، وتراهن على إنشاء مساحة لبنانية جامعة تحت هذا العنوان. وليس خافياً أن التيار الوطني الحر يتصدّر قائمة أصحاب هذه المقاربة، من خلال الدعوة التي أطلقها رئيسه النائب جبران باسيل لتشجيع حزب الله على الانسحاب من سورية، والتخفف من حجم حضوره الإقليميّ.

مع الاحتفالات التي أقامها حزب الله تكريماً للقائد قاسم سليماني، توسّعت دائرة المتحدثين عن هذه المقاربة وشملت أسماء تنطلق من حسن نية وأخرى من سوء نية، لتصير مطلوبة مناقشة هذه الفرضية، خصوصاً أن جمهور هذا المنطق وهذه المقاربة في جمهور التيار الوطني الحر، كحليف رئيسي لحزب الله، يتّسع ويتقدم بيقين أنه صاحب حق وأن مطلبه واقعي، وصار حاجة وضرورة وطنيّة في ظل الحصار الذي يتعرض له لبنان والضغوط الاقتصادية التي تتهدّده بالانهيار. والنقاش هنا ليس بخلفية مسبقة للإثبات أو النفي بل للاستكشاف والاستقراء، من خلال التحري والتدقيق بحساب الوقائع والحقائق، لرصد الخلاصة الموضوعيّة البعيدة عن الرغبات.

في الوقائع يجري الحديث عن تمدّد حزب الله إقليمياً وصولاً لنشوء ما يُسمّى بحزب الله الإقليميّ، من خلال الإشارة المكثفة والمركزة الى دور لحزب الله في اليمن والعراق، بالرغم من كونه كدور يقع حكماً في مرتبة أدنى بكثير من دور حزب الله تجاه فلسطين، سواء بالدعم المعنوي للمقاومة الفلسطينية، وتمسكه بأولوية القضية الفلسطينية، والتزامه بتقديم كل الدعم المادي والتجهيز التسليحيّ، بقياس بعض قليل من هذه المواقف والأدوار تجاه أحداث العراق واليمن، والأدوار المفترضة في اليمن والعراق تقع حكماً في مرتبة أدنى بكثير وكثير جداً، من مرتبة الدور الذي قام به حزب الله ويقوم به في سورية. وتتفرّع عن هذين الدورين البارزين والفاعلين لحزب الله تحت العنوانين الفلسطيني والسوري، وتبدو العلاقة بين حزب الله وإيران أيضاً فرعاً من أصل، وليس العكس رغم مكانتها العقائدية في تجربة حزب الله وتكوينه. والأصل هو التزام حزب الله وإيران بدرجة واحدة لمكانة القضية الفلسطينية والصراع مع كيان الاحتلال في مرتبة الأولوية ضمن جدول أعمال كل منهما، بينما ينظر حزب الله لمعادلات قوى المقاومة في العراق واليمن، إضافة لموقفه التضامني المعنوي، من الزاوية المقابلة للنظرة الإسرائيلية، وجوهر النظرتين، التموضع على ضفاف الحرب المقبلة التي تتشكل من حزب الله و”إسرائيل” قطبي الاشتباك فيها، ويتحلق من حولهما الآخرون.

حزب الله الإقليميّ، هو حزب الله الذي أنشأ شبكة تحالفات عابرة للإقليم تنتظم وراءه في أي مواجهة مقبلة مع “إسرائيل”، وبالتوازي مع أهمية الانتصار على الشبكات الإرهابية في سورية الذي شارك ولا يزال بصناعته، شكّل وجوده في سورية مدخلاً لحقيقتين جديدتين، الأولى هي معادلة جديدة تتجذّر كل يوم على جبهة الجولان تجعل التفكير الإسرائيلي بالحرب أشد تعقيداً، والثانية هي معادلة الصواريخ الدقيقة التي شكلت تحولاً نوعياً قلب موازين المواجهة المفترضة مع الكيان وجعل خيار الحرب أبعد، بينما كانت العلاقة بإيران جوهر هذا التحوّل. وبالتوازي لم تكن لأدوار حزب الله الفلسطينية نتائج على جبهة تعزيز قدرة قوى المقاومة في فلسطين فقط، بل كان من نتائجها أيضاً تعقيد خيار الحرب على حزب الله بالنسبة لقيادة الكيان.

من حيث لا ينتبه دعاة الفصل بين حزب الله اللبناني وحزب الله الإقليمي، فهم يشاركون في فرضيّة وهميّة لا يمكن إثباتها، تقول إن الصراع مع كيان الإحتلال لم يعد العنصر المحوريّ في صناعة السياسة في الإقليم، والمستند الوحيد لهذه الفرضية هو أن عدداً من الحكومات العربية وخصوصاً في الخليج اتخذت من هذه الفرضية ذريعة للانتقال الى مرحلة التحالف مع كيان الاحتلال، بينما الأمر لا يتّصل بالحديث عن قراءة خطاب الاصطفافات، بل عن تحديد جوهر محركات هذه الاصطفافات، فمشاريع التطبيع ليست إلا تأكيداً إضافياً على محورية الصراع مع الكيان في صناعة السياسة، حيث يذهب الكيان المأزوم على جبهته الشمالية بسبب تنامي قوة حزب الله لإنشاء شبكات رديفة للقوة السياسيّة والاقتصاديّة والأمنيّة جنوباً نحو الخليج، ومن يريد للبنان الاستقرار عليه أن يضع في أولوية اهتماماته الإجابة عن سؤال بات ضجيج الصالونات يحجب حضوره، رغم محوريّته الحاكمة، وهو كيف نجعل خيار الحرب الإسرائيليّة على لبنان أشدّ بعداً، في ظل سعي إسرائيليّ محموم لتوسيع التحالفات، تحت عنوان مواجهة حزب الله، وامتلاك المزيد من المقدرات، والانتقال بالتوازي إلى تشبيك اقتصاديّ يستهدف لبنان، وليس حزب الله فقط، ليصير السؤال الأول، هل يفكر المعنيّون وصناع القرار بين أعداء حزب الله بالطريقة التي يفترضها أصحاب المقاربة المفترضة؟ أي هل يعتبر هؤلاء وعلى رأسهم الأميركي، ومن خلفه الإسرائيلي، أن قضيتهم هي موقف حزب الله من اليمن والعراق في الحروب الدائرة هناك، أم موقف اليمن والعراق من حزب الله إذا وقعت الحرب هنا؟ وهل يتغاضى هؤلاء عن صواريخ حزب الله الدقيقة إذا سار حزب الله بروزنامة اللبننة، وإن لم يكن الأمر كذلك فهل سيكون قبول حزب الله كافياً لتبدل مواقف الأطراف اللبنانية المتموضعة على ضفاف العداء لحزب الله، على الأقل، أم سيعتبرون كما أعداء حزب الله في الخارج، ان حملاتهم العدائية بدأت تثمر، وأن ما لم تنجزه هذه الدرجة من العداء سينتجه المزيد من العداء، بينما يكون حزب الله قد جرّد نفسه من مصادر حاسمة في صناعة القوة التي جعلت وتجعل الحرب أشدّ بعداً، فتصير الحرب أقرب وأشدّ قرباً؟

حزب الله اللبناني هو حزب الله الممسك بمقدرات تتصدّرها صواريخه الدقيقة، والمحاط بشبكة تحالفات عابرة للإقليم تشكل حزام الصواريخ الذي يطوق كيان الاحتلال، وهذه التحالفات قالت علناً إنها مستعدّة لمشاركة حزب الله الحرب التي قد تُشنّ عليه، من فلسطين والجولان والعراق واليمن وصولاً الى إيران، ما يجعل فرضية الحرب على لبنان أشدّ ضعفاً، ويجعل الاستقرار اللبناني الخارجي أكثر رسوخاً، بانتظار نجاح اللبنانيين بالبناء على ذلك لصناعة الاستقرار الداخلي، فهل يفعلون؟ وهل يدركون أن عليهم الجواب على سؤال، إذا كان هذا هو حزب الله اللبناني فهل يختلف عنه بشيء آخر حزب الله الإقليمي؟


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Thursday, 21 January 2021

The Making of US Empire at the dawning of its end


The Making of US Empire at the dawning of its end

January 21, 2021

by Pepe Escobar posted with permission and first posted at Asia Times

As the Exceptional Empire gets ready to brave a destructive – and self-destructive – new cycle, with dire, unforeseen consequences bound to reverberate across the world, now more than ever it is absolutely essential to go back to the imperial roots.

The task is fully accomplished by

Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy , by Stephen Wertheim, Deputy Director of Research and Policy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a research scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University.

Here, in painstaking detail, we can find when, why and especially who shaped the contours of US “internationalism” in a roomful of mirrors always disguising the real, ultimate aim: Empire.

Wertheim’s book was superbly reviewed by Prof. Paul Kennedy. Here we will concentrate on the crucial plot twists taking place throughout 1940. Wertheim’s main thesis is that the fall of France in 1940 – and not Pearl Harbor – was the catalyzing event that led to the full Imperial Hegemony design.

This is not a book about the U.S. industrial-military complex or the inner workings of American capitalism and finance capitalism. It is extremely helpful as it sets up the preamble to the Cold War era. But most of all, it is gripping intellectual history, revealing how American foreign policy was manufactured by the real flesh and blood actors that count: the economic and political planners congregated by the arch-influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the conceptual core of the imperial matrix.

Behold Exceptionalist nationalism

If just one phrase should capture the American missionary drive, this is it: “The United States was born of exceptionalist nationalism, imagining itself providentially chosen to occupy the vanguard of world history”. Wertheim nailed it by drawing from a wealth of sources on exceptionalism, especially Anders Stephanson’s Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of the Right.

The action starts in early 1940, when the State Dept. formed a small advisory committee in collaboration with the CFR, constituted as a de facto proto-national security state.

The CFR’s postwar planning project was known as the War and Peace Studies, financed by the Rockefeller Foundation and boasting a sterling cross-section of the American elite, divided into four groups.

The most important were the Economic and Financial Group, headed by the “American Keynes”, Harvard economist Alvin Hansen, and the Political Group, headed by businessman Whitney Shepardson. CFR planners were inevitably transposed to the core of the official postwar planning committee set up after Pearl Harbor.

A crucial point: the Armaments Group was headed by none other than Allen Dulles, then just a corporate lawyer, years before he became the nefarious, omniscient CIA mastermind fully deconstructed by David Talbot’s The Devil’s Chessboard.

Wertheim details the fascinating, evolving intellectual skirmishes along the first eight months of WWII, when the prevailing consensus among the planners was to concentrate on the Western Hemisphere only, and not indulge in “balance of power” overseas adventures. As in let the Europeans fight it out; meanwhile, we profit.

The fall of France in May-June 1940 – the world’s top army melting down in five weeks – was the game-changer, much more than Pearl Harbor 18 months later. This is how the planners interpreted it: if Britain were the next domino to fall, totalitarianism would control Eurasia.

Wertheim zeroes in on the defining “threat” for the planners: Axis dominance would prevent the United States “from driving world history. Such a threat proved unacceptable to U.S. elites”. That’s what led to an expanded definition of national security: the U.S. could not afford to be simply “isolated” within the Western Hemisphere. The path ahead was inevitable: to shape world order as the supreme military power.

So it was the prospect of a Nazi-shaped world order – and not U.S. security – that shook foreign policy elites in the summer of 1940 to build the intellectual foundations of global U.S. hegemony.

Of course there was a “lofty ideal” component: the U.S. would not be able to fulfill its God-given mission to lead the world towards a better future. But there was also a much more pressing practical matter: this world order might be closed to liberal U.S. trade.

Even as the tides of war changed afterwards, the interventionist argument ultimately prevailed: after all, the whole of Eurasia could (italics in the book) eventually, fall under totalitarianism.

It’s always about “world order”

Initially, the fall of France forced Roosevelt’s planners to concentrate on a minimum hegemonic area. So by midsummer 1940, the CFR groups, plus the military, came up with the so-called “quarter sphere”: Canada down to northern South America.

They were still assuming that the Axis would dominate Europe and parts of the Middle East and North Africa. As Wertheim notes, “American interventionists often portrayed Germany’s dictator as a master of statecraft, prescient, clever and bold.”

Then, at the request of the State Dept., the crucial CFR’s Economic and Financial Group worked feverishly from August to October to design the next step: integrating the Western Hemisphere with the Pacific Basin.

That was a totally myopic Eurocentric focus (by the way, Asia barely registers on Wertheim’s narrative). The planners assumed that Japan – even rivaling the US, and three years into the invasion of mainland China – could somehow be incorporated, or bribed into a non-Nazi area.

Then they finally hit the jackpot: join the Western Hemisphere, the British empire and the Pacific basin into a so-called “great residual area”: that is, the entire non-Nazi dominated world except the USSR.

They found out that if Nazi Germany would dominate Europe, the U.S. would have to dominate everywhere else (italics mine). That was the logical conclusion based on the planners’ initial assumptions.

That’s when U.S. foreign policy for the next 80 years was born: the U.S. had to wield “unquestionable power”, as stated in the CFR planners “recommendation” to the State Dept., delivered on October 19 in a memorandum titled “Needs of Future United States Foreign Policy”.

This “Grand Area” was the brainchild of the CFR’s Economic and Financial Group. The Political Group was not impressed. The Grand Area implied a post-war peace arrangement that was in fact a Cold War between Germany and Anglo-America. Not good enough.

But how to sell total domination to American public opinion without that sounding “imperialistic”, similar to what the Axis was doing in Europe and Asia? Talk about a huge P.R. problem.

In the end, U.S. elites always came back to the same foundation stone of American exceptionalism: should there be any Axis supremacy in Europe and Asia, the U.S. manifest destiny of defining the path ahead for world history would be denied.

As Walter Lippmann succinctly – and memorably – put it: “Ours is the new order. It was to found this order and to develop it that our forefathers came here. In this order we exist. Only in this order can we live”.

That would set up the pattern for the subsequent 80 years. Roosevelt, only a few days after he was elected for a third term, stated it was the United States that “truly and fundamentally…was a new order”.

It’s chilling to be reminded that 30 years ago, even before unleashing the first Shock and Awe over Iraq, Papa Bush defined it as the crucible of a “new world order” (incidentally, the speech was delivered exactly 11 years before 9/11).

Henry Kissinger has been marketing “world order” for six decades. The number one U.S foreign policy mantra is “rules-based international order”: rules, of course, set unilaterally by the Hegemon at the end of WWII.

American Century redux

What came out of the 1940 policy planning orgy was encapsulated by a succinct mantra featured in the legendary February 17, 1941 essay in Life magazine by publishing mogul Henry Luce: “American Century”.

Only six months earlier planners were at best satisfied with a hemispheric role in an Axis-led world future. Now they went winner takes all: “complete opportunity of leadership”, in Luce’s words. In early 1941, months before Pearl Harbor, the American Century went mainstream – and never left.

That sealed the primacy of Power Politics. If American interests were global, so should be American political and military power.

Luce even used Third Reich terminology: “Tyrannies may require a large amount of living space. But Freedom requires and will require far greater living space than Tyranny.” Unlike Hitler’s, the unbounded ambition of American elites prevailed.

Until now. It looks and feels like the empire is entering a James Cagney Made it, Ma. Top of the World! moment – rotting from within, 9/11 merging into 1/6 in a war against “domestic terrorism” – while still nurturing toxic dreams of imposing uncontested global “leadership”.


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