A Crooke and Bushnell Monday

I find it noteworthy that Aaron Bushnell chose to perform his penultimate act of protest on the Christian Sabbath—Sunday. Most have opined his act was one of great courage and conviction. One commentator proposed he be awarded the Medal of Honor for trying to protect/warn his fellow citizens of the tyranny they live under and the crimes it’s currently committing and abetting. Here’s that exact quote by “NemesisCalling”:

Self-sacrifice is valued by the military. And he was clearly defending his own country from a domestic enemy. Give him the Medal of Honor.

Myself and many other agree. After his Monday chat with Alastair Crooke, Judge Napolitano talked with Ray McGovern and during the last 8 minuets asked him for his views on Arron’s actions. The highly respectable Caitlin Johnstone wrote two articles about Aaron’s actions, one very soon after his act where he hadn’t yet been declared dead, “The Most American Thing That Has Ever Happened,” with this paragraph explaining why her title, which was clearly written before she knew all the facts:

This just might be the most American thing I have ever heard of. It’s more American than the fake bald eagle cries they put in Hollywood movies. It’s more American than monster trucks and mass shootings. You simply cannot fit more America into a single incident than a man dying a horrifying death in protest of war crimes while a first responder screams at cops to stop pointing their guns at him and go get fire extinguishers. If you were to pick a single moment in history to sum up the essence and expression of the US empire, that would be it.

The second had a more specific title, “Aaron Bushnell Burned Himself Alive To Make You Turn Your Eyes To Gaza,” under which she noted something IMO very important:

He remained standing for an unbelievable amount of time while he was burning. I don’t know where he got the strength to do it. He remained standing long after he’d stopped vocalizing.

He stood at Attention, which was another unspoken message to those in the military. She admitted something many would avoid mentioning:

I hesitated to watch it because I knew once I put it into my mind it’s there for the rest of my life, but I figured I owe him that much.

And that’s surely true for those who’ve watched death happen live in B&W or Color; it makes no difference. Some will have already read or heard is close to final words that he posted to his Facebook:

Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’

The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now. [My Emphasis]

Caitlin’s closing observations are correct, and it’s easier to cite her well-chosen words:

I would never do what Bushnell did, and I would never recommend anyone else does either. That said, I also can’t deny that his action is having its intended effect: drawing attention to the horrors that are happening in Gaza.

I know this is true because everywhere I see Aaron Bushnell being discussed online I see a massive deluge of pro-Israel trolls frantically swarming the comments in a mad rush to manipulate the narrative. They all understand how destructive it is to US and Israeli information interests for people to be seeing an international news story about a member of the US Air Force self-immolating on camera while screaming “Free Palestine”, and they are doing everything they can to mitigate that damage.

As I write this, there are with absolute certainty people digging through Bushnell’s history searching for dirt that can be spun as evidence that he was a bad person, that he was mentally ill, that he was steered astray by pro-Palestine activists and dissident media — whatever they can make stick. If they find something, literally anything, the smearmeisters and propagandists will run with it as far as they can.

So far, I’ve only seen a few trolls, but they are greatly outnumbered. Most of Humanity is aware of the Gaza reality. Those who’ve followed Crooke here and elsewhere are surely aware of what Zionist society wants and voices it proudly—Genocide—and we know that the Outlaw US Empire is the #1 co-Genocidalist, meaning its government has yet again grossly broken the US Constitution and is the enemy of every US military serviceperson—active and retired: Our Oath of service doesn’t just vanish after we’re discharged; it becomes part of our duties as citizens.

Retreat tonight ought to be followed by Taps for Airman Aaron Bushnell prior to the usual playing of Taps.

I suppose the Bushnell news story was too breaking for it to enter into today’s chat between Alastair Crook and Judge Napolitano. As usual, there’s a great expansion into Crooke’s Monday SCF essay, “U.S. Seeks to Cap Middle East Violence; In This, Iran Is (a Kind of) ‘Ally,’” as several key points are discussed in-depth, with the title giving away one of them. The key point the Judge announces straight away is that what’s happening in Gaza is “Genocide at its worst,” that the US government is funding it, and that the world knows if the USA ceased the funding the Genocide would stop. That’s a rather important evolution in how Judge Napolitano now approaches this crime. What follows is Crooke’s SCF essay that explores the idea that the USA and Iran find themselves in an agreement of sorts that neither want a massive regional conflagration. This news announcement from last Saturday must be kept in mind while reading:

A consensus has emerged among all of Iraq’s major political factions on ending the US-led military coalition’s presence in the Middle Eastern country, Qasim al-Araji, Iraq’s national security advisor, has announced.

The Zionists won’t want that to happen and will do what they must to prevent it. Now for Crooke:

Israel’s dual strategy for Lebanon is to exert pressure through direct raids to instill fear amongst the wider population, whilst deploying diplomatic pressure to purge Hizbullah – not just from the border, but from regions beyond the Litani River (some 23 kms to the north).

Only Hizballah doesn’t budge.

It remains adamant: It will not be displaced from its historic homelands in the south – and refuses to discuss the matter at all.

“If this threat is not removed diplomatically, we will not hesitate to take military action”, Israeli ministers repeatedly insist. A poll by the Israeli (Hebrew) newspaper Ma’ariv showed that 71 percent of Israelis believe Israel should launch a large-scale military operation against Lebanon to keep Hizbullah away from the border. Again, the U.S. accepts the Israeli lead – that Israel needs to mount a military operation in Lebanon.

Special U.S. Coordinator, Amos Hochstein, whilst emphasising the absolute need for Israeli residents to return to their homes in northern Israel, says that the U.S. nonetheless is seeking to keep the conflict in Lebanon to the lowest level possible. He outlined:

“What we’ve been trying to do is to make sure that we can contain the fighting to the lowest level possible and to work on lasting solutions that can bring a cessation of hostilities. We’re going to have to do a lot of building up of the Lebanese Armed Forces; we have to build up the economy in south Lebanon. That’s going to require an international coalition of support, not just the U.S.”.

Put simply: Hizbullah has created a buffer ‘fire-zone’ inside Israel, extending over 100 kms laterally and penetrating 5-10 kms deep. Israel wants that buffer back, and now insists on having its own buffer deep into Lebanon – to ‘reassure’ its returning border inhabitants that they will be safe.

Hizbullah declines to yield an inch whilst the war in Gaza continues – thus fusing together the two issues.

But Netanyahu has made plain that the war in Gaza must continue – a long process – until all Israel’s (likely unrealisable) objectives are met. But the issue of displaced Israeli civilans is becoming immediate. [Demonstrations for hostage releases in Tel Aviv were suppressed by water cannons.] Tension throughout the region is high and building, as a fraught Ramadan approaches, and an Israeli incursion into Rafah looms.

Israeli media reports:

“U.S. officials worry Ramadan may become a ‘perfect storm’, leading to a regional blow-up. Netanyahu’s capitulation to his far-right coalition partners regarding Israeli Arabs’ access to the Temple Mount/Al Aqsa compound during Ramadan has alarmed U.S. officials, though this is just one of many factors sparking concern that a series of worrying trends could coalesce and cause Middle East tensions to spill over during the next couple of weeks”.

Currently, there is a short ‘time out’ whilst hostage negotiators gather in Cairo and the U.S. ‘pulls every string’ it can to obtain a substantive ceasefire.

But sooner or later Israel will begin a military operation in Lebanon (in one sense, this is already well under way). The Israeli cabinet feels compelled to find a way to restore deterrence. Minister Smotrich said that this aim, in the final analysis, trumps even the hostage return.

When Israel does act in Lebanon, the Resistance may recalibrate via several possible avenues (apart from that pursued by Hizbullah): Iraqi resistance allies might resume strikes on U.S. bases, Syria might assume a more prominent role and Houthi forces might raise the level of attacks on Israeli, U.S. and UK linked shipping.

And here is the paradox: the ‘solution’ on which the U.S. relies for keeping violence down – that is to say, U.S. ‘deterrence’ – no longer deters. There has been a tectonic shift in conceptual thinking towards U.S. ‘deterrence’ amongst resistance forces – a shift in tactics which has not registered sufficiently, if at all – in the western consciousness.

Sergei Witte, a military historian, has described the conundrum succinctly:

“To begin, one must understand the logic to American strategic deployments. America (and NATO) has made generous use of a deterrence ‘tool’ colloquially known as the Tripwire Force. This represents an undersized, forward-deployed force located in potential conflict zones – with an eye to deterring war by signalling the American commitment to respond”.

Tripwires however can be double-edged. Although deterrent in concept, in the hands of Israeli and American Iran-hawks, these undersized and vulnerable bases metamorphose from deterrent into ‘tethered goats’ designed to attract a swooping attack from some (claimed Iran-linked) ‘vulture’; and hey-presto the hawks get their long-sought Iran war. That is basically why U.S. forces remain in Syria and Iraq. The ‘fighting ISIS’ label basically is ho-ee.

The conundrum – and indeed the limits to these skeletal forward deployments – is that they are too small to credibly deter attack, but large enough to invite it (potentially from irate Iraqi militia forces enraged about Gaza massacres).

Hochstein tells us the U.S. plan is to “manage” the conflicts (Gaza, West Bank and Lebanon) down to the lowest level possible. Yet, bluntly put, retaliatory strikes on militia – the standard response in the American toolbox – is relatively useless for containing violence; it provokes rather deters. As Witte concludes:

“We see [such] dynamics at play in the Middle East, where America’s falling deterrent powers may soon force it to take more aggressive measures. This is why those voices calling for war with Iran, as deranged and dangerous as they may be, are actually keyed in on a crucial aspect of America’s strategic calculus. Limited measures no longer suffice to intimidate, which may leave nothing in the stable except the full measure”.

This is where Iran and the Resistance play their paradoxical part. The U.S. (neo-con zealots notwithstanding) does not want a big war; nor does Iran. The latter however seems to understand that Iraqi militia attacks on U.S. bases may put pressure on the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq, but conversely these strikes also provide the neo-cons with the pretext (Iran as ‘head of the snake’) to push for maximal war on Iran.

The Iranian and Axis’ interest is twofold: First, to retain the power to carefully calibrate the intensity of conflict; and secondly, to keep escalatory dominance in their hands. As Al-Akhbar notes:

“The Resistance, with all its branches, is not about to cave to the Israeli conditions that shall open the way for a major change in the equation that shields Lebanon. Any subsequent agreement will depend on the positioning that the Resistance chooses to preserve its deterrence and defense capacities”.

Hence, in Iraq, the Head of Quds Force within the IRGC has advised Iraqi militia forces to ceasefire for the time being. (This anyway serves the Iraqi government’s interest which is seeking the exit of all U.S. forces from Iraq).

The ‘tripwire’ toolbox of the West is a classic example of a strategic paradox. An evaporating deterrent advantage risks forcing the U.S. to go to massive military over-match (even when it might not want to do so). And so, America faces checkmate. Its chess piece is stuck on one square (the Zionist ‘King’), but every potential move thereafter promises only to worsen the initial situation.

Furthermore, the U.S. is check-mated by the cognitive block of being unable fully to assimilate the conceptual ‘deterrent shift’ wrought by General Qassem Suleimani and trialed during Israel’s 2006 war against Hizbullah.

Israel, like the U.S., has long enjoyed air superiority. How has the resistance resolved to answer this? One element proved to be the burying of forces, missiles, and all strategic assets at a depth that even bunker-buster bombs cannot reach. Missile launchers can emerge from the depths, fire and be buried within 90 seconds.

A second is a constellation of fighters formed into autonomous units who are prepared for continuous fighting according to a pre-set plan, for up to a year or two – even were all communications with HQ to be completely severed.

In 2006, Hizbullah understood that Israel’s civilian population had only a very limited capacity to sustain a daily concentrated missile bombardment, and conversely Israel didn’t have the munitions for prolonged air attack. In that war, Hizbullah maintained continuous rocket and missile barrages for 33 days. It was enough; Israel sought an end to the war.

The lesson is that today’s wars are wars of attrition (i.e. Ukraine), rather than ‘arrow assaults’. Thus, the Resistance seeks to maintain their calibratory control for purposes of attritting Israel, whereas the Israeli cabinet wants to move directly to its ‘Armageddon vision’.

Some of this inability to absorb the implications of this new asymmetric warfare of General Suleimani – (hubris plays a big part) – goes to explain how the U.S. can be so sanguine to the risks run, both by the U.S. and Israel – risks that seem obvious to others. NATO-trained officers simply cannot conceive how a military power such as that of the IDF cannot but prevail over militia forces (Hizbullah and the Houthis). Nor can they compute how ‘barefoot tribesmen’ can prevail in a major naval war encounter.

But recall all the ‘experts’ who predicted that Hamas would be crushed – within days – by the infinitely weightier Israeli military machine… [Bolded italics my emphasis]

The economic affects of the conflict were finally addressed during the chat, with the 20% GDP decline already noted here at the Gym, which was for 4Q2023. A far steeper decline will be seen for 1Q2024, and that decline will continue until the conflict ends. The reality being pointed out by the Republican House is the USA cannot continue to support any further wars in its current fiscal condition. Nor can its MIC up production as it seeks maximum profits first and foremost, so the order backlog grows and are booked as profits before anything is bult or delivered, which is defrauding shareholders and the government at the same time. What hasn’t been discussed very widely is the dependency of the Zionists on US monetary infusions to run their government and fund the AIPAC lobby, whereas the Ukrainian dependency has got lots of attention.

Very few elite tax dollars fund anything because they pay almost zero tax; so, all the war and genocide funding is done by the plebes. I doubt the judge would advocate this, but the Genocide Convention says it’s the moral obligation of ALL to do what they can to halt an existing or soon to exist Genocide; and that means no payment of federal taxes until the Genocide is halted. To be legal, put what’s owed in escrow and submit a letter to the IRS stating your following the letter of the law—the law created by the Genocide Convention. Do the same by changing your W-4 status so no monies are withheld. In other words, starve the beast. These are very easy steps to take and don’t involve immolating yourself. Elsewhere, we have French President Macron reported saying the following:

“There’s no consensus today to send, in an official manner, [NATO] troops on the ground,” Macron told reporters after hosting a meeting of European leaders on Monday in Paris. “But in terms of dynamics, we cannot exclude anything. We will do everything necessary to prevent Russia from winning this war.”…

“We have to take stock of the situation and realize our collective security is at stake,” the French leader said. “We have to ratchet up. Russia must not win, not only for Ukraine, but secondly, we are, by doing so, ensuring our collective security for today and for the future.” [My emphasis]

The Narrative is becoming as demented as Biden. The Western Bloc is losing its mind.

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