US Imperialism is and was always in charge of itself in the sense that it didn’t listen to others and made its own decisions, good or bad, as it went along.
Probably one of your most important essays as it exposes the truth of US imperialism and empire. I did notice how the judge shied away from Crooke - I don't think he can fully bring himself to see that the republic he so loves was a fiction.
Many have the same issue as Napolitano. My description, Outlaw US Empire, is hard for them to swallow despite my judgment's basis being in the Constitution, and then there's essay #10 in The Federalist by Madison that's admittedly anti-democracy and the very oligarchic nature of the proposed US government to replace the Articles of Confederation's far more democratic Congress: The Philadelphia Convention of 1787 designed a Coup that gained the approval of perhaps 5% of the adults that might have voted according to today's franchise. And that's how it all started, the US Empire under the Constitution that is.
It has been very difficult for me, Karl. Peeling myself away from the deceit, layer by layer, while those around me tell me how great we are! O, the lies! O, the trickery!
But who among us has not believed lies even when faced with evidence? We, mere mortals are easily deceived, and at times, even find pleasure in deceit.
"And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!" Matthew 5:23
Wisdom from my personal journey, she tells me: The Deceiver's primary tool is to convince me that I am right! Humbling, without doubt.
The first BigLies I confronted were those told by my parents about the mythical/magical beings--Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, God--and caused me to ask the question Why--why would they do that when honesty was constantly preached? When I became a parent, I wrestled with that for a short time before that marriage ended in divorce. Now I confront it again since I'm now a grandfather.
Nap is a "Patriot" (capital-P), as are most of his guests except Crooke, who is British.
I don't have that problem, so I can see the validity of Karl's, Hudson's, Wolff's and Doctorow's argument. I just modify it to say: 1) they're all involved for their own reasons, and 2) it doesn't matter because they all end up doing the same things.
Doctorow tells me that the distinction makes a difference, but I quote Mr. Spock (IIRC): "A difference that makes no difference is no difference."
The US uses proxies, and being humans not robots they have their own agendas/interests of course. Look at Zelensky, a failed project, an actor who has reached his use by date, it's likely his desperate enough to try anything to prolong and draw in the Americans, perhaps with some help from the Brits. And then there are the azov nazi criminals who'll escape and run rampant. Using proxies is playing with fire, but that's where we are - in the accumulation of consequences.
Great cartoon. The winking John Bull is thanking Uncle Sam for giving USA's China land concessions taken starting in 1848 & 1862 to the UK to manage in 1863 and 1902, in return for UK allowing US opium traders, like FDR's grandfather (and Teddy's cousin) free trade in same concessions along with favorable terms access to India's opium. Harvard, Princeton, and Yale built their endowments with opium money.
I've read both Hudson pieces & Wolff with Dima - and Crookes piece in Strategic Culture and Monday's chat with the Judge. As an Irish 'savage' well tuned to our own history of centuries of English/British Empire colonialism, I can visualise the correlation to American Imperialism and its present doctrine of Full Spectrum Dominance with its translation of Trotsky wedded to nazi-fascist forms of domination since WWII. The Brits+CIA+BigOIL instigated the Mosadech coup to place Pahlavi in power in Iran - and yes mainly an anti-soviet move at the time but the 1979 revolution also placed Oil/resource at risk and the main move to support Zionists to quieten the Arabs etc [h/t outraged]
As I've tried, frustratingly at times ,to explain on MoA - it is always The Empire in control - a temporary 'confluence of interests' as Crooke puts it and the charade that Zionists call the shots in West Asia hides/disguises the 'real savagery' emanating from Washington such as its bombs burning children alive in Gaza to take just one example. Big Picture - we are in a civilizational war - which, somehow, must be won.
In the so-called "West", where I sit uneasily as a relatively recently liberated 'savage' from the previous Empire, those of us who see/understand what you have written here Karl are in a small minority. This represents a huge challenge. On a more positive note, the leadership in PRC, RF & IRI understand it full well and are acting accordingly.
Keep up the good work Karl. You are living in interesting times.
"Israel is expendable ... just as for all the rest ..."
And that is why the Zionists have infiltrated the US to the degree they have. As Richard Wolff said, they're scared - they're scared that without a major power behind them, they are economically and militarily non-viable as a country. Which is true.
So first they went to France for nuclear energy, then when France denied them nuclear weapons, they turned to the US, stealing nuclear material for their weapons program. And of course developing AIPAC, etc. and infiltrating into US law enforcement, universities, think tanks, etc. - and of course Congress - as a long-range control program.
So it's not that the Zionists actually control the US - it's that the Zionists feel they NEED to control the US and have succeeded to a certain degree in doing so. But they still don't control the ultimate purse strings which are held by American old-school white men descended from the original immigrant families prior to and after the US industrial revolution. People like the Kennedys.
As Wikipedia says:
"In 1884, 35 years after the family's arrival from County Wexford, Ireland, Patrick Joseph "P. J." Kennedy became the first Kennedy elected to public office, serving in the Massachusetts state legislature until 1895. At least one Kennedy family member served in federal elective office from 1947, when P. J. Kennedy's grandson John F. Kennedy became a member of Congress from Massachusetts, until 2011, when Patrick J. Kennedy II (John's nephew) retired as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island.[2]"
I don't think anyone has ever accused the Kennedys of being Zionists. Robert Kennedy visited Palestine in 1948 before the founding of Israel, and came to support Israel. But that's not the same as claiming they were "Zionists", particularly since his father was apparently legitimately an anti-Semite - as many Catholics are.
And so the neocons are also diverse, composed of all sorts of power seeking types, some of which are Jewish, some of which are not, some of which are Democrats, some of which are Republicans, etc. Neocons are united by ideology, not religion - or as Hudson says, their ideology is their religion.
Whereas the real PTB are united by basic human drives: money, power and hegemony - which transcend ideology and religion. Everyone else are just puppets or co-conspirators.
So the proper approach is to consider the neocons and the Zionists co-conspirators, rather than the ultimate controllers. Or at best, consider all these forces, including the old white families, the neocons, the Zionists, and perhaps other factions, as co-conspirators.
As I've posted elsewhere, which faction is in charge of what at any given moment of time is about as interesting as how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. They all need to be taken out with extreme prejudice.
Unfortunately, Karl, as I discovered elsewhere, weighing in on this issue is going to flood your thread with morons simplistically claiming that "current events couldn't have been planned in the 1950s", when in fact what we're discussing is the history of US hegemony. No one is saying that this current conflict now was specifically intended to occur now 75 years ago.
Idiots can't do nuance. As Andrei Martyanov likes to say, "you can't convince an imbecile he's an imbecile, because he's an imbecile."
This whole affair is another example of how binary "either-or" conflict is the only kind of "discussion" humans can have.
You'll note I ignore the occasional idiot trolls. Of course, I wrote the preface for context, although I didn't go into the many agents the USG has had since 1850.
You should do what I do: ban them before they clutter up your thread with nonsense. Just make sure you don't do what Bernhard does: ban people who didn't start it and leave the ones who did.
Important that it started long before neocons. Truman was happy to drop two atom bombs on Japanese civilians which thrilled Churchill. A lot of credit should go to Woodrow Wilson and his Wall St. pals. Cheerleading most US foreign brutality has been the UK monarchy. UK wanted Iran's oil, tried to convince Truman to overthrow Iran's democratically elected government so they could get it. Ultimately Ike and his CIA agreed to the job. In August 2013, CIA publicly admitted its involvement in the 1953 coup against Iran’s elected Prime Minister making way for the Shah--whom the US overthrew in 1979.
The gangster reference in the article title will probably be missed by most. Voracious parasites feeding on Humanity must be vanquished. In reality, that's why it's Our Resistance.
The Parasite idea's been around for a long time. For me, it was Thorstein Veblem's "Theory of the Leisure Class" and its conspicuous consumption that planted that seed long ago that gained new life with Hudson's "Killing the Host."
I was delighted to see Crooke reference Hudson, two of my all-time favorites. And I thank you for wisely amplifying them, though I follow them independently. There is a current that says Israel has corrupted and highjacked the US. As I view US foreign policy from WW I onward--nay stretching back to the Mexican War--I see such consistent and recurring evil I'm not sure the US needs much encouragement to pursue what is best for its ruling class and worst for mankind. I'm of the opinion that the Banks and Big Business ultimately determine US policy, both domestic and foreign and (with the US government) use whatever tools and proxies are convenient. Believe a massive Israeli attack on Iran is impossible without very clear US participation--not just ISR and materiel, but actual participation with aircraft, particularly tankers. And that would put the US in the crosshairs as an active participant, not just a supporter. That's a big step. It would invite direct involvement and a very dramatic and dangerous escalation. I would add that since it is self-sufficient in oil and food, it is not necessarily against US interest to see Israel and Iran destroy each other--if the exchange can be limited to those two nations. In fact it may very well be in the US interest since it would eliminate a Russian ally and a primary source of China's energy. Very much enjoy and admire your work. Thank you.
I hope Hudson and Wolff become a regular feature at Nima's Dialog Works on Wednesdays. IMO, Judge Napolitano's 30-minute format's too short for either, although his chats with Crooke keep growing longer. The key point here is to disseminate this key, swept under the rug, history. One angle that's very rarely employed is to view US expansion as the direct result of European wars. Many citizens are unaware that Florida wasn't an original colony but had to be wrested from Spain with an imperial policy that began with Adams, continued under Jefferson, and was consummated under Madison--policy continuity despite very different domestic ideas between the political parties foreshadowing post-WW2 policy continuity. Imagine not having Louisiana falling into Jefferson's lap thanks to Napoleon; how much different would western expansion have become?
Being rabid, the neocons don't know when to stop. So far, the Neoliberal Money Power that backs them hasn't seen the need to halt their actions. But that faction wants to enjoy its monies and the high life it provides that a nuclear war would devastate. So, IMO, it's rather likely they will pull on the reins when they go too far. As Hudson said, aside from nukes, all the Outlaw US Empire has remaining is terrorism.
Along with terrorism, subversion by stoking lies and every imaginable ethnic, economic and religious division has been primary in bringing down target nations: NGOs, USAID and NED and the old standbys Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia as well as the wedge of American culture via journalism, music, TV and Film. A veritable juggernaut of soft power manipulation the effectiveness of which I believes stems from US capitalism's expertise in advertising and emotional manipulation. Thanks for reminding us of Jackson and Florida. Come to think of it the Monroe Doctrine just a few years thereafter stakes claim to the entire hemisphere!
The Monroe Doctrine was crafted by John Quincy Adams who wrote the speech. It's not really a doctrine at all but a series of very loosely connected ideas.
Yes, mind manipulation is an Anglo-Saxon forte that was employed very well during WW1. Then look at Manifest Destiny and other related slogans that came before. As Richard Wolff said, the USA is a savage nation.
I did train as an historian, political-economist and anthropologist, then taught same for a few years--my quad major. The special tutoring I did was the most rewarding as I got to work with a few blind people where I was their eyes for labs and other instruction like describing videos which allowed me to audit the courses while being paid as a tutor/aide. Nice life 20+ years ago.
an important post from you karl... you cover a lot of ground and i have been following the links you've encouraged us to read or listen to.. thanks for all your work..
Biden is Zionist, the majority of his cabinet are Zionists, and Israel has almost all US senators and congresspeople under the thumb. So who is really in charge now?
I always wished people had paid more attention to the Colombo goverment's bloody obliteration of the LTTE fighters and their families and communities in those last months of brutal and ultimately futile struggle by the tamil sri lankans for respect by the (buddhist) singhala majority. Looking on with great (and silient) interest were the usual players, USA, other five eyes, a hotchpotch of international bodies and peacekeepers, no doubt Israel too (not they had not already amassed their own certitude from actions in Palestine and Lebanon). Looking on and `learning lessons` were these `advanced democracies`, lessons about the usefulness and ease of going to extremes of genocide with impunity and little press interest. In my opinion, that was a turning point in respect for international legal organs and conventions.
Using the Strategic Hamlet model In Gaza is a stretch. The Hamlet policy was introduced to Vietnam by Sir Robert Thompson who, under Generals Briggs and Templer, had employed a similar programme in Malaya during the 'Emergency'. I forget it's exact name 'Fortified Kampong' (or something similar) Kampong being the Malay word for village.
In Vietnam the idea was taken up, amended and transformed into something idiotic by the CIA- the Malay idea was to take advantage of the fact that the Malay Communists were mostly Straits Chinese in origin- the party had developed as a guerrilla resistance to the brutal Japanese Occupation which was thoroughly racist and anti-Chinese. The population of Malaya at the time was roughly divided between Malays and Chinese with a significant Tamil minority as well- so the Kampong plan involved arming the Malays, fortifying their villages and encouraging them to deny any food or assistance to the Guerrillas (called terrorists, of course). Like most British inspired colonial policies it divided the colonised on racial, linguistic and religious lines.
In Vietnam the tactic was first used in Montagnard communities, I believe, where it worked-among the Vietnamese it didn't work because the NLF was a genuinely national Vietnamese liberation movement, the foreign elements were all on the American side.
Herman Kahn studied the Malayan counter-insurgency:
In a sense Israel, where any chance of co-operation against the British between Arabs and Jews was crushed by a combination of racist Zionist revisionism and the anti-Arab war of 1936 in which Jews were enrolled and trained to terrorise those rising against imperial rule, is a perfect reflection, like the Indian sub continent, of these British policies.
Trotsky- Hudson's godfather!-has nothing to do with it. It is true that in the US some Trotskyists, leaderless after the only brain in the movement had been assassinated in 1940, drifted towards anti-Sovietism, anti-communism and eventual, particularly in the McCarthy years, collaboration with the imperialists but you can't blame poor old Lev Davidovitch for that.
Sir Robert Kitson, knighted one week after his Para-1 mob opened fire on a peaceful march in Derry killing 13 civilians, served in counter-insurgency in Malaya [also Kenya, Cyprus, and Northern Ireland in early 70s]. His counter-insurgency manual for "putting manners on the natives" [forget the title at the mo if not the man] was also used by US army in Afghanistan - and certainly shades of it in Gaza genocide. I'll get to the Rand link later on. Poor ol' Lev Davidovich simply had his notion of eternal revolution reverse engineered into perpetual war.
Kitson was part of the same school- which perfected its trade in India. Thompson served as one of Orde Wingate's aides in Burma-Wingate (a Plymouth Brother and a Zionist of the pre Herzl kind)trained the cadres of Irgun and Lehi (those parts not being trained in Europe by Mussolini or the Poles) in terrorising Arabs the Naqba was ready by the end of 1938.
And then there was Aden and, as you point out , the Six Counties.
Brief essay on Kitson here - his various campaigns etc and his key manual 'Low Intensity Operations (1971)', published a year after he arrived in Northern Ireland - and influence on US Army in Iraq and Afghanistan. His career lets us see how one Empire morphs into the next one with similar brutality and savagery.
He arrived in Belfast supposedly to de-escalate violence - yet, he turned the Paras into murdering mobs {Ballymurphy; Bloody Sunday], using the loyalists as proxy fighters, providing the Special Branch with 'free rein', and basically, all hell broke loose - and it continued for decades. Ta for the info on Wingate - has a square named after him in Jerusalem - and he trained them "well" - a mad fu€king psychopath -
Frank Kitson and the myth of the counter-insurgent
Probably one of your most important essays as it exposes the truth of US imperialism and empire. I did notice how the judge shied away from Crooke - I don't think he can fully bring himself to see that the republic he so loves was a fiction.
Many have the same issue as Napolitano. My description, Outlaw US Empire, is hard for them to swallow despite my judgment's basis being in the Constitution, and then there's essay #10 in The Federalist by Madison that's admittedly anti-democracy and the very oligarchic nature of the proposed US government to replace the Articles of Confederation's far more democratic Congress: The Philadelphia Convention of 1787 designed a Coup that gained the approval of perhaps 5% of the adults that might have voted according to today's franchise. And that's how it all started, the US Empire under the Constitution that is.
It has been very difficult for me, Karl. Peeling myself away from the deceit, layer by layer, while those around me tell me how great we are! O, the lies! O, the trickery!
But who among us has not believed lies even when faced with evidence? We, mere mortals are easily deceived, and at times, even find pleasure in deceit.
"And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!" Matthew 5:23
Wisdom from my personal journey, she tells me: The Deceiver's primary tool is to convince me that I am right! Humbling, without doubt.
Thank you, as always, for your perspective.
The first BigLies I confronted were those told by my parents about the mythical/magical beings--Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, God--and caused me to ask the question Why--why would they do that when honesty was constantly preached? When I became a parent, I wrestled with that for a short time before that marriage ended in divorce. Now I confront it again since I'm now a grandfather.
Nap is a "Patriot" (capital-P), as are most of his guests except Crooke, who is British.
I don't have that problem, so I can see the validity of Karl's, Hudson's, Wolff's and Doctorow's argument. I just modify it to say: 1) they're all involved for their own reasons, and 2) it doesn't matter because they all end up doing the same things.
Doctorow tells me that the distinction makes a difference, but I quote Mr. Spock (IIRC): "A difference that makes no difference is no difference."
The US uses proxies, and being humans not robots they have their own agendas/interests of course. Look at Zelensky, a failed project, an actor who has reached his use by date, it's likely his desperate enough to try anything to prolong and draw in the Americans, perhaps with some help from the Brits. And then there are the azov nazi criminals who'll escape and run rampant. Using proxies is playing with fire, but that's where we are - in the accumulation of consequences.
Great cartoon. The winking John Bull is thanking Uncle Sam for giving USA's China land concessions taken starting in 1848 & 1862 to the UK to manage in 1863 and 1902, in return for UK allowing US opium traders, like FDR's grandfather (and Teddy's cousin) free trade in same concessions along with favorable terms access to India's opium. Harvard, Princeton, and Yale built their endowments with opium money.
I've read both Hudson pieces & Wolff with Dima - and Crookes piece in Strategic Culture and Monday's chat with the Judge. As an Irish 'savage' well tuned to our own history of centuries of English/British Empire colonialism, I can visualise the correlation to American Imperialism and its present doctrine of Full Spectrum Dominance with its translation of Trotsky wedded to nazi-fascist forms of domination since WWII. The Brits+CIA+BigOIL instigated the Mosadech coup to place Pahlavi in power in Iran - and yes mainly an anti-soviet move at the time but the 1979 revolution also placed Oil/resource at risk and the main move to support Zionists to quieten the Arabs etc [h/t outraged]
As I've tried, frustratingly at times ,to explain on MoA - it is always The Empire in control - a temporary 'confluence of interests' as Crooke puts it and the charade that Zionists call the shots in West Asia hides/disguises the 'real savagery' emanating from Washington such as its bombs burning children alive in Gaza to take just one example. Big Picture - we are in a civilizational war - which, somehow, must be won.
In the so-called "West", where I sit uneasily as a relatively recently liberated 'savage' from the previous Empire, those of us who see/understand what you have written here Karl are in a small minority. This represents a huge challenge. On a more positive note, the leadership in PRC, RF & IRI understand it full well and are acting accordingly.
Keep up the good work Karl. You are living in interesting times.
Thanks Don! You'll note that I remain an optimist.
"Israel is expendable ... just as for all the rest ..."
And that is why the Zionists have infiltrated the US to the degree they have. As Richard Wolff said, they're scared - they're scared that without a major power behind them, they are economically and militarily non-viable as a country. Which is true.
So first they went to France for nuclear energy, then when France denied them nuclear weapons, they turned to the US, stealing nuclear material for their weapons program. And of course developing AIPAC, etc. and infiltrating into US law enforcement, universities, think tanks, etc. - and of course Congress - as a long-range control program.
So it's not that the Zionists actually control the US - it's that the Zionists feel they NEED to control the US and have succeeded to a certain degree in doing so. But they still don't control the ultimate purse strings which are held by American old-school white men descended from the original immigrant families prior to and after the US industrial revolution. People like the Kennedys.
As Wikipedia says:
"In 1884, 35 years after the family's arrival from County Wexford, Ireland, Patrick Joseph "P. J." Kennedy became the first Kennedy elected to public office, serving in the Massachusetts state legislature until 1895. At least one Kennedy family member served in federal elective office from 1947, when P. J. Kennedy's grandson John F. Kennedy became a member of Congress from Massachusetts, until 2011, when Patrick J. Kennedy II (John's nephew) retired as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island.[2]"
I don't think anyone has ever accused the Kennedys of being Zionists. Robert Kennedy visited Palestine in 1948 before the founding of Israel, and came to support Israel. But that's not the same as claiming they were "Zionists", particularly since his father was apparently legitimately an anti-Semite - as many Catholics are.
And so the neocons are also diverse, composed of all sorts of power seeking types, some of which are Jewish, some of which are not, some of which are Democrats, some of which are Republicans, etc. Neocons are united by ideology, not religion - or as Hudson says, their ideology is their religion.
Whereas the real PTB are united by basic human drives: money, power and hegemony - which transcend ideology and religion. Everyone else are just puppets or co-conspirators.
So the proper approach is to consider the neocons and the Zionists co-conspirators, rather than the ultimate controllers. Or at best, consider all these forces, including the old white families, the neocons, the Zionists, and perhaps other factions, as co-conspirators.
As I've posted elsewhere, which faction is in charge of what at any given moment of time is about as interesting as how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. They all need to be taken out with extreme prejudice.
VIETNAMESE SYRUP. Song by Argentine Quintin Cabrera. When translated from Spanish to English, the rhyme is lost, although not the meaning.
From the very day
that they were born as a country,
they usurped, massacred,
beheaded and attacked.
Naming Democracy,
they subjugated and lied,
executed, killed,
bombed, subdued.
For this reason and for much more
what the Yankee needs
is an increased dose
of Vietnamese syrup.
With their terrorist laws
they exterminated,
overpowered, tamed,
lynched and subdued the redskin.
With all the dictators,
they plotted, conspired,
entangled, deceived,
betrayed, conspired.
For this reason and for much more
what the Yankee needs
is an increased dose
of Vietnamese syrup.
They respect only the market
and its laws imposed,
dominated, liquidated,
oppressed, destroyed.
In the name of Christianity
they murdered so many!
ground, sacrificed,
managed, finished.
For this reason and for much more
what the Yankee needs
is an increased dose
of Vietnamese syrup.
Focused on freedom,
they plotted, schemed,
intrigued, maneuvered,
plotted, conspired.
Following the religion
of the dollar, they crucified,
lowered, crushed,
hanged, nazified.
For this reason and for much more
what the Yankee needs
is an increased dose
of Vietnamese syrup.
Unfortunately, Karl, as I discovered elsewhere, weighing in on this issue is going to flood your thread with morons simplistically claiming that "current events couldn't have been planned in the 1950s", when in fact what we're discussing is the history of US hegemony. No one is saying that this current conflict now was specifically intended to occur now 75 years ago.
Idiots can't do nuance. As Andrei Martyanov likes to say, "you can't convince an imbecile he's an imbecile, because he's an imbecile."
This whole affair is another example of how binary "either-or" conflict is the only kind of "discussion" humans can have.
You'll note I ignore the occasional idiot trolls. Of course, I wrote the preface for context, although I didn't go into the many agents the USG has had since 1850.
You should do what I do: ban them before they clutter up your thread with nonsense. Just make sure you don't do what Bernhard does: ban people who didn't start it and leave the ones who did.
Important that it started long before neocons. Truman was happy to drop two atom bombs on Japanese civilians which thrilled Churchill. A lot of credit should go to Woodrow Wilson and his Wall St. pals. Cheerleading most US foreign brutality has been the UK monarchy. UK wanted Iran's oil, tried to convince Truman to overthrow Iran's democratically elected government so they could get it. Ultimately Ike and his CIA agreed to the job. In August 2013, CIA publicly admitted its involvement in the 1953 coup against Iran’s elected Prime Minister making way for the Shah--whom the US overthrew in 1979.
The gangster reference in the article title will probably be missed by most. Voracious parasites feeding on Humanity must be vanquished. In reality, that's why it's Our Resistance.
Re: "Voracious parasites feeding on Humanity," reminded me of Manlio Dinucci's words published on 7/31/2019,
“Whatever the sympathy we may have for the people of the United States,
their country is still the main predator of humanity.
We can in no circumstance claim to share their “values.””..."The US model for "sovereign " government," by Manlio Dinucci, voltairenet.org
The Parasite idea's been around for a long time. For me, it was Thorstein Veblem's "Theory of the Leisure Class" and its conspicuous consumption that planted that seed long ago that gained new life with Hudson's "Killing the Host."
Thanks for providing Dinucci's words.
Thanks Karl, that is excellent. It pretty much explains everything.
“America, the biggest devil, wants a new Middle East. Netanyahu wants the same thing. That means the US and Israel are doing this genocide purposely.”
Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s deputy leader today. [ a 'confluence of interests' A. Crooke]
Excellent article! Thank you.
I was delighted to see Crooke reference Hudson, two of my all-time favorites. And I thank you for wisely amplifying them, though I follow them independently. There is a current that says Israel has corrupted and highjacked the US. As I view US foreign policy from WW I onward--nay stretching back to the Mexican War--I see such consistent and recurring evil I'm not sure the US needs much encouragement to pursue what is best for its ruling class and worst for mankind. I'm of the opinion that the Banks and Big Business ultimately determine US policy, both domestic and foreign and (with the US government) use whatever tools and proxies are convenient. Believe a massive Israeli attack on Iran is impossible without very clear US participation--not just ISR and materiel, but actual participation with aircraft, particularly tankers. And that would put the US in the crosshairs as an active participant, not just a supporter. That's a big step. It would invite direct involvement and a very dramatic and dangerous escalation. I would add that since it is self-sufficient in oil and food, it is not necessarily against US interest to see Israel and Iran destroy each other--if the exchange can be limited to those two nations. In fact it may very well be in the US interest since it would eliminate a Russian ally and a primary source of China's energy. Very much enjoy and admire your work. Thank you.
I hope Hudson and Wolff become a regular feature at Nima's Dialog Works on Wednesdays. IMO, Judge Napolitano's 30-minute format's too short for either, although his chats with Crooke keep growing longer. The key point here is to disseminate this key, swept under the rug, history. One angle that's very rarely employed is to view US expansion as the direct result of European wars. Many citizens are unaware that Florida wasn't an original colony but had to be wrested from Spain with an imperial policy that began with Adams, continued under Jefferson, and was consummated under Madison--policy continuity despite very different domestic ideas between the political parties foreshadowing post-WW2 policy continuity. Imagine not having Louisiana falling into Jefferson's lap thanks to Napoleon; how much different would western expansion have become?
Being rabid, the neocons don't know when to stop. So far, the Neoliberal Money Power that backs them hasn't seen the need to halt their actions. But that faction wants to enjoy its monies and the high life it provides that a nuclear war would devastate. So, IMO, it's rather likely they will pull on the reins when they go too far. As Hudson said, aside from nukes, all the Outlaw US Empire has remaining is terrorism.
Along with terrorism, subversion by stoking lies and every imaginable ethnic, economic and religious division has been primary in bringing down target nations: NGOs, USAID and NED and the old standbys Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia as well as the wedge of American culture via journalism, music, TV and Film. A veritable juggernaut of soft power manipulation the effectiveness of which I believes stems from US capitalism's expertise in advertising and emotional manipulation. Thanks for reminding us of Jackson and Florida. Come to think of it the Monroe Doctrine just a few years thereafter stakes claim to the entire hemisphere!
The Monroe Doctrine was crafted by John Quincy Adams who wrote the speech. It's not really a doctrine at all but a series of very loosely connected ideas.
Yes, mind manipulation is an Anglo-Saxon forte that was employed very well during WW1. Then look at Manifest Destiny and other related slogans that came before. As Richard Wolff said, the USA is a savage nation.
You know your stuff! Thanks!
I did train as an historian, political-economist and anthropologist, then taught same for a few years--my quad major. The special tutoring I did was the most rewarding as I got to work with a few blind people where I was their eyes for labs and other instruction like describing videos which allowed me to audit the courses while being paid as a tutor/aide. Nice life 20+ years ago.
an important post from you karl... you cover a lot of ground and i have been following the links you've encouraged us to read or listen to.. thanks for all your work..
Yes, I get that. But that was then. And yet:
Biden is Zionist, the majority of his cabinet are Zionists, and Israel has almost all US senators and congresspeople under the thumb. So who is really in charge now?
Capital.
Has "capital" reached a point where they are all in and need to 2 cards to fill that inside straight as the only chance of winning?
It seems as if the stealing of Russia's $$$$$$ by both the EU and amerika might have unintended consequences that they never dreamed would be
Those filled with hubris never think of negative consequences only the winnings.
I'll pass your question on that $300 billion dollar heist over to one of my economics department heads - isn't delegation wonderful?
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs WARNS: the US is DESTROYING Its Own Economy by Weaponizing the Dollar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XJL92qsUN8
The Prof holds nothing back at all. I'm sure most anyone who follows economics
or geo-politics knew what a mistake the EU/US made in weaponizing the $$$$$$
🎯
I always wished people had paid more attention to the Colombo goverment's bloody obliteration of the LTTE fighters and their families and communities in those last months of brutal and ultimately futile struggle by the tamil sri lankans for respect by the (buddhist) singhala majority. Looking on with great (and silient) interest were the usual players, USA, other five eyes, a hotchpotch of international bodies and peacekeepers, no doubt Israel too (not they had not already amassed their own certitude from actions in Palestine and Lebanon). Looking on and `learning lessons` were these `advanced democracies`, lessons about the usefulness and ease of going to extremes of genocide with impunity and little press interest. In my opinion, that was a turning point in respect for international legal organs and conventions.
I took a course in Oberlin college from Rob Neil, Germany history mid last century.
He never mentioned the 27 Million dead Russians....
Using the Strategic Hamlet model In Gaza is a stretch. The Hamlet policy was introduced to Vietnam by Sir Robert Thompson who, under Generals Briggs and Templer, had employed a similar programme in Malaya during the 'Emergency'. I forget it's exact name 'Fortified Kampong' (or something similar) Kampong being the Malay word for village.
In Vietnam the idea was taken up, amended and transformed into something idiotic by the CIA- the Malay idea was to take advantage of the fact that the Malay Communists were mostly Straits Chinese in origin- the party had developed as a guerrilla resistance to the brutal Japanese Occupation which was thoroughly racist and anti-Chinese. The population of Malaya at the time was roughly divided between Malays and Chinese with a significant Tamil minority as well- so the Kampong plan involved arming the Malays, fortifying their villages and encouraging them to deny any food or assistance to the Guerrillas (called terrorists, of course). Like most British inspired colonial policies it divided the colonised on racial, linguistic and religious lines.
In Vietnam the tactic was first used in Montagnard communities, I believe, where it worked-among the Vietnamese it didn't work because the NLF was a genuinely national Vietnamese liberation movement, the foreign elements were all on the American side.
Herman Kahn studied the Malayan counter-insurgency:
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/reports/2005/R957.pdf
In a sense Israel, where any chance of co-operation against the British between Arabs and Jews was crushed by a combination of racist Zionist revisionism and the anti-Arab war of 1936 in which Jews were enrolled and trained to terrorise those rising against imperial rule, is a perfect reflection, like the Indian sub continent, of these British policies.
Trotsky- Hudson's godfather!-has nothing to do with it. It is true that in the US some Trotskyists, leaderless after the only brain in the movement had been assassinated in 1940, drifted towards anti-Sovietism, anti-communism and eventual, particularly in the McCarthy years, collaboration with the imperialists but you can't blame poor old Lev Davidovitch for that.
Sir Robert Kitson, knighted one week after his Para-1 mob opened fire on a peaceful march in Derry killing 13 civilians, served in counter-insurgency in Malaya [also Kenya, Cyprus, and Northern Ireland in early 70s]. His counter-insurgency manual for "putting manners on the natives" [forget the title at the mo if not the man] was also used by US army in Afghanistan - and certainly shades of it in Gaza genocide. I'll get to the Rand link later on. Poor ol' Lev Davidovich simply had his notion of eternal revolution reverse engineered into perpetual war.
Don Firineach:
Kitson was part of the same school- which perfected its trade in India. Thompson served as one of Orde Wingate's aides in Burma-Wingate (a Plymouth Brother and a Zionist of the pre Herzl kind)trained the cadres of Irgun and Lehi (those parts not being trained in Europe by Mussolini or the Poles) in terrorising Arabs the Naqba was ready by the end of 1938.
And then there was Aden and, as you point out , the Six Counties.
Brief essay on Kitson here - his various campaigns etc and his key manual 'Low Intensity Operations (1971)', published a year after he arrived in Northern Ireland - and influence on US Army in Iraq and Afghanistan. His career lets us see how one Empire morphs into the next one with similar brutality and savagery.
He arrived in Belfast supposedly to de-escalate violence - yet, he turned the Paras into murdering mobs {Ballymurphy; Bloody Sunday], using the loyalists as proxy fighters, providing the Special Branch with 'free rein', and basically, all hell broke loose - and it continued for decades. Ta for the info on Wingate - has a square named after him in Jerusalem - and he trained them "well" - a mad fu€king psychopath -
Frank Kitson and the myth of the counter-insurgent
March 4, 2024, Aaron Edwards
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/frank-kitson-and-the-myth-of-the-counter-insurgent/