Written by Caitlin Johnstone; Originally appeared at her blog
At a graduation ceremony for the US Naval War College (barf), US Secretary of Defense James Mattis asserted that Russian President Vladimir Putin “aims to diminish the appeal of the western democratic model and attempts to undermine America’s moral authority,” and that “his actions are designed not to challenge our arms at this point but to undercut and compromise our belief in our ideals.”
This would be the same James Mattis who’s been overseeing the war crimescommitted by America’s armed forces during their illegal occupation of Syria. This would be the same United States of America that was born of the genocide of indigenous tribes and the labor of African slaves, which slaughtered millions in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Libya and Syria for no legitimate reason, which is partnered with Ukrainian Nazis, jihadist factions in Syria and Iranian terror cultists, which supports 73 percent of the world’s dictators, which interferes constantly in the electoral processesof other countries as a matter of policy, which stages coups around the world, which has encircled the globe with military bases, whose FBI still targets black civil rights activists for persecution to this very day, which routinely enters into undeclared wars of aggression against noncompliant governments to advance plutocratic interests, which remains the only country ever to use nuclear weapons on human beings after doing so completely needlessly in Japan, and which is functionally a corporatist oligarchy with no meaningful “democratic model” in place at all.
A casual glance at facts and history makes it instantly clear that the United States has no “moral authority” of any kind whatsoever, and is arguably the hub of the most pernicious and dangerous force ever assembled in human history. But the establishment Russia narrative really is that cartoonishly ridiculous: you really do have to believe that the US government is 100 percent pure good and the Russian government is 100 percent pure evil to prevent the whole narrative from falling to pieces. If you accept the idea that the exchange is anything close to 50/50, with Russia giving back more or less what it’s getting and simply protecting its own interests from the interests of geopolitical rivals, it no longer makes any sense to view Putin as a leader who poses a unique threat to the world. If you accept the idea that the west is actually being far more aggressive and antagonistic toward Russia than Russia is being toward the west, it gets even more laughable.
In order to believe that the US has anything resembling “moral authority” you have to shove your head so far into the sand you get lava burns, but that really is what is needed to keep western anti-Russia hysteria going. None of the things the Russian government has been accused of doing (let alone the very legitimate questions about whether or not they even did all of them) merit anything but an indifferent shrug when compared with the unforgivable evils that America’s unelected power establishment has been inflicting upon the world, so they need to weave a narrative about “moral authority” in order to give those accusations meaning and relevance. And, since the notion of America having moral authority is contradicted by all facts in evidence, that narrative is necessarily woven of threads of fantasy and denial.
Establishment anti-Russia hysteria is all narrative, no substance. It’s sustained by the talking heads of plutocrat-owned western media making the same unanimous assertions over and over again in authoritative, confident-sounding tones of voice without presenting any evidence or engaging with the reality of what Russia or its rivals are actually doing. The only reason American liberals believe that Putin is a dangerous boogieman who has taken over their government, but don’t believe for example that America is ruled by a baby-eating pedophile cabal, is because the Jake Tappers and Rachel Maddows have told them to believe one conspiracy theory and not the other. They could have employed the exact same strategy with any other wholly unsubstantiated conspiracy narrative and had just as much success.
In reality, Russia is nothing other than a rival power structure that the US-centralized empire wants to either collapse or absorb, but they can’t just come right out and tell the public that they’re dangerously escalating tensions with a nuclear superpower because westerners live in an invisible empire ruled by insatiably greedy plutocrats, so they make up nonsense about Putin being some kind of omnipotent supervillain who has infiltrated the highest levels of US government and is trying to take over the world.
I think it’s time we give Vladimir Putin his due. He is clearly the greatest intelligence agent —ever . He has engineered the unraveling of the western alliance, fidelity to democracy in the United States and the severing of the UK from the EU. It’s a remarkable achievement
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) June 10, 2018
Of equal interest to the Defense Secretary’s “moral authority” gibberish is his claim that Putin’s actions “are designed not to challenge our arms at this point but to undercut and compromise our belief in our ideals.”
I mean, like… what? So Russia isn’t challenging America militarily and isn’t taking any actions to attempt to, but it’s trying to, what, hurt America’s feelings? All this new cold war hysteria and nuclear brinkmanship has basically been America acting like a bitchy high school drama queen because Russia is saying mean things about it behind its back? How does a guy named “Mad Dog” get to be such a thin-skinned little snowflake?
I’m just playing. Actually, when Mattis says that the Russian government is trying to “undercut and compromise our belief in our ideals,” he is saying that Moscow is interrupting the lies that Americans are being told about their government by the plutocrat-owned media. As we’ve been discussing a lotrecently, control of the narrative is absolutely essential for rulers to maintain their rule. When you hear establishment policy makers babbling about “Russian propaganda” and Putin’s attempts to “undercut and compromise our belief in our ideals,” all that they are saying is that the plutocrats who rule America need to be able to control the way Americans think and vote, and that the Russian government is making it a bit harder for them to do that.
More and more, the threads of the establishment narrative are ceasing to be unconsciously absorbed and are being increasingly consciously examined instead. This development has ultimately nothing to do with Russia and everything to do with our species moving out of its old relationship with mental narrative as it approaches evolve-or-die time in our challenging new world. I am greatly encouraged by what I am seeing.
US Secretary for Defense Jim Mattis is clearly living in a time warped alternative reality when he says Putin is trying to “Undermine America’s Moral Authority”, America has NO Moral Authority. None!!
Considering that the US has invaded again and again and again country after country after country, and is doing in Syria what it accuses the Russians of doing in the Ukraine, without being called out for it, shows that it does have moral authority. One based on a constantly maintained media narrative where it paints itself as the good guys, and everyone who opposes it as bad, but for some bizarre reason it still manages to hold. It’s unraveling, thankfully, but still holding.
That is why the West is so up in arms over ‘fake news’. It’s not that Russia and alternative media bring us news that is fake, in a sense all news is fake and the Western media has been guilty of it just as much. The West hates fake news because the alternative POV undermines the narrative that it is always good, and whatever it does is also good.
Moral authority :)))))))))))))))) …
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DfVZ9WBUYAA8Nta.jpg
I reckon the defense industry and the banks have better lobbyists then the construction and renewable energy industries. Not to mention the monster alliance between the defense industry and foreign governments like Israel and Saudi Arabia.
As for the homeless, they have no lobbyists whatsoever, nor social media, that other force of nature that can raise a massive OUTRAGE, so they basically don’t exist as far as Washington is concerned.
Al Gore wasn’t exactly honest either, the global warming problem exaggerated for the implementation and expansion of carbon taxes + keeping the multi-billion dollar green energy industry afloat via substantial government grants.
CO2 is a lie…. in the time of the dinosaurs it was five times as high as these days… Trees touched the Clouds
..First there is science…
“Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals1 show that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree*: Climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities. In addition, most of the leading scientific organizations worldwide have issued public statements endorsing this position. The following is a partial list of these organizations, along with links to their published statements and a selection of related resources.”
https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/
Then there is your horseshit..
People like you denied that the earth was round too…They denied the fact that the earth wasn’t the center of the universe.
The Earth can be round, Square, Flat, Triangular… I don’t care… the Earth’s climate has been changing since it’s very existence…due to volcanic eruptions, the Sun sometimes closer to Earth then further away…there can be a Polar shift…Geomagnetic reversal… Methane out of the Oceans… and Loads & Loads of other reasons… sure we Humans produce a lot of CO2… Farting Cows a lot of Methane…you should become a Vegetarian to help a bit in stopping Methane-Production….CO2 is GREAT for plants…480ppm (Parts per million) nowadays in cities 700ppm… 40.000ppm is deadly.. in the time of the dinosaurs 2280ppm…All those “Leading” Scientific Organisations are the Same as all those NGOs…United Nations…NASA…White Helmets…. Nobel Peaceprize…NATO Fighting ISIS… the same Bullshit…
butt hurt much. Didn’t read it. Pointless babble in support of ignorance, based on opinion.
Giving yourself upvotes doesn’t make you a good Interlocuter my Friend… you didn’t Debunk Any of the things I said… just Dribble…come up with some Good Arguments…
babble on stupid. I don’t need, nor is it possible to educate a frikken moron to science. I posted all I need to post.
Read dimwit. Shut mouth, and read so as to work your brain.
Go Fuck yourself Motherfucking Cocksucker get the Fuck out Fucktard!! Lookin’ for trouble? Your ass is mine Motherfucker….I see what you Are Dickhead…
There is a global warming problem, and of course the rich will exploit it for profit. IN any way they can, including more taxes collected to pay fraudulent debt we can no longer keep up with.
Considering that the weather is getting wonkier every year and the polar ice caps receding I’d say that Al Gore was pretty much on the ball. Thing is though, new technology sometimes needs subsidies in order to both grow and develop, and old technologies sometimes needs to be taxed if they are harmful to us. As long as fossil fuels are cheaper humans will keep on using them, even when its obvious to all that to keep on using them is detrimental to us in the long term. We humans have piss poor long term planning, we know that there bad things that will kill us, fossil fuels, fatty foods, cigarettes, and yet we keep on using them because we prefer to live in the now. And in the now fossil fuels are cheaper, fatty foods tastes so well, and cigarettes, well, we all know some uncle who smoked two packs a day and lived to be a hundred. We humans are terrible at estimating risks. You only have to look at youtube to see endless movies of people doing stupid things. It’s not that they’re all that stupid, they just massively underestimated the risks.
bankers do NOT lobby, the dangle credit . All they need to put a liar politician in their pocket, the means to help him keep his place, at the trough.
Isn’t that part of lobbying though? Making the right campaign contributions? Anyone can tell a good story, you can probably tell a good story about helping to feed the homeless. You just can’t back it up with ways that would make it worth the politician’s time.
NO, it is ownership, not lobbying. I find it strange, such an easy concept to grasp, yet so many have so much trouble with the simplicity in the origin of our slavery.
“Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.” Gilens, M., & Page, B. I. (2014). Testing theories of American politics: Elites, interest groups, and average citizens. Perspectives on Politics, 12(3), 564-581. DOI: 10.1017/S1537592714001595
“History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance.” -James Madison
Buzz of With Your Nonsense…You don’t know shit… I am not a slave.. you perhaps… your text says shit…stop your copy pasting if you don’t understand what you are pasting idiot… were the f*ck did you learn to read? In Disneyland??!!!
babble on dimwit….because you think the earth is flat, doesn’t mean it is…Because you do not understand a fact, and what it means, doesn’t mean it is not a fact.
Yes, you are a moron….So keep voting, keep smiling, keep eating GMO, and keep drinking fluoride.
1- “In the modern economy, most money takes the form of bank deposits. But how those bank deposits are created is often misunderstood: the principal way is through commercial banks making loans. Whenever a bank makes a loan, it simultaneously creates a matching deposit in the borrower’s bank account, thereby creating new money” http://www.bankofengland.co… “
2- “Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.”
Gilens, M., & Page, B. I. (2014). Testing theories of American politics: Elites, interest groups, and average citizens. Perspectives on Politics, 12(3), 564-581. DOI: 10.1017/S1537592714001595
I don’t think the Earth is Flat Idiot… I just got your Ass you are a Bloody infiltrator…. I can Smell them Miles away
Sure Banksters don’t Lobby.. just yell some Crap
ignorance is NOT knowledge dimwit. You are a moron, and as such, forgiven your ignorance.
only just though..
“There is a cult of ignorance ……., and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
☛ Newsweek: “A Cult of Ignorance” by Isaac Asimov, January 21, 1980
You are just a computer you dumb shit….
Profit motive, imperialism, and globalism require the bottom three.
The top three are contrary to profit.
Hasbara-Fucktard Alert
(…America has NO Moral Authority. None!!…)
Exactly right!
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2018/06/18/its-time-to-start-getting-enraged-at-what-western-imperialists-have-done-to-syria/ This may also be of some not inconsiderable interest to you!!
Thanks for sharing the great article and the video! I saved it for future reference! Thanks again!
Thanks For the Great Article…good thing more & more people start to see how things are….Ripple-Effect will create awarenes on the long-term…very powerful…have already posted it elsewhere…
https://youtu.be/wjkVUwIXjtI
https://youtu.be/RkS6bewxxWc?t=112
Spoilt kids always blame others for what they do themselves :)
Agreed. Bombastic autocrats cannot honestly look at themselves. But Mattis is pointing the finger indirectly at the elites. Putin is the straw man, but elite infighting now out in the open is undermining the narrative that gives the ILLUSION of American moral authority. The infighting is apparent in the MSM taking shots at each other. I posted elsewhere on this.
I disagree that President Putin is a Straw Man. In my opinion he is very pragmatic and realised that the US /NATO cannot be realigned to reality in days ,weeks or even years.
This is a gradual process that is assisted by the arrogance of the US/NATO and the ever increasing burden of debt that is slowly drowning the US and EU.
The current declaration by the US of a ‘Space Command’ to fully dominate all the open space above our heads whilst the US infrastructure on the ground is decaying at an alarming pace is yet another example of the vacuous minds of the US leadership.
Straw man is a technique in argument or debate to distort the opponents position to suit your agenda and open your opponent to attack.
In this case, Mattis uses straw man arguments against Putin by distorting Russian actions as intended to undermine the US even though the actions are not intended that way or are a reaction to US aggression. The term does not mean Putin is a straw man, Putin is a real person, but the arguments portray Putin as something he is not – a straw man, not real. But it is the straw man that is attacked.
US actions are to bring Russia to heel under the US boot and Russia resistance under Putin is portrayed as undermining the US. This is distorting the reality that the US is the aggressor to make it Putin’s Russia to be the aggressor. This has played out again and again such as Russian ‘aggression’ in Crimea while ignoring US intervention in Ukraine that preceded. NATO expansion and military build with large scale drills on Russia’s borders are portrayed as defensive in response to Russian aggression which is ludicrous.
The straw man technique of portraying Putin and Russia as aggressors when it is the opposite makes it easy to attack Russian actions and demonize Putin. Once the public accepts the lie that Putin/Russia is the enemy and aggressively seeks to undermine the US, then it is easy to justify actions against Russia such as sanctions and also use false flags to blame Russia. This worked very well but is now running into problems as people are waking up.
This type of argument works when you are not called out on it. However, more and more people are clueing in that Russia is not the aggressor, but reacting to aggressive US behaviour.
It is also not easy for the US to actually gain from this illusion as Russia is very capable of a response that can turn all of the USA to an ash heap.
This is an important point. The US has typically targeted nations unable to defend themselves against US aggression. But we are now witnessing the US targeting nations that can hit back, and hit back hard.
The illusion will serve to increase the danger as the US uses false flags to maintain the illusion and justify serious provocations with Russia and China. Fortunately people are waking up to smell the coffee.
Do the US deep state warmongers drink coffee or blood ?
If they’re anything like me it just depends on the time of day.
Or night :)
I believe they drink coffee but take their bath in blood as a broad metaphor for what they bring to this world.
The US always wins in the movies :)
I still enjoy watching the US Marines fleeing in helicopters off their embassy roof in Saigon and the panic on the US carriers as helicopters were literally pushed over the side to make room for refugees and US personnel .
That is the sort of ‘ Victory ‘ that the US needs again to concentrate the dull minds of the majority US population :)
Empires have always induced hubris into a population and hubris is sure to rot the empires from within.
Yes… Vietnam. The US was trying to stop the spread of the rot (communism) like a domino effect (Kissinger’s analogy). But it actually accelerated the rot of the empire with fiscal crisis resulting in collapse of Bretton Woods.
Vietnam is also where my favourite quote was made by a US military commander while being interviewed by western media:
‘We may have to destroy Vietnam in order to save it.’
It appears that the US military top brass have all had lobotomy’s if their comments are anything to go by :)
I would say, lobotomy by indoctrination. The education system is basically a slow motion lobotomy operation.
Most British politicians have had the same Slow Motion Lobotomy as well, in fact from the days they became Friends of Israel :)
The ((( Russian ))) connection the media won’t touch.
https://youtu.be/6_pPPsmK0-I
https://youtu.be/ph1elMG6U4g
What drugs are these guys on?
MONEYcaine
Very true :)
Yep.
“MONEYcaine is a hell of a drug.”
Mattis, the costumer:
https://twitter.com/JenGriffinFNC/status/999978254613319681
Feeling safer? You should not :)
You should write to him.
Ode To Four-Star Marine General James Mattis https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/df00cde7cc04e391822cddc12caa5d9a749a46989ade8760a25c81c104035ec9.jpg by Lewis Carroll, 1832 – 1898
How doth the little crocodile Improve his shining tail, And pour the waters of the Nile On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin, How neatly spreads his claws, And welcomes little fishes in, With gently smiling jaws!
Lewis Carroll seems he knew a thing or two about conceptual power and its origins.
Since U.S. are totally immoral in everything they do, Russians didn’t do anything to “UNDERMINE AMERICA’S MORAL AUTHORITY”
Actually many people are getting sick and tired and very impatient because of very tolerant approach of Putin and Russia towards totally immoral US.
So it is possible to say that Russia is doing opposite of what US are accusing them to do. They try to wake up US responsibility, self respect and dignity in everything they do and Russia seeks to establish relations on that level with US…. but without any results.
US is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. Imperialism. For globalism. This is how, the travesty goes on.
Hasbara-Alert
dimwit alert….Can always tell the really stupid ones. You cannot even be clever around your ignorance.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b4bc701eb328780c30e8b35f810eb80d6d04c7ea0b2d12c8267e34f3587fab46.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/253bba7b5498eeb4d5d2c423b7680ae53b7cab338eed4719c79f0c013eaf1d79.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e5cf1b93092708fc0158ea3b9381aa8ebba0b0358a93fb63d9e0f39d7bbed577.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f8fd212554d43b6e4cb2c0e07450316ae9f6c25b4748613f1b70c942d154393c.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5eccd5d5626e2c558c63cb65c020ef3030789ef5d2ad37c220c25a071c45a9e0.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cfa1e723606b16b56c4094f77e8e806c0e7bd0caf528ab3908d9f55505773194.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0eba8bab9a9368ce26c7b05a57bffd32d0ba7abbde8bedcb1125561553fe4dbc.jpg
This is what your Brothers in IsraHell are Doing… Go get Your $hekels Boy… and buy a beer..
” Mattis: Putin Is Trying To “Undermine America’s Moral Authority” ” LOL!… Putin doesn’t need to waste energy on that, YOU AMERICANS solve this masterfully by your own
https://i.imgflip.com/2aqg52.jpg
hahahaha – it took me a second and boom, it got me. Love it, cheers.
In order to believe that the US has anything resembling “moral authority” you have to shove your head so far UP YOUR BUTT THAT YOU TURN YOURSELF INSIDE OUT!
Can’t get past the headline, has there ever been a more narcissistic people?
1. We are on a global mission to save the world, not coexist with it in a lawful manner. 2. Gone any hint of the traditional, American, Protestant introspection where one is aware that sin is knocking on your own door. Now we believe that everyone else is a sinner but we alone are without sin and have the moral authority to dictate to the rest of the world how to live.
I just can’t stand these people. They have ruined my country.
I feel the same way. Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that the country that we loved never really existed in the first place. Hollywood and US orgs have always told us the same thing, how great our compassion is, nationally. The truth is far less spectacular. Yes, American people are generous and do care about others, but America the nation has been rotten for a very long time. We are just now getting exposed to our duplicity and criminality and it is very hard to take. Even now at home, we are being treated the way we have been treating the rest of the world and a large portion of us still won’t believe it. Being awakened from a lovely dream only to find a nightmare is hard to deal with.
You are correct of course. Only the desperately stupid hang on to the idea that America was ever about freedom and democracy.
World is a business Mr. Beale. And that isi the ONLY freedom for the slaves to aspire to.
I liked the article. Well said.
MATTIS: PUTIN IS TRYING TO “UNDERMINE AMERICA’S MORAL AUTHORITY”
…………..WHAT MORAL AUTHORITY DO YOU MEAN Mr. MATTIS? THERE EXISTS NO AMERICAN MORAL AUTHORITY…
Even if you only looked at the probability of all 3 buildings falling on their own footprints, including one that wasn’t even touched by anything, it stinks to the heavens. When you consider all of the murdering the US Deep State Military Industrial Complex has performed since using 9/11 as a lame excuse…. Well, it would take an idiot to believe the Deep State lie. Factoring in evidence from science and experts in the fields of demolition, just puts icing on the cake. False flags have been used on more than one occasion against American people, not only by the Deep State itself, but also Israel (USS Liberty). It’s also has been used multiple times on countries around the world the US Deep State seeks to destroy.
Thanks for the link.
My pleasure..:)
I try not to tell people what happened,
I instead chose to tell them what could never happen…while informing them that the government, has not answered one of these science “fails”|..
Science says…
Law of thermo-dynamics
“If you have a flame of 750 degrees, you can hold that flame under steel forever and you will NEVER reach a high enough temperature to bend steel, let alone melt it.” Robert Podolsky – Masters in theoretical physics, Physicist /engineer. Systems analyst, Air Force Avionics Lab, Coast Guard electronics —————————————————————–
Law of aerodynamics
“”I flew the two actual aircraft which were involved in 9/11; the Fight number 175 and Flight 93. I don’t believe it’s possible for, like I said, for a terrorist to train on a [Cessna] 172, then jump in a cockpit of a 757-767 class cockpit, and vertical navigate the aircraft, lateral navigate the aircraft, and fly the airplane at speeds exceeding it’s design limit speed by well over 100 knots, make high-speed high-banked turns, exceeding — pulling probably 5, 6, 7 G’s. The aircraft would literally fall out of the sky. I couldn’t do it and I’m absolutely positive they couldn’t do it.” Capt. Russ Wittenberg, U.S. Air Force – Former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot with over 100 combat missions. Retired commercial pilot. Flew for Pan Am and United Airlines for 35 years. Aircraft flown: Boeing 707, 720, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, and 777. 30,000+ total hours flown. ———————————————————– Law of motion/momentum
Commander James Clow, MS, U.S. Coast Guard (ret) – Retired U.S. Coast Guard officer
“No matter how one views the videos of the Towers and Building 7 collapsing, the laws of physics MUST hold true. If F=ma appears to have been violated (e.g., free-fall collapse of the buildings at nearly 9.8 m/sec/sec), then something is seriously amiss and one must start looking for the “other hand” hidden beneath the table to discover what is really happening” ——————————————————————
ANd if that aint enough, well time for rocket scientists to step in.
“”The only peer-reviewed papers that provide a physically plausible mechanism for collapse of WTC 1, 2, or 7 are papers that conclude with controlled demolition – a result consistent with the fact that in over 100 years, no high-rise steel frame building has ever collapsed from fire alone. “” Timothy E. Eastman, Ph.D., Physics Group Manager for Space Science Support Heliospheric Physics Laboratory NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
————————————–
“The many visual images (massive structural members being hurled horizontally, huge pyroclastic clouds, etc.) leave no doubt in my mind explosives were involved [in the destruction of the World Trade Center].”
Dwain Deets, MS Physics, MS Eng – Former Director, Aerospace Projects, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Before this appointment, he served as Director, Research Engineering Division at Dryden. Recipient of the NASA Exceptional Service Award and the Presidential Meritorious Rank Award in the Senior Executive Service (1988). ———————————————
“Serious technical investigations by experts seem to be lacking from the official explanations.”
Larry L. Erickson, BS Aeronautical Eng, MS Aeronautical Eng, PhD Eng Mechanics – Retired NASA Aerospace Engineer and Research Scientist. Conducted research in the fields of structural dynamics, aerodynamics, aeroelasticity and flutter. Recipient of NASA’s Aerodynamics Division Researcher-of-the-Year Award. 33-year NASA career. Member, American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics.
This was done to justify Millions of innocent civilians and Children’s mass Murdering and wonderful Countries total Destruction !
US/UK deep Power Weapons and Junk-Food industries are the World Killing Cancer !
Zbigniew Brzezinski, architect of the catastrophe in Afghanistan, dead at 89
By Bill Van Auken
Zbigniew Brzezinski, security adviser to Democratic President Jimmy Carter and a longtime proponent of an aggressive strategy for asserting US global hegemony, died Friday at the age of 89.
During his four-year tenure in the Carter White House, Brzezinski was involved in a large number of criminal operations carried out by US imperialism around the globe, from support for the Shah’s attempts to drown the Iranian Revolution in blood to the initiation of a US policy in Central America that led to bloody counterinsurgency campaigns that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands.
Unquestionably, however, the greatest of these crimes, and one for which he proudly took credit, was the orchestration and support of a dirty war waged by Islamist mujahedeen against the Soviet-backed government of Afghanistan at the end of the 1970s.
Born into an aristocratic Polish family that was forced to take refuge in Canada, where his father was a diplomat at the outbreak of World War II, Brzezinski’s outlook and policies were grounded in a ferocious hatred of revolution, socialism and the Soviet Union.
He was recruited into anti-Soviet operations while lecturing at Harvard University in the 1950s. He was among a delegation sent by the CIA through its front group, the “Independent Service for Information,” to intervene at a Soviet-backed world youth festival held in Vienna in 1959. He was described by contemporaries as the most anticommunist and provocative of those sent by the US intelligence agency.
In the early 1970s, Brzezinski was tapped by David Rockefeller to head the Trilateral Commission, a body created to coordinate imperialist strategy between Washington, Western Europe and Japan. The commission, made up of influential business and political figures, in turn, threw its support behind the 1976 presidential campaign of Democrat Jimmy Carter, then governor of Georgia and seen as a Washington “outsider” who could provide a fresh face after the debacle of the administration of Richard Nixon and that of his successor, Gerald Ford. Members of the commission occupied key posts in the Carter administration, with Brzezinski as national security adviser exercising overwhelming influence over US foreign policy.
It was in this position that Brzezinski authored one of the greatest crimes carried out by US imperialism in the 20th century, the instigation of a war in Afghanistan that has continued to ravage the country to this day.
In its obituary of Brzezinski, the New York Times acknowledges that “his rigid hatred of the Soviet Union” had placed him “to the right of many Republicans, including Mr. Kissinger and President Richard M. Nixon.” It adds that under Carter he directed US policy with the aim of “thwarting Soviet expansionism at any cost…for better or worse.” As an example, it states, “He supported billions in military aid for Islamic militants fighting invading Soviet troops in Afghanistan.”
This is a deliberate distortion of the real role played by Washington, its military and the CIA in Afghanistan, under Brzezinski’s direction.
Brzezinski acknowledged in an interview with the French news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur in January 1998 that he initiated a policy in which the CIA covertly began arming the mujahedeen in July 1978—six months before Soviet troops intervened in Afghanistan—with the explicit aim of dragging the Soviet Union into a debilitating war.
Asked, given the catastrophe unleashed upon Afghanistan and the subsequent growth of Islamist terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, whether he regretted the policy he championed in Afghanistan, Brzezinski replied:
“Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.”
Asked specifically whether he regretted the CIA’s collaboration with and arming of Islamist extremists, including Al Qaeda, in fomenting the war in Afghanistan, Brzezinski responded contemptuously: “What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?”
In the four decades of nearly uninterrupted fighting that flowed from Brzezinski’s “excellent idea”—with nearly 9,000 US troops still on the ground and plans being set in motion to carry out another escalation—over 2 million Afghans have lost their lives and millions more have been turned into refugees.
In the aftermath of the Moscow Stalinist bureaucracy’s formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Brzezinski refocused his long-standing maniacal hostility to the USSR toward a strategy to assert undisputed US hegemony over Eurasia.
He was among the more influential imperialist strategists in shaping a policy of attempting to offset the long-term decline in the world position of American capitalism by resorting to Washington’s unchallenged supremacy in terms of military might. This turn would lead to unending wars in the Middle East and Central Asia designed to assert undisputed American dominance in the regions containing the lion’s share of the world’s oil and natural gas reserves.
In an article published in the September-October 1997 issue of Foreign Affairs, Brzezinski argued:
“Eurasia is the world’s axial supercontinent. A power that dominated Eurasia would exercise decisive influence over two of the world’s three most economically productive regions, Western Europe and East Asia. A glance at the map also suggests that a country dominant in Eurasia would almost automatically control the Middle East and Africa. With Eurasia now serving as the decisive geopolitical chessboard, it no longer suffices to fashion one policy for Europe and another for Asia. What happens with the distribution of power on the Eurasian landmass will be of decisive importance to America’s global primacy and historical legacy … In a volatile Eurasia, the immediate task is to ensure that no state or combination of states gains the ability to expel the United States or even diminish its decisive role.”
Expanding on this thesis in his book The Grand Chessboard, Brzezinski voiced his concern about the major obstacle to Washington pursuing such an aggressive drive for hegemony: the hostility of the vast majority of the American people to war.
He wrote: “… America is too democratic at home to be autocratic abroad. This limits the use of America’s power, especially its capacity for military intimidation. Never before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public’s sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is, defense spending) and the human sacrifices (casualties even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization.” [The Grand Chessboard, Basic Books, pp. 35-36].
Four years later, on September 11, 2001, the “sudden threat or challenge to the public’s sense of domestic well-being” that the former national security adviser saw as a necessary precondition for launching a global campaign of American militarism was served up by the very forces that he and the CIA had promoted in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda, with its historic ties to US intelligence, claimed credit for the attacks on New York City and Washington, which were carried out by individuals who were able to move remarkably unhindered in and out of the US.
Brzezinski was a virulent opponent of revolution, socialism and any challenge to the existing capitalist order from the left. In 1968, during the mass protests against the Vietnam War, he wrote in the New Republic that students should be prevented from protesting by locking them up, adding that if the protests’ “leadership cannot be physically liquidated, it can at least be expelled from the country.”
In more recent years, particularly in the wake of the meltdown of the global capitalist financial system in 2008, Brzezinski has repeatedly warned of the “growing risk of class hatred” and the danger of radicalization among young people under conditions of unsustainable levels of social inequality.
In his 2012 book Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power, he wrote: “Populations of young adults… are especially explosive when combined with the revolution in communication technology.” He continued: “Often educated but unemployed, their resulting frustration and alienation” leaves them “susceptible to ideological agitation and revolutionary mobilization.”
In a television interview that year, he warned that a growing “sense of social injustice can be terribly demoralizing and, politically in the long run, very dangerous.”
While able to perceive this danger and issue his warnings, Brzezinski was no more able than any other representative of America’s capitalist ruling establishment to offer a rational, much less progressive, answer to the rising social and class conflicts that pose the threat of revolution.
https://www.wsws.ORG/en/articles/2017/05/29/zbig-m29.html
Fuck off…
It is not possible to undemine something that USA has never had.
There is nothing that can improve this excellent article in my opinion. It says it all.
Bravo.
Except for this one Florian: https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2018/06/18/its-time-to-start-getting-enraged-at-what-western-imperialists-have-done-to-syria/
Thank you for the link. I have subscribed to his web site.
The question is, when will a critical mass be achieved in the UK,US France etc that has any lasting effect of the monsters who rule over us ?
Moral Authority? I am sure the people of Iraq don’t think so!
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2018/06/18/its-time-to-start-getting-enraged-at-what-western-imperialists-have-done-to-syria/ A piece of Journalism that merits the moniker: J O U R N A L I S M
Very well written article. I could not have said it any better. Poor old Mad Dog, he knows what he really means, the good guy morality that Hollywood has told the US citizens we possess is nothing but hype that is being systematically exposed for the propaganda BS that it has always been. Yes, US morality even extends to our great ‘boys in blue’ (police) that have become jackboots in black, heralded in media as ‘heroes’ as they shoot unarmed citizens, grind people into the dirt with their knees, choke them out and various other authoritarian techniques, taught to subjugate their enemy (us) by the best of teachers…then lie about it all until video comes out proving them liars. The same with our military. Liars all, sadistic scum who could not care any less about the treatment of others. They just want to be loved by Israel, just like our other moral leaders here at home. Morality? It’s a mindset of guns, bible and righteousness in this country. That it’s all a facade is slowly seeping into the American conscious…and yes, we can thank Putin for helping to open our eyes. For that I say: Thank you , Mr. Putin.
Ha! SF digging real deep to find anti-US propaganda. Her blog? Wtf Lol
Are you really that stupid to ignore what your so called country has been up to ? really ? Stop drinking fluoride dumbass.
You are still dirt….leaks out your ears and mouth apparently.
“We’re going to take out seven countries in 5 years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran” –General Wesley Clark. Retired 4-star U.S. Army general, Supreme Allied Commander of NATO during the 1999 War on Yugoslavia . ———— “That is the phenomenon of the US. Since 1945 they’ve destroyed 73 countries and were directly involved in the deaths of 26 million people. It is a horror show. It just must stop!” John Shipton, journalist and executive officer of Wiki Leaks. ————-
You are a waste of protein…
BEWARE EXTREME HASBARA-TROLL ACTIVITY CODE RED: Hasbara Checklist: Roger Smellyman, Frank Behrenstein, Baron Von GoatBanger, Jens Holm, Matt, Joe Dirt, Smaug, Mountains, Joe, Lord of the Wankers, DutchNational, Just Watching, Hamster, retiredSOFguy, Terry Penis, Vidura, Neil Barron, Total Pinocchio, Derapage, Fatime Oomayadin, Real Anti-Racist Action, Free man, King Tudor777, Velociraptor, Ajdin Aksoy, Superfly, Raptar Driver, Serious, أبو ياسر, Nod Beware! These Folks get paid in $hekels to manipulate & speak with Crooked Tongue… http://www.gilad.co.uk/writ…
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/israel-setting-covert-units-tweet-facebook-government-propaganda
You earned yourself a fine spot on me List Cunt… hehehehe…
Clark should be hanged for treason.
And one general out of the entire US military says this bullshit and you believe it?
Why have not other general out of the hundehun in the US military come out and say this? Ohhh, because it’s not true lol
Wow, you are dumb as dirt…with no idea of it.
Great observations. I wonder if anyone thought what was going on when Trump called Juncker a brutal dictator. I suspect Trump is suffering from a clinical mental disease and could go so far off the rails that even his supporters notice. Mattis and Bolton are obviously not well either. Is this a new phenomenon or have our “leaders” always been insane? 65 yrs of nonstop war is hardly sane.
Mattis: Putin Is Trying To “Undermine America’s Moral Authority”
Who is Putin?
Moral authority can only be undermined by its possessor. Mattis wouldn’t know this, as he is a conspiratorial paranoid morally scrofulous schmuck with an adolescent mindset.
TAKE YOUR MORAL AUTHORITY AND STICK IT UP YOUR ASS MATTIS!!!
Proof if it ever was needed,that the US government is occupied by exceptional zionist scumbag IDIOTS.
Here’s a real honest truth – Russia is building Holy lots of Church’s and are rallying around the Russian Orthodox Church. Americans have a bunch of Satanists running the country – its rather obvious by now and with a red hot bible in their hands and declaring to be Christians. Now, I ain’t no holy roller but I remember from confirmation class that if their is a God and Jesus Christ with a christain following – there most certainly is a Satan with a lying, thieving, murderous – following. I never thought I’d say it or believe it – but there is just 2 much evidence .
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/048955e1fe56e7a6d412e0acea1f5d5617cd118805cc578f00455c667d0dd78c.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/002a8c0811d769d2788e67d54df6404dcb016cd4a0ff4bc98fcc3761ecf42cdb.png
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/284a062e4a3ecaa7afb3c7a96fc70af80e4b0345d8fbd5dab99cb50b4f8dffd5.jpg
How did Mattis get his nickname ‘Mad Dog’, during the Iraq War? Now what was that war based on?
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5d9a6a88404b7ea5e620aff48967142d8949a7a514fac29a696540c5d9dd0baa.jpg
The US has the moral authority of a sewer rat. Apologies to all noble sewer rats in the world (I am sure you all do a magnificent job!)
As Great Leader of the sewer rats, we appreciate your apology but it does not go far enough. You must retract the highly offending statement that equates our moral authority with that of the US.
It is exceptional nonsense. Only the USA can undermine its moral authority.
And they are doing just that. The split in elite consensus has resulted in competing narratives that have become so adversarial they call out each other’s lies. There is no longer a controlled ‘narrative’ in the US and the public are increasingly questioning and this is why Mattis is raising the issue. Of course blaming Russia is a straw man. The undermining of the illusion of US moral authority lies squarely on the elites and their infighting.