Why Did Russia Refuse Venezuela’s Request but Iran Accepted It?

By Elijah J. Magnier

Source

Tareck El Aissami Iran 257be

Iranian tankers were 2200 km from the US coast when the Iranian-flagged “Fortune”, followed by “Forest”, entered Venezuelan waters, challenging the US embargo and the US’s threats. The Islamic Republic was broadcasting loud and clear a strong message.

The first message was dispatched to the US administration after Gulf and Arab Leaders conveyed a direct message to the Iranian leaders: “Washington is determined to stop the Iranian tankers sailing to Venezuela”. Iran responded to all messages received that “its five tankers will sail to Venezuela and if any of these tankers is intercepted, Iran will respond in the Straits of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman or anywhere else it sees fit.”

“These five tankers – the Clavel, Fortune, Petunia, Forest and Faxul- are only the beginning of the supply to Venezuela. Iran has the right to send any of its tankers anywhere in the world and any US interception will be considered an act of piracy and will trigger a direct response,” said an Iranian decision-maker who revealed the Iranian response to the US administration via message-carriers.

“Iran had decided to avoid the horn of Africa because the plan was for the first tanker to reach the Venezuelan waters on the first day of Eid el-Fitr. The aim was to share an important day of the Islamic Republic’s defiance to the US in its backyard and to break the sanctions imposed on one of Iran’s main allies. It is a message for the “Axis of the Resistance” that Iran will not abandon its friends and allies anywhere in the world whatever the challenges. It is directly confronting the US by imposing a new rule of engagement”, said the source.

Iran shut its ears to all threatening messages from the US menace and instructed its five tankers to go not round the horn of Africa but through the Gulf of Aden via Bab al-Mandab strait, the Suez Canal and Gibraltar into the Atlantic Ocean- where the US has a strong presence and influence. This shortens the distance and it tested the intentions of the American Navy. Simultaneously, Iran informed its allies of its readiness to confront the US if ever an escalation should loom on the horizon so that these allies within the “Axis of the Resistance” are ready for a wider confrontation if needed.

The first Iranian tanker, “Fortune”, reached the Caribbean Sea on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, on Sunday 24th of May, with US Navy ships in the vicinity. The tankers are carrying over 10 million barrels of oil but also Alkylate and spare parts to start repairing any of the eight “out of order” refineries, to enable oil-rich Venezuela to be self-sufficient in the future. The US sanctions on Venezuela had paralyzed Venezuelan refineries and caused gasoline shortages, with the aim of overthrowing the legitimately elected President, Nicolas Maduro.

Iran is challenging the US administration and considers it a victory that its first tanker went through without being intercepted. Tehran considers this challenge to US authority much more significant than the downing of the US’s most sophisticated drone or the bombing of the US’s largest military base in Ayn al-Assad, Iraq.

“Our allies used to wonder why Iran was not confronting the US dominance face-to-face. In fact, we were preparing for this day, and what helps us the most is the US sanctions that force this country to be autonomous on many levels. Today, Iran and its allies are all equipped with strong ideology and motivation to face down US hegemony, with sufficiently advanced military and financial support to stand up to the US and its allies, both in the Middle East and outside the Middle East. Since World War II the US has not faced a challenge to its hegemony similar to the one Iran is representing, particularly when the main enemy, the US, believes that 40 years of sanctions and maximum pressure have crippled Iran’s capabilities. Imam Khamenei informed all our allies that the military and financial support to all of them will increase and will meet all their needs in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. The Axis of the Resistance is now ready and united as one front”, said the source.

Venezuela had asked President Vladimir Putin for help. Russia said clearly it was not willing to send ships close to the US coast because that might support President Trump by triggering a false threat which could lead to unifying the national feeling behind him. This is why Putin had to refuse Venezuela’s request. Iran came forward at the first demand and was grateful for the opportunity to challenge the US and to pay back the support Venezuela offered in the year 2008 when Iran was in need and under heavy US sanctions that forbid technology transfer to build or repair its own refineries. Since then, Iran has built 11 refineries (and 3 more in Pars, Anahita and Bahman Geno which are still under construction) and is considered the third most important country in the world to have developed Gas to Liquid technology (GTL).

Since the US assassinated Brigadier General Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad’s airport, Iran has imposed new rules of engagement on the US. Its message consists in the inevitability of a response against its enemies if they hit Iran, and the threat that no attack will go unanswered. It seems Iran is no longer ready to turn the other cheek and has decided to take special measures to respond to any attack against its troops or interests, including in Syria (more details will be provided in another article). Also, Iran and its allies have raised the level of readiness to maximum in case the US administration decides to attack any aspect of Iran’s interests, particularly the flotilla heading to Venezuela.

Iran is not facing the US directly, and is not asking its allies to do the job on its behalf. The “Persian rug weaver” waited through 40 years of sanctions for this day, until its capability and preparations were completed. This means that now Iran will be tougher and harder, and that is manifest in the election of the new parliament and the new government. President Trump has abused and exhausted all the avenues used by President Hassan Rouhani. Therefore, any new negotiation between Iran and the US will be very difficult: there is a total lack of trust in any document signed by the US.

Whether a Republican or a Democrat reaches the White House at the end of 2020, they will be waiting by the phone for many long years if they imagine that Iran will take the initiative and call the US for a meeting. It will now be up to the US to prove to Iran that it is worth holding any negotiations at all.

Iran has planted robust roots in Afghanistan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. It is now spreading towards Venezuela and will support President Maduro, a strategic rather than ideological ally, to stand against US hegemony and sanctions. More tankers are expected to follow in the very near future. Iran is eager to confront President Trump and tempt him into a confrontation only months before the elections. The Coronavirus mismanagement, the US’s rebuttal of its deals with Russia, Trump’s aggressive position towards China and the World Health Organisation, and his rejection of the Iranian nuclear deal (JCPOA): all these are striking possibilities for a challenge to his re-election. This is why Iran is preparing more surprises for Trump- to show that his Middle Eastern policy is jeopardizing the safety and security of the US and its allies both in Europe and the Middle East, and indeed global world security.

معادلات جديدة للسيد نصرالله ـ3ـ مكافحة الفساد: مطلوب قضاة استشهاديّون

ناصر قنديل

– كما رسم السيد حسن نصرالله في المواجهة الناعمة والخشنة للأميركيين خريطة طريق إنهاء كيان الاحتلال من دون حرب أو بالحرب الكبرى، كما أسماها، ورسم خريطة طريق التغيير السياسي الداخلي عبر الاستثمار على العملية الانتخابية، وتفادي الفخاخ المؤدية إلى استحضار شبح الحرب الأهلية التي تتكفل بقطع مسار التغيير، كما حدث قبل عقود، وعدم استسهال عبور المتاريس الطائفية للاصطفاف الشعبي في السياسة الذي يُخفيه غبار تخلفه مشاهد الحشود الموحدة، قارب السيد نصرالله قضية مكافحة الفساد، التي يحلو لبعض محبي المقاومة، أو الراغبين بتوريطها بحل قيصري يطلبون منها تنفيذها. وهنا رسم السيد في حواره خريطة طريق للحرب التي يعتبرها أشد صعوبة من حرب المقاومة بوجه الاحتلال.

– في مكافحة الفساد يبدأ السيد نصرالله من توصيف المعركة بما هي أبعد من البحث عن موارد مالية لحل الأزمة الاقتصادية، وتذكر المال المنهوب، وتخيّل أن استعادته هي الحل، والسير بهذا المنطق حتى جعله نظرية كاملة، تجهض كل بحث جدي عن حلول جدية أو جذرية للأزمة الاقتصادية، تصير ممكنة إذا تحررنا من نظرية الوصفة السحرية، استعيدوا الأموال المنهوبة ونصير بألف خير، والانطلاق من فصل مساري مواجهة الأزمة الاقتصادية، ومكافحة الفساد، حرصاً على حسن سير المسارين. وفيما يخص مسار مكافحة الفساد حيث السعي لاستعادة المال المنهوب يجب ألا يتوقف، لكن من دون وهم حلوله مكان البحث بالحلول الاقتصادية، ومن دون اختصار مكافحة الفساد به كهدف، لأن المطلوب هو منع الفساد مستقبلاً بمثل ما هي مطلوبة المساءلة عما سبق واجتثاث ماضيه.

– النقلة الثانية في سياق منطق السيد نصرالله، هي رفض الانتقام السياسي أو تصفية الحساب السياسي، أو الكيدية والاستنسابية في مكافحة الفساد، لأن هذه هي أقصر الطرق لإجهاض أي مسعى جدي لمحاربة الفساد وملاحقة الفاسدين، وقد تكون وصفة ناجحة لحماية الفاسدين بمنحهم غطاء سياسياً وطائفياً وربما شعبياً، إذا ظهرت الملاحقة غير منصفة وغير مكتملة الشروط والأصول، وربما في حال استهدافها لرموز كبيرة، تتحوّل إلى وصفة لزعزعة السلم الأهلي، رغم أننا في الحرب على الفساد يجب أن يكون سعينا الأهم هو للنيل من رموزه الكبيرة، لكن ضمن شروط وأصول تحول دون تصوير العملية كانتقام سياسي أو طائفي، أو كتصفية حساب.

– يُعيد السيد نصرالله القضية إلى نصابها الأصلي، فيعتبر أن التحوّل الذي شهده لبنان في النظر لقضية مكافحة الفساد، هو إنجاز عظيم، لجهة وجود رأي عام متحفّز للمراقبة والمتابعة والمساءلة، وحالة من الارتباك أصابت استسهال المسؤولين في التعامل مع المال العام، ومنذ إعلان حزب الله تحويل مكافحة الفساد إلى أولوية من أولوياته، وتكوينه للعديد من الملفات الخاصة بهذا العنوان، هناك تعاظم في الضغط الشعبي وحضور النخب تحت هذا الشعار، لذلك يصير من الأهمية بمكان الذهاب نحو الآلية الموثوقة، والتي تجنّب السعي إلى إجهاض أو انتكاسة، حتى لو بدا طويلاً وصعباً، وهنا تأتي أهمية الامتناع عن توجيه أي اتهامات بالفساد على أساس سياسي أو من موقع سياسي. فما هو مطلوب من السياسيين، ومنهم حزب الله، الامتناع عن توجيه الاتهامات، بل رفع الغطاء عن المحازبين والمؤيدين، وتحقيق الإجماع على إطلاق يد القضاء فوق الحصانات والحمايات، وفقاً لمعطيات ووقائع وملفات.

– يشارك السيد القلق من تدخل السياسة في القضاء، كما يشارك القلق من تسلل الفساد إلى القضاء، ولذلك فهو لا يكتفي بالدعوة لجعل القضاء وجهة حصرية للملاحقة في جرائم المال العام، بل يدعو لإطلاق الورشة التشريعية والقانونية اللازمة لتمكين القضاء وتحصين القضاء واستقلال القضاء، ويصل للمشاركة بمقترحات من نوع آلية تكوين المحكمة الخاصة بجرائم المال العام، بطريقة تتيح حصر الاختيار بالقضاة المجمع على شجاعتهم، وصولاً لحد الحديث عن الحاجة، لتحقيق النصر في حرب تحرير لبنان من الفساد، إلى قضاة استشهاديين، فلبنان لم يتحرر من احتلال العدو للأرض من دون مثل هؤلاء الاستشهاديين، وشعور القضاة بحجم التطلع الوطني نحو دورهم الحاسم في قضية مصيرية كبرى كهذه لا بد أن ينتج من بين صفوفهم أمثال الاستشهاديين الذين ولدوا في صفوف المقاومة.

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Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Confirms via Al-Manar: All Attempts to Change UNIFIL’s Role Will Fail

Source

 May 30, 2020

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In an interview with Al-Manar TV Channel, the Russian ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zaspykin, confirmed that all the attempts to change the UNIFIL’s missions will fail, expressing hope that the extension of its mandate becomes a chance for preserving peace in the area.

The Lebanese government has requested the extension of the UNIFIL mandate for one year amid US attempts to change its missions for the sake of the Zionist interests.

International reports indicate that Russia and China will veto changing any of the UNIFIL missions in the UN Security Council, knowing that Lebanon voiced firm rejection of any Israeli attempt to alter and, thus, undermine its role.

Zaspykin emphasized that Russia completely supports the UNIFIL mission, denouncing the ongoing Israeli violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and occupation of Lebanese territories.

Source: Al-Manar English Website

SYRIAN AIR FORCE RECEIVES ‘ADVANCED’ MIG-29 FIGHTER JETS FROM RUSSIA

South Front

Syrian Air Force Receives ‘Advanced’ Mig-29 Fighter Jets From Russia

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) announced on May 30 that the Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) had received a new batch of Mig-29 fighter jets from Russia.

A military source told the state-run agency that the new fighter jets were handed over to the SyAAF during an official ceremony in the Russian Hmeimim Air Base in southern Lattakia. The source said the fighter jets were “advanced” and “upgraded.”

“These warplanes, which are more effective than their previous generation, flew from the Hmeimim Air Base to their deployment areas in Syrian air bases,” the source said.

According to the source, the new Mig-29s will enter service with the SyAAF on June 1. The fighter jets will patrol Syria’s airspace.

The military source didn’t provide the exact number of Mig-29s which were delivered to the SyAAF or share any details on their specifications.

Recently, a number of Mig-29 fighter jets were spotted in the Hmeimim Air Base. While the U.S. claimed that they were later deployed in Libya, they could be the ones handed over to the SyAAF.

Syrian Air Force Receives ‘Advanced’ Mig-29 Fighter Jets From Russia

At least 20 Mig-29s were in service with the SyAAF prior to the new delivery. The Syrian jets were upgraded to special standard, known as SM. This allowed them to fire beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles (BVRAAMs) and precision-guided air-to-surface munitions. Furthermore, the Mig-29SMs were equipped with active jamming systems.

The military source claimed that the newly delivered Mig-29s are more advanced than the ones which were in service with the SyAAF, which mean they could be Mig-29SMTs or Mig-29Ms.

The new Mig-29s will boost the capabilities of the SyAAF, which failed to impose a no-fly zone over the northwestern region of Greater Idlib during the last confrontation with Turkey.

The delivery of these fighter jets is an example of the ever growing partnership between Syria and Russia. A day earlier, Moscow announced that it will initiate talks with Damascus to secure new bases for its troops on the Syrian coast.

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US’ Decline Speeding Up – Iran’s Shamkhani

US’ Decline Speeding Up – Iran’s Shamkhani

By Staff, Agencies

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council [SNSC] Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani in a message referred to US President Donald Trump team’s empty boasting and said that the decline of the US has been speeding up.

“Empty boasting of #Trump’s team amid the decline of the US has accelerated,” Shamkhani wrote on his Twitter account on Saturday.

“Successive failures in front of the axis of resistance and international conflicts; abroad economic crisis, catastrophic health system, restriction of media, deep social & security crisis; at home are undeniable,” he added.

Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a message said lawless bullying threatens international peace and security.

India, China teeter toward a border clash

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India, China teeter toward a border clash

May 28, 2020

Both sides have sent reinforcements to disputed Ladakh line, as Beijing flexes its muscles around Asia

by Pepe Escobar – posted with permission

A Chinese soldier (L) next to an Indian soldier
at a border crossing in a file photo.
Photo: AFP/Diptendu Dutta

It would be counter-productive for BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization members India and China to come to blows on account of some extremely remote – albeit strategically important – snowy mountain passes.

But when one looks at the 3,488-kilometer-long Line of Actual Control, which India defines as “unresolved,” that can never be totally ruled out.

As the Hindustan Times reported: “India has pushed in high altitude warfare troops with support elements to the eastern Ladakh theater to counter [the] Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s aggressive posture designed to browbeat the government to stop building border infrastructure in the Daulat Beg Oldie sector as it may threaten the Lhasa-Kashgar highway in Aksai Chin.”

The highway runs from Tibet to southwestern Xinjiang Province, where the Karakoram Highway – the northern part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor – goes from Kashgar to Islamabad. Thence a road heads through Balochistan to Pakistan’s strategic Gwadar port, as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

“The specialized Indian troops are familiar with the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China and are tuned for operating at rarefied altitudes,” Hindustan Times reports. “The scale of PLA deployment – two brigades’ strength and more – indicates that the move has the sanction of Beijing and [is] not limited to local military commanders.”
ATF

None other than Donald Trump has offered to mediate.

The current flare-up started building in late April, and led to a series of scuffles in early May, described as “aggressive behavior on both sides,” complete with fistfights and stone throwing. The Indian version is that Chinese troops crossed the Line of Actual Control (LAC), with vehicles and equipment, to block road construction by India.

The key area is around a spectacular 135 kilometer-long, 5-7 kilometer-wide lake, Pangong Tso. It’s in Ladakh, which is a de facto extension of the Tibetan plateau. One third is held by India and two thirds by China.

Pangong Lake, on the border between India and China. Photo: AFP / Antoine Boureau / Biosphoto

Mountain folds around the lake are called “fingers.” The Indians say Chinese troops are close to Finger Two – and blocking their movements. India claims territorial rights up to Finger 8, but its de facto holding extends only to Finger 4.

New Delhi has been steadily expanding infrastructure development – and also troop deployments – in Ladakh for nearly a decade. Units now spend longer periods deployed along the LAC than the six months that used to be the standard rotation.

These are called loop battalions: They do a back and forth with the Siachen glacier – which was the theatre of a localized India-Pakistan mini-war in 1999 that I followed closely.

The Indians maintain there are no fewer than 23 “disputed and sensitive” areas along the LAC, with at least 300 “transgressions” by People’s Liberation Army troops every year.

Crossing the line

The Indians are now particularly focused on the situation in the Galwan valley in Ladakh, which they maintain was breached to a distance of 3 to 4 km by PLA troops now in the process of digging defenses.

Diplomatically, it’s all pretty hazy. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Indian troops of “crossing the line” in both Ladakh and Sikkim, as well as “attempting to unilaterally change the status of border control.”

The Indian Foreign Ministry has preferred to maintain that “established mechanisms” should prevail in the end, justifying its relative silence with the explanation that quiet diplomacy between military commanders and officials must take precedence.

That’s in stark contrast with what Indian sources on the ground are stressing: face-off between troops in at least three points in Ladakh and Sikkim; too many Chinese troops at LAC areas patrolled by India; and blocking of Indian patrols in finger areas on the Pangong Tso.

Interestingly, Indian defense sources deny there’s a Chinese troop buildup across the middle sector of the LAC, in Uttarakhand; they see what would qualify as routine “local movements.”

India-China border issues are usually settled on the border in meetings between local commanders and officials. Photo: AFP / Indian Defense Ministry / HO

It’s significant that a former Northern Army commander told The Hindu, “Normally stand-offs happen in a local area, but are resolved at the local level.” That pretty much sums up the whole state of affairs along the India-China border and also the India-Pakistan border.

Yet now, added the commander, there seems to be a “higher level in China” in terms of planning, so the skirmishes should be handled diplomatically. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is reviewing the current LAC situation.

Beijing has been mostly quiet about it. Yet the Global Times seems to be distilling the predominant Chinese narrative: India’s poor “are facing an increasingly severe threat of famine.

“Against such a backdrop, it is conceivable that hyping border tensions at this juncture will flare up nationalist sentiment and increase domestic hostility toward Chinese capital, putting unnecessary pressure on bilateral trade and dealing a further blow to the Indian economy already plagued by downturn woes.”

Global Times insists China “clearly has no intention of escalating the border disputes with India,” and prefers to stress the “overall improvement” of their “bilateral economic and trade ties.”

The usual divide-and-rule suspects, for their part, prefer to speculate on the possibility of an India-China LAC mini-war. That’s not likely to happen.

Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, billed as special representatives of India and China, met face to face for the last time in December 2019, discussing an “early settlement of the boundary question.” It looks like they will soon have to meet again.

August 1: when the unemployment runs out and a new era of US labor battles begin

August 1: when the unemployment runs out and a new era of US labor battles begin

May 28, 2020

by Ramin Mazaheri for the Saker Blog

TITANIC LARGEST SHIP IN THE WORLD SINKING

personally I am not sure that the twelvehour day is bad for employees especially when they insist on working that long in order to make more money

— John Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel, part one of the U.S.A. trilogy

What if the bailouts actually work?

Naturally, socialists aren’t inclined to explore this question, but what’s so interesting is that the Western Mainstream Media doesn’t want to admit the truth: the US bailouts for the lower classes have been hugely effective.

Too effective, they fear, and their fears are entirely correct. Make sure to circle August 1 on your calendar because that will be something of a US class war D-Day.

The Mainstream Media does not want to touch this issue with a 10-foot pole, so we cannot find much coverage of the reality that the Great Lockdown payouts to the lower classes have been – by US standards – incredibly generous. (Note: this article was written last week. The latest Fed Beige Book came out yesterday and addressed this issue, so I bumped this column up in the queue.)

2020 saw the very first “People’s QE”, with $1,200 in direct payments and a $600 increase per week in unemployment insurance until July 31.

Even if the bureaucracy sometimes moved too slowly and there were inevitable issues with this enormous and unprecedented redistribution, the verdict was in immediately: this was a hugely popular success with the lower classes. And why wouldn’t it be? It’s the most generous unemployment payout since the 1930s. For the first time in recent memory governmental policy favoured the lower class worker instead of the upper-middle and upper classes.

The average worker went from $378 per week in state unemployment benefits to $978 per week – a jump of 160%. You ever get a 160% raise before? I haven’t. Indeed, a socialist had to have gotten a lump in their throats when this was announced. One study showed that a whopping 68 percent of unemployed workers who can receive benefits are eligible for payments that are greater than their lost earnings. That number seems a bit high, but the massive desire to support the stay-at-home orders was surely a reflection of a desire to support this radically different approach to poverty prevention.

For the incredibly stingy US system the payout was unexpectedly generous and even based on good sense: the payout was $978 per week because the national average salary for unemployment recipients is $970 per week. It passed the smell test, too: $4,000 per month is a pretty good salary in the US… if you have no kids. However, if you have a very good upper-middle class job then it’s a pay cut, but democratically orienting policy to the needs of the lower classes and not the upper and upper-middle classes in the US? Since when?!

This is when socialists had to think – maybe these bailouts will actually work?

But it’s not as if they pulled the plug on capitalist-imperialist culture, so I think the US 1% made a major mistake in suddenly growing a conscience – they have unwittingly done more to raise class consciousness than any union or socialist party has done for many decades.

Buy some popcorn and watch the show – August 1 is going to see public labor-related rage for the first time since the 1930s.

Big, big problems in almost too many ways to count starting August 1

Michiganders demanding their constitutional right to fish was interesting, courageous and an example of ancestor worship any East Asian would be proud of, but let’s talk turkey about why in May – when it became clear that comparisons of coronavirus with the Spanish Flu of 1918 were obviously tabloid journalism – polls showed so many people refused to go back to work:

The early reopening of the economy was shot in the foot by this “unemployment bailout” – why on earth would the lower classes want to return to their low-paid jobs, where they could contract huge corona-related health care costs, when they can be totally safe and paid better to boot?

Don’t get it twisted for even a moment: the problem was NOT an excessive government handout but the TERRIBLE wages lower class workers have to endure since 1980. What “shot the recovery in the foot”, therefore, was capitalist greed and decades of stagnant wages, not “overly-generous government programs”. If the US had paid proper wages, and had shown proper skepticism to the now-unproven claims of corona hysterics, then they wouldn’t have so many employees telling bosses to take their job and shove it.

And the anger will seethe long-term, because the long, long, LONG overdue payout only sowed the seeds of future class discontent: it took a deadly pandemic for America’s most abused workers to finally get a living wage of above $15/hour. How can the lower classes – who are totally denied class consciousness by the US education system and pop culture – now ever forget that money for them really is there, but it is unfairly redistributed?

The US already has 41 million unemployed officially – given that the median weekly income in the US is $865, we are conservatively talking about 20 million workers who will only go back to work grudgingly on August 1.

The long-term cultural ramifications of that should not be underestimated.

Equally necessary to not underestimate: after August 1 many millions of workers won’t have these proper unemployment benefits nor a job either – at least 25% to up to over 40% of jobs aren’t coming back. So, conservatively, 20-30 million workers are going to get a huge pay cut as they have to survive on the “normal” benefit of just $378 per week.

Again, the cultural ramifications add up to massive discontent.

I think there is no chance that the US 1% authorises an extension of the $600 per week extra past August 1 – it was totally out of keeping with US ideology to begin with, and yet another indicator of the hysteria which swept the US regarding coronavirus. If unemployment benefits remained that high the only choice would be for bosses to raise wages to attract workers, and 40 years of recent shows that simply won’t be allowed to happen in the US.

Congress will, however, likely extend the number of weeks workers can live on the inadequate $378 wage (usually around 6 months in the US) but that will hardly be viewed as sufficient. They are talking about giving a $450 back to work bonus to get workers to accept jobs, and this only shows what a huge mistake the US 1% made amid the corona hysteria (thankfully!) and how they are now scrambling to erase it by offering crumbs.

The Democratic leadership has proposed extending the $600/week until 2021, but that’s typically-empty Democratic electioneering: if they really wanted to protect the lower classes and not corporations then they would have included that proposal in the first bailout package. Democrats waited until they knew extending $600 plus had no chance of getting passed

The cultural discontent will also be amplified and extended by the upcoming US elections in November.

Should we expect on August 1st the media to “play ball” with the 1%, like they normally do, and shepherd the masses to go back to work? Not hardly. I think it’s staggeringly unpatriotic to have “played politics” during this pandemic but nobody would doubt that many journalists, politicians and governors have done and are doing exactly that – why would they stop just a few months prior to Trump’s re-election vote?

(Indeed, whereas pre-corona I viewed Trump as a near-lock to be re-elected the odds of him winning amid such economic depression now seems rather illogical. As he is an extreme narcissist Trump views absolutely everything as being all about him, but I can see why he said back in February that corona was being overhyped to damage him politically.)

Will the fake-leftist MSM agitate in favor of labor/the unemployed army, thus against the 1%? That would be rather amazing, and something not seen since the 1970s, but it actually seems likely because they want to better Democratic election chances. It is only a temporary change caused by the corona hysteria and won’t stick long-term, of course.

Countering the fake-leftist MSM will be the always unwanted presence of Austrians/Chicagoans/Republicans who sanctimoniously rail about the “moral hazard” of “incentivising sloth” – people who never knew working hard at a lousy job yet still being unable to pay the most basic bills – will be equating extending the $600/week with the arrival of Satan, whom they are sure is also a Stalinist socialist. These greedy toads had effectively kept a lid on class consciousness for four decades, but no longer.

By August 1 all will be reminded: the problem remains unequal distribution

The term “working class” is so distorted in US culture that the term has no meaning anymore – I prefer the Iranian term “the lower classes” because everybody instinctively knows if they are in the “upper class” or one of all those “lower classes”. And, far more importantly, is that everyone knows whom they politically support: Mao came from a wealthy family but lived his motto of “Serve the People”, whereas plenty of New York City rappers would set an urban housing project on fire just to get on MTV. Many in the US are aware of Eugene “Daddy Socialist” V. Debs’ saying “while there is a soul in prison, I am not free,” but they are not told what preceded it: “while there is a lower class, I am in it”.

So support/opposition to $600 extra per week is going to go a long way in showing who supports which class.

Ultimately, the bailouts will not work – in terms of aiding society – for the three other major components of the US economy: the small- and medium-sized business, corporations and high finance. Addressing “Will the bailouts work?” for those sectors requires another article, but this column democratically addressed the bailouts’ effect on the largest sector of society – the lower classes.

August 1 will mark a critical new era in which domestic disenchantment with the American system reaches an all-time peak, and then only increase from there. Mark your calendars.

It’s not as if American socialism doesn’t have a history to draw upon for strength and guidance, such as John Dos Passos. The U.S.A. trilogy was ranked 23rd on Modern Library’s 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century, but today Dos Passos has been banished from schools, academia and public consciousness – he chronicled the early years of American socialism.

*********************************

Corona contrarianism? How about some corona common sense? Here is my list of articles published regarding the corona crisis.

Capitalist-imperialist West stays home over corona – they grew a conscience? – March 22, 2020

Corona meds in every pot & a People’s QE: the Trumpian populism they hoped for? – March 23, 2020

A day’s diary from a US CEO during the Corona crisis (satire) March 23, 2020

MSNBC: Chicago price gouging up 9,000% & the sports-journalization of US media – March 25, 2020

Tough times need vanguard parties – are ‘social media users’ the West’s? – March 26, 2020

If Germany rejects Corona bonds they must quit the Eurozone – March 30, 2020

Landlord class: Waive or donate rent-profits now or fear the Cultural Revolution – March 31, 2020

Corona repeating 9/11 & Y2K hysterias? Both saw huge economic overreactions – April 1, 2020

(A Soviet?) Superman: Red Son – the new socialist film to watch on lockdown – April 2, 2020

Corona rewrites capitalist bust-chronology & proves: It’s the nation-state, stupid – April 3, 2020

Condensing the data leaves no doubt: Fear corona-economy more than the virus – April 5, 2020

‘We’re Going Wrong’: The West’s middling, middle-class corona response – April 10, 2020

Why does the UK have an ‘army’ of volunteers but the US has a shortage? – April 12, 2020

No buybacks allowed or dared? Then wave goodbye to Western stock market gains – April 13, 2020

Pity post-corona Millennials… if they don’t openly push socialism – April 14, 2020

No, the dollar will only strengthen post-corona, as usual: it’s a crisis, after all – April 16, 2020

Same 2008 QE playbook, but the Eurozone will kick off Western chaos not the US – April 18, 2020

We’re giving up our civil liberties. Fine, but to which type of state? – April 20, 2020

Coronavirus – Macron’s savior. A ‘united Europe’ – France’s murderer – April 22, 2020

Iran’s ‘resistance economy’: the post-corona wish of the West’s silent majority (1/2) – April 23, 2020

The same 12-year itch: Will banks loan down QE money this time? – April 26,

2020

The end of globalisation won’t be televised, despite the hopes of the Western 99% (2/2) – April 27, 2020

What would it take for proponents to say: ‘The Great Lockdown was wrong’? – April 28, 2020

ZeroHedge, a response to Mr. Littlejohn & the future of dollar dominance – April 30, 2020

Given Western history, is it the ‘Great Segregation’ and not the ‘Great Lockdown’? – May 2, 2020

The Western 1% colluded to start WWI – is the Great Lockdown also a conspiracy? – May 4, 2020

May 17: The date the Great Lockdown must end or Everything Bubble 2 pops – May 6, 2020

Reading Piketty: Does corona delay the Greens’ fake-leftist, sure-to-fail victory? – May 8, 2020

Picturing the media campaign needed to get the US back to work – May 11, 2020

Scarce jobs + revenue desperation = sure Western stagflation post-corona – May 13, 2020

France’s nurses march – are they now deplorable Michiganders to fake-leftists? – May 15, 2020

Why haven’t we called it ‘QE 5’ yet? And why we must call it ‘QE 2.1’ instead – May 16, 2020

‘Take your stinking paws off me, you damned, dirty public servant!’ That’s Orwell? – May 17, 2021

The Great Lockdown: The political apex of US single Moms & Western matriarchy? May 21, 2021

I was wrong on corona – by not pushing for a US Cultural Revolution immediately – May 25, 2021


Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He is the author of the books Ill Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China’ and the NEW Socialisms Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism.

The European Union and the USA are threatened with disintegration الاتحاد الأوروبيّ والولايات المتحدة مهدّدان بالتفكك؟

The European Union and the USA are threatened with disintegration

Written by Nasser Kandil,

Ten years ago, when Gondoleezza Rice was a researcher and obtained a master degree in the political science she predicted of the disintegration of the Soviet Union before she assumed any governmental position. Due to her thesis she got an outstanding scientific position that allowed her to preoccupy the positions she assumed during the era of President George W. Bush. She described what will happen to the Soviet Union which actually happened “The historical empires and the great contemporary countries are disintegrated suddenly without any premises to observe or to have a long context to rely on regarding the disintegration, it is as a flood and earthquake, it just happens”. These true words can be applied on the situation of other empires and superpowers.

What the EU is witnessing nowadays in addition to the reasons of Britain’s exit from the Union as a sign of the end of the presumptive age of the Union and the popular reasons about the advantages in being in it indicate that there are serious risks that threaten the continuation of the Union which lost its mission in the international political and economic geography as a framework that includes Europe from East to West and which can replace the NATO due to the financial incentives in besieging Russia inside its borders. Today it loses its ability to present an example capable to face two kinds of crises; the first kind is the crises of the financial collapse which rocked Greece, Italy, and Spain where the EU appeared in its French and German background an interest group that is away from the threatened countries, and where its support is governed only with loan in exchange of conditions as the International Monetary Fund does. The second kind is represented by the Corona virus where the confrontation plans seemed local and where the EU seemed not exist because the support came from outside the EU especially from China and Russia which are not supposed to be among the traditional supporters.

When hundreds of Chinese doctors and experts and tons of equipment and field hospitals enter to Italy and when the Russian President Vladimir Putin opens the land route in front of his military trucks to transfer aids, experts, and doctors to Italy, then it is not an exaggeration to say that we are in front of a reverse movement of the fall of Berlin Wall since we see that the European eastern countries are accused of treason in Europe while they thank the Chinese and Russian aid as the President of Serbia did, And when we see the scene repeated in Italy and Spain by lowering the flag of the European Union and when we read articles of leaders that raise existential questions about being in the EU to the extent of doubting of the justification of its presence then we do not hesitate to ask whether the EU and the Euro system not only Schengen are threatened with collapse?

In the USA there are many serious questions about the federal system and what does it present to the states especially the states that have more income and contribution in the federal budget. After the outbreak of Corona virus, the barriers which were set on the entrances of the major roads that link the states together sound like there is a need of a visa granted by a state to the visitors of other states. Therefore, it is enough to say that the federal system has been hit in the core. New York State provides an example of how it suffers from the federal system through the miserable scenes of hospitals transmitted by the social media, where its patients are distributed on rusty iron beds in corridors, backyards, and parking. So there are major questions about the usefulness to stay under the federal system if it is incapable of providing help when disaster strikes. Therefore after Corona and along with the collapse of stock markets and banking system it is no longer surprising to witness an escalation in the debate about the justifications to bear a partnership of loss and the necessity of the federal system especially with the presence of old and renewed calls of rebellion that will meet more advocates whenever the federal system seems incapable.


Translated by Lina Shehadeh,

الاتحاد الأوروبيّ والولايات المتحدة مهدّدان بالتفكك؟

ناصر قنديل

– تنبأت غونداليسا رايس بتفكك الاتحاد السوفياتي، عندما كانت صفتها الباحثة التي نالت شهادة الدكتوراة في العلوم السياسية قبل أكثر من عشر سنوات من توليها أي مسؤولية حكومية، ونالت بسبب أطروحتها مكانة علميّة لفتت نحوها الأنظار ورشحتها للمناصب التي تبوأتها في عهد الرئيس جورج بوش الإبن، وقالت في وصفها لما سيجري في الاتحاد السوفياتي، وقد جرى فعلاً، «إن الإمبراطوريات التاريخية والدول العظمى المعاصرة، ترحل وتتفكك فجأة دون أن تمنحك مقدّمات تراقبها وتبني عليها سياقاً طويلاً ينتهي بالتفكك، إنها كما الطوفان والزلزال عملية تحدث فجأة، إنها تحدث وحسب». وهذا الكلام الذي صح في حال الاتحاد السوفياتي، لا يمكن إنكار إمكانية أن يصح أيضاً في حال غيره من الإمبراطوريات والدول العظمى.

– ما يشهده الاتحاد الأوروبي هذه الأيام، بخلفيّة فهم إضافية لأسباب خروج بريطانيا من الاتحاد كعلامة على نهاية الزمن الافتراضي لعمر الاتحاد، وبدء تبلور أسئلة شعبية حول جدوى البقاء تحت عباءته، يقول إن مخاطر حقيقية تتهدد استمرار الاتحاد، الذي فقد وظيفته في الجغرافيا السياسية والاقتصادية الدولية كإطار جامع لأوروبا بغربها وشرقها يتيح بقوة الحوافز المالية، الحلول مكان حلف الأطلسي، لمحاصرة روسيا داخل حدودها، وهو اليوم يفقد قدرته على تقديم نموذج قادر على الحياة في مواجهة نوعين من الأزمات، لا مبرر لبقائه إذا عجز عن إثبات أنه آلة جماعية أشدّ فعالية من القدرات المنفردة للدول على مواجهتها، النوع الأول هو أزمات الانهيارات المالية التي عصفت باليونان وإيطاليا وإسبانيا، وظهر خلالها الاتحاد، بخلفيته الفرنسية الألمانية، جهة مصلحية تتخذ مسافة من الدولة المهددة، وتكون مساهمتها محكومة بسقف هو الإقراض كما يفعل صندوق النقد الدولي، مقابل شروط، والنوع الثاني هو التهديد الذي مثله فيروس كورونا، حيث لم يظهر الاتحاد أنه موجود، وبدت خطط المواجهة محلية حصراً، كما بدا العجز محلياً، لكن بدت المعونة حاضرة من خارج الاتحاد، وخصوصاً من الصين وروسيا، المفترض أنهما من خارج نادي الأصدقاء التقليديين.

– عندما يدخل الصينيون بمئات الأطباء والخبراء وأطنان المعدات والمستشفيات الميدانية إلى إيطاليا، وعندما يحرك الرئيس الروسي فلاديمير بوتين الطريق البري لشاحناته العسكرية لنقل المساعدات والخبراء والأطباء نحو إيطاليا، فليس من المبالغة القول إننا أمام حركة معاكسة لسقوط جدار برلين، ونحن نرى بأمّ العين أن دول أوروبا الشرقية تتهم بالخيانة أوروبياً، وهي تتوجّه بالشكر على المعونة الصينية والروسية كما فعل رئيس صربيا، وتتسابق بإعلان تخلّيها عن علم الاتحاد الأوروبيّ، وعندما نرى المشهد يتكرّر بقوة في إيطاليا وإسبانيا، بإنزال أعلام الاتحاد الأوروبيّ، ونقرأ مقالات وآراء لقادة في الدولة والأحزاب تطرح أسئلة وجودية حول فرص البقاء في الاتحاد الأوروبيّ، وصولاً للتشكيك في مبررات بقائه، عندها علينا أن لا نتردد في طرح السؤال عما إذا كان الاتحاد، وربما منظومة اليورو، وليس منظومة الشنغن فقط، تتهدّدهم مخاطر الزوال؟

– في الولايات المتحدة الأميركية أسئلة لا تقل خطورة تتعالى أصواتها في العديد من الولايات الأميركية، حول النظام الفدرالي وماذا يقدم لولاياتهم، خصوصاً بالنسبة للولايات الأكثر دخلاً ومساهمة في الميزانية الفدرالية، ومع تفشي فيروس كورونا، ظهرت الحواجز على مداخل الطرق الكبرى التي تربط الولايات ببعضها، توحي بأن المطلوب تأشيرة دخول تمنحها الولاية لأبناء الولايات الأخرى ليتاح لهم الدخول إلى أراضيها. وهذا كافٍ للقول إن النظام الفدرالي أصيب في الصميم، وتقدم ولاية نيويورك نموذجاً عما تعانيه مع النظام الفدرالي عبر المشاهد التي تتناقلها وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي لمستشفياتها، بحال تدعو للشفقة، على مرضى يتوزعون أسرة حديدية صدئة، في الممرات والباحات الخلفية ومواقف السيارات، وأسئلة كبرى عن جدوى البقاء في النظام الفدراليّ ما دام عاجزاً عن تقديم النجدة عند وقوع الكارثة، وبعد زلزال كورونا لن يكون مستغرباً، مع تداعي البورصات والنظام المصرفي، أن نشهد تصاعداً في النقاش حول مبررات تحمل الشراكة في الخسائر، وحول جدوى النظام الفدرالي نفسه، تلاقي دعوات استقلال، قديمة متجددة لأصوات وازنة في عدد من الولايات تنادي بالتمرّد على الصيغة الفدرالية، وستلقى مزيداً من المؤيدين كلما بداً النظام الفدرالي عاجزاً.

مقالات متعلقة

Modi’s plan of demographic change takes practical shape

Source

Srinagar, May 30 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, Narendra Modi-led fascist government’s plan to change the demographic composition of the territory is taking a practical shape following the revocation of Articles 370 and 35-A of the Indian Constitution.

These Articles granted special status and rights to occupied Kashmir and its residents. Under these constitutional provisions, non-Kashmiri people or entities could not purchase land in occupied Kashmir. However, Modi government repealed these Articles on 5th August, last year, paving the way for the Indian citizens and organizations to purchase property in the territory.

In the first such instance, the Indian Army has approached the administration of Baramulla, evincing interest in buying 129 kanal (6.5 hectare) of land at Kreeri high ground at Tapperwari in Pattan area to set up a camp.

Media reports said the Quartermaster for Commanding Officer of the 19 Infantry Division Ordnance Unit has written to the district administration, requesting it to inform if the administration wishes to sell the land to the Indian army.

It is for the first time that the Indian Army has directly written to the department concerned for purchasing land in the Valley.

Occupied Kashmir completes 300 days of military siege

Source

Srinagar, May 30 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, the inhumane lockdown imposed by RSS-backed Narendra Modi-led fascist government on August 05, last year, when it revoked the special status of the territory, has completed 300 days.

An analytical report prepared, today, by Senior Editor of Kashmir Media Service, Muhammad Raza Malik, on the completion of 300 days of unrelenting military siege and lockdown in the occupied territory, revealed that Indian troops martyred 134 Kashmiris including 4 women during the period. It said that at least 1,299 people were critically injured due to the use of brute force including firing of bullets, pellets and teargas shells by Indian military, paramilitary and police personnel on peaceful demonstrators.

The report said that these killings rendered 6 women widowed and 13 children orphaned. “The troops damaged over 909 houses and molested 74 women during cordon and search operations across the occupied territory in the period. While entire occupied Kashmir has been turned into an open-air prison, thousands of Hurriyat leaders, activists, politicians, journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders including APHC Chairman Syed Ali Gilani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Muhammad Yasin Malik, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Aasiya Andrabi, Masarrat Aalam Butt, Dr Muhammad Qasim Fakhtoo, Naheeda Nasreen, Fahmeeda Sofi, Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Aiyaz Muhammad Akbar, Altaf Ahmed Shah, Peer Saifullah, Merajuddin Kalwal, Farooq Ahmed Dar, Mian Abdul Qayoom, Dr Abdul Hameed Fayyaz, Maulana Mushtaq Ahmed Veeri, Muhammad Ahsan Untoo, Syed Shahid Yousuf, Syed Shakeel Yousuf, Maulana Sarjan Barkati, Ghulam Ahmed Gulzar, journalist, Asif Sultan, and businessman, Zahoor Watali continued to remain under house arrest or in different jails of occupied Kashmir and India for the past several months.

The report said that Indian troops were committing grave human rights violations in the occupied territory to suppress the Kashmiris’ ongoing struggle for securing their inalienable right to self-determination. Indian military siege has created a sense of fear and terror among the inhabitants of the territory, it said.

The report said that the crippling lockdown for the last almost ten months had made the occupied territory a living hell for its over 8 million residents. It said that the world was fed up by lockdown of few days due to the coronavirus, but the Kashmiris were facing it for the last 300 days. It said that military siege had multiplied the sufferings of the Kashmiris amid COVID-19 outbreak as Indian troops had intensified their brutalities including killings, arrests, torture and destruction of residential houses. It added that the unrelenting lockdown had destroyed the economy of occupied Kashmir which had suffered losses of billions since August 05, last year.

The report pointed out that India is carrying out genocide of the Kashmiri youth particularly, after August 05, last year, and destruction of houses and harassment of residents is the new norm in occupied Kashmir. “Modi regime wants to change the Muslim majority status of occupied Kashmir. Taking advantage of COVID-19 lockdown, it promulgated domicile laws. Granting of domicile to over 300,000 Indians is part of its nefarious plan,” it added.

The report deplored that press freedom is under a threat in occupied Kashmir where journalists are detained, harassed and face charges. It said that in modern age, internet had become an important part of life but the Kashmiris had been living without this basic facility for the past 300 days that too during the coronavirus pandemic when it was needed the most to get healthcare guidelines. “Cruel military lockdown has pushed occupied Kashmir into the stone-age. Communications blockade has made the Kashmiris’ lives miserable,” it added.

The report said that the inhuman lockdown was aimed at breaking the resolve of Kashmiris. It said that reports by international media organizations like the New York Times had maintained that India’s repressive policies in Kashmir had failed miserably.

The report said that the worst kind of siege for the last 300 consecutive days had failed to subdue the freedom sentiment of the Kashmiri people and they were determined to keep fighting for their rights, including the right to self-determination. It said that New Delhi must realize the fact that it would not be able to silence the Kashmiris and must listen to the voices seeking lifting of siege in occupied Kashmir.

The report maintained that the international community must take cognizance of India’s brutal actions in the occupied territory and force it to resolve the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the Kashmiris’ aspirations and the relevant UN resolutions.

The Great US 2020 Wealth Transfer Heist. Deep Inequalities in US Society

By Stephen Lendman

Source

 

In less than three-and-a-half years in office, Trump oversaw the Great GOP 2017 tax cut heist.

It handed corporate America and high-net-worth individuals a multi-billion dollar bonanza of enhanced wealth — followed this year by what I call 9/11 2.0, economic collapse triggered by COVID-19 lockdowns.

Along with letting dominant US corporate giants consolidate to greater size and market power, it includes an escalated great wealth transfer from ordinary Americans to privileged ones.

The scheme has been ongoing in the US (and West) for decades, notably since the neoliberal 90s — war on social justice, a plot to eliminate it altogether over time.

It aims to free up US wealth for escalated militarism, endless wars, corporate handouts, and greater enrichment of America’s super-rich.

The grand scheme is transforming the US (and other Western states) into ruler-serf societies — thirdworldized and controlled by police state power, unsafe and unfit to live in, privileged interests served exclusively at the expense of ordinary people.

Since US economic collapse began in February, millions of Americans applied for unemployment benefits — ongoing for 12 consecutive weeks in unprecedented numbers, greater than during the Great Depression, US unemployment today much higher than then.

Overall conditions today for ordinary Americans are far worse than in the 1930s.

Following Franklin Roosevelt’s 1932 election, New Deal programs put millions of people back to work.

Virtually nothing is being done to create jobs today, Dems as culpable as Republicans.

Both right wings of the one-party state are indifferent toward public health and welfare, and it shows by their policies.

Official unemployment numbers way understate reality, the true number around 40% of working-age Americans.

Most US workers with jobs have part-time or temp employment for poverty-level wages with few or no benefits.

Countless numbers of US workers had their hours and pay cut. Growing millions have no health insurance.

Americans can have anything they want — depending on their ability to pay.

They’re increasingly on their own otherwise, notably at a time of unprecedented economic collapse that’s far more serious than COVID-19 outbreaks.

They’ll pass in time, even if increase substantially in the months ahead.

The wreckage from economic collapse will be long-lasting, millions of jobs permanently lost, the lives and welfare of countless numbers of Americans devastated — way too little help from Washington forthcoming.

A new Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) report discussed a bonanza for US billionaires at a time of unprecedented job losses — “pandemic profiteers” benefitting from human misery.

Super-wealth of America’s billionaire class increased by around “half a trillion” dollars this year, according to IPS, an unprecedented heist over a short period of time.

According to Forbes magazine, the US has 614 billionaires, along with nine others, foreign nationals living in America.

IPS reported that the super-wealth of America’s billionaire class increased by 16.5% from March 18 to May 28 — while countless millions in the country “face suffering, hardship and loss of life.”

The US billionaire class added 14 more to its total in the last 10 weeks, 628 up from 614, IPS explained.

Two super-billionaires — Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg — increased their wealth by “over $63 billion since March 18.”

IPS called today’s state of America “a grotesque indicator of the deep inequalities in US society.”

Before economic collapse began in February, over 20% of working-age Americans were unemployed, based on the pre-1990 calculation model.

They’re omitted from official Labor Department numbers, nonpersons according to Republicans and Dems.

In the past three months, around 41 million more Americans sought unemployment benefits.

Millions more haven’t had their applications processed, along with millions of out-of-work self-employed Americans — many, maybe most, not getting unemployment benefits.

Because health insurance is linked to employment, tens of millions of Americans lost coverage.

IPS: “While millions risk their lives and livelihoods as first responders and front line workers, these billionaires benefit from an economy and tax system that is wired to funnel wealth to the top.”

“Low-wage workers, people of color, and women have suffered disproportionately in the combined medical and economic crises.”

“Billionaires are overwhelmingly white men.”

As of mid-May, the combined super-wealth of the US billionaire class exceeded $3.3 trillion.

Two Americas exist — one for the vast majority of its people, ordinary ones struggling to get by, including unprecedented numbers out-of-work.

The other is for the nation’s super-rich and privileged class overall. Its members never had things better — their gain at the expense of most others.

Looking ahead, things most likely will worsen for ordinary Americans, the trend for decades.

They’re exploited by the nation’s privileged class in cahoots with Republicans, Dems, and the Wall Street owned Fed.

Together they comprise a conspiracy against peace, equity, justice, the rule of law, and government serving all its people.

The American way is polar opposite, the privileged few benefitting hugely at the expense of most others in a nation where democracy is pure fantasy, not real.

“Deadly Exchange”: America’s Racist Policing Has Roots in Israel

By Miko Peled

Source

During training sessions in Israel, American police delegations meet with Israeli military, police, and intelligence agencies and taught what Israel calls counterterrorism, but is in fact no more than “refining methods of racial profiling.”

Racism and violence against people of color in the U.S. is nothing new. In fact, the United States, with its claims to be “the land of the free,” has always been a racist, genocidal and violent state. It was founded on genocide of the native people and on the backs African slaves. The United States committed the most egregious war crimes in the history of mankind, including genocide, the use of nuclear weapons, destruction of democracies and support for murderous dictators around the world, and the list goes on and on from the earliest days of the Union to this very day.

The state of Israel, which historically speaking is a new creation, was also founded on genocide and racism. For close to one hundred years the Zionist movement which created Israel has been engaged in a brutal campaign to rid Palestine of its indegenous population and give the land to Jewish colonizers. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that good relations exist between the United States and Israel.

There are countless areas of life in the U.S. in which Israel and various Zionist organizations influence and interfere. The Jewish Federation, the Anti-Defamation League, and AIPAC are the most commonly recognized but are only three out of countless organizations that operate throughout the fifty states and relentlessly pursue Israeli interests in all facets of American life.

These organizations interfere in U.S. elections by pouring money into the campaigns of  pro-Israeli candidates; they are engaged in heavily influencing the outcome of trials where the defendants are Arabs or Muslims, and they finance campaigns to edit and rewrite curricula in public schools so that the Middle East is always taught in a way that supports the Zionist narrative.

A deadly exchange

As the video clip of a Minnesota police officer slowly and callously choking George Floyd to death went viral, many people, including myself, remembered Palestine. Officer Derek Chauvin, who casually placed his knee on George Floyd’s neck, could have easily been an Israeli soldier or police officer holding down a Palestinian. The way he just sat there, took a knee on Floyd’s neck, ignoring Floyd who repeatedly said he cannot breathe, ignoring Floyd as he begged him to allow him to breathe and ignoring the fact that the man under his knee was slowly suffocating to death made it clear that this cop was a predator and George Floyd was merely his prey.

American Israeli police

This happens in America just as it happens in Palestine. The similarities are no coincidence and they may well be the result of what has become known as the “Deadly Exchange,” a collaboration between the two racist states who see no problem in executing and watching the slow agonizing death of black and brown people.

Deadly Exchange is the name of a campaign to stop the collaboration between police departments across the United States and the state of Israel. The campaign put out an extensive report that outlines the cooperation between law enforcement in the U.S. and Israel. The report also lists the dangers and threats that this exchange poses to people of color in the United States.

Israeli democracy and security

Israel is wrongly heralded as a democracy facing perpetual threat. In reality, it is an apartheid state and its security apparatus is dedicated neither to safety nor security as it claims, but rather to the subjugation of Palestinians. During training sessions in Israel, U.S. law enforcement delegations meet with Israeli military, police, and intelligence agencies. They are given “opportunities” to learn about what Israel calls counterterrorism, but is in fact no more than “refining methods of racial profiling.”

Cynically taking advantage of the 9/11 attacks, within months of the attacks, American law enforcement representatives set out to Israel for their first official training expeditions. The purpose was to learn from Isreal’s so-called “expertise” in what has become known as counter-terrorism. Counter-Terrorism, it is worth noting here, is a euphemism for the violent means used to subjugate oppressed people.

The very first delegation to Israel, according to Deadly Exchange, included police chiefs and deputies from California, Texas, Maryland, Florida, and New York. The delegation also included FBI and CIA agents, future ICE officers, and directors of New York City MTA security.

Among the sponsors of this exchange program are the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which claims to fight the defamation of Jewish people, but in fact is dedicated to defamation of Arabs and Muslims, and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). JISNA claims it is dedicated to “educating Congressional, military and civilian national security decision-makers on American defense and strategic interests,”  the cornerstone of which, according to JINSA, “is a robust U.S.-Israeli security cooperation.” Both groups are well funded Zionist organizations that are dedicated to promoting and defending Israeli violence and racism no matter what.

Systemic racism

One of the many similarities between Israel and the United States is their propensity for systemic racism. From the very beginning, Israel has imposed an apartheid regime in occupied Palestine and Palestinian citizens of Israel are subjected to systematic profiling. This means that interactions with the Israeli police regularly lead to “excessive and often lethal use of force deployed with impunity.”

Not unlike the United States where black and brown Americans make up the majority of the prison population, in Israeli prisons, Palestinian citizens of Israel represent a disproportionate number of those incarcerated. A report in the Israeli publication Mekomit states that Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up about 20 percent of the overall population, comprise over 40 percent of the prison population, in fact, according to Mekomit, only about a quarter of prisoners held in Israeli prisons are Jewish, and amongst minors being held in Israeli prisons, only about 13 percent are Jews.

palestinian children

If we include “security prisoners,” who come from the occupied Palestinian West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, the numbers are even more grotesque, raising the percentage of Palestinians within the Israeli prison population to a staggering 73 percent.

Israeli policing utilizes an official policy where an entire population is guilty until proven innocent and naturally, this is part of the so-called counterterrorism training offered by Israel. It reinforces institutionalized racial profiling and even the targeting of social movements that demand racial justice.  

The Israeli government uses false claims of “terrorism” to treat all Palestinians as potential enemy combatants. The excuse of terrorism is also used in order to subjugate Palestinians to a different system of laws, which inevitably leads to more policing and higher rates of incarceration.

Media

The training Israel offers also includes methods to control the media. Members of law enforcement who have received the training reported that they “learned about how to intervene and shape media access and coverage of violence committed by the military and police.” The Israeli methods taught include how to use the media as an arm of the government and “reframe coverage of state violence.”

The Israeli government utilizes the office of the military censor to control all reporting on Israel’s use of force. It also reviews all books and other material before it can be made available to the public. The IDF Spokesperson’s office which also yields power over Israeli journalists, acts as Israel’s de facto public relations office, restricting and shaping local coverage of what it considers to be “security affairs.”

It should be noted that in Israel there is very little criticism when it comes to the work of the army and other security agencies and reporters work very closely with the military to present its violence against Palestinians as justified. Palestinian dissent, even when it is expressed in the most peaceful methods, is regularly reported as violence and borderline terrorism.

Israel has “normalized” the use of military force to stamp out popular protests, thus contributing to the undermining of basic civil rights of Palestinians. These violent, forceful methods of controlling dissent are shown to the American police delegations through briefings and even live demonstrations.

Parallels to Palestine

The violent encounters black communities in the U.S. experience with the police have led many people to draw parallels between Palestinians and people of color in the United States. This created a real sense of solidarity between U.S. social movements and the Palestinian struggle for liberation, a solidarity that is increasingly becoming stronger and can potentially turn the tide of public opinion on this issue in the U.S.

In its report, the Deadly Exchange Campaign demands that “the American government end its violence in the name of security.” The report also states that “We hope that local governments nationwide heed the calls from communities across Palestine and the United States to help build a world with real safety that we all can inhabit with dignity.”

The Irreconcilable Conflict with Zionism

By Jeremy Salt

Source

Judaism Zionism 8e357

Nakba Day, May 15.  One day, one date, but every day since May 15, 1948, has been a nakba day for the Palestinians. Their suffering at Jewish hands eclipses anything ever suffered by Jews in the Middle East.  Their treatment is worse than suppression. It is persecution. On the West Bank they are subjected to pogroms at the hands of Jewish settlers, big pogroms, little pogroms, inside one long continuing pogrom.  In Gaza the Palestinians live in a game reserve created by Israel, there to be hunted down as the hunter desires, butchered en masse from the air or shot by some squib of a soldier with a big gun along the fence line.

In the name of the Jewish people, this is what the zionists have done to the Palestinians.  In the name of the Jewish people, this is what the zionists have done to the Jewish people. In the name of the Jewish people, this is what the zionists have done to Judaism.  In the name of the Jewish people, this is what the zionists have done to Jewish communities that had lived across the Middle East peacefully for 2000 years.  A tragedy by any measure, only the remnants of these communities are left.

Israel has been built on an ideology that actively repudiates universal human rights, whatever the lip service paid to the latter by governments of Israel.  There cannot simultaneously be a state based on zionist ideology and one based on respect for universal human rights.  For one to live the other must die, which is why suggestions that the forthcoming annexation of the West Bank will somehow result in one state with equal rights for all are a delusion.

The state already has laws in place that can be further used to disenfranchise the Palestinians.  The charter of the Jewish National Fund prevents land taken from Palestinian Muslims or Christians ever being sold or leased back to them. Then there is the absent ownership law, allowing the state to take over the land of Palestinians driven out of their homeland in 1948 and in 1967.  Along with the absent absentees were the present absentees, Palestinians who had not fled or been driven out in 1948 but were not living at their usual place of residence.  Their homes and land were taken, too.  These laws are part of the web of bogus judicial measures passed since 1948 that have the single intention of transferring Palestinian property into Jewish hands.  They will be there to be used in various ways once the West Bank is annexed.

The task ahead of the Israeli government after annexation will be to whittle down the Palestinian presence on the West Bank by all means possible. Changing the demographic balance by expanding existing settlements or building new ones and attracting waves of settlers to fill them with tax and other benefits will be the priority.  While the aim over time will be to reduce the Palestinians to a negligible ethnic minority, if circumstances arise or can be created as in 1948 and 1967 to get rid of them all, so much the better. To think that having formally engorged the last of Palestine, Israel will begin sharing it with the people it has oppressed for the past seven decades is a complete delusion.

Israel thinks it has finally won its war against the Palestinians. There are sound reasons for its triumphalism.  İt is armed to the teeth and it has more support than ever before from one of the most powerful governments in the world, the US.  It has the increasingly open support of some Arab governments, with the United Arab Emirates now opening a direct air connection to Tel Aviv.  Corrupt as they might be, these governments are the thin end of a wedge Israel thinks it can drive further into the Arab world.

Given the combination of all these factors Israel is not going to miss the opportunity to annex.  All the circumstances have fallen into place.  The time is right and the time is now.  The ‘international community’ is already critical of what is coming but when Israel annexed East Jerusaem in 1967 ‘western’ governments did nothing.  They did nothing when Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981.  They have done nothing to punish Israel for its serial atrocities in Gaza and on the West Bank and even now are trying to block prosecution of Israel in the International Criminal Court. They are all complicit in Israel’s crimes and after Israel annexes the West Bank they will again do nothing beyond administering verbal slaps on the wrist.

The EU is huffing and puffing but is not likely to take any meaningful action. The UN General Assembly may pass a resolution of condemnation, adding to the hundreds it has passed over the years, all of them treated with contempt by Israel. These resolutions are morally and legally significant but the UNGA has no power to follow through with measures that will punish Israel in real time and the US will prevent any similar resolution being passed by the Security Council.

King Abdullah of Jordan is threatening war, and one will probably erupt eventually but not because of anything the Jordanian king say or does.  The Palestinian Authority has broken off all dealings with Israel and the US.  Rather too late, Mr Abbas.  You made your deal with the devil and now the devil is collecting his due.  He will be laughing all the way to the West Bank.

On the brink of annexation even Gideon Levy thinks it should go ahead. “Let Israel annex the West Bank. It’s the least worst option for the Palestinians,” ran the Haaretz headline over his article on May 10. “We have to stop fearing it and even say yes to it. It is the only way out of the deadlock.”

His logic goes as follows.  The Palestinians have never been so weak, so isolated, fragmented and bereft of fighting spirit and everyone knows the world is tired of this conflict anyway.   The occupation is here to stay.  Annexation will put an end to the Palestinian Authority, but so what? It is dead anyway.  Opponents of annexation fear that without a formal process it will be possible to sow ‘peace process’ and ‘two state’ delusions forever, so let’s have annexation and blow the delusions away.

Furthermore, unlike the settlements, which are there forever, annexation is reversible.  One day it can be turned into democracy. So let’s awaken this reality from its sleep, and embrace annexation, thinks Gideon Levy: “Anschluss [the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938].  In the hills and in the valleys, in area C and in the end the entire West Bank.”

It is true that the Palestinians have never been in such a weak position but from the beginning their fate was never going to be determined just between themselves and their enemies.  The first was Britain.  It gave the zionists what it had no right to give them and it shielded them while they were establishing their colonies. Otherwise they never would have got their foot through the door.

Britain and France followed through in 1956 by trying to destroy the Egyptian champion of Arab nationalism and Palestinian rights, Gamal abd al Nasir.  France and Britain supplied Israel with its tanks and planes and France built the nuclear reactor at Dimona before the US took over as Israel’s protector and benefactor, arming and financing it to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars since the 1960s.  What small people could defeat this combination, no matter how valiant their resistance?

What is critically important in this historical morass is that the Palestinians are not alone.  Unlike other native people who have been put to the sword by imperialism and colonialism, they have a vast hinterland embracing not just the Middle East and the Islamic world but a large and constantly growing segment of public opinion in ‘western’ countries.  Palestine is not just a Palestinian question but an Arab question, a Muslim question and a global human rights question.  In the long term it is this hinterland that Israel has to vanquish, not just Palestine.

While Israel is on the back foot morally, ethically and legally, abstract issues count for nothing against its logic of force.  In 1967 ‘western’ intelligence agencies knew it could defeat any combination of Arab armies and it did.  In 1973 it took a beating in the first week but still came out on top, with territory in Sinai it could then trade for what it really wanted, the consolidation of its military and settler presence on the occupied West Bank.  However, while it remains outwardly confident that it can defeat any combination of enemies, there is an underlying nervousness in the statements of its military commanders that has not been evident before.

In fact, for those who look carefully, the conventional military balance has been changing steadily against Israel ever since 1973.  The war of that year would have been lost had not Anwar Sadat stopped the advance of the Egyptian army after a week of fighting.  The US saved Israel with weapons airlifted straight to the battlefield.  As Sadat knew, the US would have intervened with its own forces to prevent Israel being defeated but the myth of invincibility that had prevailed since 1967 was exploded.  The war showed that on the battlefield, Israel could be defeated.

Israel’s next major war, Lebanon 1982, was predominantly an aerial and artillery onslaught on a civilian population.  The ‘enemy’ was several thousand Palestinian fighters and the small number of Syrian troops based in Lebanon, hopelessly trying to stop an invading army of 40,000 soldiers backed by tank, artillery and air and sea power. In these circumstances the outcome on the ground was inevitable, but logistically the campaign was a mess, acknowledged even by the Israelis themselves. On top of this was the shame and horror of the Sabra and Shatila massacres.

The PLO went from Beirut but Hizbullah was born.  On the ground its part-time fighters were soon not only holding the line against Israel’s soldiers and their South Lebanese Army quisling proxies, but on occasion scoring spectacular successes, some based on the interception of Israel’s electronic communications.  By 2000 Israel had had enough and pulled out, virtually overnight.

In 2006 it tried to show Hizbullah who was boss with another invasion, failing again and failing in the most humiliating fashion.   Its troops were outfought by Hizbullah’s part-time soldiers and its supposedly indestructible Merkava tanks repeatedly blown to bits by Hizbullah explosives.  The launching of the land-to-sea missile that put an Israeli warship out of action was another unpleasant surprise.

Since that time Israel has been planning continually for a third round but so has Hizbullah.   It is far stronger and better armed than it was in 2006 and capable of inflicting devastation on Israel whatever the damage it also suffers.

The assassination in 2005 of Lebanon’s former Prime Minster, Rafiq Hariri, was immediately blamed on Syria when there was only beneficiary – Israel.  Later, Hizbullah opened its electronic surveillance secrets to show how Israel had been tailing Hariri across Beirut by drone for months and had drone footage of the precise spot on the Corniche road where Hariri was assassinated in February.  Because relations with Hariri had been difficult, Syria was automatically blamed in the ‘west.’ The outrage generated in Lebanon compelled Syria to withdraw the few troops it still had in the country.

While the propaganda played in Israel’s favor it did not impede the rise of Hizbullah as a political and military force, as a resistance movement in the eyes of many Christians as well as Muslims.  The US, Israel and Saudi Arabia continued trying to undermine Syria and its allies in Lebanon through Hariri’s son Saad but he was not up to the task, as his arrest and chastisement in Saudi Arabia in 2017 was to show.

During this period sanctions against Iran were continually tightened.  Iran’s computer systems were sabotaged and its scientists assassinated by Israel’s agents and in 2018 the US withdrew from the multi-state nuclear agreement with Iran.  The assassination of Umar Suleimani in January this year was another provocation which Iran took in its stride, retaliating with missile attacks on US bases in Iraq.  The assassination infuriated Iraqis as well,  as their countrymen were among the dead.  They and their parliament again demanded that the  US remove its troops from their country.  This refuses to do, thereby setting them up for further retaliation.

With the US refusing to launch an open military attack on Iran, and with the combination of sanctions, assassinations, cyber sabotage and the threats of military attack failing to bring down the Iranian government, the US/Israel turned on Syria. It was the central pillar in the ‘axis of resistance’ (Iran, Syria and Hizbullah) and if it could be destroyed, the axis would collapse at the centre. That was the calculation.  This criminal conspiracy was initially orchestrated by Obama and Clinton, who wanted to launch an air war that would destroy Syria just as the US-NATO air war had destroyed Libya.

However, seeking a UN fig leaf, the US and its allies were blocked at the Security Council by Russia and China.  Thwarted, they had to settle for a proxy war fought on the ground by the most violent armed groups on the face of the earth, the same groups they had pledged to destroy as part of their ‘war on terror.’

So far their war has taken the lives of close to half a million Syrians.  The material damage has been enormous.  Syria has been gravely weakend, yet the US/Israel and their ‘western’ and regional allies have failed to reach their overall objective. Syria still has territory to liberate but Bashar is still in the presidential palace and the strategic alliance with Iran and Hizbullah remains intact.

Yemen is another strand of this pan-regional war waged by the US/Israel and their allies.  The Houthis are an independent force, but it suits the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia to present them as Iranian puppets in the same way that they like to present Hizbullah as no more than an Iranian proxy.

From planes built in the US and with missiles produced in the US and the UK, Saudi pilots have been killing Yemenis in their streets, their homes and their markets. After five years of war the death toll – overwhelmingly civilian – hovers around 250,000.  Malnutrition alone, caused by the US-supported Saudi land, sea and air blockade, is thought to have killed 85,000 children.

Yet, with the material odds all against them, the resistance of the Houthis has been extraordinary.  Saudi Arabia launched this war five years ago but has proven unable to win it.  The Houthis are destroying Saudi convoys, they have missiles that can reach Saudi cities and shipping in the Red Sea, and they now say they are ready to extend their campaign to Israel. Far from being shrunk, the ‘axis of resistance’ has now been effectively expanded to include the Houthis and a large segment of Iraqi society.

Israel continues to launch aerial attacks on Syria every other day.  It vows to clear all Iranian forces from Syria but Hizbullah and Iran will not leave Syria to stand alone and neither are they going to be drawn into war at a time that suits Israel. In fact, they do not believe the Israelis at present have the confidence to go to war, certainly not alone against Iran (and so far they have failed to convince the US to do their dirty work for them).

On World Quds Day (May 22) Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Khamenei, reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to Palestine in a speech centring around seven main points that make it clear Iran has not retreated one inch from the position it set out in 1979:

1) the liberation of Palestine is a Muslim religious obligation but also a human rights issue. 2) the aim is the liberation of all Palestine “from the river to the sea” and the return of all Palestinians to their homeland.

3) in the struggle for Palestine there should be no trust in ‘western’ governments and institutions dependent on them.

4) the attacks on Syria and Yemen, the assassinations, the creation of Daesh (the Islamic State) and many other things are all intended to divert attention from the resistance front and open up attacks for the zionist regime.

5) attempts by some Arab governments to normalize relations with Israel are shameful, vain and futile.

6) greater efforts need to be made to organize resistance as “one cannot communicate with a savage enemy except through force and from a position of power.”

7) Palestine belongs to all Palestinans and on this basis Jewish, Christian and Muslim Palestinians will eventually decide their future in a referendum, “but the zionist regime has to go.”

In confronting Iran the zionists are dealing with a culture/civilization thousands of years old that knows how to play the waiting game, however long the game has to be played. To interpret forbearance under military attack as weakness is to misunderstand the mindset and the strategy of both Iran and Hizbullah. They look at the changing military balance and the declining global power of the US and they do not believe time is on Israel’s side. The zionist state believes otherwise.  It has nuclear weapons so, in its view, this is not a gamble with history but ultimately a war it cannot lose.

In time, how much time we don’t know, the outcome between two irreconcilable positions will be decided.

Everything Is Gone – Emo-Marxists Took the Baton from Russian Liberals (Ruslan Ostashko)

May 25, 2020

Have you noticed that since the beginning of the Coronavirus epidemic the “Putin Dumped the Kuril Islands” topic quietly died out? Not only this but many similar topics disappeared from the opposition publications as if they never existed. Now the liberals scribble, while the authorities ‘conceal’ it, in support of the Western discourse of supposedly existing in Russia understating the COVID-19 death rate. But you shouldn’t think that ‘allislostism’ has disappeared. Simply, this baton has been taken by emo-Marxists.

I regularly direct your attention to the fact that the Russian imitators of the left opposition hype anything they can. The previous story on the topic was about attempts by a PM from the Commercial Party of RF to fit into the subject of throwing money from a helicopter. [Ed. – Commercial Party is the nickname for the Communist Party during the 2018 presidential elections, when Pavel Grudinin was their candidate.] However after 11 May when Putin voiced the new supporting measures for the Russian citizens, it’s rather hard to hype the aforementioned topic. Nevertheless the emo-Marxists do not lose heart. They simply reanimate the “Putin Dumped…” discourse in different directions.

Appreciate this headline: “Russia Won’t Even Notice How She Will Lose the Kurils Along With Sakhalin During the War Between US and PRC.” One can’t shriek that Putin dumped the Kurils to Japan anymore. You’d be a laughing stock. But – swoosh! – and the topic has got a new dimension. Now they scribble that Japan will take the Kurils by force with the US support in the process of the war between America and China. And these are other headlines on the “Free Press” website:

“Kremlin Cannot Hide Its Disgrace.” “Damascus Threatens to Wipe Putin’s Name from History.” “The Ruble Will Face American Roller Coaster – First 65 rubles for a dollar, then – 140.” “Putin Got to Be Led by Navalny.” Had I not shown you which site these headlines come from, would you guess it? Not necessarily. Because they don’t differ from the click bait that fills up the liberal media sites. The publicist Aleksandr Rogers ran a test recently, having put together a mix of headlines from the ‘Free Press’ and the ‘Svidomy Observer’. Here are examples:

“The Economist: The authorities will support the business wives of ministers and daughters of senators”, “Koch named the first region that Russia might lose.” “The Ghost of Freezing Hovers Over Citizen’s Bank Deposits.” “Significant photos of Peskov next to Putin before getting infected with COVID-19 appeared on the Net.” “Kremlin Faces Choice: Either a Political Uprising by Angry Russians or Revoking the Pension Reform.” “Where Does Putin Hide from Coronavirus.” “The RF Regional Budget Loses Might Reach Maximum Levels Since the Beginning of This Century.” “Kremlin Loses the Battle With US and Becomes Junior Partner of the Chinese Regime.”

The even headlines are from the ‘Free Press’, the uneven ones are from the Ukro-Nazi ‘Observer’. The difference? There is none. That is the editorial policy of the people that head the Russian supposedly left media doesn’t differ in any way from the analogous editorial policy of the ‘Svidomy’ russophobes. Who then heads the ‘Free Press’ that threatens us with the loss of the Kurils, infection of Putin and the political uprising of angry Russians?

Yes, it is that very [Zakhar] Prilepin of whom I’ve been saying all this time that he doesn’t differ from the liberals. For instance, this is the ‘Editor’s Choice’ section on the same web page. Zyuganov’s marasmus. The pseudo-shaman Garbyshev’s alcoholism. The Kremlin’s shame. Coronavirus is compared to the ‘Kursk’ submarine disaster. And I have already quoted about Damascus. What is lacking? That’s right, the news about UFOs, the celebrities’ private life, and a restaurant guide from Bykov-Zilbertrud, who, as we know, is very close to Prilepin.

However, even without the addition of these topics, the site of emo-Marxists reeks of tabloid press. But this tabloid’s direction is to create an impression with the reader that he lives in hopelessness, that around him is not one of the most developed countries in the world, but some sort of hell. And now compare it, for instance, to what the Russian nationalist [Konstantin] Krylov used to write about Russia before he recently died of a stroke.

“Russia is a monstrously dull, dirty, acid burnt country, exactly alike everywhere at that. Some semblance of real life exists in Moscow and St. Petersburg. And even that is merely a whiff. All Russian cities are equally dull, dirty, ruined, built up with plaster-cardboard abomination, mud and concrete walls are everywhere (all in the same style), tire shops, youth in track pants, shitty food, shitty vodka, gray sky, and other ‘barns-cowsheds-mama-we-are-in-hell.’ And it is hell indeed. If someone is proudthat he ‘traveled around Russia’, it is the same as ‘did time in the joint’. Only beyond the Russian borders something good can exist and only that is worth sharing.”

“If you go left you’ll come to the right,” as ‘comrade’ Stalin used to say in such instances. When emo-Marxists depict Russia as hell, they quickly join the Nazis. Which means that the lefties who like so much to show themselves as fans of Iosif Vissarionovich, during his time, would definitely meet the fate of their predecessors – the Trotskyites. And Professor Preobrazhensky’s famous phrase now should sound like this: “Do not read the lefties’ sites before lunch.” Today it is not hard to follow this advice, because we, unlike Dr. Bormental, have a choice. Luckily, Prilepin’s ‘all-is-lost’ picture is not the sole source of information about what’s happening in Russia. I don’t even need to say: “Watch us.” You do it anyway. And we keep working for you.

أشبعناهم شجباً واستنكار وفازوا بالأرض

سعاده مصطفى أرشيد

أقام الرئيس الفلسطيني محمود عباس رهانه في معركته الراهنة مع الحكومة الإسرائيلية على مجموعة من التقديرات، وبنى عليها خطابه الذي ألقاه عشية التاسع عشر من أيار الماضي وأعلن فيه أنّ منظمة التحرير والسلطة الفلسطينية قد أصبحتا في حلّ من جميع الاتفاقيات والتفاهمات المعقودة مع كلّ من الإدارات الأميركية والحكومات الإسرائيلية، وبغضّ النظر عن القناعة بمدى جدية هذا الإعلان والقرارات المنبثقة عنه أو انعدام القناعة بها، فإنّ هذه الخيارات تحتاج إلى فحص واختبار، وكنت قد أشرت في مقال سابق إلى أنّ تصوّرات القيادة الفلسطينية التي أسّست لخطاب الرئيس ترى أنّ نتائج الانتخابات الرئاسية الأميركية وتذهب باتجاه تغليب فرص جو بايدن للفوز بالرئاسة، وللدور الذي سيلعبه بني غانتس وغابي اشكنازي في معارضة عملية الضمّ، وهي رهانات ضعيفة ليس لها ما يدعمها على أرض الواقع، فلا أحد يستطيع التنبّؤ بخيارات الناخب الأميركي العادي (باستثناء جماعات الافانجليكان الذين سيدعمون دونالد ترامب)، واستطلاعات الرأي دائمة التغيّر والتبدّل عند كل حدث ولها مفاجأتها في الأيام الأخيرة السابقة للانتخابات، وحزب «أزرق أبيض» هو حزب العسكر والجنرالات الذي يؤمن بانّ السيطرة على الأغوار وأراضي المستوطنات تمثل مسألة أمن قوميّ من الدرجة الأولى.

بالطبع كان لدى الرئيس والقيادة تقديرات أخرى داعمة وذاهبة في الاتجاه ذاته، ففي زيارة وزير الخارجية الفلسطيني الأخيرة لموسكو، طلب من نظيره الروسي أن تكون روسيا حاملة للملف الفلسطيني التفاوضي مع «إسرائيل»، لكن الردّ الروسي جاء سريعاً، واضحاً ومختصراً: لا يمكن أن يحدث أي تقدّم في هذا الملف بمعزل عن واشنطن، اذهبوا إلى هناك أولاً، تلك كانت نصيحة لافروف وهي تصدر عن دولة لطالما كانت مهتمّة باستعادة مكانتها السابقة عالمياً، وبتمدّدها في شرق المتوسط وسائر المنطقة العربية. هذا التمدّد الذي سيكون حكماً على حساب الدور الأميركي، الردّ السلبي والمتحفظ من موسكو له أسبابه، منها طبيعة العلاقات الأميركيّة ـ «الإسرائيلية» وتطابق وجهات نظرهم تجاه عملية الضمّ، ومنها عدم رغبة موسكو بأن تزجّ بنفسها في هذا الملف الشائك في ظلّ تواجدها الكثيف في سورية، الذي قد يرتب عليها دفع أثمانٍ للإسرائيليّين هي في غنى عنها ومن شأنها الإضرار بعلاقتها بطهران ودمشق، ومنها ما تختزنه الدبلوماسية الروسية من خبرات وتجارب مع العالم العربي منذ أيام الاتحاد السوفياتي، التي ترى أنّ العلاقة ليست استراتيجية فهؤلاء يريدون مخاطبة واشنطن من خلال استعمالهم موسكو كمحطة ومنصة ليس إلا، فيما واشنطن هي مربط خيولهم ومحطتهم النهائيّة. يُضاف إلى كلّ ما تقدّم أنّ الانخراط الروسي في الأزمة السورية جعل من روسيا راغبة أو مضطرة لعقد بروتوكولات واتفاقات مع تل أبيب تضمن عدم الاشتباك بينهما، فهما وإنْ تصارعتا في السياسة أو اختلفتا في الرؤى، إلا أنّ صراعهما ليس صراعاً وجودياً، وهوامش التفاهم واللقاء بينهما متسعة، من هنا تتضح حدود الموقف الروسي الذي قاد سوء التقدير للبناء عليه: روسيا تحذّر من عملية الضمّ لأنها قد تدخل المنطقة في دوامة عنف وتدعو جميع الأطراف (بمن فيهم شركاؤنا الإسرائيليون) إلى تجنّب الخطوات التي قد تؤجّج العنف وتحول دون تهيئة الأجواء لمفاوضات مباشرة، وتؤكد استعدادها للعمل والمساعدة في استئناف المفاوضات باعتبارها عضواً في الرباعية الدولية .

راهن الرئيس الفلسطيني على أوروبا التي هي أصل البلاء، وقد ذكرها في خطابه بالنص، حيث قال إنه يتوقع منها موقفاً حاسماً يحول دون إقدام الحكومة الإسرائيلية على تنفيذ الضمّ، كما يتوقع بمن لم يعترف بدولة فلسطين أن يسارع بالاعتراف. أوروبا العجوز لم تعد تملك القدرة والحيوية وقد تكشفت قدراتها إثر تفشي وباء كورونا، فبدت هشة، مرتبكة، منقسمة كلّ دولة تبحث عن خلاصها في معزل عن الاتحاد الأوروبي، انجلترا صاحبة المدرسة العريقة في السياسة والاقتصاد والتي لم تكن تغيب الشمس عن مستعمراتها وأساطيلها وعساكرها، أصبح رئيس وزرائها الأسبق، يتلقى الرشا من موظفين وضباط أمن في مستعمراتها السابقة، فيما فرنسا بلد القوانين والدساتير والأنوار، يقبل رئيسها العمل في خدمة رجل أعمال ورئيس وزراء إحدى مستعمراتها السابقة فيما يقبض خلفه في الرئاسة الأموال من العقيد الراحل القذافي. ألمانيا التي تخلت عن شركائها في الاتحاد خلال أزمة كورونا لن يتجاوز موقفها الإدانة والشجب .

منذ أيام اختتم اجتماع دول الاتحاد الأوروبي وقد ورد في بيانه أنّ ضمّ الأغوار وأراضٍ في الضفة الغربية مخالف للقانون الدولي، وأنّ حلّ الدولتين هو الحل الأمثل للصراع، وأن الاتحاد يسعى للتعاون مع الحكومة الإسرائيلية الجديدة وإلى الحوار مع الولايات المتحدة والدول العربية حول الأوضاع في الأراضي الفلسطينية، فيما اجتمع بعض سفراء دول الاتحاد عبر الفيديو كونفرنس مع نائبة رئيس قسم أوروبا في وزارة الخارجية الإسرائيلية آنا ازاراي، وأبلغوها قلق حكوماتهم من الخطوة الإسرائيلية، لكن السيدة ازاراي لم تقلق لقلقهم لا هي ولا وزاراتها. هذه هي حدود الموقف الأوروبي.

الموقف العربي لم يخرج عن هذا الإطار، فلكلّ من العرب همومه، وكما كشفت أزمة الكورونا هشاشة الموقف الأوروبي، نراها فعلت ما يفوق ذلك في كشف الموقف العربي، بالطبع مع الانهيار في أسعار البترول ولجوء دول البترودولار لتخفيض نفقاتها وما قد يتبع ذلك من انهيارات وتداعيات، الموقف الأكثر لفتاً للانتباه هو موقف العاهل الأردني الملك عبد الله، والذي جاء في تصريحاته لمجلة دير شبيغل الألمانيّة، محذراً الإسرائيليين من خطوة الضمّ وملوّحاً بقرارات ومواقف حادّة، وقد جاء ذلك بعد مكالمة هاتفيّة بينه وبين الرئيس الأميركي. افترض الأردن إثر توقيع اتفاقية وادي عربة أنه قد ضمن وجود الأردن كوطن نهائي للأردنيين وأنه قد ثبت حدوده الغربية، ولكن نتنياهو واليمين الإسرائيلي لا يبدو أنه مقرّ للأردن بذلك، فقد قرّر نتنياهو التخفف من أعباء وادي عربة والإبقاء على مغانمها فقط، وبالقدر الذي يفيده في الدخول في مرحلة صفقة القرن التي سترث أوسلو، فتلك الاتفاقيات (أوسلو ووادي عربة) قد استنفدت وظيفتها، ثم أنها من تركة حزب العمل المنقرض، وقادته الذين يريد أن يخرجهم اليمين من التاريخ كما أخرج أولهم من عالم الحياة (إسحاق رابين) وطرد ثانيهم (شمعون بيريس) من عالم السياسة .

إذا كانت تلك تقديرات القيادة الفلسطينية التي بُني على مقتضاها الردّ الفلسطيني الوارد في خطاب الرئيس، فإنّ ذلك أمراً لا يدعو للتفاؤل، ويؤشر باتجاه مجموعة من المسائل أولاها هي في قصور الرؤى والتقديرات، وغلبة التفكير بالأماني ومحاولة إسقاطها على واقع غير مطابق لتلك التمنيات، وثانيها أنّ قيادة السلطة لم تستحوط لهذا الأمر ولم تعدّ له عدّته، فلم يكن لديها الخطة «ب» البديلة، والثالثة أنّ الحال الفلسطيني والعربي والدولي لن يستطيع أن يقدّم دعماً للفلسطيني لا سياسي ولا مالي لتستطيع أن تقوم بأود الشعب الفلسطيني، فوقفة عز ورجال الأعمال القائمين عليها قدّموا مبالغ زهيدة لا تقارَن بثرواتهم وما يجنونه من أرباح وبما هو أقلّ من عشرين مليون دولار أميركي، جزء منها تمّ خصمه من رواتب موظفيهم دون استشارتهم وهي ستخصم من ضرائبهم، وقد تردّد كثير من الحديث عن الطريقة غير الموفقة التي تمّ بها صرف بعض تلك الأموال، والعالم العربي النفطي يخفض نفقاته ومصروفاته بشكل كبير ويعاني من تراجع مداخيله النفطية والاستثمارية الأخرى، والعالم لديه من مشاكل الكساد والوباء واللاجئين والبطالة ما يكفيه، وبالتالي لن تجد السلطة من مورد يبقيها على أجهزة الإنعاش، إلا ما يأتي به عمال المياومة العاملين في الداخل، أو في المستوطنات الإسرائيلية، أو ما تجود به الحكومة الإسرائيلية من قروض، فتلك الحكومة ترى ضرورة إضعاف السلطة والمسّ من هيبتها ولكن مع بقائها مترنحة، هذا الحال يجعل من أيّ فعل إسرائيلي يمرّ بسهولة بما في ذلك عملية ضمّ الأغوار والمستوطنات وما هو أكثر من ذلك، ويجعل من السلطة الفلسطينية تتراجع عن تهديداتها، ربما سراً في البداية ولكن علناً في مرحلة لاحقة مبرّرة ذلك بضرورات الاستمرار والبقاء، إذ ما يهمّ الإسرائيلي هو الأفعال لا الأقوال.

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سياسيّ فلسطيني مقيم في جنين – فلسطين المحتلة.

معادلات جديدة للسيد نصرالله ـ 2 ـ خريطة طريق للتغيير: إلى الانتخابات درْ

ناصر قنديل

ربما يكون لتزامن هذه الحلقة من سلسلة المقالات حول معادلات السيد حسن نصرالله الجديّة، مع مشهد الجلسة النيابية معنى، حيث ظهر المشهد السياسي اللبناني عارياً من أي رتوش، بما هو مشهد “الشعوب اللبنانية”، كما وصفه السيد نصرالله في حواره الأخير مجازاً، للإشارة إلى المعاني المختلفة للقضايا باختلاف البيئات السياسية والطائفية التي يتم تناولها فيها، وحيث فكرة المقاربة للقضايا على أساس المواطنة، لا تزال رهينة تفكير أقلية بين اللبنانيين، الذين لا زالت زعاماتهم تتمكن من مخاطبتهم عبر العلبة الطائفية وشدّ عصبيتهم من خلالها، رغم كل المخاطر التي تحيط بمستقبل لبنان واقتصاده وسيادته، وحجم التحديات التي يستدعي الحديث عن قيام دولة حقيقيّة والتصدي لها، ما يعني بوضوح أن اللحظة التي التقى فيها الحشد اللبناني فوق الحواجز الطائفية تحت تأثير الغضب الاقتصادي والاجتماعي في 17 تشرين، لم تكن تعبيراً عن مغادرة النظرات المتعددة بتعدد الهويات الفئوية التي ينقسم حولها اللبنانيون، وسيكون مخادعاً توهم أن هذه اللحظة هي نداء شعبي لخلاص من الزعامات الطائفية، في ظل ازدواجيّة التعامل اللبناني بين الهوية الوطنية الجامعة والهوية الفئوية القائمة على أساس الانتماء إلى العلبة الطائفية.

الدعوة للتغيير موجودة لدى أغلبية لبنانية كاسحة هذا صحيح، ولم يتغيّر هذا التطلّع للتغيير الذي ظهر في 17 تشرين، لكن مفهوم التغيير، كمفهوم الفساد ومكافحته، يختلطان عند اللبنانيين بمفهومهم عن هويتهم الملتبسة بين الوطني والطائفي، ومثلما صار شارع 17 تشرين شوارع، دعوة التغيير دعوات، ومكافحة الفساد مكافحات، وهي في غالبها تعني في حال تمكن إحداها من امتلاك قوة التسيّد والسيطرة، مشروع حرب أهلية. وهذه المفردة التي بدت حاضرة كتحذير مكرر في حوار السيد نصرالله، تستمدّ معناها عندما نتخيّل استجابة حزب الله لمعسكر من معسكرات دعاة التغيير، ومكافحة الفساد، والشوارع، وكل منها يرى الفساد خارج طائفته، ويرى التغيير بتعديل التوازنات لحساب زعامته، فمَن يرى القضية بإطاحة العهد، ومَن يرى القضية بإنهاء الحريرية السياسية، لا يلتقيان على دعوة تغيير واحدة، والذين يقفون خارج هذه الاصطفافات ومثلها لا يمثلون الكتلة التاريخية اللازمة لتغيير الموازين الشعبية الحقيقية اللازمة للحديث عن تغيير ناضج، وهم في غالبهم شوارع صغيرة أيضاً وليسوا شارعاً واحداً، ونظراتهم للدولة ومشروعها وقضايا ليست واحدة، فكيف ينضج التغيير؟

عرفت المنطقة تجربة مليئة بالآمال والآلام اسمُها “الربيع العربي”، وكان عنوانها تطلّع الشعوب نحو التغيير، ولا يستطيع قائد تاريخي وسياسي بحجم ما يمثل السيد نصرالله مقاربة قضية التغيير من دون أخذ عبر هذه المرحلة ودروسها ونتائجها بالاعتبار، وقد قالت بوضوح إنه مهما بلغ حجم الغضب الشعبيّ، فإن التغيير المنشود لا يتحقّق من دون روزنامة متفق عليها، وقيادة مجمع حولها، وإلا فإن الغضب المتفجر سيكون عرضة للسرقة والتلاعب، ومفتوحاً على مخاطر الفتن والفوضى، وفي حالة لبنان يجب ان يكون المشروع والقيادة عابرين للطوائف، ويجب أن يجسّدا إجابة على أسئلة الدولة اللبنانية، وليس فقط أسئلة لحظة الغضب، فالذين يتصدّون لمهمة التغيير معنيون بتسلم السلطة، فهل هم متفقون على ماذا سيفعلون بالدستور الطائفي؟ وماذا سيكون موقفهم من تحدي الاحتلال والعدوان؟ وما هي نظرتهم للعلاقة بالجوار العربي انطلاقاً من سورية، وأي اقتصاد يريدون أن يكون لدولتهم؟ وهذا يعني أن ما شهدناه من غضب ليس علامة نضج قضية التغيير بل واحدة من إرهاصاته، يصير لها قيمة بمقدار ما تفرز نخباً وقيادات تملك وزناً متعاظماً في الشارع، وفي حالة لبنان تملك أوزاناً في الشوارع، فتهزّ عروش القيادات السائدة، وتلتقي فيما بينها على مشتركات تتيح لها قيادة موحّدة لشؤون الدولة، والشرطان غير متوفرين بعد، فلا ثمّة قيادات وازنة صاعدة في الشوارع اللبنانيّة، وما يظهر منها لا تجمعه مشتركات تتيح الحديث عن تبلور فرصة تشارك في مفهوم موحّد للدولة.

ولادة هذا المسار التاريخيّ للتغيير وفقاً لرؤية السيد نصرالله لا تتمّ في الشارع، ولا في لحظة غضب، ولا تتحقق نهاياتها بكبسة زر عنوانها، فلينزل حزب الله ويحسم الأمر، بل عبر البناء التراكمي الذي لا يمكن قياس نموه وحجم تأثيره. والرهان على تأسيسه لمسار جديد في الانتخابات النيابية. وفي الانتخابات نكتشف حجم التغيير الذي يتحدث عنه البعض في اصطفاف الشارع أو الشوارع. فالناس الذين يُقال إنهم أغلبية كاسحة من اللبنانيين تريد التغيير، وتطالب حزب الله بالتحرك، ستكون أمام فرصة تاريخية لتعبر عن هذا التوق والتطلع من خلال الانتخابات، وعندها يمكن مساءلة حزب الله عن موقفه، وتاريخ لبنان حاضر أمامنا، حيث كان كل تغيير ولو نسبي في المزاج الشعبي يجد تعبيره الانتخابي، ففي مرحلة ما قبل الحرب الأهلية، نجحت بدايات نهوض الحركة الوطنية بإيصال عدد من النواب إلى البرلمان، وفي كل الطوائف والمحافظات، وكانت كل التقديرات أنه لو جرت انتخابات نيابية عام 76، في موعدها، لكان هذا العدد تضاعف مرات ومرات، وربما يكون أحد أهداف الحرب قطع هذا المسار، وهذا لن يتكرّر، لأن مهمة حزب الله هي هنا في رعاية التغيير، بأن يشكل سداً منيعاً بوجه خطر الحرب مرة أخرى. وفي التجربة التي توقف أمامها السيد نصرالله للإمام الصدر، مثال تتويج النهوض الشعبي الذي تخطى مراحل الغضب الراهن، بالإجماع وراء مشروع وقيادة، وترجم حضوره في انتخابات فرعية في النبطية الحق خلالها الهزيمة بالإقطاع السياسيّ. وهذا يعني أنه حتى في ظل قانون سيئ وسلطة سيئة لا يمكن إخفاء نبض التغيير المتبلور، إلا بالحرب، التي يحسب لحزب الله حرصه على تفاديها وسعيه لتفكيك ألغامها، وجعلها خطاً أحمر يملك قوة كافية لمنع مجرد التفكير بها، وحكمة كافية للامتناع عن الانزلاق إليها.

الانتخابات في ظل قانون سيئ وسلطة سيئة، ليست هي المطلوب طبعاً، فمن يتابع رؤية السيد يعرف ان الانتخابات المعطوفة على تحسين ورفع مستوى صحة التمثيل، ووطنية التمثيل، هي الوصفة التي تجعل فاتورة التغيير قابلة للاحتمال. فالسعي لإدارة انتخابية تقفل طرق الرشى والتلاعب يجب أن يكون هدفاً، والسعي لقانون انتخابي يشجع الحياة السياسية والاصطفاف على أساس البرامج وليس وفق العصبية الطائفيّة، يجب أن يبقى على رأس جدول الأعمال، وهذه التزامات واضحة ومكرّرة في رؤية السيد، لجهة فهم دور حزب الله في عملية التغيير، وتعامله مع منتجات ومخرجات عمليات تغييرية سابقة في الشوارع اللبنانية، بغض النظر عن تقييم قواها الحالي بنظر مَن يعتبرون أنفسهم اليوم دعاة تغيير، تقول إن رؤية السيد هي تعبير منهجي عن فهم عميق للقضية، فاللقاء التشاوري والتيار الوطني الحر، ثمرتان واضحتان لاستبدال نسبة وازنة من الشعب اللبناني لقياداته بنسب متفاوتة. وقد قاتل حزب الله لمنحها فرصة التمثيل النيابي، سواء عبر رفع سوية إدارة العملية الانتخابية بعيداً عن التزوير، أو عبر تحسين شروط التمثيل في القانون الذي اعتمد النسبية، والأكيد أنه لو تكرر المشهد بقيادات جديدة، تحمل مشروعاً جدياً لبناء الدولة، فلن يكون حزب الله بعيداً عنها، وسيوفر لها الحماية اللازمة، بالمفهوم القانوني للعملية الانتخابية.

الساعون للتغيير بصدق، يجب أن يدركوا أن ما يحق لهم على حزب الله، وفقاً للرؤية التي قدمها السيد نصرالله بوضوح هذه المرّة، هو أولاً سعي دائم لقانون انتخابي خارج القيد الطائفي وفقاً للنسبية ولبنان دائرة واحدة، يشجع المواطنة، ويتخطى العصبيات، ويفتح طريق التنافس السياسي على أساس البرامج، وثانياً السعي الدائم لرفع مستوى إدارة العملية الانتخابيّة لمنع تأثير المال واللعب بدور الإعلام، في الانتخابات، لتكون في أعلى ما يمكن من النزاهة والشفافية، وثالثاً أن يبقى حزب الله الضامن لمنع الانزلاق لحرب أهلية تقطع مسار التغيّر مرة أخرى، والأهم من المهم هنا هو أن يبقى الحزب نفسه محصناً ضد محاولات استدراجه إلى هذا الفخ، لكن هذا لا يُعفي المطالبون بالتغيير من مسؤولياتهم، بإظهار القدرة على اختراق المشهد الانتخابي، والتوحد حول رؤى واضحة لماهية الدولة المقبلة، ولو في ظل قانون انتخابي سيئ، شرط أن لا يتراجع حزب الله عما يتهم به من وقوع تحت تأثير “فوبيا الحرب الأهلية”، لأنها الخطر الوحيد الحاضر والقاتل لكل مشروع تغير، خصوصاً إذا نجح الآخرون باستدراج حزب الله إلى كمائنها وفخاخها.

Did Trump just cancel a potential double-war?

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Did Trump just cancel a potential double-war?
Just as Hezbollah destroyed the myth of Israeli impunity, Iran destroyed the myth of US impunity.

At this time of writing, it is too early to declare the danger over, but at least three out of five Iranian tankers have made it safely to Venezuela (confirmation from TeleSur and PressTV). Furthermore, while we should never say “never”, it appears exceedingly unlikely that the US would let three tankers pass only to then try to impede the arrival of the other two. So it ain’t over until its over, but as of right now things look way better than last week.

Besides, this is mostly a symbolic issue. While these 5 tankers will make a difference, it won’t be a huge one, especially considering the devastating consequences which the US sanctions, sabotage and subversion have inflicted on Venezuela.

Still, symbols are important, if only because they create a precedent. In fact, I would argue that the latest climbdown by Trump is no different than all his other climbdowns: Trump has had a very consistent record of threatening fire and brimstone before quietly deflating walking away. And since he did that many times now, we have to wonder whether this strategy is effective or not?

One could argue that this strategy could be described by saying that you put the maximum pressure on the other side in the hope that the bluff will entice the adversary to fold. This could be a semi-credible argument where it not for a very simple but crucial problem: so far the other guys have never folded. In other words, Trump’s bluff has been called over and over again, and each time Trump had to quietly deflate.

Some will say that this only proves that Trump is truly a peace-loving President who, unlike his predecessors, does not want to go to war. But then, what about the cruise missile strikes on Syria? What about the murder of Soleimani?

Truth be told, the kindest thing we can say about this strategy (assuming that it is a strategy to begin with, not the evidence of a total lack of one) is that it is tantamount to yelling “fire!” in a crowded movie theater: the fact that Trump did not set any movie theater ablaze hardly justifies his yelling “fire” in such a dangerous environment. The perfect example of this kind of irresponsible behavior is the murder of General Soleimani which truly brought the US and Iran a millimeter away from a real, full-scale war.

Furthermore, while I salute Trump’s climbing down following the Iranian strikes, I also believe that in doing so he hurt the international image of the US. Why? Think about this: this is the first time ever (if I am not mistaken) that the US was the object of a major military strike coming from another state-actor and did not retaliate. In the past and until this Spring, the US always held the view that if anybody dares to mess with it this would result in very serious consequences. Thus the US upheld a world order in which some where a lot more equal than others. Specifically, “others” had to meekly accept US strikes and shut up whereas Uncle Shmuel could strike left and right and expect no retaliation.

By “accepting” the Iranian counter-strike, Trump did essentially place an “equal” sign between Iran and the US. He probably never understood that, but in the region this was understood by all.

Just as Hezbollah destroyed the myth of Israeli impunity, Iran destroyed the myth of US impunity.

Still, I will always prefer the politician who does not start a war (for whatever reason) to one who would. I also have no doubt whatsoever that Hillary would have started one, or even several, wars. But the fact that Hillary would have been even worse than Trump is hardly a reason to start fawning about Trump’s brilliant “5D chess” genius or peace-loving policies…

Trump reminds of a guy pointing a gun a people in the street only to later say “but it was a toy gun, I never meant to really shoot anybody”. This is definitely better than shooting people with a real gun, but this is hardly a sign of maturity or intelligence.

The other problem with this “strategy” (let’s assume for argument’s sake that this is a strategy of some kind): each time the “indispensable nation” and “sole hyperpower” has to climb down, it increasingly looks like a paper tiger. Not looking like such a paper tiger is probably the mean reason behind Michael Ledeen’s famous wordsEvery ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business“. In a strictly evil and imperialistic sense, Ledeen’s strategy makes a lot more sense than what Trump has been doing.

As Marx famously said, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce“. The outcome of what some now call the “Battle of Macuto Bay” is a perfect example of this: if the Bay of Pigs was the “root case” then the disaster in Grenada was the tragedy and the Battle of Macuto Bay the real farce.

Humor can be a devastating weapon and anybody who has studied the late Soviet Union (in the late Brezhnev years and after) knows how the Russian people ridiculed the Soviet leaders with literally thousands of jokes.

A real imperialist would much rather be hated than ridiculed, and while Trump himself probably does not realize that he is the laughingstock of the planet, his aides and deep state bosses most definitely do and that is very, very dangerous.

Why?

Because the pressure to, once again, “ pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall” increases with each climbdown (see my article “Each “Click” Brings Us One Step Closer to the “Bang!” for a fuller discussion of this).

Besides, finding an even smaller and weaker country than Venezuela will be hard (maybe the Island of Saba? or Grenada again? who knows?). And potentially very dangerous.

The other problem is predictability. Any international system requires that its most powerful actors be predictable. In contrast, when a major international actors acts in what appears to be unpredictable, irrational or irresponsible manner, this puts the entire stability of the system at risk.

This, by the way, is also why it is so disastrous that the US has withdrawn from so many international organizations or treaties: the participation in international organizations and treaties indicate that the US is willing to play by the same rules as everybody else. The fact that the US is ditching so many of its former international obligations only shows that the US has gone rogue and is from now on totally unpredictable.

Finally, there are also lessons for Moscow here, the main one being that when confronted with a determined adversary, the Empire tries to bluff, but eventually folds. True, Moscow has to be much more careful than Tehran simply because the consequences of a US-Russian war would be dramatically worse than even a major conflict in the Middle-East. Yet it is also true that over the past years the Russian armed forces did have the time to prepare for such a conflict and that now Russia is ready for pretty much anything the US could try to throw at her, at least in purely military terms.

In contrast to the military posture of Russia, the political environment in Russia has changed for the worse: there is now a potentially very dangerous “hardline” opposition to Putin which I have christened the “6th column”, as opposed to the liberal and pro-western 5th column. What these two “columns” have in common is that they both will categorically oppose pretty much anything and everything Putin does. The 6th column, in particular, has a seething hatred for Putin which is even more rabid than what the liberal 5th column usually express. Check out this excellent video by Ruslan Ostashko, who prefers the term “emo-Marxists” and who very accurately describes these folks. Whether we think of them as 6th-columnists or emo-Marxists does not matter, what matters is that these folks are eager to act like a soundboard for any and all anti-Putin rumors and fakes. While Putin certainly has his flaws, and while the economic policies of the Medvedev, and now Mishustin, government are a far cry from what most Russians would want, it is also true that these two “columns” are objectively doing the bidding of the Empire, which could present a real problem if the current pandemic-induced economic crisis in Russia is not tackled more effectively by the government.

I have always said that Iran, while being much weaker than Russia, has consistently shown much more courage in its dealings with the Empire than Russia. Furthermore, Iran’s policies are primarily dictated by moral and spiritual considerations (like in the case of Iran’s principled stance on occupied Palestine) while Russian policies are much more “pragmatic” (which is really a euphemism for self-serving). But then, Iran is an Islamic Republic whereas Russia still has to develop some kind of unifying and original worldview.

Conclusion:

For all his innumerable negative character traits and other flaws, it remains true that Trump has not launched a major war (so far). Yes, he has brought the world to the brink several times, but so far he has not plunged the world into a major conflict. How much of the credit for this truly should go personally to him is very debatable (maybe cooler heads in the military prevailed, I think of folks like General Mattis who, reportedly, was the one who stopped the US from seriously attacking Syria and settled for a symbolic strike). Some Russian analysts (Andrei Sidorov) even believe that the US is in no condition to fight any war, no matter how small. Furthermore, most (all?) Russian analysts also believe that the US is fully committed to a full-spectrum information and economic war to try to economically strangle both Russia and China. I think that it would be fair to say that nobody in Russia believes that the relationship with Trump’s US can, or will, improve. The tone in China is also changing, especially since the US has now launched a major anti-China strategic PSYOP. In other words, the US is merrily continuing down its current road which leads it to a simultaneous confrontation with not one, or even two, countries, but with a list of countries which seems to grow every day. So while it is true that in this case Trump appears to have canceled two wars, we should not assume that he won’t soon start one, if only to deflect the blame for his total mismanagement of the COVID19 crisis. Should that happen, we can only hope that all the “resistance countries” and movement will provide as much support as possible to whomever the Empire attacks next.

هل يحتاج لبنان الى نظام جديد؟

العميد د. أمين محمد حطيط

عندما أعلن لبنان الكبير في العام 1920 من قبل المفوّض السامي الفرنسي، كان جزءاً ممن اعتبروا بموجب الوضع الجديد لبنانيين في الدولة الوليدة، كان هذا الجزء يرفض الإعلان ويرفض قيام دولة تسلخهم عن سورية التي يعتبرونها الوطن الكبير لهم، شأنهم في ذلك شأن العلويين والدروز في سورية الذين رفضوا الانسلاخ عن الوطن الكبير وأطلقوا بلسان صالح العلي العلويّ صرخة «أكون مواطناً بسيطاً في سورية الكبرى ولا أقبل أن أكون حاكماً رئيساً في دولة قزم تخصّص للعلويين»، وكان للدروز وللعلويين ما أرادوا واستمرّوا جزءاً من الوطن الأمّ سورية، أما في لبنان فإنّ فريق رفض لبنان الكبير لم يصمد ولم يحقق غرضه بالبقاء في سورية، وأذعن للأمر الواقع وقبل بأن يكون الشمال والجنوب والبقاع جزءاً من هذه الدولة.

ولما دنت ساعة رحيل فرنسا وإعلان استقلال لبنان في العام 1943 تنازعت القوى السياسية اللبنانية المواقف بين فريق تدغدغ أفكاره أحلام العودة إلى سورية وفريق يتمسك بفرنسا أمّاً حنوناً تحضنه وتحميه من المحيط الشرقي الذي يرى أنه لا يتجانس معه بالدين، حتى ويغالي البعض بالقول إنه لا يتجانس معه بالقوميّة إلى حدّ كبير. وكحلّ وسط بين الفريقين ابتدعت معادلة تجمع رفضين بحيث يتنازل الفريق القومي عن طلب العودة إلى سورية ويتنازل الفريق اللبناني عن طلب الحماية الفرنسية، ويشترك الفريقان في العيش في لبنان كمواطنين يبتدعون صيغة حكم تحفظ لهم حقوقهم وتحفظ لبنان المستقل كما أعلنه المفوض السامي غورو، وهكذا نشأ الميثاق الوطني اللبناني المتضمّن موافقة مكونات الشعب اللبناني على العيش المشترك في دولة مستقلة، وابتدعت لهذه الدولة صيغة حكم طائفي توزع السلطة والحقوق على أساس طائفي أما الواجبات فتلقى على عاتق المكلفين على أساس فردي.

ولأنّ الصيغة الطائفية أخلّت بالمساواة بين الأفراد في الحقوق ومنحت فئة من اللبنانيين امتيازات جعلتها الفئة الحاكمة الممتازة، وصنّفت الطوائف من حيث الحقوق في درجات متفاوتة بحيث حرمت الطوائف الأقلّ عدداً من حق المشاركة بالسلطة أو تقلّد الوظائف العامة العليا ما أنشأ الشعور بالغبن، في مقابل تمسك أصحاب الامتيازات بامتيازاتهم مبرّرين ذلك بالخوف على المصير. وفي النتيجة نشأت في لبنان عقدتان عقدة الخوف وعقدة الغبن. عقدتان أفسدتا لدى الكثير الشعور بالمواطنية حتى وبالانتماء إلى لبنان وجعلتهم يتطلعون إلى الخارج للاستقواء به، ما فرض على لبنان واقعاً من عدم الاستقرار جعل الأوضاع تنفجر داخلياً مرة في كلّ عقد من الزمن، ما فرض على أصحاب الشأن مراجعة الصيغة مع التمسك بالميثاق، وحتى يطمئن الخائفون على المصير أطلق السيد موسى الصدر شعار «لبنان وطن نهائي لكلّ أبنائه»، وهو الشعار الذي أدخل في الدستور بعد اعتماده في اتفاق الطائف الذي ختم 14 عاماً من الحرب الأهلية في لبنان وأعاد توزيع السلطة والنظر بصيغتها على أسس جديدة.

لقد أمل الكثيرون في لبنان ان يشكل اتفاق الطائف 1989 مخرجاً يُرسي الاستقرار القائم على المساواة بين اللبنانيّين، خاصة أنه تضمّن من النصوص ما يعالج مخاوف وطموحات معظمهم. فنصّ على نهائيّة الكيان وعلى العلاقات المميّزة مع سورية وأعاد توزيع السلطة، كما نصّ على عدم مشروعيّة السلطة التي لا تراعي العيش المشترك بمعنى السلطة التي لا يشارك الجميع فيها، وأخيراً نصّ على وجوب إلغاء الطائفية السياسية لإقامة دولة المواطن بدلاً من دولة الطوائف، وأشار إلى وجوب المرور بمرحلة انتقالية مؤقتة تراعى فيها حقوق الطوائف في السلطة والوظائف العامة ريثما تلغى الطائفية السياسية.

بيد أنّ التطبيق جاء مجافياً للاتفاق، فمن حيث النهائية ظلت الأصوات تُسمع بإعادة النظر بالكيان (تقسيم… فيدرالية إلخ…) وفي العلاقة مع سورية انقلبت لتكون سورية عدواً للبعض وصديقاً حليفاً للبعض الآخر، وفي السلطة قامت بدعة الترويكا واختصرت الدولة بـ 3 أشخاص تقريباً وظلت طوائف مبعدة عنها (العلويون مثلاً لا وزير لهم) وحجب موضوع الطائفيّة السياسيّة ووضعت دونه الشروط التعجيزية من قبيل معالجة النفوس قبل النصوص، او القانون الموحّد للأحوال الشخصية وما إليه…

تسبّب التطبيق المخزي للدستور ولاتفاق الطائف بكوارث متعدّدة الوجوه حلت بكلّ لبنان واستشرى الفساد الذي تغذيه الطائفية، وتشكلت مواقع لشخصيات استبدادية تصادر طوائفها وتراكم الأموال سرقة واغتصاباً من المال العام، في مقابل تردّي كلّ شيء في الدولة التي انهارت ماليتها وانهار نقدها وشحّت مواردها ووقف معظم مواطنيها على عتبة الفقر والمجاعة، وأصبح الخوف على المستقبل شعوراً مشتركاً بين كلّ اللبنانيين.

إنّ ما عاناه لبنان ويعانيه اليوم هو نتيجة حتمية لاعتماد نظام طائفي ظالم يخلّ بالمساوة بين المواطنين، ولما رمّم النظام بنصوص قيل إنها مناسبة، فإنّ التعديل لم يطبق لا بل شهد الواقع تطبيقاً معاكساً، ولذلك كانت صرخات تطالب بمراجعة النظام مجدّداً، وأننا نرى انّ لهذه الصرخات مبرّرها فالكلّ يجمع بصراحة أو ضمناً على أنّ الوضع القائم لا يمكن ان يستمرّ حتى أولئك الذين يتمسّكون بالنصوص القائمة المعطل معظمها يعرفون انّ الاستمرار فيها أمر مستحيل وأنّ التطوير أو الإصلاح أو التعديل أمر لا بدّ منه. اعتقاد نكاد نقول إنه يشمل الجميع كما يشملهم الخوف على المصير كما قدّمنا ولا يتمسك بما هو قائم إلا قلة قليلة جداً من المستفيدين الذين هم فئة الـ 2% التي جمعت الثروات من خيرات الوطن.

وعليه ومنطلقين من مسلّمة أنّ الوضع القائم غير مقبول بات واجباً البحث عن حلّ او مخرج من المأساة القائمة، ولكن هنا ينبغي الحذر في اختيار الحلّ. إذ لا يقبل ان ننتقل من وضع ملتهب إلى وضع متفجّر أسوأ، ولا يمكن أن ننتقل من وضع غير مستقر إلى وضع زلزالي، وقبل أن نخوض في الحلّ الأسلم علينا الاتفاق حول آلية الوصول إليه. وهي آلية يمكن ان تبتكر لبنانياً من خلال النصوص الدستورية القائمة رغم انّ دستورنا يعتبر من أشدّ الدساتير جموداً، أو من خلال مؤتمر وطني تعتمد فيه أولاً مبادئ وطنية عامة تراعي نهائيّة الكيان والمساواة على أساس المواطنية وتحفظ الطوائف بصيغة لا تمسّ بحقوق الأفراد وكرامتهم، فهل نبادر إلى البحث؟ أم ننتظر الطوفان الأكبر أو الحريق الشامل؟

وفي هذا السياق نرى وجوب قبول أيّ يطرح يشكل في ذهن أصحابه مخرجاً لمأزق لبنان القائم، ويناقش بعقل منفتح وفقاً لأسس وطنيّة تمنع المسّ بوحدة لبنان وأمنه وسيادته وحقوق المواطن فيه ومبادئ العدالة والمساواة. فإذا وافقها يعتمد والا يستبعد، قبولاً او استبعاداً يتمّ على درجتين أولاً في الهيئة المصغرة التي تناقشه وتوصي به ثم من قبل عامة الشعب بناء لاستفتاء شعبي حقيقي. أما المكابرة ورفض المراجعة او إعادة النظر لمجرد الرفض فإنه يعني الإصرار على دمار الوطن وتهجير سكانه بحثاً عن لقمة العيش، من دون أن نغفل احتمال الانفجار الأمني الذي لا يمكن تفاديه مع اشتداد الجوع وتسارع الانهيار العام.

*أستاذ جامعي – خبير استراتيجي.

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US Has Killed More Than 20 Million People in 37 “Victim Nations” Since World War II

By James A. Lucas

Global Research, May 28, 2020

Popular Resistance and Global Research 27 November 2015

First published in November 2015

GR Editor’s Note

Let us put this in historical perspective: the commemoration of the War to End All Wars  acknowledges that 15 million lives were lost in the course of World War I (1914-18).

The loss of life in the second World War (1939-1945) was on a much large scale, when compared to World War I: 60 million lives both military and civilian were lost during World War II. (Four times those killed during World War I).

The largest WWII casualties  were China and the Soviet Union, 26 million in the Soviet Union,  China estimates its losses at approximately 20,000,000 deaths. Ironically, these two countries (allies of the US during WWII) which lost a large share of their population during WWII are now categorized as enemies of America, which are threatening the Western World.  A so-called preemptive war against China and Russia is currently contemplated. 

Germany and Austria lost approximately 8 million people during WWII, Japan lost more than 2.5 million people. The US and Britain respectively lost more than 400,000 lives. 

This carefully researched article by James A. Lucas  documents the more than 20 million lives lost resulting from US led wars, military coups and intelligence ops carried out in the wake of what is euphemistically called the “post-war era” (1945- ). The extensive loss of life in Lebanon,  Syria, Yemen and Libya is not included in this study.

Continuous US led warfare (1945- ): there was no “post-war era“.

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, January 20 2019, November 2019, December 31, 2019

***

After the catastrophic attacks of September 11 2001 monumental sorrow and a feeling of desperate and understandable anger began to permeate the American psyche. A few people at that time attempted to promote a balanced perspective by pointing out that the United States had also been responsible for causing those same feelings in people in other nations, but they produced hardly a ripple. Although Americans understand in the abstract the wisdom of people around the world empathizing with the suffering of one another, such a reminder of wrongs committed by our nation got little hearing and was soon overshadowed by an accelerated “war on terrorism.”

But we must continue our efforts to develop understanding and compassion in the world. Hopefully, this article will assist in doing that by addressing the question “How many September 11ths has the United States caused in other nations since WWII?” This theme is developed in this report which contains an estimated numbers of such deaths in 37 nations as well as brief explanations of why the U.S. is considered culpable.

The causes of wars are complex. In some instances nations other than the U.S. may have been responsible for more deaths, but if the involvement of our nation appeared to have been a necessary cause of a war or conflict it was considered responsible for the deaths in it. In other words they probably would not have taken place if the U.S. had not used the heavy hand of its power. The military and economic power of the United States was crucial.

This study reveals that U.S. military forces were directly responsible for about 10 to 15 million deaths during the Korean and Vietnam Wars and the two Iraq Wars. The Korean War also includes Chinese deaths while the Vietnam War also includes fatalities in Cambodia and Laos.

The American public probably is not aware of these numbers and knows even less about the proxy wars for which the United States is also responsible. In the latter wars there were between nine and 14 million deaths in Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Timor, Guatemala, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sudan.

But the victims are not just from big nations or one part of the world. The remaining deaths were in smaller ones which constitute over half the total number of nations. Virtually all parts of the world have been the target of U.S. intervention.

The overall conclusion reached is that the United States most likely has been responsible since WWII for the deaths of between 20 and 30 million people in wars and conflicts scattered over the world.

To the families and friends of these victims it makes little difference whether the causes were U.S. military action, proxy military forces, the provision of U.S. military supplies or advisors, or other ways, such as economic pressures applied by our nation. They had to make decisions about other things such as finding lost loved ones, whether to become refugees, and how to survive.

And the pain and anger is spread even further. Some authorities estimate that there are as many as 10 wounded for each person who dies in wars. Their visible, continued suffering is a continuing reminder to their fellow countrymen.

It is essential that Americans learn more about this topic so that they can begin to understand the pain that others feel. Someone once observed that the Germans during WWII “chose not to know.” We cannot allow history to say this about our country. The question posed above was “How many September 11ths has the United States caused in other nations since WWII?” The answer is: possibly 10,000.

Comments on Gathering These Numbers

Generally speaking, the much smaller number of Americans who have died is not included in this study, not because they are not important, but because this report focuses on the impact of U.S. actions on its adversaries.

An accurate count of the number of deaths is not easy to achieve, and this collection of data was undertaken with full realization of this fact. These estimates will probably be revised later either upward or downward by the reader and the author. But undoubtedly the total will remain in the millions.

The difficulty of gathering reliable information is shown by two estimates in this context. For several years I heard statements on radio that three million Cambodians had been killed under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. However, in recent years the figure I heard was one million. Another example is that the number of persons estimated to have died in Iraq due to sanctions after the first U.S. Iraq War was over 1 million, but in more recent years, based on a more recent study, a lower estimate of around a half a million has emerged.

Often information about wars is revealed only much later when someone decides to speak out, when more secret information is revealed due to persistent efforts of a few, or after special congressional committees make reports

Both victorious and defeated nations may have their own reasons for underreporting the number of deaths. Further, in recent wars involving the United States it was not uncommon to hear statements like “we do not do body counts” and references to “collateral damage” as a euphemism for dead and wounded. Life is cheap for some, especially those who manipulate people on the battlefield as if it were a chessboard.

To say that it is difficult to get exact figures is not to say that we should not try. Effort was needed to arrive at the figures of six million Jews killed during WWII, but knowledge of that number now is widespread and it has fueled the determination to prevent future holocausts. That struggle continues.

The author can be contacted at jlucas511@woh.rr.com

37 VICTIM NATIONS

Afghanistan

The U.S. is responsible for between 1 and 1.8 million deaths during the war between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan, by luring the Soviet Union into invading that nation. (1,2,3,4)

The Soviet Union had friendly relations its neighbor, Afghanistan, which had a secular government. The Soviets feared that if that government became fundamentalist this change could spill over into the Soviet Union.

In 1998, in an interview with the Parisian publication Le Novel Observateur, Zbigniew Brzezinski, adviser to President Carter, admitted that he had been responsible for instigating aid to the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan which caused the Soviets to invade. In his own words:

According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan on 24 December 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise. Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the President in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention. (5,1,6)

Brzezinski justified laying this trap, since he said it gave the Soviet Union its Vietnam and caused the breakup of the Soviet Union. “Regret what?” he said. “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?” (7)

The CIA spent 5 to 6 billion dollars on its operation in Afghanistan in order to bleed the Soviet Union. (1,2,3) When that 10-year war ended over a million people were dead and Afghan heroin had captured 60% of the U.S. market. (4)

The U.S. has been responsible directly for about 12,000 deaths in Afghanistan many of which resulted from bombing in retaliation for the attacks on U.S. property on September 11, 2001. Subsequently U.S. troops invaded that country. (4)

Angola

An indigenous armed struggle against Portuguese rule in Angola began in 1961. In 1977 an Angolan government was recognized by the U.N., although the U.S. was one of the few nations that opposed this action. In 1986 Uncle Sam approved material assistance to UNITA, a group that was trying to overthrow the government. Even today this struggle, which has involved many nations at times, continues.

U.S. intervention was justified to the U.S. public as a reaction to the intervention of 50,000 Cuban troops in Angola. However, according to Piero Gleijeses, a history professor at Johns Hopkins University the reverse was true. The Cuban intervention came as a result of a CIA – financed covert invasion via neighboring Zaire and a drive on the Angolan capital by the U.S. ally, South Africa1,2,3). (Three estimates of deaths range from 300,000 to 750,000 (4,5,6)

Argentina: See South America: Operation Condor

Bangladesh: See Pakistan

Bolivia

Hugo Banzer was the leader of a repressive regime in Bolivia in the 1970s. The U.S. had been disturbed when a previous leader nationalized the tin mines and distributed land to Indian peasants. Later that action to benefit the poor was reversed.

Banzer, who was trained at the U.S.-operated School of the Americas in Panama and later at Fort Hood, Texas, came back from exile frequently to confer with U.S. Air Force Major Robert Lundin. In 1971 he staged a successful coup with the help of the U.S. Air Force radio system. In the first years of his dictatorship he received twice as military assistance from the U.S. as in the previous dozen years together.

A few years later the Catholic Church denounced an army massacre of striking tin workers in 1975, Banzer, assisted by information provided by the CIA, was able to target and locate leftist priests and nuns. His anti-clergy strategy, known as the Banzer Plan, was adopted by nine other Latin American dictatorships in 1977. (2) He has been accused of being responsible for 400 deaths during his tenure. (1)

Also see: See South America: Operation Condor

Brazil: See South America: Operation Condor

Cambodia

U.S. bombing of Cambodia had already been underway for several years in secret under the Johnson and Nixon administrations, but when President Nixon openly began bombing in preparation for a land assault on Cambodia it caused major protests in the U.S. against the Vietnam War.

There is little awareness today of the scope of these bombings and the human suffering involved.

Immense damage was done to the villages and cities of Cambodia, causing refugees and internal displacement of the population. This unstable situation enabled the Khmer Rouge, a small political party led by Pol Pot, to assume power. Over the years we have repeatedly heard about the Khmer Rouge’s role in the deaths of millions in Cambodia without any acknowledgement being made this mass killing was made possible by the the U.S. bombing of that nation which destabilized it by death , injuries, hunger and dislocation of its people.

So the U.S. bears responsibility not only for the deaths from the bombings but also for those resulting from the activities of the Khmer Rouge – a total of about 2.5 million people. Even when Vietnam latrer invaded Cambodia in 1979 the CIA was still supporting the Khmer Rouge. (1,2,3)

Also see Vietnam

Chad

An estimated 40,000 people in Chad were killed and as many as 200,000 tortured by a government, headed by Hissen Habre who was brought to power in June, 1982 with the help of CIA money and arms. He remained in power for eight years. (1,2)

Human Rights Watch claimed that Habre was responsible for thousands of killings. In 2001, while living in Senegal, he was almost tried for crimes committed by him in Chad. However, a court there blocked these proceedings. Then human rights people decided to pursue the case in Belgium, because some of Habre’s torture victims lived there. The U.S., in June 2003, told Belgium that it risked losing its status as host to NATO’s headquarters if it allowed such a legal proceeding to happen. So the result was that the law that allowed victims to file complaints in Belgium for atrocities committed abroad was repealed. However, two months later a new law was passed which made special provision for the continuation of the case against Habre.

Chile

The CIA intervened in Chile’s 1958 and 1964 elections. In 1970 a socialist candidate, Salvador Allende, was elected president. The CIA wanted to incite a military coup to prevent his inauguration, but the Chilean army’s chief of staff, General Rene Schneider, opposed this action. The CIA then planned, along with some people in the Chilean military, to assassinate Schneider. This plot failed and Allende took office. President Nixon was not to be dissuaded and he ordered the CIA to create a coup climate: “Make the economy scream,” he said.

What followed were guerilla warfare, arson, bombing, sabotage and terror. ITT and other U.S. corporations with Chilean holdings sponsored demonstrations and strikes. Finally, on September 11, 1973 Allende died either by suicide or by assassination. At that time Henry Kissinger, U.S. Secretary of State, said the following regarding Chile: “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist because of the irresponsibility of its own people.” (1)

During 17 years of terror under Allende’s successor, General Augusto Pinochet, an estimated 3,000 Chileans were killed and many others were tortured or “disappeared.” (2,3,4,5)

Also see South America: Operation Condor

China An estimated 900,000 Chinese died during the Korean War.

For more information, See: Korea.

Colombia

One estimate is that 67,000 deaths have occurred from the 1960s to recent years due to support by the U.S. of Colombian state terrorism. (1)

According to a 1994 Amnesty International report, more than 20,000 people were killed for political reasons in Colombia since 1986, mainly by the military and its paramilitary allies. Amnesty alleged that “U.S.- supplied military equipment, ostensibly delivered for use against narcotics traffickers, was being used by the Colombian military to commit abuses in the name of “counter-insurgency.” (2) In 2002 another estimate was made that 3,500 people die each year in a U.S. funded civilian war in Colombia. (3)

In 1996 Human Rights Watch issued a report “Assassination Squads in Colombia” which revealed that CIA agents went to Colombia in 1991 to help the military to train undercover agents in anti-subversive activity. (4,5)

In recent years the U.S. government has provided assistance under Plan Colombia. The Colombian government has been charged with using most of the funds for destruction of crops and support of the paramilitary group.

Cuba

In the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba on April 18, 1961 which ended after 3 days, 114 of the invading force were killed, 1,189 were taken prisoners and a few escaped to waiting U.S. ships. (1) The captured exiles were quickly tried, a few executed and the rest sentenced to thirty years in prison for treason. These exiles were released after 20 months in exchange for $53 million in food and medicine.

Some people estimate that the number of Cuban forces killed range from 2,000, to 4,000. Another estimate is that 1,800 Cuban forces were killed on an open highway by napalm. This appears to have been a precursor of the Highway of Death in Iraq in 1991 when U.S. forces mercilessly annihilated large numbers of Iraqis on a highway. (2)

Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire)

The beginning of massive violence was instigated in this country in 1879 by its colonizer King Leopold of Belgium. The Congo’s population was reduced by 10 million people over a period of 20 years which some have referred to as “Leopold’s Genocide.” (1) The U.S. has been responsible for about a third of that many deaths in that nation in the more recent past. (2)

In 1960 the Congo became an independent state with Patrice Lumumba being its first prime minister. He was assassinated with the CIA being implicated, although some say that his murder was actually the responsibility of Belgium. (3) But nevertheless, the CIA was planning to kill him. (4) Before his assassination the CIA sent one of its scientists, Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, to the Congo carrying “lethal biological material” intended for use in Lumumba’s assassination. This virus would have been able to produce a fatal disease indigenous to the Congo area of Africa and was transported in a diplomatic pouch.

Much of the time in recent years there has been a civil war within the Democratic Republic of Congo, fomented often by the U.S. and other nations, including neighboring nations. (5)

In April 1977, Newsday reported that the CIA was secretly supporting efforts to recruit several hundred mercenaries in the U.S. and Great Britain to serve alongside Zaire’s army. In that same year the U.S. provided $15 million of military supplies to the Zairian President Mobutu to fend off an invasion by a rival group operating in Angola. (6)

In May 1979, the U.S. sent several million dollars of aid to Mobutu who had been condemned 3 months earlier by the U.S. State Department for human rights violations. (7) During the Cold War the U.S. funneled over 300 million dollars in weapons into Zaire (8,9) $100 million in military training was provided to him. (2) In 2001 it was reported to a U.S. congressional committee that American companies, including one linked to former President George Bush Sr., were stoking the Congo for monetary gains. There is an international battle over resources in that country with over 125 companies and individuals being implicated. One of these substances is coltan, which is used in the manufacture of cell phones. (2)

Dominican Republic

In 1962, Juan Bosch became president of the Dominican Republic. He advocated such programs as land reform and public works programs. This did not bode well for his future relationship with the U.S., and after only 7 months in office, he was deposed by a CIA coup. In 1965 when a group was trying to reinstall him to his office President Johnson said, “This Bosch is no good.” Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Mann replied “He’s no good at all. If we don’t get a decent government in there, Mr. President, we get another Bosch. It’s just going to be another sinkhole.” Two days later a U.S. invasion started and 22,000 soldiers and marines entered the Dominican Republic and about 3,000 Dominicans died during the fighting. The cover excuse for doing this was that this was done to protect foreigners there. (1,2,3,4)

East Timor

In December 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor. This incursion was launched the day after U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had left Indonesia where they had given President Suharto permission to use American arms, which under U.S. law, could not be used for aggression. Daniel Moynihan, U.S. ambassador to the UN. said that the U.S. wanted “things to turn out as they did.” (1,2) The result was an estimated 200,000 dead out of a population of 700,000. (1,2)

Sixteen years later, on November 12, 1991, two hundred and seventeen East Timorese protesters in Dili, many of them children, marching from a memorial service, were gunned down by Indonesian Kopassus shock troops who were headed by U.S.- trained commanders Prabowo Subianto (son in law of General Suharto) and Kiki Syahnakri. Trucks were seen dumping bodies into the sea. (5)

El Salvador

The civil war from 1981 to1992 in El Salvador was financed by $6 billion in U.S. aid given to support the government in its efforts to crush a movement to bring social justice to the people in that nation of about 8 million people. (1)
During that time U.S. military advisers demonstrated methods of torture on teenage prisoners, according to an interview with a deserter from the Salvadoran army published in the New York Times. This former member of the Salvadoran National Guard testified that he was a member of a squad of twelve who found people who they were told were guerillas and tortured them. Part of the training he received was in torture at a U.S. location somewhere in Panama. (2)

About 900 villagers were massacred in the village of El Mozote in 1981. Ten of the twelve El Salvadoran government soldiers cited as participating in this act were graduates of the School of the Americas operated by the U.S. (2) They were only a small part of about 75,000 people killed during that civil war. (1)

According to a 1993 United Nations’ Truth Commission report, over 96 % of the human rights violations carried out during the war were committed by the Salvadoran army or the paramilitary deaths squads associated with the Salvadoran army. (3)

That commission linked graduates of the School of the Americas to many notorious killings. The New York Times and the Washington Post followed with scathing articles. In 1996, the White House Oversight Board issued a report that supported many of the charges against that school made by Rev. Roy Bourgeois, head of the School of the Americas Watch. That same year the Pentagon released formerly classified reports indicating that graduates were trained in killing, extortion, and physical abuse for interrogations, false imprisonment and other methods of control. (4)

Grenada

The CIA began to destabilize Grenada in 1979 after Maurice Bishop became president, partially because he refused to join the quarantine of Cuba. The campaign against him resulted in his overthrow and the invasion by the U.S. of Grenada on October 25, 1983, with about 277 people dying. (1,2) It was fallaciously charged that an airport was being built in Grenada that could be used to attack the U.S. and it was also erroneously claimed that the lives of American medical students on that island were in danger.

Guatemala

In 1951 Jacobo Arbenz was elected president of Guatemala. He appropriated some unused land operated by the United Fruit Company and compensated the company. (1,2) That company then started a campaign to paint Arbenz as a tool of an international conspiracy and hired about 300 mercenaries who sabotaged oil supplies and trains. (3) In 1954 a CIA-orchestrated coup put him out of office and he left the country. During the next 40 years various regimes killed thousands of people.

In 1999 the Washington Post reported that an Historical Clarification Commission concluded that over 200,000 people had been killed during the civil war and that there had been 42,000 individual human rights violations, 29,000 of them fatal, 92% of which were committed by the army. The commission further reported that the U.S. government and the CIA had pressured the Guatemalan government into suppressing the guerilla movement by ruthless means. (4,5)

According to the Commission between 1981 and 1983 the military government of Guatemala – financed and supported by the U.S. government – destroyed some four hundred Mayan villages in a campaign of genocide. (4)
One of the documents made available to the commission was a 1966 memo from a U.S. State Department official, which described how a “safe house” was set up in the palace for use by Guatemalan security agents and their U.S. contacts. This was the headquarters for the Guatemalan “dirty war” against leftist insurgents and suspected allies. (2)

Haiti

From 1957 to 1986 Haiti was ruled by Papa Doc Duvalier and later by his son. During that time their private terrorist force killed between 30,000 and 100,000 people. (1) Millions of dollars in CIA subsidies flowed into Haiti during that time, mainly to suppress popular movements, (2) although most American military aid to the country, according to William Blum, was covertly channeled through Israel.

Reportedly, governments after the second Duvalier reign were responsible for an even larger number of fatalities, and the influence on Haiti by the U.S., particularly through the CIA, has continued. The U.S. later forced out of the presidential office a black Catholic priest, Jean Bertrand Aristide, even though he was elected with 67% of the vote in the early 1990s. The wealthy white class in Haiti opposed him in this predominantly black nation, because of his social programs designed to help the poor and end corruption. (3) Later he returned to office, but that did not last long. He was forced by the U.S. to leave office and now lives in South Africa.

Honduras

In the 1980s the CIA supported Battalion 316 in Honduras, which kidnapped, tortured and killed hundreds of its citizens. Torture equipment and manuals were provided by CIA Argentinean personnel who worked with U.S. agents in the training of the Hondurans. Approximately 400 people lost their lives. (1,2) This is another instance of torture in the world sponsored by the U.S. (3)

Battalion 316 used shock and suffocation devices in interrogations in the 1980s. Prisoners often were kept naked and, when no longer useful, killed and buried in unmarked graves. Declassified documents and other sources show that the CIA and the U.S. Embassy knew of numerous crimes, including murder and torture, yet continued to support Battalion 316 and collaborate with its leaders.” (4)

Honduras was a staging ground in the early 1980s for the Contras who were trying to overthrow the socialist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. John D. Negroponte, currently Deputy Secretary of State, was our embassador when our military aid to Honduras rose from $4 million to $77.4 million per year. Negroponte denies having had any knowledge of these atrocities during his tenure. However, his predecessor in that position, Jack R. Binns, had reported in 1981 that he was deeply concerned at increasing evidence of officially sponsored/sanctioned assassinations. (5)

Hungary

In 1956 Hungary, a Soviet satellite nation, revolted against the Soviet Union. During the uprising broadcasts by the U.S. Radio Free Europe into Hungary sometimes took on an aggressive tone, encouraging the rebels to believe that Western support was imminent, and even giving tactical advice on how to fight the Soviets. Their hopes were raised then dashed by these broadcasts which cast an even darker shadow over the Hungarian tragedy.“ (1) The Hungarian and Soviet death toll was about 3,000 and the revolution was crushed. (2)

Indonesia

In 1965, in Indonesia, a coup replaced General Sukarno with General Suharto as leader. The U.S. played a role in that change of government. Robert Martens,a former officer in the U.S. embassy in Indonesia, described how U.S. diplomats and CIA officers provided up to 5,000 names to Indonesian Army death squads in 1965 and checked them off as they were killed or captured. Martens admitted that “I probably have a lot of blood on my hands, but that’s not all bad. There’s a time when you have to strike hard at a decisive moment.” (1,2,3) Estimates of the number of deaths range from 500,000 to 3 million. (4,5,6)
From 1993 to 1997 the U.S. provided Jakarta with almost $400 million in economic aid and sold tens of million of dollars of weaponry to that nation. U.S. Green Berets provided training for the Indonesia’s elite force which was responsible for many of atrocities in East Timor. (3)

Iran

Iran lost about 262,000 people in the war against Iraq from 1980 to 1988. (1) See Iraq for more information about that war.

On July 3, 1988 the U.S. Navy ship, the Vincennes, was operating withing Iranian waters providing military support for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. During a battle against Iranian gunboats it fired two missiles at an Iranian Airbus, which was on a routine civilian flight. All 290 civilian on board were killed. (2,3)

Iraq

A. The Iraq-Iran War lasted from 1980 to 1988 and during that time there were about 105,000 Iraqi deaths according to the Washington Post. (1,2)

According to Howard Teicher, a former National Security Council official, the U.S. provided the Iraqis with billions of dollars in credits and helped Iraq in other ways such as making sure that Iraq had military equipment including biological agents This surge of help for Iraq came as Iran seemed to be winning the war and was close to Basra. (1) The U.S. was not adverse to both countries weakening themselves as a result of the war, but it did not appear to want either side to win.

B: The U.S.-Iraq War and the Sanctions Against Iraq extended from 1990 to 2003.

Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990 and the U.S. responded by demanding that Iraq withdraw, and four days later the U.N. levied international sanctions.

Iraq had reason to believe that the U.S. would not object to its invasion of Kuwait, since U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, had told Saddam Hussein that the U.S. had no position on the dispute that his country had with Kuwait. So the green light was given, but it seemed to be more of a trap.

As a part of the public relations strategy to energize the American public into supporting an attack against Iraq the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the U.S. falsely testified before Congress that Iraqi troops were pulling the plugs on incubators in Iraqi hospitals. (1) This contributed to a war frenzy in the U.S.

The U.S. air assault started on January 17, 1991 and it lasted for 42 days. On February 23 President H.W. Bush ordered the U.S. ground assault to begin. The invasion took place with much needless killing of Iraqi military personnel. Only about 150 American military personnel died compared to about 200,000 Iraqis. Some of the Iraqis were mercilessly killed on the Highway of Death and about 400 tons of depleted uranium were left in that nation by the U.S. (2,3)

Other deaths later were from delayed deaths due to wounds, civilians killed, those killed by effects of damage of the Iraqi water treatment facilities and other aspects of its damaged infrastructure and by the sanctions.

In 1995 the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. reported that U.N sanctions against on Iraq had been responsible for the deaths of more than 560,000 children since 1990. (5)

Leslie Stahl on the TV Program 60 Minutes in 1996 mentioned to Madeleine Albright, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. “We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And – and you know, is the price worth it?” Albright replied “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price – we think is worth it.” (4)

In 1999 UNICEF reported that 5,000 children died each month as a result of the sanction and the War with the U.S. (6)

Richard Garfield later estimated that the more likely number of excess deaths among children under five years of age from 1990 through March 1998 to be 227,000 – double those of the previous decade. Garfield estimated that the numbers to be 350,000 through 2000 (based in part on result of another study). (7)

However, there are limitations to his study. His figures were not updated for the remaining three years of the sanctions. Also, two other somewhat vulnerable age groups were not studied: young children above the age of five and the elderly.

All of these reports were considerable indicators of massive numbers of deaths which the U.S. was aware of and which was a part of its strategy to cause enough pain and terror among Iraqis to cause them to revolt against their government.

C: Iraq-U.S. War started in 2003 and has not been concluded

Just as the end of the Cold War emboldened the U.S. to attack Iraq in 1991 so the attacks of September 11, 2001 laid the groundwork for the U.S. to launch the current war against Iraq. While in some other wars we learned much later about the lies that were used to deceive us, some of the deceptions that were used to get us into this war became known almost as soon as they were uttered. There were no weapons of mass destruction, we were not trying to promote democracy, we were not trying to save the Iraqi people from a dictator.

The total number of Iraqi deaths that are a result of our current Iraq against Iraq War is 654,000, of which 600,000 are attributed to acts of violence, according to Johns Hopkins researchers. (1,2)

Since these deaths are a result of the U.S. invasion, our leaders must accept responsibility for them.

Israeli-Palestinian War

About 100,000 to 200,000 Israelis and Palestinians, but mostly the latter, have been killed in the struggle between those two groups. The U.S. has been a strong supporter of Israel, providing billions of dollars in aid and supporting its possession of nuclear weapons. (1,2)

Korea, North and South

The Korean War started in 1950 when, according to the Truman administration, North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25th. However, since then another explanation has emerged which maintains that the attack by North Korea came during a time of many border incursions by both sides. South Korea initiated most of the border clashes with North Korea beginning in 1948. The North Korea government claimed that by 1949 the South Korean army committed 2,617 armed incursions. It was a myth that the Soviet Union ordered North Korea to attack South Korea. (1,2)

The U.S. started its attack before a U.N. resolution was passed supporting our nation’s intervention, and our military forces added to the mayhem in the war by introducing the use of napalm. (1)

During the war the bulk of the deaths were South Koreans, North Koreans and Chinese. Four sources give deaths counts ranging from 1.8 to 4.5 million. (3,4,5,6) Another source gives a total of 4 million but does not identify to which nation they belonged. (7)

John H. Kim, a U.S. Army veteran and the Chair of the Korea Committee of Veterans for Peace, stated in an article that during the Korean War “the U.S. Army, Air Force and Navy were directly involved in the killing of about three million civilians – both South and North Koreans – at many locations throughout Korea…It is reported that the U.S. dropped some 650,000 tons of bombs, including 43,000 tons of napalm bombs, during the Korean War.” It is presumed that this total does not include Chinese casualties.

Another source states a total of about 500,000 who were Koreans and presumably only military. (8,9)

Laos

From 1965 to 1973 during the Vietnam War the U.S. dropped over two million tons of bombs on Laos – more than was dropped in WWII by both sides. Over a quarter of the population became refugees. This was later called a “secret war,” since it occurred at the same time as the Vietnam War, but got little press. Hundreds of thousands were killed. Branfman make the only estimate that I am aware of , stating that hundreds of thousands died. This can be interpeted to mean that at least 200,000 died. (1,2,3)

U.S. military intervention in Laos actually began much earlier. A civil war started in the 1950s when the U.S. recruited a force of 40,000 Laotians to oppose the Pathet Lao, a leftist political party that ultimately took power in 1975.

Also See Vietnam

Nepal

Between 8,000 and 12,000 Nepalese have died since a civil war broke out in 1996. The death rate, according to Foreign Policy in Focus, sharply increased with the arrival of almost 8,400 American M-16 submachine guns (950 rpm) and U.S. advisers. Nepal is 85 percent rural and badly in need of land reform. Not surprisingly 42 % of its people live below the poverty level. (1,2)

In 2002, after another civil war erupted, President George W. Bush pushed a bill through Congress authorizing $20 million in military aid to the Nepalese government. (3)

Nicaragua

In 1981 the Sandinistas overthrew the Somoza government in Nicaragua, (1) and until 1990 about 25,000 Nicaraguans were killed in an armed struggle between the Sandinista government and Contra rebels who were formed from the remnants of Somoza’s national government. The use of assassination manuals by the Contras surfaced in 1984. (2,3)

The U.S. supported the victorious government regime by providing covert military aid to the Contras (anti-communist guerillas) starting in November, 1981. But when Congress discovered that the CIA had supervised acts of sabotage in Nicaragua without notifying Congress, it passed the Boland Amendment in 1983 which prohibited the CIA, Defense Department and any other government agency from providing any further covert military assistance. (4)

But ways were found to get around this prohibition. The National Security Council, which was not explicitly covered by the law, raised private and foreign funds for the Contras. In addition, arms were sold to Iran and the proceeds were diverted from those sales to the Contras engaged in the insurgency against the Sandinista government. (5) Finally, the Sandinistas were voted out of office in 1990 by voters who thought that a change in leadership would placate the U.S., which was causing misery to Nicaragua’s citizenry by it support of the Contras.

Pakistan

In 1971 West Pakistan, an authoritarian state supported by the U.S., brutally invaded East Pakistan. The war ended after India, whose economy was staggering after admitting about 10 million refugees, invaded East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and defeated the West Pakistani forces. (1)

Millions of people died during that brutal struggle, referred to by some as genocide committed by West Pakistan. That country had long been an ally of the U.S., starting with $411 million provided to establish its armed forces which spent 80% of its budget on its military. $15 million in arms flowed into W. Pakistan during the war. (2,3,4)

Three sources estimate that 3 million people died and (5,2,6) one source estimates 1.5 million. (3)

Panama

In December, 1989 U.S. troops invaded Panama, ostensibly to arrest Manuel Noriega, that nation’s president. This was an example of the U.S. view that it is the master of the world and can arrest anyone it wants to. For a number of years before that he had worked for the CIA, but fell out of favor partially because he was not an opponent of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. (1) It has been estimated that between 500 and 4,000 people died. (2,3,4)

Paraguay: See South America: Operation Condor

Philippines

The Philippines were under the control of the U.S. for over a hundred years. In about the last 50 to 60 years the U.S. has funded and otherwise helped various Philippine governments which sought to suppress the activities of groups working for the welfare of its people. In 1969 the Symington Committee in the U.S. Congress revealed how war material was sent there for a counter-insurgency campaign. U.S. Special Forces and Marines were active in some combat operations. The estimated number of persons that were executed and disappeared under President Fernando Marcos was over 100,000. (1,2)

South America: Operation Condor

This was a joint operation of 6 despotic South American governments (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay) to share information about their political opponents. An estimated 13,000 people were killed under this plan. (1)

It was established on November 25, 1975 in Chile by an act of the Interamerican Reunion on Military Intelligence. According to U.S. embassy political officer, John Tipton, the CIA and the Chilean Secret Police were working together, although the CIA did not set up the operation to make this collaboration work. Reportedly, it ended in 1983. (2)

On March 6, 2001 the New York Times reported the existence of a recently declassified State Department document revealing that the United States facilitated communications for Operation Condor. (3)

Sudan

Since 1955, when it gained its independence, Sudan has been involved most of the time in a civil war. Until about 2003 approximately 2 million people had been killed. It not known if the death toll in Darfur is part of that total.

Human rights groups have complained that U.S. policies have helped to prolong the Sudanese civil war by supporting efforts to overthrow the central government in Khartoum. In 1999 U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met with the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) who said that she offered him food supplies if he would reject a peace plan sponsored by Egypt and Libya.

In 1978 the vastness of Sudan’s oil reservers was discovered and within two years it became the sixth largest recipient of U.S, military aid. It’s reasonable to assume that if the U.S. aid a government to come to power it will feel obligated to give the U.S. part of the oil pie.

A British group, Christian Aid, has accused foreign oil companies of complicity in the depopulation of villages. These companies – not American – receive government protection and in turn allow the government use of its airstrips and roads.

In August 1998 the U.S. bombed Khartoum, Sudan with 75 cruise míssiles. Our government said that the target was a chemical weapons factory owned by Osama bin Laden. Actually, bin Laden was no longer the owner, and the plant had been the sole supplier of pharmaceutical supplies for that poor nation. As a result of the bombing tens of thousands may have died because of the lack of medicines to treat malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases. The U.S. settled a lawsuit filed by the factory’s owner. (1,2)

Uruguay: See South America: Operation Condor

Vietnam

In Vietnam, under an agreement several decades ago, there was supposed to be an election for a unified North and South Vietnam. The U.S. opposed this and supported the Diem government in South Vietnam. In August, 1964 the CIA and others helped fabricate a phony Vietnamese attack on a U.S. ship in the Gulf of Tonkin and this was used as a pretext for greater U.S. involvement in Vietnam. (1)

During that war an American assassination operation,called Operation Phoenix, terrorized the South Vietnamese people, and during the war American troops were responsible in 1968 for the mass slaughter of the people in the village of My Lai.

According to a Vietnamese government statement in 1995 the number of deaths of civilians and military personnel during the Vietnam War was 5.1 million. (2)

Since deaths in Cambodia and Laos were about 2.7 million (See Cambodia and Laos) the estimated total for the Vietnam War is 7.8 million.

The Virtual Truth Commission provides a total for the war of 5 million, (3) and Robert McNamara, former Secretary Defense, according to the New York Times Magazine says that the number of Vietnamese dead is 3.4 million. (4,5)

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia was a socialist federation of several republics. Since it refused to be closely tied to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, it gained some suport from the U.S. But when the Soviet Union dissolved, Yugoslavia’s usefulness to the U.S. ended, and the U.S and Germany worked to convert its socialist economy to a capitalist one by a process primarily of dividing and conquering. There were ethnic and religious differences between various parts of Yugoslavia which were manipulated by the U.S. to cause several wars which resulted in the dissolution of that country.

From the early 1990s until now Yugoslavia split into several independent nations whose lowered income, along with CIA connivance, has made it a pawn in the hands of capitalist countries. (1) The dissolution of Yugoslavia was caused primarily by the U.S. (2)

Here are estimates of some, if not all, of the internal wars in Yugoslavia. All wars: 107,000; (3,4)

Bosnia and Krajina: 250,000; (5) Bosnia: 20,000 to 30,000; (5) Croatia: 15,000; (6) and

Kosovo: 500 to 5,000. (7)

NOTES

Afghanistan

1.Mark Zepezauer, Boomerang (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2003), p.135.

2.Chronology of American State Terrorism
http://www.intellnet.org/resources/american_
terrorism/ChronologyofTerror.html

3.Soviet War in Afghanistan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_war_in_Afghanistan

4.Mark Zepezauer, The CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1994), p.76

5.U.S Involvement in Afghanistan, Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_war_in Afghanistan)

6.The CIA’s Intervention in Afghanistan, Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, 15-21 January 1998, Posted at globalresearch.ca 15 October 2001, http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/BRZ110A.html

7.William Blum, Rogue State (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000), p.5

8.Unknown News, http://www.unknownnews.net/casualtiesw.html

Angola

1.Howard W. French “From Old Files, a New Story of the U.S. Role in the Angolan War” New York Times 3/31/02

2.Angolan Update, American Friends Service Committee FS, 11/1/99 flyer.

3.Norman Solomon, War Made Easy, (John Wiley & Sons, 2005) p. 82-83.

4.Lance Selfa, U.S. Imperialism, A Century of Slaughter, International Socialist Review Issue 7, Spring 1999 (as appears in Third world Traveler www. thirdworldtraveler.com/American_Empire/Century_Imperialism.html)

5. Jeffress Ramsay, Africa , (Dushkin/McGraw Hill Guilford Connecticut), 1997, p. 144-145.

6.Mark Zepezauer, The CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1994), p.54.

Argentina : See South America: Operation Condor

Bolivia

1. Phil Gunson, Guardian, 5/6/02,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/archive /article/0,4273,41-07884,00.html

2.Jerry Meldon, Return of Bolilvia’s Drug – Stained Dictator, Consortium,www.consortiumnews.com/archives/story40.html.

Brazil See South America: Operation Condor

Cambodia

1.Virtual Truth Commissiion http://www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/ .

2.David Model, President Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and the Bombing of Cambodia excerpted from the book Lying for Empire How to Commit War Crimes With A Straight Face, Common Courage Press, 2005, paperhttp://thirdworldtraveler.com/American_Empire/Nixon_Cambodia_LFE.html.

3.Noam Chomsky, Chomsky on Cambodia under Pol Pot, etc.,http//zmag.org/forums/chomcambodforum.htm.

Chad

1.William Blum, Rogue State (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000), p. 151-152 .

2.Richard Keeble, Crimes Against Humanity in Chad, Znet/Activism 12/4/06http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=11560&sectionID=1).

Chile

1.Parenti, Michael, The Sword and the Dollar (New York, St. Martin’s Press, 1989) p. 56.

2.William Blum, Rogue State (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000), p. 142-143.

3.Moreorless: Heroes and Killers of the 20th Century, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte,

http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/pinochet.html

4.Associated Press,Pincohet on 91st Birthday, Takes Responsibility for Regimes’s Abuses, Dayton Daily News 11/26/06

5.Chalmers Johnson, Blowback, The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2000), p. 18.

China: See Korea

Colombia

1.Chronology of American State Terrorism, p.2

http://www.intellnet.org/resources/american_terrorism/ChronologyofTerror.html).

2.William Blum, Rogue State (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000), p. 163.

3.Millions Killed by Imperialism Washington Post May 6, 2002)http://www.etext.org./Politics/MIM/rail/impkills.html

4.Gabriella Gamini, CIA Set Up Death Squads in Colombia Times Newspapers Limited, Dec. 5, 1996,www.edu/CommunicationsStudies/ben/news/cia/961205.death.html).

5.Virtual Truth Commission, 1991

Human Rights Watch Report: Colombia’s Killer Networks–The Military-Paramilitary Partnership).

Cuba

1.St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture – on Bay of Pigs Invasionhttp://bookrags.com/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion.

2.Wikipedia http://bookrags.com/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion#Casualties.

Democratic Republic of Congo (Formerly Zaire)

1.F. Jeffress Ramsey, Africa (Guilford Connecticut, 1997), p. 85

2. Anup Shaw The Democratic Republic of Congo, 10/31/2003)http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/Africa/DRC.asp)

3.Kevin Whitelaw, A Killing in Congo, U. S. News and World Reporthttp://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/mysteries/patrice.htm

4.William Blum, Killing Hope (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995), p 158-159.

5.Ibid.,p. 260

6.Ibid.,p. 259

7.Ibid.,p.262

8.David Pickering, “World War in Africa, 6/26/02,
www.9-11peace.org/bulletin.php3

9.William D. Hartung and Bridget Moix, Deadly Legacy; U.S. Arms to Africa and the Congo War, Arms Trade Resource Center, January , 2000www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/congo.htm

Dominican Republic

1.Norman Solomon, (untitled) Baltimore Sun April 26, 2005
http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/history/2005/0426spincycle.htm
Intervention Spin Cycle

2.Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Power_Pack

3.William Blum, Killing Hope (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995), p. 175.

4.Mark Zepezauer, The CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1994), p.26-27.

East Timor

1.Virtual Truth Commission, http://www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/date4.htm

2.Matthew Jardine, Unraveling Indonesia, Nonviolent Activist, 1997)

3.Chronology of American State Terrorismhttp://www.intellnet.org/resources/american_terrorism/ChronologyofTerror.html

4.William Blum, Killing Hope (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995), p. 197.

5.US trained butchers of Timor, The Guardian, London. Cited by The Drudge Report, September 19, 1999. http://www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/indon.htm

El Salvador

1.Robert T. Buckman, Latin America 2003, (Stryker-Post Publications Baltimore 2003) p. 152-153.

2.William Blum, Rogue State (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000), p. 54-55.

3.El Salvador, Wikipediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Salvador#The_20th_century_and_beyond)

4.Virtual Truth Commissiion http://www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/.

Grenada

1.Mark Zepezauer, The CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1994), p. 66-67.

2.Stephen Zunes, The U.S. Invasion of Grenada,http://wwwfpif.org/papers/grenada2003.html .

Guatemala

1.Virtual Truth Commissiion http://www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/

2.Ibid.

3.Mark Zepezauer, The CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1994), p.2-13.

4.Robert T. Buckman, Latin America 2003 (Stryker-Post Publications Baltimore 2003) p. 162.

5.Douglas Farah, Papers Show U.S. Role in Guatemalan Abuses, Washington Post Foreign Service, March 11, 1999, A 26

Haiti

1.Francois Duvalier,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Duvalier#Reign_of_terror).

2.Mark Zepezauer, The CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1994), p 87.

3.William Blum, Haiti 1986-1994: Who Will Rid Me of This Turbulent Priest,http://www.doublestandards.org/blum8.html

Honduras

1.William Blum, Rogue State (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000), p. 55.

2.Reports by Country: Honduras, Virtual Truth Commissionhttp://www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/honduras.htm

3.James A. Lucas, Torture Gets The Silence Treatment, Countercurrents, July 26, 2004.

4.Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson, Unearthed: Fatal Secrets, Baltimore Sun, reprint of a series that appeared June 11-18, 1995 in Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, School of Assassins, p. 46 Orbis Books 2001.

5.Michael Dobbs, Negroponte’s Time in Honduras at Issue, Washington Post, March 21, 2005

Hungary

1.Edited by Malcolm Byrne, The 1956 Hungarian Revoluiton: A history in Documents November 4, 2002http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB76/index2.htm

2.Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia,
http://www.answers.com/topic/hungarian-revolution-of-1956

Indonesia

1.Virtual Truth Commission http://www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/.

2.Editorial, Indonesia’s Killers, The Nation, March 30, 1998.

3.Matthew Jardine, Indonesia Unraveling, Non Violent Activist Sept–Oct, 1997 (Amnesty) 2/7/07.

4.Sison, Jose Maria, Reflections on the 1965 Massacre in Indonesia, p. 5.http://qc.indymedia.org/mail.php?id=5602;

5.Annie Pohlman, Women and the Indonesian Killings of 1965-1966: Gender Variables and Possible Direction for Research, p.4,http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/ASAA/biennial-conference/2004/Pohlman-A-ASAA.pdf

6.Peter Dale Scott, The United States and the Overthrow of Sukarno, 1965-1967, Pacific Affairs, 58, Summer 1985, pages 239-264.http://www.namebase.org/scott.

7.Mark Zepezauer, The CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1994), p.30.

Iran

1.Geoff Simons, Iraq from Sumer to Saddam, 1996, St. Martins Press, NY p. 317.

2.Chronology of American State Terrorismhttp://www.intellnet.org/resources/american_terrorism/ChronologyofTerror.html.

3.BBC 1988: US Warship Shoots Down Iranian Airlinerhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/default.stm )

Iraq

Iran-Iraq War

1.Michael Dobbs, U.S. Had Key role in Iraq Buildup, Washington Post December 30, 2002, p A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A52241-2002Dec29?language=printer

2.Global Security.Org , Iran Iraq War (1980-1980)globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/iran-iraq.htm.

U.S. Iraq War and Sanctions

1.Ramsey Clark, The Fire This Time (New York, Thunder’s Mouth), 1994, p.31-32

2.Ibid., p. 52-54

3.Ibid., p. 43

4.Anthony Arnove, Iraq Under Siege, (South End Press Cambridge MA 2000). p. 175.

5.Food and Agricultural Organizaiton, The Children are Dying, 1995 World View Forum, Internationa Action Center, International Relief Association, p. 78

6.Anthony Arnove, Iraq Under Siege, South End Press Cambridge MA 2000. p. 61.

7.David Cortright, A Hard Look at Iraq Sanctions December 3, 2001, The Nation.

U.S-Iraq War 2003-?

1.Jonathan Bor 654,000 Deaths Tied to Iraq War Baltimore Sun , October 11,2006

2.News http://www.unknownnews.net/casualties.html

Israeli-Palestinian War

1.Post-1967 Palestinian & Israeli Deaths from Occupation & Violence May 16, 2006 http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/2006/05/post-1967-palestinian-israeli-deaths.html)

2.Chronology of American State Terrorism

http://www.intellnet.org/resources/american_terrorism/ChronologyofTerror.html

Korea

1.James I. Matray Revisiting Korea: Exposing Myths of the Forgotten War, Korean War Teachers Conference: The Korean War, February 9, 2001http://www.truman/library.org/Korea/matray1.htm

2.William Blum, Killing Hope (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995), p. 46

3.Kanako Tokuno, Chinese Winter Offensive in Korean War – the Debacle of American Strategy, ICE Case Studies Number 186, May, 2006http://www.american.edu/ted/ice/chosin.htm.

4.John G. Stroessinger, Why Nations go to War, (New York; St. Martin’s Press), p. 99)

5.Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, as reported in Answers.comhttp://www.answers.com/topic/Korean-war

6.Exploring the Environment: Korean Enigmawww.cet.edu/ete/modules/korea/kwar.html)

7.S. Brian Wilson, Who are the Real Terrorists? Virtual Truth Commissonhttp://www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/

8.Korean War Casualty Statistics www.century china.com/history/krwarcost.html)

9.S. Brian Wilson, Documenting U.S. War Crimes in North Korea (Veterans for Peace Newsletter) Spring, 2002) http://www.veteransforpeace.org/

Laos

1.William Blum Rogue State (Maine, Common Cause Press) p. 136

2.Chronology of American State Terrorismhttp://www.intellnet.org/resources/american_terrorism/ChronologyofTerror.html

3.Fred Branfman, War Crimes in Indochina and our Troubled National Soul

www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2004/08/00_branfman_us-warcrimes-indochina.htm).

Nepal

1.Conn Hallinan, Nepal & the Bush Administration: Into Thin Air, February 3, 2004

fpif.org/commentary/2004/0402nepal.html.

2.Human Rights Watch, Nepal’s Civil War: the Conflict Resumes, March 2006 )

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/03/28/nepal13078.htm.

3.Wayne Madsen, Possible CIA Hand in the Murder of the Nepal Royal Family, India Independent Media Center, September 25, 2001http://india.indymedia.org/en/2002/09/2190.shtml.

Nicaragua

1.Virtual Truth Commission
http://www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/.

2.Timeline Nicaragua
www.stanford.edu/group/arts/nicaragua/discovery_eng/timeline/).

3.Chronology of American State Terrorism,
http://www.intellnet.org/resources/american_terrorism/ChronologyofTerror.html.

4.William Blum, Nicaragua 1981-1990 Destabilization in Slow Motion

www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Nicaragua_KH.html.

5.Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra_Affair.

Pakistan

1.John G. Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, (New York: St. Martin’s Press), 1974 pp 157-172.

2.Asad Ismi, A U.S. – Financed Military Dictatorship, The CCPA Monitor, June 2002, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives http://www.policyaltematives.ca)www.ckln.fm/~asadismi/pakistan.html

3.Mark Zepezauer, Boomerang (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2003), p.123, 124.

4.Arjum Niaz ,When America Look the Other Way by,

www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=2821&sectionID=1

5.Leo Kuper, Genocide (Yale University Press, 1981), p. 79.

6.Bangladesh Liberation War , Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Liberation_War#USA_and_USSR)

Panama

1.Mark Zepezauer, The CIA’s Greatest Hits, (Odonian Press 1998) p. 83.

2.William Blum, Rogue State (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2000), p.154.

3.U.S. Military Charged with Mass Murder, The Winds 9/96,www.apfn.org/thewinds/archive/war/a102896b.html

4.Mark Zepezauer, CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1994), p.83.

Paraguay See South America: Operation Condor

Philippines

1.Romeo T. Capulong, A Century of Crimes Against the Filipino People, Presentation, Public Interest Law Center, World Tribunal for Iraq Trial in New York City on August 25,2004.
http://www.peoplejudgebush.org/files/RomeoCapulong.pdf).

2.Roland B. Simbulan The CIA in Manila – Covert Operations and the CIA’s Hidden Hisotry in the Philippines Equipo Nizkor Information – Derechos, derechos.org/nizkor/filipinas/doc/cia.

South America: Operation Condor

1.John Dinges, Pulling Back the Veil on Condor, The Nation, July 24, 2000.

2.Virtual Truth Commission, Telling the Truth for a Better Americawww.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/condor.htm)

3.Operation Condorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor#US_involvement).

Sudan

1.Mark Zepezauer, Boomerang, (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 2003), p. 30, 32,34,36.

2.The Black Commentator, Africa Action The Tale of Two Genocides: The Failed US Response to Rwanda and Darfur, 11 August 2006http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091706X.shtml.

Uruguay See South America: Operation Condor

Vietnam

1.Mark Zepezauer, The CIA’S Greatest Hits (Monroe, Maine:Common Courage Press,1994), p 24

2.Casualties – US vs NVA/VC,
http://www.rjsmith.com/kia_tbl.html.

3.Brian Wilson, Virtual Truth Commission
http://www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/

4.Fred Branfman, U.S. War Crimes in Indochiona and our Duty to Truth August 26, 2004

www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=6105&sectionID=1

5.David K Shipler, Robert McNamara and the Ghosts of Vietnamnytimes.com/library/world/asia/081097vietnam-mcnamara.html

Yugoslavia

1.Sara Flounders, Bosnia Tragedy:The Unknown Role of the Pentagon in NATO in the Balkans (New York: International Action Center) p. 47-75

2.James A. Lucas, Media Disinformation on the War in Yugoslavia: The Dayton Peace Accords Revisited, Global Research, September 7, 2005 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=
viewArticle&code=LUC20050907&articleId=899

3.Yugoslav Wars in 1990s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_wars.

4.George Kenney, The Bosnia Calculation: How Many Have Died? Not nearly as many as some would have you think., NY Times Magazine, April 23, 1995

http://www.balkan-archive.org.yu/politics/war_crimes/srebrenica/bosnia_numbers.html)

5.Chronology of American State Terrorism

http://www.intellnet.org/resources/american_terrorism/ChronologyofTerror.html.

6.Croatian War of Independence, Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_War_of_Independence

7.Human Rights Watch, New Figures on Civilian Deaths in Kosovo War, (February 7, 2000) http://www.hrw.org/press/2000/02/nato207.htm.

 

The original source of this article is Popular Resistance and Global ResearchCopyright © James A. LucasPopular Resistance and Global Research, 2020

الأبعاد الاستراتيجيّة لطرد المدمّرة الأميركيّة من بحر الصين الجنوبيّ أميركا تتآكل… الصين الأمر لي

محمد صادق الحسيني

صحيح أن عمليات اختراق الأجواء أو المياة الإقليمية لدولة ما، من قبل تشكيلات جوية او بحرية تابعة لدولة أخرى، ليست نادرة الحدوث، خاصة من قبل قوات حلف الشمال الأطلسي والقوات الأميركية.

لكن قيام المدمرة الأميركية: يو إس إس باري باختراق المياة الإقليمية الصينية، في محيط جزر شيشا (وهي الجزر التي تسميها الدول الغربية: جزر باراسيل والواقعة في بحر الصين الجنوبي، قبالة سواحل مقاطعة هاينان ، وتبعد عن سواحلها حوالي 260 كم، لم يكن حدثاً لا عادياً ولا مقبولاً وانما ذا أهمية استراتيجية عاليةً جداً، وذلك للأسباب التالية:

1

قيام قيادة “مسرح العمليات الجنوبي” في الجيش الشعبي الصيني بإصدار الأوامر الفورية، للوحدات البحرية والجوية الصينية، المسؤولة عن تأمين تلك المنطقة من بحر الصين الجنوبي، باتخاذ الإجراءات الصارمة، لتنفيذ مهامها والاضطلاع بمسؤولياتها الوطنية، ومن ثم قيام تلك الوحدات بمحاصرة المدمّرة الأميركية، بحراً وجواً، وإصدار الأوامر الصارمة لها بمغادرة المياة الإقليمية الصينية حالاً، حسب ما أعلنه العقيد: لي هوآمين يوم الثلاثاء 28/4/2020، حيث قامت الوحدات الصينية بمرافقة المدمّرة الصاروخية الأميركية (مزوّدة بصواريخ موجهة شديدة الدقة) إلى خارج المياة الإقليمية الصينية.

وهذا يعني أن القيادة الصينية كانت صارمة في الردّ على العدوان الأميركي على سيادتها ومياهها الإقليمية، وأنها لن تسمح مطلقاً باستغلال اية ظروف لخرق هذه السيادة، وبالتالي هو إعلان عن استعداد جمهورية الصين الشعبية للدفاع عن مصالحها في بحار الصين وغيرها من البحار المجاورة وصولاً الى غرب المحيط الهادئ (جزيرة غوام).

2

إن قيام هذه المدمرة بعملية الخرق، المذكورة أعلاه، لم يكن الأول وانما الثاني خلال الاثنتين وسبعين ساعة الماضية. وهو ما يدل على رغبة جامحة للولايات المتحدة بأن ترسل إشارات الى جمهورية الصين الشعبية بأنها تعمل على الحفاظ على وجودها (الولايات المتحدة) في غرب المحيط الهادئ وبحار آسيا. وبكلمات أخرى فإنها تحاول عبثاً الإيحاء بأنها قادرة على المحافظة على هذا الوجود. حيث أثبت الجيش الصيني، من خلال عملية طرد المدمرة الأميركية، انه كامل الاستعداد ويتمتع بقدرات عالية جداً، لمنع أي اعتداء على سيادة الصين.

3

إلا أن تصريح الناطق باسم مسرح العمليات الجنوبي، في الجيش الشعبي الصيني، العقيد لي هوآيمين ، قد وضع النقاط على الحروف وحدد الخطوط الصينية الحمراء، أمام القوات البحرية والجوية الأميركية، عندما قال: إن التحركات، البحرية والجوية الأميركية، تهدد الأمن والاستقرار في البحار الصينيّة وفي آسيا، وأن القوات الصينية سوف تؤدي واجبها وتحافظ على السيادة الصينيّة وأمن المنطقة وكذلك على السلام والاستقرار في بحر الصين الجنوبي.
وكلامه هذا يعني بكل وضوح: أن اليد العليا، في تلك البحار، هي للجيش الشعبي الصيني وليست للأساطيل الأميركية. كما أن مسؤولية السلم والاستقرار وحماية الملاحة هي من مسؤوليات الصين وليس غيرها وأن أيّام عربدة الأساطيل الأميركية في بحار العالم قد ولّت الى غير رجعة.

4

إن ما أضافه الناطق باسم قيادة مسرح العمليات الجنوبي، في الجيش الصيني، في تصريحه من أن الصين تحثّ الولايات المتحدة، على التركيز على مقاومة وباء كورونا والتصدي له في الولايات المتحدة، والمساهمة في التصدي لهذا الوباء، على الصعيد العالمي، والتوقف الفوري عن هذه العمليات (العسكرية / التحرشات)، ضد الأمن الإقليمي والسلام والاستقرار (في جنوب شرق آسيا).

وهذا كلام يعكس مدى الاستعداد الصيني لمواجهة العربدة البحرية والجوية الأميركية. فعندما يقول الناطق أن على الولايات المتحدة التوقف الفوري عن استفزازاتها فإنه، من الناحية العملية يصدر أمراً تحذيرياً للقطع البحرية الأميركية ويقول لها إنّ الجيش الصيني مستعدّ لاتخاذ الإجراءات الضرورية لوضع حدّ لخروقاتها اذا لم تلتزم هي بهذا الأمر. وهو دليل آخر على جدية الصين، في هذه المواجهة، وعلى تآكل الهيمنة البحرية والجوية الأميركية في تلك المنطقة.

5

وفِي الإطار نفسه تأتي أقوال الخبير العسكري الصيني، في معهد الابحاث والدراسات العسكرية البحرية في الجيش الشعبي الصيني، شانغ جونشي ، التي أدلى بها لصحيفة غلوبال تايمز الصينية بتاريخ 28/4/2020، ونصح فيها الولايات المتحدة بالتخلي عن عقلية الحرب الباردة والالتفات لحياة جنودها ومعالجتهم من وباء الكورونا بدلاً من مواصلة هذه التحرشات.


ففي ذلك رسالة جديدة لواشنطن بأن القعقعة بالصواريخ الأميركية لم تعد تخيف أحداً، خاصة في ظل وجود صواريخ صينية مضادة للسفن، سرعتها خمسة أضعاف سرعة الصوت، وتطلق من الأرض ومن البحر وقادرة على تدمير أية حاملة طائرات أميركيّة بضربة واحدة.

6

أما ما يعزّز تراجع القدرات الأميركية، وبالتالي الدور الأميركي، في غرب المحيط الهادئ وبحار الصين فهو قيام القيادة الاستراتيجية الأميركية، يوم 16/4/2020، بسحب قاذفات القنابل الخمس من طراز / B 52 /، من القاعدة الجوية الأميركية في جزيرة غوام، وإعادتها الى الولايات المتحدة، بعد انتشارها هناك لمدة ١٦ عاماً متواصلة، وذلك بسبب وجود القاعدة في مدى الصواريخ الروسية والصينية والكورية الشمالية، حسب ما صرّحت بة كيت أناستاسوف، الناطقة باسم القيادة الاستراتيجية الأميركية، لموقع ديفينس نيوز الأميركي بتاريخ 16/4/2020.

اذاً فإنّ السيدة، المذكورة أعلاه، تعترف بأنّ زمن الهيمنة الأميركية قد ولّى وأنّ التفوق التكنولوجي، سواء العسكري أو المعلوماتي والفيزيائي (الأسلحة الكهرومغناطيسية)، لكلّ من روسيا والصين وقريباً إيران، على مستوى التسلح الأميركي قد أصبح عاملاً فاعلاً في إفراغ عمليات الحشد الاستراتيجي الأميركي، ضدّ الصين وروسيا، من محتواها. كما أن أقوال الناطقة باسم القيادة الاستراتيجية الأميركية، عن أن القاذفات المذكورة أعلاه، سوف تقوم بمهماتها انطلاقاً من بحار أخرى لا يلغي أن البحار والأجواء أخذت تضيق، أمام العدوان الأميركي، وأن سياسة الصين، في انشاء مناطق ( 2 A ) او أنتي أكسيس ، وهي المناطق الممنوع الدخول إليها. وكذلك مناطق ( AD ) او إيريا دينايال ، أي المناطق المحظورة، قد أثبتت فعاليتها الشديدة وأنها بدأت تطبق حرفياً في مسارح العمليات المختلفة. الأمر الذي يجب أن يوضع في اطار كونه الخطوة الأساسية في اخراج القوات والقواعد، البحرية والجوية، من كل بلدان وبحار العالم، بما في ذلك منطقة الخليج والجزيرة العربية وإعادة هذه الاسلحة والجيوش الى الولايات المتحدة في سبيل المساهمة في الحد من الإنفاق العسكري الاميركي واستثمار هذه الأموال في تطوير البنى التحتية الأميركية ووضع حد للسياسة العدوانية الأميركية المتوحّشة والتي أثبتت أنها سياسة فاشلة غير قادرة على تأمين أدنى مستلزمات الرعاية الصحية، لا للجيش الاميركي ولا للشعب الاميركي نفسه، في ظل الوباء الذي يجتاح الولايات المتحدة. هذا علاوة على انها وقفت عاجزة امام هذا الوباء، على الصعيد الدولي، وأصبحت دولة تنتظر المساعدات الطبية من كل حدب وصوب وهي أقرب الى وضع الدولة الفاشلة من وضع الدولة العظمى.

والله غالب على أمره، ولكن أكثر الناس لا يعلمون.

بعدنا طيبين، قولوا الله…