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Turks Vote on Controversial Referendum
Stephen Lendman
On Sunday, Turkish voters are deciding up or down on whether to replace its parliamentary system with a presidential one.
At stake is giving wannabe-sultan Erdogan vastly increased authority or rejecting his attempted power-grab.
He already rules with an iron fist. If adopted, an 18-article constitutional amendment will grant him greater concentrated power.
Changes would abolish the office of prime minister and the cabinet. Erdogan would have authority to rule by decree, giving him virtual dictatorial power - other than not being able to circumvent existing laws.
Korean Peninsula Brinksmanship
Stephen Lendman
For a day at least, Washington and Pyongyang stepped back from the brink.
The DPRK refrained from conducting an expected sixth nuclear test, likely postponed, not cancelled.
Trump showed restraint by not belligerently reining on North Korea’s Day of the Sun commemorative parade, honoring its founder Kim Il-sung’s 105th birthday.
All quiet on the eastern front held on Saturday, fireworks perhaps coming later at a time of Trump’s choosing.
Potentially devastating Korean peninsula war threatens the entire region, catastrophic if nuclear confrontation erupts.
More Proof that Trump’s Attack on Syria Was a War Crime
Eric Zuesse
America’s top expert on analyzing intelligence of the types that were involved in determining the cause of the April 4th gas-attack in Syria is Dr. Theodore Postol of MIT, and he has now thoroughly analyzed all of the ‘evidence’ that the White House alleges in its White Intelligence House Report on that event to have ‘proven’ that Syria’s government perpetrated the gas-attack. He published his third study of the alleged evidence, this time concerning the video evidence on it, on Saturday April 15th at Washington’s Blog, under the headline "Video Evidence of False Claims Made in the White House Intelligence Report of April 11, 2017”.
He says there that “the White House Intelligence Report of April 11, 2017 contains false and misleading claims that could not possibly have been accepted in any professional review by impartial intelligence experts. The White House Intelligence Report was produced by the National Security Council under the oversight of the National Security Advisor, Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster.” He is here implicitly accusing the U.S. National Security Advisor of fraud, and of a war-crime (lying to ‘justify’ an invasion), and by further implication is alleging in this study, that the U.S. President is either a fool or else is himself complicit in this manufactured ‘justification’ for his U.S. invasion of Syria and thus an international war-criminal by this act.
Dr. Postol's “Summary and Conclusions” opens by saying: “It is now clear from video evidence that the White House Intelligence Report was fabricated without input from the professional intelligence community.” In other words: it is fake, and is, moreover, an amateurish fake, an incompetent fake.
China’s Chilling Warning
Stephen Lendman
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi minced no words, warning war could erupt “at any moment” on the Korean peninsula.
Whoever provokes it “must assume the historic responsibility and pay the corresponding price, he stressed, explaining dangerously escalating tensions during a press conference with his French counterpart, Jean-marc Ayrault.
“Once war (begins), the result will be nothing but loss all around, and no one will be a winner,” Wang stressed.
Satellite imagery suggests Pyongyang could conduct its sixth underground nuclear test any time. A belligerent US response might follow, risking nuclear war on the Korean peninsula.
What the U.S. Aristocracy Are Demanding
Eric Zuesse
The U.S. aristocracy are demanding war against Russia.
According to Eli Lake at Bloomberg News, on April 13th:
White House and administration officials familiar with the current debate tell me there is no consensus on how many troops to send to Syria and Iraq. Two sources told me one plan would envision sending up to 50,000 troops. … But on Sunday [April 9th] in an interview with Fox News, [Trump’s National Security Advisor, H.R.] McMaster gave some insights into his thinking on the broader strategy against the Islamic State. "We are conducting very effective operations alongside our partners in Syria and in Iraq to defeat ISIS, to destroy ISIS and reestablish control of that territory, control of those populations, protect those populations, allow refugees to come back, begin reconstruction," he said.
In other words, the U.S. missile-invasion of Syria on April 4th was only the start of something much bigger: conquering the Syrian government, and conquering Russia’s forces in Syria, which forces are currently defending Syria’s government, with the American aim being to "reestablish control of that territory, control of those populations, protect those populations, allow refugees to come back, begin reconstruction.” But the “reestablish” part there is a lie, because ‘we’ never ‘established’ control of Syrian territory. ‘We’ never had “control of those populations.” That’s instead sovereign Syrian territory, which the Trump Administration is now debating how to conquer. Trump’s top people are saying “there is no consensus on how many troops” but “one plan would envision sending up to 50,000,” to go to war against Syria and Russia, on Syrian territory, and not only against the jihadists there, which Syria and Russia have been trying to defeat (and which the U.S. and its allies — the Sauds who own Saudi Arabia, and the Thanis who own Qatar, and other fundamentalist-Sunni heads-of-state — have been backing in order to defeat Syria and Russia). So: Trump is actually at war now against Russia and its allies, Syria and Iran. Trump is now continuing and escalating Obama’s policy, which he had promised instead to reverse.
Trump, who became President promising to be single-mindedly focused on defeating “radical Islamic terrorism,” is now planning on defeating Syria and Russia instead, who are fighting against radical Islamic terrorists, which are trying to overthrow Syria’s non-sectarian government, which is defended by both Russia and Iran.
Trump Invades Somalia
Stephen Lendman
Bookmakers must be wondering how many wars he’ll wage during his tenure.
He continues Bush/Cheney/Obama wars, escalated them in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, likely intends more combat troops for Afghanistan, threatens nuclear war on the Korean peninsula, and targets Somalia for the first time since US forces were withdrawn in 1994.
Sending dozens, perhaps scores, even hundreds of US combat troops isn’t exactly an invasion. Besides, US special forces operated there at times for years - illegally on the territory of another country.
Big things usually start small. US forces in Somalia may signal many more to come. Obama waged covert drone war on the strategically important Horn of Africa.
Trump Considering Preemptive Strikes on North Korea’s Nuclear Sites
Stephen Lendman
US imperial madness risks catastrophic nuclear war. Its reckless agenda makes the unthinkable possible.
The late Gabriel Kolko said “(t)he way America’s leaders are running the nation’s foreign policy is not creating peace or security at home or stability abroad” - just the reverse.
America is the most reckless, ruthless nation in world history. The late Chalmers Johnson explained its “empire abroad requires resources and commitments that will inevitably undercut (the republic and) produce a military dictatorship or its civilian equivalent.”
“The founders of our nation understood this well and tried to create a form of government - a republic - that would prevent this from occurring.”
“But the combination of huge standing armies, almost continuous wars, military Keynesianism, and ruinous military expenses have destroyed our republican structure in favor of an imperial presidency.”
Lavrov Diplomatically Blasts Tillerson
Stephen Lendman
Lavrov is a world-class diplomat, shaming his Western counterparts.
Tillerson is still transitioning from Big Oil to diplomacy, clearly out of his element, amateurish and dishonest compared to Lavrov’s professionalism and integrity.
In his opening remarks during their April 12 meeting, Lavrov raised concerns about deplorable bilateral relations, saying they “provoked many questions (about) Washington’s confusing and sometimes openly contradictory ideas on the entire range of bilateral and international issues.
Trump Is Losing Some of His Base
Eric Zuesse
The main pro-Trump news-site, Breitbart News, is getting predominantly negative reader-comments on its articles that relate to Russia and the war in Syria. Whereas the reporters who write the articles trumpet the Trump line, the leading reader-comments to those Trump-trumpeters, under “Sort by Best” (meaning that at the top are the comments that have the highest net number of up-marks from readers, which indicates that the given comment is shared by the largest number of the readership), are hostile toward Trump, and are disappointed in the site itself for its remaining pro-Trump on the given matter.
For example, the April 11th article “In Trump White House, Wildcard Putin Faces First Assertive America of His Career” presents Trump as being the type of anti-Putin leader that America has long needed, so that:
Neither presidents George W. Bush nor Barack Obama responded to Putin’s belligerence on the world stage with decisive action. On the contrary, both attempted to establish friendly personal relations, treating Putin as a democratic leader with no ambition beyond his borders. Trump’s foreign policy, despite months of mainstream media coverage arguing the contrary, is to treat Putin’s Russia as a rogue state until it proves otherwise by eschewing Assad.
Trust Between Russia and America Kaput
Stephen Lendman
Candidate Trump said “Putin has done a really great job…I think I’d get along very well with” him…
“I have always felt that Russia and the United States should be able to work well with each other towards defeating terrorism and restoring world peace, not to mention trade and all of the other benefits derived from mutual respect.”
“…(T)here’s nothing I can think of that I’d rather do than have Russia friendly, as opposed to the way they are right now, so that we can go and knock out ISIS with other people.”
These and similar comments gave hope for improved bilateral relations under a Trump administration. Instead, things soured dramatically in short order on his watch.
He destroyed hopes for mutual trust and geopolitical cooperation. Chances for better US/Russia relations are nil.
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