Pages: << 1 ... 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 ... 1279 >>
East Asia Nuclear Roulette
Stephen Lendman
The UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) warned about possible nuclear war, by design or accident, calling the risk highest since the end of the Cold War.
Nine nations have nukes: America, Russia, China, Britain, France, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.
Given heightened world tensions, especially in East Asia, the Middle East, and US hostility toward multiple countries, possible nuclear war may be inevitable, perhaps just a matter of time.
In 1982 testimony before Congress, founder of America’s nuclear navy Admiral Hyman Rickover said “(t)he lesson of history is when a war starts, every nation will ultimately use whatever weapon(s) it has available.”
“I think the human race is going to wreck itself, and it is important that we get control of this horrible (nuclear) force and try to eliminate it.” His warning went unheeded. Einstein and Bertrand Russell warned about the same thing, Russell saying “(s)hall we put an end to the human race, or shall mankind renounce war.” The risk is eventual annihilation.
French Presidential Election Results Unpredicatable
Stephen Lendman
No matter who becomes France’s next president, dirty business as usual will likely triumph - like in all US elections, other Western ones and most others elsewhere. Rare exceptions prove the rule.
Last November, choice for Americans was between death by hanging or firing squad. French voters face the same dilemma.
On election eve, over one-fourth of the electorate was undecided, more concerned about jobs and the economy (pocketbook issues) than terrorism. Many believe presidential aspirants are largely the same each time elections are held, no matter what they say campaigning.
France Votes
Stephen Lendman
A state of emergency exists, declared by outgoing President Hollande in November 2015 after the Paris Charlie Hebdo/kosher market false flag attacks.
At the time, Hollande called what happened “an act of war,” suspending constitutional rule, followed by lawmakers enacting France’s version of America’s Patriot Act.
He and parliamentarians exploited the incidents to crack down hard on civil liberties, human rights, and other democratic principles. Fear-mongering propaganda persists, convincing people to believe sacrificing fundamental freedoms protects their security.
Trump Trying to Force Putin to Capitulate
Eric Zuesse
The Trump Administration is demanding Russian President Vladimir Putin to abandon support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and has blocked at the United Nations an investigation-team's being sent to the alleged site of the alleged sarin-gas attack that the Trump Administration alleges was perpetrated by the forces of Assad. Instead of allowing an international team to investigate, President Trump’s team, on Monday April 24th, headlined that it "Sanctions 271 Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center Staff in Response to Sarin Attack on Khan Sheikhoun”, so as to "target the scientific support center for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s horrific chemical weapons attack on innocent civilian men, women, and children.”
Russian Television reported U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, on April 6th, two days after the alleged sarin attack, as essentially demanding Putin’s capitulation, regarding the Syrian war:
“'It is very important that the Russian government consider carefully their support for Bashar al-Assad.’ Tillerson added. Asked if the US will lead a regime change effort in Syria, Tillerson said that 'those steps are underway.'”
Russia and America: World’s Apart on Key Issues
Stephen Lendman
Trump promised improved relations with Moscow. Bilateral ones are dismal on his watch, US hostility worse than any time in recent memory.
Russia wants peaceful conflict resolution in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Ukraine and elsewhere. Washington wants endless wars, escalating ongoing ones, threatening North Korea and Iran.
Are Russia and China on its target list? Will unthinkable nuclear war erupt on the Korean peninsula, in the Middle East or elsewhere? Lavrov and Tillerson agreed on launching a joint working group to seek ways of improving bilateral relations, according to Russia’s Foreign Ministry.
Israel’s War on Syria
Stephen Lendman
Israel partners with America’s war on Syria, aiming for maximum slaughter, destruction, chaos, human suffering and regime change.
Netanyahu supports ISIS and other terrorist groups, supplying them with weapons, other aid, and medical care for their wounded fighters in Israeli hospitals.
The IDF terror-bombs Syria at its discretion, another incident on Friday. The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said: “A military source announced on Friday evening that the Israeli enemy’s warplanes fired two missiles at 18:45 from within occupied territory at a military position in the surroundings of Khan Arnabeh in Quneitra countryside, causing material damage.”
US Provocation and North Korea: Pretext for War with China
James Petras
Introduction
US Empire building on a world-scale began during and shortly after WWII. Washington intervened directly in the Chinese civil war (providing arms to Chiang Kai Shek’s army while the Red Army battled the Japanese), backed France’s re-colonization war against the Viet Minh in Indo-China and installed Japanese imperial collaborator-puppet regimes in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. While empire building took place with starts and stops, advances and defeats, the strategic goal remained the same: to prevent the establishment of independent communist or secular-nationalist governments and to impose vassal regimes compliant to US interests.
Bloody wars and coups (‘regime changes’) were the weapons of choice. Defeated European colonial regimes were replaced and incorporated as subordinate US allies.
Where possible, Washington relied on armies of mercenaries trained, equipped and directed by US ‘advisors’ to advance imperial conquests. Where necessary, usually if the client regime and vassal troops were unable to defeat an armed people’s army, the US armed forces intervened directly.
Imperial strategists sought to intervene and brutally conquer the target nation. When they failed to achieve their ‘maximum’ goal, they dug in with a policy of encirclement to cut the links between revolutionary centers with adjoining movements. Where countries successfully resisted armed conquests, empire builders imposed economic sanctions and blockades to erode the economic basis of popular governments.
Russia and Iran Committed to Combatting Terrorism in Syria
Stephen Lendman
Trump administration officials demand Russia and Iran stop supporting Assad’s battle against terrorist invaders or face harsh recrimination and further alienation from Washington.
They want their anti-terrorist operations halted, Assad ousted, replaced by a pro-Western stooge and Syrian sovereignty destroyed.
On Sunday, Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani discussed conditions in Syria. They called Trump’s aggression against a sovereign state a grave breach of international law, aiding terrorist groups instead of combating them, undermining peace talks instead of supporting them.
On Monday, Rouhani warned about further US aggression against Syria, saying it could endanger the entire region.
US War on Whistleblowers
Stephen Lendman
Truth-telling in America is endangered. Free and open expression is our most fundamental right, all others threatened without it.
Exposing government wrongdoing is courageous and essential. Obama waged war on press freedom and whistleblowing. Trump continues his outrageous agenda.
When governments consider truth-telling independent journalists and whistleblowers threats to national security, tyranny replaces freedom. In 2012, the Obama administration declared WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange an enemy of the state, forcing him to take refuge in Ecuador’s London embassy to avoid unjust arrest, extradition to America and imprisonment to silence him - not for any crimes. He committed none.
Terrorists Are Terrorists and Not Rebels in Syria
Stephen Lendman
Waging war depends on disinformation, deception and Big Lies - used to justify the unjustifiable.
Conflict in Syria isn’t civil. All anti-government forces are US-supported terrorists. Names of different groups don’t matter.
They’re all cut out of the same cloth. Their aims are pure evil. They can’t exist without foreign support. State actors bear full responsibility for turning Syria into a charnel house. After over six years of war, hundreds of thousands are dead, mostly defenseless men, women, children, the elderly and infirm - millions internally or externally displaced.
<< 1 ... 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 ... 1279 >>
