Category Archives: Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy

Keith Preston: Trump’s willingness to abide by peace agreement with North Korea unclear Reply

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy • Tags: , , ,

Press TV. Listen here.

The government of North Korea is determined to establishing peaceful relations with the United States and denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, but President Donald Trump’s willingness to abide by any agreement is unclear, says an American political analyst in Virginia.

“The regime of [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-un is serious about wanting to make some sort of international peace with the United States for a variety of reasons,” said Keith Preston, chief editor of AttacktheSystem.com.

“The evidence is that they are indeed sincere about wanting to pursue some sort of agreement with the United States; the question how much the United States going to be willing to give,” Preston told Press TV on Thursday.

Trump said Tuesday Washington was stopping “very provocative” and “very expensive” military exercises with South Korea to facilitate denuclearization negotiations with North Korea.

The United States and South Korea hold regular military drills to the fury of North Korea, which has long seen the drills as preparations to invade it.

“The war games are very expensive, we pay for the majority of them,” Trump told a news conference on in Singapore after a historic summit with Kim.

Trump’s announcement was a surprise even to the government of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, which worked in recent months to help bring about the Trump-Kim summit.

“We will be stopping the war games which will save us a tremendous amount of money, unless and until we see the future negotiation is not going along like it should. But we’ll be saving a tremendous amount of money, plus I think it’s very provocative,” Trump said.

Pentagon officials were not immediately able to provide any details about Trump’s remarks about suspending military drills, a step the US military has long resisted.

Trump and Kim promised in a joint statement to work toward the “denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula, and the United States promised its Cold War foe security guarantees.

Trump and Kim arrived in Singapore on Sunday to hold the first ever face-to-face meeting between leaders of the two countries, which have remained enemies since the 1950-1953 Korean War.

While the summit is seen as a test for diplomacy that could end the long-running nuclear standoff, foreign policy experts say the stakes are high if it does not result in a nuclear agreement.

Henry Kissinger has ‘advised Donald Trump to accept’ Crimea as part of Russia Reply

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy • Tags: , , , ,

Kissinger represents a ruling class faction that wants to extend the olive branch to Russia in order to create conflict within the BRIICS axis. Tillerson was also associated with that faction, and that’s why Tillerson was initially chosen as Sec of State. When Tillerson was forced out it was a sign that the Deep State faction was gaining the upper hand in the Trump administration. The Deep State is more concerned with protecting the cash flow and power base of the military-industrial-intelligence apparatus, so they always need an official enemy to be at war with. Reviving the Cold War with Russia is a good means to that end. Kissinger represents the uber-globalist faction of the elite that ‘s more about consolidating the empire on the international level by subsuming unruly provinces and bringing them into the fold, or dividing and conquering them when that doesn’t work. See here.

By Andrew Buncombe

The Independent

Is the veteran US diplomat Henry Kissinger working to secure a rapprochement between the US and Moscow by pushing for an end to sanctions in exchange for the removal of Russian troops from eastern Ukraine?

A flurry of reports suggest the 93-year-old diplomat is positioning himself as a intermediary between Vladimir Putin and President-elect Donald Trump. He has publicly praised Mr Trump, and traveled to Trump Tower in New York to offer his counsel built on decades of lobbying and diplomacy.

A report in the German tabloid Der Bild headlined ‘Kissinger to prevent new Cold War’, claimed the former envoy was working towards a new relationship with Russia.

This would involve the US accepting that Crimea, a Ukrainian territory that Russia seized in March 2014, now belongs to Moscow. In exchange, Russia would remove troops and military supplies to rebels in eastern Ukraine which have fighting a war against the Ukrainian government.

The report did not provide details, but claimed that “sources” said that Mr Kissinger was drawing up a “master plan” for Ukraine.

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The Role of the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East Reply

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Uncategorized • Tags:

By Keith Preston

Press TV.

A handout image made available by the Emirati WAM news agency on September 5, 2015 shows Emirati armed forces carrying the bodies of comrades killed the previous day in Yemen.

The United Arab Emirates is rapidly emerging as an influential player in Middle Eastern politics, and geopolitical relationships in the region. The UAE has experienced a remarkable rise in influence over the course of the past few decades. However, for much of its history as an independent nation, the UAE maintained a stance on international relations that was largely one of neutrality. Under the leadership of the former president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, the country often served as a mediating force in conflicts between Arab or Islamic nations. Because of the UAE’s neutral stance, it was often referred to as the “Switzerland of the Middle East.” However, the foreign policy of the UAE underwent an abrupt change following the death of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan in 2004, and the ascension to power of his son, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. Under the leadership of Mohammed bin Zayed, the UAE has rapidly abandoned its former neutral stance, and moved into an alliance with the American-Israeli-Saudi triangle, serving as an aggressive, disruptive, and destructive force in the Middle East in the process.

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Bill Lind on International Geopolitics Reply

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Uncategorized • Tags:

Leading fourth generation warfare theorist Bill Lind has a number of important new posts on international relations/foreign policy up on the Traditional Right blog.

By William S. Lind

Traditional Right

A Disastrous Decision-Or is it? (on Trump, Iran and North Korea)

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Israel, Gaza, and Fourth Generation Warfare

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Another Strategic Blunder (on Syria)

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Solving the China Trade Problem

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The Worst Possible Choice (On John Bolton)

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If we’re headed for regime change in Iran, get ready for a military draft. We’ll need one. 2

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Uncategorized • Tags: ,

A reminder of why the anti-Vietnam War movement was one of the most important, if not the most important, movements in US history, and why the movement never really receives the level of commemoration of other past movements. Notice that there are no schools or streets named after the leading figures in the anti-Vietnam War movement The American Revolution was a landmark historical event, but one that provides the founding myths of the system. The victory of the Union in the Civil War consolidated the foundation for the American empire. Movements like abolition, women’s suffrage, labor, civil rights, gay rights and environmentalism can be pointed out as examples of social progress, and incorporated into the System. The two World Wars helped the USA become a world empire. The US got an Asian satellite state out of the Korean War. But the Vietnam War was a major defeat, a major victory for the anti-colonial movements of the postwar period, and an embarrassment to the establishment that the power elite would prefer to sweep under the rug.

It is because of the legacy of the anti-Vietnam War movement that the draft is no longer politically feasible, and that Americans will not accept imperialist war if its requires any sacrifices on their side. The Vietnam War was also the last major interstate conflict between wars between states began giving way to fourth generation warfare.

By Gil Barndollar

USA Today

With U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the installation of John Bolton as national security adviser, new sanctions and demands on Iran and a White House that appears committed to doing the heavy lifting for our friends and allies, regime change in Iran may well be back on the menu.

Should a serious public relations campaign for regime change begin, we will assuredly hear some familiar songs: the mullahs’ theocracy is weak and will swiftly collapse; our “man in Tehran” will be embraced by the people; the war will practically pay for itself; and most important, we won’t need to put any American “boots on the ground.”

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Forget the Russophobia/Russophilia: There is Only One System 6

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Economics/Class Relations, Uncategorized

In recent times, there has been a great deal of concentration on Russia as either the embodiment of evil, or as humankind’s last best hope. Russia is being portrayed by Democrats as the puppetmasters behind Trumpism, by the “antifascists” as the new headquarters of world fascism, and by some on the Right as the saviors of (pick one) the white man, traditional values, Christianity, etc. Meanwhile, some on the far Left have assumed a Cold War-era stance by proclaiming Russia to be the leadership of the global anti-imperialist resistance.

All of these points of view are wrong. The reality is that Russia is merely another player in the global-super-capitalist empire. How can a nation that is a member of the G20, and which holds a permanent seat on the UN Security Council be anything else? It is true that Russia has become increasingly resurgent in recent years after the dismal period of the 1990s. But Russia is still a long way from having the power it had even during the Soviet era (which was only made possible by Western aid in the first place), much less presenting a credible threat to American hegemony.

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The Empire Strikes Back? Reply

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Left and Right, Uncategorized

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It is fascinating to observe the kind of paranoia that is now being disseminated by the Western elites in the face of the rising though very modest challenges that are now being presented by the BRICS-Shia-Global South alliance in international relations, and by left/right populist tendencies within Western nations. It seems the neoliberal ruling classes are working to invent a New Cold War. They tried once before with the “War on Terrorism.” But nobody outside the realm of FOX News junkies was buying that. So they came up with an enemy that wine and cheese liberals and “progressive activists” could hate as well, with Russia as the supposed headquarters of “world fascism,” allegedly sponsoring insurgent fascist regimes, parties, and movements all over the world. Joe McCarthy would be proud.

Iranians respond to the regime: ‘Leave Syria alone! Reply

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Uncategorized • Tags: ,

Caveat: Al-Jazeera is owned by the state of Qatar, which is one of the Gulf States backing the jihadi war in Syria, along with Saudi Arabia.

By Ali Fathollah-Nejad

Al Jazeera

This is the second part of the article. Click here to read the first part focusing on the Islamic Republic’s efforts to control the official narrative on Syria.

While the Islamic Republic of Iran has been a staunch supporter of Bashar al-Assad‘s regime in Syria, little attention has been paid on public attitudes within the country.

While Tehran has tried to maintain complete control over information regarding the war in Syria and the narrative about its military involvement, it has not fully succeeded. The “war on terror” and “axis of resistance” rhetoric have not been enough to mollify the Iranian public and its demand for accountability.

Despite the Iranian state media’s blackout on issues related to the Syrian war, Iranians’ propensity to consult a myriad of Persian-language media sources abroad has kept them well informed.

Rising societal awareness about Tehran’s Syria military intervention has undermined the regime’s monopoly of interpretation, and Iranian officials have increasingly had to face questions from the public about its moral and economic dimensions.

Recent protests and public encounters have shown that Iranians are increasingly unhappy about their country’s involvement in Syria. The war is having an aggravating effect on already growing political and socioeconomic grievances at home.

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Neoconservatism: Where Trotsky Meets Stalin and Hitler Reply

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Left and Right • Tags: , ,

One of the best articles on the neocons I have seen to date.

By Srdja Trifkovic

Chronicles

Eleven years ago I wrote a column for the print edition of Chronicles under this title. Tom Piatak’s grim reminder of the continued destructive presence of this cabal in what passes for the commentariat in today’s America has prompted me to dig into my old files and recap for our readers the historical and ideological roots of neoconservatism. The 2004 diagnosis, reproduced here in an abbreviated form, still stands.

The neoconservatives are often depicted as former Trotskyites who have morphed into a new, closely related life form. It is pointed out that many early neocons—including The Public Interest founder Irving Kristol and coeditor Nathan Glazer, Sidney Hook, and Albert Wohlstetter—belonged to the anti-Stalinist far left in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and that their successors, including Joshua Muravchik and Carl Gershman, came to neoconservatism through the Socialist Party at a time when it was Trotskyite in outlook and politics. As early as 1963 Richard Hofstadter commented on the progression of many ex-Communists from the paranoid left to the paranoid right, clinging all the while to the fundamentally Manichean psychology that underlies both. [Half a century] later the dominant strain of neoconservatism is declared to be a mixture of geopolitical militarism and “inverted socialist internationalism.”

Blanket depictions of neoconservatives as redesigned Trotskyites need to be corrected in favor of a more nuanced analysis. In several important respects the neoconservative world outlook has diverged from the Trotskyite one and acquired some striking similarities with Stalinism and German National Socialism. Today’s neoconservatives share with Stalin and Hitler an ideology of nationalist socialism and internationalist imperialism. The similarities deserve closer scrutiny and may contribute to a better understanding of the most influential group in the U.S. foreign policy-making community.

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Antifa or Antiwar: Leftist Exclusionism Against the Quest for Peace 1

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Left and Right

By Diana Johnstone

Unz.Com

CounterPunch has astonished many of its old fans by its current fundraising ad portraying the site as a prime target of Russia hostility. Under the slogan, “We have all the right enemies”, CP portrays itself as a brave little crew being blown off the water by an evil Russian warship out to eliminate “lefty scum.”

Ha Ha Ha, it’s all a joke of course. But it’s a joke that plays into the dangerous, current Russophobia promoted by Clintonite media, the deep state and the War Party. This is a reminder that Russophobia finds a variant in the writing of several prominent CounterPunch contributors.

Yes, CounterPunch continues to publish many good articles, but appears also to be paying its tribute to the establishment narrative.

Put on the defensive by the “fake news” assault against independent media, CP senior editor Jeffrey St Clair seemed to be shaken by Washington Post allegations that he had published articles by a “Russian troll” named Alice Donovan. St Clair never publicly questioned the FBI claim that the ephemeral plagiarist worked for the Kremlin, when she could as well have been planted by the FBI itself or some other agency, precisely in order to embarrass and intimidate the independent website.

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Keith Preston: Trump does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize 1

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy • Tags: ,

Press TV. Listen here.

US President Donald Trump does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize because his foreign policy is creating tensions in the Middle East, an American journalist says.

According to a new poll a majority of Americans believe Trump does not deserve receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. Just 24 percent of registered voters said that Trump deserves the award, compared to 61 percent who said he does not, a Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday found.

“Trump has been in office for almost a year and a half; already during the time he has been in office he has launched two major attacks on Syria – about a year apart – under dubious circumstances. He’s also made an enormous arms deal with Saudi Arabia even if Saudi Arabia continues to engage in genocide in Yemen and Saudi Arabia’s own eastern province,” said Keith Preston, chief editor and director of AttacktheSystem.com.

“Donald Trump has also been more supportive of Israel than probably just about any president of the United Sates has been.”

Preston said US support of the aggressions of Israel and the actions of Saudi Arabia, and also Trump’s termination of the nuclear agreement with Iran has nothing to do with promoting global peace and stability.

“The idea that the Trump administration is somehow advancing world peace is nonsense.”

Preston cautioned about overvaluing the Nobel Prize arguing that in the 70s “Henry Kissinger was given the Nobel Peace Prize even as the United Sates was waging a genocidal war in Southeast Asia.”

“[Former President] Barack Obama was given a Nobel Peace Prize only a few months after assuming office when he really had done nothing that merited any kind of recognition of that type.”

Dear Leftists: Going on Tucker Carlson Is Not Going to Stop Imperialism 1

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Left and Right, Uncategorized

There is quite a bit I disagree with in this article, but it is good to see someone from the Left arguing that anti-imperialism should be a priority issue.

By Noah Berlatsky

Pacific Standard

Tucker Carlson interviews Glenn Greenwald about U.S. strikes in Syria on April 10th, 2018.

Tucker Carlson interviews Glenn Greenwald about U.S. strikes in Syria on April 10th, 2018.

(Photo: YouTube)

“I just feel like I had my best girlfriend break up with me,” Alex Jones declared in a live rant last month during the American bombing of Syria. “I will tell Trump that you really betrayed your family and your name, and everything you stood for with this horse manure.”

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The Donald’s Done—The Deep State’s Wins Its War On America First Reply

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Uncategorized • Tags:

By David Stockman

The Donald’s action to ash-can the Iranian nuclear deal marks the War Party’s complete and baleful triumph. There is now absolutely nothing left of America First.

Trump’s reckless, unwarranted and utterly irrational action will pull Washington ever deeper into an incendiary middle eastern vortex of political and religious conflict that has absolutely nothing to do with safety and security of the America people.

To the contrary, picking a fight with Tehran is an exercise in unprovoked Imperial aggression. The Iranian regime has no means to attack America militarily and has never threatened to do so. Nor has it invaded any other country in the region where it was not invited by a sovereign government host.

Even the minor skirmishes with American forces in recent years have been owing to the happenstance of Washington’s far-flung imperial ventures.

For example, Washington destroyed Saddam’s Sunni/secular government in Iraq and installed a Shiite regime in Baghdad, thereby leaving the Sunni lands of western Iraq in chaos. Only then did Baghdad invite their shiite co-religionists from Iran to help excise the scourge of ISIS that formed from the remnants of Saddam’s army and government.

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Why You Should Celebrate Loudly And Unapologetically When John McCain Dies Reply

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Uncategorized • Tags:

By Caitlin Johnstone

Arizona Senator and murderous psychopath John McCain is rumored to be at death’s door, and already the world is being admonished by high-profile empire loyalists not to voice any criticism of his blood-saturated, obnoxiously long career.

“Anti-McCain twitter seems to have reached new heights (or depths) of repulsiveness,” tweeted Iraq-raping PNAC founder Bill Kristol to thunderous applause from #Resistance Twitter. “In the hope that a few of the haters see this, let me say: I’m proud to have voted for John McCain for president three times (2000 & 2008 primaries & 2008 general), and for Donald Trump…never.”

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Russia: ‘outrageous’ use of force against protesters 1

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Uncategorized

During the Cold War, some anarchists developed a tendency known as “Neither East nor West” for the purpose of opposing both superpowers and their satellites. As the Eastern axis continues to rise in opposition to the Western axis, such tendencies will be necessary once again.

Amnesty International UK

Following the forceful dispersal of today’s (5 May) peaceful opposition rallies in Moscow and all over Russia, and the inaction of the police who allowed the beating of protesters by unknown people in ‘Cossack’-style uniforms, Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said:

“The forceful dispersal of today’s opposition demonstrations is outrageous. The Russian authorities once again refused to authorise protest rallies, and then used this ban to crackdown on those gathered in Moscow and elsewhere.

“But what is worse is the total police inaction, which allowed the beating of protesters by unknown men in Moscow. On what grounds people in ‘Cossack’ uniforms were allowed to use force remains a question.

“The authorities should immediately release all peaceful protesters arrested and launch an independent, thorough and effective investigation into the use of force by police, and the attacks on the protesters by the ‘Cossacks’.”

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North and South Korea Making Peace? Reply

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Uncategorized • Tags: , , ,

Tom Woods interviews Michael Malice, one of the West’s most insightful commentators on North Korea. Listen here. I’d like for the upcoming Trump-Kim summit to be a “Nixon Goes to China” moment, and for Kim Jong-Un to become the DPRK’s Deng Xiaoping. But I’m not holding my breath.

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Michael Malice joins me to discuss the recent summit meeting between North and South Korea, in which a North Korean leader set foot in the South for the first time ever. What does it all mean?

About the Guest

Michael Malice is an author and celebrity ghostwriter. He is also a frequent guest on Kennedy on the FOX Business Network.

The Truth About War Powers, the Military-Industrial Complex, and Militarism in American Culture Reply

by • Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy, Uncategorized • Tags: ,

Tom Woods interviews leading antiwar commentator Scott Horton. Listen here.

This is what our so-called “antifascists” should be attacking, rather than forming a neoconservative-liberal international-human rights imperialist-antifascist axis in service of the Anglo-American-Zionist-Wahhabi empire.

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In something of a potpourri episode, Scott Horton and I discuss the real truth about presidential war powers under the Constitution, plus the empire’s highly successful propaganda apparatus, the military-industrial complex’s tactics, and much more.