Tucker Carlson nails it. It’s interesting how he’s the most popular commentator on FOX which is otherwise Neocon Central. I’m sure Murdoch is regretting ever giving him a job there. But now he’s gotten too popular for the network to fire him without giving the game away. Paleocons and paleolibertarians are by far the best sector of the US right-wing.
Category Archives: Anti-Imperialism/Foreign Policy
Lindsey Graham Says Israel Will Attack Iran, And The U.S. Will Follow Reply
Although she gets into the Z-question in this one.
Tulsi Gabbard: Dove AND a Hawk. How is this Possible? 12
This is an excellent, concise explanation of the Imperialist/Wahhabi alliance and how it fuels jihadism. The only criticism I would have of this is that Kim never mentions the Z-word.
Trump says in no hurry to strike Iran Reply
Why “the System” is Vilifying Iran Reply
The Atlanticist-Zionist-Wahhabist axis regards Iran as the primary obstacle to its imperialist ambitions in the Middle East and Central Asia.
To break it down more precisely, it’s a geopolitical rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and between the kinds of Sunni fundamentalism that originate from Saudi Arabia and northern Egypt (Wahhabism, Salafism, Qubtism) and the Shia. For obvious reasons, the Shia throughout the region are aligned with Iran, but so are plenty of Sunni (particularly in Palestine and Syria) who reject Sunni fundamentalism of the kind being exported by the Gulf States, or who regard Saudia Arabia or (in the case of Hamas, for example) Israel as a greater enemy. Iran is Shia but their leader has called for unity among Shia and Sunni, and the Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian minorities in Iran are tolerated and even have seats in parliament (and there are women parliamentarians as well). Plenty of Christians, Alawites, Druze, and others who see Wahhabism, Salafism, Qubtism, etc as the primary threat are also tactically aligned with Iran. Everybody in the Middle East hates the Saudis, even their own allies in the Gulf. The Saudis threatened to invade Qatar a few years ago. The UAE is jealous of its more powerful big brother. The Omanis are Ibadi Muslims who are aligned with the GCC out of geopolitical necessity.
This article from Foreign Affairs (not exactly a pro-Iranian publication) from a couple years ago explains this pretty well:
“Arab elites, grappling with the consequences of an eroding Arab state system, poor governance, and the delegitimization of authoritarian states following the 2011 Arab Spring, enabled Iran and its partners, including Russia, to build a new regional political and security architecture from the ground up. With the support of Tehran as the undisputed center of the axis, Shiite armed movements in Iraq and across the axis of resistance have created a transnational, multiethnic, and cross-confessional political and security network that has made the axis more muscular and effective than ever before.”
Israel is tacitly aligned with Saudi Arabia because they both regard Iran and Syria as their primary geopolitical rivals. The Americans and the British simply want to create network of colonies and client states in the region. As Neal de los Huecos in a thread on my other page, these are the de facto goals of US foreign policy regarding in the region”
“1) Pull support from Hezbollah and let Israel take over Southern Iran, 2) Pull support from the Syrian Druze and let Israel take over Syria, 3) Pull support from the Houthis and let Saudi take over Yemen. 4) Quit all alliances with the Shia Iraqi Govt and let Iraq be the colony it was meant to be. 5) Arrest the Mullahs and bring in the “exiled-to-Los Angeles” National Council of Iran to reinstate the Pahlavi Dynasty.”
Whatever one thinks of Iran, the Iranians are the primary bulwarks against all of the above.
US tanker story evades rational reasoning Reply
Press TV. Listen here.
The United States’ assertion that Iran was behind blasts on board two tankers in the Sea of Oman evades rational reasoning, says an American political analyst.
Speaking to Press TV from Virginia on Sunday, Keith Preston said, “The story that the United States is spinning about the attack doesn’t make any sense.”
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) has released a video after the Thursday blasts purportedly showing “Iranian sailors” removing a mine from one vessel’s hull earlier that day.
Refuting the alleged evidence, Preston said, “The tankers that were attacked were owned by parties that are friendly to Iran: Japan and also a Norwegian shipping company that has been doing business with Iran for years.”
PressTV-‘Two tankers hit by explosions in Sea of Oman’Two large tankers have reportedly been bit by explosions in the Sea of Oman.
“So, it makes no sense that Iran would have carried out attacks of this kind. It certainly wouldn’t have been in Iran’s interest,” added the commentator and author. However, “it appears that the Americans are rushing to blame Iran for the attacks irrespective of what is the actual evidence of that,” he added.
Upon being notified of the incident, Iranian authorities dispatched rescue missions to the area to try and douse the fire. Iranian vessels also took in the tankers’ crewmembers, transferring them to the southern Iranian Jask Port.
PressTV-‘Tankers attacks false flag incident to frame Iran’A senior analyst says recent attacks on tankers near Persian Gulf waters were meant to target Iran.
Pompeo words, actions don’t go together
Separately, Preston addressed recent remarks by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in which he distanced himself from his usual adversarial rhetoric concerning Iran, alleging that the US does not seek war with the Islamic Republic. “President [Donald] Trump has done everything he can to avoid war. We don’t want war,” Pompeo said on Sunday in an interview with Fox News.
Preston described the US top diplomat’s remarks as “a bit odd” at a time when “the level of bellicosity that’s coming from officials in the Trump administration has certainly escalated.”
“The actions of the members of the Trump administration are not consistent with what they’re actually saying,” Preston added.
He was apparently referring to numerous instances when Pompeo has been trying to forge international consensus against Iran during his overseas’ visits and highlight Washington’s animosity towards Tehran.
“The Gulf of Credibility“ Reply
By Craig Murray
I really cannot begin to fathom how stupid you would have to be to believe that Iran would attack a Japanese oil tanker at the very moment that the Japanese Prime Minister was sitting down to friendly, US-disapproved talks in Tehran on economic cooperation that can help Iran survive the effects of US economic sanctions.
The Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous was holed above the water line. That rules out a torpedo attack, which is the explanation being touted by the neo-cons.
The second vessel, the Front Altair, is Norwegian owned and 50% Russian crewed (the others being Filipinos). It is owned by Frontline, a massive tanker leasing company that also has a specific record of being helpful to Iran in continuing to ship oil despite sanctions.
It was Iran that rescued the crews and helped bring the damaged vessels under control.
That Iran would target a Japanese ship and a friendly Russian crewed ship is a ludicrous allegation. They are however very much the targets that the USA allies in the region – the Saudis, their Gulf Cooperation Council colleagues, and Israel – would target for a false flag. It is worth noting that John Bolton was meeting with United Arab Emirates ministers two weeks ago – both ships had just left the UAE.
The USA and their UK stooges have both immediately leapt in to blame Iran. The media is amplifying this with almost none of the scepticism which is required. I cannot think of a single reason why anybody would believe this particular false flag. It is notable that neither Norway nor Japan has joined in with this ridiculous assertion.
Reactions pouring in over oil tanker attacks Reply
Tulsi Gabbard to Americans: War with Iran would be devastating 2
Guaido renews call for Maduro to step down 1
Waiting Out the Landlord’s Clock In Iran Reply
By Nicky Reid aka Comrade Hermit
Exile in Happy Valley
Quick hypothetical; Lets say you’ve been living in the same house in the same neighborhood for your whole life, generations in fact. There have been some minor squabbles but for the most part you’ve managed to get along with the neighbors. Then one day, some outside landlord buys the house next door. After several tenants come and go, a real loudmouth thug moves in, making threats, beating his wife and kids. Finally, the bastard truly breaks bad, tares down your fence and declares your backyard to be part of his property. After an epic battle in the courts, he finally returns to his property and eventually gets evicted. ‘Great!’, you think, naturally, and you even help the landlord clean up the place. Everything seems peachy fucking keen for suburbia. And then the landlord moves in.
Suddenly, this brash wealthy landlord is building shit up, putting up new outbuildings and sheds near the property line, erecting tall steel fences with razor wire. Suddenly, it dawns on you that the last tenant wasn’t the problem, you were, and the last tenant was only removed because he wasn’t trouble enough for you. And the threats start up again. Local street kids who you’ve helped out in the past are declared gangs and you get blamed for running them. The landlord accuses you of possessing certain weapons that your neighbors have and freely flaunt but you’ve never showed any interest in. Finally, after dealing with years of threats, you sign a deal with the landlord promising to stop procuring these fictional weapons if the landlord backs off. Things calm down for a tip. Then the landlord pulls out of the deal and shit gets nuts again.
Iran slams as politically-motivated France’s extradition of Iranian engineer to US Reply
Pledging Allegiance to the Divided States of America 4
By Nicky Reid aka Comrade Hermit
Exile in Happy Valley
I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will-Antonio Gramsci
When the individual’s behavior and consciousness get hooked to a routine sequence of external actions, he is a dead robot, and it is time for him to die and be reborn. Time to “drop out”, “turn on”, and “tune in.”-Timothy Leary
America, the indispensable nation. That old jingoistic canard gets tossed around like confetti in this country, while the rest of the world rolls their collective eyes and crack their collective knuckles. According to patriotic lore, America is some beige, color-blind, miracle designed by the greatest white philosophers since Socrates to free the world from its backwards indigenous ways with the magic of global capitalism. Naturally, this is all bullshit. The kind of sad pep-talk a date-rapist gives himself in the mirror before showering his glamour muscles in Axe body spray. There is absolutely nothing miraculous about America but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t exceptional.
America is an exceptionally cruel experiment in the outer reaches of colonial social engineering. We are a nation defined by the two greatest holocausts in recorded history, spanning three continents and an entire hemisphere. America as we know it was founded by an ambitious collection of European super-colonialists who found themselves and their nations increasingly depleted of the wealth they accumulated from the Crusades. So they traveled the seas in search of greener pastures to irrigate with more dark-skinned blood. They found their sainted killing fields of Shangri-La in the New World and with the superiority of their steel, they decided to take the Americas by force and slaughter anyone who stood in their way. But with an entire hemisphere half empty of its indigenous inhabitants, these European overlords found themselves with too much work for their feeble bourgeois fingers to handle, so they filled their new colonies with shiploads of slaves pilfered from the jungles of Africa to build a nation on their scarred shoulders, murdering millions more in the process and permanently hobbling another entire continent.
Iran’s Rejection of Washington Consensus Main Reason behind US Pressures Reply
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An American political analyst said Iran’s pursuit of independent policy and its refusal to be incorporated into the Washington Consensus are the main reasons behind the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against it.
“The objective of these officials is to continue to carry out a longstanding plan that was developed in the 1990s by the leadership of the neoconservative movement which has controlled US foreign policy in the Middle East for decades. The plan has always been to eliminate independent nations in the region that refuse to be incorporated into the Washington Consensus that was developed at the end of the Cold War. The idea behind the Washington Consensus is that the United States should be the de facto world government that rules on a unipolar basis, and that nations that refuse to be incorporated into the American empire should be subjugated or destroyed,” Keith Preston, the chief editor and director of attackthesystem.com, told the Tasnim news agency in an interview.
US targets Huawei again Reply
My thoughts on the “trade war” with China. Watch here.
This week US president Donald Trump declared a national emergency over IT threats. Trumps long awaited executive order forbids U.S. companies from purchasing telecommunications equipment manufactured by firms posing a “national security risk”.
Is Bolton’s War With Iran Becoming A Reality? Reply
I really doubt that a President Hillary Clinton would have been any less aggressive when it comes to Iran or Venezuela. She has been rhetorically belligerent against Iran, voted for the Iraq war when she was in the Senate and was the architect of the Libyan war, US backing of the jihadis in Syria, and an attempted coup in Honduras when she was Secretary of State. Bolton seems to be an especially unhinged character, but policies typically represent the consensus of the ruling class, not the perspective of any single official or office-holder.
By Curt Mills
The National Interest
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Depending on the day, and depending on who you ask, this is Ambassador John Bolton’s moment of ultimate triumph—or it’s the national security advisor’s moment of final overreach.
Two sources familiar with the matter tell me President Donald Trump’s rumbustious National Security Council chief is headed for the exits, having flown too close to the sun on his regime change efforts for Iran, Venezuela and North Korea. “Hearing that Trump wants him out,” a former senior administration official told me.
But is he? For Bolton, it’s full steam ahead: reportedly commissioning a prospective Pentagon plan for an enormous deployment to the region in the event of an Iranian attack. And for his part, the president has poured cold water on talk of a Bolton ouster.
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Depending on the day, and depending on who you ask, this is Ambassador John Bolton’s moment of ultimate triumph—or it’s the national security advisor’s moment of final overreach.
Two sources familiar with the matter tell me President Donald Trump’s rumbustious National Security Council chief is headed for the exits, having flown too close to the sun on his regime change efforts for Iran, Venezuela and North Korea. “Hearing that Trump wants him out,” a former senior administration official told me.
But is he? For Bolton, it’s full steam ahead: reportedly commissioning a prospective Pentagon plan for an enormous deployment to the region in the event of an Iranian attack. And for his part, the president has poured cold water on talk of a Bolton ouster.
Yemeni military says it has carried out major operation against Saudi targets Reply
Trump’s War In Venezuela Could Be Che’s Revenge 1
By Nicky Reid aka Comrade Hermit
Exile in Happy Valley
Che Guevara had a dream. After decades of chasing the American Empire into guerrilla street fights from Guatemala to the Congo, Che dreamed of drawing that dreadful beast into an unwinnable quagmire on the graves of its first victims in the heart of Latin America, the treacherous mountain forests of Bolivia where the Conquistadors first struck it rich with Indio silver. Che dreamed of revenge for centuries of violence, of rape, genocide and colonialism. He dreamed of creating another Vietnam in the Western Hemisphere that would spread across Uncle Sam’s indentured colonies and liberate his people, all of his people, from Tierra del Fuego to Tijuana and beyond. Che chased this Quixotic dream into the rugged highlands of Bolivia in 1966 where he got more than he bargained for. Less than a year later he would be dead at the hands of a CIA death squad. But his dream remained, festering just beneath the flesh of a thousand banana republics.
Houthis begin unilateral withdrawal from Hudaydah ports Reply
Pompeo: Iraq trip in response to Iran activity Reply
Keith Preston: US unwilling to give up Afghanistan with eye on minerals Reply
Press TV. Watch here.
The United States is seeking to continue military presence in Afghanistan to pave the way for pursuing American interests in the war-torn country, says a commentator.
At the end of a four-day summit in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, Loya Jirga (grand tribal council) demanded the Afghan government and the Taliban to declare and implement an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
In February, the American officials rejected any time frame for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, which is seen as a stumbling block in the way of persuading Taliban militants to put down their weapons and respect a peace deal.
In an interview with Press TV on Saturday, Keith Preston, chief editor of attackthesystem.com, said that American foreign policy elite “do not want to give up Afghanistan.”
Pointing to the reason behind the United States’ unwillingness to put an end on its military presence in Afghanistan, Preston noted, “Afghanistan has a lot of valuable minerals and other resources that a lot of American business interest and industrial interest want to develop.”
Keith Preston: US pursuing regime-change policy in Iran Reply
Press TV. Listen here.
The United States is pursuing a regime-change policy in Iran by exerting military and economic pressure and covert operations, according to American political analyst Keith Preston.
Iran reiterated on Wednesday that chances that American and Iranian forces could engage in clashes in the Persian Gulf, or any other region, were high .
