By Observer R for the Saker Blog
In my previous article, A Poisoned Chalice? (The Saker Blog, December 15, 2020), I noted that there were so many crises and troubles ahead for the United States (US) that it was questionable as to whether it was a good idea to be the winner of the 2020 election. Whichever candidate took office in January 2021 would inherit a vast slate of problems. In fact, winning the 2020 election might turn out to be like winning the proverbial “poisoned chalice.” Better to wait for 2024 and let the 2020 winner take the blame when the so-called “Everything Bubble” bursts.
One of the bubbles just burst in Afghanistan. The events in that country have generated plenty of media coverage. One of the more interesting questions is whether there will be a ‘domino’ effect following the pull-out from Afghanistan. The Biden Administration has said that all combat troops will be out of Iraq by the end of this year. Only training troops to remain. Cynics say it is just a change of name and the local resistance groups have told the US to remove all its troops by the end of the year—in keeping with the declaration of the Iraq parliament. So far, little has been said about leaving Syria, but it would be difficult for the US to hang in there once there are no combat troops in Iraq.
One of the reasons for the US intervention is that if these dominoes fall, then the route is unimpeded for the New Silk Roads to open from China through Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. A second reason for US intervention is to block new pipelines that would take oil and gas from the huge fields in Iran and Iraq both east to China and Pakistan and west all the way to Europe. Presumably, these reasons are partially why the US stayed so long in the area.
A third reason for the US actions is the Cebrowski Doctrine, which aimed at breaking the countries in the Middle East into smaller statelets conforming more closely to the ethnic makeup of the area. The statelets would be less able to defend themselves and more amenable to pressure from outside powers. This would make it easier for global companies to negotiate favorable deals for the natural resources and for the US to set up military bases.
A fourth reason is that Israeli security is enhanced if the next-door neighbors are weak, divided, and not supported by any powerful country not allied with Israel. If the surrounding countries or statelets could not be run by regimes favorable to Israel, then the next best thing would be to have failed states in the area. By definition, a failed state would have little chance to organize an effective opposition to Israeli activities. Small statelets would also have less chance of countering any Israeli expansion, nor would they be able to offer much support for the Palestinians.
The fifth reason for US action over many years has been the so-called “petrodollar” effect, whereby oil sold in US dollars gave the US enormous control over the world energy market. It also allowed the US to run enormous deficit spending programs with the rest of the world effectively paying for the good life in America. The petrodollar also provided the US with greatly increased clout in international politics and allowed the expansion and maintenance of US hegemony.
A sixth reason is the geopolitical viewpoint of the “Grand Chessboard,” whereby a US presence in Afghanistan would place the US military and intelligence forces closer to China and Russia. This proximity would make it easier for the US to engage in various forms of hybrid warfare and regime change efforts against these two countries.
A final reason is money: The alleged vast corruption on-going in Afghanistan, which is claimed to have been making numerous parties very rich, the spending for many highly paid contractors to maintain weapons, the funding for many dubious infrastructure improvement projects, and all the other spending amounting to trillions of dollars.
All these reasons help to explain the vociferous attacks on the Trump administration when it tried to withdraw some of the US forces in the Middle East. The same goes for the weeping and wailing going on about the Biden Administration’s pull-out from Afghanistan and the more or less pull-out from Iraq. Decades of US foreign policy and Western imperialism are being junked or at least being reconstituted into a different-looking mix. The think tanks and foreign policy magazines do not seem to know how to respond to the new game. It appears that China is well on the way to a win on the Grand Chessboard and the vast majority of US imperial supporters are at a loss on how to proceed. The first reflex action is to demonize China and attempt a containment of that country along the lines of the first Cold War against the Soviet Union.
So why did the Trump Administration decide to pull out and why did the Biden Administration also decide to pull out? After all, Biden campaigned to reverse or undo many of the Trump policies. Biden was expected to rejoin the Iran nuclear agreement, and he could have declined to implement the Trump agreement to leave Afghanistan. Biden immediately rejoined the strategic arms agreement with Russia, but did not do the same with the Iran agreement. It seems probable that the reason for the arms reversal was that the US had fallen behind in the arms race, and faced the prospect of falling further behind in the years ahead. So the obvious solution was to freeze the race until the US could get its act together. The non-reversal in the Iran situation was presumably due to pressure from the Israel lobby.
With Afghanistan, it might have been better for Biden if he had immediately announced a reversal of the Trump agreement and claimed that it would not work as written and needed to be renegotiated to fit the situation. Or, on the other hand, he could have said that the US would honor the agreement because great powers should keep agreements. This tactic would have fit nicely with honoring the Iran agreement. Unfortunately for the US, the Biden Administration botched both issues. It broke the Afghan agreement by announcing a clumsy extension and then tried to use the pull-out as part of a 9/11 propaganda scheme. The administration then allowed the military to abandon a large airbase near Kabul in the middle of the night, thus making it unavailable for use in evacuating people from the country. With the Iran agreement, the US tried to add new and onerous restrictions on Iran, resulting in the negotiations ending up in limbo.
Why then, did both Trump and Biden decide to leave Afghanistan? The official story seems to be that the adventure was a colossal waste of lives and money and that the US can no longer afford to be the world’s policeman. While the official story is essentially correct, the reality also is that the world has changed since the time of the younger Bush and Obama. Russia has gone from being a gas station in the middle of nowhere to ranking as the number one advanced military power. China has gone from being an underdeveloped factory town producing cheap goods for the big box stores to having the largest economy in the world, according to the CIA Fact Book. China is also rapidly moving ahead in space exploration, computers, artificial intelligence, robots and other advanced technology, including modern weapons. Iran has weathered the US sanctions and is moving ahead to produce goods domestically and using Iranian companies to develop the oil and gas fields. Iran is now set to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a full member. The US economic sanctions against these countries are failing and the US conventional military threats are not convincing, while nuclear threats are only mutually assured destruction (MAD).
The resistance to US occupation forces on the ground in West Asia has steadily increased over the years as the correlation of forces tipped against the Americans. Iran has been able to provide support, training, weapons and strategy to the factions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Yemen that are opposed to the US. Russian military aid to Syria, and Russian diplomacy everywhere, have blunted US imperialism. China has become the number one trading nation with many countries and is actively promoting business deals worldwide. All of this reduces political support for the US and makes it more expensive and problematic to pursue hegemonic ambitions. The changes have also reduced dependence on the US as a broker in diplomatic negotiations.
The decline in economic and diplomatic power is not the only problem facing the US in the Middle East. There is also the adverse situation that has developed concerning the security of occupation military forces on the ground. In the years of the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions, the US had uncontested control of the skies and based its strategy on this fact. None of the Middle East countries had an air force that could even begin to do battle with the US, so the US bases on the ground were safe from bombing attacks. The US opponents had only missiles with short range and poor guidance, so they did not cause much trouble for the US side. This state of affairs began to change rapidly after that time when Iran began to unveil much more sophisticated missiles, drones and other weapons. The Russians began to introduce high-quality air defense systems in the area and continued to announce new weapon systems that sounded more like science fiction.
The change to more advanced missiles by Iran and the Iranian-supported Resistance meant that US military bases were placed in a difficult position. Their fighter planes were useless for shooting down incoming missiles, while the missile defense systems on the ground did not seem to be very effective against any incoming attack. The US was providing air defense systems to Saudi Arabia which were used to defend against missiles incoming from the Houthi forces in Yemen. The defense was not adequate—the Houthis managed to blow up refineries and pipelines in Saudi Arabia despite the US aid and equipment. The US claimed one time that the missile came from Iran, but that was odd because it would have flown right over the US-built air defense systems in bases between Iran and Saudi Arabia without being shot down. Another route it could have taken was to fly to Yemen first, then turn north and fly up to the Saudi pipeline. This possible routing only served to make the Iranian achievement more impressive. However, it is impossible for an outsider to find out what actually happened. In January 2020, the US ordered the assassination of the Iranian general leading the Resistance, in return the Iranians supposedly carried out two paybacks. One was the downing of a CIA plane allegedly carrying the CIA ”Dark Prince” who was a US official of similar importance to the Iranian general. Another was to fire cruise missiles at a major US base in Iraq, causing concussion damage to many US soldiers. The US air defense was ineffective.
On the other hand, the Russian and Syrian air defense proved to be much more effective. When the US ships in the Mediterranean Sea fired a salvo of cruise missiles against Syria, the results were eye opening. The missiles were either shot down by Syrian or Russian air defense systems, or were somehow deflected by electronic countermeasures, or malfunctioned due to old age. Few made it all the way to the target. Recently, Israel sent up six fighter planes over Lebanon where each fired six missiles against targets in Syria. Results were 22 of 24 missiles shot down by Syria with the others apparently not doing any extensive damage. An Israeli weapon was also in the news this week when the US Air Force announced that it would not purchase the Israeli “Iron Dome” air defense system because it came in second-best in a test shoot-out in New Mexico. The Iron Dome has not been very successful in Israel either.
As a result, both the US and Israel have resorted to “theater” in lieu of actual attacks against actual targets. The domestic pressure in each country is very strong to have the governments do something to hit back at any perceived success by the Resistance forces. It appears that the Israelis have this down to an art form: When they bomb Syria they try to hit empty warehouses or sand dunes or something unimportant but build up the attack as something important when they make the domestic announcement for political reasons. When Israel is using drones against Resistance vehicles in Lebanon, the drone operators may give the passengers in the vehicles time enough to get out and escape before blowing the vehicles to bits. Syria and Lebanon can then complain to the United Nations and the whole episode fades away. The US also plays the game whereby it warns the country ahead of time. In the case of Syria, the warning came far enough ahead that the Syrians were able to evacuate all personnel and usable equipment from a base before the US attacked it. The Syrians had the base back in full operation within 24 hours. But in the meantime, the Trump Administration had headlines claiming it had accomplished something important. Later on, few people would become aware of what really happened. Just more theater. In another case, Iran shot down an expensive and sophisticated US reconnaissance drone flying over its border near the Strait of Hormuz. The US claimed the drone was over international waters in order to make Iran look bad and the pressure was on the Trump Administration to do something. According to reports, the US asked Iran for permission to fire a few missiles into sand dunes to make it seem like action was taken. Iran refused to go along with the theatrical performance. Then it was shown that the drone fell in Iranian waters and all the parties concerned dropped the subject. Finally, Iran has picked up on the same game: After the Iranian general was assassinated in Iraq, Iran passed word to the Americans that the main US airbase in Iraq would be attacked and gave the American troops time enough to get into their bomb shelters. However, the missile warheads evidently contained a much heavier load of explosives than the US expected, consequently the bomb shelters did not furnish enough protection from concussion injuries to the troops.
Thus the US military was faced with a quandary or perhaps a no-win situation in the countries of the Resistance. Iran had shown that it had missiles that were really effective, well-hidden, and plenty of them. In addition, Iran had organized an effective popular militia fighting group (the “Resistance”) in each country, also armed with missiles. It became quite clear that if the US dropped bombs or missiles on Iran in a serious strike, many of the relatively exposed US bases in the Middle East and West Asia would be destroyed in an Iranian counter-strike. In a tit-for-tat escalation, Iran could quickly bring more missiles into action than the US. Any US planes that got off the runway would face extensive and modern air defense systems in Iran. The US could send in cruise missiles from ships or bases outside the range of Iranian weapons, but these would be slow and relatively few in number. Note that this analysis is based only on information in the public domain and does not account for anything secret or for some exotic military strategy not available to the public. It also does not account for anything that China or Russia might do. However, if things got really out of hand, Iran could stop oil shipments from the Middle East. US sanctions have already greatly reduced oil shipments from Iran and the country has learned to manage without many oil sales. It is unlikely that the GCC countries would fare as well if their oil shipments and sales came to an abrupt halt. In addition, the impact on the world economy would be fairly significant. Finally, it would be expected that the Resistance fighters in the various countries could go into action with potentially drastic consequences, including more than a few regime changes.
It appears that the US military has been quicker than the politicians to grasp the situational change and preferred to engage in theatrical performances as opposed to dropping bombs. The US military also tried to get out in front by declaring that it needed to pull forces from the Middle East and West Asia in order to reposition them in the Pacific to help face the threat from China. Supersonic bombers, nuclear weapons, stealth technology, and very expensive aircraft carriers were of little use against peasants and guerrilla warriors. They also appear to be pretty useless against Iran and the Resistance. The US military-industrial complex was much more comfortable pointing to the new and modern weapons of the Chinese and Russians as a reason for a very costly rearmament of the American forces. Thus, any US peace dividend from withdrawal from West Asia is not possible, as all the money and more is now needed to provide security against the revisionist powers. Hypersonic weapons do not come cheap, but are now desperately required to match the Russian armament. The Chinese are fast building up their military prowess and have the factories to mass produce enormous quantities of missiles, planes, and ships.
However, just when the US needs plenty of scientists, engineers, and technology experts to work on new space-age weapons in a renewed arms race, the US education system has gone in a strange direction. Education is moving away from a merit-based system relying on exams, tests, and centuries of accumulated knowledge. The new system relies on doing away with tests, grades and exams, and using a lottery to determine entrance to science and technology high schools and colleges. This system also relies on extensive diversity efforts to determine entrance to, and progression in, school. It is difficult to believe that these new school methods will be very helpful in turning out graduates capable of designing, building, and operating hypersonic weapons that work as advertised. There is already trouble in the technology area where the latest US aircraft carrier, stealth fighter plane, and littoral combat ship do not function properly. US missiles and space rockets are not up-to-snuff either. The US has to purchase rockets from Russia in order to put large satellites in orbit. This technology difficulty is even apparent in the civilian aviation field where US-built passenger planes have been grounded with major problems for long periods.
Conclusion
It appears that the dominoes will continue to fall in the Middle East and West Asia as more bubbles burst and the US forces continue to leave. The military situation has turned against the US as Iran and its Resistance allies have acquired more and better missiles, air defense systems, new weapons, and improved tactics and coordination on the ground. This improvement by the Resistance forces has turned many US bases into the proverbial “sitting ducks” in the event of a real shooting war. The relatively small number of US troops in most of the countries of the Resistance also means that the US must guard against any possible future hostage situations. The countries that host US bases are becoming less sympathetic toward an American military presence on their land. A recent example is the US movement of troops and equipment out of Qatar and into Jordan. Qatar relied heavily on Iran during the recent squabble between Qatar and Saudi Arabia and Qatar shares a huge gas field with Iran—thus making Qatar look less reliable in the view of the US. As another result, the US military has declared that it will reposition its forces from West Asia to East and Southeast Asia to better contain China. In summary, the US military has already lost the contest in West Asia and the textbook advice in such a situation is to “declare victory and go home,” or in this case to declare victory in the “war on terrorism” and go somewhere else.
However, the best laid plans often go awry. Such appears to be the case with the US plans. The US entered into negotiations with the Taliban in Afghanistan concerning withdrawal from that country and into negotiations with the Iraq government for a withdrawal from there also. Consequently, anti-American activities were greatly reduced in both countries during the negotiations. This reduction allowed the US to plausibly claim that the “war on terrorism” had been won and that the US troops were no longer needed there. The US has continued to turn over bases to the Iraqi government and reduce its footprint in that country. In Afghanistan, the US also quietly withdrew and finally abandoned the Bagram Airfield secretly in the dead of night. This action helped prevent any last minute attacks on the American troops that might have complicated the exit. All according to plan, at least from the view of the US Defense Department.
Unfortunately for the US Government, the military plan does not seem to have been fully coordinated with the State Department, the CIA, the US allies, and the numerous Western NGO’s present in Afghanistan. In fact, it now appears that Defense was the only organization with any real plan at all. There does not appear to have been very good planning by State, CIA, or the other countries to remove their employees, agents, assets, fellow travelers, or foreigners before the Taliban took over Kabul. The total fiasco at the airport was so bad that public pressure forced the US military to go back into the country to help with the evacuations using the civilian airport instead of the recently abandoned military airfield. Then more disaster hit when a suicide bomber blew up scores of people at the perimeter of the airport, including US troops. The situation rapidly degenerated after that, with public pressure for the US to do more to rescue and evacuate people from Afghanistan, while there were even calls for the US to re-invade the country. The latest news is that Biden has stayed firm on withdrawal and the US troops will be out by the end of August.
As for the rest of West Asia, the adjustment in the US presence will generally continue despite attempts by various factions to delay and obstruct it. Saudi Arabia and Iran are returning to the negotiating table in Iraq to continue the diplomacy interrupted by the assassination of the Iranian general. Both countries would benefit by burying the hatchet, from cooperative management of oil and gas activities and support from China and Russia. The Arab countries are in the process of normalizing relations with Syria and bringing the country back into the Arab League. Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and many of the other countries are looking toward Russia for their next weapon systems. India is also waking up to the fact that it has been sidelined by the events in Afghanistan and that the Prime Minister has bet on the wrong horse. The air will be quietly leaving the Quad bubble. One might say that it is dawning on all concerned that the Americans are going home, but the Persians are there to stay.
As for the poisoned chalice, one only has to watch Biden and his staff squirm, struggle, and try to avoid press conferences since taking office, and compare that with Trump enjoying himself at recent public speeches. So far the winner of the 2020 election is taking the blame for what has gone wrong since, and more is likely to go wrong in coming months. Whereas the loser of the election is free to organize and campaign for the 2022 and 2024 elections. More bubbles are waiting to burst, including, perhaps, more on foreign relations, the COVID-19 virus, the vaccines, immigration, stagflation, election audits, climate change, the stock market, the national debt, cultural and lifestyle conflicts, the role of the police, etc. In addition, the world is fast figuring out how to work around attempted control by the US, its sanctions, its rules-based order, and its hegemony. This means that for quite some time ahead, the US Presidential office will likely not be a comfortable place to sit.
Ponzi scheme – where the inventor of the scheme creates the “illusion” of a lucrative business return when in reality it does not exist- but the illusion is necessary to keep the next sucker investing in the illusion in order to keep the “illusion” up and running.
Until the “gig” is finally up, in which case the inventor of the scheme needs to skip town before s/he gets caught.
We are living example and actually live on planet Ponzi.
“More bubbles are waiting to burst”
Yes finally!
for those who have watched the Sht Show since the 60’s and see the same phony games over and over – the fact that it is ending in destruction of the American Empire of Chaos – as Mr. Escobar has characterized the system is welcome relief.
many have died needlessly in foreign countries, but also American Military personnel who ‘volunteered’ for really no good practical reason other than their own personal objectives – all the Military & CIA action since WWII were fabricated as far as I am concerned including 911. Switzerland / Singapore have done fine with no major military or war for their countries safety and commerce.
The military budget should be reduced to zero and take a Trillion each year for the next 50 years and pay down the debt and look for another business other than death and chaos. The US should be broken up into Red & Blue- there is no real relationship between each for the fifty states – commercial trade can be a contract.
The United States of America is not and will be not – united – it serves no purpose for the Citizens of the respective red states nor the Citizens of the world.
David… o.k. ,
I am not sure exactly how to break this news,
All paper currencies are debt based to a central bank, the central banks are privately run, that means the currencies are loaned into existence, on ribba, that grows exponentially with time, owed back to a private bank, which prints the money.
Let’s assume no country can pay back infinity ribba- if that is the case, it is a mathematical certainty, that all paper currencies will collapse, but so will all the other currencies which are linked to it- which is most of the world.
So … that is not good.
(Sorry .. ahh just go about your day like I never said this)
Like Mr. Wanka said to Charlie (at the end of Charlie and the Chocolate factory) “Good day”, well the movie still had a memorable ending.. that movie was fantastic.
They’ve got a set of Republican waiters on one side and a set of Democratic waiters on the other side, but no matter which set of waiters brings you the dish, the legislative grub is all prepared in the same Wall Street kitchen.”
— Huey Long, campaign speech for the re-election of Senator Hattie Caraway (D-AR), 1932
Putting borders on artificial party lines probably doesn’t help the people. Both parties are illegitimate and probably short lived.
“One might say that it is dawning on all concerned that the Yanks are going home, but the Persians are there to stay.”
An astute commentator could have written that in Latin, nearly 2,000 years ago: “One might say that it is dawning on all concerned that the Romans are going home, but the Persians are there to stay.
Americans have the nasty habit of forgetting who our friends are and who are our enemies. In Afghanistan we initially supported the mujahideen, including CIA operative, Osama bin Laden, against the Russians. Once the mujahideen morphed into being the Taliban and started shutting down the lucrative opium trade, we turned on them and used Osama bin Laden as the boogey man in the Middle East long after he actually died in December of 2001. We gave Saddam Hussein all the weapons he wanted in the 1980s and then turned around and killed him for using those weapons on us in the early 2000s. That’s why Gore Vidal called us the United States of Amnesia.
Don’t forget, the West, or as the Saker likes to call it, the AngloZionist Empire, is not just about domination and exploitation of indigenous people like the Afghans. Zionism is at its core an apocalyptic death cult. Most Zionists in the USA are so-called Christian. They’ve become the heart and soul of the Republican Party. At this point in time, they’re afflicted with what Eric Hoffer called “true-believer syndrome.” The more they become invested in a particular belief, like that Trump actually won the 2020 election, the more value they will place in this belief and, as a consequence, be more resistant to facts, evidence or reality that contradict this belief. This accounts for the religious fervor of those Trumpsters who stormed the Capitol on January 6th.
These are the Rapture-me-outta-here folks who actually look to WWIII as the apocalyptic conflict between “good” (them) and “evil” (everyone else) that will bring their warrior messiah back to Earth to smite all the unbelievers. Their Christian Zionist pastors preach vengeance and wrath, not the Gospel of justice, compassion, and truth.
Lindsey Graham said after the 2020 election, “Republicans will never win another national election in the USA if we don’t do something about mail-in voting.” He’s right, changing voter demographics and mail-in voting are certain to work in the Dems favor in 2024. This is why Republicans have given up on democracy and look for “some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor” to put Trump back into office. According to the crazy MyPillow dude, this was to happen in August, now he says in the fall. In any event, the USA is just one horrible false-flag event away from nuclear war with the Russia and China. That is after all why the AngloZionist Empire has nukes in the first place.
Since the crisis is at the core an energy crisis, this idea that the manure hits the fan in the next 4 years and then things normalize (perhaps even the famous, but elusive, “economic recovery” will take place) is completely misguided. Conventional oil in the US is declining at over 4% a year. There will be disasters big and small during the Biden admin, followed by another four years of disasters big and small. That, too, will be followed by more of the same.
Implied–though curiously never explicitly declared–by this article is that America’s 2-decades long War on Terrorism itself is a Nazi-style Big Lie in that this war is not about “eliminating terrorism” but about advancing more sinister American ambitions: American world domination.
This is the fundamental issue–the 1000 Pound Elephant in the Dining Room issue–that most people, including supposed “alternative media” and “antiwar” individuals–carefully avoid addressing and thus are guilty of covering up.
This war on terrorism is bogus
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/sep/06/september11.iraq
And beyond this, since America’s War on Terrorism is a Goebbelsian Lie, then it must be stated that the 9-11 terrorist attacks are also a lie.
Indeed, 9-11 was America’s Nazi-style Reichstag Fire.
Yes indeed! As to the “poisoned chalice,” you have to also keep in mind that nothing is as it seems anymore, not even presidential elections, which in truth have probably always (since JFK at least) been compromised as well. Biden was chosen specifically for the job, so it’s less a poisoned chalice and more a role he was assigned to play. And who better to play it than a decrepit old man who appears to be mentally signed off?
It will be the same for whoever comes next. Presidents are managed every bit as much as the Congress critters, the Supremes, the Generals, and the lying presstitutes. As for all the rest of it, the interagency coordination or lack thereof, and the seeming across the board “incompetence” of absolutely everyone in power in the US these days, that TOO is all scripted at the highest levels, and then allowed to play out emergently with the additional help of all the legitimate bootlickers and idiots who always rise through the ranks in any bureaucracy worth its salt.
The so-called “poisoned chalice” will be what’s left behind in Afghanistan and everywhere else the US has tried to project its power for the past twenty years, and that will INDEED be quite deadly for some time to come, with or without the Russians and Chinese doing their level best to ameliorate it.
This is all marking time until the Trumpster rapture-me-outta-here folks, who look to WWIII as the apocalyptic conflict between “good” (them) and “evil” (everyone else), get the “big one” they all pray for. We’re just one horrible false-flag event away from that happening. Keep an eye on the MyPillow guy. He knows something we don’t about Trump’s upcoming reinstatement as President. He’s planning a big party for it.
I dunno Tommy, seems to me that the election farce of 2020 delivered the definitive statement on US elections going forward. No longer will “alternative” candidates of any kind be given a snowball’s chance in hell of gathering support in either primaries or the main election. And just to be sure, the elections will be closely monitored and controlled from the inside to ensure the “correct” outcomes are reached.
As to the AZN influence in the US, far from owing allegiance to this or that faux candidate, they literally own the entire apparatus, lock, stock, and barrel. They have nothing to fear whatsoever at this point, not even total exposure. The American Sheeple have been so totally conditioned through decades of programming that they will actually fight against any interests that seek to expose the corrupt AZN insider influence.
As for the false-flag events, they’re coming so fast and furious these days that it’s impossible to keep up, the latest being the Afghan airport bombing, which was almost certainly a five eyes sponsored false-flag terror event to stir up fear and outrage in the American public just prior to the upcoming 9-11 festivities and to provide yet another reason to expand their Global War of Terror.
There will be no end to any of this until the US is disarmed of all its nukes and WMDs and the original perps of 9-11 are identified and put on trial for war crimes, and none of that is going to happen anytime soon, as the spider web of corruption reaching out from that single event has now permeated the entire rotten edifice of every pro-US western democracy in the entire world. So in the end, a somewhat limited nuclear exchange with mass casualties for everyone involved might be the only way to end this impasse. I suppose we could label that a “tragedy” of sorts, but it seems to me at least, that it’s also increasingly inevitable.
I don’t think we can dismiss “the incompetence of absolutely everyone,” although evil motives do often seem to have a high probability, as well.
Just look at the high school age kids working summer and after-school retail jobs. Half of them can’t make simple change. And if you explain that $5.08 out of a $10 bill, a nickel and three pennies should be a simple $5.00 back, they’re baffled, and give you $4.92 change and your $.08 back. It’s very sad.
smth I learn from an aussie mate commenting on the politicians and leaders of various industry –
‘All Fluff and No Substance’
xD Ha HA
hv another beer for me, mate!!! cheers :)
bwbs
“So why did the Trump Administration decide to pull out and why did the Biden Administration also decide to pull out?”
Simple answer is: They didn’t.
Somebody else decides what has to be done and order POTUS what to read from teleprompter.
US presidents are comparable to anchors in newsroom. Their job is to look good and read beliveably. Not to write. Or think. (Biden excells in the last requirement).
The last one who spoke from his own head was JFK, and he was pulled off the air in no time.
Who is Observer R and why should I believe anything a completely unknown, unidentified source has to say? An unknown source told us Russia was paying the Taliban a bounty for any Americans they killed.
Well I do not know who he is but, he has however done a pretty good job of collating the information and writing it clearly.
His seven reasons for US ME involvement – listing them as he does is useful and enlightening. He did leave off world domination as one poster has suggested. Here the observer shows restraint etc, since while his 7 points are obvious and clear to most the other is speculative..
Again his explanation of the US withdrawal is clear and does not present any new or startling information. The growing economic strength of China is fact and people are now reduced to quibbling over whether it is 1st or second. The growing military strength of both Russia and China is also public knowledge. A little more secrecy shrouds Iranian capability, but there is little doubt the missiles hitting Iraq came as a bit of a shock. I was not aware Iran took out the “Black Prince” s I guess this may be speculative (others may know much more- I may have missed it).
There have been obvious signs of softening of Saudi/Iranian hostility – still tentative, but clearly there, and some gulf states have clearly expanded links.
He does veer into speculation re education ( I am sure he is right) which is yet to be proven. I suspect personally there is a deeper problem. The USA has long relied on importing its high tech people – first from Germany, then from 5 eyes and Israel, from India, USSR after its collapse and until recently China. These sources are now largely dried up.
Removed – no attacking other commenters or the author. Mod.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_Air_Force_E-11A_crash
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D%27Andrea
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/27/afghanistan-taliban-claim-they-shot-down-us-air-force-plane-crash
“A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a statement posted online: “An American invader aircraft has been shot down. Lots of officers have been killed.” He said high-ranking CIA officers had been onboard the plane, but the claim could not be independently verified.”
Have to comment Observer R for this piece. Concise, precise, intelligent and informative assessment. Couldn’t be better. Thank you!
PS Part 3 – anytime soon? :-)
Well said. A very good all round commentary, indeed. A good mind map core on which to hang all the other articles one reads here.
“Israel sent up six fighter planes over Lebanon where each fired six missiles against targets in Syria. Results were 22 of 24 missiles shot down”
Six planes and 24 missiles sounds like 4 missiles per plane, not 6.