by Pepe Escobar (cross-posted with the Asia Times by special agreement with the author) Beijing’s strategic priority is to prevent ETIM fighters exiled in Afghanistan crossing the Wakhan Corridor to carry out operations in Xinjiang The latest plot twist in the endless historical saga of Afghanistan as a graveyard of empires has thrown up an intriguing new chapter. For the past two months, Beijing and Kabul have been discussing the possibility
by Ghassan Kadi for The Saker Blog Russia has put herself, for better or for worse, in a position that requires a huge role in the Levant; perhaps much bigger than what Russia bargained for on the eve of the Russian “intervention” in Syria on the 28th of September 2015. The initial Russian-led attack on ISIS in Syria was highly successful until a glitch was added to the picture when
By Jack J. for The Saker Blog Good-press bad-press You’ve got two arms of the main-stream media (MSM) the right and the supposedly centre-left. The right arm gets people fired-up with a mixed message of overt racism (typically anti-immigrant) and jingoistic nonsense, with anti-establishment narratives thrown in as sweeteners (typically anti-EU). The left arm then points out the despicable nature of the former (‘the racists’) denies any anti-establishment content and
by Peter Koenig for The Saker Blog Why does nobody dare to pronounce the term “Genocide” in connection with the Washington committed atrocities around the globe? – If there is one nation that is guilty of mass-murder it is the United States of America and her Zionist handlers. But nobody seems to pay attention. Or, rather, nobody dares to say so. It has become the new normal. Enshrined in people’s
by Jimmie Moglia for The Saker Blog On hearing the word ‘revisionism,’ suspicion lurks in the mind of some, and alarms sound in the mind of others. Suspicion is the elder sister of twins, credulity and incredulity. And of all kinds of credulity, the most obstinate and wonderful is that of zealots; of men who resign the use of their eyes and ears, and resolve to believe nothing that does
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog The simplest way to answer that question is: The Petro is a bond sale for foreign investors, with the proceeds going to pay the infrastructure costs required to implement the first-ever mass national adoption of crypto-currency. Now that is a government taking on “good debt”, unlike the West’s banker bailouts…. It should be no surprise that Venezuela will be the first to unleash
by Cameron Pike for The Saker Blog Vancouver, Canada held a significant event in the history of Canada on January 16th, 2018. Canada’s traditional peace-keeping role in international relations relegated to the historical dustbin, Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland led the ‘international community’ in a song of war and genocide against North Korea. However, the plan was ultimately not about North Korea, as single-toned as the grouping Freeland gathered tried
by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog With the recently released data that the Eurozone’s 2017 growth rate was 2.5%, the Eurozone has officially achieved a “lost decade”: its average annual growth rate from 2008 to 2017 was 0.6%. Wow…that’s bad. That’s even worse than “Japan Lost Score” bad. Japan’s two “lost decades” both actually surpassed the Eurozone’s recent performance: Japan 1991-2000: 1.4% growth rate. Japan 2001-2010: 0.7% growth rate.
by Peter Koenig for The Saker Blog The World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos has come and gone, and nothing has really changed. The wonderful people of the world struck again – blowing hot air to the four corners of the world. When in reality the poor get poorer, the rich get richer, wars and conflicts are on the rise – and humanity, at least in the western world, is
by Anne Teoh for The Saker Blog Like many issues in life, my belief in the supremacy of name and identity undergo shifting reviews from time to time mainly as I, like many of you, are not in a no man’s land but we do get swayed by the strength or beauty of discourse from ongoing narratives; be they from hard or soft propaganda sources- if we knew. Once I
by Ghassan Kadi for The Saker Blog It seems that Erdogan has already made up his mind, but the speculations about what deals have been and haven’t been done seem muddied, to put it mildly. In the Levant, the Kurds always lose in the end, and regardless of what alliances they make and with whom, they always end up getting stabbed in the back; or at least abandoned. But when
by Auslander for The Saker Blog I watched US Secretary of Defense ‘General’ Mattis live on 19 January and I’m reasonably sure a lot of us either watched him or know what he said. Pretty good performance from someone who should know better and I can not determine if the good Tovarich General actually believed what he was saying or not. He was a political general, pure and simple, I
By Aram Mirzaei for The Saker Blog After weeks of belligerent rhetoric and preparations, Turkey finally invaded Afrin last week. It came as no surprise that Turkey would go for this vulnerable Kurdish-held region in north-western Syria first. So how does this affect the war? Previous Turkish incursions have been limited and aimed at stopping what Ankara deemed to be Kurdish expansionism right at Turkey’s border. Turkish President Erdogan has
by Ramin Mazaheri for the Saker blog The French don’t want to think of themselves as miniature capitalists: they want to think of themselves as artists. Or at least artisans. And many of them are, but the calculating technocratic mindset cannot even conceive of what it means to truly be an “artisan” at anything. The calculating capitalist mindset might be capable of thinking of what art he or she could
by Pepe Escobar (cross-posted with the Asia Times by special agreement with the author) For billions of people, the Groucho Marx rule applies when talking about Davos. This is the exclusive club, which meets in the luxury Swiss resort each year to discuss the global business environment. Groucho, of course, has been immortalized along with the rest of the Marx Brothers in the zany Hollywood movies of the 1930s, such
by Pepe Escobar (cross-posted with the Asia Times by special agreement with the author) Under the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing aims to connect western China to the eastern Mediterranean China’s “Go West” strategy was brought into sharp focus at a forum in Shanghai last weekend. Billed as the Belt and Road Initiative: Towards Greater Cooperation between China and the Middle East, it highlighted key aspects of Beijing’s wider plan.
by Peter Koenig for the Saker blog Why this title? – Because Greece doesn’t have to continue playing the card of the victim, nor being masochist. Greece seems to suffer under the Stockholm Syndrome – she is in love with her hangman. Greece could change this. Exit the prison, exit the EU and exit the euro. Greece could return to her sovereign national currency, her own sovereign central bank, make
by Ghassan Kadi for the Saker blog The security zone America intends to establish in Syria is doomed to fail sooner or later. How can this assertion be made and what can it be based on? Well, two main things really; history and facts on the ground. America’s seven-decade long post WWII intensive and consecutive military gambles have all failed, and without a single exception. And even though America has
by GH Eliason for the Saker blog Can you believe it? 2018 is the year of the NAZI snowflake! They whine, cry, and they still kill innocent people. They also donate a lot of money to Congressional Reps who support their goals. When congressional leaders openly believe that it is your duty as patriotic Americans to support and ultimately die for the families of the lever pullers and torturers at
by Peter Koenig for the Saker blog The false alarm on a ballistic missile attack on Hawaii last Saturday from North Korea did not help the Peace Talks which were essentially initiated by DPRK’s President, Kim Jong-un. They spread enormous fear of a nuclear annihilation of Honolulu, pulverization of homes and people – of Armageddon for the Hawaiian population. Was this a Trump attempt to boycott the talks? Or was
