by Eric Zuesse for The Saker blog
Abdel Bari Atwan, the retired editor-in-chief (1989-2013) of the pan-Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi and author of widely respected books on the Middle East, headlined on February 18th, “A superpower confrontation could be triggered by accident in Syria” and he opened:
Qatar’s plans to build a gas pipeline to the Mediterranean were a major cause of the outbreak of the Syrian civil war. Seven years on, Syria’s oil and gas reserves east of the Euphrates, and especially around Deir az-Zour, have the potential to trigger World War III.
Four military aircraft were downed over Syria in the course of one week: an Israel F-16 shot down by a Russian-made Syrian missile; a Russian jet hit by an American-made shoulder-fired MANPADS; an Iranian pilotless drone intercepted by Israeli missiles; and a Turkish helicopter brought down in the countryside of Afrin by US-backed Kurdish fighters.
Warplanes from at least six countries crowd Syria’s airspace, including those of the American and Russian superpowers, while numerous proxy wars rage on the ground below involving Arab, regional and international parties.
Atwan goes on to note the reason why the war has ratcheted up after Donald Trump became America’s President:
The US has made clear that it has no intention of withdrawing its 2,000 military personnel from Syria even after the expiry of the original pretext for deploying them, namely to fight the Islamic State (IS) group. Administration officials have repeatedly affirmed that these forces will remain indefinitely in order to counter Iranian influence in the country.
Trump has abandoned former U.S. President Barack Obama’s excuse for invading Syria, and replaced it by what is now clearly an American hot war against Iran, which indisputably has become the U.S. President’s target — no longer (even if only as an excuse) ISIS or “radical Islamic terrorism.”
Iran never attacked the U.S. However, Iran did overthrow the U.S.-installed Shah in 1979 and capture the U.S. Embassy, which had ruled Iran (and allowed or disallowed what the Shah did) ever since America’s 1953 coup there overthrew Iran’s democratically elected progressive secular Government and installed instead the Shah’s brutal dictatorship. But the aggression was by the U.S. Government, not by Iran’s Government.
And, after 1979, Iran never committed aggression against the United States; so, the U.S. is entirely in the wrong, now, to be planning (or instructing Israel) how to destroy Iran.
This U.S. President clearly wants an invasion of Iran, which Israel is now preparing to launch.
Iran is an ally of Russia. On February 19th, Russia’s Tass news agency headlined “Moscow calls on US not to play with fire in Syria” and reported the Russian Foreign Minister’s statement: “I once again call on our American colleagues not to play with fire and measure their steps proceeding not from immediate needs of today’s political environment, but rather from long-term interests of the Syrian people and of all peoples of this region.”
Here is a description of what will likely be entailed if Israel launches a military attack against Iran; it was published on February 22nd, by Russian geostrategic expert Peter Korzun, under the headline “Israel and Iran: Inching Toward Conflict”:
If Iran itself is attacked, its sites related to its nuclear program will top the list of the prime targets for Israel’s F-35, F-15, F-16, and Kfir fighters, drones, and intermediate-range Jericho missiles. There are different routes they could take, but all of them would require flying through the airspaces of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, or Turkey. None of these Muslim countries will openly allow Israel to use their airspace, but anti-Iran sentiments are strong in the Sunni-dominated Arab states. Some of them might be willing to look the other way. A clandestine agreement to tacitly allow Israeli aircraft to cross their air space is entirely possible. Anger could be vented publicly once the mission has been completed.
Iraq is not focused on monitoring its airspace – it has many other problems to deal with and Israel could take advantage of that. The route through Iraq looks like it might be the best option.
The distance that would need to be covered would be between 1,500 km (930 miles) and 1,800 km (1,120 miles). The aircraft will also have to make a return trip, so in-flight refueling will be a necessity. Israel is only believed to own between eight and ten large tanker aircraft (such as Boeing 707s). That will hardly be enough. The Israeli military is not particularly adept at aerial refuelling. If the aircraft have to fly undetected, the F-35s will have to forgo their externally mounted weapons in order to preserve their stealth capabilities. Then their payload will be reduced to only two JDAM-guided bombs in the internal bay. Pretty underwhelming.
Then Iran’s radars will have to be spoofed, and its air defenses, especially the Russian-made S-300, will have to be knocked out. It won’t be easy.
Israel has a few dozen laser-guided bunker buster bombs (the GBU-28). The Jericho III is an Israeli three-stage solid propellant missile with a payload of more than a ton and capable of carrying multiple low-yield independently targeted reentry warheads. All the targets in Iran fall within its range of up to 6,500 km (4,038 miles). These missile strikes are capable of destroying every command and control site, as well as all major nuclear facilities.
The Heron-2 and Eitan drones can hover in the air for more than 20 consecutive hours to provide guidance and intelligence and to jam Iranian communications and confuse its radar.
Israel would wage electronic warfare against Iran’s military and civilian infrastructure, such as its electric grids and Internet, creating interference with Iran’s emergency frequencies.
After the war has begun, Israel will come under rocket and missile attack from Iran’s proxies: Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah has up to 150,000 rockets that can reach anywhere in Israel. It is true however, that Israel possesses a sophisticated, multilayer, air-defense shield. A first-class intelligence and early-warning system will mitigate the fallout, but substantial damage will be unavoidable.
Israeli troops will have to deploy in the Strip and move across the Lebanese border. But the Shia group will have to fight on two fronts: in Syria to prop up the Assad government, and in Lebanon against Israel. Syria is likely to find itself involved in combat operations. Israel will go to any length to keep Iran and Hezbollah away from its border.
Iran may try to block the Strait of Hormuz. But even if it does not, global oil prices would go up. Iran or its proxies might attack US forces in the Middle East, primarily in Syria and Iraq. Should that happen, Iraq would likely become a battleground between US forces and Iranian proxies, with American reinforcements rushing in. Iran could punish the Americans for their support of Israel in Afghanistan.
An attack against Russia’s ally would be an attack that will significantly weaken Russia. Will Russia come to the defense of its ally, the victim of this uncalled-for invasion by America’s proxy, Israel? Will Russia retaliate by destroying Israel — and maybe destroying also its sponsor?
Most scenarios for a world-ending nuclear war entail “errors,” or else a traditional non-nuclear conflict (perhaps in Syria, or in Ukraine — or it could be in Iran, or in North Korea) producing victory for one side (it could be either the U.S. versus Russia, in Syria, Ukraine, or Iran; or else the U.S. versus China, in North Korea), unless the other side (it could be either Russia versus the U.S., or else China versus the U.S.) blitz-launches almost its entire nuclear arsenal against the other side and against the other side’s strategically key allies. (For example, if Israel invades Iran, then perhaps Russia will launch a blitz-nuclear invasion of both Israel and the United States.) The first-to-strike in an all-out war between the nuclear superpowers will have the best chance of winning (i.e., in military parlance “winning” means simply inflicting more damage on the other side than it inflicts upon the “winner” — regardless of how damaged both sides — and the rest of the world — are). If the U.S. or its allies invade more than they’ve already done (practically all allies of Russia), then a blitz from Russia and/or China would be reasonable, because then obviously the U.S. aims to become conqueror of the entire world — the only super-power. Once one side has lost the traditional conflict in Syria and/or Ukraine, or elsewhere, the other side will either unleash its nuclear stockpile against the other (except for whatever anti-missiles it holds in reserve against any of the enemy’s missiles that haven’t yet been destroyed in that blitz-attack), or else it will surrender to the other. There will be a ‘winner’, but the entire world will be the loser. This is what America’s ‘democracy’ has brought us to.
Billionaires (including owners of controlling interests in weapons-manufacturers whose main or only customers are the U.S. Government and its allied governments — the ‘democratic’ decision-makers who had won political power because of donations from those billionaires) are planning to survive nuclear war. There seem to be two main ways:
Google this line:
billionaires moving to “new zealand”
Others are buying bunkers deep underground in countries where they already reside — such as here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here — to protect themselves from the nuclear blasts, though nothing can protect anyone (not even, ultimately in New Zealand) from the resulting nuclear winter, and global famine and die-off.
More about what’s behind this can be seen in an excellent article by Edward Curtin, which has been published at a number of terrific news-sites — especially Greanville Post, Counter Currents, Global Research, and Off-Guardian (all four of which sites are prime ones to visit regularly, if a person wants to understand today’s world) — and it is aptly titled “The Coming Wars to End All Wars”.
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.
I wonder if an air attack would be first on the airdefenses of Iran or on the strategic targets.
Would a surprise outweigh the danger of an untouched air defense ?
Would the Irans evacuate the nuclear sites so that a later attack may not find its target ?
Considering that at the start of the attack the international pressure will rise to make a truce
– the air campaign can only bee so long maybe a week or only 48 hours?
Could this influence scope of the attack , probably flying a more risky attack ?
Standard American doctrine is to attack the air defenses first.
Remember, America is led by a ruling elite that does not represent its people. The American people have for a decade at least been opposed to these wars. This is shown by the fact that the last two Presidents ran as anti-war candidates who criticized these wars. Even Bush/Cheney ran on a campaign of ‘compassionate conservatism’ and opposition to the ‘nation-building’ of the Clintons.
In the case of a ruling elite starting wars without broad popular support, they are very, very adverse to casualties. They can only sustain and spin a very small number of lost aircraft and lost mulit-million dollar airplanes before the people’s objections to a war become very loud.
And in the case of this current US administration, the Democrats ritually oppose everything that Trump does. No matter that they strongly support wars begun by Obama or the Clintons, they will be very much in opposition to Trump’s next wars. The Democrats will not rally around a Trump war this time the way they did against Dubya’s wars in the last decade.
Thus, its rather predictable that the US will follow their doctrine and take the ‘safe’ course of taking out the air defenses to avoid losing planes and flight crews. They can spin one or two losses as ‘heroes’, but they can not afford any significant losses to their aircrews as both the fake-opposition from the Democrats and the real opposition from the majority of the American people would quickly rise against them.
That is a profound answer, which goes far deeper than merely the question which had been raised, and that ties it in with explaining some of the rules that Big Brother applies in its invasions, and why those rules are used, which reason is, to fool its public, for as long a time as possible, so as to obtain the public’s support in its exploitation of us, for as long a time as possible. And you’re an excellent writer; since you’ve got both depth plus style, you should be posting your own articles, or telling us here where to find them.
I beg to differ.
The democrats just want Trump to start more wars. They will freeze with the thought he would end the tensions between Russia en Iran
Didnt you notice the warm welcome in the entire US media when Trump fired his missiles on that Airfeild in Syria??
President Trump, so far, is the only President now following the decades old plan of following primarily British foreign policy attitudes in the Persian Gulf. He does not care, I repeat, he does not care if the the IMC, or the elites want a war. He isn’t going to blindly follow the Saudis either. He is about providing world wide security in a transformative world through new – America First – trade policies. We get it, the world is changing, but if you think the SCO, or some new union want to see their new reign at the expense of American demise, forget it. We are smarter than that. It’s time for the Persian Gulf to start this off and suffer the consequences that will stick to them and not us.
The sad truth that no Western fakestream media presstitute or political stooge dare utter is that the Zionazi lust to destroy Iran (‘obliterate’ it in the blood-soaked harridan, Clinton’s words)is rooted in religion, as well as Judeofascist secular ideology. The Talmudic Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox who control religious matters in Israel, and are central to Israeli Rightwing Governments, see murdering civilians as NOT a crime against humanity, but a mitzvah, or good deed. Moreover they believe that an entire ‘city’ may be destroyed for the ‘crimes’ of a few, and International Law against collective punishment can go to Hell. Furthermore they also approve of the murder of children, even babies, if they can be said to be liable to grow up to ‘oppose the Jews’.
The reality of Talmudic Judaism can be seen in the barbarity of the murderous assaults on Gaza, southern Lebanon and during Israel’s wars, with the murder of POWs in 1956 and1967 matters for lively dispute in Israel, but forbidden to be discussed, even mentioned, by the goyim. One can be certain that Nassty Yahoo is determined to create a New Purim in Iran to join the older Purim, with its ‘75.000’ victims, that Jews celebrate so raucously every year, as they do the other genocide, Passover.
One must bear in mind the nature of the deranged aggressors-the USA and Zionazistan. The USA is more and more dominated by ‘Christian’ fascists, like the Dominionist Pence and the lunatic Pompeo in charge of the CIA. There are numerous others like de Vos, the billionaire in charge of destroying education, whose brother Eric Prince, runs the Christian fascist army in waiting, Academi alias Blackwater.
These psychopaths are actually slavering for Armageddon, for The Rapture, for war with ‘Gog and Magog’ (China and Russia) and ‘the fire next time’. What better way to go than ‘nucular war, toe-to-toe with the Russkies’! Yeehawww!!!
These lunatics have their Zionazi equivalents, and ‘allies’, in Israel and the Diaspora Jewish elite, many of whom seem to suffer from a ‘Masada Complex’, and a sort of perverted sense of ‘survivor guilt’ at not having lived through the horror of the Nazi Judeocide and not having been consumed in it. This is manifest in a sort of death-wish, evidenced in the Israeli elite’s total refusal to compromise or treat its neighbours as fellow human beings (this is religiously rooted in Talmudic dogma that asserts the supremacy of Jews and the total inferiority of the goyim)and in NUMEROUS threats to ‘take the world down’ as punishment for ‘centuries of oppression by a Jew-hating world’ in a nuclear attack and subsequent nuclear winter. This type are ‘allied’ with ‘Christian Zionists’ who actually despise Jews, seeing them as being forced to convert or die at the Apocalypse, but are prepared to co-operate with them, in pursuit of the End Times. Quite a scurvy crew to destroy humanity.
Syria, Iran and North Korea are not the issue, but the gigantic US foreign and domestic debt, which can never be repayed, and the fact that both the dollar and euro are printed backed by nothing. About a week ago even the US Fed started expressing concern about the debt, which says plenty. Most EU countries are facing their own debts. Not a happy picture for Western finances. In such circumstances the bankers like to pull off their little trick of initiating a wider war in order to get the economies going. However, analysts have for years been warning that this trick cannot work any more, not just because of the debt, but because in the US between 28.000 and 60.000 factories have been closed down, severely eroding the US manufacturing base. Even so, the elite in the US are itching for a military confrontation, apparently having no option, as they are looking into the rise of Russia and China and their economic creations, the BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union and the Silk Road. Not a happy picture for Wall Street, especially since both Russia and China are preparing to introduce gold backed currencies.
Shall we get military confrontations ? The answer is yes, although the impression is that both NATO and the Pentagon are still evaluating the options, the exception being the Donbass. By now it’s pretty clear that the West will force Poroshenko to attack, either during the Russian Presidential elections, or during the World Cup, hoping to subvert Putin’s popularity in Russia. It won’t work. The attack against the Donbass could be used as a cover for an attack against either Iran or North Korea, or both. Not wise. Both have powerful military’s, and I don’t see them being defeated. I also don’t see Israel attacking Iran on it’s own. However, a coalition of Israel, the US and Saudi Arabia is possible. Again not wise. This would start a political chain reaction both in the world and in fragile Saudi Arabia, where dissent is growing. Europe has billions invested in Iran, and is showing no appetite for a war against it.
Washington would be wise not to provoke any more military confrontations, especially not in the Dobass, where Donbass Russians have openly warned the Ukrainian Army that they are expecting their attack and are prepared, having more than three years to dig in. Should Poroshenko attack, his demoralized conscript Army will suffer another crushing defeat, which would lead to severe political repercussions inside Ukraine. Two weeks ago Ukrainians openly demonstrated against Poroshenko in Kiev. Another military disaster could well see a Maidan in reverse, with a possible break up of the country. Washington would suffer another geopolitical defeat.
As for the US elite preparing getaways in foreign countries, that is old news. Analysts have been pointing this out for years. New Zealand and Tasmania are the top attractions. What we have here is a reincarnation of history. Before the Vandals took Imperial Rome in 476, the Roman elite fled to Venice.
@B.F: “Before the Vandals took Imperial Rome in 476, the Roman elite fled to Venice.”
Many thanks for that snippet of history; and Venice rose slowly to become a major power in the Med. Reminds me what we were taught at school: that before the Turks took Imperial Constantinople the Greek intellectual elite fled to Florence and started the Renaissance of Western Europe; which rapidly rose to become a world power. Now the US plutocratic so-called “elite” are flying South: will Patagonia and New Zealand become world powers and centres of a new civilization as Venice, Florence and Renaissance Europe did? I doubt it, because Rome and Byzantium had a civilization, whereas the US only has (had?) money. Like money-based Carthage, the US will “vanish from the pages of history without trace”.
carthage disappeared because of the punic wars… everyone was slain, every stone upturned and the land salted so nothing could grow. nothing to do with money…
I’ll add little known fact punic wars is that It was 50,000 Greek Hoplites from Syracuse that saved the Rome and finally defeated the invading army of Libyan “gangsters”. Needless to say, Rome repaid Syracuse by invading Sicily and Syracuse little later. Does this behavior remind you of anyone today? How many people actually know that in Libya there are more Greek antiquities than in Greece?
It was during the Dubya/Cheney era that the DC elites were spreading a lot of propaganda of the US being the ‘next rome’. They seemed to be openly modeling themselves on the Roman Empire.
Anonymous
The Roman empire plundered and also built. The US empire only plunders, offering nothing in return, as the US has no cultural and historic basis, being a plastic copy of European civilization. Because the US only plunders, it will collapse and go down in history as the shortest lived empire in history, hated by many.
B.F, the perfect example is Iraq-destroyed with genocidal savagery by the USA, then the USA refuses to aid its reconstruction. Or like Vietnam, destroyed by US malevolence, with four million killed and the land poisoned by chemicals and unexploded weaponry, then the USA slaps sanctions on the devastated country. Without any doubt the USA represents the greatest force for Evil in all history, a history that the rabid curs in Thanatopolis DC seem determined to soon end.
Dr N.G. Maroudas
Yes, Venice rose. I always wondered who payed for those magnificent buildings. I presume the Roman elite brought what was left of the Roman treasury. Some writers have pointed out to the Black Nobility of Venice, being ostensibly descendants of the original Roman elite, who, ostensibly, have great power in Europe. I have no comment on this particular fact.
The second part of your comment is 100 % correct. The US elite which flees to New Zealand and other countries will bring with them money and nothing else. It will become assimilated with the local population, doing it’s best to protect it’s financial interests. It has nothing to offer other than money, on condition that money has any value left. And yes, I too read about the US being a “new Rome”, which is hilarious. The US is only a copy of what Europe had or has, adapted for local use. And yes, the US as such will vanish from the pages of history, since it is an artificial creation. It will most probably break up into a number of geographic and political entities.
I have an answer Constantinople in 1204:
English version of the sack of the Constantinople in 1204:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NIM8dqXA-s
This is one also in English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBx8BDJdzfY
K. Bogdanos talks about the same in Greek:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S82ayvyz0pY
Check out 3:20min for some plunder which can be admired in Venice today.
Another one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwrUuJD5_KY
He has very interesting painting at the beginning, but do not be fooled here, and I challenge all Polish readers to look at the paining behind him at the very beginning of his talk.
To all others, the painting is by most famous Polish painter Matejko and it represents the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 http://military.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_of_Grunwald
The man in red is Polish king Jagiełło (Russian speaking Lithuanian Prince).
The guy with the cross is Ulrich von Jungingen who died in that battle.
His page is here http://military.wikia.com/wiki/Ulrich_von_Jungingen
Another one about the same, shows the destruction in the Constantinople.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4O2EiTKKNA
The painting can be admired at Wawel (pronounced Vavel) in Kraków, Poland.
This is the final fall of the Constantinople by the Turks. Again K. Bogdanos here talks about the of of the Constantinople May 23rd, 1453
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwrUuJD5_KY
Yes, “Two weeks ago Ukrainians openly demonstrated against Poroshenko in Kiev” — but those were the nazis, who are marching for intensifying Ukraine’s war and taking it directly into being a war against Russia. So, your statement there seems to me to have been deceptive, or else grossly misinformed. The Ukrainian public are actually confused as to why things in their country are so rotten; they are confused because the ‘news’media there are even more censored than ours are — and Americans, too, are confused because of the lies pouring forth from our TVs and radios and newspapers and magazines, but not as much as the Ukrainians are confused by theirs. And this is the reason why the nazis might end up taking over Ukraine even more they have thus far done (with U.S. backing, of course).
We can perhaps take comfort from the idea that no imperium has ever survived a combination of internal dissent and external foreign wars. Certainly the US is a house divided, even if signs of internal dissent are somewhar muted at present. Unfortunately both Iran and Syria are suffering from the same malaise, though for somewhat differing reasons. Perhaps NATO is prepared to sacrifice it’s various troop contingents in the Baltic states and Poland, because the conversion of their existing missile arrays to nuclear status notwithstanding, competent military figures in the West have admitted that these ground forces would be essentially wiped out within 48 hours following engagement with Russian units. In previous conflicts Israel has benefited from aggressively defending it’s borders, viz the Six Day War, whereas distance worked against the Arab states, aside from any othedr considerations. Israeli military adventures of the sort envisaged above would basically put them both literally and metaphorically in unknown territory and the logistics problems would almost certainly come back to bite them. Nor I think could a resentful conscript army make much headway against the Iranians in any kind of ground warfare. In view of this it makes sense for the Israeli’s to go for air strikes against strategic targets. They are however in something of a cleft stick, since they lack the airpower to both launch assaults on Iran and defend their home turf and this takes no account of inevitable losses in the air. In view of the foregoing, any major moves against Iran would require considerable US involvement and support, events which would see the unravelling of much US global strategy to date. This is before we start to factor in China…………..
Israel will not disable Iran so easily , even with US help . If this war is launched it will be the end of Israel and the US empire as we know it . The author conveniently overlooks the fact that China has stated publicly on several occasions that it will respond militarily to any attack on Iran. Iran is key to China one belt one road. Israeli planes will be brought down by Russian forces in Syria. By the truck load. The war would be fought through missiles of which Iran is extremely advanced. As for mid air refueling for IAF simply won’t happen as 707 would be sitting ducks. What use is an f35/16/15 without fuel. F35 with only two missiles and no air to air defense would be collateral damage at $120 milllion a pop . I wonder if the author is pro Israeli? The next war will show the world that aircraft based domination warfare is a thing of the past . From aircraft carriers to mythical stealth aircraft. The country with the most advanced missile technology and electronic warfare capabilities will prevail.ie Russia.Missiles are cheaper faster and more maneuverable than any $100 mil dollar aircraft . The US , Israel know this . That’s why the USA changed their nuclear doctrine to being able to use for first strike. They know they are hopelessly exposed as their military doctrine over the preceding 20 plus years has been based on air superiority through aircraft/carrier battle groups.The emperor has no clothes. They have been out maneuvered. No near peer conflicts were factored into US strategic planning 20plus years ago . Remember the f35 , zumalt , Ford super carriers were all in the early design phase . The USSR collapsed and the systematic raping of Russia was well under way by western elites. Who would have thought that Russia would have recovered so well . Putin deserves much praise. A godsend to Russia and most of the free world.
I’m inclined to agree with everything you’ve said, except “I wonder if the author is pro Israeli?” (I obviously am not: for example, web-search my “Why Does U.S. Gov’t. Donate $38B to an Enemy Nation?”)
Furthermore, the U.S. military (including its weapons-makers) have been incompetent (because profoundly corrupt at the top) for decades, so I don’t accept your unstated assumption that the U.S. Government has at least a modicum of rationality and of realism.
Eric,
While your main message is spot on, you might want to review some of the military analyses the Saker has done regarding Iranian and Hezbollah capabilities, especially in a conflict with Israel. The fact is that no one will know how it’s going to play out until it does, but I agree with Zigfried that it’s likely to be a huge disaster for Israel and the US if they move forward with this insanity. I’m not a military strategist, but logic tells me that Israel has no capability to fight a multi-front war like this anymore. Hezbollah in the north, Iran from the east, Gaza likely suddenly finding itself in possession of more sophisticated weapons in the south, Syrian air space denied or at least hotly contested, and maybe even some random takfiris jumping into the chaos just because (and maybe Turkey playing all sides, as per usual). So you’re right, it does devolve into a global conflict pretty fast as opposed to a regional one. Like North Korea, it’s basically a lose-lose-lose scenario for everyone.
Would Israel really risk its total devastation by attacking Iran? I think that window is now closed. There are too many forces that would align to wipe Israel off the map. There is too much pent up anger and desire for retribution for any other outcome. Israel has to know this. Are Israeli leaders so deranged that they would risk their very nation in exchange for some notion of a limited engagement with Iran? Are Israelis OK with this?
Apparently, yes. Their ‘news’media are just as much under the oligarchs’ control as ours are. Furthermore (and this is addressed to Zigfried, Mataman, and Andy) Korzun DID say:
“Israel has a few dozen laser-guided bunker buster bombs (the GBU-28). The Jericho III is an Israeli three-stage solid propellant missile with a payload of more than a ton and capable of carrying multiple low-yield independently targeted reentry warheads. All the targets in Iran fall within its range of up to 6,500 km (4,038 miles). These missile strikes are capable of destroying every command and control site, as well as all major nuclear facilities.”
So, if Israel delivers those at the start, then Iran will end at the start. Will Russia or China then nuke Israel? If not, then the Palestinians will be powerless, and America’s fundamentalist-Sunni allies will be delighted to have conquered “the Shia Crescent” without having had to strike any blow at all.
I don’t think that Russia or even less China will use nukes to “avenge” Iran; however I got the imression that North Korea is the insurance policy of Iran as they hate Israel and can provide anything to Iran & Syria if things get out of control and nukes are used by the other side.
While your points are all valid and I don’t question Israeli capabilities I question whether the outcome of the war could be dictated by a few dozen Jericho missiles.
Iran is over 80 times the size of Israel and while we can all speculate where their military command posts are the fact is we ,US and Israel aren’t 100% certain. Their is a huge amount of terrain,mountains etc to move mobile hardware. By contrast it would take Iran , hezbollah, Syria , far less to inflict massive damage to Israel. Israel simply cannot be defended against a barrage of missiles from multiple fronts.
Us and Israel aren’t 100% certain of Iran’s true capabilities. Iran are very secretive and have displayed their ability through pinpoint cruise missile attacks against isis in Syria.
The main problem I have with the analysis is that it assumes that Iran would sit and wait for Israeli missiles to strike their targets before retaliating. Israeli missiles would take 30-60 minutes to hit targets . Iran would be aware of this the second Israel fires these weapons . Iran wouldn’t know whether these weapons are nuclear or not so would retaliate under the assumption they are and would release a massive barrage of missiles , the likes of which the world has never seen, before Israeli missiles have even reached their destination. Israel will be destroyed. Iran on the other hand will survive almost fully intact.
The US endgame with Iran is directed at restricting Chinas acces to oil to try to slow their economic/infrastructure growth. One belt project . The real death of American financial power.
The real danger would be the US response . Will they retaliate for Israel? This would leave them hopelessly exposed in Ukraine , North Korea , South China Sea etc. Contrary to many beliefs ,Hollywood fantasy the USA would not win a conventional war against Russia & China . It would be over quite quickly.
Their only hope is to go nuclear?? Hence new nuclear doctrine.
In this case no one wins
Israel has 100’s of Nukes. I doubt very much that there will be a winner anywhere.
Russia’s new nuclear doctrine has highlights “ any nuclear attack against an ally would be regarded as an attack against Russia “. Translate. Israeli use of nuclear weapons is null and void . Endgame
Hi Zigfried – that’s a great comment – thanks for your input – I agree – totally – Israel is not going to take the risk – especially because Netanyahu is under investigation – maybe someone might think that for that reason the timing is good for war – but Israel is proud of its cities and its country – and is really like a coffee table monument – fragile and expensive – not to be thrown around…no way –
And by the way – thanks Eric – I love your articles and read them everyday – everysite – they are always great reading material – not to be skipped –
And I would never dream that you were pro-Israeli – you don’t come across as that ever….its hard to be a writer – its like being a target –
God Bless.
One thing that scares me about the world right now is that Netanyahoo seems to want a war right now precisely because the investigators are closing in on him and his family and all of their corruption schemes over the years.
There has already been moves by Likud to say that a current leader can not be investigated or jailed. This would likely escalate in a war sitution as the cry from Netanyahoo’s partisans would be strongly that Israel can not change leaders in a war situation. Especially since the ranks of alternative leaders seem rather thin, and some of them are more radical than Netanyahoo.
But I can easily believe that Netanyahoo’s character (or lack thereof) is such that he’d gladly start a war to keep him and his family out of prison.
Thanks, Ann, that’s touching. Your having said that is more than balm to me for the scar of having been suspected by a reader, of supporting an apartheid oligarchic (which necessarily also means corrupt) racist dictatorship.
Dear Eric,
Korzun may have said that, but what is relevant is that Israel’s opponents are aware of these weapons and would make the necessary moves to either negate or to remove those threats, and even Israel’s military leaders would also have to be aware. Ergo, Korzun’s statement must be viewed as bombastic propaganda.
What I have noticed over the past 20 years was the Israel has always pushed onto the Americans ‘the threat of Iran’ but has never moved further than that, even knowing that any attack as in the 1967 war, America would immediately spring to the defence of Israel. But even more, the Israelis have since the birth of their nation always sat back and let the ‘others’ clean up the mess for them. And this is why it was stated earlier that the plan for the Saudi’s along with Israel to attack Iran had to depend on the assistance of America.
Ariel Sharon may have stated that Israel controls America and the Americans know that, but, and it is a big but, would American military forces risk the annihilation of America for it’s ‘only ally in the Middle East’?
Great Britain did that in 1914 and lost it’s superpower status. Then look at what happened to the English Sterling? Gold was replaced with paper (1934) and the silver coins were debased. And that is when America took over. If Israel leads America into another fatal war, the very same will happen to America, even if it wins the war it will lose its status and the dollar will become redundant, and thus America will have lost the war.
Andrew, your statement that Israel “has never moved further than that, even knowing that any attack as in the 1967 war, America would immediately spring to the defence of Israel” was oblivious to the core reality there, which is that in 1967, Iran was an ally of the U.S. and Israel, not their enemy; so, no relevancy exists to that assertion of yours.
Iran has had decades to prepare for such an attack. After all, this has been regularly threatened by both the US and Israel for quite some time now.
The obvious lesson for the Iranians to draw from would be the way the Serbians withstood an air attack by diverting the US air forces to attacking dummy targets.
I would strongly suspect that neither the US nor Israel knows where all fo the Iranian command and control centers are located. I suspect that ever since Saddam was lobbing missiles at Iran that these have been both mobile and well concealed.
With regard to sites in the Iranian nuclear weapons program, the world’s intelligence agencies (outside of Israel) were all in agreement that they didn’t exist in the first place. Iran gave up a fictional nuclear weapons program in order to get sanctions to end. Watch the rhetoric closely, as the US and Israeli pro-war media refers now to Iran’s ‘nuclear’ program and not Iran’s ‘nuclear weapons’ program, thus conflating a civilian power program with nuclear weapons for those that don’t listen closely. And even then, Iran agreed to give up or scale back their civliian power research to get the deal that Trump and Netanyahoo now hate so much.
So, while Iran might have a few general nuclear research sites, they don’t have anything that could even think about producing nuclear weapons in the time-frame of a war with Israel + KSA + Sunni Gulf States + USA.
If Israel is silly enough to believe its own propaganda and to thus waste early strike capabilities on ‘nuclear’ sites that do not threaten Israel, then that will be a large strategic mistake on the part of Israel.
Eric, the Zionazis’ greatest weakness is their arrogant self-delusion, built on their deep racist contempt for the goyim, particularly their traditional victims in their region. One would have thought that their defeats by Hezbollah in 2000 and 2006 might have disabused them of that attitude, but it has, predictably,only added new layers of a Talmudic lust for bloody, genocidal, vengeance. Moreover, Bibi the Crooked is in deep poo over his habitual corruption, so he no doubt fancies a lovely Holy Massacre, a ‘New Purim’ so that the Jews, or those so inclined, will sing his praises down through the ages.
“Are Israeli leaders so deranged that they would risk their very nation in exchange for some notion of a limited engagement with Iran? Are Israelis OK with this?”
Faced with mounting and unassailable corruption charges, Netanyahu’s decades-long marriage to power will risk it, yes. Israelis will be dragged along, some reluctantly, others not. A certain dark calculus is fulfilled when Netanyahu furnishes WW3’s Archduke Ferdinand moment.
As for B.F.’s notion above that, “the gigantic US foreign and domestic debt can never be repaid, and both the dollar and euro are printed backed by nothing.”
Fiat currencies are ‘backed’ by the caprice of the bankers. A capital strike brings an end to asset and liability valuation as every asset is a contingent liability on another’s balance sheet. Net worth is another mirage easily dispensed with when the necessary leverage must be applied.
Western debt was never meant to be repaid. We’ve been running the numbers and hand-wringing for decades over the specter of too-large numbers. Theatrics.
Insurmountable debt makes malleable hostages of sovereign nations. Its purpose is to deliver the nations to their reluctant (yet no-less appointed roles) as conscripts in apocalyptic self-immolation. For such a catastrophic verdict to be allowed, God insists that the nations (godless by this juncture anyway) must be delivered through the actions of their own vices and false idolatries (over-consumption, greed, avarice, etc.)
There is no foe large enough to deliver the cat (Pax Americana) to the mouse (Pax Judaica). The cat must turn its claws on itself for the mouse to win.
For our final war, the irony will be rich and human foibles will glow like a true final bonfire of the vanities. Beyond Netanyahu striking the match, exactly no one and everyone will be responsible for WW3.
–FSD
Another profound comment, and eloquent, too, with such phrases as “A certain dark calculus is fulfilled when Netanyahu furnishes WW3’s Archduke Ferdinand moment.” I hope to be seeing full-fledged articles from you, too. Our side needs all the rare talents it can muster, especially because, on the opposite side, talent gets paid, and only fools volunteer their services. On ours, talents go unremunerated, and thus are publicly encountered less frequently.
That’s very kind of you Eric. I’m a longtime reader of your work. I pop up on Counterpunch, Asia Times, Dissident Voice etc.
While I ratify much of your analysis, I’ve moved beyond exclusively secular renditions and have ascended ‘into the Air’. With the velocity of events exceeding the parameters of human cogitation, we’ve entered literally an inhuman phase. The central conflict has been removed from human hands and is barreling along under an increasingly spiritual aegis. The Principalities of Good vs. Evil are animating state actors like never before.
Another secularly-bound attempt to approximate this stage of history is the late Sheldon Wolin’s inverted totalitarianism. The latter is authorless and ubiquitous like a malignant ghost in the machine. It’s everywhere and nowhere. Our tiny professional ambitions participate in this stage of totalitarianism. So it’s a distributive phenomenon. Depending upon our status within the System, we both benefit from and complain about in varying measure.
There is no place from which to lever an earthly assault. Totalitarianism has perfected itself by de-materializing. Unlike classical totalitarianism, there no longer is a titular human head, a Mussolini who can be easily hanged from a bridge. This is the totalizing (Wolin’s term) Spirit of Antichrist (this is NOT a Wolin characterization).
The Person of Trump is a brief counter-trend, an unplanned interregnum, in this inexorable process aimed at constructing the perfect panopticon. (Though God allows us to call it an accident of history, God knows better. Eschatology allows for no accident). Really, Trump’s job is to re-nationalize America, restore it to nation-among-nations, for a final assault on global totalism. Almost certainly, Trump doesn’t fully understand his role. But that’s not important.
That’s also why Trump is detested by every notable power center (as all the latter operate in league with creating a seamless prison where all notions of resistance have been purged by mass consent via a totalizing false consciousness.) That’s also why I overlook Trump’s many sins and character flaws. God loves to elevate His most flawed vessels. Trump is an exogenous figure in the likeness of JFK who may well succeed where the latter failed, i.e. shattering the CIA into a thousand pieces. He’s not given nearly enough credit for his personal courage in that covert war.
In the final analysis, sideways motions get subsumed in the eschatological forward-march. WW3 is coming and can be delayed but not averted. Like the two legs of gravity’s rainbow, the arc’s intersection is clouded from our view overhead. But the rattling sabers in Ukraine, North Korea and Syria are directly instigated by the Deep State’s current travails in the US. Imagine Dulles and Hoover being indicted! That’s exactly what’s on the cards for Brennan and Comey as we speak. Weapons systems only get you so far. There’s your casus belli for WW3.
Respect to you Eric, i have read your work since early 2014 when the Maidan started. You were spot on about everything. Just keep writing Eric your message is getting through.
@zigfried
I agree with your wish-list but disagree with your assumptions and analysis. Here is why: (1) You assume that China will spring into action to defend/help Iran. This is a very doubtful thing to happen. First of all, China is not logistically in a position to move arms, troops, hardware into Iran. Try planning a safe sea or air route for that to take place. A land route does not exist. Moreover, at this point China is more focussed on making money and developing its economy than on foreign wars. (2) As for Russia bringing down Israeli planes and coming in strong, I don’t see that happening either. Russia is not in a position to take on the US-Israeli combine. If you review the developments of the past 3-4 months in Syria, you will notice that Russia takes care to avoid any military escalation and any military engagement with Israel and US. It had entered Syria on strong military and political terms, but those advantages were slowly frittered away by not taking a strong principled stand on any matter. So I don’t see any strong Russian commitment to Iran either. A large part of Syria has been declared “American zone”, Turkey has laid claim to its own zone, and the Russians – though the first to control Syrian skies – have slowly conceded zones and areas to Israel, US, and now the Turks. (3) As for the superior Russian missiles: the thing is you either use it or lose it. Those famous missiles have not exactly helped Russia resolve or even control the Syrian conflict. In political terms at least, those missiles are already lost. I don’t see those missiles working any miracle in any future Iran war either.
The above may come across as pessimistic. I sincerely hope I am wrong on all the above points but, alas, the empire is proving to be unstoppable and Iran is going to be its next trophy.
I disagree with the notion that WW3 could be “triggered by accident”; and I disagree even more that the finger pulling that “trigger” would belong to someone in the ME. Firstly because, as FD Roosevelt said, nothing in world affairs happens by accident, everything is planned. The world did not just “sleepwalk into WW1” the Anglo-French-Russian alliance to destroy Germany, take over Turkey’s M.sopatamian oilfields and create a national home for the Jews in Palestine was crafted at least 14 years before Britain declared war on Germany and Turkey allegedly over Sarajevo. The runup to WW2 was carefully planned by Capitalist FUKUSA as an attack on Communist Russia by a re-armed Fascist Germany — Fascism being a union of Money Power with State Power. And what reversed the course of WW2 was no accident either: it was simply the diplomatic genius of Stalin convincing Hitler it would be much more glorious — and far easier — to conquer Western Europe than to conquer Russia.
WW3 is being planned of course. I guess FUKZUSA have scheduled it for 2033 — the centenary of the Capitalist conspiracy which ruined the Weymar Republic financially, financed Hitler and installed the Nazis in Germany. “Herr! Hitler and “Signor” Mussolini “our bulwarks against Communism”.
WW2 is planned Mod. NOTE: Did you mean to say “WW3” here? but not inevitable. Bullies are cowards. Remember, “The USA is a paper tiger” — Mao. And as for little Israel attacking Iran, reminds me of all those schoolboy jokes about What’s the height of the ridiculous? There are no Alexanders in the IDF — nor in the rest of NATZO for that matter.
Excellent comment. The only aspect differs from my own understanding of history is the conquest of Western Europe by Germany. In my point of view Germany had to attack the allies of Poland (France and the UK) before directing its focus on the USSR..
Correct. I feel that one point needs to be addressed here. German war planners understood USSR’s immense potential and they concluded that only after their vassal states (the rest of Europe) start producing weapons and other military supplies for them they would be unable to defeat the sleeping Giant that was USSR. Keep in mind, that by sending vast majority of their most productive men to the east front they practically depleted their workforce. This is why towards the end of war after huge losses in the east they had to resort to the so called “Hitler Jungen” which meant 10 or so year old boys and the old men past the normal military age.
Sorry, small correction: replace ” … they would be unable to defeat …” with ” … they would be able to defeat …”
Addition: We know the end result. Even with the rest of Europe working for them they lost to the Giant, who was not sleeping anymore.
Sorry Eric i only read the conclusion – Another take on ww111 –
The dear RF was defeated by it’s own elite back in the ’90’s, sorry ’bout that.
VVP has resurrected quality military but money rules – see the last sentence.
ww111 requires Major Opposing Sides – where is the other side? – see the last two sentences.
ww111 might just be ManVsNature – it will be a long hard grind, my money’s on nature.
@sadness,
Sorry bud/gal there will be no man-vs-nature. Whoever survives will die in the following 20 or so years. Hunger is a bitch. Never mind the MadMax and other hollywood bs.
Regarding “billionaires moving to “new zealand”
New Zealand is banning foreigners from buying property.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/25/new-zealand-property-ban-to-take-effect-on-foreign-buyers.html
The ban applies to non-resident foreigners
New Zealand’s housing shortage estimated as growing by 40 homes per day
The country has been a favorite spot for Chinese investors
China to become biggest foreign owner of Australian farmland
https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/agribusiness/decisionag/china-to-become-biggest-foreign-owner-of-australian-farmland/news-story/ba27742491380f55568bc3d5ada296cb
WHEN gold was discovered in Australia in the 1850s, Chinese immigrants arrived in droves in search of their fortunes. After the gold rush, many took to rural regions to help clear land for farms. Now, more than 150 years later, the Chinese are returning to rural Australia for another gold rush — this time, ironically, to buy the farm.
Australia and New Zealand are essential parts of the Anglo-American World Order in the Pacific.
Those two entities are mobilizing for war, but instead of Russia being the primary “enemy image” as in the United States or Britain, the Anglos there are focusing on China.
That is the underlying geopolitical agenda behind those laws and their official rationalizations.
Ultimately, the Anglo Americans will not brook any challenge to Anglo world dominance… sorry, the Liberal Democratic Order… particularly from Eurasia, of which China and Russia are fundamental.
As such, there is a *geopolitical division of labor* with the Americans, British, and Canadians currently targeting Russia as primary enemy, while Australia and New Zealand target China.
Make no mistake: the Anglo Americans and their satraps are prepping for World War.
Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela and others in the multi-polar camp had best be prepared to deal with the Anglo Americans in kind.
Australian government unveils draconian “foreign interference” bills
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/01/31/secu-j31.html
Campaign continues over “Chinese influence” in New Zealand
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/21/nzch-n21.html
Anti-China dossier highlights target of Australian “foreign interference” bills
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/02/10/doss-f10.html
I wouldn’t get too worked up about Australia being a threat, although there are three us bases in the bush, most of the population is concentrated on the east coast and they have lots of long weekends . A long running joke is “the best time to invade Australia is a long weekend” because everyone is at the beach. That and the fact they buy all their millitary “junk” from the US says a lot. There is of course the “special relationship” which means exactly what it says, nothing. Australia is somewhat like the US they have stuff that doesn’t work like the new submarine that wouldn’t submerge, a bit of an embarrasment there.The they have the su35, you know the one that doesn’t fly and the yanks will not give them a lot of the tech thats needed, nice friends eh! I could go on but its late and my head hurts.
There are two “news” reports relating to your comment on the Internet in Australia this morning. One is on the issue of increasing numbers of people in rural regions relying on Foodbanks.
The second report declares supermarket giant Woolworths as the winner in its war with Coles. Clearly, to keep costs down and shareholders happy, the growers must be forced to accept whatever the suits are willing to pay.
Meanwhile, Trump rolls out the red carpet for PM Turnbull.
http://tapnewswire.com/2018/02/heres-one-for-fracker-may-thousands-of-extra-acute-illness-sufferers-in-the-darling-downs-australia/
Eight years ago I was told by an astute Darling Downs resident about the contract for gas sales to China, signed sealed and delivered long before the locals could protest.
And here we are- an Irish Doctor with a good heart and mind, in Brisbane, where no one in any “place of authority” is hearing or acting for the health and well-being of the general population.
I found the Doctor on an English website. Good people around the world are speaking out against the Corporatocracy.
And unfortunately in the Anglo-US sphere of influence, shedloads of cash buys literally anything you want, new laws or no new laws.
Is WWW III humor on-topic?
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/world-war-3
___________
More seriously, the author overstates the relationship between Iran and Russia. The consensus opinion of regional experts is that there is no reason to believe that Russia would go to war for Iran, especially in light of its recent provocations and threats.
http://m.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Lavrov-issues-rare-rebuke-of-Iran-for-calling-for-Israels-destruction-543062.
_______
The real threat for an accidental start to WWW III lies in the EU. Germany has already destabilized Greece and Cyprus. The situation may escalate in an unpredictable manner, if Germany:
— Uses Brexit to ‘punish’ the nuclear armed UK.
— Pushes a core EU nation such as Italy or Poland into a financial crisis.
Russia will not go to war to defend Iran, but they have a golden opportunity to test defensive material, including EW equipment – as long that Iran allows it on its soil-
The Iranians saying about obliterating Israel is an AZ media propaganda. Like Lavrov, even putin fell for it. Watch this video of putin making the same mistake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74uFvyHh3HM
Oksana Boyko clearly states that is not a proper quote.
____________________________________________
Let alone the regional experts, even iranians dont believe that the russians would help them.
You’re correct that the EU has the potential to start WW III and that it may originate from Germany. The hostility of many German politicians and the MSM is at unbearable levels and hardly anyone is willing to think about the present situation. It’s as if they’re all living in a kind of bubble, with no contacts to the outside world.
A breaking up of the EU wouldn’t necessarily start anything. Why should the punishing of the UK be seen as risk for starting a larger war? The UK maybe out of the EU, but she’s still NATO member. Punishing the UK for the Brexit vote will happen, since the other net payers will have to fill the gap with higher contributions of their own or reduce the payments. This also doesn’t sit well with recipients of payments (with Poland being the one getting the largest handouts).
I wouldn’t call Poland a core EU nation. They seem to be closer to the US than to the EU anyway. Their politicians have always been barking at Russia. They’re also trying to undermine North Stream 2, probably fearing the loss of payments for the transfer of gas to Western European member states. Why should Germany give in, scrap North Stream 2 and still pay for the EU handouts to Poland? Is there some blackmail going on (“If we don’t get EU funding, then we’ll provoke Russia.”)?
I am not convinced that things at a global level at this stage can be resolved peacefully. It seems to me that the war conflict is the only logical sequence. Americans, a large part of the population, not just the government, sees no problem in the fact that their army goes almost to the whole planet Earth and bombs some nations at will. and they do not think to give up. they just do not see what the problem is if they have to kill someone/many of “them” who does to them some “problems”. I think the world has the wrong approach, or accepting/appealing to the reasonableness of americans. and the world will pay the price, which is a logical sequence of events and no one should scream over something that comes naturally. I did not read anywhere that the Russians appealed to the Nazis and arranged humanitarian ceasefires and all kinds of stupidity. Russian and Chinese “wisdom” will cause wwIII. such fools, anglozionist, when they do not get the expected answer to evil they sent, (the same evil is rejected by “recipient”)the same evil is returning back to sender and they become more mad and more dangerous.
Adequate response is a necessity.
if we see all the participants in the war in Syria then we can freely conclude that this micro world war is territorially limited. Russians try to keep it limited. if they fail …
if wwIII starts. the first phase will be very short, where the technological advantage of the enemy will be ruthlessly destroyed. from satellites to subsea communications. a multitude of tactical nuclear strikes everywhere. war theater may be brought to the technological state of the ’60s. electronic tubes communications, short waves, etc. maybe stronger nuclear strikes, here and there. classical warfare of the remains of the armyes. side with distant logistic will lose the war. (Read: America)
and that stage will take maybe year. but the real horror will be war for the leftover of resources. few years probably. and then the ultimate peace on earth will occur.
Since about 2005 or 2006, “Americans” have been saying they want this to stop.
The last two Presidents were succesful in running campaigns against these wars. Obama ran as ‘the anti-war candidate”. This perception was a large part of his defeat of Hillary, and it played a large role in Obama’s defeat of the Mad Bomber McCain. Trump also campaigned against ‘regime change wars’ and defeated the next Bush in line with openly stating that the Iraq War had been a big mistake.
Congress does not represent American popular opinion. Most districts are gerrymandered to the point where the incumbent is sure to win or that the incumbent party gets to pick a successor to a retiring Congress person. Money is the key force, and most congresspeople take contributions from the ‘defense’ industry. Certainly if an anti-war opponent arises in the rare congressional race, you see the pro-war money and media jump in on the side of the pro-war candidate.
And we’ve seen under Trump that the Deep State in DC has its ways of neutering any successful candidate who actually wins on a pro-war platform.
Do not mistake the actions of an unaccountable American ruling elite for the beliefs of the American people. Yes, there is a sizeable minority that does support these wars. But it has been a minority for at least a decade now. Of course, you’ll never know this if you watch American pro-war MSM.
I tend to disagree completely. It will not escalate, there is no benefit to escalation. Proxy wars yes, direct confrontation, no. It is not viable, there is nothing to gain, just destruction.
/0 % of GPD in the US is gained from banks, hedge funds, moving figures in a spreadsheet, there is hardly any production. In a whole out war, all is lost. The US can not gain ground after a global strike. It is vulnerable with no industry, it has forgotten how to. It will be ready for colonization a 100 years later when radiation has dropped. Then we do it all over, kill the natives and take the land… ohh wait a moment.
Armed groups fire 70 rocket shells on Medical Surgery Hospital and residential areas in
Damascus and Jaramana
https://sana.sy/en/?p=128312
Lavrov: Terrorists in Eastern Ghouta use civilians as human shield
https://sana.sy/en/?p=128357
Eu says “massacra” in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta “must stop now”
https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2018/0223/942946-syria-ghouta-un/
It is really fab when posted authors like Eric and Ramzin reply to comments….thanks.
I agree totally. When authors come time to time, the blog is really top.
I think what contributors are missing is that Israel is a very small piece of real estate,it can be likened to a very large aircraft carrier surrounded by a sea of justifiably hostile countries, but like the aircraft carrier it can be eliminated by one big strike “bang” gone. The big question then is what will America do ? risk a war with Russia or China? Common sense says no but then since when has common sense been a factor in USA policy. Quite honestly I would not like to be living in Israel now when the rest of the world offers a better life style.
I see israel as a US military base; nothing else.
Oddly, I see UK as Airstrip One for the US.
Israel will not attack let alone “invade” Iran. The military capabilities are evidently not there to win a war against a large country of 80 m that has been preparing for war for decades. Germany’s military attache to Tel Aviv has reported this a while back.
As a side note regarding “surgical” strikes Iran’s Khoramshahr ballistic missiles have a range of 2,000 km which covers all of tiny Israel from almost anywhere in Iran.
Of course Israel would love to have the US attack Iran.
However there is little reason why Russia should react differently from China which has guaranteed N-Korea vs. unprovoked action from the US.
I think Korzun is wrong when he calls Hezbollah and Hamas proxies of Iran. In 2006 Hezbollah kidnapped an Israeli solider in an attempt to force Israel to live up to the terms of the earlier cease fire deal, give back Lebanese prisoners and turn over maps of landmines and areas where cluster munitions were used.
Thus the kidnapping could be seen as being in service of Lebanese interests and the Lebanese people blamed Israel for the massive (bombing) escalation and saw Hezbollah’s rocket attacks as legitimate retaliation.
Would the Lebanese people feel the same if Hezbollah launched a massive rocket attack on Israel in retaliation for an attack on Iran, an attack that would doubtless bring devastating Israeli retaliation? I doubt it and it would seriously compromise Hezbollah’s political standing in Lebanon.
What would be the purpose of rocket attacks on Israel, to “punish” it for attacking Iran? This would be very different then the logical purpose in 2006, a purpose that had a clear goal and end game, Israel stops bombing and pulls out the invasion force and the rockets stop. Notice Israel clearly backed down, they wanted the moon and the stars and eventually settled for the status quo. Israel (should Hezbollah attack on behalf of Iran) would just flip the script and tell Hezbollah to stop the rockets and the bombing will stop.
Israel may be stupid enough to attack Iran and Hezbollah/Lebanon at the same time. If so this would free Hezbollah to attack on behalf of Lebanon which means the support of the Lebanese people. If the Resistance uses the same (2006) formulation, you stop we stop, Israel will probably loose again.
What if America gets involved, could it be the end of the “special relationship”?
True story — When I was in my early 20’s me and two friends were drinking in a bar. Friend one picked a fight with some people, me and friend number two came to his aid. Then friend one ran, the cowardly punk, leaving us to hold the bag. From that day on we hated “friend” one with a burning passion.
If America gets involved and gets messed up (e.g. has to high tail ships out of the base in Bahrain leading to the fall of our lackeys, has bases in Iraq blocked, its troops surrounded, planes and ships damaged service members killed of captured etc.) would Israel be able to back down? Could they try for a separate peace? Would they leave the U.S. holding the bag?
Israel may have a punch but they also have a glass jaw. Infrastructure destroyed, tensions raising (for many reasons) between the secular and the orthodox, an exodus of duel citizens, ships sunk by raising mines, and a upraising in the occupied territories spurred on by rocket attacks on settlements, and all for what? They may want to quit. If America is involved they either convince it to also stop attacks (they run away together) exposing the power of the Israeli lobby in a way that is clear to all, or Israel punks out leaving the U.S. alone.
Rusia will NEVER attack Israhell.Too many russians of former Russians live there.Russia will NEVER help Iran if attacked,they did not even provided them with S 400.Capitalists are crazy but they have zero intention to fight a big war they will loose almost everything(the value of something is not when you buy it but when you must sell it).They(the one %) are virtually very rich now,but in case of a big war even by ”accident”,the economy will collapse.Things are different today,interest rates are very low event at zero or lower in bankrupted EU.If the price of oil goes stratospheric due to a big war against Iran for exemple,it will be Lehman 2.0 but 10 times worst.
A good opportunity this time I hope for China and Russia to leave the dollar standard.But they will have to sack the head of RCB first(an IMF agent)and the Medvedev/Kudrin gang.The BRICS is a pure fiction,as Brazil after the US coup against Dilma is now back to fascism and monroe doctrin.India remains an hidden UK asset and does not like China so much.South Africa is over since this week.Brics is dead.I’m no so sure about the loyalty of the Chinese as well in case of conflic,if they see Russia in troubles they will switch to the US their main client which will force the Saudis to provide them with cheap energy even loosing money for a time just to destroy Russia.
China is not main target for the US mafia only Russia.
Dream on …..the Russians are just posing…you have to read the subtext…Russians are not going to ever forget how the DUAL citizens that they had among them selling down Russia…ever….mark my words…orthodox Christians are not alike the regular evangelicals..they are deeply ingrained with Christ storyline, which made them so resistant to their “Zionist” infection for the past 200 years …of there is any hypocrisy by the current Russian elite is the one that they show to their “brethren “ Jewish Israeli…and this is the real motive that the Zionist are trying desperately to reign on Russia …they are Zionist resilient and they show that to the whole world to see learn and follow …regards
I agree, Russia and China are quite strange friends…Soviets helped China Red army with weapons and know-how, but Mao attacked SU years latter on Amur just to make frienship with USSA (after Stalin era). Chinese helped Russians with their funds few years ago when they were in minor crisis.
So I belive they will be friends until huge political shift in Russia (after Putin era). As a big fan of Russia, Im very worried what will happen when VVP decides to retire from politics. He is really gods gift to entire planet!
Only an idiot would attack mighty mother Russia and I feel americunts&others are not that stupid and suicidal as they look…
Iran is playing their game well, they really dont need explicit Russian help, they can and will destroy any invaders.
Chinas role could be the last nail to ziosystem, if they can challenge $ as reserve currency. It would be nice to se PRC liberation army in Syria, we will see if that happens..Liaoning was there years ago ;)
John said “He that feareth is not made perfect in love”. It sounds authentic even if he was a follower of Paul. In my generation ‘love and peace’ always went together. Prediction of war may incur an unwanted responsibility. Are we second guessing the Prince of Peace? Dire predictions cast fear into the heart and surely test our heart to cast it out. There may always be alternatives to ‘WWIII’ as usually vaguely conceived. Or it may be being fought in new way and won in a new way. My admittedly fanciful Piscean point is the importance to know that the proverbial great war is not inevitable. To expect it and claim for sure it is coming feels like a moth being drawn to that ultimate flame with no idea how unproductively that ends up. But then I’m probably the type to think my holy amulet will protect me from the firing squad.
I prefer the Peter Koenig article from last week – that the billionaires don’t want to live for a decade in bunkers – and they don’t want to lose their big boats and paradise islands – I actually don’t feel like war is imminent – its all just blather – Israel cowards – as if the Israeli people would allow themselves to be bombed – no way – it ain’t happenin’
It wont be decades living in bunkers …… but centuries….. life will be destroyed above with vegetation mutated ….
Plutonium has an enormous half life ….. and a gram can wipe out very large numbers of peoples with cancers…..
Dont lets go there with nukes !
but the idiots who represent us are determined to dominate the others …. and that may lead to a nuke exchange
Maybe the billionaires and even the military folks don’t want a nuclear war, but they’re playing a very risky game in order to defeat their adversaries.
A n increasing convention war will lead to nuclear exchanges ….. eventually….
There are no winners …….
New Zealand deep bunkers etc will not save any one in the long term. Thats laughable , and sad too.
Life on a seriously nuked earth with nuclear winter s will be un – liveable
2% of the 15,000 nukes are capable of that… ( ref Abolition Caucus)
No one will live to collect their pension …… or even have time to put the kettle on once nukes start to fly. we will have little to no warning…..
Just the internet and global communications will instantly die then minutes later….
The political elect and appointed in the west are idiots to a person.
Only one statesman in play and he is being challenged ..
You said it man. Let me return to the hollywood bs. Movie “blast from the past”. Inhabitants of that bunker lived in it for 20 or so years? How deep was that bunker? Dafoe said he had different construction people working on the project. Did he kill them afterwords, so no one would know of its existence? Food, did anyone really try to grow anything without sun and plant-food? He had fish tanks. What did he feed the fish with? Their excrements, even that would not be enough. Even with ration control impossible to grow enough in a little bunker. No can food can last longer than 1year. They would need acres and acres of agrable land in the underground (sun, water, feed?). Air to breath, how long can it last. Even water taken from underground will be polluted with radiation. Did anyone look how much food they need per day? The bunker would have to be 100’s of meters underground. Power generation? On the surface? Nothing will work without maintenance. Batteries underground, deadly proposition, and I want to see the battery that will last 10 years. Enough said. This is why we have not got to the moon or mars yet.
One more curiosity, sort of on the subject of food.
In my young days, during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, China concluded that birds were depriving people of tons of grain/rice feed. Chinese embarked on killing all the birds, only to find out that their grain/rice production actually dropped due to the increased numbers of bugs eating the grains. In a great panic China embarked on importing birds to counter the bugs. We people never learn to leave the nature alone, where there is a balance and everything has its purpose.
Sorry, one more slipped my mind. Again from Chinese Cultural Revolution. This is contrary to what movie “Marsian” tells you. Some one calculated that since Chinese produce so much excrement they could use it to feed the plants, only to find out that suddenly many of them started to experience all sorts of sicknesses. Well bottom line: human excrements are actually deadly to humans and can’t be used as plant fertilizer.
Anonius, the Chinese have used ‘night soil’ on their fields for MILLENNIA. Someone is pulling your leg.
Mulga, No one is. Maybe did, in the days when I attended high-school, still in Europe. Mao was famous for various ideas. If Chinese do it, good for them. All the more reasons for me not to buy any produce grown there.
This is not my field of expertise, but I suspect that Europeans did not use human feces as fertilizer.
Otherwise, I love your expression Thanatopolis, DC. Greek would not have said it better.
Welcome back Mulga, long time since you were here !
Europeans did and still do. Environmentalists have composting toilets for that very purpose. Human urine is sterile as it leaves the body and bacteria such as ecoli can be neutralised in the modern composting process.
Tinned food can also last decades properly and carefully stored, (probably won’t taste too spectacular but would you care after 20 years?) ‘sell by’ and ‘eat by’ dates only facilitate turnover and more profit–except for fresh foods, meat fish etc.
Scientific magic at work.
Wow, I stand corrected. No deadly matter in the feces? Thanks.
Afaik human excrements can be dangerous if dumped directly onto the fields. It seems to be another topic if they’re treated (heated). Although I may sometimes talk shit; I’m no expert in that matter, so please don’t ask me for detailed explanation on that topic (I’m referring to the treatment).
This was exactly my, never said, point. And, where would those billionaires find the underground treatment plants? I actually wonder who would cook, wash the dishes for them? How about food and lodging for the extra help? Where would they flash the crap? Would they flash it? Where would it go? Perhaps to their drinking underground water source? Or would it be just a “whole in the ground”? How would they filter the stench? Who is going to treat them when they get sick? Many questions no answers. Bottom line is: all those bunkers are useful only if used for very short time, like for the duration of conventional bombing and only assuming that the enemy does not want to target their hideouts directly. Anyone, who handled weapons knows that, unlike in hollywood, where their magazines have never ending supply of cartridges, one would need to resupply themselves. Of course I am not talking about underground. Even if one cleans up the stores on the surface, eventually gun powder, bullets, cartridges, arrows are going to end. What then? Majority of people have no knowledge of manufacture of any of that. Eventually it would be back to stone age.
Another thing, all species have critical population size, below which they will go extinct.
One more thing, In my twenties and thirties I worked for a company that engaged in automating water filtration plants. We almost got a job of building sewage treatment plant. Well it’s quite complex. But, my friend owns a farm and unfortunately in the summer his water well seems to be drying out quite regularly. So much for ground/underground water supply. This would be a very serious problem in the bunker, unless they tap to some underground river. And what happens if due to bombing the earth trembles, pipes get crushed and supply stops?
Canned food can last longer than 1 year. The due date of many canned products on the shelves of supermarkets says it can last up to 3 years. (The due date doesn’t necessarily represent the real time span, which may be even longer.) Once I had seen a reportage on TV that discussed this specific topic. Chocolate for example may turn white on the outside, but that’s just sugar. The taste may be slightly different, but it’s still edible. Packaged noodles literally can last for years. Those protein snacks of the military are edible for a long time. Next time when you’re shopping have a very closer look at the due date.
Actually, in my household on occasion we find can food which is past the “best by date” not on purpose but it happens. Some of them even two years old. We inspect them we ditch them. Have you tasted the tin in the past due cans? Discoloration on the inside of the can? Not long ago, I was reading that plastic coating in the cans was found to be bad for us. Yes, prepackaged dehydrated food, etc, etc can be use, but again they have limited storage time. Bottom line is: you want to live healthier life? Eat fresh and not the prepackaged food. So, I’ll be on the surface and whatever happens, happens.
I agree with you Ross. I remember as a child the first nuclear scares where we would drill to take cover in monsoon drains, basically shallow culverts open to the sky. It was a ridiculous and absurd notion even then to a terrified child.
I decided quite early on that no-one would want to try survival in the rubble ( a lingering death) and that going down with the ship is by far the most preferable option, should the almost unthinkable happen.
Thats precisely my take too.
whats there to hang around for …..
just go down with the ship….
mad magazine had this little piece decades ago
space ship space ship
go so fast
space ship space ship
gone right past
earth is no place to stop
since the H – Bombs made it pop
ciao
Ciao
The number seven is what this war on Syria is based on. Seven nations to be destroyed for Yahweh’s Israel – Deut. 7:1. Wesley Clark named the countries that must be destroyed for the 911 false flag. He said it would take five years in 2001. Five year plan? It is taking a lot longer later that. Syria and Iran are two biggest countries left of the seven. Lebanon is one peep squeak left too. On Jan. 15, 2014, in a speech, Christine Lagard, the head of the IMF in 2014, was going crazy over the number seven. She talked about how to compress numbers in Old Testament numerology. For example, 2014 = 2+ drop 0+ 1+ 4= 7. She said this is the 70th year, drop 0 = 7 (2014), of Bretton Woods. The 7th year of the economic crisis. She said there was a G-7, at that time it was still G-8. The US Neonazi coup did not happen until February 22, 2014. Did she know about the coup and Russia would be leaving? This year is the 70th year of Israel’s founding? Compression numerology – drop the zero and the magic OT number seven. Is this why the ramping of attacks on Syria and the calls for war for Iran this spring? Trump also said he would install the new US embassy in Jerusalem on the 70th anniversary of Israel on 5/14/18.
Interesting, Jerusalem was destroyed by Vespassian at 70 ad.
A usefull skill in this modern age is how to spot propaganda, and thus properly give propaganda the low levels of attention it deserves. (Note: I am not criticizing Eric Zuess).
For example, the western MSM is now full of stories about the horrific crimes being committed in East Ghouta (near Damascus). To my eye, this is obvious propaganda. But the obvious cases are useful learning cases as to how to spot propaganda.
Here’s a few clues.
1) When a piece is about Eastern Ghouta, do they mention other bombardments of urban areas that have occured during these endless wars of the 21 century? Which ones? The cases I can think of would include East Ghouta, Raqqa, Mosul, Allepo in the Sykes-Picot region. A proper list might also include the destruction of cities in Libya and Yemen. A true list for the 21st century should also include the destruction of Fallujah in Iraq.
2) Does the piece seem to give balanced information about the people in the area being bombed. For example, if the “local government” consists of jihadis who commit war crimes of their own, from launching attacks on civilians in other places to firing off their own artillery and missiles at civilian areas nearby.
One thing that I do agree with General Sherman (USA), the war criminal who burned down Atlanta and had his army pillage civilians on his “March to the Sea” (both of which are usually celebrated in American history) was when he said “War is Hell”.
Yes, there are undoubtably civilians who suffered or are suffering in each of these places. And they can not be lumped into a single description. Some are probably supporters of the jihadis. Some are probably human shields. Some probably are reluctant to become refugees because becoming a refugee means abandoning everything they or their family has built over time. Some are probably to old, ill or generally infirm to risk a tough life traveling through a war zone and struggling as a refugee.
And Yes, all governments/militaries seem to claim they only target military targets. Well, the jihadis don’t when they lob their shells into civilian areas, or maybe they do and I just don’t hear it. But yes, I also know that not everything is perfect in a war. Remember, War is Hell. Yes, almost anyone under bombardment will use churches and other religous sites, hospital and schools as HQs and ammo dumps hoping they won’t get bombed. I don’t remember Churchill moving his government out of London in an attempt to get the Germans to stop bombing the city. One of the few cases I can think of a side being bombed being honorable was the Germans at Monte Cassino, who refused to used the historic monestary there as shelter. The Allies bombed it anyways assuming the Germans were using it. And yes, any side who is bombing will usually bomb these sites and then claim the ‘terrorists’ were using them.
So, none of the propaganda is entirely accurate. But these thoughts might give some useful tools for spotting which is the worst of the propaganda and which might be an independent journalist who is honestly concerned for civilians and trying to document what is happening.
To me, the key is that War is Hell. And those who start these wars should definitely remember that when they are starting yet another war. People die and suffer in wars. This is predictable. Thus, the verdict of Nuremburg that said the worst crime of the Nazis was starting a war of aggression when they attacked Poland, because all of the other crimes of the war flowed from that decision.
And thus, all of the suffering in Syria in turn flows from the decisions made in Washington DC, Riyadh, Ankara, and the Gulf States that started this war.
War is hell— but not for everybody. It was Churchill’s ‘finest’ hour, but then he had extensive bunkers and war rooms under Whitehall as well as a network of distant bolt-hole bunkers should things get too hot for London in the Blitz.
Remember Coventry, no bunkers there, a home-made Anderson shelter in the back garden if you were lucky or rich enough.
The part that staggers me is that it appears Trump is heading for a two or more front war in various parts of the world against strong opponents.
While this discussion is going on in the Middle East, a completely disconnected discussion is going on about a war with North Korea. Trump just strongly threatened such a war again yesterday. No hopeful signs of diplomacy on the Korean penisula can be tolerated. The CIA is obviously stirring up its partisans in South Korea, yesterday having calls for the head of the North Korean delegation to the Corrupt Olympics Closing Ceremony to be ‘hung and sliced up’.
The US has been massing bombers and other forces in the area as a prelude to war. The US regularly keeps one CVN in Japan. Normally, it might sail to other parts of the western pacific for missions, but it isn’t now. The US is also keeping two other CVN’s close by so that they can reassemble the 3 CVN forces that conducted drills last year. Overall, the US is following its standard practices of threatening war and sabotaging any moves towards peace. Since I don’t see North Korea capitulating to these threats, it would seem that war is the only possible outcome. And the US appears to be massing forces for such a war.
Meanwhile, the US is risking much in a very dangerous situation in Syria, while at the same time threatening war with Iran and constantly egging on the Sunni nations to start a Sunni-Shiite religious war.
Most analysts treat these two cases on opposite sides of the world independently, never mentioning the other when discussing one. And yet, a USA that could not really ‘win’ a war in Afghanistan or Iraq appears to be about to take on both of much more powerful and resistent countries in North Korea and Iran.
One thing to remember is that the USA regularly starts to run low on its expensive smart bombs and smart missiles a few weeks into any of its various wars. If it ends up fighting two wars simultaenously on opposite sides of the world, its highly likely that each commander will be trying to convince Washington to send the available missiles to his conflict. The most likely result being the Eisenhower result of having his forces run out of gas across all of the fighting fronts because it was impossible to fully commit to any of them.
I thought I saw something about him saying that he will wait for the Olympics to end, and then he will do it. No doubt this was his reaction to both Koreas joining hands at the Olympics.
I still believe in ‘nuclear winter’.
‘nuclear winter’ was a theory out of the 1980’s anti-nuke popular campaigns. It basically says that even a small number of nuclear explosions will throw enough dust and debris into the atmosphere to radically change the earth’s climate for years to come. It gave as an example a volcano in Indonesian called Krakatoa (sic) that was so large and threw enough debris into the air to noticeably lower the temperature around the world.
These days, the “We-want-nuclear-war-and-we-want-it-now” crowd that rules in DC poo-poo’s this theory as inaccurate. But, I’ve never seen a convincing study. Its just the usual propaganda artist who fill the pro-nuclear-war MSM who say with their usual lack of evidence that this won’t happen.
I still believe that even a ‘small’ nuclear exchange will cause mass starvation as crops fail in the new colder climate, and thus will likely lead to the fall of human civilization as we know it. A ‘large’ exchange probably results in the near extinction of the human race, but even a ‘small’ exchange will destroy the world as we know it. I just hope our survivors can build a better one and find a way to keep the madmen and madwomen from starting all of these constantly escalating wars.
In any kind of nuclear exchange, the survivors will envy the dead.
Something that is also never taken into account is the effect on the globe’s position in space. Pole reversal is a rare but regular occurrence in its history apparently, like rare but regular ice ages. Lots of hazy theories about these rare events because they are so rare but we are supposedly coming due for a reversal. Who knows what obscure but vital things are already happening deep below the crust?
There are some scenes in movies that stick with a person. One of my favorite movies is ‘The Hunt for Red October’. A scene that remains in my mind is the actor-Senator-would-be-President J.Thompson playing a US Navy Admiral watching a crash on his carrier deck and saying “This will get out of control.”
That’s war in a nutshell, right there. This will get out of control.
Why no mention of Israel’s Dolphin class submarine fleet? Their nuclear-capable cruise missiles are effective to almost 1500km and are regularly stationed in the Persian Gulf.
In any case, for Israel to attack Iran would potentially put too many Jewish lives at risk. Unlike the Ukies who seem to have no limit to the number of their own people they sacrifice. Although it’s true that Israel likes to play the “Meshugenah” (the crazy) they remain very risk averse. Look at the Israeli reaction over the loss of a single F16.
Another point is that the article seems to imply that Israel’s desire for a war with Iran is something recent. It’s not, Israel has been pushing for it since the 80s. The loss of the Shah was a terrible blow to Israel.
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson has some thoughts on this. His interview from Feb. 6 reveals why he believes war with Iran is now more readily available.
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=819
About Israel… wouldn’t every country on Earth with a military be aware of the risk that country presents? Wouldn’t plans have been drawn up by every nation, including the BRICS, to react to Israeli aggression?
Excellent, if chilling, article, as always, Mr Zuesse.
I particularly appreciated the linked Curtin article, I have come across his well put-together work before somewhere (perhaps on another topic) but have yet to track down where.
Thanks.
As a resident of New Zealand, I can inform you that the new government (which I voted for) is passing new legislation to stop foreigners from buying land or homes here. We are also a nuclear-free nation – and don’t take kindly to warmongers who might want to hide here. Particularly if they had anything to do with a nuclear attack – we already suffer a lot from Pacific nuclear testing which spread radiation all over our country. Those in their DUMB bases might get a nasty surprise when popping out of their hidey holes. It’s not a big country, and locals see most of what goes on here – I would be very surprised if any underground bunkers are “secret” here.
One other thing: regarding these “scenarios” and “war-games”, I don’t think any of them would be even close to what will actually take place. They are usually based on all kinds of faulty assumptions or missing information, and history has shown the folly of believing in invasion plans.
It’s no civil war (and it never was) raging in Syria, it’s a PROXY WAR
Syria: It’s Not a Civil War and It Never Was When will the world finally know ?
The Americans and Anglosphere nations in general are so accustomed to waging their (cough) defensive wars in other people’s nations–where the majority of those people maimed or killed are the non-Anglo Untermenschen–that they do not have an appreciation of what war truly entails.
For these war criminal democracies, war is something that happens over there, to someone else.
War is a video game, with Predator drone strikes hardly different from playing Call of Duty.
War is watching talking-head generals babbling on about who is “winning the game,” like viewing a football match with announcers providing commentary on the score.
In the next world war, however, the Americans and their allies will get much-deserved taste of their own medicine and be on the receiving end of what they have wrought on the world, as “Fire and Fury” pays their a little visit to their cities and towns.
Mr. Zuesse, you don’t have to worry too much about the safety of billionaires in New Zealand. Some smart commenters on the internet figured out the different problems they may run in. Not every billionaire has a pilot license, so they need to hire someone who’s able to fly a plane. Since people (for example pilots) have family, the money bags have to consider the safety of the family of their employees as well. The next problem that may arise is with all the staff operating bunkers or private properties of the billionaires. What will happen if the employees realize that chances of survival are even higher if they can get rid of the ones they’re serving? So, as nice as all those ideas may sound, they’re just as stupid as the idea of winning a nuclear war.
German political scientist Alexander Rahr also sees the world inching closer to conflict. Right at the beginning of an interview at the Munich Security Conference with RT Deutsch he says that this may’ve been the last “security conference” in times of peace (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWtPABVixFk “Wohl die letzte Konferenz in Friedenszeiten” – Politologe Alexander Rahr zieht Bilanz zur MSC”).
What many seem to miss is the fact Nuttyahoo is facing serious corruption charges. Will he start a war to avoid prison? You bet he will… watch this space.
I wasn’t clear on my last comment. Trump is feared by the Outer Party, but has been installed by the Inner Party –compartmentalization and CFR plausible deniability. His role is to dismantle the Empire for a final consolidating move towards installing full-blown globalism. I happen to think Trump has an exceedingly high ‘instinctual IQ’. However I suspect he misconstrues his assigned role in history, at least as it has been apportioned to him by the Forces of Darkness. God routinely thwarts the Dark Eschatology and pivots off of it in unexpected ways.
Just I’d like to draw the attention to a 15-minute presentation by Brian Toon on YouTube(https://youtu.be/M7hOpT0lPGI) about the dangers of a nuclear war not by the USA and Russia but by India and Pakistan who don’t have anything near what the two superpowers have. Such a war could kill 2 billion people due to starvation as a consequence of such a war.
For government officials across the globe all this is common knowledge. This is the case for military planners too. The point is this: the Americans and the Russians will Not go to a nuclear war no matter what, and both sides are fully aware of the irrevocable damage that will be wreaked upon all forms of life on the planet. To claim that any elite are so out of touch with reality is ridiculous, but one such elite love to push their luck,realising the utter malleability of a military machine that will go down in history as the most aggressive badge of shame on the bosom of its creators.
But somehow God always provides; the wisdom of two men will guide humanity out of this critical danger. These guys are the firefighters against all the arsonists who thirst for blood and destruction.
God’s mills grind slowly but surely. I guess you know who these two guys I’m referring to…
” To claim that any elite are so out of touch with reality is ridiculous”
I respectfully disagree. A possessed elite will do precisely that. Lucifer is the ultimate nihilist. Under Trump, the US military is in a more assured position vis a vis the Neocon kooks, and there is a modicum of stability pick-up in that. (Recall Obama’s 2013 purging of military brass with questionable globalist affinities.)
As to Pakistan-India being perhaps the most dangerous nuclear flash-point, I agree.
Full Spectrum Domino
I agree with your disagreement and ant to add some info for Billawees:
– On the Soviet side Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov saved the lives of billions of people by using common sense instead of ordering missiles fired.
– During the first cold war NATO bombers constantly (24/4) flew close to the borders of Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance aka Warsaw Pact.
– U.S. Veterans Reveal 1962 Nuclear Close Call Dodged in Okinawa (https://apjjf.org/-Steve-Rabson/4825/article.html)
There were many more incidents in the past. Not every incident I came across on articles in the internet is mentioned in the following list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_close_calls.
Playing with the threat of nuclear annihilation can be considered to be out of touch. So, the conclusion of Full Spectrum Domino is IMHO correct.
Let’s play for a moment the Rumsfeld game of known-knowns.
We know from multiple war game exercises that Russia could, if it wished, easily overwhelm NATO forces and sweep across Europe within a matter of weeks. (Apocryphal perhaps? Asked why he elected not to invade Ireland Hitler reportedly said, ‘why step in dog-shit when you can step around it? Surely a similar logic governs Putin and the Baltics, especially when Eurasian integration beckons to the south and east.) I’m part Irish so I have a dog in that slur, an Irish Terrier called Paddy.
We know that the Deep State/NATO knows Russia has no military expansionist designs on Europe. Of course lifting a few economic sanctions would be nice. But trade not tanks.
Anything we know (and I’ll speak for myself here – no military scientist by a long shot) the Deep State/NATO more than knows.
We also know the immigration of Arabs and African into Europe was sanctioned and approved, no doubt a corollary of the Yinon and Kalergi Plans. The same is true for Mexicans into North America. Now, this is CERTAINLY NOT my view (I’m not a racialist) but it could be the view of certain exceptionalist parties. If I was historically ‘finished’ with Europe and North America, I might facilitate the migration of marginalized populations into those continents as a sort of ‘Highland Clearance’. After all, if those continents are eschatologically ‘condemned’ real estate anyway, the more humanity I can move into them, the less crowded the real estate I plan to preserve becomes.
It’s about here that Sheikh Imran Hosein starts ringing in my ears. Pax Judaica can only come about on a vastly reduced human scale, achieved in large part by the decimation of North America and Europe in nuclear conflagration. Now, that is the Sheikh’s analysis, not mine.
Why then might NATO be instigating such ridiculously overt provocations on Russia’s borders?
The answer could be as jaw-dropping as it is evil –not to mention beyond the contemplative pale of decent men and women. Say it isn’t so? Of course. But what if it is?
Have you ever really looked at the out-sized grandeur of the Israeli Supreme Court building? That is a structure with world-adjudicating ambitions.
FSD thank you for your mind-blowing analysis.
What you say about the concept of the Israeli Supreme Court, is similar to my wonderings about Astana. Could you please offer your thoughts on this?