The Taliban, 9/11, the Empire, MAGA eastern wet pampers

By Andrei for the Saker Blog.

Most of you must have heard it: the Taliban will organize a major celebration on September 11th to mark the liberation of Afghanistan from the US occupation and the creation of the new Afghan government. The Russians and the Chinese have been invited. As are the Pakistanis. Not sure about Iran (do you know?)?

The Afghan government could be called a “GITMO government” since 5 members are former GITMO hostages and one, the head of security/intel, is still on the FBI most wanted list.

Needless to say, the Taliban had nothing to do with 9/11. As for Bin-Laden and al-Qaeda they were somewhat involved, but only as “patsies”.

But the US government declared that the Taliban was guilty and invaded Afghanistan.

Twenty years later, the Taliban are in total control and the US has probably executed one of the dumbest, worst and generally immoral military operations in history. And 20 years later, the US was totally defeated. Not by Russia. Not by China. Not by Iran. Not even by Venezuela. By the Afghans, after 20 years of warfare and trillions spent.

I have to agree with a Russian analyst who recently declared that “no, this is not even a “regular/normal” imperial collapse, this is the worst and most shameful imperial collapse in history”.

I fully concur.

As for what the Taliban will do this Saturday, it can’t even be called “spitting in Uncle Shmuel’s face”. It’s even more than that. Maybe we could speak of “urinating into Uncle Shmuel’s face” or some other even ruder metaphor showing both the total and utter contempt in which the Taliban hold not only the USA but the entire AngloZionist Empire AND somehow express the magnitude of the humiliation inflicted upon the USA.

I lack the words to come up with a suitable metaphor.

Can somebody come up with something sufficiently powerful?

Also, and especially for the MAGA folks out there:

CNN has reported that the entire “Ukie plan” to kidnap Russian PMCs was organized by the CIA and botched by the Ukies. The hardcore Ukronazis are now accusing CNN of either being “duped by the FSB” or even for being used by Putin personally. Or both.

Anyway, what this goes to prove that Trump approved a clear terrorist attack against Russia. Either that, or he did not even know about it, which might be worse…

And you guys are seriously discussing his possible comeback?!?!

Get real!

I saw an interesting poll somewhere (sorry, don’t remember where exactly) which shows that 49% of US Americans feel safer than on 9/11 20 years ago and 41% feel less safe.

And that is the real outcome of this monumentally evil and stupid Neocon plan.

After 20 years of warfare, pompous self-aggrandizement, many thousands dead and maimed and trillions spent.

Nothing will ever wash off this shame from the awareness of folks in Zone B and even many in Zone A.

Finally, today the Ukronazis shelled the Donbass again, with howitzers and mortars. They were aiming at a water pumping station, missed and wounded/killed a couple. Either way, this is a war crime. The Russians have declared that they have the designation of the unit which fired and the name of the commander who gave the order.

Which is all very predictable, since 1) US officials just visited the Ukraine 2) the CNN story is a HUGE scandal in the Ukie Rada and 3) Zelenskii is desperate to show that he might still be useful to the USA.

As for the Poles, they are fearing Russian invasion, so they put barbed wire (I kid you not!) along their eastern border. Which remind me of a Russian joke: a man walks down the street minding his own business, when he sees a woman on a balcony screaming “help! he wants to rape me! help!!!” from the top of her lungs. The man looks up and says, “ma’am, calm down, I have no interest in you whatsoever and you are on the balcony while I am in the street” to which the woman replies, “yeah, maybe, but I can come down!“.

The Russian military is engaged in some large and serious, not fake, military maneuvers: 200’000 soldiers in both Russia and Belarus. Hence all the wet pampers in eastern Europe (especially in Poland – the “hyena of Europe” always was a cowardly animal).

The Poles have even predicted the date of the Russian invasion: tomorrow (not a joke)

I have terrible news for Poland, the Baltic statelets and the Ukraine: nobody in Russia has any need for you, or your land. Nobody. Oh, and, for your information: “defenses” like walls, barbed-wires or even trenches cannot stop a modern military, such crap would not even slow the Russians down.

Summary: both Biden and Zelenskii might get impeached or otherwise removed. That won’t solve anything for the US or the Ukraine, but sheer magnitude of their incompetence and stupidity makes such an outcome quite possible.

Not even in my most wildest and craziest dreams could I ever have imagined such a quick and total collapse of the Empire and of the USA. I have to pinch myself several times a day, each time I get the news :-)

Cheers

Cosimo on September 11, 2021 · at 3:04 pm EST/EDT

…I would be interested in your explanation of the distinction I guess you mean red-diaper babies and the old left versus the Trotskyites and, a separate group, the neocons.

Okay, here’s what I think.

The Old Left was basically decapitated in the US and the New Left of the 1960’s had no parents, no traditions, and very little of a strategic vision. That decapitation was a result of 1.US Communist Party subservience to Moscow, 2. About a third of the US commies were FBI agents, actively preventing any useful historic transformations, 3. The blindness of the USSR leadership from Khruschev onward, 4. Communism as such was never going anywhere as long as the US was truly the land of opportunity. and 5, the biggest single reason: McCarthyism was not defeated, just the Senator of that name. In fact, fear of being different had set in as a standard feature in US culture; it’s a tumor that has slowly brought our society to what could be a fatal point in the early 21st Century. I knew some Old Leftists from Berkeley, California, including one prominent Trotskyite, and in the early 1970’s I spent an afternoon with Dorothy Healy when she was still a CP-USA leader and came to my town to give a one-hour seminar, and she still had the day left. I was very dismayed by the constant meaningless fights among the various Trots in Berkeley and that’s part of why my connection with Leftism became sporadic.

The New Left … If “no parents, no traditions, and very little of a strategic vision” doesn’t say it all, we can add “no time.” Various secret agents of repression – both military and Deep State, were most active in the early 1970’s and less so later. But the rise of Identity Politics kept the New Left from going anywhere, and, sorry to say, I also saw this from the inside out. Jews with the best of intentions, people like Claude Steiner who wrote the absolutely best book on the topic, “Games Alcoholics Play”, later available as “Healing Alcoholism.” I went out drinking with his former clients. They might have two beers in an evening, so they had beaten the addiction and all the games that go with it. It slowly became clear that this set of Jews had what I now understand, years later, as the common reflexes of members of the tribe. They were just more comfortable around other Jews and any perceived slight could be magnified into a total break without confronting the “antisemitic” act. They were “uncomfortable” with the “mistreatment” of Palestinians, and supported, for example Rabbi Michael Lerner in their soft-core Zionism. I met Lerner when he worked for a labor union, before he became a rabbi. Nice guy, didn’t have a lot in common with the anti-family politics of the gays; he was doing what he called “family therapy”, seeing the family as a basic unit of social cohesion. You can see their politics in the magazine, ”Tikkun”. No one in that crowd had any interest whatsoever in class and in class politics (not even Lerner, I’d say) exactly because they were bourgeois at heart. Their disinterest in class politics and their own contradictions led to the demise of their movement. If you believe Wikipedia, “Identity Politics” was a common term from the late 1970’s on, but I never heard of it until Stanley Aronowitz, an Old Leftie and Jewish by ethnicity, wrote about it in “Socialist Review” around 1989. In 1992, he turned it into a book, The Politics of Identity: Class, Culture, Social Movements. I think this was seminal because it was only from then on that the term gained wider traction. But Wikipedia doesn’t mention him in its entry on Identity Politics. Of course not; it’s Wikipedia. Aronowitz wrote that Identity Politics is a dagger in the heart of class struggle and social progress.

It’s worth a side note about how Identity Politics came to become so important. Of course the ruling elite sees it as an important trick to divide an rule, but in truth their influence only came later, if you don’t count the far-away Frankfurt School or the stuff finded by the Rockefeller Foundation like the Kinsey Report. I saw first-hand that Identity Politics arose from below, with no astroturf, no George $oro$ help. Later, yes of course, but not the first decade or two in the US. Yes, Jewish nightclub owners revived and pumped money into “nearly dead” rap, but I think that was an exception to the rule and it was only a small clique. The general public avoided class politics without any obvious prodding, and left a vacuum for all the “minorities” to fill … mainly of course, the LGTBQ+ crowd. Incidentally, I had two very good friends who were African American, both “straight” and they drifted off for the same reasons as I did. One is Gil Lopez. I don’t know if his web site is still up, or if it needs revived. There was the usual undercurrent of racism because practically everyone was white with no experience with people of color, a common condition but it meant they didn’t see racism as worth spending energy on …. That would have been too real world, too far from the libido, you see. And no latinos, no latinas, ever.

Around 1984, the New American Movement started from within the Democrat Party. I wasn’t that sharp and it took me years to realize it was the same bilge the Democrats have always had on tap since 1948. Corral, co-opt and silence the lefties. Locally at least, a few Jews were the leaders. Seeing this from the inside, I never saw any overtly Jewish conspiracy at work; it was an organic extension of how Jews see and understand the world. By the standards of anyone except a Palestinian, it would be easy to see these Jews as good guys, just like most Americans sincerely (and ignorantly) see themselves as good guys.

I have to end my discussion of the Left in America around 1990 because I lost interest and I didn’t do nuffin until 2001 when another big war came along. And by 2001, I had made a sort of U-turn and was no longer “on the left”. For me, ideology is like a big, big tool box. Sometimes you need a 17mm socket or a big pry bar. Other situations, you need a Joe Stalin, a Jesus, an Abe Lincoln, etc. It’s all good, as long as you aren’t trying to do brain surgery with the pry bar, or trying to rebuild a broken democracy with Stalinism. . I would never throw out all my wrenches because they have an even-numbered millimeter size, nor would I throw out all my left or my right wing ideologies. Right tool, right application, just have to use a good heart and brains ! Of course there are totally fake ideologies that can be completely rejected, just as there are fake tools of all kinds. For example, the “Austrian School of Economics.”

About the neocons: Some started out in Trotskyite organizations, but I think they had purely cynical reasons, seeing these as learning experiences for their careers. You can also trace the most important neocons as second generation pupils of the original pupils of Leo Strauss, a bad guy if ever there was one. He was a Jew and I assume that hidden hands promoted him from an obscure European post, right into a prestigious professorship at the University of Chicago.

There are also hidden neocons networked by hidden hands. The world’s main Trotskyite outfit is the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). They published a series of articles during the first half of 2009 in The Militant, a weekly newspaper, arguing that:
1. There is no Zionist movement today.
2. Anti-Zionism is a cover for antisemitism.
3. Israel’s rulers plan to give up control of most of the West Bank and Gaza.
4. Israel is not an apartheid state.
5. The BDS campaign is not only wrong. It is antisemitic.
6. The democratic, secular Palestine that the SWP envisages, must grant a special right
of immigration to the Jews of the world.
Uruknet.info, still a good link

In May, 2013, the SWP published an eye-opening major headline appeal in support of the takfiris in Syria. It was signed by 200 people, and I found the names of a dozen I had respected until then. SWP is an evil sock puppet, and certainly not on the “Left”.

I hope this answer is sufficient and not too long.

116 Comments

cdvision on September 09, 2021 · at 7:08 pm EST/EDT

I suspect most Americans are oblivious to these events, or couldn’t care. The collapse of the Empire will only hit home when the economy collapses; with the mindless money printing beyond Zimbabwean levels, it arguably already has. Then there will be civil war.
- tedrichard on September 09, 2021 · at 8:56 pm EST/EDT
  
  within the united states of amnesia this is exactly the reality.
  - Marfa on September 10, 2021 · at 12:24 am EST/EDT
    
    > within the united states of amnesia this is exactly the reality
    
    Not. With the stock market at an all time high, inflation running hot, a beer costing $5-$7 average, everyone is making up for lost time and money.
    USA only wakes up when the wallet is dry.
    - Jimmy Flies By on September 10, 2021 · at 1:40 pm EST/EDT
      
      May I vape with you? What does the stock market, for us, maybe not you, have to do with the real economy? Nothing. It’s a bunch of smelly old schmekels betting on whether you fart or not and then the volume and consistency of it.
      
      Five to seven a beer is the deluxe stuff. You can get an 18 pack of American PowerPack Pisswater for that. It’s the sin taxes with 10 dollar a pack ciggies that pisses me off and then laws saying you can’t grow tobacco because some X-tian mofos claim the right to kill you themselves. ME democrats don’t like people cutting in on their US murder action. But my people didn’t get cancer from smoking tobacco. How odd is that?
- GEOFF on September 10, 2021 · at 1:57 am EST/EDT
  
  My guess is that they’re too damned stupid to realise what is going on !!
  What more would you expect from a country whom 20% of its citizens can’t even find their own country on a map !!
  - ismael diaz on September 10, 2021 · at 5:08 pm EST/EDT
    
    Con los sesos saturados de fentanilo y otros opiaceos…los pobres gringos los tienen aplastados como alimañas rastreras. No se dan cuenta de su triste realidad.
    
    Yandex translate. Mod:
    With their brains saturated with fentanyl and other opioids, the poor Gringos have them crushed like creeping vermin. They don’t realize their sad reality.
- Séamus Ó Néill on September 10, 2021 · at 7:27 am EST/EDT
  
  The collapse of the US would have already happened if China, trying to avoid a worldwide recession, was not propping it up. The US went bankrupt Feb: 2020. However it’s really only stalling the inevitable and a total collapse will probably happen before this year’s end.
- bluedogg on September 10, 2021 · at 8:58 am EST/EDT
  
  The American people will know when they see American troops being placed in all American cities, but of course they will do nothing until they can’t even put the crust of a slice of bread on the table, that’s when things will get dicey as they move out of the cities and into the countryside to find something to eat which they will take/steal probably kill for.
  - Chesty Pullet on September 10, 2021 · at 1:42 pm EST/EDT
    
    You mean die for. I live in the country.
- A.Dane on September 10, 2021 · at 9:32 am EST/EDT
  
  Yes it was absolutely a bad idea to invade the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria.
  Most Westerners was against the wars of aggression, but corruption drove the West to a blatant self-defeat.
  Western democracy was hijacked by fascists.
  Western Nations was hit by falls flag terror.
  Western Nations was overrun by migrants.
  Western nation was plundered by Wall Street and privatization, now tethering on the edge of bankruptcy. The western population was plundered by inflation, negative interest rates and theft of pension funds. Western academia, science and healthcare were destroyed by privatization and Fascist propaganda.
  The Western military alliance is fractured.
  The West has lost all respect worldwide.
  
  The Fascist 4th Holy Roman Empire is collapsing before our eyes.
  Not only was it defeated by a 3rd world nation, but the New World Order – Great Reset intended to be implemented by COVID terror is coming to an end, with calls for indictments of crimes against humanity.
  
  If we do not want world history to repeat,
  This time more heads has to role than during the Nuremberg trials.
  A. Dane
Dutch on September 09, 2021 · at 7:10 pm EST/EDT

The taliban were fighting with knives and axes and still conquerred the usa. So: barbed wires can do a lot if used for a good cause.

Nonsense. The Taliban never conquered anything, lest of all the USA, get real!
Also, defeating the US and Russia are two very different propositions.
Finally, don’t discuss tactics since you clear know zero about this.
But comparing the Ukronazis to the Taliban is a very good point indeed, bravo!
The Saker
Jesrad on September 09, 2021 · at 7:13 pm EST/EDT

Iran is invited to the ceremony, as are Turkey and Qatar. I hope they announce they’re renaming Hamid Karzai airport to something suitably memorable. I can think of a couple names!
- The Saker on September 09, 2021 · at 7:17 pm EST/EDT
  
  AWESOME!
  Thanks for that info. This is a very good sign.
  By chance, do you know the full list of guests?
  Either way,
  Thank you!
  - V on September 09, 2021 · at 8:13 pm EST/EDT
    
    No other countries are mentioned as of yet, as they are just giving out the invitations:
    
    https://sputniknews.com/20210908/inauguration-of-afghanistans-new-government-scheduled-for-11-september-taliban-source-1088888471.html
    
    “…..The inauguration of the new transitional government is scheduled for 11 September”, the source said. “Russia, China, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan and Iran have so far been invited to the ceremony”.
    
    “It is also noted that the new Afghan Deputy Prime Minister, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, went to Qatar on Wednesday to invite delegations from a number of other countries……”
  - Jesrad on September 09, 2021 · at 8:18 pm EST/EDT
    
    You’re welcome! I’ve only seen 6 countries named as guests. Those 3, and the 3 you mentioned: Russia, China, and Pakistan.
    - The Saker on September 10, 2021 · at 1:14 pm EST/EDT
      
      May I add one more request: since you seem well informed, could you please post the list of ACTUAL (present) guests) which will have attended to ceremonies tomorrow.
      Generally, I would love to get as much good info about what exactly will happen tomorrow during the celebrations, so please post it here or email me at vineyardsaker at gmail dot com.
      Thanks again!
      - Outlaw Historian on September 10, 2021 · at 6:25 pm EST/EDT
        
        Pepe Escobar wrote the following at his VK Space this morning:
        
        “Final call: new Taliban govt. will NOT be inaugurated on 9/11.
        
        “I was waiting for a surefire confirmation, and this seems to be it:
        
        “‘The inauguration of the new Afghan government was cancelled several days ago. To avoid confusion, the leadership [of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan] announced the approval of a part of the cabinet that already started working. Rumors that the inauguration ceremony will take place tomorrow, on 11 September, are not true.’
        
        “Inamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban Cultural Commission.
        
        “Well, they lost a cosmic opportunity to Stick It To The Man on 9/11 Day.
        
        “But there seem to be serious problems behind closed doors. SCO partners were not amused at all by the composition of the new acting cabinet. Especially Russia and Iran.”
        
        That’s it. Nothing at his Twitter–you did know he now has an account, https://twitter.com/RealPepeEscobar
        
        Things in Afghanistan are very ad hoc. Another problem is the many representatives of the puppet regime still ensconced in places like the UN and as ambassadors in other nations who are carrying water for the new Establishment Narrative demonizing the Taliban government before it even begins governing.
        
        Parabellum on September 10, 2021 · at 11:34 pm EST/EDT
        
        “But there seem to be serious problems behind closed doors. SCO partners were not amused at all by the composition of the new acting cabinet. Especially Russia and Iran.”
        
        Qari Fasihuddin Badakhshani(defense minister of IEA) is also known to be associated with the east turkistan islamic movement which is considered a terrorist group by the chinese. So probably china is also not amused.
        https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-09-09/the-taliban-s-new-government-will-upset-the-u-s-china-india-and-iran
        Iran was banking upon an inclusive government which would also have masoud junior, so that it could also influence the taliban. But the fool chose to listen to CIA lackey called amrullah saleh and lost his chance. Iran instead should have convinced masoud jr to have a peace settlement with the taliban before the taliban overran panjshir. But even iran didnt see the rapid fall of pajshir coming, perhaps that is why it is also pushing the fake news of pak invasion in panjshir now.
        
        There were also reports about mullah yakoob (a commander and the son of mullah omar) not being impressed with the earlier talks withing the taliban about the ministry distribution, as a greater share of power was being given to the doha faction and not to those who fought on the ground. The taliban had two choices, to placate it’s internal ranks or to placate afghanistan’s neighbors and the world, it chose the former.
        
        The mullahs from kandahar’s ‘quran Belt’ are probably never going to give power to anyone they don’t deem fit, which means that the world isn’t going to be impressed with the taliban cabinet and the puppet afghan dispora, tajiks, iranians and indians will keep on crying.
        
        Anonymous on September 11, 2021 · at 3:08 am EST/EDT
        
        You are wrong, Parabellum.
        
        The IRGC gave strict commands that nobody in Afghanistan is allowed to put up a fight against the Taliban. Everyone from Abdullah Abdullah, to Hamid Karzai, to Ismail Khan, were all told to surrender without question. And everyone acquiesced.
        
        If it weren’t for the IRGC, the Taliban would have been met with resistance by Hazaras, Tajiks, Uzbeks, the Shias, at every step of the way.
        
        And, it was also the IRGC that revealed Massoud’s French-Israeli ties to the Taliban, and gave the Taliban the green light to enter Panjshir. And before that, it was again the IRGC that had forbidden the Taliban from entering Panjshir, while the IRGC made attempts to talk sense to the boy lion.
        
        And just yesterday, a team from the IRGC’s Tasnim news agency visited Panjshir, and were allowed passage by the Taliban. Let me emphasize, the Tasnim crew were the first media team allowed into Panjshir by the Taliban.
        
        https://tinyurl.com/5yrbfp65 — here is the report from Panjshir, with pictures and footage.
        
        And yesterday, Russia aannounced that they will not be attending the Taliban government inauguration ceremony. The statement to that effect was made by Dmitry Peskov, and it touches on many matters.
        
        The Taliban subsequently cancelled the whole ceremony, it seems.
        
        Anonymous on September 11, 2021 · at 5:43 am EST/EDT
        
        And now, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, has stated that the Taliban are an illegitimate government, and they do not deserve a seat at the UN.
        
        Parabellum on September 11, 2021 · at 9:15 am EST/EDT
        
        it was again the IRGC that had forbidden the Taliban from entering Panjshir, while the IRGC made attempts to talk sense to the boy lion.
        
        If what you say is true, then the IRGC clearly failed to convince masoud jr and the tajik fighters, which means that IRGC cannot influence tajiks, which contradicts this statement of yours implying that the tajiks were ready to take IRGC orders.
        
        If it weren’t for the IRGC, the Taliban would have been met with resistance by …Tajiks… at every step of the way.
        
        The IRGC gave strict commands that nobody in Afghanistan is allowed to put up a fight against the Taliban. Everyone from Abdullah Abdullah, to Hamid Karzai, to Ismail Khan, were all told to surrender without question. And everyone acquiesced.
        
        The IRGC should also have given them the same ‘strict commands’ to resist the NATO occupation to help the taliban, over which they have so much influence according to you that they can even halt or advance the taliban.
        
        And, it was also the IRGC that … gave the Taliban the green light to enter Panjshir.
        
        With so much power over the taliban why couldn’t the IRGC convince the taliban to put up an IEA cabinet that would have been more convenient to the SCO, particularly the iranians themselves.
        
        It is strange that the iranian government and the IRGC don’t follow a consistent foreign policy. If the IRGC controls so many things in afghanistan including the taliban according to you, then why did the iranian foreign ministry spokesperson give importance to the fake news about panjshir invasion by pak. They should be happy instead that the IRGC wields influence over the taliban.
        
        And just yesterday, a team from the IRGC’s Tasnim news agency visited Panjshir, and were allowed passage by the Taliban. Let me emphasize, the Tasnim crew were the first media team allowed into Panjshir by the Taliban.
        
        Faisal from ‘kabul lovers’ youtube channel was in panjshir more than 3 days ago. He got a chance to interview the locals.
        
        No non-sunni muslim majority country is foolish enough to recognize the taliban government immediately (although most of the countries are doing back channel talks with the taliban), they would let some time pass and see how the taliban rules the country (which nebenzya also said). The only countries that would recognize the taliban government initially will be qatar, pakistan and probably turkey.
        
        Anonymous on September 11, 2021 · at 10:16 am EST/EDT
        
        “With so much power over the taliban why couldn’t the IRGC convince the taliban to put up an IEA cabinet that would have been more convenient to the SCO, particularly the iranians themselves.”
        
        I don’t know why.
        
        The real question is, why have the Taliban not admitted any other foreign media into Panjshir yet?
        
        “If what you say is true, then the IRGC clearly failed to convince masoud jr and the tajik fighters, which means that IRGC cannot influence tajiks, which contradicts this statement of yours implying that the tajiks were ready to take IRGC orders.”
        
        The entire population of Panjshir is 170,000 people. You make it sound like all Tajiks are part of the Panjshir resistance.
        
        Excepting the Panjshir gang, who else put up a fight against the Taliban, in all of Afghanistan? And who do you suppose orchestrated this collective surrender? Who stood to lose the most if the Tajiks, Hazaras, etc, resisted the Taliban, and Afghanistan fell to civil war?
        
        Do you realize how much everyone in Afghanistan hates the Taliban? Do you know how many are fleeing to Iran every day? Do you imagine that the Afghans surrendered because they approve of the Taliban? Please.
        
        And what do you think the Taliban were doing in Tehran last February? Having tea and biscuits? They were in Tehran to make sure the IRGC would do all it could to make the Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, etc, stand down. And what do you imagine the IRGC is getting in return? A bunch of Humvees and first dibs on journalism opportunities in Panjshir? Give me a break.
        
        “It is strange that the iranian government and the IRGC don’t follow a consistent foreign policy. If the IRGC controls so many things in afghanistan including the taliban according to you, then why did the iranian foreign ministry spokesperson give importance to the fake news about panjshir invasion by pak. They should be happy instead that the IRGC wields influence over the taliban.”
        
        You clearly don’t know anything about Iran. The Iranian foreign ministry was run by a traitorous fifth-columnist for the past eight years, a man who despised the IRGC and especially hated the late General Soleimani.
        
        The IRGC is an independent organization. They neither answer to the Iranian foreign ministry, nor feel any obligation to keep them in the loop regarding what they do.
        
        Parabellum on September 11, 2021 · at 10:42 pm EST/EDT
        
        I don’t know why.
        
        Because the IRGC doesn’t have the influence over taliban that you talk about.
        
        You make it sound like all Tajiks are part of the Panjshir resistance.
        
        So the IRGC cannot influence the panjshiri resistance. Fasihuddin Badakhshani, the taliban commander in panjshir is an ethnic tajik.
        
        If it weren’t for the IRGC, the Taliban would have been met with resistance by Hazaras, Tajiks, Uzbeks, the Shias, at every step of the way.
        
        You make it sound like all Hazaras, Tajiks, Uzbeks, the Shias would oppose the taliban. Why didn’t the IRGC tell them to oppose the NATO occupation too, if IRGC has such incredible influence on them according to you.
        
        Excepting the Panjshir gang, who else put up a fight against the Taliban, in all of Afghanistan?
        
        I don’t know what you are implying here, if you want are implying that they put up a fight because of the IRGC, then it is strange that the IRGC made them put up a fight and then ask them to surrender. But it is now clear that the IRGC cannot influence the panjshiri resistance.
        
        And who do you suppose orchestrated this collective surrender?
        
        There was no collective surrender, saleh ran away, there are still panjshir resistance fighters in the mountains which taliban is clearing and many areas are still a no go.
        
        Who stood to lose the most if the Tajiks, Hazaras, etc, resisted the Taliban and Afghanistan fell to civil war?
        
        It was also a civil war all these years. the puppet government of the NATO occupation vs the taliban.
        
        Do you realize how much everyone in Afghanistan hates the Taliban?
        
        You make it sound like all Afghans oppose the taliban.
        
        Do you know how many are fleeing to Iran every day?
        
        Going by what you say, IRGC certainly created a refugee influx and economic problems due to refugees in iran by disarming the Hazaras, Tajiks, Uzbeks, the Shia and giving green lights to taliban to enter panjshir.
        ‘If it weren’t for the IRGC, the Taliban would have been met with resistance by Hazaras, Tajiks, Uzbeks, the Shias, at every step of the way.
        And, it was also the IRGC that … gave the Taliban the green light to enter Panjshir.’
        (/the-taliban-9-11-the-empire-maga-and-paranoia/#comment-972805)
        
        Do you imagine that the Afghans surrendered because they approve of the Taliban? Please.
        
        It was a puppet regime and it collapsed like a house of cards when the NATO pulled out of afghanistan.
        But if you are implying that the afghans surrendered because the IRGC told them to do so, then why did the IRGC do that if everyone in afghanistan hates taliban according to you.
        
        And what do you think the Taliban were doing in Tehran last February?
        
        The talibs go to qatar and pakistan more frequently than iran.
        
        They were in Tehran to make sure the IRGC would do all it could to make the Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, etc, stand down.
        
        And could the IRGC make them stand down? no. The panjshiri resistance still fought. Which means that IRGC does not have the influence you are projecting after all.
        
        The Iranian foreign ministry was run by a traitorous fifth-columnist for the past eight years, a man who despised the IRGC and especially hated the late General Soleimani.
        
        I am talking about the current FM.
        
        The IRGC is an independent organization. They neither answer to the Iranian foreign ministry, nor feel any obligation to keep them in the loop regarding what they do.
        
        So the IRGC went against the iranian people’s elected government’s wishes by supporting the taliban.
        
        And what do you imagine the IRGC is getting in return? A bunch of Humvees and first dibs on journalism opportunities in Panjshir? Give me a break.
        
        whatever IRGC is getting, it certainly isn’t with the iranian people’s government.
        
        Going by what you say, IRGC created a refugee problem, economic problem for iran, couldn’t influence the panjshiri resistance and went against the afghan people’s wishes by supporting by taliban, which they hate so much. You make IRGC sound more like an incompetent rouge organization than a legitimate force.
        
        Anonymous on September 11, 2021 · at 9:25 am EST/EDT
        
        https://tinyurl.com/2v7rh7vm — more reporting from Panjshir
        
        The Tasnim reporter at the scene states that some people say planes and drones were involved in the Taliban assault on Panjshir, while others say they saw nothing.
        
        The ceasefire between the Taliban and the Panjshir ‘Resistance’ has ended today, and many are fleeing the province.
        
        The Taliban insist that Ahmad Massoud is in Tajikistan, but the locals say he is somewhere in the valley.
        
        I will emphasize again, that yesterday when the Tasnim crew showed up at Panjshir, they were the first and only media crew allowed into the conflict zone by the Taliban. Make of this fact what you will.
        
        https://tinyurl.com/ppk6ekzv — and this is the Panjshir sports stadium, which the Taliban are using to park helicopters in right now.
        
        The IRGC’s Tasnim news crew will continue to report on the situation in Panjshir from the ground, in the days to come.
        
        It is expected that fighting might start up again.
- Parabellum on September 10, 2021 · at 10:28 am EST/EDT
  
  With the cabinet that they came up with and the date they have chosen, it is more likely that they will name it as osama bin laden airport. But i think they will rename it after mullah omar.
  
  The USA has finally got a chance to bump off all of the taliban top leaders at one place, who will be present during the ceremony on 9/11.
  - Man With No Name on September 12, 2021 · at 1:18 am EST/EDT
    
    @Parabellum
    
    And do you think that it will topple the Taliban rule? How can the US stage an attack inside Afghanistan without attracting more anger from the world let alone from American citizens themselves?
    
    You’re simply delusional.
    - Parabellum on September 12, 2021 · at 11:00 pm EST/EDT
      
      learn to identify a joke
- Abdullah Goldberg on September 10, 2021 · at 1:50 pm EST/EDT
  
  Bin Laden International Airport!
Marcus Chapman on September 09, 2021 · at 8:00 pm EST/EDT

I would like for you to think about this. The plan did not come from Joe Bob. So whoever is writing the script just left a bunch of good weapons in the care of the Taliban. Why would you do this? To insure the people you are leaving them to would have a bunch of good weapons. Who wants the Taliban to be able to project power. The country of Afghanistan was established by the British to be a buffer Zone. The British are so hurt by Americas incompetent withdrawal,, betrayed . Crocodile tears. This has not changed. The empire is different but the objective is the same. By interjecting a protagonist in this geography, you create a buffer zone. What is being buffered is a triangle that runs from Moscow to Beijing and Tehran. If you want to know the future look to the past. Question is, will the Taliban repeat its past. Someone is gambling it will. The target is the triangle.
- Krungle on September 09, 2021 · at 8:47 pm EST/EDT
  
  A more parsimonious answer: they left weapons and equipment there because they are that disorganized and incompetent. First, we know Pentagon audits, infrequent and incomplete though they may be, tend to turn up missing stuff. A trillion dollars here, a few hundred Blackhawks there. When you have an infinity budget, misallocating a few billion in equipment is a rounding error.
  
  Next, it is entirely possible that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. Within not just military branches, amongst NATO, and all the intel agencies. Given all the infighting going on, again, no surprise when we find out someone didn’t secure equipment. Given the half-assed way we saw some US troops trying to destroy equipment at the last hour, this does suggest an oversight.
  
  Then we have the PR angle: namely, I’m sure neither the Brits or CIA or pentagon wants to look stupid and weak and incompetent. So what better way to cover your rear then by starting these “oh we left it on purpose for our plans down the road,” or “we just want to create chaos and we left on purpose to create a power vacuum..” blah blah. We’re not incompetent, we just want to look that way….sure. Every empire tells itself the same lies as the lights are going down.
  - Marcus Chapman on September 09, 2021 · at 10:18 pm EST/EDT
    
    I will say this much about the US military. They do follow orders. They do have instructions on disabling equipment. Someone put someone in charge that did not give that order. I do not believe that the powers that be were not told of these risk. No military thinker is going to up for this pony show. There is a purpose and it is not to give stability to Afghanistan. If not stability then instability.
    - The Saker on September 10, 2021 · at 1:16 pm EST/EDT
      
      I will say this much about the US military. They do follow orders.
      
      This thesis is in direct contradiction with both a) the level of combat performance and b) the level of corruption in the US military.
  - Blackring on September 10, 2021 · at 2:44 am EST/EDT
    
    @Krungle
    I was just starting to write about damage control and PRbs (again).
    
    Thank you that I don’t have to.
  - Robert Shule on September 10, 2021 · at 6:29 am EST/EDT
    
    As to US forces leaving military equipment behind; I think the real reason is that the US forces could not care less.
    What good is the equipment anyways? It did not win anybody any wars.
  - The Saker on September 10, 2021 · at 1:15 pm EST/EDT
    
    A more parsimonious answer: they left weapons and equipment there because they are that disorganized and incompetent
    
    I fully agree!
    and
    CORRUPT!!!
    never forget that, they stole 90% of all the money spent by the US in Afghanistan!
- Thomas on September 10, 2021 · at 6:02 am EST/EDT
  
  19 years of bringing in equipment and a few months to bring it back by air – that’s just not possible. Every piece supplied was a profit for the MIC and every piece left behind also is because it will be replaced with new equipment. Win – win the USA way!
Marcus Chapman on September 09, 2021 · at 8:10 pm EST/EDT

I believe that this is strictly a math calculation. They got other uses for the money. Leave the weapons and gamble that the family will still want revenge, with better weapons. They are gambling on the lowest denominator in the human character.
- Ann Watson on September 09, 2021 · at 9:00 pm EST/EDT
  
  Marcus – maybe you are one of the many people that think the US is brilliant strategist
  
  Personally I can easily imagine all that stuff being left behind like someone happy to be leaving and as they didn’t pay for it – why worry
  
  I think that’s what happened…it was chaotic and unorganized and see how happy the troops were to finally leave.
  
  Even people getting shot by US soldiers at the airport was chaos….nothing more.
  - Marcus Chapman on September 09, 2021 · at 10:01 pm EST/EDT
    
    I did pay for it. I don’t like the way my government has thrown this money at hate. I do not want to support hate. So I fill abused by my government as to its purpose. This can not stand.
pdb on September 09, 2021 · at 8:17 pm EST/EDT

Hi Andrei,
“The empire’s collapse is too vague s statement. It has collapsed in terms of global reputation, intimidation factor, honor, believability, trustworthiness, and more than I can say, but collapses was well defined by Dimitri Orlov in a couple of his books. The US is probably well on its way to collapse in one or more of the five dimensions of collapse – economic, cultural, gosh I don’t remember the other dimensions – and there is an order in which collapse occurs, with each stage being a more developed and profound level of chaotic disintegration. From what I can see here in New York, folks are still eating, driving cars, shopping at stores which are still being supplied, and the lights are on, there’s gas with no lines or interruptions, and the tv is on in homes. So collapse of the empire isn’t obvious to the casual eye.

As a75 year old (in November) after two strokes and a memory that sputters, my eye is casual. I miss plenty of the details. But I do see the things I mentioned. If the US was collapsed all those things would be severely compromised or non existent. But the empire is different from the civilian infrastructure. I’m too challenged to say much more, but I would love to hear those with sharp minds discuss this topic of collapse.

I think everyone is aware that the empire that dies can still do plenty of damage. The US still has those red buttons and lots of crazy men to punch them. While it’s is welcome news to the world that the US has malfunctioned in its War OF Terror, I don’t think it’s over, not terror wise globally and certainly not for the US citizens, who are currently being victimized by the Empire of Chaos.

The snake is not dead, and I’m not hearing anyone speaking to how to go about cutting its head off. Actually I think Orlov wrote up a scenario about how Russia is keeping an eye on the US, with a view to intervene when the crazies decide to cross a certain line, in which case Russia would preemptively destroy the US ability to function, using conventional weapons only, knocking out electric grid, oil terminals, C&C centers, all in one week, then invade and occupy the country, arresting our criminal leaders for crimes against humanity trials, etc. Wish I had the link but I’m sure it’s easy to find.

Anyway, no doubt the US is losing its grip, but it’s not dead, in my opinion. Personally I think it will take drastic action, like Orlov’s scenario, to remove the head from the body. In the meantime the people who constitute the guts of the body are hurting, and the civilians that the US military continues to murder are more outrages that have got to be stopped.

Patrick
- RZ on September 10, 2021 · at 2:11 am EST/EDT
  
  The best analogy I read compared the empire to an oil tanker. I guess by the time the population discovers the problem there will be no time to fix it as stopping or changing direction requires advanced planning due to the enormous momentum.
  Those that can will abandon ship in their private planes (spaceships?) while the tanker crashes into some third party countries (Russia, China?)
  Time to start planning for the clean up.
  Life will go on, most of the world will move on.
  - Cosimo on September 10, 2021 · at 11:03 am EST/EDT
    
    Time to start planning for the clean up. Absolutely true, and it’s been true for almost 50 years. We can see that it’s obviously a very hard task because no one has really taken it on, and by that I mean in a fundamental and systemic way. “Buy a houseboat.” – D. Orlov, “Buy land in New Zealand or Argentina.” – lots of seriously rich people. Sure, that’s easy if you have the do-re-mi for yourself and a few friends & family. But… “Fix the United States, our one and only homeland” ??? – Crickets … nada … nobody. Not yet. At what point does nostalgia for the past finally die out and concern for the future starts up ?
- The Saker on September 10, 2021 · at 1:28 pm EST/EDT
  
  From what I can see here in New York, folks are still eating, driving cars, shopping at stores which are still being supplied, and the lights are on, there’s gas with no lines or interruptions, and the tv is on in homes. So collapse of the empire isn’t obvious to the casual eye.
  
  Dear in Christ Patrick,
  
  This is a matter of criteria, definitions. People in Paris, Moscow, London or Madrid also lost their empire while chewing on food at home. Next, US Americans are TERMINALLY brainwashed in being unable to come up with criteria which would allow them to become aware of reality. Besides
  
  Yes, there is food. But also millions of foodstamps and even hunger. Also, the bottom 90% of what US Americans eat is inedible by the standards of modern developed society. Yes, it is very cheap food, but it is filling (basic recipe: take some cardboard, add lots of sugar and (bad) fats, add some “natural flavoring” and voila, the basic SAD recipe and the cause of a HUGE list of very serious diseases.
  
  Yes, there is a plenty of nutritious and delicious food in the USA. But only the relatively rich can afford it (and that “relatively rich” class is now melting down anyway)
  
  The TV? Yes, sure it runs. It keeps folks nice and passive, “comfortably numb” as Roger Waters would say.
  
  No interruptions of power: first, that is not true for, say, CA or FL. But, besides, the US has plenty of energy and a huge propaganda machine employing tens of thousands. Why would the Empire’s collapse affect that, especially now?
  
  No, the US as we knew it before Jan 6th and before 9/11 is gone now.
  
  The current US is a fundamentally different one, like Russia before Feb 1917 and after – two different countries.
  
  Everything I use as “indicators and warnings” I use point to the exact same reality.
  
  Kind regards
  
  Andrei
Ruben Bauer Naveira on September 09, 2021 · at 8:40 pm EST/EDT

The metaphor you’ve asked for:

The Taliban not only led everyone to realize the Emperor has no clothes. They made him rush back home, from Kabul to DC, through Baghdad – naked and barefoot.
S-RB on September 09, 2021 · at 8:56 pm EST/EDT

20 years is a pretty short period of time, in history scale.
However, history has accelerated, let us say during last several decades, because of transport means efficacy rise.
It is transport of data (information) or communication and broadcast, and transport of objects (people and goods), fast and en masse.
Do we really need to mention fast money transfer?
So, the 20-years long war, the Talibans vs the USA (NATO), would be equivalent to a 50-year war a century or two ago (or so).
Anyway, we can discuss such time mapping or time equivalence, but its essence remains firm.
It was an empire fall time, with an extremely steep slope the last month, which actually covered (hidden) preceding 20 years.
However, I think it is interesting to consider a real cause of such disastrous defeat. Was it mainly in the domain of warfare ( and economy, since the war means the money) or in the domain in ideology (culture), or both
The structure of all expenses shows that a great deal gone to establishing a new state over the previous one, tribal and islamic in its essence, with traces of Soviet influence.
Everything invested in institutions, administration, army, police, in a word – in people, disappeared within days. As if the Afghans simply changed the clothes, or waited to change it on the first sign of occupation weakness (here I refer to the majority, not those desperatelly attempted and attempt to flee).
Such mood did not come overnight.
- Bostonian on September 10, 2021 · at 7:30 am EST/EDT
  
  Thank you s-rb.
  
  (The truth…. getting closer, …. getting closer,…. your almost burning up)
Marcus Chapman on September 09, 2021 · at 9:53 pm EST/EDT

Someone wants us to think this is just gross incompetence. I don’t think it is. This is really Alice in Wonderland. Joe is a puppet, who’s puppet. You would think that good Catholic, like Joe Bob, would get the blessing of the church first. Not Joe Bob. He went to the Rabbi first. Then he wonders in to the Catholic Church and finds a priest. Right before his coronation. The line is clear for you to see. He has not hid his loyalty and if you refuse to see, there is where it stands.
- cdvision on September 09, 2021 · at 11:44 pm EST/EDT
  
  You say tomato, I say tomato….
  
  There is clearly a level of incompetence on display, beyond any doubt. There are also those who, for various reasons, would welcome the chaos. The bottom line is that its an absolute debacle and shambles for the US which will have long term consequences.
- Blackring on September 10, 2021 · at 4:51 am EST/EDT
  
  “You would think that good Catholic, like Joe Bob, would get the blessing of the church first”
  
  It’s worse than that. Biden do what his PR guys tells him to. Which is product of convoluted math utilised to maximize donations. He could be atheist in reality, and we would never know.
  
  Puppeteers chosed him for current show just because he is zombie-like. They are still edgy after former orange Pinokio wanted to be a real boy.
Mr_Mayhem on September 09, 2021 · at 9:55 pm EST/EDT

I suspect the Silk Road “peace through development” is the primary threat to the over-leveraged Empire. That policy produces wealth which pays for itself, while the western financial system is on printing press life support. The Empire crowd will resist any move by patriotic forces within the USA to coordinate with Russia and China, yet that is the only peaceful solution. Dangerous Times.
- Katerina on September 10, 2021 · at 12:15 am EST/EDT
  
  Mr Mayhem
  
  Thank you for the insightful input.
Joe P on September 09, 2021 · at 10:19 pm EST/EDT

Refresh my memory: did those hyena Poles not kick crap out of the eastern Slavs when latter slavishly marched under the Zio banner in 1920?

Gladly! Yes, they did. In fact, every time Russia was weakened, the Poles attacked. And, let’s be honest, Bolshevik commanders like Tukhachevskii (or Dybenko for that matter) were truly not military geniuses, to put it very kindly. As for Russia, she went through WWI (which the Bolsheviks lost when Russia was winning), then a Masonic coup, then a Bolshevik coup, then a VERY bloody civil war and, in the end, she ended up barely standing and ruled by fanatics idiots. By 1920 even Danemark or Holland could have defeated the exhausted Bolshevik forces.

That is why the Poles are known as the “hyena of Europe” (Churchill dixit!): they ONLY attack the weak and when they feel “covered” by some big patron of the moment.

I hope this clarifies this issue in your mind :-)
Andrei
Jim Given on September 09, 2021 · at 10:57 pm EST/EDT

The Bidens claimed the color revolution in the Ukraine for Our Democracy; just as Hillary claimed the color revolution in Libya. Trump – clueless according to all evidence.

Remember, Donald Trump was not a Bad Man – he just played one on TV!
jiri on September 09, 2021 · at 11:44 pm EST/EDT

It is premature to celebrate the events in Afghanistan as a sign of the impending demise of the Empire.

This is a tactical move. Nothing has changed except that the business of creating chaos in Afghanistan has been outsourced to Pakistan. Now, the chaos level in Afghanistan can be carefully calibrated at greatly reduced cost in terms of money and manpower for the Empire.

Meanwhile, Russia and China have decided to take the Empire’s word at face value and decided to play along. In the same way that Russia took the US at face value in Syria in fighting ISIS terrorists and decided to join in the fight against the terrorists. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
- Katerina on September 10, 2021 · at 12:11 am EST/EDT
  
  juri
  
  You are wrong on EVERY level.
- Blackring on September 10, 2021 · at 1:30 am EST/EDT
  
  “It is premature to celebrate the events in Afghanistan as a sign of the impending demise of the Empire”
  
  Long time ago, there was the warning sign. It was written “TOO BIG TO FAIL”.
  
  Afghanistan is not a sign. It is bump way down slippery slope. But the fall isn’t important, it’s the landing.
  
  Enjoy the ride.
TEP on September 10, 2021 · at 12:03 am EST/EDT

Shat on Uncle Shmuel’s dinner.

TEP.
Marfa on September 10, 2021 · at 12:30 am EST/EDT

Enough of all the gloating. This is really a mess in the making. Here’s a sobering read.

PS: this may be a viewpoint many may not like

https://asiatimes.com/2021/09/taliban-lineup-reveals-pakistan-intels-hidden-hand/
- Blackring on September 10, 2021 · at 1:50 am EST/EDT
  
  Enough with these damage-control narratives .
  
  US is gone. Live with it.
- Parabellum on September 10, 2021 · at 11:58 am EST/EDT
  
  Ah, the all powerful ISI. It can kick out US from afghanistan and browbeat the taliban, but cannot even get reliable intelligence on the daily terror attacks that happen in pak. Brilliant.
  - Cosimo on September 14, 2021 · at 5:25 pm EST/EDT
    
    Pakistan ran the Afghani Taliban, but there was (is) a Taliban that operates exclusively inside Pakistan and for the account of the CIA. Some years ago, a CIA agent, operating under the pretense of being a consular-level diplomat, was on the way to a meeting with the CIA-run Taliban. The ISI knew about this, and wanted to send a message to the CIA to stop doing that. So the ISI sent two unarmed young men on one motorbike to obviously tail him. The agent spent 30 or 40 minutes trying to ditch the motorbike, to no avail. He stopped his vehicle and made a call on his satellite phone to the US. The call lasted about 45 minutes. Obviously he got approval for what he did next, which was to got out of the big black SUV and gun down the two young men before he drove off. IS wanted to send a message, and the CIA sent their own message back. There were lot of witnesses and the CIA agent was arrested. Washington tried to play the “diplomatic immunity” card but there was a catch. The Vienna Convention distinguishes between embassy and consular employees. Literally, embassy officials can get away with murder, but not so consular officials. Also, it was not quite clear that the killer was really a consular employee or if the documents had been marked up after the fact. The American stayed locked up for months. Finally, the US government paid several million dollars to the families of the young men whose lives were snuffed out, and the CIA agent was allowed to leave. This official slight to the ISI, along with relentless rude disparagement by Washington of the many Pakistani soldiers who died in the fight against terrorism, helped cause a permanent rift between the two nations. As for that CIA agent, well, he moved to Highlands Ranch, Colorado, in the US. A few years later, he got into a tiff with some 55 year-old man over a parking spot in an ordinary parking lot. The (former?) agent thought that was worth a real fight, and he broke the man’s back. AFAIK, the agent got away with that, too. Anyway, the CIA has layers of deception, and the Pakistani army knows all about it. We should, too.
- Cosimo on September 14, 2021 · at 5:39 pm EST/EDT
  
  Bhadrakumar is a long-retired Indian diplomat who posts columns frequently. Sometimes he has interesting things to say, but you need to keep in mind that he is first and foremost a former official and ne largely reflects that mindset. I used to read him for the interesting details, but after a few years, I found his analyses were not worth reading because his biases were not always easy to factor out.
  Other people might find him worth reading, though.
Blackring on September 10, 2021 · at 12:59 am EST/EDT

@Andrei

“Summary: both Biden and Zelenskii might get impeached or otherwise removed. That’s won’t solve anything…”

If CNN is chosen for the role of truth-teller in the fable, something bigger must be involved. Smearing campaign looks like preparing of public for further unpopular moves in the same direction as Afghan retreat.

Poor Ukies was maimed into trap designed to give excuse for the Americans to ditch them.

Be&Ze are irrelevant on this level, so you’re right. Whatever happens to them won’t solve anything.
Less on September 10, 2021 · at 1:21 am EST/EDT

About an expression strong enough.
Talibans would not shit on US face, out of respect for the shit.

Just a suggestion.
posa on September 10, 2021 · at 1:29 am EST/EDT

“Not even in my most wildest and craziest dreams could I ever have imagined such a quick and total collapse of the Empire and of the USA.”

The Empire ain’t dead until the petro-dollar crashes. Until then, the beast still lives, supported, still, by Euro-poodles and the Indo-Nipponese.
Nussiminen on September 10, 2021 · at 1:41 am EST/EDT

Sing-along for tomorrow, folks.

It was twenty years ago today
World Trade Center in New York to neigh
Masterminded by the CIA
Even Pentagon was hit, hey hey
So may I introduce to you
The act you’ve known for all these years:
US-Saudi-Izzie Crimes Command

We’re US-Saudi-Izzie Crimes Command
We hope you still enjoy the show
US-Saudi-Izzie Crimes Command
Despite the Empire has to go
US-Saudi-Izzie, US-Saudi-Izzie, US-Saudi-Izzie Crimes Command
- Stand Easy on September 10, 2021 · at 4:25 am EST/EDT
  
  You have good musical taste Nussiminen.
  Lyrics sung to Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band?
  - Nussiminen on September 10, 2021 · at 6:09 am EST/EDT
    
    Thank you, Stand Easy 🙂
    
    Yes, it’s a Beatles parody as you guessed. Whenever I steal somebody else’s music, I try to preserve at least the rhymes as much as possible. It’s my humble contribution to poetry on this forum.
- Stand Easy on September 10, 2021 · at 5:46 am EST/EDT
  
  And the cherry on the cake would be Mullah Baradar humming Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World’ softly to himself at the inauguration ceremony. Improbable, but one can dream lol.
  
  Farsi/Dari version:
  
  https://youtu.be/uIYb3a1XI7E
Alonso on September 10, 2021 · at 1:42 am EST/EDT

… Either that, or I didn’t even know, which could be worse …
President Trump never had any power (in fact, his government was saturated with people who did not follow or want the policies that he claimed to feel, even doing the opposite); because the system is rotten to the core: All institutions (legislative, executive, judicial, security and protection), mass media, social networks, are co-opted and work for the beast in the swamp.
And in particular, I believe that J. Biden and D. Trump are two sides of the same coin who were put there to sign the death certificate of the failed empire.
What intrigues me is to understand what is the true plan of those who truly control the USA (will they also be victims, or perpetrators of the fall of the Anglo-USA empire, and in exchange for what?).
Olivier on September 10, 2021 · at 1:44 am EST/EDT

It cannot be denied that the US is a declining power, even declining fast, but to say that the US empire has collapsed doesn’t entirely correlate with the outward picture. The ongoing efforts to stir up the southeast-asian countries against China, the repeated provocations in the Black Sea and the continued existence of a global 800 military bases network, including in Syria and Iraq, all of this doesn’t look to me like an empire that has collapsed.

Sure, the public infrastructure in America is collapsing, education has collapsed, public security is deteriorating, meth and heroin consumption are rampant, the public finances are out of control, these are all signs of an ongoing collapse.

So maybe the empire has collapsed culturally, socially and economically, but the most obvious symbols of this empire still seem pretty intact. The grip on the vassal states in Europe, Japan and South Korea is as tight as ever. Just last month the US held again joint military maneuvers in South Korea. Maybe that is just some moment of inertia, but it still looks very empire-like.
- Blackring on September 10, 2021 · at 4:29 am EST/EDT
  
  @Olivier
  “…continued existence of a global 800 military bases network, …”
  
  All of these are financed with freshly printed money. US are different from other countries because $ is world currency. Meaning that World takes off large part of burden. It doesn’t seem slowing down inflation, just give oportunity to deny or downplay its existence. For some time.
  
  The bad side is that smart moves like devaluation or ditching $ altogether are almost impossible.
  That would crushed savings of vasals, allies even corrupt goverments and assets all around the world. With tremendous consequences.
  
  Nevertheless, proffesional military must be payed with real money. If not, it becomes useless eater, or worse.
  
  For now, everything looks good. Everybody is washed with helicopter money. Soon, all will be millionaires. Then billionaires.
  
  Those who experienced hyperinflation are better to evaluate for how long the show will go on. Certainly less than a decade. Possibly, not even year.
  - Olivier on September 10, 2021 · at 11:04 am EST/EDT
    
    Exactly, I forgot to mention the USD, thank you @Blackring.
    
    The US Dollar’s status as the global reserve and trade currency is one of the few remaining pillars of the empire. Its share among global forex reserves has declined from 71,5% in 2001 to a still dominant 59,5% this year. There is a long-term trend of decline albeit a relatively slow one. However, with the current rate of money printing, hyperinflation might be next. But that seems to be the case for every major economy except Russia.
    
    The current withdrawal from Afghanistan was certainly a mess of incompetence, but an Empire withdrawing from a contested province is not necessarily a bad thing. In 117 A.D. Roman emperor Hadrian decided to withdraw from Mesopotamia and Armenia and the Empire went on to exist for another 3 and a half centuries.
    
    I just mention this analogy to add another perspective on withdrawal, of course I don’t hope that this will prolong the existence of the US empire by even one single day.
- zidar on September 10, 2021 · at 9:05 am EST/EDT
  
  There is a song about 1812 war between USA and UK, part of which goes approximately like this: “(brits) attacked, they were many, then we fired or muskets, they were many but not as many as they were before… so they run through the bramble down to Gulf of Mexico…”. So yes, approximately 800 bases, two or three less is still approximately 800, but bit less, not as many as that they were before.
  
  Will they end up in the Gulf of Mexico? I doubt it. In a few years, Mexican ‘drug lords’ will sort out who the boss is, the strongest among them, and that will be new Mexican ruler. And he, or his son, will simply move the border north and east, so the Gulf of Mexico will be fully in their control. I guess they (ZUSA) will be lost somewhere in the brambles in between.
  
  Cheers
  - Patricia Ormsby on September 12, 2021 · at 12:51 am EST/EDT
    
    They ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
    And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn’t go
    They ran so fast that the hounds couldn’t ketch’em
    On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiNWx_IZUj8
Jon on September 10, 2021 · at 2:07 am EST/EDT

How’s this? The Taliban just watched and waited quietly while the empire pissed in its own face.

Regarding the fall of the west. The American economy is much too big to just disappear all at once. As incompetent and bloated and brain dead as its Oligarch elites are, the country itself can still lumber on because the rest of the world needs it to do so whether they like it or not. We still need each other, though less and less every day. And that’s a good thing while it lasts. When the rest of the world can get along without us we will just fade away.
- Lenard on September 10, 2021 · at 2:55 am EST/EDT
  
  Exactly. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither did it collapse in a day. They decay of the US started slowly and invisibly in the 1970ies with the neoliberal policies and market deregulations. Then started to proceed with more velocity since 2008 and you can watch the empire crumble even quicker since the last five years.
  - FiveGunsWest on September 10, 2021 · at 4:11 pm EST/EDT
    
    Rome wasn’t burned in a day.
    
    https://youtu.be/CIt0Fr8hYS4
Stand Easy on September 10, 2021 · at 3:04 am EST/EDT

As for what the Taliban will do this Saturday, … Maybe we could speak of “urinating into Uncle Shmuel’s face” …

I believe the Americans themselves have started the ball rolling:

“Harmful Language Alert” labels can be found on pages displaying the scanned versions of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, as well as the first 10 amendments, known as the Bill of Rights.”

https://www.rt.com/usa/534197-declaration-independence-constitution-harmful/

This just a dribble of course of what is to come for the country of ‘Exceptionals.’ It is not unreasonable, looking at the people calling the shots over there, to expect the dribble to progress to a spray or a torrent. A rainstorm of hurricane proportions even.

I believe the Z’s in ZOG are losing what little fear they have of retribution and are taking their masks off to show their utter contempt for the ordinary hapless Yank who, like citizens of other countries, loves his, warts and all.
Can’t believe the director of the US National Archives is a Vietnam vet.
ElCristeroAmericano on September 10, 2021 · at 3:30 am EST/EDT

Andrei My Orthodox Brother,

You go ahead and pinch yourself. I guess if I was a Russian with loyalty to Russia I would too (but then again if I was Russian with loyalty to Russia I wouldn’t live in America but somewhere in my Russian Motherland).

I am not joyous. I am not celebrating. Don’t get me wrong I have no love for the Empire. I supported Pat Buchanan and voted for Ron Paul. I saw the dangers of US Imperialism and Neoconservatism joined together at the hip with the Frankenstein that is the Military/Industrial (Now Big Tech/Intel) Complex. Neither do I have any love for our political class (both Republican and Democrat) or the Aristocracy, the Elites who dragged us down this path (I hate them all with a burning passion. Like a drag these bastards to the wall and shoot them kind of passion).

No I am not joyous. I am not celebrating. I am filled with rage. I am filled with sorrow. Once again not for the Empire but for my country, my Motherland and my American brothers and sisters and the uncertain future our children now face.

My beloved American Motherland is deeply wounded and I see the jackals circling her and the vultures flying overhead. The jackals want to finish her off and the vultures want the leftovers of decomposing flesh. Should I be joyous over that?

Should I be joyous that the Biden Administration (using Covid 19) as cover is waging a direct assault on the Constitution (which is basically the Tsar for Patriotic Americans) with these sweeping vaccine mandates done via executive order putting the very livelihood of millions of Americans (especially non-Democrats) at risk of being taken from them with the stroke of a tyrant’s pen?

Should I be joyous with the knowledge that the only way to save ( or at least salvage part of) the nation of my birth is through drastic measures that will most likely lead to a long and bloody civil war?

Pinch me if this is just a bad dream but as an American who loves his country (I am glad we have left Afghanistan) but I see nothing to celebrate. I see tragedy all around. I see what Patriotic Soviets saw in
1989. This is all coming to an abrupt, most likely bloody end and the future for my children is uncertain. That’s why
I’m not smiling these days
A.H.H. on September 10, 2021 · at 3:32 am EST/EDT

Greetings Andrei,

You wrote: “𝘕𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘣𝘢𝘯 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘚𝘈, 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭!”

I am not so sure.
I think this fine distinction is lost on the 95% who are not highly educated or military specialists.
Most will take it as a genuine military loss.

There was a famous 1980/90s ad by Andre Agassi which could also serve as the epitaph of Empire: “𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴!”
The Empire was given a catastrophic loss of face that they cannot overcome.

So a military conquest may be the general perception.
And it is already having consequences – see recent amazing moves by KSA towards Russia, and other “allies” as well.
“𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵; 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥.”

For my part, I remember that fateful Tuesday in September 2001: I was a blissfully unaware youngster who only appreciated being told to go home early from his biology lab work due to some happenings in NYC.
Now 20 years later it feels like I’m participating in an official wake for Pax America…
- The Saker on September 10, 2021 · at 1:56 pm EST/EDT
  
  Okay, I will clarify. The Talibans are pretty effective insurgents. Oh, and they are motivated too. However, not only can they not take on a real military (Masoud Jr currently does not have the kind of force his father had), they could not even overthrow Najibullah all alone, it took them three years after the Soviet withdrawal.
  Next,
  Their “image” is actually pretty bad except maybe in Pakistan.
  On 9/11 you were not attacked by the Taliban, but by the Neocons – fear them and their “images”
  as for Pax Americana, it was MANY MILLIONS of DEATHS, so “pax” not so much.
  Only in Zone A does anybody still take the notion of “Pax Americana” seriously.
  The rest of the world already found out the truth, mostly the hard way.
  - A.H.H. on September 10, 2021 · at 2:33 pm EST/EDT
    
    Thanks for clarification Andrei.
    
    I was not disagreeing at all!
    I agree with your premise they could not fight head-on against a modern professional army, and it is not their preferred style anyhow.
    
    I was emphasizing the style over the substance in our trivialized world, where image counts for everything.
    Most will probably think they conquered USA in this social-media age.
    
    And coming from a people stomped to bits by Empire, I have no illusions of “Pax” at all, it was a flourish or convenient way to frame this dying epoch. Like Tacitus and his observation of empires and their habit to “make a desert and call it peace.” Pax in that sense.
    
    Regards
tinker on September 10, 2021 · at 4:06 am EST/EDT

I am not going to spend cerebral energy on looking for a scatological analogy for the this current US mess. The Battle of Little Big Horn did come to mind. So, as follows, track 3 on the Johnny Cash album, Bitter Tears: Ballads Of The American Indian, ‘Custer’
The song is about a Native American expressing delight in the death of General George A. Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn.

Now, I will tell you, buster, that I ain’t a fan of Custer’s
And the General, he don’t ride well anymore
To some, he was a hero, but to me, his score was zero
And the General, he don’t ride well anymore

Now, Custer done his fighting without too much exciting
And the General, he don’t ride well anymore
General Custer come in pumping when the men were out a-hunting
But the General, he don’t ride well anymore

With victories he was swimming: he killed children, dogs, and women
But the General, he don’t ride well anymore
Crazy Horse sent out the call to Sitting Bull and Gall
And the General, he don’t ride well anymore

Now, Custer split his men ― well, he won’t do that again
‘Cause the General, he don’t ride well anymore
Twelve thousand warriors waited, they were unanticipated
And the General, he don’t ride well anymore

It’s not called an Indian victory but a bloody massacre
And the General, he don’t ride well anymore
There might have been more enthusing if us Indians had been losing
But the General, he don’t ride well anymore

General George A. Custer, oh, his yellow hair had luster
But the General, he don’t ride well anymore
For now the General’s silent, he got barbered violent
And the General, he can’t ride well anymore
Oh, the General, he don’t ride well anymore
- The Saker on September 10, 2021 · at 1:58 pm EST/EDT
  
  The Battle of Little Big Horn did come to mind.
  
  Yes, and no.
  
  Yes, it was a major tactical defeat for the Europeans. But strategically, the Indians were doomed.
  Kabul was not only a major tactical defeat.
  It is also a HUGE, IMMENSE, strategic defeat.
  Think Stalingrad or Kursk, not Little Big Horn.
  Cheers
  - Jimmy Flies By on September 10, 2021 · at 3:57 pm EST/EDT
    
    Custer threw the battle as he hated his underling officers. He was knocking some squaws boots up while the others were becoming more seriously imperiled. He showed up too late. My actual point here is that only the whites, the wasichus, call it the Little Big Horn. We call it the Battle of the Greasy Grass.
    
    It’s a lie we didn’t scalp him out of respect for the raper of our women and the killer of our children. Custer had a presentiment and cut off his golden girly locks prior to the battle.
    
    Hoka hey!
    - Jonathan on September 11, 2021 · at 5:52 am EST/EDT
      
      History is a mirror. When we look into it we see ourselves.
      
      That’s why we hate mirrors.
Nussiminen on September 10, 2021 · at 4:51 am EST/EDT

”The Poles have even predicted the date of the Russian invasion: tomorrow (not a joke)”

Well, that would be a huge, nasty insult to the devout, proud guardians of the West against the filthy Moskals, LOL. Too good to be true sadly, but try explain that to Gównopolska.

”I have terrible news for Poland, the Baltic statelets and the Ukraine: nobody in Russia has any need for you, or your land. Nobody. Oh, and, for your information: ’defenses’ like walls, barbed-wires or even trenches cannot stop a modern military, such crap would not even slow the Russians down.”

Well, maybe Psheks/Ukros/Balts should try out mooning the Russians. They should get ready right away, standing with their behinds in plain sight from the East. Horrible surprise for any invaders who care about intimate hygiene.
Thomas on September 10, 2021 · at 6:07 am EST/EDT

Suggestion as per saker’s wish:
I think the word contempt is strong enough and the emotional desire to make the word even stronger actually diminishes its impact.
A French film with Brigitte Bardot comes to my mind: Le Mépris (the contempt). A more devastating effect of Brigitte’s contempt was inconceivable.
- The Saker on September 10, 2021 · at 1:49 pm EST/EDT
  
  Hey! That is one I have not seen.
  I will download it ASAP and watch it
  thank you!
JJ on September 10, 2021 · at 7:19 am EST/EDT

There are? many co tentious issues over Afghanistan between India and Pakistan(let alone between themselves)
….interesting if an Indian representative would go …is it an opportunty to rise above those differences for the well being of Afghanistan?????
- Örjan Appelqvist on September 10, 2021 · at 9:20 am EST/EDT
  
  What is MAGA ? Please explain and be readable!
  - amarynth on September 10, 2021 · at 10:35 am EST/EDT
    
    The Trump slogan – Make America Great Again.
  - The Saker on September 10, 2021 · at 1:49 pm EST/EDT
    
    Please inform yourself and, when needed, use a search engine.
  - FiveGunsWest on September 10, 2021 · at 9:12 pm EST/EDT
    
    In Afghanistan it means Make America Go Away
Christian J. Chuba on September 10, 2021 · at 9:17 am EST/EDT

The Gitmo Five https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/09/four-members-gitmo-5-exchanged-obama-bowe-bergdahl-named-taliban-government-commanders/

The U.S. is caterwauling over the fact that 5 high ranking Taliban officers now have high ranking positions in a Taliban govt. When I read their bios, there is nothing particularly special about them. I find it hard to believe that Cotton, Graham, Waltz … lose any sleep over UN allegations of killing Shiites, aka ‘Iranian proxies’, not even certain that crew considers them human beings. The U.S. never mentions them in any of their complaints.

The Republican Spin

Republicans talk about the ‘Gitmo Five’ as the worst of the worst, Obama’s great appeasement as if we had access to the entire Taliban leadership and chose these five to bring to gitmo because of their heinous deeds. The truth is that we captured thousands of POWs, 99.9% of them were nobody’s and we discovered that these five were actually officers in the Taliban, mostly governors of provinces. It’s the same as capturing Col.’s

In other words, their crime was that they had rank with the Taliban and now have position in a Taliban govt; shocking!
Luiz Sergio Rocha on September 10, 2021 · at 9:36 am EST/EDT

Good morning, I’d like first to congratulate once again “the Saker” for his sharp and very well informed analysis N’d very much thank once again.
Secondly I’d like to update the sheer pathetic soap-opera that’s unfolding down here in the biggest US colony (Brasil is bigger than the contiguous USA): our tropical badinguet or crétin (as Adolphe Tiers used to “eulogize” Napoleon III) has screamed nonsense and once again offended the “democratic institutions”, the same he one day after another spits saying absurds to keep his “gado” (bovine herd) tight togheter and on the other hand show strength to his american bosses. Meanwhile, the empire falls trough ridiculously fast N the 9/11 Kabul celebration is an exhibit A (apud Andrei Martyanov) of how fast and low the so-called “mightiest mighty ever is rocking down the history litter bin.
Meanwhile latinamerican mainstream media or “presstitutes” R streaming all sort of absurdity to their audience to keep them astray of reality. And as our carioca (a person from Rio de Janeiro city) TV globo (and it’s millions proxies) repeats ad nauseam “U make the news and we only broadcast). U-hum, there’s no manipulation N only pure journalism within them just like I’m Virgin Mary.
N so unemployment and neoliberalism keep moving to make riches richer N poors poorer.
Cheers from Rio de Janeiro.
Observer From Mordor on September 10, 2021 · at 10:13 am EST/EDT

The vibe outside the beltway: The US government is planning a multi-phase ground assault against its own citizens, who are now coming into clear awareness of that intention. Interestingly, US citizens on opposing sides of any viewpoint now increasingly and openly express how much they hate, Hate, HATE, HATE!, HATE!!!! anything and everything about Washington DC. The Left got a taste of burning things. The Right watched that go down unopposed by law enforcement and consider where and when to throw their own BBQs.

Is a global consensus building around the concept that a tiny minority of top monkeys need to be dispossessed of their hand grenades?
Tommy Apeiron on September 10, 2021 · at 10:18 am EST/EDT

We lost the Vietnam War, too, but now the sons of the Vietcong make my Haynes underwear. Go figure! Eventually, capitalism always wins. The AngloZIONIST Empire plays the long game. Remember, the Brits fought 3 wars in Afghanistan and learned that there was no way that country could be colonized. The USA was never about nation-building, just nation destroying. Seven countries in five years, all Muslim, all for Israel.

The CIA, on the other hand, extracted many billions of dollars in heroin profits. The Taliban had just about shut down opium cultivation by 2001 when the USA invaded. By 2005 Afghanistan was supplying 90% of the world’s heroin, destroying lives and communities all around the USA and Europe. Don’t tell me the CIA doesn’t continue to have operatives there protecting the heroin trade.

Now the Zionists have decided to destroy the USA, bankrupting it both financially and morally. Netanyahu bragged that we were a “golden calf” that could be brought down time and again. How right he was.
- The Saker on September 10, 2021 · at 1:48 pm EST/EDT
  
  Eventually, capitalism always wins
  
  No, it is, in fact, the EXACT OPPOSITE: capitalism cannot ever win for very simple reasons:
  
  1) it is based on infinite growth in a finite environment
  2) it is based on the notion that the “sum of our greeds will bring us freedom and prosperity” which is factually/historically false.
  3) to say that capitalism always wins is stupid since capitalism only existed in a tiny fraction of our world history
  4) over time, all capitalism did was to commit suicide by means of globalization
  5) it also committed suicide by turning the entire planet (the Zone B which is quickly expanding one) against the USA and its lies about “capitalism with a human face”.
  6) capitalism is based on usury which is banned by both real Christianity and real Islam.
  7) capitalism is based on lies about individualism while most of the planet is collectivistic in its culture (including Russia, China and Iran, all for different reasons, but all nonetheless).
  
  Finally, when “you” (as you say) lost other wars, these wars happened thousands of miles away from you and your society. Now Russia can strike your entire country with conventional hypersonic weapons and, if attacked, she will.
  
  Yes, the “final” “wake up call” might come to you in a form of a Russian missile strike on, say, a power station near you, or even in the form of a (Russian) mushroom.
  
  I strongly advise you to look at reality, not the lies you were taught your entire life.
  
  Kind regards
  - Tommy Apeiron on September 10, 2021 · at 7:20 pm EST/EDT
    
    I completely agree with you, Saker, that some form of collectivism is the only sustainable way to avoid collective “suicide by means of globalization.” Capitalism never had a human face as profit is its sole objective. The same folks that Jesus threw out of the Temple have morphed into being the financial Powers That Be today.
    
    You have to wonder if they’re even human anymore, maybe some kind of AI profit algorithm like what controls the hedge funds. At any rate, they have very little need for actual human beings. Hence, global warming, pandemics, genocidal wars, and best of all nuclear warfare.
    
    So-called Christian Zionism prays for that to happen, Saker, as they are first and foremost a death cult that looks to an apocalyptic conflict that will be the end of human history on the planet Earth. They welcome those Russian hypersonic missile flying in so their warrior messiah can smite the unbelievers, everyone but them apparently.
augusto on September 10, 2021 · at 11:13 am EST/EDT

From the wandering thoughts of every day one recalls one thing in parallel:
Just curiousity.
What happened to the Zion Maritime Terror Dept up since one month ago when Hassan Nasrallah declared the cargo tankers in the route Iran\Beirut
would be considered as lebanese territory?
Band Itkoitko on September 10, 2021 · at 11:15 am EST/EDT

The collapse of the last empire is really fast, disturbing, and scary. It’s crumbling before our eyes in the hands of its “leaders.” The capacity of human kind to manufacture and sustain (even for short) empires has been exhausted.

The most scary and disturbing part is not the collapse itself as much as the fact that people massively diluted themselves so that they would not see what’s happening. It’s in front of their eyes and it’s screaming, but they put extreme effort to not notice it.

Probably, largely they like to argue about stupid things like masks, race, gender, feminism, sodomy, who cleans the toilet as a way to distract themselves from the real deal. The US economy mostly produces dollars currently from thin air. Other economies when they produce capital it’s usually coming from actual economy and industry. The US by having the privilege to just produce money without economy are breaking the the laws of nature and disconnecting themselves from truth and reality. This permeates all their culture and spirituality. They lost their human face.
- cundellini on September 10, 2021 · at 1:16 pm EST/EDT
  
  what we are saying, that you seems to misunderstand is, that what appeared go b the “US Empire” was just a tool of the movers and shakers. it had and still has it’s function, but neither the well being of it’s inhabitants or the myth of the civilization(or lack thereof) they manage matters on the long run.
  
  it was a useful tool, now it is time to throw an other wrench between the wheels.
  
  some of you seem to have a seething hatred for americans. I understand, but I do not share your hatred. it is akin of hating russians on account of the Soviet Union. Trust me, a significant number of Americans have the same seething hatred for the system you do…and they are not on the “left”.
  
  all the red diaper babies IS the system. they won. they own and run the whole apparatus. ALL the vital institutions.
  
  …and the only thing capable of digging them up is the rest of America…
  - Cosimo on September 10, 2021 · at 3:51 pm EST/EDT
    
    I knew several people who were real-life red diaper babies. Yes, I’m that damn old. And I can tell you that those children from the 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1950’s never got anywhere near the real levers of power. If you had said, say, Trotskyite neocons who started sucking up to power by the early 1970’s, you would be much closer to the truth.
    It looks to me like you are caught up in the American two-party buzzsaw. Those supposed “red diaper” lefties do not run the system. Yes, the Frankfurt School does have a grip on strategic institutions like the education system and Hollywierd, but that is only because it keeps the people down, separated, and out, making things easier for the real rulers. Very very few of those media and “education” people would know a red diaper baby if they met one. Start looking for names of those red-diaper babies, and you will come up short. Very short. Hard-core capitalism and raw monopoly runs much of the world, working in tandem with a small number of special interest groups.
    - condellini on September 10, 2021 · at 8:36 pm EST/EDT
      
      “If you had said, say, Trotskyite neocons who started sucking up to power by the early 1970’s, you would be much closer to the truth.”
      
      You sir understand me correctly, I just have been censored here so often,
      that I need to speak in tongues. I would be interested in your explanation of the distinction though if you would not mind…thanx!
      
      “It looks to me like you are caught up in the American two-party buzzsaw.”
      
      oh no! that is the wrong impression. I just have a soft spot in my heart for the people in question cought up in that buzzsaw – without the vocabulary to describe what is happening to them. if they describe what is happening to them they are redz or libs. If they name the perpetrators – they are the third reich or plantation owners.
      
      hell of a way to live no?
      
      the two party buzzsaw, pretty much covers the left and right conundrum though – at least overtly. except both are “captured” so to speak.
      notice, be it rain or shine, foreign politix never changes…
      - Cosimo on September 11, 2021 · at 3:04 pm EST/EDT
        
        …I would be interested in your explanation of the distinction I guess you mean red-diaper babies and the old left versus the Trotskyites and, a separate group, the neocons.
        
        Okay, here’s what I think.
        
        The Old Left was basically decapitated in the US and the New Left of the 1960’s had no parents, no traditions, and very little of a strategic vision. That decapitation was a result of 1.US Communist Party subservience to Moscow, 2. About a third of the US commies were FBI agents, actively preventing any useful historic transformations, 3. The blindness of the USSR leadership from Khruschev onward, 4. Communism as such was never going anywhere as long as the US was truly the land of opportunity. and 5, the biggest single reason: McCarthyism was not defeated, just the Senator of that name. In fact, fear of being different had set in as a standard feature in US culture; it’s a tumor that has slowly brought our society to what could be a fatal point in the early 21st Century. I knew some Old Leftists from Berkeley, California, including one prominent Trotskyite, and in the early 1970’s I spent an afternoon with Dorothy Healy when she was still a CP-USA leader and came to my town to give a one-hour seminar, and she still had the day left. I was very dismayed by the constant meaningless fights among the various Trots in Berkeley and that’s part of why my connection with Leftism became sporadic.
        
        The New Left … If “no parents, no traditions, and very little of a strategic vision” doesn’t say it all, we can add “no time.” Various secret agents of repression – both military and Deep State, were most active in the early 1970’s and less so later. But the rise of Identity Politics kept the New Left from going anywhere, and, sorry to say, I also saw this from the inside out. Jews with the best of intentions, people like Claude Steiner who wrote the absolutely best book on the topic, “Games Alcoholics Play”, later available as “Healing Alcoholism.” I went out drinking with his former clients. They might have two beers in an evening, so they had beaten the addiction and all the games that go with it. It slowly became clear that this set of Jews had what I now understand, years later, as the common reflexes of members of the tribe. They were just more comfortable around other Jews and any perceived slight could be magnified into a total break without confronting the “antisemitic” act. They were “uncomfortable” with the “mistreatment” of Palestinians, and supported, for example Rabbi Michael Lerner in their soft-core Zionism. I met Lerner when he worked for a labor union, before he became a rabbi. Nice guy, didn’t have a lot in common with the anti-family politics of the gays; he was doing what he called “family therapy”, seeing the family as a basic unit of social cohesion. You can see their politics in the magazine, ”Tikkun”. No one in that crowd had any interest whatsoever in class and in class politics (not even Lerner, I’d say) exactly because they were bourgeois at heart. Their disinterest in class politics and their own contradictions led to the demise of their movement. If you believe Wikipedia, “Identity Politics” was a common term from the late 1970’s on, but I never heard of it until Stanley Aronowitz, an Old Leftie and Jewish by ethnicity, wrote about it in “Socialist Review” around 1989. In 1992, he turned it into a book, The Politics of Identity: Class, Culture, Social Movements. I think this was seminal because it was only from then on that the term gained wider traction. But Wikipedia doesn’t mention him in its entry on Identity Politics. Of course not; it’s Wikipedia. Aronowitz wrote that Identity Politics is a dagger in the heart of class struggle and social progress.
        
        It’s worth a side note about how Identity Politics came to become so important. Of course the ruling elite sees it as an important trick to divide an rule, but in truth their influence only came later, if you don’t count the far-away Frankfurt School or the stuff finded by the Rockefeller Foundation like the Kinsey Report. I saw first-hand that Identity Politics arose from below, with no astroturf, no George $oro$ help. Later, yes of course, but not the first decade or two in the US. Yes, Jewish nightclub owners revived and pumped money into “nearly dead” rap, but I think that was an exception to the rule and it was only a small clique. The general public avoided class politics without any obvious prodding, and left a vacuum for all the “minorities” to fill … mainly of course, the LGTBQ+ crowd. Incidentally, I had two very good friends who were African American, both “straight” and they drifted off for the same reasons as I did. One is Gil Lopez. I don’t know if his web site is still up, or if it needs revived. There was the usual undercurrent of racism because practically everyone was white with no experience with people of color, a common condition but it meant they didn’t see racism as worth spending energy on …. That would have been too real world, too far from the libido, you see. And no latinos, no latinas, ever.
        
        Around 1984, the New American Movement started from within the Democrat Party. I wasn’t that sharp and it took me years to realize it was the same bilge the Democrats have always had on tap since 1948. Corral, co-opt and silence the lefties. Locally at least, a few Jews were the leaders. Seeing this from the inside, I never saw any overtly Jewish conspiracy at work; it was an organic extension of how Jews see and understand the world. By the standards of anyone except a Palestinian, it would be easy to see these Jews as good guys, just like most Americans sincerely (and ignorantly) see themselves as good guys.
        
        I have to end my discussion of the Left in America around 1990 because I lost interest and I didn’t do nuffin until 2001 when another big war came along. And by 2001, I had made a sort of U-turn and was no longer “on the left”. For me, ideology is like a big, big tool box. Sometimes you need a 17mm socket or a big pry bar. Other situations, you need a Joe Stalin, a Jesus, an Abe Lincoln, etc. It’s all good, as long as you aren’t trying to do brain surgery with the pry bar, or trying to rebuild a broken democracy with Stalinism. . I would never throw out all my wrenches because they have an even-numbered millimeter size, nor would I throw out all my left or my right wing ideologies. Right tool, right application, just have to use a good heart and brains ! Of course there are totally fake ideologies that can be completely rejected, just as there are fake tools of all kinds. For example, the “Austrian School of Economics.”
        
        About the neocons: Some started out in Trotskyite organizations, but I think they had purely cynical reasons, seeing these as learning experiences for their careers. You can also trace the most important neocons as second generation pupils of the original pupils of Leo Strauss, a bad guy if ever there was one. He was a Jew and I assume that hidden hands promoted him from an obscure European post, right into a prestigious professorship at the University of Chicago.
        
        There are also hidden neocons networked by hidden hands. The world’s main Trotskyite outfit is the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). They published a series of articles during the first half of 2009 in The Militant, a weekly newspaper, arguing that:
        1. There is no Zionist movement today.
        2. Anti-Zionism is a cover for antisemitism.
        3. Israel’s rulers plan to give up control of most of the West Bank and Gaza.
        4. Israel is not an apartheid state.
        5. The BDS campaign is not only wrong. It is antisemitic.
        6. The democratic, secular Palestine that the SWP envisages, must grant a special right
        of immigration to the Jews of the world.
        Uruknet.info, still a good link
        
        In May, 2013, the SWP published an eye-opening major headline appeal in support of the takfiris in Syria. It was signed by 200 people, and I found the names of a dozen I had respected until then. SWP is an evil sock puppet, and certainly not on the “Left”.
        
        I hope this answer is sufficient and not too long.
Bill Osborne Jr on September 10, 2021 · at 11:51 am EST/EDT

Looking at the Afghanistan evacuation debacle you have to wonder how something like this happened. While Biden is in an obvious state of mental decline the people behind him are not idiots. Why would they decide to remove the majority of the troops and desert the Bagram base in the middle of the night prior to getting their people out? You have to wonder if this was a deliberate action and not a colossal blunder.
Ralph on September 10, 2021 · at 12:30 pm EST/EDT

Afghanistan was/is a success. for some: costs for the many, profits for the few.
The mil equipment will be replaced with new, i.e. yet more profits for the (favoured) few.
Qs that should be asked: where did the US mil go, home? If so, that may not be good news…
And what happened to the PMCs? Where are they?
What happens to the Criminals In Action’s drug trade/income?
So the withdrawal looks good, so far, but maybe not good to celebrate it prematurely.
- The Saker on September 10, 2021 · at 1:40 pm EST/EDT
  
  Afghanistan was/is a success
  
  For those who pocketed about 1-1.5 TRILLION dollars, yes, it was a huge success, agreed.
  
  So the withdrawal looks good
  
  You are probably alone to believe that. Okay, maybe there are 10 more out there, but that’s about it.
Anonymous on September 10, 2021 · at 1:13 pm EST/EDT

To all Americans:

Happy Reichstag Fire (aka 9-11) Day!

On this momentous day in history, your own government killed 3000 Americans as part of a false flag terror attack in order to launch the ongoing Nazi Big Lie known as the USA’s “War on Terrorism,” where America has murdered more than 1 million people in multiple nations from Africa to the Middle East to Eurasia.

All the while, the United States and its allies have been aiding, arming, or bankrolling Islamicist terrorists–including Al-Queda or ISIS affiliated terror groups–even as they claim to be “fighting terrorism.”

Again, a very merry Reichstag Fire day.

And don’t forget: Evil-Doers Hate Your Freedoms!
Victor on September 10, 2021 · at 2:03 pm EST/EDT

The Poles did not put up barbed wire to stop a supposed Russian military invasion because obviously that’s just pointless. They put the barbed wire up to stop Muslim refugees from crossing the Polish/Belarussian border. Belavia airlines have connections to many of the countries where the West has created refugees and these refugees want to get into Europe, so first they fly to Belarus and then they are guided to the Polish (or Lithuanian) border. Interestingly, there are (or were) many open and unguarded places along the Polish border when the Polish authorities discovered these refugees. The Polish government is now claiming that this situation is another example of “Putin’s hybrid warfare” and if it is, then bravo to Putin. However, there are many Poles who blame their own government for this situation because this is a result Polish government meddling in the Belarussian elections last year, which has destabilized and soured relations between the two countries.
ismael diaz on September 10, 2021 · at 5:06 pm EST/EDT

Aclarame que es GITMO o gobierno MAGA o las otra iniciales. Bueno…aunque el contexto lo dice todo y estoy de acuerdo contigo. Saludos.

Yandex translate. Mod:
Tell me it’s GITMO or MAGA government or the other initials. Well … the context says it all, though, and I agree with you. Greetings.
V on September 10, 2021 · at 5:34 pm EST/EDT

…”Maybe we could speak of “urinating into Uncle Shmuel’s face” or some other even ruder metaphor showing both the total and utter contempt in which the Taliban hold not only the USA but the entire AngloZionist Empire AND somehow express the magnitude of the humiliation inflicted upon the USA……..”

I lack the words to come up with a suitable metaphor.

May I suggest this metaphor: “Shi**ing into Uncle Sam’s (Shmuel’s) pants”
Edgar Palacio on September 10, 2021 · at 10:13 pm EST/EDT

Es interesante como El Imperio no solamente perdió en Afganistán sino como esta perdiendo también en su “Patio Trasero”, Venezuela y en México.
Venezuela parece que va a poder alcanzar un convenio con la oposición y establecer una hoja de ruta para que en las próximas elecciones participen los opositores al gobierno, entre los cuales están la mayoría de ellos, aun aquellos que respaldan al mal llamado “presidente Interino”.
México esta luchando para que su economía progrese y gracias a la buena gestión del presidente AMLO los gringos no han podido echar para atrás su proyecto de gobierno, el cual en muchos aspectos esta en contra de la política imperial gringa.

Google translation,MOD:
It is interesting how the Empire not only lost in Afghanistan but also how it is losing in its “Backyard”, Venezuela and Mexico.
Venezuela seems to be able to reach an agreement with the opposition and establish a roadmap so that opponents of the government will participate in the next elections, among which are most of them, even those who support the misnamed “Interim President.” .
Mexico is fighting for its economy to progress and thanks to the good management of President AMLO, the gringos have not been able to reverse their government project, which in many aspects is against the imperial policy of the United States.
James Speaks on September 11, 2021 · at 4:11 am EST/EDT

I don’t think “Joe Biden” will be removed. His we can make you get a shot speech the other day proves he is mindless, amoral and a complete stooge for the powers that run the government. I doubt they can be removed and this makers”Joe Biden” secure in his job as their mouthpiece as long as he can stand and talk.