[Note: This article was written for the Unz Review.]
My recent analysis of the potential consequences of a US attack on the DPRK has elicited a wide range of reactions. There is one type of reaction which I find particularly interesting and most important and I would like to focus on it today: the ones which entirely dismissed my whole argument. The following is a selection of some of the most telling reactions of this kind:
Example 1:
North Korea’s air defenses are so weak that we had to notify them we were flying B1 bombers near their airspace–they didn’t even know our aircraft were coming. This reminds me of the “fearsome” Republican Guard that Saddam had in the Persian Gulf. Turns out we had total air superiority and just bombed the crap out of them and they surrendered in droves. We have already seen what happens when an army has huge amounts of outdated Soviet weaponry versus the most technologically advanced force in the world. It’s a slaughter. Also, there has to be weaponry up the USA’s sleeve that would be used in the event of an attack. Don’t forget our cyber warfare abilities that would undoubtedly be implemented as well. This writer seems to always hype Russia’s capabilities and denigrate the US’s capabilities. Sure, Russia has the capacity to nuke the US into smithereens, and vice versa. But if its a head to head shooting war, the US and NATO would dominate. FACT.
Example 2:
Commander’s intent: Decapitate the top leadership and remove retaliatory capability.
Execution:
Phase one:
Massive missile/bombing campaign (including carpet) of top leadership locations, tactical missile locations and DMZ artillery belt. Destruction of surface fleet and air force.
Phase two:
Advance into DMZ artillery belt up to a range of 240 mm cannon. Not further (local tactical considerations taken into account of course).
Phase three: “break the enemy’s will to fight” and destroy the “regime support infrastructure”
Phase four:
Regime change.
There you go….
Example 3:
I guess an American attack on North Korea would consist of preemptive strategic nuking to destroy the entire country before it can do anything. Since North Korea itself contributes essentially nothing to the world economy, no one would lose money.
These examples perfectly illustrate the kind of mindset induced by what Professor John Marciano called “Empire as a way of life” [1] which is characterized by a set of basic characteristics:
- First foremost, simple, very simple one-sentence “arguments”. Gone are the days when argument were built in some logical sequence when facts were established, then evaluated for their accuracy and relevance, then analyzed and then conclusions presented. Where in the past one argument per page or paragraph constituted the norm, we now have tweet-like 140 character statements which are more akin to shouted slogans than to arguments (no wonder that tweeting is something a bird does – hence the expression “bird brain”). You will will see that kind of person writing what initially appears to be a paragraph, but when you look closer you realize that the paragraph is really little more than a sequence of independent statements and not really an argument of any type.
- A quasi-religious belief in one’s superiority which is accepted as axiomatic. Nothing new here: the Communists considered themselves as the superior for class reasons, the Nazis by reason of racial superiority, the US Americans just “because” – no explanation offered (I am not sure that this constitutes of form of progress). In the US case, that superiority is cultural, political, financial and, sometimes but not always, racial. This superiority is also technological, hence the “there has to be” or the “would undoubtedly” in the example #1 above. This is pure faith and not something which can be challenged by fact or logic.
- Contempt for all others. This really flows from #2 above. Example 3 basically declares all of North Korea (including its people) as worthless. This is where all the expressions like “sand niggers” “hadjis” and other “gooks” come from: the dehumanization of the “others” as a preparation for their for mass slaughter. Notice how in the example #2 the DPRK leaders are assumed to be totally impotent, dull and, above all, passive. The notion that they might do something unexpected is never even considered (a classic recipe for military disaster, but more about that later).
- Contempt for rules, norms and laws. This notion is well expressed by the famous US 19th century slogan of “my country, right or wrong” but goes far beyond that as it also includes the belief that the USA has God-given (or equivalent) right to ignore international law, the public opinion of the rest of the planet or even the values underlying the documents which founded the USA. In fact, in the logic of such imperial drone the belief in US superiority actually serves as a premise to the conclusion that the USA has a “mission” or a “responsibility” to rule the world. This is “might makes right” elevated to the rank of dogma and, therefore, never challenged.
- A very high reliance on doublethink. Doublethink defined by Wikipedia as “the act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct, often in distinct social contexts“. A perfect illustration of that is the famous quote “it became necessary to destroy the town to save it”. Most US Americans are aware of the fact that US policies have resulted in them being hated worldwide, even amongst putatively allied or “protected” countries such as South Korea, Israel, Germany or Japan. Yet at the very same time, they continue to think that the USA should “defend” “allies”, even if the latter can’t wait for Uncle Sam’s soldiers to pack and leave. Doublethink is also what makes it possible for ideological drones to be aware of the fact that the US has become a subservient Israeli colony while, at the same time, arguing for the support and financing of Israel.
- A glorification of ignorance which is transformed into a sign of manliness and honesty. This is powerfully illustrated in the famous song “Where were you when the world stopped turning” whoso lyrics include the following words “I watch CNN, but I’m not sure I can tell you, the difference in Iraq and Iran, but I know Jesus and I talk to God” (notice how the title of the song suggests that New York is the center of the world, when when get hit, the world stops turning; also, no connection is made between watching CNN and not being able to tell two completely different countries apart). If this were limited to singers, then it would not be a problem, but this applies to the vast majority of US politicians, decision-makers and elected officials, hence Putin’s remark that “It’s difficult to talk with people who confuse Austria and Australia“. As a result, there is no more discernible US diplomacy left: all the State Department does is deliver threats, ultimatums and condemnations. Meaningful *negotiations* have basically been removed form the US foreign policy toolkit.
- A totally uncritical acceptance of ideologically correct narratives even when they are self-evidently nonsensical to an even superficial critical analysis. An great example of this kind of self-evidently stupid stories is all the nonsense about the Russians trying to meddle in US elections or the latest hysteria about relatively small-size military exercises in Russia. The acceptance of the official 9/11 narrative is a perfect example of that. Something repeated by the “respectable” Ziomedia is accepted as dogma, no matter how self-evidently stupid.
- A profound belief that everything is measured in dollars. From this flow a number of corollary beliefs such as “US weapons are most expensive, they are therefore superior” or “everybody has his price” [aka “whom we can’t kill we will simply buy”, perfect recent example here]. In my experience folks like that are absolutely unable to even imagine that some people might not motivated by greed or other egoistic interests: ideological drones project their own primitive motives unto everybody else with total confidence. That belief is also the standard cop out in any conversation of morality, ethnics, or even the notions of right and wrong. An anti-religious view par excellence.
Notice the total absence of any more complex consideration which might require some degree of knowledge or expertise: the imperial mindset is not only ignoramus-compatible, it is ignoramus-based. This is what Orwell was referring to in his famous book 1984 with the slogan “Ignorance is Strength”. However, it goes way beyond simple ignorance of facts and includes the ability to “think in slogans” (example #2 is a prefect example of this).
There are, of course, many more psychological characteristics for the perfect “ideological drone”, but the ones above already paint a pretty decent picture of the kind of person I am sure we all have seen many times over. What is crucial to understand about them is that even though they are far from being a majority, they compensate for that with a tremendous motivational drive. It might be due to a need to repeatedly reassert their certitudes or a way to cope with some deep-seated cognitive dissonance, but in my experience folks like that have energy levels which many sane people would envy them. This is absolutely crucial to how the Empire, and any other oppressive regime, works: by repressing those who can understand a complex argument by means of those who cannot. Let me explain:
Unless there are mechanisms set in to prevent that, in a debate/dispute between an educated and intelligent person and an ideological drone the latter will always prevail because of the immense advantage the latter has over the former. Indeed, while the educated and intelligent person will be able to immediately identify numerous factual and logical gaps in his opponent’s arguments, he will always need far more “space” to debunk the nonsense spewed by the drone than the drone who will simply dismiss every argument with one or several slogans. This is why I personally never debate or even talk with such people: it is utterly pointless.
As a result, a fact based and logical argument now gets the same consideration and treatment as a collection of nonsensical slogans (political correctness mercilessly enforces that principle: you can’t call an idiot and idiot any more). Falling education standards have resulted in a dramatic degradation of the public debate: to be well educated, well read, well traveled, to speak several languages and feel comfortable in different cultures used to be considered a prerequisite to expressing an opinion, now they are all treated as superfluous and even useless characteristics. Actual, formal, expertise in a topic is now becoming extremely rare. A most interesting kind of illustration of this point can be found in this truly amazing video posted by Peter Schiff:
One could be tempted to conclude that this kind of ‘debating’ is a Black issue. It is not. The three quotes given at the beginning of this article are a good reminder of this (unless, of course, they were all written by Blacks, which we have no reason to believe).
Twitter might have done to minds what MTV has done to rock music: laid total waste to it.
Consequences:
There are a number of important consequences form the presence of such ideological drones in any society. The first one is that any ideology-based regime will always and easily find numerous spontaneous supporters who will willingly collaborate with it. Combined with a completely subservient media, such drones form the frontline force of any ideological debate. For instance, a journalist can always be certain to easily find a done to interview, just as a politician can count on them to support him during a public speech or debate. The truth is that, unfortunately, we live in a society which place much more emphasis on the right to have an opinion than on the actual ability to form one.
By the way, the intellectually challenged always find a natural ally in the coward and the “follower” (as opposed to “leader types”) because it is always much easier and safer to follow the herd and support the regime in power than to oppose it. You will always see “stupid drones” backed by “coward drones”. As for the politicians , they naturally cater to all types of drones since they always provide a much bigger “bang for the buck” than those inclined to critical thinking whose loyalty to whatever “cause” is always dubious.
The drone-type of mindset also comes with some major weaknesses including a very high degree of predictability, an inability to learn from past mistakes, an inability to imagine somebody operating with a completely different set of motives and many others. One of the most interesting ones for those who actively resist the AngloZionist Empire is that the ideological drone has very little staying power because as soon as the real world, in all its beauty and complexity, comes crashing through the door of the drone’s delusional and narrow imagination his cocky arrogance is almost instantaneously replaced by a total sense of panic and despair. I have had the chance to speak Russian officers who were present during the initial interrogation of US POWs in Iraq and they were absolutely amazed at how terrified and broken the US POWs immediately became (even though they were not mistreated in any way). It was as if they had no sense of risk at all, until it was too late and they were captured, at which point they inner strength instantly gave way abject terror. This is one of the reasons that the Empire cannot afford a protracted war: not because of casualty aversion as some suggest, but to keep the imperial delusions/illusions unchallenged by reality. As long as the defeat can be hidden or explained away, the Empire can fight on, but as soon as it becomes impossible to obfuscate the disaster the Empire has to simply declare victory and leave.
Thus we have a paradox here: the US military is superbly skilled at killing people in large numbers, but but not at winning wars. And yet, because this latter fact is easily dismissed on grounds #2 #5 and #7 above (all of them, really), failing to actually win wars does not really affect the US determination to initiate new wars, even potentially very dangerous ones. I would even argue that each defeat even strengthens the Empire’s desire to show it power by hoping to finally identify one victim small enough to be convincingly defeated. The perfect example of that was Ronald Reagan’s decision to invade Grenada right after the US Marines barracks bombing in Beirut. The fact that the invasion of Grenada was one of the worst military operations in world history did not prevent the US government to hand out more medals for it than the total number of people involved – such is the power of the drone-mindset!
We have another paradox here: history shows that if the US gets entangled in a military conflict it is most likely to end up defeated (if “not winning” is accepted as a euphemism for “losing”). And yet, the United States are also extremely hard to deter. This is not just a case of “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread” but the direct result of a form of conditioning which begins in grade schools. From the point of view of an empire, repeated but successfully concealed defeats are much preferable to the kind of mental paralysis induced in drone populations, at least temporarily, by well-publicized defeats . Likewise, when the loss of face is seen as a calamity much worse than body bags, lessons from the past are learned by academics and specialists, but not by the nation as a whole (there are numerous US academics and officers who have always known all of what I describe above, in fact – they were the ones who first taught me about it!).
If this was only limited to low-IQ drones this would not be as dangerous, but the problem is that words have their own power and that politicians and ideological drones jointly form a self-feeding positive feedback loop when the former lie to the latter only to then be bound by what they said which, in turn, brings them to join the ideological drones in a self-enclosed pseudo-reality of their own.
What all this means for North Korea and the rest of us
I hate to admit it, but I have to concede that there is a good argument to be made that all the over-the-top grandstanding and threatening by the North Koreans does make sense, at least to some degree. While for an educated and intelligent person threatening the continental United States with nuclear strikes might appear as the epitome of irresponsibility, this might well be the only way to warn the ideological drone types of the potential consequences of a US attack on the DPRK. Think of it: if you had to deter somebody with the set of beliefs outlined in #1 through #8 above, would you rather explain that a war on the Korean Peninsula would immediately involve the entire region or simple say “them crazy gook guys might just nuke the shit out of you!”? I think that the North Koreans might be forgiven for thinking that an ideological drone can only be deterred by primitive and vastly exaggerated threats.
Still, my strictly personal conclusion is that ideological drones are pretty much “argument proof” and that they cannot be swayed neither by primitive nor by sophisticated arguments. This is why I personally never directly engage them. But this is hardly an option for a country desperate to avoid a devastating war (the North Koreans have no illusions on that account as they, unlike most US Americans, remember the previous war in Korea).
But here is the worst aspect of it all: this is not only a North Korean problem
The US policies towards Russia, China and Iran all have the potential of resulting in a disaster of major magnitude. The world is dealing with situation in which a completely delusional regime is threatening everybody with various degrees of confrontation. This is like being in the same room with a monkey playing with a hand grenade. Except for that hand grenade is nuclear.
This situation places a special burden of responsibility on all other nations, especially those currently in Uncle Sam’s cross-hairs, to act with restraint and utmost restraint. That is not fair, but life rarely is. It is all very well and easy to declare that force must be met by force and that the Empire interprets restraint as weakness until you realize that any miscalculation can result in the death of millions of people. I am therefore very happy that the DPRK is the only country which chose to resort to a policy of hyperbolic threats while Iran, Russia and China acted, and are still acting, with the utmost restraint.
In practical terms, there is no way for the rest of the planet to disarm the monkey. The only option is therefore to incapacitate the monkey itself or, alternatively, to create the conditions in which the monkey will be too busy with something else to pay attention to his grenade. An internal political crisis triggered by an external military defeat remains, I believe, the most likely and desirable scenario (see here if that topic is of interest to you). Still, the future is impossible to predict and, as the Quran says, “they plan, and Allah plans. And Allah is the best of planners“. All we can do is try to mitigate the impact of the ideological drones on our society as much as we can, primarily by *not* engaging them and limiting our interaction with those still capable of critical thought. It is by excluding ideological drones from the debate about the future of our world that we can create a better environment for those truly seeking solutions to our current predicament.
——-
1. If you have not listened two his lectures on this topic, which I highly recommend, you can find them here:
Empire as a Way of Life, Part 1 | mp3 | doc
Empire as a Way of Life, Part 2 | mp3 | doc
Empire as a Way of Life, Part 3 | mp3 | doc
Empire as a Way of Life, Part 4 | mp3 | doc
Over the past 10 plus years, I have conducted an experiment across a broad spectrum of websites and forums. Without getting into any great detail I can conclude that a significant percentage of Americans are truly lost causes. I know it sounds cold and callous but it’s true. From simple ignorance to serious mental health conditions to drug and alcohol abuse, America is very sick. I’m not talking about 10 percent here. More like 40 plus percent. Maybe more. Really well read informed people are becoming rare. Add to that the number of people that have never really worked hard. Namely the young. Look at the new recruiting guidelines for the military. Pretty soon they will be back to the days where it’s jail or the military. Hendrix all over again. It’s been a few generations since we’ve seen tough times here. Even then it wasn’t that tough. We can’t handle tough times. When it happens, it’s going to be catastrophic for people.
I think that is the plan. All of the work that is being done to make the trans-Eurasian economic engine self sustaining, which makes sense in its own right, will have the side effect of isolating this bloated nation. It will self-destruct.
@James,
Absolutely!
Additionally, the tax cuts that Trump just signed will give more power for capital concentration to the American firms – to the dispair of other firms around the world (not yet owned by them!). And will further allienate the US people…
The Third World will remain poor, the eternal source of cheap labour, raw materials, and agricultural products… No way to compete…
Yes, definetely, the ‘trans-Eurasian economic engine’ is the only answer to the madnesss we are witnessing. Russia, China and their allies must succeed.
From the point of view of someone who was a part of a counter-culture, who believed in concepts like peace and kindness and generosity …..
I give at about 20% the total who are completely nuts and who speak regularly of horrific war crimes. The ones who talk about nuking other countries. The ones who talk about turn other countries into glass or parking lots or bombing them back to the stone age. The ones who go on about how if they kill ‘the terrorists’ for several generations then eventually in their mind, there won’t be any left. To me, that’s about 20% of Americans.
Most of the rest are thouroughly brain-washed. They’ll try to tell you that you are wrong. They’ll spit out a couple of sound-bites from CNN that don’t really make any sense. When you challenge those and make counter-arguments, they usually just sputter, they aren’t sure what to say now that they’ve said what CNN tells them to say, so they just sputter. Then get really mad and either hit you or stomp away in a furious rage.
If you said 10% of Americans can listen to reason, I’d say you are probably over-estimating.
And its gotten worse over the years. You misbelieve that because you got more enlightened and some others of your age did as well, that it will get better in the next generation. But it turns out the next generation is more thouroughly brain-washed than you could have imagined.
We are witnessing the end results of years of careful planning…
“Education should aim at destroying free will, so that, after pupils
have left school, they shall be incapable, throughout the rest of their
lives, of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would
have wished. . . . Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from
a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of
beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious
criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible.”
Bertrand Russell
The Impact of Science on Society, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1953
True – but its not just the USA
Im in europe and its the same. Most people just go along with the propaganda because they dont care. if you challange them they shout you down for ego reasons.
There are about 20% who will try at first to be reasonable but when met with hard evidence they just dismise the whole thing and say thats just your opinon. In effect saying i belive the bbc because there more important then you, Then they try and change the subject, if you push them further they get aggressive or leave. I will point out to them that its not a matter of opinion its a matter of fact but of course it makes no difference. Friends, politicians, journalists, family makes no difference.
As for the “10%” who listen there just playing along because they dont want an argument but privatly just think your “eccentric”
Honestly in the last five years i only met two people who know whats going on. If the media say it they belive it, no critical tought at all. nothing. I keep thinking surly there must be some point when a few people will wake up but it never happens.
Well written and have to agree with the content.
The part with the monkey in the room holding a grenade is easily solved. Makes no difference if the pin is pulled or not, I would have shot it on sight. 50/50 possibility that the pin hasn’t been pulled and a belief that the monkey lacks the intelligence to pull it.
Have noticed myself that those who are ideologically obsessed are willing martyrs and are unable/incapable of forming or accepting other opinions or views but are easily distracted by ignoring them, don’t allow them the centre stage and agree with everything they say. Takes 2 to argue.
Fanatics are the most dangerous especially those who are willing to die for a cause. The only way to successfully combat them is to totally ignore them, without an audience they become ineffective and foolishly end up communicating to themselves.
I find NK to be victim of long standing, ostracized and demeaned to a point where they feel they have nothing to lose by standing up to a bully, either way they will get a punch in.
I would, for example, take the banana (there is a shop behind the corner, i know), walk into the room very close to the ape, show him a banana and as soon as he dropped the grenade or turned to the banana, I would grab either a grenade or a monkey and get out of the room. I would not shoot in a monkey. The problem of the global scale is that most of you Americans when there is a problem, you simply shoot into the problem. you kill the problem. you do not solve it.
Why should N. Korea negotiate or give up what they feel are vital defenses?
They’ve seen Saddam and Ghadaffi give up any WMD’s they might have thought of developing, and what happened to them once they were defenseless.
North Korea did negotiate with the USA. Jimmy Carter was instrumental in talking to them when Clinton the Corrupt only wanted a war and a crises. Eventually, an agreement was reached. The US quickly broke the agreement and didn’t deliver the oil and other aid they promised.
The atmosphere was almost identical to the current agreement with Iran. The Republicans were out of power, so they ranted and raged against the unfair and bad deal that Clinton had reached. And the agreement was broken soon afterwards.
Now the North Koreans sit and watch Iran go through this same thing. Have tough negotiations to resolve a crisis that was mainly a fiction and creation of the US. Then, watch as the party out of power yells about what a bad and unfair deal it was and then wants to break it as soon as possible. Add that to North Korea’s experience of the Great White Chief in Washington speaking with a forked tongue and breaking their previous agreement with North Korea, then surely any thought of negotiating with the US has to look like a hopeless idea.
Do you negotiate with a country that can not be trusted to keep its agreements, and in those negotiations disarm and make yourself more vulnerable to a mighty military that goes around the world attacking country after country? Not likely.
Personally, I wouldn’t shoot the monkey, but rather simply leave the room and retrieve the grenade later after the monkey has gone to sleep. However, it is worth considering shooting 1) the manufacturer of the grenade, 2) the purchaser of the grenade, and 3) the one who provided the grenade to the monkey.
Shooting the monkey may solve the immediate problem at hand (assuming you don’t miss causing the monkey to throw the grenade at you, and of course the monkey might have some justice issues with shooting in the first place), but the shooting solution does little to address future problems of monkeys with grenades.
As to North Korea, their amusingly belligerent rhetoric mirrors that of Trump’s personality, but of course there is a fundamental difference: America is threatening to wipe North Korea off the map, and North Korea is threatening to resist being wiped off the map.
While it’s true that True Believers can be very dangerous, utilitarians ioften rationale the utmost evil in the name of the greater good. Wars are more often based on utilitarian than ideological rationales, as are other horrors such as genodice, eugenics, ethnic cleansing, police state measures, surveillance and spying, etc., etc.
To quote Burke (or Mill, or whoever said it first), “For evil to prevail, it is only necessary that good men remain silent.” The courage of the first man to stand up to speak out against unjust or immoral government conduct is rarely motivated by self-interest.
As to the Saker’s general argument, I agree with his assessment of the sorry situation in which America finds itself, but . . . he’s not offering much in the way of remedial action, other than for America to lose an external war and experience internal conflict. That’s a prediction of possibilities– not a plan for change.
Although most Americans are abysmally ignorant of the political, health and social environment in which they exist (I think 90% is too low), it is true that a large percentage of Americans, probably a sizeable majority, agree that America is on the wrong track, do not trust their government, their politicians or their institutions, do not trust corporations, and do not trust mass media. This is dry tinder. What the spark will be, who knows?
None of you understand monkeys! I’m no expert but I do know that monkeys are insanely curious, highly intelligent—for animals—and have the rational mind and good sense of a toddler. Shooting him would probably be the best option. Given enough time (waiting for him to sleep), he will pull the pin long before he loses interest. Distracting him only has about a likely hood of success around 50%—my guess. He most likely will sense the fear in your attempt to distract him and is likely to panic and throw the grenade at your head for spite. Or run away just out of reach and then pull the pin. Or he has watched tv at some point in his life and will know to pull the pin and throw it, but not know why—the most favorable scenario is the one where you get knocked out by the monkey throwing the grenade at your head.
Shoot the monkey —unless you are an expert bomb diffuser as well as an expert monkey
handler —which anyone who has seen it done on tv must of course be.
First I think what China did by declaring if US struck first it would support DPRK but if DPRK struck first it won’t support DPRK was very lame to say the least… Why? they kinda made NKorea more pompous. An irresponsible leader would just have to goad and irritate Trump very well for a military response (especially coz I don’t think DPRK leaders can do a false flag), sit back and watch how it’s Guarantor would clean it’s mess and China will have to walk it’s talk.
Secondly China cannot be seen as a totally impartial arbiter by ROK after partially backing DPRK.
Russia on the other hand won’t tell anyone they would take decisive action against a strike on Iran but everyone knows they def would if Iran was attacked massively.
Also I think since DPRK do not have the best of Intel and radar coverage, Russia would tip them off if the US comes charging with an attack. That’s something a lot ain’t considering. North Korea would be tipped off and the Pentagon would find very few or no strategic sitting ducks.
@ Master
1. In fact, NK is not goading Trump. It has been a few months since there was any big missile test or nuclear explosion. Friday’s UNSC resolution shows that NK does not have much of a friend in either China or Russia. So your theory that China has given NK permission to goad Trump, is Dead On Arrival.
2. You missed an important shift, although it’s not yet a U-turn. The ROK president made a state visit to China, where he was warmly received and in return, he welcomed Chinese efforts to defuse the situation. The ROK president is very gratefu for Chinese efforts to prevent the disaster of a war, and SK is also very interested in the opportunities of OBOR. Realize that being too much of an American makes it too easy to miss the main points. China and Russia are offering brighter economic futures to both NK and SK, and both Koreas welcome that. FWIW – and the relevance it that this side-note further topples your theory – NK is probably less interested than SK in the economic side of Russian and Chinese proposals because NK has little confidence in those two countries. That’s based on a thousand-year history that only started to end after Russia’s forceful actions in Syria showed that Russia will no longer “take a dive” at the UNSC, as they did with their vote in 2011 which, in effect, give NATO a blank check to destroy Libya.
3. North Koreans believe that their own survival is at stake, so the stakes are too high to trust any foreigners. Further, the Korean philosophy of Juche (self-reliance) also devalues trust, and it’s worth mentioning that both NK and SK believe in Juche.
4. You seem to believe that the Kremlin puts Iran and North Korea on equal footing for strategic decisions. but I think that’s inaccurate. Iran is key to all of Russia’s strategy for Asia and the Middle East, whereas North Korea is, in Saker’s humorous but over-the-top analogy, more like a monkey with a hand grenade. Bringing in NK and SK to the greater Asia prosperity sphere would be a very valuable addition, but a Russian policy failure here would not be fatal. On the other hand, if somehow Iran were to be taken over by the Empire (which simply will not happen, thank God), then Russia’s survival would be seriously threatened. Russia went into Syria to protect Russia, and protecting Iran is central. In short, protecting NK is more like a “very nice to have” (along with the bonus of SK), but for Russia, protecting Iran is a “can’t live without”.
5. It’s hard to say what sort of “tipping off” Russia might give NK in the unlikely event of any US attack on NK. Subsequent events definitively proved that Russia gave advanced warning to Erdogan, the Sultan of the neo-Ottoman Empire and a chief backer of terrorism. Russia’s advance warning caused the US-led coup against Erdogan to fail in June, 2016. I think the Kremlin would be more eager to help out North Korea, particularly because if it was the US military that received the nastier “bloody nose”, then the US is less motivated to think about giving anyone a bloody nose, and would have to end any attack sooner. By the way, you didn’t mention the Chinese tipping off NK. China is not technologically backward and I’d e surprised if they don’t have good monitoring of US actions. Anyway, North Korea has probably worked hard for decades, to mostly deny US satellites the information needed for targeting.
Bottom line is that the US can’t attack North Korea and achieve any desirable outcome, so it won’t happen. That is, unless the .001%-ers have stocked their bunkers and are ready to sit out WW3 and nuclear winter, only to take over a greatly-diminished planet. That’s highly unlikely, but we all need some assurance that the 21 Trillion dollars which the Pentagon can’t account for (“spent” 2001-2016), did not go into WW3 survival bunkers. That’s one of many “things” which are hard to believe before it happens, but if it did happen, then no one would be greatly surprised.
You missed quite a few of the racial slurs: towelhead, raghead, dune coon, camel jockey, camel rider, etc.
Nice Qur’an quote, quite appropriate. And a very good article.
You are a military analyst so can justifiably focus attention on military questions, however, in this instance you have entitled your piece When sanity fails – the mindset of the “ideological drone”. Since therefore the subject is not of a military nature, but concerns the psychological condition of “ideological drones,”
Actually, the theory of deterrence is at the key of a lot of military thinking and deterrence is based on psychology. Thus, at least in my opinion, this analysis is very much inside the military realm.
The Saker
you have failed to ask the most important question of all —
i.e. is any of this real?
As reported by William Engdahl, an individual whose books you’ve recommended on this blog, Kim Jong-un is a strap of the Pentagon. He does whatever–whenever–however, is asked of him by the US Military Industrial Complex, to justify it’s otherwise pointless presence in the region, and the expenditure of an insane quantity of resources to tackle problems that do not exist.
I put it to you that regarding questions of human stupidity and ideological drones, the tags for your posting, only a stupid drone would allow themselves to remain confined to considering geopolitical questions in a paradigm of wisdom received by what is agreed upon by the mainstream and alternative media.
What is agreed upon by the mainstream and alternative media constitutes the primary subject matter of the psychological war against all of humanity. While we can address these questions, as you have in your posting, this in no way ensures we are on the right track.
Regarding William Engdahl, Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order is a must read for anyone attempting to make sense of the world in which we live.
Thank you Saker for your prior recommendation, and thank you for helping me to learn so much about how not to be a Zionist Ideological Drone, over these last seven-plus years.
“Is any of this real?” That depends on your understanding of “real.” The situation Saker describes is horrible, a nightmare – that makes it real enough for me to give it serious consideration.
This is the Engdahl article on Jong-un you may have in mind: https://journal-neo.org/2016/11/01/north-korea-is-an-pentagon-vassal-state/
There are various and sundry levels of “the real” –note the quotation marks and italics. Trump’s theme?, project? of Mak(ing) America Great Again (MAGA) requires some kind (or other) of winning on the world stage. My fear is that Trump will be successful in this all-important symbolic realm and the world will the worse off
Having just watched Boris Johnson and Sergei Lavrov press conference……totally agree.Jeez ….sadness of uk politicians who only deal with the fantasies in their minds to peddle their political **** …unable to listen to anothers truth and logic…their minds are closed…. and unable to recognise and deal with these issues….
.reality….truth….you know these important things…BJ actually seemed to say UK has a right to persue LBGTG rights in Chechnya….despite being asked directly by Lavrov, unable to state any evidence of Russian interference in uk elections brexit, German usa and french elections but still says this took place……etc etc
Slaughter of innocence is no problem on the world stage except on holy ground where the imperial might of the day is located. Then, of course, the World must stand still and revenge planned and acted out immediately.
Seriously, isn’t this being going on for millennia? Sadder is the fact that humanity can’t grow out of this endless repeat of wholesale slaughter.
With all our new toys and gadgets we can branch our behavior out into space where we undoubtfully are awaited with bated breath and open arms. Whether this “infection” came from outer space is rather irrellevant humanity seems not able to revamp their immuun system and cope.
Maybe it is so because our beautifull world is located in a both and situation where the majority is stuck in dualism and translate only duality in reality. Maybe that is the function of being on Earth figuring out a third way!
When all said and done most of the hot air emanating from the hare-brained armchair warriors in terms of military and geopolitical strategies are simply conjecture, not facts. It was the Prussian soldier and military theorist, Helmuth Von Moltke (the Elder) who commented that:
”No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force.”
Or in the words of the great Scottish poet, Robbie Burns:
”There’s many a slip twixt cup and lip.”
History is littered with crackpot military theories and projects which have come to grief in the heat of battle. Like the Roman Army was invincible when it crossed the Rhine in 9 A.D. As they marched into the Teutoburg Forest they were unaware that the Barbaric German tribes had set a trap for them. It was thought that once the Roman legions got into their Testudo formations they would be invincible, but the savvy Germans did not let them get into formation, ambushed them as they were strung out on the march and massacred three crack legions, some 20,000 men.
More recently there was Napoleon’s sortie into Russia which ended in disaster, and then Hitler’s shock and awe with the invincible Wehrmacht leading the charge. As AH opined, ‘All we have to do is kick down the door and the house would come crashing down.” Didn’t work out that way though.
Again: The battle of the Somme 100 years ago. An Anglo-French sustained artillery barrage was going to smash the German front line and our troops would simply walk in unopposed. In the event, British casualties on the first day were almost 60,000 with 20,000 dead. This battle dragged on decisively for months with no clear winner and totally British, French and German casualties in excess of one million.
Again: The naval battles in WW2. Battleships were still thought of as war-winning capital ships of respective Navies, This notion was dispelled with the attack by Japanese based bombers and torpedo aircraft attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941 with the sinking of three US battleships. Just to rub home the lesson, 3 days later Japanese aircraft sank two British Battleships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse of the East Coast of Malaya.
Again: The Maginot Line. A system of defensive constructions which made a German invasion of France impossible. The German armour simply skirted around the French defensives and went through the forests of the Ardennes which was thought impossible for armour.
Again: The fall of Singapore 1942. British land based artillery was pointed out to sea to counter any sea based Japanese invasion. Unfortunately the Japanese invaded Malaya and crossed the undefended causeway into Singapore capturing some 130,000 British and Commonwealth POWs.
I could go on but I think the point is made. One would have thought that the American experience in south east asia and the middle east might have made them a little more cautious about American invincibilty – but not a bit of it there seems to be an incorrigible stupidity at work, a belief in their absolute military prowess. I think it was Schiller who said, ‘Against stupidity the Gods themselves struggle in vain.
Indeed!
American society has passed into a zone of fantasy and magic for good or ill. War need not be real war anymore. It csn be virtual. We have “threats” now that are met with gestures more than real actions. As long as large “defence” budgets continue there is no need for actual war. It looks to me a strategy of tensions should do very well for years to come.
Here is an article that surprises most “informed” and “educated” Americans.
“Lost Battles of the Vietnam war”
http://www.g2mil.com/lost_vietnam.htm
G2mil is an excellent and too often overlooked site in general. He’s a real hoot on the cost of military marching bands.
A lot of good examples supporting the realism behind Moltke’s comment.
At the risk of being pedantic, I add one more recent example: the US’ “cake walk” in Iraq, which resulted in handing control of Baghdad to Iran, which I am sure all readers of this page, including literate drones, are aware of.
With all those examples of stupidity, one would think patriot-drones would put a little effort into learning something from past mistakes. Anything. But no, doubling down on budget-busting stupidity is still their best and only possible response.
Today, perpetual losing is behind the brilliant strategy of waging perpetual war in Afghanistan for the sake of waging perpetual war. Even the drones admit they have no intent nor desire to win; they only wish to bleed dry US taxpayers — most of whom continue voting for this stupidity — while sabotaging Eurasian integration projects. I am sure they will fail at this too, because after all, their strategy is not to win. (This is so dumb I feel like an idiot for typing it out in public space.)
Actually, the last two American Presidents had to run as against these wars in order to get elected. They were both lying. But the American voters rejected John McCain, and they rejected a Hillary campaign that promised war in Syria and escalations with Russia and China.
Congress its hard to tell, because most districts are so gerrymandered that one party has complete and uncontested control, and that an incumbent in such a seat is almost impossible to beat and few if any ever try. So, most of Congress doesn’t really face the sort of election that would give voters a chance to turn them out of office and change the policy.
American voters would seem to be voting against these policies on the few instances where they get a choice. And even then, the apparent choice has been proved to be a lie and a fake as even when the ‘antiwar’ candidates become President there is no change in the policy .
Here’s a more recent one.
Invading Iraq will be a cake-walk, and over quickly, and it won’t cost the US government a thing because we’ll make money from the oil we are going to steal. Oh, and don’t forget the predicted parade where Iraqis throw flowers at the feet of the invading Americans and wave lots of little American flags by the side of the highway.
When it comes to the US, the impression over here in Europe is that Americans have a tough time understanding foreign countries and foreign cultures. Basically they are incapable of understanding how other people think, and worse than that, they have a nasty habit of underestimating other people.
That first paragraph which deals with North Korea is a telling example. Its military is being underestimated, as possessing “out of date” Soviet equipment. Even that equipment is deadly in combat. During the 1999 NATO attack against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Serbs shot down 137 NATO planes and 25 choppers, using “out of date” Soviet equipment. Among the planes shot down was one F-117 (seen on TV) and one B-2 (not shown on TV). The US Air Force is still short of one B-2, which it claims to have crashed in the US “due to technical problems”. Not true.
It would appear that the US is again preparing to make the same mistake of underestimating a foreign country. North Korea cannot be defeated in a conventional war, as geography is on their side. Most of the country is mountainous, making it ideal for defense. Much of their military technology has prepared positions, well protected. US air superiority means nothing, as it comes second in importance to military technology used on the ground. In a conventional war the US will cause damage and casualties through air power and cruise missiles, but mostly against civilians. What counts is what US ground forces will achieve. Not much. They will sustain heavy casualties.
I see that the US is having training drills with the South Korean military in the foolish and naive belief that the South Korean military is willing to fight North Korea, forgetting they are the same people. A few months back analysts have stated that the South Korean Government was having covert negotiations with North Korea, where the intention was to find a solution in case the US launches an attack against North Korea. This means South Korea has no wish to be involved in any war against the North, which is logical. However, is Washington capable of understanding this. I have my doubts.
The Saker ran a recent article assessing the known capabilities of North Korean military equipment (and presumed strategies), one of which was an anticipated heavy bombardment of Seoul as a consequence of any US “intervention”.
I’m sure the “Senior Command” in SK are very aware of the risks posed by ANY attack on NK, and I’m equally certain that there will be plenty of “behind-the-scenes” negotiation and planning between the North and South, to try to minimise these risks.
The populations of BOTH Countries know very well that any “intervention” might prove very lethal for their respective populations. The US population still assume this’ll just be “another small, Regional conflict” that they can watch (in comfort) on their Korean-made Samsung / LG OLED Flat-screen TV’s.
A solid article and I can relate it from my experiences. That sad video on the American debate competition merely re-inforces what many of us were already aware of, the accelerating societal decay of the USA. To pass off such unintelligible nonsense (which panders more towards style than substance) only serves as an incubator for budding drone minds.
One thing your article missed, the age factor. As a person ages, their cumulative experience increases, on average. They will come to a point where they can no longer ignore the dissonance or the obvious. It’s the epiphany moment where things they couldn’t understand before starts to make sense. This occurs usually around 40+years of age, give or take a few years for most people.
Amusingly, it did cross my mind, if humans lived to lifespan of 200+ years, how would the world look like? Would it be a lot saner than today? We have one foot in the grave at the age where rationality & wisdom becomes prevalent. Such a waste.
Interesting comment. An extended age span would, I think, confront people with the consequences of their actions now. A short life span means a ‘free riding’ of the next and subsequent generations as it becomes their ‘problem’ to deal with in the future.
‘Example 1’ is funny.
The mistaken belief that America alone destroyed the Republican Guard in 1991, which surrendered en masse through abject fear after the air campaign. I always see this from Americans, and it’s clear they just ‘assume’ this was the case, through delusion outlined in the article above. A few problems with it though;
1) It wasn’t just ‘The Americans’ in the Gulf War, it was a 32 country coalition against a country of 20 million. It took six months for them to ‘get the job done’, but the job wasn’t even done, the real intention was regime change. Didn’t happen.
2) The Republican Guard didn’t surrender en masse. In fact, the whole idea of the Gulf War was to destroy Saddam’s 10 Republican Guard divisions by trapping them in Kuwait, then knocking over the government. But during the buildup, the Americans got cold feet and instead decided that more troops were needed, this gave the Republican Guard months to move back into major Iraqi cities, in preparation for the real fight — WHICH DIDN’T COME. America ‘declared victory and left’. They knew that a forceful regime change in 1991 would’ve been a blood bath.
3) They did, however, fight two Republican Guard divisions. The Medina and Tawakalna. They did the exact opposite of ‘surrender’, they fought despite being hugely outnumbered. They also inflicted casualties, which the Americans covered up.
4) The air campaign can only be described as a moderate success at best. The Iraqis were adept at planting fake ‘tanks’ in the desert, i.e. a tank-like mound with a drain pipe (barrel) sticking out of the end of it, which Yee-Haw air force men had to get ‘their turn’ blasting, wasting ammo. These ‘successes’ lead to the air force relaying inflated numbers of destroyed ground forces to the army before the army’s advance, who were enraged to find bigger numbers still intact in front of them when they did move.
For all intents and purposes, there WAS no Gulf War. It was a feint, but had the ‘coalition’ moved on Saddam in 1991, moving further up towards Baghdad, towards the summer heat, facing his hard bitten RG, I’m actually convinced they would’ve been repulsed. It would’ve been a disaster.
That is correct. The Iraqi Republican Guard never surrendered, nor did the US media show it surrendering. It was conveniently forgotten. People still don’t have an accurate picture of what happened in Iraq in 2003. How much of Iraq did the US military really succeed in invading ? According to one analyst, the US never conquered more than 1/3 of Iraq. I presume the Iraqi Republican Guard was deployed in the remaining 2/3 of the country. As for US losses in Iraq, the US military never admitted their true losses. For example, in 2003 the US lost 60 M-1 tanks, which it never admitted. On the Internet I saw pictures of burned out A-1 tanks. As for manpower, who knows. We shall probably never know.
“As for manpower, who knows. We shall probably never know.”
U.S. manpower lost during the 2003 invasion? We have a good idea, Al-Hamdani (Republican Guard general) told RT that they (the Americans) lost 600 at the airport battle. The late Eric May, who had never met Al-Hamdani claimed to have found that 500 died during the airport battle. Added with Russian GRU reports from the time from other towns and cities, probably around 500-700.
May, who died prematurely, said this:
“In January 2004, I had a freelance journalist from upstate New York start working with me to try to get the story. She found out that there were about 100 backdoor visits, which means the casualty officer would come and inform the widows of what happened. They were taking women and getting them out of town, off the post.
She came up with a number of about 100 war widows. About one out of three soldiers is married. That kind of went well with what I had thought: about 300 to 500 killed in action. Very quickly, after she began investigating, she got a death threat.”
Note that he is talking about one battle from the invasion, albeit by far the biggest, the battle at the airport. As for the idea that no-one could possibly cover this up, May added:
“What happens is that you get 500 coffins that go to 500 different train terminals and 500 disparate cities and small towns. Nobody sends out a card saying there are 499 other ones. Everybody who gets one knows they have a dead G.I. But, nobody thinks their dead G.I. was part of a massive battle. It’s the elephant of truth. Every blind person gets one feel. Everyone gets one pat on the elephant without realizing there’s an immense beast there.”
That’s why they changed their tactics in terms of recruiting. From large urban centers to small towns. It defuses the impact of mass casualties on the community.
Bush the Elder was roundly criticized by ‘conservatives’ in the US for not ‘going to Baghdad’ during the First Iraq War. This was a regular talking point of the ‘stabbed-in-the-back’ variety in American politics during the 1990’s.
That appears to have been the last era in which the US had competent leadership. Bush the Elder had come up through the ranks of the US government, was a former head of the CIA and thus knew more about the world than any subsequent US President, James Baker was Sec of State, and appears to have been the last competent person to hold that post. Colin Powell was the head of the JCS, and used his Vietnam experience to have a list of rules that should be followed, like having concrete achieveable goals and a plan on how to get out of a war.
It is interesting that this group decided that ‘going to Baghdad’ wasn’t worth the cost. They knew better than to believe the flag-waving nonsense about how easy it would be. Regardless of whether they could have beaten the Republican Guard, we now know for a fact that when the US overthrew the Iraqi government that this means that the US troops are still in Iraq 13 years later, and promising to say for far into the future. The last competent leadership the US had in foreign policy seems to have at least guessed or worried that this might have been the case and in reply just said no. For which the Dick Cheney’s and the other armchair warriors on the right-wing roundly criticized Bush the Elder until Bush the Dummy listened to them and went to Baghdad.
“8.A profound belief that everything is measured in dollars”
Old enough to remember war in Vietnam? Let me remind you how American military leadership felt in trap of techno war hype and how they after the disaster have not learnt nothing. In core it’s simple to understand this with just one example.
1) American war machine in Nam: thousands of tons material daily delivered here and there, endless tons on money for local puppets in Saigon regime. Maximum 540 00 soldiers but less than 40 000 ever to be capable and available for front line combat duty
2) NVA/NLF: well organized, motivated, determined armed force with unbelievable ability to resist, fight back, ambush and what material they need was not more than same as 10-15 trucks could delivered.
After the war there was a common popular myth of missing chance when “we didn’t invade North Vietnam”. Heck what nonsense. Only 40 000 ground combat front line soldiers available! So what was there in north waiting for American GI’s. Some 200 000 provincial fighters to halt and hold US Army/Marines for the first 1-2 days. And then will the regular army of North Vietnam, more than 500 000 soldiers come. I just wonder what kind of wonderland are those mostly right wing American patriots living in.
The fact is: US military in Nam with its axis friends were not even near to win anything in Vietnam. It all started as early as 1965.
——————————-
“3. Contempt for all others ”
American War in Vietnam will give the answer again.
“THE MORALE, DISCIPLINE and battleworthiness of the U.S. Armed Forces are, with a few salient exceptions, lower and worse than at anytime in this century and possibly in the history of the United States.
By every conceivable indicator, our army that now remains in Vietnam is in a state approaching collapse, with individual units avoiding or having refused combat, murdering their officers and non commissioned officers, drug-ridden, and dispirited where not near mutinous.
Elsewhere than Vietnam, the situation is nearly as serious.”
THE COLLAPSE OF THE ARMED FORCES
By Col. Robert D. Heinl, Jr.
North American Newspaper Alliance
Armed Forces Journal, 7 June, 1971
Your post reminds me of a thesis paper, I read 10 years ago at the Combined Arms Research Library on the ends,ways means theory of strategy. The author argued that in Vietnam, the US had the perfect strategy to expend an infinite amount of resources to achieve nothing.
Right, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” – Muhammad Ali
American soldiers in horrors of WW2 Eastern Front reality or in conditions where Finns and Red Army were fighting during Finnish-Russo Winter War 1939-40 could not have taken it not at all. They would have mentally collapsed. Or as Henry Louis Mencken once mentioned: American military history is much much more story of cowardice and deserting than heroism. After all US military sent back home 700 000 own soldiers during WW2 because those soldiers were mentally too weak to take horrors of war. In Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, Finland it would have been impossible: court-martial and execution.
This all of course doesn’t mean anything because truth is told by Hollywood, Spielberg, Private Ryan and other sentimental bullshit of Shining House Upon The Hill.
You criticize Saving Private Ryan. Have you watched it lately? Its the one war movie that actually shows what it was like to attack Omaha Beach. Where the ramp at the front of the landing craft drops and you watch everyone in the rows ahead of you get machine gunned down by the machine guns that have tracked the craft to the beach. Yeah, the John Wayne movie about D-Day is nonsense, but Private Ryan gives one an idea of what that particular battle was like.
Or try reading about the 82nd Airborne going to Bastogne and as a lightly armed airborne division holding off crack Panzer divisions in the midst of a winter storm.
And lets not forget the US bomber crews. They suffered horrible casualty rates. They were told that if they completed 25 bomber missions then they could go home, or at least back to a training school to teach the next wave. But few if any crews could make it for 25 missions. Read about some of the loss rates from US bomber missions in 1943. For one example, the 381st Bomb Group sent 21 bombers on the Schweinfurt raid, and lost 9 of them on that one day. Try to picture yourself getting into that plane day after day, knowing that you are almost certain to get shot down on one of these raids, and wondering if today is that day? Try telling me that that didn’t require courage and determination.
I have great respect for those who fought on the eastern front. I know far more about those battles than most Americans. But I have no respect at all for those who are such idealogical drones that they can’t acknowledge the instances of bravery from Americans who fought in that war.
“A quasi-religious belief in one’s superiority which is accepted as axiomatic”. The influence of Hollywood in this way of thinking can never be underestimated. Hollywood (propaganda) transform defeats into victories (for the Americans) and the opposite for everyone else (fighting Americans). For instance any American believes that the US single handed defeated Nazi Germany since this is the Hollywood script of course. Then according to Hollywood the US was about the defeat Vietnam but have to leave due to this bunch of “un-American” hippies and “peace-loving” politicians of course. No question! the US would defeat Russians or whatever if they dare to challenge it just ask Hollywwod! Well if it looses Hollywood will fix it for the Americans and the rest of “believers”
Yes, Hollywood is Washington’s propaganda machine. I always watch Hollywood movies for their political message. Years back I saw that movie with Morgan Freeman, where he played the first Afro-American President of the US. The moment I saw that movie, I knew what would happen, namely the “election” of the first Afro-American President in US history. The movie was psychological conditioning of the US population. And sure enough, Obama comes along, as I knew that somebody like him would come along.
The unfortunate thing about Hollywood movies is that people from Wall Street are also watching them, believing about US superiority. The result is that some crazies on Wall Street believe that Russia can be defeated by a sneak attack with minimal loses to the US. I sincerely hope Pentagon generals are wiser than that.
People have studied the direct and large influence the Pentagon and CIA have over Hollywood.
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/exclusive-documents-expose-direct-us-military-intelligence-influence-on-1-800-movies-and-tv-shows-36433107c307
Some of it used to be obvious. Old war movies like “Midway” used to have in the credits a note thanking the US Navy for their assistence in the picture. Of course, in return, the US military made sure that the story fit their narative.
But that goes far beyond the obvious war movies using military equipment and bases. One example mentioned in the article was the script of the movie Hulk being censored and changed by military overseers.
It is my belief that we are not on earth to fix the earth, but to fix ourselves. God above is the one who will either fix us or transend us, Both achive the same purpose. Pentagon and wisdom is an oxymoron.
This essay on ‘ideological drones’ reminds me of a joke I just made up:
Why do Americans spell the Islamic Holy Book ‘Q-u-r-a-n’?
So ‘Koreans’ won’t get unintentionally flushed down the toilet.
Comrade Saker
I agree with 99 percent of what you wrote above…except the 9/11 conspiracy nonsense. And I know why you push the 9/11 conspiracy nonesense:You want to flood the Nation that I was born and raised in with Muslim “Americans””…
I do? Really? Where did I say that?!
The Saker
I, on the other hand, want them all out…no apologies. I also want every Israeli National out of the Nation I was born and raised in also….no apologies.
But how bout those dancing Israeli Art Students on a Hoboken rooftop on 9/11? Was it an Israeli Folk Dance like the one in 1967?
Grasping the facts, and implications of, the events of 9/11/01 is a first principle for understanding 21st Century USA.. Until one spends time with that realization, pulls up his or her trousers, and gets to work, one isn’t in the game at hand. Stick with Rachael Maddow and Wolf Blitzer.
Lets help a bit.
Look at WTC-7 building on YT. It fell apart BECAUSE OF FIRES !!!! Do you believe that ?
And the brilliant BBC even announced its collapse BEFORE it had collapsed ….Now that is an amazing bit of journalism … !!!! and foresight … WOW
LOL
ross
Pretty minor fires at that. Convenient, too that the building seemed to collapse within it’s own footprint, within a few SECONDS – which is pretty unusual (i.e. never happens) in the case of “accidental” building fires.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnht6NCDtJI
Compare the “fate” of WTC-7 with the very-much “still standing” Grenfell Tower – which was alight for almost 24 hours. “Obviously” UK Public Housing is built to a FAR higher standard than high-profile US Office Space . . . . .
Well-versed outline of the Exceptional and Indispensable folks in general and of their mental faculties in particular.
Suffice it to say that Pindos and their kith and kin in Occupied Palestine don’t want to die for any sacred principles whatsoever; only to kill for them, preferably targeting captive, defenceless populations. When this fails to materialise, there is quite substantial shock and anguish among the fascist cowards.
Very, very good piece of writing, Saker. Thank you. I’m always grateful for those who put in the work to examine and describe the elements of delusion, It’s one of the harder essays to write, I’ve always thought – very tiring. But extremely clarifying for the reader.
Speaking truth to power is relatively clear-cut. Speaking truth to delusion is immensely more difficult.
Thanks again.
I believe you are wrong about USA and Israel relationship.
Obama’s first four years as president he was a lot more receptive of Israel’s prime minister than in his second term. Probably because he politically didn’t need Israel as much…
Trump is obviously different, but maybe if Trump gets a second term he’ll keep netanyahu waiting hours on end too. (personnally i doubt it)
My point is, is that Israel has huge INFLUENCE on US politics but Israel is the one who supplicates. When netanyahu went to US congress with his ridiculous bomb poster trying to get US to go to war with Iran
“…. the fact that the US has become a subservient Israeli colony….”
If this was really true USA would be at war with Iran.
For some reason there has long been a strong propaganda effort on the nets to say that Israel controls the US.
It does not. Any look at the power relationships between the two makes this obvious.
There is a strong lobby in the US in favor of Israel. I’ve worked on campaigns who’ve tried to challenge that, so I know its very strong. But that does not equate to the constant barrage of propaganda on the internet saying that Israel controls the US.
Iran, which is partially mentioned above is a fine example. Netanyahoo has been trying for years to get the US to attack Iran for him. He has not succeeded yet in that. If Israel really controlled the US like the propaganda says that he does, then he clearly would have succeeded.
In general, as the Saker mentions above, anyone trying to feed you short and easy answers to complicated real-world situations is likely an idealogical drone. Usually its best to ignore the ones who want to feed you something simple like “Israel controls the US”. The real world is always far more complicated.
A critique of the North Korean Maginot line, does not mean that one is a war-monger. I personally feel N. Korea would be overwhelmed in a few hours if they faced a full US blitzkrieg. When US pols use the argument that Soul would be destroyed, so why bother bombing — that sounds like war-mongering also, since it implies they would support a more perfect, ruthless war.
If I tell the French in 1940 that the Maginot line is junk, in no way does that imply that I’m a Nazi.
You comment ‘full US blitzkrieg’ is like something a US arm chair warrior would spout – what does that actually mean in the context of NK?
Doubt if the NK’s would be overwhelmed as the NK’s have had forty or more years to build defensive positions. The more you bomb the more you create hard to conquer defensive positions out of the rubble.
Technology and what advantage it might have is quickly minimised when ‘boots are on the ground’. Asymmetrical tactics would also be employed by Iran.
The other thing that is telling is that there does not seem to be much adjustment of the echelon in support of an invasion. If they were serious there would be considerable repositioning of assets, reserve call ups of specialists, provisions put in place to recommission, activation of national guard units, etc. All of this activity leaks out. Has anyone seen evidence of this?
The western colleges are stay the course, don’t waver and tighten the noose around their eastern colleges all the time. Good. Keep pressure on duraks. The hope is that the WH moron by his super arrogance & hubris will ignite a good war. That’s the only option to defeat the Evil Empire and IsraHell. With them will NEVER ,NEVER be peace on this animals planet. Forget it. You can write as much as you wish but the facts speak for itself. The sooner, the better.
I have encountered Americans who are well educated and intelligent and still persist in being ideological drones. I think that there may be some kind of national emotional pain and cognitive dissonance that keeps many Americans from facing reality. I watched a PBS show recently about Arlington National Cemetery recently and it depicted the daily visits to the graves of the fallen by their loved ones. These women and men were wracked with grief and very sad, but all of them said that their KIA were heroes, fighting for America’s freedoms. Except they weren’t. They were mostly just guys killed for no good reason at all. What happens to a mother or a father when they finally realize this?
I find educated and intelligent Americans are eager to avoid talking about the foreign policies of their country or even to consider other viewpoints. They shut conversations down and when I persist, they call me anti-american. I find Americans to be wary of intellectual discourse about their country; they are easily insulted. I like Americans, I visit there a lot, but it seems there is something psychologically holding many of them back. It could be just non stop msm news brainwashing.
I am an American whose European ancestors came to this continent in the early 1600’s. My Indian ancestors were here even longer, of course. I have the same problems with my fellow Americans that you have: with members of my family, with members of my church and with colleagues at work.
I grew up in a family which rejected American exceptionalism and America as the indispensable nation. I also grew up in a family which in their Christian theology rejected dispensationalism, the heresy of the rapture and idolatry toward Israel.
Most of the people whom I encounter, whom I respect and love, believe, however, in all of those ideologies which I must for moral and rational reason reject. Conversations and interactions are very difficult. Some of my relatives are very liberal; some consider themselves quite conservative, although I am not sure that there are any real conservatives in America. Both sides, probably because there are really not two sides, hold to American exceptionalism, America the indispensable nation, and to the idol of Israel, although those on the left do not have the theological underpinnings.
My personal opinion as an INTP is that America is infested with too many extroverted dumb asses, who can’t recognize when their being scammed.
What’s the pentagon control fraud up to these days, $10 trill?
Why did Colonel Hackworth describe the top brass as perfumed princes on the Potomac?
The other way the monkey is playing with a hand grenade is the financial crisis/Wall Street control fraud part 2 hand grenade.
One of your best pieces Saker. Thank you very much for your penetrating insight and honesty.
“Twitter might have done to minds what MTV has done to rock music: laid total waste to it.”
While I did create a Twitter account, I have never used it to tweet or to follow anyone. When others are surprised then my typical response is: my thoughts are too deep to be expressed in xyz characters. :)
For understanding the real problems with and opportunities for working with the American people are mostly not helped by focusing on the worst 1/4 of them. The real issues are not illuminated by such a focus.
1. Only about 1/4 of Americans are really in thrall to the MIC. Low level soldiers were not treated especially well, which is relatively new in the post W2 era. Also, the mid-level officers and (even more so the retired officers) saw enough truth about the Empire that they are significantly disaffected, whether it’s military stupidities, the corruption, or because they saw their victims face-to-face. These people have to double-think to not toy around with thoughts of suicide, which is now killing off more US soldiers than from combat. There is an opportunity here, for some of the MIC enthralled, to wake up from their nightmare, but, you have to realize, that can only happen when they see a practical way for them to do so. And at the moment, those practical ways are few and far between. Obviously it’s only my guess, but perhaps 10% of this 1/4 might wake up under the right circumstances. But that’s 2.5% of the population and their significance extends far beyond this 1-in-40, because people like these tend to be very motivated, very active, and very cogent in what they tell other Americans.
2. The most valuable part of understanding the worst of America is to understand how it controls is own population. Chris Hedge’s book, “Empire Of Illusion” (2009) is relevant. I read it because the Saker said it was key to understanding America – even though I knew Hedges is rather a lightweight thinker. You can easily find people like those describes in “Empire Of Illusion” but that’s a fraction of the American public – and it would be an error to mistake this minority for the vast majority. But Hedge’s book is valuable – almost worth the time it took to read it – for showing a few tricks of the illusionists, such as their promotion of celebrity culture – with its implication that non-celebrities have worthless lives. For example, I was in a Wal-Mart recently, where a sign said, “Decorate Your [Christmas] Tree Like A Rock Star”. What do rock stars have to do with Christmas Trees ? Nothing, obviously, but Wal-Mart marketers believe a focus on celebrities helps motivate their customers. No one wants to be told their lives are worthless, so that’s a talking point, even among Wal-Mart’s own customers.
3. Realize that right now it’s still sunshine in America, because the economy has not yet collapsed. People have more time to think about big things now, than they will after the collapse begins and the struggle for daily existence crowds out all other thoughts.
a. “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” – John F. Kennedy
So we need to deal not just with America and the world as it is, but also as it will soon become. That concept has big implications and gives us a different set of tasks.
b. The idea that the collapse of America (or of the Empire, really) began decades ago, has recently become rather widespread. So America people are a little more interested in these topics that they were in years past.
There are two historical references that can wake up a few people. One is that when the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact was made public in the morning of Aug. 22, 1939, all of Poland realized that war was imminent. A sensible Pole would have tried to flee the country, or somehow react to this awful news. But noooo … they didn’t do anything except take their summer vacations. The other is a short video of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, real people coming to terms with the unimaginable. Sorry that you have to start in one video and finish in another.
First, please take 3 minutes to check this out, and then my analysis will be clear, probably even redundant:
Tsunami: Caught On Camera Part Three
Start at 8:35 and go to the clip’s end at 9:58 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od2YNWA9Tco
Tsunami: Caught On Camera Part Four
Begin at 0:00 and after 2:17, my points are all made, and the disaster just rolls on like any tsunami:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHAZTI7Ohrg
(If anyone knows where this same video is on a single Youtube, please let us know. I ran out of search time.)
This is how real people responded. Only slowly do they sense the disaster. The process is very informative.
They paid the tuition, and the lesson is yours for free.
– At the Thai resort of Khao Lak, some local workers video-record the ocean receding from the beach. “Wow, that’s never happened before.” Tourists go into the tidal area to explore what could not be seen before. Zero sense of alarm, merely wonderment.
– The arc of a wave can be seen on the distant horizon. A hotel manager who watched it from a second story office and who lost his whole family to the tsunami, said that at the time he thought, “Wow, that’s really beautiful.” The Thais had the same reaction: Beautiful, but what is it ? Grave detachment.
– As the wave comes closer, the Thais wonder if it will hit their beach. They don’t recognize this is systemic. They could even be expecting it to hit someone else, instead.
– As the wave gets closer, they wonder if they should be worried about it. Their worry grows as the wave approaches, but still it’s not serious. “Wow, that’s a big wave!” Delayed reaction because people are slow to panic in the face of a never-before-seen threat.
– It’s when the wave towers over a good sized military boat, anchored a few miles from the beach, that the scale of the wave can finally be appreciated. At that point, the Thais become alarmed. Scale matters, but you need something to measure it against.
– The Thais start to yell “Run, run!” to the tourists. It’s not exactly in this chronology, but some tourists began to worry when they saw the local Thais in a panic. So when the acknowledged experts start to panic is when the non-experts begin, too.
– It’s when the tourists can put a word to it, “Tsunami”, that they realize a disaster is going to hit them. People need a word or a phrase for understanding.
– Even after it’s clearly a tsunami, the video shows one tourist who turns his back to the wave and just stands there. He was either ignorant or suicidal; we will never know. People can simply be suicidal and in the aftermath no one is shocked, even if they would not have believed it beforehand.
– A young child “I want to go home!” So would everyone else, but it’s too late. If the child survived, it had a hoe to go to. With what’s facing us, homes will be problematic.
I don’t want to engage in doom porn. I’m just trying to get people to anticipate probable futures and to deal with things ahead of time, while the sun is still shining.
What really matters is that the American people will be very different from how they are now.
I once read an article written by a British Psychotherapist who described how he could only achieve progress with American adults when he treated them like children. That I believe describes the crux of the problem – in a society dominated by avarice & greed, they have never grown up and instead morph into what the Saker describes as drones. Thus the “cry baby” behaviour when they are captured by Iranians recently or in a battlefield situation as noted by the Saker. Children have no sense of responsibility for what they have done and generally break down cry when caught.
I don’t believe the Americans have any idea what they are up against in an infantry war in Korea. Because of the atrocities committed by an earlier generation of US drones, the North Koreans (and many South Koreans, I suspect) hate them with every ounce of their being and will fight to the very end against an American invader. These people are not “sand n*****s” as the Americans contemptuously referred to Arabs, but well trained ferocious fighters, who even with their “outdated Soviet Equipment” will I believe give the Americans a bloody nose.
“Children have no sense of responsibility for what they have done and generally break down cry when caught.”
this is culture-specific: in Serbia (Argentina, probably Japan, maybe even Australia) children don’t tend to cry when caught – they face the consequences. I remember once overhearing my uncle (when I was about 8) – he told someone (without realizing I could hear him) that I always admit /stand by whatever I do (and I was a pretty average Serbian kid).
Kids in many cultures like to test their theories and act like little adults (as opposed to Americans who tend to be like mentally weak, fearful zombies – maybe that’s why Americans are always searching for a guru, new god, ideology – from Yoga to Scientology to new cults.
My 2 nephews saw Santa fro the first time last year at their father’s (American ) office. Santa asked the 8 year old first – have you been a good boy this year – my nephew said – no – not really. Then the Santa asked his 6 year old brother – what’s your name little boy? My nephew said: Santa Claus – and what’s yours?
(he realized the guy was pretending to be someone else – and as a 6 year old kid he wanted to test what happens when he turns his words/lies against him).
Another example – I’ve recently seen a video of 2 (I think Thai) little kids maybe 5 and 4 – chasing snakes and capturing them -a python each – then they put them in a basket and drove away on a little scooter in a middle of a rice – field.
That’s how we are meant to be – totalitarian ‘cultures’ like to remove humans from their instincts/biology as much as possible and as early as possible (i.e. – repeat: god is everything – you are nothing).
Never try to teach a pig to sing. “It wastes your time and annoys the pig”.
Pearls before swine?
I am not a military analyst, but one thing I think I know. The war in Korea was a slaughter. The capital of the North was almost completely destroyed. Almost every family must have lost loved ones and this is Asia where such things matter a lot. The Northkoreans will fight on their knees and elbows if necessary. This is a weapon NATO does not have.
Some say the war talk is a deception. Perhaps it is. Over the years, China has always intervened when an enemy comes too close. No sane politician or general would risk a conflict with China.
We are left with the question if sane minds rule in Washington. I think Trump is underestimated. I think he will win the “war” waged on him. One swamp at a time.
Case of “blowback” here?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5206799/US-nuclear-tests-killed-civilians-Hiroshima.html
Tremendous radiation made its way into the environment and food supply….killing hundreds thousands citizens.
I grew up about 300-400 miles from the Nevada Test site, and I remember when I was about 12 years old a girl my age in my neighborhood tragically came down with and died from leukemia. This would have been about 1965 or 1966.
She was a nice, pretty girl from a nice family, and the tragedy of her untimely disease and death had a sobering effect on our community and the school that we both attended.
I distinctly remember thinking even then that her disease was most likely caused by radiation from the nuclear tests, though the vector of it getting into the milk supply was, publicly at least, unknown at the time.
Thank you for bringing up this topic, I’ve been looking at Project “Gasbuggy” (there’s a wiki page) and many other idiotic, pointless “Swords to Ploughshares” projects of the 60’s and 70’s. You basically blow up a nuke underground to “extract oil and natural gas.” Laughable, but real and the stupid sods did it, frequently near Indian Reservations (how convenient for them)… The evil and stupid mis-use of atomic energy caused many deaths, which have been covered up by the guilty parties by all kinds “cover stories.” I don’t think many of us in this country haven’t heard of similar cases. In my case it’s super-personal, watching a different very beautiful girl who was my lover at the time get super sick out of nowhere and die at the tender age of 26.
Washingtons humiliation at UN makes it come across as a washed up superpower
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/413989-israel-jerusalem-un-trump/
@The Saker, maybe I have missed your commentary on it, but it seems like no one is really talking about the real consequence of this hypothetical (let us hope it remains that way) war with North Korea: intentional targeting of nuclear reactors by both sides. As far as I am aware this has never happened (there was the near miss on Iraq’s reactor by the US in 1991, but all other attacks were on non-working reactors). It seems the US very much intends to bomb North Korea’s working reactors, and I would presume North Korea would target South Korea’s reactors, and quite possibly Japan’s (and they can do this with mere sabotage even, not even needing to hit them with conventional weapons). If we are then looking at essentially several Fukushima level meltdowns at once, fall out from however many North Korean bombed facilities, etc., this seems like global suicide. Maybe someone with more knowledge of nuclear reactors can educate me. But it seems that if you bomb a nuclear reactor, the radiation will not be contained to that one location. And given how dependent reactors are on cooling, it seems that some minor damage from artillery shelling or the like could very easily lead to meltdowns, “China Syndrome”, etc. Do military planners actually think that human beings and the ecosystems they depend upon are not affected by nuclear radiation?
Yes, this war would be a disaster for all the reasons you have pointed out. But all of that would seem to pale in comparison to the damage of half a dozen destroyed or severely damaged nuclear reactors. Then again, given the lengths Japan has gone to ignore Fukushima, and how the Empire has enabled that head-in-the-sand behavior, it shouldn’t really surprise me that we’re going to treat nuclear reactors as ordinary targets….
“…. they were absolutely amazed at how terrified and broken the US POWs immediately became (even though they were not mistreated in any way). It was as if they had no sense of risk at all, until it was too late and they were captured, at which point they inner strength instantly gave way abject terror. ”
this reminds me of Americans I see in Tokyo – they look completely fearful, lost, confused and desperate (and often 2-3 times as heavy as Japanese people).
Empire mind set does not translate well out of it’s natural BS context – it needs a lot of lies, scaffolding, constructing etc to appear real and to cover the fact it’s based on fraud and lies.
I have an American friend, really nice guy comes from a wealthy family (and I think his step father is a real life rock star), he has his own company (IT) etc – very stylish and friendly.
He was really looking forward to going to Japan about a year ago. After a few days he was posting desperate messages on FB (which really surprised me because I thought he was the best adjusted American friend I have) – he was writing about “a strange place where nobody looks at you – nobody wants to see your inner beauty etc…”
Also my English friends in Japan always have the same kind of problems – I think it’s because Japanese are used to respectful behavior (and English have been brainwashed to worship snobby arrogance – trying to look down at people is highly esteemed there) – Japanese BS detector works really well and they tend to not get on with the English.
“the ideological drone has very little staying power because as soon as the real world, in all its beauty and complexity, comes crashing through the door of the drone’s delusional and narrow imagination his cocky arrogance is almost instantaneously replaced by a total sense of panic and despair.”
I believe this behavior can be observed in the reactions of democrat and democrat voters and Hillary Clinton supporters following Trump’s election.
If only they would just cower in fear, but as we’ve seen, this can also make them dangerous. I they truly believe they’re caught into a corner of something that threatens their existence, enough of them can go nuclear and kamikaze suicidal.
These in fear, will always seek out higher reigns of power, even by proxy. They will infiltrate and elect like minded representatives into power, and this sort can have their neuroses broadcast on every medium. The feedback loop will only grow and push them towards the self-destruct button, except that everyone else will be caught in the blast.
Saker
You over intellectualise the pindo. The usa is a magnet for the world’s greedy and for the religious fanatic. Mix the two, indoctrinate the young with rabid exceptionalism from day one of their birth, add in a very unhealthy psywar strategy that specifically make use of the cultural and psychological failings of americans and their greed based dysfunctional society, and one gets the result.
The popular pindo intellectual, screaming about leftists, Muslims, Chinese, Russian this or that, European values and culture, black people tired of being targeted by cops and tired of hero worship of their historical oppressors, etc.
To put politely, americans are the most indoctrinated and conformist people on the planet, given their access to real information, which they stupidly refuse to pursue due to their own moral failings.
Failed people, failed country. And the ideal society for zionazis, and their right wing mental illness to further explain for their own parasitical benefit.
I agree with you – another big problem the have is having been brainwashed to constantly, irrationally and forever compete against everyone all the time – which makes any meaningful aggregation impossible. And it also creates fear. Americans are probably the most fearful people I have ever seen.
They are mostly like those POWs the Saker describes. We foreigners are brainwashed by shitty Hollywood movies to think too highly of Americans – it’s very different from reality – it took me at least 5-7 years to realize how cowardly they are. And it make sense – for confidence to develop you need meaningful social interaction – they don’t really have that at all.
Americans are the least confident people I have ever seen – English are similar (but they learn to cover it up with a mask of arrogance – in reality they are trying to cover up fear of other people – like Americans they lack genuine interaction – no wonder English are such great actors – most of them act their whole lives.
IT’s the case of best things in life are free – even poor people are more confident than rich Americans because they live more in tune with our biology and instincts and their lives are filled with meaningful social interaction – something Americans lack desperately – they have entered a Dark Age of social interaction – even a memory of pre-totalitarianism is gone
You are quite right tomo, and especially so when you point out the brainwashing that causes endless competition. I just wanted to add, parenthetically, that exactly the same attitude prevails down here in little, out-of-the-way, “clean and green” (not!) New Zealand; endless competition in all –and I mean, all– facets of life creates a mind-numbingly stultified atmosphere that makes for a nasty, brutish, and ugly society, and a highly corrupt one at that. Thanks for your comment.
And, as always, thanks to the Saker, for his superb analysis, for the strength of his convictions, and especially for his ethics, which are the very highest. I take you as an example in how to fight.
Great comment tomo. And Skamander. I’m American, 50+ yrs old, and have been quite aware of this competition culture since childhood, when meaningful social interaction began to wane. American adults–and increasingly children–do not play. We compete or “party hard” as we attempt to convince ourselves that we are up to the Hollywood standard. This includes relations among intimates, as I see and experience it. Yes, only very rarely do I have an open-ended conversation with another American. Our lack of curiosity and collaborative imagination I find astounding.
You’re right G-man, and this “party hard” no-play culture is killing people. The number of (under 60 yrs) alcoholic deaths in the music scenes I used to frequent were off the charts this year. More numerous are the lost souls who have totally bought into some 1950’s Hollywood garbage about Hail Fellows Well Met (drunk) and being the life of what’s become a non-existent party. The vast majority of these people would be vastly better off narcotized on crap like methadone. The whole culture of the USA is steeped in booze, as the current leadership of State, Mil, Media demonstrate on a daily basis. They need a radical cure, and none is forthcoming. And the world’s going to hell anyway, so why not be drunk? A vicious, stupid circle.
Saker
I noticed those ‘comments’ from the UNZ site , one of the most notorious warmonger pretender there called ‘Peter_AUS’ who i am surprised behaving like a warmonger because usually post level headed comments in Moon of Alabama and Sic Semper Tyranis.. But alas he showed his real self with the UNZ postings..
it is like he go full bore warmonger nuts and trolling everyone by saying North Korean military will crumble quick , basically the same narrative as Main Stream Media..
and then we got Carlton Meyer in UNZ comments lambasting Saker’s post while missing the point , and as usual he underestimate the north koreans as a parasite ridder military which cannot hold US military assault. Also the fiery Col Patrick Lang also underestimate the NORKs in his usual bluster way..
THe victory disease infecting people who usually have fair assesment on these .. Equating victory in Desert Storm to the predicted ease of attacking north korea (and win).. what’s wrong with these people ? decades of propaganda kool aid infecting their analytical brain functions ?
North Koreans military are not Iraqi military , Terrain in North Korea is not a flat desert , Mindset and totalitarian govt in north korean guaranteed a fanatical military and willingness to die for their nation , even to suicide missions..
Those clusters of Nuclear Reactors in South Korea , it will get bombed or attacked by suicide commandos , and will cause far more disasterous radiation incident than fukushima.
Here is a possibility: even if for reasons XYZ the DPRK does fall apart and the USA does achieve a quick victory, this in no way justifies taking the risk of a regional war. Allow me a comparison: what would you say to somebody who would play Russian roulette with a gun and who pulling the trigger once would only get a ‘click’ and not a ‘bang’. Was that a smart move? The same deal applies to the USA: each of their victories brings them one step closer to the inevitable defeat. But they don’t see that. Hence their thinking that the DPRK or Iran will be like Iraq. Or even Russia and China. They just don’t “get it”. Not to mention that Iraq is hardly what anybody sane would call a ‘victory’.
Kind regards,
The Saker
saker, your analogy of US playing russian roulette against weak nations are apt..
i imagine US now comfortable enough to play russia roullete with north korea , this time with 3 rounds in the chambers..
imagine if the uneducated untrained unsophistichated somali militias can inflict harm to US Delta and Rangers , what do you think the north korean (amply supplied by anti tank and MANPADS) will do to a gaggle of heloborne commando assault ? it would make Ia Drang Valley a picnic..
Monkey with grenade reminds me of a vid where some black africans thought it would be funny to give a chimp a live AK. Not the best attempt at humor when the chimp started shooting at them.
Sorry, no links.
I guess you mean e.g. this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt3aLev041E
(It was the first association jumping to my mind as well).
Cheers, Rob
Fake: Chimps don’t play with guns, they sell them… ;)
@Rob & T1. Luckily I found that video was a fake (Thanks BillsChannel) before I could forward it. But already one feature of the video had made me reluctant to pass it on: it showed Bantu soldiers acting like dangerousy irresponsble armed clowns — like Pindoes, in fact. Turns out the video was made in Hollywood; so a good example of Yankee contempt for other peoples.
Saker, you are precious.
Well spoken Saker. On zerohedge today, there is more than a hint that Analytica is involved in influencing Indian elections, as they did to get Trump in office; just as Rockefeller goes in to great detail to expose on his website: hiddentaxonhumanity. Zukerberg for the next US president anyone?!
Example 3
I guess an American attack on North Korea would consist of preemptive strategic nuking to destroy the entire country before it can do anything. Since North Korea itself contributes essentially nothing to the world economy, no one would lose money.
The above comment is one of the most chilling that I have ever had the misfortune to read on the Saker blog. To have a fellow reader and commentator, who I must assume is not a member of the ruling cabal, to think like those who are, proves that the program of dehumanization of the other that is taught in the United States through the venues of western pop culture in art, music, religion, education, and politics is a complete and utter success in creating a “hive mind”.
To contemplate the utter destruction of over 25 million North Koreans because they neither produce, buy, or sell widgets that contribute to the world economy, is a profound example of the commodification of human life that is at the heart of the Western financial system. People are valuable only if they enrich the ruling class from the cradle to the grave.That the death of over 25 million North Koreans are rendered worthless because their death is of no great loss to the balance sheet, of an economic system which mainly serves to enrich the very oligarchs that are bent on the destruction of humanity is diabolical.
MSNBC Mika Brzezinski: States that “Our Job” to “Control Exactly What People Think”
A
The same american mindset you describe had no qualms about using fellow human beings as slaves nor genociding whole people’s out of existence. In the 18th and 19th centuries, pindoland openly sought empire, manifest destiny, in the 20th, they pretended they were seeking everything other than empire. Now with the israeli quisling trump regime, it’s back to championing empire again. Though the american label is only for israel’s pindo colonial marks, as it is beyond clear, the empire the trump regime seeks to make “great again” is not american, but some never existed Jewish “Atlantis” myth from more than 2000 years ago. 21st century propaganda and marketing for a fairy tale more the 2000 years past its sell by date.
If usa let off a load of missiles heading NK way….would China and Russia possible consider they could be heading for themselves too as well…..would they warn NK and each other and themselves act defensively to shoot them down…… ?
Just wondering aloud…..
What happened in the UNSC vs. North Korea puts the lie to claims that Russia and China are acting like the adults in the room. Their cowardice in the face of US war threats goes far beyond walking gingerly around a monkey with a grenade. Over and over they say the right thing and do the wrong thing. Outside the UNSC they point out that both sides are at fault in this dispute and that the solution is a freeze on both sides. Inside the UNSC they join in with the US to blame North Korea and to push North Korea deeper into a hole. This in turn makes it far harder for anyone – including folks in the US – to challenge US aggressive policies. Everytime Russia and China back sanctions on North Korea they, in effect, assent to the US’ one-sided allegations and threatening behavior. Russia and China did the same with Iran, holding Iran over a slow fire for years, continually validating US allegations that they knew to be false, blown wildly out of proportion, etc.. Iran continues to face the threat of war from the hegemon and its allies.
Yes, paul, and ub1, the Russians and Chinese would love nothing better than put DPRK under zionazi colonial control. It would obviously solve all their problems with that nagging haley critter constantly harping, and being Russians and Chinese, they really want to sell out to the israeloamerican hegemon and become slave for ever. I mean, who in their right mind would want to resist hollywood and money?
Sarcasm doesn’t replace a factual rebuttal. True its smirky, but doesn’t change the argument.
The Chinese and the Russians have no obligation to defend NK at the UN. IMHO, the Russians and the Chinese actually consider North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes as threats to their own security. As Chinese and Russian officials have said, they consider NK behaviour as provocative and unacceptable
Dear Saker,
Your article this time has left me in a state of profound depression and alienation. For the record. I am an American. I am a Russian Orthodox Christian convert, with generally Slavic roots, and with family ties to Russia, loved ones in Russia to this day. I am also a Socialist. I come from a long line of multi-generational American military, and have seen the lies of the Elites at work almost from my first conscious moments. I was born in 1969, and all my life I have seen the interior and exterior forms of decline here in the United States of America. All my life I have dealt with people that you have so well described in their general traits. Only God can rescue these people, I do not know if even a crushing and utter defeat would work to change things, nor do I unlike so many Americans, adore war as a solution, as some kind of glorified video game. ”God bless you for your courageous service”, so tritely and sickeningly said of so many undeserving for so long, is said justly of you.
Thank you
@Chris. Do not despair, there are many like you in the USA, fighting the good fight for truth and compassion. God does not save nations, does not even save individual bodies — did not even save the body of His divine Son; only individual souls are given the chance to save themselves. The way is straight: Love God, do not lie, do not steal, do not kill, honour your ancestors, love your neighbour; but the way is also strait: those things are hard to do in practice — even more so in practical politics. In Heaven there are neither Americans nor Russians, neither Gentile nor Jew, neither Male nor Female but All are One with God. On Earth this is practically impossible. The wisdom of Heaven is foolishness on Earth; and the wisdom of Earth is foolishness in Heaven. Faith is to accept these things in a spirit of wonder and not of contradiction.
” We have already seen what happens when an army has huge amounts of outdated Soviet weaponry versus the most technologically advanced force in the world. It’s a slaughter.”
That is why Serbs were able to do this,
http://i40.tinypic.com/69i0dz.jpg
That was just the greatest, thank you. ;)
Hello,
You often talk about the invasion of Grenada. I’m not sure where to find reliable sources that will not be based on the usual propaganda. Could you give me/us some reliable web site/data source on the topic ?
Thanks,
Silence
wow! that debate video is truly awesome, my jaw has just dropped. That much of idiocy on what is considered as an intellectual platform is way below than what I thought the intellectual climate in the US would be.
BTW, just curious, did anybody understand any of it?
Speaking as a listener, no, and I suspect that any intellect spent understanding it is rather more than the intellect put into “writing” it. “Uh… uh…” Bad radio voices, millennials! How about that “rapper”? Perhaps best was the applause and shrieks of joy at the end. As humor it is sick and priceless, and has that unique quality of “you couldn’t dream it up.” Along with the photo at the top (physique, flag, shotgun), this superb essay is a funny and poignant gift to the community. Merry Christmas!
only getting worse
“Russian submarines step up activity around data cables under the Atlantic just a week after defence chief warned internet links could be vulnerable to attack
U.S Admiral Andrew Lennon said Russia is dramatically stepping up activity
Fears have been raised Russia could use drone subs or divers to cut cables
Russia is believed to have an intelligence ship which can launch submarines
Head of UK military warned of the ‘catastrophic effect’ of Russia cutting cables
By Tariq Tahir For Mailonline
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5208621/Russian-submarines-step-Atlantic-data-cables-activity.html#ixzz5274irIkl
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
see they want to ban the Russian navy from….actually going to sea in international waters!
Lets think about that particular allegation for a moment.
Essentially, its of the same ilk as the other claims that Putin is about to attack the world. Put it alongside the FakeNewsweek cover of Putin is about to start WW3.
Why would Russians subs want to cut such a cable?
I’m not an expert, but it seems as if just being sneaky and cutting one cable would disrupt communications a little bit, but not for long and not seriously. It would not be like no one in the USA could call Europe for months. I’m guessing there are enough other channels and options that 1) Anyone important can still communicate. Either by rerouting to other cables or by satelite link. 2) Ordinary people might see some disruption, but it wouldn’t last long. A day or so to reroute traffic. Maybe a few weeks to fix the damaged cable.
So, I don’t see any real gain worth the risk that Russia would get by just being sneaky and trying to cut a cable.
What would make sense would be to do that as a start to WW3. Trying to cut as many of the underseas cables as possible while at the same time launching anti-satelite strikes to take down communications over all. It would make sense as step one of a world war.
But, to me, the whole claim that Putin is threatening the world and is about to attack is more of the evidence-free nonsense that we’ve seen about Russia for years now. The only ‘aggression’ they can come up with involves Ukraine and Georgia, and in both cases Russia responded to obvious USA/NATO moves aimed at Russia. Otherwise, I’ve seen nothing at all that says Putin is about to attack the world. Most of it seems to be from Baltic countries that want more US military spending to help their economies. Get the US to base more troops in your country and that helps the local economy.
So, that’s why to me this whole cable-cutting thing has just been more nonsense, completely lacking any backing evidence, of the myth that Putin and the Russians are coming and that we have to give all our money and all our rights and all our liberties to the military and do so immediately or else we are all doomed, doomed I say.
hmmmm
So ….. explain the difference between the level of debate on the Youtube video and the level of debate in the US Congress
I thought, if you listened to the words, not the delivery, there was not much in it really
Excellent article.
One relevant item the Saker seems to miss is that these days almost anyone with money and resources can be assumed to be running a coordinated social media campaign, including commenting on articles.
We know that the State of Israel has done this for some time. In US politics, the major parties and lobbying groups do this on a regular basis. PR companies offer ‘brand-protection’ services to influence and manipulate the internet. In fact, I’d assume that any country or any powerful force with even relatively small amounts of media is doing such.
Thus, while the Saker does identify ‘idealogical drones’, there are at least some of these who are paid and organized to do just that. Its quite likely that some of these types of comments are coming from US military personel in a US military facility sitting in a room full of computers and ‘shaping the information battlefield’. That is if the US military doesn’t outsource this task.
It is of course rather impossible for an ordinary user to know which are paid, guided idealogical drones, and which are just independent idealogical drones. In a country as highly militarized as the USA, there are also legions of ex-military who’s thinking has been molded by the military. So, when one paid, guided idealogical drones makes a comment to shape the information battlefield, they are likely to get multiple independent idealogical drones to join in. It is also quite possible to stir up and semi-organize these. For example, a paid, guided idealogical drone might go to a website or facebook group of military indoctrinated but now ex-military independent idealogical drones and post something that says ‘a Putin troll is saying that we can’t kick North Korea’s butt, lets go tell him what’s what.’ and thus a lot of independent idealogical drones appear to support the paid, guided idealogical drones.
These days I assume that anyone with money or anyone with a half-way effective political organization or anyone who has a lot of people following their orders can create any response they want to an article, a facebook post or twitter feed.
Bloody brilliant synopsis. So many things elucidated that I have only half-formed in my head. The only thing I can add is that the constant churn and instability and next ‘crisis’ serves the status quo and distracts from making real progress and change – stability is the enemy aswell.
Naomi Klein’s excellent book ‘The Shock Doctrine’ was about how the establishment first realized that they could take advantage of a ‘crisis’ to achieve what they could normally not. Such as overcome the opposition in a democracy to policies that would give them more wealth and power. Then how they began to create their own crisis in order to get these effects.
That book was written a decade ago, and obviously researched for years before it was published. Since then, they’ve seem to have gotten better at making crisis, and using this and also realized that the constant flood of one crisis sharp on the heels of the last crisis with no time left for normal life between is also useful to them in terms of keeping all of their potential opponents (ie, 99% of the people) off-balanced and unable to organize and less able to provide resistence.
с рождеством христовым поздравления https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZQzW_QfPew
translate.yandex.com “merry Christmas greetings” … mod
Right to the point. So many good arguments. I want to contribute a couple of excerpts from a recent and very relevant book “The Death of Expertise” by Tom Nichols. I strongly recommend it.
In the book, see what US citizens think when they were asked US should intervene in Ukraine:
I think it is related to the hating the experts. He further argues:
It is what we see, people attack on expert opinions, disregarding their expertise on the relevant subjects.
And finally, Isaac Asimov, right on the point
I think this is what is happening in those comments, too. And internet is making it so easy since they can get away with their ignorance.
When you consider the comments of “experts” on CNN or other corporate media, is hard to blame people for for their “anti-intellectualism”. :)
What you have to understand is the majority of indoctrinated “insouciant” (to quote Paul Craig Roberts) Americans whom you refer to view all conflict as sports and America is their team. It’s as simple as that. “Team America”–the motion picture.
As to the Military Industrial Congressional Media Financial Zionist monstrosity, it has no desire to win wars, only to destroy. And that’s Satanism writ large.
Example 1 — what a moron. Saddam knew they could not win conventionally and so he spread small arms and toyota pickups all over the country in preparation for a guerilla war which we have NOT WON YET. He preserved his fighters by having them surrender …… and after how many years and how many $TRILLION$ we are WHERE? How’s that war going ??? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?
The same kind of distorted mindset is becoming more prevalent in the UK — particularly amongst readers of the Guardian, Independent, Telegraph etc newspapers along with viewers of mainstream TV. Well done Saker in so explicitly describing how the various brainwashing processes operate.
It seems the key here would be to bypass the USSA entirely.
For example, China and Russia could offer huge financial, trade, and other opportunities to S Korea and Japan.
I read somewhere that there is some Russian involvement in containing Fukoshima.
In short, make it more advantageous for Japan and S Korea to tell the US they don’t want a war and won’t support an attack on N Korea.
Agreed, and thanks for posting the link to lectures! They are a must-listen!
Amen to that, brother. Well said.
I read this article, but didn’t look at the video of the ‘debate’ until just now. As someone who did debating in high school, I was really shocked and quite disturbed by it. I remember reading an article in the Financial Times in 1991, which detailed the parlous state of the US public education system and the effect it was having on middle management. There were managers who were functionally illiterate, but were able to conceal the fact. I guess this is the result of the intervening 26 years – people who can’t actually speak now, but have won a national competition! Go figure as the Americans say. I recently had a ‘debate’ with someone on Facebook about whether or not RT was ‘fake news’. He was convinced it was because the New York Times and The Guardian had told him so. He told me that I didn’t realise I was being ‘spoon-fed’ Kremlin propaganda. It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious. But Saker is right, of course. I hope he would agree with my conclusion, based on a study of Russian history at university, extensive reading of Russian novels and 5 visits to Russia, that the world is very, very lucky that the Russians have infinite patience and a great sense of humour. Thanks Russians!
Mr. Saker, I think very highly of your analysis and that includes this piece on logic within the American way of thinking. The article itself is very, very useful. However, showing the video of the debate is a diversion away from your key assessment. That debate was done in the style of performance art. It was not done in standard debate formatting.
Performance art is a kind of revolutionary street presentation to get an idea across in a non-standard way, usually in dance and poetry or street drama. I’m a 60 year old white guy who watched the debate, and could watch it because I understood the method being used by both teams — both teams using performance art to communicate.
You are very right though, logic is not taught in most school programs in the United States today. This creates a large population of easily manipulated citizens.
” Twitter might have done to minds what MTV has done to rock music: laid total waste to it.”
Excellent summary – hope you don’t mind me borrowing this!
Also – seems dogmatism is “The New Black” – why bother to go to the effort of preparing a reasonably thought-out counter-argument when you can easily parrot “Everyone Knows That”, and waltz off with an air of intellectual (and moral) superiority.
This is “how it works” in Australia – along with the perennial “It’s different here” (which I correctly translate to “It’s DUMB here!” – not different, just dumb.) – https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-15/why-australias-economy-house-cards