For the entirety of the 21st century the US has been at war, not war against
massed armies or threats to American freedom, but wars against civilians,
against women, children, and village elders, and wars against our own liberty.
Elites with a vested interest in these wars tell us that the wars will have to
go on for another 20 to 30 years before we defeat “the terrorist threat. ...
The Bush and Obama regimes have destroyed America’s reputation with their
incessant lies and violence against other peoples" [it has ever
been thus, long before B&O; many of us just didn't
know...]
"
A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic
tyranny.” ~ quoting Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Dear friends,
It is time for my quarterly request for donations. As we
agreed, my columns and this site will continue as long as your support is
forthcoming.
My column below for this Memorial Day makes it clear what is at
stake. If you wish to fully escape The Matrix and see reality as it really is,
you are brave and I am honored to have you as readers and supporters.
If reality is too much for you, then I should cease putting myself at risk.
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/pages/donate/
Why War Is Inevitable
Paul Craig Roberts
Memorial Day is when we commemorate our war dead. Like the Fourth of July,
Memorial Day is being turned into a celebration of war.
Those who lose
family members and dear friends to war don’t want the deaths to have been in
vain. Consequently, wars become glorious deeds performed by noble soldiers
fighting for truth, justice, and the American way. Patriotic speeches tell us
how much we owe to those who gave their lives so that America could remain
free.
The speeches are well-intentioned, but the speeches create a false reality
that supports ever more wars. None of America’s wars had anything to do with
keeping America free. To the contrary, the wars swept away our civil liberties,
making us unfree.
President Lincoln issued an executive order for the arrest and imprisonment
of northern newspaper reporters and editors. He shut down 300 northern
newspapers and held 14,000 political prisoners. Lincoln arrested war critic US
Representative Clement Vallandigham from Ohio and exiled him to the Confederacy.
President Woodrow Wilson used WWI to suppress free speech, and President
Franklin D. Roosevelt used WWII to intern 120,000 US citizens of Japanese
descent on the grounds that race made them suspect. Professor Samuel Walker
concluded that President George W. Bush used the “war on terror” for an across
the board assault on US civil liberty, making the Bush regime the greatest
danger American liberty has ever faced.
Lincoln forever destroyed states’ rights, but the suspension of habeas corpus
and free speech that went hand in hand with America’s three largest wars was
lifted at war’s end. However, President George W. Bush’s repeal of the
Constitution has been expanded by President Obama and codified by Congress and
executive orders into law. Far from defending our liberties, our soldiers who
died in “the war on terror” died so that the president can indefinitely detain
US citizens without due process of law and murder US citizens on suspicion alone
without any accountability to law or the Constitution.
The conclusion is unavoidable that America’s wars have not protected our
liberty but, instead, destroyed liberty. As Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, “A
state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.”
Southern secession did pose a threat to Washington’s
empire, but not to
the American people. Neither the Germans of WWI vintage nor the Germans and
Japanese of WWII vintage posed any threat to the US. As historians have made
completely clear, Germany did not start WWI and did not go to war for the
purpose of territorial expansion. Japan’s ambitions were in Asia. Hitler did not
want war with England and France. Hitler’s territorial ambitions were mainly to
restore German provinces stripped from Germany as WWI booty in violation of
President Wilson’s guarantees. Any other German ambitions were to the East.
Neither country had any plans to invade the US. Japan attacked the US fleet at
Pearl Harbor hoping to remove an obstacle to its activities in Asia, not as a
precursor to an invasion of America.
Certainly the countries ravaged by Bush and Obama in the 21st century–Iraq,
Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Pakistan, and Yemen posed no military threat
to the US. Indeed, these were wars used by a tyrannical executive branch to
establish the basis of the Stasi State that now exists in the US.
The truth is hard to bear, but the facts
are clear. America’s wars have been fought in order to advance Washington’s
power, the profits of bankers and armaments industries, and the fortunes of US
companies.
Marine General Smedley Butler said, “ I served in all
commissioned ranks from a second Lieutenant to a Major General. And during that
time, I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business,
for Wall Street, and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for
capitalism.”
It is more or less impossible to commemorate the war dead without glorifying
them, and it is impossible to glorify them without glorifying their wars.
For the entirety of the 21st century the US has been at war, not war against
massed armies or threats to American freedom, but wars against civilians,
against women, children, and village elders, and wars against our own liberty.
Elites with a vested interest in these wars tell us that the wars will have to
go on for another 20 to 30 years before we defeat “the terrorist threat.”
This, of course, is nonsense. There was no terrorist threat until Washington
began trying to create terrorists by military attacks, justified by lies, on
Muslim populations.
Washington succeeded with its war lies to the point that Washington’s
audacity and hubris have outgrown Washington’s judgment.
By overthrowing the democratically elected government in Ukraine, Washington
has brought the United States into confrontation with Russia. This is a
confrontation that could end badly, perhaps for Washington and perhaps for the
entire world.
If Gaddafi and Assad would not roll over for Washington, why does Washington
think Russia will? Russia is not Libya or Syria. Washington is the bully who
having beat up the kindergarden kid, now thinks he can take on the college
linebacker.
The Bush and Obama regimes have destroyed America’s reputation with their
incessant lies and violence against other peoples. The world sees Washington as
the prime threat.
Worldwide polls consistently show that people around the world regard the
US and Israel as the two countries that pose the greatest threat to peace.
http://www.ibtimes.com/gallup-poll-biggest-threat-world-peace-america-1525008
and
http://www.jewishfederations.org/european-poll-israel-biggest-threat-to-world-peace.aspx
The countries that Washington’s propaganda declares to be “rogue states” and
the “axis of evil,” such as Iran and North Korea, are far down the list when the
peoples in the world are consulted. It could not be more clear that the world
does not believe Washington’s self-serving propaganda. The world sees the US and
Israel as the rogue states.
The US and Israel are the only two countries in the world that are in the
grip of ideologies. The US is in the grip of the Neoconservative ideology
which has declared the US to be the “exceptional, indispensable country” chosen
by history to exercise hegemony over all others. This ideology is buttressed by
the Brzezinski and Wolfowitz doctrines that are the basis of US foreign policy.
The Israeli government is in the grip of the Zionist ideology that declares a
“greater Israel” from the Nile to the Euphrates. Many Israelis themselves do not
accept this ideology, but it is the ideology of the “settlers” and those who
control the Israeli government.
Ideologies are important causes of war. Just as the Hitlerian ideology of
German superiority is mirrored in the Neoconservative ideology of US
superiority, the Communist ideology that the working class is superior to the
capitalist class is mirrored in the Zionist ideology that Israelis are superior
to Palestinians. Zionists have never heard of squatters’ rights and claim that
recent Jewish immigrants into Palestine–invaders really–have the right to land
occupied by others for millenniums.
Washington’s and Israel’s doctrines of superiority over others do not sit
very well with the ”others.” When Obama declared in a speech that Americans are
the exceptional people, Russia’s President Putin responded, “God created us all
equal.”
To the detriment of its population, the Israeli government has made endless
enemies. Israel has effectively isolated itself in the world. Israel’s continued
existence depends entirely on the willingness and ability of Washington to
protect Israel. This means that Israel’s power is derivative of Washington’s
power.
Washington’s power is a different story. As the only economy standing after
WWII, the US dollar became the world money. This role for the dollar has given
Washington financial hegemony over the world, the main source of Washington’s
power. As other countries rise, Washington’s hegemony is imperiled.
To prevent other countries from rising, Washington invokes the Brzezinski and
Wolfowitz doctrines. To be brief, the Brzezinski doctrine says that in order to
remain the only superpower, Washington must control the Eurasian land mass.
Brzezinski is willing for this to occur peacefully by suborning the Russian
government into Washington’s empire. ”A loosely confederated Russia . . . a
decentralized Russia would be less susceptible to imperial mobilization.” In
other words, break up Russia into associations of semi-autonomous states whose
politicians can be suborned by Washington’s money.
Brzezinski propounded “a geo-strategy for Eurasia.” In Brzezinski’s strategy,
China and “a confederated Russia” are part of a “transcontinental security
framework,” managed by Washington in order to perpetuate the role of the US as
the world’s only superpower.
I once asked my colleague, Brzezinski, that if everyone was allied with us,
who were we organized against? My question surprised him, because I think that
Brzezinski remains caught up in Cold War strategy even after the demise of the
Soviet Union. In Cold War thinking it was important to have the upper hand or
else be at risk of being eliminated as a player. The importance of prevailing
became all consuming, and this consuming drive survived the Soviet collapse.
Prevailing over others is the only foreign policy that Washington
knows.
The mindset that America must prevail set the stage for the Neoconservatives
and their 21st century wars, which, with Washington’s overthrow of the
democratically elected government of Ukraine, has resulted in a crisis that has
brought Washington into direct conflict with Russia.
I know the strategic institutes that serve Washington. I was the occupant of
the William E.Simon Chair in Political Economy, Center for Strategic and
International Studies, for a dozen years. The idea is prevalent that Washington
must prevail over Russia in Ukraine or Washington will lose prestige and its
superpower status.
The idea of prevailing always leads to war once one power thinks it has
prevailed.
The path to war is reinforced by the Wolfowitz Doctrine. Paul Wolfowitz, the
neoconservative intellectual who formulated US military and foreign policy
doctrine, wrote among many similar passages:
“Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on
the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere [China], that poses a
threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union. This is a
dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires
that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose
resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global
power.”
In the Wolfowitz Doctrine, any other strong country is defined as a
threat and a power hostile to the US regardless of how willing that
country is to get along with the US for mutual benefit.
The difference between Brzezinski and the Neoconservatives is that Brzezinski
wants to suborn Russia and China by including them in the empire as important
elements whose voices would be heard, If only for diplomatic reasons, whereas
the Neoconservatives are prepared to rely on military force combined with
internal subversion orchestrated with US financed NGOs and even terrorist
organizations.
Neither the US nor Israel is embarrassed by their worldwide reputations as
the two countries that pose the greatest threat. In fact, both countries are
proud to be recognized as the greatest threats. The foreign policy of both
countries is devoid of any diplomacy. US and Israeli foreign policy rests on
violence alone. Washington tells countries to do as Washington says or be
“bombed into the stone age.” Israel declares all Palestinians, even women and
children, to be “terrorists,” and proceeds to shoot them down in the streets,
claiming that Israel is merely protecting itself against terrorists. Israel,
which does not recognize the existence of Palestine as a country, covers up its
crimes with the claim that Palestinians do not accept the existence of
Israel.
“We don’t need no stinking diplomacy. We got power.”
This is the attitude that guarantees war, and that is where the US is taking
the world. The prime minister of Britain, the chancellor of Germany, and the
president of France are Washington’s enablers. They provide the cover for
Washington. Instead of war crimes, Washington has “coalitions of the willing”
and military invasions that bring “democracy and women’s rights” to
non-compliant countries.
China gets much the same treatment. A country with four times the US
population but a smaller prison population, China is constantly criticized by
Washington as an “authoritarian state.” China is accused of human rights abuses
while US police brutalize the US population.
The problem for humanity is that Russia and China are not Libya and Iraq.
These two countries possess strategic nuclear weapons. Their land mass greatly
exceeds that of the US. The US, which was unable to successfully occupy Baghdad
or Afghanistan, has no prospect of prevailing against Russia and China in
conventional warfare. Washington will push the nuclear button. What else can we
expect from a government devoid of morality?
The world has never experienced rogue states comparable to Washington and
Israel. Both governments are prepared to murder anyone and everyone. Look at the
crisis that Washington has created in Ukraine and the dangers thereof. On May
23, 2014, Russia’s President Putin spoke to the St. Petersburg International
Economic Forum, a three-day gathering of delegations from 62 countries and CEOs
from 146 of the largest Western corporations.
Putin did not speak of the billions of dollars in trade deals that were being
formalized. Instead Putin spoke of the crisis that Washington had brought to
Russia, and he criticized Europe for being Washington’s vassals for supporting
Washington’s propaganda against Russia and Washington’s interference in vital
Russian interests.
Putin was diplomatic in his language, but the message that powerful economic
interests from the US and Europe received is that it will lead to trouble if
Washington and European governments continue to ignore Russia’s concerns and
continue to act as if they can interfere in Russia’s vital interests as if
Russia did not exist.
The heads of these large corporations will carry this message back to
Washington and European capitals. Putin made it clear that the lack of dialogue
with Russia could lead to the West making the mistake of putting Ukraine in NATO
and establishing missile bases on Russia’s border with Ukraine. Putin has
learned that Russia cannot rely on good will from the West, and Putin made it
clear, short of issuing a threat, that Western military bases in Ukraine are
unacceptable.
Washington will continue to ignore Russia. However, European capitals
will
have to decide whether Washington is pushing them into conflict with
Russia that is against European interests. Thus, Putin is testing European
politicians to determine if there is sufficient intelligence and independence in
Europe for a rapprochement.
If Washington in its overbearing arrogance and hubris forces Putin to write
off the West, the Russian/Chinese strategic alliance, which is forming to
counteract Washington’s hostile policy of surrounding both countries with
military bases, will harden into preparation for the inevitable war.
The survivors, if any, can thank the Neoconservatives, the Wolfowitz
doctrine, and the Brzezinski strategy for the destruction of life on earth.
The American public contains a large number of misinformed people who think
they know everything. These people have been programmed by US and Israeli
propaganda to equate Islam with political ideology. They believe that Islam, a
religion, is instead a militarist doctrine that calls for the overthrow of
Western civilization, as if anything remains of Western civilization.
Many believe this propaganda even in the face of complete proof that the
Sunnis and Shi’ites hate one another far more than they hate their Western
oppressors and occupiers. The US has departed Iraq, but the carnage today is as
high or higher than during the US invasion and occupation. The daily death tolls
from the Sunni/Shi’ite conflict are extraordinary. A religion this disunited
poses no threat to anyone except Islamists themselves. Washington successfully
used Islamist disunity to overthrow Gaddafi, and is currently using Islamist
disunity in an effort to overthrow the government of Syria. Islamists cannot
even unite to defend themselves against Western aggression. There is no prospect
of Islamists uniting in order to overthrow the West.
Even if Islam could do so, it would be pointless for Islam to overthrow the
West. The West has overthrown itself. In the US the Constitution has been
murdered by the Bush and Obama regimes. Nothing remains. As the US
is
the Constitution, what was once the United States no longer exists. A different
entity has taken its place.
Europe died with the European Union, which requires the termination of
sovereignty of all member countries. A few unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels
have become superior to the wills of the French, German, British, Italian,
Dutch, Spanish, Greek, and Portuguese peoples.
Western civilization is a skeleton. It still stands, barely, but there is no
life in it. The blood of liberty has departed. Western peoples look at their
governments and see nothing but enemies. Why else has Washington militarized
local police forces, equipping them as if they were occupying armies? Why else
has Homeland Security, the Department of Agriculture, and even the Postal
Service and Social Security Administration ordered billions of rounds of
ammunition and even submachine guns? What is this taxpayer-paid-for arsenal for
if not to suppress US citizens?
As the prominent trends forecaster Gerald Celente spells out in the current
Trends Journal, “uprisings span four corners of the globe.” Throughout
Europe angry, desperate and outraged peoples march against EU financial policies
that are driving the peoples into the ground. Despite all of Washington’s
efforts with its well funded fifth columns known as NGOs to destabilize Russia
and China, both the Russian and Chinese governments have far more support from
their people than do the US and Europe.
In the 20th century Russia and China learned what tyranny is, and they have
rejected it.
In the US tyranny has entered under the guise of the “war on terror,” a hoax
used to scare the sheeple into abandoning their civil liberties, thus freeing
Washington from accountability to law and permitting Washington to erect a
militarist police state. Ever since WWII Washington has used its financial
hegemony and the “Soviet threat,” now converted into the “Russian threat,” to
absorb Europe into Washington’s empire.
Putin is hoping that the interests of European countries will prevail over
subservience to Washington. This is Putin’s current bet. This is the reason
Putin remains unprovoked by Washington’s provocations in Ukraine.
If Europe fails Russia, Putin and China will prepare for the war that
Washington’s drive for hegemony makes
inevitable.