The collapsing US military & economic empire is making Washington & NATO even more dangerous. US could not beat the Taliban but thinks it can take on China-Russia-Iran...a sign of psychopathology for sure. @BruceKGagnon
Michael Vlahos (military professor & CIA) and Douglas Magcregor (retired Army Colonel) meet in the library of the Army-Navy Club, Washington, D.C., the Imperial City, to reflect on the war in Ukraine.
Part 2 (of 3 parts) examines the strategic choices that have led to NATO failure in Ukraine, conflict with Russia, and lays bare how deliberate deceit and denial have misled the American people.
The United Nations General Assembly voted 149-6 on December 7 that Israel must give up its nuclear weapons.
The US, Canada, Israel, Micronesia, Liberia, and Palau opposed the resolution.
The United Kingdom and most NATO members abstained.
How come the US-EU are not putting sanctions on Israel for their nukes, massive human rights abuses, bombing Syria and Palestine and much more? Talk about 'special treatment' from the west.
"The 2014 Minsk Agreement was an attempt to give Ukraine time. They used that time to get stronger, which you can see today. Ukraine of 2014/15 is not Ukraine of today. If we could see fighting near Debaltsevo in 2015, Russia could easily have won then, and I very much doubt that NATO countries could have done as much for Ukraine then as they are doing now, we all knew that the conflict was frozen, that the problem was not resolved, but that is exactly what bought Ukraine valuable time."
Moscow was hoping to find a solution via the Minsk agreements,
the Russian president said
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is “disappointed” by former German chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent comments regarding the Minsk agreements – the now defunct roadmap for peace in Ukraine – which she admitted was a ruse to buy Ukraine more time to build up its military.
“What can you say to that?” Putin said during a press conference on Friday, adding that he was shocked to hear such a confession from the former German leader, having believed that Russia’s partners in Berlin “treated us with sincerity.”
The Russian leader said Merkel’s remarks once again prove that launching a military operation in Ukraine was the correct decision.
“As it turns out, nobody intended to fulfil any part of the Minsk agreements,” Putin said, recalling that former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko also recently admitted that he had no intention of adhering to the documents when he signed them in 2014 and 2015.
“I thought the other participants of this agreement were at least honest, but no, it turns out they were also lying to us and only wanted to pump Ukraine with weapons and get it prepared for a military conflict,” Putin said. Russia may have realized this little too late, and should have launched its operation earlier, the president concluded.
Vladimir Putin said Merkel’s admission raises an important question about trust. “Trust is already almost at zero, but after such statements, how can we possibly negotiate? About what? Can we make any agreements with anybody and where are the guarantees?”
Putin asked, while acknowledging that some sort of agreement will have to be reached eventually.
Putin’s comments follow Angela Merkel’s interview with the newspaper Die Zeit on Wednesday, in which she said the actual purpose of the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements was to stall for time and allow Kiev to build up its military potential for a future confrontation with Russia.
Moscow has expressed shock over the admission, with Russia’s Foreign Ministry claiming that Merkel’s words are legitimate grounds for a tribunal.
The Minsk agreements, brokered by Germany and France, were supposed to be a roadmap for peace in the war-torn country, giving the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state, whose rule they rejected after the 2014 Maidan coup [orchestrated by the Obama-Biden administration in Kiev].
Russian has explained that its current military offensive in Ukraine was largely prompted by Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the accords.
Time Magazine has named Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky its “Person of the Year,” continuing the corporate media practice of promoting the puppet leader of a nation NATO is using to wage a proxy war against Russia.
Jimmy Dore and antiwar activist and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern discuss whether Zelensky really deserves an honor that in the past has been bestowed on such luminaries as George W. Bush, Ayatollah Khomeini and Adolf Hitler.
That's why the EU continues to FAIL in the International Arena
The study of geopolitics is a difficult and very painstaking task. However, it must be admitted that geopolitics will never make you bored.
Watching the work of politicians from different countries, you understand how different they all are. Involuntarily, you understand how much they differ from each other in their character and level of intelligence.
My friends, in this video, I would like to talk to you about German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock.
In particular, I would like to discuss her visit to India, which ended in complete failure for Germany and a personal fiasco for Annalena Baerbock herself. Annalena Baerbock's visit to India somehow reminded me of the visit of the German national football team to Qatar. They both failed resoundingly.
Annalena Baerbock went to India on a state visit in order to establish economic cooperation between Germany and India and also to convince the Indian authorities of the need for New Delhi to join the "price cap" for Russian oil and India's participation in all plans of the West to isolate Russia.
I lived in Germany twice. In 1959 we rented the upstairs from a local farm family in Landscheid, near Spangdahlem AFB where my step dad was stationed. I played soccer with the other kids (I was seven at the time) and helped in the fields to bring in the cows at night and the hay. I loved this place and the family that adopted us into their lives. I returned to Landscheid in the 1980's while on a speaking tour across Germany and visited our former landlords and their son.
Lindsey Air Station in Wiesbaden
Our 2nd time in Germany was 1964-1966 when we lived in Wiesbaden, again near a US airbase. We had our car tires slashed while living our first year downtown two blocks from the Hauptbahnhof. I saw my first 'Yankee go home' graffiti on a wall as I walked to school in the 7th grade. Once while playing baseball at a field on the base that was plunked down right in the middle of town (Lindsey Air Station) I noticed an old man staring at us with his two hands woven into the chain-link fence. The look on his face lives with me today - it said, 'Take your strange game and go home. Return our neighborhood to us again.'
(Wiesbaden was recently named a key US-NATO coordination post for the war in Ukraine.)
Visiting Roman fortifications along the Rhine River with our school class brought home to me that maintaining a military occupation on other lands is a contradiction in time. The former Roman barracks that we were standing upon was by then just a stone floor - no walls, no roof.
We are currently witnessing the historic collapse of the US imperial project. More than 800 US bases around the world must shut down. The sooner the better.
I hope that the German people will soon take back their beautiful nation from the corrupt corporate agents running Berlin.
Did one ever need more evidence that the corporate owned and run mainstream media is utterly disgusting?
Of all the people living on this lovely orbiting rock and water satellite Earth, this is the best person that this media rag could come up with?
Zelensky was elected in the spring of 2019 with heavy support from the Russian-ethnic territory of eastern Ukraine near the Russian border. Why?
Because Zelensky campaigned as the peace candidate in the election. He garnered more than 73% of the votes while incumbent war-monger Petro Poroshenko trailed far behind at 24%.
Zelensky promised he would "reboot" peace talks between the Kiev government and the self-defense forces in the Donbass who had been virtually daily attacked by the Ukrainian Nazi-led army since the coup of 2014. It was clear the vast majority of the people wanted peace.
"I think that we will have personnel changes. In any case we will continue in the direction of the Minsk [peace] talks and head towards concluding a ceasefire," Zelensky said at the time.
Zelensky was installed as a candidate by the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky (who had his own private army) and owned a popular TV station that aired a show which Zelensky starred in called 'Servant of the people'. When he ran for president he called his newly formed political party by the same name as the show.
According to the Pandora Papers, millions from Kolomoisky flowed to the accounts of Zelensky and his associates. The money was deposited in off-shore banks where there was warm weather and lower taxes. Today Zelensky owns mansions in several luxurious locations around the globe and quite likely has a Swiss bank account where many millions from US-EU 'aid' have been deposited.
Once in office Zelensky quickly began to back track on his promises of peace in Ukraine. He received threats from the Nazis that any serious negotiations would be met with his death. In addition the US-UK-NATO made it abundantly clear that Zelensky had a choice - either follow the west's instructions by expanding the war or face an uncertain future. Zelensky chose to betray the Ukrainian people by continuing the massive internal corruption and the war.
Today the agri-biz corporations Monsanto and Cargill have taken ownership of huge swaths of rich Ukrainian farm soil for their GMO production plans. (Much of Europe and Russia have previously banned GMO's.)
Ukraine has become the tool - the hammer - to wage the western war on Russia. The goal is regime change and the breaking up of the Russian Federation into smaller nations that would then allow western resource extraction companies to steal the vast resource base of Russia.
Zelensky is being rewarded for his subservience and puppetry. He's become an actor on the global stage where western deception is foremost. His primary job now is continue the fighting as long as possible and to create a pretext that will drag NATO fully into the war against Russia.
But the Time Magazine 'prize' is also a sign of desperation by the Washington-London-Berlin-Brussels axis. They are losing their war on Russia and the western sanctions are causing serious blow-back on EU economies. The populace in Europe has increasingly become restless. By awarding Zelensky this 'honor' the elites hope to mollify the populace just a bit longer - long enough to squeeze out a victory against Moscow.
But those days are over. In fact Europe will now face another truly massive flow of refugees from Ukraine. Already millions of Ukrainians had fled to either Russia or Europe. Now as Russia shuts down the energy system of Ukraine millions more will flee into an already destabilized and disheartened Europe.
So one could say that European nations will suffer Karma for their arming and funding (along with the US & UK) of this war.
The multi-polar world order is each day coming closer to fruition. The decline of the US-UK-EU is in motion - every passing moment sees the economic and political crisis multiplying for the once powerful western imperialist nations.
Their day in the sun - as king of the hill - is over. Much to their own arrogant making.
In this reportage, I travel to Rostov-on-Don, Russia to speak to the locals about the hard facts of the War and what they think about it.
As expected many of them support the decision of the Russian Government to join the war but not all. You may be very surprised by what they have to say.
Now that Ukraine Drone attacks hit airfields deep in Russia in Kursk and other cities things are changing fast. Russian missile strikes continue to force emergency power shutdowns across Ukraine.
The city of Bakmut/Artyomovsk seems to be almost ready to come under Russian control.
~ Patrick Lancaster is a US Navy veteran who has been living and reporting from the Donbass region (eastern Ukraine) since at least 2014.
U.S. blames Cuba to distract from its own terrorism
Nine days before leaving office, Trump designated Cuba a State Sponsor
of Terrorism.
Two years later, Biden has kept Cuba on the terrorism blacklist.
Ironically, Cuba has been a victim of U.S.-based terrorism — not a
sponsor of terrorism.
There is no credible evidence to support the
designation, which is aimed to devastate Cuba’s economy by cutting it
off from international credit and investment.
Ahmed Shehada, 16, was killed by Israeli forces in Nablus
Two boys were killed Within less than 12 hours.
Ahmed Shahada, Sixteen years old, Was killed by the bullets Of Israeli soldiers who Invaded Nablus.
Aryeh Schupak, Fifteen years old, Was killed by a bomb, Planted by a Palestinian, In West Jerusalem.
Knesset Member Ofer Kasif Said on the Knesset floor That both boys are victims of The ongoing occupation Which claims the lives Of Israelis and Palestinians alike.
But MK Kasif remains An isolated voice. The current Knesset abounds With extreme nationalists and racists, Some of whom are slated For senior ministerial positions In the new cabinet.
In their eyes, Only Arye Shechupek Was a victim, And they called upon God To avenge his blood.
Ahmed Shahada is In their eyes a "terrorist" Who deserved to die And the soldiers who shot him Should be commended.
When this is The dominant mindset In the Knesset and the government, The cycle of bloodshed Is bound to spin Faster and faster, and claim Ever more victims.
It is all coming out now about the Biden family's lies, crimes, and censorship.
Russia was blamed by the Democrats for the Hunter Biden story which was largely ignored by the corporate dominated media - just prior to Uncle Joe's election for prez.
Now with the release of the Twitter files on this story we can all see what was actually going on.
Will these same media outlets refuse to cover the release of these files?
Unfortunately for France and the entire EU, the only thing that Emmanuel Macron could get from the Americans during his recent trip to Washington was a grandiose and extremely expensive dinner in his honor. Even though, the purpose of the trip of the French president to the United States was not at all the acquisition of gastronomic pleasures.
What exactly was the French president trying so hard to convince Biden of? And why was he sorely disappointed in the end?
The three-day visit of the French President to the United States ended in absolutely nothing. Observing the pro-government press and media, which in France, even the smallest success of the government, are trained to report to the public with pomp and fanfare, it becomes clear that now they have decided to practically not touch on the topic of Emmanuel Macron's visit to the United States.
And this despite the fact that high hopes were pinned on this visit.
The public pressure is growing on the EU leadership to stop acting as Washington's lapdogs. But they are running out of time as the sanctions blow-back on the EU is engulfing the continent like a dark angry cloud.
