Okinawa faces a crisis. This is an appeal for your support.

 

To: All you folks who think peace is the better option
From: No More Battle of Okinawa: Nuchi du Takara (Life is a Treasure) People’s Association
Co-representatives: Hiroji Yamashiro; C. Douglas Lummis (and others).
Contact address: Ideaspeddler@gmail.com

 

As you may know, The US and Japanese governments have announced that, in the event of a “Taiwan contingency”, the “Southwest Islands” will become a war zone. “Contingency” is a softer way of saying “war”, and “Southwest Islands” means the Ryukyu Archipelago: Okinawa.

The two governments are not simply predicting that will happen. They are arranging so that it will happen. That is, all along the outer islands of the Ryukyu Archipelago they are building new missile launching sites, targeting China – this in addition to the formidable attack bases already on Okinawa main island. Should any of these missiles actually be fired on the Chinese mainland or against Chinese naval vessels, the Chinese military will have the right, under the international law of war, to return the fire. The Mayor of Naha [Okinawa] has already begun carrying out civil defense drills.

 

This is not an issue only for in-principle pacifists, who believe all war should be abolished. To fight a war in a neutral country is a violation of the law of war itself. Okinawa is not merely neutral, it is not a party to this war in any way, shape or form. Okinawa has no quarrel with China. Many see this as a replay of the Battle of Okinawa, and are asking, Are we to be the sacrificial pawns (sute-ishi in Japanese) - again?

There is a new movement forming now in Okinawa to point out the grotesque absurdity of fighting this war in Okinawa and to call for a negotiated peace. Please understand: This is a movement that can include people who accept the necessity of some wars, but not this one. (Even dedicated soldiers can, with perfect consistency, call for a negotiated peace.)

A large gathering to voice opposition to Okinawa becoming again a war zone and to demand negotiations is being planned for 26 February, Okinawa time. It would be very encouraging if you could support this action, either as an organization or as individuals – and this either by taking some simple action on the same day, or by sending messages of support.

 

Statement from Global Network:

The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space shares the deep concerns of the people of Okinawa about the possibility of US-NATO war against China that would directly impact your island home.

Recent belligerent words by Pentagon officials signal that Washington is indeed planning such a horrific war.

Already the US-NATO has launched a war against Russia using Ukraine as a proxy.

The US intends to do the same to China using Taiwan as the instrument to justify this war.

It is more than insane for Washington to think it can fight against two nuclear powers at virtually the same time. This is a clear sign of US desperation to remain as 'king of the hill'.

We declare our solidarity with the people throughout the Ryukyu Archipelago and beyond.

Close US bases on Okinawa!
No war with China!

Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space

Washington exploiting Africa for electric cars

 

 

Journalist Jeremy Loffredo joins The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal to discuss deals hashed out at the recent US-Africa Summit to open African nations up to heavy mining by US corporations seeking minerals necessary for electric vehicle and smartphone batteries. 

Loffredo discusses the prevalence of slave labor conditions in these mines, and the demand by US corporations for weakened labor regulations in nations like Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

U.S. germ warfare program flourishing

 

 

Documents leaked to Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva by Georgian insiders indicate that the US Embassy to Tbilisi is involved in the trafficking of frozen human blood and pathogens as diplomatic cargo for a secret military program.  

See more about Georgia which is under pressure to become a second front in the US-NATO war on Russia here. 

Sunak & Zelensky lead the charge....of the darkness brigade

 

 

Laughing all the way to the bank

Searching for planes
searching for attention,
artillery, tanks,
more NATO troops and $$$$$$$,
the dark brigade
leads the charge.

 

 

 

The Charge of the Light Brigade
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

I
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
   Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!” he said.
Into the valley of Death
   Rode the six hundred.

II
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
   Someone had blundered.
   Theirs not to make reply,
   Theirs not to reason why,
   Theirs but to do and die.
   Into the valley of Death
   Rode the six hundred.

III
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
   Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
   Rode the six hundred.

IV
Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
   All the world wondered.
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre stroke
   Shattered and sundered.
Then they rode back, but not
   Not the six hundred.

V
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
   Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell.
They that had fought so well
Came through the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of hell,
All that was left of them,
   Left of six hundred.

VI
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
   All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
   Noble six hundred!

~ The Charge of the Light Brigade" is an 1854 narrative poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson about the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. During 1854, when the United Kingdom was engaged in the Crimean War, Tennyson wrote several patriotic poems under various pseudonyms. The poem was written after the Light Cavalry Brigade suffered great casualties in the Battle of Balaclava. The Crimean War was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Sardinia-Piedmont. 

Napolitano: Biden committed an act of war

 

 

 

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom

America's Act of War - The Nord Stream Pipeline blasts

 

How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline

By Seymour Hersh

The New York Times called it a “mystery,” but the United States executed a covert sea operation that was kept secret—until now 

Ukrainian soldiers continue to kill Russian captives

 

SouthFront
 
Another video showing the war crime of the Ukrainian Nazis was shared online by Ukrainian servicemen. Shouting “Glory to Ukraine”, Ukrainians shot dead unarmed Russian soldiers.

Ukrainian Nazis ignore the request of their president not to film their crimes on camera and continue to proudly share horrific footage online.

The video shows that Russians surrendered and were lying face down but one of Ukrainian Nazis shot them when they were trying to answer his questions. Another Ukrainian soldier is seen asking his comrade to stop it, but the killer was not listening.

One of the dead Russian servicemen is seen with a grenade without a pin clutched in his hands. The Russian man tried to blow himself up in order not to surrender to the Ukrainian Nazis.

Unfortunately, the Ukrainian military continue to ignore the laws of war. They remain unpunished thanks to great efforts of Kiev’s western patrons and MSM aimed to hide the truth of the war in Ukraine.

The crimes of Ukrainian Nazis are particularly disgusting amid the proper attitude of Russian servicemen to the Ukrainian prisoners of war. 

See videos of both examples of captured troops here  18+ suggested

Should we trust BBC reporting?

 

 

The loving, gentle fascists.....a scripted moment?

NATO Boots on the ground in Ukraine next?

 

The Grayzone

 

As UK political and military leadership push for direct NATO military intervention in Ukraine, pushing their US senior partner to escalate beyond well-established red lines, The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate survey the growing calls for World War III.

Former Israeli PM: U.S. ‘Blocked’ his attempts at a Russia-Ukraine peace deal

 

 
Bennett says the US and its Western allies decided to 'keep striking Putin' and not negotiate

by Dave DeCamp 

Antiwar.com 

 

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in an interview posted to his YouTube channel on Saturday that the US and its Western allies “blocked” his efforts of mediating between Russia and Ukraine to bring an end to the war in its early days.

On March 4, 2022, Bennett traveled to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin. In the interview, he detailed his mediation at the time between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which he said he coordinated with the US, France, Germany, and the UK.

Bennett said that both sides agreed to major concessions during his mediation effort. For the Russian side, he said they dropped “denazification” as a requirement for a ceasefire. Bennett defined “denazification” as the removal of Zelensky. During his meeting in Moscow with Putin, Bennett said the Russian leader guaranteed that he wouldn’t try to kill Zelensky.

The other concession Russia made, according to Bennett, is that it wouldn’t seek the disarmament of Ukraine. For the Ukrainian side, Zelensky “renounced” that he would seek NATO membership, which Bennett said was the “reason” for Russia’s invasion.

Reports at the time reflect Bennet’s comments and said Russia and Ukraine were softening their positions. Citing Israeli officials, Axios reported on March 8 that Putin’s “proposal is difficult for Zelensky to accept but not as extreme as they anticipated. They said the proposal doesn’t include regime change in Kyiv and allows Ukraine to keep its sovereignty.”

Discussing how Western leaders felt about his mediation efforts, Bennett said then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson took an “aggressive line” while French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz were more “pragmatic.” Bennett said President Biden adopted “both” positions.

But ultimately, the Western leaders opposed Bennet’s efforts. “I’ll say this in the broad sense. I think there was a legitimate decision by the West to keep striking Putin and not [negotiate],” Bennett said.

When asked if the Western powers “blocked” the mediation efforts, Bennet said, “Basically, yes. They blocked it, and I thought they were wrong.”

Explaining his decision to mediate, Bennett said that it was in Israel’s national interest not to pick a side in the war, citing Israel’s frequent airstrikes in Syria. Bennett said Russia has S-300 air defenses in Syria and that if “they press the button, Israeli pilots will fall.”

Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine didn’t stop with Bennett’s efforts. Later in March, Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Istanbul, Turkey, and followed up with virtual consultations. According to the account of former US officials speaking to Foreign Affairs, the two sides agreed on the framework for a tentative deal. Russian officials, including Putin, have said publicly that a deal was close following the Istanbul talks.

But the negotiations ultimately failed after more Western pressure. Boris Johnson visited Kyiv in April 2022, urging Zelensky not to negotiate with Russia. According to a report from Ukrainska Pravda, he said even if Ukraine was ready to sign a deal with Russia, Kyiv’s Western backers were not.

Later in April, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said there were some NATO countries that wanted to prolong the war in Ukraine. “After the talks in Istanbul, we did not think that the war would take this long … But, following the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting, it was the impression that… there are those within the NATO member states that want the war to continue, let the war continue and Russia gets weaker. They don’t care much about the situation in Ukraine,” Cavusoglu said.

A few days after Cavusoglu’s comments, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin admitted that one of the US’s goals in supporting Ukraine is to see Russia “weakened.”

~ Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave

How America took out the Nord Stream pipeline

 

 

The New York Times called it a “mystery,” but the United States executed a covert sea operation that was kept secret—until now

By Seymour Hersh

The U.S. Navy’s Diving and Salvage Center can be found in a location as obscure as its name—down what was once a country lane in rural Panama City, a now-booming resort city in the southwestern panhandle of Florida, 70 miles south of the Alabama border. The center’s complex is as nondescript as its location—a drab concrete post-World War II structure that has the look of a vocational high school on the west side of Chicago. A coin-operated laundromat and a dance school are across what is now a four-lane road.

The center has been training highly skilled deep-water divers for decades who, once assigned to American military units worldwide, are capable of technical diving to do the good—using C4 explosives to clear harbors and beaches of debris and unexploded ordinance—as well as the bad, like blowing up foreign oil rigs, fouling intake valves for undersea power plants, destroying locks on crucial shipping canals. The Panama City center, which boasts the second largest indoor pool in America, was the perfect place to recruit the best, and most taciturn, graduates of the diving school who successfully did last summer what they had been authorized to do 260 feet under the surface of the Baltic Sea.

Last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning.

Two of the pipelines, which were known collectively as Nord Stream 1, had been providing Germany and much of Western Europe with cheap Russian natural gas for more than a decade. A second pair of pipelines, called Nord Stream 2, had been built but were not yet operational. Now, with Russian troops massing on the Ukrainian border and the bloodiest war in Europe since 1945 looming, President Joseph Biden saw the pipelines as a vehicle for Vladimir Putin to weaponize natural gas for his political and territorial ambitions.

Asked for comment, Adrienne Watson, a White House spokesperson, said in an email, “This is false and complete fiction.” Tammy Thorp, a spokesperson for the Central Intelligence Agency, similarly wrote: “This claim is completely and utterly false.”

Biden’s decision to sabotage the pipelines came after more than nine months of highly secret back and forth debate inside Washington’s national security community about how to best achieve that goal. For much of that time, the issue was not whether to do the mission, but how to get it done with no overt clue as to who was responsible.

There was a vital bureaucratic reason for relying on the graduates of the center’s hardcore diving school in Panama City. The divers were Navy only, and not members of America’s Special Operations Command, whose covert operations must be reported to Congress and briefed in advance to the Senate and House leadership—the so-called Gang of Eight. The Biden Administration was doing everything possible to avoid leaks as the planning took place late in 2021 and into the first months of 2022.

President Biden and his foreign policy team—National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, and Victoria Nuland, the Undersecretary of State for Policy—had been vocal and consistent in their hostility to the two pipelines, which ran side by side for 750 miles under the Baltic Sea from two different ports in northeastern Russia near the Estonian border, passing close to the Danish island of Bornholm before ending in northern Germany.

The direct route, which bypassed any need to transit Ukraine, had been a boon for the German economy, which enjoyed an abundance of cheap Russian natural gas—enough to run its factories and heat its homes while enabling German distributors to sell excess gas, at a profit, throughout Western Europe. Action that could be traced to the administration would violate US promises to minimize direct conflict with Russia. Secrecy was essential.

Read the rest of this important article here 

 

Latest interview: Ken Jones on the War Industry Resisters Network

 

 

North Carolina-based peace activist Ken Jones discusses his organizing efforts with Reject Raytheon (Asheville) and the War Industry Resisters Network.

 

Bruce Gagnon interviews Ken and they also speak about increasingly provocative US imperial policy toward China and North Korea in the Asia-Pacific.

 

In addition they review some recent developments in Ukraine.

 

They conclude with a brief discussion on how best to make an impact when Congress and the media are increasingly under corporate oligarch control.

 

 Global Network links: https://linktr.ee/space4peace  

U.S. puppets in Ukraine use chem weapons on Russian soldiers

 

 #Ukranian channels celebrating use of chem weapons on #Russian soldiers.
After release of the canister the men appear to have spasms and neurological complications.
The whole video is set to a sarcastic tune about drowning#WarCrimes of #Ukraine . These are the good guys? pic.twitter.com/DXt6hwfz8r

— Arthur Morgan (@ArthurM40330824) February 7, 2023

 

It is illegal to use chemical weapons in warfare. 

But Washington encourages their use in a desperate act to rescue the collapsing western war project in Ukraine. 

Anyone need more proof as to the disgusting nature of the US-NATO manufactured war to force regime change and the balkanization of Russia? 

Is this not evil? 

Is this not criminal? 

Should the west keep sending weapons to the Nazi-led army in Ukraine? 

The disgusting apologies (by ignoring facts and evident truths) for Ukraine's long war crimes must end NOW!

This could turn out to be a huge trigger for war escalation - something that Washington-London-Berlin-Paris-Brussels is counting on.

See more here  here

Bruce

 

 https://t.co/e05yGlXMW7
Second video from Shaman grp. Bragging that the canisters all ready to deploy

— Arthur Morgan (@ArthurM40330824) February 7, 2023

Which struggle do we need?

Divide and conquer

via culture wars

 

Left against right

men against women

straight versus LGBTQ

white v. people of color

young rejects old

urban against rural

many liberals disdain anti-imperialists 

Neo-feudalism 2.0

gets a free ride

Why?

Dems & Repubs

play

'good cop - bad cop'

What role

does corporate media play

in the culture wars?

Tradition trashed

by neo-liberalism,

national sovereignty

vilified by globalists

 

Who is calling

the shots?

 

Why do the oligarchs get away

with dividing us

from one another?

What do the elite gain?

 

Don't we see how

we are weakened

by Mr. Big's

endless manipulations?

 

On a grander scale

its US-NATO

against

Russia-China

and the Global South

 

What could possibly

go wrong?

 

Bruce   

Report from front lines

 

 

 

Graham Phillips

 

This British journalist has been in the Donbass for years. 

 

The UK government is penalizing him for his reporting because it goes against the western CIA-led narrative.

 

He's a courageous man.

 

He takes you to hear directly from the Russian-ethnic people in eastern Ukraine.  He covered their recent voting process to seek a return to the Russian Federation. 

This info is never shared on corporate media - which is owned by the one and only Mr. Big.

Bruce 

African view of Germany's foreign policy

 

African Insider

Germany’s social media ridicule of visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Africa seemed to backfire after the continental bloc, the African Union, was incensed by the use of ‘animal’ emoji. 

Germany, an ally of Ukraine, has been lambasting Russia since it invaded Ukraine last year and often criticizes comments by Moscow’s leaders seeking influence abroad or defending the war.

Feb. 19 war protests planned in Maine

Sunday February 19
Rage Against the War Machine protest in 2 locations!
Bring signs or use ours

1st location
Bath 11:30am-12:30pm
intersection of Washington St. & Route 1 (Post Office is there & we can park)

2nd location
Westbrook 1:30-2:30pm
intersection of Stroudwater St. & William Clark Dr. (Westbrook Market & Dunkin are there)

3rd location LUNCH!
Fajita Grill, family-owned Mexican restaurant
857 Main St., Westbrook  (207)  591-8150

Co-sponsored by Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Maine Natural Guard, Peaceworks of Greater Brunswick, Communist Party of Maine, Libertarian Party of Maine, People's Party of Maine.


Facebook event link: https://fb.me/e/2H2qdLZCy

Pepe Escobar: U.S. imperial state is panicking

 

Finian Cunningham

The war in Ukraine is not just about Ukraine and Russia with the US and NATO acting as seemingly benevolent supporters of Ukraine, as the Western media portray. The United States and its NATO allies are deeply involved in the conflict. 

The military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 – after 20 years of futile occupation – was a calculated “reorganization of firepower” against Russia, says Pepe Escobar. Ukraine is merely a proxy and ultimately cannon fodder for American imperial planners. This war is part of a bigger geopolitical confrontation between the US and Russia, China and other nations that are pushing for the emergence of a multi-polar world. That is a multi-polar world no longer under the hegemony of US-dominated Western capitalism. 

Pepe Escobar assesses the bigger picture and outlines how the US imperial state is in "panic mode" to shore up the collapsing American-controlled global capitalist system, and in particular the privileged position of the US dollar. 

Going to war with Russia presently and in the longer term against China is part of the desperate dynamic to prolong the dominant position of Washington that was established after the Second World War. That postwar imperial order – euphemistically called the "rules-based order" – is increasingly falling into disrepute from unbridled imperialist wars and abuse of financial controls. 

The vast majority of the planet wants liberation from the US/Western warmongering system that underpins capitalist exploitation that only enriches a global elite. The war in Ukraine is but the manifestation of the breakdown in US global power and the desperation to preserve the systematic inequality that defines capitalism. 

This year is fraught with extreme danger, says Pepe Escobar. But if the psychotic US deep-state planners [neo-cons] can be contained by Russia and China without an all-out catastrophic war erupting then there is a chance of a more hopeful, peaceful and just world order emerging.

What was inside of that Chinese balloon?

 

An Air Force F-22 Raptor was scrambled to shoot down an errant Chinese weather balloon just off the Carolina coast on Saturday, putting an end to days of drama and confusion as Americans helplessly watched the alleged “spy” craft float aimlessly over the country. Beijing slammed Washington for attacking the “civilian airship.” 

Was it a spy balloon or a weather balloon?

But the real question is what was actually inside the balloon?

My sources have revealed that inside the drifting balloon where huge cartons of a particular Chinese product. China knew that Biden would be pressured to shoot the balloon out of the sky. Thus the product inside the balloon would then fall across significant portions of US territory.

Since the US waited until the balloon had moved offshore over the Atlantic Ocean before shooting it down, the product fell into the sea.

But reports are that fortune cookies were inside the balloon. Once they hit the water the cookies quickly dissolved. But the tiny paper fortunes inside the cookies have washed onto the Carolina coastline. Tourists at the beach are reporting that all the fortune cookies had the same message. 

It was:

Americans please don't try to make war with the China people

Bruce

Sunday song