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Sir, No Sir trailer

You can pay $2.99 to watch this outstanding anti-war film from the US war on Vietnam. 

One of the great films from that ill-fated US attempt for domination.

Has lots about the GI resistance movement during the war. A great lesson for GI's today. 

Click here

Trump and Greenland: Key war fighting base for Arctic control

By Dr. Dave Webb 

At time of writing, the biennial NATO military exercise ‘Cold Response 26’ is taking place from March 9 to 19. It is being led from the Norwegian-US headquarters in Reitan, near Bodø, Norway. About 32,500 personnel are participating, including around 11,800 in Norway and 7,500 in Finland. The rest are at sea and in the air. Military from 14 countries are involved - Norway, the USA, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Canada, Spain, Turkey, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Belgium. It is basically a NATO show of force against Russia and the High North is being used by an expanding NATO as a military practice ground in which to rehearse future war fighting strategies and to test and develop new military technologies. 

According to the official website of the Norwegian Armed Forces: "The main purpose of the exercises is to contribute to deterrence, strengthen defense, calm the population". But how is the presence of the US military in Scandinavia expected to "calm" people, given Donald Trump’s flagrant disregard for international law and his wish to own Greenland? 

What is that about? Greenland, the world’s largest island, is home to more than 56,000 people. A former Danish colony and now an autonomous territory of Denmark. Its capital city Nuuk is closer to New York than it is to Copenhagen and the US already has an active military base there.

Pituffik Space base, formerly known as Thule Air Base, is on the northwest coast of Greenland, 1,126 kms north of the Arctic Circle. In the 1950s aircraft made surveillance flights from there, over the pole, to inspect Soviet defences. In 1957 four Nike Missile sites were constructed around the base and in 1961 a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) radar was built to give the US warning of a missile attack from Russia.

On 21 January 1968 a US bomber from an Air Force Base in New York state carrying 4 nuclear weapons, crashed just outside the base. Luckily the failsafe mechanisms prevented a nuclear explosion but there was widespread radioactive contamination. In 2007 a BBC reporter claimed that one of the nuclear weapons was unaccounted for, but this was denied by the US and Denmark. Some details of the incident remain classified, however.

In June 1987, the BMEWS mechanically steered radar was upgraded to a two-sided, solid-state phased-array electronically steered radar system, similar to the one at Fylingdales in North Yorkshire. It then became a missile warning and tracking component of the US National Missile Defense System. After the US Space Force was established by Trump in 2019, the base was transferred to Space Delta 4, under the command of Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado.  Thule Air Base was renamed Pituffik Space Base in April 2023 in recognition of the former Inuit settlement. Pituffik Space Base plays a key role in missile defence and satellite tracking and targeting.  The recent retaliatory attacks by Iran on US missile defence radars is a dire warning to people who live on or near the base in Greenland and elsewhere (including Fylingdales!).

US war fighting radar at Fylingdales in North Yorkshire in the UK

There is also a Pituffik Tracking Station, about 5.6 km southeast of the main base, which tracks and commands high-priority government satellites. It provides telemetry, tracking and command data for satellites that are used for surveillance, communication, navigation and weather. The Space Force says the base helps enable “space superiority.” 

The 1951 Defence of Greenland Treaty with Denmark grants the US broad military rights, including the establishment of bases, provided Denmark and Greenland are notified, and unrestricted movement for defence purposes. However, Danish sovereignty over the territory is also recognised as part of the treaty which remains in effect as long as NATO does.

Trump has said that Greenland is needed for the ‘Golden Dome’ missile defence project, but the Pituffik radar is there already and part of US national Missile Defense, so what else might be needed? Perhaps the siting of anti-ballistic missiles there?

But there’s more - in January, Trump claimed the Arctic was covered in Russian and Chinese warships to justify his push for control of Greenland. Russia does have a nuclear submarine base in the Arctic, on the Kola peninsula, the other side of Finland and Russia and China have increased joint naval and air patrols in the North Pacific and near Alaska but there has been no evidence of “swarms” of Russian or Chinese military ships near Greenland as Trump claims.

Greenland is however, at a very strategic location. The GIUK (Greenland, Iceland, and the UK) gap is a critical maritime choke point in the North Atlantic, separating the Norwegian/North Seas from the open Atlantic Ocean. It is an important strategic, monitoring, and anti-submarine corridor that NATO uses to track Russian naval activity. The position of Faslane, guarding the GIUK gap,  is also of great strategic importance to NATO.

There are also important commercial considerations. As global warming shrinks the arctic ice cap it allows more maritime traffic, mining and other commercial activity to take place in the high north. During the summer, shipping routes can operate for longer periods in the Arctic region. Shipping has risen by nearly 40% in the region over the last 12 years, according to the Arctic Council (a kind of common security organisation whose primary purpose is to advance sustainable development and environmental protection in the region, including of indigenous peoples).

These routes are particularly important for Russia and China. Russia has over 53% of the total Arctic coastline and controls most of the resources there, while China identifies as a ‘Near Arctic State’ with the opening-up of its ‘Polar Silk Road’ as a trade route, reducing travel time to Europe by 40%.  The expanding China footprint in the Arctic is seen as a security challenge by the US.

Then there are the resources becoming newly available. The US Geological Survey estimates that over 87% of the Arctic's oil and natural gas resource (about 360 billion barrels oil equivalent) is in seven key Arctic basin provinces including two to the east and west of Greenland. There are also rare earth metals present which are in high demand for electric cars and the manufacture of military equipment. A 2023 survey showed that 25 of 34 minerals considered “critical raw materials” by the European Commission were to be found in Greenland. China currently dominates global rare earth production and Trump does not like that, so controlling Greenland and its resources could really be about keeping China out.

However, the extraction of oil and gas is banned in Greenland for environmental regions, and investment in mining faces challenges - perhaps a new arrangement with Denmark could allow the US to build without planning permission and expand into mineral-rich areas?

The full details of the “framework of the future deal with respect to Greenland” announced by Trump remain unavailable and Greenlanders are concerned that they are being left out of talks between the US and Denmark. Trump seems to insist on “owning” Greenland and although there is a constitutional ban on the sale of land, Trump’s recent actions show that he has no respect for law or any other state’s sovereignty.

~ Dr. Dave Webb is the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space Board of Directors convener and also chairs Yorkshire Region CND. He is a retired university professor and lives in Leeds, England.

Back to Pentagon on Good Friday

Holding my banner as Pentagon workers pass by

Sixteen activists got up early this morning and took the subway to the Pentagon where we held a 90 minute vigil as military and civilian employees walked, drove, biked and rode buses by our Good Friday peace vigil.

Yesterday Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, removing the Army’s top officer in the latest shake-up of military leadership amid the war in Iran. This was most likely done because Gen. George dared to question the US Iran war strategy on some level. George is the 24th general or admiral Hegseth has removed indicating that all is not well inside the 'war department'.

I made a point this morning of asking any Army personnel who passed me by why their 'boss had been fired'. One officer stopped and said to me, "I don't why why he was fired. I only met him once and he was a good man".

During our time on the street, now kept at a distance from the Pentagon in comparison to where we were arrested last Friday when 27 of us got deep into the bowels of the war-making institution, we got lots of 'good mornings', kind nods, and some words of encouragement as folks passed us by. Even a four-star general gave me a nice nod.

My sense is that there is much quiet unsettlement inside the Trump war machine these days. It felt good to be outside offering support to those on the inside who might have a good heart and good sense of which there must be many amongst the 30,000 who work at the Pentagon.

In related news Stars & Stripes military publication is reporting this morning that "A search and rescue effort was underway on Friday afternoon to locate two crew members of a U.S. fighter jet [F-15] that was shot down in Iran". 

NBC News: Two U.S. military helicopters participating in search and rescue operations were hit by Iranian fire but appear to have made it back to base. We also learned that a Pentagon A-10 Warthog plane “crashed” today in the Persian Gulf region — according to The New York Times. The plane was likely hit by Iranian air defenses, but US is concealing it to save face with saying it “crashed” — crashed how? 

Trump has just requested $1.5 trillion from Congress for 'defense' in the 2027 fiscal year - the largest sum in the country's recent history. Trump explains the sharp increase in spending by the ongoing war with Iran and the need to replenish depleted weapons stocks.

Trump and Hegseth are burning taxpayer dollars like they are nothing.

Bruce 

~ Photos by MB Sullivan

Experts speak out against Golden Dome at satirical Trump monument unveiling

Ben Cohen of "Ben and Jerry's" Ice Cream unveiled a satirical monument of President Trump in front of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday morning, criticizing his plan for a "Golden Dome" missile defense system. 

"Our county is underwater. We are drowning in debt, and wasting another $4 trillion on a holy dome ain't gonna help!" Cohen says. "If we don't stop this boondoggle, we're sunk!"

"The Golden Dome is not golden for the people of the United States or the world," said Former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner. 

She says people in her come city of Cleveland would "much rather have the money that is being wasted on a pipe dream and a fantasy invested in lifting them and their children out of poverty." 

"There is a connection between this foolishness and foley and the reason we can't have nice things in the United States of America. They tell us they can't afford universal healthcare, but they can afford this!" 

"We tried everything, and nothing has worked, not ground-based interceptors, not space-based lasers, not Brilliant Pebbles, not space-based interceptors, not ground based lasers, not particle beam weapons," said author and national security expert Joe Cirincione. 

"And now, Donald Trump in his infinite wisdom, has repackaged this snake oil in a new bottle." 

He essentially says the project will be extremely expensive and simultaneously ineffective. 

"The United States has been building ballistic missile defense, a magical shield against nuclear weapons for over 80 years," said Dr. Igor Moric, research physicist at the Princeton Program on Science and Global Security. 

"The reality is ballistic missile defense does not work, it cannot work, and it will not work. Space-based missile defense, as envisioned by the Golden Dome, cannot work because of known physical and technological realities limiting what it can do." 

Dr. Ira Helfand of the Physicians for Social Responsibility and Back from the Brink campaign made the case that if Russia deployed their current nuclear weapons load at the U.S., without making any new weapons, and the Golden Dome could intercept an optimistic 80% of them, 75 million Americans would still be killed. 

"This system does not protect the American people," he says. "The attempt to build this system will fuel the arms race and torpedo efforts to actually get rid of these weapons." 

Filmed by Ford Fischer 

History lesson: Belgian colonial crimes in Congo

We extend a warm welcome to The Africa News Network. 

In June 1960, The Republic of Congo (modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) celebrated its independence from Belgium with King Baudouin of Belgium in attendance. During his address, King Baudouin expressed admiration for King Leopold II, despite the fact that Leopold's rule resulted in the deaths of over 10 million Congolese people. He suggested that the Congolese should not make any changes to what Leopold II had done for the country unless they were certain they could do better. 

King Baudouin's remarks were deeply patronizing and insensitive, considering the brutal suffering endured by the Congolese people under King Leopold II's regime. However, when Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba took the stage, he made sure to challenge the king's perspective and prevent him from having the final say. 

King Baudouin was displeased with Lumumba's speech, and it marked a turning point that sealed Lumumba's fate. Three months after his ouster, with the assistance of the United States' CIA, Lumumba was assassinated.

West Asia news roundup as zionist war continues

 

• Pepe Escobar writes: Everyone in West Asia knows what the death cult wants: total Divide and Rule, pitting Persians, Turks, Arabs and Kurds against each other. Essentially, the blow up of West Asia – with the proverbial, incited Sunni-Shi’ite sectarian tensions widening to the point of involving Pakistan, all to the benefit of that ghastly concoction, Eretz Israel. 
• Escobar continues: The GCC is fracturing in real time. The UAE – an artificial construct, carved out by the Brits of lands belonging to the Sultanate of Oman – for all practical purposes has entered the American War on Iran. No culture. No History. Only a bling bling money laundering machine – which may be destined to extinction, or a return to Oman.
• Escobar concludes: Geography is destiny, as much as History is geography in motion: Iran is the key crossroads and logistics maritime/landbridge connecting Russia, all of Asia, West Asia, Europe and Africa. China, Russia and the momentarily-in-deep-coma BRICS-plus cannot afford not to back Iran. Because the entire future of a possible global multipolarity hinges on a surviving, thriving, Sovereign, Resistance-reinforced Iran.
• Washington’s objective was to wage war against China’s energy supply, half of which travels through the Strait of Hormuz.  And yet the US finds itself extremely vulnerable to the global oil shock that resulted from the Strait’s closure, while China's economy is weathering this one with remarkable resilience and composure.

• Reports indicate that a 99-year-old Iranian woman was killed in US-Israeli airstrikes west of Tehran. US-Israeli strikes have damaged around 33,000 homes in Tehran, according to the mayor’s office.
• Trump threatened to stop arms supplies to Ukraine in order to put pressure on Europe and force it to join the "coalition of the willing" to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
• Third Reich descendant Ursula von der Hitler announced the EU is stealing another €1.4bn, from the interest of Russia's frozen assets, to give to the beggars in Kiev. 
• There are no negotiations with the USA - Abbas Araghchi, Iranian Foreign Minister. The trust between Iran and the USA is at zero. 

• James Fischbach, the Republican candidate for governor of Florida, received a standing ovation after declaring that the Israeli prime minister was not welcome in Florida. (The guy is a bit of a pretender.)
• Bloomberg: American manufacturers of soda bottles, peanut butter tubs, sandwich bags, and anything else made of plastic are under severe pressure as the Iran war disrupts the supply of key components.
• Switzerland is threatening to cancel its order for US Patriot missile defense systems and has already suspended payments because the US has delayed deliveries to the Swiss side. There are fears that the Patriot dispute could jeopardize the purchase of larger F-35 fighter jets and even other US arms and support contracts.

• The criminal terrorist British king met with the 'leader' of those who were sent to destroy and ruin Syria. The global Epstein class gang of terrorists is exposed more each day. 
• Air defenses have been activated in Iran, and the people refuse to leave the square, continuing to demonstrate in support of the Iranian leadership and the option of confronting American-Israeli aggression.

• Haaretz cites sources: Families of dozens of Israeli soldiers in the Nahal Brigade sent a letter to Netanyahu opposing the deployment of their sons to southern Lebanon. Exposing our sons to danger in southern Lebanon under these circumstances is absolutely unreasonable.
• CBS news: The U.S. has lost 16 MQ-9 Reaper drones since the Iran war began, including two near Isfahan this week. Each Reaper costs around $30 million — making the losses potentially worth nearly $500 million.
• Stars and Stripes reports: With the U.S. preparing for potential ground operations in Iran and the number of American troops wounded in action increasing, the Army’s top general has authorized soldiers supporting the war to wear Army combat patches, signifying involvement in hostilities.  

• A representative at the United Nations resigned from his post on Friday and accused the international body of preparing for a scenario involving the possible use of nuclear weapons on Iran. Mohamad Safa, a UN representative for the Patriotic Vision Association (PVA), a non-governmental organisation that holds special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc), said that he resigned from his role in order to "leak the information", before claiming that some senior figures at the UN had been "serving a powerful lobby" and not the UN itself. 

• Paula White compares Donald Trump to Jesus. And Iran is the nation full of fanatics. What utter blasphemy. Trump has said he likes hanging out with losers because it makes him feel on top. This is a good example along with Hegseth, Paula White is a nobody who Trump made famous because she was willing to throw Jesus under the bus so she could smooze at the White House. 

• Economist Michael Hudson writes: This coming world depression is a high price to pay for its role as a catalyst in forcing the Global Majority to create a New International Economic Order protecting themselves from U.S. weaponization of trade, finance and technology.

Analyzing the 'No Kings movement'

In this episode of 51/49, James investigates the multi-layered "No Kings" protest movement, exploring the unsettling parallels between "organic" grassroots activism and a high-stakes psyop designed to harvest the biometric data of political dissidents while insulating the globalist establishment.

Always follow the money....the wolf in sheep clothing.