For all the talk about the nuclear non-proliferation agreements that nuclear nations agreed to (except Israel, w/ their 200+ nuke stockpile), Trump exited the Iranian deal made by Obama (probably to strike a better deal, since that is his M.O.) and has hit the gas on getting back into the nuclear proliferation stage once more.
What is sad is that we have the nuclear warheads available collectively to destroy the world over many many times, but the real injustice is the expense laid at the taxpayers (tax slaves) feet as well as enslaving their children to a mountain of debt. The US had not been involved in the production of nukes since the 1990s as the Non-Proliferation Treaties were doing their job after the end of the Cold War:
Non
Each homeowner “counts the cost” (Jesus’ words from the Bible in Luke 14:28) when they decide between bread and guns, toilet paper and ammo .. but the US Empire prints their own money and is paranoid as h**l that some other nation might pull a fast one on them, so they splurge on a weapons inventory that only an insane person might do on a personal level.
Back at the beginning of 2019, Trump rolled out the production of low-yield nukes (similar or smaller than the Hiroshima nuke that eliminated an estimated 60,000-80,000 people) for placement on the US’s nuclear submarine fleet. This is based on the strategic theory that if you launch a little nuke, it will not escalate to a nuclear war. I guess I don’t see it that way since I am sure that any “little nuke” lobbed into any US state WOULD result in a firestorm of nuke warheads aimed at the source (or not, just like the Iraq invasion, where they had nothing to do w/ 9/11, got the brunt of the US Empire’s mistake with millions killed and their country’s infrastructure ruined as well as the release of ISIS in their territory).
So here we are in 2020, fresh off Trump’s assassination of Iran’s 2nd in command on Iraqi territory, pissing off all honest people in those nations, and it is becoming clear what the cost is going to be for all this. ZeroHedge has done the US taxpayers/tax-slaves a favor by brining some graphics to help communicate our future debt:
OK, this ain’t low “cost” = low “yield nukes, this actually has a major impact on the already stretched budget, that will never be achieved again.
Other info that is provided is both the location and the composition of these weapons:
ZeroHedge’s Tyler Durden summarizes by saying:
With this new weapons development, the U.S. is aiming to create “tailored response options” to any potential conflict. By eliminating the perceived advantages that adversaries may have, the U.S. is hoping to lower the likelihood of a nuclear conflict.
Arms control advocates warn that new lower-yield warheads entering production will lower the threshold for a nuclear conflict.
While advocates and critics of nuclear weapons debate the merits of new weapons, we appear to be entering a new era of weapons proliferation.
While I do not believe in gun-free or nuke-free zones, when a government, “servants of the people” (at least in America that was the initial thought) goes crazy in spending for weapons that do little to actually “protect” the US, you have to wonder what will it take to reverse this course toward Thomas Jefferson’s dream:
Sanctions, embargoes and tariffs might not enough for the DC Elite to be convinced that Russia is not a threat to the US Empire’s future. It seems that China, which owns a substantial chunk of US debt, has been marginalized, either by design or by coincidence.
What is the source of this paranoia? Is it that the Russians embarrassed the US by really defeating ISIS? Maybe it was what the Russians found in Syria after ISIS retreated that had the US Empire’s fingerprints all over it. Maybe it is because Russia has done fairly well in spite of the embargoes by trading with other nations, getting off the USD petro-dollar and securing Crimea? Is it because Putin pulled levers to get Trump elected? (Don’t make me laugh)
The MIC / Deep State does need a war soon to keep the defense industry humming and keep those DC lobbyists busy with a majority of Congress in lining their pocketbooks. The Israel-First policy has been a great program for two intense decades (preceded by a couple of decades of US-centric support) ..
.. but that program might be plateauing a bit now that Iraq is pushing for independence from the US orbit, thanks to Trump’s assassination of Iran’s 2nd in command on Iraqi soil. Israel will keep crying that it needs the Golan Heights, more Palestinian soil to settle on and protection from Iraqi missiles.
So to move on and ratchet up some war or preparation for war somewhere on this globe, the US has to focus on Russia. I mean, look at the way Russia has encroached on NATO since 1990:
Oops, I guess NATO has been in expansion mode. Oh well, the narrative pays little attention to facts.
Paul Craig Robert’s article caught my eye this week as he sensed that Russia should be alert to what the US Empire is up to. It seems from this article, that the Russian people don’t see the US as an enemy:
“Only 3% of Russian respondents said they see the West as Russia’s enemy, Levada said. Another 16% said they view the West as a rival.
“Two-thirds of Levada’s respondents (67%) said Russia should treat the West as a “partner,” while 11% said Russia should treat the West as a “friend,” according to the Kommersant business daily’s breakdown of the data.”
Roberts is concerned that the reality of the US Empire’s hate on Russia is a struggle that should be more apparent and real.
Consider the expense (and debt) that the US has expended only to be shown up by Russia’s new hyper-sonic missiles and other emerging technologies.
Examples of the technological lag were made public almost two years ago:
– Mach 20 allows supersonic missile delivery system that can quote “deliver missiles to the needed point in just a matter of the seconds
– A cruise missile with a nuclear engine
– The 200 ton SARMAT ballistic missile that circles around the Earth and again come to the other continents from a surprisingly weird angles
There are a couple more, but I think you get the picture.
With a 1/10th of the US Empire budget (not including the black budgets and other military agencies that do not figure into the DoD official budget), Russia has been 10x more innovative in an attempt to defend itself. I contend that only these new systems that have come of age in the last 5 years helps to deter the US from attempting regime change on Russia itself .. again.
While Roberts thinks that Russia’s military understands the latest war-game that NATO is amassing near Russia’s borders, he contends that the government is failing their people in getting them to understand this reality. Maybe Russia understands that a distracted population is not an innovative or productive one, I guess that would be my own take. In either case, Roberts then says:
How can the Russian people, humiliated by American sanctions and endless denunciations of their elected president, who led them out of American captivity, and threatened by Washington’s nuclear missiles on their border, possiblly(sic) believe in friendship and partnership with Washington?
If the polls are correct, and the Russian people do not understand Washington’s hegemonic impulse, Russian sovereignty is not a sure thing.
I contend that psychologically, having the people surprised by an overt act of aggression on the part of the US Empire would kindle a defensive posture more than warning them day after day that the evil empire (US) is poised to strike at any minute. That is something only the US government would do to justify expensive military interventions around the globe as well as a massive debt.
I stand impressed to date of Russia’s attitude on the world stage, patient with countries like Turkey that vacillate between Russian and US circles while providing true relieve to the people of Syria that is still reeling from Obama’s and Hillary’s induced “civil war’ there using ISIS as their weapon of choice.
Things sure have changed in 40 years, from crazy Ivan to reasonable Putin while the US’s collateral damage was JFK on their way to having crazy Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Obama and now Trump manning the wheel.
Sometimes it takes a very small quote to wake up to the new reality. I contend that this reality could have come much earlier, like in 1814, or 1860, 1867, 1870s, 1913, 1941, 1950, 1964, 1971, 1990, 2002, or 2008. I think it comes from our nature to assume the best in some tough situations.
But, consider this quote from Angelo Codevilla in his article “Facing Up to the Revolution” :
Our country is in a state of revolution, irreversibly, because society’s most influential people have retreated into moral autarchy, have seceded from America’s constitutional order, and because they browbeat their socio-political adversaries instead of trying to persuade them. Theirs is not a choice that can be reversed. It is a change in the character of millions of people.
The sooner conservatives realize that the Republic established between 1776 and 1789—the America we knew and loved—cannot return, the more fruitfully we will be able to manage the revolution’s clear and present challenges to ourselves. How are we to deal with a ruling class that insists on ruling—elections and generally applicable rules notwithstanding—because it regards us as lesser beings?
It does have to be considered how the US Constitution actually helped the oligarchy, the ruling class, to gain access to the US government. If the colonies had remained sovereign states, like under the Articles of Confederation, it would have been more difficult and easier to resist from a grassroots level. The spread of “general” government to that of a federal government forever changed the structure of this nation as well as the fabric of society. Today, 99% of people can not imagine life without their safety net, their protector, their ‘mom’, their ‘dad’, .. their government.
Last month in a Lew Rockwell article, Gary D. Barnett proclaimed:
No nation-state is valid, as all states tend to seek a hierarchal structure of power, specifically in the name of protecting the common man collectively with profoundly restrictive laws. No free individual has need for such false protection. The beginning of this American experiment to create a powerful state was said to be about freedom of the individual, while all along, the hierarchy of power became more and more evident. What started out as a few separate colonies quickly became separate states with a new ruling class, and then one nation-state was formed and centralized, with allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. This progression was intended all along, and so the sought after tyrannical state came to fruition. Today we live as slaves in a society with a ruling structure akin to a fascist oligarchy. This is now a nation that is in constant war, and has become the largest and most murderous empire in the history of the world.
Unfortunately, secession will never be tolerated (if Lincoln didn’t tolerate it, you can bet no 21st century president would), and those who speak of this will be marginalized one way or another.
The US Empire will have to die before anything like the 1783-1789 federated group of states could ever be attempted again. As Mr. Barnett predicts:
Collectivism breeds empire and allows it to flourish, and because of the loss of individual thought, it becomes the internal disease that leads to the extermination of that empire. This is the real America, not the land of the free and home of the brave, but a collective mob of ignorant sheep awaiting the slaughter due to their own weakness and stupidity.
With collectivist thought at an all time-high we seem to be a long way from breaking up this evil empire that continues to wage war all around the globe. War is the only thing it knows, and the only thing that brings in the $USD and props up the petro-dollar.
Sad times indeed, however, by planting the seeds of individual thought in our kids and our friends, we can all be best prepared for the next season of the US Empire.
In the grand scheme of things, and politicians and their masters, the elites, are always scheming, one has to wonder about the trajectory of the confederated united States of America (former British colonies in North America) –> United States of America (the republic) –> United States of America (the centralized federal government from Lincoln’s policies) –> the United States of America (democracy that embraced via 16th and 17th amendments to the US Constitution both federal income (direct) taxes on the people as well as popular election of senators vs. state appointed PLUS social security, the original welfare program and FDR’s decision to leave the gold standard) –> the US Empire that emerged post WWII that replaced the British Empire. Debts were still being paid by the nations that fought WWI and the Marshall Plan meant even more debt was to be incurred as a result of WWII for the US:
The UK/US effort with Middle East oil started in the late 1940s and early 1950s made it clear that the US imperialism was to be more covert and economic than the British effort. The CIA’s assassination of Iranian prime minister in 1953 signaled to the region that the US was dead serious about maintain control of oil production in the region to the US’s benefit.
By the 1970s, after the US totally severed all ties with the gold standard in 1971 under Nixon and his short-term efforts to deal with more war debt, this time from the Vietnam War, Henry Kissinger setup the petro-dollar system to enable the US to incur even more debt than ever before as an article from Southfront’s Dr. Leon Tressell points out:
The Petro-dollar system set up by Kissinger in the 1970s underpins the American control of the global trading system and allows it to maintain a massively over bloated military the scale of which the world has not seen since World War 2.
With this backdrop that articulates an empire’s trajectory, from federated sovereign states to a global superpower empire, one can only wonder how long the US can fake it until it makes it time and again before the petro-dollar magic wears off.
To help unpack what is really happening in the oil world, one has to understand the initial promises of shale, the technology that allowed both Obama and Trump to brag that the US is now a net exporter of oil production and to leverage this “bubble” (no pun intended) to strong arm other nations not on the US Empire’s dependents list.
President Trump’s abandonment of the Iran nuclear deal and reimposition of sanctions on Tehran was based on the premise that the drop in Iranian oil exports would be made up for by U.S. shale oil production. Thus keeping down any inflationary pressures on the global oil market.
While Iran is definitely in the empire’s crosshairs, so is Russia:
Trump has also used the stick to force Europe away from Russian gas supplies. Under the terms of the misnamed ‘Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act of 2019, a sanctions law ironically written by oil and gas rich Texas Senator Ted Cruz,‘the U.S. has threatened EU countries with sanctions if they participate in helping with the construction of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic sea.
The world’s bully continues to play cards like it has a full house, but it may be bluffing:
The EIA 2020 forecast is for shale oil production to peak in 2022 at 14 million barrels per day and continue at that level until 2050. The vast majority of this oil production is expected to come from the shale oil pays in just 3 states: Texas, New Mexico and North Dakota. The bulk of this oil production is expected to come from the world’s largest oil field in the Permian basin that runs across Texas and New Mexico.
There is the bluff. The US is treating shale like oil, and they are not the same. In the first half of the 1900s, oil wells put in place in this time-frame STILL makeup 50% of the global oil market. Shale is proving to have a much different curve:
The problem oil companies face is that the decline rate of shale oil wells are frighteningly rapid at a rate of 70% in the first year and 30% in the second year of operation. This means they have to keep pumping and drilling new wells like mad to just to keep up production levels.
Sounds like the EIA forecast may have been some “fake news”. Not cool.
Of greater concern are the reports warning that the Permian basin, the jewel in the crown of America’s fracking industry, is approaching peak production.
In 2018 Paul Kibsgaard CEO of Schlumberger, one of the oil industry’s largest service provider, warned, “We are already starting to see a similar reduction in unit well productivity to that already seen in the Eagle Ford, suggesting that the Permian growth potential could be lower than earlier expected.”
A respected scientist took the EIA projects and offered his own report:
This is not good news. This is the type of news the media will bury and the US government will ignore.
Maybe this is the reason Trump refuses to leave Syria’s eastern oil fields, or Iraq. Maybe this is why Trumps economic sanctions target Iran and Venezuela?
Oil production from countries that Washington designates as enemies, such as Russia, Iran and Venezuela, will increase in importance on the global market as U.S. shale oil production starts to decline. This will give greater power and influence to OPEC and Russia when it comes to determining oil prices through production cuts/increases.
Maybe this is also why Trump has actually stepped up the Middle East warfare, buy dropping more bombs per day than O-bomb-a and taking the additional aggressive step of threatening assassination of Iraqi politicians that might strike new deals with China for Iraqi oil:
Nations from Iraq to Saudi Arabia are developing trade and infrastructure relations with China which the United States takes strong exception to. Take for example, the recent bombshell admission by Iraq’s caretaker Prime Minister that Trump threatened him with assassination if Iraq proceeds with an oil for infrastructure project with China. In the first phase of this deal Iraq will send 100,00 barrels of oil to China in return for a $10 billion credit. China would finish the building of the country’s electricity grid and other major infrastructure projects including its vital oil and gas sector.
As U.S. shale oil production declines it will seek to maintain control over the regions oil production. China’s desire for growing amounts of Middle Eastern oil will intensify this clash for resources, influence and power in the region. Thus leading to greater geo-political and economic conflict.
So basically, for three decades, since the Cold War with the USSR ended, the USA has destabilized the Middle East, and now, blow-back will be a real thing and not just a CIA projection. The War of Terror costing $6T may have spawned a new season of global conflict.
So the US is in a “pre-War” period and we are already $23T(2020) in debt, usually all that debt piles up AFTER a war. This can’t end well especially if the petro-dollar status slips away.
So now what?
“… Jesus then left the Temple. As he walked away, his disciples pointed out how very impressive the Temple architecture was. Jesus said, “You’re not impressed by all this sheer size, are you? The truth of the matter is that there’s not a stone in that building that is not going to end up in a pile of rubble.”Later as he was sitting on Mount Olives, his disciples approached and asked him, “Tell us, when are these things going to happen? What will be the sign of your coming, that the time’s up?” Jesus said, “Watch out for doomsday deceivers. Many leaders are going to show up with forged identities, claiming, ‘I am Christ, the Messiah.’ They will deceive a lot of people. When reports come in of wars and rumored wars, keep your head and don’t panic. This is routine history; this is no sign of the end. Nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler, over and over. Famines and earthquakes will occur in various places. This is nothing compared to what is coming…” – The Bible (The Message paraphrase) – Matthew 24:1-8
This might be another world war, or this might be a more final clash ..
“.. Staying with it—that’s what God requires. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry, and you’ll be saved. All during this time, the good news—the Message of the kingdom—will be preached all over the world, a witness staked out in every country. And then the end will come…” The Bible (The Message paraphrase) – Matthew 24:13,14
USS Aquila PHM-4 Armed Forces Day 1982 Sand Point, Seattle, WA, USA
I am a vet. In hindsight I knew little about what I might be fighting for. Personally I had voted for Jimmy Carter and for peace. The year 1976 was marked with a vivid understanding (apparently only by some) that the war in Vietnam was not only a failure, but was a waste of life, both from soldiers and civilians on BOTH sides as well as the economic havoc war plays on nations for decades to come.
I will admit that while I was in the US Navy, I at first agreed with the thought that there were bad guys in this world, and then there was the USA, you know, a “Global Force for Good”. Well it did not take me long to figure out that there was a narrative going on (although that word was not yet popular in my world as a 20 year old).
I was teaching electronics at a US Naval Station where Iranians, Iraqis, Saudis and Australians were my students. All of a sudden, the Iranian hostage crises that involved 52 American diplomats and citizens being held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981. What I did know is that the most honest Iranian students confided in me with the reality of the Shah’s dictatorship, complete with secret police (SAVIK), for decades propped up by US support. At this time I was completely clueless to what happened 5 years before I was born when in 1953, the US CIA orchestrated an assassination on the democratically elected president of Iran so that regime change could keep Iranian oil for US and UK political interests.
The bottom line was, that I did not fully appreciate the real world’s Geo-politics until after I left the US Navy.
This happens a lot, even the highly decorated US Marine saw things more 20/20 after he left the military:
“Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die. The was the “war to end wars.” This was the “war to make the world safe for democracy.” No one told them that dollars and cents were the real reason. No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits. No one told these American soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here. No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by submarines built with United State patents. They were just told it was to be a “glorious adventure”.
Thus, having stuffed patriotism down their throats, it was decided to make them help pay for the war, too. So, we gave them the large salary of $30 a month!
All that they had to do for this munificent sum was to leave their dear ones behind, give up their jobs, lie in swampy trenches, eat canned willy (when they could get it) and kill and kill and kill…and be killed” – Smedley Butler “War is a Racket”
Major General Smedley Darlington Butler was a senior United States Marine Corps officer who fought in both the Mexican Revolution and World War I.
Butler was, at the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. But AFTER he left the service, he said:
I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service as a member of our country’s most agile military force – the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from second lieutenant to Major General. And during that period 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. I suspected I was part of a racket all the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service.
Never had an original thought UNTIL I left the service. Bingo!
“.. I was blind, nowIsee ..” John 9:25
What helps me is that I have read other vet’s thoughts on their experiences and then waking up later in life to see things more 20/20. It is as if the US military wants idealistic 17/18/19 year olds as cannon fodder before any of these young people start to have an original thought, you know, after 12 years of indoctrination in US government schools.
Tom Wood’s shares a letter he received. I include it in full because I agree with 95% of what this man my age shared:
I retired from the Marines in ’97, having been disgusted with the constant yammer of “thank you for your service,” having spent my last decade active, just trying to keep my Marines alive, able to think clearly, and not absorb the b.s. dished out daily, about “the importance of these wars.”
It’s long overdue for people like you to be telling the truth about “what we did for you,” which is mostly to produce the most dangerous time in the world, in my own lifetime. I spent a good bit of time in places where we weren’t allowed to know where we were, and only after retiring was I able to find out what we were being used for. The Marines spent lots of time “over the horizon,” as “security” for operations we weren’t to know were happening, probably like what was done in Benghazi.
It’s still embarrassing when I get thanked. I want more than anything to explain how we managed to destroy half a dozen nations, spent trillions of dollars on tons of bombs, cruise missiles — and while we didn’t kill everyone, a lot who survived weren’t very happy to see us.
I spent almost no time in the Middle East in my second decade, only because I spent much time deployed in the first, at a time when we (the U.S.) were just ramping up in preparation for the destruction. I retired with 19 years, five months, 15 days, medically retired for multiple sclerosis, and I’m glad it happened, because I was a “lifer,” believed in what I was doing, and in the beginning actually thought there was good cause for our invasions.
I don’t think I would have understood what I know now, except that I got out, and began to see news (not on TV) and got to watch Benghazi, the destruction of Iraq, Afghanistan, almost like a civilian, and became determined to learn why. The best I can say for myself is I thank God I was able to get out without ever killing anyone.
I can’t really describe how easy it is to “serve” without knowing how evil the work is, until one hits a certain level, and then it hits you, and you begin to question everything, or you shut down and try to pretend you don’t know you’re doing wrong.
I enlisted because it was a family tradition, military service, and I enjoyed “seeing the world.” I truly believed we were “defending the nation,” all the way till I was sent back from Iraq for having “too much deployed time,” and got to watch that war on the sidelines. I only found out how we got into it about a decade ago, and at the same time discovered that what Saddam Hussein stated as his cause for invading Kuwait was in fact true — as forces on the ground, after his death, discovered the horizontal drilling done from Kuwait into Iraq’s oil field.
I enjoy reading your work just because I know it’s the truth. It’s kind of strange, after all the years of lies. I sent dozens of good men to war for bad reasons, and all I can say about it is that I prepared them for what they would see, and I was here, when they got back, to help them deal with the blowback.
I’ve watched one close friend shut down completely, not able to deal with what he saw as a metal smith on C-130’s, not even combat. One close friend spent six ears in Iraq destroying munitions caches, as a combat engineer. He is completely oblivious to the evil side of what was done….
I dearly wish it were easier to explain how one can be oblivious to so much of the reality of war, while being caught up in the moment — which is every moment at war. As a boy, I never understood why veterans never spoke of their experience, but as a young Marine knew why, having watched Vietnam unfold, while expecting to go there in my own turn. I didn’t, but did go to Beirut, to Africa a few times, and cruised the Middle East for a few years. I look back and wonder how I missed so much that was true, yet knowing it was because each of us, all of us, were tasked with almost insuperable jobs, that literally consumed us; we were always doing too much to really see what we were enmeshed in.
I spend much time in the news, around the world, trying to tell the truths I’ve discovered in my own searches. I pray a lot now, I spend a lot of time hating this government, and the many who won’t even look up and see it for what it is. I thank God for the m.s., and forcing me out of the Corps, which was my family, for so many years, knowing “the Marines” are good, honorable Americans, but we were always doing dirty work for political purposes, never for any good purpose.
Thanks for speaking out, and stating something that needs be said, time and time again.
There are two possible ways for vets to react when they begin to sense the truth about the evil they were part of. “I can’t really describe how easy it is to “serve” without knowing how evil the work is, until one hits a certain level, and then it hits you, and..
you begin to question everything, or
you shut down and try to pretend you don’t know you’re doing wrong.
He goes on to thank God for his Multiple Sclerosis which forced him out of the Marines so he could then see clearly and know the truth!
Powerful!
May each of us seek out truth and research things that are not politically correct .. and not necessarily aligned with the empire’s narratives .. since the truth will set one free, right?
And you will know the truth, and that truth will setyoufree – John 8:32
Non
