Yes, thanks to a “slight” miscalculation on the part of the US Empire, I think many people will wake up to the fact of what has been coming down for 40 years in the Middle East.
Before this era, there was little terrorism while there were a couple of world wars. Which do you prefer? Personally, I prefer none, not for me mind you, but for my kids and my grand-kids I prefer peace.
The “slight” miscalculation is highlighted in this article that rightly makes prominent what most of MSM (no surprise there) and most people are missing:
The US did not plan to kill the vice commander of the Iraqi Hashd al-Shaabi brigade Abu Mahdi al-Muhandes when it assassinated Iranian Brigadier General Qassem Soleimani on Thursday at 11:00 PM local time at Baghdad airport. Usually, when Soleimani was arriving in Baghdad, security commander Abu Zeinab al-Lami, a deputy officer to al Muhandes, would have welcomed him. This time, al-Lami was outside Iraq and al-Muhandes replaced him. The US plan was to assassinate an Iranian General on Iraqi soil, not to kill a high-ranking Iraqi officer. By killing al-Muhandes, the US violated its treaty obligation to respect the sovereignty of Iraq and to limit its activity to training and offering intelligence to fight the “Islamic State”, ISIS. It has also violated its commitment to refrain from overflying Iraq without permission of the Iraqi authorities.
As the article states, the US and Iraq are both embarrassed by this turn of events that unmasks the US Empire’s true intentions, on behalf of Israel. This has coalesced most of the various militias in the region (except ISIS of course, sponsored by US, Israel and Saudi Arabia) and has now linked former enemies Iraq and Iran to have common ground. It will be interesting the uptake of this outside the region as Russia and China, along with Syria find each others as friends with a common enemy, especially with all the trade sanctions and tariffs that the US has instigated. I am thinking too that the European “coalition” days are numbered as what nation in Europe will side with the US Empire at this point?
So is the US Empire at the 1775 point of the British Empire? An unmasked and revealed belligerent imperialist force for bad verses American Exceptionalism, a Global Force for Good. Time will tell.
I am pretty sure that with Brexit, and with Trump’s blunder on Iraqi soil, we will all see much clearer in 2020. As more and more people distrust huge government, distrust its partner in crime, the media, there will be all sorts of things that can be revealed in this new year.
One thing I do want to draw attention to is the difference in character between the typical US politician and the man (i.e. labeled a bad guy by Trump) that was murdered after a non-private commercial flight from Damascus, Syria to Baghdad, Iraq:
Soleimani’s handwritten will: “My wife, I have chosen my burial place in the cemetery of the Martyrs of Kerman, Mahmoud knows it. I want my gravestone to be simple. Just write ‘Soldier Qassem Soleimani’ no more titles and phrases.”
Quite the difference, no?
Interesting days to come .. enjoy each day and the blessings that God the Creator has blessed us with in the midst of “wars and rumors of wars” – Jesus in Matthew 24:6.
Hug your kids, your grand-kids and good friends!
I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
It’s gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
Oh, yes I can make it now the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is that rainbow I’ve been praying for
It’s gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
(Ooh…) Look all around, there’s nothing but blue skies
Look straight ahead, there’s nothing but blue skies
The US House votes 354-60 against the withdrawal from the ILLEGAL US presence in Syria .. I think we found 354 people ready to volunteer themselves, or their kids and/or their grand-kids for the next war they dream up.
It must be all that MIC [Military Industrial Complex] lobbying money in their pocket and the promise of more $ that had them all voting against another illegal war in a far off land.
At the end of the day, this is great news for America, for American teenagers approaching the age where the military tries to attract them to the noble mission to occupy 700-1000 bases around the world, drone strike WITHOUT documentation in half a dozen countries and basically fail at bringing real democracy or freedom to any country in four decades PLUS.
Moon of Alabama’s post highlights all the good things going on in Syria which of course means that US politicians and their media start crying:
.. The mainstream borg is up in arms that Turkey uses Jihadis to attack their beloved anarcho-marxist PKK terrorists group. They have conveniently forgotten the history of the U.S. war on Syria, its arming of those Jihadis and its pampering of al-Qaeda. The U.S. did not betray the Kurds any more than it betrayed Turkey and the Jihadis which the Obama administration armed throughout the war…
On Lew Rockwell’s web site, Michael S. Rozeff writes:
This vote shows that the House members from both parties are captured by both military/intelligence/deep state interests and world government/democracy ideology. Both such elements go against the well-being of America..
You think? Bi-partisan agreement on unlimited wars, ‘wars without end, amen’ is what I hear from these sociopath politicians. Between the Israeli and MIC lobbies, these politicians can retire comfortably after only a few years in office.
To hear the politicians tell it, it was “shock and horror” when Turkey’s extremists start their NORMAL brutal tactics, but this time against the Kurds. It was all good when 500,000 Syrian’s were killed by Obama’s decision to “regime change” Syria.
Rania Khalek on Twitter outlines what REALLY came down:
The US armed and funded extremists in Syria to overthrow the Syrian government and the media cheered. Those same extremists then attacked the Kurds on Turkey’s behalf to the horror of the same media. Now what? pic.twitter.com/pAA4EENhSQ
“.. The US armed and funded extremists in Syria to overthrow the Syrian government and the media cheered. Those same extremists then attacked the Kurds on Turkey’s behalf to the horror of the same media…”
Yeah, main stream media (MSM) and a majority of US politicians acting the same way on the same day .. what can you say. They are all crazy.
Actually, things are going really well in Syria now with the US finally quitting their trespassing:
The Turkish controlled Jihadis made little progress. Mostly Kurdish fighters are preventing them from expanding from the area they are informally allowed to hold. The Turkish command has called up more irregular ‘rebel’ troops including Jihadis from Jaish al-Islam who had once controlled Ghouta in the east of Damascus. They had been transported to Idleb after their defeat. .. The Russian air force in Syria is preventing the use of the Turkish air-force in support of the Turkish attacks. Yesterday a Turkish F-16 entered Syrian air space but retreated when some Russian fighters appeared to hunt for it.
* actual numbers may be dated, however, the true character of each nation should be obvious to the most casual observer!
Iran has yet to violate the JCPOA treaty that was signed by many countries almost four years ago. Have you read it?
There seems to be some angst in major media today, 01JUL2019, when they heard that Iran has announced that it has exceeded 300kg of enriched uranium hexafluoride (UF6). Really? Did they not read the treaty and know what “triggered” this action? Did they not hear Iran warn about this during late-May and earlier last month? This should have been no surprise.
I had shared my own concerns of the heightened tensions between the US Empire and Iran in a post about a week ago when I mentioned:
A nations character is determined by its actions over time. The US’s character in domestic and world affairs has been going downhill for decades, even over a century. This nation has long passed the time when the world might see us as a “shining city on a hill”.
It takes TWO in any relationship, and in this case, the US has been nothing but a bully in “victim-blaming” Iran .. from when the CIA assassinated their president in 1953 to this April when Trump said:
“floods once again show the level of Iranian regime mismanagement in urban planning and in emergency preparedness.”
.. WHILE whole swaths of the US Midwest were underwater. You can’t make this up. Every administration assumes that the stupid American people will just nod their head and agree with main-stream-media and their masters, the US government (deep state, politicians and thousands of bureaucrats that suck the life out of the American taxpayer).
Moon of Alabama cuts to the chase about what is really going on here:
Iran does that [exceed 300kg UF6] within the frame of the JCPOA. It is not breaching it. Article 26 of the joint plan states that the U.S. will refrain from reimposing sanctions and that Iran will react in case that happens:
The United States will make best efforts in good faith to sustain this JCPOA and to prevent interference with the realisation of the full benefit by Iran of the sanctions lifting specified in Annex II. The U.S. Administration, acting consistent with the respective roles of the President and the Congress, will refrain from re-introducing or re-imposing the sanctions specified in Annex II that it has ceased applying under this JCPOA, without prejudice to the dispute resolution process provided for under this JCPOA. The U.S. Administration, acting consistent with the respective roles of the President and the Congress, will refrain from imposing new nuclear-related sanctions.Iran has stated that it will treat such a re-introduction or re-imposition of the sanctions specified in Annex II, or such an imposition of new nuclear-related sanctions, as grounds to cease performing its commitments under this JCPOA in whole or in part.
For the record, on 08MAY2019, the US broke the JCPOA when it reimposed sanctions on Iran. Period. There should be ZERO crocodile tears from the US on this latest development.
In addition to this, Mood of Alabama points out that on 03MAY2019:
the State Department removed sanction waivers that allowed Iran to export low enriched uranium in exchange for natural uranium:
In addition, any involvement in transferring enriched uranium out of Iran in exchange for natural uranium will now be exposed to sanctions. The United States has been clear that Iran must stop all proliferation-sensitive activities, including uranium enrichment, and we will not accept actions that support the continuation of such enrichment.We will also no longer permit the storage for Iran of heavy water it has produced in excess of current limits; any such heavy water must not be made available to Iran in any fashion.
Linked to this is the US’s attempt to isolate Iran in all this by its threat to keep EU (European Union) partners (especially Germany, France and the U.K.) from trading with Iran.Do you see any similarities to how the US treated Japan in 1940 for force them to fire first? (from a 15JUN2019 post):
Especially damning was the economic manipulation FDR orchestrated against Japan the year before Pearl Harbor and the fact that his administration was well aware of the Japanese fleet’s route to Pearl but decided to keep the US Navy in Hawaii in the dark. So much for that “surprise”.
Deja vu, all over again. When will the masses learn? Oh yes, we are in the process of erasing our history, how convenient!
But there is some good news, according to Zero Hedge:
Europe announced that the special trade channel, Instex, that will allow European firms to avoid SWIFT and bypass American sanctions on Iran, is now operational.
The EU has *alls! This is great news and the price of oil reflected this event.
This also has some more unintended consequences for the US playing “hard-ball” with Iran (on behalf of Israel and Saudi Arabia you know, because what other reason would the US be upset with Iran about?). Zero Hedge again points out this aspect of the empire that has some more cracks in it:
Here is a simpler summary of what just happened: this was the first official shot across the bow of the USD status as a global reserve currency, and not by America’s adversaries but by its closest allies. And once those who benefit the most from the status quo openly revolt against it, the countdown to the end of the USD reserve status officially begins.
Yes. You may ask why would I be happy about the economic mayhem that is bound to occur when the effects of this ripple out through all the US economic “spinning-plates”? It is because the only way for the US Empire to quit thinking that “American Exceptionalism” gives it a license to operated above the law (natural law) in the whole world without penalty, the only way the US Empire finally understands that it can no longer be the world’s policeman, that the only way the US political class / elites and deep state finally come to terms with the immorality of its ways (not practicing the golden rule on the macro level) is for the financial rug be pulled out from under it so the “beast” (i.e. swamp) can finally be starved (i.e. drained).
I yearn for the day that the American people (together (doubtful) OR separately (ideally) in various federations of states and city-states) get back to that moment in time when the American Revolution concluded when life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were the top three in the minds of those that finally threw off the British Empire’s micro-managing / taxing agenda.
For the current US government who never saw a treaty that it couldn’t eventually break, it is no wonder why the political elite never wanted this deal with Iran to work, as one can see in the intro to the 2015 treaty:
The E3/EU+3 (China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States, with the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) and the Islamic Republic of Iran welcome this historic Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which will ensure that Iran’s nuclear programme will be exclusively peaceful ..
Yes, it is that word “peace”. The US Empire has not nor has never wanted peace. Free trade is the antidote to war, and the state knows this!
Don’t worry, I am not talking about the Bible which has been misinterpreted time and again from the original languages as well as from the context of the time in which it was said centuries ago.
I am talking about Western Media misinterpreting Iranian leadership’s words, whether mistakenly or on purpose, ends up giving those that worship their government-directed news sources a false impression of what really is. Remember, this nation is driven lately with “feelings”, and so how better a way to get people back on-board the war-train but to twist what is said, and hope no one catches it.
Moon of Alabama reflects on the time when someone mentioned that a certain country must be:
“wiped off the map”
Can you remember this? Almost fifteen years ago, in 2005 it was reported that Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad said this about Israel. Can you imagine the brouhaha? Oh yes, tensions between the US (protectorate of Israel) and Iran flared, even though those specific words were never said in Persian.
“He did say he hoped its regime, i.e., a Jewish-Zionist state occupying Jerusalem, would collapse.” Since Iran has not “attacked another country aggressively for over a century,” he said in an e-mail exchange, “I smell the whiff of war propaganda.”
Also, ..
Jonathan Steele, a columnist for the left-leaning Guardian newspaper in London, recently laid out the case this way: “The Iranian president was quoting an ancient statement by Iran’s first Islamist leader, the late Ayatollah Khomeini, that ‘this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time,’ just as the Shah’s regime in Iran had vanished. He was not making a military threat. He was calling for an end to the occupation of Jerusalem at some point in the future. The ‘page of time’ phrase suggests he did not expect it to happen soon.”
However, the misinterpretation stuck. I bet you remembered this phrase from 2005 if you are over 30 years old. It made an impression on you.
Retractions don’t stick except for those who are critical thinkers and can do their own research. The damage is done, however, for the masses as the propagandist and manipulators in our midst use it for their own purposes, even if it could lead to WWIII, they don’t care.
So when the trustworthy AP (Associated Press, with the emphasis on the first three letters) publishes this:
Iran leadership doesn’t understand the words “nice” or “compassion,” they never have. Sadly, the thing they do understand is Strength and Power, and the USA is by far the most powerful Military Force in the world, with 1.5 Trillion Dollars invested over the last two years alone..
….The wonderful Iranian people are suffering, and for no reason at all. Their leadership spends all of its money on Terror, and little on anything else. The U.S. has not forgotten Iran’s use of IED’s & EFP’s (bombs), which killed 2000 Americans, and wounded many more…
….Iran’s very ignorant and insulting statement, put out today, only shows that they do not understand reality. Any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force. In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration. No more John Kerry & Obama!
Truth is, words matter. If one takes the exact Persian words and translate them, retarded is not one of them:
Absolutely incorrect. There is a word for “retarded” in Persian & Rouhani didn’t use it. Prior to him saying “mental disability” he even prefaced his comment by saying “mental weakness.” Those who speak Persian can listen & judge for themselves. Here is a video clip of Rouhani’s comment: link
In this day and age when one has seen the United Nations with everyone having headsets on hearing in almost real time the speeches in their own language, how can this still happen in 2019?
Actual word for word translation:
“They have become stricken with mental incapability [Persian: natavani-ye zehni]. The White House has become stricken with mental disability [Persian: ma’luliyat-e zehni]. They don’t know what to do.”
As Moon of Alabama says:
It is hard to believe that such significant mistranslations of official ‘enemies’, left without a timely correction, happen accidentally.
For sure. This was no accident, this was done intentionally to keep stoking the fires towards war and more sanctions that only serve to hurt the less fortunate in Iran, which makes the US officials like Bolton and Pompeo smile and laugh out loud:
“This is a sick world we’re living in. Sick people” – Sinbad in Jingle All the Way (1996)
Politics distorts both history (old news) and recent announcements (new news). Rarely are these accomplished as a conclusion of some logical research, but is almost always a reaction to something that this BIG news can cover up, you know, a distraction.
Case in point is the abrupt change in policy about the status of the Golan Heights:
It is “time”? Ok, to understand why it is time, one needs to follow independent media to get to the bottom of this. Moon of Alabama has the goods on what is really going on. In summary, with Israel’s Netanyahu’s election coming up, and all the scandals that have come to light, there was even a bigger scandal that just surfaced, and so the US President breaks with all former policy and against UN rulings to go out on a limb and state a stupid idea that will sound great all over DC where everyone’s pocket is filled with AIPAC money. Even the general public and evangelical Christians will cheer this message since in their mind it is Israel and US against the world.
Back to the back-story, the source of this recent “surfacing” (no pun intended) of this submarine-centric tale is an Israeli publication that has been keeping track of the corruption for decades. Similar to the US political environment, the Israeli one has its own immense swamp.
The high-profile Case 3000 investigation has ensnared several close associates of Netanyahu, but not the premier himself, on suspicion that they received illicit funds as part of a massive graft scheme in the multi-billion-shekel state purchase of naval vessels and submarines from German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp. Some have called it the largest suspected graft scandal in the country’s history.
That seems a bit distant from Netanyahu, however, the article meticulously weaves this tale that comes right into his lap:
Having previously claimed he obtained the shares when he was a private citizen, Netanyahu has appeared to change his story, admitting he became a SeaDrift shareholder in 2007 while serving as the leader of the opposition, Haaretz reported Monday. The Marker website has reported a different timeline, saying Netanyahu purchased the SeaDrift shares in April 2005, when he was the finance minister.
This file photo taken on December 11, 2012 shows a general view of the headquarters of German heavy industry giant ThyssenKrupp AG in Essen, Germany. (AFP/Patrik Stollarz)
He sold his SeaDrift shares to Milikowsky on November 29, 2010 — a day before its merge with GrafTech was completed — according to The Marker — 20 months after being elected prime minister.
OK then, what is the difference of a few years? Well, what about the money, just follow the money:
Netanyahu’s selling of his Seadrift shares in 2010 to Milikowsky for NIS 16 million ($4.5 million) — reportedly four-to-seven times more than the amount he paid for the shares several years earlier. Analysts, including Channel 12’s Amnon Abramovich and the Yedioth Ahronoth daily’s Sever Plotzker, have said the premier received the shares from his cousin “virtually for free.”
That could potentially lead to a new investigation similar to Case 1000, in which Netanyahu faces fraud and breach of trust charges, pending a hearing, for allegedly receiving illicit gifts from billionaire benefactors. Milikowsky has reportedly given Netanyahu sums of money several times over the last two decades, and the fact that they are cousins isn’t likely to shield them from scrutiny.
So finally, back to Trump’s surprise move, it’s international law violation and most importantly, his ethical and moral violations are laid bare by Moon of Alabama:
The people who paid for Trump’s election campaign, foremost casino magnate and zionist Sheldon Adelson, want to keep the Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahoo in office. Netanyahoo is under investigation in several corruption cases and has a serious competitor in the upcoming general elections in Israel. Trump needs money for his re-election campaign and is willing to do anything to get it.
Trump is colluding with Netayahoo to influence the Israeli election. It is the reason why he decided yesterday to claim that Israel has sovereignty over the Golan Heights ..
So here we go again, right after it is made clear that the Russians did not influence the 2016 US elections, the US resorts to yet again, influence other country’s elections, something it has been doing for decades and in 1953 the US through the CIA actually assassinated a president of another country in an election they could not influence enough. This country is Iran and they will NEVER forget. But I digress .. :
About these heights, this is Syrian land period! Wrong side of the river Israel IF you are really Israel 2.0, following the Law of Moses and being led by people who have the DNA of Hebrews. The very real thing is that this is NOT Israel 2.0 but a convenient cover of Zionists.
President Donald Trump’s tweet on Thursday recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory surprised members of his own Middle East peace team, the State Department, and Israeli officials.U.S. diplomats and White House aides had believed the Golan Heights issue would be front and center at next week’s meetings between Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. But they were unprepared for any presidential announcement this week.
Yeah, so has the US adopted Israel as the 51st state OR does Israel have Washington DC on a short leash? I pick B.
Trump’s declaration was expected, but not for yesterday. The reason for the premature ejaculation is obvious. Yesterday a new case of Netyahoo’s utter corruption came to light:
State prosecutors are reportedly considering opening yet another criminal graft investigation against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this time in the so-called submarine affair, citing “dramatic” new information.
Netanyahoo made a profit of $4 million from shares he owned in a company that was bought out by Thyssen-Krupp, a German conglomerate from which Israel under Netanyahoo ordered submarines and corvettes.
The new revelations threatened to blow up Netanyahoo’s reelection campaign. Trump’s sudden Golan Heights move was timed to bury them.
So on to the legal, moral and ethical around granting foreign land to a foreign nation? Who does that? Oh yeah, the country that has driven itself $22T into debt spending more on our military than the next TEN countries COMBINED. Our children and their children will be debt slaves for generations .. pure Boomer move.
Trump has no power to give Israel sovereignty over anything. Several UN resolutions determined (UNSCR242) and reconfirmed (UNSCR497) that the Golan Heights are Syrian territory illegally occupied by Israel. The European Union, Russia and others rejected Trump’s move and called it illegal.
Trump’s move though might have some standing in U.S. courts. That will become important when law suites are filed against Genie Energy Ltd., an oil company in Newark New Jersey that wants to drill for oil in the Golan Heights area:
Genie Energy is no “penny stock” run-of-the-mill oil company. Its board of Advisors includes Dick Cheney. It includes former CIA head and chairman of the above-mentioned Foundation for Defense of Democracies, James Woolsey. It includes Jacob Lord Rothschild of the London banking dynasty and a former business partner of convicted Russian oil oligarch, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Before his arrest Khodorkovsky secretly transferred his shares in Yukos Oil to Rothschild.Further this little-known Newark, New Jersey oil company board includes former US Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, pro-Israel media mogul and owner of Trump’s favorite Fox News TV, Rupert Murdoch. Also on the board are former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and hedge fund billionaire Michael Steinhardt. Steinhardt, a philanthropic friend of Israel and of Marc Rich, is also a board member of Woolsey’s neo-con Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, which advises Trump among other things that it would be good for Washington to recognize Israel as legitimate owner of the Golan Heights lands taken by Dayan in the 1967 War.
Under international law it is illegal to draw natural resources from occupied territory. With Trump’s move the owners and board members of Genie Energy receive an additional layer of legal cover in U.S. and Israeli courts.
Cheney is involved in this too? Geez, nice swamp draining there Donald ..
Anyway, so what does this mean for the Middle East where Zionists and Arabs play (remember, Israel’s BEST regional partner is Saudi Arabia, and that country is waging terror on Yemen just like Israel wages terror on Gaza)?
The occupied Golan Heights include the Sheeba farms which are Lebanese territory. The resistance axis of Hizbullah, Syria and Iran is strengthened by Trump’s move and will use it move to justify further activities against Israel and perhaps against United States interests elsewhere. The move will be used to recruit more resistance fighters, especially from the Druze on the Syrian side of the Golan who have brethren living on the Israel controlled side.
It further delegitimizes the Syrian ‘rebels’ and the Syrian Kurds who are allied with the U.S. while Trump gives away Syrian land. It demonstrates the weakness of those Arab rulers who are allied with the U.S. but were not even informed that Trump planed to hand off Arab land. It will incite their domestic population against them. That makes it much more difficult for them to continue their policy of detente with Israel.
The ‘deal of the century’ for peace between Arabs and the Zionists that Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner was supposed to arrange is now dead.
OK then .. more war to come .. this will make sure the Military Industrial Complex does not suffer from failure to overthrow Syria’s Assad .. or Venezuela’s Muduro.
Jesus said there would be wars and rumors of wars ad nauseum .. He was right. The thought that the US is a Christian nation must make Him nauseous. The US foreign and domestic policies are NOT His ways.
