For countries such as the UK, the Baltics and Poland, causing instability is government policy, as only instability lets them show their American master what loyal lackeys they are.
In the case of Poland, take away Russia and Poland would go from America's Special Little Buddy to an insignificant midtier backwater satrapy, like Colombia, if Colombia had delusions of grandeur but no cocaine.
Take away Russia, and Ukraine would go from Muh Beacon Of Global Democracy(tm) to a pariah state.
With "NATO exists to manage the risks created by its existence,” from Caitlin today and along with yesterday’s "The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny” per courtesy of Feral, we have been well served in the descriptions of our world as it is today with the standout criminal being the ‘exceptional' USA.
One can’t help being repetitive just one more time by quoting that statement from Henry Kissinger ……
"To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.”
During Kissinger's term in office, so many countries can support this statement….. Laos, Cambodia, with more bombs dropped on these two small countries than in the whole of WWII, Chile, the death of Salvador Allende, Indonesia’s attack on East Timor, the division of Cyprus between Turkey and Greece and the same scenario in Pakistan in 1971. Yes, a serious mischief maker and indirect killer with so many thousands of dead people to his credit as a result.
“Dangerous and fatal” Yes, he was and probably still is. Still lauded by the masses, US masses that is, as is Bush as well, et al.
But he walks free as does Bush, Cheney and hundreds of others deserving ICC attention. Compared to anyone on this list, Putin is a saint.
Hard even for me to accept, but under John F. Kennedy, the US attempted to assassinate Fidel Castro. Then we saw the Kissinger mastermind the overthrow and assassination of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem and also Salvador Allende in Chile (thereby keeping US mining interests in business and appointing Pinochet. Enough said about that one). Lyndon Johnson manufactured the Gulf of Tonkin incident to justify expanding the war. Later, Ronald Reagan funded right-wing groups in Nicaragua and El-Savador, against popular left-wing groups, with appalling human-rights consequences.
Does one need to continue? Still so many more one could add.
Proud Presidents, one and all.
Therefore the hypocrisy from the ICC (an organisation not even recognised (conveniently) by the US) in the Vladimir Putin challenge makes it such a sham.
Remember everyone…….Selective Prosecutions by Arrangement.
Just ring the International Criminal Court: Oude Waalsdorperweg 10, 2597 AK The Hague,
The Netherlands. Postal address: PO Box 19519; 2500 CM, The Hague, The Netherlands. Tel. + 31 (0)70 515 8515; Fax. +31 (0)70 515 8555.
Anyone care to support a public fundraiser to prosecute Bush of Iraq's WMD fame?
Or, alternatively, a fundraiser to support the families of the 2 million dead in Iraq.
Hey. Hot news Obama is on a commercial speaking tour in AUKUS country. Yes, Australia, fully subscribed at $200 plus a seat. Yes, Australia has forgotten his contribution to the deaths of people from other countries.
Because of the risk of boring you all to death,I won't mention them.
Are you paid by the Kremlin, Caitlin? That’s the sort of lazy trope they will hit you with as they did with my friend Dr Sakwa are who is mentioned in the opening of yet another excellent piece exposing the stupidity of the Australian government. When I had finished reading Dr Sakwa’s book I sent him a paper on it and his response was that I was being too hard on Ukraine. Therefore, no one can claim that he is a Russian asset. This epidemic of Russophobia afflicts only those who seek solace in a propagandised torpor. And now they are going for China as fellow journal John Pilger warned some time ago now. What they did to Ukraine they are planning for Taiwan - these recidivist neo-colonials are in for a rude awakening when the dollar is finally dropped. And the Global majority will prevail as the Western empire gradually crumbles into dust. And it cannot come too soon for the meek will inherit the earth.
Undoubtedly true throughout. NATO has been outdated for decades and is simply a pawn in the USAs world Empire building scheme. A complete outline including, roles, units, areas of operation was set in place in 1991. The European Army was very possible as far back as then. American dogma being too much for many member states, including France, who’s airforce remains separate but outside NATO denying it ever having an American commander.
The U.S. likes for propaganda reasons to have a partner nation when going into destroy an Idependent Sovereign country so that it can use the term ‘multinational’ peace keeping farce , sorry force! The U.K. being the pet poodle conditioned into the ‘special relationship’ fallacy, a wet dream that does not exist is whistled for first. But interestingly Denmark and Germany are willing candidates too.
As for the AUSUK pact of last Autumn. The U.K. will not be much help as the one working aircraft carrier is cruising around the Med without a single aircraft on board. The other remains permanently in dock with reactor issues. It has a single Squadron of American flown F35s minus one which went in the drink on take off on its maiden and only voyage (pilots safely ejected). Perhaps they could be used to launch a swarm of the popular cardboard drones being sold to the Ukraine by Australia? Darn it lost my lobbying commission there!
I’ve no doubt a speech and hot phone have been set up to inform the Aus President that tens of thousands of USA troops are on their way to US bases in Aus. Without doubt the MOU - Memorandum of Understanding that drafted these agreements would have a clause expanding and refining the roles and size of these bases at the Americans threat perception level. The call wouldn’t be asking for permission it would be informing them to put the thousands of coffee pots on.
Just one added comment from me here. I am impressed by the moral and intellectual integrity displayed by those who post their responses here. There is hope for our species yet !
This is so horrible, Caitlin. I've been thinking that all wars are caused by military alliances. Without them, there would only be skirmishes. It's definitely not protection and you're calling it exactly what it is.
Wolfowitz introduced a novel fuel in endless warfare as a replacement to finite markets as his prescribed growth hormone to capitalism.
The production of economic forces in war production would drive the engines of an oxymoronic artifice he called a ‘capitalist democracy’ in a NeoConservative economic theory of endless warfare.
War as capitalist-immortality is exactly what has taken America into the dark political madness of a gang claiming the world as its ‘turf’.
Some join the gang to be close to the power and benefit as long as power needs numbers.
Some defy the offers they can’t refuse and pay the dearest price of loss of national existence, or horribly maimed for eternity by weaponry used to ‘tetch them a lesson’.
NATO and AUKUS serve the purpose of numbers for the NeoCon gang, run from Wall Street the same way gangs across America and the world are run from prisons. Monetary policy and banking policy serve as enforcers to status-quo economic needs in a manner similar to the protection racket of a gang. ‘You can’t afford to be weak in the neighborhood so we’ll supply your guns for a small fee - and don’t step on our dollar or you’ll hurt, badly.’
AUKUS & NATO are gangs set up to patrol the neighborhood turf lines for Wall Street Profits preaching of salvation in ‘capitalist democracies’ - all neofascist in truth - and with faithful devotion to chaos and war as the prayerful answer bringing economic prosperity.
Indeed but even if the continual wars succeed the establishment will end up eating its own tail and imploding or taking on China and Russia will lead to nuclear Armageddon. It’s a no win/no win situation.
Put me down as a frustrated and angry opponent of this barbaric criminality. What would most Australians say if they knew we live in a pseudo-sovereign country with a pseudo-democracy and where self-determination is a well-crafted fiction? We have to try and discover this. I'm hoping that together, we will offer our erstwhile 'leaders' (aka sycophantic managers of the status quo), a dignified opportunity to recant and join the citizenry in revolt. We can learn from the example our Indigenous People who have survived by speaking truth to colonial power. They have suffered terribly but have retained their humanity. We will suffer too, for a chance to have peace and a future.
Thanks Jean, there must be a way, a way we can prevent the unspeakable abuse of power without becoming that which abuses. Indeed, your love is welcome, needed and the only way to engage while retaining our humanity. Best to you also.
What a great thing to say. I agree, we can get there. That’s why I so love what Caitlin has created here—a forum for the free exchange of ideas. It’s the only way to find our way, in my opinion. And sometimes it’s feisty and cantankerous but I think generally working in the right direction. And I too take a lesson from the The People who were in “America” 1st, and who now fight almost alone to safe-guard their heritage, the water and life itself. I’m so glad we can all be here to learn together. Thanks again to that kick-ass Aussie commie Caitlin! 🤠
Yes, I'm also very grateful for Caitlin. Her words seem to strike a harmonious note for me, lifting me up when I am feeling hopeless and helpless. As do so many of the comments, like your own, that show the Good in people, the care, compassion, and genuine striving for a voice of reason, integrity, decency, and dignity. Jean, if you are in the States then my heart goes out to you and your fellows who pay for, but never share the spoils of rogue adventurism. Not that you would want to share ill-gotten gain anyway. The common people like us are being wrung out, psychologically, physically, and communally. But we are strong together, if we can trust each other. Every last drop will be syphoned away or incinerated if we are unable to create a collective response. We, the people, least interested in extraordinary wealth and power, can meet our simple needs without brutalising the earth and our brothers.
Excellent. And I remember that phrase “live simply that others might simply live.” Maybe that’s what the Universe is teaching us here in the high-on-the-hog livers. We have soooooo much, most of it ripped off from other countries, that disposal is almost an insolvable problem.
"It's the US empire driving Australia to its doom, to nobody's benefit but the US empire." True, but it needs to be said--the US empire does NOT equate to the people of the US, who get no more respect from these monsters than any other people.
Something perhaps insufficiently emphasized here is that there seems to be a plan to seriously risk nuclear war, perhaps even initiate it. If this happens, then being Australian/Chinese/American/French/Russian will be SO irrelevant because NONE OF US IS LIKELY TO SURVIVE it. In a sane world these people would have been rounded up and put in a quiet, caring very locked facility a long time ago. To say this is criminally insane is such an understatement. That so many people are going along with it is a testament to the efficacy of propaganda. But then--look at Jonestown, or that bunch who allowed themselves to be castrated and thena ll committed suicide in neat rows when the Hale-Bopp comet came through, with bus fare in their pockets because the comet was going to pick up their souls as it passed.
"the US empire does NOT equate to the people of the US, who get no more respect from these monsters than any other people."
Well put. Tens of billions are lavished on the Ukrainian military. The citizens of East Palestine are denied even a hotel voucher.
In fact, as far as the managers of the Empire are concerned, most of the citizens of the Empire are at best so many cattle to be milked, eaten or turned into shoes, beasts to be fed and cared for until such time as some undersecretary of state gets a hankering for steak.
At worst, the citizens of the empire are an annoying inconvenience, a distraction from the matters that the honorable undersecretary would prefer to focus on.
It's time for Australia to break out of the eternal loop of co-dependence with the US and chart its own destiny. Aussies, just say NO! to allowing any nuclear submarines or US troops on your lands! You've got a good economic relationship with China and no grudges against them (or they against you). Risking it all for the US is suicidal. Don't.
For countries such as the UK, the Baltics and Poland, causing instability is government policy, as only instability lets them show their American master what loyal lackeys they are.
In the case of Poland, take away Russia and Poland would go from America's Special Little Buddy to an insignificant midtier backwater satrapy, like Colombia, if Colombia had delusions of grandeur but no cocaine.
Take away Russia, and Ukraine would go from Muh Beacon Of Global Democracy(tm) to a pariah state.
With "NATO exists to manage the risks created by its existence,” from Caitlin today and along with yesterday’s "The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny” per courtesy of Feral, we have been well served in the descriptions of our world as it is today with the standout criminal being the ‘exceptional' USA.
One can’t help being repetitive just one more time by quoting that statement from Henry Kissinger ……
"To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.”
During Kissinger's term in office, so many countries can support this statement….. Laos, Cambodia, with more bombs dropped on these two small countries than in the whole of WWII, Chile, the death of Salvador Allende, Indonesia’s attack on East Timor, the division of Cyprus between Turkey and Greece and the same scenario in Pakistan in 1971. Yes, a serious mischief maker and indirect killer with so many thousands of dead people to his credit as a result.
“Dangerous and fatal” Yes, he was and probably still is. Still lauded by the masses, US masses that is, as is Bush as well, et al.
But he walks free as does Bush, Cheney and hundreds of others deserving ICC attention. Compared to anyone on this list, Putin is a saint.
Hard even for me to accept, but under John F. Kennedy, the US attempted to assassinate Fidel Castro. Then we saw the Kissinger mastermind the overthrow and assassination of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem and also Salvador Allende in Chile (thereby keeping US mining interests in business and appointing Pinochet. Enough said about that one). Lyndon Johnson manufactured the Gulf of Tonkin incident to justify expanding the war. Later, Ronald Reagan funded right-wing groups in Nicaragua and El-Savador, against popular left-wing groups, with appalling human-rights consequences.
Does one need to continue? Still so many more one could add.
Proud Presidents, one and all.
Therefore the hypocrisy from the ICC (an organisation not even recognised (conveniently) by the US) in the Vladimir Putin challenge makes it such a sham.
Remember everyone…….Selective Prosecutions by Arrangement.
Just ring the International Criminal Court: Oude Waalsdorperweg 10, 2597 AK The Hague,
The Netherlands. Postal address: PO Box 19519; 2500 CM, The Hague, The Netherlands. Tel. + 31 (0)70 515 8515; Fax. +31 (0)70 515 8555.
Anyone care to support a public fundraiser to prosecute Bush of Iraq's WMD fame?
Or, alternatively, a fundraiser to support the families of the 2 million dead in Iraq.
Hey. Hot news Obama is on a commercial speaking tour in AUKUS country. Yes, Australia, fully subscribed at $200 plus a seat. Yes, Australia has forgotten his contribution to the deaths of people from other countries.
Because of the risk of boring you all to death,I won't mention them.
Noam Chomsky points out that if the standards laid down at Nuremberg were applied to the US, every president since at least Truman would hang.
And not fast enough for me!
Spot on! Same goes for NATO.
Your title says it all.
Are you paid by the Kremlin, Caitlin? That’s the sort of lazy trope they will hit you with as they did with my friend Dr Sakwa are who is mentioned in the opening of yet another excellent piece exposing the stupidity of the Australian government. When I had finished reading Dr Sakwa’s book I sent him a paper on it and his response was that I was being too hard on Ukraine. Therefore, no one can claim that he is a Russian asset. This epidemic of Russophobia afflicts only those who seek solace in a propagandised torpor. And now they are going for China as fellow journal John Pilger warned some time ago now. What they did to Ukraine they are planning for Taiwan - these recidivist neo-colonials are in for a rude awakening when the dollar is finally dropped. And the Global majority will prevail as the Western empire gradually crumbles into dust. And it cannot come too soon for the meek will inherit the earth.
Undoubtedly true throughout. NATO has been outdated for decades and is simply a pawn in the USAs world Empire building scheme. A complete outline including, roles, units, areas of operation was set in place in 1991. The European Army was very possible as far back as then. American dogma being too much for many member states, including France, who’s airforce remains separate but outside NATO denying it ever having an American commander.
The U.S. likes for propaganda reasons to have a partner nation when going into destroy an Idependent Sovereign country so that it can use the term ‘multinational’ peace keeping farce , sorry force! The U.K. being the pet poodle conditioned into the ‘special relationship’ fallacy, a wet dream that does not exist is whistled for first. But interestingly Denmark and Germany are willing candidates too.
As for the AUSUK pact of last Autumn. The U.K. will not be much help as the one working aircraft carrier is cruising around the Med without a single aircraft on board. The other remains permanently in dock with reactor issues. It has a single Squadron of American flown F35s minus one which went in the drink on take off on its maiden and only voyage (pilots safely ejected). Perhaps they could be used to launch a swarm of the popular cardboard drones being sold to the Ukraine by Australia? Darn it lost my lobbying commission there!
I’ve no doubt a speech and hot phone have been set up to inform the Aus President that tens of thousands of USA troops are on their way to US bases in Aus. Without doubt the MOU - Memorandum of Understanding that drafted these agreements would have a clause expanding and refining the roles and size of these bases at the Americans threat perception level. The call wouldn’t be asking for permission it would be informing them to put the thousands of coffee pots on.
Just one added comment from me here. I am impressed by the moral and intellectual integrity displayed by those who post their responses here. There is hope for our species yet !
Caitlin asks:
"why China would launch an unprovoked attack on Australia or its shipping routes;"
Easy answer: for the same reason Russia blew up its own $20 billion pipeline and launched an unprovoked war on Ukraine! hahahahahaha!
Good one. 😁
This is so horrible, Caitlin. I've been thinking that all wars are caused by military alliances. Without them, there would only be skirmishes. It's definitely not protection and you're calling it exactly what it is.
Wolfowitz introduced a novel fuel in endless warfare as a replacement to finite markets as his prescribed growth hormone to capitalism.
The production of economic forces in war production would drive the engines of an oxymoronic artifice he called a ‘capitalist democracy’ in a NeoConservative economic theory of endless warfare.
War as capitalist-immortality is exactly what has taken America into the dark political madness of a gang claiming the world as its ‘turf’.
Some join the gang to be close to the power and benefit as long as power needs numbers.
Some defy the offers they can’t refuse and pay the dearest price of loss of national existence, or horribly maimed for eternity by weaponry used to ‘tetch them a lesson’.
NATO and AUKUS serve the purpose of numbers for the NeoCon gang, run from Wall Street the same way gangs across America and the world are run from prisons. Monetary policy and banking policy serve as enforcers to status-quo economic needs in a manner similar to the protection racket of a gang. ‘You can’t afford to be weak in the neighborhood so we’ll supply your guns for a small fee - and don’t step on our dollar or you’ll hurt, badly.’
AUKUS & NATO are gangs set up to patrol the neighborhood turf lines for Wall Street Profits preaching of salvation in ‘capitalist democracies’ - all neofascist in truth - and with faithful devotion to chaos and war as the prayerful answer bringing economic prosperity.
Indeed but even if the continual wars succeed the establishment will end up eating its own tail and imploding or taking on China and Russia will lead to nuclear Armageddon. It’s a no win/no win situation.
Oh, the 1984 world of perpetual war is possible.
The term I have heard is "military Keynesianism".
That’s a new one for me but I’m on the other side of the pond and don’t always fully pick up on the lingo!
Paul Krugman calls it weaponized Keynesianism.
Brilliant and terrifying article. Very hard to find other Australians that have a problem with this alliance and the trajectory we are on.
God, I hope that’s not true.
Put me down as a frustrated and angry opponent of this barbaric criminality. What would most Australians say if they knew we live in a pseudo-sovereign country with a pseudo-democracy and where self-determination is a well-crafted fiction? We have to try and discover this. I'm hoping that together, we will offer our erstwhile 'leaders' (aka sycophantic managers of the status quo), a dignified opportunity to recant and join the citizenry in revolt. We can learn from the example our Indigenous People who have survived by speaking truth to colonial power. They have suffered terribly but have retained their humanity. We will suffer too, for a chance to have peace and a future.
You are a true warrior for peace—a hard chasm to straddle. Much love
Thanks Jean, there must be a way, a way we can prevent the unspeakable abuse of power without becoming that which abuses. Indeed, your love is welcome, needed and the only way to engage while retaining our humanity. Best to you also.
What a great thing to say. I agree, we can get there. That’s why I so love what Caitlin has created here—a forum for the free exchange of ideas. It’s the only way to find our way, in my opinion. And sometimes it’s feisty and cantankerous but I think generally working in the right direction. And I too take a lesson from the The People who were in “America” 1st, and who now fight almost alone to safe-guard their heritage, the water and life itself. I’m so glad we can all be here to learn together. Thanks again to that kick-ass Aussie commie Caitlin! 🤠
Yes, I'm also very grateful for Caitlin. Her words seem to strike a harmonious note for me, lifting me up when I am feeling hopeless and helpless. As do so many of the comments, like your own, that show the Good in people, the care, compassion, and genuine striving for a voice of reason, integrity, decency, and dignity. Jean, if you are in the States then my heart goes out to you and your fellows who pay for, but never share the spoils of rogue adventurism. Not that you would want to share ill-gotten gain anyway. The common people like us are being wrung out, psychologically, physically, and communally. But we are strong together, if we can trust each other. Every last drop will be syphoned away or incinerated if we are unable to create a collective response. We, the people, least interested in extraordinary wealth and power, can meet our simple needs without brutalising the earth and our brothers.
Excellent. And I remember that phrase “live simply that others might simply live.” Maybe that’s what the Universe is teaching us here in the high-on-the-hog livers. We have soooooo much, most of it ripped off from other countries, that disposal is almost an insolvable problem.
"It's the US empire driving Australia to its doom, to nobody's benefit but the US empire." True, but it needs to be said--the US empire does NOT equate to the people of the US, who get no more respect from these monsters than any other people.
Something perhaps insufficiently emphasized here is that there seems to be a plan to seriously risk nuclear war, perhaps even initiate it. If this happens, then being Australian/Chinese/American/French/Russian will be SO irrelevant because NONE OF US IS LIKELY TO SURVIVE it. In a sane world these people would have been rounded up and put in a quiet, caring very locked facility a long time ago. To say this is criminally insane is such an understatement. That so many people are going along with it is a testament to the efficacy of propaganda. But then--look at Jonestown, or that bunch who allowed themselves to be castrated and thena ll committed suicide in neat rows when the Hale-Bopp comet came through, with bus fare in their pockets because the comet was going to pick up their souls as it passed.
"the US empire does NOT equate to the people of the US, who get no more respect from these monsters than any other people."
Well put. Tens of billions are lavished on the Ukrainian military. The citizens of East Palestine are denied even a hotel voucher.
In fact, as far as the managers of the Empire are concerned, most of the citizens of the Empire are at best so many cattle to be milked, eaten or turned into shoes, beasts to be fed and cared for until such time as some undersecretary of state gets a hankering for steak.
At worst, the citizens of the empire are an annoying inconvenience, a distraction from the matters that the honorable undersecretary would prefer to focus on.
You can literally bet that any partnership with the US will be to the extreme disadvantage of the partner other than the US.
It's time for Australia to break out of the eternal loop of co-dependence with the US and chart its own destiny. Aussies, just say NO! to allowing any nuclear submarines or US troops on your lands! You've got a good economic relationship with China and no grudges against them (or they against you). Risking it all for the US is suicidal. Don't.
Ahh but there's money to be made. Money is all that monies, it even trumps nuclear annihilation believe it or not.
Self-licking Ice Cream Cone: See, NATO, AUKUS, MIC-IMATT
I wish you Aussies success in giving "our" troops the boot.
I will be happy to give them a warm welcome home. (And I mean this sincerely.)
Yes, by dismantling the military and starting a Civilian Conservation Corps. Well, a girl can dream.
We've got to defend ourselves against China's moves to defend itself.