The United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel, responsible for military fiascos, hundreds of thousands of deaths and innumerable war crimes in the Middle East, are now plotting to attack Iran.
I, along with a group of other Americans visited Iran with the Nation magazine in the spring of 2016 and found a nation of sophisticated and friendly people who were eager to join with the West.
Precious few Americans understand that we and the Brits overthrew their democratically elected president Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953 in order to take over their petroleum wealth and installed our stooge, the son of the Shah who was deposed by the U.S. and Russian coalition during WWII. When the Iranians took their country back, in a bloodless coup in 1979, we decided to hate them forever and have been punishing them with our foreign policy of brutality.
We have also been brutalizing the Cuban people for over 60 years and have nothing to show for it except millions of people who hate us for our brutality.
Israel needs to keep Iran as a persecutor in order to maintain their victim status and receive billions in aid from our taxpayers. The Saudis need to keep Iran as an enemy as they are Shia while SA is Sunni and their religious war has no end.
Biden is locked into the mindset of the warmongers and the military industrial complex which stays morbidly rich by all this insanity.
Thanks for clearing that up. The split came about at Mohammeds (570-632AD) death as his father in law, who had been a consultant wanted and took control as much as possible, his group were the Sunni.
Mohammed had a young son and others wanted to raise him to be head of Islam, that was a smaller group, they are the Shia.
One loses all hope. Humanity is plagued by sociopaths who want nothing other than endless murder and domination. They rise to the top of hierarchies and rain hellfire on all of us below. Those of us inside the empire's walls have benefited from all this, mostly, and been kept ignorant. But as the pie shrinks, the formerly comfortable are ending up on the street, and things just get worse and worse.
The war machine never learns anything. Biden is a creature of it and will only do what feeds it, and it is insatiable. I have no idea how we get control of it. In my youth in the early 1990s, it looked like the nuclear threat that gave me such nightmares was at last being deflated and stuffed back in its bottle. But in retrospect, with Gulf War I, continued central American dalliances, and then Somalia and Yugoslavia, it was clear there would never be a peace dividend. Too much money to make, too much power to wield.
When you write " I have no idea how we get control of it" I would suggest that you come to understand that We the People have the numbers, and we are capable of forcing change. All we need do is end the duopoly in government while forcing business and industry into collapse by (1) refusing to conform, (2) refusing to work, (3) refusing to pay rents and/or mortgages, (4) refusing to pay any and all debts on public record (personal debts to friends and family notwithstanding), (5) refusing to send our child to school, (6) refusing, basically, to consume any good and/or services other than basic life sustaining needs. Hell, one doesn't even need to get out of the house to revolt (and should anyone speak of where I will live should eviction proceedings begin, ask yourself: how many can the state and its agencies throw out to the street especially when the courts will no longer function? Besides, those Marshalls who conduct these evictions (a) they won't have legal papers to evict as the courts will no longer function, (2) given the scope of what's coming, law enforcement, who by the way are working class, will not follow orders as they too will stay home). There is always a way, but we must ask, do we have the will to save ourselves, our nation, our world. The ruling elite will NOT do this, basically, it's up to us!
I like your comment. Our complacent, uninformed, and none too courageous
fellow citizens will not follow until their comfort and complacency are threatened. I have friends from Coast to coast who listen to my arguments, similar to yours, and respond with “Oh, but what can I do?”, and then go back to their chablis and dinner conversation about how much their houses have appreciated.
But we’re lucky to still have the small oasis of reason, where people can communicate and organize. When these are gone we’ll have to do it it would secret handshakes come on the pendulum must swing. It may seem that comments and pinions like these are just a drop in the ocean, but never forget that the ocean is made of drops. The waves give it meaning and the tides give it power. From one drop to another, don’t give up!
Sarcasm and DARK humor are so needed in our world if only to maintain one's sanity. Personally, without it, I'd be crying day and night just thinking about all those lost and lonely souls wondering on the street of the city I live in and visited while on vacation (three weeks camping in California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho), the homeless were everywhere: literally (you should see them on the riverwalk in Santa Cruz, truly, a national shame- but hey look on the Brightside of life as I hear Monty Python singing in the background- we can still afford to send billions, voted for even by the entire Democratic Progressive caucus, to the Ukrainian War Effort)!
"The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists."
—Ernest Hemingway, “Notes on the Next War: A Serious Topical Letter,” Esquire, Sept. 1935..
You put into words what many of us think but are unable to express and/or reach as much of an audience, thank you Chris.
The one, tiny, silver lining is that more and more Americans are waking up and beginning to see the US as the rest of the world does. At home there is a growing realisation that neither of the Duopoly of Dems and GOP are able nor are they willing to do for the American people what the rest of the western “democracies” take for granted. Roe v Wade has finally awoken the sense of injustice many of us already feel in the “normie” voters and they are starting to say so.
“Pariah” was the word Biden (i won’t even bother going into all the problems with him) used when showing voters his fake outrage at the Kashoggi murder and it’s culprit. I can’t think of a better word to describe what we, the US, a fast becoming if not already there.
Not bad, Chris, except Xinjang. Unless you are prepared to call Michelle Bachelet a liar or a fool or both (and back it up). The only conclusion one can really come to from her comments is that the US and our poodle the UK are simply smearing China based on the delusional ravings of a confirmed Sinophobe and religious wacko in the employ of an anti-China outfit funded and controlled by the US.
And thus, we as a society, holding on to our own image of American innocence - which is so morally repugnant to those suffering under our boots - cannot intellectually comprehend nor be emotionally prepared for the violent calamities which befall us, which have already befallen so many others around the world, who are our brothers.
The elite, believing in their righteousness and their divine right to rule, scoff at the dirty rabble who dare to assert any minimal democratic control over our lives. Thus, those in power exacerbate the problems, perpetuate the inequalities, and sow the seeds of their own destruction as they remain prisoners to the fear they have for the people they wish to keep in submission: https://weirdcatastrophe.substack.com/p/the-self-immolations-of-climate-activists
I have been chastised many times in the last few years for saying that the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia form the real axis of evil. American nationalists - including liberal imperialists - got offended, zionists called me anti-semitic, and even if nobody defended Saudi Arabia, I was still "wrong and misinformed".
Thanks for describing the moment with so much clarity.
Our mis-leader shits will eventually succeed in killing every last one of us. In the meantime, they will urge us to vote for Democrats. How many times do we have to hear this same empty crap before we catch on? Remember - the other guise are worse? Nothing will change until TPTB succeed in destroying all we hold dear. I am not one for the cruelty of false hope of optimism - been there done that.
The fight over oil in the Middle East began as the British and French took over lands formerly controlled by the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th Century. Oil was first discovered in Iran, then Iraq. The British and Germans had a joint oil venture in Iran before WWI, but the Germans (and Ottomans) lost their share after they lost the war. Later, the British (50%), French and US (25% each) obtained shares of the oil profits. The US ‘ Jersey Oil, which later became Exxon, was the first US company in the midst of the development of oil resources; Saudi Arabia invited them to develop oil resources in their country. Without going into all the years since then, it is key to understanding the justification for US continued involvement in the Middle East and its long-standing alliance with the Saudis. It’s all about the oil and maintaining US military presence (also about the oil?), not spreading or protecting democracy or any other rationale.
Spot on, Margie. Oil was not discovered in Saudi Arabia until 1938 and WWII prevented its exploitation until after the war. In the meanti me Iran was the main source of Mid-East oil.
Churchill was worried about British investments and persuaded Eisenhower to construct a coup to overthrow Iran's Democratically elected government to protect their monied interests and the US got their share of the loot.
Simply a bloody coup orchestrated by our main agent on the ground, Kermit Roosevelt along with the Cuban criminals Alan and John Dulles.
As someone who grew up fighting against the Vietnam War the thing that terrorizes me the most is that there is almost zero understanding of or opposition to these policies. It is almost impossible to find anyone to have an intelligent political conversation with these days. Most people are either completely oblivious to the world around them or so brainwashed by the 24/7 propaganda flow from the mainstream media that it is useless to try and have a serious discussion around these issues concerning the life and death of the planet.
Workers unite! I'm in total agreement with Howard Zinn who maintained that change only comes when the people rise up and revolt. But how will this be accomplished? Chris' statement "Oil would jump to over $500 a barrel and perhaps, as the conflict drags on, to over $750 a barrel. Our petroleum-based economy, already reeling under rising prices because of the sanctions on Russia, would grind to a halt." When gas at the pump becomes anywhere from $32 to $40 a gallon, all those folks who stand on the sidelines will, through their own survival if not basic self-interest, rise up and overthrow this government and replace it with a government formed by We the People who will administer our nation for the People's benefit. Conditions will get worse and those belonging to the police and other civil authorities, as well as those in the military (boots-on-the-ground- sort to speak) will no longer obey and join We the People in our revolt of self-interest. We can save our nation, our world but unfortunately, it will take something of this nature to achieve. I welcome the rise of tyrants in our nation as it's the only path to a true revolution of We the People. Hedges often includes the work of Sheldon S. Wolin (please read 'Democracy INC. Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism' also the work of Lewis Mumford and Neil Postman, especially, Postman's 'Amusing Ourselves to Death' which details our American mindset which is mostly at slumber while we play games online and on our social media playgrounds) in his writings as Hedges understands that the American people are, as Postman suggests, "Amusing Themselves to Death" with utter trivial nonsense as seen on Tick-tock and other programs of self-delusion. With the oncoming outright tyranny (unavoidable given the governmental response as Hedges states "Our petroleum-based economy, already reeling under rising prices because of the sanctions on Russia, would grind to a halt", people, in mass, regardless of their social class, race, religion and whatnot, WILL begin to awake up (left-right-center) and pressure the government for change but this will not be allowed as it will be met with force! And here's where REAL revolution happens, when We the People have no other recourse of survival except outright governmental and economic change.
Sad but true: "The idea that we represent and promote virtue illustrates the self-delusion that accompanies our moral and physical degeneration." as stated by Mr. Hedges. In my opinion, another reason for our apathy toward our pernicious bullying is the false belief that patriotism is to reject reports like this one and instead we choose to bury our heads in the sand while repeating that we are truly exceptional. I personally found it incredibly ridiculous when Biden accused Putin of being a war criminal, which could be true, but our president in all of his public life has always approved and pushed for our murderous wars.
A revolution to change our corrupted government will almost certainly cause great destruction and facilitate the coming of a dictator that could be worse than what we have. I believe the most effective way to correct this behavior is through massive demonstrations that would incite the current and aspiring politicians to change our traditional foreign policies. This and other civil actions like BDS to stop the Israeli imperialism will make our world better and delay the coming collapse.
I, along with a group of other Americans visited Iran with the Nation magazine in the spring of 2016 and found a nation of sophisticated and friendly people who were eager to join with the West.
Precious few Americans understand that we and the Brits overthrew their democratically elected president Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953 in order to take over their petroleum wealth and installed our stooge, the son of the Shah who was deposed by the U.S. and Russian coalition during WWII. When the Iranians took their country back, in a bloodless coup in 1979, we decided to hate them forever and have been punishing them with our foreign policy of brutality.
We have also been brutalizing the Cuban people for over 60 years and have nothing to show for it except millions of people who hate us for our brutality.
Israel needs to keep Iran as a persecutor in order to maintain their victim status and receive billions in aid from our taxpayers. The Saudis need to keep Iran as an enemy as they are Shia while SA is Sunni and their religious war has no end.
Biden is locked into the mindset of the warmongers and the military industrial complex which stays morbidly rich by all this insanity.
So true. The US PLAYS INNOCENT BUT THEY ARE THE PERPETRATORS.
Exactly. Thanks for your eyewitness testimony.
In your second to last paragraph did you mean Iran is Sunni not SA is Sunni?
No, Iran is Shia. SA is Sunni.
Thanks for clearing that up. The split came about at Mohammeds (570-632AD) death as his father in law, who had been a consultant wanted and took control as much as possible, his group were the Sunni.
Mohammed had a young son and others wanted to raise him to be head of Islam, that was a smaller group, they are the Shia.
One loses all hope. Humanity is plagued by sociopaths who want nothing other than endless murder and domination. They rise to the top of hierarchies and rain hellfire on all of us below. Those of us inside the empire's walls have benefited from all this, mostly, and been kept ignorant. But as the pie shrinks, the formerly comfortable are ending up on the street, and things just get worse and worse.
The war machine never learns anything. Biden is a creature of it and will only do what feeds it, and it is insatiable. I have no idea how we get control of it. In my youth in the early 1990s, it looked like the nuclear threat that gave me such nightmares was at last being deflated and stuffed back in its bottle. But in retrospect, with Gulf War I, continued central American dalliances, and then Somalia and Yugoslavia, it was clear there would never be a peace dividend. Too much money to make, too much power to wield.
Sociopaths wouldn’t be so bad. We’re ruled by power crazy, greedy psychopaths that believe they own the planet.
When you write " I have no idea how we get control of it" I would suggest that you come to understand that We the People have the numbers, and we are capable of forcing change. All we need do is end the duopoly in government while forcing business and industry into collapse by (1) refusing to conform, (2) refusing to work, (3) refusing to pay rents and/or mortgages, (4) refusing to pay any and all debts on public record (personal debts to friends and family notwithstanding), (5) refusing to send our child to school, (6) refusing, basically, to consume any good and/or services other than basic life sustaining needs. Hell, one doesn't even need to get out of the house to revolt (and should anyone speak of where I will live should eviction proceedings begin, ask yourself: how many can the state and its agencies throw out to the street especially when the courts will no longer function? Besides, those Marshalls who conduct these evictions (a) they won't have legal papers to evict as the courts will no longer function, (2) given the scope of what's coming, law enforcement, who by the way are working class, will not follow orders as they too will stay home). There is always a way, but we must ask, do we have the will to save ourselves, our nation, our world. The ruling elite will NOT do this, basically, it's up to us!
I like your comment. Our complacent, uninformed, and none too courageous
fellow citizens will not follow until their comfort and complacency are threatened. I have friends from Coast to coast who listen to my arguments, similar to yours, and respond with “Oh, but what can I do?”, and then go back to their chablis and dinner conversation about how much their houses have appreciated.
But we’re lucky to still have the small oasis of reason, where people can communicate and organize. When these are gone we’ll have to do it it would secret handshakes come on the pendulum must swing. It may seem that comments and pinions like these are just a drop in the ocean, but never forget that the ocean is made of drops. The waves give it meaning and the tides give it power. From one drop to another, don’t give up!
"By one estimate, the U.S. has been responsible for directly or indirectly killing nearly 20 million people since the end of the Second World War. "
Spreading democracy one casualty at a time!
Sarcasm and DARK humor are so needed in our world if only to maintain one's sanity. Personally, without it, I'd be crying day and night just thinking about all those lost and lonely souls wondering on the street of the city I live in and visited while on vacation (three weeks camping in California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho), the homeless were everywhere: literally (you should see them on the riverwalk in Santa Cruz, truly, a national shame- but hey look on the Brightside of life as I hear Monty Python singing in the background- we can still afford to send billions, voted for even by the entire Democratic Progressive caucus, to the Ukrainian War Effort)!
while i probably should not find that sentence funny, I do. Thanks, I will end up using it, i am sure.
👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋 👋
Here are twenty-four reasons we should start a war with Iran. There are more but this is a good beginning. Please contribute to this list.
https://jdrachel.com/2019/09/22/why-should-the-u-s-wage-war-on-iran/
Especially reason number 18!
I'm on the floor in stiches: Thank you! Please read my response to
PamelaDrew's response concerning Sarcasm and Dark Humor.
"The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists."
—Ernest Hemingway, “Notes on the Next War: A Serious Topical Letter,” Esquire, Sept. 1935..
The United States is intent on doing both.
You put into words what many of us think but are unable to express and/or reach as much of an audience, thank you Chris.
The one, tiny, silver lining is that more and more Americans are waking up and beginning to see the US as the rest of the world does. At home there is a growing realisation that neither of the Duopoly of Dems and GOP are able nor are they willing to do for the American people what the rest of the western “democracies” take for granted. Roe v Wade has finally awoken the sense of injustice many of us already feel in the “normie” voters and they are starting to say so.
“Pariah” was the word Biden (i won’t even bother going into all the problems with him) used when showing voters his fake outrage at the Kashoggi murder and it’s culprit. I can’t think of a better word to describe what we, the US, a fast becoming if not already there.
Not bad, Chris, except Xinjang. Unless you are prepared to call Michelle Bachelet a liar or a fool or both (and back it up). The only conclusion one can really come to from her comments is that the US and our poodle the UK are simply smearing China based on the delusional ravings of a confirmed Sinophobe and religious wacko in the employ of an anti-China outfit funded and controlled by the US.
Mr. Hedges, a "pull no punches article." Excellent.
And thus, we as a society, holding on to our own image of American innocence - which is so morally repugnant to those suffering under our boots - cannot intellectually comprehend nor be emotionally prepared for the violent calamities which befall us, which have already befallen so many others around the world, who are our brothers.
The elite, believing in their righteousness and their divine right to rule, scoff at the dirty rabble who dare to assert any minimal democratic control over our lives. Thus, those in power exacerbate the problems, perpetuate the inequalities, and sow the seeds of their own destruction as they remain prisoners to the fear they have for the people they wish to keep in submission: https://weirdcatastrophe.substack.com/p/the-self-immolations-of-climate-activists
Thank you Koda, I urge you all to read this amazing piece of journalism.
I have been chastised many times in the last few years for saying that the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia form the real axis of evil. American nationalists - including liberal imperialists - got offended, zionists called me anti-semitic, and even if nobody defended Saudi Arabia, I was still "wrong and misinformed".
Thanks for describing the moment with so much clarity.
The part of our State Department not owned by Israel is claimed by Saudi Arabia. Knowing that makes us bad people.
Our mis-leader shits will eventually succeed in killing every last one of us. In the meantime, they will urge us to vote for Democrats. How many times do we have to hear this same empty crap before we catch on? Remember - the other guise are worse? Nothing will change until TPTB succeed in destroying all we hold dear. I am not one for the cruelty of false hope of optimism - been there done that.
The fight over oil in the Middle East began as the British and French took over lands formerly controlled by the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th Century. Oil was first discovered in Iran, then Iraq. The British and Germans had a joint oil venture in Iran before WWI, but the Germans (and Ottomans) lost their share after they lost the war. Later, the British (50%), French and US (25% each) obtained shares of the oil profits. The US ‘ Jersey Oil, which later became Exxon, was the first US company in the midst of the development of oil resources; Saudi Arabia invited them to develop oil resources in their country. Without going into all the years since then, it is key to understanding the justification for US continued involvement in the Middle East and its long-standing alliance with the Saudis. It’s all about the oil and maintaining US military presence (also about the oil?), not spreading or protecting democracy or any other rationale.
Spot on, Margie. Oil was not discovered in Saudi Arabia until 1938 and WWII prevented its exploitation until after the war. In the meanti me Iran was the main source of Mid-East oil.
Churchill was worried about British investments and persuaded Eisenhower to construct a coup to overthrow Iran's Democratically elected government to protect their monied interests and the US got their share of the loot.
Simply a bloody coup orchestrated by our main agent on the ground, Kermit Roosevelt along with the Cuban criminals Alan and John Dulles.
#BDS, REMEMBER THE USS LIBERTY. END THE FED
As someone who grew up fighting against the Vietnam War the thing that terrorizes me the most is that there is almost zero understanding of or opposition to these policies. It is almost impossible to find anyone to have an intelligent political conversation with these days. Most people are either completely oblivious to the world around them or so brainwashed by the 24/7 propaganda flow from the mainstream media that it is useless to try and have a serious discussion around these issues concerning the life and death of the planet.
Workers unite! I'm in total agreement with Howard Zinn who maintained that change only comes when the people rise up and revolt. But how will this be accomplished? Chris' statement "Oil would jump to over $500 a barrel and perhaps, as the conflict drags on, to over $750 a barrel. Our petroleum-based economy, already reeling under rising prices because of the sanctions on Russia, would grind to a halt." When gas at the pump becomes anywhere from $32 to $40 a gallon, all those folks who stand on the sidelines will, through their own survival if not basic self-interest, rise up and overthrow this government and replace it with a government formed by We the People who will administer our nation for the People's benefit. Conditions will get worse and those belonging to the police and other civil authorities, as well as those in the military (boots-on-the-ground- sort to speak) will no longer obey and join We the People in our revolt of self-interest. We can save our nation, our world but unfortunately, it will take something of this nature to achieve. I welcome the rise of tyrants in our nation as it's the only path to a true revolution of We the People. Hedges often includes the work of Sheldon S. Wolin (please read 'Democracy INC. Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism' also the work of Lewis Mumford and Neil Postman, especially, Postman's 'Amusing Ourselves to Death' which details our American mindset which is mostly at slumber while we play games online and on our social media playgrounds) in his writings as Hedges understands that the American people are, as Postman suggests, "Amusing Themselves to Death" with utter trivial nonsense as seen on Tick-tock and other programs of self-delusion. With the oncoming outright tyranny (unavoidable given the governmental response as Hedges states "Our petroleum-based economy, already reeling under rising prices because of the sanctions on Russia, would grind to a halt", people, in mass, regardless of their social class, race, religion and whatnot, WILL begin to awake up (left-right-center) and pressure the government for change but this will not be allowed as it will be met with force! And here's where REAL revolution happens, when We the People have no other recourse of survival except outright governmental and economic change.
Sad but true: "The idea that we represent and promote virtue illustrates the self-delusion that accompanies our moral and physical degeneration." as stated by Mr. Hedges. In my opinion, another reason for our apathy toward our pernicious bullying is the false belief that patriotism is to reject reports like this one and instead we choose to bury our heads in the sand while repeating that we are truly exceptional. I personally found it incredibly ridiculous when Biden accused Putin of being a war criminal, which could be true, but our president in all of his public life has always approved and pushed for our murderous wars.
A revolution to change our corrupted government will almost certainly cause great destruction and facilitate the coming of a dictator that could be worse than what we have. I believe the most effective way to correct this behavior is through massive demonstrations that would incite the current and aspiring politicians to change our traditional foreign policies. This and other civil actions like BDS to stop the Israeli imperialism will make our world better and delay the coming collapse.