John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY DAVID STOCKMAN IN RUSSIA INSIDER
"Woodrow Wilson Created the Fed, Which Gave Us a War Finance System for the Next 100 Years
"Indeed, Thomas Woodrow Wilson is the father of most of the last century’s ills. His grand crusade gave the world the curse of Stalin and Hitler, which, in turn, fostered the fallacy of the Indispensable Nation and gave rise to Imperial Washington and its destructive projects of global Empire."
I think, despite some pretty great overstatements as with the 1000-year totalitarianism stuff, this is in many respects a good summary of some important historical developments.
What I think most interesting to observe about today's United States' capacity for war- and trouble-making, is that it is not bound by any limits.
No limits on finances, as there would be with responsible taxation and spending and budgets.
And no limits from public pressures about "the boyz dyin'," because they use mercenaries from home, men who would have no jobs otherwise and, increasingly, use mercenary rabble gathered internationally for dirty projects, as we see in Syria and as we saw in other countries of the great American rampage through the Middle East.
While those two unbounded capacities are dangerous at any time, I think they are particularly so now that the American establishment has gone into hyper-aggressiveness over its relative decline in world competitiveness and influence.
This movement into hyper-aggressiveness is further encouraged by the influence of the Israel lobby which very much likes what an aggressive United States means for far-off Israel. And it goes beyond mere encouragement, as we see in Trump’s totally illegal recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and in the wanton destruction of a stable and well-operating international nuclear agreement with Iran.
Those reckless acts were done to secure some big influence for the coming mid-term Congressional elections, which threaten to reduce Trump to a lame-duck, as well as to secure the same influence for his own possible pursuit of re-election in 2020. So, here is a powerful lobby both cheering the hyper-aggression and suggesting to its leadership new and dangerous tasks.
America’s establishment consists of spoiled and dangerous people who feel their future role as international leaders is threatened by a now rapidly-evolving world economy and political order.
They are spoiled by having lived through a unique period of time – post-WWII - which saw almost everything literally fall into their laps. It really is difficult to face giving up the sense of entitlement as well as enjoying a sense of being “uniquely blessed.”
Wealth, power, and influence, all with heavenly blessings thrown in. And giving up all that, or even some portion of it, is about as agreeable a prospect as that of an addict facing withdrawal from drugs.
They are determined to use their still-existing great power to control future events in their favor as much as they can. And they are restrained by no budgets for finances or public pressures over dead soldiers. As well as being cheered for doing dangerous things.
That is a very explosive combination, to say the least.
And the current President has I think, despite the establishment’s early doubts, proved himself overall an ally, albeit a rather crude one. He also brings with him to the establishment’s tasks the support of a good portion of America’s great underclass, certainly not support they would normally receive or care about. But Trump’s “bringing it home to America” and telling-off foreigners and being hostile to international organizations and migrants and his affection for guns have them in the palm of his hand.
He simply has no limits himself on careless rhetoric or on making threats, and he is busy ripping up international cooperation and trade everywhere in the name of "I want it all for America," which is, of course, not only greedy and obnoxious but impossible, and when you pursue the impossible, you are doing very dangerous things.
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Response to a comment about the cause of Kennedy’s assassination:
Sorry, but that is close to nonsense.
JFK died for some very glaring reasons of challenging powerful elements of the American establishment. We don't know just what deadly combination it was, but we know the list of enemies.
His powerful enemies included CIA, J Edgar Hoover, Lyndon Johnson, the Cuban migrant community, the Mafia, and he was seriously disturbing the government of Israel about not permitting them to continue with their covert development of nuclear weapons. Take your pick or a combination.
