John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN INTERVIEW IN CONSORTIUM NEWS
“Latest Odds of a Shooting War Between NATO and Russia
“Hungarian scholar George Szamuely tells Ann Garrison that he sees a 70 percent chance of combat between NATO and Russia following the incident in the Kerch Strait and that it is being fueled by Russia-gate.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/12/13/latest-odds-of-a-shooting-war-between-nato-and-russia/
This is an excellent interview.
George Szamuely knows his stuff, and Ann Garrison elicits some good responses.
Oh, I could wish there were more of this kind of thoughtful, informed stuff in the United States now. Instead, we have a madhouse, literally a madhouse.
By the way, on the reference, "Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman referred to the “illegal annexation” of Crimea at least three times after the Kerch Strait incident," I've long regarded "Democracy Now" as one of those classic outlets for CIA disinformation.
CIA has long had the practice of secretly funding some publications and broadcasts, sometimes infiltrating them too, publications which have the appearance (and presumed credibility) of an independent liberal view.
Such publications are useful subtle outlets, and right here we see a (questionable, in my view) source being cited.
CIA did this right through the Cold War - never mind the laws, CIA never regards itself as bound by laws, and Congress appears to accept their judgment – when, apart from such known pro-CIA publications as Time-Life and Readers Digest, we had many secretly-funded ones used to "get the story out there."
I believe “Saturday Review,” which I used to read, was one of these. The name of "National Geographic" has also come up a few times in this context.
There's no reason on earth why the CIA would have stopped these Cold War practices.
Indeed, with the New Cold War, there's every reason to believe the opposite is true. They have virtually unlimited funds, almost no supervision, and the nature of the CIA is that it likes to control events.
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Response to a comment saying, “It is amazing how American can screw up people’s lives. Syria, Libya, Iraq, Iran, and Ukraine and leave the wreckage to someone else to clean up”:
It’s been America’s constant practice since the end of WWII.
Just horrible.
Look at what was left behind in Vietnam, for example.
Every American should be ashamed, but I know they are not.
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Response to a follow-up comment from Ann Garrison herself, saying, “It’s not ‘Americans.’ It’s our ruling elite and in this case particularly the fossil fuel industries and all the politicians they own”:
A technically-correct response, but only "technically."
I don't think all references to what the American establishment does can avoid the use of the word "Americans." Nor should they.
Americans in general tolerate this immense brutality and waste and abuse, and so they do share responsibility.
The only time we had big protests in America against an ugly imperial war was for a relatively brief time during Vietnam in the period when a fair number of American conscripts died. The only time in three-quarters of a century of vicious wars.
Even then, in a war which killed an estimated 3 million Vietnamese, many of them in horrible fashion, only about 60 thousand Americans died. Roughly, two percent of Vietnam's losses.
And how was that? Because America used the latest mass-killing inventions in that war. Early cluster bombs, carpet-bombing, napalm, and still other ghastly stuff. And used it all in vast quantities.
America also left behind the horror of a country soaked in Agent Orange and littered with landmines to kill for decades more.
Look, when a horrible man like John McCain can still be called "a hero" something is seriously wrong.
What was he doing when he was shot down? Bombing civilians in North Vietnam. And what did he do to help the poor North Vietnamese man who literally saved his life, McCain, wounded, having landed in water where he would have drowned?
Absolutely nothing. That rich boy never sent even a modest cheque to genuinely thank the man who had left his shelter during an air raid to save McCain’s life. We know this from an actual interview years ago. To my mind, that story symbolizes the entire war.
To end the protests and anger on America’s streets, the Pentagon just rearranged the chairs around the table, so to speak, and the protests did end.
Otherwise, it’s been about three-quarters of a century since WWII with close to constant American imperial wars with not a significant protest to be seen. It is estimated variously that between 8 and 20 million people have been killed by America in those wars. A holocaust, by any measure. And how many crippled? How many homes destroyed? How many societies devastated?
Today, the Pentagon uses well-paid mercenaries – some in uniform and some not - for its wars (in the Middle East, they even sleep in air-conditioned tents), and there’s not a hint of protest in good old America.
Unless you merely regard yourselves as living under an occupying force in Washington, you cannot just blame the establishment and shrug off responsibility, but that is exactly what Americans do, overwhelmingly so.
This indifferent American mind-set is what also allows for insanity like the New Cold War, being ginned up right before our eyes. I don’t see much objection to the most outlandish and genuinely dangerous statements being made daily by American politicians, newspapers, broadcasters, and celebrities about Russia or China.
I’m sorry to say, but I do think there is a kind of sickness which lingers like clouds over America, and very few escape its effects.
