American Exceptionalism Driving World to War – John Pilger

American Exceptionalism Driving World to War – John Pilger

Finian Cunningham 

November 27, 2019

© Photo: Flickr / SCU Media Students

Australian-born John Pilger has worked for over five decades as a reporter and documentary film-maker covering wars and conflicts all over the world. In the following interview, the award-winning journalist says the world is arguably at a more perilous geopolitical juncture than even during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 at the height of the Cold War. This is because American “exceptionalism” – which, he points out, mirrors that of Nazi Germany – has developed into a hyper-rogue phase. The relentless denigration of Russia by American and Western media show that there are few red lines left to restrain aggression towards Moscow, as there were, at least, during the past Cold War. Russia and China’s refusal to bow down to Washington’s dictate is infuriating the would-be American hegemon and its desire for zero-sum world domination.

John Pilger also gives his wide-ranging views on the systematic deterioration of Western mainstream journalism which has come to function as a nakedly propaganda matrix for power and corporate profit. He further condemns the ongoing persecution and torture of fellow-Australian publisher Julian Assange who is being held in a maximum-security British prison commonly used for holding mass murderers and convicted terrorists. Assange is being persecuted for telling the truth and for exposing huge crimes by the US and Britain, says Pilger. It is a grim warning of a covert war that is being conducted against independent journalism and free speech, and, more ominously, indicative of a slide towards police-state fascism in so-called Western democracies.

INTERVIEW

Question: In your documentary film, The Coming War on China (2016), you assess that the United States is on a strategic collision path with China for control of Asia-Pacific. Do you still see the threat of war looming between these two powers?

John Pilger: The threat of war may not be immediate, but we know or should know that events can change fast: a chain of incidents and missteps can ignite a war which can spread unpredictably. The calculations are not in dispute: an “enemy” has barely 12 minutes to decide whether and where to order a nuclear retaliation.

Question: Recently, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused China of being “truly hostile to America’s interests”. What in your view is motivating US concerns about China?

LARRY ROMANOFF -- The Short Road: Democracy to Fascism

The Short Road: Democracy to Fascism

By Larry Romanoff

Global Research, November 30, 2019

Region: USA

Theme: History

Fascism is a political ideology fundamentally authoritarian in character, with a strong nationalism and an essentially belligerent militaristic outlook. Fascism carries primarily a corporate perspective as opposed to a socialist view, directed to satisfying the needs, values and objectives of finance and corporations, organising both the economy and the political system according to this agenda.

A fascist government actively suppresses any objection to its ideology and typically will crush any movement which opposes it. In keeping with their belligerent nature, fascist governments generally view violence and war as stimulants to national spirit and vitality.

Being politically Right-Wing, they maintain their position through firm control or compliance of the media, and most often engage in a vast array of lies and deception. These governments tend to be bigoted, if not racist, invariably require “enemies” to achieve public solidarity, and are often supremacist or at least ‘exceptional’ in their self-assessment. They either believe, or pretend to believe, that they have a license on truth. Large military budgets, the creation and demonisation of fictitious enemies to propagate fear and maintain population control, are all typical characteristics of a fascist regime, as is massive public surveillance.

In 1995 the Italian Scholar Umberto Eco produced a paper titled ‘Eternal Fascism’ (1) in which he examined the characteristics of fascist regimes. In 2003, Laurence W. Britt did an excellent and scholarly work in dissecting and categorising past fascist regimes (2), in which he revealed common threads that linked all of them in “patterns of national behavior and abuse of power”. He wrote that “Even a cursory study of these fascist and protofascist regimes reveals the absolutely striking convergence of their modus operandi, (which is) not a revelation … but useful … to shed needed light on current circumstances.” I am including here a composite of edited extracts from these two papers with additional commentary of my own. Significant statements by these two authors are in quotation marks. This is a list of the characteristics of fascist states, taken from Britt’s original article:

Early Warning Signs of Fascism

• Powerful and continuing nationalism
• Supremacy of the military
• Obsession with national security
• Obsession with crime and punishment
• Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause
• Disdain for human rights
• Corporate power is protected while labor power is suppressed
• Controlled mass media
• Rampant cronyism and corruption
• Intertwined religion and government
• Fraudulent elections
• Disdain for intellectuals and the arts
• Rampant Sexism

If we examine the US on these categories, we find an almost perfect match. Certainly the US has the most strident nationalism of all nations today, with the hysteria of patriotism and flag-worship unabated and even increasing, with the delusional theory of American Exceptionalism as virulent as ever.

M. K. BHADRAKUMAR -- US Primes NATO To Confront Russia, China

US Primes NATO To Confront Russia, China

Written by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR on 29/11/2019

The December 3-4 summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in London resembles a family reunion after the acrimony over the issue of military spending by America’s European allies.

The trend is up for defence spending across European Allies and Canada. Over $100 billion is expected to be added to the member states’ defence budgets by end-2020.

More importantly, the trend at the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting at Brussels on November 19-20, in the run-up to the London summit, showed that despite growing differences within the alliance, member states closed ranks around three priority items in the US global agenda — escalation of the aggressive policy toward Russia, militarisation of space and countering China’s rise.

The NATO will follow Washington’s lead to establish a space command by officially regarding space as “a new operational domain”. According to NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg, this decision “can allow NATO planners to make a request for allies to provide capabilities and services, such as satellite communications and data imagery.”

Stoltenberg said, “Space is also essential to the alliance’s deterrence and defence, including the ability to navigate, to gather intelligence, and to detect missile launches. Around 2,000 satellites orbit the Earth. And around half of them are owned by NATO countries.”

Shane Quinn -- Nuclear Weapons and the Third Reich: Hitler’s Military Advisor Colonel Skorzeny called for the Bombing of New York City

Nuclear Weapons and the Third Reich: Hitler’s Military Advisor Colonel Skorzeny called for the Bombing of New York City

Hitler Compared Nuclear Bombs to the Meteor Explosions Over Arizona and Siberia

By Shane Quinn

Global Research, October 22, 2019

Region: Europe

Theme: History

Author’s preface:

About 18 months ago the distinguished American historian and scientist, Noam Chomsky, directed my attention through emails to Otto Skorzeny’s ‘My Commando Operations’, a book on which the below article is largely based upon – and, a little later, Chomsky specifically pointed this author towards the material featured in Chapter 12 of Skorzeny’s book, ‘Why Hitler didn’t build the atomic bomb’.

***

Seventy-five years ago, on 22 October 1944, SS lieutenant-colonel Otto Skorzeny was summoned once more to the Wolf’s Lair headquarters in East Prussia, Adolf Hitler’s secret compound buried deep in the Masurian woodlands.

Skorzeny’s presence at the Wolf’s Lair was requested by Hitler in order to discuss assignments for the Ardennes Offensive, which was designed to cut the Allied armies in two, and force them to negotiate a peace treaty in the Nazis’ favour. This was not an entirely impossible hope, considering the poor performance and sluggish advances made by American and British divisions in France, against the outnumbered Germans.

Contrary to myth, on those occasions that Allied soldiers met German forces on a level playing field, the outcome was not in doubt. The English historian Max Hastings noted of the Germans,

“Their tactics were masterly… Their junior leadership was much superior to that of the Americans, perhaps also to that of the British. Throughout the Second World War, wherever British or American troops met the Germans in anything like equal strength, the Germans prevailed”.

Hastings’ observations are supported by other scholars, and even by political figures like Winston Churchill, who wrote that,

Shane Quinn -- History of the Third Reich. Hitler and the Atomic Bomb

History of the Third Reich. Hitler and the Atomic Bomb

75 Years on: Hitler and Antonescu Discuss the Atomic Bomb at the Wolf's Lair

By Shane Quinn

Global Research, August 18, 2019

Region: Europe

Theme: History

Author’s preface 

German dictator Adolf Hitler had a central role in initiating World War II, by pursuing a list of bold and aggressive foreign policy actions dating from the mid-1930s, and culminating in his invasion of Poland in the autumn of 1939 – an attack which had prior agreement with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who absorbed the eastern half of the Polish state.

Hitler’s expansionist acts on the European mainland inevitably spread forth to a global scale and, most tragically, he would ruthlessly pursue an organized and therefore unprecedented genocide mainly perpetrated against the continent’s Jewish populations, and also targeting groups such as Romani people and those with physical disabilities.

Hitler’s brutal treatment of the people of Poland, and from the summer of 1941 against the Soviet Union’s populace, resulted in further astonishing bloodshed. By early 1945, the Nazis had claimed the lives of at least 25 million of the USSR’s population, much of those who lost their lives comprising of civilians.

The above criminal actions have been broadly documented by historians for a number of decades. However, receiving very little attention indeed from scholars is that pertaining to Hitler’s viewpoints on the critically important area of nuclear research, and regarding the atomic bomb then undergoing production in the United States. This subject is entirely relevant to the present day, with the threat of a devastating nuclear war hovering over humanity’s head, as it has been for at least two generations.

***

Seventy-five years ago, on 5 August 1944, Adolf Hitler stirred from his Wolf’s Lair headquarters deep in the Masurian woods of East Prussia, so as to welcome Ion Antonescu, the autocrat of Romania.

During Hitler’s more than 800 days ensconced at the Wolf’s Lair near the medieval town of Rastenburg, he hosted an array of foreign dignitaries there, from Vichy puppet leader Pierre Laval, to Croatian dictator Ante Pavelic and of course Il Duce himself, Italy’s Benito Mussolini. Kings and statesmen also arrived to see Hitler at the Wolf’s Lair, such as Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria and the Finnish commander Carl Gustaf Mannerheim.

Thursday, November 28, 2019

 

Turkey holds NATO hostage until Syria-related demands are met

Sarah Abed, independent journalist and analyst

NATO is in a state of division and instability with the US, Turkey, and France at odds, providing President Trump with the perfect opportunity to pull out of both NATO and the UN.

Next week NATO will be holding its 70th anniversary summit in London. Just days before, Turkey is renewing its demand for NATO support for its military operations in northern Syria as well as the formal recognition of the Kurdish YPG as a terrorist organization in exchange for its support. Without these concessions, Turkey is refusing to back a NATO defense plan for the Baltics and Poland.

Without Turkey’s formal approval NATO will have a difficult time expediting its defense plan for Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. Because the two issues are not directly related, some believe Turkey is holding Europeans hostage until they comply with their demands. Not only is Turkey the only Islamic member of NATO but it has the second largest military in NATO granting NATO access to Georgia and Azerbaijan, which makes one wonder, who needs the other more, NATO or Turkey?

Ron Paul -- Federal Reserve: Enemy of Liberty and Prosperity

Federal Reserve: Enemy of Liberty and Prosperity

written by ron paul

monday november 18, 2019

Lost in the media’s obsession with the impeachment circus last week was Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony on the state of the economy before the Joint Economic Committee. In his testimony, Chairman Powell warned that when the next recession inevitably occurs, the US Government’s over $23 trillion debt would prevent Congress from increasing spending to revive the economy.

Powell also said that the Fed’s current low interest rate policies would prevent the Fed from using its traditional methods of increasing the money supply and further lowering interest rates to jump-start economic growth in a recession. Hopefully, Powell is correct that when the next recession hits the Federal Reserve and Congress will be unable to “stimulate” the economy with cheap money and new spending.

Interest rates are the price of money and, as with all prices, government manipulation of interest rates distorts the signals regarding market conditions. Artificially low interest rates lead to malinvestment and the creation of bubbles. Recessions are a painful but necessary correction that allows the economy to cleanse itself of these distortions. When the Federal Reserve and Congress try to stimulate the economy, they introduce new distortions, making it impossible for the economy to heal itself. Fiscal and monetary stimulus may temporally create the illusions of prosperity, but in reality they merely create another bubble that will eventually burst starting the boom-and-bust cycle all over again. So, the best thing Congress and the Federal Reserve can do to help the economy recover from a recession is nothing.

The New World Disorder Counter-Summit

Saturday, 30th November from 10am to 5.30 pm

POSTED BY: SM NOVEMBRE 29, 2019

IT -- Domani 30 Novembre si svolgerà a Londra il Contro-Summit Nato, in occasione del vertice Nato del 3 e 4 Dicembre. Jean Toschi M. Visconti rappresenterà il nostro Comitato partecipando al workshop sulle armi nucleari.

Per info:

https://www.no-to-nato.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Counter-summit-london-detailed-prog-2019-10-17.pdf

EN --Tomorrow November 30th, the NATO Counter-Summit will take place in London, on the occasion of the NATO summit on 3 and 4 December. Jean Toschi M. Visconti will represent our Committee by participating in the workshop on nuclear weapons.

For info:

https://www.no-to-nato.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Counter-summit-london-detailed-prog-2019-10-17.pdf

FR -- Demain, le 30 novembre, le contre-sommet de l'OTAN aura lieu à Londres à l'occasion du sommet de l'OTAN des 3 et 4 décembre. Jean Toschi M. Visconti représentera notre Comité en participant au workshop sur les armes nucléaires.

Pour info:

https://www.no-to-nato.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Counter-summit-london-detailed-prog-2019-10-17.pdf

PT – Amanhã, 30 de Novembro, a Contra-Cimeira da NATO ocorrerá em Londres, por ocasião da Cimeira da NATO, em 3 e 4 de Dezembro. Jean Toschi M. Visconti representará o  Comitato NO GUERRA NO NATO, participando no workshop sobre armas nucleares.

Mais informações:

https://www.no-to-nato.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Counter-summit-london-detailed-prog-2019-10-17.pdf

SP - Mañana, 30 de noviembre, la Contracumbre de la OTAN tendrá lugar en Londres, con motivo de la cumbre de la OTAN los días 3 y 4 de diciembre. Jean Toschi M. Visconti representará a nuestro Comité participando en el taller sobre armas nucleares.

Para información:

https://www.no-to-nato.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Counter-summit-london-detailed-prog-2019-10-17.pdf

JOHN PILGER: Visiting Britain’s Political Prisoner

JOHN PILGER: VisitingBritain’s Political Prisoner

November 29, 2019 • 33 Comments 

“I think I’m going out of my mind,” Julian Assange told John Pilger at Belmarsh Prison. “No you’re not,” Pilger responded. “Look how you frighten them, how powerful you are.”

By John Pilger

I set out at dawn. Her Majesty’s Prison Belmarsh is in the flat hinterland of south east London, a ribbon of walls and wire with no horizon. At what is called the visitors centre, I surrendered my passport, wallet, credit cards, medical cards, money, phone, keys, comb, pen, paper.

I need two pairs of glasses. I had to choose which pair stayed behind. I left my reading glasses. From here on, I couldn’t read, just as Julian couldn’t read for the first few weeks of his incarceration. His glasses were sent to him, but inexplicably took months to arrive.

There are large TV screens in the visitors centre. The TV is always on, it seems, and the volume turned up. Game shows, commercials for cars and pizzas and funeral packages, even TED talks, they seem perfect for a prison: like visual valium.

I joined a queue of sad, anxious people, mostly poor women and children, and grandmothers. At the first desk, I was fingerprinted, if that is still the word for biometric testing.

“Both hands, press down!” I was told. A file on me appeared on the screen.

I could now cross to the main gate, which is set in the walls of the prison. The last time I was at Belmarsh to see Julian, it was raining hard. My umbrella wasn’t allowed beyond the visitors centre. I had the choice of getting drenched, or running like hell. Grandmothers have the same choice.

At the second desk, an official behind the wire, said, “What’s that?”

“My watch,” I replied guiltily.

“Take it back,” she said. 

So I ran back through the rain, returning just in time to be biometrically tested again. This was followed by a full body scan and a full body search. Soles of feet; mouth open.

At each stop, our silent, obedient group shuffled into what is known as a sealed space, squeezed behind a yellow line. Pity the claustrophobic; one woman squeezed her eyes shut.

We were then ordered into another holding area, again with iron doors shutting loudly in front of us and behind us.

“Stand behind the yellow line!” said a disembodied voice.

Belmarsh prison, where Assange is incarcerated.

Another electronic door slid partly open; we hesitated wisely. It shuddered and shut and opened again. Another holding area, another desk, another chorus of, “Show your finger!”

Then we were in a long room with squares on the floor where we were told to stand, one at a time. Two men with sniffer dogs arrived and worked us, front and back.

The dogs sniffed our arses and slobbered on my hand. Then more doors opened, with a new order to “hold out your wrist!” 

A laser branding was our ticket into a large room, where the prisoners sat waiting in silence, opposite empty chairs. On the far side of the room was Julian, wearing a yellow arm band over his prison clothes.

Thierry Meyssan -- « SOUS NOS YEUX » (8/25) L’agonie de la politique étrangère française

« SOUS NOS YEUX » (8/25)

L’agonie de la politique étrangère française

par Thierry Meyssan

Nous poursuivons la publication du livre de Thierry Meyssan, Sous nos yeux. Nous débutons la seconde partie sur la politique française avec, dans cet épisode, l’entrée en scène de Jacques Chirac et de Nicolas Sarkozy. Progressivement les petits cadeaux vont transformer la politique étrangère de Paris du service de la France à des arrangements personnels entre amis.

RÉSEAU VOLTAIRE | DAMAS (SYRIE) | 29 NOVEMBRE 2019 

Cet article est extrait du livre Sous nos yeux.
Voir la Table des matières.

Le 14 février 2003, renouant avec la tradition gaulliste d’indépendance de la France, Dominique de Villepin s’oppose au Conseil de sécurité à la volonté états-unienne de détruire l’Irak.

Les «  Printemps arabes  »,
vus de Paris

La politique extérieure de la France, jadis guidée par la vision stratégique de Charles De Gaulle, laisse progressivement la place à la recherche par quelques-uns de l’argent facile. Après avoir résisté à l’impérialisme états-unien, Jacques Chirac se retire du combat et mêle les affaires de l’État et ses affaires personnelles. Nicolas Sarkozy sert les intérêts US tout en négociant au passage pour lui-même tout ce qui peut l’être. François Hollande va plus loin encore en plaçant la République au service de quelques intérêts privés qui forment le nouveau parti de la colonisation. Emmanuel Macron manipule la France pour promouvoir les stratégies des grandes fortunes démocrates US. Toujours à la recherche de plus d’argent, la France se met successivement au service de la Turquie, du Qatar, de l’Arabie saoudite, puis du patronat transnational.

Pour Jacques Chirac, Hafez el-Assad était le seul dirigeant capable d’unifier le monde arabe. Il le comparait à Otto de Bismarck.

16— Jacques Chirac, « l’Arabe »

Jacques Chirac tient Hafez el-Assad en très haute estime. Il voit en lui une personnalité exceptionnelle ayant une vision pour son pays et sa région.

PT -- Manlio Dinucci -- Os F-35 levantam voo com asas bipartidárias

Os F-35 levantam voo com asas bipartidárias

Manlio Dinucci

ITALIANO PORTUGUÊS

Lorenzo Guerini (PD), Ministro da Defesa do Governo Conte II, comunicou às comissões parlamentares, a passagem para a fase 2 do programa de compra dos F-35, da empresa americana Lockheed Martin. Passagem preparada pelo Governo Conte I: o Vice Primeiro Ministro Salvini (Lega) sublinhou, em Março passado, que “qualquer hipótese de abrandamento ou correcção do programa de compra dos F-35 seria uma perda para a economia italiana”; o Subsecretário dos Negócios Estrangeiro, Di Stefano (M5S) solicitou uma “revisão profunda dos acordos”, mas acrescentou que “se tivermos penalidades a pagar, certamente não entraremos na História por ter traído um acordo feito com empresas privadas: existe toda uma cadeia que deve ser respeitada”. Em Maio passado, o Governo Conte I autorizou “a construção e entrega de 28 caças F-35 até 2022 (os aviões entregues até ao momento são 13), cujos contratos foram completamente financiados”, obviamente com dinheiro público.

Em Outubro passado, em conversas confidenciais com o Governo Conte II, em Roma, o Secretário de Estado USA, Mike Pompeo, pedia à Itália para desbloquear a encomenda para uma compra posterior. O Ministro da Defesa Guerini assegurou-lhe, imediatamente, numa entrevista ao Corriere della Sera, que "a Itália é um país confiável e credível em relação aos compromissos internacionais: contribuir para o programa F-35 é um sinal tangível de nossa confiabilidade". Alguns dias depois, durante uma conferência de imprensa em Washington com o Presidente Mattarella, o Presidente Trump anunciou exultante: "A Itália acabou de comprar 90 novos F-35. O programa é muito bom".

A Itália confirma, portanto, o seu empenho em comprar 90 unidades, com uma despesa prevista de cerca de 14 biliões de euros. A essa junta-se a verba não quantificável para a actualização contínua do software de caça. A Itália não é só compradora, mas fabricante do F-35, como parceira de segundo nível. A Leonardo - a maior indústria militar italiana, da qual o Ministério da Economia e Finanças é o principal accionista, com cerca de 30% - está fortemente integrada no complexo industrial militar USA. Foi, por este facto,  escolhida para gerir a fábrica Faco, em Cameri (Piemonte), de onde saem os caças destinados à Itália e à Holanda. A Leonardo produz, também, as asas completas para os aviões montados nos USA, utilizando materiais produzidos nas fábricas de Foggia (Puglia), Nola (Campania) e Venegono (Lombardia). O emprego na Faco é de cerca de mil postos de trabalho, dos quais muitos são provisórios, apenas um sexto do previsto. A despesa para a construção da fábrica Faco e a compra dos caças são superiores ao valor dos contratos estipulados pelas empresas italianas para a produção do F-35. Do ponto de vista económico, ao contrário do que o governo alega, a participação no programa F-35 é um fracasso para o erário público.

O Ministro Guerini lançou a fase 2 do programa F-35 “sem uma avaliação de mérito e na ausência de uma declaração, em discordância com as indicações do Parlamento”, denuncia o deputado da LeU, Palazzotto, pedindo que o Ministro explique “em que base, assumiu, autonomamente, esta decisão”. Na sua “explicação”, o Ministro nunca dirá a verdadeira razão pela qual tomou essa decisão, não autonomamente, mas por deliberação do ‘establishment’ italiano. A participação no programa F-35 reforça a ancoragem política e estratégica da Itália aos Estados Unidos, integrando ainda mais o complexo militar industrial italiano no gigantesco complexo militar industrial USA. A decisão de participar no programa é, portanto, uma escolha política, feita numa base bipartidária. Confirma-o, o facto da Liga, adversária do Partido Democrata, aplaudir o Ministro do Pd: “Observamos com satisfação, que sobre o F-35, o Ministro Guerini anunciou o início da fase 2”, declaram, unânimes, os legisladores da Liga. As principais forças políticas, em contraste uma com a outra, reagrupam-se, seguindo os Estados Unidos, “o aliado privilegiado” que, em breve, instalará em Itália, juntamente com os F-35, as novas bombas nucleares B61-12 projectadas, em particular, para estes caças da quinta geração.

il manifesto, 30 de Novembro de 2019

http://www.natoexit.it/en/home-en/ -- ENGLISH

http://www.natoexit.it/ -- ITALIANO

DECLARAÇÃO DE FLORENÇA
Para uma frente internacional NATO EXIT, 
em todos os países europeus da NATO

DANSK DEUTSCH ENGLISH ESPAÑOL  FRANÇAIS ITALIANO  NEDERLANDS

PORTUGUÊS ROMÎNA SLOVENSKÝ SVENSKA TÜRKÇE РУССКИЙ

Manlio Dinucci

Geógrafo e geopolitólogo. Livros mais recentes: Laboratorio di geografia, Zanichelli 2014 ; Diario di viaggio, Zanichelli 2017 ; L’arte della guerra / Annali della strategia Usa/Nato 1990-2016, Zambon 2016, Guerra Nucleare. Il Giorno Prima 2017; Diario di guerra Asterios Editores 2018; Premio internazionale per l'analisi geostrategica assegnato il 7 giugno 2019 dal Club dei giornalisti del Messico, A.C.