ERIC ZUESSE -- UK’s Tory Victory Likely to Bind U.S. & UK against Europe & Asia

UK’s Tory Victory Likely to Bind U.S. & UK against Europe & Asia

by Eric Zuesse

December 23, 2019

 

Huffington Post headlined on December 21st “I Left Increasingly Right-Wing Britain And Now I Don’t Know If I Will Ever Return Home”, but the young woman who wrote it seems to have had no idea of the deep international forces that — as she sadly noted — are driving ever-larger numbers of young Brits, like herself, to relocate to continental Europe. This is part of a long war against Russia that started in her own UK, then took over in the United States on 26 July 1945, and seems likely to intensify greatly in the future, and to propel UK itself even further into America’s anti-Russian orbit, while Europe will ultimately unify increasingly with the rest of the EurAsian continent — including with both Russia and China.

The U.S. Government has actually been behind all of this reorganization of the international political map (as will be documented here in the links to the present article).

The U.S. Government, by means of its coups, overthrew democratically elected progressive governments and replaced them with brutal fascist dictatorships in Thailand 1948, Iran 1953, Chile 1973, Honduras 2009, and Ukraine 2014, just to mention a few U.S.-hired coups; and, now — with the December 12th Tory landslide and resultant inevitability of Brexit — the UK (America’s former colonizer) will itself become just another American colony. Here is how all of this is happening:

On December 14th, CNBC headlined “US isn’t weaponizing the dollar; sanctions are the alternative to war, Mnuchin says” and reported enormously important news, regarding the strategy that the U.S. Government has increasingly been using ever since, in 2012, it imposed (on fraudulent grounds) the Magnitsky Act sanctions against Russia, and subsequently imposed the many other sanctions regimens used against nations that are either allied with or merely friendly toward Russia. That article also discussed the international alliances which will be involved in a military World War III if this preliminary stage of global warfare (the sanctions-phase) won’t produce the capitulation of Russia and of China, but instead an outright military war becomes resorted-to.

Andre Vltchek -- In the UK – Do Subjects Deserve their Rulers?

23.12.2019 Author: Andre Vltchek

In the UK – Do Subjects Deserve their Rulers?

Column: Politics

Region: Europe

I constantly receive such letters; letters which repeat, again and again, year after year, basically the same thing: “If only we would have an opportunity to vote out our damn system!”

Such letters, emails and messages keep coming to me from the United States, but also from the United Kingdom. Particularly, after certain events, like when the Western empire overthrows some progressive government in Asia, Latin America or the Middle East.

I honestly wonder: “Don’t my readers actually periodically have that proverbial opportunity they are longing for? They can, can’t they, install socialism; to let it storm into Downing Street like an early spring?”

But they keep missing that opportunity, again and again. Or, are they really missing it? Actually, for so many years they have voted in the most extreme forms of capitalism and imperialism, so one has to wonder whether the British voters perhaps truly deserve their rulers?

***

The results of the British elections became so radical, so conservative, that even the most conformist British press, like The Economist, doesn’t appear to be able to stomach them, anymore.

Of course, I am being sarcastic, because precisely that the mainstream press is one of the main reasons, why the British electorates vote as they do.

But seriously, could anyone in his or her sane state of mind vote for BoJo?

Just put Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn next to each other, and listen to each of them for ten minutes, and it would appear that anyone who would vote for the leader of the Conservative Party should be ripe for the mental asylum.

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.”

NL -- SYLVAIN LAFOREST: Een andere kijk op Trump

Een andere kijk op Trump

About Trump

Auteur: Sylvain LAFOREST op 15/11/2019

ENGLISH FRANÇAIS NEDERLANDS PORTUGUÊS

De timing is perfect voor iedereen om te begrijpen wat Donald Trump aan het doen is, en om te proberen de dubbelzinnigheid van hoe hij het doet te ontcijferen. De controversiële president heeft een veel duidelijkere agenda dan wie dan ook, zowel op het gebied van het buitenlands beleid als op het gebied van binnenlandse zaken, maar omdat hij aan de macht moet blijven of zelfs in leven moet blijven om zijn doelstellingen te bereiken, is zijn strategie zo verfijnd en subtiel dat niemand het kan zien. Zijn algemene doelstelling is zo ambitieus dat hij een willekeurige elliptische koers moet volgen om van punt A naar punt B te komen, waarbij hij gebruik maakt van patronen die de mensen van hun bevattingsvermogen van de man afleiden. Dat geldt voor de meeste onafhankelijke journalisten en zogenaamde alternatieve analisten, maar ook voor westerse mainstream nep-nieuwsuitgevers en een grote meerderheid van de bevolking.

Over zijn strategie zou ik een snelle en nauwkeurige analogie kunnen maken met medicatie: de meeste pillen zijn ontworpen om een probleem te behandelen, maar komen met een reeks secundaire nawerkingen. Nou, Trump gebruikt medicatie alleen voor hun nawerkingen, terwijl de eerste bedoeling van de pil is wat hem aan de macht en in leven houdt. Aan het eind van dit artikel zult u zien dat deze metafoor van toepassing is op vrijwel elke beslissing, actie of verklaring die hij heeft gemaakt. Als je eenmaal begrijpt waar Trump voor staat, zul je het buitengewone voorzitterschap dat hij leidt kunnen waarderen, zoals geen enkele voorganger ooit in de buurt is gekomen van wat hij heeft gedaan.

Om te beginnen, laten we het ene aspect van zijn missie dat rechtdoorzee en vreselijk direct is, duidelijk maken: hij is de eerste en enige Amerikaanse president die ooit het ergste collectieve gebrek van de mensheid, haar totale onwetendheid van de werkelijkheid, aan de kaak heeft gesteld. Omdat zowel de media als het onderwijs worden gecontroleerd door de handvol miljardairs die de planeet besturen, weten we niets over onze geschiedenis dat door de winnaars is verdraaid, en we hebben geen idee van onze huidige wereld. Toen hij in de politieke arena stapte, maakte Donald de uitdrukking "nepnieuws" populair om de Amerikaanse burgers, en ook de wereldbevolking, ervan te overtuigen dat de media altijd tegen je liegen. De uitdrukking is nu gemeengoed geworden, maar realiseert u zich hoe schokkend het is dat bijna alles wat je denkt te weten volledig nep is? Media leugens gaan niet alleen over de geschiedenis en de politiek, maar ze hebben je valse perceptie over onderwerpen als economie, voedsel, klimaat, gezondheid en alles bepaald. Wat als ik je vertel dat we precies weten wie JFK vanaf de graskant heeft neergeschoten, dat de voorkennis van Pearl Harbor in de rechtbank is bewezen, dat het CO2 broeikaseffect wetenschappelijk absurd is, dat ons geld wordt gecreëerd door middel van leningen van banken die niet eens de fondsen hebben, of dat de wetenschap met 100% zekerheid bewijst dat 911 een inside job was? Ooit gehoord van een mainstream journalist, PBS documentaire of universiteitsdocent die je hierover vertelt? 44 Presidenten kwamen en gingen zonder ook maar één woord te zeggen over dit enorme probleem, voordat de 45e kwam. Trump weet dat het bevrijden van de mensen uit deze ondoorgrondelijke onwetendheid de eerste stap naar algemene vrijheid is, vandaar dat hij begonnen is met het noemen van mainstream journalisten en hun nieuwsplatformen voor wat ze zijn: pathologische leugenaars.

«"Duizenden professionals in de geestelijke gezondheidszorg zijn het eens met Woodward en de auteur van de New York Times: Trump is gevaarlijk."»

- Bandy X. Lee, Het gesprek 2018

«"De vraag is niet of de president gek is, maar of hij gek is als een vos of gek als iemand die geschift is."»

- Masha Gessen, The New Yorker 2017

Laten we één ding duidelijk stellen: voor de gevestigde orde is Trump niet mentaal uitgedaagd, maar hij wordt zeker gezien als een mogelijke rivaal van hun wereld. Sinds zijn verhuizing naar het Witte Huis is Trump afgeschilderd als een narcist, racist, seksist en klimaatscepticus, geladen met duistere verhalen uit het verleden en mentale kwesties. Hoewel ongeveer 60% van de Amerikanen geen vertrouwen meer heeft in de media, hebben velen het verhaal gekocht dat Trump misschien een beetje gek of ongeschikt is om te regeren, en de statistieken stijgen nog hoger als je buiten de VS komt. Natuurlijk doet Donald niets bijzonders om, de diep negatieve perceptie die zo veel journalisten en mensen over hem hebben, te veranderen. Hij is openlijk buitenissig en provocerend op Twitter, hij klinkt meestal impulsief en onnozel, gedraagt zich irrationeel, liegt op dagelijkse basis, en gooit sancties en dreigementen weg alsof het snoepgoed uit de zijtas van een elfje in december in een winkelcentrum is. We kunnen meteen een hardnekkige mediamythe vernietigen: het beeld dat Trump projecteert is zelfvernietigend en het is precies het tegenovergestelde van hoe pathologische narcisten zich gedragen, aangezien ze gedijen om door iedereen bemind en bewonderd te worden. Het kan Donald gewoon niet schelen of je hem leuk vindt of niet, wat hem door zijn psychologische definitie de ultieme anti-narcissist maakt. En dat is niet eens een kwestie van mening, het is een vrij eenvoudig en onmiskenbaar feit.

PT -- SYLVAIN LAFOREST -- SOBRE TRUMP

Sobre Trump

Escrito por Sylvain LAFOREST em  15/11/2019

ENGLISH FRANÇAIS NEDERLANDS PORTUGUÊS

É o momento certo para todos compreenderem o que Donald Trump está  a fazer e tentar decifrar a ambiguidade de como ele está a fazê-lo. O Presidente polémico tem uma agenda muito mais clara do que qualquer um pode imaginar, quer em política estrangeira, quer nos assuntos internos, mas como ele tem de permanecer no poder ou mesmo permanecer vivo para alcançar os seus objectivos, a sua estratégia é tão refinada e subtil que quase ninguém consegue vê-la. O seu objectivo total é tão ambicioso que ele precisa seguir cursos elípticos imprevistos, para ir do ponto A ao ponto B, usando padrões que afastam as pessoas da compreensão do homem. Isso inclui a maioria dos jornalistas independentes e os chamados analistas alternativos, assim como os principais editores de notícias falsas do Ocidente e uma grande maioria da população.

Sobre a sua estratégia, eu poderia fazer uma analogia rápida e precisa com a medicação: a maioria das pílulas é preconcebida para curar um problema, mas vem com uma série de efeitos secundários. Bem, Trump está a usar medicamentos apenas para os efeitos colaterais, enquanto a primeira intenção da pílula é o que o mantém no poder e vivo. No final deste artigo, verão que esta metáfora se aplica a praticamente todas as decisões, movimentos ou declarações que ele fez. Quando compreenderem o que é Trump, poderão apreciar a presidência extraordinária que ele está a conduzir, como nenhum antecessor chegasse, de perto, a igualar.

Para começar, vamos esclarecer o único aspecto da sua missão que é sério e terrivelmente directo: ele é o primeiro e o único Presidente americano a abordar a pior falha colectiva da Humanidade, a ignorância total da realidade. Visto que as empresas e agências da comunicação social e a educação são controladas por um punhado de bilionários que governam o planeta, não sabemos nada sobre a nossa História, que foi distorcida pelos vencedores e não temos ideia do mundo actual. Ao entrar na arena política, Donald popularizou a expressão “fake news”/notícias falsas, para convencer os cidadãos americanos e também a população mundial, de que as agências da comunicação social mentem sempre para vós. Agora, a expressão tornou-se um lugar comum, mas percebem o quão profundamente chocante é o facto de que quase tudo o que pensam que sabem, é totalmente falso? As mentiras mediáticas não abrangem só a História e a política, mas moldaram a vossa percepção falsa em assuntos como economia, alimentação, clima, saúde, em tudo. E se eu vos disser que sabemos exactamente quem atirou, a partir da colina relvada, sobre JFK, que o conhecimento prévio do ataque a Pearl Harbor foi provado em tribunal, que o efeito estufa do CO2 é cientificamente absurdo, que o nosso dinheiro é criado através de empréstimos de bancos que nem sequer têm esse dinheiro, ou que a ciência prova com 100% de certeza que o 11 de Setembro foi uma operação interna? Já escutaram um jornalista, um documentário da PBS ou um Professor universitário a falar sobre esses assuntos? 44 presidentes estiveram no poder e passaram sem sequer levantar uma palavra sobre esse enorme problema, antes de surgir o 45º Presidente. Trump sabe que libertar as pessoas desta ignorância insondável é o primeiro passo para a liberdade geral, portanto, começou a chamar os jornalistas tradicionais e os meios de comunicação pelo que eles são: mentirosos patológicos.

“Milhares de profissionais de saúde mental concordam com Woodward, escritor de opinião do New York Times: Trump é perigoso.”– Bandy X. Lee, The Conversation 2018

 “A questão não é se o Presidente é louco, mas se ele é louco como uma raposa ou louco como um doente mental.”

- Masha Gessen, The New Yorker 2017

Vamos deixar uma questão clara: para o 'establishment', Trump não é mentalmente perturbado, mas é visto, definitivamente, como um possível inimigo do mundo deles. Desde que se mudou para a Casa Branca, Trump tem sido descrito como narcisista, racista, sexista e céptico em relação ao clima, carregado de histórias obscuras e problemas mentais. Embora aproximadamente 60% do povo americano não confie mais na comunicação mediática, muitos aceitaram a história de que Trump pode ser um pouco louco ou inadequado para governar e a estatística aumenta ainda mais quando você sai dos EUA. É claro que Donald não está a fazer nada de especial para mudar a percepção profundamente negativa que tantos jornalistas e pessoas têm sobre ele. Ele é declaradamente ultrajante e provocador no Twitter, parece ser impulsivo e burro na maioria das vezes, age irracionalmente, mente diariamente e lança sanções e ameaças como se fossem gulodices da sacola lateral de um elfo num ‘shopping center’ em Dezembro. Podemos destruir, de imediato, um mito persistente da comunicação mediática: a imagem que Trump está a projectar é autodestrutiva e é exactamente o oposto de como os narcisistas patológicos agem, visto que adoram ser amados e admirados por todos. Donald simplesmente não se importa se vocês gostam ou não gostam dele, o que, por definição psicológica o torna o anti-narcisista supremo. E isto nem é uma opinião, é um facto bastante simples e inegável.

SYLVAIN LAFOREST -- About Trump

About Trump

Written by Sylvain LAFOREST on 15/11/2019

ENGLISH FRANÇAIS NEDERLANDS PORTUGUÊS

The timing is right for everyone to understand what Donald Trump is doing, and try to decrypt the ambiguity of how he is is doing it. The controversial President has a much clearer agenda than anyone can imagine on both foreign policy and internal affairs, but since he has to stay in power or even stay alive to achieve his objectives, his strategy is so refined and subtle that next to no one can see it. His overall objective is so ambitious that he has to follow random elliptic courses to get from point A to point B, using patterns that throw people off on their comprehension of the man. That includes most independent journalists and so-called alternative analysts, as much as Western mainstream fake-news publishers and a large majority of the population.

About his strategy, I could make a quick and accurate analogy with medication: most pills are designed to cure a problem, but come with an array of secondary after-effects. Well, Trump is using medication solely for their after-effects, while the first intent of the pill is what’s keeping him in power and alive. By the end of this article, you’ll see that this metaphor applies for just about every decision, move or declaration he’s made. Once you understand what Trump is about, you’ll be able to appreciate the extraordinary presidency he’s conducting, like no predecessor ever came close to match.

To start off, let’s clear the one aspect of his mission that is straightforward and terribly direct: he’s the first and only American President to ever address humanity’s worst collective flaw, its total ignorance of reality. Because medias and education are both controlled by the handful of billionaires that are running the planet, we don’t know anything about our history that’s been twisted dry by the winners, and we don’t have a clue about our present world. As he stepped in the political arena, Donald popularized the expression «fake news» to convince the American citizens, and the world population as well, that medias always lie to you. The expression has now become commonplace, but do you realize how deeply shocking is the fact that nearly everything you think you know is totally fake? Media lies don’t just cover history and politics, but they have shaped your false perception on topics like economy, food, climate, health, on everything. What if I told you that we know exactly who shot JFK from the grassy knoll, that the foreknowledge of Pearl Harbor was proven in court, that the CO2 greenhouse effect is scientifically absurd, that our money is created through loans by banks who don’t even have the funds, or that science proves with a 100% certainty that 911 was an inside job? Ever heard of a mainstream journalist, PBS documentary or university teacher telling you about any of this? 44 Presidents came and went without even raising one word about this huge problem, before the 45th came along. Trump knows that freeing the people out of this unfathomable ignorance is the first step to overall freedom, so he started calling mainstream journalists and their news outlets for what they are: pathological liars.

«Thousands of mental health professionals agree with Woodward and the New York Times op-ed author: Trump is dangerous.»

– Bandy X. Lee, The Conversation 2018

«The question is not whether the President is crazy but whether he is crazy like a fox or crazy like crazy.»

– Masha Gessen, The New Yorker 2017

Let’s make one thing clear: to the establishment, Trump isn’t mentally challenged, but he’s definitely seen as a possible nemesis of their world. Ever since he moved in the White House, Trump has been depicted as a narcissist, a racist, a sexist and a climate-skeptic, loaded with shady past stories and mental issues. Even though an approximate 60% of the American people don’t trust medias anymore, many have bought the story that Trump might be slightly crazy or unfit to rule, and the statistic climbs even higher when you get out of the USA. Of course, Donald isn’t doing anything special to change the deeply negative perception that so many journalists and people alike have about him. He’s openly outrageous and provocative on Twitter, he sounds impulsive and dumb most of the time, acts irrationally, lies on a daily basis, and throws out sanctions and threats as if they were candy canes out of an elf’s side bag in a mall in December. Right away, we can destroy one persistent media myth: the image Trump is projecting is self-destructive and it’s the exact opposite of how pathological narcissists act, since they thrive to be loved and admired by everyone. Donald simply doesn’t care if you like him or not, which makes him the ultimate anti-narcissist, by its psychological definition. And that’s not even up for opinion, it’s a quite simple and undeniable fact.

Larry Romanoff -- A US War Story

A US War Story

Dresden, Germany

By Larry Romanoff

Global Research, November 01, 2019

Region: Europe, Russia and FSU, USA

Theme: History

Westerners are aware that the Americans fire-bombed the city of Dresden in Germany at the end of the Second World War, but most of the truth was suppressed as soon as it happened. Dresden was Eastern Germany’s cultural centre, a city filled with museums and historic buildings, historians unanimously agreeing that Dresden had no military value. What little industry it did have produced only cigarettes and china.

Neither Churchill nor Roosevelt were interested in ending the war or attacking military installations that still existed 100 Kms. outside of Dresden. At the time, the Russian army was advancing, and there is some truth to the story that the Americans wanted to show the Russians the awesome power of a truly advanced military force, to prevent Russia from harboring ambitions about Europe. It seems that both British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Roosevelt wanted what they called “a trump card”, a devastating “thunderclap of Anglo-American annihilation” with which to “impress” Stalin. But this could have been accomplished in many other ways and places. Dresden was not selected for this reason. There were two other prime motivations which will soon be apparent.

The fire-bombing of Dresden is one of many historical events that have been heavily sanitised by the victors, with casualty claims by so-called historians ranging as low as 25,000 or 30,000 when the likely tally was at least 30 times that number. Most cleansed versions of this holocaust tend to virtually ignore or deliberately underestimate the vast stream of refugees that had been flowing into Dresden for weeks; the most accurate estimates I have seen range upward from 500,000, this in addition to the regular population. Both Churchill and Roosevelt were fully aware of this huge and defenseless horde and, in their search for their “trump-card thunderclap”, were quoted as actively looking for “suggestions on how to blaze 600,000 refugees”. The Internet on this topic is very heavily sanitised.

71st Anniversary of Dresden Fire Bombing: 

Allied War Crime Prelude to the Cold War

An important point historians have chosen to overlook is that the Americans and British fire-bombed not only Dresden but hundreds of smaller towns surrounding Dresden, many of which were so totally destroyed they were never rebuilt. The reason was genocidal, one small part of the overall intent to totally destroy Germany. With the utter destruction of these smaller towns, the population was being driven – herded like animals – into larger cities like Dresden where they could be annihilated in one massive single strike. The initial bombings encircled areas like Dresden, driving the people out of their towns and into the larger centers where they might find food and shelter and perhaps medical care. Often, the Allies bombed surrounding roads and railroads to prevent the escape of refugees in those directions, relentlessly herding them to the slaughter-houses. The plan was to exterminate as many Germans as possible. By the date of the bombing, the city was filled with increasing hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing other areas under attack.

Kosovo’s Great Martyr (IV)

BALKANS, EUROPE, TURKEY

Kosovo’s Great Martyr (IV)

Written by Vladislav B. SOTIROVIĆ on 11/06/2019

Part I Part II Part III

The Cult from 1690 until 1800

Between the fall of the Serbian lands under the Ottoman lordship in the mid-15th c. and the First Serbian Uprising against the Turks at the beginning of the 19th c. (1804−1813),[i] the 1690 First Great Serbian Migration was the crucial historical event in the history of the Serbs. The immediate outcome of the Migration was a change of the ethnic structure of the lands south and north from the Rivers of Sava and Danube. During this migration, as a result of the Ottoman counter-offensive against the Austrian army,[ii] at least 70.000 immigrants (according to some historians even c. 100.000) passed the River Sava and settled mainly the lands of South Hungary (this part of historical Hungary became after 1918 part of Serbia under the name Vojvodina).[iii] Written privileges for the Serbs given by the Habsburg Emperors, who were at the same time and the Hungarian Kings, provided and guaranteed them freedom of the faith, church’s autonomy and the right to elect their own local administrative authorities. Along with a common language, faith and habits, the Serbian immigrants within the Habsburg Empire were linked to each other from the national point of view and by a strong tradition with regard to the same origins and history. In the process of a national gathering of the Serbs in the Habsburg Monarchy, but also and in linking them with the Serbs south from the River Sava, Prince Lazar’s cult had one of the most important roles. In fact, revival, new spreading and firming of the cult of St. Prince Lazar was one of the crucial points in the process of making national awareness among the Serbs in all three foreign countries where they were living: the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy and the Republic of Venice. In this process, an autonomous Serbian Church in the Habsburg Monarchy (the Metropolitanate of Karlovci) played the most important role.

Migration of the Serbs (Seoba Srba), by Serbian painter Paja Jovanović, 1896

Kosovo’s Great Martyr (I)

BALKANS, EUROPE, TURKEY

Kosovo’s Great Martyr (I)

Written by Vladislav B. SOTIROVIĆ on 31/05/2019

The Battle and the Nation 

The consciousness of a distinct Serbian ethnic identity had been present among the Serbs since the times of the founder of an independent medieval Serbian state, veliki župan (Grand Duke) Stefan Nemanja (1166−1196).[i] These consciousnesses were further strengthened by both when Serbia became a kingdom in 1217 and with the establishment of an autocephalous archbishopric in 1219 as a national independent (Christian Orthodox) church.[ii] However, the Battle of Kosovo (on the morning of June 28th, 1389)[iii] which the Serbs de facto lost to the Ottoman Turks and the death of a Serbian ruler, Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović (1371−1389), during the battle had up to nowadays the most powerful impact to the Serbian consciousness about independent state, independent church and awareness of ethnic separateness from other members of South Slavic community. In addition, this battle known also as the Battle of Kosovo Polje, which took place north of the city of Priština is of great patriotic and ideological significance in the history of all Serbs either from Serbia or elsewhere.[iv]

The place of the battle is a geographical region known as the Plain of Kosovo (Kosovo Polje in Serb or Fusha e Kosovës in Albanian) that is a major settlement in the eastern part of Kosovo-Metochia (KosMet)[v] – an autonomous province of the Republic of Serbia. The plain is basically a plateau running from the city of Kosovska Mitrovica passing southward the administrative center of the province Priština and the town of Uroševac going almost to the small town of Kačanik on the border with the Republic of North Macedonia. The Plain of Kosovo has an elevation of between 500 meters and 600 meters and it is the most fertile land within KosMet. In the middle of the plain, one can find a town of the same name – Kosovo Polje, today, in fact, a suburb of Priština. On the place of the battle there are two historical monuments: 1) The memorial to the battle erected by the Serbian authorities after the liberation of KosMet as a consequence of the 1912‒1913 Balkan Wars;[vi] and 2) The Turbe of Murad constructed by the Ottoman authorities in order to mark the place of the death of the Ottoman Sultan Murad I (1359‒1389) during the battle.

Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović of Serbia, allied with Bosnia’s King Tvrtko I Kotromanić (1353‒1391), made in 1389 his last attempt to preserve Serbia’s independence from the rapidly expanding Ottoman Empire in the Balkans. In 1388 both of them succeeded to defeat the Ottoman Turks in three battles when the Sultan Murad I was occupied by pacifying Asia Minor (Anatolia). Next year, Murad I organized a huge military campaign against Prince Lazar’s Serbia attacking this Balkan state with a huge coalition of forces (overall up to 100.000 soldiers according to some historians) which included his vassals from Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Albania. Many of his vassals have been Christians and even the Serbs. The opposing army composed by the soldiers from Serbia, Valachia, Bosnia, KosMet, and Albania (the overwhelming majority of them, however, came from Prince Lazar’s Serbia) numbered up to c. 20.000. During the battle, both leaders, Prince Lazar, and Sultan Murad lost their lives. According to the legend but as well as some Turkish sources, the Sultan was assassinated by some Serbian soldier who appears by different names. The most popular version among the Serbs but also based on the Ottoman sources is that the knight Miloš Obilić (Kobilić), insulted a night before the battle by a feudal lord from KosMet Vuk Branković, penetrated heroically into Sultan’s tent and stabbed him to death before being killed by Sultan’s guards.[vii] The defeated and wounded Prince Lazar was basically taken prisoner with his knights and was decapitated by the Ottomans as revenge for killed Sultan Murad I.[viii]

Night before the Battle of Kosovo, by Adam Stefanović (1870)

The crocodiles are hungry: Fascism back in Eastern Europe, appeased by the West

John Wight has written for a variety of newspapers and websites, including the Independent, Morning Star, Huffington Post, Counterpunch, London Progressive Journal, and Foreign Policy Journal.

Published time: 28 Mar, 2019 10:32Edited time: 28 Mar, 2019 16:40

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Activists and supporters of Ukrainian nationalist parties hold a rally in central Kiev, Ukraine March 2, 2019. ©  REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

The appeasement of fascism in the 1930s is justly considered the nadir of Western liberal democracy. Its appeasement today is thus inexcusable.

Someone much cleverer than I once argued that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. The fact that we are currently living through a recrudescence of fascism in Eastern Europe, in states allied to the West, is more than a tragedy and certainly no farce.

In Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Western Ukraine and Poland the celebration and embrace of fascist ideas, iconography, history and ideology is back with a sinister vengeance. It’s almost as if the most devastating and barbarous period in Europe’s long and tortured history, the 1930s and 40s, never took place. It’s as if the vast killing fields of WWII in which millions perished – its mass graves, executions, and the Nazi death camps in which the systematic genocide of the Jews was attempted on an industrial scale – were a figment.

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For there is no other possible explanation for the insouciance with which the West has ignored the monster of fascism that’s been hatched in Eastern Europe of late, instead consumed with anti-Russia animus to such a degree that fascism is either deemed of no small importance or a price worth paying.

When you understand that this very dynamic allowed for the rise and growth of fascism in Europe in the 1930s, involving Western ruling classes actively courting fascism as a counterweight to the rising tide of communism and communist ideas among their own workers in the context of a global economic depression, and that in the eyes of Western ruling classes today Russia and the Soviet Union are one and the same, clarity is achieved.