theduran--2020-01-15--Trump Steps Back From the Edge. Neocons Rage Accordingly

Trump ’ s response to the attack on two US military bases showcase a hopeful about face on a dark age agenda which many thought could lead nowhere but World War III in the immediate days following Soleimani ’ s murder on January 3 .
Immediately after the Iranian counter-attacks occurred on Wednesday morning at the same hour of Soleimani ’ s assassination , Iran ’ s Foreign Minister stated : “ Iran took & concluded proportionate measures in self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter targeting base from which cowardly armed attack against our citizens & senior officials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ escalation or war , but will defend ourselves against any aggression.
” Iran ’ s retribution was more moderate than many analysts imagined as fore notice was delivered to the Iraqi government 30 minutes before rockets were launched giving American military personnel in the bases ample time to seek shelter .
In Trump ’ s remarks the following day , the President stated : “ Iran appears to be standing down , which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world… ISIS is a natural @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ISIS is good for Iran , and we should work together on this and other shared priorities.
” Although Trump ’ s speech characterized Iran as a “ major supporter of terrorism ” and Gen. Soleimani as a “ top terrorist ” , his assertion that a common interest exists between the USA and Iran in the combat of ISIS is a spectacular break from the neocon agenda .
This break is also one of many in a long line of internal struggles emanating from the corridors of American power in the days @ @ @ @ @ @ @ includes the memo written to the Iraq government by William Seely , commanding general of the Iraq Task Force saying : “ We respect your sovereign decision to order our departure.
” Seely ’ s memo created a major crisis amongst the radical war hawks like Mark Esper and Mark Milley who raced to deny the memo ’ s validity .
Recent revelations published in the Wall Street Journal demonstrating the incredible back channel discussion set up by Trump through the Swiss embassy in Tehran in the hours after Solemenei ’ s murder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sanity ” within the USA .
The Paradox of the Two Americas This contradictory behavior is undoubtedly not so confusing for leading figures among Eurasia ’ s intelligentsia who are not ignorant to the battle occurring within America between nationalists who genuinely wish to end “ the forever wars ” in the Middle East vs those Pax Americanists embedded throughout the neoconservative and neo-liberal establishments who would rather burn the earth than abandon their dark age ideology .
Trump ’ s many calls for positive relations with Russia and China over the past @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this potential US-Russia-China alliance has represented a real threat which today ’ s London-steered impeachment debacle , and years of Russia-gating has always aimed to derail .
With the impeachment bill now sitting in the republican-dominated Senate , the neocons loyal to the Military Industrial Complex which Trump has so loudly criticized have major leverage on the President and are using it .
If you are thinking “ why would any republican ruin their careers by supporting a democrat-driven impeachment bill against a republican leader ?
” then you haven ’ t realized @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( as well as Russia and China ) is not a matter of “ practical politics ” for our later day fanatics of the evangelical pre-millennial garb like John Hagee or Benny Hinn who sincerely believe it is man ’ s duty to usher in Armageddon and fulfill their twisted view of prophecy .
Nor is it an issue for their Israeli counterparts who believe essentially in the same prophecy with the small exception that the Savior ’ s arrival amidst the fires of war will be occurring for the first time rather @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reading this thinking “ certainly no one could be so nuts ” , then let this televised prayer led by Rev .
John Hagee and Benny Hinn cause you to think twice : Bill Kristol , a leading figure behind the neocon cult and co-author of the dystopian Project for a New American Century Manifesto has already poured tens of millions of dollars into billboards , commercials and lobbying teams gunning for Trump ’ s impeachment .
Kristol tweeted on October 17 , 2019 that “ If Trump is not impeached and removed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the White House even more lawless , the violations of norms even more routine .
The case for impeachment isn ’ t merely retrospective ; it ’ s prophylactic .
And it isn ’ t merely just ; it ’ s urgent.
” The most recent commercial promoting Trump ’ s impeachment which Kristol ’ s think tank Republicans for the Rule of Law released raised the argument that since republicans supported Nixon ’ s impeachment in 1973 , republicans should impeach Trump today .
This argument obviously overlooks the problem that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crimes , nothing even approximating illegal activity has occurred in Trump ’ s case .
Things are not as black and white as many believed until recently .
Iran ’ s recent military exercises with Russia and China have demonstrated clearly in the minds of saner Americans that no war with Iran is possible without taking Russia and China on as well .
Putin ’ s brilliant maneuvers in the Middle East have led to the destruction of the Anglo-American plot to grow radical Islam as a geopolitical tool first against the Soviet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nation states more generally since the Soviet Union ’ s collapse .
For this reason , Putin ’ s enemies throughout the neocon world and British intelligence have never forgiven him .
Although China has not brought much military might to bear in the Middle East , the Belt and Road Initiative has provided a gateway to a durable peace which can not be overlooked , as BRI projects in Iraq , Afghanistan , Syria , Lebanon and beyond have given the Middle East a new chance for a future .
The question @ @ @ @ @ @ @ continue to move away from the WWIII agenda and into this positive alliance .
Matthew Ehret is the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Patriot Review and has authored 3 volumes of ‘ Untold History of Canada ’ book series .
His works appear regularly on The Duran , Strategic Culture , Sott , Fort Russ , Zero Hedge , Global Times , L.A. Review of Books , LeSaker.fr , Vigile Quebec , South Front and Veterans Today .
He is a correspondent/BRI Expert for Tactical Talk .
In 2019 Matthew co-founded the Montreal-based Rising @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at [ email protected ]

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
From Strategic Culture
Trump’s response to the attack on two US military bases showcase a hopeful about face on a dark age agenda which many thought could lead nowhere but World War III in the immediate days following Soleimani’s murder on January 3.
Immediately after the Iranian counter-attacks occurred on Wednesday morning at the same hour of Soleimani’s assassination, Iran’s Foreign Minister stated: “Iran took & concluded proportionate measures in self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter targeting base from which cowardly armed attack against our citizens & senior officials were launched. We do not seek escalation or war, but will defend ourselves against any aggression.” Iran’s retribution was more moderate than many analysts imagined as fore notice was delivered to the Iraqi government 30 minutes before rockets were launched giving American military personnel in the bases ample time to seek shelter.
In Trump’s remarks the following day, the President stated: “Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world… ISIS is a natural enemy of Iran. The destruction of ISIS is good for Iran, and we should work together on this and other shared priorities.”
Although Trump’s speech characterized Iran as a “major supporter of terrorism” and Gen. Soleimani as a “top terrorist”, his assertion that a common interest exists between the USA and Iran in the combat of ISIS is a spectacular break from the neocon agenda. This break is also one of many in a long line of internal struggles emanating from the corridors of American power in the days since Soleimani’s murder. This includes the memo written to the Iraq government by William Seely, commanding general of the Iraq Task Force saying: “We respect your sovereign decision to order our departure.” Seely’s memo created a major crisis amongst the radical war hawks like Mark Esper and Mark Milley who raced to deny the memo’s validity.
Recent revelations published in the Wall Street Journal demonstrating the incredible back channel discussion set up by Trump through the Swiss embassy in Tehran in the hours after Solemenei’s murder also play into this “movement of sanity” within the USA.
The Paradox of the Two Americas
This contradictory behavior is undoubtedly not so confusing for leading figures among Eurasia’s intelligentsia who are not ignorant to the battle occurring within America between nationalists who genuinely wish to end “the forever wars” in the Middle East vs those Pax Americanists embedded throughout the neoconservative and neo-liberal establishments who would rather burn the earth than abandon their dark age ideology. Trump’s many calls for positive relations with Russia and China over the past 3 years terrify these groups, and this potential US-Russia-China alliance has represented a real threat which today’s London-steered impeachment debacle, and years of Russia-gating has always aimed to derail.
With the impeachment bill now sitting in the republican-dominated Senate, the neocons loyal to the Military Industrial Complex which Trump has so loudly criticized have major leverage on the President and are using it. If you are thinking “why would any republican ruin their careers by supporting a democrat-driven impeachment bill against a republican leader?” then you haven’t realized that the drive for war with Iran (as well as Russia and China) is not a matter of “practical politics” for our later day fanatics of the evangelical pre-millennial garb like John Hagee or Benny Hinn who sincerely believe it is man’s duty to usher in Armageddon and fulfill their twisted view of prophecy. Nor is it an issue for their Israeli counterparts who believe essentially in the same prophecy with the small exception that the Savior’s arrival amidst the fires of war will be occurring for the first time rather than the 2nd. If you are reading this thinking “certainly no one could be so nuts”, then let this televised prayer led by Rev. John Hagee and Benny Hinn cause you to think twice:
Bill Kristol, a leading figure behind the neocon cult and co-author of the dystopian Project for a New American Century Manifesto has already poured tens of millions of dollars into billboards, commercials and lobbying teams gunning for Trump’s impeachment. Kristol tweeted on October 17, 2019 that “If Trump is not impeached and removed, the corruption will get even worse, the White House even more lawless, the violations of norms even more routine. The case for impeachment isn’t merely retrospective; it’s prophylactic. And it isn’t merely just; it’s urgent.”
The most recent commercial promoting Trump’s impeachment which Kristol’s think tank Republicans for the Rule of Law released raised the argument that since republicans supported Nixon’s impeachment in 1973, republicans should impeach Trump today.
This argument obviously overlooks the problem that while Nixon actually appeared to have committed crimes, nothing even approximating illegal activity has occurred in Trump’s case.
Things are not as black and white as many believed until recently. Iran’s recent military exercises with Russia and China have demonstrated clearly in the minds of saner Americans that no war with Iran is possible without taking Russia and China on as well. Putin’s brilliant maneuvers in the Middle East have led to the destruction of the Anglo-American plot to grow radical Islam as a geopolitical tool first against the Soviet Union in the 1980s and then against nation states more generally since the Soviet Union’s collapse. For this reason, Putin’s enemies throughout the neocon world and British intelligence have never forgiven him. Although China has not brought much military might to bear in the Middle East, the Belt and Road Initiative has provided a gateway to a durable peace which cannot be overlooked, as BRI projects in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon and beyond have given the Middle East a new chance for a future.
The question still remains whether or not Trump can continue to move away from the WWIII agenda and into this positive alliance.
Matthew Ehret is the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Patriot Review and has authored 3 volumes of ‘Untold History of Canada’ book series. His works appear regularly on The Duran, Strategic Culture, Sott, Fort Russ, Zero Hedge, Global Times, L.A. Review of Books, LeSaker.fr, Vigile Quebec, South Front and Veterans Today. He is a correspondent/BRI Expert for Tactical Talk. In 2019 Matthew co-founded the Montreal-based Rising Tide Foundation. He can be reached at matt.ehret@tutamail.com
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theduran--2020-01-15--The Strange Disappearing Afghan Election Crisis

The above New York Times article is dated Dec 22 .
The crisis has been going on for months .
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah has vowed to file a complaint .
That was in December .
Will it even be heard ?
Will it even be noticed by any news organization ?
Has the election commission made any statements ?
The US spent lavishly on this election process , buying biometric identity machinery not seen even in the US .
Afghan elections were once a center piece of US propaganda or “ public diplomacy ” .
Now , it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a national game in Afghanistan called Buzkhashi .
It is a metaphor for Afghanistan itself .
It is sort of like a football game but instead of football players , you have men on horseback and instead of a football , you have the body of a dead goat .
Players routinely pull out knives , stab and trample each other .
Riders compete to get the goat and gallop to the goal line .
The horses often break out of bounds into parking lots and nearby streets .
It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turn on teammates to wrest the dead goat away for themselves .
Sadly , the best avatar for Afghanistan is the dead goat .
Whatever the value of the goat is , it really becomes lost in the contest which is played out in brutal thuds and slashes all over Afghanistan .
As a journalist , writing about Afghanistan is challenging because , among other things , the story is about what is not happening more than what is happening .
What is not happening is the much touted “ democracy ” US @ @ @ @ @ @ @ few years back there was a video on youtube of a young marine on a patrol he didn ’ t need to be on getting a leg blown off by a mine .
As they load him onto a stretcher , he says , “ at least we got them an election.
” But no amount of pictures of ink stained fingers and stories about advanced “ biometrics ” from Germany appear to add up to a credible election for Afghans .
Not only is the government of Afghanistan not able to stand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its ’ own borders or “ govern ” in any normal sense , it can not , in 3 tries , manage to hold a remotely credible election even with Western “ help ” .
What actually has happened is that Zalmay Khalilzad was made the American Viceroy for Afghanistan and he has managed from the “ Bonn Agreement ” to today to cobble together centralized government that serves outside interests weakly while failing Afghans spectacularly .
He has done so over a career that has spanned 20 years , 3 presidents and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ national elections in Afghanistan for their national leadership .
The first consummated Khalilzad ’ s first appointee , Mr. Hamid Karzai .
Jezail.org saw Karzai before the Bonn conference .
He was speaking at Georgetown University .
It was a very long speech in English , Pashto and Dari , the latter two main languages of Afghanistan .
That , in itself , was a feat .
But he probably never should have bothered with the english part .
The promises the man made were spectacular .
It was the first time jezail.org @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s rights and promises of improving them .
Having lived in the mountains , among Afghans , Karzai ’ s comments left this observer scratching .
How the hell are you going to do that ?
Sex and power are far more intimately connected in Afghanistan than in the West .
Enforcing foreign sexual mores in Afghanistan alone is a cassus beli for either a war against the West or a civil war in Afghanistan , take your pick .
It certainly does not serve the cause of peace and no sane @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that .
But there were so many more promises made by Karzai that night .
It was enough to make your head spin .
Karzai was an unknown .
No one had ever heard of him before .
It appears he was a friend of Zalmay Khalilzad and just like being a “ friend of Bill ” , that matters .
The election pitted Karzai against the ever patient Abdullah Abdullah .
The election was , as the old phrase goes , “ marred by low voter turnout and claims of election fraud @ @ @ @ @ @ @ every Western News noise box around the world for three consecutive Afghan national elections .
The story was gone the next day .
It should be a song .
It has become a meme , just as is the phrase , “ Soleimani , a man whose death no one mourns ” … But Karzai , in the first election , was the “ winner ” and Americans were told that free and fair elections had been held and too may believed it .
Politicians boasted and American soldiers lost lives , limbs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of us privy to satellite tracking of the polling stations that were reputed to have nearly 90 % voter turn out saw empty parking lots .
Nobody with any experience in the region believed the result .
Some people at STATE said that they did .
But Karzai was a nobody who came out of nowhere to win an election against an acknowledged hero of the war against the Soviets , Abdullah .
Abdullah was not a warlord either .
He was a medical officer who became an advisor to Ahmad Shah Massoud @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Valley ” .
This unlikely election disappointment did not come as a complete surprise to some Afghans .
In the fight against the Soviets , US officials tried to stop Massoud from capturing Kabul from the left-behind-Soviet proxies so that Americans could install other leadership .
Massoud ’ s forces did hold back for about a day until they realized that the delay was likely to rob them of their victory .
So they rolled in with a last intense gunfight at the fortress of Bala Hissar .
Much of the advance was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many in the Kabul business community and military years before the final push .
Jezail.org was in Afghanistan and saw that taking place as early as 1988 .
But if one asked why they didn ’ t close in on Kabul in 1988 , the answer was always , “ go ask Pakistan ” .
Historically , Pakistan has always been meddling in Afghan affairs since its ’ creation .
However , when the US decided weigh in to help the resistance against the Soviet invasion in 1980 , it was decided to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
This put Pakistan in a position to amplify its ’ meddling in Afghanistan ’ s fate on steroids .
And meddle they did .
This was chiefly accomplished through the offices of the Pakistani ISI ( Inter Services Intelligence ) which began to pick winners and losers on the battlefield not for military effectiveness but for obedience to ISI command and for the degree of Islamic revolutionary chauvinism they practiced in the days before Ossama Bin laden mattered to anybody .
This resulted in the selection of the Hezbi Islami led by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Hezbi Islami led by Heckmatyer was that it identified itself as an almost solely Pashtun tribal organization .
At a time when the rest of the Afghan resistance was trying to unify fractious competing organizations , the Hezbi Islami stiff armed all of the rest of the various resistance movements , sometimes getting into violent clashes with their erstwhile comrades .
More commonly there were dangerous standoffs .
This was encouraged by the ISI to advance the objectives of Pakistan in Afghanistan .
As the resistance wore down their Communist enemy , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nothing to intervene or curb Pakistani corruption which they , in fact , actively protected at every level .
When the FBI moved to investigate the Pakistani theft of US atomic technology , the CIA blocked them .
The corruption became so extreme that it boiled over and was almost certainly the cause for the assassination of Pakistan ’ s dictator Zia .
It must be remembered that , at exactly this time , nuclear technology was stolen from the US by Pakistan and Stinger missiles intended for Afghans ended up in Iran @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the United States in the form of cash payments widely believed to have gone through Congressman Charlie Wilson ’ s office .
Those payments went to then Senator John Kerry who changed his vote to make Pakistan eligible for USAID money in spite of glaring Pressler Amendment violations .
( Jezail.org knew the lobbyist who carried the payment , Dave Mangan . )
The lasting effect of this payment and other actions have been to institutionalize a struggle between Pashtun chauvinism and the rest of Afghanistan ’ s minorities , who , altogether @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fight continues to this day .
It is the root cause of the violence between the Taliban which violently wrested Pashtun leadership from the Hizbi Islami , and continues to fight the rest of Afghanistan .
It is also the source of a different form of blowback .
Besides terrorism and corruption there is also a schism in American diplomacy on this same fault line .
THE key architect of this US foreign policy schism and incoherence is Ambassador Robin Raphel .
It was Raphel who talked Benazir Bhutto then Prime Minister of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1995 .
She did this at the same time as her boss SECSTATE Madeline Albright was declaring the Taliban “ despicable ” for the way they treated women .
Even then , there was policy contradiction .
In the days of the Clinton Administration , Raphel pursued a classic revolving door career dancing from STATE to working as a lobbyist on behalf of various but similar clients from the UNOCAL pipeline consortium to the government of Pakistan .
Her house of many years in Washington DC was a five minute walk to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ communications of Pakistani ISI agents in the US in which the Pakistanis were laughing about Ms. Raphel being the best agent they ever had .
The investigation turned up enough evidence for investigators to recommend a prosecution for espionage .
Espionage .
However , in 2014 , Eric Holder , then Attorney General under Bill Clinton stopped the prosecution .
As it happens , Robin Raphel is an old friend of Bill going back to his days at Oxford .
The story was spun down in the US media into a case of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sandy Berger mini scandal .
Yet Raphel did lose her security clearance and diplomatic credentials .
However , what we know she did accomplish from 1996 until 2014 was to lie about or minimize the connection between the Pakistani ISI and the Taliban even as they were killing American soldiers .
It was Robin Raphel who set up the first major crack in US foreign policy even as she became the senior desk officer for South Asia or Near East .
Jezail.org wishes to point out , at this point , that as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Afghan and Pakistani corruption , the big tuna of corruption swim much closer to home .
It has always been that way and complaints about Afghan corruption have been used as a form of misdirection .
We see this ruse to this day in the reportage of the so-called Afghan papers which are primarily about US incompetence and corruption .
But they are spun in the media as tales of other people ’ s corruption .
Jezail.org wishes to point this distinction out because this is a very common theme in MSM reportage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of foreign policy corruption , fake incompetence and real incompetence emanates from Washington DC .
In any case , Afghan polity has been constantly wrangled and crowbarred over from Washington DC and elsewhere in the West over the Pashtun vs. everybody else in Afghanistan contest .
This fact has been treated almost as if were a state secret in US policy circles .
Perhaps the most important demographic information for Afghan political analysis is in the area of ethnicity .
Tribes , subtribes and clans break down along these lines .
Afghans tend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a certain tribe and national identity only becomes more important in the presence of foreign invaders .
So it was astonishing to jezail.org to find out from a former Marine Col. who went to work at the DIA , that they weren ’ t allowed to study ethnic and tribal demographics as of 2013 .
That was “ racist ” .
To jezail.org , this was not mere stupidity .
This was a deliberate sabotage of military intelligence .
There are other forms of incoherence and military malpractice that jezai.org has encountered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virtually all military officers serving in Afghanistan are required or encouraged to read TE Lawrence , the famous “ Lawrence of Arabia ” .
This defies common sense .
Lawrence fought as an insurgent and conducted an insurgency as well as writing a crushingly boring book about it which enshrined his egomaniacal pedophilia and “ writing his will across the stars ” more than explaining his methods .
But American military officers are being organized to fight a counter insurgency .
It is the opposite kind of campaign .
The man to read @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sir Frank Kitson .
Jezail.org very much doubts any US military personnel ever heard of the man .
In fact , the senior American command destroyed the career of a most promising American officer , Maj. Jim Gant in a bid to stop the idea that a small group of soldiers could hold down the same amount of territory as an entire Marine division .
The point here is that the Afghan war was never set up to win or deliver a decision of any kind .
Again and again , there are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be merely explained by incompetence .
This is reflected in the Afghan elections which were all rigged to deliver one “ messy political crisis ” after another and perpetuate the war .
To that extent , policy and strategy has been most effective .
So it was pretty much written that the two previous Afghan elections would be entered into the fail column .
Success puts down a way point toward concluding operations and going home .
But nobody at the top wants to go home .
Nobody .
Not the generals , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the senators , congressmen and none of the diplomats .
Indeed , jezail.org actually heard then Ambassador Robin Raphel confidently claim as an objective : “ Afghanistan could be just like Korea !
” Except for one thing .
At this point , why bother ?
Next to Ashraaf Ghani in this picture is his vice president , Amrulah Saleh .
Jezail.org knows Saleh .
He has been a very articulate spokesperson who has the same Massoudist roots as Abdullah .
He is a very accomplished man who rose up from the ranks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advanced education and becoming Afghanistan ’ s interior minister for a time .
It is widely believed that certain American power brokers had approached Saleh and asked him to be the head of the Kabul government , known as the NUG .
He wasn ’ t interested .
He knows Afghan history .
Afghan rulers installed by outside powers don ’ t end up well .
In any case , is the President of Afghanistan really a President or is he really the Mayor of Kabul ?
Ominously , stories filed about the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in their own media .
TOLO News has headlines , none of which have links to articles , none of which are dated in January .
It ’ s as if it ’ s meant to just go away .
This NY Times article is dated in December .
As Trump is facing an election , a fiasco with Iran and an impeachment , what will he let go of first ?
This time Abdullah Abdullah may have had enough .
His second electoral “ loss ” to Ashraaf Ghani , a man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fungus and a man more strange to Afghans than Karzai but was described in US media as a “ populist ” – that was bad enough .
But Abdullah did what he had to to avoid violence and cut a phony power sharing deal through SECSTATE Kerry .
He swallowed his pride and took the deal .
But this time he may not .
If the US is negotiating with an entity that claims to represent the Taliban in Doha without any Kabul government representation , why bother ?
Isn ’ t it @ @ @ @ @ @ @

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/22/world/asia/afghanistan-election-ghani.html
The above New York Times article is dated Dec 22. The crisis has been going on for months. Dr. Abdullah Abdullah has vowed to file a complaint. That was in December. Will it even be heard? Will it even be noticed by any news organization? Has the election commission made any statements? The US spent lavishly on this election process, buying biometric identity machinery not seen even in the US. Afghan elections were once a center piece of US propaganda or “public diplomacy”. Now, it’s not such a big deal?
There is a national game in Afghanistan called Buzkhashi. It is a metaphor for Afghanistan itself. It is sort of like a football game but instead of football players, you have men on horseback and instead of a football, you have the body of a dead goat. Players routinely pull out knives, stab and trample each other. Riders compete to get the goat and gallop to the goal line. The horses often break out of bounds into parking lots and nearby streets. It’s dangerous just to watch. Team players turn on teammates to wrest the dead goat away for themselves. Sadly, the best avatar for Afghanistan is the dead goat. Whatever the value of the goat is, it really becomes lost in the contest which is played out in brutal thuds and slashes all over Afghanistan.
As a journalist, writing about Afghanistan is challenging because, among other things, the story is about what is not happening more than what is happening. What is not happening is the much touted “democracy” US diplomats so often bragged about. A few years back there was a video on youtube of a young marine on a patrol he didn’t need to be on getting a leg blown off by a mine. As they load him onto a stretcher, he says, “at least we got them an election.” But no amount of pictures of ink stained fingers and stories about advanced “biometrics” from Germany appear to add up to a credible election for Afghans. Not only is the government of Afghanistan not able to stand on it’s own, defend its’ own borders or “govern” in any normal sense, it cannot, in 3 tries, manage to hold a remotely credible election even with Western “help”. What actually has happened is that Zalmay Khalilzad was made the American Viceroy for Afghanistan and he has managed from the “Bonn Agreement” to today to cobble together centralized government that serves outside interests weakly while failing Afghans spectacularly. He has done so over a career that has spanned 20 years, 3 presidents and countless generals.
There have been 3 national elections in Afghanistan for their national leadership. The first consummated Khalilzad’s first appointee, Mr. Hamid Karzai. Jezail.org saw Karzai before the Bonn conference. He was speaking at Georgetown University. It was a very long speech in English, Pashto and Dari, the latter two main languages of Afghanistan. That, in itself, was a feat. But he probably never should have bothered with the english part. The promises the man made were spectacular. It was the first time jezail.org had heard an Afghan talk about women’s rights and promises of improving them. Having lived in the mountains, among Afghans, Karzai’s comments left this observer scratching. How the hell are you going to do that? Sex and power are far more intimately connected in Afghanistan than in the West. Enforcing foreign sexual mores in Afghanistan alone is a cassus beli for either a war against the West or a civil war in Afghanistan, take your pick. It certainly does not serve the cause of peace and no sane foreign policy professional can ever credibly suggest that. But there were so many more promises made by Karzai that night. It was enough to make your head spin. Karzai was an unknown. No one had ever heard of him before. It appears he was a friend of Zalmay Khalilzad and just like being a “friend of Bill”, that matters. The election pitted Karzai against the ever patient Abdullah Abdullah. The election was, as the old phrase goes, “marred by low voter turnout and claims of election fraud”. That phrase ended up in every Western News noise box around the world for three consecutive Afghan national elections. The story was gone the next day. It should be a song. It has become a meme, just as is the phrase, “Soleimani, a man whose death no one mourns”… But Karzai, in the first election, was the “winner” and Americans were told that free and fair elections had been held and too may believed it. Politicians boasted and American soldiers lost lives, limbs and their minds over it. Those of us privy to satellite tracking of the polling stations that were reputed to have nearly 90% voter turn out saw empty parking lots.
Nobody with any experience in the region believed the result. Some people at STATE said that they did. But Karzai was a nobody who came out of nowhere to win an election against an acknowledged hero of the war against the Soviets, Abdullah. Abdullah was not a warlord either. He was a medical officer who became an advisor to Ahmad Shah Massoud, “the Lion of the Panshir Valley”. This unlikely election disappointment did not come as a complete surprise to some Afghans. In the fight against the Soviets, US officials tried to stop Massoud from capturing Kabul from the left-behind-Soviet proxies so that Americans could install other leadership. Massoud’s forces did hold back for about a day until they realized that the delay was likely to rob them of their victory. So they rolled in with a last intense gunfight at the fortress of Bala Hissar. Much of the advance was unopposed because deals had been struck with many in the Kabul business community and military years before the final push. Jezail.org was in Afghanistan and saw that taking place as early as 1988. But if one asked why they didn’t close in on Kabul in 1988, the answer was always, “go ask Pakistan”.
Historically, Pakistan has always been meddling in Afghan affairs since its’ creation. However, when the US decided weigh in to help the resistance against the Soviet invasion in 1980, it was decided to make Pakistan the CIA’s quartermaster. This put Pakistan in a position to amplify its’ meddling in Afghanistan’s fate on steroids. And meddle they did. This was chiefly accomplished through the offices of the Pakistani ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) which began to pick winners and losers on the battlefield not for military effectiveness but for obedience to ISI command and for the degree of Islamic revolutionary chauvinism they practiced in the days before Ossama Bin laden mattered to anybody. This resulted in the selection of the Hezbi Islami led by Gulbuddin Heckmatyer. A unique characteristic of the Hezbi Islami led by Heckmatyer was that it identified itself as an almost solely Pashtun tribal organization. At a time when the rest of the Afghan resistance was trying to unify fractious competing organizations, the Hezbi Islami stiff armed all of the rest of the various resistance movements, sometimes getting into violent clashes with their erstwhile comrades. More commonly there were dangerous standoffs. This was encouraged by the ISI to advance the objectives of Pakistan in Afghanistan. As the resistance wore down their Communist enemy, the fratricide increased.
The CIA did nothing to intervene or curb Pakistani corruption which they, in fact, actively protected at every level. When the FBI moved to investigate the Pakistani theft of US atomic technology, the CIA blocked them. The corruption became so extreme that it boiled over and was almost certainly the cause for the assassination of Pakistan’s dictator Zia. It must be remembered that, at exactly this time, nuclear technology was stolen from the US by Pakistan and Stinger missiles intended for Afghans ended up in Iran. That corruption also blew back to the United States in the form of cash payments widely believed to have gone through Congressman Charlie Wilson’s office. Those payments went to then Senator John Kerry who changed his vote to make Pakistan eligible for USAID money in spite of glaring Pressler Amendment violations. (Jezail.org knew the lobbyist who carried the payment, Dave Mangan.) The lasting effect of this payment and other actions have been to institutionalize a struggle between Pashtun chauvinism and the rest of Afghanistan’s minorities, who, altogether, outnumbered their Pashtun foe. That fight continues to this day. It is the root cause of the violence between the Taliban which violently wrested Pashtun leadership from the Hizbi Islami, and continues to fight the rest of Afghanistan.
It is also the source of a different form of blowback. Besides terrorism and corruption there is also a schism in American diplomacy on this same fault line. THE key architect of this US foreign policy schism and incoherence is Ambassador Robin Raphel. It was Raphel who talked Benazir Bhutto then Prime Minister of Pakistan, to back the Taliban in 1995. She did this at the same time as her boss SECSTATE Madeline Albright was declaring the Taliban “despicable” for the way they treated women. Even then, there was policy contradiction. In the days of the Clinton Administration, Raphel pursued a classic revolving door career dancing from STATE to working as a lobbyist on behalf of various but similar clients from the UNOCAL pipeline consortium to the government of Pakistan. Her house of many years in Washington DC was a five minute walk to the Embassy of Pakistan. The FBI intercepted communications of Pakistani ISI agents in the US in which the Pakistanis were laughing about Ms. Raphel being the best agent they ever had. The investigation turned up enough evidence for investigators to recommend a prosecution for espionage. Espionage. However, in 2014, Eric Holder, then Attorney General under Bill Clinton stopped the prosecution. As it happens, Robin Raphel is an old friend of Bill going back to his days at Oxford. The story was spun down in the US media into a case of mishandling documents and was compared to the Sandy Berger mini scandal. Yet Raphel did lose her security clearance and diplomatic credentials. However, what we know she did accomplish from 1996 until 2014 was to lie about or minimize the connection between the Pakistani ISI and the Taliban even as they were killing American soldiers. It was Robin Raphel who set up the first major crack in US foreign policy even as she became the senior desk officer for South Asia or Near East.
Jezail.org wishes to point out, at this point, that as many Americans have been rightly concerned with Afghan and Pakistani corruption, the big tuna of corruption swim much closer to home. It has always been that way and complaints about Afghan corruption have been used as a form of misdirection. We see this ruse to this day in the reportage of the so-called Afghan papers which are primarily about US incompetence and corruption. But they are spun in the media as tales of other people’s corruption. Jezail.org wishes to point this distinction out because this is a very common theme in MSM reportage. By far, the greatest part of foreign policy corruption, fake incompetence and real incompetence emanates from Washington DC.
In any case, Afghan polity has been constantly wrangled and crowbarred over from Washington DC and elsewhere in the West over the Pashtun vs. everybody else in Afghanistan contest. This fact has been treated almost as if were a state secret in US policy circles. Perhaps the most important demographic information for Afghan political analysis is in the area of ethnicity. Tribes, subtribes and clans break down along these lines. Afghans tend to self identify first as a member of a certain tribe and national identity only becomes more important in the presence of foreign invaders. So it was astonishing to jezail.org to find out from a former Marine Col. who went to work at the DIA, that they weren’t allowed to study ethnic and tribal demographics as of 2013. That was “racist”. To jezail.org, this was not mere stupidity. This was a deliberate sabotage of military intelligence. There are other forms of incoherence and military malpractice that jezai.org has encountered which seem deliberate.
For example, virtually all military officers serving in Afghanistan are required or encouraged to read TE Lawrence, the famous “Lawrence of Arabia”. This defies common sense. Lawrence fought as an insurgent and conducted an insurgency as well as writing a crushingly boring book about it which enshrined his egomaniacal pedophilia and “writing his will across the stars” more than explaining his methods. But American military officers are being organized to fight a counter insurgency. It is the opposite kind of campaign. The man to read about this would be the much decorated Sir Frank Kitson. Jezail.org very much doubts any US military personnel ever heard of the man. In fact, the senior American command destroyed the career of a most promising American officer, Maj. Jim Gant in a bid to stop the idea that a small group of soldiers could hold down the same amount of territory as an entire Marine division. The point here is that the Afghan war was never set up to win or deliver a decision of any kind. Again and again, there are stunning examples of things that cannot be merely explained by incompetence. This is reflected in the Afghan elections which were all rigged to deliver one “messy political crisis” after another and perpetuate the war. To that extent, policy and strategy has been most effective.
So it was pretty much written that the two previous Afghan elections would be entered into the fail column. Success puts down a way point toward concluding operations and going home. But nobody at the top wants to go home. Nobody. Not the generals, not the admirals, not most of the senators, congressmen and none of the diplomats. Indeed, jezail.org actually heard then Ambassador Robin Raphel confidently claim as an objective: “Afghanistan could be just like Korea!”
Except for one thing.
At this point, why bother? Next to Ashraaf Ghani in this picture is his vice president, Amrulah Saleh. Jezail.org knows Saleh. He has been a very articulate spokesperson who has the same Massoudist roots as Abdullah. He is a very accomplished man who rose up from the ranks of a fighting organization to getting an advanced education and becoming Afghanistan’s interior minister for a time. It is widely believed that certain American power brokers had approached Saleh and asked him to be the head of the Kabul government, known as the NUG. He wasn’t interested. He knows Afghan history. Afghan rulers installed by outside powers don’t end up well. In any case, is the President of Afghanistan really a President or is he really the Mayor of Kabul?
Ominously, stories filed about the Afghan electoral crisis have dried up even in their own media. TOLO News has headlines, none of which have links to articles, none of which are dated in January. It’s as if it’s meant to just go away. This NY Times article is dated in December. As Trump is facing an election, a fiasco with Iran and an impeachment, what will he let go of first?
This time Abdullah Abdullah may have had enough. His second electoral “loss” to Ashraaf Ghani, a man who has all the charisma of a fungus and a man more strange to Afghans than Karzai but was described in US media as a “populist” – that was bad enough. But Abdullah did what he had to to avoid violence and cut a phony power sharing deal through SECSTATE Kerry. He swallowed his pride and took the deal. But this time he may not. If the US is negotiating with an entity that claims to represent the Taliban in Doha without any Kabul government representation, why bother? Isn’t it just chasing after a dead goat?
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theduran--2020-01-15--Time for America to leave the Middle East

Submitted by InfoBrics , authored by William Stroock , author of military fiction… In the 19th century , the United States and Europe thought the Middle East was a hot , exotic backwater .
The region was governed by the Ottoman empire , the ‘ sick man of Europe ’ propped up by competing powers fearful of one another ’ s ambitions .
In the power vacuum left by the fall of the Ottomans , the radical Wahabis of Saudi Arabia and Shias of Iran have flourished .
No one would care or even notice the rise of Islamic extremism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s oil .
Two weeks ago , the Iranian backed Kata ’ aib Hezbollah militia bombarded a coalition base in Iraq , wounding several American soldiers and killing a military contractor .
The United States retaliated by bombing Kata ’ aib Hezbollah positions in the country .
On New Year ’ s Eve , Kata ’ aib Hezbollah stormed the American embassy in Baghdad .
President Trump flew in Marine reinforcements and helicopter gunships , preventing a repeat of the Obama Administration ’ s Benghazi disaster .
Then , on January 3rd @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Qassem Soleimani , head of Iran ’ s elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and mastermind of Iranian operations in Iraq and the Middle East .
Iran retaliated by firing several ballistic missiles at two coalition bases in Iraq .
No one was hurt in the bombardment , but a jumpy Iranian Surface to Air Missile battery commander mistook a Ukrainian airliner for a US cruise missile and shot it down , killing all of the 176 mostly Iranian passengers aboard .
Since then , Iran has been rocked by anti-regime protestors .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has had in the Middle East in a decade and a bad week for Iran .
Since the Ayatollah Khomeini took power in 1979 , Iran has been an avowed enemy of the United States .
In 1979 , Iranian ‘ student ’ revolutionaries stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and held the staff hostage for 444 days .
In the 1980s , Iranian proxies kidnapped Americans in Lebanon , Hezbollah blew up the US Marines barracks in Beirut , and Iran attacked US flagged tankers in the Arabian Gulf .
In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Corps supported Shia insurgents in Iraq , inflicting thousands of American ( not to mention Iraqi ) casualties .
After Trump ’ s killing of Soleimani , US Senators Rand Paul ( R-Kentucky ) and Mike Lee ( R-Utah ) asked under what authority do American troops remain in Iraq , Afghanistan , and Syria .
Of course , the Constitution grants the President sole authority to wage war , and Congress the sole ability to declare war .
The line between war and minor military action has been blurred since the very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not formally declared war since World War Two .
Since then , the United States has gone to war under congressional authorizations of the use of military force .
Right now , American troops are in Iraq and Afghanistan under congressional authorizations passed in 2001 and 2002 .
The Bush administration promised a quick victory in Iraq , said ‘ we ’ d be welcomed as liberators ’ and declared ‘ Mission Accomplished ’ after toppling Saddam .
The subsequent war took five years , cost a trillion dollars , and tens of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Surge of 2007 did America turn the tide against the various insurgent factions it was battling .
The Sunnis switched sides and drove Al Qaida out of Anbar , and the Iraqi government defeated the Iranian backed Shia insurgents in Basra and southern Iraq .
Today , Iraq has a constitution with majority rule but minority rights , regular elections , and a peaceful transfer of power between leaders .
But , after the Obama Administration withdrew American troops from Iraq , Iran greatly expanded its influence in the Middle East .
Iran @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Yemen , helped Assad fight anti-regime elements and ISIS in Syria , and built Hezbollah into a formidable political and military force in Lebanon .
Iran has replaced the United States as the most important foreign power in Iraq .
The Mullah ’ s aggressive military and diplomatic moves as well as its pursuit of nuclear weapons , have pushed the Gulf States and Israel into a quasi-secret alliance .
In any war with the Mullahs of Iran , the Wahabis of Saudi Arabia can count on support from the Jews of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no longer needs America .
America was once reliant upon Middle Eastern Oil .
OPEC oil boycotts of the American markets caused the Oil Shocks of the 1970s .
Today , thanks to oil exploration and hydraulic fracking , the United States is the world ’ s largest energy producer .
US Net oil imports have fallen from a peak of over 13 million barrels per day in 2005 to under 200,000 barrels per day in 2019 .
The United States exports more oil than it imports .
American no longer needs the @ @ @

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Submitted by InfoBrics, authored by William Stroock, author of military fiction…
In the 19th century, the United States and Europe thought the Middle East was a hot, exotic backwater. The region was governed by the Ottoman empire, the ‘sick man of Europe’ propped up by competing powers fearful of one another’s ambitions. In the power vacuum left by the fall of the Ottomans, the radical Wahabis of Saudi Arabia and Shias of Iran have flourished. No one would care or even notice the rise of Islamic extremism were it not for the Middle East’s oil.
Two weeks ago, the Iranian backed Kata’aib Hezbollah militia bombarded a coalition base in Iraq, wounding several American soldiers and killing a military contractor. The United States retaliated by bombing Kata’aib Hezbollah positions in the country. On New Year’s Eve, Kata’aib Hezbollah stormed the American embassy in Baghdad. President Trump flew in Marine reinforcements and helicopter gunships, preventing a repeat of the Obama Administration’s Benghazi disaster.
Then, on January 3rd, an American drone strike killed General Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and mastermind of Iranian operations in Iraq and the Middle East. Iran retaliated by firing several ballistic missiles at two coalition bases in Iraq. No one was hurt in the bombardment, but a jumpy Iranian Surface to Air Missile battery commander mistook a Ukrainian airliner for a US cruise missile and shot it down, killing all of the 176 mostly Iranian passengers aboard. Since then, Iran has been rocked by anti-regime protestors. It was the best week the United States has had in the Middle East in a decade and a bad week for Iran.
Since the Ayatollah Khomeini took power in 1979, Iran has been an avowed enemy of the United States. In 1979, Iranian ‘student’ revolutionaries stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and held the staff hostage for 444 days. In the 1980s, Iranian proxies kidnapped Americans in Lebanon, Hezbollah blew up the US Marines barracks in Beirut, and Iran attacked US flagged tankers in the Arabian Gulf. In the 2000s, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps supported Shia insurgents in Iraq, inflicting thousands of American (not to mention Iraqi) casualties.
After Trump’s killing of Soleimani, US Senators Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) asked under what authority do American troops remain in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. Of course, the Constitution grants the President sole authority to wage war, and Congress the sole ability to declare war. The line between war and minor military action has been blurred since the very founding of the Republic. Congress has not formally declared war since World War Two. Since then, the United States has gone to war under congressional authorizations of the use of military force. Right now, American troops are in Iraq and Afghanistan under congressional authorizations passed in 2001 and 2002.
The Bush administration promised a quick victory in Iraq, said ‘we’d be welcomed as liberators’ and declared ‘Mission Accomplished’ after toppling Saddam. The subsequent war took five years, cost a trillion dollars, and tens of thousands of lives. Not until The Surge of 2007 did America turn the tide against the various insurgent factions it was battling. The Sunnis switched sides and drove Al Qaida out of Anbar, and the Iraqi government defeated the Iranian backed Shia insurgents in Basra and southern Iraq.
Today, Iraq has a constitution with majority rule but minority rights, regular elections, and a peaceful transfer of power between leaders. But, after the Obama Administration withdrew American troops from Iraq, Iran greatly expanded its influence in the Middle East. Iran wages a proxy war against Saudi Arabia in Yemen, helped Assad fight anti-regime elements and ISIS in Syria, and built Hezbollah into a formidable political and military force in Lebanon.
Iran has replaced the United States as the most important foreign power in Iraq. The Mullah’s aggressive military and diplomatic moves as well as its pursuit of nuclear weapons, have pushed the Gulf States and Israel into a quasi-secret alliance. In any war with the Mullahs of Iran, the Wahabis of Saudi Arabia can count on support from the Jews of Israel. It seems the Middle East no longer needs America.
America was once reliant upon Middle Eastern Oil. OPEC oil boycotts of the American markets caused the Oil Shocks of the 1970s. Today, thanks to oil exploration and hydraulic fracking, the United States is the world’s largest energy producer. US Net oil imports have fallen from a peak of over 13 million barrels per day in 2005 to under 200,000 barrels per day in 2019. The United States exports more oil than it imports. American no longer needs the Middle East.
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theduran--2020-01-16--Merkel meets Putin in Moscow. Nord Stream 2, Libya & Ukraine on agenda (Video)

The Duran ’ s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the meeting in Moscow between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel , where a variety of topics were discussed including Nord Stream 2 , Ukraine , Libya and the Iran JCPOA .
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Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel found common ground over peace efforts in Libya and on upholding a nuclear pact with Iran that the U.S. ditched @ @ @ @ @ @ @ talks with Putin in Moscow on Saturday , Merkel said they share the goal of holding United Nations talks on Libya in Berlin .
“ We have agreed that we will soon be able to issue invitations to a conference in Berlin , ” Merkel told reporters .
Putin said he supports Merkel ’ s initiative .
German officials have cited Jan. 19 as a tentative date for the meeting .
While their strategic interests differ , both leaders say they want to curb Libya ’ s factional fighting and bring the Nord @ @ @ @ @ @ @ defiance of U.S. sanctions .
That contrasts with the estrangement between Merkel and Putin over Russia ’ s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its backing of pro-Moscow separatist fighters in Ukraine .
Putin , who previously met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan , said he expects a planned cease-fire in Libya to take effect on Sunday .
Russia and Turkey are backing opposing sides in Libya , though Putin denied on Saturday that Russia was militarily involved in Libya .
If there are Russian mercenaries in Libya , they don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said .
“ I am counting very much that in a few hours the conflicting sides in Libya will stop military actions , as we urged with President Erdogan , ” Putin said .
On the escalation of U.S.-Iranian tensions , Putin said a war in the wider Middle East would be a global “ catastrophe.
” He and Merkel expressed continued support for the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran , which U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned unilaterally in May 2018 .

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the meeting in Moscow between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, where a variety of topics were discussed including Nord Stream 2, Ukraine, Libya and the Iran JCPOA.
Support Free Speech:
Subscribe to The Duran on YouTube – Find us on BitChute.
The Duran Audio Podcast:
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Via Bloomberg…
Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel found common ground over peace efforts in Libya and on upholding a nuclear pact with Iran that the U.S. ditched.
After more than three hours of talks with Putin in Moscow on Saturday, Merkel said they share the goal of holding United Nations talks on Libya in Berlin.
“We have agreed that we will soon be able to issue invitations to a conference in Berlin,” Merkel told reporters. Putin said he supports Merkel’s initiative. German officials have cited Jan. 19 as a tentative date for the meeting.
While their strategic interests differ, both leaders say they want to curb Libya’s factional fighting and bring the Nord Stream 2 natural-gas pipeline to completion in defiance of U.S. sanctions. That contrasts with the estrangement between Merkel and Putin over Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its backing of pro-Moscow separatist fighters in Ukraine.
Putin, who previously met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said he expects a planned cease-fire in Libya to take effect on Sunday. Russia and Turkey are backing opposing sides in Libya, though Putin denied on Saturday that Russia was militarily involved in Libya.
If there are Russian mercenaries in Libya, they don’t represent “Russian state interests,” he said.
“I am counting very much that in a few hours the conflicting sides in Libya will stop military actions, as we urged with President Erdogan,” Putin said.
Read more: Putin’s Syria Trip Shows He’s Unfazed by Iran Tension
On the escalation of U.S.-Iranian tensions, Putin said a war in the wider Middle East would be a global “catastrophe.”
He and Merkel expressed continued support for the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, which U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned unilaterally in May 2018.
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theduran--2020-01-16--First US deaths of 2020 in Afghanistan Amid Total Diplomatic Incoherence

The utter incompetence of the US diplomatic effort led by Zalmay Khalilzad has 2 new American deaths on its hands as the first of the new decade .
Jezail.org has long pointed out that the delegation of so-called Taliban in Doha who are in some kind of negotiation with Khalilzad do not represent the Taliban in the field and this is illustrated by the fact that every time some “ progress ” is announced , it is almost immediately followed by an attack .
Even President Trump ordered a suspension of talks previously because of an attack following his announcement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pattern , not the exception to the path of this negotiation .
After this latest attack , Khalilzad ordered a “ pause ” to the talks .
But a “ Taliban ” delegation spokesman , Suhail Shaheen made a statement that barely recognized that any attack took place .
“ We [ the Taliban ] hope that the delay will not be a long delay ; efforts are underway to sort it out.
” It was as if no attack had even taken place .
The two parties are clearly talking past each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the “ Taliban ” delegation that the US is negotiating with actually answer to Pakistan .
Jezail.org has long pointed out that since the discovery that Taliban founding leader Mullah Omar had been dead for three years before the Pakistanis admitted this fact , many Taliban in the field have become estranged from their Pakistani benefactors .
This schism is a reality that opens up opportunities for the US and the Kabul regime to begin to make peace arrangements more effectively at a local level .
This is deliberately not being attempted .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the US military , intelligence and diplomatic community know this very well but refuse to recognize this approach because it will wind down a war that they desperately cling to .
The article is pregnant with self serving comments by Pakistani and Taliban officials all positioning themselves and posturing to devour what is left of Afghanistan after a US withdrawal .
The irony is that a key sticking point is not about the survival of the regime in Kabul which the US has spent lavishly to build .
It is about the US @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for a variety of ostensible but not credible reasons .
So the “ talks ” continue and nothing changes because no one is serious .
Two more American service people have died for this scheme .
Welcome to the new decade .

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The utter incompetence of the US diplomatic effort led by Zalmay Khalilzad has 2 new American deaths on its hands as the first of the new decade. Jezail.org has long pointed out that the delegation of so-called Taliban in Doha who are in some kind of negotiation with Khalilzad do not represent the Taliban in the field and this is illustrated by the fact that every time some “progress” is announced, it is almost immediately followed by an attack. Even President Trump ordered a suspension of talks previously because of an attack following his announcement of talks. These events are the pattern, not the exception to the path of this negotiation. After this latest attack, Khalilzad ordered a “pause” to the talks. But a “Taliban” delegation spokesman, Suhail Shaheen made a statement that barely recognized that any attack took place. “We [the Taliban] hope that the delay will not be a long delay; efforts are underway to sort it out.” It was as if no attack had even taken place. The two parties are clearly talking past each other.
Jezail.org has long maintained that the “Taliban” delegation that the US is negotiating with actually answer to Pakistan. Jezail.org has long pointed out that since the discovery that Taliban founding leader Mullah Omar had been dead for three years before the Pakistanis admitted this fact, many Taliban in the field have become estranged from their Pakistani benefactors. This schism is a reality that opens up opportunities for the US and the Kabul regime to begin to make peace arrangements more effectively at a local level. This is deliberately not being attempted. Jezail.org believes that Khalilzad and many in the US military, intelligence and diplomatic community know this very well but refuse to recognize this approach because it will wind down a war that they desperately cling to.
The article is pregnant with self serving comments by Pakistani and Taliban officials all positioning themselves and posturing to devour what is left of Afghanistan after a US withdrawal. The irony is that a key sticking point is not about the survival of the regime in Kabul which the US has spent lavishly to build. It is about the US remaining as a military force in Afghanistan for a variety of ostensible but not credible reasons. So the “talks” continue and nothing changes because no one is serious.
Two more American service people have died for this scheme. Welcome to the new decade.
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theduran--2020-01-16--Index On Censorship Launches New Magazine At Google’s London HQ

The magazine “ Index On Censorship ” was founded way back in 1972 .
I can ’ t say I have ever been enamoured with it , although I did contribute a couple of news reports in 1990 , for which if I recall , I was not paid .
Thus , not being a regular reader , I was somewhat surprised to receive a forwarded media release to the effect it was being launched .
Either the person who drafted this or my comprehension was at fault , but it turned out that a magazine called “ The Big @ @ @ @ @ @ @ holding company , the Index On Censorship registered charity .
As this launch was being held at Google ’ s massive offices in King ’ s Cross at 6pm on January 15 , this meant I could kill two birds with one stone , so I went along .
Arriving early as usual , I waited around with the other ticket holders until the allotted time when we were taken up to the eighth floor where after a sumptuous buffet with drinks thrown in we went to the lecture theatre for the launch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sears , Dora Papp , Xiaolu Guo and Editor Rachael Jolley .
Lindsey Hilsum of Channel 4 had apparently been whisked off to Afghanistan ; she was replaced with Saudi national Safa Al Ahmad , or perhaps she should be designated a former Saudi national , because in view of the hate she spewed over the country ’ s rulers , it would probably be unwise for her to return .
With so much oestrogen on the stage it would have been surprising if we were not treated to some feminist babble , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Big Noise ” launch event was “ HOW MACHO LEADERS HIDE THEIR WEAKNESS BY STIFLING DISSENT , DEBATE AND DEMOCRACY ” – see unflattering cartoon above .
Safa Al Ahmad was full of it , condemning the patriarchy , yes , the patriarchy , claiming everybody in the country is oppressed , and that the Saudi royal family is gaslighting the world .
It is clear she would love to replace the Saudi patriarchy with a gynocracy ; if you want to see how that would turn out , look at Sweden .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ this at times foul-mouthed angry woman .
Al Ahmad speaks perfect English ; Guo , who is primarily a novelist , speaks merely good English .
She left her native China for London in 2002 , and her criticisms of her homeland were mild by comparison .
Dora Papp shares her name with a Hungarian soccer player , but her dislike of macho games focused on Viktor Orbán whose major crime is seen as promoting the traditional family to the exclusion of the LGBT community , read sexual perversion .
Orbán banned gender @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most men be they macho or anything else , he takes issue with the narrative of perpetual male evil and lack of female agency .
Rob Sears said some unflattering things about Donald Trump which were half compliments .
At the end of the meeting , I buttonholed him and asked him about Trump ’ s “ Lock her up ” chant .
Did he know where this came from ?
Yes , Hillary Clinton ’ s e-mails .
Did he understand the significance of them ?
I pointed out that these were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ managed somehow to transfer top secret information from the ultra-high security JWICS and SCIFs onto the regular Internet and her private server , wherein they had been hacked .
I also pointed out that if Trump hated the media it was because it had lied about him continually for the past three years , including promoting the ludicrous Russian collusion hoax .
I don ’ t know if he took all this in , but I said in future he would do better to read the official documents obtained under “ FOIA ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rely on the likes of Rachel Maddow .
Not much mention had been made of Vladimir Putin , but can anyone seriously call these macho men weak , men like Trump , Putin , Orbán , and India ’ s Modi ?
As the event ended , a tape of “ The Boys Are Back In Town ” was played .
I was undoubtedly the only person in the building to have actually seen Thin Lizzy perform that song live , and the only one on whom the irony was not lost .

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The magazine Index On Censorship was founded way back in 1972. I can’t say I have ever been enamoured with it, although I did contribute a couple of news reports in 1990, for which if I recall, I was not paid.
Thus, not being a regular reader, I was somewhat surprised to receive a forwarded media release to the effect it was being launched. Either the person who drafted this or my comprehension was at fault, but it turned out that a magazine called The Big Noise was being launched by the holding company, the Index On Censorship registered charity. As this launch was being held at Google’s massive offices in King’s Cross at 6pm on January 15, it meant I could kill two birds with one stone, so I went along.
Arriving early as usual, I waited around with the other ticket holders until the allotted time when we were taken up to the eighth floor where after a sumptuous buffet with drinks thrown in we went to the lecture theatre for the launch.
On the stage were satirist Rob Sears, Dora Papp, Xiaolu Guo and Editor Rachael Jolley. Lindsey Hilsum of Channel 4 had apparently been whisked off to Iraq; she was replaced with Saudi national Safa Al Ahmad, or perhaps she should be designated a former Saudi national, because in view of the hate she spewed over the country’s rulers, it would probably be unwise for her to return.
With so much oestrogen on the stage it would have been surprising if we were not treated to some feminist babble, especially as the title of The Big Noise launch event was HOW MACHO LEADERS HIDE THEIR WEAKNESS BY STIFLING DISSENT, DEBATE AND DEMOCRACY – see unflattering cartoon above.
Safa Al Ahmad was full of it, condemning Saudi misogyny, the patriarchy, yes, the patriarchy, claiming everybody in the country is oppressed, and that the Saudi royal family is gaslighting the world. It is clear she would love to replace the Saudi patriarchy with a gynocracy; if you want to see how that would turn out, look at Sweden.
Xiaolu Guo was quite a contrast to this at times foul-mouthed, angry woman. Al Ahmad speaks perfect English; Guo, who is primarily a novelist, speaks merely good English. She left her native China for London in 2002, and her criticisms of her homeland were mild by comparison.
Dora Papp shares her name with a Hungarian soccer player, but her dislike of macho games focused on Viktor Orbán whose major crime is seen as promoting the traditional family to the exclusion of the LGBT community, read sexual perversion. Orbán banned gender studies in 2018, probably because like most men be they macho or anything else, he takes issue with the narrative of perpetual male evil and lack of female agency.
Rob Sears said some unflattering things about Donald Trump which were half compliments. At the end of the meeting, I buttonholed him and asked him about Trump’s “Lock her up” chant. Did he know where this came from? Yes, Hillary Clinton’s e-mails. Did he understand the significance of them? I pointed out that these were not ordinary e-mails but that Clinton had managed somehow to transfer top secret information from the ultra-high security JWICS and SCIFs onto the regular Internet and her private server, wherein they had been hacked. I also pointed out that if Trump hated the media it was because it had lied about him continually for the past three years, including promoting the ludicrous Russian collusion hoax. I don’t know if he took all this in, but I added in future he would do better to read the official documents obtained under FOIA by Judicial Watch and others rather than rely on the likes of Rachel Maddow.
Not much mention had been made of Vladimir Putin, but can anyone seriously call these macho men weak, men like Trump, Putin, Orbán, and India’s Modi?
As the event ended, a tape of The Boys Are Back In Town was played. I was undoubtedly the only person in the building to have actually seen Thin Lizzy perform that song live, and, equally, the only one on whom the irony was not lost.
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theduran--2020-01-16--Bolton’s swamp played key role in Soleimani killing (Video)

The Duran ’ s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the NBC News report that US President had authorized Iran ’ s Soleimani killing 7 months ago in June , with conditions , and as a part of a “ list ” of “ menu ” options presented the the US president , courtesy of John Bolton .
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There ’ s been a number of theories to emerge surrounding President Trump ’ s incredibly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chief Qasem Soleimani , including that it was all the brainchild of hawkish Secretary of State and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo .
But an emerging reporting consensus does indicate that the public justification for the strike — that Soleimani posed an “ imminent ” threat as he was orchestrating an attack against American troops and sites in the region — was manufactured based on flimsy intelligence .
The evolving and contradictory statements within the administration itself demonstrates at least this much .
And now according to the latest NBC bombshell it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ general ’ s killing was actually months in the works : Apparently the “ option ” to take him out was already on the “ menu ” of Pentagon contingencies long before Soleimani ’ s fateful Jan.3 early morning passage through Baghdad International Airport .
Reports NBC based on multiple officials , “ The presidential directive in June came with the condition that Trump would have final signoff on any specific operation to kill Soleimani , officials said.
” The Dec.27 Kataeb Hezbollah rocket attack on a US base in Kirkuk then became @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , given it killed an American contractor later identified as 33-year old Sacramento resident Nawres Waleed Hamid , who had been assisting the Army as a linguist .
The new report confirms further that it was both National Security Advisor at the time John Bolton as well as Mike Pompeo that had Trump ’ s ear on the subject .
“ There have been a number of options presented to the president over the course of time ” related to bold steps to curtail Iranian aggression , a senior administration official told NBC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the plan to assassinate the top IRGC elite force general and popular “ national hero ” inside Iran actually evolved initially out of 2017 discussions involving Trump ’ s national security adviser at the time , retired Army Lt. Gen. H.R .
McMaster .
The idea of killing Soleimani came up in discussions in 2017 that Trump ’ s national security adviser at the time , retired Army Lt. Gen. H.R .
McMaster , was having with other administration officials about the president ’ s broader national security strategy , officials said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a host of possible elements of Trump ’ s “ maximum pressure ” campaign against Iran and “ was not something that was thought of as a first move , ” said a former senior administration official involved in the discussions .
The idea did become more serious after McMaster was replaced in April 2018 by Bolton , a longtime Iran hawk and advocate for regime change in Tehran .
Bolton left the White House in September — he said he resigned , while Trump said he fired him — following policy disagreements @ @ @ @ @ @

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the NBC News report that US President had authorized Iran’s Soleimani killing 7 months ago in June, with conditions, and as a part of a “list” of “menu” options presented the the US president, courtesy of John Bolton.
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Via Zerohedge…
There’s been a number of theories to emerge surrounding President Trump’s incredibly risky decision to assassinate IRGC Guds Force chief Qasem Soleimani, including that it was all the brainchild of hawkish Secretary of State and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
But an emerging reporting consensus does indicate that the public justification for the strike — that Soleimani posed an “imminent” threat as he was orchestrating an attack against American troops and sites in the region — was manufactured based on flimsy intelligence. The evolving and contradictory statements within the administration itself demonstrates at least this much.
And now according to the latest NBC bombshell it’s becoming clear that the top IRGC general’s killing was actually months in the works:
President Donald Trump authorized the killing of Iranian Gen.Qassem Soleimani seven months ago if Iran’s increased aggression resulted in the death of an American, according to five current and former senior administration officials.
Apparently the “option” to take him out was already on the “menu” of Pentagon contingencies long before Soleimani’s fateful Jan.3 early morning passage through Baghdad International Airport.
Reports NBC based on multiple officials, “The presidential directive in June came with the condition that Trump would have final signoff on any specific operation to kill Soleimani, officials said.”
The Dec.27 Kataeb Hezbollah rocket attack on a US base in Kirkuk then became a core element of the official rationale, given it killed an American contractor later identified as 33-year old Sacramento resident Nawres Waleed Hamid, who had been assisting the Army as a linguist.
The new report confirms further that it was both National Security Advisor at the time John Bolton as well as Mike Pompeo that had Trump’s ear on the subject.
“There have been a number of options presented to the president over the course of time” related to bold steps to curtail Iranian aggression, a senior administration official told NBC, which reports further:
The president’s message was “that’s only on the table if they hit Americans,” according to a person briefed on the discussion.
The origins of the plan to assassinate the top IRGC elite force general and popular “national hero” inside Iran actually evolved initially out of 2017 discussions involving Trump’s national security adviser at the time, retired Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster.
The report explains:
The idea of killing Soleimani came up in discussions in 2017 that Trump’s national security adviser at the time, retired Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, was having with other administration officials about the president’s broader national security strategy, officials said. But it was just one of a host of possible elements of Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran and “was not something that was thought of as a first move,” said a former senior administration official involved in the discussions. The idea did become more serious after McMaster was replaced in April 2018 by Bolton, a longtime Iran hawk and advocate for regime change in Tehran. Bolton left the White House in September — he said he resigned, while Trump said he fired him — following policy disagreements on Iran and other issues.
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theduran--2020-01-16--Are There Patriot Anti-Ballistic Missile Defense Systems in Iraq?

Certainly the US military limits information about particular missile defense systems deployed at particular bases and quite rightly so .
However the US media has publicly stated that there are no Patriot missile defense systems at US military bases in Iraq .
It ’ s important to know the truth , in consideration of the Iran strikes on US bases in Iraq on January 8th .
Publicly available reports even on the wiki ( about US army brigades that use the MIM 104 , some are in Iraq ) and from the Arms Control Association verify the widespread use of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the US invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 : After 2004 good public info anywhere about US MIM-104 Patriot missile deployments got real scarce .
And there are few sources willing to reveal themselves publicly to assert that MIM-104 ’ s do exist at US bases in Iraq , even if they do exist .
Logically however the notion that the US government/military spends trillions on defense but does not have anti-missile defense systems at its military bases in a war zone , boggles the mind .
And that is just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The argument from the DoD-linked analysts is that later MIM-104 ’ s have been produced in limited numbers and are in such great demand elsewhere , for example in Kuwait and Saudi , they can not be spared .
But there has been no ballistic missile attack versus Kuwait , ever – and no ballistic missile attack versus Saudi Arabia since Desert Storm in 1991 .
The argument that big demand for GEM-T / MIM-104 ’ s prevents them from being deployed in Iraq is weak at best and more likely false @ @ @ @ @ @ @ important bases in Iraq to defend .
Another argument is that the situation on the ground changed when the US war in Iraq supposedly turned to defeating ISIS and the army didn ’ t need Patriot ABM ’ s because ISIS had no ballistic missiles .
It ’ s exceedingly unlikely however that the Pentagon failed to appreciate the ballistic missile vulnerability of US troops in Iraq .
And if the Pentagon has disregarded that vulnerability , then we have another and different outrage — one that should be in the public dialogue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kuwait and Saudi Arabia is more important to the US Pentagon than the lives of US soldiers in Iraq , should put this in perspective for a president and people who constantly pledge their support to the US military .
So , it seems the MIM-104 controversy is deliberately ignored or dismissed by the western media , so the public will remain unaware of how US militarist policy is truly operating with regard to their many military engagements .
And that the US deliberately stood down to allow Iran to strike its bases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ swallow in the west .
But in this author ’ s considered opinion and research done , that is precisely what happened .
It ’ s interesting too that no one has written otherwise – ie that a US defensive stand down did not occur in Iraq – at least from all this author has seen and read .
The subject is important too , because the folks appearing on US media to tout war with Iran – like former government officials Stephen Hadley and Jeh Johnson – represent Raytheon and Lockheed Martin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s .
But Johnson and Hadley both failed to divulge their defense industry ties while touting war in their interviews with the US media .
And the same Washington Post media proposing that Patriot MIM-104 ’ s do not exist on US bases in Iraq is the very same media touting for more missiles and more militarist expenditure .
Once again , the media ’ s message is for taxpayer ’ s to hand over their money to the military while touting “ nothing to see here , move on.
” One can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just keep “ moving along ” with that message .
Steve Brown is the author of “ Iraq : the Road to War ” ( Sourcewatch ) editor of “ Bush Administration War Crimes in Iraq ” ( Sourcewatch ) “ Trump ’ s Limited Hangout ” and “ Federal Reserve : Out-sourcing the Monetary System to the Money Trust Oligarchs Since 1913 ” ; Steve is an antiwar activist , a published scholar on the US monetary system , and has appeared as guest contributor to The Duran , Fort Russ News @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , The Ron Paul Institute , and Strategika51 .
Twitter : @ newsypaperz

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Submitted by Steve Brown…
Certainly the US military limits information about particular missile defense systems deployed at particular bases and quite rightly so. However the US media has publicly stated that there are no Patriot missile defense systems at US military bases in Iraq. It’s important to know the truth, in consideration of the Iran strikes on US bases in Iraq on January 8th.
Publicly available reports even on the wiki (about US army brigades that use the MIM 104, some are in Iraq) and from the Arms Control Association verify the widespread use of the Raytheon-developed MIM-104 and Lockheed Martin PAC-3 in the US invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003:
[Link: Arms Control Association: https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2003-11/press-releases/army-report-details-patriot-record-iraq-war ]
After 2004 good public info anywhere about US MIM-104 Patriot missile deployments got real scarce. And there are few sources willing to reveal themselves publicly to assert that MIM-104’s do exist at US bases in Iraq, even if they do exist.
Logically however the notion that the US government/military spends trillions on defense but does not have anti-missile defense systems at its military bases in a war zone, boggles the mind. And that is just what the public is expected to believe.
The argument from the DoD-linked analysts is that later MIM-104’s have been produced in limited numbers and are in such great demand elsewhere, for example in Kuwait and Saudi, they cannot be spared. But there has been no ballistic missile attack versus Kuwait, ever – and no ballistic missile attack versus Saudi Arabia since Desert Storm in 1991. The argument that big demand for GEM-T / MIM-104’s prevents them from being deployed in Iraq is weak at best and more likely false, since the US has so many important bases in Iraq to defend.
Another argument is that the situation on the ground changed when the US war in Iraq supposedly turned to defeating ISIS and the army didn’t need Patriot ABM’s because ISIS had no ballistic missiles. It’s exceedingly unlikely however that the Pentagon failed to appreciate the ballistic missile vulnerability of US troops in Iraq. And if the Pentagon has disregarded that vulnerability, then we have another and different outrage — one that should be in the public dialogue. Furthermore, that the safety of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia is more important to the US Pentagon than the lives of US soldiers in Iraq, should put this in perspective for a president and people who constantly pledge their support to the US military.
So, it seems the MIM-104 controversy is deliberately ignored or dismissed by the western media, so the public will remain unaware of how US militarist policy is truly operating with regard to their many military engagements. And that the US deliberately stood down to allow Iran to strike its bases in Iraq is a notion difficult to swallow in the west. But in this author’s considered opinion and research done, that is precisely what happened. It’s interesting too that no one has written otherwise – ie that a US defensive stand down did not occur in Iraq – at least from all this author has seen and read.
The subject is important too, because the folks appearing on US media to tout war with Iran – like former government officials Stephen Hadley and Jeh Johnson – represent Raytheon and Lockheed Martin respectively and they produce the ABM’s. But Johnson and Hadley both failed to divulge their defense industry ties while touting war in their interviews with the US media. And the same Washington Post media proposing that Patriot MIM-104’s do not exist on US bases in Iraq is the very same media touting for more missiles and more militarist expenditure.
Once again, the media’s message is for taxpayer’s to hand over their money to the military while touting “nothing to see here, move on.” One can only wonder for how long we will just keep “moving along” with that message.
Steve Brown is the author of “Iraq: the Road to War” (Sourcewatch) editor of “Bush Administration War Crimes in Iraq” (Sourcewatch) “Trump’s Limited Hangout” and “Federal Reserve: Out-sourcing the Monetary System to the Money Trust Oligarchs Since 1913”; Steve is an antiwar activist, a published scholar on the US monetary system, and has appeared as guest contributor to The Duran, Fort Russ News, Herland Report, Lew Rockwell Report, The Ron Paul Institute, and Strategika51. Twitter: @newsypaperz
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theduran--2020-01-17--Putin, Bashar al-Assad and Patriarch John X invite President Trump to Syria

This little video is enough to turn the entire American narrative about Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad on its head .
Here we see President Vladimir Putin , President Assad and Patriarch John X of Antioch and all the East , the oldest ( and Orthodox ) Christian Church in continuous existence , dating from 33 A.D .
Here they discuss inviting President Trump to see Syria for himself and the reality of life there .
President Putin protected Syria with Russian military forces especially starting in 2015 through the present time , allowing for a defeat of almost all of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ retain control of his country .
The Americans in the region oddly enough allied themselves with al-Qaeda remnant group Al-Nusra and fought a largely propaganda “ war ” which served under President Obama ’ s time as more a vehicle to aid an abet ISIS in Obama ’ s own sneaky crusade to wipe Christians off the face of the earth .
I do not make this statement lightly , for it is true , and anyone in Syria would agree with this .
This article and video are a must-share to all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Americans who hold religious views DO identify as Christian believers .
The very successful and pervasive propaganda net in the US prevents these good people from realizing the truth – that for many years now , their government has been aiding and abetting the extermination of Christians .
While I believe President Trump knows this and wants to stop it , he is hamstrung by a deep-state neo-con / globalist / secular humanist apparatus that has been building its strength in Washington DC for decades , reaching its apex under the godless president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in fact , Mr. Obama ’ s rather cryptic statement that the policies he put in place would endure no matter what President Trump tried to do .
It appears that he has been shown largely correct , though no one correctly estimated President Trump ’ s tenacity .
Still , even though the leaders here joke about President Trump not being a good man , I think this is not to be taken as a slight against the man .
After all , President Putin has been trying to work with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , likewise .
However , the view in Russia is that America has become lost and basically ineffective at doing the right thing , or even at being truth based and reasonable in terms of foreign policy views .
We could certainly agree , and even go farther to say that there is but a thin hold on sanity even in domestic politics , considering that the weakest impeachment case in history is actually preparing to be heard in the US Senate while the Democrats are still scrambling around trying to find damning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ problems .
Bits of truth like we see here can help the American people continue to find their true footing and have something to say about this .
We aren ’ t totally gone , we just need all the help we can get .

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
This little video is enough to turn the entire American narrative about Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad on its head.
Here we see President Vladimir Putin, President Assad and Patriarch John X of Antioch and all the East, the oldest (and Orthodox) Christian Church in continuous existence, dating from 33 A.D. Here they discuss inviting President Trump to see Syria for himself and the reality of life there.
President Putin protected Syria with Russian military forces especially starting in 2015 through the present time, allowing for a defeat of almost all of ISIS forces and allowing President Assad to retain control of his country.
The Americans in the region oddly enough allied themselves with al-Qaeda remnant group Al-Nusra and fought a largely propaganda “war” which served under President Obama’s time as more a vehicle to aid an abet ISIS in Obama’s own sneaky crusade to wipe Christians off the face of the earth. I do not make this statement lightly, for it is true, and anyone in Syria would agree with this.
This article and video are a must-share to all Westerners, particularly Americans, because most Americans who hold religious views DO identify as Christian believers. The very successful and pervasive propaganda net in the US prevents these good people from realizing the truth – that for many years now, their government has been aiding and abetting the extermination of Christians.
While I believe President Trump knows this and wants to stop it, he is hamstrung by a deep-state neo-con / globalist / secular humanist apparatus that has been building its strength in Washington DC for decades, reaching its apex under the godless president Barack Hussein Obama. One may remember, in fact, Mr. Obama’s rather cryptic statement that the policies he put in place would endure no matter what President Trump tried to do. It appears that he has been shown largely correct, though no one correctly estimated President Trump’s tenacity.
Still, even though the leaders here joke about President Trump not being a good man, I think this is not to be taken as a slight against the man. After all, President Putin has been trying to work with Trump at every opportunity, and Trump, likewise. However, the view in Russia is that America has become lost and basically ineffective at doing the right thing, or even at being truth based and reasonable in terms of foreign policy views.
We could certainly agree, and even go farther to say that there is but a thin hold on sanity even in domestic politics, considering that the weakest impeachment case in history is actually preparing to be heard in the US Senate while the Democrats are still scrambling around trying to find damning information.
Truly, the US has problems. Bits of truth like we see here can help the American people continue to find their true footing and have something to say about this. We aren’t totally gone, we just need all the help we can get.
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