lewrockwell--2020-04-04--Wake Up: The War is Now Here in America!

This coronavirus fraud is being labeled a war by the ruling powers , but this is no war on any virus , it is war against humanity .
How many obvious signs are necessary before the frightened American sheep will pull their heads out of the sand ?
Because the general population hides from the truth in order to avoid reality , a governing takeover of epoch proportions is being implemented at a lightening pace .
Every single day brings forth more tyrannical measures , and these measures are meant to be permanent .
Are Americans really as ignorant as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ look around at what is happening .
Consider that this is no virus , but a false flag event long planned in order to facilitate an economic collapse that was already imminent due to corrupt banking and government policies .
This might be the reason the reaction by so many countries is in concert with one another , as all major countries have destroyed their economies by monetary expansion , debt creation , and redistribution of wealth , which placed the bulk of assets in the hands of a concentrated few .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ perpetual indoctrination and aggressive war , and these factors combined have led to class separation , division , and enhanced dependence on government .
Because of this , control over society is becoming a reality , and this control is necessary in order for those now so powerful to retain that power and more importantly , to expand and retain control of an obedient proletariat .
Edible Wild Plants : A ... Dykeman , Peter Best Price : $ 10.81 Buy New $ 12.37 What has happened in just a few weeks is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this top-down takeover is just beginning .
This tyranny was allowed to escalate due to fear of a so-called flu strain in China that allegedly killed 3,322 out of 1.45 billion people .
That is a mortality factor of .00000229 , or to put that in perspective , 1 death out of every 436,000 Chinese people .
From Global Times : “ An analysis led by Chinese scientists published in the Lancet Public Health in September 2019 found that there were 84,200 to 92,000 flu-related deaths in China each year , accounting for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diseases.
” So the average number of common flu deaths in China is 26 times the number of deaths due to this so-called coronavirus , or Covid-19 , but pneumonia deaths alone as of 2010 in China were an additional 125,000 .
Why is there panic and why is there chaos ?
The answer to this question is obvious if any logic is considered .
This panic was not due to any virus strain , but to the purposeful political and media hype of a planned event meant to frighten the general population @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a threat to all life on earth .
Approximately 3 million people die every year in the U.S. , or 8,000 every day , with alleged total deaths due to coronavirus being 6,000 for the entire season .
This is even with what are certainly vastly overstated numbers of deaths due to this “ virus.
” That is less than the number of deaths in one day in this country .
So what is really going on here ?
This is a planned takeover of people , and the fake virus scare is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new totalitarian state that can monitor every aspect of our lives , monitor movement , surveil everything , control all monetary processes , behavior , travel , communication , and social contact .
This dystopia is already here , but can get much worse if not stopped .
Travel and movement is becoming less possible every day .
Most of this country has voluntarily locked themselves up in home prisons .
Fear is rampant , and neighbors have become the eyes of the very police and security forces bent on controlling them .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ all money , which in and of itself would destroy freedom .
Distancing mandates have been implemented , but are also being promoted for the future .
The entire economy is virtually shut down with no end in sight , food shortages are evident , and psychological and health problems are increasing at an alarming rate .
Necessary surgeries are being cancelled even though many hospitals are empty .
Mortgages are defaulting , and millions will lose their homes , this while unemployment will most likely affect a third or more of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to all this , GPS tracking devices are being ordered in some areas for any who have tested positive for coronavirus , and Google is releasing location data to “ authorities ” so they can check and monitor all those in state mandated lockdowns .
Calls for forced vaccination abound , with all the social scoring and imbedded devices to prove vaccination history not only being discussed , but also planned for the near future .
Those like the evil eugenicist and population control advocate Bill Gates that have the ear of powerful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forced vaccination , tracking of all , and at the same time Gates is funding seven new vaccine factories , and tattoo ID tracking at MIT , and those conflicts are obvious and criminal .
The Free Society Laurence M. Vance Best Price : $ 13.55 Buy New $ 17.54 The bottom line is that a massive plan to build a new monetary , economic , and social structure worldwide is being advanced .
A new global order is being constructed that will replace our current system with a technocratic rule that will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ life .
The financial systems due to fraud and corruption will fail and that failure will be blamed on this fake pandemic .
This economic collapse will break the back of this country , and then the promise of universal income , universal healthcare , increased automated production , and smart living will be pursued , along with totalitarian rule .
None of this is accidental , and none of this is due to this virus .
This coup has been planned for a long time , and those plans were exposed on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thought that the ideas of prescient thinkers were far-fetched and that the loss of all freedom was not possible .
Therefore , those that recognized the scope of this plot long ago were ignored and cast aside as conspiracy theorists , when in fact they were right all along .
One look around today will bring to light that truth .
The threat of absolute rule is upon us , and little time is left to stop the onslaught of this dictatorial regulation of society by government and its masters .
The decimation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dissent by every able-bodied man is necessary to halt this terror .
Political remedies are no longer possible in my opinion , so a real revolution is now necessary .
An apocalypse is coming , and hell is coming with it .
“ Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty .
The obedient must be slaves.
” ~ Henry David Thoreau , Thoreau and the Art of Life : Precepts and Principles The Road to Serfdom : T ... F. A. Hayek , Bruce Cal ... Best Price : $ 3.06 Buy New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Barnett

This coronavirus fraud is being labeled a war by the ruling powers, but this is no war on any virus, it is war against humanity. How many obvious signs are necessary before the frightened American sheep will pull their heads out of the sand? Because the general population hides from the truth in order to avoid reality, a governing takeover of epoch proportions is being implemented at a lightening pace. Every single day brings forth more tyrannical measures, and these measures are meant to be permanent. Are Americans really as ignorant as this government thinks they are?
Please look around at what is happening. Consider that this is no virus, but a false flag event long planned in order to facilitate an economic collapse that was already imminent due to corrupt banking and government policies. This might be the reason the reaction by so many countries is in concert with one another, as all major countries have destroyed their economies by monetary expansion, debt creation, and redistribution of wealth, which placed the bulk of assets in the hands of a concentrated few. In this country, there has also been perpetual indoctrination and aggressive war, and these factors combined have led to class separation, division, and enhanced dependence on government. Because of this, control over society is becoming a reality, and this control is necessary in order for those now so powerful to retain that power and more importantly, to expand and retain control of an obedient proletariat. Edible Wild Plants: A ... Dykeman, Peter Best Price: $10.81 Buy New $12.37 (as of 03:45 UTC - Details)
What has happened in just a few weeks is staggering to say the least, but this top-down takeover is just beginning. This tyranny was allowed to escalate due to fear of a so-called flu strain in China that allegedly killed 3,322 out of 1.45 billion people. That is a mortality factor of .00000229, or to put that in perspective, 1 death out of every 436,000 Chinese people. From Global Times:
“An analysis led by Chinese scientists published in the Lancet Public Health in September 2019 found that there were 84,200 to 92,000 flu-related deaths in China each year, accounting for 8.2 percent of all deaths from respiratory diseases.”
So the average number of common flu deaths in China is 26 times the number of deaths due to this so-called coronavirus, or Covid-19, but pneumonia deaths alone as of 2010 in China were an additional 125,000. Why is there panic and why is there chaos? The answer to this question is obvious if any logic is considered. This panic was not due to any virus strain, but to the purposeful political and media hype of a planned event meant to frighten the general population into believing that some fake pandemic was a threat to all life on earth. Approximately 3 million people die every year in the U.S., or 8,000 every day, with alleged total deaths due to coronavirus being 6,000 for the entire season. This is even with what are certainly vastly overstated numbers of deaths due to this “virus.” That is less than the number of deaths in one day in this country.
So what is really going on here? This is a planned takeover of people, and the fake virus scare is the excuse being used to advance a new totalitarian state that can monitor every aspect of our lives, monitor movement, surveil everything, control all monetary processes, behavior, travel, communication, and social contact. This dystopia is already here, but can get much worse if not stopped.
Travel and movement is becoming less possible every day. Most of this country has voluntarily locked themselves up in home prisons. Fear is rampant, and neighbors have become the eyes of the very police and security forces bent on controlling them. There is talk and plans to digitize all money, which in and of itself would destroy freedom. Distancing mandates have been implemented, but are also being promoted for the future. The entire economy is virtually shut down with no end in sight, food shortages are evident, and psychological and health problems are increasing at an alarming rate. Necessary surgeries are being cancelled even though many hospitals are empty. Mortgages are defaulting, and millions will lose their homes, this while unemployment will most likely affect a third or more of the people in this country.
In addition to all this, GPS tracking devices are being ordered in some areas for any who have tested positive for coronavirus, and Google is releasing location data to “authorities” so they can check and monitor all those in state mandated lockdowns. Calls for forced vaccination abound, with all the social scoring and imbedded devices to prove vaccination history not only being discussed, but also planned for the near future. Those like the evil eugenicist and population control advocate Bill Gates that have the ear of powerful politicians, are promoting full shutdowns, forced vaccination, tracking of all, and at the same time Gates is funding seven new vaccine factories, and tattoo ID tracking at MIT, and those conflicts are obvious and criminal. The Free Society Laurence M. Vance Best Price: $13.55 Buy New $17.54 (as of 04:55 UTC - Details)
The bottom line is that a massive plan to build a new monetary, economic, and social structure worldwide is being advanced. A new global order is being constructed that will replace our current system with a technocratic rule that will be all encompassing at every level of life. The financial systems due to fraud and corruption will fail and that failure will be blamed on this fake pandemic. This economic collapse will break the back of this country, and then the promise of universal income, universal healthcare, increased automated production, and smart living will be pursued, along with totalitarian rule.
None of this is accidental, and none of this is due to this virus. This coup has been planned for a long time, and those plans were exposed on many occasions in the past. Most thought that the ideas of prescient thinkers were far-fetched and that the loss of all freedom was not possible. Therefore, those that recognized the scope of this plot long ago were ignored and cast aside as conspiracy theorists, when in fact they were right all along. One look around today will bring to light that truth.
The threat of absolute rule is upon us, and little time is left to stop the onslaught of this dictatorial regulation of society by government and its masters. The decimation of freedom is at hand, so dissent by every able-bodied man is necessary to halt this terror. Political remedies are no longer possible in my opinion, so a real revolution is now necessary. An apocalypse is coming, and hell is coming with it.
“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.”
~ Henry David Thoreau, Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles
The Road to Serfdom: T... F. A. Hayek, Bruce Cal... Best Price: $3.06 Buy New $1.99 (as of 03:40 UTC - Details)
The Best of Gary D. Barnett


Corona-copia

We conjure up our skeletons Enlist the den of thieves Frightened from our closets Then sewn upon our sleeves This one will be filled solely with nuts .
The Age of Science and Reason ?
The Foundations of Mor ... Hazlitt , Henry Best Price : $ 7.77 Buy New $ 15.00 For a society – even a world – that swears by science , reason , testing , facts , etc .
– anything but “ faith ” or “ revelation , ” it really is pathetic to watch the hysteria that comes with irrationality .
It would be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the devastating consequences for the countless millions who are losing their jobs and businesses .
Our masters have successfully ( so far ) been winning the battles in the war on death of favored companies ; they have failed to convince us to take meaningful action in the war on the death of the planet – climate change was way too distant in the future to drum up emotional hysteria in the population .
So , what do they come up with ?
They made it very personal : the immediacy of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is allowed to die , even if it kills you .
Every time I hear this phrase , I think of this .
I feel very saddened for those whose work is deemed non-essential .
When all you have is the material world of atoms randomly smashing together , what else do you have to live for but a war on death ?
It isn ’ t the same thing , to die “ with ” coronavirus ” as it is to die “ from ” coronavirus .
What Comes Next ?
There @ @ @ @ @ @ @ – chips inserted via vaccine , no more paper currency , documentation of vaccination or immunity , etc .
I am sure that there are a million more .
I have been hearing inklings of things like “ you will have to wear a mask and gloves to go out in public.
” That will be great…for criminals .
No facial recognition , no fingerprints .
Sure , you think this is silly ?
But really , is it any sillier than what we are going through right now , today ?
[ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ long ; see below .
* ] The Harvest of Sorrow : ... Robert Conquest Best Price : $ 3.74 Buy New $ 14.96 My shopping trips have been great : • At checkout , we now have distance markers on the ground – 6 feet apart .
• The customer behind me , wearing gloves , had no problem getting right next to me .
I was about to ask “ what the f^c & are you doing wearing gloves and crowding my social distance , ” but I don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ without breaking up in hysterical laughter .
Talk about an irreconcilable incongruity .
• A very nice couple shopping with two babies – no masks , no gloves , nothing on any of them .
I wanted to give those kids a big fat kiss !
• Lines outside waiting to get into store with empty shelves inside .
A picture is worth a thousand words , and this picture reminds me of the pictures from the Soviet Union .
• Traffic is way down • I am saving a lot of money @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Getting outside more ( until they catch me without my papers , I guess ) • Going cold turkey on sports , and praying that I can get really used to this • Ammo and firearms sales – way up !
If assaulted or confronted by a stranger , sneeze or cough as loudly and hard as you can .
And then pray that your assailant is brainwashed with the afflictions gripping all of humanity .
From Dawn to Decadence ... Barzun , Jacques Best Price : $ 1.68 Buy New $ 12.75 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happens this allergy season ?
I can not write anything here without breaking down .
Church closures will leave a very long-lasting scar on Christianity .
The Suicide of the West Jacques Barzun writes : “ The blow that hurled the modern world on its course of self-destruction was the Great War of 1914-18.
” This is true enough , but the disease was introduced much earlier .
Alexandr Solzhenitsyn , from his Harvard University commencement address , “ A World Split Apart , ” delivered 8 June 1978 : How has this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ How did the West decline from its triumphal march to its present sickness ?
Have there been fatal turns and losses of direction in its development ?
It does not seem so .
The West kept advancing socially in accordance with its proclaimed intentions , with the help of brilliant technological progress .
And all of a sudden it found itself in its present state of weakness .
This means that the mistake must be at the root , at the very basis of human thinking in the past centuries .
I refer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world which was first born during the Renaissance and found its political expression from the period of the Enlightenment .
It became the basis for government and social science and could be defined as rationalistic humanism or humanistic autonomy : the proclaimed and enforced autonomy of man from any higher force above him .
It could also be called anthropocentricity , with man seen as the center of everything that exists .
No church services during Holy Week ?
This could be called the final breath of a man dying from a self-inflicted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Great feel about this ?
Writing of a devastating third century plague ( HT a good friend ) : …out of the blue came this disease , a thing more terrifying to them than any terror , more frightful than any disaster whatever… Most of our brother-Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty , never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another .
Heedless of the danger , they took charge of the sick , attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ , and with them departed this life @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by others with the disease , drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains .
The heathen behaved in the very opposite way .
At the first onset of the disease , they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest , throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treating unburied corpses as dirt , hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease ; but do what they might , they found it difficult to escape .
Remember that death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ transition .
From G.K. Chesterton ( and thanks to Paul VanderKlay ) : In the stream of consciousness There is a river crying Living comes much easier Once we admit We ’ re dying * The Trump administration is expected to urge all Americans to wear cloth masks in public , based on a forthcoming shift in C.D.C .
guidance .
( NYT ) I drafted this post on Wednesday , April 1 , published , obviously , today – Friday April 3 .
In between the two , out pops this headline @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : no mask , no gloves…no service .
I won ’ t add the picture .
For one thing , it is beyond my technical abilities .
For another , the picture is best left to the imagination : a grocery store , a pharmacy , a gas station ?
How about a cat house , or a lady of the night ?
Better yet , a bread line .
Because that ’ s where we are headed .
The Best of Bionic Mosquito

We conjure up our skeletons
Enlist the den of thieves
Frightened from our closets
Then sewn upon our sleeves
– Lines in the Sand, Dream Theater
In classical antiquity, the cornucopia, also called the horn of plenty, was a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers or nuts.
This one will be filled solely with nuts.
The Age of Science and Reason?
The Foundations of Mor... Hazlitt, Henry Best Price: $7.77 Buy New $15.00 (as of 12:15 UTC - Details) For a society – even a world – that swears by science, reason, testing, facts, etc. – anything but “faith” or “revelation,” it really is pathetic to watch the hysteria that comes with irrationality. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t for the devastating consequences for the countless millions who are losing their jobs and businesses.
The War on Death
Our masters have successfully (so far) been winning the battles in the war on death of favored companies; they have failed to convince us to take meaningful action in the war on the death of the planet – climate change was way too distant in the future to drum up emotional hysteria in the population.
So, what do they come up with? They made it very personal: the immediacy of a war on death…of death. No one is allowed to die, even if it kills you.
An Essential Worker
Every time I hear this phrase, I think of this. I feel very saddened for those whose work is deemed non-essential.
Living in a Material World
When all you have is the material world of atoms randomly smashing together, what else do you have to live for but a war on death?
Prepositional Obfuscation
It isn’t the same thing, to die “with” coronavirus” as it is to die “from” coronavirus.
What Comes Next?
There have been countless editorials speculating on this – chips inserted via vaccine, no more paper currency, documentation of vaccination or immunity, etc. I am sure that there are a million more.
I have been hearing inklings of things like “you will have to wear a mask and gloves to go out in public.” That will be great…for criminals. No facial recognition, no fingerprints.
Sure, you think this is silly? But really, is it any sillier than what we are going through right now, today? [Well, that didn’t take long; see below. *] The Harvest of Sorrow:... Robert Conquest Best Price: $3.74 Buy New $14.96 (as of 10:20 UTC - Details)
The Market
My shopping trips have been great:
At checkout, we now have distance markers on the ground – 6 feet apart.
The customer behind me, wearing gloves, had no problem getting right next to me. I was about to ask “what the f^c& are you doing wearing gloves and crowding my social distance,” but I don’t think I could have got it out without breaking up in hysterical laughter. Talk about an irreconcilable incongruity.
A very nice couple shopping with two babies – no masks, no gloves, nothing on any of them. I wanted to give those kids a big fat kiss!
Lines outside waiting to get into store with empty shelves inside. A picture is worth a thousand words, and this picture reminds me of the pictures from the Soviet Union.
Silver Linings
Traffic is way down
I am saving a lot of money on gas and eating lunch out
More time at home
Getting outside more (until they catch me without my papers, I guess)
Going cold turkey on sports, and praying that I can get really used to this
Ammo and firearms sales – way up!
My Best Self-Defense Advice
If assaulted or confronted by a stranger, sneeze or cough as loudly and hard as you can. And then pray that your assailant is brainwashed with the afflictions gripping all of humanity. From Dawn to Decadence... Barzun, Jacques Best Price: $1.68 Buy New $12.75 (as of 05:45 UTC - Details)
Next Year?
What happens next flu season? What happens this allergy season?
Easter
I cannot write anything here without breaking down. Church closures will leave a very long-lasting scar on Christianity.
The Suicide of the West
Jacques Barzun writes: “The blow that hurled the modern world on its course of self-destruction was the Great War of 1914-18.”
This is true enough, but the disease was introduced much earlier. Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, from his Harvard University commencement address, “A World Split Apart,” delivered 8 June 1978:
How has this unfavorable relation of forces come about? How did the West decline from its triumphal march to its present sickness? Have there been fatal turns and losses of direction in its development? It does not seem so. The West kept advancing socially in accordance with its proclaimed intentions, with the help of brilliant technological progress. And all of a sudden it found itself in its present state of weakness. This means that the mistake must be at the root, at the very basis of human thinking in the past centuries. I refer to the prevailing Western view of the world which was first born during the Renaissance and found its political expression from the period of the Enlightenment. It became the basis for government and social science and could be defined as rationalistic humanism or humanistic autonomy: the proclaimed and enforced autonomy of man from any higher force above him. It could also be called anthropocentricity, with man seen as the center of everything that exists.
No church services during Holy Week? This could be called the final breath of a man dying from a self-inflicted wound.
How would St. Dionysius the Great feel about this? Writing of a devastating third century plague (HT a good friend):
…out of the blue came this disease, a thing more terrifying to them than any terror, more frightful than any disaster whatever… Most of our brother-Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of the danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. The heathen behaved in the very opposite way. At the first onset of the disease, they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treating unburied corpses as dirt, hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease; but do what they might, they found it difficult to escape.
Remember that death
Is not the end but only a transition.
– Scene Three: II. Fatal Tragedy, Dream Theater
From G.K. Chesterton (and thanks to Paul VanderKlay):
Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.
Conclusion
In the stream of consciousness
There is a river crying
Living comes much easier
Once we admit
We’re dying
———————————————–
* The Trump administration is expected to urge all Americans to wear cloth masks in public, based on a forthcoming shift in C.D.C. guidance. (NYT)
I drafted this post on Wednesday, April 1, published, obviously, today – Friday April 3. In between the two, out pops this headline.
Now…I am thinking of a meme: no mask, no gloves…no service. I won’t add the picture. For one thing, it is beyond my technical abilities. For another, the picture is best left to the imagination: a grocery store, a pharmacy, a gas station? How about a cat house, or a lady of the night?
Better yet, a bread line. Because that’s where we are headed.
Reprinted with permission from Bionic Mosquito.
The Best of Bionic Mosquito


lewrockwell--2020-04-04--The Real Reason for the New Cold War With Russia…

Editor ’ s Note : Vladimir Pozner is Russia ’ s most influential TV political-talk-show host , journalist and broadcaster .
Pozner has hosted several shows on Russian television , where he has interviewed famous figures such as Hillary Clinton , Alain Delon , President Dimitri Medvedev and Sting .
Pozner has appeared on a wide range of networks , including NBC , CBS , CNN and the BBC .
In his long career , he has been a journalist , editor ( Soviet Life Magazine and Sputnik Magazine ) and TV and radio commentator , covering all major events @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Phil Donahue Show and Ted Koppel ’ s Nightline .
He co-hosted a show with Phil Donahue called Pozner/Donahue .
It was the first televised bi-lateral discussion ( or “ spacebridge ” ) between audiences in the Soviet Union and the US , carried via satellite .
In 1997 , he returned to Moscow as an independent journalist .
War with Russia ?
: From ... Cohen , Stephen F. Best Price : $ 8.99 Buy New $ 8.50 Doug Casey ’ s friend Mark Gould sat down with Pozner in Moscow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between the US and Russia .
International Man : Naturally , Americans have a lot of misconceptions about Russia .
The US government and media offer an overly simplistic and unfavorable view of the country .
What does the US government and media get wrong ?
Vladimir Pozner : That ’ s a very difficult question to answer .
It ’ s not only what they get wrong , but what they deliberately say that is not true .
It ’ s one thing not to understand another country .
For instance , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ took me a very long time to begin to understand things because the Japanese do things very differently—not good or bad , just different .
It ’ s another thing to have a prejudice about another people or another country and to present things in a negative light .
Broadly , the relationship between Russia and the United States has been a difficult one for most of the 20th century , starting with the Bolshevik revolution in Russia .
It was very threatening to the United States and to capitalism .
The goal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ socialism everywhere initiated things like the Red Scare in the United States back in the 1920s .
These things evolved over the years all the way up to the postwar period when you had Joe McCarthy and all of those things .
There was a deep ideological difference between the USSR and the United States , that pretty much , in my opinion , formatted the way people looked at “ Russia , ” because for most Americans , the USSR and Russia , was exactly the same thing .
Although , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ countries that were not Russian at all , like Georgia , Armenia , Azerbaijan , what have you .
So that ’ s one side of it .
The negative attitude over a 70-plus-year period became part of the American outlook .
Then things changed .
Suddenly the USSR became a different country .
Gorbachev , Glasnost , and Perestroika… we were going to be friends .
Everyone was overjoyed on both sides of the fence .
The American side was saying , “ Now they ’ re going to be like us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ view .
The view at the top was that Russia had better behave now and do what we tell them to do .
They lost the Cold War .
They are no longer a superpower , and so they just better do what we tell them and shut up .
That attitude , which wasn ’ t evident immediately , gradually became more evident .
It really broke out with the bombing of Yugoslavia in the late ’ 90s when Boris Yeltsin—who was supposedly a great friend of America—said , “ No , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The problem from that point on was that Russia was no longer willing to follow the American lead .
This led to tremendous anger on the part of the American establishment , which was reflected in statements and in the media .
When Vladimir Putin came around , he initially wanted to be a member of the West .
He officially proposed that Russia join NATO and that Russia become part of the European Union .
He was officially told , in politer terms , to go do “ whatever.
“ In fact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Georgia would become part of NATO well before Russia .
This is official .
This isn ‘ t something that I ‘ m dreaming up .
Profiles in Corruption ... Schweizer , Peter Buy New $ 15.99 Ultimately , in 2007 , in Munich , Putin made a famous speech , saying that we no longer agree to be treated like a second-rate nation .
We have our global aspirations and interests , and we are going to protect them .
From that point on , Putin became monster number one , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ‘ s not so much that there are misconceptions .
It ‘ s that there are certain views that have been repeated time and time again in the media .
After all , where do people get their information about another country ?
Basically from television and newspapers .
If you take a good , hard look at US media over the past 12 years , try to find anything positive about Russia .
I mean anything , like there are good restaurants in Moscow , for example .
You ‘ re going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it ’ s not surprising that the average American and even not-so-average American has a very negative view of Russia .
When I go to America , and I say I have a show on Russia ’ s Channel 1 in which I have criticized Putin more than once and said that I don ’ t agree with some of his policies , they say , “ You mean you ’ re still alive ?
” They have this view of today ’ s Russia being the Soviet Union under Stalin when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gulag and God knows what .
That is the kind of image that gradually has been reinstated in the United States .
International Man : As an esteemed journalist in both countries , you ’ ve had visibility into the unique dynamics and intricacies that very few people have .
How have US and Russian relations changed since the Cold War ?
Vladimir Pozner : Here are the major points , in my opinion—and everything I say is my opinion .
Let ’ s say that the Cold War ended with the bringing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I would say that was pretty much the end .
Certain agreements were made .
There was a certain understanding that was reached .
For instance , the US Secretary of State , James Baker , told Mikhail Gorbachev that if he allowed the taking down of the Berlin Wall , he could promise that NATO would not move one inch to the East .
That was not written on paper , but it was written down by secretaries who were listening to his conversation , and you can find that .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ imagination .
That was one very important thing for the Soviet Union .
The Soviet Union saw NATO as an aggressive military force .
So the fact that it would not move eastward was extremely important for the feeling of safety on the part of Soviet leadership .
That was one thing .
The second thing was that your average Russian felt that now we could be friends , arms spread wide open , because “ we are the ones , we took down communism , not you guys.
” “ We , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We ’ ve changed the system.
” So , we ’ re buddies now ?
Are you going to like us ?
When that didn ’ t happen in Russia proper , a kind of resentment gradually grew .
Why aren ’ t we being treated like everyone else ?
Why has NATO moved in our direction ?
And against whom is NATO then moving ?
Sofia + Sam Multi Task ... Buy New $ 44.50 Are we still considered the enemy ?
So , what we ’ ve seen is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Berlin Wall coming down .
We ’ re friends .
We ’ re going to work together .
From that , gradually the graph went down with hardly any positive movement—hardly anything was achieved realistically .
Now with the Trump administration , some extremely important arms agreements have been pretty much cast aside .
As I ’ ve said before , I ’ m not a big fan of President Putin , but given the possibility , Putin would have worked to have a close relationship with the West .
He was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was no interest in that , and his reaction was as follows .
About a year and a half ago , I was invited to lecture at Yale University , and the title of my lecture was How the United States Created Vladimir Putin .
It ’ s true .
That ’ s what happened .
That ’ s really the tragedy of it because working together , the United States of America and Russia—having their own interests but still working together—could achieve phenomenal things both in the area of fighting climate change @ @ @ @ @ @ @ putting an important amount of opposition to China .
In fact , there is very little the two countries could not do together .
As I see it , it ’ s a tragedy .
Because of the Wolfowitz Doctrine in 1992—which basically said that the US is now the only superpower—the US has to see to it that other countries do not challenge it , including Western European countries , and we have to keep Russia down .
That was a way of looking at it , and the other way of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ We have a window of opportunity here .
We can evolve a kind of Marshall Plan as we did after World War II.
” We can not just give Russia money , but we can direct it in a certain way to see to it that democratic institutions are developed in a country that had none whatsoever .
Ultimately , the choice was made by President Clinton to enlarge NATO with Poland , the Czech Republic and Hungary .
That was the first signal that we ’ re not going to go @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We ’ re going to go in a different direction .
With all due respect , I find it very hard to blame Russia for any of this .
International Man : After the Cold War ended , the expansion of NATO continued .
It certainly caused greater tensions between Russia and the US .
How has US foreign policy in eastern Europe and Ukraine impacted relations between the two countries ?
How do Crimea and the idea of Russia ’ s near-abroad factor into this ?
Are we headed toward or into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Not immediately , but it did .
I think we already are in a certain kind of Cold War .
One of the things people often say about Putin is that he called the collapse , the disappearance of the Soviet Union , a huge catastrophe , and so on — not his exact words , but something like that .
Immediately , it was said that he wanted to go back to the Soviet Union .
He said that the disappearance of the Soviet Union was a terrible calamity .
What he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 25 million ethnic Russians suddenly found themselves living in foreign countries — in the Baltic States , in Belarus , Ukraine , Georgia , Uzbekistan , Kazakhstan .
Not only that , but their families are separated because some were living in Russia proper , and they were living in one of the Russian republics or the Soviet republics—now , this was all gone .
It was a tremendous shock .
It was a global catastrophe for them .
Do you just forget about 25 million people ?
Do you just say , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or do you try to do something to make their lives somehow more comfortable , or at least to protect them in some way ?
When we talk about Ukraine , Crimea , what have you , I ’ m going to have to remind you about 1962 .
In 1962 , Fidel Castro and Nikita Khrushchev agreed to deploy Soviet missiles on Cuban soil .
Now , they were two independent gentlemen representing their countries , and they completely had the right to make that agreement .
However , when the United @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , President Kennedy made it very clear that either the Russians would turn their ships around and sail back ( and pull out whatever they ’ d already installed ) , or they would be attacked by the United States .
If World War III was the result , then so be it—and we were on the very brink of World War III .
Thank heavens the two men had the intelligence not to push it .
The Russians pulled out their missiles and so did the Americans , who had missiles in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t make a lot of noise about that , and most Americans don ’ t even know that that was the case because there was a loss of face .
What I ’ m saying is , President Kennedy infringed on international law .
These two countries had the right to agree to place their missiles where they wanted on their own soil .
Yet the president of the United States said , “ No , we won ’ t allow it.
” Because he saw this as being an existential threat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a country or its leadership sees an existential threat , it will do what it needs to do to protect itself , regardless of international law .
Okay , now we come back to this situation with Ukraine .
Ukraine has a very large border with Russia , on the south-western side of Russia .
Crimea , which was part of Ukraine , has the city of Sevastopol , which is the naval base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet .
Imagine for a moment that Ukraine becomes a member of NATO .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re going to have NATO forces on Russia ’ s border in the Southwest , and instead of having the Russian Navy in Sevastopol , you ’ ll have the Americans ’ Sixth Fleet .
For the Russian leadership—and I ’ m not arguing whether they were right or wrong—that was seen as an existential threat .
Putin said , “ We will not allow it.
” Was he infringing on international law ?
Yes , he was—but it ’ s the same kind of reasoning .
We will not allow Ukraine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and if we have to put our soldiers there , we will .
They will not allow Sevastopol to become a base for any Western fleet , especially the US .
That is basically what happened .
Let alone the fact that the vast majority of people in Crimea wanted to be part of Russia and , historically , it ’ s part of Russia .
I ’ m not even going to argue about that .
That ’ s a whole different story .
What do you do when the majority of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kosovo , didn ’ t want to be members of Yugoslavia , and with the help of NATO , they became “ independent ?
” That seemed to be okay .
I ’ m not going to go into that part of it , although one could .
The basic story here is an existential threat to the security of a country .
That ’ s what the whole Ukrainian and Crimean issues are about .
If you put up a map of the United States and Mexico—and I ’ ve done this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s imagine that tomorrow there ’ s a revolution in Mexico and that the people who come to power are not friends of the United States .
Imagine for a minute that fearing the US government is a bit threatening to them , the new Mexican government invites 10 Russian military divisions to protect their border .
Do you think the United States will allow that ?
That ’ s what I always say .
International Man : In 2016 , then-candidate Trump repeatedly said , “ wouldn ’ t it be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ along with Russia.
” Trump seemed genuinely interested in ending the antagonist relationship that his predecessors had with Russia .
What ’ s your take on why there has been no meaningful policy change toward Russia ?
Are sanctions the main issue ?
Do you see these as acts of war ?
If these were done away with , how would relations be between the two countries ?
Vladimir Pozner : Question number one about what Trump said during the presidential campaign .
Certainly , that was appreciated in Russia because his opponent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hitler .
When one candidate says your president is Hitler , and the other said it would be good to have better relations , it ’ s obvious what your choice will be .
One of the things that was used immediately after the election—to everyone ’ s surprise when Hillary lost—was that Trump had won because the Russians had somehow infiltrated the system and interfered in the elections .
That was a big feather in the Russians ’ cap .
Imagine how extremely powerful and influential Russian propaganda is to get a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Trump instead of Hillary Clinton and using no money whatsoever .
Who are the Americans to complain when you consider how much the United States has interfered in elections all over the world , including by use of military force ?
We ’ re not going to even talk about that .
However , this whole story made it pretty impossible for Trump to do anything pro-Russian because immediately , it would be , “ See , he ’ s in collusion .
He is doing this.
” The whole story with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Finally , Mueller comes out saying that they found no collusion , but how long did it take ?
It took two years , and even so , they ’ re still talking about it .
I think he honestly would have preferred to have normal relations with Russia , not that he ’ s madly in love or anything , but it would be better for the United States , and for the rest of the world .
Obviously , he couldn ’ t do it with the situation he had .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ were introduced .
Have they hurt ?
Yes , they have .
Is it an act of war ?
No , it ’ s not .
They ’ ve hurt economically , in Russia—people ’ s standard of living has gone down in part because of that .
Real wages have fallen in part because of that .
Russia can not get credit from foreign banks because of that .
Without that credit , Russia can not buy the kind of modern machinery it needs to modernize its own industries .
So yes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the sanctions had any positive effect ?
Yes , they have .
Russia ’ s agriculture is now booming precisely because nothing could be imported .
Today , Russia ’ s agriculture is number two in terms of the amount of funds that it brings into Russia—after gas and oil and more than the arms industry .
So now the farmers in this country say , “ Please keep the sanctions ” because they ’ re doing great with all of that .
The sanctions have given the Russians more of a sense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can do it , we can do it , we can take it.
” Russians are pretty good at living in hard times .
They ’ re much worse at living in good times than in bad times .
Russians are very tough .
If tomorrow the sanctions were removed , there would have to be a reason ; and if the reason was that the sanctions were counterproductive , the world has become too dangerous of a place .
There is no trust .
The danger of a nuclear mistake is very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sit down and find ways to cooperate .
I think the initial reaction would be , can we trust them , or is this another one of those ploys ?
But , by and large , of course , the vast majority of Russians would be overjoyed .
It would be good not only for Russia but also for all the Western European countries who want to export to Russia and are currently unable to .

Editor’s Note: Vladimir Pozner is Russia’s most influential TV political-talk-show host, journalist and broadcaster.
Pozner has hosted several shows on Russian television, where he has interviewed famous figures such as Hillary Clinton, Alain Delon, President Dimitri Medvedev and Sting.
Pozner has appeared on a wide range of networks, including NBC, CBS, CNN and the BBC. In his long career, he has been a journalist, editor (Soviet Life Magazine and Sputnik Magazine) and TV and radio commentator, covering all major events in Russia.
Pozner has appeared on The Phil Donahue Show and Ted Koppel’s Nightline.
He co-hosted a show with Phil Donahue called Pozner/Donahue. It was the first televised bi-lateral discussion (or “spacebridge”) between audiences in the Soviet Union and the US, carried via satellite.
In 1997, he returned to Moscow as an independent journalist. War with Russia?: From... Cohen, Stephen F. Best Price: $8.99 Buy New $8.50 (as of 02:15 UTC - Details)
Doug Casey’s friend Mark Gould sat down with Pozner in Moscow to help us better understand the relationship between the US and Russia.
—
International Man: Naturally, Americans have a lot of misconceptions about Russia. The US government and media offer an overly simplistic and unfavorable view of the country.
What does the US government and media get wrong?
Vladimir Pozner: That’s a very difficult question to answer. It’s not only what they get wrong, but what they deliberately say that is not true.
It’s a combination of things.
It’s one thing not to understand another country.
For instance, I was in Japan, and it took me a very long time to begin to understand things because the Japanese do things very differently—not good or bad, just different.
It’s another thing to have a prejudice about another people or another country and to present things in a negative light.
Broadly, the relationship between Russia and the United States has been a difficult one for most of the 20th century, starting with the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. It was very threatening to the United States and to capitalism.
The goal of having a world revolution and having socialism everywhere initiated things like the Red Scare in the United States back in the 1920s.
These things evolved over the years all the way up to the postwar period when you had Joe McCarthy and all of those things.
There was a deep ideological difference between the USSR and the United States, that pretty much, in my opinion, formatted the way people looked at “Russia,” because for most Americans, the USSR and Russia, was exactly the same thing.
Although, the USSR consisted of a lot of other countries that were not Russian at all, like Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, what have you.
So that’s one side of it. The negative attitude over a 70-plus-year period became part of the American outlook.
Then things changed. Suddenly the USSR became a different country. Gorbachev, Glasnost, and Perestroika… we were going to be friends.
Everyone was overjoyed on both sides of the fence. The American side was saying, “Now they’re going to be like us, finally.”
That was the average view.
The view at the top was that Russia had better behave now and do what we tell them to do. They lost the Cold War. They are no longer a superpower, and so they just better do what we tell them and shut up.
That attitude, which wasn’t evident immediately, gradually became more evident. It really broke out with the bombing of Yugoslavia in the late ’90s when Boris Yeltsin—who was supposedly a great friend of America—said, “No, this we will not stand for.”
The problem from that point on was that Russia was no longer willing to follow the American lead. This led to tremendous anger on the part of the American establishment, which was reflected in statements and in the media.
When Vladimir Putin came around, he initially wanted to be a member of the West. He officially proposed that Russia join NATO and that Russia become part of the European Union.
He was officially told, in politer terms, to go do “whatever.“ In fact, he was told that Ukraine and Georgia would become part of NATO well before Russia.
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Ultimately, in 2007, in Munich, Putin made a famous speech, saying that we no longer agree to be treated like a second-rate nation. We have our global aspirations and interests, and we are going to protect them.
From that point on, Putin became monster number one, and Russia became negative.
So, it‘s not so much that there are misconceptions. It‘s that there are certain views that have been repeated time and time again in the media.
After all, where do people get their information about another country? Basically from television and newspapers.
If you take a good, hard look at US media over the past 12 years, try to find anything positive about Russia. I mean anything, like there are good restaurants in Moscow, for example. You‘re going to have a real problem.
So, it’s not surprising that the average American and even not-so-average American has a very negative view of Russia.
When I go to America, and I say I have a show on Russia’s Channel 1 in which I have criticized Putin more than once and said that I don’t agree with some of his policies, they say, “You mean you’re still alive?”
They have this view of today’s Russia being the Soviet Union under Stalin when people were shot, put in the gulag and God knows what.
That is the kind of image that gradually has been reinstated in the United States.
International Man: As an esteemed journalist in both countries, you’ve had visibility into the unique dynamics and intricacies that very few people have.
How have US and Russian relations changed since the Cold War?
Vladimir Pozner: Here are the major points, in my opinion—and everything I say is my opinion.
Let’s say that the Cold War ended with the bringing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
I would say that was pretty much the end. Certain agreements were made. There was a certain understanding that was reached. For instance, the US Secretary of State, James Baker, told Mikhail Gorbachev that if he allowed the taking down of the Berlin Wall, he could promise that NATO would not move one inch to the East.
That was not written on paper, but it was written down by secretaries who were listening to his conversation, and you can find that. It’s not someone’s imagination.
That was one very important thing for the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union saw NATO as an aggressive military force. So the fact that it would not move eastward was extremely important for the feeling of safety on the part of Soviet leadership. That was one thing.
The second thing was that your average Russian felt that now we could be friends, arms spread wide open, because “we are the ones, we took down communism, not you guys.”
“We, in our own country, did it. We’ve changed the system.”
So, we’re buddies now? Are you going to like us?
When that didn’t happen in Russia proper, a kind of resentment gradually grew.
Why aren’t we being treated like everyone else?
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Are we still considered the enemy?
So, what we’ve seen is a gradual downhill movement from the apex of the Berlin Wall coming down. We’re friends. We’re going to work together.
From that, gradually the graph went down with hardly any positive movement—hardly anything was achieved realistically.
Now with the Trump administration, some extremely important arms agreements have been pretty much cast aside.
As I’ve said before, I’m not a big fan of President Putin, but given the possibility, Putin would have worked to have a close relationship with the West.
He was told in no uncertain terms that there was no interest in that, and his reaction was as follows.
About a year and a half ago, I was invited to lecture at Yale University, and the title of my lecture was How the United States Created Vladimir Putin.
It’s true. That’s what happened. That’s really the tragedy of it because working together, the United States of America and Russia—having their own interests but still working together—could achieve phenomenal things both in the area of fighting climate change as well as in the area of putting an important amount of opposition to China.
In fact, there is very little the two countries could not do together.
As I see it, it’s a tragedy. Because of the Wolfowitz Doctrine in 1992—which basically said that the US is now the only superpower—the US has to see to it that other countries do not challenge it, including Western European countries, and we have to keep Russia down.
That was a way of looking at it, and the other way of looking at it is to say, “We have a window of opportunity here. We can evolve a kind of Marshall Plan as we did after World War II.”
We can not just give Russia money, but we can direct it in a certain way to see to it that democratic institutions are developed in a country that had none whatsoever.
Ultimately, the choice was made by President Clinton to enlarge NATO with Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
That was the first signal that we’re not going to go the way of a Marshall Plan. We’re going to go in a different direction. With all due respect, I find it very hard to blame Russia for any of this.
International Man: After the Cold War ended, the expansion of NATO continued. It certainly caused greater tensions between Russia and the US.
How has US foreign policy in eastern Europe and Ukraine impacted relations between the two countries? How do Crimea and the idea of Russia’s near-abroad factor into this? Are we headed toward or into another Cold War?
Vladimir Pozner: Not immediately, but it did.
I think we already are in a certain kind of Cold War.
One of the things people often say about Putin is that he called the collapse, the disappearance of the Soviet Union, a huge catastrophe, and so on — not his exact words, but something like that.
Immediately, it was said that he wanted to go back to the Soviet Union. He said that the disappearance of the Soviet Union was a terrible calamity.
What he was referring to was the fact that 25 million ethnic Russians suddenly found themselves living in foreign countries — in the Baltic States, in Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan.
Not only that, but their families are separated because some were living in Russia proper, and they were living in one of the Russian republics or the Soviet republics—now, this was all gone.
It was a tremendous shock. It was a global catastrophe for them.
Do you just forget about 25 million people?
Do you just say, “Well, too bad,” or do you try to do something to make their lives somehow more comfortable, or at least to protect them in some way?
When we talk about Ukraine, Crimea, what have you, I’m going to have to remind you about 1962.
In 1962, Fidel Castro and Nikita Khrushchev agreed to deploy Soviet missiles on Cuban soil. Now, they were two independent gentlemen representing their countries, and they completely had the right to make that agreement.
However, when the United States discovered that this was going on, President Kennedy made it very clear that either the Russians would turn their ships around and sail back (and pull out whatever they’d already installed), or they would be attacked by the United States. If World War III was the result, then so be it—and we were on the very brink of World War III. Thank heavens the two men had the intelligence not to push it.
The Russians pulled out their missiles and so did the Americans, who had missiles in Turkey.
Of course, they didn’t make a lot of noise about that, and most Americans don’t even know that that was the case because there was a loss of face.
What I’m saying is, President Kennedy infringed on international law. These two countries had the right to agree to place their missiles where they wanted on their own soil.
Yet the president of the United States said, “No, we won’t allow it.”
Why?
Because he saw this as being an existential threat to the United States, and when a country or its leadership sees an existential threat, it will do what it needs to do to protect itself, regardless of international law.
Okay, now we come back to this situation with Ukraine.
Ukraine has a very large border with Russia, on the south-western side of Russia.
Crimea, which was part of Ukraine, has the city of Sevastopol, which is the naval base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Imagine for a moment that Ukraine becomes a member of NATO. Very realistically, that means that you’re going to have NATO forces on Russia’s border in the Southwest, and instead of having the Russian Navy in Sevastopol, you’ll have the Americans’ Sixth Fleet.
For the Russian leadership—and I’m not arguing whether they were right or wrong—that was seen as an existential threat.
Putin said, “We will not allow it.” Was he infringing on international law?
Yes, he was—but it’s the same kind of reasoning. We will not allow Ukraine to become a member of NATO, and if we have to put our soldiers there, we will. They will not allow Sevastopol to become a base for any Western fleet, especially the US.
That is basically what happened.
Let alone the fact that the vast majority of people in Crimea wanted to be part of Russia and, historically, it’s part of Russia. I’m not even going to argue about that. That’s a whole different story.
What do you do when the majority of the people, like the people of Kosovo, didn’t want to be members of Yugoslavia, and with the help of NATO, they became “independent?”
That seemed to be okay. I’m not going to go into that part of it, although one could. The basic story here is an existential threat to the security of a country. That’s what the whole Ukrainian and Crimean issues are about.
It’s very simple, really.
If you put up a map of the United States and Mexico—and I’ve done this with Americans—you see the border.
Let’s imagine that tomorrow there’s a revolution in Mexico and that the people who come to power are not friends of the United States.
Imagine for a minute that fearing the US government is a bit threatening to them, the new Mexican government invites 10 Russian military divisions to protect their border. Do you think the United States will allow that?
That’s what I always say.
International Man: In 2016, then-candidate Trump repeatedly said, “wouldn’t it be a great thing if we could get along with Russia.”
Trump seemed genuinely interested in ending the antagonist relationship that his predecessors had with Russia. What’s your take on why there has been no meaningful policy change toward Russia?
Are sanctions the main issue? Do you see these as acts of war? If these were done away with, how would relations be between the two countries?
Vladimir Pozner: Question number one about what Trump said during the presidential campaign. Certainly, that was appreciated in Russia because his opponent, Hillary Clinton, compared Putin to Hitler.
When one candidate says your president is Hitler, and the other said it would be good to have better relations, it’s obvious what your choice will be.
One of the things that was used immediately after the election—to everyone’s surprise when Hillary lost—was that Trump had won because the Russians had somehow infiltrated the system and interfered in the elections.
That was a big feather in the Russians’ cap. Imagine how extremely powerful and influential Russian propaganda is to get a guy from Kansas or Iowa to vote for Trump instead of Hillary Clinton and using no money whatsoever.
Who are the Americans to complain when you consider how much the United States has interfered in elections all over the world, including by use of military force?
We’re not going to even talk about that. However, this whole story made it pretty impossible for Trump to do anything pro-Russian because immediately, it would be, “See, he’s in collusion. He is doing this.”
The whole story with Mueller, and all of that. Finally, Mueller comes out saying that they found no collusion, but how long did it take? It took two years, and even so, they’re still talking about it.
I think he honestly would have preferred to have normal relations with Russia, not that he’s madly in love or anything, but it would be better for the United States, and for the rest of the world. Obviously, he couldn’t do it with the situation he had.
That’s point number one.
Point number two, the sanctions that were introduced. Have they hurt?
Yes, they have. Is it an act of war? No, it’s not. They’ve hurt economically, in Russia—people’s standard of living has gone down in part because of that.
Real wages have fallen in part because of that. Russia cannot get credit from foreign banks because of that. Without that credit, Russia cannot buy the kind of modern machinery it needs to modernize its own industries. So yes, the sanctions have hurt.
Have the sanctions had any positive effect?
Yes, they have. Russia’s agriculture is now booming precisely because nothing could be imported. Today, Russia’s agriculture is number two in terms of the amount of funds that it brings into Russia—after gas and oil and more than the arms industry.
So now the farmers in this country say, “Please keep the sanctions” because they’re doing great with all of that.
The sanctions have given the Russians more of a sense of independence. “See, we can do it, we can do it, we can take it.”
Russians are pretty good at living in hard times. They’re much worse at living in good times than in bad times. Russians are very tough.
If tomorrow the sanctions were removed, there would have to be a reason; and if the reason was that the sanctions were counterproductive, the world has become too dangerous of a place. There is no trust. The danger of a nuclear mistake is very great. Let’s try to sit down and find ways to cooperate.
I think the initial reaction would be, can we trust them, or is this another one of those ploys?
But, by and large, of course, the vast majority of Russians would be overjoyed.
It would be good not only for Russia but also for all the Western European countries who want to export to Russia and are currently unable to.
Reprinted with permission from International Man.


lewrockwell--2020-04-04--When It’s Over, Will We Be the Same America?

“ Depend upon it , sir , when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight , it concentrates his mind wonderfully , ” said Samuel Johnson .
And as it is with men , so it is with nations .
Monday , Dr. Deborah Birx , White House coronavirus response coordinator , projected some 100,000 to 200,000 U.S. deaths from the pandemic , “ if we do things almost perfectly.
” She agreed with Dr. Anthony Fauci ’ s estimate that , if we do “ nothing , ” the American dead could reach 2.2 million @ @ @ @ @ @ @ twice as many dead as have perished in all our wars from the American Revolution to the Civil War , World War I and II , and Korea and Vietnam .
This does indeed concentrate the mind wonderfully .
Antiviral Strategies a ... Vasquez , Alex Best Price : $ 24.05 Buy New $ 23.75 Now add to this slaughter of our countrymen a market plunge steeper than the 1929 Crash and a 1930s-style Depression .
Wall Street analysts are talking of a wipeout of 30 % of our GDP and unemployment reaching @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Super Tuesday , we were caught up in the 14 primary contests after Joe Biden ’ s stunning victory in South Carolina , which broke the momentum of Sen. Bernie Sanders ’ wins in Iowa , New Hampshire and Nevada .
What March 2020 produced and what it appears to portend is a sea change in U.S. history , an inflection point , an event after which things never return to what they were .
The coronavirus crisis seems to be one of those epochal events that alter the character of the country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Consider what has happened in three weeks .
The Republican Party , the party of small government and balanced budgets , approved with but a single dissent a $ 2 trillion emergency bill .
There is talk now of a second $ 2 trillion bill , this one for infrastructure .
In a single month then , a Republican Senate and president grew the federal budget by 50 % and are looking to double that .
For years , Democrats raised alarms about Trump ’ s poaching of the powers of the other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know why Trump has not shut down the economy by presidential decree and not used his latent dictatorial powers to order U.S. companies to produce what the nation ’ s hospitals demand .
Democrats who long accused Trump of xenophobia and racism for seeking to close the borders to migrants entering the country illegally are now silent as Trump closes America to the world .
First Amendment free press champions are calling for Trump ’ s White House briefings not to be carried on TV because the president is spouting propaganda and lies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ watching and approving of what the media think the people ought not see .
If people in a crisis will jettison lifelong beliefs like this readily , how enduring will their professed belief in democracy itself prove ?
The president thinks this will be a V-shaped recession , that once the economy hits bottom and turns up , it will soar , as in 1946 when pent-up demand from World War II was unleashed and America began to churn out cars and consumer good as rapidly as it had weapons of war .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 19.97 ( $ 0.06 / Count ) Perhaps .
But put me down as a skeptic .
You can ’ t go home again .
The shattering events of March , followed by what is coming in April and May , will have lasting impacts on the hearts and minds of this generation .
That once-insatiable appetite for Chinese-made goods at the mall — will it really return ?
Will Americans , after having “ socially distanced ” for months from family and friends , be reassured of their safety and pack @ @ @ @ @ @ @ carrier Theodore Roosevelt in Guam offloading scores of sailors infected with coronavirus , will Americans be up for a clash with a China that is even today asserting its claims to the South China Sea ?
Will Americans who survive this crisis care whether Iranian-backed Shiites dominate Iraq or Saudi-backed Sunni prevail in Yemen ?
If March shocked this nation as severely as 9/11 , what is coming may be even more sobering .
Are millions of unemployed workers without the cash to pay for or to find medicine and groceries likely to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ All those criminals being given early release from virus-infested jails and prisons without the means to provide for themselves and their families , how will they react to weeks of mandatory sheltering in place ?
Will MS-13 and its thousands of members , and its rival gangs that live off narcotics sales , comply ?
Americans have done well in staying home in March .
Will they do so through April , May and perhaps June ?
Or will the system gradually break down just as the second wave of the virus in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crisis in America , there is a tradition of self-sacrifice .
But there have also almost always been not a few whose mindset is that of the Fort Lauderdale spring-breakers .
Deadly Medicines and O ... Peter Gotzsche Best Price : $ 38.43 Buy New $ 33.29 Eton Executive Travele ... Buy New $ 34.93 The Best of Patrick J. Buchanan

“Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully,” said Samuel Johnson.
And as it is with men, so it is with nations.
Monday, Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, projected some 100,000 to 200,000 U.S. deaths from the pandemic, “if we do things almost perfectly.” She agreed with Dr. Anthony Fauci’s estimate that, if we do “nothing,” the American dead could reach 2.2 million.
That 2 million figure would be twice as many dead as have perished in all our wars from the American Revolution to the Civil War, World War I and II, and Korea and Vietnam.
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Now add to this slaughter of our countrymen a market plunge steeper than the 1929 Crash and a 1930s-style Depression. Wall Street analysts are talking of a wipeout of 30% of our GDP and unemployment reaching 35%.
What a difference a month can make.
On March 3, Super Tuesday, we were caught up in the 14 primary contests after Joe Biden’s stunning victory in South Carolina, which broke the momentum of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ wins in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
What March 2020 produced and what it appears to portend is a sea change in U.S. history, an inflection point, an event after which things never return to what they were.
The coronavirus crisis seems to be one of those epochal events that alter the character of the country and the course of the republic.
Consider what has happened in three weeks.
The Republican Party, the party of small government and balanced budgets, approved with but a single dissent a $2 trillion emergency bill. There is talk now of a second $2 trillion bill, this one for infrastructure.
In a single month then, a Republican Senate and president grew the federal budget by 50% and are looking to double that.
For years, Democrats raised alarms about Trump’s poaching of the powers of the other branches. Now Democrats are demanding to know why Trump has not shut down the economy by presidential decree and not used his latent dictatorial powers to order U.S. companies to produce what the nation’s hospitals demand.
Democrats who long accused Trump of xenophobia and racism for seeking to close the borders to migrants entering the country illegally are now silent as Trump closes America to the world.
First Amendment free press champions are calling for Trump’s White House briefings not to be carried on TV because the president is spouting propaganda and lies. The problem: The people are watching and approving of what the media think the people ought not see.
If people in a crisis will jettison lifelong beliefs like this readily, how enduring will their professed belief in democracy itself prove?
The president thinks this will be a V-shaped recession, that once the economy hits bottom and turns up, it will soar, as in 1946 when pent-up demand from World War II was unleashed and America began to churn out cars and consumer good as rapidly as it had weapons of war. High Potency Vitamin D... Buy New $19.97 ($0.06 / Count) (as of 11:23 UTC - Details)
Perhaps. But put me down as a skeptic. You can’t go home again. The shattering events of March, followed by what is coming in April and May, will have lasting impacts on the hearts and minds of this generation.
That once-insatiable appetite for Chinese-made goods at the mall — will it really return? Will Americans, after having “socially distanced” for months from family and friends, be reassured of their safety and pack into restaurants in July?
Observing the carrier Theodore Roosevelt in Guam offloading scores of sailors infected with coronavirus, will Americans be up for a clash with a China that is even today asserting its claims to the South China Sea?
Will Americans who survive this crisis care whether Iranian-backed Shiites dominate Iraq or Saudi-backed Sunni prevail in Yemen?
If March shocked this nation as severely as 9/11, what is coming may be even more sobering.
Are millions of unemployed workers without the cash to pay for or to find medicine and groceries likely to stay indoors for weeks or months?
All those criminals being given early release from virus-infested jails and prisons without the means to provide for themselves and their families, how will they react to weeks of mandatory sheltering in place?
Will MS-13 and its thousands of members, and its rival gangs that live off narcotics sales, comply?
Americans have done well in staying home in March. Will they do so through April, May and perhaps June? Or will the system gradually break down just as the second wave of the virus in the fall appears?
In times of crisis in America, there is a tradition of self-sacrifice.
But there have also almost always been not a few whose mindset is that of the Fort Lauderdale spring-breakers.
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The Best of Patrick J. Buchanan


lewrockwell--2020-04-04--Doctors Are Sending Out ‘Do-Not-Resuscitate’ Forms Telling People Like My Disabled Daughter To Sign

Doctors Are Sending Out ‘Do-Not-Resuscitate’ Forms Telling People Like My Disabled Daughter To Sign Them, I Find That Chilling

I get that Covid-19 means difficult medical decisions have to be made about who gets treatment and who doesn ’ t .
But telling the disabled and already sick to sign away their rights in advance is asking them to volunteer for death .
As the parent of a disabled child , you need to become an expert at juggling all the balls you must keep in the air if you want to become the parent of a disabled adult , as I am fortunate enough to be .
In all my 18 years of helping to look after my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ never been so scared for her future as I am in this Covid-19 pandemic .
Drop one of those balls at this time , and I could be signing my child ’ s death warrant .
It ’ s not just because the virus could be significantly more lethal for her .
It ’ s also because some doctors may take the view that my daughter ’ s life is much less worthy of medical care compared to able-bodied people .
Fauci : The Bernie Mado ... Ortleb , Charles Buy New $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some GPs around Britain have been sending out letters to patients with existing health issues asking them to sign Do Not Resuscitate ( DNR ) forms , in case they catch the coronavirus and their condition worsens .
So that ’ s that , then .
It ’ s asking these people to volunteer for death .
I now hold my breath every time the postman comes .
Is today the day the letter with the DNR form arrives ?
While I suppose it might be handy to be identified as a vulnerable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ online grocery delivery , the cost of what these GPs are asking us to do is too unbearable to even think about .
It ’ s hard to tell if our medical centre will be one of those following such a procedure .
You can ’ t quiz them .
Have you tried ringing a doctor recently ?
A GP surgery in Wales that sent out the request for people to sign a DNR if they hadn ’ t already , said the benefits included doctors , family and friends knowing not to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s condition worsened , thereby saving “ scarce ambulance resources ” and risking any transmission of the coronavirus to others .
If such disabled or ill people who refused to sign such forms were to make it to hospital , of course , a decision on DNR would be made by hospital staff , without any consultation .
And not just for people who had serious underlying health problems , but even for those with learning difficulties .
Ever since evidence from Italy that there was something desperately wrong started to appear on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doctors in despair over the God-like choices they have to make between who should live and who should die , about who should be treated and who shouldn ’ t .
It has become obvious that the decision is about who will have the better quality of life if they survive .
In the UK , DNR paperwork effectively throws the choice back to the patient , urging them to choose to die rather than risk being a burden to the health service .
And while people with serious underlying health issues could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cases , it ’ s those with disabilities who are facing the DNR roulette as well .
It ’ s an unimaginable rock and a hard place .
And that terrifies the hell out of me .
Elvi , my eldest daughter , turned 18 last year and her mother and I applied for the legal approval of joint deputyship to make decisions on her behalf as she enters adulthood .
The two separate areas governed by this are finances and health .
We opted for the financial side as a matter of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be made on her behalf on the horizon .
No one had even heard of coronavirus six months ago .
Not having the final say over our now-adult daughter ’ s health and welfare was considered something we could address down the road if and when we came to that junction .
Milliard Reading Pillo ... Best Price : $ 28.74 Buy New $ 34.99 Well , we are now there a whole heap sooner than we thought .
Because if my daughter contracts Covid-19 and is admitted to hospital , then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her behalf ?
Legally , we , her parents , have no say about how she will be treated .
We may not even be allowed to be with her .
I can only start to imagine the confusion and panic she would face if she is admitted to hospital feeling very poorly without those who care for her day-to-day allowed to assist in her treatment or even be by her side .
The recent weeks of family isolation with her shouting constant demands for crisps , pizza and various TV shows from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us and getting hugely upset at the disruption to her regular schedule have been testing enough in the well-loved surroundings of home .
Elvi is largely non-verbal on top of her physical and learning disabilities and , while legally an adult , would have absolutely no idea about what would be going on in an unfamiliar environment , or be able to find a way to let those treating her know how distressed she had become .
The only way to deal with her in this situation would be to keep her constantly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , when facing a dental procedure under anaesthetic , she had to be sedated while still in the waiting room as she became so upset , screaming and lashing out at those trying to help .
It is an anecdote I relate only to give you some idea of what we are dealing with .
If she is infected by the virus – her carer and that poor woman ’ s entire family have had it , and recovered – and needs hospitalisation , then the best we can hope for is that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know her , and us , and can tailor any treatment required .
The only alternative to that seems to be a lonely bed in a converted exhibition centre where medical staff are unfamiliar with the complex young woman in front of them , and may be forced to make life or death decisions without any input from her family .
And that is , frankly , the stuff of nightmares .
The statements , views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent @ @ @ @

I get that Covid-19 means difficult medical decisions have to be made about who gets treatment and who doesn’t. But telling the disabled and already sick to sign away their rights in advance is asking them to volunteer for death.
As the parent of a disabled child, you need to become an expert at juggling all the balls you must keep in the air if you want to become the parent of a disabled adult, as I am fortunate enough to be.
In all my 18 years of helping to look after my lovely daughter Elvi, I’ve never been so scared for her future as I am in this Covid-19 pandemic. Drop one of those balls at this time, and I could be signing my child’s death warrant.
It’s not just because the virus could be significantly more lethal for her. It’s also because some doctors may take the view that my daughter’s life is much less worthy of medical care compared to able-bodied people.
Fauci: The Bernie Mado... Ortleb, Charles Buy New $5.99 (as of 02:55 UTC - Details) It has emerged this week that some GPs around Britain have been sending out letters to patients with existing health issues asking them to sign Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) forms, in case they catch the coronavirus and their condition worsens.
So that’s that, then. It’s asking these people to volunteer for death.
I now hold my breath every time the postman comes. Is today the day the letter with the DNR form arrives? While I suppose it might be handy to be identified as a vulnerable family so we can finally book an online grocery delivery, the cost of what these GPs are asking us to do is too unbearable to even think about.
It’s hard to tell if our medical centre will be one of those following such a procedure. You can’t quiz them. Have you tried ringing a doctor recently?
A GP surgery in Wales that sent out the request for people to sign a DNR if they hadn’t already, said the benefits included doctors, family and friends knowing not to call 999 if a loved one’s condition worsened, thereby saving “scarce ambulance resources” and risking any transmission of the coronavirus to others.
If such disabled or ill people who refused to sign such forms were to make it to hospital, of course, a decision on DNR would be made by hospital staff, without any consultation. And not just for people who had serious underlying health problems, but even for those with learning difficulties.
Learned today of DNR applied by a hospital for one of the people we support; man in his 50s, no underlying health condition and great quality of life. Family not consulted. Can only conclude ReSPECT form put in place because he has a learning disability. https://t.co/5UnGLKvsun — Andrew Cannon (@VoyageCEO) April 1, 2020
Ever since evidence from Italy that there was something desperately wrong started to appear on the evening news, we have seen doctors in despair over the God-like choices they have to make between who should live and who should die, about who should be treated and who shouldn’t. It has become obvious that the decision is about who will have the better quality of life if they survive.
In the UK, DNR paperwork effectively throws the choice back to the patient, urging them to choose to die rather than risk being a burden to the health service. And while people with serious underlying health issues could fail to make the grade in many cases, it’s those with disabilities who are facing the DNR roulette as well.
It’s an unimaginable rock and a hard place. And that terrifies the hell out of me.
Elvi, my eldest daughter, turned 18 last year and her mother and I applied for the legal approval of joint deputyship to make decisions on her behalf as she enters adulthood. The two separate areas governed by this are finances and health. We opted for the financial side as a matter of urgency, seeing no health issues needing to be made on her behalf on the horizon. No one had even heard of coronavirus six months ago.
Not having the final say over our now-adult daughter’s health and welfare was considered something we could address down the road if and when we came to that junction. Milliard Reading Pillo... Best Price: $28.74 Buy New $34.99 (as of 09:27 UTC - Details)
Well, we are now there a whole heap sooner than we thought. Because if my daughter contracts Covid-19 and is admitted to hospital, then who will make the decisions needed on her behalf? Legally, we, her parents, have no say about how she will be treated. We may not even be allowed to be with her. I can only start to imagine the confusion and panic she would face if she is admitted to hospital feeling very poorly without those who care for her day-to-day allowed to assist in her treatment or even be by her side.
The recent weeks of family isolation with her shouting constant demands for crisps, pizza and various TV shows from her bedroom, struggling to communicate with us and getting hugely upset at the disruption to her regular schedule have been testing enough in the well-loved surroundings of home.
Elvi is largely non-verbal on top of her physical and learning disabilities and, while legally an adult, would have absolutely no idea about what would be going on in an unfamiliar environment, or be able to find a way to let those treating her know how distressed she had become. The only way to deal with her in this situation would be to keep her constantly sedated.
A couple of years ago, when facing a dental procedure under anaesthetic, she had to be sedated while still in the waiting room as she became so upset, screaming and lashing out at those trying to help. It is an anecdote I relate only to give you some idea of what we are dealing with.
If she is infected by the virus – her carer and that poor woman’s entire family have had it, and recovered – and needs hospitalisation, then the best we can hope for is that she is in a place where people know her, and us, and can tailor any treatment required.
The only alternative to that seems to be a lonely bed in a converted exhibition centre where medical staff are unfamiliar with the complex young woman in front of them, and may be forced to make life or death decisions without any input from her family.
And that is, frankly, the stuff of nightmares.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.


lewrockwell--2020-04-04--Regime Change Through the Drug War

Regime Change Through the Drug War

The Justice Department ’ s securing of a criminal indictment of Venezuela ’ s president Nicolás Maduro reminds us that when it comes to the U.S. government ’ s regime-change operations , coups , invasions , sanctions , embargoes , and state-sponsored assassinations are not the only ways to achieve regime change .
Another way is through a criminal indictment issued by a federal grand jury that deferentially accedes to the wishes of federal prosecutors .
The best example of this regime change method involved the president of Panama , Manuel Noriega .
Like many corrupt and brutal dictators around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and ally of the U.S. government .
In fact , he was actually trained at the Pentagon ’ s School of the Americas , which is referred to in Latin America as the School of Assassins .
He later served as a paid asset of the CIA .
He also served as a conduit for the U.S. government ’ s illegal war in Nicaragua , where U.S. officials were using the Contra rebels to effect a regime change in that country .
But like other loyal pro-U.S. dictators , Noriega fell out of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they wanted him out of office and replaced with someone more to their liking .
The Failure of America ... Best Price : $ 17.57 Buy New $ 20.00 The big problem , of course , is the one that always afflicts U.S. regime-change aspirations : Noriega refused to go voluntarily .
U.S. officials knew that it would look bad to simply invade the country and effect a regime-change operation through force of arms .
Undoubtedly , they considered a state-sponsored assassination through the CIA , which specialized in that form of regime @ @ @ @ @ @ @ regime-method wasn ’ t employed .
So , the regime-changers turned to the U.S. Justice Department , which secured a criminal indictment against Noriega for supposedly violating America ’ s drug laws .
The U.S. rationale was that the U.S. government , as the world ’ s international policeman , has jurisdiction to enforce its drug laws against everyone in the world .
On December 20 , 1989 , the U.S. military invaded Panama to bring Noriega back to the United States to stand trial on the drug charges .
One might consider @ @ @ @ @ @ @ raid on an entire country as part of U.S. drug-war enforcement .
An estimated 23-60 U.S. soldiers were killed in the operation while some 300 were wounded .
An estimated 300-800 Panamanian soldiers were killed .
Estimates of civilian deaths ranged from 200 to 3,000 .
Property damage ranged in the billions of dollars .
The Case for Free Trad ... Best Price : $ 5.19 Buy New $ 17.95 But it was all considered worth it .
By capturing Noriega and bringing him back for trial , U.S. officials felt that they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the war on drugs .
Equally important , they had secured the regime change that had been their original goal .
At the same time , they sent a message to other rulers around the world : Leave office when we say or we ’ ll do this to you .
Noriega was convicted and received a 40-year jail sentence .
When his lawyers tried to introduce evidence at trial of his close working relationship with the CIA and other elements of the U.S. national security state , not surprisingly federal prosecutors objected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Better to keep those types of things as secret as possible .
Alas , Noriega ’ s conviction and incarceration did not bring an end to the war on drugs , as this crooked , corrupt , failed , and racially bigoted government program continues to this day .
Moreover , as Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro might soon find out.
, the drug war continues to provide an effective way for U.S. officials to effect regime change .
Reprinted with permission from The Future of Freedom Foundation .
The Best of Jacob G. @

The Justice Department’s securing of a criminal indictment of Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro reminds us that when it comes to the U.S. government’s regime-change operations, coups, invasions, sanctions, embargoes, and state-sponsored assassinations are not the only ways to achieve regime change. Another way is through a criminal indictment issued by a federal grand jury that deferentially accedes to the wishes of federal prosecutors.
The best example of this regime change method involved the president of Panama, Manuel Noriega.
Like many corrupt and brutal dictators around the world, Noriega was a partner and ally of the U.S. government. In fact, he was actually trained at the Pentagon’s School of the Americas, which is referred to in Latin America as the School of Assassins. He later served as a paid asset of the CIA. He also served as a conduit for the U.S. government’s illegal war in Nicaragua, where U.S. officials were using the Contra rebels to effect a regime change in that country.
But like other loyal pro-U.S. dictators, Noriega fell out of favor with U.S. officials, who decided they wanted him out of office and replaced with someone more to their liking. The Failure of America... Best Price: $17.57 Buy New $20.00 (as of 04:43 UTC - Details)
The big problem, of course, is the one that always afflicts U.S. regime-change aspirations: Noriega refused to go voluntarily.
U.S. officials knew that it would look bad to simply invade the country and effect a regime-change operation through force of arms. Undoubtedly, they considered a state-sponsored assassination through the CIA, which specialized in that form of regime change, but for whatever reason that regime-method wasn’t employed.
So, the regime-changers turned to the U.S. Justice Department, which secured a criminal indictment against Noriega for supposedly violating America’s drug laws. The U.S. rationale was that the U.S. government, as the world’s international policeman, has jurisdiction to enforce its drug laws against everyone in the world.
On December 20, 1989, the U.S. military invaded Panama to bring Noriega back to the United States to stand trial on the drug charges. One might consider the invasion to be one gigantic no-knock raid on an entire country as part of U.S. drug-war enforcement.
An estimated 23-60 U.S. soldiers were killed in the operation while some 300 were wounded. An estimated 300-800 Panamanian soldiers were killed. Estimates of civilian deaths ranged from 200 to 3,000. Property damage ranged in the billions of dollars. The Case for Free Trad... Best Price: $5.19 Buy New $17.95 (as of 04:43 UTC - Details)
But it was all considered worth it. By capturing Noriega and bringing him back for trial, U.S. officials felt that they had made big progress in finally winning the war on drugs. Equally important, they had secured the regime change that had been their original goal. At the same time, they sent a message to other rulers around the world: Leave office when we say or we’ll do this to you.
Noriega was convicted and received a 40-year jail sentence. When his lawyers tried to introduce evidence at trial of his close working relationship with the CIA and other elements of the U.S. national security state, not surprisingly federal prosecutors objected and the judge sustained their objections. Better to keep those types of things as secret as possible.
Alas, Noriega’s conviction and incarceration did not bring an end to the war on drugs, as this crooked, corrupt, failed, and racially bigoted government program continues to this day. Moreover, as Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro might soon find out., the drug war continues to provide an effective way for U.S. officials to effect regime change.
Reprinted with permission from The Future of Freedom Foundation.
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