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Trump's ties to the past and the resurrection of the Left

James Petras
Petras.Lahaine.org
Thu, 09 Feb 2017 16:27 UTC
Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump
© AP/Reuters/Charles Rex Arbogast/Joshua Roberts/Andrew Harnik/Alan Diaz
'De Omnibus Dubitandum'
Everything is to be Doubted

Introduction

President Trump is deeply embedded in the politics of the deep state structure of American imperialism. Contrary to occasional references to non-intervention in overseas wars, Trump has followed in the footsteps of his predecessors.

While neoconservatives and liberals have raised a hue and cry about Trump's ties to Russia, his 'heresies' over NATO and his overtures to peace in the Middle East, in practice, he has discarded his market humanitarian' imperialism and engaged in the same bellicose policies of his Democratic Party presidential rival, Hillary Clinton.
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Footprints

Nuance added to Trump's pro-Israel approach ahead of Netanyahu's visit

Matt Spetainick, Luke Baker
Reuters
Thu, 09 Feb 2017 06:26 UTC
Trump Netanyahu
© CNN.com
During his 2016 election campaign, Donald Trump signaled his presidency would be a boon for Israel and tough on Palestinians. The U.S. Embassy would move to Jerusalem, he would name an ambassador who backs Israeli settlements on land Palestinians seek for a state and there would be no pressure for peace talks.

But as Trump prepares for his first White House meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his administration has not only toned down its pro-Israel bravado but also taken the first tentative steps toward a more cautious Middle East diplomacy, including consultations with Sunni Arab allies and U.S. lawmakers, according to people familiar with the matter.

While any strategy is still far from complete, there is growing consensus in the White House that tackling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could require gentle nudging of Israel together with assurances to the Arab world that Trump will be more even-handed than his campaign rhetoric suggested. "This is a case where campaign promises run head-on into geopolitical reality and they have to be adjusted accordingly," said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.


Comment: Oh please! Unless there is a 'tremendous' carrot, a 'terrific' carrot, Israel will need a lot more than 'gentle nudging!'


As a result, relocating the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem - a step world leaders including Jordan's King Abdullah warned against and which would probably inflame the Muslim world - has been put on hold for now. At the same time, the White House has adopted a more measured stance on Israeli settlement-building in occupied territory than candidate Trump appeared to advocate.

Comment: Trump, by modifying his stance, is moving in a prudent direction, one that will hopefully afford his administration a wider range of considerations and options. So far, they are small steps urged by his advisors, not his first inclinations...but steps nonetheless.

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Attention

US Commander John Nicholson: Fight against Taliban in Afghanistan is a stalemate

Mike Eckel
RFE/RL
Thu, 09 Feb 2017 00:00 UTC
General John Nicholson
© Military.comThousands more troops to break Afghanistan stalemate?
A top U.S. commander says the war against Taliban fighters in Afghanistan has ground to a stalemate. General John Nicholson also told the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 9 that Russia had significantly increased covert and overt support for the Taliban, with a goal of "undermining the United States and NATO." The assessment by Nicholson, the commander of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, was one of the most candid admissions by U.S. officials that the fight there faces problems.


Comment: This assessment regarding Russian motives is a Western-ingrained narrative. The situation complexed with the entrenchment of ISIS. It requires uncommon alliances to cooperate and effect a purge.


There are some 8,400 U.S. troops remaining in Afghanistan since most NATO forces withdrew in 2014. Since then, however, Afghan forces have struggled to fend off the Taliban, which has gained control of more territory than at any time since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Nicholson said Afghan forces had suffered significant casualties, impeding their ability to reach full strength. He said he would need several thousand more troops -- U.S. and other countries' forces -- in order to break the stalemate. The Afghan forces remained hamstrung by corruption and leadership problems, stemming from an entrenched patronage system, he said.


Comment: Corruption and leadership problems are nothing new on the face of the earth. Long lasting solutions are ones created by those whose problems they are to solve, not necessarily helped by those who impose. If you win the stalemate, you own keeping the edge. Does the US foresee another long-term commitment?


Comment: With ISIS in Afghanistan, a cooperation has arisen between Russia and the Taliban to eliminate this threat (not, as stated, to undermine the US and NATO!). Russia has asked the US for help. Is Trump serious in his intent to partner with Russia and go after ISIS if it means working with the Taliban?

See also: Moscow: Increase of ISIS presence in Afghanistan is a threat to Russia, 'real action' from US requested

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Footprints

Brexit: The 'hard' option or 'soft' option, does it truly matter?


Sputnik
Thu, 09 Feb 2017 15:56 UTC
Green bill
© REUTERS/ TOBY MELVILLECopy of the Brexit Article 50 bill to start the process of leaving the EU.
"Which do you choose, a hard or soft option?" It's doubtful that when The Pet Shop Boys wrote that lyric over 30 years ago, they could have envisaged the having great political significance in 2017 - ironically enough, the centenary of the year in which Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov aka Lenin, made the journey "from Lake Geneva to the Finland Station."

Back in 1986, when West End Girls was number one in the pop charts, only the most diehard Euroskeptics could have dreamt that Britain would one day leave the EU. But it's happening now.

Last Wednesday (February 1) the House of Commons voted by 498 to 114 to invoke Article 50— the EU exit clause. "Now we're on our way out of the EU" the front page of the Daily Express declared. The only question left now is: will we have a "hard" Brexit or a "soft" one?

A "hard" or "clean," Brexit would mark a complete break with the EU and its institutions, with the UK out of both the single market and the customs union. A "soft" Brexit would mean staying in the single market, in return for some increased control over the free movement of EU citizens.

Last week, the government finally published its plans in a White Paper. The Brexit Prime Minister Theresa May would like to see won't be as hard as the going used to be at Bath racecourse in August, but probably hard enough to please most of those who voted "out" last June 23.

Comment: In 1975, the question was 'Do you think that the United Kingdom should remain part of the European Community (Common Market)?' In this clip Peter Shore puts on a credible and convincing performance to disengage the parliament from its fear and immobility and move beyond the paralysis of choice. The lessons learned then are applicable today.



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Better Earth

Pakistan's Eurasian Solution for the Conflict in Afghanistan

Andrew Korybko
Katehon
Fri, 10 Feb 2017 19:46 UTC
afghanistan flag
Moscow will host six-party talks about Afghanistan on 15 February, with Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Iran, India, and naturally Russia expected to be represented. Moreover, Zamir Kabulov - thought of as being the leader of the "Islamophile" South Asian faction in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - extended an invitation to the US as well, though stipulating that it should first be "ready to work constructively with regional powers" and "determine what they are planning to do in Afghanistan." Given these conditions and the fact that the Trump Administration has yet to articulate its strategy on Afghanistan, Kabulov was probably just being diplomatic in inviting his American counterparts, and if they show up at all, they might be represented by low-level token dignitaries like they were for Astana.

Multilateral Syrian And Afghan Talks: Same Format, Similar Hope

Speaking of which, there's an interesting parallel between the Astana process for Syria and the developing Eurasian framework for Afghanistan. At the end of December, Moscow hosted two very high-profile summits dealing with both of these conflicts, with the outcome of the Syrian-related one being the Moscow Declaration and subsequent Astana gathering, while the Afghan one seems to have produced the forthcoming meeting in Moscow next week. Both prior events importantly emphasized the trilateral cooperation between Russia, Iran, and Turkey in Syria, and Russia, Pakistan, and China in Afghanistan, and it's no surprise that both of their follow-up summits expanded the format to include additional players.

Comment: See also:

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Info

UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon says 'failed' investigation into Iraq War abuse claims will close within months


RT
Fri, 10 Feb 2017 21:05 UTC
British soldiers in Iraq
© Maurice McDonald / Reuters
UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon has said the civilian-run investigation into allegations of abuse and torture by British troops in Iraq will be shut down within months. MPs have called for it be replaced by a military-led probe.

Fallon announced the closure of the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT) after a damning report by MPs was published on Friday.

The defense secretary also confirmed around 90 percent of misconduct cases involving British troops who served in Afghanistan will be dropped, according to Sky News.

In its report, the Commons Defence Committee said IHAT has "directly harmed the defense of our nation" by investigating abuse claims, including the death of an Iraqi teenager 13 years ago.

MPs described the £60 million (US$75 million) government probe into allegations against Iraq War veterans as an "unmitigated failure" and said it should shut down within months.
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Bomb

The Oklahoma City bombing - Requiem for the Suicided: Terrance Yeakey

James Corbett
The Corbett Report
Fri, 10 Feb 2017 19:12 UTC
Terry Yeakey
© The Office
This week we turn the focus of our open source investigation to Sgt. Terrance Yeakey, one of the first responder heroes at the scene of the OKC bombing who discovered something that conflicted with the official story of the bombing...something that cost him his life.

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Bad Guys

Notorious neocon Elliott Abrams under consideration for Deputy Secretary of State - Update: Trump nixes Abrams for State Dept. job

Jason Ditz
Antiwar
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 20:34 UTC
The White House
The Iran-Contra Affair happened some 35 years ago. A major black eye for the Reagan Administration, it was also the first in a long line of blotches on the record of then-Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams, who was convicted of two counts of withholding information from Congress regarding the affair, pardoned in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush. As a Special Assistant to President George W. Bush, he was a supporter of the US invasion of Iraq, and played a major role in the failed military coup in Venezuela.

But apparently that's just another way of saying he's experienced, and with the Trump Administration facing criticism for both President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's lack of foreign policy experience, Abrams is back again like a bad penny, and under serious consideration for the position of Deputy Secretary of State.

The position of number two in the State Department is always powerful, but expected to be even more-so this time, with the expectation that the deputy would virtually run the department while Tillerson learns on the job. It's a potentially very dangerous position to put the notorious neoconservative Abrams into.

Tillerson apparently supports this idea, and despite Abrams' well-documented history of lying to Congress, many in Congress are keen on the idea too, as his experience in past administrations, however dishonorably, makes him a known commodity.

Comment: Despite the above speculation, Trump has reportedly nixed Abrams for the sensitive Deputy Sec. of State post over Abrams' criticism of Trump during the presidential campaign, according to CNN:
But Abrams was nixed from the list of contenders after President Donald Trump learned of Abrams' biting criticism last May of his fitness to become president, the Republican sources said.The President found out about Abrams' outspokenness against Trump after meeting with him on Tuesday to consider him for the position, which would have made him Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's deputy. The meeting went well, but Trump could not get past Abrams' past criticism, the sources said.


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Cowboy Hat

Trump's straight-talking demeanor with foreign leaders is ruffling the feathers of the Establishment

TARA PALMERI, KENNETH P. VOGEL, JOSH DAWSEY and NAHAL TOOSI
Politico
Wed, 08 Feb 2017 18:47 UTC
trump
© Getty“When you hear about the tough phone calls I’m having, don’t worry about it. Just don’t worry about it," President Donald Trump said at last week's National Prayer Breakfast
President Donald Trump spent much of a recent phone call with French President Francois Hollande veering off into rants about the U.S. getting shaken down by other countries, according to a senior official with knowledge of the call, creating an awkward interaction with a critical U.S. ally.

While the Hollande call Jan. 28 did touch on pressing matters between the two countries — namely the fight against the Islamic State — Trump also used the exchange to vent about his personal fixations, including his belief that the United States is being taken advantage of by China and international bodies like NATO, the official said.

At one point, Trump declared that the French can continue protecting NATO, but that the U.S. "wants our money back," the official said, adding that Trump seemed to be "obsessing over money."

"It was a difficult conversation, because he talks like he's speaking publicly," the official said. "It's not the usual way heads of state speak to each other. He speaks with slogans, and the conversation was not completely organized."
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Handcuffs

Russian authorities bust drug syndicate with offices in Kiev


Sputnik
Fri, 10 Feb 2017 17:31 UTC
fsb special forces
© Sputnik/ Igor Zarembo
Russian police and FSB operatives have stopped activities of a drug syndicate with recruiting offices in Ukraine and annual turnover of over 2 billion rubles ($34 million), the Russian Interior Ministry said Friday.

According to ministry's spokeswoman Irina Volk, the so-called KhimProm syndicate had recruiting offices in Kiev, circulating ads with offers of high-salary jobs as couriers and shipping agents in Russia.

"A total of 67 members of the drug syndicate have been arrested, including 47 Ukrainian citizens," Volk said.

Investigators found that recruits had been offered short-term courses where they were taught how to use different electronic payment systems, pack and transport drugs. They were supplied with bank cards issued with fake IDs, counterfeit Russian passports, driver's licenses and cellphones with installed messaging apps.
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