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Lawrence Wilkerson: The point of no return, "The American 'Empire' is in deep, deep trouble"

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sun, 04 Oct 2015 22:30 UTC
Former US army colonel and Chief of Staff for Colin Powell, Lawrence Wilkerson unleashed a most prescient speech on the demise of the United States Empire.

As Naked Capitalism's Yves Smith notes, Wilkerson describes the path of empires in decline and shows how the US is following the classic trajectory. He contends that the US needs to make a transition to being one of many powers and focus more on strategies of international cooperation.

The video is full of rich historical detail and terrific, if sobering, nuggets, such as:
"History tells us we're probably finished.

The rest of of the world is awakening to the fact that the United States is 1) strategically inept and 2) not the power it used to be. And that the trend is to increase that."
Wilkerson includes in his talk not just the way that the US projects power abroad, but internal symptoms of decline, such as concentration of wealth and power, corruption and the disproportionate role of financial interests.


Comment: More info:
  • United States - supporter of 'moderate' terrorists

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Blackbox

Did Russia violate Turkish airspace? Or did Turkey just move its border?


Moon of Alabama
Mon, 05 Oct 2015 12:39 UTC
turkey puppet

You too can have your very own puppet Turkey state! Only $29.99!
Russian planes in Syria "violated Turkish air space" the news agency currently tell us. But an earlier report shows that this claim may well be wrong and that the U.S. pushes Turkey to release such propaganda.

Reuters (Mon Oct 5, 2015 7:54am BST): Turkey says Russian warplane violated its airspace
A Russian warplane violated Turkish airspace near the Syrian border on Saturday, prompting the Air Force to scramble two F-16 jets to intercept it, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

The Foreign Ministry summoned Moscow's ambassador to protest the violation, according to an e-mailed statement. Turkey urged Russia to avoid repeating such a violation, or it would be held "responsible for any undesired incident that may occur."
AFP (10:20am · 5 Oct 2015): Turkey 'intercepts' Russian jet violating its air space
Turkey said on Monday its F-16 jets had at the weekend intercepted a Russian fighter plane which violated Turkish air space near the Syrian border, forcing the aircraft to turn back.

Comment: Erdogan has not been happy about Russian airstrikes in Syria. Despite wishing for greater economic ties with Russia, he is so far parrotting the U.S. line and behaving like a good little vassal. See also:

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Bomb

Russia destroys 9 ISIS targets in last 24 hrs - including base with T-55 tanks


RT
Mon, 05 Oct 2015 12:10 UTC
Su-25
© Dmitriy Vinogradov / RIA Novosti
Russian Su-25 aircraft take off at the Khmeimim airbase in Syria.
The Russian Air Force in Syria has conducted 25 sorties on 9 Islamic State installations in the last 24 hours, eliminating a disguised terrorist base equipped with tanks, a command center and a communication hub, the Defense Ministry reported.

Russian bombers taking off from Khmeimim airbase knocked out a terrorist base hidden in the woods near the city of Idlib, eliminating 30 vehicles, among which were several Soviet-made T-55 tanks.

"Six airstrikes hit the base, and the terrorists' equipment was fully destroyed," Konashenkov said.

An IS command post in Latakia province was completely destroyed with a pinpoint strike from a Russian bomber, with fire breaking out at the site.

In Homs province three airstrikes on terrorist infrastructures took out two arms depots. An Islamic State command post near the city of Al-Rastan was also destroyed.

"As a result of a direct hit, a communications center has been eliminated. Reconnaissance confirms the facility is no longer functional," Russia's Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.


Comment: See also:

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Handcuffs

Criminal class: UK government drugs adviser arrested in drugs bust, suspected of moonlighting as crack dealer

David Barrett
The Telegraph, UK
Mon, 05 Oct 2015 12:12 UTC
Image

The suspected drug-dealing senior civil servant worked under British Home secretary Theresa May
A senior civil servant at Theresa May's Westminster HQ, Nigel Voden, was detained by police on suspicion of supplying Class A and Class B drugs

A Home Office drugs expert has been arrested on suspicion of supplying crack cocaine.

Nigel Voden, 48, a senior civil servant who works in the drug and alcohol unit at Theresa May's Westminster headquarters, was detained in a planned police raid on Thursday.

Police swooped on a suspected crack den in a block of flats where Mr Voden lives in Harrow, north-west London.

He has now been suspended, the Home Office confirmed.

Comment: This is the sort of thing that is rife in a pathocracy.

Need someone to draft government drugs policy? Hire a crack dealer!

Need someone to protect children from child abusers? Hire a pedophile!

When the foxes are guarding the henhouse, is it any wonder society goes to hell in a handbasket?

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Megaphone

Moscow ready for contact with phantom Free Syrian Army


RT
Mon, 05 Oct 2015 12:19 UTC
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov
© Grigoriy Sisoev / RIA Novosti
Russia is ready for contact with the Free Syrian Army, but it is now a 'phantom,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said at a news conference following talks with his Laos counterpart in Moscow.

"They tell us about the Free Syrian Army, but where is it? It remains a phantom group, nothing is known about it," Lavrov said, adding that Russia has sent a request about the group to the United States.

"We will be ready to establish contact with it if it's really a capable military group of patriotic opposition consisting of Syrians. We do not hide this fact. But this structure is already a phantom. I have asked [State Secretary] John Kerry to provide us with information about the whereabouts of this Free Syrian Army and who commands it," said Lavrov.

"So far no one has told us where and how this Free Syrian Army operates or where and how other units of the so-called moderate opposition operate."

The minister also said that Moscow has asked the United States for details on the army.

Comment: Lavrov always to the point and revealing the farce of the US coalition against Assad in Syria.

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Shopping Bag

Syria: French MP accuses France of being "a bagman for US propaganda"


Fort Russ
Sat, 03 Oct 2015 00:00 UTC
Jacques Myard
© www.europe1.fr
Jacques Myard describes France as a Western propaganda tool in the media war on Syria.
When it comes to Syria and the Russian air strikes, Jacques Myard, deputy from the Republican Party, accuses France of "carrying the suitcases for American propaganda," in a communiqué released today.

"Today we are witnessing an unbelievable media war that just takes your breath away. The Russians have never changed their Syria policy and have always said that the regime of Bashar Al Assad was the best rampart against Islamic fundamentalism, without going so far as to say they're "married" to him for all time," affirms M. Myard.

"Moscow's objective is to consolidate Damascus, and the Russian air strikes are part of that policy," said the president of the Nation and Republic Circle. "On the other hand, one can only wonder about the logic of the American policy France is following: Washington wants the Damascus regime to fall, no matter what it costs, and, like Paris, pretends that the insurgents are members of the Syrian Liberation Army, moderate insurgents against the regime".

According to him "the truth is pretty remote from that presentation. The Syrian Liberation Army has no existence outside of the salons of Euro or American hotels," while the units of the SLA armed by the Americans have crossed over to the Islamic front, weapons, equipment, and all to al Nosra, the al Qaida affiliate". Washington "today is playing the Al Nosra hand (...) The alignment of France with this policy of Sorcerer's Apprentices is not just a disaster for our interests, it is just simply pathetic."

Comment: A few of the comments from French dignitaries and such:

"The government wants to be seen as being decisive and doing something," said Francois Heisbourg, chairman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. "The beauty of airstrikes is you can decide them readily, you can implement them very quickly and easily, and in media terms they're quite spectacular." However, he said he doesn't think the French airstrikes will be any more effective than the U.S.'s airstrikes in Syria, which he said "haven't been conclusive."

"A counterinsurgency war is not won in the air," said Claude Moniquet, a former French intelligence agent who now runs a security consulting firm. "Nobody wants to be involved in a ground war in Syria and Iraq because it will drive us to an important amount of losses and nobody wants to be responsible for the body bags which will come back."

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Saturday told a news conference that Assad was "responsible for the current chaos" and would need to leave office if a peace deal were ever to be reached. "If we were to say to the Syrians that the future lies with Assad, then we will expose ourselves to failure."

Until Sunday, France had insisted that it could not attack ISIS in Syria due to international law, but this week the country found evidence that ISIS planned terror attacks against it from Syria - making air strikes against the militants legitimate under UN rules on self-defense. As such, France is being forced to work alongside the Assad regime, which it has criticized louder than any other Europe nation in recent years.

In other words, we want the results we want but skip the messy parts and blame all of the chaos and tragedy on someone else. Gloriosky, we are so, um, really great. Sound familiar?

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V

Putin's moral authority in the war against ISIS and the media propagandists' desperate attempts at denigrating it

Dr. T.P. Wilkinson
Global Research
Sun, 04 Oct 2015 00:00 UTC
Image



Comment: The author points out some of the more subtle, sophisticated and nuanced lies contained in recent anti-Russia anti-Putin propaganda - that are all the more insidious for their attempts to capture the minds of people who probably consider themselves "informed".


Ever since Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the UN General Assembly on 28 September, the spokespersons for the US regime and its propaganda apparatus have tried to present Russia as a nostalgic power seething with envy. Such misrepresentations of current Russian policy and Russian history in the US are not unusual - in fact they have been the rule since 1917. Unlike the US, Russia is not an island whose ignorance and idiocy have been preserved by two oceans separating it from the rest of humanity (except the non-whites and half-whites south of Miami and the Rio Bravo).

Hence when Julia Ioffe quotes Putin in English except for a single Russian word in her Foreign Policy article, it is more than pedantic.[1] Her point is to reassure the journal's readership that a single Russian word gosudarstvennik from an approximately 70 minute speech is more important than any of the complete sentences that composed President Putin's polite but firm indictment of US imperial policy, especially as practiced in the Middle East. However as if to prove that she either has no comprehension of Russian or is simply illiterate, she elaborates:

Comment: The Western media and its allied arms in the government have a (however sophisticated or dumb) rationalization, narrative, deflection, manipulation or lie to counter anything we see or hear. What's becoming clearer, thanks to Putin however, is just what underpins the writings of journalists who fancy themselves as in any way objective when we look at what they're saying more closely. In other words, the truth of things has just gotten much harder to hide and the moral authority and actions of Putin et al. more recognizable for what they really are.

See also: The Atlantic Council, Western media, and the 'Big Lie' about Putin's Russia

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USA

Even Trump supports Putin 'bombing the hell out of ISIS'


RT
Mon, 05 Oct 2015 11:27 UTC
Trump
© www.towardfreedom.com
I may not be that smart, but I know a real war on terror when I see one!
Moscow is "bombing the hell out of ISIS" because President Putin wants to prevent terrorism spilling into Russia, said US presidential candidate Donald Trump, criticizing failed US Middle Eastern policies that have already turned Iraq and Libya into a total mess.

"It is not even a contest!" Donald Trump said in response to an NBC News presenter's question about whether it had been better when Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were in power.

"Iraq is a disaster... Libya is not even a country," he explained. "You can make the case, if you look at Libya, look at what we did there - it's a mess. If you look at Saddam Hussein with Iraq, look what we did there - it's a mess."

Trump said that Washington is "destroying our country" by wasting too much money on Middle Eastern policies that do not seem to work: "We have spent $2 trillion in Iraq, probably a trillion in Afghanistan..."

"[Syria] is going to be the same thing," Trump said, criticizing US support of so-called moderate Syrian rebels.

At one point the interviewer mentioned that Russian airstrikes could be "hitting people we've trained," but Trump interrupted him by stating: "We are talking about people we don't even know!"


Comment: Another sign of what a masterstroke the Russian campaign has been. For years, the West has led an information war on the people of the world, bombarding them with images of Al Qaeda and ISIS's butchery and inhumanity. The automatic reaction to these terrorist groups is now fear and hatred. So, naturally, people can't help but support Russia's airstrikes. And all the States can do while their mercenaries are getting pounded by Russian bombs is try to pretend that they are not terrorists. That line will only work for a short time, as it becomes clearer that Russia is in fact bombing terrorists - doing what the U.S. has been pretending to do, but hasn't been doing, for the past 14 years.

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Star of David

Video: Israeli Mob Rejoices as Palestinian Teen Executed by Israeli police


Electronic Intifada
Mon, 05 Oct 2015 11:11 UTC
Image

Fadi Samir Alloun was executed by Israeli police
Israeli authorities claimed that 19-year-old Fadi Samir Alloun was killed after a stabbing attack that wounded an Israeli teenager. They presented no evidence connecting Alloun to the alleged stabbing.

But videos posted online show that the youth was executed in cold blood as he was chased by a mob of Israeli Jews baying for his blood.

As the video above begins, voices can be heard in Hebrew shouting - apparently at police - "Shoot him! He's a terrorist! Shoot him!" and "Don't wait! Shoot him!"
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Chess

Israel's crocodile tears as Putin outmaneuvers and neutralizes Netanyahu in brilliant strategic move

Yossi Melman
The Jerusalem Post
Thu, 01 Oct 2015 21:11 UTC

Comment: This is a rare moment in the geopolitical world where there is cause for celebration. When the illegal and murderous actions of a country, along with its psychopathic leaders are being restricted and neutralized, we think there may actually be justice in this world after all. Read on and observe how an Israeli journalist describes the current "bleak" situation for Israel, and how from now on they will have to be extremely careful before engaging in illegal military operations against other sovereign countries, otherwise they may find themselves being mauled by the Russian bear.


Image
Israel will think twice and more before it decides to initiate air force attacks inside Syria - as it did at least 10 times in the past three years.

A gun placed on stage in the first act must be fired by the last one. This axiom is attributed to Russian playwright Anton Chekov - the same one whose work Minister of Culture Miri Regev proudly declared she has never read.

Even though it was clear that the extensive military buildup by the Russia Army in Syria was bound to eventually lead to military intervention in the civil war, the first Russian air strikes yesterday were received with a bit of surprise. Yesterday morning the Russia Duma (parliament) approved the use of military force - as if President Vladimir Putin really needed their approval - and yesterday by noon missions were executed near the towns of Homs, Hama, and Latakiya. According to Western sources, the Russians targeted positions of rebel groups opposing the regime of President Bashar Assad, including factions supported by the US. The Russian Ministry of Defense, on the other hand, said that its air force targeted ISIS.

Comment: Even here the Israeli media can't get its facts straight. As it turns out, Hizb'allah have been involved in Syria for some time. In fact, it appears that they were withdrawn from engagements with ISIS just prior to the commencement of Russia's intervention. Hizb'allah is probably concerned about the Israelis and Saudis using the "jihadis" to bring the war to Lebanon so, like Russia, they've been "fighting them there so as not to have to fight them here".

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