OLIVER BOYD-BARRETT
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People attending ceremonies at Gen. Suleimani's tomb moments before the terrorist explosions. (Iran TV, TGP screenshot)
For now, I have just a couple of observations to share with you. First off, I note that there are claims that responsibility for the massacre at the Suleimani tomb in Kerman in the south of Iran has been announced by ISIS. I am no more certain as to what “ISIS” is, than I am as to what “Al Qaeda” is, but there is pretty strong evidence that virtually all these radical Sunni militia are routinely exploited in one way or another by Western governments in the service of Western foreign policy interests and that it has been that way ever since Britain controlled Egypt (Egypt is still controlled, today mainly by the USA, which also means Britain and Israel). This was certainly the case through the Western/Arab League war with the Assad regime, where the principal executor of imperial disruption was the Muslim Brotherhood, a role it has played in Syria since the formation of the Bathist State many decades ago, backed up by Al Qaeda offshoot Al Nusra and the like.
I still think the MEK is a pretty good bet as the agency responsible for the tomb bombing because MEK, which once played a fairly standard left-wing, Marxist role prior to the Khomeini revolution, is intrinsic to the history of modern Iran (even if it is now headquartered in Albania, or is that Langley?) and has been through some pretty strange reinventions of itself subsequently in an extremely dubious direction. Bolton, when he was Secretary of State for Trump supported it, even when it was still classified by the US as terrorist (it was delisted in 2012).
The issue of Iran is discussed by Brian Berletic of New Atlas today. He critiques western main media coverage of the bombing. The BBC covered the ISIS claim of responsibility, not making it clear that Suleimani was fighting effectively against ISIS and similar organizations, designated “terrorist” by the US, in Syria (whose weapons mainly came from the USA because the weapons first went to “moderate” Islamist militia whence they were surrendered or simply handed over to Al Qaeda or its look-alikes) when the US (Trump) murdered him. (For more detail, see my 2021 book, published by Routledge, Conflict Propaganda in Syria: Narrative Battles). See the 2009 Brookings Institiution (funded by the US Govt and large US corporate interests, foreign governments) report, Which Path to Persia: Options for a New American Strategy Towards Iran, by Byman, Indyk, Maloney, O’Hanlen, Pollack, and Riedl. The 2009 Brookings recommendations inform US policy ever since. It all amounts to regime change operations. It is abundantly clear that the Iranian nuclear deal, jettisoned by Trump, was never intended to be honored. Brookings considered the pros and cons of using a terrorist organization to create an insurgency in Iran without implicating the USA. It advised that the MEK be required to change its policies in order to look more legitimate. The main point is the Brookings’ open advocacy of the use of terrerist organizations to help the USA to bring about regime change. [Editor's Note: We have mentioned elsewhere a number of times the depraved and "in the open" role played by "distinguished think tanks" like Brookings, financed by the US Government and big corporations, in formulating policies based on deceit and outright terrorism to achieve completely illegal and immoral goals, such as regime change to suit the US Empire.—PG]
The notion that Iran would be hell-bent for revenge after a strike such as that which occurred the other day at Kerman is a mainstream media invention that flies in the face of the occasions when Iran has not taken such action. Now a strike has been engineered, most likely by Israel and the USA through their proxy terrorist, MEK, to make it as difficult as possible for Iran to resist over-reaction so as to create an open conflagration in the Middle East, despite the poor likelihood of an ultimately possible outcome for the West.
A second observation has to do with an article I read quickly this morning (and which I shall post later when I have time) by my colleague at Propaganda in Focus, Piers Robinson, writing with veteran Middle East/Ukraine independent reporter Vanessa Beeley. It is the first I have seen that openly articulates the formation within what was once a “left-wing” domain of intellectual dissidence, of two important but discreet bases of concern, of which the first I would simply describe as the long-standing opposition to and total skepticism about western imperialism. The second I would describe as the growing resistance (fed in great measure by disillusionment over propaganda about the largely manufactured cluster of Covid 19 issues) to what every day more appears to be a coordinated striving at very high levels of power towards a totalitarian system of global governance, manifested in such areas as health, money, identity surveillance and so on.
The article invites much more focused attention on the ways in which these two areas of fundamental concern interact, and I shall try to be mindful of this challenge in the future. It is clear that the USA has an agenda of global subversion against all power centers which Washington does not control: most immediately, this concerns Russia over Ukraine and western-invented puppet Zelenskiy and his like, China over Taiwan, Palestine over Iran, Venezuela over western supported puppet Guaido and his like, and now over Guyana, the BRICS over NATO and the G7, even the UN.
To the cabal that controls this agenda of US-led global dominance we have ascribed the title of “neocon.” So the question therefore is what exactly are the links between this cabal and the strangeness of efforts within the WEF to select and mold national leaders, and within the WHO to take charge over global health (or its opposite), and efforts elsewhere to promote digital currency and totalistic surveillance.
To some extent, elements of the leadership of countries which do not submit to the Washington consensus and are opposed therefore to Western privilege and Western empire, do subscribe to the efforts that are being made to construct a totalitarian system of global governance. This may be the result of naivete (similar to Putin’s naive presumption that he could employ reason to convince NATO not to threaten legitimate Russian security interests by enroaching aggressively on Russia’s border) and the continuing power of Western ideology, through Western control over international media, over the minds of the more educated elites in Russia and China to convince them that they are inferior to the beautiful flower of Western wisdom (cough). Or it may be that the escalation of a global elite over national elites, serving the interests of a plutocratic, billionaire international class, even the national elites of large powers, has proceeded in tandem with, but not entirely connected to the explosion of a second age of Western imperialism. If it is a challenge for us, intellectually, to discern the interconnections, this may be because the globalists are still in the process of constructing these interconnections.
Bonus Feature
Zelenskiy: Political Corpse
(TGP screenshot)
In the Hopes of a Funeral
Zelenskiy has been referred to as a “political corpse” by the Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security Council and advised, given that status, to focus his attention on saving Ukraine as opposed to saving his Presidency. In other words, if he is being forced towards a ceasefire or frozen conflict situation (neither of which is going to happen right now, in my view), then he can no longer legally extend the period in which elections are postponed, there will have to be elections, and he will lose the elections. Why? Because he is a horrible politician, a liar, a foreign agent, a sociapath who has sacrificed hundreds of thousands of the lives of his own countrymen and countrywomen, ruined his entire nation and its future, simply because he hoisted himself to the fantasy that being a member of NATO would somehow, with no evidence whatsoever to support the notion, miraculously bring about heaven on earth for Ukraine.
Maybe he will be replaced by Zaluzhnyi. Zaluzhnyi’s record in this war is not a good one and I see nothing good for Ukraine that a Zaluzhnyi presidency will bring about. Other than a presidential candidate who is prepared to sign off on Ukraine’s immediate capitulation, there is nobody likely to come to power who will aim to make things better for Ukraine. Which means that they will get worse, considerably worse, thus preparing the ground, as Gordon Hahn has recently argued, for a revolution.
I dont see the war coming to an end. Zelenskiy is doing everything possible to keep the war going. His administration talks of the foothold in Krynky as a manouver which will ultimately form part of a renewed Ukrainian counteroffensive on Crimea (to be distinghished, therefore, from a procedure for sending inexperienced soldiers in small boats and freezing temperatures across the Dnieper to be exterminated by Russian FPV drones).
Given the strength of Russian fortifications between the Dnieper and Crimea this is simply never going to happen. But it extends the war. Every bit of Western aid, even as it is running down and running low on operability, recency and overall quality, is a further argument for Zelenskiy that the new, whatever it is, will help Ukraine win the war. It is not impossible that Washington will vote through some more aid for Ukraine in the coming weeks, so that too will be used by Zelenskiy as another reason why he can focus on saving himself, and not Ukraine. Talk of F16s, as though these can possibly compete with Russian Suhoi 34s and 35s or make any difference to the war in Ukraine’s favor, is just another fantasy that serves the same function.
In the meantime, in the real Ukraine, Ukraine’s air defenses are teetering on the edge of viability, and Russia has more and more convincing control in the air, rendering the importance of Ukrainian drones insignificant.
As I argued yesterday the big question is whether we should be expecting a major Russian offensive: there are strong advantages for Russia in maintaining a relatively low-intensity attritional war: it is cheaper, at any one time; it attrites not just Ukraine, but also the enemy; this weakens the enemy in many ways, including in the emerging Middle East war as the ground is laid for a Western provocation against Lebanon and Iran and, further down the line, in China; it is more controlable, more predictable. On the other hand, Russia has to be ready for a moment when the advantages are so stacked in its favor that it must seize its chance to make a dramatic difference to the conflict and take away whatever initiative remains in the hands of Ukraine or the collective West.
Battlefields
There has been another major Russian missile and drone strike across Ukraine. For the first time Ukraine has admitted to not being able to shoot down more than 50% of all projectiles, including four kinzhals, an X-22, and a ballistic missile. This turnaround in accuracy of reporting shoot-downs is probably Zelenskiy’s attempt to whip up growing concern in the collective West and attempting to force further assistance in the supply of weapons. There was a heavy strike on Khmelnitskiy; two power plants were destroyed in Kharkiv which, at least for a time, lacked electric power and transportation; there was a massive strike on drone warehouses and railways in the town of Zelenskiy’s birth, namely Krbyi Rix.
Russia continues to make moderate progress in Kupyansk and Lyman (especially in the area east of Terny and Nevske). In the Bakhmut area Russia is advancing in the Poprovka forest, south of Bohdanivka, and strengthening Russian positions close to Kleshchiivka. In Avdiivka, Russia is advancing up the railway line towards Ochertyne, strengthening positions south of Tonenke and Sieverne, and enjoying increasing control over supply routes into Avdiivka while inflicting heavy casualties on Ukraine. West of Marinka, it is advancing beyond the Osykovo reservoir. South of Novomykhailivka, Russia is stepping back: this may be a retreat to a line of Russian fortification to the south of the settlement, and it may be because Russia wishes to continue to throw FAB bombs on the settlement without threatening its own men.
Gaza
A stream of Western chatter continues apace without any effective moves to engage in meaningful conversation with anyone that matters whether that be Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran, Iraq, Syria, the Arab States, Russia, while, in the meantime, the number of deaths and wounded approaches 60,000 or more and the Israeli regime and the people of Israel are given liberty to float above rational thought and create the conditions for World War 3 which, this time around, looks likely to destroy the collective West and Israel. Mainstream western media including, so shamefully, CNN, give voice only to the lies of Tel Aviv, while their governments exert pressure on social media to drown out the human wail of anger against their enforced silence and complicity and even many of the most rational commentators in the alternative media sphere strive to give the appearance that this is simply a conflict between two equal combatants as though this makes them look “sensible,” and “ balanced.” It makes them look like patsies.
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Oliver Boyd-Barrett is a critical scholar of media and communication, propaganda, and international news media and film.Print this article 
The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of The Greanville Post. However, we do think they are important enough to be transmitted to a wider audience.
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