CHARLES McKELVEY—The United States, either through war with Iran to contain China, or through unconventional war to weaken all anti-imperialist states, or both, is seeking to stop the dialectical march of modern history. The United States can do so only through destruction, which also could lead to its own demise. It would be far more dignified for the American republic to participate positively in the second stage of the modern synthesis, in which cooperation and mutually beneficial trade are established as an international norm. In doing so, the United States would once again be one of the world’s leading nations, and it could interpret its enlightened turn as the fulfillment of the promise of democracy contained in the founding of the American republic.
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EDITOR—Israel has long had a beef with Iran, the only nation in the Gulf capable and willing to stand up to its crimes and provocations. The events of 10/7, which some regard as a false flag designed to allow Israel to carry out a systematic genocide of Palestinians (with open encouragement and support by the US empire), have also sharpened the conflict with Tehran, triggering a dangerous cycle of Israeli aggressions and Iranian well-measured escalatory responses, which have now put the two nations on the brink of an all-out war. Some analysts suggest that the US, despite its “pro-peace” mask, and using “plausible deniability”, is actually pushing Israel to lead the way in the military conquest of Lebanon, Hezbollah, Iran and other parties of the “Axis of Resistance”. The panel is however dubious about the seriousness of Tel-Aviv’s thirst for a major war with Iran, and so is Iran for that matter. Everyone has much to lose in this confrontation, which could easily get out of hand and escalate to WW3 dimensions and complete economic collapse. Israel—despite its bellicosity, born of a sense of impunity given its close connection with the US and Britain—is extremely vulnerable to an Iranian attack on its infrastructure, as Iran could easily destroy its desalination plants, electricity stations and other vital resources. While the US is clearly the main force behind the Palestinians’ genocide and the expansion of Israeli territorial ambitions, the US ruling class, itself pathetically led at this point, and fractured into several factions with different priorities and imperialist approaches, seems unsure about the consequences of a regional and possibly global war with the multipolar alliance.
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MAIN EDITORS—10/4/2024 Episode 114 of Blowback: Exposing Imperial Decline with special guests Christopher Black and Max Parry.
The panel debates the question of who is actually setting global foreign policy in the US, especially in the Middle East, where many believe the Zionist lobby wields disproportionate influence. Is the Israeli lobby actually the most important factor in US foreign policy? Can it be said that this is a case of the tail wagging the dog? -
EDITORS—The panel discusses the multitude of hypocrisies underscoring the political class and media accusation of election meddling by Russia, China, and now even Iran, while ignoring the cancerous influence of the Israeli lobby, the long-time “pink elephant” in the room, which virtually “owns” the US Congress and much of the US political and media classes. This grotesque double standard pervading US policy is now manifest in the obviously hypocritical way the US government is treating genocidal Israel, while persecuting critics of Zionist crimes under the pretext of “anti-semitism”. Many of these huge defects in governance are proof, notes, Billy Bob, of the old Marxian insight about “parliamentarism” and “capitalist democracy”, which is only interested in fulfilling the needs and priorities of the ruling class.
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CHRIS. BLACK±“The CIA and SIS stand together in resisting an assertive Russia and Putin’s war of aggression (sic) in Ukraine. We saw it coming, and were able to warn the international community so we could all rally to Ukraine’s defence. We carefully declassified some of our secrets as a new and effective part of this effort.”
Of course they saw it coming. They were the ones that engineered the war against Russia by expanding their NATO alliance east towards Russia in betrayal of their promises made to Russia not to do so, an obvious act of aggression, and then attacked Yugoslavia in 1999, to remove a potential Russian ally and to place their large military base, Camp Bondsteel in the Serbian heartland of Kosovo-Metohija. The attack on Yugoslavia, a brutal act of aggression, during which they also attacked China, was a phase of their war against Russia.
