Paul Craig Roberts (PCR)

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Russia's strategic deterrent comprises the submarine fleet armed with ICBMs. (Photo: Russian Pacific Fleet).

Watching Washington Foment Nuclear War

Are the peoples of the Western world so completely insouciant that they do not notice that their politicians are pushing them into direct conflict with Russia? It seems Hungarians are the only European people who have any sense.
https://www.rt.com/news/598644-budapest-peace-march-nato/

The Kremlin could not issue any warnings more dire, and in response moronic Western politicians provoke harder. Are they unable to comprehend that they are provoking a nuclear war, or is it their intention to provoke a nuclear war?

Biden, Blinken, and NATO have made another U-turn. The long range missiles that Ukraine could not use for attacks on Russian territory can now be used that way, but, for now, only on military targets. But the distinction between military and non-military targets is a distinction without meaning or substance. All modern wars are attacks on civilians and infrastructure.

The argument that resulted in removing restrictions on long range missiles is that in order to defend itself Ukraine needs to be able to use the weapons Washington provides to attack the military infrastructure that Russia uses to attack Ukraine.

Russia will simply attack the sites from which it is being attacked, so the long range missiles will contribute nothing to Ukraine’s defense. Even worse: as the Kremlin knows the missiles have to be programmed with targeting information by US and NATO personnel, Russia regards the countries responsible for the targeting as combatants and targets. We are on the verge of the final widening of the war.

As every previous no-no became a yes-yes, the Kremlin has to assume that the no-no prohibition on sending NATO troops will soon become a yes-yes. If realism prevails in the Kremlin, this forces Putin to abandon his limited military operation and to knock out Ukraine before it fills up with NATO soldiers.

From the beginning it was obvious to me that the limited military operation was a strategic blunder that would allow the West to become involved, with the consequence being the widening of the war. That is precisely what has happened. We have reached the point where Putin is telling the West to back off or out come the nukes.

But no one in the West hears.

As every previous no-no became a yes-yes, the Kremlin has to assume that the no-no prohibition on sending NATO troops will soon become a yes-yes. If realism prevails in the Kremlin, this forces Putin to abandon his limited military operation and to knock out Ukraine before it fills up with NATO soldiers.

Washington cares no more for Ukrainians than it cares for Palestinians. The Ukraine conflict is a way for Washington to force Russia into a response that can be used to justify a US/NATO attack on Russia. What is to be served by this? It is a form of suicide for the West.

Where is a responsible Western leader to diffuse this dangerous situation? Why are there none? Keeping Russian Donbas in Ukraine, where it should never have been put, is not worth the war that is being fomented.  As the long range missiles cannot improve Ukraine’s battlefield performance, their only purpose is to be used for provocations. Anyone looking at the situation who thinks more provocations are what is needed is insane.

It is mind-boggling to actually watch Western leaders foment a nuclear war.

There is no opposition from Congress. None from print and TV media. None from European governments except Hungary. Western peoples are too insouciant to understand that they are standing on the edge of annihilation.

“We Are Inches Away from Destruction” — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban

Some who find reality too upsetting take issue with my warnings of how close we are to a final war. I have acquired a new accolade — “scaremonger.” But I am not the only aware person on earth. Dr. Postal at MIT understands the seriousness of the situation, as does Mike Whitney, Steven Starr, Gilbert Doctorow, Scott Ritter, and Viktor Orban. Even the restrained, unprovocative Putin now understands that Russia is confronted with war, not a limited military operation to liberate the Donbas Russians.

Prime Minister Orban says that every week he sees more and more signs that the EU and NATO are preparing for military action. The Western governments, Orban has concluded, “want to defeat Russia, they want to achieve military success at any cost.” The cost will be life on the planet. Why is Ukraine’s NATO membership more important than the massive loss of life and perhaps the livability of life on the planet? https://tass.com/world/1796133

It is extraordinary that the Western world will do nothing to stop Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians, but is prepared to destroy life on earth for the artificial borders of an artificial country called Ukraine, which is known historically as “the Ukraine,” that is, as a province of a larger country.

Orban tells the truth. He says “NATO is a strong defensive alliance created to protect its member states, not to intervene in another war.” Orban says he will do what he can to prevent Hungary from being drawn into the maelstrom. “This is not our war, and Hungarians should not suffer because of it.”

But Hungary along with any survivors and Mother Earth herself and all her creatures and plant life will suffer from the massive fires, radioactivity, perhaps a nuclear winter, total disruption of all global supply chains, and so forth. The countries that survive, if any, will be those well removed from the blast zones, wind patterns loaded with radioactivity, and self sufficient in food production. All economies dependent on global relationships will be destroyed.

The world as it is organized today cannot survive a major war. How will cities of millions of people be sustained when supply chains no longer exist? Without war Mexico City with its 20 millions is almost empty of water.

I can continue asking this kind of questions, to which there are no answers.

But it is pointless.

The problem is that except for Orban and Putin, every Western political leader is committed to war for no justifiable reason.

There is no reason for the pending war. Ukraine can exist as a neutral state. Washington can pull back its presence on Russia’s borders.

The American neoconservatives’ nonsensical demand for US hegemony can be abandoned. Whatever the consequences of accepting reality, they are better than nuclear war.

Why is it that no one in the Western world understands the threat to life?
What is the explanation for Biden now approaching the end of his fourth year in office HAVING NEVER MET WITH PUTIN IN AN EFFORT TO RESOLVE THE MOST DANGEROUS CRISIS IN HUMAN HISTORY?

The dumbshits governing us do not comprehend that today’s thermonuclear weapons can be a thousand times more powerful as the atomic bombs the US dropped on two Japanese civilian cities. The weapons today do not merely obliterate large cities, they obliterate large regions.

Steven Starr and other experts have expressed their concerns that a nuclear war could fill the atmosphere with dust and debris that would block the sun for years until it settled. In those years there may be a limited or non-existent growing season. Therefore, all life can be the casualty.

From a presentation by Dr. Theodore Postal, Massachusetts Institute of Technology:

The Russian nuclear Early Warning System (EWS) at Amir was damaged by an attack. The decision to attack the Russian EWS was made in Washington. The drones were guided to their targets using US aerial and satellite reconnaissance (they have to take multiple evasive actions in the course of their flights to evade Russian radar systems, and this can only be supplied via real-time targeting information provided by the US). The operators of the drones were likely mercenaries trained in the US or out-of-uniform US troops. Russia knows this and so it considers this a US attack on its nuclear Early Warning System.

The attack was reckless beyond comprehension. ANY such attacks against the EWS system used to protect Russia from a nuclear attack can justify, under Russian law, a nuclear retaliatory strike. 

The US/NATO/Ukraine previously conducted multiple drone attacks on the Russian airbase at Engels, which is where Russia keeps its long-range strategic nuclear bombers. It appeared that at least in one of these attacks, a strategic nuclear bomber was damaged. Engels airbase is hundreds of miles inside of Russia and the drones could not have made it to the base without real-time targeting information supplied by US aerial and satellite reconnaissance.

Russian military planners must consider these attacks as a possible prelude to a nuclear first strike against Russia by the United States.

The US and NATO are also preparing to send F-16s to Ukraine. Russia has announced that they will consider these to be nuclear-capable weapon systems and treat them accordingly, including striking whatever bases these weapons are launched from — inside or outside of Ukraine (meaning in Poland and Romania).

Biden today authorized attacks inside Russia using US long-range weapons. France and Germany then followed the US, giving their approval to the use of Western-supplied weapons to attack targets inside Russia.  

The situation in Ukraine is escalating to the point of being out of control. Yet Western mass media ignores these events and the general public remains blissfully unaware that their leaders continue to escalate the war in Ukraine to the point where it can become a nuclear war that will destroy all nations and peoples.

Gilbert Doctorow explains that Russia’s “dead hand” launch system cannot be deterred by a first strike

Gilbert Doctorow reminds us that the Russians have a “dead hand” launch system. Even if every Russian command and control center is wiped out in a first strike against Russia, sufficient missiles launch to wipe out the US and Western Europe. In other words, there is no advantage in a US first strike on Russia. https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2024/06/01/first-strike-capable-why-russia-is-indifferent-to-damage-to-one-or-another-ground-based-radar-installation/

Doctorow also reminds us that it only takes one fully loaded hypersonic non-interceptible Sarmat multiple warhead missile to level a country the size of the UK to the ground, and only several to erase the US from the map. It goes far beyond insanity for Europe and the US to cultivate their own suicide. The media keep all information from the public, which is unaware that its continued existence is in question.

Here is Scott Ritter on the likely consequences of attacks inside Russia:

Scott Ritter reminds us that the weapons used to strike inside Russia have to be programmed by the US/NATO countries that supply them. Ukraine is ancillary to the process. Russia understands this and has stated that Russia will attack the countries responsible.

Here is a summary of the Scott Ritter video provided by an expert who shares my concern that Washington is driving the world into nuclear war:

“Scott Ritter explains that any further attacks on Russian strategic sites or attacks on Russian territory using missiles or cruise missiles will result in Russia hitting back against all the NATO targets — inside and outside Ukraine — responsible for such attacks.

“Ritter says that such attacks would result in the NATO nations struck by Russian retaliatory strikes invoking Article V of the NATO Charter, claiming they had been attacked by Russia.  Ritter says that if NATO member states take this action and unite in war against Russia, then Russia will launch a massive nuclear strike against all these nations.  I hope he is wrong.

“Given that the US, the UK, France, and Germany have all signed off on using long-range weapons against Russia, albeit in a ‘limited’ area of Russia, I think we are close to the scenario that Ritter suggests because the ‘limited’ area of Russia subject to attack will expand. A situation will arise where Putin is forced to hit back in a way that is decisive. The West will deny that the Russian strike is in retaliation for their own thinly disguised attacks on Russia — they will call the Russian strikes “unprovoked aggression” and an act of war.

“The US and NATO have been hiding behind the lie that it is Ukraine fighting Russia — not the West fighting Russia. When US, UK, French, and German weapons arrive in Ukraine, they become “Ukrainian weapons”, and thus Ukraine, not the West, is made responsible for whatever is done with them, whatever targets they hit.

“Russia no longer will accept the lie that only Ukraine, not the West, is at war with Russia. Even Putin has publicly stated that the high-tech, long-range weapons are US and NATO weapons, programmed, operated, guided, and launched by US/NATO troops. The targets are decided on by the US, not by Ukraine. The weapons have to use real-time guidance from US aerial and satellite reconnaissance, hence, Russia will destroy the satellites, drones, and AWACs providing the targeting information. All the components of the attacks on Russia will be targeted.

“Russia is not bluffing. Russia will not back down.”

It is extraordinary that the entire political leadership of the Western world is pushing the world into nuclear war. Why does the West seek its own destruction? What is to be gained?

During the 20th century Cold War in which I was intimately involved both as a trustee of the Committee on the Present Danger and as a member of a secret Presidential Committee with authority to investigate the CIA’s opposition to President Reagan’s effort to end the Cold War and normalize relations with the Soviet Union, I can say with confidence that even hard line anti-communists sought to reduce tensions instead of provoking war.

What I have witnessed in the 21st century is the most egregious cultivation of war by the US government in human history, and no one in the print or TV media tells us the consequences.

Lili News 029

• In cynicism and power, the US propaganda machine easily surpasses Orwells Ministry of Truth.
• Now the fight against anti-semitism is being weaponised as a new sanctimonious McCarthyism.
• Unless opposed, neither justice nor our Constitutional right to Free Speech will survive this assault.

Things to keep in mind...

Neo-Nazi ideology has become one of the main protagonists of political and social life in Ukraine since the 2014 coup d'état. Meanwhile, fascist ideology and blatant lies also permeate the consciousness of most people in the West. Those in the comfortable top 10%, the "PMCs" (Professional Managerial Class), are especially vulnerable. They support and disseminate such ideas. They are the executors of the actual ruling class' orders, those in the 0.001%, who remain largely invisible. The PMCs are the political class, the media whores, the top military brass, some people in academia, and the "national security/foreign policy" industry honchos. Push back against these unethical, contaminated people with the truth while you can.

AND...where the US Government is at: LYING 24/7

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Ron Unz
THE UNZ REVIEW

Should Vladimir Putin Call His Shot on a NATO Brushback Pitch? • 24m 

Whether or not it actually happened, the story of Babe Ruth’s famous “called shot” in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series has become one of the great legends of baseball’s Golden Age.

The Chicago Cubs fans in Wrigley Field had been relentlessly hectoring the renowned Yankee slugger and the cat-calls and insults intensified as he came to bat in the fifth inning with the score tied 4-4, especially after he took a first strike. At that point, the Bambino raised his hand, pointed to the bleachers, then hit the next pitch as a towering home run to deep center field, the same spot he had just indicated. Or at least so goes the legend. Details aside, that homer helped the Yankees win the game, eventually leading to their 4-0 sweep of the entire series, and Ruth later included the tale as a centerpiece of his 1948 autobiography.

Calling your shot before you take it seems a very effective means of intimidating your opponents by demonstrating your effortless superiority. So perhaps Russian President Vladimir Putin should consider doing something similar in his current confrontation with NATO over the Ukraine war.

As everyone knows, the Western mainstream media has spent more than two years demonizing Russia and its president following the February 2022 outbreak of the Ukraine war, with Putin having become the most reviled world leader since Adolf Hitler more than three generations ago. And although Russia’s military attack only came after many years of the most extreme military and political provocations by America and its NATO allies, our astonishingly dishonest media outlets have uniformly plastered the word “unprovoked” on all their accounts of the conflict.

Prof. John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago ranks as one of our most distinguished political scientists and his 2016 lecture on those Western provocations and the major risks of a future war has now been viewed some 29 million times on YouTube, quite possibly more than any other academic lecture in the history of the Internet.

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University spent decades as an important economic advisor to Russia, Ukraine, and other countries in the region, making him a direct eyewitness to many of the important developments responsible for the conflict. He recently provided his first-hand account in a two-and-a-half hour interview with Tucker Carlson. The Tweet containing that interview has already been viewed more than 6 million times and I would highly recommend watching the entire segment, either on that platform or on YouTube:

Despite their enormous scholarly credentials and their deep knowledge of the issues, both these leading academics have been almost completely banned from our rabidly anti-Russian mainstream media outlets. In past generations they would have quickly disappeared from the public discussion, preventing any concerned citizens here or elsewhere from getting both sides of the story. But fortunately, the growth of the Internet and its video platforms have now begun to partially level the skewed playing field, reducing the power of the media gatekeepers to prevent the dissemination of important information.

As an example, over the last year or two both these individuals have become regular weekly interview guests on the popular podcast channel of Judge Andrew Napolitano, reaching an audience easily comparable to that of various cable news shows on network television. They have been joined by numerous other experts and analysts, equally blacklisted by mainstream outlets. These latter individuals include Ray McGovern, who spent 27 years as a leading CIA analyst, rising to become head of the Soviet policy group and serving as the morning intelligence briefer for a half-dozen American presidents.  Col. Douglas Macgregor has been an influential military analyst and an advisor to our Secretary of Defense, while Col. Larry Wilkinson was the long-time chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell.  Dr. Philip Giraldi, Larry Johnson, and Scott Ritter are experienced former CIA officers and military experts, Alastair Crooke is a former British diplomat and senior MI6 officer, while Max Blumenthal and Aaron Maté are young Jewish progressives who have published award-winning journalism on the Middle East conflict. Despite having such a wide variety of different backgrounds and ideological orientations, all these individuals generally find themselves in strong agreement on the extremely dangerous nature of the current NATO confrontation with Russia over Ukraine.

During the last week or two, their concerns reached new heights as Ukrainian drones attacked and damaged several of Russia’s early warning radar installations intended to detect incoming nuclear missiles. These attacks may have seriously degraded Moscow’s ability to spot an American first-strike, possibly lowering that country’s own threshold for triggering a nuclear response, an exceptionally dangerous and destabilizing situation. A recent Mike Whitney column discussed these important developments:

• Washington Attacks Key Element of Russia’s Nuclear Umbrella Threatening Entire Global Nuclear Security Architecture
  
  Mike Whitney • The Unz Review • May 26, 2024 • 1,100 Words

Prof. Sachs is an extremely level-headed academic, who has spent his long career working closely with top political figures in America and across the rest of the world. But in his Thursday interview, he sounded the alarm, declaring the unprecedented danger from this attempt to blind Russia to a potential nuclear first strike. He felt these were acts of madness by Western governments that had raised the threat of nuclear war to the highest level since the end of World War II, but our ignorant and oblivious leaders seemed entirely unaware of the perilous nature of this situation.

Then late last week, Politico reported that President Joseph Biden had secretly agreed to allow the missiles we were providing Ukraine to be used in deep strikes against Russian territory, multiplying these dangers. It also appears likely that any actual Ukrainian involvement in use of these advanced missile systems is relatively minimal, with their control and targeting remaining in the hands of American or other NATO personnel. Another Mike Whitney column a couple of days ago usefully summarized these crucial facts:

1. The long-range precision weapons (missiles) are provided by NATO countries

2. The long-range precision weapons are manned by experts or contractors from the country of origin

3. The long-range precision weapons must be linked to space reconnaissance data provide by the US or NATO

4. The targets in Russia are also provided by space reconnaissance data provide by the US or NATO

The point that Putin is trying to make is that the long-range missiles are made by NATO, furnished by NATO, operated and launched by NATO contractors, whose targets are selected by NATO experts using space reconnaissance data provided by NATO. In every respect, the prospective firing of long-range precision weapons at targets in Russia, is a NATO-US operation. Thus, there should be no confusion about who is responsible. NATO is responsible which means that NATO is effectively declaring war on Russia. Putin’s lengthy comments merely underscore this critical point.

Thus, NATO is on the verge of firing a barrage of advanced missiles deep into Russian territory, an obvious act of war against a country possessing an arsenal of some six thousand strategic nuclear warheads, a decision of extraordinary recklessness. The leaders of some NATO members have even explicitly declared that they believe that Russia must be destroyed, exceptionally provocative public statements.

Unlike his Western counterparts, President Putin certainly recognizes the extreme gravity of this situation and Whitney quoted the threatening remarks he made at a press conference in Tashkent:

So, these officials from NATO countries, especially the ones based in Europe, particularly in small European countries, should be fully aware of what is at stake. They should keep in mind that theirs are small and densely populated countries, which is a factor to reckon with before they start talking about striking deep into the Russian territory. It is a serious matter and, without a doubt, we are watching this very carefully.

The Russians have also expressed considerable alarm that Ukrainian forces may soon be bolstered by the addition of Western F-16s. Those aircraft are nuclear-weapons capable, and the Russians have indicated that they may be forced to assume that they are so armed.

Version 1.0.0

Thus, both America and its NATO vassals seem to be sleepwalking into a potential Third World War fought with strategic nuclear weapons. This recalls the extreme hubris of their European political predecessors more than a century ago who led their continent into the First World War.

The main focus of Whitney’s most recent column was to argue that President Putin needed to take some sufficiently strong public steps to awaken the Western leaders from their slumber and force them to recognize the terrible dangers that they and the rest of the world faced, perhaps causing them to abandon their extremely dangerous and reckless behavior. Put in baseball terms, he believed that Russia needed to throw t he sort of “brushback pitch” intended to intimidate a batter.

•  (see below) To Avoid Nuclear War, Putin Needs to be a Little Crazier
  
  Mike Whitney • The Unz Review • May 31, 2024 • 1,900 Words

This suggestion seems a very reasonable one. So the issue now becomes what sort of Russian action would be most advisable.

NATO troops may soon be firing NATO missiles guided by NATO reconnaissance data against military targets deep within Russia so there remains only the thinnest of Ukrainian fig-leafs to camouflage what is actually taking place. Hence the Russians should take forceful steps to convince NATO that such actions are totally unacceptable and must be stopped. However, any such Russian military response should be carefully calibrated to thread the needle, neither being so mild that it fails to bring American and NATO leaders to their senses nor so severe that it risks triggering a direct, full-scale war with NATO, with such a war probably being the intended goal of those provocations.

If such deep strikes into Russia take place, the Russians could target the firing locations in Ukraine with retaliatory missile attacks, perhaps killing some of the NATO servicemen responsible, professionals who had been “sheep dipped” and deployed there under the guise of being independent contractors or trainers. However, Russia has already done this in the past, and there are credible claims that substantial numbers of such NATO personnel have already died in Ukraine with no evidence that such losses had deterred escalating NATO provocations. The same problem applies if Russia merely intensified its bombardment of Ukrainian command and control facilities or critical infrastructure. Both America and NATO political leaders seem to have ignored such Russian responses in the past and would probably continue to do so.

Recognizing this problem, the Russians have begun raising the temperature. A couple of weeks ago, Russia publicized an important training drill for their potential use of tactical nuclear weapons and this produced a great deal of coverage in the global media. But it seemed to have had little impact upon Western leaders, who are probably very skeptical that the Russians would actually break the seven-decade-long nuclear taboo by resorting to first use of such destructive weapons. So any Russian use seems unlikely and if it did occur, there might be a serious risk of nuclear escalation. Therefore, I think that any Russian threats or actual use of battlefield nuclear weapons would be very ill-advised.

But I think that an even stronger reason for the Russians to avoid focusing on their nuclear arsenal is that their superiority is actually considerably greater on the conventional level. Over the last few years, the Russians have deployed a full suite of powerful hypersonic missiles, an important weapons system that the Americans have so far been unable to match. From everything I’ve read, these hypersonic delivery systems are almost unstoppable by any existing American or NATO defenses, which currently gives the Russians escalation-dominance on the conventional level. So the question is how the Russians can best exploit this existing advantage and force NATO to back down without risking a wider war.

During the last two years, anti-shipping missiles fired from Ukraine but presumably supplied and guided by NATO forces have inflicted very serious losses upon Russia’s Black Sea fleet, sinking or severely damaging a number of its major vessels. But turnabout is fair play and America’s geopolitical and military power is far more heavily dependent upon its own naval forces. Most analysts believe that our carrier fleet would be sitting ducks for Russian missiles, especially hypersonic ones. The loss of one or more of our carriers would have devastating impact upon American military credibility, and if taken seriously, Russian threats along such lines might force American leaders to change their Ukraine policy. But the arrogant Americans may stubbornly believe that their anti-missile defenses are capable of handling such a threat, while any successful attack against an American carrier battle-group might easily kill many thousands of Americans, leading to all-out war. So this should remain a last option.

The Russians have given strong hints that if their own bases deep inside Russia are attacked by NATO missiles, they might very well retaliate against NATO military installations in countries such as Poland. But any such attacks, especially if they involved heavy casualties, might once again trigger a full-scale NATO war with Russia under Article Five of the NATO Charter. Indeed, this is probably the exact goal of many Ukrainian and NATO leaders who have realized that the current war is lost but believe they can still achieve success by broadening it into a much wider conflict. So by taking such action, Russia might be falling into a NATO trap.

Since most of these other options seem so unsatisfactory, I think the best solution to this dilemma is for the Russians to take a page from the playbook of their Iranian allies.

A few weeks ago, the Israelis violated international law by launching an unprecedented bombing attack against an Iranian embassy building in Damascus, killing several top Iranian generals. This was merely the latest in a long series of such Israeli assassinations obviously intended to provoke the sort of heavy Iranian military response that could be used to draw in America, leading to a wider regional war and perhaps resulting in Iran’s destruction.

However, the Iranians shrewdly refused to take the bait and instead retaliated by bombarding very heavily-defended Israeli military bases with a huge salvo of some 300 drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles, but first providing several days of advance warning. Although the resulting full mobilization of American, British, and Israeli air defenses destroyed the overwhelming majority of the attacking units, quite a number still got through and inflicted serious damage on the installations, but without killing a single Israeli serviceman.

This Iranian attack had been skewed towards their older systems and only represented one or two percent of the country’s enormous arsenal. Therefore, it proved that even under the best of circumstances, Israel was entirely vulnerable to Iranian military retaliation. This demonstrated that Iran had achieved conventional escalation-dominance and military superiority over Israel, so the latter responded with only the most feeble and face-saving pinprick retaliation. Alastair Crooke described the enormous impact these developments had upon the Middle East strategic landscape:

Now suppose that NATO missiles based in Ukraine struck deep within Russia against important military targets, perhaps inflicting considerable casualties or loss of important equipment. The Russian government could publicly declare that since those missiles had been supplied, aimed, and controlled by NATO personnel, NATO had obviously become a co-belligerent and they would directly retaliate against that organization.

They could then announce that such retaliation would take the form of a hypersonic missile strike destroying the NATO headquarters building in Brussels, Belgium, with the attack scheduled for 12 Noon in two days’ time. That sort of advance warning would attract enormous international media coverage while allowing NATO plenty of time to fully evacuate that building and those nearby and also deploy a large number of its best anti-missile systems to defend the facility. Therefore, assuming that the multi-missile strike still succeeded in totally leveling the NATO HQ, the result would be few if any human casualties and a simultaneous demonstration that Russian hypersonics were unstoppable by any NATO defenses.

NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium

The Russians could then announce that their next retaliatory strikes would sink several of our aircraft carriers, a warning that American military leaders would now be forced to take very seriously.

Under such circumstances, both the political leaders and electorates of the West might draw some important conclusions from that very high-profile military demonstration. If despite such considerable advance warning, NATO still proved completely unable to defend its own headquarters from total destruction in a Russian attack, the perceived value of that military alliance would crumble, perhaps causing it to dissolve, as should have happened after the end of the Cold War more than thirty years ago.

It would also be difficult for Western media outlets to continue demonizing a Russian government that had gone to such great lengths to minimize any human casualties, while the extreme effectiveness of Russian hypersonics would have been proven by the wreckage and craters suddenly appearing in the heart of Brussels. Taken together, this would constitute a velvet glove on an iron fist.

Many Americans might ask themselves why they were annually spending a trillion dollars on their military if our defense contractors were unable to produce hypersonic weapons or to successfully defend against those produced by the Russians.

And American political and military leaders would probably recognize that if despite such advance warning they were unable to defend their own NATO headquarters from destruction, our aircraft carriers would have little hope of surviving a Russian attack. Our country’s global power-projection relies very heavily upon these carriers, whose military credibility supports our inflated US dollar. If several of those carriers were easily sunk, that credibility would be lost, probably causing a collapse in the dollar. Our ruling political regime might collapse along with it, much like the Japanese victory in 1905 had triggered a revolution in Czarist Russia.

More than three decades ago, the mighty Soviet Union crumbled and dissolved with almost no bloodshed. Under the right circumstances, I think that the Russian destruction of the NATO headquarters building might lead to an equally bloodless and long overdue dissolution of that military alliance.

Finally, on a somewhat different matter, tomorrow marks the 35th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, in which hundreds or even thousands of peaceful pro-democracy student protests were supposedly slaughtered by Chinese troops, a watershed event in China’s relations with the West. Last month I published an article pointing that the alleged massacre had almost certainly never happened and was merely a hoax long maintained by the Western media:

• American Pravda: Gaza Protests and the Legend of the Tiananmen Square Massacre
  
  Ron Unz •  The Unz Review • May 13, 2024 • 8,700 Words

Given our sharp current conflict with China, it will be interesting to see how the media covers that story. Several days ago, the Wall Street Journal already began running articles in commemoration, with their content and tone indicated by this lead sentence in one of them:

On its 35th anniversary, the 1989 massacre of unarmed protestors in Tiananmen Square remains such a source of embarrassment to the Chinese government that public acknowledgement of the event still faces automatic censorship.

I wonder how long our media will continue to maintain this historical fraud.

Related Reading:

• Washington Attacks Key Element of Russia’s Nuclear Umbrella Threatening Entire Global Nuclear Security Architecture by Mike Whitney
• To Avoid Nuclear War, Putin Needs to be a Little Crazier by Mike Whitney
• Presidents Who Gamble with Nuclear Armageddon by Jeffrey Sachs
• American Pravda: Putin as Hitler?
• NATO’s Losing Proxy War in Ukraine
• American Pravda: Gaza Protests and the Legend of the Tiananmen Square Massacre

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To Avoid Nuclear War, Putin Needs to be a Little Crazier

MIKE WHITNEY • MAY 31, 2024 /  THE UNZ REVIEW

---

Lili News 029

• In cynicism and power, the US propaganda machine easily surpasses Orwells Ministry of Truth.
• Now the fight against anti-semitism is being weaponised as a new sanctimonious McCarthyism.
• Unless opposed, neither justice nor our Constitutional right to Free Speech will survive this assault.

Things to keep in mind...

Neo-Nazi ideology has become one of the main protagonists of political and social life in Ukraine since the 2014 coup d'état. Meanwhile, fascist ideology and blatant lies also permeate the consciousness of most people in the West. Those in the comfortable top 10%, the "PMCs" (Professional Managerial Class), are especially vulnerable. They support and disseminate such ideas. They are the executors of the actual ruling class' orders, those in the 0.001%, who remain largely invisible. The PMCs are the political class, the media whores, the top military brass, some people in academia, and the "national security/foreign policy" industry honchos. Push back against these unethical, contaminated people with the truth while you can.

AND...where the US Government is at: LYING 24/7

window.addEventListener("sfsi_functions_loaded", function() { if (typeof sfsi_widget_set == "function") { sfsi_widget_set(); } });

By Pepe Escobar, Sputnik International.

Above photo: Sputnik / Stanislav Krasilnikov.

---

The warning by President Putin could not be starker: “In the event of the use of long-range weapons, the Russian Armed Forces will again have to make decisions about expanding the sanitary zone further (…) Do they want global conflict? It seemed they wanted to negotiate [with us], but we don’t see much desire to do this.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov then came up with the appropriate metaphor to designate NATO’s ramped-up military outbursts: not only NATO is raising the degree of escalation but delving into a warlike “ecstasy”.

It does not get more serious than that. “They”, as Putin alluded to, do seem to want “global conflict”. That’s at the heart of NATO’s new suicidal “ecstasy” strategy.

For all their circumlocutions, NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have effectively greenlighted Kiev using Western weapons for attacks deep inside the Russian Federation. The alleged debate, still ongoing, is just a “smokescreen” for the real objective: a pretext that could lead to WWIII.

NATO dragging EU into WWIII, it is no longer defensive alliance - French politician

NATO is dragging the European Union into World War III with statements about strikes on Russian territory and is no longer a "defensive alliance," Florian Philippot, the leader of French… pic.twitter.com/0UGYMpPV0P

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) May 28, 2024

There’s no reason to think Kiev will stick to “limited” strikes against relatively unimportant targets. Instead, it is likely to target critical security infrastructure in hopes of provoking an unrelenting Russian response, which in turn would pave the way for NATO to invoke Article 5 and de facto engage in a Hot War.

Already On The Edge Of Doom

The escalation “ecstasy” defined by Peskov went out of control since a – secret – new batch of ATACMS was dispatched to Kiev earlier this year, complemented with longer-range ATACMS. Kiev has been using them for serious hits on Russian air bases and key air defense nodes. These ATACMS fire missiles at Mach 3 speed: a serious challenge even for the best Russian air defense systems.

All that seems to point to a crucial decision enveloped in several layers of fog: as the incoming, cosmic NATO humiliation in the black soil of Novorossiya becomes self-evident day after day, the Western elites who really run the show are betting on provoking a full Hot War against Russia.

Richard H. Black, a former US senator from Virginia, offers a sobering analysis:

“This is a continuation of the pattern in which the NATO forces recognize they are losing the war in Ukraine, with the fragile lines of defense breaking, and the NATO response is to escalate. This is not accidental, but very deliberate. It is not the first attack on the Russian nuclear triad. The ideological folks are seeing their world crumbling, after flying the rainbow flag over conservative countries and [waging] perpetual wars. They are frantic and could escalate to nuclear war to get out of the bind. They are taking a series of baby steps, and respond that ‘they don’t do anything in response,’ and so they keep taking baby steps until one of them lands on a land mine and we are into World War III. (…) Putin is very aware of the disconnect in the West, who keep saying he is just saber rattling, but he is not—he is informing the West of the dangerous reality.”

In Russia, Senator Dmitry Rogozin, a former head of Roscosmos, directly warned Washington: “We are not just on the threshold, but already on the edge, beyond which, if the enemy is not stopped in such actions, an irreversible collapse of the strategic security of the nuclear powers will begin.”

General Evgeny Buzhinky advanced an ominous scenario: “I am sure that if the strikes of Taurus of ATACMS are very harmful for Russia, then I presume we will at least strike the logistical hub in the territory of Poland in Rzeszów” where the missiles are staged for delivery to Ukraine.

Be Careful What You Wish For

NATO warlike “ecstasy” is predictably cloaked in cowardice. For all the rhetorical garbage 24/7 about “we don’t want a war with Russia”, the facts point to NATO using Kiev to attack and try to destroy a wide range of Russian military assets. There’s also no denying the US Deep State’s role in enabling Kiev’s terror attacks against Russian civilians in the Donbass, Belgorod, and elsewhere.

Considering the serious debate finally on across several Russian platforms, all of that might constitute a reasonable pretext for a tactical nuclear drop on the – legally illegitimate – Kiev gang. At least that would finish a war that is dragging for too long.

US has not encouraged Ukrainian strikes outside of Ukraine, but Kiev has to make it's own decisions about how to defend itself, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has claimed

Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg proposed that Western countries must allow the use…

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) May 29, 2024

 

Yet that would be totally out of character when it comes to legalistic Putin – who deals with Armageddon-laden issues with the patience of a Taoist monk. Yet Russia has an entire arsenal of asymmetric tools – both conventional and nuclear — that can deliver a painful blow to NATO in places where the alliance least expects.

We’re not there yet – even as we get ominously closer day after day. Dmitri Medvedev has issued the umpteenth red line: a US strike on Russian targets, or the US letting Kiev hit targets within Russia using American missiles and drones would be the ‘start of World War’.

And Foreign Minister Lavrov, once again displaying his trademark Taoist patience, had to come up with another serious reminder: Russia will regard the deployment of nuclear-capable F-16s in Ukraine – which de facto can only be operated by NATO pilots – as “a deliberate signal from NATO in the nuclear field to Russia”.

And still the gaggle of armchair Dr. Strangeloves – lavishly rewarded by the rarified  Atlanticist plutocracy holding real power, funds, influence and mass media control – is not listening.

Senior German lawmaker demands activation of 900,000 reservists amid anti-Russia hysteria

Germany needs to “activate [its] approximately 900,000 reservists,” first by making them register with the state, Bundestag Defense Committee Chairwoman Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann has… pic.twitter.com/mIMntHv0By

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) June 1, 2024

 

A peace march against Hungarian involvement in the Ukraine conflict and NATO's launch of a new war in Europe is taking place in Budapest.

Tens of thousands of people are participating in the event. Organizers note that the march has attracted Hungarians not only from the… pic.twitter.com/0e9TiATuCW

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) June 1, 2024

ABOVE: A rarity in Europe (or the US) these days, a PEACE march. Let's hope the idea spreads, and quick, considering the current situation. 

Lili News 029

• In cynicism and power, the US propaganda machine easily surpasses Orwells Ministry of Truth.
• Now the fight against anti-semitism is being weaponised as a new sanctimonious McCarthyism.
• Unless opposed, neither justice nor our Constitutional right to Free Speech will survive this assault.

Things to keep in mind...

Neo-Nazi ideology has become one of the main protagonists of political and social life in Ukraine since the 2014 coup d'état. Meanwhile, fascist ideology and blatant lies also permeate the consciousness of most people in the West. Those in the comfortable top 10%, the "PMCs" (Professional Managerial Class), are especially vulnerable. They support and disseminate such ideas. They are the executors of the actual ruling class' orders, those in the 0.001%, who remain largely invisible. The PMCs are the political class, the media whores, the top military brass, some people in academia, and the "national security/foreign policy" industry honchos. Push back against these unethical, contaminated people with the truth while you can.

AND...where the US Government is at: LYING 24/7

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The Jimmy Dore Show

The Jimmy Dore Show
May 31, 2024 #TheJimmyDoreShow
JIMMY DORE and his guests expose the Democrat-endorsed "wokeness" movement as a corporate plot to keep Americans divided. "Wokeness" is the ruling class' trick to distract Americans from their serious economic and political troubles and the badly needed unity they need to advance their class struggle.

Lili News 029

• In cynicism and power, the US propaganda machine easily surpasses Orwells Ministry of Truth.
• Now the fight against anti-semitism is being weaponised as a new sanctimonious McCarthyism.
• Unless opposed, neither justice nor our Constitutional right to Free Speech will survive this assault.

Things to keep in mind...

Neo-Nazi ideology has become one of the main protagonists of political and social life in Ukraine since the 2014 coup d'état. Meanwhile, fascist ideology and blatant lies also permeate the consciousness of most people in the West. Those in the comfortable top 10%, the "PMCs" (Professional Managerial Class), are especially vulnerable. They support and disseminate such ideas. They are the executors of the actual ruling class' orders, those in the 0.001%, who remain largely invisible. The PMCs are the political class, the media whores, the top military brass, some people in academia, and the "national security/foreign policy" industry honchos. Push back against these unethical, contaminated people with the truth while you can.

AND...where the US Government is at: LYING 24/7

window.addEventListener("sfsi_functions_loaded", function() { if (typeof sfsi_widget_set == "function") { sfsi_widget_set(); } });