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28 October 2017

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Imagine

Thank you very much for this; it is much needed.

Anna

Excellent says. Thank you!
"The Twentieth Century was the "American Century" thanks to limitless manufacturing capacity allied to great inventiveness anchored on a stable political base." -- These three should be made into a ground rock of the US internal/foreign policies, not the Kagans-CIA adventurous spirit of war profiteering.

"Malice has become stupidity: the neocons, Brzezinskis, the Russia haters, the Exceptionalists, scheming "to promote American global leadership", have weakened the USA. Perhaps irreparably." -- True. They are the traitors and destroyers of the formerly great country.

Richardstevenhack

While he's right on almost every point, all I can say is: Good luck with that.

The trend of history is not reversed by bloggers. I simply don't see a "huge audience of the awakening." There may be a huge audience of discontented people, but they're unlikely to 1) fully understand what's going on, and 2) be able to organize enough to do anything about it. History may show such situations occurring, but the US is a big, diversified country and it moves like an iceberg and is unlikely to be diverted from its course (short of melting economically or militarily.)

I'd start looking for a retreat in an area unlikely to be hit by nukes. Even better, move to a country that isn't likely to be hit and where the population doesn't already despise Americans (or certainly will if we start WWIII) - if such a country exists.

turcopolier

PA

Well done. Thank you. The post Cold War expansion of NATO was madness driven by the "conditioning" of the Cold War decades. I railed against it then and was met with stony stares everywhere in the government. The influence of the Russia Haters like Zbig has been pervasive for a long time. In addition to that I would say that the US no longer has a foreign policy in the ME. Israel has a policy which reflects their cartoonish view of the supposedly universally hostile Gentile world. The US is engaged in attempting to execute that policy. If people think that is not true, they should consider the zombie utterances of Nikki Haley in Kinshasha and Tillerson in Geneva. pl

Patrick Armstrong

"move to a country that isn't likely to be hit"
I don't know if these are apocryphal stories but I heard somewhere that a couple in the 1930s had picked Iwo Jima as a safe place to wait out the coming trouble. And then there was a couple who moved to the Falkland Islands in the 1960s or 1970s.

As for change in the USA, who knows? Obama was elected by people who wanted change and so was Trump. The desire is out there, at any event.

Patrick Armstrong

I would just add Saudi Arabia to that. When I was reading up on jihadism it became clear how much SA had infiltrated academia and think tanks, to say nothing of mosques in the USA. IMO Jerusalem and Riyadh are united on one big issue and that is that Iran is the Big Enemy.

SmoothieX12

The trend of history is not reversed by bloggers. I simply don't see a "huge audience of the awakening."

Check out current POTUS and recall on what program he gained votes in November 2016. The proof is in the pudding, so to speak.

turcopolier

PA

Agreed. pl

johnf

I also think that you only have to have followed Social Media during the Trump/Clinton election campaign and followed Twitter memes like draftourdaughters - posted and followed by millions of ordinary Americans - and showing great wit and irony and genuine feeling and contempt for Clinton's virulent anti-Russian campaign, to realize that there are huge numbers of ordinary Americans who are thinking for themselves and not swallowing the warmongers propaganda.

Bill Herschel

For me the turning point was realizing that The New York Times (and the Manchester Guardian) is at the very heart of the rabid anti-Russian propaganda. As I said to SWMBO, find a pro-Russian article in the New York Times in the past three years. And when I say pro-Russian, I include neutral, anything at all that isn't a full bore attack. These are supposed to be intelligent, unbiased, analytical outlets. They aren't. (Of course, I realize the counter-argument is that there is nothing good to say about Russia. Or, more succinctly, why don't you move to Russia? My reply is that I don't want Russia as an enemy. Why would I and why would any man?)

I would pose the following question to PA. Given that just about every technique possible has been mounted against Russia to destroy its political system and society, would you be surprised if some of these techniques were used against the U.S. by Russia? If Trump makes Taylor the head of the Federal Reserve, he will have been the most disruptive, inflammatory, divisive political leader in the history of the U.S. I think it is a reasonable question to ask whether the U.S. can survive much more of Trump.

Now, I realize that there are a great many Trump supporters not only within the sound of my voice but also in the comments to this blog. And I also realize that hypothesizing that Trump's actions could be directed in any way by Russia places me in a tin foil hat. I realize that. But eliminate the impossible... What is more, how much influence would Russia have to have on Trump to get him to come along?

And I would also add the observation that German tanks swept the field at the start of WWII and Russian tanks annihilated them (and the Japanese) at the end.

Patrick Armstrong

1. I do not believe that there is any connection/influence between Russia and Trump. Period. That was a lie made up to excuse the DNC's swindle.
2. Russia wants a quiet life and has no interest in trying to bring down a foe as dangerous in its death throes as the USA would be.
3. That having been said, I believe Moscow and Beijing know that the US is going down and are hoping to manage the fall as best they can.
4. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if there were a note somewhere in the two akin to Kennan's Long Telegram arguing that the US is going down, it's a matter of time, be patient and try to contain it.
5. Trump is a symptom, not a cause.

FB Ali

Patrick, re Saudi infiltration. It is not only in the USA, their pernicious Wahhabi ideology, riding on the back of their huge petrodollar resources, has infiltrated the whole Muslim world. This is what has created the Jihadi monster that was born there, and now stalks the world.

Most Muslim populations adhered to a moderate form of Islam prior to this invasion. Now, these adherents have either been converted, or find it expedient to adopt extreme discretion to continue to live their lives. Anyone bold enough to still speak out against it runs the risk of being accused of blasphemy and killed.

The USA is complicit in this development, initially to use it against the Soviet Union, and later against other "enemies" such as Iran. Attempts to divert this Frankenstein monster towards other targets, as in Syria, will only delay the inevitable, when it turns upon its creators in SA and the UAE, as stooges of the Christian West, its ultimate enemy.

The foolish Saudi princeling, who now talks of revising the Wahhabi creed, doesn't realise that he is digging the grave of the House of Saud.

FB Ali

Patrick,

I agree fully with your conclusions.

As for the equivalent of the Kennan argument, I think it was clearly underlying the recent statements by Putin at the Valdai Club and by Xi at the party conference.

J

Patrick, Colonel,

There is much afoot in the Ukraine, this time sadly on the religious side of things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aou_v6TuXuE

Patrick Armstrong

Yes indeed. Without the Wahhab-Saud connection and implied blessing to give them legitimacy, the Saud family are just a bunch of bandits who seized Arabia.

Willybilly

Fully agree with your five points PA, and happy to tell you that in our neck of the woods we have been saying exactly that years ago...., especially points 2 to 4; and the point of “ managing the inevitable fall of the US.....

Ishmael Zechariah

PA,
Thank you for this excellent article. However, I think you are being too charitable by defining malice as just another species of stupidity. While the term "stupid" fits those deceived by the propaganda, wouldn't "evil" be a better descriptor of the malice displayed by zio-con and wahhabi high-priests?
Ishmael Zechariah

Pacifica Advocate

In Re~Wahabbism:

Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines offer alternatives to neuter that trend. These countries have maintained a good bit of independence from the Saudi/US sphere of thought, and in many cases it is because the Chinese populations, in those countries, are closely tied to the Muslim countries.

Notably, those Chinese people are neutral on the Taiwan-vs.-Mao question. I have met and learned from a good lot of them, who have come to Taiwan to learn. They are practical, and understand not only Taiwan's precarious status, but also the value in maintaining that status for as long as possible.

There are very few Chinese in SE Asia who think that Taiwan would be best served by a declaration of independence.

There are very few Muslims in SE Asia who are friends with those Chinese who are linked to Wahabbi groups.

Patrick Armstrong

Koros, Hybris, Ate and eventually Nemesis. You have to be a bit stupid the repeat that, don't you think?
Surely to be malicious and provoke trouble and take delight in others' troubles leads to your disaster and, altogether, is pretty stupid.
But I take your point. I used the words because of Hanlan's Razor.

Pacifica Advocate

>>>Check out current POTUS and recall on what program he gained votes in November 2016. The proof is in the pudding, so to speak.

Check out Google and Twitter censorship of major news outlets, as well as the massive censorship of blogs and alternative media--oh, wait: that would be media mercenaries complicit in peddling un-American narratives, right?

Either way, it's fucking censorship.

Babak Makkinejad

Fantasy.

kooshy

Mr. Ali very well said, as I am very sure you have already read, Crown prince MBS is trying to blame their adoration of ultra militant extremist Islam on Iranian revolution, in this suggestion, he wants his audience to believe hey chose this path to defend the Islam they practice against the islam or Majos Iranians that could affect the Sunni Islam. Therefore I believe they have thought what explanation can win both western audience as well as Muslim sunni audience. To one side it blames it to Iranian Revolution and to the other side he suggest they have defended the Sunni against Shia founding and promoting militant extremist Sunni Islam.

Imagine

Artificial Intelligence increases the efficiency of intellectual operations exponentially, without increasing their wisdom [unless explicitly designed in]. Good gets done faster, but stupid gets done faster and stronger too. Helping a poorly-designed system move faster only leads to it flailing itself apart like the Tacoma Narrows bridge.

Recent events include the breath-taking black-holing of freedom of press at the United Nations:
https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2017/03/31/israel-is-an-apartheid-state-even-if-the-un-report-has-been-withdrawn/
the equally breathtaking attempt to make it a 20-year-prison federal felony to criticize Israel in the United States:
https://theintercept.com/2017/07/19/u-s-lawmakers-seek-to-criminally-outlaw-support-for-boycott-campaign-against-israel/
and Israel Minority-Report jailing people for posting on Facebook:
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.792206
"if you get to their house a week before the attack the kid doesn’t know that he is a terrorist yet”.

The CIA now has over a thousand programmers. How do you see boosted efficiency of Deep State operations playing out in the real world in the coming years?

LeaNder

Surely to be malicious and provoke trouble and take delight in others' troubles leads to your disaster and, altogether, is pretty stupid.

unfortunately for us average citizen hubris doesn't quite work as excellently as it does in Greek tragedy?

My no doubt innocently ignorant experience is that as as long as you are well embedded in whatever system you can well survive its fall.

But yes in that context Iraq seemed to be something of a new age experience, whatever that new age may be.

Stumpy

PA, Colonel,

Excellent article.

There is nothing like travel and living abroad to broaden one's perspective. Little wonder that US citizens who have never ventured outside their home state, let alone country, simply fail to grasp the gravity of the world situation, particularly in countries where the expedient discretion, as FB Ali gently states, means survival. Where it takes little courage to make it through the day, the risk is falling into a state of passive complacency. Opiated, in a sense.

Having grown up in the Central American sector I can tell you, as a child in an expat household, our lives contained a geometrically larger array of moving parts compared to those who have never left the home country. While my childhood revolved around riding a bicycle in the boulevards and beautiful parks of the city, whatever peers I had have long since fled the violence, as I have, and those who remain might as well be in a warzone. Such a beautiful yet toxic beauty, Mexico.

So, if your question is, "where would I move to be safe when the proverbial s hits the f?", part of me thinks that living close to the most likely target for nukes to hit, in the first wave, is a practical solution, to be unaffected by the aftermath. Can't afford to move to Dubai, after all. In the meantime, you should see my banana peppers and parsley this year.

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