Tuesday, May 12, 2015

America's Achilles' Heel

Heiko Müller
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Last Saturday, a massive Victory Parade was held in Moscow commemorating the 70-year anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany to the Red Army and the erection of the Soviet flag atop the Reichstag in Berlin. There were a few unusual aspects to this parade, which I would like to point out, because they conflict with the western official propaganda narrative. First, it wasn't just Russian troops that marched in the parade: the troops of 10 other nations took part in it, including the Chinese honor guard and a contingent of Grenadiers from India. Dignitaries from these nations were present in the stands, and the Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife were seated next to President Vladimir Putin, who, in his speech at the start of the parade, warned against attempts to create a unipolar world—sharp words aimed squarely at the United States and its western allies. Second, a look at the military hardware that rolled through Red Square or flew over it would indicate that, short of an outright nuclear mutual self-annihilation, there isn't much that the US military could throw at Russia that Russia couldn't neutralize.



It would appear that American attempts to isolate Russia have resulted in the exact opposite: if 10 nations, among them the world's largest economy, comprising some 3 billion people, are willing to set aside their differences and stand shoulder to shoulder with the Russians to counter American attempts at global dominance, then clearly the American plan isn't going to work at all. Western media focused on the fact that western leaders declined to attend the celebration, either in a fit of pique or because so ordered by the Obama administration, but this only highlights their combined irrelevance, be it in defeating Hitler, or in commemorating his defeat 70 years later. Nevertheless, in his speech Putin specifically thanked the French, the British and the Americans for their contribution to the war effort. I am sorry that he left out the Belgians, who had been so helpful at Dunkirk.

One small detail about the parade is nevertheless stunning: Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, a Tuvan Buddhist and one of the most respected Russian leaders, who presided over the Emergencies Ministry prior to becoming the Defense Minister, did something none of his predecessors ever did: at the beginning of the ceremony, he made the sign of the cross, in the Russian Orthodox manner. This simple gesture transformed the parade from a display of military pomp to a sacred ritual. Then followed the slow march with two flags side by side: the Russian flag, and the Soviet flag that flew on top of the Reichstag in Berlin on Victory Day 70 years ago. The march was accompanied by a popular World War II song? Its title? “The Sacred War.” The message is clear: the Russian military, and the Russian people, have put themselves in God's hands, to do God's work, to once again sacrifice themselves to save the world from the ravages of an evil empire.



If you try to dismiss any of this as Russian state propaganda, then here is something else you should be aware of. Did you hear of the spontaneously organized procession in which, after the official parade, half a million people marched through Moscow with portraits of their relatives who died in World War II? The event was called “The Eternal Regiment” (Бессмертный полк). Similar processions took place in many cities throughout Russia, and the total number of participants is estimated at around 4 million. Western press either panned it or billed it as an attempt by Putin to whip up anti-western sentiment. Now that sort of “press coverage,” my fellow space travelers, is pure propaganda! No, it was an enthusiastic, spontaneous outpouring of genuine public sentiment. If you think about it just a tiny bit, nothing on this scale could be contrived artificially, and the thought that millions of people would prostitute their dead for propaganda purposes is, frankly, both cynical and insulting.



* * *

Instead of collapsing quietly, the US has decided to pick a fight with Russia. It appears to have already lost the fight, but a question remains: How many more countries will the US manage to destroy before the reality of its inevitable defeat and disintegration finally catches up with it?

As Putin said last summer when speaking at the Seliger youth forum, “I get the feeling that no matter what the Americans touch, they end up with Libya or Iraq.” Indeed, the Americans have been on a tear, destroying one country after another. Iraq has been dismembered, Libya is a no-go zone, Syria is a humanitarian disaster, Egypt is a military dictatorship executing a program of mass imprisonment. The latest fiasco is Yemen, where the pro-American government was recently overthrown, and the American nationals who found themselves trapped there had to wait for the Russians and the Chinese to extract them and send them home. But it was the previous American foreign policy fiasco, in the Ukraine, which prompted the Russians, along with the Chinese, to signal that the US has taken a step too far, and that all further steps will result in automatic escalation.

The Russian plan, along with China, India, and much of the rest of the world, is to prepare for war with the US, but to do everything possible to avoid it. Time is on their side, because with each passing day they become stronger while America grows weaker. But while this process runs its course, America might “touch” a few more countries, turning them into a Libya or an Iraq. Is Greece next on the list? What about throwing under the bus the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), which are now NATO members (i.e., sacrificial lambs)? Estonia is a short drive from Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, it has a large Russian population, it has a majority-Russian capital city, and it has a rabidly anti-Russian government. Of those four facts, just one is incongruous. Is it being set up to self-destruct? Some Central Asian republics, in Russia's ticklish underbelly, might be ripe for being “touched” too.

There is no question that the Americans will continue to try to create mischief around the world, “touching” vulnerable, exploitable countries, for as long as they can. But there is another question that deserves to be asked: Do the Americans “touch” themselves? Because if they do, then the next candidate for extreme makeover into a bombed-out wasteland might be the United States itself. Let's consider this option.

As the events in Ferguson, and more recently in Baltimore, have indicated, the tensions between African-Americans and the police have escalated to a point where explosions become likely. The American “war on drugs” has been essentially a war on young black (and Latino) men; about a third of young blacks are behind bars. They also run a high risk of being shot by the police. To be fair, the police also run a high risk of getting shot by young black males, causing them to be jumpy and to overreact. Given the gradually collapsing economy—close to 100 million working-age Americans are unemployed (“outside the labor force,” if you wish to split hairs)—it would seem that for an ever-increasing chunk of the population cooperating with the authorities is no longer a useful strategy: you get locked up or killed anyway, but you get none of the temporary benefits that come from ignoring the law.

There is an interesting asymmetry in the American media's ability to block out information about civil unrest and insurgency: if it is happening overseas, then news of it can be carefully calibrated or suppressed outright. (Did American television tell you about the recent resumption of shelling of civilian districts by the Ukrainian military? Of course not!) This is possible because Americans are notoriously narcissistic and largely indifferent to the rest of the world, of which most of them know little, and what they think they know is often wrong. But if the unrest is within the US itself, then the various media outlets find themselves competing against each other in who can sensationalize it better, in order to get more viewership, and more advertising revenue. The mainstream media in the US is tightly controlled by a handful of large conglomerates, making it one big monopoly on information, but at the level of selling advertising market principles still prevail.

Thus there is the potential for a positive feedback loop: more civil unrest generates more sensationalized news coverage, which in turn amplifies the civil unrest, which further sensationalizes the news coverage. And there is a second positive feedback loop as well: the more civil unrest there is, the more the police overreact in trying to control the situation, thereby generating more rage, amplifying the civil unrest. These two positive feedback loops can continue to run out of control for a while, but the end result, in all such recent incidents, is the same: the introduction of National Guard troops and the imposition of curfew and martial law.

The swift introduction of the military might seem a bit odd, considering that most police departments, even small-town ones, have been heavily militarized in recent years, and even the security people at some school districts now have military vehicles and machine guns. But the progression is a natural one. On the one hand, when people who habitually resort to brute force find that it isn't working, they naturally assume that this is because they aren't using enough of it. On the other hand, if the criminal justice system is already a travesty and a shambles, then why not just cut through the red tape and impose martial law?

There is an awful lot of weapons of all sorts in the US already, and more will come in all the time as the US is forced to close overseas military bases due to lack of funds. And they will probably get used, for the same reason and in the same fashion that red bricks came to be used in Boston. You see, plenty of red bricks kept coming into Boston aboard British ships, where they were used as ballast for the return trip. This created the impetus to do something with them. But putting up brick buildings is a difficult, demanding process, especially if laborers are always drunk. And so the solution was to use the bricks to pave sidewalks—something one can do on one's hands and knees. Similarly with the military hardware sloshing back into the US from abroad. It will be used, because it's there; and it will be used in the stupidest way possible: shooting at one's own people.

But bad things happen to militaries when they are ordered to shoot at their own people. It is one thing to shoot at “towel-heads” in a far-away land; it is quite another to be ordered shoot at somebody who could be your own brother down the street from where you grew up. Such orders result in fragging (shooting your own officers), in refusal to follow orders, and in attempts to stand up for the other side.

And that's where things get interesting. Because, you see, if you shoot at, imprison, and otherwise abuse a defenseless civilian population long enough, what you get in response is an armed insurgency. The place insurgencies are easiest to organize is in prison. For instance, ISIS, or the Islamic Caliphate, was masterminded by people who had previously worked for Saddam Hussein, while they were imprisoned by the Americans. They took this opportunity to work out an efficient organizational structure and, upon release, found each other and got down to work. Having a third of young American blacks locked up gives them all the opportunity they need to organize an effective insurgency.

To be effective, an insurgency needs lots of weapons. Here, again, there is a procedure for acquiring military technology that has become almost routine. What weapons are being used by ISIS? Why, of course, American ones, which the Americans provided to the regime in Baghdad, and which ISIS took as trophies when the Iraqi army refused to fight and ran away. And what weapons are being used by the Houthi rebels in Yemen? Why, of course, the American ones, which the Americans provided to the now overthrown pro-American regime there. And what are some of the weapons being used by the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad? Why, of course, American ones, sold to them by the Ukrainian government, which got them from the Americans. There is a pattern here: it seems that whenever Americans arm, train and equip an army, that army stands a really big chance of simply melting away, with the weapons falling into the hands of those who want to use them against American interests. It is hard to see why this same pattern wouldn't hold once the US places much of itself under military occupation.

And that's where things get really interesting: a well-armed, well-organized insurgency composed of thoroughly radicalized, outraged people who have absolutely nothing to lose and are fighting for their home turf and their families squaring off against a demoralized, defeated US military that has just failed spectacularly in every country it “touched.”

They say that “You can't fight city hall.” But what if you have a tank battalion that can control four intersections all around city hall, turrets pointed in all directions, firing at anything that moves? And what if you have enough infantry to go around and ring the doorbells of all the key city hall bureaucrats? Wouldn't that change one's odds of victory in fighting city hall?

The US might get to “touch” a few more countries before this scenario unfolds, but it seems likely that (excepting the possibility of all-out war) eventually America will “touch” itself, and then all those countries whose troops marched through Red Square last Saturday won't have America to kick around any more.

28 comments:

Ixtlan said...

Superb. Looks like the next 'touch' just happened in Macedonia.

http://thesaker.is/special-report-on-the-escalating-situation-in-macedonia/

Helix said...

Interesting and thought-provoking article. It's always good to hear from someone with a wider perspective than the MSM. Thanks Dmitry.

k-dog said...

The Baltimore riots and other trouble spots can be used to pit one American against another setting the stage for military occupation hiding it behind a scream for law and order.

The transfer of military equipment to civilian police forces creates tension and people without jobs are considered vermin. If the unemployed are part of a minority population even more so. Ingredients to simmer an evil stew of unrest in America are in place and with a bit of media spin to heat things up America could be in a psychological state to support war. Easy answers to problems can make things go that way. Psychologically it is called transference.

Too long have Americans been silent and allowed our State Department to overthrow government after government around the world to support affluent American interests. Now the overthrow machine can't stop and with the skill of decades of practice the overthrow machine suppresses and distorts information and usurps Americans rights and freedoms.

Thank you for all you do to expose the overthrow machine Dmitry. It is thankless and dangerous work but it needs to be done. I wish there were more like you.

Rhisiart Gwilym said...

I take it, Dmitry, that you're leaving USAmerica for good; or have already left. If so, wise move for you and yours. Well done!

Please don't deprive us, though, of these regular incandescent insights into what's really happening. Even if publishing books, and doing (real) journalism mainly in Russian becomes the new direction of Club Orlov from here forward, for god's sake don't cut us off from your generously-provided lifeline to sanity and reality. In the purblind West, we need voices like yours most urgently.

Odd, isn't it, that some of our most penetrating purveyors of stark, urgently-needed truths in the West are Russians who happen to be fluent English speakers, and who are also completely immune to the poisonous deceits of the Western lamestream-media propaganda machine: Orlov, Saker, et al?

Good voyaging to you and family, bro!

pyrrhus said...

Beautiful article....the only thing I have to add is that Americans are already heavily armed and private citizens are generally much more proficient with rifles than the police...and often have relatives in the serving military..

Unknown said...

Interesting and fairly mind-blowing interpretation of Shoigu's gesture. I'm sure it's not far off from the public sentiment, though I'm also betting that that level of symbolism was unintentional, as it is in all but the most contrived circumstances (and in those it never rings true anyway).

In other words I'm sure he was mostly paying respect to his predecessors from 70 years ago. But you can't do that (or celebrate May 9 for that matter), without noticing the span of time during which Russia has remained unconquered and how many have tried!

Michael Sosebee said...

Thoughtful article Mr. Orlov. However I don't think White America will ever stand up to the oligarchies that run things. The NEW paradigm of "full spectrum dominance" is even more pervasive than Orwell ever imagined.

As we all know Propaganda is a tool that states and corporations use to convince us of a particular point of view. That's normal. What's not normal is that the "Dream Machine" of Hollywood have teamed up with the powerful organs of state in a new and insidious way that is unique in the annals of history.

The over-riding purpose is to create a belief in American Exceptionalism and to gain the support and approval of the people for what is a vast criminal enterprise.

This is a clear departure from the old War reels and public information films that we giggled at in High School and cartoonish films such as John Wayne's "Green berets" (1968), Sly Stallone's Rambo films of the eighties or Bruce Willis "Die Hard" series of the 90's. these new films are documentary-like recreations that emotionally capture the audience created by some of the best technicians and actors in the business.

This change occurred in the wake of 9/11 when Hollywood premiered the series "24" playing up the heroic role of CIA operative Jack Bauer having to save the day against ruthless terrorists who "hate our freedoms". The ratings were outstanding.

Suddenly you can't go to a sports game without a tribute to "Our Men In Uniform".

Fast forward to 2008 and you have Kate Bigelow scoring big with "The Hurt Locker". This gem really puts the CIA/Pentagon propaganda machine into high gear to paint a story of heroic self-sacrificing American soldiers fighting a foreign occupation against ruthless rag heads bent on evil (2008).

In 2011 we get "Homeland" which is now into it's 5th season with numerous emmys'.

In 2012 Ben Afleck directs "Argo" (receives best picture nod) showing how clever and resourceful scrappy CIA agents team up with Hollywood pros and save innocent hostages again from the "Muslims".

That same year Kate Bigelow releases "Zero Dark Thirty", another CIA financed production, showing how enhanced interrogation led to the capture and death of Osama Bin Laden.

2013 "Captain Phillips" comes to theaters based on the 2010 book "A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea", a tale of an heroic Ameican ship Captain taking on Muslim pirates in the High Seas and the deadly Navy seals saving the day.

2014 Clint Eastwood directs "American Sniper" with the biggest box-office release in history.

By this terminal phase we are so thoroughly indoctrinated with propaganda that people can't even see it. Goebbels, the Nazi Propaganda minister would have been impressed.

It's now being discussed that in the event of a war or insurgency the govt. already have the names of the "Insurgents". For all we know that might be you and me.



Anonymous said...

These things sadden me greatly. I'm glad that I've had contact with people outside the US, and read news outside the mainstream.

A real shame.

stevelaudig@gmail.com said...

There aren't "United Statesians" [sic] in the same way that there are "Russians'; "Chinese"; "Greeks"; "Poles" etc in an "ethnic" sense. A "USer" isn't ethnic. The US doesn't have an ethnicity at its core. It did, mostly, up till the 1830s, give or take, but even during that time Black African Slaves were a large percentage of the population of some states. White Anglo-Saxon Prots were the "nation" the US became a "creedal" nation and exceptionalism [rather like Zionist-Hebrewism] is at the core. It's government only has credibility when it is perceived as a fair referee. The US legal orders and governments [and the government of the states and lesser units] are increasingly seen as simply a tool for extracting value from people and not assuring anything remotely resembling fair compensation. A larger point is that if a government and legal order are not committed to poverty reduction and environmentalism, then it is doomed. The Third Reich has been replaced by the Fourth Reich with headquarters, real and formal now. moved to DC.

TH in SoC said...

To offer a different perspective, I am African-American, and I talk to many African-Americans on a regular basis. Most of us are not trying to start a revolution, but are simply trying to live meaningful lives. What is now happening in the U.S. is the same thing that has been happening in this country for decades: a narcissistic, destructive majority is projecting its destructive tendencies onto those of us who are not white. It would be instructive to examine independent, trustworthy statistics on the numbers of police who have been killed in the line of duty over the last few years. I haven't done so, unfortunately. But it wouldn't surprise me to find that there has been no statistical increase.

On the other hand, police in the U.S. killed more people from January to March this year than the police forces of any other country killed in all of 2014. In many cases, witness accounts and video captured by private citizens has completely contradicted police accounts of the shootings. And it is an indisputable fact that police (as well as schools, banks and mortgage issuing institutions) have been used as instruments by which mainstream America dumps its narcissistic rage onto dark-skinned scapegoats.

The best strategy for scapegoats is to go "No Contact" with those who want to scapegoat them. How to do that in this country will be an interesting challenge.

Bukko Boomeranger said...

"Having a third of young American blacks locked up gives them all the opportunity they need to organize an effective insurgency."

I can see the seeds of an insurgency coming from prison, but not from the blacks. Think skinhead Aryan Nations types instead.

I worked for a while as a nurse in a Florida state prison. Most of the black inmates there were what we in the psychiatric field call "disorganised." That is, their thinking was messed up from drugs, mental illness or low IQ. They were strong and vicious, yes, but they weren't good at carrying tasks through. They just couldn't get shit done! You need task-oriented people who can concentrate and persevere through difficulty without quitting to make an insurgency.

They were also not good at following orders. The culture of rebellion, "you ain't the boss of me!" is strong in everything from rap songs to tales that African-American kids absorb about resisting the racist white authorities. Troops have to obey The Man. I don't see that happening with prison blacks.

Plus, there wasn't a sense of political consciousness amongst most of the black inmates. Grievances against the System that had screwed them and their people for generations, yes, but not connected with an overall ideology about that System. A good insurgency needs people who can conceive of something bigger and believe in it. Which is why religious insurgencies work so well.

Admittedly, this was only one prison -- shout-out to Charlotte Correctional Institution, watup?!? -- so it might not be valid to generalise across the entire 3 million+ American prison population. And there were some talented, savvy black inmates I met. But overall, they did not strike me as potential foot soldiers of an insurgent army.

The whites, and many of the Hispanics, struck me as higher caliber killers. The Cracker criminals were also stupid, savage brutes, but they were better at following more powerful people. Perhaps that's because most of the order-barking COs ("corrections officers" -- they don't like to be called "guards") were white Southerners, so there was some racial/cultural affinity there.

If there is going to be a core of murderers coming out of American internal prisons like there was in America's external prisons in Iraq, I could see it being from the white gangs that have formed for self-protection Inside The Wall. They would be natural allies with authoritarians from the U.S. military, of whom there are plenty. Lots of prisoners have military experience that broke their minds anyway.

So look for a future American insurgency to be coloured red, white and blue, not black.

Greg Maybury said...

G'Day Dmitry,

http://gumshoenews.com/2015/05/08/the-great-war-of-the-over-privileged-belligerents/

www.amazon.com/Conjuring-Hitler-Britain-America.../074532181X

Another excellent piece covering the geopolitical state of play vis-a-vis America and the West, and the Rest of the World. The recent show of RoW solidarity amid the commemoration ceremonies in Moscow was indeed an impressive event, and one whose significance has been underscored even more so by your insightful, cut-to-the-chase article. The turnout and genuine enthusiasm for this event was especially gratifying to see after the scurrilous, petulant snubbing of Russia by the West during their own recent commemoration events.

For what it is worth I recently penned a piece covering not dissimilar territory and concerns, with appropriate references to past history, this time venturing as far back as World War One. This was recently published on Gumshoe, an alternative, independent Australian website/blog. (A slightly adapted version is to be published soon on Op Ed News in the U.S.) I have included the link above for readers who might be interested in following this up. For those so inclined, I recommend they approach it with the following extract from Guido Preparata's excellent 2006 'must-read', Conjuring Hitler - How Britain and America Made the Third Reich, firmly in mind. (Again, see link above for more information).

"The elimination of the German menace cost Britain dearly: her empire, her military and economic strength. Yet the English-speaking idea, the imperial creed, and the cultivation of the oligarchic bent were all traits that she bequeathed upon her natural, insular heir: they live on in the American establishment. Britain’s was a conscious decision; she knew the risks involved.

The present geopolitical policy of the United States is a direct and wholly consistent continuation of the old imperial strategy of Britain. It is that unmistakable cocktail of aggression, subversion and mass murder waged at the vital nodes of the landmass, from Palestine and Central Asia to the gates of China, in Taiwan and Korea, that seeks to undermine any movement towards a confederation of nations capable of turning the continental base into a Eurasian league of socio-political cooperation and defense (against Anglo-American assault).

It took two world conflicts to destroy the German threat. World War I was a conventional siege in which the British empire sacrificed roughly 1 million men – the first bloodletting that shook the establishment to its foundations. In the second round, which was necessary given that World War I had in fact left the Fatherland unscathed, no such effusion would have been tolerable – Britain would sacrifice 400,000 soldiers in World War II. So deception was employed on a major scale to trip the Nazis into the inescapable war on two fronts."

Greg Maybury,
Perth Australia.

Anonymous said...

It is really nice to read an article from someone that understands the big picture. The sad truth is that the USA is circling the drain and both Russia and China can see it.

Unknown said...

kickass article, very good. the US weapons ultimately ending in the hands of the enemy or oppressed, is old news. see china civil war 1945-1949. maozetung had soldiers without weapons, they picked them up after kai-checks army fled. nice logistics.

in thanks, i want to recommend daniel suarez "deamon" and "freedom" books, they also model a way of collapse and a solution

Unknown said...

another thought, if army and police units receive a shoot-to-kill order, they will mutin, only the hardcore corporate and mercenary units will fire on people. remember, the US armed forces are composed of lower class people...

Kyddyl said...

I have known Russian people on and off since the mid 1960's. My first contact with them was quite a surprise after listening to endless propaganda rants about their "evil", "aggressive" nuclear capabilities and how their scientists were "confined" to special cities. Imagine my surprise in 1965 when four Russian nuclear scientists and their KGB attachment boarded the flight on which I was a flight attendant.They had just left our nuclear site in Arco, Idaho and were headed to White Sands and vicinity. The Russians were wonderful! We served up every bit of vodka on the plane (mostly in the effort to get the KGB guy to smile. BTW he never did smile but I suspect he knew he had a good thing going.)The scientists laughed like crazy when I worried that they were being forced to live in special cities. True, they did live is a particular place but they said it was for their work as well as a few perks for what they knew, and would I like to visit? Would I!!! Even the KGB guy said it was fine, Would my country allow me to travel there? And their answer was "sure, why not?" This at what was supposed to be a critical point in the cold war. Hmmm.

Not long after meeting the scientists I met 8 Soviet athletes who had bought into the propaganda hoopla hook line and sinker. And they wouldn't get drunk. And they wouldn't crack a smile.

In the end people are pretty much the same the world over, but in the US it seems we have a real corner in the market of superficial arrogance and downright stupidity. I saw first hand the riots in Watts in the 60's and most of us saw what happened after Katrina. I heard the fear in peoples voices when I showed them pictures of my tame Russian scientists. I have six gentle Muslim Syrian American cousins and I hear the fear and distrust in American voices even as they listen to and see my cousins they didn't guess until it was time for prayers. American citizens have become afraid of everything because our government has essentially given way to corporate entities and is itself a terroristic entity. America is fatally divided. Civil, race and regional war is much more likely than an uprising by a united American citizen front.

I am deeply ashamed at the lack of respect shown by America towards Russia on this occasion. And yes, I too depend in fairly large part on Russian news to tell us a home truth or three.

I thank you for this excellent presentation and be assured we watched all the videos and look forward to more.

Unknown said...

"The mainstream media in the US is tightly controlled by a handful of large conglomerates, making it one big monopoly on information"

It is important to note that the monopoly-media is not restricted to the US but covers the whole USA-NATO-EU continuum seamlessly.

I am here in Zurich, Switzerland, and the local media does its best to top the New York Times as far as hypocrisy, blunt lying, war-mongering, Russia-bashing, fact-twisting, fear-porn, etc. is concerned. With stomach turning success, i might add.

_samir

Parrotile said...

Whilst it would be highly interesting to see if Russia was able to "win" the current engagement without firing a single shot, the reality is that the American War Machine's financiers / backers really DO want War (must maintain the cashflow into the MIC coffers).

Whilst probably catastrophic for American people, an internal collapse would be far better for "the rest of us" . . . .

FromKnowledgeToWisdom said...

A very thoughtful and history tracking article, yet I would like to disagree on including India to stand against the Empire. India would be a darling 5th columnist in all such anti imperialist efforts. The current neoconservative govt. has been specifically financed and placed by the oligarchy. The recent nuclear consessions granted by the US speaks of the value. The stabbing in the back may not be evident now for superficial observer, but, future historians will endorse that.

subgenius said...

@TH...

https://snarkypenguin.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/how-dangerous-is-it-to-be-a-police-officer-anyhow/

Takeaway:

"it’s about as dangerous to be a police officer as it is to live in the safest big city in the United States. The notion of police work as being an extraordinarily dangerous job is bullshit, pure and simple."

Edward said...

There were African-American riots in the 60's. I don't know much about them but they damaged their own communities.

Detroit is another unstable city. The government is supposed to help people. Instead it is against Detroit.

Frank said...

Pretty good article until you get to the part about ISIS. ISIS was created by the US.

Marcel said...

For those paying attention and not drinking the kool-aid of the arrogant exceptionalists it's easy to read the handwriting on the wall. I can see where and when the US sinks like the Titanic never to rise again.
10 years ago I read about someone's dream, a dream that captivated me. I posted it a number of times on my old blog. The dream had to do with what we are beginning to see now between Iran and the US Navy near Yemen and the Persian Gulf.
Do I think Obama is fool enough to bring about what this person saw in his dream? YES, ABSOLUTELY!
http://averyheavystone.blogspot.com/2013/06/8-years-ago-nuclear-holocaust-prophecy.html?m=1

Timothy said...

Interesting post, if a little over-the-top in places. A couple of minor comments:

1. Don't forget to add Kosovo to the list! And probably also Mexico: nearly a failed state because they did everything that the Wall Street Journal said to. So we should also add Central America to the list of broken countries that the United States 'touched'.

2. Militaries ordered to shoot their own people rebel? I should wish. But sadly not. Militaries are generally more than willing to shoot their own people. Certainly using federal troops not assigned to their native counties helps.

3. The Indian government is utter scum. They decided to breed people like cattle for profit. There are like 1.3 billion people jammed into a land 1/3 the size of the USA, half the population is chronically malnourished (a standard of living worse than medieval Europe!), but the rich build private skyscrapers with 600 personal servants, and froth about how wonderful 'affordable labor costs' are. India is very much on the other side, and I wonder how long even the stoic Hindus can sustain this level of misery without collapse.

Unknown said...

I have to agree with subgenius that pol*ce w*rk is not especially dangerous. I believe it is maybe 14th in a survey of american jobs, well below cab driver and convenience store clerk, not to mention fisheries, mining and logging.

Easy enough to google.

I also see little basis to conclude that American armed forces, local or military, have shown any inclination to defy orders to shoot on their own citizens. If Watts, Katrina, Detroit and Baltimore or the daily roster of civilian deaths are any indication; it'll take a seismic shift before we see any change there.

Unlike some nations with a tradition of solidarity with their own people, American armed forces are steeped in an adversarial mindset treating the populace as an enemy. Probably a heritage of slavery and anti-labor persecution that defined the growth of these institutions over two centuries. They will be cheered, too, by idiot authoritarian followers.

seraphim said...

Now, Shoigu was, by his own admission, baptized. The significance of his gesture when passing under the icon of Christ the Saviour at the gate of Spasskaya Tower, immured by the Bolsheviks in 1937 and restored in 2010 is even more clear.
What was less noticed, or not stressed, was that the mausoleum of Lenin, where usually parades were watched from, was completely out of sight, masked by the tribunes. It is a symbolic gesture, I dare to hope.
When I was young it happened to read a book of short sketches called “La queue du diable” (written probably in the decade before the war). I forgot almost all of them except one (that I forgot the title!). It was about a dream of Lenin. He was looking full of contempt at the icon of Christ, deriding and insulting him and boasting about the revolution. Hey, we did that and that and you could not stop us, your reign indeed is not of this world! And from the icon a thundering voice answered: Nor it is yours! Terrified Lenin turns his eyes and contemplates the empty Red Square. The end. This image haunted me ever since. And I was always saying that Russia would not be truly reborn unless the mummy of Lenin would not be removed and buried(along with his pestiferous ideology).

Unknown said...

Who says there needs to be "an" insurgency? More likely there will be several armed factions, probably split along ethnic/racial lines, all fighting each other for turf, kind of like Yugoslavia.

Gang #1: the government.
Currently known as: the government.
Ranks will be drawn from: current active duty, those sufficiently propagandized.
Slogan: USA!

Gang #2: white guys disillusioned with the government.
Currently known as: militia groups, these guys, etc.
Ranks will be drawn from: the Tea Party
Slogan: Liberty!

Gang #3: blacks who have opted out of the system.
Currently known as: drug gangs, prison gangs.
Ranks will be drawn from: pissed-off locals in Baltimore, Detroit, Ferguson et al.
Slogan: something like THROW IT UP!

Gang #4: Mexicans who have opted out. Currently known as: cross-border drug cartels, prison gangs.
Ranks will be drawn from: Mexico, Mexican-American communities, white people's nannies/janitors/landscapers/carpenters/etc.
Slogan: something like ¡Es la nuestra!

Ivan Lukic said...

Do not forget that the trend of "touches" may end up in Western and Western European countries. At some moment USA will be forced to "touch" countries like France, Germany, etc. USAians are already forcing some "economic agreements" with Western countries and most of these are destructive for their economies, like insisting that France should destroy ships paid by Russian military. USAians are like jazz players, they improvise in politics too. But if musical improvisation is not successful nobody is hurt. In politics bad improvisers can do a lot of harm.