John Mearsheimer lays out what has happened in Ukraine.

 For those not paying attention, or mindlessly pro Uke, this is a corrective.

Watch and learn.

Worth checking out from a neutralist standpoint

 This article was found at Liberation: Newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Now, the neutralist blog is not socialist, but we share an anti-imperialist sentiment and this article is more than useful.

Six war mongering think tanks and the military contractors that fund them

 

The Six are:

1 – Center for Strategic and International Studies

2 – Center for a New American Security

3 – Hudson Institute

4 – Atlantic Council

5 – International Institute for Strategic Studies

6 – Australian Strategic Policy Institute

 

There is a lot of the story behind the story at the website. We suggest a visit. 

Link here

 

 

 

 

Dan Kovalik's The Plot To Scapegoat Russia - from the September, 2017 Sturbridge Times Magazine

Human rights lawyer and law professor Dan Kovalik has written about events in the world with US fingerprints on events. Below is the review of his The Plot To Scapegoat Russia, but there is a more timely discussion at the Neutrality Studies Youtube.

 Return of the Red Scare

The Plot To Scapegoat Russia

By Dan Kovalik

Skyhorse Publishing, 2017 

Paperback, 240 Pages

ISBN-10: 151073032X

ISBN-13: 978-1510730328

List: $18.99 Amazon: $12.78

Review by Richard Morchoe

 

Dan Kovalik probably never thought that he would have written The Plot To Scapegoat Russia the way he did. Not that he believed the Central Intelligence Agency was beyond any skullduggery in promoting foreign adventures.  Indeed, he has spent years observing the agency’s antics in Latin America.

 

Mr. Kovalik must be surprised by the fact that the only man we can pin our hopes on to stop the march to conflict, if not nuclear war is Donald Trump.  Trump, being a reactionary plutocrat is the type of person Kovalik would normally have nothing but disdain for.  

 

It can’t be anything he is too happy about.  Dan Kovalik is an old-school lefty.  He cut his teeth protesting U.S. involvement south of the border, traveling to Nicaragua in 1988 to oppose the Contras.  There may a social program he’s against, but that is hard to imagine.  The Trump agenda must gall him.

 

Except for one aspect.

 

Donald Trump was suggesting, in his campaign utterances, that it may not be a bad idea to actually try and get along with Russia.  He suggested as well that maybe we did not have the solution to the Syrian imbroglio.

 

In that one aspect at least, Donald stood head and shoulders above the competition.  

 

How did we get to a point in history where a progressive activist could see Donald Trump as preferable to the Democrat’s standard bearer?  It’s a long story and in no way travels a straight line.

 

He spends much of the book discussing his activities in Latin America.  Kovalik identifies with the Sandinistas and opposes United Fruit (i.e. Chiquita Brands International) Company and their pervasive and destructive influence in Guatemala going back to the 1954 coup.  His account takes the side of the poor and indigenous peoples.  At first, I thought his narrative dwelt a little bit too much on the past.  It does become obvious that he sees U.S. policy as continuing from the past into the present and all cut from the same cloth.

 

In his coverage of the Cold War between NATO and the Soviets he is also somewhat kind to the memory of the Eastern Bloc.  Not that there is not sufficient blame to go around.

 

When he does get to the subject of the book’s title, the author is on solid ground.  His detail of the decline and fall of the Soviet Union and the role of people from the West in looting the corpse, as well as the continuing demonization of the Putin regime is worth the price of the book for the uninformed.  That would be most Americans. 

 

On Page 132 he begins the story of how we started on the road to the new cold war and though he does not say it, the origins of 911.  

 

“Another momentous and arguably disastrous, Cold War maneuver of the US was its support for the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, which at the time shared a 1000-mile-long border with the Soviet Union.”

 

Without our support for what turned out to include many fanatical Islamic extremists, including Bin Laden, the Soviet Union would probably still have had a lot on its hands, but would have had been better able to manage any changes necessary. 

 

Our support for the Mujahideen insured, like for us in Vietnam, that the Soviets could never defeat the enemy.  It would be a slow bleed and would fatally weaken the U.S.S.R.

 

Things had to change and they did. The Reagan Administration and Mikhail Gorbachev came to a modus vivendi.  On Page 111 the author quotes the LA Times,

 

“In early February 1990, US leaders made the Soviets an offer.  According to transcripts of meetings in Moscow on Feb. 9th then- Secretary of State James Baker suggested that in exchange for cooperation, US could make ‘iron-clad guarantees’ that NATO would not expand “one inch eastward.”  Less than a week later, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to begin reunification talks. No formal deal was struck, but from all the evidence, the quid pro quo was clear: Gorbachev acceded to Germany’s western alignment and the U.S. would limit NATO’s expansion.”

 

Kovalik notes the promise was quickly broken and most of the old Warsaw Pact are now NATO members.  The expansion continues with the U.S. trying to enlist former Soviet Republics.  It is hard to argue that the world is better for NATO enlargement.

 

Chapter 7 CLINTON MEDDLES IN RUSSIA WITH DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES gives an account of the machinations of Bill Clinton’s presidency as regards the Yeltsin regime.  He did not do us proud.  Yeltsin was essentially our stooge until he knew he could not continue.  This led to Putin whose big sin is not being our patsy. 

 

Chapter 11 THE US EXPANDS AS RUSSIA CONTRACTS: BROKEN PROMISES AND HUMILIATION explores the project to extend our influence at the expense of Russia.  None of it is anything we can brag about, but the worst bit is our Ambassador Pyatt and Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland deciding the fate of the Ukrainian government after we had helped riot out an elected, if corrupt, president.  The pair were recorded doing just that and the heavy-handed discussion is rightly attacked by Kovalik.  He does not mention that the recording went “viral.” *

 

Mr. Kovalik eventually reaches the reality show of the recent American election.  The desire to blame the Russians for the inept campaign of Hillary Clinton is explored at length as are the commonsense pronouncements of The Donald.  

 

Suggesting that we not bug the Russkies and maybe overthrowing Syria was not a genius level idea appealed to a population that was tired of wars without result.  The Putin is the devil campaign left something to be desired with many including an old socialist like the author.

 

Post-election, Trump has not lived up to his better nature.  Kovalik notes on Page 170 that “it is never clear what Trump is truly thinking or intending.”  This is true and whether it is a good strategy or evidence of a scattered mind is a matter for debate.  Trump was quick in throwing some token bombs at a Syrian air base after a supposed chemical attack.  

 

Since the book has been published, the new president has not bombed North Korea.  He worked out an agreement with Putin for a ceasefire in South West Syria that is holding and cannot make the neocons in or out of his government happy, so we live in hope.

 

In his short book, Dan Kovalik covers a lot of ground.  The continuing demonization of a nuclear power makes his book an important resource for anyone who wants to understand what is going on.

 

Some of the author’s views are a bit one sided.  His favoritism of the now Soviet Ancien Regime can seem a bit overboard.  It is at odds with your reviewer’s memory of the brutal repression of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, and certainly the Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn.  Still, his account of the anti-Russian hysteria is well sourced with ample footnotes.  Unfortunately, with the media’s parroting of the hostile narrative, from NPR to The New York Times, do not expect him to get glowing reviews.

 

*The recording is still extant and one can hear it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV9J6sxCs5k .  After listening you may be forgiven for wondering if State recruits at clown colleges.

 

 

Neutralist Studies - Carrying the banner for Neutralism in the great world

 The Neutralist Association of the US carries the flag for neutralism in the United States, albeit in a microscopic way.

Unbeknownst to us for a long time was the fact that there is an organization overseas that looks at neutralism in a more organized way. That organization is Neutrality Studies.

Neutrality Studies is an international academic research project, for the study of neutrality as a concept in international relations, sociology, international law, diplomacy, political science, security, and history.

Associated with their website is the Youtube Channel with many excellent videos.

Captained by Pascal Lottaz, it is worth your time to visit.

Read Kelley Beaucar Vlahos at Responsible Statecraft to understand how the big guy and girls think of you.

The article, What foreign policy elites really think about you, is a good analysis of how you are thought off by your betters.

 

Actually, lumpen America comes off better, and rightly so, as you read it, as I guess the lady intended,

 

She notes, “These ham-fisted approaches befit the neoconservatives who wield them, as they did the same in the Global War on Terror, and to a great extent, worked to keep the Iraq War going for almost a decade and the war in Afghanistan shambling on for a full 20 years.

 

In addition to the destruction of two countries, trillions of dollars, a massive refugee crisis, a new generation of U.S. veterans dependent on lifetime assistance, and countless dead and wounded, these “elites” are in great part responsible for the mistrust of Washington that has eaten away at the culture and politics here to the core.”

 

Yet they are at it again with the same know nothing arrogance. Is there no Talleyrand to inform them “they learn nothing and forget nothing.”

 

From neocons, these have to be maybe the stupidest lines ever:

 

"In war, from a purely political perspective, it’s usually safer for politicians to stay the course.

 

Perhaps this is why democracies’ track records of playing the long game in armed conflicts is actually pretty good. From the ancient Athenians during the Peloponnesian War on through to the present day, democracies have not usually been the fickle, shrinking violets their detractors make them out to be."

 

Maybe the authors, Gentile and Cohen, should look up the Battle of Aegospotami to get an idea of how Athenian tenacity worked out.

 

The neutralist gets a couple of takeaways from Ms. Vlahos piece.

1.     The arrogance of the blob.

2.     The second-rate level of thinking.

 

 

 

 

Covert Action Magazine...Where have you been all my life

 At Antiwar.com, I noticed an article, Abolish the CIA John Kiriakou on the agency’s nefarious missions. Clicking on the link, took one to his article at Covert Action Magazine.

I had seen Covert Action Magazine articles before, but just read the piece and linked or moved on.

This morning, even though having much to do, I spent too much time checking out the website. The great enemy of life is time and it would have been lovely to have spent the whole day at CAM, but I’ll be back. 

Meanwhile, if so inclined, Covert Action Magazine the place to go.

Stephen Walt reflects on U.S. stupid

 Harvard Professor Stephen M. Walt has a column at Foreign Policy with the title The United States Couldn't Stop Being Stupid If It Wanted To.

There is a subtitle, For Washington, self-imposed restraint will always be a contradiction in terms.

Well, yes.

Just this little tidbit is worth it, 

Remeber the Kuwaiti Incubator Hoax? Bought and paid for by a foreign government and abetted by a U.S. public relations firm.

Now, we wouldn't be posting this except, his article is an argument for attaining a neutralist ethos in foreign policy, even if he does not realize it.

The Yemen war is heartless, stupid, and cruel. Some congress members have a resolution to stop it.

 Of late, Bernie Sanders has seemed to be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democrat establishment.

So, it was a bit surprising when he, according to an Dave DeCamp antiwar.com article told The Intercept on Monday that he could bring a Yemen War Powers Resolution to the floor of the Senate for a vote “hopefully next week.”

Putting aside the silly use of "hopefully," it is a welcome development why Sen. Sanders is do it, we applaud him,

Not sure if this is happening because the Saudis are dancing away from our relationship with them, but we hope it passes no matter the impetus.

 Dave put this also in the article:

 Call 1-833-Stop-War to tell your senator to support the legislation, which would end US support for the Saudi war and blockade on Yemen

 Great idea. 

It is Time for Neutralism at antiwar.com

 At antiwar.com neutralism gets noticed.

 

Read the neutralist article at antiwar.com

It Is Time for Neutralism by Richard Morchoe Posted on December 06, 2022

the Timid call for talks and retraction by House "Progressives" speaks volumes about "Our Democracy"

Actually, we all know the US is an oligarchy, but sometimes it just exposes itself and the incident can't be unseen.

We need to change the country's name from the United States to Oligarchia America

 

Jamie Raskin, war democrat.

 Excellent discussion and exposure of Jamie Raskin's pro-war stance at the Grayzone.

It is par for the course. My own congressperson claims to be anti-war yet also supports intervention.

Worth listening to.

Progressive Rep. Jamie Raskin shills for endless Ukraine war

 

George Will blathers about Putin with the worst of them

Wicked Shockah, George Will does not like Putin. Yeah, like you're going to lose a gig for going after the Russian leader. Remember how he got Iraq right? No, he was goofy then, he is goofy now.

Anyway, linked below is my article on how silly the George Will WAPO column is. the man compares Mussolini and Putin.  The comparison is ridiculous.

 

George Will speaks ex-cathedra at WAPO-Actually, he just mails it in. 

 

Neutralism in another country has to deal with being out of favour with the cool kids

In our substack, The Long Hill Institute, we have written a piece about how neutralist policy is being subtly and not so subtly shunted aside in Ireland.

Neutrality had served Ireland well. Her youth would not be cast up to and slaughtered in a war not their own in the 1940s.

Now, spurious arguments are being put forward why neutralism is passé.

We disagree.

The substack looks at a country not abandoning neutralism. Professor Pascal Lottaz writes about Austria, which was able to free itself from foreign powers via neutralism and is not throwing it over as Finland is.

There is also Pascal's YouTube interview with Prof. Dr. Heinz Gärtner about Austria and the value of credible neutralism.

Read:

Irish Neutrality - If it ain't broke, break it

 

 

The Compendium of Post-Soviet American Hegemonic Policy that Twitter does not want you to see.

Eric Zuesse has written an article that lists Ten Truths That Can’t Be Published Under The U.S. Regime.

 

The Neutralist tried to post it on Twitter and got this message:

 

“We can’t complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful.”

 

Thus, they made the case for Mr. Zuesse.

As to where the Regime begins and Twitter ends, we leave to others to study. 

We endorse the link.

 

  There is still an antiwar left, It just isn't in the halls of Congress.

War Democrats

Or the anti-war hawks.

What was Madeline Albright like? Joe Lauria remembers.

 

At Consortium News today we have:

The Madeleine Albright I Knew

The Consortium News editor-in-chief covered Madeleine Albright, who died on March 23, on a daily basis between 1993 and 1997 when she was the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Here are some of his recollections.

It's not a pretty picture.

Ron Paul-Common Sense on Ukraine - Another Racket of War

 

Ron Paul's column this week at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity is dead on:

The Ukraine War Is a Racket.

The following paragraph tells you all you need to know.

"One group of special interests profiting massively on the war is the US military-industrial complex. Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes recently told a meeting of shareholders that, “Everything that ‘s being shipped into Ukraine today, of course, is coming out of stockpiles, either at DOD or from our NATO allies, and that’s all great news. Eventually we’ll have to replenish it and we will see a benefit to the business.”

Remember when the press was celebrating the death of the Ruble? It's back 100%

 Yup, read about it at MishTalk.

The Western Press may not always be wrong, but it is always propaganda.

Avoiding Aegospotami

 The Z Man has an interesting piece at Taki's Magazine The Last War for the Neocons .   Since the Peloponnesian War, many have considered wars between two major powers as epic life and death struggles.

The Ukrainian War is seen as this as no one with an above average IQ and some tether to reality sees it as anything but a war between the big Us and Them.

What I got out of Z's article, is what, for better or worse, I get out of most them. It wasn't worth it, and didn't have to happen.

As usual, projecting further, we could do ourselves a big favor and leave NATO and come home.

Aegospotami was the last battle of the Peloponnesian War.

We're Back

 It has been almost a year since out last post and much has changed. 

The suggestion of Mr. Lieven's post was not listened to and the war is on.

Clearly, the US media is unreliable, so we have added three links

The Grayzone

Consortium New

Gilbert Doctorow

They are better information than NPRFOXMSNBCCNNCBSABCNBCNYTWAPO.

We hope to do better posting articles, in case anyone cares.

The Neutralist.