Dobson: Hope For America Again

Hillary's Neocons

The US Military — Is The Problem

Europe's most agile enemy sits in Brussels (NATO)

Dr. Sahra Wagenknecht (DIE LINKE, i.e., "THE LEFT"):
This powerful rebuke from Bundestag member shows how the Right Wing loves war and austerity, whether they are here or there, Republican or Democrat
Herr Präsident! Liebe Kolleginnen und Kollegen! Frau Bundeskanzlerin, Geschichte wiederholt sich nicht, aber es gibt Phasen, in denen die politischen Uhren rückwärts zu gehen scheinen, unerbittlich zurück in eine Zeit, die sich eigentlich niemand zurückwünschen kann. Wer die Entwicklung der letzten Jahre verfolgt, der wird das beklemmende Gefühl nicht los, dass wir heute in genau so einer Phase leben, und ich möchte mir nicht ausmalen, wie das enden kann.	Mister President! Dear Colleagues! Madam Chancellor, history does not repeat itself, but there are phases in which the political clocks seem to go backwards, inexorably back to a time that no one actually could wish to return to. Anyone who follows the trend of recent years will not be quit of the nightmarish feeling that we are living in precisely such a phase, and I do not want to imagine how it can end.
75 Jahre nach Beginn des deutschen Vernichtungskrieges gegen die Sowjetunion finden in unmittelbarer Nähe der russischen Grenze wieder martialische Kriegsübungen unter deutscher Beteiligung statt.	75 years after the start of the German war of annihilation against the Soviet Union once again finds martial war exercises, with German participation, in the immediate vicinity of the Russian border.
(Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU/CSU): An der Grenze zum Baltikum auch!)	(Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU "Christian Democratic Union"/ CSU "Christian Social Union in Bavaria"): Located just outside the Baltics, too!)
Die US-Atomwaffen in Deutschland werden modernisiert ‑ nicht abgebaut, Frau Merkel: modernisiert - und Raketenbasen in ganz Europa aufgebaut. Angeblich geht es immer nur um Abschreckung, darum, Putin davon abzuhalten, ins Baltikum einzumarschieren. Es würde mich wirklich interessieren, ob diejenigen, die uns diesen Schwachsinn erzählen, auch nur eine Sekunde selber daran glauben.	The US nuclear weapons in Germany are to be modernized - not reduced, Mrs Merkel: modernized - and missile bases in Europe will be set up. Supposedly it's always only about deterrence, to keep Putin from invading the Baltic. I would be really interested to know whether those who tell us this nonsense, even for a second themselves believe it.
Beifall bei der LINKEN - Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU/CSU): Warum macht er denn dann ein großes Manöver?)	(Applause from The Left - Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU / CSU): Why does he do then a big maneuver?)
Wer hat denn seine Grenzen in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten immer weiter nach vorne geschoben?	Who has always extended its limits in the past two decades?
(Gunther Krichbaum (CDU/CSU): Russland!)	(Gunther Krichbaum (CDU / CSU): Russia!)
Russland in Richtung NATO, oder war es nicht eher umgekehrt?	Russia toward NATO, or was it not rather the reverse?
(Beifall bei der LINKEN - Gunther Krichbaum (CDU/CSU): Russland über die Ukraine! So wird ein Schuh draus!)	(Applause from The Left - Gunther Krichbaum (CDU / CSU): Russia via Ukraine So a shoe out of it![i.e., the other way round])
Die USA haben 5 Milliarden Dollar in einen Regime-Change in der Ukraine investiert. Das Ergebnis ist ein zerrissenes Land mit marodierenden faschistischen Banden und, ja, die russische Annexion der Krim, die immer als Beweis für die Aggressivität der russischen Außenpolitik herhalten muss.	The US has invested $5 billion in a regime change in Ukraine. The result is a torn country with marauding fascist gangs and, yes, the Russian annexation of the Crimea, which is always to be used as an evidence of the aggressiveness of Russian foreign policy.
(Gunther Krichbaum (CDU/CSU): Für die Friedfertigkeit bestimmt nicht!)	(Gunther Krichbaum (CDU / CSU): For the readiness of peace it speaks not!)
Auch die neue Aufrüstungsspirale dient angeblich immer nur dazu, den russischen Bären im Zaum zu halten. Eine dümmere Begründung kann man sich wirklich nicht ausdenken.	The new arms race supposedly serves only to keep the Russian bear at bay. A sillier reason really one cannot think of one.
(Beifall bei der LINKEN)	(Applause from The Left)
Aktuell liegen die Militärausgaben der NATO beim etwa 13-Fachen der russischen. Und jetzt brauchen wir noch mehr Aufrüstung, um die Sicherheit in Europa zu gewährleisten? Was ist denn das für ein Irrsinn!	Currently the military spending of NATO is at about 13 times the Russian. And now we need more upgrading in order to ensure security in Europe? What kind of a madness is this!
(Beifall bei der LINKEN)	(Applause from The Left)
Trotzdem gehörten Sie, Frau Bundeskanzlerin, wieder einmal zu den ersten, die die Umsetzung des 2-Prozent-Ziels angekündigt haben. 2 Prozent, das bedeutet 25 Milliarden Euro jedes Jahr mehr für Mordwaffen, für Panzer und für Kriegsgerät, aber für gute Renten fehlt uns angeblich das Geld, und für bessere Bildung erst recht. Was sind denn das für absurde politische Prioritäten, die Sie hier setzen? Das kann doch nicht Ihr Ernst sein.	Nevertheless, you were, Mme. Chancellor, once again among the first who announced the implementation of the 2 percent target. 2 percent, which means 25 billion euros every year for murder weapons, for tanks and military equipment, but for good pensions and for better education allegedly we lack the money more than ever. What is the policy for the absurd priorities you set here? You can not be serious.
(Beifall bei der LINKEN)	(Applause from The Left)
Der große Außenpolitiker George F. Kennan hat die NATO-Osterweiterung schon Ende der Neunziger als den verhängnisvollsten Fehler der US-Politik seit der Ära des Kalten Krieges bezeichnet, eben weil die Einkreisung Russlands den Weltfrieden nicht sichert, sondern gefährdet. Und trotzdem wird sie immer weiter vorangetrieben, auch mit Ihrer Unterstützung, Frau Merkel. Wir finden das unverantwortlich.	The great foreign policy expert George F. Kennan, called the eastward expansion of NATO at the end of the nineties the most fatal error of US policy since the era of the Cold War, precisely because the encirclement of Russia does not secure world peace, but endangers it. And yet it is always pressed ahead, with your support, Mrs. Merkel. We find that irresponsible.
(Beifall bei der LINKEN)	(Applause from The Left)
Sie haben auf Artikel 5 des NATO-Vertrages hingewiesen. Leider haben Sie Artikel 1 nicht erwähnt, der die NATO-Mitglieder verpflichtet, sich jeglicher Drohung oder Gewaltanwendung zu enthalten. Ich glaube, es liegt auf der Hand, dass die NATO und allen voran die USA mit ihren völkerrechtswidrigen Kriegen und ihren Drohnenmorden ihren eigenen Vertrag tagtäglich mit Füßen treten. Dazu hätte ich von Ihnen auch ein Wort erwartet.	You have referred to Article 5 of the NATO Treaty. Unfortunately, you have not mentioned Article 1, which obliges the members of NATO to refrain from any threat or use of force. I think it is obvious that NATO and foremost of all the United States with their international law violating wars and their drone murder are treading their own contract underfoot every day. For this I would have expected from you a word.
(Beifall bei der LINKEN - Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU/CSU): Es lebe die völkerrechtliche Verlässlichkeit der Russinnen und Russen!)	(Applause from The Left - Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU / CSU): Long live the international legal reliability of Russians and Russians!)
Ich muss schon sagen: Über die Destabilisierung des Nahen Ostens zu reden, wie Sie es eben getan haben, aber die Hauptverantwortung von NATO-Staaten und den Irakkrieg noch nicht einmal zu erwähnen, das zeugt nun wirklich von bemerkenswerter Einäugigkeit.	I have to say: Talking about the destabilization of the Middle East, as you have just done it, but not even to mention the primary responsibility of NATO and the war in Iraq, that testifies now really of remarkable monocular vision.
(Beifall bei der LINKEN)	(Applause from The Left)
Die Manöver in Osteuropa, die Hochrüstung, die Raketenbasen, die Truppenstationierung: Was kann Moskau darin denn anderes sehen als Kriegsvorbereitung? Auf jeden Fall wird so die Wahrscheinlichkeit und die Möglichkeit einer militärischen Eskalation mit der Atommacht Russland beträchtlich erhöht. Der Ernstfall, für den Sie in Osteuropa so lässig proben und von dem neuerdings in Militärkreisen wieder geredet wird, als wäre er ein kalkulierbares Ereignis - - Frau Merkel, ich finde es ja interessant, dass Sie sich mit Herrn Hofreiter unterhalten; aber ich würde es doch gut finden, wenn Sie meiner Rede wenigstens etwas Gehör verleihen würden. -	The maneuvers in Eastern Europe, the weapons upgrades, the missile bases, the stationing of troops: How can Moscow otherwise regard them but as war preparations? In any case the likelihood and the possibility of a military escalation with the nuclear power Russia is considerably increased. The real thing, for which you rehearse so casually in Eastern Europe and spoke of recently in military circles again, as if it were a predictable event — Mrs Merkel, I think it's interesting that you talk with Mr. Hofreiter (a far-Left Green); but I would find it good if you would give my speech at least some hearing.
(Beifall bei der LINKEN - Sabine Weiss (Wesel I) (CDU/CSU): Vielleicht sollten Sie ihr einmal zuhören! - Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU/CSU): Das liegt natürlich auch ein bisschen an Ihrer Rede! - Gunther Krichbaum (CDU/CSU): Wir wollen lieber den Bartsch hören!)	(Applause from The Left - Sabine Weiss (Wesel I) (CDU / CSU): Maybe you should you even listen - Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU / CSU): This is of course a bit of your speech - Gunther Krichbaum (! CDU / CSU): We would rather hear the Bartsch)!
Nach einem solchen Ernstfall, für den Sie in Osteuropa so lässig proben und von dem neuerdings in Militärkreisen wieder geredet wird, als wäre er ein kalkulierbares Ereignis, würde es Europa mit seinen über 700 Millionen Einwohnern vielleicht nicht mehr geben.	After such an emergency, for which you will rehearse so casually in Eastern Europe and spoke of recently in military circles again, as if it were a predictable event, there might be no more Europe with its more than 700 million inhabitants.
Das Urteil Willy Brandts, dass ein Krieg mit Russland nicht die Ultima Ratio, sondern die Ultima Irratio ist, das gilt doch heute nicht weniger als in den 70er-Jahren. Deshalb ist es dringend an der Zeit für eine eigenständige europäische Außenpolitik in der Tradition der Entspannungspolitik und natürlich auch für die Ersetzung der US-dominierten NATO durch ein kollektives Sicherheitssystem unter Einschluss Russlands.	The judgment of Willy Brandt that "a war with Russia is not the Ultima Ratio (last resort), but the Ultima Irratio" (ultimate irrationality) — that applies though today no less than in the 70s. There is an urgent time for an independent European foreign policy in the tradition of detente and of course also for the replacement of the US-dominated NATO through a collective security system which includes Russia.
(Beifall bei der LINKEN)	(Applause from The Left)
Schon Helmut Schmidt war der Meinung, dass heute mehr Gefahr von den USA als von Russland ausgeht. Das dürfte nach den nächsten US-Präsidentschaftswahlen, wenn im Weißen Haus entweder ein Halbverrückter oder eine Marionette der US-Rüstungslobby regiert, nicht viel anders werden.	Helmut Schmidt was already of the opinion that today assumes more danger proceeds from the US than from Russia. After the next US presidential election, when the White House is governed either by a lunatic or a puppet of the US arms lobby, it will likely be not much different.
(Gunther Krichbaum (CDU/CSU): Oh je, jetzt wird es vom Niveau her langsam unerträglich!)	(Gunther Krichbaum (CDU / CSU): Oh, now it is at this level becoming unbearable!)
Aber das Verhältnis zu Russland und die Kriegsgefahr sind leider nicht die einzigen Punkte, bei denen die politischen Uhren rückwärts laufen. Ich muss schon sagen: Ich finde es ebenso bezeichnend wie traurig, dass Ihre Regierungserklärung zu den Ergebnissen des Europäischen Rates letzte Woche mal eben von der Tagesordnung abgesetzt wurde. Wegschweigen, aussitzen, bloß nicht über Veränderungen reden - das können doch nicht ernsthaft Ihre Schlussfolgerungen aus der aktuellen Krise sein.	Unfortunately, the relationship with Russia and the threat of war are not the only issues where the political clocks run backwards. I have to say: I think it's as significant as it is sad that your government statement on the European Council last week results, it was just withdrawn from the agenda. Zip the lip, sit out, just do not talk about changes - that can't seriously be your conclusions from the current crisis.
(Beifall bei der LINKEN)	(Applause from The Left)
Der französische Ökonom Piketty hat doch recht, wenn er Ihnen, Frau Bundeskanzlerin, eine wesentliche Mitverantwortung für den Brexit und den zunehmenden Nationalismus andernorts gibt.	The French economist Piketty has it quite right when he gives you, Madam Chancellor, a substantial share of responsibility for the Proposed Referendum on United Kingdom membership of the European Union and the rise of nationalism elsewhere.
(Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU/CSU): Das ist doch lächerlich!)	(Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU / CSU): This is ridiculous!)
Ihre ständigen Alleingänge haben den europäischen Zusammenhalt ebenso wenig gestärkt wie die Besserwisserei, mit der die deutsche Regierung versucht, ganz Europa auf die Linie der deutschen Wirtschaftspolitik zu bringen. Halten Sie doch endlich einmal inne, und überdenken Sie Ihre Politik, bevor es wirklich zu spät ist.	Your persistent go-it-alone style has strengthened European cohesion as little as the condescension with which the German government is trying to bring the whole of Europe to the line of German economic policy. Hold it in at last, and reconsider your policy before it is really too late.
(Beifall bei der LINKEN)	(Applause from The Left)
Das geeinte Europa, Verständigung und Zusammenarbeit zwischen jahrhundertelang verfeindeten Völkern, ein europäisches Sozialmodell als Alternative zum entfesselten Kapitalismus, das war einmal ein großes, ich würde sagen, ein großartiges Projekt. Es geht längst nicht mehr darum, ob dieses Projekt eine Zukunft hat. Es geht darum, ob es wieder eine Gegenwart bekommt; denn die europäische Integration hat sich doch längst ins Gegenteil verkehrt, in ein Projekt zur Entfesselung der Märkte und zur Aushebelung der Demokratie, in ein Projekt, das europaweit die Prekarisierung der Arbeit und den Abbau sozialer Leistungen vorantreibt. Die Wachstumsraten sind heute in den meisten EU-Staaten niedriger und die Arbeitslosigkeit höher als vor Einführung des Binnenmarktes. Ländern, in denen jeder zweite Jugendliche keinen Job und keine Perspektive hat, werden mit kaltem Ehrgeiz Kürzungsprogramme diktiert. Dieser Ehrgeiz verlässt die EU aber sofort, wenn es zum Beispiel darum geht, den Steuertricks von Apple, Google & Co. endlich die Grundlage zu entziehen. Dabei tragen sie weiß Gott mehr Verantwortung für die öffentlichen Defizite als angeblich generöse Sozialprogramme.	The united Europe, understanding and cooperation between nations warring for centuries, a European social model as an alternative to unfettered capitalism, was once a large, I would say a great project. It's no longer about whether this project has a future. It's about whether it regains a presence; because European integration has nevertheless long been reversed, in a project to unleash the markets and to slash the democracy, in a project wherein Europe promotes the casualization of labor and the reduction of social benefits. The growth rates are lower today in most EU countries and unemployment is higher than before the introduction of the internal market. Countries where every second young person has no job and no prospects[, these countries] are dictated with cold ambition austerity programs. This ambition [then] leaves the EU, but immediately, for example when it comes to finally escape, the tax tricks from Apple, Google & Co. pull the rug out from under [us]. They carry, God knows, more responsibility for the public deficit than a supposedly generous social program.
(Beifall bei der LINKEN)	(Applause from The Left)
Überall in Europa wächst die Ungleichheit. Zwischen schamlosem Reichtum am oberen und hoffnungsloser Armut am unteren Ende lebt eine schrumpfende, abstiegsgefährdete Mittelschicht, die sich politisch im Stich gelassen fühlt. Die Zustimmung zur EU geht doch nicht deshalb zurück, weil irgendwelche Nationalisten Stimmungen schüren. Die Zustimmung geht zurück, weil die Mehrheit schlicht keinen Grund hat, sich für eine EU zu begeistern, die ihren Wohlstand verringert und ihre demokratischen Rechte aushebelt.	Across Europe, growing inequality. Between shameless wealth at the top and at the bottom desperate poverty lives a shrinking, relegation-threatened middle class who feels politically abandoned. Approval of the EU is not therefore falling back because any nationalists stoke moods. The approval is falling off because the majority simply has no reason to be enthusiastic for an EU which reduces their prosperity and annuls their democratic rights.
(Beifall bei der LINKEN - Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU/CSU): Dann müssen sie in den Mitgliedstaaten mal die richtige Politik machen! Nicht immer nur Schulden machen, sondern eine bessere Politik! Das wäre der richtige Weg! - Max Straubinger (CDU/CSU): Dann müssen die sozialistisch regierten Länder mal eine bessere Politik machen!)	(Applause from The Left - Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU / CSU): Then they have to make for once in the Member States the right policies.  Not always make only debt, but better policies! That would be the right way! - Max Straubinger (CDU! / CSU): Then the socialist led government must sometimes make better policies)!
Die agilsten Gegner Europas sitzen heute in Brüssel. Es ist nicht bekannt, ob Marine Le Pen Herrn Juncker inzwischen für ihre Frexit-Kampagne als Mitarbeiter verpflichtet hat; aber er ist definitiv ihr bester Mann. Die Stimmen in Großbritannien waren kaum ausgezählt, als Herr Juncker noch einmal bekräftigte, dass das Handelsabkommen CETA ohne Zustimmung der Mitgliedstaaten in Kraft gesetzt werden soll. Inzwischen hat die Kommission den Mitgliedstaaten zwar großzügig das Recht zur Ratifizierung eingeräumt; allerdings ist das wieder nur ein Täuschungsmanöver, weil sie das Abkommen vorläufig in Kraft setzen will. Ich hätte von der Bundesregierung schon gerne gehört, wie sie zu dieser erneuten Unverschämtheit unserer Brüsseler Antidemokraten steht.	The most agile opponent of Europe is sitting in Brussels today [NATO]. It is not known if Marine Le Pen has subsequently engaged Mr. Juncker for their Frexit campaign as an employee; but he is definitely her best man. The voices in the UK were barely counted, before Mr. Juncker once again reiterated that the trade agreement CETA, without the consent of the Member States, should be put in place. Meanwhile, although the Commission has generously given to Member States the right to ratify; however, this is just a ploy again, because she wants to put the Agreement into force provisionally. I would have liked to have heard from the federal government how it stands on this renewed insolence of our Brussels Antidemocrats.
(Beifall bei der LINKEN)	(Applause from The Left)
Das ist ja nicht alles. Wenige Tage nach dem Brexit entschied die EU-Kommission, das mutmaßlich krebserregende Pflanzengift Glyphosat für weitere anderthalb Jahre zuzulassen. Das Defizitverfahren gegen Portugal und Spanien soll trotz Krise verschärft werden. Ignoranz gegenüber demokratischen Rechten, Einknicken gegenüber der Wirtschaftslobby und Gleichgültigkeit . . .	That's not all. A few days after the Brexit [Proposed referendum on United Kingdom membership of the European Union], the European Commission decided to allow the suspected carcinogenic plant poison glyphosate for further one and a half years. The excessive deficit procedure for Portugal and Spain will be strengthened despite the crisis. Ignorance vis-à-vis democratic rights, buckling against the business lobby and indifference . . .
(Max Straubinger (CDU/CSU): Sie wenden sich gegen Arbeitsplätze, Frau Wagenknecht, gegen die Wirtschaft!)	(Max Straubinger (CDU / CSU): They are opposed to jobs, Mrs Wagenknecht, against the economy!)
. . . gegenüber einer perspektivlosen jungen Generation: Deutlicher als mit diesen drei Entscheidungen konnte man in der kurzen Zeit seit dem Brexit wirklich nicht all das demonstrieren, was die Menschen an der EU abstößt.	. . . vis-à-vis a perspectiveless young generation: you really could in the short time since the Brexit not demonstrate all that repels people in the EU more clearly than with these three decisions.
(Beifall bei der LINKEN)	(Applause from The Left)
Wer nicht will, dass Europa endgültig zerfällt, der muss doch spätestens jetzt auf einen sozialen und demokratischen Neubeginn setzen, auf ein Europa, das die Menschen wieder begeistern kann und in dem Referenden nicht als Bedrohung, sondern als normaler Bestandteil der Demokratie empfunden werden.	Whoever does not want Europe to finally disintegrate, must then finally now set [her] on a [path to] social and democratic rebirth, to a Europe which can again inspire people and in the referenda perceived not as a threat but as a normal part of democracy?
(Beifall bei der LINKEN)	(Applause from The Left)
So ein Europa wollen zumindest wir als Linke, gerade weil wir nicht wollen, dass die Geister der Vergangenheit über unsere Zukunft bestimmen.	Thus a Europe we want, at least we as the Left, just because we do not want the ghosts of the past determine our future.
(Beifall bei der LINKEN - Ulli Nissen (SPD): Wer kann das klatschen?)	(Applause from The Left - Ulli Nissen (SPD): Who can clap?)

Laurie calls for the Democratic Party to rise from its own ashes

[Please excuse the poor sound quality — the motor started just as I was beginning to record]

Hi — my name is Laurie Dobson, and — my head's cut off here. Sorry. There.

I'm on a boat, on the Eagle Aye, right now in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. I am a boat captain, and I help run a Scout program, Boy Scout program, for Scouts going around St. John this summer, 2016. I ran for office with Bernie, alongside Bernie, to support his campaign, and I wrote a letter to one of his political directors, Joe Caiazzo, and I've sent it to him, and I wanted to read it here, just to keep everybody I know on the same page with what I'm thinking right now. And hopefully there's some solidarity with that, so I'll read you what I wrote him.

To Joe Caiazzo, Political Director Bernie Campaign
(I just sent this this morning. Today's the sixt — July 16th.)
Dear Joe [and others reading and listening here]:
I got your email from Matt Amato who wrote a support letter for my campaign for State Rep in Maine. For an introduction, I'm an experienced political organizer, and a former Congressional candidate for the US Senate in Maine in 2008 as an Independent [in which Ralph Nader came up to KPort to campaign for her — JSC]. I worked for Bernie as a volunteer organizer in Maine, and then as a Bernie campaign caucus captain in Maine, a national delegate candidate, and a Maine convention attendee, when I endorsed Diane Russell's anti-superdelegate resolution on the floor of the convention. That is on my website, Laurie2016.com.
And during these occasions, and in my own race and races, I have witnessed many instances of voter disenfranchisement by party elites, which directly affected the outcome of my race, and races, as well as, I believe, the selection of the Bernie national convention delegates this year from Maine. The recent experience during my race against a so-so Bernie supporter who had said, though a person that heard her say it whom I know, that she was uncertain whether she would support Bernie or not when she got to Philly.
This was detailed in an article by Kevin Gosztola, a well-known writer and author and blogger, formerly of Fire Dog Lake, covered Chelsea Manning's efforts there. He was in the courtroom that entire time. And he is now at his own blog at ShadowProof.com. 

You'll see that on my website, and also my lengthy audio discourse and transcript there that's — it's in my blog that I've got with John Carpenter, uh, Steve Carpenter, at TellingOfTheTruth.blogspot.com.

I'm writing to you, Joe, to go forward to the Bernie campaign with this idea which follows. Please forward it to the relevant parties, who are even now in discussion in Burlington VT., deliberating on our party's future. So here's my concept:

I wish to energize my supporters and others to get behind the idea of a movement to create a new third party name and new progressive organization for the Greens, that reorganizes them under a unity standard with Bernie, Jill, Occupy, and the Anti-War Movement. Also Progressive Democrats (PDA members who are willing to reform the Party from the outside).

And I propose calling this, for the time being, the Millennial Movement, for the purpose of forming a new 'Millennial Party', formerly the Green Party, that incorporates Occupy/Green/Bernie's supporters into one party.

I believe it is necessary to break with Hillary supporters, with Blue Dog, and Boomer Democrats, who are mired into the Centrist policies for our Democratic Party.

And I believe that many of them are not open to the necessity for change understood by those who will be living though these changes that are now coming to bear, and through TPP policies, as well as economic devastation brought on, in goodly part, by the Clinton Centrist policies, which moved our party from its New Deal FDR roots. I believe you cannot have — as the standard bearer of change — the very family that was the agent for creating the shift against the people's party in the first place.

To honor the Black Lives Matter movement's focus on humane laws and lawmakers and law enforcement, you cannot also have these early pushers of the crime bill, and "super-predatory" characterization and demonization of people of color, to be the leaders of the political revolution galvanized by Bernie Sanders and embraced by Jill Stein. The old must make way for the new. And the attempt begun under Obama to do this MUST be made to be successful under a new order of organization, since it has proven to be hopelessly corrupted within the current mold made by the fabric of the party — within this party's fabric — which is, as I can attest, infested down to the grass roots level and unable to self — correct itself from within. All new efforts to run for office inside the current Democratic Party are doomed to the same failures which I and others have repeatedly experienced. There is no more time for exercises in futility. Now is the time to break with the old order and Bernie has shown us beyond the shadow of a doubt that if anybody could have prevailed, he would have.

So I urge anyone aligned with me in this understanding to help undertake the establishment of a newly reformed party, and to communicate this idea in your own voice.

It is simply this: it will not be the 'new third party', it will be the heart and soul of the Democratic Party, which is breaking away from the Centrist, aka, "Republican-Lite" Party. It can go back to where it came, by which we will, in so doing, create true opposition, loyally opposed to corporate takeover control, back to the original concept of 'this land, made for you and me'.

Please seriously consider and promote this idea. 

Thank you very much.

AMBASSADORS OF TERROR — the Preface to ISIS IS US

The following is the preface to the book, ISIS IS US.

I strongly urge the reader to purchase and read the complete book:  I especially recommend the Kindle version ($9.99) which can be read, searched, notated, sampled, and carried on any smart phone, as well as sharing quotes on social media.

https://www.amazon.com/ISIS-US-Shocking-Behind-Terror-ebook/dp/B019RXBP7M

 

Ambassadors of Terror

by John-Paul Leonard

The world has never seen anything quite like ISIS[4] before. Where in the world did it come from? Many pundits say this unique terrorist army would not exist if we had not crushed Saddam Hussein’s regime in Bush’s war on Iraq. Politicians like Donald Trump or Rand Paul are saying that Iraq, Libya and Syria were better off under Saddam, Qaddafi and Assad than they are now.

Americans had supported the war on Iraq “ to make the world safe for democracy” –to stop a dangerous dictator from oppressing his people and using weapons of mass destruction –not to plunge the Middle East into the hands of savage extremists who seem set on demolishing modern civilization.

The world was shocked by the ISIS blitz of June 2014 that captured huge areas of Iraq, oil fields and the second largest city, Mosul, nearly bringing the government in Baghdad to collapse. NBC News headlined, “ Huge Majority Regret Iraq War.” [5] A poll showed that only 22% of Americans still thought the Iraq war had been a good idea. This was a new low, down from 32% in 2013 and 62% in March 2003, when Secretary of State Colin Powell told the big lie at the UN about Saddam Hussein’s “ threat” to our security.

Apparently, many Americans make the link between the war on Iraq, and the rise of terrorism in the region.

Few critics, however, have gone so far as to accuse the US or its allies of the unthinkable madness of intentionally creating ISIS.[6] For us in the US this would be difficult to accept. We cherish the faith that our nation is a force for good in the world; we want to share the good things about America with the rest of the world when we can. Yet we have also heard of a dark side, that sometimes bubbles up to the surface –as, for example, during the Iran-Contra scandal. And therein lies a tale, a biography of deeds you won’t read on Wikipedia for a very long time, at the end of this preface.

A Lot of Blackwater Under the Bridge

It’s a basic historical fact that the US has shored up many Latin American dictatorships, but few details are generally known about how they do it. One practitioner who knows is Ambassador John Dimitri Negroponte, a veteran counter-insurgency expert going back to Operation Phoenix in the Vietnam War. He has held many high posts. Including Ambassador to Honduras 1981-1985, and US Ambassador to Iraq, 2004-2005...

Prof. Michel Chossudovsky of Global Research reveals how Negroponte fulfilled his assignment to defeat the Iraqi insurgency –and nearly managed to destroy Iraq as a nation as well. The recruitment of death squads is part of a well-established US military-intelligence agenda. There is a long and gruesome US history of covert funding and support of terror brigades and targeted assassinations going back to the Vietnam war...

The recruitment and training of terror brigades in both Iraq and Syria was modeled on the “ Salvador Option”, a “ terrorist model” of mass killings by US-sponsored death squads in Central America. It was first applied in El Salvador, in the heyday of resistance against the military dictatorship, resulting in an estimated 75,000 deaths.[7]

As Ambassador to Honduras in the 1980’s, Negroponte was the lynch pin between Washington and the US-sponsored death squads in Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

In April 2004, G.W. Bush hired him as “ the man for the job” to bring the “ Salvador Option” to Iraq and Syria. In the same month, Al-Qaida in Iraq, the precursor to ISIS, was formed.[8]

Chossudovsky cites a report in The Times Online, in Jan. 2005, that the Pentagon was looking at

forming hit squads of Kurdish and Shia fighters to target leaders of the Iraqi insurgency [Resistance] in a strategic shift borrowed from the American struggle against left-wing guerrillas in Central America 20 years ago.

Under the so-called “ El Salvador option”, Iraqi and American forces would be sent to kill or kidnap insurgency leaders, even in Syria, where some are thought to shelter.

Hit squads would be controversial and would probably be kept secret...

The Reagan Administration funded and trained teams of nationalist forces to neutralise Salvadorean rebel leaders and sympathisers. …

John Negroponte, the US Ambassador in Baghdad, had a front-row seat at the time as Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-85. In the early 1980s, President Reagan’s Administration funded and helped to train Nicaraguan contras based in Honduras, with the aim of ousting Nicaragua’s Sandinista regime.

The Contras were equipped using money from illegal American arms sales to Iran, a scandal that could have toppled Mr. Reagan.

The thrust of the Pentagon proposal in Iraq …is to follow that model …[9]

But it gets worse. A lot worse. Chossudovsky notes:

While the stated objective of the “ Iraq Salvador Option” was to “ take out the insurgency,” in practice the US-sponsored terror brigades were involved in routine killings of civilians, with a view to fomenting sectarian violence. In turn, the CIA and MI6 were overseeing “ Al Qaeda in Iraq” units involved in targeted assassinations directed against the Shiite population... advised by undercover US Special Forces.

Robert Stephen Ford –subsequently appointed US Ambassador to Syria –was part of Negroponte’s team in Baghdad in 2004-2005. In January 2004, he was dispatched as U.S. representative to the Shiite city of Najaf, which was the stronghold of the Mahdi army [an important volunteer force loyal to the charismatic Shiite imam Muqtada al-Sadr], with which he made preliminary contacts.[10]

So they were stoking violence from both sides of the street. The Salvador Option is El Salvador squared,  El Salvador on steroids. The primary objective is not just quelling the insurgency to seal a US victory; it is to take that violence and ramp it up into internecine warfare that will rip the country into three parts. This is divide and conquer with a vengeance, following a plan to subjugate Iraq that the Israeli strategist Oded Yinon laid out in the 1980’s, of which more later.

Supposedly the war on Iraq was part of the US “ war on terror.” Bush even made a lame attempt to link Saddam and Al Qaida to justify his war on Iraq (of course, Saddam’s regime was naturally trying to eradicate fundamentalist terrorism). Yet now the US was going to put Al Qaida into mass production.

The policy design was devastatingly simple. The Sunnis were to be punished because Saddam and much of his administration had been Sunni. This decapitated the country and gutted its military. A Shiite-leaning government was set up. The Sunni insurgency would direct its ire against this weak center, while the “ Sunni” terrorists of Al Qaida were unleashed against Shiite civilians. Ethnic cleansing would result,  beginning the dissolution into three separate territories, Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish.

John Negroponte and Robert Stephen Ford were put in charge of recruiting the Iraqi death squads. While Negroponte coordinated the operation from his office at the US Embassy, Robert S. Ford, who was fluent in both Arabic and Turkish, was entrusted with the task of establishing strategic contacts with Shiite and Kurdish militia groups outside the “ Green Zone” .[11]

Chossudovsky quotes Dahr Jamail, the courageous, award-winning American journalist cited by Wikipedia as “ one of the few unembedded journalists to report extensively from Iraq during the 2003 Iraq invasion:”

Negroponte had assistance from his colleague from his days in Central America during the 1980’s, Ret. Col James Steele. Steele, whose title in Baghdad was Counselor for Iraqi Security Forces, supervised the selection and training of members of the Badr Organization [Badr Brigade] and Mehdi Army, the two largest Shi’ite militias in Iraq, in order to target the leadership and support networks of a primarily Sunni resistance. Planned or not, these death squads promptly spiraled out of control to become the leading cause of death in Iraq. Intentional or not, the scores of tortured, mutilated bodies which turn up on the   streets of Baghdad each day are generated by the death squads whose impetus was John Negroponte. And it is this U.S.-backed sectarian violence which largely led to the hell-disaster that Iraq is today.[12]

Demographic warfare. This was the era when Shiite and Sunni mosques and neighborhoods were rocked by terror bombings, until the residents were forced to flee to areas where their sect was in the majority. This was when the famous incident occurred with the two British SAS special forces mercenaries, dressed in mufti and driving around Basra with detonators in their car, apparently planning to bomb a mosque or a market.[13] They were arrested by the Iraqi police. The British liberated them by driving an assault group of tanks through the walls of the jail. Interesting parallel: during “ the troubles” in Northern Ireland, the SAS was caught carrying out terror bombing provocations to stoke the sectarian civil war there. “

On May 4, 2006, Congressman Dennis Kucinich gave a speech on the floor of the House which linked the Bush administration to the death squads in Iraq.” Kucinich had written to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, citing copious references to newspaper articles. “ News reports over the past 10 months,” Kucinich told Congress, “ strongly suggest that the U.S. has trained and supported highly organized Iraqi commando brigades, and that some of those brigades have operated as death squads, abducting and assassinating thousands of Iraqis.” [14]

Here are a few of the congressman’s news highlights:

July 28, 2005 –Los Angeles Times reports that members of a California Army National Guard company, the Alpha Company, who were implicated in a detainee abuse scandal, trained and conducted joint operations with the Wolf Brigade, a commando unit criticized for human rights abuses. In an online Alpha Company newsletter, Captain Haviland wrote, “ We have assigned 2nd Platoon to help them transition, and install some of our ‘Killer Company’aggressive tactical spirit in them.’The article further states that despite the Wolf Brigade’s controversial reputation for human rights violations, it is regarded as the gold standard for Iraqi security forces by U.S. military officials.”

August 31, 2005 –BBC reports that on the night of August 24, a large force of the Volcano Brigade raided homes in Al-Hurriyah city in the Baghdad, kidnapping and then executing 76 citizens. The victims were all shot in the head after their hands and feet had been tied up. They suffered the harshest forms of torture, deformation and burning.

November 17, 2005 –Newsday reports that in the past year, the U.S. military has helped build up Iraqi commandos under guidance from James Steele, a former Army Special Forces officer who led U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in El Salvador in the 1980s. The brigades built up over the past year include     the Lion Brigade, Scorpion Brigade and Volcano Brigade [the death squad cited in the previous article].

February 26, 2006 –The Independent reports that outgoing United Nations’human rights chief in Iraq, John Pace, revealed that hundreds of Iraqis are being tortured to death or summarily executed every month in Baghdad alone by the death squads working from the Ministry of Interior. He said that up to three-quarters of the corpses stacked in the Baghdad mortuary show evidence of gunshot wounds to the head or injuries caused by drill-bits or burning cigarettes.

March 9, 2006 –Los Angeles Times reports that ... U.S. trainers have also given extensive support to 27 brigades of heavily armed commandos accused of a series of abuses, including the death of 14 Sunni Arabs who were locked in an airtight van last summer.

March 10, 2006 –Sidney Morning Herald reports that men wearing the uniforms of U.S.-trained security forces, which are controlled by the Interior Ministry, abducted 50 people in a daylight raid on a security agency. Masked men who are driving what appear to be new government-owned vehicles are carrying out many of the raids.

March 27, 2006 –The Independent reports that while U.S. authorities have begun criticizing the Iraqi government over the “ death squads,” many of the paramilitary groups accused of the abuse, such as the Wolf Brigade, the Scorpion Brigade and the Special Police Commandos were set up with the help of the American military. Furthermore, the militiamen were provided with U.S. advisers some of whom were veterans of Latin American counter-insurgency which also had led to allegations of death squads at the time.[15]

Author Mike Whitney notes that “ the appearance of Colonel James Steele, as counselor for the Iraqi Security Forces, should remove any doubt about the real nature of America’s involvement... Steele’s ‘stock in trade’ is ‘spreading terror through the application of extreme violence’–Max Fuller’s apt description of US counterinsurgency campaigns in Latin America.”

About 160,000 US troops occupied Iraq, and the cost to Iraq so far, has been about 160,000 civilian lives. The troops were gradually replaced with mercenaries from Blackwater and other “ private security firms.” By the end of 2011, the US Army withdrew. It lost 4,400 men, cost $ 1 trillion,[16] and released thousands of veterans disabled by trauma into US society. They leave behind them a fractured, instable and radioactive Iraq. By 2013, civilian casualties were already on the rise again.[17]

Negroponte understudy Robert S. Ford, the No. 2 “ genius of genocide” who helped set up the Iraqi death squads, stayed in Baghdad until 2006. He was then assigned as ambassador to Algeria (another target for regime change) until 2008, when he returned to the Baghdad embassy as Deputy Head of Mission.[18] Ford was by then well prepared for his appointment as US Ambassador to Syria in January 2011, coinciding with the “ Arab Spring” disturbances by the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo. In a scarce two months thereafter, the armed insurgency started in Syria. The “ military-industrial-media complex” was all geared up to present it as a spree of insane violence by President Assad against his own people.

From the very start, fighters, weapons and supplies were funneled over the border from Iraq and Turkey into Syria –including the vicious and extremist death squads of the LIFG, or Libyan Islamic Fighting group: fresh veterans of the Libya campaign, mercenaries of an Empire of Terror.[19] The US-trained veteran terrorist brigades began to commit atrocities against civilians, then post footage of the carnage on Youtube, and fix the blame on imaginary pro-government gangs –as if Assad himself had learned the tactics of counter-insurgency terror at the School of the Americas. Each time, the mass media would then join in a chorus of hysteria about the US “ responsibility to protect” civilians (so-called R2P) –the trick that had just worked to mobilize the extreme violence of NATO firepower to bring down Qaddafi and smash Libya. Russia and China learned their lesson, and vetoed NATO intervention in Syria at the UN.

Our lying, embedded media are acting as the purveyors of fakery, and the enablers of genocide. They are just as guilty as those who do the actual killing, because these war crimes could never happen without their protection. ***

Damascus holds a place of honor as the world’s oldest continuously inhabited city, and the third holiest city in Islam. Religious tolerance has deep roots in Syria. When the city surrendered peacefully to the Muslim siege in 634, the Orthodox Christians were treated benevolently by the new masters. The Koran considers Islam to be a continuation of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and ordains respect towards Christians and Jews as peoples with a holy scripture.[20]

When the Allies parceled out the Turkish empire after World War I, and the French got their mandate over Syria, they tried to divide and conquer the land by splitting it up into six ethno-religious enclaves. The Syrians, who are three-quarters Sunni, would have none of it. They have an ingrained suspicion of foreign conspiracies attempting to divide them along religious lines.[21] Some critics believe the imperialist aim is not regime change or balkanization, but “ merely” the destruction of a non-compliant nation. However, the Kurds, who are Sunni but not Arab, do have aspirations for more autonomy, and it was easy enough to use them to occupy Syria’s oil fields. So as we will see, the “ French option” is not off the table.

Terror attacks have been concentrated against Syria’s minorities, especially the Christians and the Alawites, Assad’s sect. The effect is to force them to flee as refugees, leaving a Sunni state that will be more susceptible to takeover by extremists, and to join the Sunni bloc of Gulf states allied with the US. In Iraq, the Christian population has now decreased by 80% or 90% from a figure of about 1.5 million in 2003.[22] As to who benefits, well, “ three’s a crowd.” Friendship between Muslims and Christians is the nemesis of Zionism (just as the world alliance between Christendom and Zionism is so fatal to the Muslim peoples.)

According to Chossudovsky in The Globalization of War,[23] the thesis of a “ Sunni belt” or bloc was spawned by Condoleeza Rice in 2006, ostensibly as a strategy to contain Iran. It was implemented by Prince Bandar “ Bush,” the Saudi spymaster, who went right to work creating the Jabhat al Nusra and ISIL / ISIS terror brigades. Saudi Arabia bankrolled the early years of the death squad campaign against Syria, providing financing and plausible deniability for the US effort.

Within days after Bandar organized a terror bombing against the high command of the Syrian military, in July 2012, he too was nearly killed by a bomb; many believe this was a revenge blow by Syrian military intelligence. That is one reason PM Erdogan of Turkey took the lead role in supporting the insurgency, but there is also the important logistical advantage: Turkey’s long border with Syria and Iraq. The bandits financed themselves and made Erdogan’s family rich by stealing Syria’s oil, which the Turks then sold to Israel. It is widely believed ISIS was able to loot $ 400 million from the central bank of Mosul, but Iraq has denied it. The UK Daily Mail reported on Iraq’s claim that ISIS is selling organs harvested from its victims to supplement its $ 2 million-a-day income from oil, ransom payments, and smuggled antiques.[24]

Takeaways

•Terrorist death squads in Iraq were created using the “ El Salvador Option” under cover of US Army counter-insurgency operations in the Iraq War. Ambassador Negroponte and Col. Steele, veterans of the Central American “ Contras” project, set up secret police death squads and freelance terror brigades on both sides of the Sunni-Shiite divide. The aim was to instigate a civil war along sectarian lines, as a divide-and-conquer strategy. ISIS (the “ Islamic State in Iraq and Syria” ) grew out of the “ Al Qaida” or “ Sunni” terror units they set up. In 2014, ISIS captured huge areas of Iraq, thanks to a stand-down by Iraqi army officers.

•In the “ Arab Spring” of March 2011, US “ human rights” NGO’s organized protests against the Syrian government, which worked as a screen for the death squad operations organized by Ambassador Ford. Terror brigades brought in from Iraq and Libya committed atrocities which were blamed on the government. Western nations supported them, claiming they were “ moderate” pro-democracy rebels. A huge army of mercenaries and extremists was recruited to fight the Syrian Army, paid for by Saudi money and the theft of Syrian oil. While the US and its allies pretended to fight their own terrorists, ISIS and its ilk grew stronger in Syria. On Sept. 30, 2015, Vladimir Putin changed the game by calling their bluff and carrying out massive airstrikes on ISIS, in coordination with the Syrian Army.

Eric King: Russia is dominating in Syria... and there’s really nothing Washington can do.

Paul Craig Roberts: No, except make a fool of itself by supporting ISIS. We brought ISIS in there —everybody knows that. Just the other day the former head of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency said on television that ‘Yes, we created ISIS and we used them as henchmen to overthrow governments.’(Laughter).[25] ***

It’s no fun for anyone to have to admit, “ My country: wrong and wrong!” However, the flip side of the freedoms we enjoy, is that burden of responsibility.

This short preface can’t tell very much of the story. It can only hope to help the sincere reader set aside natural skepticism, long enough to consider the unfamiliar evidence in the book. It is a strange tale indeed, and unfortunately, there is no way to expose monstrous deceptions without risking being thought a liar oneself.

I have tried here to open one fairly clear window, one reasonably straightforward thread of the narrative, leading from known points in our history (“ our” Central American death squad “ rebels” or “ Contras” ), to the unfamiliar and frightening territory of today’s terror bloodbath in the Middle East, in Paris, and beyond.

In this book are contributions from an array of authors, each with a unique perspective, yet arriving at similar conclusions: that ISIS was created intentionally, not by accidental “ blowback” [26] from misguided policies. Whether or not we convince you, I hope you will find our selections in some measure thought-provoking, stimulating and enlightening.

It’s a minority viewpoint, but we should remember –One good reason we have freedom of speech, is that Truth always starts from a minority viewpoint.

–John-Paul Leonard,

San Diego, Calif.,

December 2015

Who were The Contras?

Who were "The Contras"?

Reagan called them "the moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers".  But Oliver North's aide in the field, Robert Owen, sent him a memo in March of 1986, reminding the brash Lt. Colonel that their leader, Adolfo Calero, is "a creation of the United States government", and he warned North that those around Calero,

"Unfortunately, they are not first rate people; in fact they are liars and greed and power motivated. They are not the people to rebuild a new Nicaragua. In fact, the FDN has done a good job of keeping competent people out of the organization. If it hasn't, then Nicaragua is lost forever with the type of leadership that has emerged ..."

 

Remember, this is the assessment of a young American know-it-all, member of the clique that rejected all forms of Latin American government that dared to put the welfare of its people before the demands of Wall Street.  To give a voice to the alternative view, let me quote the consummate playwright of his day, the heir of Samuel Beckett, himself the heir of James Joyce, I speak of Harold Pinter, who was also an activist of considerable note.  In his Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech, he said: 

" I should remind you that at the time President Reagan made the following statement: 'The Contras are the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers.'

The United States supported the brutal Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua for over 40 years. The Nicaraguan people, led by the Sandinistas, overthrew this regime in 1979, a breathtaking popular revolution.

The Sandinistas weren't perfect. They possessed their fair share of arrogance and their political philosophy contained a number of contradictory elements. But they were intelligent, rational and civilised. They set out to establish a stable, decent, pluralistic society. The death penalty was abolished. Hundreds of thousands of poverty-stricken peasants were brought back from the dead. Over 100,000 families were given title to land. Two thousand schools were built. A quite remarkable literacy campaign reduced illiteracy in the country to less than one seventh. Free education was established and a free health service. Infant mortality was reduced by a third. Polio was eradicated.

The United States denounced these achievements as Marxist/Leninist subversion. In the view of the US government, a dangerous example was being set. If Nicaragua was allowed to establish basic norms of social and economic justice, if it was allowed to raise the standards of health care and education and achieve social unity and national self respect, neighbouring countries would ask the same questions and do the same things. There was of course at the time fierce resistance to the status quo in El Salvador."

I strongly urge truth seekers to watch the entire Nobel speech:

The point Pinter is making here is, Wall Street does not intend to allow any Latin American country to increase the cost of labor in any way.  The reason Jean-Bertrand Aristide, President of Haiti, was carried off bodily by US Marines to the Central African Republic is the same reason as Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State presided over the deposing of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya — both of these leaders raised the minimum wage for their starving people.

Wall Street knows full well that any such rise in the cost of labor will spread to every other country in the region.  And Wall Street tells the Marines what to do, don't think they don't.  And they tell Hillary and Obama what to do.  And they get precious little resistence from either one.

This might be an appropriate time to mention where the US policy of treating Latin America like slave colonies began.  The Reagan team sprang from the Eisenhower team, which was dominated by Sec'y of State John Foster Dulles and brother Allen Dulles, Director of Central Intelligence.

Here you see the painting "Glorious Victory" by the great Mexican artist Diego Rivera, depicting Foster shaking the hand of the fawning new Guatemalan dictator, Col. Carlos Castillo Armas, shortly after the overthrow of the populist hero Jacobo Arbenz in 1954.  Arbenz had the temerity to nationalize vast tracts of unused land belonging to United Fruit Co., now Chiquita, to provide subsistence farmland for his people.  United Fruit was a client of Sullivan and Cromwell, still the biggest law firm on Wall Street, of which Foster was a partner, and Allen a working lawyer.

You can see also the face of Ike on the bomb, Allen resting his chin on Foster's shoulder, the bananas which represented the only value in the land to them, the sellout bishops and clergy, the sellout military, the poor crushed by the labor and killed by the Secret Armies sent in even then.

Anyone wishing to be familiar with this subject should watch Bill Moyers's masterpiece from 1987, The Secret Government - the Constitution in Crisis.

Better yet, watch it four times.