October 5, 2008
Elaine Meinel Supkis
Every day is Groundhog Day in the US military/industrial sphere. We make the same monotonous mistakes over and over again. Unlike in the movie where the main character slowly works his way out of the loop by being nicer, the US is working its way out of this moronic loop by being nastier. So it doesn't get out of the loop, of course. Now, the US has entered a much more dangerous loop: trying to out-militarize China and Russia by arming their neighbors and feeding insurrections in both of these nuclear-armed empires. And we also are bombing Pakistan which also has nuclear bombs, driving Pakistan into China and Russia's orbit.
US urged to bolster missile, space defenses against China: paper
A draft report recommends that the United States build new missile, sea-based and space-based defenses to deal with China's growing nuclear and conventional forces, a newspaper said Tuesday.The draft by a State Department advisory board said China aims to build forces that are not just capable of retaking Taiwan but also of projecting power beyond east Asia, The Washington Times reported.
China's "major objective is to counter US presence and US military capabilities in East Asia through the acquisition of offensive capacities in critical functional areas that systematically exploit US vulnerabilities," it quoted the report as saying.
China is developing capabilities for "asymmetric warfare," such as space and computer weapons, that could help it defeat stronger US armed forces, according to a copy of the draft the daily said it had obtained.
Well, China may be capable of doing 'asymmetric warfare' but not by gumming up our computers or dropping bombs on us! It is obvious to anyone commenting on financial matters that China's chief nuclear bomb is financial. Namely, they withhold credit from us or strengthen the yen of Japan and thus, prevent the Japanese carry trade and we go 'boom.' The US is busy taking on epic amounts of debt right now and we plan to get the credit for all this by selling Treasury bonds. These have been selling like hot cakes because of frantic bankers using it as a bomb shelter.
This is not a good thing because the bankers doing this are bankrupt. They are pulling this scam whereby they 'sell' really trashy CDO, CDX and other garbage to the US Federal Reserve which then translates the paper value of these worthless things into Treasuries. So it looks like the US government has infinite credit at virtually 0% interest thanks to this obvious circular scam.
But the whole world knows that banks need real savings and real capitalist profits to survive. And this is what the US system lacks which is why it is collapsing. Generally speaking, when a military empire is collapsing due to lack of looting profits coupled with a failure to fund wild spending at the capital, they usually lash out and attack neighbors in a last-ditch effort at looting and enslavement.
When Nazi Germany and Warlord Japan did this as their solution to the Great Depression, this caused WWII. This was a very massive and very destructive war that raged in Europe, Africa Asia and the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The US still pretends to be backing the 'free trade' flat world system so beloved by the New York Times and the Washington Post but in reality, we are in a 'free fall' flat world system where the US is being tempted with the notion that we can flatten everything in our path via our ability to murder civilians.
The Taliban are decimating, literally, UK troops:
It was not supposed to be that way. Unlike 16 Air Assault Brigade’s first tour in Helmand two years ago, when the then defence secretary John Reid declared that he hoped not a single shot would be fired, they were well prepared this time.They had almost twice as many men — 7,800 troops and four combat battalions, consisting of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions the Parachute Regiment and two battalions of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. Their commander, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, declared them “the best equipped force the British Army has ever sent”.
But the Taliban have also changed tactics, increasingly using improvised explosive devices (IEDs), hiring foreign fighters from Chechnya and Uzbekistan as well as from Pakistan, and even managing to lure defectors from the Afghan national army who had been trained by British and American forces by offering to double their £90-a-month combat pay.
10% of the British combat brigade in Helmland has been killed so far. This is better than their first invasion of this region that had a 99% death rate. But then, back in the 19th century, the technology gap between the tribes and the British imperialists was much, much smaller.
The Taliban are civilians, by the way. They are not a military force backed by a state. They are great warriors but still, civilians. Our bombs are being dropped on civilian populations in Afghanistan, Iraq and now, Pakistan. It is growing worse, not better because the wars we are waging are expanding. And virtually none of this is enriching us.
True, the US has ceased threatening Iran every day. Coupled with Iraq re-entering world oil markets means the price of oil is finally dropping, temporarily. So long as Saudi Arabia sees fit to pump it cheaper and cheaper in order to protect their investments in the G12 economies.
China denounces proposed US arms sales to Taiwan: state media
AFP) - China on Saturday denounced proposed US arms sales to Taiwan worth 6.5 billion dollars, according to state media, warning "there is only one China in the world, and that Taiwan is a part of China." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the government and people firmly opposed the move, which would seriously damage China's interests and Sino-US relations.Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei has summoned the charge d'affaires of the US Embassy to protest the US move, according to a spokesman, the state Xinhua news agency said.
The Pentagon notified Congress Friday of 6.5 billion dollars in possible arms sales to Taiwan that would include advanced interceptor missiles, Apache attack helicopters and submarine-launched missiles.
The Defence Security and Cooperation Agency said the proposed sales were aimed at improving Taiwan's defences and would not alter the basic military balance in the region.
The latest moves to irritate China are designed to cut down on Chinese trade with the G7 nations. Ringing China with threatening weapons forces China to be more aggressive. Then we plan to point to this as proof that China is a threat. This same stupid plot is being foisted on Russia. The US is ringing Russia was hostile missiles aimed at Moscow. This forces Russia to retaliate and rearm. Why we want this is sheer insanity. I suspect that the military/industrial people really do imagine we can win a nuclear war now, not later. So they want to push this agenda forwards now.
There is lots of delusional propaganda running around the planet. In the West, we have our own pet delusions. One, that has been peddled a lot this last few months, is the pretense that Russia, not the US, started the war that flared up in Georgia. Now, we see terrorist bombings of the Russians in Ossetia and the US is totally silent about this. Instead of the ritual denunciations of terrorism, our government, as per usual, actually endorses and even pays for terrorists to act. Just as the US encouraged the 9/11 attackers to succeed in order to launch the New World Order's Stalinist actions.
The US has few value-added manufacturing export items. One of the major things we sell are Boeing jets and military hardware, especially jets. These sales of military stuff have picked up recently as various countries running trade surpluses with the US [Israel has a big trade surplus, for example] buy our weapons. We are not selling this to Russia or China. So our trade deficits with them are growing worse even as we see world trade collapse, overall.
This financial need to hyper-arm the planet will create more wars but we don't care. We are the world's top warmongering society and we bristle with desire to bomb, bomb, bomb anyone and everyone. In the present Presidential race to the bottom, anyone who dares to even suggest we use elementary diplomacy is hammered by our AIPAC media. So all candidates left standing are the ones who endorse warmongering. And Wall Street bail outs.
Russia to upgrade nuclear systems
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has announced plans to build a "guaranteed nuclear deterrent system", to be in place by 2020.
He said he wanted military chiefs to submit plans by December.He called for a programme to build new nuclear submarines as well as "a system of aerospace defence".
*snip*
"We plan to start serial production of warships, primarily nuclear-powered submarines carrying cruise missiles and multifunctional submarines," Mr Medvedev said."We will develop an aerospace defence system, as well," he added.
Since the US is bent on reducing trade with China by NOT trading with China in the future, this will cause WWIII. Japan, of course, will vanish during the first hour of WWIII. Just as Germany will, too. Not one person in either country will survive except a few in the mountain fringes. If that. This would suggest Europe and Japan would be very reluctant to fund the US death wish machine. But no, both want to dominate China or Russia via the US military. It is still a useful and nearly free club they can swing wildly and then retreat into diplomacy while the US takes all the flack. But not if both endorse parking hostile missiles right on top of Russia and China's borders.
IAEA nations urge non-nuclear Mideast in bitter vote
(Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear assembly on Saturday passed a resolution urging all Middle East nations to renounce atom bombs in a vote most Arabs boycotted over amendments they felt took pressure off Israel. The vote was 82-0 with 13 abstentions but disenchantment reigned after days of wrangling between Israel and Western nations on one hand and Arab and Islamic states on the other that polarised a body that normally operates on consensus.
*snip*
But almost all Arab League states stalked out of the Vienna assembly hall before the vote over Israeli-sponsored amendments pushed through by Western states in paragraph-by-paragraph votes earlier, changes the Arabs felt weakened the measure."How could we approve a call on us all to obey our international obligations when Israel itself refuses to adhere to any non-proliferation standards. This undermines the IAEA's credibility," one Arab diplomat told Reuters.
A senior Western diplomat countered: "The call for compliance with obligations was a (key) change from versions of this resolution in previous years in that it is a clear signal to Iran and Syria."
*snip*
Near the end of the meeting later in the day, a second Middle East resolution revived by Arabs to brand "Israel's nuclear capabilities" a threat was kept from a floor vote by a Western-backed "no-action" motion carried by a 46-43 margin.
*snip*
"It has been a circus, the worst conference in the history of the IAEA. I've never seen such animosity. But it reflects the unilateral character of the age we are living in, plus the lack of a true peace process," said a European diplomat.Approving the resolution were virtually all Western states, a handful of Asian, Latin American and African countries plus Iran and Egypt from the Islamic world. Abstainers included Israel, chief ally the United States, and Syria, a foe of both.
This is such curious news! Iran, I suspect, wants to have this passed because it is the camel's nose under the Israeli nuclear tent. But the other nations in the Middle East want Israel disarmed. The US and Europe need the oil in these nations that are so outraged but feel that these kings and princes will back things secretly because of economic connections. This is why bin Laden's little revolutionary band is so successful. So long as all the wealth and profits in the West flow to Islamic nations, there will be no revolutions except in the non-oil exporting countries like Pakistan or Afghanistan but the minute oil drops, this revolutionary stuff rises! So I am predicting that if there is a depression in oil profits, internal violence will cascade over all the Middle Eastern theocracies.
And the collapse of US ability to hand out money like lollipops to people like the vile Egyptian dictators will also lead to more revolutions. AIPAC runs nearly totally, our entire diplomatic systems. So the US and Europe dutifully will be total hypocrites and will continue to torture the entire concept of 'disarmament' which seems strictly to be, 'Everyone disarms except for the US empire and its minions'. This, in turn, is backfiring hugely. But our plan is to have enough people disarmed so we only have to nuke Russia and China. This is a very stupid concept, a dumb dream and a total nightmare.
Troops Deployed Abroad Give 6:1 to Obama
According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain's haul.
Despite McCain's status as a decorated veteran and a historically Republican bent among the military, members of the armed services overall -- whether stationed overseas or at home -- are also favoring Obama with their campaign contributions in 2008, by a $55,000 margin. Although 59 percent of federal contributions by military personnel has gone to Republicans this cycle, of money from the military to the presumed presidential nominees, 57 percent has gone to Obama.
They want to go home. They figure, Obama must toe the AIPAC line but they also hope that he will listen to them. I think that this is an illusion, alas. There is no hope for the professional soldiers who are the slaves of the State. My little village is named 'Berlin' due to so many descendants of the Hessian mercenary soldiers who were abandoned here by the Crown when King George III lost the Colonies. I wonder if our own soldiers will establish little New York Cities or Houstons in Afghanistan and Iraq?
Heh. Yup. But only after they convert to Islam, I suppose. These poor people are trapped and will cycle through death traps until they all die. If 10% die a decade but the survivors can't leave, this really is a losing proposition for anyone thinking they can get rich this way. The divorce and bankruptcy rate for these poor people is astonishing. Some barely know their own children.
But the hope of the government is, the fiscal meltdown will supply it with many more recruits willing to destroy themselves in the hopes of getting some tiny piece of a shrinking economic pie in the sky! By the way, Ron Paul outdid both candidates in donations when he was still running.
There are many theories about cycles. Why does the economy or wars or other things go in cycles? Much of the excuse for various government and banking systems is to prevent cycles but this always fails like clockwork. Indeed, the need for relentless cycles seems to get worse, not better, over time! The Federal Reserve likes to play with the rate of money making and inflation by moving interest rates up and down like someone fiddling with the thermostat constantly. Only they tend to go to extremes. But what drives all this? Why do these things happen? And what cycle are we on right now?
The US attempt at encircling both Russia and China is also failing since both Russia and China have real sovereign wealth to spread around. And are quickly building many alliances across the planet.
Russia and Venezuela in oil pact against US
RUSSIA and Venezuela have signed an energy pact to bolster co-operation in their respective oil and gas industries, bolstering energy ties between two countries trying to decrease US world influence.Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, and Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, yesterday watched as their energy ministers sealed the deal in Orenburg, near Kazakhstan's border, and home to Russian oil industry facilities.
The chief executive of Russia's state gas monopoly, OAO Gazprom, and the president of state energy company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) signed a memorandum of understanding calling for establishment of a consortium to oversee broader co-operation in oil and gas between the energy-rich nations.
And as I predicted a number of years ago when the 'Let's go to MARS!' people thought Bush was their big, fat hero:
NASA's Star Is Fading, Its Chief Says
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has clashed repeatedly with the White House in recent months -- a rift that escalated when budget officials heavily edited a statement he was submitting to Congress about China's space ambitions and spilled into the open last week in a leaked e-mail that accused the budget office of doing "everything possible" to walk away from the $100 billion international space station.
Griffin was a total fool. When I mocked him here at Culture of Life News, a number of space enthusiasts who knew me from my L-5 Society days were angry with me. HAHAHA. But just like I predicted the collapse of the L-5 initiatives due to members supporting the Reagan Star Wars program, I was also right about Bush not being serious about anything to do with space exploration except to use it for military purposes.
The military side of our space program has totally swamped the civilian side. When I was a child, the military ran the space program which is why I got to stay briefly in a secret military installation back in the 1950's. Russia's successful 'man in space' launches finally forced our government to create a civilian space program which is now being starved relentlessly to death. Kiss it goodbye, Griffin. I warned you about this.
Note that the sole interest in the dying old space jalopy program is due to grim expectations of fabulous failures, not dreams about going into space! We could fund a huge civilian space program if we wanted. But instead, we are funding useless bank bail outs, useless wars with angry civilians who hate our guts and preparations for that hideous disaster we call WWIII, aka, the Apocalypse. Why we are doing this is a mystery....for future writers about the decline and fall of the US great power.
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