Date: Tuesday, 14 January 2025
https://ericzuesse.substack.com/p/the-current-status-of-the-global
https://theduran.com/the-current-status-of-the-global-geostrategic-war-u-s-v-russia-china-iran/
The Current Status of the Global Geostrategic War: U.S. v. Russia, China, & Iran
13 January 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)
For understanding this, I rely especially upon the following reporters whom I have found to have the highest percentage (at or hear 100%) predictive accuracy on these matters and I thus consider to be the most reliable and brilliant geostrategic analysts on the Web: Alexander Mercouris, Brian Berletic, Douglas Macgregor, the “Moon of Alabama” blogger, the “Simplicius76” blogger, and Scott Ritter. All of them are in agreement that Russia will win its war to defend itself against the U.S. empire’s war to conquer Russia in the battlefields of Ukraine, and that the U.S. regime is therefore now reving-up its war to conquer China, so as to keep the controlling owners of the U.S. Government, America's billionaires, satisfied and continuing to fund the political careers of America’s billionaires-s‘elected’ installed Government officials. Their war to conquer Iran is thus now being viewed by these analysts as a part of the U.S.-and-allied billionaires’ war to conquer China even more than it is a part of their war to conquer Russia (because the latter war is no longer the empire’s main focus).
Below are recent statements about these matters, from Berletic, Ritter, “Moon of Alabama,” and “Simplicius76” excerpts I’ve selected as showing their main points:
——
https://journal-neo.su/2024/12/19/syria-today-iran-tomorrow-and-inevitably-china/
https://archive.is/xOkLE
“Syria Today, Iran Tomorrow, and Inevitably China”
Brian Berletic, December 19, 2024
The collapse of the Syrian government in mid-December 2024 represents a pivotal moment for U.S. geopolitical strategies in the Middle East and beyond. …
Syria’s Collapse Was Long Sought …
Next Target: Iran …
The Times of Israel itself, in an article titled, “IDF sees chance for strikes on Iran nuke sites after knocking out Syria air defenses,” connected Israel’s targeting and destruction of Syrian air defenses with plans to then carry out direct strikes on Iran.
The article points out:
According to the military, the IAF destroyed 86% of the former Assad regime’s air defense systems across Syria, totaling 107 separate air defense components and another 47 radars. The numbers include 80% of the short-to medium-range SA-22, also known as the Pantsir-S1; and 90% of the Russian SA-17 medium-range air defense system, also known as the Buk.
These airstrikes reveal just how effective Russian-made air defense systems were, having previously forced Israel (and the US) to rely on stand-off strikes on targets in Syria and forcing Israeli warplanes to circumvent Syrian airspace during recent missions targeting Iran itself. …
Far from simply exploiting recent, unexpected developments, the elimination of Syria as an ally of Iran was a long-standing prerequisite required and planned for before moving on to toppling Iran itself.
Such plans were published by US government and arms industry-funded Brookings Institution in its 2009 paper, “Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran,” noting specifically:
Israel may be more willing to bear the risks of Iranian retaliation and international opprobrium than the United States is, but it is not invulnerable and may request certain commitments from the United States before it is ready to strike. For instance, the Israelis may want to hold off until they have a peace deal with Syria in hand (assuming that Jerusalem believes that one is within reach), which would help them mitigate blowback from Hizballah and potentially Hamas. Consequently, they might want Washington to push hard in mediating between Jerusalem and Damascus.
Obviously, Israel’s recent war on Hezbollah and US-sponsored regime change in Syria has fulfilled this prerequisite – regime change achieved in Syria using many of the other methods listed in the 2009 Brookings paper focused on Iran including “supporting a popular uprising,” supporting [armed] minority and opposition groups,“airstrikes,” and “invasion.” …
US-Sponsored Terrorism Targets China and “Chinese Projects/Embassies”
In addition to targeting Iranian-backed militias, Iranian-friendly governments, and Iran itself, the US has utilized terrorist organizations now in Syria against other adversaries abroad, including China. Many signs now indicate the US could redirect these terrorist organizations back toward China once again.
This includes the so-called, “Turkestan Islamic Party” (TIP) also known as the “East Turkestan Islamic Movement” (ETIM).
What is particularly troubling about TIP/ETIM is the fact that the US disingenuously removed it from its Foreign Terrorist Organizations list in 2020 specifically to provide it with wider and more overt support. DW in its article titled, “US removes China-condemned group from terror list,” would claim TIP/ETIM was removed as a terrorist organization by the US government, “because, for more than a decade, there has been no credible evidence that ETIM continues to exist.”
This is demonstrably untrue considering the US Department of Defense admitted to having carried out airstrikes against the group in Afghanistan only 2 years prior to its delisting, NBC News would report.
Now, the organization the US government claimed no longer exists, is in Syria and reported comprising an entire military unit alongside Hayat Tahrir al-Sham* (HTS) [formerly callled “al-Qaeda”] …
The London Telegraph in a December 13, 2024 article titled, “Uyghur fighters in Syria vow to come for China next,” claims “a Uyghur militant group that helped to topple Bashar-al Assad has vowed to take the fight to China.” …
Short of fighting in China itself, the Telegraph in an accompanying video would note, “can TIP take the fight to China, home to the world’s largest military with 2 million active troops? It’s easier said than done. Still, TIP could target Chinese projects or embassies abroad.”
The US already backs violent terrorism attacking Chinese projects and embassies abroad, including in Baluchistan, Pakistan and Myanmar. …
It should be noted that TIP/ETIM and affiliated extremists carried out years of deadly terrorism within China’s western region of Xinjiang. The BBC in a 2014 article titled, “Why is there tension between China and the Uighurs?,” proudly listed the rampant violence Beijing at the time struggled to contain. … No evidence exists of any systemic abuses, including either “coerced labor” or “genocide.” …
One 2020 report titled, “Coercive Labor in Xinjiang: Labor Transfer and the Mobilization of Ethnic Minorities to Pick Cotton,” written by Adrian Zenz, a member of the US government-funded “Victims of Communism Memorial Fund,” admitted in its conclusion that, “in a system where the transition between securitization and poverty alleviation is seamless, and where the threat of extralegal internment looms large, it is impossible to define where coercion ends and where local consent may begin.”
Far from an exception, virtually all reports on the subject stem from either Adrian Zenz himself or reports published by US government-funded organizations including the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) or US NED-funded fronts like the World Uyghur Congress, Uyghur Human Rights Project, Campaign for Uyghurs, and the Uyghur Transitional Justice Database Project. …
Defending Against Washington’s Superweapon [the U.S. propaganda-machine, controlled by its billionaires]
While many are tempted to treat conflicts around the globe in isolation, the truth is the United States is pursuing a long-standing global policy of eliminating all rivals through persuasion, coercion, sanctions, US-sponsored sedition, terrorism, and military confrontation – by proxy and directly. …
The chaos that has followed US regime change in Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Georgia, Libya, Ukraine, and now Syria this 21st century is just a small fraction of the instability, death, destruction, and destitution the entire globe faces should Washington continue prevailing in its geopolitical pursuits.
Among the most effective and so far unanswered weapons the United States government wields is its dominion over global information space and its global-spanning network of political interference and capture, centered around the National Endowment for Democracy [NED] and adjacent government and corporate-funded foundations. …
While China may have successfully uprooted US-sponsored extremism in Xinjiang, the US continues arming, backing, and promoting these same extremists out of China’s reach in recently decimated Syria. Through Washington’s control over information space outside of China, these terrorists are being presented as “freedom fighters” in much the same way the US has presented HTS despite being listed by the US State Department as actual terrorists. …
——
That view regarding the U.S. regime’s geostrategic objective in the Middle East contrasts against a common view that, as one of its proponents headlined about it, “Jewish Poilicy vis-a-vis Syria Is Malice and Revenge” and “The US-Israeli Monster Is Ripping Syria to Pieces”. Berletic’s view is instead that ultimately Israel’s Government is a colony in the U.S. empire and must do whatever the U.S. Government will allow it to do, so that ultimately the top determinant of Israel’s international policies is the billionaires in America, not the billionaires in Israel.
——
https://journal-neo.su/2025/01/11/chinese-military-might-vs-washingtons-asymmetrical-tools-of-empire/
https://archive.is/OV7NM
“Chinese Military Might vs Washington’s Asymmetrical Tools of Empire”
11 January 2025, Brian Berletic
China continues to strengthen its military capabilities, combining rapid growth in conventional power with readiness to counter U.S. asymmetrical strategies.
Over the past few months China has achieved several breakthroughs in terms of military power in both quantity and quality including the introduction of new aircraft, increased production rates of existing aircraft, and the launching of a new amphibious assault ship proposed as recently as 2020, demonstrating a rapid progression from drawing board to dockside all within China’s already vast shipbuilding capacity.
The implications of these recent developments impact ongoing US encroachment in the Asia-Pacific and the looming prospect of an Ukraine-style war the US appears eager to launch against China. However, just as the US has demonstrated elsewhere, what it lacks in military and industrial power, it makes up for in political influence and its asymmetrical capacity to destabilize and destroy entire regions of the planet.
The NED (banned in Russia) is heavily active in Southeast Asia in an attempt to poison the population against China.
China’s Expanding Air Force …
While many attempts have been made to dismiss China’s fifth-generation warplanes as cheap copies of American warplanes, both the J-35 and J-20 represent entirely different designs fulfilling entirely different requirements, and mass-produced with flexible and rapidly updated manufacturing techniques quickly closing the fifth-generation fighter gap with the US.
Not only does this mean China will possess at least as many fighter planes as the US, it also means China will be able to rapidly replace lost aircraft in the event of any peer or near-peer conflict, including with the United States. …
China possesses one of the largest and most advanced integrated air defense networks in the world, including proven Russian air defense systems as well as indigenous systems based on proven Russian designs.
Together with China’s expanding fleet of warplanes, China is gradually establishing a two-fold advantage within and along China’s borders and shores. While the US still has a larger air force than China, it should be noted that US warplanes are dispersed across the planet among the hundreds of military bases the US maintains. …
China’s Expanding Navy
The US government and arms industry-funded Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) published a June 2024 article titled, “Unpacking China’s Naval Buildup.” In it, CSIS admits China’s large and growing advantage in terms of shipbuilding while also acknowledging a growing crisis across what remains of American shipbuilding capacity.
It admits that, “the decline of U.S. naval dominance will be difficult to reverse.” …Conventional Military Power vs. Asymmetrical Military Power
As the ongoing US proxy war against Russia in Ukraine has demonstrated, the US together with its “partners” are unable to match even Russia’s military industrial production, let alone China’s. …
Thus, in order for the US to maintain the primacy of its “international rules-based order,” [aiming to replace the U.N.’s international laws, by America’s “international rules”] it must apply asymmetrical military power against targets of its aggression, including Russia, Iran, and China. This includes politically capturing and turning nations against US adversaries as the US has done with Ukraine vis-à-vis Russia, the use of Türkiye, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia against both Syria and Iran, and nations like South Korea, Japan, and more recently the Philippines against China. …
A similar process has taken place across Asia including within Chinese territory itself. This includes Hong Kong and the island province of Taiwan. …
Rather than fighting China head-on, the US has reconfigured its military forces, including the entire US Marine Corps for interdicting Chinese maritime travel. While this is advertised as targeting Chinese military vessels, long-standing US policy seeks to target and strangle Chinese maritime trade as well.
Washington’s obsession with “freedom of navigation” in the South China Sea, where the same CSIS mentioned above admits is primarily trade coming from and going to China – isn’t to protect it – but to undermine and utterly strangle it. …
This means interdicting or shutting down the flow of hydrocarbons from the Middle East to China and Chinese trade through the Panama and Suez Canals.
An example of such US policies laid out in detail is the 2013 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace piece titled, “Stranglehold: The Context, Conduct and Consequences of an American Naval Blockade of China.” It lays out a policy of not only blockading Chinese maritime shipping by convincing or coercing its neighbors to isolate it, it discusses using military force to strike at what is now referred to as Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure.
At one point, it claims:
“…the United States would mix political-military coercion with economic incentives to bully and cajole China’s neighbors into imposing embargoes on China.” …
Likewise, US-backed militants regularly attack Chinese BRI infrastructure across Pakistan, including as recently as October last year, the BBC reported.
In other words – the US blockade and isolation of China is not a proposed policy for some far-off future conflict – it is already a work-in-progress. …
China’s close relationship with Russia and Russia’s ability to offset the impact of US attempts to strangle it economically – at least in terms of importing resources – helps explain the urgency with which the US is attempting to overextend, collapse, and remove the current political order in Moscow.
The 2013 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace article even stated:
Russia is remarkably well-positioned to alleviate the blockade’s effects on China. Russian trade would be immune to American interdiction, since Russia’s nuclear arsenal and significant conventional assets preclude any serious American attempts at military coercion. …
Until China (along with Russia and Iran) can protect its partners from America’s ability to “bully and cajole” them, Washington’s asymmetrical tools of empire will remain an existential threat to China, no matter how significant its conventional military power may be.
——
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2UYWmsGCNE
“What's Scott Ritter's Most Controversial Take on Middle East Politics?”
10 January 2025
29:03
it requires a very brutal assessment of the Arab world.
29:10
And I don't want to come across as racist. I don't want to come across as
29:15
Islamophobic. But let's just be straight up honest. The Arab
29:20
world is a catastrophe. It doesn't mean that the Arab people are,
29:26
you know, problematic. I believe that, you know, we we we always talk of the Arab street, you know, and how rulers
29:33
have to pay attention to the Arab street, pay attention to the souk, the market, you know, the will of the people. But for
29:39
the most part, you know, the the the Arab Spring that was supposed to
29:44
sweep out all these old oligarchs and and such, it didn't.
29:50
You had. You know, something happened in Tunisia that has been, you know, it has not manifested itself the
29:58
way I think people wanted. Egypt, yes, we we saw the elimination of one, you know,
30:05
dictator replaced by another and nowhere else. I mean, you
30:12
know, they were, you know, the thought was that Bashar al-Assad would be swept aside, but you know, it took another.
30:19
14 years, 13 14 years for that to happen. And it wasn't because of the Arab Street. It was because of CIA money,
30:26
you know, so and Libya was a catastrophe. It
30:31
was 100% catastrophe. The elimination of Bashar al-Assad, I mean of a and
30:38
and that serves as a model. But you know, before that we knew that about Iraq, the elimination of Saddam Hussein, you
30:44
know, and then take a look at what happened in Iraq. Iraq is still mortally wounded. It hasn't recovered from that.
30:51
And I don't think we've seen the last of Iraq. I think you're going to see what happened in, you know, the the earthquake
30:58
of of the fall of Bashar al-Assad, I think will create geopolitical tremors
31:03
that will crash in on Iraq in a potentially catastrophic
31:08
manner. So, you know, and and the reason for all of this is
31:14
because the Arab leaders, the Arab world is so fundamentally weak. INTERVIEWER: Do do you mean,
31:19
sorry for interrupt, do you mean it might trigger the old civil war, the Sunni resistance or civil war against the Shia,
31:26
that kind of thing? RITTER: I think we may be looking at a resurgence of ISIS
31:32
and Al Qaeda and Sunni Islamic extremism that will
31:38
be used by Turkey to restore the vilayet of Mosul and
31:43
Kirkuk to Turkey proper, which they believe historically should have been the case at the at the collapse of the
31:49
Ottoman Empire. If it weren't for the British arbitrarily drawing lines on a map, you know, that's what I'm
31:56
talking about. And you know, for Iraq to lose those oil fields
32:02
in the north and and to lose that territory, it would be, you know, it changes fundamentally what Iraq, you
32:09
know, is. This is what I'm talking about that this isn't an Arab Spring. This is, you know, this
32:16
is basically what we're going to be seeing. I think in the in the Middle East
32:21
is all of the lines that were drawn on the map with the collapse of the
32:27
Ottoman Empire are going to be erased and you're going to
32:34
see a free-for-all of violence in the region
32:40
That's the potential. I hope that's not the case. But one of the reasons why I believe it will be the case is that Arab
32:45
leadership is horrific, horrific, totally out of touch with the needs, wants, desires of the people. And as a result,
32:54
the frustration that is felt amongst the people gets captured by
33:00
Islamic extremist movements that have, and this is where I this is my belief. I
33:05
I don't pretend to be an expert on Islam, at all. I have spent a lot of
33:11
time in the Middle East. I have spent a lot of time talking with Shia Sunni clerics.
33:19
I I have studied Sufism not to become a
33:24
adherent, but just because as I read the history of the region, you
33:30
know, Sufism plays such an important role. I've. You know, delved into
33:35
the theological differences between the Ismailis and and Shia
33:41
faith, the Alawites, and and you know, and and and other Shia
33:47
offshoots. For instance, that which the the, you know, the the the
33:53
Houthi embrace. I've studied the the the main schools of thought of the Sunni faith. I've studied the roots of
34:01
Wahhabism and Salafism, you know. But I I I will admit to having
34:08
passing or superficial knowledge. I'm not a student of the Hadith. I cannot quote
34:14
the Quran convincingly. So I'm left to
34:21
having to listen to people explain Islam to me and decide
34:27
whether they're credible or not. And as a human being, I have decided to
34:33
give more credence to those Muslims, both Sunni and Shia,
34:39
who have said that Islam is a religion of peace and that Islam is not a religion that
34:47
seeks to conquer by the sword and to forcefully
34:52
compel people to yield to their faith, et cetera.
35:00
That may be the case, but I will also say that Islam contains a component of violence that
35:08
is either being isolated and perverted in the cause of
35:13
Islamic extremism or is the genuine true heart of Islam. I mean, I I find it
35:19
interesting that those elements that Salafism, Wahhabism that go back to.
35:26
the traditional roots of Islam to say this is the Islam of Muhammad, the
35:32
prophet, are violent. And it's those those who seek peace
35:39
actually are reinterpreting or reimagining Islam in the context of the modern world and
35:45
modern reality. So it's a it's a it's a it's a tough, it's a tough struggle and it's one that's
35:51
come out with with Syria. I am disgusted. by people I thought
35:58
were, uh again, I don't mean to insult, but
36:03
westernized Muslims. What I mean by that is Muslims that can live in America at peace, practice their religion as they
36:10
see fit, but seek to integrate into American society in a non-threatening manner. Because we're a
36:18
nation that accepts all religions. We're a nation that accepts people's ability to have different beliefs. And so when I
36:25
look at Muslims in America, I don't feel inherently threatened until I realize now that many of them harbor in their
36:32
hearts this desire for Islamic extremism. And it came
36:38
out when they cheer the collapse of Bashar al-Assad and and praise Jolani
36:45
and al-Qaeda ignoring the ISIS past or writing it off as this is the
36:51
will of God, this is legitimate Sharia law being, you know, finally coming into fruition. I said, well, that is totally
36:57
incompatible with me, the West and others. If that's who you are, then we will be in an existential life and death
37:04
struggle. Because what you're talking about being put in place inside Syria
37:09
today is incompatible with international law as set forth by the United Nations
37:14
Charter. That cannot be allowed to happen. And yet, when you look at the Islamic world, that appears to be
37:21
that which is bubbling up inside various nations throughout the Middle East because of the inadequacy of their
37:27
leadership. Because the people feel abandoned by the secular leadership that they have, they turn to their faith. And
37:34
their faith isn't the state-controlled religion, but rather the religion of the Islamic extremists, the
37:41
Wahhabists, the Salafists. And maybe that's the true face of Islam.
37:47
—
1:04:22
the reality of Russia. It's not what
1:04:28
you're being told. It's something totally different. I went back in December of last of 2023, January of
1:04:35
2024 to do the same thing, and I was supposed to go back in June for a 40 day visit that would take me from
1:04:41
Kamchatka to Kaliningrad and everywhere in between to to do this. The US government finally woke up to what I
1:04:48
was doing and how effective I was being. So they pulled my passport to prevent me from going because
1:04:53
my God, we can't have the American people actually educated about the reality of Russia. No, no, no, no, no. We must keep
1:04:59
this Russophobia going. And unfortunately, the Trump administration is being advised by people who continue
1:05:06
to be influenced by this old piggy. Even people who want to be friends with Russia
1:05:11
or want not to be a conflict with Russia, J.D. Vance and others [who wat to invade China before we invade Russia], they're ignorant about Russia because they don't
1:05:17
understand what Russia is, who the Russian people are, who Vladimir Putin is, how he came into being. Um And
1:05:24
as a result, it colors their you know their analysis that leads to the
1:05:29
formulation and implementation of policy. When you have Keith Kellogg believe that
1:05:34
Donald Trump can come in and tell the Russians that they have to accept a freezing of the conflict and
1:05:41
you know and and and they have to make, you know, certain concessions to the Ukrainians and and that includes a 20
1:05:48
year window for NATO to come in. That means you don't know anything about Russia. You don't know anything about their history. You don't know anything.
1:05:55
And that's why. No sooner did they put this on the table, the Russians swept it away and said no. Now,
1:06:01
with Russophobia in place, you can take the rejection by the Russians as a indicator that Russia
1:06:08
has no desire to live in peace with the West. That's just an absolute lie. Russia wants nothing more than to live in
1:06:15
peace with the West, but it has to be peace that recognizes that Russia has legitimate spheres of Interest [SUCH AS THE NATIONS THAT BORDER IT] and that
1:06:21
Russia has legitimate national security interests that are as important to the Russians as ours are to the United
1:06:27
States, as Europe is to your, you know, European security is to Europeans.
1:06:33
—
1:19:58
I think first of all, we have to understand that what what we call Europe is, you know, it has undergone a a
1:20:05
radical change over the course of the past several decades. When I I used to live in Europe, I lived in West Germany.
1:20:13
I traveled extensively through Europe. And when I mean Europe, I mean Europe. When I crossed the German border into
1:20:18
France, I I entered a different country. There was a, there was border control checkpoint. I got a stamp in my passport.
1:20:25
I had to exchange my German. Deutsche marks into French francs. And then if I crossed into Spain, I had to do the same
1:20:32
thing. Go through a border control point, stamp in the passport by pesos.
1:20:37
That was Europe. Europe was a continent comprised of a a number
1:20:43
of sovereign states. But then in the 90s they decided
1:20:49
that they were going to create something called the European Union that would redefine what Europe is. So today you
1:20:56
have a singular currency. You know, the the, the, the ability of
1:21:01
governments to act independently has been diminished by the creation of this
1:21:07
Council of Europe and the, you know, the European presidency and all this, this kind of stuff, none of which works, by
1:21:15
the way. I mean, Europe went from being a a continent where if the French
1:21:20
President spoke, people listened, the German Chancellor spoke, people listened. To a place where, you know, it's
1:21:28
just the Tower of Babel and it makes it nothing happens. And the
1:21:34
thing about the Russophobia is that Russophobia, to the extent it exists in Europe, is a reflection of American
1:21:39
Russophobia that has been reflected on to the political and economic elite because
1:21:46
this European Union is actually, I believe, a. Part and parcel of American
1:21:51
strategic objective to weaken Europe, not strengthen Europe, to keep Europe perpetually subordinated to the United
1:21:57
States economically, politically and militarily. As we created the European Union, you know, NATO still
1:22:04
lords over them. What's more important when it comes to defining European goals
1:22:10
and objectives? A statement made by the Secretary General of NATO or a statement made by Ursula van der Leyen?
1:22:17
And you know. We know which one carries, but even NATO now carries no weight because it's been so diminished
1:22:25
by the United States. NATO can't speak without America backing it up. So there is no Europe today. It's a fake
1:22:33
entity that is going to collapse because it has no viability. And one of the
1:22:38
reasons it's collapsing is that it has irresponsibly joined in
1:22:46
on this, this, this Russophobic driven policy towards Ukraine.
1:22:51
You know, I'm not an economist. You know, I I yield to Jeffrey Sachs on this
1:22:57
and others. But I am a historian and I am a an analyst of the region.
1:23:03
And I will tell you that in December of of 2021, I wrote a very detailed article
1:23:09
that basically said that if Europe joins in with the United States to sanction Russia. to try to have a war of
1:23:15
sanctions, that it will backfire on Europe, and Europe will kill itself
1:23:20
economically, uh because the key is cheap gas, cheap energy, and there
1:23:26
is no alternative to cheap energy when you're talking about economic survival. And as the economies collapse, so will
1:23:32
the political power of these elites. They will collapse. Society will
1:23:37
redefine itself from being this massive neutered sheep
1:23:43
Being led by these, I don't want to be too insulting, but
1:23:50
whatever we want to call European leadership, you know, and and and you'll see nationalism re-emerge where
1:23:57
it's important to be a German, where it's important to be a Frenchman. Because under Europe, the concept of what it
1:24:03
meant to be German, French, all that disappeared. You were European. But then Europe opened the borders to bring in
1:24:09
non-Europeans, to flood in the immigrants [escaping the wars that the U.S. Government created]. You start blending East Europeans with West Europeans, and
1:24:15
suddenly nations that had felt comfortable with who they are, like Germany, are suddenly very uncomfortable
1:24:21
about what they've become. And so you have all of this tension taking
1:24:26
place, a collapsed economy, et cetera. Look what's happening. You know, we can
1:24:31
call Alternative for Deutschland right wing and all that. I don't. I call them a reflection of German politics and
1:24:39
German reality.
1:24:46
——
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/01/sanctions-as-trumps-only-oldnew-iran-policies.html
“Sanctions - Trump's Only Old/New Iran Policies”
13 January 2025
I had missed this Friday news item on Iran:
Trump's Ukraine envoy says world must reinstate 'maximum pressure' on Iran
PARIS, Jan 11 (Reuters) - The world must return to a policy of "maximum pressure" against Iran to turn it into a more democratic country, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's incoming Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg told an Iranian opposition event in Paris on Saturday.
Trump has vowed to return to the policy he pursued in his previous term that sought to wreck Iran's economy to force the country to negotiate a deal on its nuclear programme, ballistic missile programme and regional activities.
"These pressures are not just kinetic, just not military force, but they must be economic and diplomatic as well", Retired Lieutenant-General Kellogg, who is set to serve as Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, told the audience at Paris-based Iranian opposition group National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
He said there was an opportunity "to change Iran for the better" but that this opportunity would not last forever.
"We must exploit the weakness we now see. The hope is there, so must too be the action."
I wonder how official this is. Is Kellogg, who is supposed to be Trump's envoy for Ukraine, speaking [about Iran] for the future Trump administration?
The Iranian 'opposition event' in Paris was by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), also known as the terrorist organization MEK [See the Wiki on it here.]. It had fought on the side of Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war and was later involved in several high casualty terror incidents in Iran.
The MEK has a cult like structure. It is, at least in parts, financed by the U.S. and Israel. It regularly 'invites' former western officials to rant against Iran at its events while paying them generous speaking fees.
Kellogg seems to be one [of] their regular well paid 'guests':
Kellogg has previously spoken at NCRI events, most recently in November, but his presence in Paris, even if in a personal capacity, suggests the group has the ear of the new U.S. administration. He postponed a trip to European capitals earlier this month until after Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20. ...
Incoming U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also spoken at NCRI events in the past. The group has repeatedly called for the fall of the existing Iranian authorities, although it is unclear how much support it has within Iran.
The MEK has zero support in Iran. …
It also notable that Kellogg has previously criticized Trump's former national security advisor John Bolton for trying to instigate a war with Iran.
Thus his rant in front of the MEK looks unserious to me. ...
The Islamic Republic has been under sanctions since its very inception. They have hindered its growth but have never made it concede to whatever the U.S. demanded. ...
On Friday, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian will be in Moscow where he will sign a new comprehensive partnership pact with Russia which is said to also cover military aspects of the relation. ...
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https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/medley-report-israels-rising-threat
9 January 2025
A medley update a few interesting items today:
Israel
It appears even the Israelis have caught on to what we’ve been reporting here since the start of the “moderate rebel” takeover of Syria. Now it’s dawning on the world what truly comes next in this new great game—the Jerusalem Post article virtually quotes my previous analysis word for word
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-836362
The committee, established by the government, warns that Turkey’s ambitions to restore its Ottoman-era influence could lead to heightened tensions with Israel, possibly escalating into conflict.
Recall I said that Israel thought it had ‘defeated’ Iran but instead inherited a far more dangerous foe, now they are starting to see it:
“The threat from Syria could evolve into something even more dangerous than the Iranian threat,” the report states, warning that Turkish-backed forces might act as proxies, fueling regional instability.
Netanyahu likewise validated the mentioned Nagel report’s findings:
Netanyahu addressed the report, stating, “We are witnessing fundamental changes in the Middle East. Iran has long been our greatest threat, but new forces are entering the arena, and we must be prepared for the unexpected. This report provides us with a roadmap to secure Israel’s future.”
Most interesting was an adjacent ‘news’ yesterday stating Iran had a secret new deal with Turkey to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah. Keep in mind this is completely uncorroborated and unsourced, and should therefore be taken with a huge grain of salt. But if there’s even a remote glint of truth to this, then Israel’s in deeper schmutz than it had imagined, and would also mean that Iran and Hezbollah have not been weakened at all:
Iran has found a new route to smuggle weapons for Hezbollah. Iranian planes are delivering weapons to Hezbollah via Turkey, Israel must decide whether to strike Iran or the Houthis first. …
That’s not to even mention the fact that there are claims both Hezbollah and Hamas have restored their strength:
https://www.frontpagemag.com/hezbollah-boasts-its-more-powerful-than-ever-after-biden-ceasefire/
Hamas report:
Is Hamas and their allied armed factions making a comeback in the Gaza strip? An analysis:
According to the Jerusalem Post, Hamas is indeed making a substantial comeback in Gaza by recruiting new forces. Israeli channel 12 states that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) combined have between 20,000 and 23,000 fighters left. …
Ukraine
Another new WaPo article gives a shocking statistic:
Here’s the blurb gaining traction:
Ukraine is also losing troops at a rate far beyond what it can sustain and continue fighting. The official casualty estimate of 400,000 killed or wounded is considered a vast undercount. …
But here’s the real kicker. At the same time, notorious Verkhovna Rada MP Oleksiy Goncharenko made this quite thought-provoking observation — read that very carefully:
Recall just a day ago in the new Lex Fridman interview Zelensky stated the AFU has 980,000 people. Yet Syrsky recently stated Russia has 700,000 men in Ukraine. At the same time, frontline Ukrainian officers constantly grouse Ukraine is outnumbered nearly “5 to 1” in many key areas.
What is going on here?
Goncharenko finally unbosoms this monumental fraud by suggesting these phantom troops are all dead.
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Trump has now reportedly said he “hopes” to end the Ukraine war in six months. No longer “I will stop the war in 24 hours” but now “I hope to stop it in six months”—quite the downgrade, to say the least, and a big reality check to boot. …
Trump appears to sense the intractability of it all, and that America is likely powerless to stop the coming Russian coup de grace. As such, in a preemptive move to fortify his presidential legacy, Trump appears to be building up a reserve of legacy-defining bold acquisitions, the likes of which will overshadow even the “catastrophic” American humiliation in Ukraine.
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On that note, here’s German journalist Patrik Baab with a poignant capstone on the situation, as he gives an honest ‘Western’ assessment of Ukraine’s remaining chances in this war—but note in particular what he says about NATO and the West as a whole:
German journalist Patrik Baab, one of the few Western media representatives who visited new regions of Russia, shared his thoughts on the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine.
The fact is, the global order is in terminal upheaval, and the Ukraine war stands to be the final catalyst to upend the entire system once and for all. …
And the final longer one is worth the read, coming by way of the ever-incisive RWA (Russians With Attitude):
On American expansionism.
The incoming administration seems to have a more realistic image of the state of American hegemonial decline and wants to take proactive steps to try to counteract and reverse it, breathing new life into the American Global Empire.
In this context, it makes perfect sense for the US to increase pressure on its vassals. I am not using the term in a pejorative sense. The US does not have “allies” in the traditional meaning of the word. It has vassals with different levels of feudal obligations and elite integration, and different tasks. Extracting more value from vassals -- whether through tariffs, increased NATO budgets, meddling in local politics or potential territorial concessions -- is an absolutely logical step in cementing and renewing America's position as overlord of its sphere. …
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Those excerpts provide, I think, a good summary of the current geostrategic reality. To summarize it, I would say that the U.S. regime’s main geostrategic weapon now is its massive lying-machine. Scott Ritter apparently believes that both Biden and Trump are largely ignorant of how false their own beliefs are, and have been ruling not only on the basis of their lies but also on the basis of their own disinterest in knowing and understanding the truth that is so discordant with their own basic assumptions. Standing in front of the truth, these leaders are too cowardly to even face it. And rulers have been selected for Europe who are likewise not even interested in knowing and understanding the truth. Such leaders arrogantly call themselves leaders of “the free world,” and condemn “tyrants,” “authoritarians,” and “dictators.” What, then, do they see when they look at themselves in the mirror? Perhaps they think they see democrats. But such delusionality on their part about this would be especially scary if it is the case. Regardless, these leaders don’t represent their respective publics, and the biggest lie they assert is that they do. Such leaders are instead their own — and every other — public’s enemies. This is truly dystopia: it is destroying the world. Such leaders are the exact opposite of good. And they don’t even care about that.
PS: If you like this article, please email it to all your friends or otherwise let others know about it. None of the U.S.-and-allied ‘news’-media will likely publish it (nor link to it, since doing that might also hurt them with Google or etc.). I am not asking for money, but I am asking my readers to spread my articles far and wide, because I specialize in documenting what the Deep State is constantly hiding — what the ‘news’-media ignore if they can, and deny if they must. This is, in fact, today’s samizdat.
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
