Date: Wednesday, 29 October 2025
https://ericzuesse.substack.com/p/john-helmer-trumps-3-stages-of-war
https://theduran.com/john-helmer-trumps-3-stages-of-war-on-venezuela-russia-iran-etc/
John Helmer: Trump’s 3 Stages of War, on Venezuela, Russia, Iran, etc.
28 October 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)
I boldface below his explanation of it against Venezuela (beginning at 38:50), but start with Helmer’s discussion of the sanctions warfare-stage which is being used to bring down Russia right now, which is the sanctions-stage.
https://www.youtube.com/live/TrYzszXZXVQ?t=1025s
“John Helmer: Burevestnik MOMENT”
Dialogue Works, 28 October 2025
INTERVIEWER: Donald Trump came out and said
17:06
that there were lines in gas stations in Russia. People are in line and to which
17:12
wasn't as we I've learned from Larry Johnson. Larry Johnson was in Russia and
17:17
he was filming some areas that he was in
17:22
those areas and he said there is nothing that sore as he perceived it in Russia
17:28
in Moscow. But when it comes to the larger understanding of NATO, of Trump
17:34
administration, Europeans, do they really understand what is the conditions? What are the conditions in
17:40
Russia today? HELMER: Um,
17:48
I'm pausing because you're asking, do they really understand? Is there an intelligence
17:55
assessment? Do the principles of the NATO leadership understand? Um, does
18:02
Trump himself understand that when they speak of the vulnerability of the
18:07
Russian economy, do they actually believe the Russian economy is as
18:12
vulnerable um as they say? Um, I believe they can't make a mistake
18:21
about the the Russian economic situation. Uh I've explained myself that there have
18:29
been gasoline shortages especially in the southwest.
18:34
Um Larry Johnson did not leave Moscow and what he saw in Moscow is not um
18:43
an effective description of the nature of the petrol shortages. These were real
18:51
and they caused an increase in um petroleum product pricing and they've
18:58
been thoroughly admitted and thoroughly analyzed by the Russian press. INTERVIEWER: Sorry for interrupting you, John. Was it
19:05
because of those attacks, Ukrainian and NATO attacks on the infrastructure in Russia or the outcome [of] something else?
19:14
HELMER: Certainly there's been some impact on refinery output but is in the dancers
19:20
with bears report I produced it's clear that it was logistic problems, the
19:27
problem of getting the fuel from the refineries, about 30% of refinery output
19:34
was briefly let's say from 7 to 14 days um suspended. In that period of time
19:42
there was a logistic problem of moving the fuel from the refineries producing
19:48
it in surplus areas to deficit areas. So there was a gasoline shortage
19:55
particularly concentrated among independent gas stations or petrol
20:00
stations not on the mainstream large oil company gas stations and not in Moscow
20:07
but there's been um also a people taking advantage inside
20:14
the industry and consumers people when you face that and all of us are the same
20:20
you hoard you stock up and hoarding on the part on the commercial side meant um
20:28
individuals middlemen exploiting short uh spot shortages, regional shortages,
20:34
southwest shortage shortages in order to make bigger margins for selling petrol
20:40
and gas and other fuels elsewhere. So all of those problems were real.
20:48
One has to understand that Russia has the capacity to resolve its problems quickly and it has but is resolving the
20:56
gasoline shortage. It has to defend its refineries. So uh we can get on to it.
21:03
The new sanction hits refineries. It hits approximately a third of the
21:09
Russian refineries, the Rosneft refineries and the Lukoil refineries in their export capability. and it hits
21:16
petroleum products, exports especially not to Russia not to China and India
21:22
though they're big buyers of petroleum products, but to Turkey. We can come back to that in a minute. The, your your
21:29
question, was is the Russian economy vulnerable to war
21:36
and the answer is no, and the answer I've tried to explain in print
21:43
is: what the Russians say the biggest damage and comes from Mikhail Delyagin,
21:50
a major voice on economic policy in the state Duma, a former Yelen economist, one
21:56
of the best and most critical of the opposition economists Mikhail Delyagin is
22:02
saying the biggest damage to the Russian economy is not coming from the war,
22:08
that's the drones the drone attacks, or from the sanctions, it's come from um
22:14
Governor Nabulina and the Russian central bank. Why? Because, and I don't believe Larry
22:21
Johnson spoke of this, the Russian central bank has been running
22:26
extraordinarily high interest rates and Nabi has refused to reduce them. the
22:34
most recent central bank uh rate cut and it's come down from 22 to 20 and it was
22:42
lowered to 16.5% on October the 24th. The current central
22:49
bank policy is to reduce Russian economic growth to zero. Let me explain.
22:56
And this is the damage to the Russian economy and it's endorsed by the president [Putin] and
23:03
Kremlin. Let me read you what um Nabulina describes as the policy. I'm
23:12
just reading you the Bank of Russia key rate cut statement of 24 of October.
23:19
Quotes, "The upward deviation of the Russian economy from a balanced growth
23:26
path is narrowing." That's what is meant by zero growth.
23:33
Zero growth. And she's announced that um there are one-off factors
23:41
causing this, the inflation against which she maintains these crushingly
23:47
high investments-stopping interest rates. One
23:52
is oneoff factors increase motor fuel prices. There's no doubt the central
23:58
bank recognizes shortage inflationary expectations at the gas pump. She also
24:04
recognizes that inflation has been driven by the state by the increased uh
24:11
increase in the VAT from 20% to 22%.
24:16
These are war taxes if you like. But the the impact of crushing the economy to
24:23
zero is coming from the central bank. And in this I'm turning the page on this
24:29
statement. Um the uh what what um
24:36
Nabiulina's statement says is essentially she's against the
24:41
continuation of the war. One of the inflation drivers she says is
24:47
deterioration in the terms of external trade. That's the central banker way of
24:53
saying um US and European sanctions are causing disruption of the terms of
25:00
external trade. In other words, the central bank is acting to reinforce the
25:06
external threats. And in this new statement, um I'm
25:12
reaching for various bits of paper in which she says it. She's saying in 2026
25:19
we'll have the same level of central bank interest rate. Now, every
25:24
significant business voice and consumers too object to this level of central bank
25:32
interest, but President Putin has continued to defend her. And she insists
25:38
that this uh 50 basis points cut of this past week
25:45
will be all she'll do because next year she aims at maintaining this very high
25:51
interest rate. And that's the principle as to go back to Diyagin's
25:57
uh statement, the principal threat to the Russian economy. Does the do the
26:02
NATO powers does the United States understand these are self-inflicted wounds which can be changed which aren't
26:10
responsive to their war making? Um they probably do, but they certain uh they
26:18
certainly don't say so.
26:24
INTERVIEWER: John, you've mentioned the situation with Turkey. It's not just about Turkey, you know, the pressure from the United
26:30
States on Hungary, Turkey, they're talking about
26:35
Croatia, Croatia and you know it's a
26:41
the way it's not just about they were talking about China and India. It seems that these are two big you know giant
26:50
countries that is so much difficult for the United States to put lot of pressure
26:55
on them without having some sort of repercussions in their economy.
27:01
But when it comes to the countries like Turkey, Hungary, you know, Slovakia and
27:07
these countries, how can they, you know, put pressure on them? Here is before
27:12
going to that here is what Matt Whitaker the the US ambassador said about that.
27:20
What what he said on Fox is “Our expectation is that countries
27:25
like Hungary uh Turkey and Slovakia that continue to buy Russian oil and gas will
27:32
come up with a plan and execute a plan that weens them off of Russian oil and gas.
27:37
And you know, Hungary, uh, unlike many of their neighbors, has, uh, not made
27:42
any plans or made any active steps. And so, we're going to continue to work with them, and we're going to continue to work with their neighbors like Croatia
27:49
and other countries that can help them, uh, wean themselves off. And, you know, obviously that pipeline is most likely
27:54
to be shut off in the coming years as well. And so, there's a lot of um, planning that our friends in Hungary
28:01
should do. and and we're going to help them obviously as a good ally uh make those plans and execute them to get them
28:06
off of Russian oil and gas." So, how far would the West or let's put
28:12
it this way, the Trump administration would go in that direction to put pressure on them?
28:18
HELMER: As far as they think they can um as far as they are currently attempting to do.
28:25
Um it's one issue um to uh talk up the threats. Um the Croatia problem is
28:35
serious for Serbia because Serbia has been sanctioned um through the secondary
28:40
sanctions with the US to block its um oil and gas companies, state companies
28:47
from buying from Gazprom. And uh so let's go back. Um there was
28:56
to some extent um the reaction to the US oil sanction
29:03
of of um saying it's an unserious one. And one of the podcasters I heard say
29:10
that it's it's unserious and ineffectual because it sanctions Rosneft and
29:16
Lukoil's um assets in the United States since those companies don't have significant assets in the United States.
29:23
The sanction is is uh tokenism not not real. Uh this is to misunderstand that
29:30
the sanctions the oil sanction against Rosneft and Lukoil is has its bite at the
29:39
secondary level and you mentioned it. Um, China and India are the principal
29:45
buyers of crude oil and they're the targets of uh the US sanction to cut off
29:52
as uh Ambassador Whitaker just said, to cut off Russian oil and gas trade or in
29:59
this case oil trade with um its principal buyers of crude which are
30:06
China, India uh then a very small amounts by the the EU, Turkey
30:11
and finally a tiny amount from Myanmar. But the oil products uh trade is
30:18
different. Turkey's the principal buyer of Russian oil products. That's
30:24
jet fuel, gasoline, um diesel, um
30:30
boiler fuel, and so forth and bunkers for ships. Turkey's the principal
30:36
importer of oil products followed by China Brazil and I'm reading from a
30:41
report of June July uh China Brazil India Singapore which re-exports
30:51
Russian oil products, Saudi Arabia the and the UAE, they're all targets and as
30:57
Whitaker just said our aim is to destroy Russia's capacity to trade
31:05
destroy it. That brings us to the level of warfare with Russia.
31:12
Uh that's comparable to uh Franklin Delanor Roosevelt's July and August 1941
31:19
sanctions on Japan. The first sanction July 26, 1941
31:26
froze all Japanese assets in the United States. Let's call that comparable to the freeze
31:34
of uh Russian state assets, the 300 billion euro worth or dollar worth
31:40
freeze of 2022 immediately after the SVO started. Now we have an attempt to cut
31:48
off in its entirety all Russian exports of oil and petroleum products. Now um
31:57
that's serious. It's not unserious. It's as serious as FDR's attack on
32:05
Japanese oil. Um different circumstance. The Japanese
32:11
were oil dependent on oil import but uh Russia is e oil export um
32:20
dependent. Let me say that um the market first of
32:26
all the market doesn't think this is going to work and that's the important
32:32
thing. Um so I've I've put on uh the dancers with bears for for the audience
32:38
to watch the charts since it's serious. The question is how
32:44
does the market for oil futures react and do they expect a shortage of supply
32:52
which would drive up price. Now, when President Putin was asked to respond to
32:57
Trump's oil sanction, he made this point. If you like, we can
33:04
quote him, but essentially saying, I've explained, to Trump, I've explained to
33:09
Trump um that if you do this sort of thing, what you will do is curb the
33:16
supply of oil and oil products into the market when there's no alternative
33:22
source of supply. If you shorten supply while demand remains constant or even
33:29
increasing or even decreases a little, either way, you disjoin
33:35
the relationship between supply and demand and you will trigger price rises.
33:40
Putin clearly said, “I warn Trump, if you disrupt the market this way, you will
33:46
get your car drivers will get sharply increased gasoline prices. And aren't
33:52
you going into election next year? You want gasoline price inflation in the
33:59
United States as you run for election. That will have serious consequences for you.” So Putin has clearly explained
34:06
that. The market on the other hand, and I've provided the charts, I won't
34:13
hold them up. Essentially is uh reacted the following way. There was a 3-day
34:20
price jump for oil futures for West Texas Intermediate, that's the US oil
34:28
benchmark, and Brent crude. Both of them, the uh
34:35
WTI went up, and I'm looking at my uh charts. It initially went up about 10 to
34:42
12% in three days, but then it's reversed and corrected. As of this
34:48
morning, WTI crude was um uh trading at
34:53
6.3% above its October 20, the pre-sanctions
34:59
level. So the market thinks um this uh that for WTI crude oil it's a limited
35:08
supply disruption. Brent crude uh went up approximately 20 12% in the first
35:15
three days and is down to 6.5% now. Ural's crude, which is the Russian
35:22
blend that's exported, went up 11% in the first three days and
35:28
it hasn't corrected yet. Now, what is the market saying? The market's saying
35:34
you will fail to stop the trade. So, I asked uh my
35:41
sources to explain that and um I'll I'll just quote you what a Russian oil trade
35:49
source has told me from Dubai. Quotes. There's no way to stop the oil. You You
35:56
only add more shipto- ship transfers and add some more percentage to the middlemen and off it goes. The point is
36:04
that while everyone, he means everyone in Russia is fixed on the Russian central bank interest rates, you in fact
36:11
have state and private oil companies and the whole system acting more secretively
36:17
than ever. The new sanction does not stop the oil moving into money. It just
36:23
makes it more difficult and that means more dollars per barrel for the middlemen. In Moscow, business, banking,
36:31
economic, and political circles, there's confidence that the 10 percentage points everyone's been making on oil deal
36:38
making off the books will continue. That's the Trump effect. We Russians
36:44
aren't ungrateful for it. In other words, what the oil sanction does is increase
36:52
black oil trading. And while you could discount
36:58
um this kind of trader excessive confidence, you might say,
37:05
there's no discounting the market numbers. People who have to make a daily
37:11
living speculating on what the price of oil will be out 3 months, out six months
37:17
believe it will be very small. Why? because they agree the trade will become
37:24
blacker and uh ambassador uh Whitaker can say whatever he likes. He's waving
37:31
his hands uh at the sea rolling in. The sea of oil will continue to roll. And
37:38
these uh Americans who think they can control that sea and force it to roll
37:44
back are false and faking and have an ambition they lack the power
37:51
to implement. INTERVIEWER: How do you connect the situation with
37:59
oil and with with what's going on between the United States and Venezuela? Because the situation is getting
38:06
critical, John, and even let's assume that the United States can do something
38:12
in Venezuela. Bringing Venezuela to the market, it's going to take time. It's
38:17
not going to be tomorrow and you know in two months and three months. It's going to take time.
38:24
How can we understand that? It seems that if they go in that direction, it seems to me that they have a longterm
38:31
strategy in fighting Russia. That would be the end game, you know, fighting and
38:37
the continuation of the conflict as Zelensky is talking about in the, you know, he's planning for the next three
38:44
years to come to to fight Russia. Yes, your take on that?
38:50
HELMER: I agree with you, Nima. Um, they're all of the same pattern, but at different
38:56
stages of war making. Now, let me make a general point. Then let's come to the
39:02
Venezuelan issue. It's very important we talk about Venezuela.
39:07
Um, for every one of Trump's what is it 8, nine or 10 so-called peacemaking
39:13
moves as he counts them, um, there's been a a a Trump wararm making move.
39:19
Okay. And um these {TRUMP’S WARS] have basically
39:24
uh I think we can say three stages. First, Trump starts with a kill them
39:32
dead talk. And his statement that about so-called
39:38
Venezuelan drug smugglers, which we'll come back to in a minute, is a complete lie, was we kill them dead. We kill them
39:46
dead. He said it. That's the sort of talk which when combined with um
39:53
sanctions, attacks on economic sectors like the Venezuelan capability to export
39:59
oil um they're called sanctions against an enemy. They're called tariffs when
40:05
they're applied to neutral or allied states. At that stage um Trump's war is
40:11
essentially trying to trigger a domestic surrender. domestic surrender um led by a fifth
40:19
column of politicians or businesses or government and security agencies,
40:25
generals and policemen um which have been cultivated over the years by the Central Intelligence Agency or the State
40:32
Department, the Pentagon. And the fifth column has to be mobilized first. We saw
40:39
it as Israel and Mossad tried to do for regime change in Iran at the beginning
40:44
of the June war. What happened? We've seen in Venezuela, you have first um the
40:52
Guad candidacy opposed to the the elected government and now we have the
40:57
Nobel Prize winning uh woman Machado. uh these are the fifth columnists
41:04
established by the United States inside Iran or Venezuela or whatever the target
41:11
may be that Russia's had uh its um Alexi Nalli and others.
41:18
The fifth column approach combined with kill them dead talk combined with
41:24
economic sanctions is Trump's first war makingaking stage. Second war making stage happens when the
41:31
fifth column um candidates fail to mobilize effectively as was the case
41:37
with Gaido. Uh what uh what happens uh with
41:43
effective resistance is negotiations.
41:48
Trump then sounds sends out special emissaries. Uh it was Richard Grenell in
41:54
Venezuela. It was Steven Witkoff with Iran. It's been Steven Witkoff with
41:59
Russia. It was Kushner and Witkoff uh with Israel and Gaza. These special
42:06
emissaries um then combine a combin bribes
42:12
uh threats threats of more violence uh and try to develop a term sheet on which
42:18
this so-called peace can be arranged. uh when that fails, when resistance to
42:25
the American negotiating terms proves solid,
42:31
as it has been everywhere, including Iran, Venezuela, Hamas, and Russia, of
42:37
course, China and India, of course, North Korea, of course, when that when
42:43
the resistance proves too strong, Trump has a problem. And he solves the
42:49
problem either by escalating to a massive violent strike as he used
42:56
against Iran or a buildup of preparation for violence
43:02
as he's using against Venezuela right now as we speak. Or he retreats.
43:08
He retreats undercover of a smoke screen of one kind or another. ceasefire is one
43:14
of the smoke screens he's used in in these various war making stages in the
43:20
past. So let's go then back to we're at stage three Trump wararm making with
43:26
Venezuela. What's really happening? Well, we know that Admiral Horsley,
43:36
the command the commander of operations in Viet in Venezuela has resigned rather
43:42
than proceed to command what and he hasn't said it, but you've had a
43:49
podcasters um explain it and it's true. Horsely
43:54
believed, as do many uh US generals in command, that the commanderin-chief's
44:02
orders are illegal and unconstitutional.
44:07
And Horsesley's had the bravery to resign. You recall and we talked about
44:13
it last time uh President Trump ordered 800 of these general staff officers to
44:19
assemble in front of him and said to say if you don't want to obey you can leave
44:24
the room and Horley didn't leave the room but he did later. So, where are we?
44:31
To date, as I've counted it, there have been nine separate military strikes by
44:36
US drones or missiles on supposed Venezuelan drug runners. The
44:43
war against drugs isn't a new war against uh a target in the United
44:49
States. I wrote a book 50 years ago uh about the wars against drugs since 1880
44:57
and 90 in California. Nothing new there. This time the drug
45:03
war is a camouflage, a smokeokc screen for regime change in Venezuela. Everybody listening understands that. Um
45:11
but the attacks themselves and Trump has shown off um the skill, the video of
45:19
hitting a a a speedboat or an alleged submarine and blowing it up. None of
45:26
them have been identified with any exact geographical coordinates. We know at
45:31
least two of the nine occurred in the in the in the Pacific Ocean. Now, Venezuela
45:37
doesn't have a Pacific coastline. Um, so there's no reliable mapping to
45:45
show that the people on board were in Venezuelan waters as claimed. I'm just
45:51
flipping my page to look at a couple of maps that I've put up on the website. So
45:57
investigative reporting which is principally Spanish media not the US media not even the alternative media in
46:05
the United States have come up with the evidence but the evidence is there's no evidence of drug smuggling drug cargos
46:14
or the capacity of these speedboats to move any cargo
46:20
a thousand nautical miles north to the nearest Florida coastline. So the claim
46:26
that they represented the United States is a lie. It's a fake.
46:31
Um what we do know and it's very interesting from the two survivors of the October 16 so-called submarine
46:39
strike were their nationality. One of them a man called Andres Fernando
46:45
Tofino is Ecuadorian and he's been sent back.
46:50
He's lucky he wasn't killed on board the US ship that rescued him or killed in
46:55
the water because he provides evidence that he wasn't in Venezuelan waters and
47:04
wasn't part of any kind of Venezuelan scheme. Of course, they Ecuadorians
47:10
including his family and CNN to its credit has published an interview with his sister
47:16
claims he was a simple fisherman. Well, simple fishermen don't get paid very much in these countries and may very
47:23
well carry cargos that are contraband. Cornwall as a county in England uh had
47:29
several hundred years of living off contraband. Is there a threat drug threat from
47:37
Venezuela um from Mr. Tofino? No, there wasn't.
47:43
Was he acting with Ecuadorian and or Colombian uh drug smugglers
47:50
towards the United States? Maybe he was, but he was not Venezuelan. The other
47:55
survivor was Colombian, a man called Orban Orando Perez. He's been uh
48:02
repatriated to Colombia in serious uh condition, physical condition, but
48:09
there's no evidence that either of them were either Venezuelan in origin or hit
48:17
attacked in Venezuelan waters or represented what Trump is using as his
48:25
case for war against Venezuela. So even if one went to the trouble of doing more
48:31
than I've just quoted you based on El Pais and other media investigations
48:37
showed that Trump is a liar. Trump is faking. Uh what's what's new about Russ
48:44
of the United States going to war against countries with fakes after all. Lyn and Baines Johnson fabricated the
48:50
so-called Vietnamese attack on a US warship in the Gulf of Tonkin in order to uh justify
48:58
the so-called surge into Vietnam that began the major Vietnam war operations
49:05
in which the Vietnamese resistance the Vietkong and the North Vietnamese army defeated the US army. So the we have
49:13
reached stage three with Viet with Venezuela and the question is will they be able to
49:19
defend themselves uh against the kinds of attacks that will come and what will come is it a
49:28
massive show of strength in order to frighten the Venezuelan people but will
49:33
not be used to attack. Um, that's a possibility and where Trump would try to
49:40
mobilize Mrs. Machado to have some form of internal disruption
49:49
protest trigger some uh uh demonstration
49:54
um casualties self-inflicted possibly if if um
50:00
Maduro's police don't open fire. But uh agitators working for the CIA do and
50:07
we've seen that is is a is a a maidan type provocation to occur. If that were
50:15
to occur, we could very well understand the American uh script. Mrs. Machado may
50:22
be wounded. Um others may be killed and she will appeal for US intervention to
50:28
save lives. And then we can imagine Trump announcing to the American people
50:34
in the world, he's intervening to save lives. And that's what might happen. The
50:41
question then is whether the two principal powers be supporting the
50:49
Venezuelan economy, China, which is the heaviest in foreign investor in
50:54
Venezuela and the major recipient of Venezuelan oil. Um and Russia will
51:00
enable and help Maduro f first to deter such an American air intervention, the
51:08
dropping of special forces and so forth to deter it or to combat it because were
51:18
Trump to pull such an intervention would Trump be facing a bay of pigs and
51:26
that's where we have to remind everybody. The one thing Trump thinks in
51:32
his three-stage war making is that he can demonstrate such an um a power to
51:39
obliterate. His word applied to Iran. Um that he can achieve peace through war.
51:48
But the one thing that curbs that ambition is the prospect of losing. The
51:55
prospect of facing casualties. The prospect that a US aircraft will be
52:00
downed. That a a marine or special forces or commando landing in Venezuela
52:08
will be met by unexpectedly heavy defense that wipes them out. A bay of
52:14
pigs. Can President Trump risk with Venezuela a bay of pigs? A bay of pigs
52:23
uh could be resisted by John F. Kennedy, though he himself didn't last very long
52:28
after it. But Trump could not. A defeat of the Bay
52:34
of Pigs type on a Venezuelan shore would be dramatically damaging to the Trump
52:41
regime and to its entire three-stage war making means peacemaking
52:47
uh ideology. INTERVIEWER: Yeah,
52:52
John, we've learned yesterday from we've learned that a Russian aircraft
52:59
previously linked to Wagner group and
53:05
arrived in Venezuela which would bring some sort of question what is Russia doing in Venezuela or if Venezuela is
53:12
receiving some sort of aid from China, Russia, maybe Iran
53:18
and do you think Looking at the global south and their
53:25
reaction to what's going on in Venezuela, do you think they reacting
53:31
in a proper way? HELMER: Proper? Uh
53:38
we've entirely the world has lost propriety. No. uh we're at war,
53:46
as you've said, throughout the global south, in Europe, and in the Far East
53:52
because there's no end to these three-stage Trump wars mean peace operations. Called them imperialism for
54:00
short. Um, I have published for our audience to
54:08
follow up if they wish uh an account of of of Russian
54:14
uh relations with um the Maduro regime, the Maduro government and before that
54:22
the Chavez government. Um the
54:27
I've looked at the the terminology of commitments in the Russian Venezuelan
54:35
strategic partnership agreement which has just been ratified by the Russian side. It was ratified a month or so ago
54:43
on the Venezuelan side and signed earlier this year. Mr. Maduro was one of
54:48
the guests at the May 9 uh Red Square military parade.
54:55
Um there's a reluctance on the part of the
55:01
Russian side and a even bigger reluctance on the part of the Chinese
55:07
side to explicitly um take Venezuela's side in defense
55:16
against the United States. And our audience may have better documentation
55:22
than I have for tonight or this morning or this afternoon depending on where you are um of Chinese statements in support
55:31
of Venezuela under attack. But I haven't seen any.
55:36
That doesn't mean that secretly, quietly, both the the big powers and other
55:43
smaller powers with much greater uh capabilities of resistance like Iran
55:50
aren't doing what they can. The issue remains secrecy and I have to say I
55:56
don't myself know. Um, the issue for the
56:02
United States is what do their intelligence capabilities tell them
56:09
about the rising defense capability of
56:15
Venezuela to inflict a level of casualties which the United States uh
56:22
cannot accept cannot accept. A Bay of Pigs possibility.
56:28
Uh I don't know the answer to that either. Uh
56:33
what President Putin is intent on doing is trying to resolve
56:40
the third stage war fighting threats from Trump right now and trying to hold
56:48
as much third world bricks uh support for um understanding his attempts to
56:56
negotiate a second stage settlement with Trump have failed. And as they fail,
57:06
the Russian side has to demonstrate its goodwill in seeking to defend itself.
57:13
Um, it is acting in all sorts of ways to
57:18
support Iran quietly. There is a let's call it more explicit
57:26
strategic partnership with Iran but not as explicit in mutual defense as there
57:33
is between Russia and North Korea. That's the strongest. Uh, an attack on
57:40
one is an attack on the other. Article five of the NATO pack type.
57:46
One for all, all for one uh security arrangement that exists between Russia
57:52
and North Korea, but hasn't been tested yet. It does not exist
57:59
on the surface on the papers with Iran, but it is being tested to a level of
58:06
Russian uh deterrent capability against Israel
58:11
and another form of US attack. Is it being developed very quietly and
58:17
secretly with Venezuela? I don't know.
58:27
—————
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.
