Saturday, September 19, 2015

ABC’s of Armageddon Part VI: On Eve of Pope’s Visit US and UK Hold World’s Largest Arms Fair



Well the ABC’s of Armageddon are at it again on the eve of Pope Francis’ visit to America where he will address the American congress, the US and the UK just held the world’s largest arms fair in London selling arms to governments known to use children soldiers.


Since the governments in America, Britain and Canada were taken over by rightwing extremists the world has suffered from the instability that overthrowing governments, stealing their assets and destroying their natural resources brings.  The rightwing rise has been accompanied by, if not created by Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in a “what came first the chicken or the egg” scenario. 



The recipe for the rightwing takeover was crafted through think tanks whose members are comprised of Americans, Israelis, Canadians, British and Australians. Here is a quick recap of the movement from Zerohedge:


Excerpt:


Rewind to the era before the War on Terror. In 1995, Yitzhak Rabin, Israel’s “dovish” Prime Minister, was assassinated by a right-wing zealot. This precipitated an early election in which Rabin’s Labor Party was defeated by the ultra-hawkish Likud, lifting hardliner Benjamin Netanyahu to his first Premiership in 1996.


That year, an elite study group produced a policy document for the incipient administration titled, “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm.” The membership of the Clean Break study group is highly significant, as it included American neoconservatives who would later hold high offices in the Bush Administration and play driving roles in its Middle East policy…

  
The Clean Break study group’s leader, Richard Perle...  while serving as chairman of a high level Pentagon advisory committee, Perle helped coordinate the neoconservative takeover of foreign policy in the Bush administration and the final push for war in Iraq.


Another Clean Breaker, Douglas Feith, was a Perle protege and a key player in that neocon coup. After 9/11, as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Feith created two secret Pentagon offices tasked with cherry-picking, distorting, and repackaging CIA and Pentagon intelligence to help make the case for war.


Feith’s “Office of Special Plans” manipulated intelligence to promote the falsehood that Saddam had a secret weapons of mass destruction program that posed an imminent chemical, biological, and even nuclear threat. This lie was the main justification used by the Bush administration for the Iraq War…



Douglas Feith, that’s the guy the General Tommy Franks called "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth."  The Iraq war was a gateway to the real prize these neocons had in their sites, the crown jewel was Syria. 



But why did the Netanyahu/Bush Clean Breakers want to regime change Iraq in the first place? While reference is often made to “A Clean Break” as a prologue to the Iraq War, it is often forgotten that the document proposed regime change in Iraq primarily as a “means” of “weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria.” Overthrowing Saddam in Iraq was merely a stepping stone to “foiling” and ultimately overthrowing Bashar al-Assad in neighboring Syria….


As incoherent as it may have been, getting at Syria through Iraq is what the neocons wanted. And this is also highly significant for us today, because the US has now fully embraced the objective of regime change in Syria, even with Barack Obama inhabiting the White House instead of George W. Bush.


The violent extremism of the Bush/Cheney years has been on steroids since the Administration of Barack Obama and his Vice President, the self-proclaimed Zionist Joe Biden, took up the gauntlet.  The Obama Biden Administration has expanded the war agenda overthowing the governments in Ukraine, Libya, Burkina Faso, and has instigated a civil war in Syria.




When Obama Biden and their Secretary of State, John Kerry were pushing for a bombing campaign in Syria, Vladimir Putin along with Pope Francis were able to stop the war mongers.  From Shoebat.com:


Excerpt:


Pope Francis And Putin Conduct Secret Meeting To Fight Against Obama’s Anti-Christian Policies That Are Advancing The Islamic Persecution Of Christians


After both of Bush’s and the pro-Muslim Brotherhood, Barack Hussein Obama’s policies in the Middle East, ancient communities and holy sites have been destroyed, millions displaced and bishops were murdered.


The major rift between the Vatican and Washington began with the invasion of Iraq when Pope John Paul II argued vociferously against sending U.S. troops to oust Saddam Hussein while the perceived Evangelical type President George W. Bush “spoke and behaved as if he was divinely inspired and seemed genuinely to believe that it was a war of right against wrong…”


Nothing is more dangerous than a world leader believing he is divinely inspired to murder a whole nation of people.  Many, myself included believe Pope John Paul II was murdered after he spoke out against the war in Iraq.


George W. Bush became the face of American evangelical Christianity during his eight-year presidency….


The Pope, who was ruthlessly criticized by many, at the time even sent a personal envoy, Cardinal Pio Laghi, to bring his case to President George W. Bush on March 5, 2003 to no avail. “I had the impression that they had already decided,” the veteran diplomat told a group in Italy months later…


The U.S. invasion was a disaster for Christians in the Middle East. Just as the Vatican predicted, ancient communities and holy sites have been destroyed, millions displaced and bishops murdered.


Today, the same American proponents of invading Iraq are promoting military escalation on Ukraine’s eastern border…


Another example is Belarus when U.S. policy since 2004 has been largely antagonistic toward the Alexander Lukashenko regime, including the imposition of various sanctions for undemocratic practices….


Another U.S. blunder, and is the reason for Putin meeting with the Pope, is in Syria. Both Francis and Putin, working with and through their respective churches coordinated to thwart U.S. intervention in Syria. In 2013, Washington, as did Bush in Iraq, falsely accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.  One of these accusations is the killing of more than 1,400 people in a chemical weapons attack and warned of military intervention.


Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who broke the story of the My Lai massacre and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, reported that the Assad regime might not be responsible for the chemical weapons attacks in Syria. He stressed that the Obama administration and other senior level American officials knew this while they were making the case against Assad.


Yes, meet the new Administrations in America and Britain, same as the old Administrations.





Hersh claims that the Obama administration knew quite well that claims that only the Syrian army had access to sarin were wrong. “The American and British intelligence communities had been aware since the spring of 2013 that some rebel units in Syria were developing chemical weapons,”


Being Judeo Christian and all, you would think the same gang that bankrupted their nations bringing war to Iraq and Syria would have some moral conscience to care for the poor civilian victims who are seeking refuge from the wars caused by their “errors” in judgment.  But sadly you’d be wrong.


So why are America, Britain and Canada doubling down on their rape and pillage of Syria?  Maybe the answer is in the article from Mint Press:


Excerpt:


What Rothschild, Murdoch, Cheney, And Israel Love Most About Syria


(ANTIMEDIA) What do Syria, New Jersey, Lord Jacob Rothschild, and former Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson have in common?


Besides sounding like the introduction to a wince-worthy conspiracy quip, the most elementary answer is also nauseatingly cliche as an explanation for the penchant the U.S. government displays for inserting itself in the domestic affairs of nearly every country in the Middle East:


Oil.


Afek, a subsidiary of New Jersey-based Genie Energy, Ltd., announced the discovery of a large liquid oil reservoir and requested an extension of its exploration license for areas in “Northern Israel.”


After having spent over three years in active exploration from the time initial hydrocarbon measurements and geological tests hinted at the presence of such a reserve, Afek’s discovery might have been welcome news all around — were it not contentiously located within Israeli-occupied Syria, in the region known as the Golan Heights.


“Initial findings from the drilling confirm the discovery of an oil reservoir in the Golan and further justifies continuing the exploration program,” stated Afek’s request. “We need more time for this.”


While Israel and Afek might dismissively refer to Syria’s Golan Heights as Northern Israel in documentation, international law definitively marks the region as occupied by foreign forces — making the U.S. company’s controversial oil exploration arrogantly hegemonic, as well as illegal.


Taking full advantage of the public announcement about the findings, the next day Genie Oil and Gas proceeded to publicize the names of new appointees who will join the eyebrow-raising Rupert Murdoch, Dick Cheney, and Lord Jacob Rothschild on the Strategic Advisory Board (SAB). Those members are:


Dr. Lawrence Summers, 71st Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton and Director of the National Economic Council under Pres. Obama; former Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, who is credited with helping pass the U.S.-Israel Energy Cooperation Bill while she chaired the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources; former governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, who became an industry insider after serving as the Clinton administration’s Energy Secretary; and former Director of Central Intelligence, R. James Woolsey, who co-founded the U.S. Energy Security Council.


My, my, my.  Thick as thieves. The war industry funds the elections of the politicians that in turn rob their treasuries to perpetuate the wars that fund the war industry.  While their citizens are ignorant, starved and fed a steady diet of hate from Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, the US and UK are arming child soldiers at world’s largest arms fair in London. 


All this is taking place amidst a backdrop of European countries being flooded with refugees from their endless wars.   From MintPress:




US And UK Arm Child Soldiers At World’s Largest Arms Fair In London


LONDON — Against the objections of the United Nations, this week the United States and the United Kingdom together helped arm the world’s child soldiers.


Tuesday through Friday this week, the British capital played host to the world’s largest arms fair, Defence and Security Equipment International, where global arms vendors — many from the U.S. — sell their wares to world governments seeking to upgrade their arsenals. The event was expected to draw 32,000 visitors from 60 countries, including multiple nations that make use of child soldiers in violation of international law.


According to a report from The Guardian, of the 23 nations known by the United Nations to use child soldiers, the U.K. sold arms to 19 of them during the past five years…


You know, in the United States the Republicans are planning to shut down the government in order to defund Planned Parenthood because of bootleg videos showing “babies” killed in abortion.  Isn’t that rich?  If only they had a tenth of the outrage for the infants born with severe deformities caused by the use of depleted uranium in nations poisoned by war. 


And, of those 23 nations, five countries received an invitation to this year’s DSEI: Angola, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Kazakhstan and Thailand.


Yet the use of child soldiers isn’t the only offense committed by these countries’ governments, Townsend noted. Human rights are deteriorating rapidly in Azerbaijan, and the European Union recently demanded that its government end a crackdown on aid workers. Egypt has also been the source of an increasing number human rights concerns, especially since the 2013 military coup by the U.S. backed…


Last month, Andrew Smith, an activist from Campaign Against Arms Trade, one of the groups planning to organize against DSEI, told MintPress News that the weapons sold at this arm fair have a devastating effect on people worldwide:


“Arms companies profit from war and conflict across the globe and must be opposed wherever they are. Companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin might operate from the West, but their real impact is felt on the ground in countries like Gaza and Yemen. The arms companies and the governments that support them need to be confronted with the devastating consequences of their actions.”


Sickening isn’t it?  And, as the US, Britian and Canada continue to arm “moderate terrorists” to fight against Syria’s elected President Bashir Assad, Putin is sending aid to Syria to fight against the US created ISIL.  From Aljazeera: 


Excerpt:


Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has confirmed that the country's "humanitarian" flights to Syria carry military equipment as well as humanitarian aid - after the US and NATO warned Moscow over its involvement in the Syrian conflict.


"Russian planes are sending to Syria both military equipment in accordance with current contracts and humanitarian aid," Lavrov told reporters on Thursday…


"Going back 60 years, Russia has been supplying Syria with arms, advisers, military equipment. Nothing much has really changed.


"The threat coming from Islamic State [ISIL] is evident... The only force capable of resisting it is the Syrian armed forces," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, reiterating Russia's position that its longtime ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, should be part of international efforts to combat ISIL.


Washington has put pressure on Greece and Bulgaria in recent days to deny Russia's requests to use their airspace for its Syria flights.  


During a press conference with the Slovakian prime minister, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk announced the country will close its airspace to Russian planes flying to Syria.


Putin and the Pope were able to stop the Obama regime from bombing Syria on trumped up charges, Obama and Biden had a work around to proceed with bombing.  From GlennGreenwald:



Excerpt:


Out Bush-ing Bush: Syria is 7th mostly Muslim country bombed by 2009 Nobel Peace winner Obama


The U.S. today began bombing targets inside Syria, in concert with its lovely and inspiring group of five allied regimes: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Jordan.


That means that Syria becomes the 7th predominantly Muslim country bombed by 2009 Nobel Peace Laureate Barack Obama - after Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Iraq.


The utter lack of interest in what possible legal authority Obama has to bomb Syria is telling indeed: Empires bomb who they want, when they want, for whatever reason (indeed, recall that Obama bombed Libya even after Congress explicitly voted against authorization to use force, and very few people seemed to mind that abject act of lawlessness; constitutional constraints are not for warriors and emperors).


It was just over a year ago that Obama officials were insisting that bombing and attacking Assad was a moral and strategic imperative. Instead, Obama is now bombing Assad's enemies while politely informing his regime of its targets in advance. It seems irrelevant on whom the U.S. wages war; what matters is that it be at war, always and forever.


Six weeks of bombing hasn't budged ISIS in Iraq, but it has caused ISIS recruitment to soar. That's all predictable: the U.S. has known for years that what fuels and strengthens anti-American sentiment (and thus anti-American extremism) is exactly what they keep doing: aggression in that region. If you know that, then they know that. At this point, it's more rational to say they do all of this not despite triggering those outcomes, but because of it. Continuously creating and strengthening enemies is a feature, not a bug. It is what justifies the ongoing greasing of the profitable and power-vesting machine of Endless War.


If there is anyone who actually believes that the point of all of this is a moral crusade to vanquish the evil-doers of ISIS (as the U.S. fights alongside its close Saudi friends), please read Professor As'ad AbuKhalil's explanation today of how Syria is a multi-tiered proxy war. As the disastrous Libya "intervention" should conclusively and permanently demonstrate, the U.S. does not bomb countries for humanitarian objectives. Humanitarianism is the pretense, not the purpose.


Pope Francis is coming to address the congress in America and is scheduled to arrive on Tuesday.  His address to congress should be interesting coming on the heels of the US and UK largest arms fair in London where the US and UK just sold arms for child soldiers.  After all, this is what the Pope had to say about arms dealers in February of 2014.  From Religion News Service:


Excerpt:


VATICAN CITY (RNS) "Think of the great dining halls," Pope Francis said, "of the parties thrown by the bosses of the weapons industry who makes the arms. ... A sick child, starving, in a refugee camp -- and the great parties, the fine life for those who manufacture weapons.”



Yes, Pope Francis is going to speak before the American congress, the same congress that just a week ago voted to cut aid to refugees of war.  From Roll Call:


Excerpt:


U.S funding for refugees could be cut by hundreds of millions of dollars next year under the Senate’s proposed spending plan even as a global humanitarian crisis, spurred by the exodus of millions of people from their homes in Afghanistan, Iraq, and especially Syria, grows steadily worse.


The Senate’s fiscal 2016 foreign aid (S. 1725) bill would reduce by 14 percent, or $415 million, the Migration and Refugee Assistance account, which is currently funded at just under $3.06 billion…


The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in late August reported it has only 41 percent of what it needs to meet the needs of registered Syrian refugees for the rest of the year, a funding gap of nearly $800 million.


And the World Food Program announced last week that due to lack of funds it had to remove one-third of Syrian refugees living in the region, including 229,000 people in Jordan, from its already scaled-back food voucher program, according to the Associated Press.


Nearly 60 million people were displaced globally in 2014the highest number ever recorded….


The House State-Foreign Operations spending bill (HR 2772) would keep funding stable at fiscal 2015 levels WHILE THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION REQUESTED A DECREASE IN FUNDING OF ABOUT $600 MILLION.



Yes, indeedy the Pope’s visit to the American congress should be real interesting.  The ABC’s of Armageddon spend lavishly on war machinery while children are dying in war torn countries funded by the ABC’s of Armageddon.  Maybe they should play Jimi Hendrix version of the Star Spangled Banner for the Pope.



By Patricia Baeten


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