Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was born April 28, 1937 and died December 30, 2006. He was the fifth President of Iraq, holding that position from July 16, 1979 until 9 April 2003. He was one of the leading members of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, and afterward, the Baghdad-based Ba’ath Party and its regional organization Ba’ath Party, Iraq Region, which advocated ba’athism, an ideological marriage of Arab nationalism with Arab socialism. (Patricia Ramos, july 2013)
An especially dangerous threat to liberty occurs when members of the press collude with government agencies instead of monitoring and exposing the abuses of those agencies. Unfortunately, collusion is an all-too-common pattern in press coverage of the national security state’s activities. The American people then receive official propaganda disguised as honest reporting and analysis.
"The national security of America and the security of the world could be attained if the American leaders [..] become rational, if America disengages itself from its evil alliance with Zionism, which has been scheming to exploit the world and plunge it in blood and darkness, by using America and some Western countries. What the American peoples need mostly is someone who tells them the truth, courageously and honestly as it is.
They don’t need fanfares and cheerleaders, if they want to take a lesson from the (sept. 11) event so as to reach a real awakening, in spite of the enormity of the event that hit America.
But the world, including the rulers of America, should say all this to the American peoples, so as to have the courage to tell the truth and act according to what is right and not what to is wrong and unjust, to undertake their responsibilities in fairness and justice, and by recourse to reason..."
Saddam Hussein, INA 15-9-2002
Joe Biden & Truth - 2009
US Vice President Joe Biden said that the new administration would seek the
unvarnished truth from its spies, whether or not their information supported
the goals of the government.
The Vice President's address was greeted with loud cheers by the several hundred CIA employees who gathered for the swearing in ceremony in the foyer of the Agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
Standing before the wall of 89 stars representing the CIA staff who have died in the line of duty, Mr Biden said:
"We expect you to provide independent analysis, not to engage in group think. We
expect you to tell us the facts as you know them wherever they may lead, not
what you think we want to hear." (Tim Shipman. 20-2-2009)
"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign
ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid
to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation
that is afraid of its people …
The wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men. …
Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind." John F.Kennedy
“Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you can not retain.”
Saadi Shirazi
(Persian poet & humanist, born in Shiraz, Iran, c. 1210)
"The post-September 11 era in the US has heralded in a new age of ideology whose discourse and world views have served not only to accommodate such extremist views as those held by Sharon, but also to provide him with a platform and an influence that were unthinkable only a year ago.
Thus while the American President is busy devising a new Manichean universe of absolute good and absolute evil, pronouncing policy on the basis of a simplistic polarization of the world, and unilaterally defining the terms while categorizing state and non-state actors accordingly, Sharon’s Israel has maneuvered itself into a position of even greater power on the world stage provided explicitly by the US."
"The globalists wants to make the world unipolar in order to move towards a globalist non-polarity, where the elites will become fully international and their residence will be dispersed throughout the entire space of the planet.
Accordingly, for the salvation of people, peoples, and societies, the Great Awakening must begin with multipolarity.
This is not just the salvation of the West itself, and not even the salvation of everyone else from the West, but the salvation of humanity, both Western and non-Western, from the totalitarian dictatorship of the liberal capitalist elites.
And this cannot be done by the people of the West or the people of the East alone. Here it is necessary to act together. The Great Awakening necessitates an internationalization of the peoples’ struggle against the internationalization of the elites. Multipolarity becomes the most important reference point and the key to the strategy of the Great Awakening.
"Holism is the most fundamental discovery of 20th century science. It is a discovery of every science from astrophysics to quantum physics to environmental science to psychology to anthropology.
It is the discovery that the entire universe is an integral whole, and that the basic organizational principle of the universe is the field principle: the universe consists of fields within fields, levels of wholeness and integration that mirror in fundamental ways, and integrate with, the ultimate, cosmic whole...." "For many thinkers and religious teachers throughout this history, holism was the dominant thought, and the harmony that it implies has most often been understood to encompass cosmic, civilizational, and personal dimensions. Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Lord Krishna, Lao Tzu, and Confucius all give us visions of transformative harmony, a transformative harmony that derives from a deep relation to the holism of the cosmos."
About political holism
Political holism is based on the recognition that "we" are all members of a single whole. There's no "they," even though "we" are not all alike. Because "we" are all part of the whole, and therefore interdependent, we benefit from cooperating with each other. Political holism is a way of thinking about human cultures and nations as interdependent. Political holists search for solutions other than war to settle international disagreements. Their model of the world is one in which cooperation and negotiation, even with the enemy, even with the weak, promotes political stability more than warfare.
In an overpopulated world with planet-wide environmental problems, the development of weapons of mass destruction has rendered war obsolete as an effective means to resolve disputes.
Political dualists consider political holists unpatriotic for questioning the necessity to defeat "them." In times of impending war, political dualists tend to measure patriotism by the intensity of one's hostility to the country's immediate enemy. Naturally, they would view as disloyalty any suggestion that the enemy is not evil, any call for cooperation with the enemy, any criticism of one's own country.
To political dualists, cooperation with the enemy means capitulation, relinquishment of the nation's position of dominance. At its extreme, political dualism is essentially tribalism. (Betty Craige, 16-8-1997)
Desmond Tutu & Ubuntu
"A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."
"We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World.
When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity." (Ubuntu info)
Scores of Israeli ultra-nationalists, including settlers, stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Sunday morning as the Israeli military onslaught on Gaza entered its third day.
Protected by heavily armed Israeli forces, the storming began at around 7am local time and continued for three hours, as Israelis marked the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'av.
During the tours in the courtyards of the mosque, settlers performed religious prayers and raised the Israeli flag, in contravention of long-standing agreements on the site.
As part of a decades-old understanding between Jordan – the custodian of Islamic and Christian sites in Jerusalem – and Israel, non-Muslims are not allowed to perform any religious rituals inside the confines of Al-Aqsa Mosque, nor are Israeli symbols allowed to be displayed.
Non-Muslims can visit the mosque under the supervision of the Waqf, a joint Jordanian-Palestinian Islamic trust that manages the affairs of the mosque.
In 2003, the Waqf's management of Al-Aqsa visits was rescinded by Israeli authorities. Since then, Israeli police have allowed settlers and far-right activists to storm the site on a near-daily basis. Far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir led one of the groups that stormed the mosque... Ben-Gvir, who lives in an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank, is the head of the small Jewish Power party and is associated with the hardline anti-Palestinian Kahanist ideology.
The large Aqsa raids on Sunday were allowed by Israeli authorities despite concerns that they could spark further violence amid the ongoing Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
More than 29 Palestinians, including six children, have been killed in the attacks that began on Friday. At least 253 were wounded, more than half of them women and children, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Why is Israel attacking Gaza?
By MEE staff, 6 August 2022
Israel on Friday launched a series of air strikes and artillery fire on Gaza in an attack that has left at least 15 Palestinians dead, including a five-year-old girl.
Palestinian and Israeli analysts told Middle East Eye that Israel's latest assault on the besieged territory is unprovoked and strange.
How did it start? Earlier this week, Israel arrested Bassam el-Saadi, a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) armed faction, in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
Although the group did not respond, Israel launched air strikes that killed several Palestinians, including a top member of the group, Tayseer Jabari, in Gaza. Israel claimed that the organisation was planning an attack. However, it provided no evidence for that.
In response to the bombardment of Gaza, the PIJ said, it fired more than 100 rockets into Israel, and that "there are no red lines in this battle" and the city of Tel Aviv will fall under rocket fire.
Not everyone is buying the Israeli account that it was attempting to prevent an attack by the PIJ.
"The bottom line is that after Israel allegedly tried to prevent Islamic Jihad attacks, it is now receiving rockets that apparently would not have happened if Israel did not attack first," veteran Israeli analyst Meron Rapoport told MEE.
The analyst noted that Israel was essentially punishing the PIJ for not attacking in retaliation to Saadi's arrest, given that the group only launched rockets after Israel made air strikes on Gaza.
Al-Jazeera Info
Palestinian Islamic Jihad was founded in 1981 by Palestinian students in Egypt with the aim of establishing a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and other areas of what is now Israel. Islamic Jihad is the smaller of the two main Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip, and is vastly outnumbered by the governing Hamas group.
“Though it is a small group, Islamic Jihad is very efficient and highly organised. There is a strong order within the party itself,” said Fraihat. “Despite its small size, it has participated in all the confrontations with Israel.”
Analysis: Israeli PM's Gaza gamble seems to have paid off
Hamas remained on the sidelines by Naharnet Newsdesk, 8-8-2022
Israel's caretaker prime minister took a gamble with his preemptive strike against Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza, less than three months before he is to compete in general elections to retain his job. Yair Lapid had counted on Gaza's militant Hamas rulers to stay out of the fight, thus enabling Israel to weaken Hamas' smaller sister group while avoiding a full-blown escalation. At the same time, he may also have gained political ground ahead of the polls.
With a cease-fire between the sides holding on Monday, after three days of violence, the calculation appears to have been accurate.
as Israeli jets pounded targets in Gaza, killing two Islamic Jihad leaders in targeted attacks, and Israel's missile shield intercepted many of the hundreds of rockets fired by Islamic Jihad.
Long-suffering Gaza civilians once again bore the brunt of the violence, with 44 Palestinians killed, among them 15 children and four women. Israel said some were victims of rockets falling short.
gaza between war and peace
Since the last war in May 2021, Lapid and his governing partner Naftali Bennett have tried to create more incentives for Hamas to maintain quiet along the Gaza border, with the implied acknowledgement that this would cement the militants' rule.
As part of this strategy, Israel issued permits for 12,000 Gaza workers to enter Israel, with the promise of handing out more if the situation remains calm. Qatar and Egypt have also been engaged in rebuilding Gaza, with Israel's support.
On Monday morning, Israel partially reopened Gaza crossings that had been closed during the fighting, signaling a quick return to the understandings that were in place before the fighting.
"Hamas doesn't want a war every other day. If it joined publicly, this means destruction of buildings, infrastructure, and the Egyptians played an influential role in preventing Hamas from joining the battle," said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political science professor at Gaza's al-Azhar University.
The Israeli work permits are a lifeline for Gaza's economy, battered by widespread destruction from Israeli strikes over the years and crippling movement restrictions.
The permits are "definitely very important to Hamas as it governs Gaza and has governing responsibilities," said Hossam al-Dajani, political scientist at the Islamic University of Gaza.
ISTANBUL, Turkey - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that Turkey will start paying for some of its Russian natural gas imports in rubles.
The announcement was initially made by Moscow late Friday after more than four hours of talks between Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi.
The United States is leading international efforts to impose economic sanctions on Russia in response to its February invasion of Ukraine. But NATO member Turkey has tried to remain neutral in the conflict because of its heavy dependence on Russian energy.
"As Turkey, our door is open to everyone," Erdogan was quoted Saturday as telling Turkish reporters on his flight home from Sochi.
"One good thing about this Sochi visit is that we agreed on the ruble with Mr. Putin," Erdogan said. "Since we will conduct this trade in rubles, it will of course bring money to Turkey and Russia."
Neither Erdogan nor Russian officials have said what portion of the gas will be covered by ruble payments.
Avoiding paying for the gas in dollars helps Turkey protect its dwindling hard currency reserves.
Ruble payments help Russia avoid restrictions on dollar transactions with Moscow that the United States is trying to impose on global banks. Erdogan and Putin pledged in Sochi to expand economic cooperation in sectors including banking and industry
Author Salman Rushdie attacked
13-8-2022: Salman Rushdie, the author whose writing led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was attacked and apparently stabbed in the neck Friday by a man who rushed the stage as he was about to give a lecture in western New York.
Friday's knife attack on Salman Rushdie comes more than 33 years after the fatwa against him by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in which he sentenced him to death.
On February 14, 1989 Khomeini called for him to be killed for writing "The Satanic Verses", which the cleric said insulted Islam.
In a fatwa, or religious decree, Khomeini urged "Muslims of the world rapidly to execute the author and the publishers of the book" so that "no one will any longer dare to offend the sacred values of Islam."
Khomeini, who was 89 and had just four months to live, added that anyone who was killed trying to carry out the death sentence should be considered a "martyr" who would go to paradise.
The British government immediately granted police protection to Rushdie, an atheist born in India to non-practising Muslims.
For almost 13 years he moved between safe houses under the pseudonym of Joseph Anton, changing base 56 times in the first six months. His solitude was worsened by the split with his wife American novelist Marianne Wiggins, to whom "The Satanic Verses" are dedicated.
"I am gagged and imprisoned," he recalled writing in his diary in his 2012 memoir, "Joseph Anton".
"I can't even speak. I want to kick a football in a park with my son. Ordinary, banal life: my impossible dream."
The Goddesses Al-Uzza, Al-Lat and Menat formed a triad in pre-Islamic Arabia. They were widely worshipped: from Nabatean Petra in the North to the legendary Kingdoms of Arabia Felix in the South, including Saba, the Biblical Sheba; as far east as Iran and Palmyra; and the three of them were very popular Goddesses in Mecca at the time of Mohammed. Al-Uzza is "The Mighty One", the Goddess of the Morning Star; Al-Lat, the Mother, whose name means simply "The Goddess", as Al-Lah simply means "The God"; and Manat, Crone-goddess of Fate or Time. Sometimes the three of them are referred to as the daughters of Al-Lah; sometimes Manat and Al-Lat are considered daughters of Al-Uzza.
Viking Penguin published "The Satanic Verses" in September 1988 to critical acclaim.
The book was deemed blasphemous and sacrilegious by many Muslims including over references to verses alleged by some scholars to have been an early version of the Koran and later removed. These verses allow for prayers to be made to three pagan goddesses (Allāt, Al-Uzza, and Manāt), contrary to Islam's strict belief that there is only one God.
Controversially, Rushdie writes of the involvement of a prophet resembling the founder of Islam, Mohammed. This prophet is tricked into striking a deal with Satan in which he exchanges some of his monotheistic dogmatism in favour of the three goddesses. He then realises his error.
Khomeini and others insist he had depicted the prophet irreverently.
Khomeini's fatwa provoked horror around the Western world. There were protests in Europe, and London and Tehran broke off diplomatic relations for nearly two years.
In the United States, authors like Susan Sontag and Tom Wolfe organised public lectures to support Rushdie. The author tried to explain himself in 1990 in an essay titled "In Good Faith" but many Muslims were not placated.
In 1998, the government of Iran's reformist president Mohammad Khatami assured Britain that Iran would not implement the fatwa.
But Khomeini's successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in 2005 he still believed Rushdie was an apostate whose killing would be authorised by Islam.
Many Muslims were furious when Rushdie was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007 for his services to literature. Rushdie was by then living relatively openly in New York where he moved in the late 1990s, and where his recent novels are set.
After many years living in the shadows, he became something of a socialite and is seen by many in the West as a free speech hero.
Until Friday's knife attack, he had very much resumed a normal life.
Western countries are desperately clinging to their "vanishing hegemony" but the unipolar world order is becoming a thing of the past, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his address to the audience of the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security on Tuesday.
The head of state noted that the West needs conflicts in order to stay in power, so the US and its allies are actively meddling in the affairs of other countries, whipping up all sorts of provocations and civil wars. The West’s hegemony spells stagnation for the entire world. However, it is possible to reduce tension and overcome common threats by bolstering the system of a modern multipolar world.
TASS put together Putin’s key statements.
-- On multipolar world order:
The contours of a multipolar world order are being actively shaped. "Increasingly more countries and peoples are choosing the path of free sovereign development based on their uniqueness, traditions and values."
The objective processes of shaping a multipolar world are being "opposed by Western globalist elites who stoke chaos by igniting old and new conflicts and implementing the so-called containment policy, which essentially undermines any alternative sovereign paths of development." The globalist elites are "at all cost, trying to cling to hegemony that is slipping through their fingers, and seek to keep countries and peoples in the grip of the neocolonial order."
"Their hegemony spells stagnation for the entire world and for all of civilization, and it includes bigotry, cancel culture, and neoliberal totalitarianism."
"Only by substantially bolstering the system of a modern multipolar world it is possible to diminish tensions worldwide, overcome threats and risks in the military and political sphere, increase the level of trust between countries and ensure their stable development."
-- On Ukraine:
The West needs conflicts "to hold on to their hegemony." "This is precisely why they planned to use the people of Ukraine as cannon fodder, implemented the ‘anti-Russia’ project, turned a blind eye to the spread of neo-Nazi ideology, to the mass slaughter of the Donbass residents, and have been flooding and continue to flood the Kiev regime with armaments, including the heavy weapons."
Under these conditions, Russia decided to conduct a special military operation in Ukraine in full compliance with the UN Charter.
"The goals of this operation have been clearly defined - it is to ensure the security of Russia and our citizens, and the defense of the Donbass residents from genocide."
"The situation in Ukraine testifies to US attempts to prolong this conflict. And it acts exactly the same way by igniting a conflict potential in Asia, Africa and Latin America."
-- On West's actions:
"The US and its vassals are grossly interfering in the domestic affairs of sovereign states. They organize provocations, state coups and civil wars. Using threats, blackmail and pressure, they attempt to force independent states to bend to their will and live according to rules that are alien to them."
The West’s goal is to "hold on to its domination, using this model that enables it to feed off the entire world as it has done for centuries and such a model can only be sustained by force." The West brushed aside Russia’s proposals for mutual security measures. Meanwhile, NATO is expanding eastward, beefing up its military infrastructure.
"Verbally, it is hypocritically explained by the necessity to bolster security in Europe, while just the opposite is occurring in reality."
Russia will continue to ensure its national interests as well as the protection of its allies, and "take other steps to build a more democratic world." It is necessary to "restore respect to international law, and to its fundamental norms and principles." It is important to bolster the positions of the UN and other international dialogue venues.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara is ready to contribute to ending the Russia-Ukraine war through diplomacy, and invited both leaders for meeting in Türkiye.
"I stated that we will continue to contribute to the solution to the war through diplomacy and negotiations.
"Just as I told (Russian President Vladimir) Putin during my Sochi visit, I reminded (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy that we could host the meeting between them," Erdogan on Thursday told reporters on board the presidential plane following a one-day working visit to Ukraine. Erdogan, Zelenskyy, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gathered in the Ukrainian city of Lviv to discuss steps to end the Ukraine-Russia war through diplomatic means and maintain a mechanism recently established for the export of Ukrainian grain to world markets.
Erdogan said Ankara's main contention is fight against terrorism in northern Syria, and signals that Türkiye is ready for operation against terror groups. He reiterated that the US continues to support terrorism in Syria.
"It is the US and coalition forces that primarily feed terrorism in Syria. They did it brutally and they still do it. They did not get tired of it, and they also made the same feeding in Iraq. To whom? Again to terrorist organizations. If there is unrest in Iraq today, unfortunately, America lies behind it," the president said.
Erdogan stressed that Ankara is not eyeing Syria and that Syria's territorial integrity is important to Türkiye.
"We do not have eyes on the territory of Syria because the people of Syria are our brothers. We have no such problem there. The integrity of their territory is important to us. The regime must be aware of this," he noted.
He also said Türkiye is in contact with Russia on every step it takes in Syria.
“We don’t have such an issue whether to defeat Assad or not,” he told journalists accompanying him on a trip to Ukraine.
“All the steps we have taken with Russians in northern Syria and the east and west of the Euphrates, there is a fight against terrorism.”
After a week of speculation that normalisation with the Syrian president’s government may be on the cards, Erdogan said Turkey will need to take “higher steps” with Damascus to end the “games” being played in the region.
He added that Turkey cannot totally end its diplomatic relations with the Syrian government. “You have to accept that you cannot cut the political dialogue and diplomacy between the states,” he said. “There should always be such dialogues.“
there was a time that they were friends...
Erdogan said that he hopes that a new constitution will be drafted as soon as possible and the needs of the Syrian people fulfilled.
“We don’t host four million Syrian refugees to be perpetually at war with the regime,” he said. “We host them because of our ties with the Syrian people, especially religion. We hope the process from now on would be beneficial for everyone.”
Domestic pressure is growing on Ankara to warm relations with Damascus. The Turkish opposition's calls for reconciliation between Turkey and Syria are increasing every day, as the public grows increasingly hostile to the nearly four million Syrian refugees in the country.
In recent years, many Arab countries, most prominently the UAE, have resumed ties with Damascus. Several have been urging the Arab League to reinstate Syria, and meanwhile Washington has held direct talks with Syrian officials seeking compromises and the release of US journalist Austin Tice.
Iraqi Shiite cleric Ammar al-Hakim on Thursday met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah, discussing the political crisis in Iraq and stressing the need to keep the country away from foreign interference during this period.
Hakim, head of the National Wisdom Movement political bloc, arrived in Jeddah on Thursday and was received by the country’s Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed Elkhereiji. He held a meeting with Bin Salman shortly after, discussing the latest developments in Iraq’s political scene as well bilateral relations between Baghdad and Riyadh.
“We affirmed that dialogue between the different parties is the best way to reach satisfactory solutions to the political deadlock in Iraq, and we stressed that the solutions must remain Iraqi without any external pressure,” read a statement from Hakim’s office regarding the meeting.
Iraq is in the midst of a deepening political impasse, with calls from influential Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr for new snap elections and the dissolution of the current parliament, due to the current legislature’s failure to form Iraq’s next government 10 months after the elections of October 2021.
Sadrist supporters have held sit-in demonstrations in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, protesting the delay in government formation and asking for the implementation of their leader’s calls...
The visit sparked speculation that its purpose was to convince Saudi Arabia to mediate between the Iraqi parties to end the current political crisis, but this was refuted by Fahad al-Juboori, member of the Wisdom Movement, who told Rudaw’s Mushtaq Ramadhan on Thursday that “the Coordination Framework rejects any external mediation.”
Recent Republican primary elections have made one thing clear: The future of Republican foreign policy is based on the world as it is, not as one wishes it to be.
This may seem like an obvious concept to many normal Americans, but for decades successive administrations made policy based on what they wished reality would be instead of on reality as it was.
Bill Clinton desired to “enlarge” the democratic sphere of influence, and in 2000, political scientist Kenneth Waltz wrote that he expected “the United States [would soon] take measures to enhance democracy around the world” and that the “task, one fears, will be taken up by the American military with some enthusiasm.”
He was correct, as any reader of The American Conservative knows. What followed was a series of wars of ideals, overseen by presidents from both parties.
The initial invasion of Afghanistan under George W. Bush was clearly a result of 9/11, but the following 20-year occupation was bent on building a liberal democracy in a place which did not want one. The Iraq War was built just as much upon the spread of democracy as it was on finding weapons of mass destruction, and there has never been a real indication that Iraqis were desperate for democracy any more than Afghans were.
When Barack Obama followed Bush into the presidency, he failed to truly repudiate the Bush Doctrine and continued a policy of interventions based on ideals in Syria and Libya—both of which proved disastrous.
The Trump administration was the first to break away from this path, as Donald Trump himself disdained the concept of endless wars and championed the cause of “America First” in his inaugural address.
Over the course of the war in Ukraine, it has become clear which way the cookie is crumbling. Members of the establishment, especially the Democrats, have accelerated their previous foreign policy of idealism into one of utter fantasy.
Meanwhile, the future of GOP foreign policy appears primed for reality.
Incumbent Senator Josh Hawley, a rapidly rising star, recently explained in the National Interest why he was voting against adding Sweden and Finland to NATO, saying that America needed a “truly strategic…foreign policy—one that looks to this nation’s strategic interests now, rather than the world of years ago.” And Trump himself has said that Ukraine “should have made a deal” with Russia and should have bowed to reality over certain things like Crimea and NATO.
Reality, not ideals, appears set to rule Republican foreign policy.
As the saying goes, either you deal with reality, or you can be sure that reality is going to deal with you. The new GOP is ready to deal with reality. Is the rest of the world?
Russia will move away the dollar and the euro in commercial, economic, and investment relations with partners, as these currencies have become "toxic" amid growing pressure from the West, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin said in an interview with TASS.
"Against the growing geopolitical pressure from the ‘collective West’, the only way to guarantee stable trade, economic, and investment ties between Russia and its partners is to avoid the use of currencies that have become ‘toxic’, primarily the US dollar and the euro, and switch to settlements in acceptable alternatives, primarily in national currencies," Pankin said. The diplomat noted that the current global financial system built by Washington has proven to be "unsuitable for the conditions of a multipolar world order and has essentially become an instrument for achieving political goals of one group of countries".
"It is quite obvious that in the current conditions the West intends to continue to abuse its privileged position," Pankin continued.
"It is encouraging to see that many nations, seeing extraordinary and illegitimate sanctions against Russia, are thinking about the need to de-dollarize foreign economic activity to ensure their sovereignty. As it turned out, if there is political will, the issue is quite solvable," he added. Creating a financial system for a multipolar world is already an irreversible process, he said.
"Mechanisms for settlements in national and currencies other than Western ones have been successfully created with a number of nations, and the possibility of paying in rubles for certain categories of Russia's export goods, including energy and food products, has been set up. The BRICS, SCO, and other international platforms have intensified their multilateral discourse on the subject," he said.
"This not only solves the tasks of ensuring Russia’s foreign trade operations, but lays the groundwork for the financial system of the multipolar world. In a certain sense, this process is already irreversible," the diplomat added.
Back in June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that creating an international reserve currency based on the currencies of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) was in the works.
Flashback - Russia Insists on Ruble Payments for Gas
Moscow Times, March 29, 2022
Russia reiterated Tuesday that it will only be accepting payment for gas deliveries to the EU in rubles after G7 ministers called this arrangement "unacceptable."
"Nobody will supply gas for free. This is just impossible. And it can only be paid for in rubles," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "Companies must understand the completely changed environment that has arisen in the conditions of the economic war waged against Russia," he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that Moscow will now only accept rubles as payment for natural gas deliveries to "unfriendly" countries, which include the European Union.
President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree requiring buyers of Russian gas from countries deemed hostile to pay in roubles from Friday using a special account at a Russian bank, or see their contracts halted.
What is behind Putin’s order?
Putin’s order is in retaliation to unprecedented Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow says are akin to an economic war.
“If such payments [in roubles] are not made, we will consider this a default on the part of buyers, with all the ensuing consequences. Nobody sells us anything for free, and we are not going to do charity either – that is, existing contracts will be stopped,” Putin said on Thursday. The rouble plunged to historic lows after Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on February 24 as the United States and its allies moved to remove Russia from global payment systems, cut off its central bank from capital markets and froze hundreds of billions of dollars of its reserves.
The currency, however, has recovered following Putin’s decision to enforce rouble payments. On Thursday, more than a week after the Russian president first said Moscow would start selling its gas to “unfriendly countries” in roubles, the currency traded at 81.7 to the US dollar, almost the same level as February 23.
So far this year, Europe has spent 200 million to 800 million euros ($880 million) a day on Russian gas. These sales already greatly weaken the effect of the sanctions, regardless of how the payments are made – and while converting the sums into a stronger rouble will boost Russia’s coffers, there also seems to be a political goal, leaving Western countries with the prospect of either being forced to circumvent their own sanctions by having to deal with Moscow’s blacklisted central bank, or have their supplies cut.
DUBAI: Benjamin Netanyahu, the former Israeli prime minister, has sounded the alarm about a nuclear-armed Iran pursuing aggression against Israel, the Gulf states and “everybody else with impunity” if the proposed new nuclear deal materializes.
He described the idea of Iran having a nuclear umbrella as “very, very dangerous,” in addition to the possibility that the Iranians “may actually use (nuclear weapons) for the first time since the Second World War.”
Netanyahu’s warning came in an interview with Al Arabiya TV station on Wednesday amid reports that the US and Iran are closing in on an agreement to restore the 2015 accord after almost 17 months of indirect negotiations in Vienna.
"a very bad deal"
“Well, I’m afraid it looks like it’s a done deal. And it’s a very, very bad deal,” Netanyahu told Al Arabiya. “Bad for Israel, bad for the Gulf States, bad for the Middle East, bad for the world. Because Iran is getting a highway paved with gold to a nuclear arsenal and they make no secret of their attempts to destroy us. Conquer the Middle East.
“I think this is a grave development. It’s a bad mistake. Iran is getting basically the ability to have 3,500 advanced centrifuges 10 times to 20 times more advanced than the few thousand that they have today. And they can begin developing them within two years.”
Iran said Thursday it seeks to advance its construction of nuclear power plants in the country amid a nuclear deal revival on the horizon and with the world suffering from a shortage of fuel, state media reported.
"Today, the world is facing a crisis of fuel and almost all countries, especially European countries, are building nuclear power plants," Iran's Atomic Energy Organization chief Mohmamed Eslami said, regretting that Tehran had "neglected" and not previously shown greater importance to the field.
Eslami's remarks come a day after Tehran received Washington's response to its proposals on the "final" European Union draft for reviving the nuclear deal after Iran agreed to drop core demands that stalled the accord's revival.
The nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed between Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, and the US in 2015, offering Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program that it rapidly advanced following former US president Donald Trump's unilateral withdrawal from the deal.
Trump's withdrawal lifted all restrictions on Iran to embark on a campaign to rapidly advance its uranium enrichment capabilities, sparking concerns it seeks to develop a nuclear bomb despite Tehran rapidly denying such allegations. "We must be able to make the country one of the axes for the construction and design of nuclear power plants," Eslami said.
According to US State Department spokesperson Ned Price, Tehran has dropped its demand of the US lifting a terror blacklist off the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
On Monday, Iran slammed the US for succumbing to pressure from arch-rivals Israel to halt talks on reviving the accord, calling Washington out for its "weakness" and warning against the jeopardizing of the agreement.
Syria News - President al-Assad to Dlamini:
Syria committed to develop relations with South Africa SANA News, 25 August 2022
President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday that Syria is committed to develop relations with South Africa, based on a vision that depends on common interests between the two countries, considering that common relations among states are important to consolidate stability and safety in future as the World is changing and becoming more complicated, not because of the Ukrainian issue or the current events in Syria, Yemen or Libya, but also because of the economic repercussions that cause instability.
President al-Assad, meeting Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa, Candith Mashego-Dlamini, and an accompanying delegation, affirmed that terrorism can’t be combated only through armies, saying that the extremist mentality is moving in speedy way among states, and it doesn’t recognize any limits, but it flows directly through Web among the people, and from this point comes the necessity of moving on the level of bilateral relations among countries in the domains of economy and culture. The President considered that South Africa is an independent state and it respects its principles and plays an objective role on all levels in the world, and it has an important position on the political level, whether as a country by its own, or as part in the BRICS group. “South Africa also stands by the Syrian people in the war on terror and it supports their rights in the occupied Golan,” President al-Assad said.
Dlamini, for her part, said that her country has long suffered from instability and it highly appreciates support offered by Syria, considering that what Syria is going through now is a thing “that needs partnership on the level of experience.
She added that the current situation requires a permanent friendship that depends of mutual support, affirming that work is underway to activate agreements signed between the two countries.
In the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden declared to the nation and world: “We are engaged anew in a great battle for freedom. A battle between democracy and autocracy.”
On her trip to Taiwan, Speaker Nancy Pelosi echoed Biden: “Today, the world faces a choice between democracy and autocracy. America’s determination to preserve democracy here in Taiwan and in the world remains iron-clad.”
But is this truly the world struggle America is in today? Is this the great challenge and threat to the United States? Are autocracy and democracy in a climactic ideological crusade to determine the destiny of mankind?
For if that is the future, it is surely not America’s past.
In our war with Hitler’s Germany, America’s crucial ally who did more fighting than any other to ensure victory, the USSR’s Joseph Stalin, was the greatest tyrant of his age.
During the Korean War of 1950 to 1953, the leader of the South Korean regime was the dictator-autocrat Syngman Rhee.
During four decades of Cold War before the collapse and breakup of the Soviet Empire and Soviet Union, autocrats were allies of the United States. The shah of Iran. Gen. Augusto Pinochet of Chile. Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua. Gen. Francisco Franco of Spain. Anwar Sadat of Egypt. The kings and princes of Saudi Arabia.
During that Cold War, India was the world’s largest democracy and sided most often with Communist Russia rather than the United States. Autocratic Pakistan was our ally.
Across the Arab and Muslim world during the Cold War, many of our foremost friends and allies were kings, emirs and sultans — autocrats all.
This recitation is not to argue that autocracy is superior to democracy, but to demonstrate that the internal politics of foreign lands, especially in wartime, have rarely been America’s primary concern.
When the Arab Spring erupted, and the dictatorial President Hosni Mubarak’s 30 years of rule came to an end, we cheered the free elections that brought to power Mohamed Morsi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
A year later, Morsi was ousted in a military coup and power seized by Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, causing Secretary of State John Kerry to cheer that Egypt’s military was “restoring democracy.”
If Pelosi and Biden see the world struggle as between autocracy and democracy, a question arises: As leader of the democracy camp in this world struggle, why do we not insist that our allies in places like Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Yemen, the UAE and Oman begin to hold regular elections to bring to power legitimate democratic rulers, rather than the autocrats that currently occupy the seats of power?
Gorbachev & The Betrayal of 'The West'
Putin offers deepest condolences over Gorbachev’s death
MOSCOW, August 31, 2022. /TASS Russian News Agency
Russian President Vladimir Putin offers his deepest condolences over the death of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS on Wednesday.
"Vladimir Putin expresses his deepest condolences over the death of Mikhail Gorbachev. In the morning he will send a telegram with condolences to the relatives and friends," Peskov said.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and last president of the Soviet Union, died at the age of 91 after a serious and prolonged illness on Tuesday, the Central Clinical Hospital said.
[Barack Obana] was poised to complete the work, started by Reagan and Gorbachev, of bringing about a definitive settlement of the Cold War -- and, indeed, of the European civil war that broke out in 1914 -- by forging a new pan-European entente from Lisbon to Vladivostok and including North America.
But the bipartisan US foreign policy elite had other ideas. Why settle for entente when there is a world to be won? They want nothing less than global strategic dominance, or benevolent global hegemony, or empire, or whatever you choose to call it. ....
Washington's Russia policy is badly out of whack. It is rooted in a plethora of false narratives about the meaning of Russian developments, some of which stem from ignorance, some from a desire to give moral justification to its single-minded quest for global dominance.
These include: Russia is a defeated power (it is not); Yeltsin fomented democracy (he did the opposite), while Putin seeks to restore Soviet great power status (he seeks nothing of the kind; his aims are confined to stability on Russia's borders so as to develop internally); what Washington says and does is important to Russians (it is not.)
If you have no intention of talking seriously to Russia, of offering it strategic partnership, to say nothing of friendship, because all you really want is to absorb it into your globe-girdling hive of compliant states, then there is no need to get any of this right.
But in view of America’s declining economic fortunes (total US indebtedness is as large as its Gross Domestic Product; its military and foreign budget of some $1 trillion per year is as large as its yearly federal budget deficit,) the US may be approaching a time when it has to start getting reality right.
America’s elite may have to ditch their grandiose ambitions for global hegemony sooner than they think, so now is a good time as any to get it right about Russia and its enduring strategic importance. (YetNet 2012)
President Gorbachev allowed the re-unification of Germany based on promises from President Bush and Chancellor Kohl that NATO would not expand eastwards, and then NATO did exactly that...
Once again, it seems that Russia and the United States are finding it difficult to agree on how to deal with their respective ambitions. This clash of interests is highlighted by the Ukrainian crisis. The provocation in this particular instance, as the leaked recording of a US diplomat, Victoria Nuland, saying "Fuck the EU" suggests, came from Washington. Washington knows that Ukraine has always been a delicate issue for Moscow....
When Gorbachev agreed the deal on German reunification, the cornerstone of which was that united Germany could remain in Nato, US secretary of state Baker assured him that "there would be no extension of Nato's jurisdiction one inch to the east".
Gorbachev repeated: "Any extension of the zone of Nato is unacceptable." Baker's response: "I agree."
One reason Gorbachev has publicly supported Putin on the Crimea is that his trust in the west was so cruelly betrayed.
As long as Washington believed that Russian leaders would blindly do its bidding (which Yeltsin did) it supported Moscow....
Putin, unlike Yeltsin, is refusing to play ball any more on the things that matter such as Nato expansion, sanctions on Iran, Syria etc. As a result, he has become evil incarnate. And all this because he has decided to contest US hegemony...
Those who really value Ukrainian sovereignty should opt for real independence and a positive neutrality: neither a plaything of the west nor Moscow.
Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei [spiritual leader Iran] said on Saturday that Shia is honored to lead the most important move in history against World Arrogance.
Shia stopped the domineering system which was interfering with every aspect of the life of countries, governments, and nations in a cruel and ruthless manner, Ayatollah Khamenei said, adding that the domineering countries confess today that many of their wishes have been ruined by the Islamic Republic.
This is a source of honor for the Islamic Republic and Shia which has been achieved through inspiration from the Imams and the Ahl-ul-Bay of the Prophet (PBUH)...
"The flag of the Islamic Republic is a flag of justice and spirituality. Naturally, in a world where actions are based on coercion and thoughts are based on materialism, they react against you when you raise the flag of justice and spirituality."
He asserted that the opposition and confrontation of the Arrogant Powers and the Domineering Powers in the world with the Islamic Republic of Iran is natural and inevitable because when you raise the flag of justice and spirituality, they act against you.
"The Islamic Republic has always also stood with people who aren't Shia but are on a right path. In the Muslim world, who has helped Palestine as much as Iran? Countries with the same religious denomination as Palestine didn't help a hundredth of that. At times they even inflict harms," he further said.
A fresh round of deadly clashes has forced Turkey to step into fray and host high-level meetings with two rival Libyan leaders in a bid to de-escalate the tensions, Al-Monitor has learned.
On Sept. 1 in Istanbul, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and spy chief Hakan Fidan met with two rival Libyan premiers — Fathi Bashagha, who was appointed as prime minister by the eastern-based parliament, and Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, the head of the Tripoli-based government.
Well-placed sources speaking on condition of anonymity told Al-Monitor that the talks at the Turkish intelligence headquarters were held separately as the two men even avoided staying at the same hotel. Libyan Central Bank Governor Siddiq al Kabeer accompanied Dbeibah during the visit. The meetings came after deadly clashes between the rival forces rattled Tripoli last week, leaving 32 people dead and more than 150 wounded.
While Bashagha’s visit has gone unpublicized, a photo leaked to the Libyan press showing Cavusoglu, Akar, Fidan and Dbeibah together has prompted speculations that Ankara threw its support behind Dbeibah in the ongoing power struggle....
Following the failing efforts to hold general and presidential elections last December, Bashagha was appointed as the new prime minister by the country’s Tobruk-based parliament in March and formed his government in Sirte, but Dbeibah refused to cede power.
Ankara, which has close ties with both men, has been trying to maintain an image of neutrality, pushing for a reconciliation in a bid to craft a road map to hold elections.
The tensions between the two rival camps have morphed into a fresh round of clashes after armed groups supporting Bashagha tried to move into Tripoli on Aug. 27.
The 16-hour-long fighting ended after reports that forces loyal to Dbeibah had struck forces led by Usama Juwaili — a military commander supporting Bashagha — on their way to Tripoli by Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 armed drones.
According to Libyan sources, although the latest Turkish intervention has tipped the balance of power in favor of Dbeibah, Bashagha is unlikely to give in any time soon.
Although Turkey is allied with the Tripoli-based forces, Ankara has also begun fence-mending efforts with the Khalifa Hafter-led eastern-based forces in a bid to secure the future of the military cooperation and maritime delineation deals that it signed with GNA in 2019.
Bashaga could have played a facilitating role between Ankara and easterners, yet this prospect dimmed after he openly confronted Dbeibah, siding with Hafter and Saleh...
The US is reportedly growing its military presence in Syria this weekend, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying they have set up a third military base in northeastern Hasakeh Province.
The latest base is just 3 km from Qamishli, a Kurdish SDF city which also hosted a Syrian air force site in recent years. All three bases are in or near SDF territory. The main US base in Hasakeh is at al-Omar, one of Syria’s oil fields. The site was established during the Trump Administration with designs on taking all of the oil.
The US is aligned with the SDF, but keeps at a distance with Turkey intermittently invading Syria to attack the Kurds.
While US interest in Syria is overwhelmingly along the Iraq border in the far east, the US also has a base in al-Tanf, near the three-way border between Iraq, Syria, and Jordan.That base is used to support rebels on Jordan’s border. These new bases speak to growing US interest in maintaining a presence in Syria, even though the Syrian Civil War is practically over.
Mrs. Asma al-Assad considered that holding a ceremony to honor the excelled students in high school is a message to the community to devote excellence as a noble value that requires concerted efforts, collaboration and cooperation.
Mrs. Asma al-Assad ‘s speech came during an honoring ceremony held by the Presidency of the Republic at the People’s Palace...
Mrs. Asma al-Assad stressed that diversity in specializations increases the importance of superiority achieved by students under the conditions of war and blocky, because of the country’s need at this time for every mind that thinks, every hand that works, and every heart that beats with love, stressing that the importance of excellence comes from passion and a sense of responsibility.
Mrs. Asma referred to the university study stage as a new and important stage in the students’ lives. The university, in addition to being a cultural and scientific edifice, is a national arena that brings together all the spectrum of Syrian society in one place and gives them a unique opportunity to know the homeland in all its aspects and to form knowledge that will be the basis for starting from it. In their analysis of the causes of the problems they may face and thus find appropriate solutions.
Ms. Asma also said that the success and excellence achieved by the students is a harvest of their hard work and for everyone who contributed to it...:
“You are the excellent students in Syria , each of you has a success story and a story of challenge, full of lesson, together with your parents and teachers, you are part of the story of a homeland that will remain stronger and will return better through our belief that the future is for science, excellence, work and production” Ms. Asma concluded.
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