As tensions with the US and Russia continue to devolve, the Russian state run media has issued a warning—while mockingly calling out the US—for its citizens to stockpile food and supplies in preparation for war.
The post With a Mushroom Cloud Background, Russia State News Warns Citizens to Stockpile Food, Prep for War appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
As President Trump tweets his Americans into World War III over a gas attack that is most likely staged, the Pentagon admits they have no evidence to prove their claims.
The post Pentagon Admits They Have No Evidence on Syria Chemical Attack—Threatens War Anyway appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
As President Trump tweets his Americans into World War III over a gas attack that is most likely staged, the Pentagon admits they have no evidence to prove their claims.
The post Pentagon Admits They Have No Evidence on Syria Chemical Attack—Threatens War Anyway appeared first on The Free Thought Project.
(image: DuffelBlog)In Monday testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Mattis mislead and deceived its members.
He lied calling North Korea the “most urgent and dangerous threat to peace and security,” claiming the DPRK is America’s top threat.
Pyongyang threatens no one – not America or any other country. Throughout its post-WW II history, it never attacked another country.
Washington is a serial aggressor, perpetually waging wars of choice, threatening the DPRK and all other independent countries it doesn’t control – why Pyongyang pursues a nuclear and ballistic missile deterrent.
It’s solely for self-defense if attacked, not for preemptive war on America or any other countries.
Mattis: “North Korea’s continued pursuit of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them has increased in pace and scope.”
“The regime’s nuclear weapons program is a clear and present danger to all, and the regime’s provocative actions, manifestly illegal under international law, have not abated despite United Nations’ censure and sanctions.”
Fact: America and its rogue allies threaten world peace and stability – their actions “manifestly illegal under international law,” representing “a clear and present danger to all.”
Mattis: “(R)esurgent (Russia and China) are more aggressive,” placing “the international order under assault.”
Fact: Russia and China pursue policies of non-belligerence, seeking cooperative relations with all countries, threatening none.
Fact: Their strong alliance, independence and growing influence threaten America’s desired unipolar world – wanting all other countries dominated, seeking regime change by color revolutions or wars against any unwilling to observe Washington rules.
Mattis turned truth on its head, claiming he’s seen no indication that Putin seeks cooperative relations with America. He’s “chosen to be a strategic competitor,” he blustered – a bald-faced Big Lie.
Appearing with Mattis, Joint Chiefs chairman General Joseph (“fighting Joe”) Dunford called Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and terrorist groups America’s “key challenges.”
In July 2015 testimony before Senate Armed Services Committee members, Dunford said “Russia presents the greatest threat to our national security.”
“If you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States, I’d have to point to Russia. If you look at their behavior, it’s nothing short of alarming.”
In written testimony, Dunford mentioned “aggression” 15 times – referring to Russia. “What keeps me up at night is our ability to respond to the unexpected,” he said.
“On balance, our force can deal with challenges that we have now. But there is very little residual capability – an undisguised request for greater military spending at a time America’s only enemies are invented ones, clearly what his Monday testimony, along with Mattis,’ aimed for.
The so-called “terrorist” threat is a colossal hoax. America created and supports ISIS, al-Qaeda and likeminded groups in the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa and elsewhere.
Along with its rogue allies, it recruits, arms, funds, trains and directs these groups, using them as imperial foot soldiers.
In Oliver Stone’s interview with Vladimir Putin, a four-part documentary airing on Showtime, begun Monday night, Russia’s leader said “Al-Qaeda is not the result of our activities.”
“This is the result of activities of our US friends (sic). This all started in the times of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, when the US security services supported different movements of Islamic fundamentalism in their struggle against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan.”
“The US side has nurtured both al-Qaeda and bin Laden.” The same goes for ISIS and similar groups, monsters used to serve its interests no matter the human cost.
Putin said Russia has evidence, proving CIA support for Islamic terrorists during the 1994 – 96 and 1999 – 2000 Chechen wars.
Washington continues supporting extremist groups hostile to Russia’s security. Its longstanding policy aims to marginalize, weaken, contain, isolate, destabilize, weaken and topple its government – replacing it with pro-Western puppet rule.
Hyping a “Russian threat” is part of the strategy – a high risk one threatening possible nuclear war.
[image: Alex Brandon, Associated Press]
Battlefield decisions were delegated to local commanders, including drone strikes and special operations missions in countries where America is not officially at war.
Trump administration militarism and warmaking are more muscular than his predecessors. Diplomacy gets short shrift.
Pentagon and intelligence community power holds the Trump administration, Congress and the courts hostage.
Diplomacy is relegated to show. Tillerson has no say over geopolitical policymaking.
A nuclear war could start without Trump, civilian cabinet members, and congressional leaders’ knowledge and involvement until they’re told.
With Pentagon commanders and intelligence community bosses in charge of warmaking and other key geopolitical issues, a potential nightmarish scenario could unfold.
In April, the Pentagon said Trump gave Mattis broad authority to set US troop levels in Iraq and Syria.
After Obama promised no US boots on the ground in both countries, thousands of special forces and other combat troops were deployed.
In March, Mattis ordered another 2,500 82nd Airborne Division and other US combat troops sent to Kuwait for possible deployment to Iraq or Syria – on the phony pretext of combating ISIS America created and supports.
On Tuesday, reports indicate Trump gave Mattis authority to determine US troop strength in Afghanistan.
Thousands more are likely to be deployed to continue the nation’s longest war, long ago lost with no prospect of reversing things no matter how many additional forces are sent to try.
Increasing US troop strength in Afghanistan is the latest example of Trump delegating warmaking authority to neocon generals, eager for endless conflicts and large increases in America’s so-called “defense” budget.
In Tuesday Senate Armed Services Committee testimony, Mattis said “(w)e are not winning in Afghanistan…(W)e will correct this as soon as possible.”
His aim isn’t winning. It’s waging endless wars – in Afghanistan and elsewhere, getting Congress to supply tens of billions of dollars more for militarism and warmaking.
Since Washington launched naked aggression on Afghanistan in October 2001, thousands of US and other NATO forces were killed or wounded.
Millions of Afghans perished from war, related violence, preventable diseases, starvation and overall deprivation.
With over 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan in 2011, their peak number, the war was a lost cause.
It’s no different now or as far ahead as anyone dares imagine.
Over half a million forces in Vietnam when US troop levels peaked couldn’t defeat Hanoi’s redoubtable resistance.
Nor will any numbers sent to Afghanistan fare better – the war lost years ago, yet fighting continues endlessly.
The post Trump Lets Mattis Decide on Troop Levels in US War Theaters appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis delivered a powerful speech Saturday to the graduating class at West Point, warning them that terrorism must not become normal.
Earlier this week, the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for a deadly attack in the United Kingdom. “We must never permit murderers to define our time or warp our sense of normal. This is not normal,” Mattis told 950 graduating cadets. “Manchester’s tragic loss underscores the purpose of your years of study and training at this elite school.”
ISIS also claimed fatal attacks in Indonesia and Egypt, and intense fighting between the military and ISIS-linked militants is destabilizing the southern Philippines. These tragedies come amidst a concentrated push to eliminate ISIS in Mosul and to rid countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria of violent extremism.
More than 20 people perished in Manchester, three police officers lost their lives in Indonesia, and around 30 people were killed in Egypt. In the Philippines, police and civilians alike have been slaughtered.
“By the time this class was in first grade classrooms in every state across our union, our country had been thrust into a war by maniacs who thought that by hurting us, they could scare us,” Mattis explained, “Well, we don’t scare.”
“Nothing better represents America’s awesome determination to defend herself than this graduating class,” he added. “You will drive home a salient point that free men and women will volunteer to fight, ethically and fiercely, to defend our experiment that you and I call, simply, ‘America.’”
“We Americans are not made of cotton candy,” he said, evoking cheers from the crowds.
“You hold the line, faithful to duty, confronting our nation’s foes with implacable will,” he said, “Knowing that if there is a hill to climb, waiting will not make it any smaller.”
At his first press briefing earlier today, Secretary of Defense James Mattis looked to quickly quash doubts over which party was responsible for the recent Sarin gas attacks in Syria saying there was "no doubt" that the Assad regime "planned in, orchestrated it and executed it" and offered a stern warning that their would be a "very very stiff price" to be paid if further chemical attacks were launched in the future.
Mattis went on to say that while the recent U.S. bombings should not be interpreted as a "harbinger of a strategy change" in the region he did offer a warning to Assad that he should "think long and hard" before considering similar attacks in the future.
With regards to a potential Russian response, Mattis said simply that he"s "confident the Russians will act in their own best interests, and there"s nothing in their best interests to say they want this situation to go out of control."
Meanwhile the key takeaway from the press briefing seemed to be the following comment from Mattis:
"I just want to say very clearly, that the use of chemical weapons, contrary to the Geneva Convention that Syria has signed up for, using chemical weapons that Syria agreed under U.N. pressure to remove from their arsenal, those chemical weapons that the Russians certified were gone, that if they use chemical weapons they are going to pay a very very stiff price."
Other key comments below:
- MATTIS: `OUR PRIORITY REMAINS THE DEFEAT" OF ISLAMIC STATE
- MATTIS: ATTACK WAS `SINGULAR" RESPONSE ON CHEMICAL WEAPONS
- MATTIS: SYRIA STRIKE WASN"T `HARBINGER" OF STRATEGY CHANGE
- MATTIS: IT"S VERY CLEAR THE ASSAD REGIME PLANNED IT, ORCHESTRATED IT AND EXECUTED IT
* * *
As tensions around the globe continue to mount over the Trump administration"s official policies related to Syria and North Korea, Secretary of Defense James Mattis will take the podium momentarily to offer his first press briefing.
Watch live below:
(ANTIMEDIA Op-Ed) America’s generals are talking turkey. But we’re not talking about the well-known idiom for “speaking frankly” about a subject … although over 120 retired generals did just send a frank letter in response to a new State Department-slashing budget proposal by President Trump.
In that unusual military missive, a group of “former three- and four-star generals” led by “Retired Gen. David Petraeus, a former CIA director, and retired Adm. James Stavridis, the former NATO supreme allied commander,” pled with lawmakers and yet another general, new National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, to preserve State Department funding.
Why do these men of war want to make sure Trump doesn’t gut diplomacy? Because they think it is “critical to keeping America safe,” according to a report by CNN on the much-discussed letter.
Silly generals. Don’t they know that Trump’s $54 billion military budget increase — which all by itself equals 80% of Russia’s total military budget — is all the diplomacy Uncle Sam’s going to need in his blustery new world of nuclear domination? In fact, don’t they know that their never-serving commander-in-chief actually knows more than they do? As ever, it appears that the generals are woefully behind Trump’s tremendous curve.
Or are they?
Because the real turkey some generals are talking is Turkey … as in the strategically located Muslim-majority nation where America stores some of those tantalizing nukes Trump wants to stockpile. It’s also where one of the world’s many strongmen du jour is cracking down on his enemies in the press … along with many, many others. And it’s where the military has traditionally been the guarantor of the secular nation’s often tenuous democracy. It’s the type of role the military in the United States has (mostly) avoided over the course of American history. At least, that was until Donald Trump became commander-in-chief.
Now, in a mostly overlooked story, Politico has detailed the extent to which Trump’s cabinet of generals has quietly formed a phalanx against the possible excesses of a man who has described himself as the “most militaristic person who will ever meet.” According to Politico, the elevation of Sith Lord-wannabe Steve Bannon set off alarms among Trump’s generals. That order also marginalized Joint Chiefs Of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford. It left “the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, without a permanent seat on the NSC’s most senior body” and put Bannon in the all-important role of being the last person to have Trump’s ear when Mr. Militaristic makes life and death decisions to use kinetic force.
As Politico’s Patrick Granfield wrote (with thanks to additional reporting by the Associated Press), “it was on account of concern with these sorts of half-baked executive orders coming out of the White House that Mattis and Kelly arranged to have one of them in the country at all times during Trump’s initial weeks in office.”
Yes, you read that correctly. Former Generals Mattis and Kelly were alarmed enough by this turn of events to institute a fail-safe plan that made sure one of them was “in the country at all times” … just in case things went off the rails. As Garfield states all too clearly, “it shows that it is military leaders, albeit retired, who feel the need to guard against the overreach of a civilian executive. It’s a phenomenon familiar to countries like Turkey or Egypt, but not the United States. Until now.”
Yup, until now.
Frankly speaking, this notable insight into the generals’ startling machinations fits a fairly clear pattern. Despite the understandable unease many expressed at Trump’s obsession with collecting top brass, they’ve thus far been bulwarks against the excesses of the blaring bugle boy they’ve signed up to serve.
The key moment may have been the National Security state showing the door to the widely disliked Lt. General Michael Flynn. The Strangelovian Flynn was unceremoniously dumped because insiders didn’t like his rosy “Russian to judgment” on Putin. Perhaps just as important, though, may have been his dangerous histrionics about Islam that were tantamount to declaring war on a religion. Coincidentally, it wasn’t too shortly after Flynn “put Iran on notice” that the final leaks washed out his tenure.
The appointment of the widely-respected warrior-scholar Gen. H.R. McMaster to fill that vacancy signaled a big win for the people who know what it means to send people into combat. In fact, while the draft-avoiding Trump was enduring his own “personal Vietnam” by avoiding the lurid landmines of sexually transmitted diseases as he charged into the battlefield of Manhattan’s nightlife, his new National Security Advisor was literally writing the book on Vietnam. And that’s not the only way the two men are not on the same page.
Unlike Trump, McMaster pointedly said that the magic words “Radical Islamic Terrorism” not only lack supernatural implications but are counterproductive to the fight against terrorism. Even better, the head of Trump’s Department of Homeland Security not only contradicted his boss when said he “regretted” the bungled rollout of the “It’s Not A Muslim Ban” Muslim ban, but General John Kelly’s DHS also sent a report to the White House contradicting the claim that the famous “seven countries” pose a risk to the United States, according to the Wall Street Journal.
But Trump knows more than the generals, right?
At least, that’s what a senior administration official believes. That’s why the unnamed official unabashedly told the Journal, “The president asked for an intelligence assessment. This is not the intelligence assessment the president asked for.” Perhaps this was yet more evidence to Kelly and Mattis that during those frenetic first few weeks one of them needed to be “in country” just in case the fight to protect the republic went hot.
So far, the only real heat is coming from the commander-in-chief’s self-serving willingness to deflect the responsibility for the disastrous raid on Yemen. Although the White House still claims it was a tremendous success, the raid yielded no usable intelligence, failed to nab the targeted terrorist, saw a Navy Seal killed and a $75 million plane go up in flames and, perhaps worst of all, a number of women and children killed in the hackneyed operation. But now the Democrats see a sequel to Benghazi, and the father of the fallen SEAL not only refused to meet with Trump but also called for an investigation into the debacle.
So, true to form, the commander-in-chief has blamed the generals for muffing what would otherwise have been a highly-rated episode of his ongoing divorced-from-reality show. And what better place for him to pass the buck than on another divorced from reality show—the feckless fawners of FOX & Friends. As Trump said to the media’s most mendacious ménage a trios:
“This was a mission that was started before I got here. This was something they wanted to do. They came to me, they explained what they wanted to do ― the generals ― who are very respected, my generals are the most respected that we’ve had in many decades, I believe. And they lost Ryan.”
They lost Ryan. Or, to coin a phrase, they didn’t save Chief Petty Officer Ryan Owens. Steve Bannon couldn’t have scripted it any better. Seriously, he literally couldn’t have scripted it better. The movies he made totally sucked. But Trump, who watched a lot of generals on TV in preparation for his candidacy, has obviously been locked and loaded ever since he watched Spielberg’s movie. Like the cynically stagecrafted ovation he produced for CPO Ryan’s heartbroken widow, Trump delivered his blame-shifting lines like a real pro. Unfortunately, the actual pros in the military are now at the whim of a commander-in-chief whose only real allegiance is to himself and his beloved brand identity.
And that’s the real danger the generals now have to guard against — the inherent paranoia that seems to come with the strongman style of governance. Ultimately, when the leader begins to confuse himself with the state — and when culpability for mishaps and malfeasance are opportunities to force underlings to fall on their swords — the generals in tenuous democracies often have to do what the electoral system cannot.
But because America is not Turkey, all Trump can do right now is propose a draconian, government-gutting budget, sign often-ceremonial executive orders, and prioritize brash displays of phallic power over the softer power of diplomacy. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s that soft power the generals want to preserve.
As the missive from the retired generals pointed out, “The State Department, USAID, Millennium Challenge Corporation, Peace Corps and other development agencies are critical to preventing conflict and reducing the need to put our men and women in uniform in harm’s way.” They also noted that when he was Commander of U.S. Central Command, Trump’s current Secretary of Defense Secretary James “Mad Dog” Mattis said, “If you don’t fully fund the State Department, then I need to buy more ammunition.”
Unfortunately for us all, that’s exactly what Trump intends to do.
Opinion / Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo
(ANTIMEDIA) East China Sea — Following comments made by Donald Trump’s secretary of defense, James Mattis, over the weekend, in which he reaffirmed the United States’ security commitments to Japan, Fox News reported Monday that China has just sent warships steaming through the disputed waters of the East China Sea.
From that report:
“Three Chinese warships sailed near the contested Senkaku Islands Monday, in a rare move apparently sending a message to the U.S. just two days after President Trump’s defense secretary visited Japan and vowed to protect the islands.
“The ships sailed within Japan’s territorial waters some 12 nautical miles off the islands in the South China Sea, roughly 140 miles northeast of Taiwan, a U.S. defense official told Fox News.”
On Saturday, while speaking in Tokyo, Mattis hailed the relationship between the U.S. and Japan as “an example for other nations to follow,” vowing that the Trump administration is dedicated to maintaining order in that region of the world.
“The U.S.-Japan alliance is critical to ensuring that this region remains safe and secure—not just now, but for years to come,” the defense secretary told reporters at a joint conference with his Japanese counterpart.
At that same conference, however, Mattis took a shot at China — more directly, the superpower’s “One China” policy — claiming the country is using coercion to enforce its will upon its neighbors.
“We have watched in the South China Sea as China has shredded the trust of nations in the region,” Mattis said, “apparently trying to have veto authority over the security and economic conditions of neighboring states.”
In response to those comments, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang stated:
“We urge the U.S. side to take a responsible attitude, stop making wrong remarks…and avoid making the issue more complicated and bringing instability to the regional situation.”
Now, hours later, China is sailing warships through the East China Sea.
As Anti-Media has reported, tensions between the U.S. and China have been rising since Donald Trump entered the White House. At its core, the issue is one of conflicting ideologies — Trump’s nationalistic “America First” policy versus a “One China” doctrine that embraces economic globalization.
Many are concerned, however, that the dispute over trade could spill over into a violent confrontation, as neither of the two superpowers appears willing to back down from their positions. As such, and as military newspaper Stars and Stripes writes, Mattis’ re-commitment to Japan on the issue of security speaks directly to that potentiality:
“If the Pentagon named bilateral talks the way it did military operations, Jim Mattis’ first trip abroad as defense secretary might have been deemed Operation Allied Assurance.”
This article (China Just Sent a Forceful Message to the U.S. In the East China Sea) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to James Holbrooks and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article to edits@theantimedia.org.
Stewart Rhodes, Army Airborne Veteran, Yale Law School Graduate, OK Founder and President
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Sheriff Denny Peyman, Retired Jackson County, KY Sheriff, OK National Peace Officer Liaison
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