The Saker: The Syrian Powderkeg - "I'm Not Convinced There Is A US Strategy"

Following up on our recent warning about the situation in Syria, Chris sits down this week for a conversation with The Saker, who writes extensively on geo-political and military matters. The Saker (a nom-de-plume), is a former intelligence expert with professional and personal insights into Russia and the Middle East.

He shares our deep concern for the dangerously misdirected current state of US foreign and military policy, as well as the potentially lethal repercussions these threaten to have in the powderkeg that is Syria.

In this week"s podcast, The Saker provides an excellent distillation of the complex forces in play in Syria -- as well as in the brewing friction between the US and Russia -- and why the risk of nuclear war has now grown higher than it has been in decades:

I"m not convinced there is a US strategy. I think there is a CIA strategy, a Pentagon strategy, a State Department strategy. There used to be a White House strategy. Right now, I am not even sure. We should go deeper into who is doing what inside the Pentagon and the military. I mean, there is chaos.

There has been chaos since at least Obama because he was an extremely weak president. When a superpower like the United States is ruled by more or less an absent man in the White House, the agencies themselves start implementing their own policies. This is happening now under Trump, who was elected under specific platform and now is basically giving it up. There has been a coup against him by the neo-cons who basically got him under control. He wanted to drain the swamp, but the swamp basically drowned him.

I"m not sure there"s anything I can identify as a US policy. There is, however, an Israeli and a Saudi policy. And those two happen to be very, very closely aligned. Because those two, first of all, are extremely powerful as we know, inside the United States. But not only inside the United States but they are also objectively aligned in the region, which is very counter intuitive. It"s natural to wonder: What would the Saudi Wahhabis have in common with the Israelis? What they have in common is an immense fear of Iran, first and foremost. And generally, the Saudis and the Israelis have the same exact interest for the Arab Muslim world, which is to keep it in chaos and weak. That allows them to rule it. It"s that simple(...)

[Provoking Russia in Syria] is completely nuts. And it is due to that fact that I "m convinced the neocons are not American patriots. They have their ideology. They have their agenda. They are just like parasites sitting in the United States and using that country for their own petty ideological interests. Which is the same thing the Saudis have been doing, by the way. Our government has been hijacked, and that"s the real problem.

By patriot, I simply mean a person who loves his country. Through that lens, Americans should immediately see that Russia and the United States have no conflict. There"s nothing to fight over and a great deal to work together with. This is something that the neocons do not want. And that"s why they basically crushed Trump. That is why both the Democratic party and the Republican party don"t let the people who are for a non-aggressive foreign policy -- like someone like Ron Paul -- get anywhere near power. If you look at the Republican and Democratic national committees they always take away money from these candidates – even if means losing a Congressional seat. There is a real problem here in the United States. And that problem could end up with international nuclear war.

Click the play button below to listen to Chris" interview with The Saker (45m:51s).

'State-Sponsor-Of-Terror' Iran Says London Attacks Are "Wake-Up Call" For West, Urges Funding Crackdown

In what we are sure many will see as the most ironic headline of the day, Reuters reports Iran said on Sunday the London attacks were a "wake-up call" and urged Western states to go after ideological and financial sources of terrorism, state media reported, in a thinly veiled reference to Saudi Arabia.

Having been the center of attention during President Trump"s recent trip:

“The United States and Israel can declare with one voice that Iran must never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon – never, ever – and must cease its deadly funding, training and equipping of terrorists and militias, and it must cease immediately,” Trump said in at a meeting in Jerusalem with the Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin.

Trump added that he had detected, too, “a growing realisation among your Arab neighbours that they have common cause with you in the threat posed by Iran”.

As Reuters notes, Iran denies Western charges of sponsoring terrorism, and accuses Saudi Arabia"s Wahhabi brand of Sunni Islam and funding from its arch-rival of being behind Sunni militant groups who have been behind a recent spate of deadly attacks in Europe. Saudi Arabia, the bastion of Sunni Islam and a close U.S. ally, denies backing terrorism and has cracked down on jihadists at home, jailing thousands, stopping hundreds from travelling to fight abroad and cutting militant finances.

Shi"ite Muslim power Iran and Saudi Arabia are longstanding religious and political arch-rivals and often accuse each other of backing terrorism. Relations are fraught as they support each other"s foes in regional wars such as in Yemen, Iraq and Syria.

And it appears Iran has had enough. Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi is quoted by the official Iranian news agency IRNA as saying:

"Repeated blind terror attacks around the world are a wake-up call for the world community,"

"To uproot terror, it is necessary that they (Western states) address the root causes as well as the main financial and ideological sources of extremism and violence, which are clear to everyone,"

"Clear" Indeed.

Country Singer With Most Famous 9/11 Song, Now Playing for Country that was Behind 9/11

Toby Keith, icon of modern country music, began making a name for himself in the 1990s, releasing his breakthrough single “How Do You Like Me Now?!” in 1998. Keith rose to stardom in 2002 with the song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” which he wrote in response to 9/11.

That song captured the vengeful militarism that had overcome the U.S., as the Bush regime sought to capitalize on fear and anger to push wars of aggression in the Middle East. A “war on terror” was declared, and Islamophobia soared in the American populace. Facts didn’t matter, as long as U.S. warplanes were dropping bombs on Muslim countries, even if they had nothing to do with 9/11.

“We’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way,” declared Keith in his quintessential song.

Keith began visiting troops on the frontlines in 2002, playing his tributes to nationalism and militarism, helping the Pentagon whip up anger and aggression so the Bush/Cheney cabal could continue using 9/11 to pursue their goals of U.S. military hegemony – as described in the 1997 mission statement of the Project for the New American Century.

It didn’t take much to convince bloodthirsty Americans that “pre-emptive war” was needed in Iraq, based on lies about mythical weapons of mass destruction. Even though 15 of the 19 hijackers involved in 9/11 came from Saudi Arabia, which was known as a hotbed of terrorism and U.S. hatred, Saudi Arabia was completely spared from the so-called “war on terror.”

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Keith kept right on, playing for soldiers in Iraq as military leaders heaped praise on him for helping to sustain the hatred and fear needed to destroy Iraq and rebuild it in the U.S. image. To Keith and so many others, being “patriotic” meant supporting whatever the military was doing, even if there was no rational basis for it.

Now, that absurdity has reached epic proportions as Trump visits Saudi Arabia – the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world – and Toby Keith is playing a concert there during Trump’s visit.

I"ve played some weird gigs and I"ve seen some weird gigs. I am having a hard time picturing a weirder gig than Toby Keith in Saudi Arabia.

— John Paul Keith (@johnpaulkeith) May 18, 2017

It will be a men-only concert, as Saudi Arabia’s ultraconservative monarchy segregates men and women in public who are not related. Alcohol is also banned in the kingdom, making Keith’s visit particularly amusing given his many drinking songs such as “Red Solo Cup.”

But the biggest irony is the fact that Saudi Arabia has been exposed as a main culprit behind the 9/11 attacks – which was the impetus for Keith to begin his campaign of jingoistic, war-mongering song writing. Where’s the rage now?

The release of the “the 28 pages” in July 2016 showed that high-level figures in the Saudi government aided the 9/11 hijackers and covered it up – and the U.S. knew about it. Only two months ago, 800 families filed a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia for its role in 9/11.

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Wahhabism, the dominant, state-sponsored faith in Saudi Arabia, is the biggest driver of terrorism in the region, and has much to do with the rise of ISIS – the current manifestation of Islamic terrorism which is wreaking havoc in Syria and elsewhere. Wahhabism has been identified as “the main source of global terrorism.” Riyadh has invested billions to build madrassas and mosques around the world, “in an attempt to replace mainstream Sunni Islam with the harsh intolerance of its Wahhabism.”

Saudi Arabia’s oppression of women, minority religions, political dissidents, homosexuals and many other entities is central to the hatred that drives the terrorism spawned by Wahhabism. If there is a “radical Islam,” this is it.

Trump’s visit comes as the U.S. signs a $110 billion arms deal with the Saudis, signaling the the president is indeed in the neoconservative fold — propping up Middle Eastern dictatorships while working to dismantle perceived enemy states, to exert military hegemony in the region.

It was reported that Trump intends to unveil an “Arab NATO” with Saudi Arabia for the laughable claim of “fighting terrorism.” Its real purpose will be to confront Iran. With the new arms deal and the blessing of the U.S., the hardline Sunni regime will continue destroying its Shia rivals as it’s currently doing in Yemen — complete with human rights abuses — under the pretext of “fighting the war on terror.”

The hypocrisy is almost too much to imagine. President Trump will apparently be attending the Toby Keith concert, along with a crowd of Saudi men who are surely aware of Keith’s past as a cheerleader for reaping death and destruction in the Middle East which has served to fuel the fire of anti-U.S. sentiment.

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It’s highly doubtful that Keith will be including “The Taliban Song” in his playlist, which includes the following lines:

“Now we prayed to Allah with all of our might/ Until those big U.S. jets came flyin’ in one night/ They dropped little bombs all over the holy land.”