US Empire decline

Shastri Ramachandaran TFF Associate September 20, 2022 As the war in Ukraine grinds on, the US-led West is discovering that defeating Russia was easier said than done. The West is now realising that: the war will drag on for longer than foreseen; the US and Europe cannot keep boosting President Volodymyr Zelensky’s regime with a steady flow of readily usable weapons; Russia, far from being beaten by sanctions, has reaped economic gains in the process; and, above all, weaponising resources is a game that both sides can play.   Originally published at WION on September 6, 2022 To take the last point first, OPEC+ which has discussed an output cut to prop up oil prices, has proved that it is no pushover. Petroleum prices have acquired a new urgency in the wake of Russia’s decision last week to shut down the Nordstream gas pipeline to Germany. Moscow said that this...

Jeffrey Sachs By Amy Goodman (*) – Democracy Now! September 19, 2022 Jeffrey Sachs: “Dangerous” U.S. Policy & “West’s False Narrative” Stoking Tensions with Russia, China GUESTS: Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, president of the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, sustainable development solutions advocate under Secretary-General António Guterres, and former adviser to three U.N. secretaries-general. We discuss Western hegemony and U.S. policy in Russia, Ukraine and China with Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs, whose new article is headlined “The West’s False Narrative About Russia and China.” Sachs says the bipartisan U.S. approach to foreign policy is “unaccountably dangerous and wrongheaded,” and warns the U.S. is creating “a recipe for yet another war” in East Asia. Originally published at Other News on September 5, 2022 Transcript This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. AMY GOODMAN: Politico is reporting...

David Swanson TFF Associate September 6, 2022 It’s tricky to oppose both sides of a war, and rarer even than supporting both sides. The weapons dealers support both sides. In obedience to their televisions, people all over the world spend a great deal of time expressing the opinions dished out by those televisions regarding a particular war that is far from the worst war at the moment. It is the war that creates the greatest risk of nuclear apocalypse, but that does not typically enter into the opinions. Originally published at World BEYOND War on September 4, 2022 You cannot just state that you oppose both sides, because that will quite literally be understood by almost everyone as asserting the unrelated and ridiculous proposition that the two sides are identical, and that will be understood as outrageous propaganda on behalf of whichever side the listener opposes. So, you have to...

Yet ‘experts’ still cling to the narrative that Ukraine can somehow ‘win.’ If Ukraine can hang on for just a few more months. Image: iStock Cameron Leckie August 24, 2022 The more events proved them to be wrong, the stronger their defences became against admitting this to be the case’ – Norman Dixon (On the Psychology of Military Incompetence) In my last piece for Pearls and Irritations I argued that the conflict in, or more accurately, over Ukraine was rapidly accelerating the transfer of the balance of power from West to East. The progress of events associated with the conflict has resulted in a re-evaluation of this assessment. What we are witnessing is the self-inflicted demise of the West as a major power bloc. The belief in a series of delusions by Western leaders and governments is the driving force behind this demise, with the conflict in Ukraine being the focal point. Originally published...

Image: Wikimedia Commons By John Menadue August 23, 2022 The most likely way we could get into a war with China is if we continue to act as a proxy or deputy sheriff for the US in the region. Nancy Pelosi is doing her best to provoke China. Malcolm Fraser was right about ‘our dangerous ally’. The US is the most aggressive and violent country in the world. It is addicted to a belief in its exceptionalism, grounded in aggression and violence both at home and abroad, and finding it hard to admit mistakes. Originally published at John Menadue’s “Pearls And Irritations” on August 3, 2022 It is looking more and more like a slow motion train wreck. Apart from brief isolationist periods, the US has been almost perpetually at war. The record is clear. Time and time again we have allowed ourselves to be drawn into the imperial wars of...

Abolish NATOOr Convert ItTo ServePeace 30 Arguments & 100s of Inspirations This report can be reproduced or quoted freely,but only when referring clearly to TFF, the author and the link Read and download as PDF at the end of the catalogue • Read as Flipbook Media & other inquiries to tff@transnational.live or +46 738 52 52 00 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Catalogue contains 30 arguments for the abolition of NATO. Each argument is based on rational peace research analysis, in contrast to the fact-resistant propaganda that NATO and mainstream politics and media promote about the ’defensive’ peace alliance. The Catalogue is based on the democratic assumption that diverse perceptions and concepts can exist – for instance, about what peace is – and that this hugely influential Western organisation is not sacrosanct and shall, therefore, not be exempt from critical analysis. While set up in 1949, NATO passed its ”best before” date long ago. The alliance of...

Together We Are Wrong — by Mr Fish By Chris Hedges August 4, 2022 The massive expansion of NATO, not only in Eastern and Central Europe but the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and Asia, presages endless war and a potential nuclear holocaust. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the arms industry that depends on it for billions in profits, has become the most aggressive and dangerous military alliance on the planet. Created in 1949 to thwart Soviet expansion into Eastern and Central Europe, it has evolved into a global war machine in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and Asia.  Originally published in The Chris Hedges Report on July 10, 2022 NATO expanded its footprint, violating promises to Moscow, once the Cold War ended, to incorporate 14 countries in Eastern and Central Europe into the alliance. It will soon add Finland and Sweden. It bombed Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo. It launched wars in...

Right after US House Speaker Mme Nancy Pelosi, had landed in Taipei, Taiwan, on August 2, 2022, I was asked by Russia Today (RT) to comment on that tension-increasing event. It was a news program, but thanks to the excellent questions raised by Rory Suchet, the very knowledgeable anchor at the desk, we got an unusual 15 min conversation out of it. Delightful! – I would add, not the least compared with some media people I’ve come across in the Western/Scandinavian mainstream press. If for some reason you can’t see it, use this link instead.

Biden at Bat – by Mr. Fish Chris Hedges July 18, 2022 The United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel, responsible for military fiascos, hundreds of thousands of deaths and innumerable war crimes in the Middle East, are now plotting to attack Iran. The United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia are plotting a war with Iran. The 2015 Iranian nuclear arms accord, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Donald Trump sabotaged, does not look like it will be revived.  U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is reviewing options to attack if Teheran looks poised to obtain a nuclear weapon and Israel, which opposes U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations, carries out military strikes. During his visit to Israel, Biden assured Prime Minister Yair Lapid that the U.S. is “prepared to use all elements of its national power,” including military force, to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon.  Saudi Arabia, Israel and the U.S....

Arms Control Today June 30, 2022 On June 26, 1997, a group of 50 prominent foreign policy experts that included former senators, retired military officers, diplomats and academicians, sent an open letter to President Clinton outlining their opposition to NATO expansion. Stanley Resor, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arms Control Association, spoke at the press conference announcing the letter, focusing on the arms control implications of expansion. Resor’s remarks and the group’s letter are printed below. Remarks by Stan Resor: A key, if not the key, U.S. interest in Russia is a rapid and substantial reduction in the tens of thousands of Russian strategic and tactical nuclear weapons and the hundreds of tons of nuclear material which are still deployed or stored throughout that nation some six years after the end of the Cold War. Progress towards these goals will require comprehensive and sustained cooperation between the...

Jan Oberg July 8, 2022 There have been lots of reports about how G7 leaders snubbed dinner, photo-op, handshake, concerts, etc. since Russia’s foreign minister Lavrov would also be present during the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia. Here is Lavrov’s comment to Tass: “This is how they understand protocol, politeness and code of conduct.” Here is another report. This is of course neither professional, good diplomacy nor statesmanship – but, worse, it is an indicator of how little knowledge these people have about how to make peace – an indicator of peace illiteracy – and without wanting to offend children: How childish international politics has become. Diplomatic skills are decreasing as military skills and rhetorics take top priority à la ‘We have overwhelming military power and we do not need to think about the future or show good manners.’ A kind of diplomatic decadence. I do not believe for a...

President Joe Biden speaks at the NATO summit at the group’s headquarters in Brussels on June 14, 2021. Photo: Francisco Seco/Pool/AFP via Getty Images Jon Schwarz June 30, 2022 NATO’s summit showed how the “North Atlantic” Treaty Organization has decided it has an extremely expansive global mission. IN A STOP last week on his way to Belgium for Monday’s NATO summit, President Joe Biden visited a Royal Air Force base in eastern England. “In Brussels,” he told the assembled crowd, “I will make it clear that the United States’s commitment to our NATO alliance and Article 5 is rock solid. It’s a sacred obligation that we have under Article 5.” These lines were aimed at a tiny number of human beings. Certainly almost no Americans have any idea what “Article 5” is part of or what it says. Originally published at The Intercept on June 15, 2022 But Biden’s words were genuinely significant. Article 5...