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From Richard Nixon to Donald Trump: America’s Great Leap Backwards
James Petras
Introduction
For almost 50 years, the US economy and society has taken a great leap backward - accelerating during the past three Presidencies. Not only have we experienced the reversal of past socio-economic legislation, but also our presidents and Congress have dragged us into multiple aggressive wars. Now, the threat of a nuclear attack against our ‘declared enemies’ is ‘on the table’.
Since the end of the Viet Nam war, US military ‘interventions’ have become wars of long duration. These have cost millions of lives overseas, tens of millions of refugees and scores of thousands of American soldier deaths, permanent injury and serious mental and neuropsychiatric damage. There is no ‘light at the end of the tunnel’, to quote the US General William Westmoreland In retrospect, and after 50 years of decline, the much-maligned Presidency of Richard Milhous Nixon now stands out as a golden age of social, environmental and inter-racial advances, as well as an era of successful peace negotiations and diplomacy. President Nixon, never an ideologue, accepted the reality of a multi-polar world.
Of course, the Nixon Presidency was characterized by serious crimes against humanity, such as the CIA-sponsored coup d’état against the democratically elected Chilean President Allende, the bombing of Cambodia and the genocidal invasion of the newly independent country of East Timor.
Pentagon Intends Continued Aerial Operations in Syria De-Escalation Zones
Stephen Lendman
Washington wants endless war and regime change in Syria, not conflict resolution for peace and stability throughout the country.
On Thursday, Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed on creating four de-escalation zones in the Syria, these nations serving as guarantors.
Sergey Lavrov said America “proposed (the idea) at the beginning of this year, with a view to creating conditions to ensure safety of the civilian population, to stop violence in those regions where fierce fighting was underway between government and armed opposition forces.”
Not exactly following Thursday’s announcement. Washington isn’t part of the agreement. It supports halting all aerial operations in designated zones - except its own.
Memorandum Creating De-Escalation Zones in Syria
Stephen Lendman
Other articles discussed the agreement reached by Russia, Iran and Turkey.
It created four de-escalation zones effective May 5, prohibiting ground and aerial operations by all parties.
Washington isn’t part of the agreement, the fly in the ointment, likely undermining it because it wants endless war and regime change, not diplomatic resolution.
The Pentagon supports halting all aerial operations except its own, saying it’ll continue combating ISIS, the scourge it supports - pretending otherwise, fooling no one.
According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, its chief of General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov and US Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford discussed the de-escalation plan by phone.
Destabilizing Venezuela for Regime Change
Stephen Lendman
Washington wants Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ousted, social democratic Bolivarian governance abolished, unrestrained predatory capitalism replacing it, Washington getting control over the country’s huge oil reserves, along with gaining another imperial trophy.
Economic war and weeks of street violence were made in the USA, perhaps ahead of tougher Trump administration efforts to forcibly remove Maduro. Days earlier, bipartisan destabilizing Senate legislation was introduced (S. 1018) on the phony pretext of “provid(ing) humanitarian assistance for the Venezuelan people…defend(ing) democratic governance, and combat(ing) widespread public corruption…”
Puerto Rico Declares Bankruptcy
Stephen Lendman
Colonized and exploited by America since 1898, its people, governor and other officials are powerless - ruled by US administrations and Congress.
Islanders have no control over their lives, welfare and destiny, no say over foreign relations, commerce, trade, air space, land and offshore waters, immigration and emigration, nationality and citizenship, currency, maritime laws, military service, US bases on its territory, constitutionality of its laws, jurisdictions and legal procedures, treaties, radio and television, communications, agriculture, natural resources and more.
For nearly 120 years, it’s been victimized by US imperial rapaciousness. Things finally came to head financially. Puerto Rico is bankrupt, though can’t declare it under US law.
It’s a wasteland of high unemployment, poverty and deprivation. Force-fed austerity exacerbates dire economic conditions.
Islanders are US citizens without enfranchisement on the mainland. They pay federal taxes, getting back pathetically little in return.
Obama Endorses Macron
Stephen Lendman
Meddling where he doesn’t belong is one of his many disreputable ways of operating as state and US senator, president and private citizen.
His 2011 Asia pivot prioritized advancing America’s Pacific region military footprint aggressively - challenging China’s growing economic, political and military strength, along with checking Russia, pressuring regional allies to ally with its scheme or face its wrath.
Installing illegitimate putschist governance in Ukraine, along with deploying large numbers of US-led NATO combat troops near Russia’s borders were major provocations on his watch.
Putin earlier said “(i)f someone threatens our territories, it means that we will have to aim our armed forces accordingly at the territories from where the threat is coming. How else could it be? It is NATO that approaches our borders. It’s not like we are moving anywhere.”
During Obama’s tenure, Washington acted more aggressively than any time since the end of the Cold War - in the Asia Pacific and Europe. He continued Bush/Cheney wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, waged his own on Libya, Syria and Yemen.
CODEPINK Activists Face Possible Imprisonment
Stephen Lendman
Free expression and assembly in America are only safe if not sharply critical of its ruthless policies at home and abroad.
On Wednesday, a federal district court found CODEPINK activists Desiree Fairooz, Tighe Barry, and Lenny Bianchi guilty of disorderly conduct for publicly opposing Jeff Sessions at his confirmation hearing.
For exercising their First Amendment rights, they may be fined up to $2,000, imprisoned for 12 months, or both when sentence is pronounced on June 21.
Bianchi and Tighe dressed in KKK white hoods and robes to protest Sessions’ deplorable racist history and contempt for rule of law principles.
Macron Claims He Was Hacked
Stephen Lendman
On the eve of Sunday’s French presidential election runoff, establishment candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign claimed he was targeted by a “massive and coordinated” cyberattack - disclosing potentially damaging 11th hour information.
His campaign railed about hackers anonymously releasing emails, documents and other materials “to sow doubt and misinformation,” claiming:
“Intervening in the final hour of the official campaign, this operation is clearly a matter of democratic destabilization, as was seen in the United States during the last presidential campaign.”
Fact: No “democratic destabilization” occurred in America or France. Macron’s campaign lied, claiming damning information about him is fake, wanting nothing changing the likely outcome of Sunday’s election, enabling him to become France’s next president.
Al-Qaeda Allied With US-Backed Forces in Yemen
Stephen Lendman
On May 2, the UK Independent headlined “Al-Qaeda claims it is ‘fighting alongside’ US-backed coalition forces in Yemen,” saying:
Its leader in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Qasim al-Rimi “said his fighters have worked with government-allied factions…toward their common goal of (defeating) the Houthi(s).”
Though he didn’t elaborate on saying “(w)e fight alongside all Muslims in Yemen, together with different Islamic groups,” including “the Muslim Brotherhood and also our brothers among the sons of (Sunni) tribes,” these elements are allied with Yemen’s exiled Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi regime combating Shia Houthis.
America’s Top Scientists Confirm: U.S. Goal Now Is to Conquer Russia
Eric Zuesse
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists published a study, on 1 March 2017, which opened:
The US nuclear forces modernization program has been portrayed to the public as an effort to ensure the reliability and safety of warheads in the US nuclear arsenal, rather than to enhance their military capabilities. In reality, however, that program has implemented revolutionary new technologies that will vastly increase the targeting capability of the US ballistic missile arsenal. This increase in capability is astonishing — boosting the overall killing power of existing US ballistic missile forces by a factor of roughly three — and it creates exactly what one would expect to see, if a nuclear-armed state were planning to have the capacity to fight and win a nuclear war by disarming enemies with a surprise first strike.
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