Month: February 2021

Victoria Nuland’s role in 30 years of U.S. invasions and interference

Posted by

0

“Progressives in Congress and their partners in the media, think tank world, and among grassroots activists should join forces with the growing caucus of anti-interventionist Republicans on the Hill and vigorously oppose her nomination.” — James W. Carden
theamericanconservative.com/articles/stop-bidens-neocon-nominee-to-the-state-department/

“Victoria Nuland is highly dangerous and should not be confirmed.”

From MintPressNews
February 11, 2012
Rick Sterling

As the Senate prepares to confirm Nuland for Under Secretary for Political Affairs, a reflection of her last 30 years in government shows how she was connected to nearly every foreign policy disaster undertaken by the United States.

President Joe Biden’s nomination of Victoria Nuland for Under Secretary for Political Affairs, the third-highest position at the State Department, is a dangerous sign. Nuland exemplifies the neoconservatives who have led American foreign policy from one disaster to another for the past 30 years, all while evading any shred of accountability.

As a top-level appointee, Nuland must still be confirmed by the Senate. And while pro-peace groups have waged a campaign to stop her confirmation, reflecting on her career in public service makes clear why she is incompetent, highly dangerous, and should not be confirmed.

Afghanistan and Iraq

From 2000 to 2003, when the Bush administration attacked and then invaded Afghanistan, Nuland was serving as Bush’s permanent representative to NATO. The Afghan government offered to work with the Americans to remove al-Qaeda, but the offer was rejected. After al-Qaeda was defeated, the U.S. could have left Afghanistan but instead stayed, established semi-permanent bases, splintered the country, and is still fighting there two decades later.

From 2003 to 2005, Nuland was principal foreign policy advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney who “helped plan and manage the war that toppled [Iraqi leader] Saddam Hussein, including making [the] Bush administration’s case for preemptive military action based on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction.” The foreign policy establishment, including Nuland, insisted that removing Saddam Hussein and installing a U.S. “ally” would be simple.

The invasion and continuing occupation have resulted in over a million dead Iraqis, many thousands of dead Americans, hundreds of thousands with PTSD, and a bill for American taxpayers of 2 to 6 trillion dollars.

Continue reading →

New U.S. military base in northeast Syria is latest in Biden’s warlike moves

Posted by

0

From MintPress News
February 10, 2021
Alan MacLeod
[references linked in original]

Many of Biden’s first moves in the Middle East, including the building of a new base in Syria, suggest his term will be more of the same rather than a break with the old. 

The U.S.-government funded outlet Voice of America has confirmed rumors that a new military base is being built in northeastern Syria. A convoy of 40 troop carriers and other vehicles arrived and began setting up shop in the city of Hasakah near the Turkish and Iraqi borders over the weekend. “The U.S. flag is now raised over a building,” said journalist Jindar Berekat, a native of the city, “it is not clear how many American soldiers will be stationed at this location, but their armored military vehicles are here and it looks like they are still constructing parts of it.”

“Many here believe that the building of a U.S. base inside Hasakah could be a response to the growing Russian presence in the city,” a local reporter told Voice of America, “this new center [is being built] with the aim of observing Russian forces in Hasakah.” Russian military units have been present in Syria since 2015, intervening on behalf of the government of Bashar al-Assad.

The two foreign superpowers have come close to armed confrontation in Syria many times, including in 2017, when President Trump ordered the bombing of a Russian airbase near the Lebanese border. Already, the American presence has prevented the Russian military from carrying out patrols in northeastern Syria.

While the United States has presented its role in Syria as a counter terrorism operation, Assad’s government has accused it of plundering its resources, “condemn[ing] in the strongest terms the agreement signed between al-Qasd militia (SDF) and an American oil company to steal Syria’s oil under the sponsorship and support of the American administration.” Around 500 American troops have been guarding the country’s oilfields for months, and last summer, Senator Lindsay Graham confirmed that the U.S. had indeed signed a deal with the SDF to “modernize” the country’s oil industry. Damascus considers the agreement “null and void.”

The new base at Hasakah is the latest in a string of actions that suggest the United States wishes to bolster or expand its presence in the war-torn country. Last month, American forces reinforced another base along the M4 highway, which runs from the city of Aleppo through the north of the country and towards the Iraqi border in the east. At the same time, its ally Israel was conducting a series of major airstrikes across the east of the country, reportedly targeting Iranian or pro-Iranian forces.

Increasing hostilities against Iran appears to be a chief concern of the U.S. in the Middle East. 12 months ago, the government announced the construction of three further military bases along the Iran-Iraq border. This was despite a recent unanimous vote (with some abstentions) in the Iraqi parliament demanding the United States military leave the country. This was followed by huge demonstrations in Baghdad demanding the withdrawal of U.S. troops Some estimates put the number of those attending as high as 2.5 million people. President Biden has also ruled out lifting deadly sanctions on the country until it complies with the 2015 nuclear deal — an agreement that the U.S. left unilaterally.

The Biden administration has distanced itself from Trump somewhat on the question of Yemen. The new president received a great deal of praise for his announcement that he was suspending military support to Saudi Arabia. However, as Yemen-born academic Shireen Al-Adeimi noted, he included a number of qualifiers to his statement, including that the U.S. would only stop supporting “offensive operations” and block “relevant” arms sales. “We are going to continue to help Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty and its territorial integrity and its people,” Biden said in a speech at the State Department. Almost immediately, the State Department began condemning Yemen’s Houthi rebels for supposedly attacking civilian targets inside Saudi Arabia.

Perhaps the Saudis’ defense of their own territory will start to look like Israel’s self-defense against Lebanon and Palestine. On Israel, Biden has countersigned Donald Trump’s decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, effectively endorsing the Israeli occupation of Palestine’s largest city. Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, reports suggest he might go back on the decision to remove U.S. troops from the country.

With the arrival of every new president, hope springs eternal that they will conduct a less aggressive strategy in the Middle East. However, many of Biden’s first moves, including the building of a new base in Syria, suggest his term will be more of the same rather than a break with the old.

Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/new-us-military-base-northeast-syria-latest-biden-warlike-moves/275260/

President Biden’s magic tricks: watch both of his hands

Posted by

0

From Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
February 5, 2021
Bruce Gagnon

During the Obama administration the Modus operandi (MO) was to play magic tricks. Obama would announce a good thing and then at the same time do a really bad thing.  I started urging people to watch both of the magicians hands. 

Following Obama’s slight of hand tricks, Biden is off to a similar start. Here are a few examples:

  • Just yesterday Biden made a foreign policy speech where he said, “America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy”. But on February 2 Stars & Stripes newspaper [1] reported that his administration was “deploying bombers and airmen to a base in Norway for the first time, underscoring the growing importance of the Arctic region to U.S. defense strategy.” The Air Force has been stepping up its strategic bomber missions in the Arctic, but recent missions have either been staged from England, where bombers typically deploy while training in Europe, or have involved round-trip flights between the U.S. and the Nordic region. This is the first time bombers are deploying to Norway. (Which of course borders Russia in the north.)
  • In his speech Biden praised those who have been calling for an end to the Saudi-US war in Yemen.  He said the US will end all support for Saudi Arabia’s ‘offensive operations’ in Yemen. But then in typical magician style the new prez stated that the US will “continue to help and support Saudi Arabia” by selling them ‘defensive’ weapons.  Now let’s see here – how much difference is there between offensive and defense weapons?  A bullet is a bullet.  A bomb is a bomb….
  • On February 3 Biden announced an agreement to extend the New START Treaty with Russia, to preserve the only remaining nuclear arms agreement between them.  OK that is good.  But are you watching his other hand?  On Biden’s first day in office he ordered more US troops into the oil fields of Syria. [2]
  • On January 28 Biden sent three warships into the Black Sea, stepping up its presence in the region after a drop in overall NATO maritime activity there last year. The destroyer USS Porter began its transit into the sea, joining the USS Donald Cook (built in Bath, Maine) and a third warship conducting operations in the strategic waterway, the Stars & Stripes reported.[3] Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, who led the Army in Europe until 2018, said more allies should step up to help the U.S. in the region. “We clearly have to increase the priority of the Black Sea,” said Hodges, who is now the Pershing chair of strategic studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis. “US Navy has too many (requirements) and not enough resources. President Biden will expect Allies to do more.” Russia took note of the US’s Black Sea escalation and sent fighter jets zooming just above Washington’s provocative deployment of destroyers in Russia’s backyard.  How would the US respond if Moscow sent warships into the Gulf of Mexico? 
  • Let’s not leave China out.  Again on January 28 Biden ordered a ‘task force’ of four B-52 bombers to fly to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, part of an ongoing demonstration by the Air Force of its ability to move strategic assets around the globe. Stars & Stripes again reported [4] that the B-52s, from Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, were sent to “reinforce the rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific region” through “strategic deterrence.” Guam, at the eastern edge of the Philippine Sea, is within easy range of the South China Sea, where the US is escalating pressure on China to surrender to Washington’s control.
  • Then on February 4, just to make sure that Beijing got Biden’s message that “American is back”, the US Navy destroyer USS John S. McCain (built in Bath, Maine) sailed through the Taiwan Strait [5] marking the first such transit since Biden took office. The Navy called it “routine”. China said it remains on “high alert” and “is ready to respond to all threats and provocations at any time.” My son lives in Taiwan so this one really hit close to home.
  • All of these ‘operations’ cost big $$$$ – especially at a time when the US Congress says that the government can’t afford to give our citizens $2,000 each to help them deal with loss of jobs, no healthcare, growing hunger and poverty, and general economic collapse. But despite all the nice talk about bringing the nation back to sanity and solvency – it is the same old ‘double cross’ – Three-card Monte scam.  Watch both hands of the dealer.  Look away at your own risk.

[1] stripes.com/news/europe/us-air-force-bombers-deploy-to-norway-for-first-time-1.660701?fbclid=IwAR39tIrNICWQATY60CzR2EvCfvJ7DPop0UFQscnDWkwh5F2BKPso8RD1ER4

[2] youtube.com/watch?v=n1QiulgahxU&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1uzSdiSovqqWFZbBKsqMe3Gi64NhLgDBKJCG2Fm567EtdaRNaVDzNTD5k

[3] stripes.com/news/europe/navy-sends-three-ships-into-black-sea-as-russia-takes-notice-1.660114?fbclid=IwAR1exjiEkYPqJy13tE3r8diqgyxP8H1BmJhVYHP6CdpN1AzEs34HHJF5TDk

[4] stripes.com/news/europe/navy-sends-three-ships-into-black-sea-as-russia-takes-notice-1.660114?fbclid=IwAR1exjiEkYPqJy13tE3r8diqgyxP8H1BmJhVYHP6CdpN1AzEs34HHJF5TDk

[5] msn.com/en-us/news/world/a-us-navy-warship-sailed-through-the-taiwan-strait-for-the-first-time-since-biden-became-commander-in-chief/ar-BB1dopBg?ocid=msedgntp&fbclid=IwAR0Lr3d81iYDklWrGVvvDxtktk2t4CZUOPxRsc-XTgAmsoxB2ISgv6jT0hU

http://space4peace.blogspot.com/2021/02/bidens-magic-tricks-watch-both-of-his.html