#NATO claims a threat against West of China retaliates

[tw3101]

The Price of American Exceptionalism

The New York Times reported on July 9th that the newly installed head of Voice of America, a critical soft power organ for US foreign policy for nearly 80 years, was strongly considering not extending visas for foreign journalists working at the agency. This decision followed on the heels of ICE’s announcement that foreign students not able to take in-person courses for the upcoming Fall semester would be forced to leave the country.

These decisions taken by themselves are certainly bad, but it is their place in the broader context of four years of self-defeating American policies that make them especially hard to swallow. At a time when the world desperately needs unity and answers, when democracy and freedom are on the backslide around the world, the United States continues to embrace a specious concept of American exceptionalism. It is an impoverished one that confuses weakness and fear for strength. And one that ultimately will do more harm to the country’s standing in the world at a time when it is most needed.

From its earliest days, this administration has repeatedly turned its back on immigrants and traditional allies. Our collective ability to stay focused on one issue has been disoriented by the endless stream of shit that the White House and propaganda machine spews into the ecosystem, but these are just a few that come to mind.

A travel ban from majority-Muslim nations in the first week of the administration; constant undermining of longstanding alliances and partnerships, including those with NATO, South Korea, Japan, and the Kurds; repeatedly cozying up to despotic regimes who actively or have in the past harmed America’s national interest, including Russia, Turkey, China, and North Korea; a family separation policy that caged children and kept them apart from their parents, in the name of ‘deterrence’; scaling down the refugee cap more and more each year, bringing it to its lowest point in several decades; and a temporary suspension of the H1-B visa program.

(A Detention Center at the Southern Border, Key for ‘Deterrence’)

There are probably too many to recount here, too many for me to even recall. But time and again the one defining through line of the Trump Administration has been a rejection of American values and an embrace of things inimical to the American tradition. This has been said many times during this administration and to those steeped in the minutiae of day-to-day policy shifts, it is all too obvious and probably even cliché. But most Americans are not those people, nor are global citizens who look to the United States for guidance. And we shouldn’t lose sight of the incredible damage these four years of Trump governance have done to this country and its place in the world. We are less trusted by allies, less feared by our enemies, and less able to make meaningful change in the world. We cannot accept this new normal; we cannot grow numb.

I am not naïve. I know the United States has not lived up to its ideals in the past, I know that it probably hasn’t even lived up to its ideals for the majority of its existence. But it – and the leaders its people have chosen through the years – at least pretended to care. We have reached the point now, however, where the people in charge do not even pretend.

Unsurprisingly, the administration’s willful negligence has affected the way Americans and the world view the country. A recent Gallup poll conducted in June, for example, found that American pride has fallen to a nearly two decade low, among both Republicans and Democrats. For all the rhetoric about restoring American greatness, it is clear that these past few years of scorched earth governing that tears down rather than builds up has exhausted the American public. Beyond that, though, the rejection of patently American ideals like diversity and inclusion, this time in both word and deed, has likely soured the public on its government and country. 

After all, it’s hard to be proud of a country in which the president praises Neo-Nazis, in which George Floyd and so many other Black Americans can be indiscriminately harassed and murdered by police, and in which inequality has become an even more important fact of life. 

This dynamic can also be seen on the world stage, where trust and respect for the United States have fallen under the current president. Pew conducted a poll in January of this year and found that while confidence in the US has dipped somewhat, faith in its leader is dramatically lower, a product of both the president’s rhetoric and policies as well as democratic erosion here at home. 

These drops are most pronounced among some of the country’s traditional allies, especially European allies, according to the same poll.

Notably, the current president enjoys similar levels of international support to another Republican president this century who used the power of his office to bully allies abroad and citizens at home into adopting a worldview hostile to their own values in the service of American “exceptionalism.” But who has the time for such pettiness?

Leaving aside such comparisons, what is clear is that the United States, the supposed leader of the free world and a global beacon for freedom, has seen itself steadily lose its claim to that mantle over the last four years. And I can hardly imagine a worse time for our credibility as a purveyor of democracy and freedom, however imperfectly we live up to those ideals, than now. Freedom is under assault everywhere.

In Europe, far-right parties continue to make inroads in countries, some we classify as fledgling democracies and others who are democracies. Far right leaders and parties in Hungary and Poland, for example, continue to threaten their status as democracies and wage rhetorical war on minorities like Muslim refugees and Jews, while the AfD in Germany grows more powerful by the year. Part and parcel of this trend, opposition to migration continues to gain strength throughout Europe and empowers these right-wing parties. The US government, needless to say, does little to oppose these trends. Its rhetoric alone I would argue gives tacit support to movements like these that seek to fall back on the crutch of religious or ethnic nationalism. Additionally, it hardly needs mentioning here what the United States’ current policy towards Russia, the greatest threat to democracy in Europe today, is under this administration.

(George Soros, a Popular Target of Anti-Semitic Smears in Hungary)

In the Middle East, a region in which we have waged war for decades and spent trillions of dollars in the name of freedom, we continue to bankroll oil rich Gulf nations who have repeatedly harmed American interests and American citizens, whether through funding extremist activities, waging merciless war against a Yemeni population unable to defend or feed itself, or hampering our foreign policy objectives in the region. Rather than push back against these nations and use the leverage it has, the administration (admittedly, like those before it) allows Saudi Arabia and its partners to dictate the terms of our relationship.

This is to say nothing of Israel, a country with whom we have always had close ties and nevertheless have pushed to make itself a better, more democratic place. Republican and Democratic administrations alike, to varying degrees, have held that a two-state solution is the only way to ensure Israel’s continued existence as both a democratic and Jewish state. More importantly, they have agreed it was the only way to recognize the agency and humanity of the Palestinian population, who exist primarily as second-class citizens. The Trump Administration by contrast gave explicit sanction of the Israeli occupation by agreeing to move its embassy to Jerusalem, a slap in the face to 5 million Palestinians. Rather than be punished for annexation and settlement building, however, the current right-wing Israeli regime was rewarded by the supposed leader of the free world with a gift it has coveted for decades, explicit recognition of its occupation, its settlements, and control over what some consider a semi-apartheid state.

(Israeli Settlements in the West Bank, Illegal but American-Sanctioned)

And in Asia, despite hard-edged rhetoric purporting to represent strength, the US has ceded ground to its number one geopolitical foe and given tacit recognition to North Korea’s nuclear program. Bending over backwards to secure a trade deal he believed would help his reelection efforts, the president has turned a blind eye as China becomes one of the greatest threats to democracy and free expression anywhere in the world.

Getting tough on China apparently looks like giving explicit support to China’s program of “reeducation” of its Uyghur population, or as I call it sending ethnic minorities to work camps in order to practice eugenics upon women and indoctrinate children while depriving them of food and freedom. Getting tough on China also looks like allowing it to eliminate any semblance of freedom in Hong Kong, a global hub of commerce and free expression, with scant repudiation of a dead-of-night passing of a law that punishes any Hong Kong citizen or international traveler who speaks ill of China with threat of imprisonment. Getting tough on China also looks like allowing it to bully and harass its neighbors in the South China Sea with armed piracy and threats of economic or military retaliation, or infringe upon Indian sovereignty with threats of armed conflict.

(An Uyghur Re-Education Camp in Xinjiang, China -- in the 21st Century)

With North Korea the president gave in, as he always does, to flattery and cajoling and turned his back on the longstanding American position regarding North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. In a flashy summit with Kim Jong Un, the president committed the United States to formally ending the Korean War and issued weak demands that North Korea suspend its nuclear program, all while kissing the ass of a man who starves and murders his people and gaining little in return. Today, North Korea possesses a nuclear arsenal capable of striking the United States, has shown it has little appetite for joining the fold of developing nations, and was granted legitimacy by the most powerful person on Earth for what amounts to basically nothing.  The summit gained the US and our allies in the Asia Pacific precious little while giving North Korea nearly everything it desired. Another diplomatic coup for our president. Thank you, sir.

A well-functioning administration would perhaps realize that they have been gifted a world in which a rhetorical and foreign policy approach that prioritizes freedom and democracy would allow it to press the advantage against the bevy of undemocratic regimes it considers its enemies. An appeal to Hong Kong that attempts to market it as a Berlin Wall, a symbol of oppression and freedom denied, could help turn the pressure up on China. So too would a forceful denunciation of fucking ethnic minority labor camps.

Or perhaps a policy that tries to use its authority over the Gulf nations to force positive change. Or maybe a commitment to European democracy and the values of free expression and inclusion. Or an attempt to leverage our strong military and diplomatic relationship with Israel to force it to make difficult concessions on the Palestinian cause, rather than roll over for a regime that has proven itself stubbornly unwilling to compromise despite our generosity.

Even in our own backyard there are things we could be doing to enhance the cause of freedom and inclusion. We could tell refugees fleeing oppression that they can come to the United States. We can peel away the best and brightest from other countries around the world so that the brilliant scientist from Iran or the entrepreneur from China is a student that we deprive those hostile regimes of profiting from. We could tell immigrants, some undocumented, who are here laboring on the frontlines against a once-in-a-lifetime human catastrophe that they deserve to be fast tracked for citizenship or legal status.

We could do so much that would help this country’s cause in a time of ceaseless threats to democracy. But we don’t. The rot at the heart of our government that makes Americans bristle with shame at their country, that makes the world look askance at us as it does our enemies, prevents us from doing any of this. Our leaders have forgotten the values we are supposed to uphold and represent. In the process we have grown far weaker while our foes and enemies of human rights and freedom around the world have grown far stronger.

Freedom is no longer something those in power, and even some Americans, understand. That loss of understanding has eroded our confidence in ourselves and has eroded the faith the world places in us. Freedom has become, to quote Jimmy Carter, “a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July.” A thing we claim to have but don’t truly understand anymore. This cannot be blamed all on the current administration, but its acceleration can be. And the losers from this immoral four years of American failure are not just Americans and our future dreams; they are the freedom seekers around the world who need a beacon more than ever. They are the ones who may pay more than anybody. That will be the price of four years of hate and division, of nativism and immorality.

That will be the price of Trump’s American Exceptionalism.

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Best and worst U.S. airports (LI) Newark Liberty Airport is America’s worst airport. That’s according to Airhelp’s 2019 annual rankings, which placed the New Jersey hub 116th out of 132 in the world. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport fared best at 34th. Taking out the top spots--based on on-time performance, service quality and food and shopping options--were Doha’s Hamad International Airport, Tokyo International Airport and Athens International Airport. The report notes the biggest issue airports face is congestion: in 2018, international tourist arrivals increased 6%, to 1.4 billion.

Tit-for-tat tariffs (Washington Post) The United States and China traded blows on Monday in the latest escalation of their tariff war. In Beijing, the Chinese government announced plans to impose tariffs on $60 billion worth of American products in retaliation for U.S. tariffs that President Trump increased on Friday. Trump, meanwhile, began the process of expanding U.S. tariffs to cover all $540 billion in Chinese imports--a potentially seismic jolt to the global economy that is expected to raise prices for everyday products such as cell phones, sunglasses, cameras and televisions.

Differing approaches on the student debt crisis (Bloomberg) Experts warn of an economic (and suicide) crisis triggered by $1.6 trillion in U.S. student debt. Democrats have proposed forgiveness programs; The Trump administration is going the other way, intensifying collection efforts by garnishing wages, claiming tax refunds and even seizing disability payments.

White House Reviews Military Plans Against Iran: New York Times (Reuters) The top U.S. defense official has presented an updated military plan to President Donald Trump’s administration that envisions sending up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons, the New York Times reported on Monday.

Pompeo crashes Brussels meeting of E.U. diplomats but changes few minds on Iran (Washington Post) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo crashed a meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday to push for a united transatlantic front against Tehran and its nuclear program. But he failed to bend attitudes among leaders who fear the United States and Iran are inching toward war. Pompeo’s last-minute decision to visit the E.U. capital, announced as he boarded a plane from the United States, set up a confrontation between the U.S. secretary and European diplomats who have been scrambling to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. At least one, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, said he feared that unintentional escalation from the United States and Iran could spark a conflict--an unusually bold statement that appeared to assign equal culpability to Washington and Tehran.

Transatlantic defense tensions (Foreign Policy) The United States, especially under Trump, has repeatedly badgered Europe to increase defense spending. But now that Europe is taking concrete steps to boost a pan-European defense industry, Washington is reportedly howling mad, according to Spanish daily El Pais. The Pentagon sent an angry letter to officials in Brussels, the paper says, arguing that two new defense initiatives--the European Defence Fund and Permanent Structured Cooperation--could cut out U.S. defense firms and erode decades of close cooperation between the United States and other NATO allies.

3 Killed in Shootout in Mexico City Market Neighborhood (AP) Mexico City authorities are investigating the shooting deaths of three men in the Tepito neighborhood, which is known for its expansive street market and counterfeit goods trade.

Argentine Military Scrambles After Bomb Threat Against Presidential Palace (Reuters) Argentina’s military and federal police scrambled to deal with a bomb threat made against the presidential palace in Buenos Aires while President Mauricio Macri was there on Monday, just hours after a man was arrested trying to enter the building with a gun, an official with the presidential press team said.

Sweden to reopen rape case against WikiLeaks’ Assange (AP) Swedish prosecutors said Monday they are reopening a rape case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and will seek his extradition from Britain.

French Authorities Seize Half-Tonne of Cocaine at Dunkirk (Reuters) French authorities seized half a tonne of cocaine worth around 40 million euros ($44.9 million) in the northern port of Dunkirk last month, Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin said in a statement on Tuesday.

Merkel Fan Accidentally Grounds Chancellor’s Plane (AP) Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government plane has been grounded by an excited fan who jumped out of her van to take a photo of it at Dortmund airport but forgot to put the parking brake on, and the vehicle rolled slowly into the nose of the jet.

Sri Lankan Gov’t Minister: At Least 1 Muslim Killed in Riots (AP) Mob attacks on Muslim communities in Sri Lanka’s northwest have left one person dead and dozens of shops and mosques destroyed, a government minister said Tuesday, as communal violence worsened in the wake of Easter bombings that killed more than 250 people.

Vietnam to Mobilise Military in Fight Against African Swine Fever (Reuters) Vietnam said it will mobilise its military and police forces to help combat the outbreak of African swine fever that has already resulted in the culling of about 4% of the country’s pig herd.

Newly Appointed Thai Senate Includes Many Soldiers, Police (AP) Thailand’s newly appointed 250-member Senate, which will play a crucial role in selecting the country’s next prime minister, will have more than 100 members of the police and military who have wielded power since a 2014 coup ousted an elected government.

North Korea Says Ship Seizure by U.S. Violates Spirit of Trump-Kim Summit (Reuters) North Korea said on Tuesday the seizure of one of its cargo ships by the United States was an illegal act that violated the spirit of a summit between the two countries’ leaders, and demanded the return of the vessel without delay.

U.N. Investigators Urge Nations to Snap Financial Ties With Myanmar Military (Reuters) The world must cut off financial and other support for Myanmar’s armed forces, a U.N. fact-finding mission said on Tuesday, repeating a call for top generals to be prosecuted for abuses against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Data Shows Israeli Settlements Boosted After Trump Election (AP) Israel’s government went on a spending binge in its West Bank settlements following the election of President Donald Trump, according to official data obtained by The Associated Press.

Four Die in Sudan Protests as Military Rulers Say Won’t Allow ‘Chaos’ (Reuters) Four people died in Sudan late on Monday in violence that broke out after a political transition deal between the mainstream opposition and military rulers, who said they would not allow the country to descend into “chaos”.

#headlines

[swedna]

In Moscow, analysts for the Kremlin and its Security Council are working overtime to war-game scenarios for a Joe Biden presidency. Increasingly alarmed at the prospect of a White House without Donald Trump, Russia is trying to determine what that’ll mean for sensitive issues from nuclear arms to relations with China, energy exports, sanctions and far-flung global conflicts, according to people familiar with the efforts. Though few see much prospect for improved ties if Trump is re-elected, Biden would likely be bad news for Russia, people close to the leadership said. A Democratic victory may even give the Kremlin another reason to tear up its own electoral calendar, moving up parliamentary elections to the spring to get them out of the way before a new administration has time to impose additional sanctions or other penalties, according to a person close to the Kremlin, who spoke on condition of anonymity to express that opinion. With so much at stake, Russia’s already meddling in the campaign, according to US officials. But the situation is different from 2016, when Trump’s victory surprised even his backers in Moscow. US politics have become so polarised that there’s little need for Russia to step in and invent new controversies, according to a senior British intelligence official. Russia is nonetheless conducting a “very active” campaign to denigrate Biden and sow divisions in the US political scene, FBI Director Christopher Wray said last week. The Russian leadership hasn’t written off Trump yet, according to Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin adviser. “It’s not clear what kind of help they could offer Trump, but they’d give it to him as long as it didn’t provoke a big scandal,” he said. “They don’t want to trigger a boomerang effect.” The US leader is making Russia’s task easier through his own brand of information warfare, including repeated claims that mail-in voting will lead to massive fraud, assertions that Russian state media are amplifying. Russian officials deny meddling, either now or in the 2016 elections. On Friday, Putin proposed that the US and Russia exchange guarantees of non-interference in elections, according to a statement on the Kremlin website. He also called for talks on information security and restoring cybersecurity cooperation, reviving a proposal he floated after the 2016 election. Since that vote, Moscow’s infatuation with Trump has dimmed. Russian officials say “Russophobia” in the US establishment won’t change no matter who’s in the White House. But the contrast between the two candidates is striking. While Trump said last week that China and mail-in voting were greater threats than Russia, Biden has said he’d make Moscow pay for meddling, calling Russia an opponent. Meanwhile, tensions are flaring with Germany and France over the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, raising the prospect of a deep freeze if Trump loses. “If Biden is elected, we will confront a consolidation of the West on an anti-Russian platform,” said Andrey Kortunov, head of the Kremlin-founded Russian International Affairs Council. ALSO READ: Trump will accept results of free-and-fair presidential polls: White House The prospect of new Western sanctions on Russia has helped drive the ruble to the lowest levels since April. Even as the economy plunged amid the Covid-19 lockdown earlier this year, the Kremlin was cautious about spending, continuing to husband hundreds of billions of dollars it’s stashed in rainy-day funds for potential future crises. Kremlin animus toward Biden goes way back, dating at least to when he visited Moscow in 2011 as vice president and told opposition leaders he thought Vladimir Putin shouldn’t run for president again. That kind of affront isn’t quickly forgotten, according to a person close to the Kremlin. Putin moved this year to extend his rule to 2036. The Russian leadership relishes the chance to turn the tables on Washington after decades of what the Kremlin sees as sometimes-crude efforts to manipulate Russian politics, according to a person close to the authorities. But Facebook and other social media companies are taking a more proactive stance on stopping disinformation, taking down accounts linked to the Kremlin. Late Thursday, Facebook said it removed more Russian disinformation efforts. The Treasury Department, meanwhile, sanctioned a Ukrainian politician it called a Russian agent for efforts to tar Biden for alleged corruption related to his son’s business dealings in Ukraine. “There is very little incentive for the Russians to stop the information operations they’ve been doing,” said Michael Daniel, who formerly served as cybersecurity coordinator in the Barack Obama White House and currently leads the Cyber Threat Alliance organisation. “What I don’t think they necessarily have a strong incentive to do is take a step that would drive the US to a much greater degree of retaliation.” Fiona Hill, the National Security Council’s senior director for European and Russian affairs until 2019, says divisions are emerging within the Kremlin over the wisdom of continuing a “dirty tricks” campaign that’s had mixed results and may now face diminishing returns. On the one hand, Russia’s 2016 influence operations succeeded beyond the Kremlin’s wildest dreams. The US-dominated, unipolar world that Putin has long railed against is no longer. America’s global leadership, NATO, the European Union and the structure of institutions and alliances the US built after World War II have taken a hit. “On that ledger, wow, yes, basically over-fulfilled the plan,” said Hill. At the same time, getting caught in the act of trying to sabotage US democracy has proved costly. “They lost the entire US political class and politicised ties so that the whole future of US-Russia relations now depends on who wins in November,” she said.

#Moscow

[alexsmitposts]

Iran Is No One’s Colony The American aggression against Iran is escalating to a level that threatens world war. On Monday April 22, the USA declared that it has withdrawn “waivers” given to China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Italy and Greece, under the illegal US economic warfare campaign being conducted against Iran under the name of “sanctions.” The stated objective is to reduce Iranian oil exports to zero, crippling the Iranian economy, damaging the economies of countries that purchase Iranian oil and raising the price of oil for the rest of the world suppliers, including of course the US and Saudis, that have pledged to fill the gap, at a higher price of course. The American Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo declared, with all the arrogance of Herr Garbage in Chaplin’s film The Great Dictator, “The Trump Administration has taken Iran’s oil exports to historic lows, and we are dramatically accelerating our pressure campaign in a calibrated way that meets our national security objectives while maintaining well supplied global oil markets.” In other words, “we are going to bring Iran to its knees while we make a pile of dough doing it.” Iran responded by stating that it will continue to ship oil and both Turkey and China quickly stated that they do not accept the US actions and will continue to buy Iranian oil. Italy and Greece have said nothing, but they kowtowed months ago and have not purchased Iranian oil despite being given the waivers by the US. It has to be assumed that they knew what was coming and so sought oil supplies elsewhere. The Iranians have threatened to close the Straight of Hormuz if the waivers are suspended and the Americans use force to block Iranian oil shipments which would mean the blocking of oil shipments from the Arabian peninsular, thereby threatening oil supplies to many nations in the world that depend on those supplies, including Europe and North America. An attempt to block the Straight of Hormuz would result in the Americans trying to eliminate the Iranian naval vessels closing the passage, major naval engagements and outright war. It may be that the US is hoping to provoke such a clash to give it the pretext for war against Iran. Everything points to that conclusion. Armed action to block Iranian exports of oil is the logical step the US will have to take if the illegal “sanctions” are ignored and the US maintains its threat to bring Iranian oil exports to zero. Any such action would not only be aggression against Iran, it would also be an act of aggression against China and the other nations relying on that oil. But armed conflict and the risk of a major war is a risk the US seems willing to take. Whether they are reckless or that is the American objective is difficult to say but if it comes to that it won’t much matter for the consequences will be terrible and world wide. But, looking at US actions, real war, not just economic, appears to be their objective. The US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal a few months ago and immediately reimposed its panoply of “sanctions” against Iran affecting Iranian trade, banking, shipping, transportation and communications. It has since declared a formation of the Iranian armed forces, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to be a “terrorist organisation” a bizarre action since the armed forces of any nation cannot be considered “terrorists” in any sense. Iran quickly retaliated by declaring American armed forces as “terrorists,” and so it goes. On April 3 the Pentagon repeated Wikileaks’ claims from 2010, which were also based on US Army sources, that Iran was responsible for the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq when, in fact, it was the Iraqi Resistance forces, that fought the Americans so valiantly, who inflicted the casualties on the US forces in Iraq. On October 22, 2010, The Columbia Journalism Review commented on the Wikileaks release of documents and their use in the media on that date regarding Iraq that, “Just as it focused on Pakistan’s involvement in the war in Afghanistan in its reporting on WikiLeaks’s July dump, The New York Times focuses heavily on the involvement of Iran in the Iraq War logs released today.” And, “The Times’s current online lead WikiLeaks story is “Leaked Reports Detail Iran’s Aid for Iraqi Militias” which details the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ backing of Iraqi militias. “The piece draws on specific incidents from the logs to demonstrate that Iran’s Quds Forces mostly maintained a low-profile, arranging for Hezbollah to train Iraqi militias in Iran, and financing and providing weaponry to insurgents. Other times the Iranian forces sponsored assassinations; at others, they sought to influence politics, and otherwise coordinated attacks on US forces in Iraq.” All these claims, based on US Army sources, were accepted without question by Wikileaks and the major newspapers that published them such as the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and are now resurrected by the Pentagon and the media to fan the flames of hostility towards Iran in a more visceral way. Syria stated the claims were suspicious. Russia Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharaova stated that Russia was surprised by the allegations, that Washington had some explaining to do and that the US better not use the claims as a pretext for conflict. The objective of declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as terrorists and resurrecting the dubious US Army-Wikileaks claims that Iran is responsible for American deaths in Iraq is of course to criminalise the Iranian government in the eyes of the western, particularly American public. Criminalisation of the enemy is always a sign that an attack is coming. They painted Manuel Noriega as a criminal. They did the same with Slobodan Milosevic, with Saddam Hussein, with Muammar Ghaddafi. Negotiations, diplomacy are not possible with “criminals” is the US refrain and their targets end up dead or in an American prison. The same logic applies to Iran. They are portraying the Iranian government as criminals and no matter how much Iran bends its principles in order to avoid war it will never be enough so long as Iran tries to act as an independent country. The economic warfare will continue for as long as the Americans have the power to wage it. The excuse will vary with the time and circumstance but the strategy will remain. This is war, illegal and immoral, against an entire people, for the private gains of the elites in the west whose only concern is to make profit at the expense of everyone else. I have said this before but it needs repeating that I have used the word “sanction” in parentheses because the word, “sanction,” means the provision of rewards for obedience, along with punishment for disobedience, to a law. There are other meanings for the word but they all define the same condition; obedience to a master by his vassal, to a monarch by his subject, to a warden by his prisoner. The condition necessarily implies that the person applying the sanction is legally in a superior position to the person being sanctioned, that he has the right to apply the sanction and that there exists a system of laws in which the use of sanctions is permitted and agreed upon. This is the definition yet every day we hear of the “sanctions” imposed on Russia, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea for reasons that everyone knows are false, based on authority that does not exist, based on laws that have never been created, and by national governments that have only arrogance to support their grand presumption; that their nations are superior to others, that there is no equality or sovereignty of peoples, that their diktats are orders that must be obeyed by those who inferior to them. Since the economic restrictions on banking, finance and trade set up against Iran by the United States and its subject states in the NATO alliance do not comply with the definition of sanctions, we have to use the correct term in describing these restrictions. There is only one word, and that word is, war and, since this form of warfare is not permitted by international law as found in the United Nations Charter they are economic war crimes, economic aggression for which a reckoning will one day have to be paid, one way or another. It is in Chapter VII, Article 41 of the Charter that the power to completely or partially interrupt economic relations exists and only the Security Council can use that power. Nowhere else does this power exist. Once again the issue comes back to the word war. It is clear that the attempted economic strangulation of Iran is an attempt to “punish” Iran for defending its strategic position, independence and sovereignty. Once a war has started it can only proceed to its logical end. Iran has the legitimate right to defend itself against the economic warfare and threat of war presented by the United States for Iran is no one’s colony, and never will be.