Washington Moves The World Closer To War

Since my January 11 column http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/01/11/the-next-war-on-washingtons-agenda/ and the news alert posted on January 14 http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/01/14/news-alert/, more confirmation that Washington is moving the world toward a dangerous war has appeared. The Obama regime is using its Ministry of Propaganda, a.k.a., the American media, to spread the story that President Obama, Pentagon chief Panetta, and other high US officials are delivering strong warnings to Israel not to attack Iran.

For someone as familiar with Washington as I am, I recognize these reports for what they are. They are Br’er Rabbit telling Br’er Fox “please don’t throw me in the briar patch.”

If you don’t know the Uncle Remus stories, you have missed a lot. Br’er Rabbit was born and raised in the briar patch.

What these “leaked” stories of Washington’s warnings and protests to Israel are all about is to avoid Washington’s responsibility for the war Washington has prepared. If the war gets out of hand, and if Russia and China intervene or nukes start flying, Washington wants the blame to rest on Israel, and Israel seems willing to accept the blame. Nikolai Patrushev, who heads Russia’s Security Council, has apparently been deceived by Washington’s manipulation of the media. According to the Interfax news agency, Patrushev condemned Israel for pushing the US towards war with Iran.

You get the picture. The helpless Americans. They are being bullied by Israel into acquiescing to a dangerous war. Otherwise, no more campaign contributions.

The facts are different. If Washington did not want war with Iran it would not have provided the necessary weapons to Israel. It would not have deployed thousands of US troops to Israel, with a view toward the American soldiers being killed in an Iranian response to Israel’s attack, thus “forcing” the US to enter the war. Washington would not have built a missile defense system for Israel and would not be conducting joint exercises with the Israeli military to make sure it works.

If Washington did not want Israel to start the war, Washington would inform the Israeli government in no uncertain words that an Israeli strike on Iran means that the US will NOT veto the UN’s denunciation of Israel and the sanctions that would be placed on Israel as a war criminal state. Washington would tell Israel that it is good-bye to the billions of dollars that the bilked American taxpayers, foreclosed from their homes by fraudulent mortgages and from jobs by offshoring, hand over by compulsion to Israel to support Israel’’s crimes against humanity.

But, of course, Washington won’t prevent the war that it so fervently desires.
Neither will Washington’s NATO puppets. “Great” Britain does as it is told, subservient and occupied Germany, bankrupt France, Italy occupied with US air bases with a government infiltrated by the CIA, bankrupt Spain and Greece will all, in hopes of an outpouring of US dollars and devoid of any dignity or honor, support the new war that could end life on earth.

Only Russia and China can prevent the war.

Russia took the first step when the newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister for military affairs, Demitry Rogozin told a press conference in Brussels that Russia would regard an attack on Iran as “a direct threat to our security.”

Washington is counting on subverting Russia’s opposition to Washington’s next war. Washington can time the attack on Iran right after the March elections in Russia. When Putin wins again, the treasonous Russian opposition parties, financed by the CIA, will unleash protests in the streets. The subservient and utterly corrupt Western media will denounce Putin for stealing the election. The orchestrated protests in Russia will turn violent and discredit, if not prevent, any Russian response to the naked aggression against Iran.

For Rogozin’s warning to be effective in preventing war, China needs to enter the fray. Washington is banking on China’s caution. China deliberates and never rushes into anything. China’s deliberation will serve Washington’s war.

It is possible that the crazed neocon Washington government will have one more “victory” before Russia and China comprehend that they are next on the extermination list. As this date cannot be far off, life on earth might expire before the unpayable debts of US and EU countries come due.

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About Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.

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  1. Dr. Roberts’ post induced chills down my spine. All is proceeding as planned; all systems “go”.

    By: singularity . January 18, 2012 . 10:19 am |

  2. Assessment is spot on, PCR.
    +
    As to comments on psycopathy: Seriously, Folks!
    +
    Nature never provides anything to man for no reason. Nature includes berserker warriors and drugged-to-the-gills shaman who aid us in conquering those who would destroy our group.
    +
    The so-called pathocrats are people whom nature has endowed with extra-special gifts for destruction. Instead if carping that one side has all the talent, we must consider why it is the peaceful, freedom-loving people of the world have eschewed the only kind of behavior that might win.
    +
    In 1974 the truckers surrounded Washington DC. In 1981 many of us wanted to shut the whold country down after Reagan essentially destroyed collective bargaining by firing air traffic controllers. In both cases there would have been blood on the floor but clarity and change of direction after
    +
    In the decade since Patriot Act rules, the nation’s poor have grown poorer and no counterthreat is in the offing. That needs correcting. Till the self-styled elite on the Potomac thinks of us with the same fear we’re supposed to think of Iran, nothing will happen. The irony is to get them to fear us we must do things that might seem psychotic.
    +
    The run up to 2012 so far indicates this is they year we fish or cut bait. Things cannot go on as they have so now is the time for creativity. Initiative is ours!

    By: Franz . January 18, 2012 . 4:16 pm |

  3. Dear friends, here is my latest article I wrote on why it is scientifically impossible for Israel to invade and conquer Iran. I really think that the threats to invade Iran are really psychological, spiritual and emotional. Because if you think about it, the Israelis have been planning to invade Iran since the 2006 or even before that. And in the book “The Prince” by Nicholas Machiavelli, it says that if a Prince delays the plans to invade a country, that prince will get weak and demoralized. So there has to be another goal a psychologicl goal behind Israel saying that they are going to invade Iran, but never really invading them.

    THERE IS NO WAY IN THIS WORLD THAT ISRAEL CAN HOPE TO CONQUER IRAN !!

    http://marxists-voting-for-ron-paul.blogspot.com/2012/01/there-is-no-way-in-this-world-that.html

    There is no way that Israel could could hope to conquer Iran. Nor would the Iranian people rise up and overthrow their theocratic leaders–the same neoconservative fantasy that Bush war-mongers promised ahead of the Iraq invasion, and which they are re-cycling now to justify an attack on Iran. In fact, an attack on Iran, far from sparking a rebellion against the government there, would crush the new wave of reform that was evidenced in last week’s local elections in Iran, which dealt a blow to the country’s hardliners. Iran is a proud nation with a history reaching back thousands of years. If attacked, its people can be counted on to rally around their current rulers, and its war-hardened soldiers can be counted on to fight to the death to defend their country.

    Moreover, while its military may be no match for Israel’s, Iran has many asymmetrical options for retaliation. As the key player in Iraq, with close links to Iraq’s Shia factions, Iran’s military has trained and armed the Badr Brigades–the largest and best-armed faction in Iraq, and one which to date has stayed out of the fighting against US forces. Iran is also close to the Mahdi Army of Moqtada al Sadr, and could unleash his fanatical troops too, against Israeli forces. If this happens, count on Israeli casualty rates leaping to or even surpassing Korea or Vietnam-era levels overnight.

    Additionally, Iran’s intelligence services have connections with Shia groups in Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing countries, and can be expected to quickly organize cells to strike at economic and Israeli targets there. More seriously, of course, an attack on Iran will jack the price of oil to levels never seen before. Even if Israel managed to militarily control the Straits of Hormuz, Iran’s hundreds of stockpiled anti-ship missiles, which are buried in bunkers all along the Persian Gulf, would cause insurance rates to soar so high that no tanker could afford to sail that route, effectively cutting off over one quarter of the world’s oil supply. Virtually all of the oil produced in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and the Arab Emirates would be trapped in the ground. As well, the network of pipelines that bring oil from wellheads to refineries and to storage and pier facilities would be virtually indefensible against Iran-inspired sapper attacks.

    Oil industry analysts have talked of oil leaping in price to $200 a barrel or more in the event of an Israel war with Iran, and given how panicked this country got when oil reached $80 a barrel recently, there’s no need to go into detail explaining what $200/barrel oil would do to the Israeli economy–or to the global economy.

    Of course, the biggest issue is that attacking Iran would be yet another war crime by the zionist Israeli killer state. No one can argue that Iran poses an imminent threat to anyone, least of all to Israel–the only legitimate grounds under the U.N. Charter and the Nuremburg Charter, to which Israel is a signatory, for initiating a war. Attacking a country that poses no such threat is defined as the most heinous of war crimes: a Crime Against Peace.

    .

    By: Marxist Chavizta . January 18, 2012 . 10:34 pm |

    • No economy left to shock. Can only help. The claim is a myth anyway. Conventional wisdom. Things adjust for the better, if it is due, in the long run. There has to be a market, and in the US, it is sliding into the pits.

      Any “shock” would be very temporary in the US, since there exists so much slack. Half of auto mania would cease in a week, and 95 percent in a few months. Thirty miles in a 4 ton monster for a six pack ends. The sprawl shrinks. Walking increases.

      Products become local, as they should. No more beer from New Jersey in Nevada, or Bavaria.

      The economy rises, due to the need to re-adjust to the new style of existence. Alternative energy demand creates an infinity of new jobs. Long overdue and stifled on behalf of pumping up GM sales.

      GM guzzler languish in the back yards, or on car sellers lots. Motor bikes everywhere. People on bikes! Pollution way down. Health up. Not all bad.

      By: Ken Ashley . January 20, 2012 . 10:47 am |

      • The end result doesn’t sound far off, but it will be a long and painful transition to get there. It will take 20 years to turn over the entire fleet of vehicles and the poorest people will be stuck with the gas guzzlers longest exacerbating their poverty (and thus requiring welfare and/or subsidies to keep crime down). Walking or waiting for a bus consumes time making commutes less efficient, and of course for many living in the suburbs, it’s not feasible. No economy left to shock? That’s a silly way to think. There is slack, but it well take decades to readjust to a declining oil supply, and if there is no expectation of permanent decline among the populace, they will resist the economic pull to reduce consumption (waiting for the price to go back down).

        By: davidstvz . January 22, 2012 . 12:29 pm |

    • Good points. I don’t think the Israelis or the American Likudniks intend to take serious military action against Iran. What they plan is more of the same. Covert ops, assassinations, sabotage, terrorism and so on. My understanding is that there is an agreement between the Israeli right/American Likud and the more “liberal” operatives within and around the government and media to “hope” the current Iranian gov’t falls or is overthrown by all the asymetrical methods they can muster. There is a chance they may succeed to overthrow the current regime but they don’t seem to understand that whatever regime replaces it will, eventually, assert its status as defenders of Shia throughout the world and be a power in opposition to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Iran may be able to ally with Pakistan but the Saudi Kingdom will never ever cease being Iran’s most important enemy. It is the Saudis even more than Israel that want Iran smashed for a bunch of reasons. The Israelis, on the other hand, aren’t really faced with a serious threat they can’t finesse if they choose–bu then the Israeli right wouldn’t be able to wave the bloody shirt and keep its population in fear and loathing–sadly the Israeli establishment has become hopelessly corrupt such that I don’t believe they would do a particularly good job of going through a conventional war–and I think the Iranians know it and may, for all we know, have infiltrated even Mossad.

      As for Israel–it is the one power in the world that truly cares not even half a damn for international law. A significant percentage of the Israeli population and the Jewish population in this country truly believe that the Holocaust justifies any action Israel chooses to take on moral grounds–Israel can do no wrong even if its genocide simply because the Jewish homeland is beyond sacred. Yahweh would be pissed–it is the betrayal of all that is best in Judaism that, lest we forget, has given the West so much.

      By: Banger . January 20, 2012 . 4:33 pm |

      • “A significant percentage of the Israeli population and the Jewish population in this country truly believe that the Holocaust justifies…”

        Very doubtful. How would we know?

        “cares not even half a damn for international law…”

        US?

        By: Ken Ashley . January 21, 2012 . 11:47 am |

        • Ken, can you point to some book or other comprehensive writing that collects and presents the best evidence that Israel directs the actions of the U.S.? Absent that, I see no reason to believe both countries aren’t simply acting for their mutual national security interest (Israel mostly just trying to survive and intimidate it’s Arab neighbors; America trying to control the wealth of the region (oil) that world industrial economies rely upon).

          By: davidstvz . January 22, 2012 . 2:58 pm |

          • Nation-states are not quite what they once were. “Israel” is actually only a certain part of the elite allied with elites elsewhere in the Imperium. But “the people” of the U.S. and Israel, and nearly everywhere else, are very simply manipulated using social and neuro-science to dance to whatever tune is being played. Nothing is what it appears to be–in fact, if it is in the mainstream media it is fundamentally false even if the events may be true–they fit an utterly false (and that is easily demonstrated) narrative.

            By: Banger . January 24, 2012 . 11:34 am |

  4. Second follow up to my earlier comments:

    Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya has what seems to me to be a well thought out analysis of the cancellation of the military exercise, and the purpose of the U.S. troops stationed now in Israel, along with what he thinks is the Israeli-American strategy against Iran and her allies.

    Obama’s Secret Letter to Tehran: Is the War against Iran On Hold? “The Road to Tehran Goes through Damascus.”

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28736

    The way I see it, the U.S. and Israel are currently playing “good cop-bad cop” roles. The U.S. being the good cop now, pretending to sound reasonable, with the Israelis hamming up the bad cop role with their tantrums. it’s just an act, neither the Israelis nor the Americans involved in this stage show are saying anything honest. It’s part of the psychological war against Iran, and Syria. The country under immediate threat from these gangsters is Syria, as Nazemroaya demonstrates in his article. Syria, Iran, China, Russia are under no illusions of what’s going down here and they’re not buying the routine. If Syria falls, then expect the heat turned up on Iran big time. And if the corrupted media isn’t able to sell the people on an aggressive war against Iran, expect another false flag attack, this time blamed on Iran, to get the public behind it.

    What remains to be seen is how far Israel will be able push the U.S. and Europe along this path of eventual confrontation. It’s no accident that of the American presidential contenders, only the candidate who has stated opposition to these continued aggressive wars for Israel is under a coordinated attack from the right, centre and so-called left. That coordinated attack is being masterminded in Tel Aviv, like so many of these things are.

    By: зачем . January 20, 2012 . 7:37 pm |

  5. Re “If you don’t know the Uncle Remus stories, you have missed a lot. Br’er Rabbit was born and raised in the briar patch.”: In the future, don’t feel obliged to include this kind of background note for a literary reference. It really interrupts and compromises the flow of your essay.

    I would not go so far as to say it insults the readers (yours, truly, included) who “get it” without such an explanation. But for those who don’t, that’s what search engines are for.

    By: Jay Wocky . January 20, 2012 . 9:14 pm |

    • Petty, petty, petty.
      PCR has an international readership. Not everyone is familiar with our culture.
      Google that!

      By: Freedom Calls . January 24, 2012 . 10:35 am |

  6. DEAR FRIENDS, READ THIS GREAT ARTICLE ABOUT HOW OBAMA IS MOVING THE WAR ZONE OF ZIONISTS TO IRAN AND SOUTH ASIA

    http://www.plp.org/challenge/2012/1/20/obama-moves-to-iran-and-s-asia-us-imperialists-endless-wars.html

    Friday, January 20, 2012 at 5:05PM

    Having spread death and destruction across much of the Middle East, U.S. imperialists now seek to expand their horror show to the Far East. Barack Obama is methodically preparing for eventual war on China. In December he initiated the deployment of 2,500 U.S. Marines in Australia. In January he issued a Pentagon decree entitled, “Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense.” It states: “While the U.S. military will continue to contribute to security globally, we will of necessity rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region [emphasis added].”

    Host of Problems = Hard Time for Rulers to Re-elect Obama

    But U.S. rulers face two major problems in gearing up for a clash with China. First, they have a growing need to wage wider Middle East oil wars, especially as tensions with Iran heighten. It’s a task made more difficult by a shortage of combat troops, which could necessitate a wildly unpopular military draft.

    Second, while the ruling class sorely needs a war president, it may have a hard time retaining their invader-in-chief Obama’s services after November’s election. Millions of voters could be turned off by mass racist unemployment, continuing economic depression, millions of home foreclosures, deportation of nearly two million immigrants, a wage freeze on federal workers, and an administration run by bailed-out bankers who have reaped profit bonanzas during a Depression they helped create.

    War Clouds Darken over Iran

    Iran threatens more each day to become the next U.S. front for open warfare. Covert action, like CIA-Mossad [Israeli secret police] rubouts of Iranian nuclear scientists, has been raging for years. On January 13, two days after the latest assassination, Iran sentenced an ex-U.S. Marine to death for spying. And while Washington ramps up oil sanctions to discourage the building of nuclear bombs, Iran threatens to attack U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf.

    The only question is whether the first air strikes on Iran will come from the U.S. or Israel. Obama is deceitfully trying to deflect blame onto the supposedly more belligerent Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu: “Inside the Israeli security establishment, a sort of good cop, bad cop routine, in which Israeli officials rattle sabers amid a U.S. scramble to restrain them, has assumed its own name: ‘Hold Me Back’” (Wall Street Journal, 1/14/12). The lie is that Israeli bosses, armed to the teeth with U.S. weapons, always act without influence from the White House. Sometimes they do, but there appears to be strategic unity regarding Iran. Says the Journal’s article:

    The U.S. military is preparing for a number of possible responses to an Israeli strike, including assaults by pro-Iranian Shiite militias in Iraq against the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, according to U.S. officials. In large measure to deter Iran, the U.S. has 15,000 troops in Kuwait, and has moved a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf area. It has also been pre-positioning aircraft and other military equipment, officials say. Arms transfers to key allies in the Gulf, including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, have been fast-tracked.

    This context lends added significance to Obama’s recent announcement to send 9,000 troops to Israel in a joint U.S.-Israeli military exercise, a move alleged to be “temporarily withdrawn.”

    As for Iraq, al Qaeda bombs killed 73 people there in the second week in January. The country still lacks the stability required to boost oil production to the original U.S. target of six million barrels a day (mbd), much less the Maliki regime’s pie-in-the-sky promise of 12 mbd. In reality, Exxon Mobil and other oil giants — hoping to cash in on the U.S.-led genocide — are now pumping at a rate below three mbd. This shortfall is enough to prompt U.S. rulers to consider a re-invasion.

    Nor will U.S. imperialists be able to stop the shooting in Afghanistan any time soon, not after pictures surfaced of U.S. snipers urinating on their Taliban “kills.” For a time, U.S. bosses had hinted at pointing toward some sort of negotiated settlement with the Taliban. In addition to Afghan mineral wealth and the proposed TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) natural gas pipeline, the U.S. needs Afghanistan for permanent bases in a land that borders Iran, China and a resurgent Russian-dominated bloc.

    Taliban cooperation with the U.S. would get them a cut of the mine and pipeline profits. Bill Clinton had worked on a similar pipeline deal between the Taliban and the Unocal oil company in the 1990s, but it fell through when the Taliban switched to a rival Argentine energy firm, Bridas. From that point on, the Taliban became the enemy in U.S. rulers’ eyes. Today, it is the suddenly “viral” release of the year-old corpse desecration video that derails talks.

    War Agenda to be Forced on Opportunist Romney and Fragmented Republicans

    Obama has succeeded in broadening the U.S war machine’s active theaters of operation from Iraq and Afghanistan to Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Bahrain. Looking ahead, Iran, Syria and China are now stated U.S. adversaries. And who better to lead these racist attacks on Asian workers, the rulers figure, than the first black president of the U.S.? But Obama might not be around to lead the charge. Barring unlikely economic improvement or an “October Surprise” (a ruling-class-concocted provocation to whip up popular support for Obama), Republican Mitt Romney has a strong chance to enter the White House next year. An avowed supporter of U.S. imperialism, Romney vows to reverse Obama’s Pentagon cuts and increase Navy shipbuilding by 50 percent.

    But as leader of a Republican party deeply divided in both its capitalist donor base and its working-class voter base, Romney caters to a host of contradictory interests. Gary Hart, a major imperialist strategist, laments the GOP’s grab bag of “conservative Protestant evangelicals, neoconservative foreign policy and national security hawks, the Tea Party, much but not all of Wall Street, many of Main Street’s small business owners, libertarians and cultural conservatives, among others” (NY Times, 12/16/11). Some of these factions oppose the war plans of the dominant Rockefeller wing of the ruling class.

    Anti-tax, Anti-regulation Forces Hamper Rulers’ War Drive

    The liberal imperialists’ New York Times, in its Boston Globe subsidiary, accused Romney of “trying to appease enough constituencies to get himself the nomination” (1/6/12). The Globe was referring to the anti-tax, anti-regulation forces that could hamper the money-raising and centralization needed for the global war foreseen by Obama’s backers. The Globe endorsed the more consistent imperialist Jon Huntsman, who had been Obama’s ambassador to China. The newspaper warned that “the religious right, represented by Rick Santorum, and Tea Party activists represented by Ron Paul, have pushed Romney in unwanted directions.”

    Huntsman, the Globe said, would have been “a better president.” But now that he’s out of the race, the Globe believes that Huntsman “could still make Romney a better candidate” by pushing the main Rockefeller’s force’s imperialist aims.

    Political events are driven not by candidates’ pandering, but by the sharpening imperialist competition to carve up the world’s resources, labor and markets through war. Elections hold significance for our class and Party only in revealing the tactical fights within the ruling class. This enables us to more accurately expose and attack the various capitalist forces that shape the politicians’ programs and disputes. At the same time, we point out that elections represent only the interests of various sections of the ruling class. Under capitalism, every vote diverts workers away from class war against the bosses.

    As revealed in reports on class struggle in CHALLENGE, our task is to win workers and youth in the various ruling-class-led organizations that PLP’ers are active in: unions and shops, schools and colleges, churches and community groups. Our aim is to help them see that the problems faced by our class stem directly from the profit system: racism, sexism, mass unemployment, poverty and war. As long as this system exists, its miseries will continue to enrich the rulers through the labor of the workers, the class that produces all value but gets back only the part of that value necessary to survive.

    Capitalism cannot be reformed. It has always been based on exploitation, depressions and wars. We strive to create a society — communism — run by and for our class, without bosses and profits and the nightmares for workers to which they inevitably lead. Only by building a revolutionary communist party, the Progressive Labor Party, composed of tens of millions of workers, can we achieve the ultimate goal of destroying the murderous profit system in communist revolution.

    By: Marxist Chavizta . January 21, 2012 . 2:03 am |

  7. Communism has had its try…it failed, miserably.
    One effect all this has had in the past two weeks is the rise in oil and gas prices even though the country is awash in gasoline. Maybe this was the ruse after all: to prop up sagging oil prices as new fields are being discovered. However, israhell would like nothing better than for the U.S. to again send its youth to get blown into tiny bits and pieces for zionism.
    I have a better idea: elect Ron Paul and replace congress with constitutionalists. Urge them to declare war on israhell.
    I can see it now: It’s two in the morning Tel Aviv time. Swiftly B-2 bombers and F-117 Nighthawks target the Dimona nuclear plant and the nuclear missile silos throughout israhell. Within minutes Dimona is a heap of smoking rubble. The missile silos are now destroyed along with their deadly store. All members of AIPAC, and various zionist organizations are rounded up and arrested for treason, espionage, murder, theft and most of all as enemy combatants. Their final stop will be one of the many FEMA camps as well as GITMO.
    Israhell is now without the power to blackmail and extort money, and nations into fighting wars for zionism. It has no choice but to return Gaza and the Golan heights back to the Palestinian people. Oh yes, Nentenyahoo commits suicide.

    By: JohnZ . January 21, 2012 . 9:16 am |

    • Uh huh…and the entire region becomes uninhabitable for eons. See http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=28723 Attack Iran? Nuclear Insanity: “We have the Capability to Take the World Down with Us” (“Bombing nuclear reactors is beyond even the actions of the certifiably insane.”)

      The poison spreads…….cancer and hunger, inter alia, increase exponentionally leading to the ultimate world conflict, retaliation, and anillation. Mankind’s epitaph is inscribed in still glowing cinders as “we won.”

      By: Dan . January 22, 2012 . 7:08 am |

    • If by new fields you’re talking about oil shales and tar sands, the net energy recoverable from these is quite low (it takes a lot of effort to mine oil sands). Also, the rate of recovery is greatly restricted by the extraction techniques which require tons of water that aren’t available in the necessary quantities to extract at an unlimited rate. The tar sands are capable of producing at most 10% of the world’s oil use per day (which is about 2/5 of U.S. usage). I suppose you will have a hard time believing that as it doesn’t fit into your Zionist theories since it gives the U.S. a different interest for interfering in the middle easy (to guarantee a supply of oil, to keep the oil from our enemies, and to prop up the value of the dollar) and restores Israel to it’s actual position of being in a symbiotic relationship with the U.S. We get something from them (a strong U.S. subsidized military ally in the middle east) and they get something from us (security).

      By: davidstvz . January 22, 2012 . 12:38 pm |

  8. Dr Roberts,

    Your comment here:

    “For Rogozin’s warning to be effective in preventing war, China needs to enter the fray. Washington is banking on China’s caution. China deliberates and never rushes into anything. China’s deliberation will serve Washington’s war.”

    This reminded me of Gen MacArthur’s great mistake during the Korean conflict in thinking the Chinese would stay out of the fray. He was wrong then and the current administration could be making the same mistake. History repeats itself. This is the great lesson of Thucydides in his masterpiece, the History of the Peloponnesian war.

    By: Doc . January 21, 2012 . 6:24 pm |

    • Rogozin is Russian hawk (represents nationalistic ever more growing current in Russia) loyal to Putin.
      His (actually Putin’s) “warning” has no other objective but to be only issued as warning and nothing else.
      It is not ultimatum that expects to be obayed to “prevent war”.
      It’s warning.
      Meaning; “Do what ever you want, but there will be serious consequences.”
      China’s national interests in Iran are not smaller than Russia’s, just of different kind. To name few biggest interests ; oil, very important investments (much bigger than Libya)…
      Not to talk about geostrategy and political & economic implication of U.S. controlling all the oil & gas in the Middle East.
      Even if the U.S. Israeli war against Iran doesn’t spark military intervention from Russia and China they would be forced to declare war after the collapse of Iran sooner or later (but from much weaker position and I think they know that).Because Iran is just another step for U.S. towards full global dominance…

      In such strategic global hot spots like Middle East (I personally think that) Russia and China coordinate their actions on the highest level without braging too much to the press.
      It is wrong, I think, to use Korean conflict as an example.
      Simply be cause it has nothing to do with this situation.
      Everything is different, it is not the same China from those days and today China that is 2nd World economy and future Super Power. This is not ideological war of the 20th century but global U.S. struggle for World dominance challenging bigger opponents.
      I doubt that there will be any room in that U.S. globaly dominated world for China as “2nd World economy” or Russias nuke detarrent :-)

      By: jako . January 22, 2012 . 2:12 pm |

  9. Bombing israhell’s nuclear reactors may be a crazy thing to do, but what would you suggest? The genie is out of the bottle and israhell is the most dangerous nation on earth, led by the truly insane. Consequently its minions here in America have spread their insanity like an influenza virus, threatening to sicken the entire nation.
    I really have no idea how to stop israhell from starting a conflagration. They are determined to wipe out everybody else in the region in the name of zionism.
    Now we see the Atlanta Jewish Times (jewish newspaper) calling for the assassination of Obama, and even asking for donations. The truly insane have total control of the media in America. How do we counter that? Yes the internet is making inroads but it may be far too little , too late. Most sheeple in Jewmerica are solidly behind israhell, even if it’s to their own destruction.
    Side notes:
    Gingrich receives 5 million campaign donation from zionist gangster/ casino owner in Las Vegas.
    Iran now plans to drop the petrodollar in favor of direct monetary exchange with Russia and China.
    Britain has just made a deal to use the RMB for trade .
    The U.S. dollar is now in a death spiral. So ends the late great United States of America. Its citizenry, made collectively insane through the death of its values are now threatening to bring about more death and destruction to another sovereign state, just as it did to Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. is not a nation builder but instead a nation destroyer and that includes itself as well.

    By: JohnZ . January 22, 2012 . 7:41 am |

    • There can only be one even plausible answer. Violence begets violence: war begets war: hate begets hate, bigotry begets bigotry, lies beget lies, etc. etc. etc. which may very well lead to our ultimate destruction. We can not allow this. You have acknowledged that bombing nuclear facilities would be insane. So how can it be stopped? Dr. Roberts wrote that only Russia and China can stop it. While I agree that this is true in the short term, we all have to find a better way than mutual assured destruction (MAD.) Those that professed “the end of history” with the fall of the USSR and end of the cold war may very well have had a rude awakening. Putin (shudder) may very well be the most important figure in mankinds survival. He knows that Russian sovereignty is on the line. No man, or group of men, should ever be allowed to hold the fate of mankind in their hands. The threat of war can no longer be tolerated by anyone, or against anyone. Naive? Idealistic? Impossible? Probably, but it depends on who decides….the vast majority of people who I believe would choose peace and life in a free, ordered, just, and eqalitarian society, or small minority of power mad “lawgivers” who use fear and psychological manipulation to forever divide and dominate mankind? Insanity has been well defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. We’ve already had “war to end all wars” haven’t we, and then some.

      But before I continue I want to make a distisinction, I do not dispute your observations about much of anything except in one major respect which I will attempt to get to below. I have read the news articles you reference and very much more. They are despicable, just as planned.You should understand that this is a well worn game meant to fan the flames of hatred and bigotry. The entire situation IS insane. I have spent a lifetime opposing all of it: the military industrial complex and the rackets called wars; empire as supposedly “spreading democracy;” the lobbyists and money in elections, crime families masquerading as bankers; the propagandists masquerading as journalists and mass media “entertainment”; revisionist historians as “educators”; and a “legal” system which reduces the rights of men to mere forms of words to be molded into whatever form an unelected and unaccountable monarcharchal tryanny chooses…. which is now a police state. The only “law and order” which exists in the US is a TV fantasy. The list could go on and on but of primary importance to our world situation are the issues of seperation of church and state and freedom of religion. If this doctrine is to have any meaning whatsoever, which it doesn’t, freedom of religion must include freedom FROM religion. It has all been stood on its head but the intertwining of geopolitical issues and religious divisionism is the most powerful method of dividing and thereby conquering mankind pure evil has ever devised. Yet, just as planned, people shout from the rooftops “SEE, its the jooooss.”

      The history of the world can be reduced to one common denominator; heirarchal systems of rule by elite minorities. The role of organized religions used to control the masses is indisputable. So is the death toll. I am a true agnostic, not an athiest, meaning “I don’t know” and don’t believe mankind was meant to know, and both reject and refuse to engage in any socio/political discourse based in what I believe to be clearly manufactured divisionism contrary to the values supposedly espoused. “Evil” always originates from “the others,” its the trick of the trade.

      Similarly, I reject all supposed “justifications” based on race, creed, skin color, or national origin etc. as fear based deceptions and divisionism used as control systems for the benefits of elite minorities to maintain their domination. To participate even in debate on these terms, is to submit, knowingly or not. To do so is to fan the fires of hatred and divisionism and thereby lend legitimacy to perverse machinations which can serve no legitimate purpose. Perhaps you might try seperating the ruling class and their authoritarian followers (who will do and say anything they are told, even against their own interests) when using terms such as “Jewmerica” and realize that you are playing into their hands by doing so? Clearly, its what they want you to do and is a distraction from the fundamental issues, and fundamental solutions that this garbage has to be rejected.

      Clearly, Israel was put in place by strategic design for geopolitcal reasons. The “powers that be” couldn’t care less about religious and ethnic issues except for the powerfully manipulative and devisive tools they are and use so well. Blanket condemnations affirm their devisive success and the perpetuation of their number one basis for controlling public opinion…fear.

      People only revolt against entrenched powers when they are tired of being afraid. Its time to say ENOUGH to all of them and to establish peace and justice worldwide. They can only pit brother against brother if we allow them. Yet I admit, the prospects seem very bleak. Hegemony? Or survival? Democracy? Or totalitarian rule?

      By: Dan . January 22, 2012 . 5:41 pm |

  10. Dr. Roberts
    “Only Russia and China can prevent the war.”
    With all the respect Dr. Roberts, I have impression that U.S. is even more affraid of sky high oil prices staring DEPRESSION in world economy than fighting China and Russia together :-)

    “When Putin wins again, the treasonous Russian opposition parties, financed by the CIA, will unleash protests in the streets.”
    You really don’t give credit to KGB President do you Sir?
    I doubt that old fox Vladimir will fall in the same trap again (he has already announced video cameras and transpartent ballot boxes + independent observers as Anti-Fraud measures)
    Great articles always pleasure to read!
    Thank you !

    By: jako . January 22, 2012 . 2:41 pm |

  11. Dr. Roberts has made a strong case for a re-thinking of Paul’s campaign. As a member of the Libertarian Party for more than 25 years, and placing all of my faith in Dr. Paul’s efforts, I have to agree that Paul’s message about Social Security is at the very least murky. He needs to strongly defend the existing system as a contract that he supports wholeheartedly, yet will work towards finding another viable option for younger workers. This is especially true in the upcoming Florida contest where so many retired folks will be listening very closely.

    It is also true that many Libertarians (and Republicans) believe that the private sector should have almost no regulation, and Dr. Roberts correctly points out the results that a lack of regulation have brought. However, no regulations, however stringent or lax will do any good if the Dept. of Justice, or the SEC or other agencies do not have the will to enforce them.

    By: Bernie Gay . January 23, 2012 . 9:43 am |

    • I am not by nature a libertarian but the situation is such that it seems that we need a radical re-structuring of our political system because it has become very rigid and serves mainly vested interests. Libertarianism is a great dissolving movement of our time–once we can break down structures in government that guarantee the corporate hegemony there is a chance for new life to spring from between the cracks. It could also get worse but that depends on our will to take steps to take control of our lives and communities. Sadly, it appears, most members of the population seek a passive existence and seem to desire authoritarian structures.

      By: Banger . January 23, 2012 . 5:50 pm |

  12. Any attack by Israel upon Iran could bring a conventional and or nuclear retaliation from Russia and/or China, either of which could economically and/or physically wipe out Israel, and cause further havoc to any of Israel’s allies should they be stupid enough to get involved. China already has massive economic clout with respect to the USA, and Russia is literally on Iran’s doorstep. Iran and the USA/Israel know this. Iran also wants to become a member of the SCO (as does Pakistan).
    All this bellicose behaviour will facilitate that.

    I keep remembering Mel Gibson’s drunken outburst in vino veritas. We’ve been lured into this nonsense in the past (Poland 1939, Iraq more recently) and I fear it’s all happening again, with most US citizens as naive foot-soldiers once again.

    To be clear, Iran doesn’t need a nuclear bomb, as it has very powerful friends on the UNSC who have plenty. Reports from the IAEA which monitors them is that it’s enriching uranium to reactor grade (3%) not weapons grade (90%), which Iran says it is legally entitled to do under the NPT. What are relevant here are UN Security Council Resolutions 1696 and 1737.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1696
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1737

    Note, because the resolution is under Article 41 of Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter, it cannot be enforced through the use of military means. Note how 1636 effectively tries to change the conditions of the NPT after the fact.

    http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sc8792.doc.htm

    One has to ask why the IAEA is not inspecting Israel, Pakistan or India – that’s because they unlike Iran have not signed the NPT! This is why this is victimization of Iran is considered diplomatically unfair/unjust. The NPT is voluntary!

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11407589

    Why would other countries sign up to it after all this?

    Even the IAEA corrects the Israeli/EU/USA press.

    http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=190785

    By: brown-dog . January 24, 2012 . 5:45 am |

    • Maybe you’re right but the nation-states you are describing are not quite what nation-states once were which is why there is such hostility towards Iran–it has not aligned itself with the Empire and all the other states, to one degree or another, are intricately involved in the Empire and vying for status and benefits within that context. The issue is not and has never been Iran’s nuclear program, except as a way to get American Jewish right-wingers all hopped up and ready to the bidding of the martinet contingent in the U.S. and Israel which wants a maximum state of insecurity in the world in order to give work and wealth to that very contingent.

      You are right though in saying that without Russian and, particularly, Chinese assent the U.S. “security” apparatus cannot support an war with Iran; besides, Iran is the convenient Orwellian entity that is vitally needed by the martinet community–if it were to be destroyed then what next? War with China? I don’t think so. The U.S. only tramples already supine victims. Most of what is going on is theatrics–however, it doesn’t take much to set off something nasty. I hope the oligarchs are communicating with each other and have good agreements–of course we’ll never know one can only read between the lines.

      By: Banger . January 24, 2012 . 11:28 am |

  13. I fully agree with Dr. Roberts assestments of the current situation. We have it the bottom of the barrel, but our patriots are still asleep at the wheel because they have not yet been impacted by the terrible economy, but they will soon enough. We need nothing short of a full revolution in order to turn the corner. They’ve hijacked the voting machines, which were recently purchased by offshore company., which means they will tell you who will be president, period. There are no rules of law, and those that have violated their oath have committed treason; hence, the reason for NDAA and whatever other crazy laws they believe will protect them. The good news is, there more ofus than them. We need to understand that we (the people are at war) and we need to act accordingly. They should be fearing us.

    By: Al Carrington . January 24, 2012 . 2:50 pm |

  14. please take note that as of 1Apr2012 the dire warnings of both Mister Roberts as well as the majority of the internet conspiracy net works have NOT come to pass as yet.

    I personally don’t know what to make of this, but am glad my great alarm, when reading this article three months ago, was for naught.

    By: FellowTraveller . April 1, 2012 . 9:01 am |

    • And it won’t come to pass–the business of America is business and Iran is a country fully capable of causing damage to that business. The wild-card is the current Israeli government which is dominated by religious fanatics who, like many of their ilk, have a fascination with the Apocalypse. My sense, based on having spent most of my life in and around Washington is that there is no interest in a new war even by those who profit by waving the flag and making threats. If war comes it won’t be from the U.S. even if there is a Republican President next year–the corporate oligarchs have a very nice situation and they want to keep it that way.

      By: banger . April 2, 2012 . 8:28 am |

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