{"id":107653,"date":"2018-03-19T12:00:59","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T12:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=107653"},"modified":"2018-03-17T15:37:46","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T15:37:46","slug":"further-signs-of-more-war-a-most-dangerous-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/03\/further-signs-of-more-war-a-most-dangerous-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Further Signs of More War: A Most Dangerous Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

19 Mar 2018 – <\/em>Donald Trump\u2019s days of playing the passive\/aggressive host of a reality-television game show are coming to an end.\u00a0 Either he fires all the apprentices who might slightly hesitate to wage a much larger world war and lets the bombs fly, or he will be replaced by one who will.\u00a0 Signs are that he has learned what his job entails and the world will suffer more death and destruction as a result.<\/p>\n

Back in the days of the first Cold War \u2013 the late 1950s to early 1960s when our little world came close to extinction \u2013 my very large family appeared on many American television shows.\u00a0 Their names told the story of those times: \u201cWho Do You Trust,\u201d \u201cTo Tell the Truth,\u201d \u201cCharades,\u201d \u201cPlay Your Hunch,\u201d and \u201cBeat the Clock,\u201d to name a few.\u00a0 It was as if those silly game shows were unconsciously suggesting we probe a little deeper behind the headlines to discover what was really going on before the Doomsday Clock ran out.<\/p>\n

Today things are far more sophisticated and sinister, with a massive and unrelenting war on truth being waged by the Western corporate media, an arm of the CIA, capitalism\u2019s invisible army.\u00a0 It is a twisted game show with deadly consequences.\u00a0 Its method is Janus-faced.\u00a0 From one face, repeat over and over again bold-faced lies always lacking in evidence \u2013 e.g. Russiagate, WMD in Iraq, the Syrian government used chemical weapons, Russia is an aggressor planning to invade Eastern Europe, three World Trade Center buildings fell into their own footprints in virtual free fall speed because of fires, etc.; from the other face, play the game of suggesting to the public that they know more than they do because they watch CIA-backed shows like \u201cHomeland,\u201d movies like \u201cZero Dark Thirty,\u201d and are being informed by all the so-called ex-CIA and intelligence commentators that populate the corporate media and explain what\u2019s really going on.\u00a0 The old adage that \u201cyou never leave the CIA\u201d has somehow imperceptibly morphed into \u201cYes, we can; trust us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now we have the British Prime Minister Theresa May accusing Russia of poisoning in England the double-agent Sergei Skripal and threatening Russia to give a \u201ccredible\u201d explanation why they killed this man or else, a man who sold the identities of Russian agents to the UK for cash, putting them in serious danger.\u00a0 Or else, she says, the UK \u201cwill conclude that this action amounts to an unlawful use of force by the Russian state<\/strong> against the United Kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 Naturally she presented no evidence for Russian involvement, but the BBC, as is its wont, speculates on how the British may punish Russia, and the other corporate media chime in.\u00a0 But we are left to wonder where this is leading.\u00a0 Could it be Syria?\u00a0 Former British diplomat Craig Murray suggests<\/a> it could be a false-flag setup aimed at raising Russiaphobia to hysterical proportions.\u00a0 But to what end?<\/p>\n

If we look to the United Nations and the accusations and threats flying from the mouth of the US Ambassador Nikki Haley, Obama\u2019s UN Ambassador Samantha Power\u2019s doppelganger in war lust, we see that the picture expands.\u00a0 Haley threatened that the US will take unilateral action in Syria against Syrian and Russian forces if the UN didn\u2019t adopt her resolution that would have allowed anti-government terrorists plenty of time to escape from East Ghouta.\u00a0 She said, echoing words we have heard numerous times:<\/p>\n

It is not the path we prefer, but it is a path we have demonstrated we will take, and we are prepared to take again\u2026.When the international community fails to act, there are a Times when states<\/strong> are compelled to take their own action.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In response we have the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warning that another US strike on Syrian government forces would have serious consequences.\u00a0 And the Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov saying,<\/a><\/p>\n

We have reliable information about militants preparing to falsify a government chemical attack against civilians.\u00a0 In several districts of Eastern Ghouta, a crowd was assembled with women, children, and old people, brought from other regions, who were to represent the victims of the chemical incident.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He added that \u201cWhite Helmets\u201d activists (proven to be financed by the US and UK) had already arrived at the scene with satellite video transmitters ready to film the scene and that the Russians had discovered a \u201claboratory for the production of chemical weapons in the village of Aftris which was liberated from terrorist.\u201d\u00a0 After the planned false-flag attack, the US was going to bomb government held districts in Damascus fulfilling Haley\u2019s threat.<\/p>\n

And here in the US, Col. Lawrence Wilkinson, who was Secretary of State Colin Powell\u2019s chief of staff when Powell lied at the UN in 2003 to garner support for the criminal attack on Iraq, spoke to The Israel Lobby and American Policy<\/em> 2018<\/em> conference ten days ago and said, speaking of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, that:<\/p>\n

They\u2019re both headed for war. Of that I\u2019m convinced. They will use Iran\u2019s allegedly existential (sic) to Israel presence in Syria which is becoming even more so from a military perspective every day, Hezbollah\u2019s accumulation of some 150,000 missiles if we believe our intelligence agencies. The need to set Lebanon\u2019s economy back yet again, that\u2019s important. Look at what they\u2019re deliberating right now with regard to the new very, very rich gas find in the Eastern Mediterranean with Israel claiming Section 9 and Lebanon claiming Section 9. Take that, Lebanon. We\u2019re going to bomb you, then you\u2019ll let us have it. And that will be their excuse.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now Rex Tillerson is out as Secretary of State and the head of the CIA, the far more war minded Mike Pompeo slides naturally into the role. Musical chairs for the power elite. As Trump has said of Pompeo, \u201cWe are on the same wavelength.\u201d Riding that same wavelength is Nikki Haley, a trio whose alliance bodes very poorly for Middle Eastern peace or for any rapprochement with Russia.\u00a0 The game turns deadlier as the Presidential Apprentice learns the rules and the empire prepares to shed more innocent blood in an unholy alliance with Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other \u201cteam players.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this time the game won\u2019t be, in the words of another CIA liar, \u201ca slam dunk.\u201d\u00a0 The opponents are ready this time.\u00a0 The game has changed.<\/p>\n

And in eastern Ukraine, the snow should be melting in the next 3-4 weeks.<\/p>\n

Play your hunch.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Edward Curtin is a writer whose work has appeared widely and a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>.\u00a0 He teaches sociology at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. <\/em>A former college basketball player, he teaches the sociology of sports, and writes on a wide range of topics.\u00a0 His website is <\/em>http:\/\/edwardcurtin.com\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

19 Mar 2018 – Donald Trump\u2019s days of playing the passive\/aggressive host of a reality-television game show are coming to an end\u2026 Today things are far more sophisticated and sinister, with a massive and unrelenting war on truth being waged by the Western corporate media, an arm of the CIA, capitalism\u2019s invisible army. It is a twisted game show with deadly consequences. Its method is Janus-faced. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":89352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}