NATO: MAKING FEAR PAY

European and U.S. taxpayers keep NATO families in the luxury to which they have long become accustomed. And there are tens of thousands such families. From the lowest to the highest within NATO the salaries are extremely generous. Those at the top of the tree earn in the hundreds of thousands while the lowest of the low still lives like kings and queens compared to ordinary hard-working mortals. What would or could these men and women do if NATO no longer had a purpose? What kind of life could they expect if the fear that sustains NATO dries up? There are many reasons why NATO still marches on despite its primary reason to exist having vanished like a puff of smoke over thirty years ago, not only the gravy train of a perpetual assured income, enough to send all your kids to the best schools and afford only the best from holidays to homes to designer clothes to cars and all the other goodies elite classes expect almost as their God-given right. Imagine all the career structures where NATO personnel move steadily up the pay grades bi-annually, annually or based upon some propaganda coup, helpful comment or doubtful nation brought into the fold to assist the hate campaign against Russia. All those tens of thousands of career ladder positions need to be safeguarded. Show me a single NATO staffer who would willingly give up his or her job for the sake of world peace where nations get along with each other, Russia and China included. I would be willing to bet a large amount of dollars, pounds or any other currency that you could not find one single solitary soul who would do it. The late great American investigative journalist Robert Parry was once at a swanky get-together of Washington political bigwigs where the alcohol was flowing freely and tongues began to wag in a similar very free fashion. He found himself talking with a particularly important member of the Washington elite during this confab. The topic turned to U.S. foreign policy and the anti-Russia campaign that was raging at the time. The perhaps quite tipsy bigwig turned to Parry and made a quite startling admission. “Yes, of course we lie about Russian aggression. We MUST do it to preserve NATO.”

Another great figure closely associated with U.S. foreign policy was George Kennan. He is attributed to be the man who almost single-handedly developed America’s containment policy regarding the Soviet Union. One day an enterprising newsman rang him up to ask his opinion of the fact that three ex-Warsaw Pact nations had just joined NATO. 

The article which emerged from this phone conversation between reporter Thomas L. Friedman and George Kennan which was published in the New York Times is well worth quoting in full: Foreign Affairs; Now a Word From X His voice is a bit frail now, but the mind, even at age 94, is as sharp as ever. So when I reached George Kennan by phone to get his reaction to the Senate's ratification of NATO expansion it was no surprise to find that the man who was the architect of America's successful containment of the Soviet Union and one of the great American statesmen of the 20th century was ready with an answer. ''I think it is the beginning of a new cold war,'' said Mr. Kennan from his Princeton home. ''I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else. This expansion would make the Founding Fathers of this country turn over in their graves. We have signed up to protect a whole series of countries, even though we have neither the resources nor the intention to do so in any serious way. [NATO expansion] was simply a light-hearted action by a Senate that has no real interest in foreign affairs.'' ''What bothers me is how superficial and ill-informed the whole Senate debate was,'' added Mr. Kennan, who was present at the creation of NATO and whose anonymous 1947 article in the journal Foreign Affairs, signed ''X,'' defined America's cold-war containment policy for 40 years. ''I was particularly bothered by the references to Russia as a country dying to attack Western Europe. Don't people understand? Our differences in the cold war were with the Soviet Communist regime. And now we are turning our backs on the very people who mounted the greatest bloodless revolution in history to remove that Soviet regime. ''And Russia's democracy is as far advanced, if not farther, as any of these countries we've just signed up to defend from Russia,'' said Mr. Kennan, who joined the State Department in 1926 and was U.S. Ambassador to Moscow in 1952. ''It shows so little understanding of Russian history and Soviet history. Of course, there is going to be a bad reaction from Russia, and then [the NATO expanders] will say that we always told you that is how the Russians are -- but this is just wrong.'' One only wonders what future historians will say. If we are lucky they will say that NATO expansion to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic simply didn't matter, because the vacuum it was supposed to fill had already been filled, only the Clinton team couldn't see it. They will say that the forces of globalization integrating Europe, coupled with the new arms control agreements, proved to be so powerful that Russia, despite NATO expansion, moved ahead with democratization and Westernization, and was gradually drawn into a loosely unified Europe. If we are unlucky they will say, as Mr. Kennan predicts, that NATO expansion set up a situation in which NATO now has to either expand all the way to Russia's border, triggering a new cold war, or stop expanding after these three new countries and create a new dividing line through Europe. But there is one thing future historians will surely remark upon, and that is the utter poverty of imagination that characterized U.S. foreign policy in the late 1990's. They will note that one of the seminal events of this century took place between 1989 and 1992 -- the collapse of the Soviet Empire, which had the capability, imperial intentions and ideology to truly threaten the entire free world. Thanks to Western resolve and the courage of Russian democrats, that Soviet Empire collapsed without a shot, spawning a democratic Russia, setting free the former Soviet republics and leading to unprecedented arms control agreements with the U.S. And what was America's response? It was to expand the NATO cold-war alliance against Russia and bring it closer to Russia's borders. Yes, tell your children, and your children's children, that you lived in the age of Bill Clinton and William Cohen, the age of Madeleine Albright and Sandy Berger, the age of Trent Lott and Joe Lieberman, and you too were present at the creation of the post-cold-war order, when these foreign policy Titans put their heads together and produced . . . a mouse. We are in the age of midgets. The only good news is that we got here in one piece because there was another age -- one of great statesmen who had both imagination and courage. As he said goodbye to me on the phone, Mr. Kennan added just one more thing: ''This has been my life, and it pains me to see it so screwed up in the end.'' https://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/02/opinion/foreign-affairs-now-a-word-from-x.html The fact is that neither NATO personnel nor the serried ranks of European and U.S. political elites give a flying fuck about world peace. These dinosaurs are stuck foursquare within an environment where they are virtual prisoners of the status quo. That status quo, built brick by brick since the end of World War II requires that the entire edifice remain forever and that if there is no longer a good reason for its continuance then a reason must be found. The primary task they consider their sworn duty to perform is the maintenance of that status quo. There is no ability or inclination among the people involved to look beyond themselves and their own self-interest. Due to this, we have the world kept constantly at the door to a living hell, a phantom menace is always conjured up and highlighted using compliant mainstream news media and their headline slogans. It’s a cosy little cabal of self-serving elites all petrified that people might discover that peace broke out many years ago. That peace was a threat to the fear required to sell newspaper advertising and the papers themselves and a threat also to the vast empire of money-making based on a manufactured threat, NATO. Look for no change to this nice little matrix of money-making. There would have to be genuine peacemakers involved along with people of sufficient mental stature to look beyond themselves to the benefit of all of us. As Mr Kennan inferred and Mr Friedman said openly, instead of this we are in the age of midgets. Midgets who use fear to keep their positions to their great advantage and to the detriment and potential annihilation of the rest of us.

THE UKRAINE REGIME’S CUNNING PLOT TO RETAKE THE DONBASS OR DIE TRYING

The regime in Kiev had a huge problem. In fact, to be more accurate, it had an entire series of huge problems. Of those problems, the one it chose to attempt an answer to above all others was how to enforce its rule on the pro-Russian population of south-eastern Ukraine.

After signing the Minsk Agreement which was meant to provide the pathway to peace only because its armed forces and extremist militias were being roundly defeated and it needed a ceasefire, it promptly dropped any pretence of adhering to it.

The Minsk Agreement was something the Kiev regime was never going to implement. Its agreement to allow federalised status to the pro-Russians in the Donbass was null and void as soon as it was signed. The only thing that mattered at that moment was that its forces would be saved from further humiliation. So lying through their teeth was decided on as the best option at the time. In this, they took a leaf out of the western political elite playbook which should be no surprise to anyone.

Now, six years later with the situation at a stalemate in the Donbass and pro-Russian sentiment rising across Ukraine and the president the people of Ukraine had elected to resolve the situation plummeting in the polls, that president needed a plan to get himself re-elected.

Zelensky had fought the election for president that he won by a landslide by posing as a regular guy who would resolve the tragic situation in Ukraine’s south-east by peaceful means. But now, facing a mounting challenge to his leadership he did what so many political gameplayers have done in the past, he played the foreign enemy card. Russia was now not an entity to work with to resolve the situation in the Donbass but as with his predecessor Poroshenko, he began a hate campaign directed toward Moscow and his counterpart there, Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky has ramped up a relentless campaign of misinformation no doubt advised by his western allies and conspirators to paint Russia as the fiercely aggressive Russian bear just awaiting its moment to pounce. Headline after headline has served to embed this concept in Ukrainian and western minds. Mainstream news entities in the West such as the BBC have been all too willing to play along.

So, what might the climax of this campaign be? What portrait is to be accepted as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth at that point? And what are the final features of that plan which are being designed to paint in clear and indisputable colours the evil villain of the piece?

With those that matter groomed and primed to see Russia as constantly aggressive toward Ukraine the final steps will, I predict occur as follows.

Zelensky gets the bill past the Ukraine parliament to allow foreign troops to be stationed on Ukrainian soil.

Immediately after the bill is passed NATO troops and those from a range of other nations (another coalition of the willing) will arrive in western Ukraine.

These foreign troops will be dispersed to pre-set locations awaiting their detailed orders.

At an agreed moment a meticulously planned, well-rehearsed and fully coordinated attack of all foreign forces, with Ukrainian special forces given pseudo-pole-position will commence.

The concept behind the attack on the Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples Republics by such a force is clear to see. Putin and the Russian high command will at the very least be wrongfooted for the crucial first period of the attack. They will be told as the blitzkrieg attack from land and air occurs using crack special forces, that Americans, Brits and other foreigners are embedded within those of the Ukrainian army.

Putin and his advisers will be put in an unenviable position at this point. Already coalition troops will be inside republic administration buildings, at least those delivered by Blackhawk copters in the dead of night when the operation will certainly take place.

Many of those within the administrative hierarchy of the republics will be being held at gunpoint. In addition, its is certain that several major firefights will be occurring across land held by the republics’ self-defence forces. Any self-defence troops who have been unguarded and were taken by surprise will have been taken out.

Borders to the republics will have been breached here and there and various military vehicles will be entering and engaging targets. Washington, Whitehall and many other western elite nodes of power will be issuing dire warnings to Moscow regarding future consequences if it reacts militarily against the return of “freedom, democracy and renewed sovereignty of Ukraine”.

Moscow will be presented with a lose-lose situation. Accept the dismantling of these rebel republics leaving their majority pro-Russian populations to the tender mercies of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion and the end of any freedom of speech and association regarding Russia, or… respond with a military attack killing coalition troops along with Ukrainian army personnel and potentially many of the pro-Russians now held captive.

This I believe is what is planned for the Donbass in the not too distant future.

And what will we hear about what has transpired once the dust has finally settled? What will western mainstream news entities have to say about it?

If the plan works without a Russian response... we will hear that a great wrong has been righted, that international justice has prevailed and that an abominable invasion of Ukraine has finally been eliminated and all resistance by Russian (yes Russian) troops thwarted. The headlines will proclaim, “Ukraine’s Sovereignty Restored!”, “Russia Defeated in Ukraine!” and “Russian Aggression Dealt a Mortal Blow!”

If the plan works but with a Russian response… we will hear the western world erupt with tales of evil Russian aggression that caused the deaths of countless heroes whose only goal was the freeing of their fellow Man and countrymen and gaining back the stolen sovereignty of Ukraine. New and extremely draconian sanctions would be levied on Russia along with it being kicked out of every international entity including those such as SWIFT in the international financial industry. Russia would be ejected from its seat on the United Nations Security Council. In short, all hell would break loose.

Of course, all of these latter potential outcomes will be known to Moscow and the regime in Kiev and their conspirators in the coalition will bet on them causing Putin and his advisers to hesitate and of course, we know the old adage concerning this…

He who hesitates is lost.

---

This is how I see things playing out no later than the next three or four months.

Did I miss something?

If so we will only have to wait a short period of time to find out...

FICTION: THE VOYAGE TO BRAHE

‘Mission Planetary Freedom’ was conceived a decade ago, immediately after the discovery that life forms existed on distant planet Brahe, a.k.a. 55 Cancri c.

We, the crew of the Starship ‘Democratic Warrior’, will arrive in orbit around Brahe in 43.2 hours. On our arrival, we will toast Tycho Brahe after whom the planet is named, with a welcome and much-anticipated glass or two of Brännvin.

The population of Brahe remains unknown to us however we do know they exist. Telescopic observations showed changes on the surface of the planet that could only have been made by intelligent beings. The lines which were seen to grow over time were judged far too linear to be formed by any process other than intelligent means of construction.

We made many assumptions about what life forms we might find during our ten-year journey, the result of innumerable discussions, both scientific and otherwise. The consensus of opinion was that we ought not to get over-excited about the prospect of encountering anything approximating ourselves. This was overwhelmingly discounted. The general view was that if there were indeed creatures moving on the surface of the planet, their intelligence level, though perhaps higher than the great apes back home, they would surely disappoint us regarding anything approaching intelligible communications. Not at least until an intensive and long-term analysis had been made of whatever sounds, if any, they made.

The Brahen, as we called them, would still of course be intensely interesting and close studies of them would doubtlessly reveal much that would keep many specialist professions back home in fascinating projects of discovery for many decades to come.

As we made our steady approach to Brahe excitement among us grew. We were still too distant to obtain detailed images of whatever structures might occupy the planet however, we could make out more distinct general shapes that could be land formations or something more interesting still. It would take more time before we could be certain about their nature.

It was hard to force ourselves to take any rest in these final hours. Our eyes were glued to the forward screen and the blue world growing in size before us. Each one of us wanted to be there when any major discovery was revealed by Brahe.

I was lucky to be awake, keenly focused when the first indication of intelligent life emerged. The lines that had been seen from the optical element of the James Webb Space Telescope had vastly grown in number. This should have been no surprise to us as the images captured by the JWST were from ten thousand years before being the time the light captured in its lens had been travelled through space.

The images we took from Warrior were then immediately relayed back to Earth where they could be further enhanced and analysed.

We were 37.2 hours from our rendezvous with Brahe. I retired for five hours of restless sleep, being satisfied that I had achieved my initial goal, of being there when data of significance was first discovered.

When I woke I was informed of yet another surprise.

“Noise” had been detected emerging from a location on the planet. It had not been part of the data accumulated about Brahe from Earth. This was because of its direction of travel almost directly opposite to the location of Earth. However, our own instruments had picked it up and captured it.

This "noise" presented us with a puzzle. The beam of noise was extremely intense and extremely focused. None of our standard hypotheses could account for it. It did not consist of electromagnetic radiation as far as we could detect. The pulses within the flow occurred in random time signatures indicating some kind of intermittent energy source or other genesis of the kind we were as yet not willing to contemplate, i.e. some form of signal or message transmission.

We were able to monitor the ‘flow’ as we called it for several hours before it suddenly disappeared from our sensors. Presuming it would begin once again we maintained watch upon the general area of its origination. But it was as if it had never been, the phenomenon had simply flicked out of existence. Examining the captured data we could make nothing of it but relayed it back to Earth for detailed scrutiny.

22.1 hours from our destination ever more detail could be made out of the topography of the planet. No poles could be seen. The surface of the planet was mostly blue with yellow and white bands or striations horizontally traversing it from top to bottom. It was a most beautiful sight. Within the yellow bands were the crisscrossing lines initially detected by the JWST that now could be seen from the Warrior in ever greater number. In proximity to these we were just able to detect grey-black smudges but with insufficient detail to make any positive identification of these possible structures.

At 15 hours precisely we had the greatest surprise, or should I say shock, of the mission so far.

We received a transmission. From Brahe. From the Brahens.

Initially indecipherable it was run through our translation software systems which had been very optimistically included onship. To our surprise our systems had no problem in deciphering it.

It merely said, “Welcome.”

We agreed it was time to open the Brännvin and for more reasons than one.

Fifteen hours later we parked ourselves in orbit around Brahe. Looking down we were no longer surprised to see vast road networks and what were clearly artificial structures, i.e. buildings stretching out in each direction alongside them. Not that surprise was far away. It had become an almost background feature to our common mentality now. However, what we saw below was a logical progression from that one word of greeting we had received 15 hours out.

Cap now had a chore. He had been working on it since the receipt of the message. A compendium of instruction detailing every conceived of eventuality upon our arrival at Brahe had been compiled. He now had to get fully accustomed to the steps he must now take taking into consideration the circumstances we found ourselves in.

We steeled ourselves as best we could for the inevitable upcoming moment of first contact.

A message from us in response to theirs had of course been sent. No, it was not what you may be thinking, “We come in peace”, but it was close. It was thought a one word message to us should initiate one in return from us. And that was simply, “Peace.” No further communication was received for several hours after its sending. We presumed they were doing their own translating to understand our response.

It was almost ten hours since receiving their first message that we received the second.

“We are arriving. Do not fear.”

Immediately afterwards a sphere was detected which adhered to the mid-section of the Warrior. On inspection of the location, it was found that what appeared to be an airlock had been very quickly been arranged between the two craft.

And it was through this mechanism that two species of biped finally met.

Things moved quickly from this point on. They dropped what had been a ruse in using the former mode of communication they had used earlier. To our surprise, they knew all about us, including our language. However, they had not wished to shock us with this information initially. The fact was they knew almost everything about us. Whereas we knew almost nothing about them.

This did not stop us from considering ourselves superior in every way to them, however. Our training had not drained us of our feelings of subconscious, and largely unconscious, overweening self-belief. Despite the many ethnicities and colours of the crew, these feelings were common to all of us.

You see these beings, I can’t call them people… were blue.

You might say our similarities were greater than our differences but this hadn’t stopped ten thousand of years of warring, mistrust and prejudice against us humans, had it?

They were blue. They were also tall. And they wore no clothing.

To speak to us they used a device pressed against their chests. The accents, dialects and even languages used varied from crew member to crew member depending on their ethnicity and heritage. They made no mistake in doing this. It appeared they had some hidden insight into these factors of our varied personalities.

They did not appear unkind though they did not smile. There were few intonations or changes of emphasis to delineate shades of emotion or meaning but the communications they wished to be delivered were done so in perfect English in the main.

When we were alone we discussed all that had transpired. I have to say the mood was not one of exultation as we had anticipated. This had come and gone in the first moments after the receipt of the initial message. In fact, we were rather negative in our dispositions if the truth be told. We could not relate well to these beings who talked so strangely and so coldly to us. To be frank, we felt a tinge of disgust, try as we might to disguise the fact. Our primary impulse was to find ways we could exert our dominance over them in case of any aggressive impulses emerging from them. We couldn’t ‘read’ them and found the distance between us and them unbridgeable. They were simply, well… too alien.

Cap then briefed us on his instructions as detailed in the mission compendium regarding the circumstances we had been met with. These were under no circumstances to be divulged outside of our own tight command structure just as they would never be divulged at home. Each protocol had its own timescale and step by step process, most being part of long-term campaigns lasting years. Most would involve follow up missions initiated upon receipt on Earth of the planet factor type found.

I detail only the headline bullet points below omitting all sub-steps of which there were many.

First, we must connect with these beings as well as possible using the translation software tools on board.

Second, we must demonstrate a degree of control to them that would obviate their seeking to control us.

Third, we must acquaint ourselves to some degree with their customs, alien as they may be, and particularly with a view to using these as potential weaknesses in case of conflict or any display of aggression by them.

Fourth, an attempt must be made to indoctrinate them into an awareness of our superiority, a factor that may become vital if an aggressive instinct is displayed by them.

Fifth, they should be encouraged to mimic us if possible, taking on our bearing, even to the extent of wearing similar clothing.

Sixth, an effort should be made to indoctrinate them into an initial acknowledgement of our belief systems, moral codes and recognition of our dominance.

Seventh, detail all possible resources that may potentially be extracted from the various onplanet environments encountered.

Eighth, initiates a progression toward movement in the direction of democratic and religious belief systems to reflect something resembling our own.

---

I write the above as my detailed confession being now a captive of the Brahen and written in the form proscribed by them.

Unknown to us the mission of the ‘Democratic Warrior’ was as well known to them as our language. Our estimation of them, it's clear, has been entirely wrong. It ought to have occurred to us that a ten thousand year old civilisation would no longer be savages as we have clearly either consciously or subconsciously perceived them.

The events that followed our arrival must serve as a warning to any who follow, if anyone is left alive back home to heed it. I say this as I have been informed that the “noise” we detected within the unidentified flow as we neared the planet was a combined warning and message to the sister civilisation to the Brahen, one with even greater technologies, powers and capabilities, some of which are capable of destroying our planet entirely.

It is us who must now submit to those we saw as lesser beings. It is us who must admit we are immature and primitive. It is us who must submit to domination by a superior power. It is us who must hang our heads in shame and admit that our misplaced and totally false pride has spawned a deeply-embedded source of prejudice within us.

It is us who are now to be taken as slaves and must beg for mercy at the hands of those whom we sought to enslave and exploit.

By these words, I beseech the Brahen to forgive our sins against them, against their cultures, against their freedoms, modes of governance and way of life.

I so submit this confession on pain of death, in the name of all I hold dear, this year of our Lord 3031, November, 28th in the hope of mercy and assurance of most contrite redemption.

THE DEADLY IRONY OF A “SAINTLY” WEST SEEKING WORLD DOMINATION

Their schtick is that they stand for freedom, for the democratic right of all to choose for themselves their way forward to a better life and not be oppressed by having these rights stolen from them.

They pose as selfless saints who wouldn’t hurt a fly and never did unless it was by some unfortunate mistake.

Yet it is these selfsame promoters of their own virtues and qualities that intend to force their systems and values on all others and through the dirtiest and most violent means they alone claim to have the ‘inalienable right’ to deem necessary.

Their goal is quite clearly and unashamedly to interfere in the affairs of other sovereign nations to the extent where they collapse and can then be taken over by their proxies.

As can be seen quite obviously by their past actions it matters not a whit to them whether that proxy is a dictator, a demagogue or democratic poster boy. The object is control, not freedom.

This playacting style where venal motivations are portrayed as idealistic intent is reflected with enthusiastic complicity in a western mainstream media demonstrating slavish devotion.

A facade, a mirage of sanctity is constantly refreshed across a totally propagandized West to keep the illusion of good intent by western elites in place. Under this false face of reason and idealism the blood leaks with regularity. The illusion of goodness portrayed in a rigid western smile beckoning all to trust it cannot be shaken significantly while reports of its atrocities remain hidden by a media dedicated to its preservation.

Talk is all of the abuses perpetrated by others, of interferences by them of the vestal virgin West, awful regimes and authoritarian monsters just over the horizon, of foreign threat and looming war by those who can’t accept the elites of the West are superior, exceptional and worthy to be bowed down to as the examples to follow.

The symbolic portrayal of the West and its pure white elites, those virtual saints and idealists who wouldn’t hurt a fly or have a single bad, selfish or self-interested goal in mind as they set their missiles flying… is the dove with a laurel leaf in its beak. NATO we are told is a defence organisation yet its bombardment of Libya creating a new slave trader and bottomless pit of chaos was clearly offensive as well as being completely illegal.

Western elites claim they want a rules based international system. Then why have they blatantly broken international law so murderously so very frequently in recent years? What are we to think of such obvious hypocrisy and the clear deception of any claim to have acted otherwise?

When liars are depended upon to deliver truth, freedom and democracy then those gullible enough to listen ought to give up all hope of receiving any of them immediately.

Western elites every once in a while do mention their true motivation; the preservation of their national interests. This is indeed the fact of the matter and the only one that counts ultimately. They wage war on those they target for this reason and this reason alone. All the rest is public relations and manufacturing of consent to keep on aggressively seeking to expand those interests by all means deemed necessary.

Western populations, sunk deep within the propaganda soup permeating their everyday lives are largely hapless victims made pawns, targets for the mill of lies that feed the wars they support and which are designed to ultimately bring global domination by the West rather than the cover story falsehoods concerning freedom, democracy and human rights.