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#iran nuclear negotiation

alewaanewspaper1960 · 3 months

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البرنامج النووي الإيراني بين حرص إسرائيل على تدميره وإستراتيجية "حافة الهاوية" المتبعة من قبل إيران

البرنامج النووي الإيراني بين حرص إسرائيل على تدميره وإستراتيجية “حافة الهاوية” المتبعة من قبل إيران البرنامج النووي الإيراني بين حرص إسرائيل على تدميره وإستراتيجية “حافة الهاوية” المتبعة من قبل إيران الكاتب : زبوشي عبد القادر الملخص: يشكل البرنامج النووي الايراني بؤرة توتر خطيرة على السلم والاستقرار في منطقة الشرق الأوسط نتيجة مواقف متناقضة بحدة، لطرفين رئيسيين في المشكل: إسرائيل مدعومة من…

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#Iran – Iranian Nuclear program – Nuclear negotiation - Nuclear deal – Iranian bomb #إيران – البرنامج النووي الإيراني - مفاوضات نووية – الاتفاق النووي – القنبلة النووية الإيرانية

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amereid1960 · 3 months

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البرنامج النووي الإيراني بين حرص إسرائيل على تدميره وإستراتيجية "حافة الهاوية" المتبعة من قبل إيران

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peoples-media · 10 months

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Ukraine Strikes Back: Significant Territorial Gains Made in Ongoing Conflict with Russia

In a significant turn of events, Ukraine has announced the recapture of approximately 100 square kilometers (40 square miles) of its territory during the 68th week of Russia’s invasion. This progress marks a crucial milestone in Ukraine’s long-planned counterattack, which is now gaining momentum and posing a challenge to the Russian forces. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed…

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reportwire · 2 years

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Athens calls Iran’s seizure of two Greek oil tankers ‘piracy’ – POLITICO

ATHENS — Greece accused Iran of “piracy” after Iranian forces seized two Greek oil tankers in the Persian Gulf in apparent retaliation for Greece’s seizing an Iranian tanker and letting the U.S. confiscate its crude oil. Greece’s Foreign Ministry complained to the Iranian ambassador in Athens over the “violent taking over of two Greek-flagged ships” in the Persian Gulf after Iran said it has…

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#Aid and development #Cargo #Courts #Greece #Iran #Joe Biden #Negotiations #Nuclear Deal #Oil #Security #shipping #United States

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izooks · 1 month

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Some of Joe Biden’s accomplishments:

**Domestic policy**

* **American Rescue Plan (2021)**: Provided $1.9 trillion in COVID-19 relief, including direct payments, enhanced unemployment benefits, and funding for vaccines and testing.

* **Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (2021)**: Allocated $1.2 trillion for infrastructure projects, including roads, bridges, broadband, and clean energy initiatives.

* **Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (2022)**: Expanded background checks for gun purchases and provided funding for mental health services.

* **Child Tax Credit Expansion (2021-2022)**: Temporarily expanded the Child Tax Credit to provide up to $3,600 per child in monthly payments.

* **Affordable Care Act Expansion (2021)**: Made health insurance more affordable for low- and middle-income Americans by reducing premiums and expanding subsidies.

**Foreign Policy**

* **Withdrawal from Afghanistan (2021)**: Ended the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

* **Re-joining the Paris Agreement (2021)**: Re-committed the United States to global efforts to address climate change.

* **Strengthening Alliances with NATO and the EU (2021-present)**: Repaired relationships with key European allies after strained relations during the Trump administration.

* **Supporting Ukraine in the Ukraine-Russia War (2022-present)**: Provided military, humanitarian, and diplomatic support to Ukraine in its defense against Russia's invasion.

* **Nuclear Deal with Iran (2023)**: Revived negotiations with Iran on a comprehensive nuclear deal, aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

**Other Notable Accomplishments**

* **Appointing Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court (2022)**: Made history by being the first Black woman appointed to the nation's highest court.

* **Signing the Respect for Marriage Act (2022)**: Ensured federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriages.

* **Establishing the Office of the National Cyber Director (2021)**: Coordinated federal efforts to combat cybersecurity threats.

* **Creating the COVID-19 National Preparedness Plan (2021)**: Developed a comprehensive strategy to respond to future pandemics.

* **Launching the Cancer Moonshot (2022)**: Re-energized the government's efforts to find a cure for cancer.

#gop #democrats #vote blue #republicans #vote biden #democracy #fuck trump #maga 🧠 = 🐶 💩

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azspot · 3 months

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While repudiating Donald Trump and his administration, Biden has not reversed Trump’s abrogation of the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by Barack Obama, or Trump’s sanctions against Iran. He has embraced Trump’s close ties with Saudi Arabia, including the rehabilitation of Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, following the assassination of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2017 in the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul. He has not intervened to curb Israeli attacks on Palestinians and settlement expansion in the West Bank. He did not reverse Trump’s moving of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, although the embassy includes land Israel illegally colonized after invading the West Bank and Gaza in 1967.

Chris Hedges

#biden

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girlactionfigure · 1 month

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🔅Mon morning - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Real Time

🔻Today’s peaceful attempts to kill the Jews..

Suicide Drones - Iraqi Shia Militias - INTERCEPTED by Jordan x 2

Suicide Drone - at Eilat - MISSED, source unclear, Houthis or Iraqi Shia Militias

Rockets - Hamas - at Mefalsim

The pro-Iranian militias in Iraq took responsibility for launching drones towards the "air force base in the Golan Heights”.

▪️A HERO SOLDIER HAS FALLEN.. Daniel Peretz, 22, of Yad Binyamin. May his family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem, and may G-d avenge his blood!

▪️GAZA - HOSPITAL.. The IDF has been operating for hours at Shifa Hospital following information senior Hamas operatives operating from it. During the night there was an exchange of fire. This hospital was the previous site of a major battle, tunnel discovery and international condemnation for Israel going into ‘a place of healing’… until signs of hostages were found there. 80 captured on the spot, in an action that has been going on for five hours.

The IDF says it has (re)established control over Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, and is calling on Hamas members inside to come out and surrender.

The IDF says that amid gun battles at the hospital premises, several Hamas gunmen were killed and wounded. One IDF soldier has been lightly wounded.

▪️GAZA BATTLES.. overnight IDF attacked Hamas targets from the air and artillery in western Khan Yunis, and in the Deir al-Balah area of the Gaza Strip. Reported that Deir al-Balah has witnessed air force attacks since the morning hours and that there is enormous damage, and dozens of wounded and dead in the area.

There are also reports of an exchange of fire going on between our forces and terrorists in the area of the town of al-Mugarqa north of the Nusirat camp.

▪️ISRAEL POLITICS.. interesting statement from United Torah Judaism MK Gafni, “we would have withdrawn from the coalition due to the 'new horizon' issue, but the instruction was one of the great teachings of the Torah that DURING WAR NOT TO CREATE NEW PROBLEMS.”

▪️UNRWA PROTESTS.. Israeli protestors have been protesting in front of UNRWA offices in Jerusalem, demanding the organization be declared a terrorist organization and banned from Israel.

▪️HOSTAGE CEASEFIRE DEAL LEAKS.. Hamas demands that were discussed in the last day by the Israeli top brass:

1. Russia and Turkey's to guarantee the deal - Israel refuses.

2. The release of all those released from the Shalit deal who were arrested again - Israel is ready to release some of them.

3. Hamas claims: We will be able to commit to the number of hostages we can release - only after the first week of the ceasefire. That is, only after the deal is closed will Israel know exactly how many hostages will be released.

The Israeli negotiation delegation has been authorized and left for Qatar.

▪️NIGER (the African country) ACCUSED OF RELEASING URANIUM TO IRAN.. Wall Street Journal: The military junta in Niger decided this weekend to stop the political-security cooperation with the US as part of the fight against terrorism. This was after an American delegation raised last week the suspicion that Niger had given Iran access to its uranium stockpile. The US fears that this could be used by Iran in its military nuclear program.

▪️GOLAN COUNCIL DOWN DUE TO CYBER ATTACK.. the Golan Council announces their computer systems and site are down due to cyber attacks - intentionally shut off to prevent being taken over. They are working to manage the situation. The security hotline continues to function.

#Israel #Realtime War Updates #October 7 #Operation Swords of Iron #Hamas Massacre #Israel/HamasWar

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theculturedmarxist · 2 years

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When New York City recently released a grotesque “public service announcement” video explaining that you should stay indoors during a nuclear war, the corporate media reaction was principally not outrage at the acceptance of such a fate or the stupidity of telling people “You’ve got this!” as if they could survive the apocalypse by cocooning with Netflix, but rather mockery of the very idea that a nuclear war might happen. U.S. polling on people’s top concerns find 1% of people most concerned about the climate and 0% most concerned about nuclear war.

Yet, the U.S. just illegally put nukes into a 6th nation (and virtually nobody in the U.S. can name either it or the other five that the U.S. already illegally had nukes in), while Russia is talking about putting nukes into another nation too, and the two governments with most of the nukes increasingly talk — publicly and privately — about nuclear war. The scientists who keep the doomsday clock think the risk is greater than ever. There’s a general consensus that shipping weapons to Ukraine at the risk of nuclear war is worth it — whatever “it” may be. And, at least within the head of U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, voices are unanimous that a trip to Taiwan is worth it too.

Trump tore up the Iran agreement, and Biden has done everything possible to keep it that way. When Trump proposed talking with North Korea, the U.S. media went insane. But it’s the administration that hit the height of inflation-adjusted military spending, set the record for number of nations simultaneously bombed, and invented robot-plane warfare (that of Barack Obama) for which one must painfully now long, as he did the ridiculous-but-better-than-war Iran deal, refused to arm Ukraine, and didn’t have time to get a war going with China. The arming of Ukraine by Trump and Biden has done more for the chances of vaporizing you than anything else, and anything short of all-out bellicosity by Biden has been greeted with blood-thirsty howls by your friendly corporate U.S. news outlets.

Meanwhile, exactly like the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the guinea-pigged human residents of the much larger Pacific island nuclear experiments, and the downwinders everywhere, nobody sees it coming. And, even more so, people have been trained to be absolutely convinced that there’s nothing they could possibly do to change things if they did become aware of any sort of problem. So, it’s remarkable the efforts those paying any attention are putting up, for example:

Cease Fire and Negotiate Peace in Ukraine

Don’t Get Yanked into War With China

Global Appeal to Nine Nuclear Governments

Say No to Nancy Pelosi’s Dangerous Taiwan Trip

VIDEO: Abolishing Nuclear Weapons Globally & Locally — A Webinar

June 12th Anti-Nuclear Legacy Videos

Defuse Nuclear War

August 2: Webinar: What could trigger nuclear war with Russia and China?

August 5: 77 Years Later: Eliminate Nukes, Not Life on Earth

August 6: “The Day After” film screening and discussion

August 9: Hiroshima-Nagasaki Day 77th Anniversary Commemoration

Seattle to Rally for Nuclear Abolition

A little background on Hiroshima and Nagasaki:

The nukes did not save lives. They took lives, possibly 200,000 of them. They were not intended to save lives or to end the war. And they didn’t end the war. The Russian invasion did that. But the war was going to end anyway, without either of those things. The United States Strategic Bombing Survey concluded that, “… certainly prior to 31 December, 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November, 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.”

One dissenter who had expressed this same view to the Secretary of War and, by his own account, to President Truman, prior to the bombings was General Dwight Eisenhower. Under Secretary of the Navy Ralph Bard, prior to the bombings, urged that Japan be given a warning. Lewis Strauss, Advisor to the Secretary of the Navy, also prior to the bombings, recommended blowing up a forest rather than a city. General George Marshall apparently agreed with that idea. Atomic scientist Leo Szilard organized scientists to petition the president against using the bomb. Atomic scientist James Franck organized scientists who advocated treating atomic weapons as a civilian policy issue, not just a military decision. Another scientist, Joseph Rotblat, demanded an end to the Manhattan Project, and resigned when it was not ended. A poll of the U.S. scientists who had developed the bombs, taken prior to their use, found that 83% wanted a nuclear bomb publicly demonstrated prior to dropping one on Japan. The U.S. military kept that poll secret. General Douglas MacArthur held a press conference on August 6, 1945, prior to the bombing of Hiroshima, to announce that Japan was already beaten.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral William D. Leahy said angrily in 1949 that Truman had assured him only military targets would be nuked, not civilians. “The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender,” Leahy said. Top military officials who said just after the war that the Japanese would have quickly surrendered without the nuclear bombings included General Douglas MacArthur, General Henry “Hap” Arnold, General Curtis LeMay, General Carl “Tooey” Spaatz, Admiral Ernest King, Admiral Chester Nimitz, Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, and Brigadier General Carter Clarke. As Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick summarize, seven of the United States’ eight five-star officers who received their final star in World War II or just after — Generals MacArthur, Eisenhower, and Arnold, and Admirals Leahy, King, Nimitz, and Halsey — in 1945 rejected the idea that the atomic bombs were needed to end the war. “Sadly, though, there is little evidence that they pressed their case with Truman before the fact.”

On August 6, 1945, President Truman lied on the radio that a nuclear bomb had been dropped on an army base, rather than on a city. And he justified it, not as speeding the end of the war, but as revenge against Japanese offenses. “Mr. Truman was jubilant,” wrote Dorothy Day. Weeks before the first bomb was dropped, on July 13, 1945, Japan had sent a telegram to the Soviet Union expressing its desire to surrender and end the war. The United States had broken Japan’s codes and read the telegram. Truman referred in his diary to “the telegram from Jap Emperor asking for peace.” President Truman had been informed through Swiss and Portuguese channels of Japanese peace overtures as early as three months before Hiroshima. Japan objected only to surrendering unconditionally and giving up its emperor, but the United States insisted on those terms until after the bombs fell, at which point it allowed Japan to keep its emperor. So, the desire to drop the bombs may have lengthened the war. The bombs did not shorten the war.

Presidential advisor James Byrnes had told Truman that dropping the bombs would allow the United States to “dictate the terms of ending the war.” Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal wrote in his diary that Byrnes was “most anxious to get the Japanese affair over with before the Russians got in.” Truman wrote in his diary that the Soviets were preparing to march against Japan and “Fini Japs when that comes about.” The Soviet invasion was planned prior to the bombs, not decided by them. The United States had no plans to invade for months, and no plans on the scale to risk the numbers of lives that U.S. school teachers will tell you were saved. The idea that a massive U.S. invasion was imminent and the only alternative to nuking cities, so that nuking cities saved huge numbers of U.S. lives, is a myth. Historians know this, just as they know that George Washington didn’t have wooden teeth or always tell the truth, and Paul Revere didn’t ride alone, and slave-owning Patrick Henry’s speech about liberty was written decades after he died, and Molly Pitcher didn’t exist. But the myths have their own power. Lives, by the way, are not the unique property of U.S. soldiers. Japanese people also had lives.

Truman ordered the bombs dropped, one on Hiroshima on August 6th and another type of bomb, a plutonium bomb, which the military also wanted to test and demonstrate, on Nagasaki on August 9th. The Nagasaki bombing was moved up from the 11th to the 9th to decrease the likelihood of Japan surrendering first. Also on August 9th, the Soviets attacked the Japanese. During the next two weeks, the Soviets killed 84,000 Japanese while losing 12,000 of their own soldiers, and the United States continued bombing Japan with non-nuclear weapons — burning Japanese cities, as it had done to so much of Japan prior to August 6th that, when it came time to pick two cities to nuke, there hadn’t been many left to choose from. Then the Japanese surrendered.

That there was cause to use nuclear weapons is a myth. That there could again be cause to use nuclear weapons is a myth. That we can survive significant further use of nuclear weapons is a myth — NOT a “public service announcement.” That there is cause to produce nuclear weapons even though you’ll never use them is too stupid even to be a myth. And that we can forever survive possessing and proliferating nuclear weapons without someone intentionally or accidentally using them is pure insanity.

Why do U.S. history teachers in U.S. elementary schools today — in 2022! — tell children that nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan to save lives — or rather “the bomb” (singular) to avoid mentioning Nagasaki? Researchers and professors have poured over the evidence for 75 years. They know that Truman knew that the war was over, that Japan wanted to surrender, that the Soviet Union was about to invade. They’ve documented all the resistance to the bombing within the U.S. military and government and scientific community, as well as the motivation to test bombs that so much work and expense had gone into, as well as the motivation to intimidate the world and in particular the Soviets, as well as the open and shameless placing of zero value on Japanese lives. How were such powerful myths generated that the facts are treated like skunks at a picnic?

In Greg Mitchell’s 2020 book, The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood — and America — Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, we have an account of the making of the 1947 MGM film, The Beginning or the End, which was carefully shaped by the U.S. government to promote falsehoods. The film bombed. It lost money. The ideal for a member of the U.S. public was clearly not to watch a really bad and boring pseudo-documentary with actors playing the scientists and warmongers who had produced a new form of mass-murder. The ideal action was to avoid any thought of the matter. But those who couldn’t avoid it were handed a glossy big-screen myth. You can watch it online for free, and as Mark Twain would have said, it’s worth every penny.

The film opens with what Mitchell describes as giving credit to the UK and Canada for their roles in producing the death machine — supposedly a cynical if falsified means of appealing to a larger market for the movie. But it really appears to be more blaming than crediting. This is an effort to spread the guilt. The film jumps quickly to blaming Germany for an imminent threat of nuking the world if the United States didn’t nuke it first. (You can actually have difficulty today getting young people to believe that Germany had surrendered prior to Hiroshima, or that the U.S. government knew in 1944 that Germany had abandoned atomic bomb research in 1942.) Then an actor doing a bad Einstein impression blames a long list of scientists from all over the world. Then some other personage suggests that the good guys are losing the war and had better hurry up and invent new bombs if they want to win it.

Over and over we’re told that bigger bombs will bring peace and end war. A Franklin Roosevelt impersonator even puts on a Woodrow Wilson act, claiming the atom bomb might end all war (something a surprising number of people actually believe it did, even in the face of the past 75 years of wars, which some U.S. professors describe as the Great Peace). We’re told and shown completely fabricated nonsense, such as that the U.S. dropped leaflets on Hiroshima to warn people (and for 10 days — “That’s 10 days more warning than they gave us at Pearl Harbor,” a character pronounces) and that the Japanese fired at the plane as it approached its target. In reality, the U.S. never dropped a single leaflet on Hiroshima but did — in good SNAFU fashion — drop tons of leaflets on Nagasaki the day after Nagasaki was bombed. Also, the hero of the movie dies from an accident while fiddling with the bomb to get it ready for use — a brave sacrifice for humanity on behalf of the war’s real victims — the members of the U.S. military. The film also claims that the people bombed “will never know what hit them,” despite the film makers knowing of the agonizing suffering of those who died slowly.

One communication from the movie makers to their consultant and editor, General Leslie Groves, included these words: “Any implication tending to make the Army look foolish will be eliminated.”

The main reason the movie is deadly boring, I think, is not that movies have sped up their action sequences every year for 75 years, added color, and devised all kinds of shock devices, but simply that the reason anybody should think the bomb that the characters all talk about for the entire length of the film is a big deal is left out. We don’t see what it does, not from the ground, only from the sky.

Mitchell’s book is a bit like watching sausage made, but also a bit like reading the transcripts from a committee that cobbled together some section of the Bible. This is an origin myth of the Global Policeman in the making. And it’s ugly. It’s even tragic. The very idea for the film came from a scientist who wanted people to understand the danger, not glorify the destruction. This scientist wrote to Donna Reed, that nice lady who gets married to Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life, and she got the ball rolling. Then it rolled around an oozing wound for 15 months and voilà, a cinematic turd emerged.

There was never any question of telling the truth. It’s a movie. You make stuff up. And you make it all up in one direction. The script for this movie contained at times all sorts of nonsense that didn’t last, such as the Nazis giving the Japanese the atomic bomb — and the Japanese setting up a laboratory for Nazi scientists, exactly as back in the real world at this very time the U.S. military was setting up laboratories for Nazi scientists (not to mention making use of Japanese scientists). None of this is more ludicrous than The Man in the High Castle, to take a recent example of 75 years of this stuff, but this was early, this was seminal. Nonsense that didn’t make it into this film, everybody didn’t end up believing and teaching to students for decades, but easily could have. The movie makers gave final editing control to the U.S. military and the White House, and not to the scientists who had qualms. Many good bits as well as crazy bits were temporarily in the script, but excised for the sake of proper propaganda.

If it’s any consolation, it could have been worse. Paramount was in a nuclear arms film race with MGM and employed Ayn Rand to draft the hyper-patriotic-capitalist script. Her closing line was “Man can harness the universe — but nobody can harness man.” Fortunately for all of us, it didn’t work out. Unfortunately, despite John Hersey’s A Bell for Adano being a better movie than The Beginning or the End, his best-selling book on Hiroshima didn’t appeal to any studios as a good story for movie production. Unfortunately, Dr. Strangelove would not appear until 1964, by which point many were ready to question future use of “the bomb” but not past use, making all questioning of future use rather weak. This relationship to nuclear weapons parallels that to wars in general. The U.S. public can question all future wars, and even those wars it’s heard of from the past 75 years, but not WWII, rendering all questioning of future wars weak. In fact, recent polling finds horrific willingness to support future nuclear war by the U.S. public.

At the time The Beginning or the End was being scripted and filmed, the U.S. government was seizing and hiding away every scrap it could find of actual photographic or filmed documentation of the bomb sites. Henry Stimson was having his Colin Powell moment, being pushed forward to publicly make the case in writing for having dropped the bombs. More bombs were rapidly being built and developed, and whole populations evicted from their island homes, lied to, and used as props for newsreels in which they are depicted as happy participants in their destruction.

Mitchell writes that one reason Hollywood deferred to the military was in order to use its airplanes, etc., in the production, as well as in order to use the real names of characters in the story. I find it very hard to believe these factors were terribly important. With the unlimited budget it was dumping into this thing — including paying the people it was giving veto power to — MGM could have created its own quite unimpressive props and its own mushroom cloud. It’s fun to fantasize that someday those who oppose mass murder could take over something like the unique building of the U.S. Institute of “Peace” and require that Hollywood meet peace movement standards in order to film there. But of course the peace movement has no money, Hollywood has no interest, and any building can be simulated elsewhere. Hiroshima could have been simulated elsewhere, and in the movie wasn’t shown at all. The main problem here was ideology and habits of subservience.

There were reasons to fear the government. The FBI was spying on people involved, including wishy-washy scientists like J. Robert Oppenheimer who kept consulting on the film, lamenting its awfulness, but never daring to oppose it. A new Red Scare was just kicking in. The powerful were exercising their power through the usual variety of means.

As the production of The Beginning or the End winds toward completion, it builds the same momentum the bomb did. After so many scripts and bills and revisions, and so much work and ass-kissing, there was no way the studio wouldn’t release it. When it finally came out, the audiences were small and the reviews mixed. The New York daily PM found the film “reassuring,” which I think was the basic point. Mission accomplished.

Mitchell’s conclusion is that the Hiroshima bomb was a “first strike,” and that the United States should abolish its first-strike policy. But of course it was no such thing. It was an only strike, a first-and-last strike. There were no other nuclear bombs that would come flying back as a “second strike.” Now, today, the danger is of accidental as much as intentional use, whether first, second, or third, and the need is to at long last join the bulk of the world’s governments that are seeking to abolish nuclear weapons all together — which, of course, sounds crazy to anyone who has internalized the mythology of WWII.

There are far better works of art than The Beginning or the End that we could turn to for myth busting. For example, The Golden Age, a novel published by Gore Vidal in 2000 with glowing endorsements by the Washington Post, and New York Times Book Review, has never been made into a movie, but tells a story much closer to the truth. In The Golden Age, we follow along behind all the closed doors, as the British push for U.S. involvement in World War II, as President Roosevelt makes a commitment to Prime Minister Churchill, as the warmongers manipulate the Republican convention to make sure that both parties nominate candidates in 1940 ready to campaign on peace while planning war, as Roosevelt longs to run for an unprecedented third term as a wartime president but must content himself with beginning a draft and campaigning as a drafttime president in a time of supposed national danger, and as Roosevelt works to provoke Japan into attacking on his desired schedule.

Then there’s historian and WWII veteran Howard Zinn’s 2010 book, The Bomb. Zinn describes the U.S. military making its first use of napalm by dropping it all over a French town, burning anyone and anything it touched. Zinn was in one of the planes, taking part in this horrendous crime. In mid-April 1945, the war in Europe was essentially over. Everyone knew it was ending. There was no military reason (if that’s not an oxymoron) to attack the Germans stationed near Royan, France, much less to burn the French men, women, and children in the town to death. The British had already destroyed the town in January, similarly bombing it because of its vicinity to German troops, in what was widely called a tragic mistake. This tragic mistake was rationalized as an inevitable part of war, just as were the horrific firebombings that successfully reached German targets, just as was the later bombing of Royan with napalm. Zinn blames the Supreme Allied Command for seeking to add a “victory” in the final weeks of a war already won. He blames the local military commanders’ ambitions. He blames the American Air Force’s desire to test a new weapon. And he blames everyone involved — which must include himself — for “the most powerful motive of all: the habit of obedience, the universal teaching of all cultures, not to get out of line, not even to think about that which one has not been assigned to think about, the negative motive of not having either a reason or a will to intercede.”

When Zinn returned from the war in Europe, he expected to be sent to the war in the Pacific, until he saw and rejoiced at seeing the news of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Only years later did Zinn come to understand the inexcusable crime of enormous proportions that was the dropping of nuclear bombs in Japan, actions similar in some ways to the final bombing of Royan. The war with Japan was already over, the Japanese seeking peace and willing to surrender. Japan asked only that it be permitted to keep its emperor, a request that was later granted. But, like napalm, the nuclear bombs were weapons that needed testing.

Zinn also goes back to dismantle the mythical reasons the United States was in the war to begin with. The United States, England, and France were imperial powers supporting each other’s international aggressions in places like the Philippines. They opposed the same from Germany and Japan, but not aggression itself. Most of America’s tin and rubber came from the Southwest Pacific. The United States made clear for years its lack of concern for the Jews being attacked in Germany. It also demonstrated its lack of opposition to racism through its treatment of African Americans and Japanese Americans. Franklin Roosevelt described fascist bombing campaigns over civilian areas as “inhuman barbarity” but then did the same on a much larger scale to German cities, which was followed up by the destruction on an unprecedented scale of Hiroshima and Nagasaki — actions that came after years of dehumanizing the Japanese. Aware that the war could end without any more bombing, and aware that U.S. prisoners of war would be killed by the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, the U.S. military went ahead and dropped the bombs.

Uniting and strengthening all of the WWII myths is the overarching myth that Ted Grimsrud, following Walter Wink, calls “the myth of redemptive violence,” or “the quasi-religious belief that we may gain ‘salvation’ through violence.” As a result of this myth, writes Grimsrud, “People in the modern world (as in the ancient world), and not least people in the United States of America, put tremendous faith in instruments of violence to provide security and the possibility of victory over their enemies. The amount of trust people put in such instruments may be seen perhaps most clearly in the amount of resources they devote to preparation for war.”

People aren’t consciously choosing to believe in the myths of WWII and violence. Grimsrud explains: “Part of the effectiveness of this myth stems from its invisibility as a myth. We tend to assume that violence is simply part of the nature of things; we see acceptance of violence to be factual, not based on belief. So we are not self-aware about the faith-dimension of our acceptance of violence. We think we know as a simple fact that violence works, that violence is necessary, that violence is inevitable. We don’t realize that instead, we operate in the realm of belief, of mythology, of religion, in relation to the acceptance of violence.”

It takes an effort to escape the myth of redemptive violence, because it’s been there since childhood: “Children hear a simple story in cartoons, video games, movies, and books: we are good, our enemies are evil, the only way to deal with evil is to defeat it with violence, let’s roll.

The myth of redemptive violence links directly with the centrality of the nation-state. The welfare of the nation, as defined by its leaders, stands as the highest value for life here on earth. There can be no gods before the nation. This myth not only established a patriotic religion at the heart of the state, but also gives the nation’s imperialistic imperative divine sanction. . . . World War II and its direct aftermath greatly accelerated the evolution of the United States into a militarized society and . . . this militarization relies on the myth of redemptive violence for its sustenance. Americans continue to embrace the myth of redemptive violence even in face of mounting evidence that its resulting militarization has corrupted American democracy and is destroying the country’s economy and physical environment. . . . As recently as the late 1930s, American military spending was minimal and powerful political forces opposed involvement in ‘foreign entanglements’.”

Prior to WWII, Grimsrud notes, “when America engaged in military conflict . . . at the end of the conflict the nation demobilized . . . . Since World War II, there has been no full demobilization because we have moved directly from World War II to the Cold War to the War on Terrorism. That is, we have moved into a situation where ‘all times are times of war.’ . . . Why would non-elites, who bear terrible costs by living in a permanent war society, submit to this arrangement, even in many cases offering intense support? . . . The answer is quite simple: the promise of salvation.”

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is executive director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio.He is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and was awarded the 2018 Peace Prize by the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation. Longer bio and photos and videos here. Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook, and sign up for:

#nuclear war #nuclear weapons #world war 2 #ukraine conflict #united states #russia #china #us history #world history #imperialism

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7amaspayrollmanager · 5 days

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Yesterday my mom said that when October 7th happened iran should've attacked when their defense was down for 6 hours and I thought I understood that because of the damage to Israel would have been ten times over but how long would that have debilitated them? Not long honestly. And it would give israel and the US the opportune "defense" to take out Iran and their "nuclear weapons" if u know what I mean. I think that would have led to millions of Iranians being displaced but again idk. I think to look backwards is unproductive and rn this changes the rules. Everything that feels the norm of how iran and Lebanon usually engage with israel has completely changed. This is direct not a proxy attack. Iran did not negotiate with America and if they did they wouldn't have responded this way. I think guessing their intent is messy bc israel is a threat to all the middle eastern regimes and its up to them if they want to normalize (like Jordan) or play against them with the capacity they have to withhold an israeli response.

#i feel bad for reblogging that post without fleshing out my thoughts #when i reblog a post and disagree i dont mean it in a this is my final thought on the matter open to conversation

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eretzyisrael · 6 months

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When We Said “Never Again,” We Meant It

My heart is breaking. What I surmised yesterday, but was afraid to write has turned out to be true. I have never wanted to be wrong more than I do this morning. But I can’t pretend that “it will be OK,” as Israelis like to say.

The IDF has been ready for some time to begin the operation to eliminate Hamas from Gaza. The plans were made long ago, and updated regularly. Hundreds of thousands of reservists have left their jobs and families, at great expense to the government. The tanks are poised near the border. Why aren’t they moving?

The reason is that they have been ordered not to by the Americans. Whether or not they planned it, Hamas struck gold when some twelve Americans and ten British subjects were included among the roughly 200 hostages that were carried back to Gaza by the terrorists. Now negotiations are taking place, brokered by the despicable Qatari regime, to obtain their release. The demonic Hamas have released two American women (for what in return?) to prove that a deal is possible.

I’m not surprised and I’m not criticizing the US president and British PM for trying to protect their people. That is the top job of a government – a job, incidentally, that ours has been failing to do for some time. But that’s another story.

Now our government has a different job. This is our last chance, after the disasters of Oslo, the withdrawal from Gaza, the Second Lebanon War, the Shalit trade, the ongoing loss of Area C, and countless other losses and humiliations, to end our slide to destruction. If Hamas is not ripped out of Gaza by its roots, the immediate result will be the loss of the northern and southern parts of our country (who would live there?) and the evaporation of any honor and deterrence that the State of Israel still has. And then there will be no peace agreement with Saudi Arabia, no hope of preventing a nuclear Iran, and no possibility of obtaining sovereignty in the strategic hill country and the Jordan Valley. We are suffering the death by a thousand cuts, and today the knife is poised over a vital artery. We are at the point of no return.

Israel today has no choice but to invade Gaza and wipe out every trace of the poison that poured out of it two weeks ago today. Otherwise, we are finished here. And if we are finished, the Jewish people are finished too, perhaps for another 2000 years or perhaps forever.

The situation of the hostages, American, British, and Israeli, is horrific. You may ask: would I say the same thing if my children were among them? Of course not, because I am only human. But that doesn’t make me wrong.

Maybe there is some magic by which the IDF can effect an Entebbe-like rescue. Who knows? I’m sure the IDF is trying mightily right now to locate them. If we invade now we may lose some or all of them, and if there is hope of rescue, then perhaps we can delay a few days longer. Of course, we have already lost 1400. And every day the international pressure not to invade, thanks to the media’s embrace of Hamas lies about its suffering civilians, is growing, along with the vicious antisemitism that our humiliation feeds.

My heart is breaking. But I say to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense, and the Chief of Staff: do it. Give the order to start the tanks, to open fire with the artillery, to bomb every military target (even if it is called a “school” or a “hospital” or if it is the property of the UN). Do not allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, force Egypt to open the Rafah crossing, and let the world community express its love for the Gazan civilians there, in the northern Sinai. Make the campaign as short as possible and as brutal as necessary.

Show the world: when we said “never again,” we meant it.

#Israel and Palestinian Arabs #US-Israel Relations #War

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alewaanewspaper1960 · 9 months

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اكتشاف القوة الإيرانية في المفاوضات النووية مع القوى الدولية الكبرى - الإمكانيات والتداعيات

اكتشاف القوة الإيرانية في المفاوضات النووية مع القوى الدولية الكبرى – الإمكانيات والتداعيات اكتشاف القوة الإيرانية في المفاوضات النووية مع القوى الدولية الكبرى – الإمكانيات والتداعيات الكاتب : صليحة محمدي الملخص: تعالج هذه الدراسة المفاوضات النووية بين إيران والقوى الدولية الكبرى بالتركيز على ميزان القوة للجمهورية الإسلامية الإيرانية في الفترة التاريخية 2003 -2015 مع كيفية تبنيها سياسات فعالة…

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#international negotiation strategies.#Iran nuclear program #power of negotiation #القوة التفاوضية #البرنامج النووي الإيراني #استراتيجيات التفاوض الدولي.

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amereid1960 · 9 months

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اكتشاف القوة الإيرانية في المفاوضات النووية مع القوى الدولية الكبرى - الإمكانيات والتداعيات

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moragarsia · 7 months

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Like attracts like

On September 13, in the Amur Region of the Russian Federation, at the Vostochny cosmodrome, a meeting was held between North Korean dictators Kim Jong-un and Russia Putin. This meeting was the first in the last 4 years. Putin now rarely sees foreign leaders: he missed a meeting with BRICS allies in South Africa, the G20 summit in India, and did not even go to Turkey, having received guarantees of personal security from Erdogan. The main reason why Putin does not leave Russia is the banal fear of arrest on the basis of a warrant from the International Criminal Court for the abduction of Ukrainian children.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin has finally established himself as one of the most toxic partners in the global political arena. Cooperation with the Kremlin dictator today means getting your hands dirty in the blood of the Ukrainian people and questioning your good name and reputation.

Unable to enlist the support of world leaders, the head of the Kremlin seeks meetings and help from outcasts like himself. Russia's strategic partners today are Belarus, Iran, China, a number of African countries and the DPRK. In recent years, Russia has been rapidly transforming from a semi-market pseudo-democracy suspended in transition with destroyed civil liberties to a terrible, embittered, isolated, militaristic North Korea, a country with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, but always short of rice for food.

Given that the "special operation" dragged on for almost 19 months, and the capacities of the Russian military-industrial complex leave much to be desired, Putin has to negotiate the supply of weapons, including with the leaders of rogue states such as North Korea. Specifically, we are talking about the supply ofartillery shells and anti-tank missiles to Russia.

North Korea has in stock an impressive arsenal of artillery shells, mines, missiles and other weapons, which are analogous to Soviet models. It also has stockpiles of anti-tank missiles and surface-to-air missiles. North Korea is one of the few countries with sufficient stockpiles of Soviet-era tanks, such as those that Moscow uses in the fighting in Ukraine, such as the T-54 and T-62, and can supply them with spare parts. The list of weapons that Russia would like to receive is likely to include 122-mm and 152-mm artillery shells, as well as 122-mm missiles.

According to experts, the supply of ammunition from North Korea is unlikely to be decisive in the short term, but it will make it easier for Russia to continue the war of attrition, giving the Russian military industry the opportunity to catch up with demand.

Under severe international sanctions, North Korea does not have access to technology that would allow it to mass-produce any precision weapons. Therefore, Kim Jong-un, in turn, expects to receive missile technology and food aid from the Russian Federation. Russia is in a position to assist North Korea's nuclear program and intercontinental ballistic missile program. This is not the first time Putin has armed rogue regimes, after all, with his assistance, Iran has managed to make significant progress in the development of a nuclear bomb and become a real threat to the interests of the West, including Israel, in the region. Armed with new knowledge, North Korea will create additional problems for the United States on the other side of the globe, in the Pacific region.

Moscow's cooperation with Pyongyang and Tehran creates new global threats, so Russia's defeat in the war with Ukraine is in the interests of the entire civilized world.

#ukraine #russia #ukraine war #kremlin #putin #north korea #kim jong un #military

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charlotte-of-wales · 1 year

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New appointments to the Order of the Garter:

Baroness Ashton of Upholland and Lord Patten of Barnes have both been appointed to the Most Noble Order of the Garter - Britain's oldest and most senior Order of Chivalry:

His Majesty The King has been graciously pleased to appoint the Right Honourable the Baroness Ashton of Upholland GCMG to be a Lady Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, and the Right Honourable the Lord Patten of Barnes CH to be a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.

The appointment of the Knights and Ladies of the Garter is in The King’s gift. Appointments to the Order of the Garter are therefore in the same category as the Order of the Thistle, the Order of Merit and the Royal Victorian Order.

The Right Honourable the Baroness Ashton of Upholland, GCMG PC (b. 1956)

Catherine Margaret Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, is a former Labour Government Minister and European Union diplomat, who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Education and the Ministry of Justice between 1999 and 2007. Baroness Ashton has served as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council; British European Commissioner and Commissioner for Trade in the European Commission; Vice-President of the European Commission. As the E.U.’s first High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, she contributed towards negotiating a peace settlement between Serbia and Kosovo, and bringing about the Iran nuclear agreement.

Baroness Ashton was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to international diplomacy. She has served as the Order’s King of Arms and is currently Chancellor of the Order.

The Right Honourable the Lord Patten of Barnes, CH PC (b. 1944)

Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, is a former Conservative Member of Parliament who became the final Governor of Hong Kong from 1992-1997. Lord Patten was first elected as an MP in 1979 and served across Government for over two decades, including as Secretary of State for the Environment and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, as well as Conservative Party Chairman. Lord Patten also led the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland and served as European Commissioner for External Relations from 1999 to 2004. He was Chairman of the BBC Trust between 2011 and 2014.

Lord Patten was Chairman of the BBC Trust between 2011 and 2014, and was appointed a Companion of Honour in 1998. He served as Chancellor of Newcastle University between 1999-2009 and was elected Chancellor of Oxford University in 2003, a post he still holds.

#order of the garter #news

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bopinion · 3 months

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2024 / 04

Aperçu of the Week:

"It's supposed to be hard. If it were easy, everyone would do it."

(Tom Hanks as Jimmy Dugan in "A League of Their Own" 1992)

Bad News of the Week:

"The long march of cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass. The federal government is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before." Is this a statement of a lunatic holed up in the basement waiting for the social apocalypse? No, it comes from Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation. And it is the foreword to "Mandate for Leadership" of the "Project 2025 - Presidential Transition Project" - in effect Donald Jessica Trump's government program.

The almost 900-page paper outlines a takeover of power that has probably never before been prepared in such detail and, above all, publicly. It is intended to be the blueprint for the actions of a new conservative government. Which will be quite radical. Of course, this is not official, but the personal intertwining of this party-political think tank, the institutional MAGA heads and Trump's slowly crystallizing shadow cabinet alone makes you sit up and take notice.

Here are just three examples that should make every upright Democrat angry: The USA should withdraw from the World Health Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund - because global elites contradict US sovereignty and only cost money unnecessarily. The "war on fossil fuels" should finally be ended - because these are "not an environmental problem, but the blood of the economic cycle". The country's external borders are to be "sealed", especially trade with China is to be stopped - because undermining the country's industrial base has to be stopped.

However, the core of "Project 2025" is the personnel policy. Project leader Paul Dans writes "Our goal is to create an army of tested, trained and prepared conservatives who will set about dismantling the administrative state from day one". And Dans is not just anyone: during Trump's first term in office, he was jointly responsible for personnel policy in the White House.

For Trump, the years in the White House were above all a story of betrayal, as he describes it today. By bureaucrats and RINOs ("Republican in name only") who refused to give him the unconditional allegiance he expected. This time he will purge all leadership positions in all institutions of members of the establishment and the Deep State. He has learned that he must also control the bureaucracy. And he will leave his mark on the USA for years to come.

With the arch-conservative dominance he has created in the Supreme Court, Trump himself has set the benchmark for this. He has also reorganized the EPA (Environment Protection Agency), pulled out of the nuclear deal with Iran, imposed punitive tariffs on China and Europe, withdrawn US troops from Syria, courted Vladimir Putin and left the Paris Climate Agreement.

Trump has achieved all of this against stubborn resistance. The "adults in the room", officials who remained in bureaucratic positions, prevented him from doing even more, such as leaving NATO or denying entry to Muslims across the border. He sees that as a mistake - one he would certainly not repeat. I don't like Nikki Haley. Neither programmatically nor personally. But she would be the lesser of two evils. After all, she doesn't want to lay the cornerstones of the Western community of values to waste. After all.

Good News of the Week:

There could be positive movement in the Gaza war. According to a report in the "New York Times", which cites US government circles, an agreement between Israel and Hamas could be imminent. According to the report, it's about the release of hostages and a ceasefire. Discussions on a corresponding draft were to begin in Paris on Sunday.

The draft had been drawn up by US negotiators on the basis of proposals from Israel and the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas. The two-stage deal envisages Hamas releasing more than 100 hostages in return for Israel ceasing its military operations in the Gaza Strip for around two months. This is linked to the hope that a lasting solution can be brokered in the meantime.

I take a critical view of the somewhat sparse composition of the consultations: in addition to the USA, which are chaired by CIA chief William Burns, only representatives of Israel, Egypt and Qatar are taking part. They are also only sending the second guard in terms of personnel. After all, Joe Biden would have discussed the talks with the heads of state of Egypt and Qatar in advance. And in the evening, Israel's first statement was that although there was a "considerable gap", the talks were constructive. So fingers crossed.

Perhaps this will happen just in time before the feared conflagration in the eternal Middle East conflict occurs. From the Houthi rebels to the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Iranian regime - which has just achieved a breakthrough in the development of missile technology - to Russia and China, many are just waiting for the USA to withdraw from the region even further than it did under Obama. And the way is clear to attack Israel as a "western bridgehead".

Personal happy moment of the week:

My 15-year-old son cooked. For the first time, not according to personal taste (although his lasagna is legendary) or a hot tip from a TikTok video. But according to a recipe. And it worked: when I got home, dinner was ready, the table was set, nothing had gone wrong and even the mess in the kitchen was kept within pleasant limits. Very nice. Please do this once a week now. Thank you.

I couldn't care less...

...that there will soon no longer be a shortage of teachers at German elementary school. Because if you take a closer look at this Bertelsmann study, you will learn why: the coming low-birth cohorts will simply need fewer teachers. Great solution, you incompetent education policy!

It's fine with me...

...that the French capital is fighting back against the farmers' protests. I live in a farming village myself and have the greatest respect for this profession. Nevertheless, I lack a little understanding for their unwillingness to move a little in the face of changing conditions too. When I look at the budget distribution in the EU (I don't know the French budget), there is no group that is subsidized more. If whoever, wherever, whenever starts to introduce real costs, I will be there enthusiastically - because that is the real problem.

As I write this...

...I am driving home from an annual company event in Baden-Württemberg. Where employees from different locations meet, who otherwise usually only know each other by phone or from online meetings. This time, too, there was an interesting exchange, excellent food and a good mood. It was just a shame that I had to miss a friend's 50th birthday, which was taking place at the same time. One negative highlight of the evening was completely unexpected: an armed hostage situation occurred a few houses away from us, but it ended well. It was probably just random luck that the perpetrator hadn't chosen the location we were in. Phew...

Post Scriptum

At the European Party Conference, the Social Democratic SPD sent its lead candidate Katarina Barley into the upcoming elections with a tailwind. The Vice-President of the European Parliament received 98.7% of the vote and a fairly clear program for Europe and against the right. What is astonishing is the prominent role that Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected to play in the election campaign, as his poll ratings are in the basement. The argument in his favor is simple - and true: he has proven himself to be a convinced European and achieved quite something in the two years of his government so far. I hope that the European elections will focus precisely on this. And that it is not misused as a wave of protest against the traffic light coalition. Because Germany needs Europe at least as much as Europe needs Germany.