June 2022

Edward Curtin June 9, 2022 “Begin then with a fracture, a cesura, a rent; opening a crack in this fallen world, a shaft of light.” Norman O. Brown, Love’s Body Being sick for the past few weeks has had its advantages. It has forced me to take a break from writing since I could not concentrate enough to do so. It has gifted me with a deeper sympathy for the vast numbers of the seriously ill around the world, those suffering souls without succor except for desperate prayers for relief.  And it has allowed thoughts to think me as I relinquished all efforts at control for a few miserable weeks of “doing nothing” except napping, reading short paragraphs in books, watching some sports and a documentary, and being receptive to the light coming through the cracks in my consciousness. Originally published on Edward Curtins homepage here I suppose you could say that...

Craig Murray June 17, 2022 I was in Turkey to try to further peace talks, as an experienced diplomat with good contacts there, and as a peace activist. I was not there as a journalist and much of what I discussed was with the understanding of confidence. It will be probably be some years before I judge it reasonable and fair to reveal all that I know. But I can give some outline. Originally published on Craig Murray’s homepage on June 7, 2022 Turkey continues to be the centre of diplomatic activity on resolving the Ukraine war. It is therefore particularly revealing, and a sign of Western priorities, that I did not come across a single western journalist there trying to follow and cover the diplomatic process. There are hundreds of Western journalists in Ukraine, effectively embedded with the Ukrainian authorities, producing war porn. There appear to be none seriously...

Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury June 17, 2022 Food crises, economic stagnation and price increases are worsening unevenly, almost everywhere, following the Ukraine war. Sanctions against Russia have especially hurt those relying on wheat and fertilizer imports. Unilateral sanctions illegal Unilateral sanctions – not approved by the UN Security Council – are illegal under international law. Besides contravening the UN Charter, unilateral sanctions inflict much human loss. Countless civilians – many far from target countries – are at risk, depriving them of much, even life itself. Sanctions, embargos and blockades – ‘sold’ as non-violent alternatives to waging war by military means – economically isolate and punish targeted countries, supposedly to force them to acquiesce. But most sanctions hurt the innocent majority, much more than the ruling elites. Originally published at Human Wrongs Watch on June 7, 2022 Like laying siege on enemy settlements, sanctions are ‘weapons of mass starvation’. They “are...

When you have been working with cross-cultural issues, helping develop a model of measurable culture using 7 cultural dimensions, you tend to develop a sensitivity for cues that seem to indicate a cultural aspect in everything that people around me say and do. It sometimes irritates colleagues, friends and other intimi. However, some time ago one of those hunches struck me as so spectacular, that I felt I needed to share it with my larger network. Our politicians and media remind us daily that the current turmoil in Ukraine is the most horrible issue the world has to deal with at this moment. Fortunately, Russia stands alone in its military aggression and the entire (rest of the) world is uniting in sanctions to force Russia on its knees and give up. Other views can only be heard on LinkedIn, which has become one of the last platforms for really free...

Quwatli declaring Syria’s independence from France, 17 April 1946 (Licensed under the public domain) Shane Quinn June 2, 2022 The United States, with occasional interruptions, has been interfering in the important Middle East nation of Syria for over 70 years, and today there are hundreds of American soldiers still present on Syrian soil. These realities are not well known. Originally published at Globalresearch US intrusion in Syrian affairs can be traced to the late 1940s, as outlined in 2016 by the American author Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The CIA, at the behest of Harry Truman’s government in Washington, started to destabilise Syria shortly after the country’s official independence in April 1946. Kennedy Jr. wrote, “The CIA began its active meddling in Syria in 1949 – barely a year after the agency’s creation. Syrian patriots had declared war on the Nazis, expelled their Vichy French colonial rulers, and crafted a fragile secularist democracy...

Telford Taylor giving his opening remarks at the judges trial, Nuremberg, 1947. Ellen Taylor June 12, 2022 I was in Nuremberg during the war crimes trials which followed WWII. My father, Brig. Gen. Telford Taylor, was Chief Prosecutor during the  second,  American phase.  The French, Russian and British staffs had gone home to  continue trials at home, but the US stayed longer, and  scheduled about 400 additional  defendants. They were divided into twelve  categories: judges, doctors, industrialists, etc. There were 142 convictions and ten death sentences. I remember the  high spirits of the occupying  troops and  tribunal staff, The joy of triumph and victory. I  danced with them in the ballroom of  the Grand Hotel, where the  officials and court lawyers spent their evenings.  I scared myself by looking  into seemingly-bottomless bomb craters, played in the war-shattered  wreckage of  our commandeered  townhouse, and listened to stories told by the servants, who...

Edward Curtin June 13, 2022 This is a fascinating and beautiful book, one of those gems you serendipitously discover and shake your head at your good fortune. Although it is new and I received it as a gift, it reminds me of a few books I have discovered over the years while rummaging through used bookstores that have startled me into a new perspective on life. Ironically, these books have advised me, whether explicitly or implicitly, to be done with books, because what I was seeking cannot be found in them, for it floats on the wind.  But this paradox is their secret.  Such discoveries are memorable, and this is a memorable book in so many ways. Originally published at off-guardian.org Despite having read more books than I wish to remember, I had never heard of David Lorimer until being informed by a friend. A Scottish writer, poet, editor, and lecturer of great...

A shorter version was printed as my column in China Daily on the same day here. Empires go up and then they go down. None lasts forever. Imperial falls can be very dangerous. The Soviet Union dissolved thirty years ago. The US Empire is next in turn. In contrast to the Soviet case, the United States has no charismatic leader like Mikhail Gorbachev who with a sense of reality – that the system was out of function – held a vision of a better, disarmed Europe and world, and who conducted reforms – perestroika, glasnost, demokratyia – in a tempo that astounded the world and was bound to also produce mistakes. Most importantly, we should be grateful to this day that Gorbachev never even contemplated using nukes when he recognised that the game was over. There are many macro-historical theories with indicators of when empires decline, decay and then tumble...

Russia’s very existence is under threat. The country has to take serious measures to ensure it survives Dmitry Trenin June 6, 2022 The stand-off between Russia and the Western nations, which has been developing since 2014, escalated into an active confrontation with the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, back in late February. In other words, the Great Game has ceased to be a game. It has become total war, though a hybrid one so far, since the armed conflict in Ukraine is not of a full-scale nature at present. However, the danger of it intensifying towards a direct collision not only exists, but is increasing. The challenge Russia is facing has no equivalents in our history. It’s not just that we have neither allies nor even potential partners left in the West. Frequent comparisons with the Cold War of the mid and late 20th century are inaccurate and rather...

Cyrus Janssen June 3, 2022 As the editor of The Transnational, I appreciate that many prefer a short video to a longer analytical text. Here is a China expert with an incredible following on Youtube – close to 236 000 subscribers! – giving you a comparative study that would be long if it were a text. There is also some very interesting information towards the end about trade organisations – most of it will be something you’ve never heard of in Western mainstream media. Enjoy!

No amount of Western military aid has been able to prevent Russia from achieving its military objective of liberating the entire territories of both Lugansk and Donetsk as Phase Three begins. Scott Ritter June 2, 2022 Russia’s “Special Military Operation”, which began on Feb. 24, is entering its fourth month. Despite stiffer than expected Ukrainian resistance (bolstered by billions of dollars of western military assistance and accurate, real-time battlefield intelligence by the U.S. and other NATO members) Russia is winning the war on the ground, and in a big way. After more than ninety days of incessant Ukrainian propaganda, echoed mindlessly by a complicit western mainstream media that extolls the battlefield successes of the Ukrainian armed forces and the alleged incompetence of the Russian military, the Russians are on the cusp of achieving the stated goal of its operation, namely the liberation of the newly independent Donbas Republics of Lugansk...

“When I went to China, I went to teach; but every day that I stayed I thought less of what I had to teach them and more of what I had to learn from them,” Bertrand Russell’s notes in 1920 (British Philosopher 1872-1970) In 1922, Bertrand Russell published a book “The Problem Of China” – see below – based on his study and also experience during his year in Beijing teaching at the University of Peking as Professor of Philosophy. While many books about China have a shelf life of actuality merely lasting for months to a few years, Russell’s book “The Problem Of China” has stood the test of time mapping out where China would stand about a century later. Although the title might appear as anti-China, it is quite the opposite. It predicts China’s resurgence and outlines the strength of Chinese civilization with opportunities and threats. In the...