US – Page 2 – The Burning Platform

Is Washington Preparing For World War III?

Submitted by Patrick Martin via WSWS.org,

The US military-intelligence complex is engaged in systematic preparations for World War III. As far as the Pentagon is concerned, a military conflict with China and/or Russia is inevitable, and this prospect has become the driving force of its tactical and strategic planning.

Three congressional hearings Tuesday demonstrated this reality. In the morning, the Senate Armed Services Committee held a lengthy hearing on cyberwarfare. In the afternoon, a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee discussed the present size and deployment of the US fleet of aircraft carriers, while another subcommittee of the same panel discussed the modernization of US nuclear weapons.

native advertising

We will provide a more detailed account of these hearings, which were attended by a WSWS reporter. But certain preliminary observations can be made.

None of the hearings discussed the broader implications of the US preparations for war, or what a major war between nuclear-armed powers would mean for the survival of the human race, and even of life on our planet. On the contrary, the hearings were examples of what might be called the routinization of World War III. A US war with China and/or Russia was taken as given, and the testimony of witnesses and questions from senators and representatives, Democrats and Republicans alike, concerned the best methods for prevailing in such a conflict.

Continue reading “Is Washington Preparing For World War III?”

China vs. United States: A Tale of Two Economies

For a larger version of this infographic, click here.

Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

Capitalism Explained In 2015: “You Have Two Cows…”

Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

When I was a kid, I used to proudly wear around a T-shirt explaining different economic systems using ‘two cows’ as a metaphor.

It started off like this:

Socialism: You have two cows. Give one to your neighbor.

Then

Communism: You have two cows. The government takes both and gives you some milk.

And

Fascism: You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.

I started thinking about this last week when I was in Caracas, because it turns out that Venezuela is a real life example of the two cows metaphor.

Continue reading “Capitalism Explained In 2015: “You Have Two Cows…””

A NEW KING SHALL BE CROWNED

To ignore the fact that China has accumulated more physical gold in the last six years than the U.S. supposedly has in their vaults & Fort Knox, is to ignore a dramatic change which is happening in the world. The West is in decline. The East is rising. A new king shall be crowned and the crown will be made of solid gold. All that is gold may not glitter, but it has retained its value for over 2,000 years, while fiat paper has always attained it true value – ZERO. Yellen and central bankers around the world are doing their darnedest to reach that goal by printing fiat at hyper-speed. Faith in their abilities is rapidly waning. When fear overtakes greed, the end will have arrived.

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Guest Post by Jesse

Shanghai Gold Exchange 54.2 Tonnes of Bullion Withdrawn – Total More Than All Official Gold of US

During the latest week there were 54.2 tonnes of gold withdrawn from the Shanghai Gold Exchange.Since the beginning of 2009 there have been 9,030 tonnes of gold taken out of the Shanghai Exchange into China.That is more than 290,320,000 troy ounces of fine gold in bars.Just for the sake of comparison, as shown in the last chart below, the total official holdings of the United States are about 261,498,926 ounces of gold.So it does seem that since 2009 more gold has been withdrawn from the Shanghai Exchange than is in all the official holdings, vaults, forts, mints and Federal Reserve Banks of the United States.

Continue reading “A NEW KING SHALL BE CROWNED”

Secret Pentagon Report Reveals US “Created” ISIS As A “Tool” To Overthrow Syria’s President Assad

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/23/2015 20:06 -0400

From the first sudden, and quite dramatic, appearance of the fanatical Islamic group known as ISIS which was largely unheard of until a year ago, on the world’s stage and which promptly replaced the worn out and tired al Qaeda as the world’s terrorist bogeyman, we suggested that the “straight to beheading YouTube clip” purpose behind the Saudi Arabia-funded Islamic State was a simple one: use the Jihadists as the vehicle of choice to achieve a political goal: depose of Syria’s president Assad, who for years has stood in the way of a critical Qatari natural gas pipeline, one which could dethrone Russia as Europe’s dominant – and belligerent – source of energy, reaching an interim climax with the unsuccessful Mediterranean Sea military build up of 2013, which nearly resulted in quasi-world war.

The narrative and the plotline were so transparent, even Russia saw right through them. Recall from September of last year:

If the West bombs Islamic State militants in Syria without consulting Damascus, LiveLeak reports that the anti-ISIS alliance may use the occasion to launch airstrikes against President Bashar Assad’s forces, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Clearly comprehending that Obama’s new strategy against ISIS in Syria is all about pushing the Qatar pipeline through (as was the impetus behind the 2013 intervention push), Russia is pushing back noting that the it is using ISIS as a pretext for bombing Syrian government forces and warning that “such a development would lead to a huge escalation of conflict in the Middle East and North Africa.”

But it’s one thing to speculate; it’s something entirely different to have hard proof.

And while speculation was rife that just like the CIA-funded al Qaeda had been used as a facade by the US to achieve its own geopolitical and national interests over the past two decades, so ISIS was nothing more than al Qaeda 2.0, there was no actual evidence of just this.

That may all have changed now when a declassified secret US government document obtained by the public interest law firm, Judicial Watch, shows that Western governments deliberately allied with al-Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups to topple Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad.

According to investigative reporter Nafeez Ahmed in Medium, the “leaked document reveals that in coordination with the Gulf states and Turkey, the West intentionally sponsored violent Islamist groups to destabilize Assad, despite anticipating that doing so could lead to the emergence of an ‘Islamic State’ in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Continue reading “Secret Pentagon Report Reveals US “Created” ISIS As A “Tool” To Overthrow Syria’s President Assad”

Why An American And A Russian General Are Suddenly Very Worried About Nuclear War

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/21/2015 21:20 -0400

Over the past several years, there has been an alarming escalation of two very disturbing trends: an increasing preponderance of cyberattacks on complex infrastructure (whether domestic or abroad and whether instigated by external sources or internally, in a false falg attempt to evolve the issue to the benefit of various military-industrial complex benficiaries) as well as around the globe, and a largely unexpected return to a Cold War footing, one catalyzed by the violent US-sponsored overthrow of the former Kiev government and the eagerness to escalate the resultant conflict exhibited by the Kremlin.

If one extends said trends, one would arrive at a very unpleasant conclusion: due to the porous nature of modern technology and the increasing prevalence of cyberattacks, coupled with Cold War-era nuclear doctrines and rising tensions between the two superpowers who are now back to a Cold War regime, a nuclear war has suddenly emerged yet again as a very real threat.

At least such is the opinion of two high-ranking military commanders, American James E. Cartwright, a former Marine Corps general, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and commander of the United States Strategic Command, and Russian Vladimir Dvorkin, a retired major general who headed the research institute of Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces. Both are members of the Global Zero Commission on Nuclear Risk Reduction, and both are very concerned about the future of the world if the current nuclear status quo between the US and Russia is left unchanged.

The two express their joint concern in a NYT Op-Ed, in which they warns of the dangers of old nuclear strike doctrines at a time when relations between the two superpowers are at such a low point. As a result, they call on Moscow and Washington to prevent possible provocations.

Continue reading “Why An American And A Russian General Are Suddenly Very Worried About Nuclear War”

Financial collapse leads to war

Guest Post by Dmitry Orlov

Scanning the headlines in the western mainstream press, and then peering behind the one-way mirror to compare that to the actual goings-on, one can’t but get the impression that America’s propagandists, and all those who follow in their wake, are struggling with all their might to concoct rationales for military action of one sort or another, be it supplying weapons to the largely defunct Ukrainian military, or staging parades of US military hardware and troops in the almost completely Russian town of Narva, in Estonia, a few hundred meters away from the Russian border, or putting US “advisers” in harm’s way in parts of Iraq mostly controlled by Islamic militants.

The strenuous efforts to whip up Cold War-like hysteria in the face of an otherwise preoccupied and essentially passive Russia seems out of all proportion to the actual military threat Russia poses. (Yes, volunteers and ammo do filter into Ukraine across the Russian border, but that’s about it.) Further south, the efforts to topple the government of Syria by aiding and arming Islamist radicals seem to be backfiring nicely. But that’s the pattern, isn’t it? What US military involvement in recent memory hasn’t resulted in a fiasco? Maybe failure is not just an option, but more of a requirement?

Let’s review. Afghanistan, after the longest military campaign in US history, is being handed back to the Taliban. Iraq no longer exists as a sovereign nation, but has fractured into three pieces, one of them controlled by radical Islamists. Egypt has been democratically reformed into a military dictatorship. Libya is a defunct state in the middle of a civil war. The Ukraine will soon be in a similar state; it has been reduced to pauper status in record time—less than a year. A recent government overthrow has caused Yemen to stop being US-friendly. Closer to home, things are going so well in the US-dominated Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador that they have produced a flood of refugees, all trying to get into the US in the hopes of finding any sort of sanctuary.

Continue reading “Financial collapse leads to war”

Us Against Them

Via Monty Pelerin

Anyone looking at current conditions in the United States is struck by the us against them mentality that exists between the government and its citizens. There are no longer two political parties in the sense that they stand for different things. Both political parties stand for more power and control.

Increasingly the country is split. Two distinct groups are now at war with each other. It is government versus the people.

Those who voted Republicans in via a landslide in the most recent election now see that it doesn’t matter. There is little difference between Democrat and Republican politicians. The two “opposing” parties might as well be renamed the Bloods and the Crips. They both stand for the same thing and that is bigger government and less freedom. The brands may be different but that is nothing more than marketing. Both parties want the same thing and that same thing has to do with your wealth and freedom. Both will do whatever it takes to be in charge. The country does not matter. Only their position in the trough matters.

We are no longer a government of the people, by the people and for the people. We are now a country of rulers and ruled. We now work for government, not the other way around.

To accomplish this feat, government had to divide us, pitting one group against another. Then they had to define behavior (rights guaranteed via the Constitution) as questionable if not downright illegal. Michael Snyder collected 72 types of American behavior that is now considered dangerous by our government. It is difficult to imagine anyone not falling into one or more of these categories and not being watched by government:

Continue reading “Us Against Them”

IDIOCY OF AMERICAN PUBLIC ON DISPLAY

Are you fucking kidding me? 84% of the ignorant masses actually believe 20,000 ragheaded camel jockeys in the Middle East who like to make gory Youtube videos and were funded and armed by the good old USA government are a CRITICAL threat to our country. That is the most pathetic thing I’ve ever read. Bernays was an absolute genius and his disciples have perfected the art of propaganda.

The US public education system has succeeded in dumbing down Americans to such an extent, they will believe anything they are told by the government and their MSM propaganda mouthpieces. I’m disgusted to be living amongst so many idiots and non-critical thinking believers. I sure hope it doesn’t take a majority to prevail, because we’re doomed if that is the case.

The Islamic State is seen as the gravest threat to the United States, according to a new poll from Gallup. The group released its latest horror video at the weekend, showing the mass beheading of 21 Egyptian Copts in Libya. The gruesome images have suggested that Isis is expanding its reach into North Africa, far from its current battlegrounds and havens in Iraq and Syria. Egypt carried out airstrikes in response to the beheadings.

84 percent of people in the US consider the Islamic State and international terrorism in general the most critical threats to American security. Iran’s nuclear ambitions and North Korea’s military strength follow with 77 and 64 percent respectively. The conflict between Ukraine and Russian-backed rebels has strained relations between Washington and Moscow in recent months, but nevertheless, tensions with Russia are lower on Americans’ list of potential threats.

You will find more statistics at Statista

US & UK try to sabotage any Ukraine peace agreement

Talks between Russia’s President Putin, France’s President Hollande, and German Chancellor Merkel have been constructive, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday. However, RT spoke with political analyst Dan Glazebrook, who thinks that while Germany seems enthusiastic about the peace talks, the other sides involved in the conflict – the US and UK – are creating obstacles which may stand in the way of the conflict’s resolution.