PRAYERS FOR CANADA’S “POGO” MOMENT IN 2017
12/15/2017
I wrote this essay on January 23, 2017 hoping that sometime during its 150th anniversary year Canada would have a moment of truth. Perhaps its leaders would acknowledge the falsity of war-making in general, and the war on terror in particular including Canada’s own criminal role in destabilizing Libya. Alas, Canada’s leadership has not yet been convinced that it’s time to admit its duplicity and criminality in participating in the farcical war on terror. Our opportunity to demonstrate genuine leadership has almost slipped away. (the editor, December 15, 2017).
Prayers for Canada’s “Pogo” Moment in 2017
Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes 21C (c) January, 23, 2017, All rights reserved
“For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” (Luke 8:17)
Canada’s moment of truth, or what I would call its “Pogo moment” is coming, and while it won’t be pleasant, it is necessary to our future well-being. Pogo, some may recall, was a central character is a 1960s to mid-seventies American comic strip with a gift for political and social satire. Its most enduring punch line is, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” The witticism is particularly applicable to the US’s so-called “war on terror” (WOT) and Canada’s role in it.
The WOT was launched in the wake of the reported 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon. The Bush administration then declared a worldwide “war on terror.” Among other things, the war on terror took the form of a combination of open and covert military operations, new security legislation and efforts to block the financing of terrorism.1 By any measure, the toll exacted through these measuress has been immense.
Over a span of six of the 15 plus years since 9/11, the United States and its allies have launched attacks in seven countries.2 The cost of the campaign to U.S. taxpayers alone is estimated to be nearly $5 trillion dollars and counting.3 And, an estimated 1.3 million lives have been lost as a result of this policy.4 Other sources meanwhile put the death toll as high as 4 or more million.5
Newly elected President Trump has signaled his intention to bring an end to US regime change wars. That said, there was certainly no sign of that in the final year of the Obama administration when it registered a new high in aggressive action. The number of bombs dropped on foreign countries in 2016 surpassed that of 2015 totaling 26,171. This amounts to three bombs per hour, 24 hours per day.6 One wonders whether, as observer-participants in the WOT, we have become numbed to the magnitude and global consequences of these numbers. Could our humanity itself have become a casualty of this brutal war?
A line in the Leonard Cohen’ song, Anthem reads, “There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”7 Perhaps, the light is slowly penetrating the cracks in the war on terror. From time to time, I read of individuals who have “awakened” to the inconvenient truth regarding the WOT. In the process, their understanding of its dark realities is abruptly turned on its head and the truth is clear. They discover that the situation wasn’t what they thought, nor was the enemy who they thought it was. It isn’t “them”; it’s “us.” It’s what I call their Pogo moment.
Guy Parmeter, a US soldier deployed in Iraq in 2004, experienced such a revelation in an interaction with an Iraqi farmer near Samarra in Salahuddin province. Then-Major Guy Parmeter recalled asking a farmer if he’d “seen any foreign fighters” lurking about. The farmer’s reply was direct and telling: “Yes, you.” 8
The Iraqi farmer’s, “Yes, you”, triggered an epiphany for Parmeter. He was seeking a window of intelligence into the identity and whereabouts of an elusive enemy. He was handed a mirror instead. And the image of the dark and dangerous invader he glimpsed in the mirror was his. In an instant, his white hat turned black.
More than a decade later, the Pogo moment of another former Iraqi soldier led him to the same conclusion regarding the identity of the real enemy. An extract of a speech by ex-US soldier Mike Prysner conveys his profound remorse tinged with anger at the deceptions pushed by his commanders. The tone of Prysner’s confession stands in sharp contrast with the hegemonic chant, “We’re number one!”
And I tried hard to be proud of my service. But all I could feel was shame. Racism could no longer mask the reality of the occupation. These were people, these were human beings …We were told we were fighting terrorists. The real terrorist was me, and the real terrorism is this occupation.” 9
More recently, US Virginia State senator, Richard Black, curious about the deeper motives behind the US military campaign in the Middle East, went to Syria to see the situation firsthand. In a May 5, 2016 interview with Jeffrey Steinberg (Executive Intelligence Review Magazine) following his return, Senator Black’s observations reveal the extent of his mind shift.
But when you go there and you actually walk the grounds and you shake hands with the soldiers and meet with the refugees and people like that, it turns black and white into Technicolor. And I’m going to tell you: Syria is one of the most incredibly wonderful nations on Earth. And the fact that America set out to topple the government and destroy it, long before there was the faintest hint of civil unrest, it’s really one of the great stains on American honor.
The veil was lifted. Senator Black’s amazement at what he had witnessed in terms of Syrian unity and resilience doesn’t hide his outrage regarding the role of the US in the conflict. “We have never done anything more loathsome or despicable than what we are doing in Syria,” he concludes.10
Much of the WOT has been covert and conducted via regional allies, contractors and mercenaries. Thus, the conflict in Syria is widely described as a proxy war. In 2016, Wikileaks released a Hillary Clinton email that acknowledged that Qatar and Saudi Arabia were providing financial and logistical support to ISIS and other extremist Sunni groups. The email doesn’t mention the fact however, that both these terrorist-funding states were big league donors to the Clinton Foundation. The hypocrisy in the US decision to sell aircraft, munitions, spare parts training, maintenance and logistics to the Saudis is apparent.11
The analysis of American comic and political commentator, Jimmy Dore, is every bit as critical as that of Senator Black. It’s also irreverent, expletive-laden plain speak. Dore condemns the duplicity of US President Obama and Secretary of State, John Kerry for their false narrative regarding the role of the US in Syria. His commentary is delivered against the backdrop of a video of an Obama press conference. The US president portrays the US as a deeply concerned force for good attempting to bring about peace and relieve suffering in Syria. Dore doesn’t buy it. (Language caution).
We’re inflicting (not relieving) human suffering in Syria. …We should get the “F” out of there.
And somebody else is the bad guy…somebody else is the bad guy? We can’t bring clean water to Flint Michigan, to our own (expletive) people…but we’re going to straighten shit out in Syria? 12
Dore’s critique of UN Ambassador Samatha Powers is equally scathing. He focuses on her disingenuous condemnation of President Bashar Assad for killings allegedly carried out by the Syrian army during its liberation of the residents of East Aleppo. (Thus far no evidence of such an event has been provided.) Dore is clear that the real villains in Syria are US-supported terrorist proxies.
We’re doing it. That’s why Tulsi Gabbard had to put a… a bill in congress that says… the United States should stop funding terrorists today. So that’s what going on in Syria… just so you know what’s going on in Syria. We’re the bad guys… as usual. We need to get the (expletive) out of Syria… and stop the fighting in Syria. 13
These dissenters are far from alone in rejecting a misguided US foreign policy and exposing the deceptions of the WOT. Dozens of independent journalists and analysts have come to the same uncomfortable conclusions. A small sample of other dissenters includes: Dr. Paul Craig Roberts (Former Assistant Secretary of State, Reagan administration); Eva Bartlett, Vanessa Beeley, Phil Butler, Robert Parry (Consortium News); Patrick Henningsen (21st Century Wire); and F. William Engdahl (New Eastern Outlook). Ironically, their analysis has either been ignored or hypocritically dismissed to date by the mainstream corporate media as “fake news.”
It’s sobering to consider that it’s taken 80 years for a relatively small minority to voice the same conclusion regarding the WOT that US Marine Corps General Smedley Butler reached in 1935 regarding the wars of his day. Butler, in his 1935 book, War is a Racket declared, in effect, that he had seen the enemy and that enemy was “us” or, in that case, the United States.
“I served in all commissioned ranks from a second Lieutenant to a Major General. And during that time, I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street, and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.” 14
How is it that the hard-earned wisdom of such a man and the cautions of the dissenters since his day go unheeded by Western Nations? Must every generation start from zero and re-learn the lessons of the previous one? Where’s the celebrated ability of the leaders of advanced societies to stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before? And, why have so few chosen to stand on the shoulders of Smedley Butler and enlightened successors who learned that war is a racket?
I have to attribute this failure in large part to what could be called the smog of war. This isn’t to be confused with the fog of war. Typically the latter term is used to describe the hazy, confused state of affairs that develops within the military in the heat of battle and the theatre of war. Thus, when a military death results from friendly fire for example, it is often attributed to the fog of war. The smog (fog plus pollutants) of war is different. It’s the manufactured distortions, misinformation and other forms of propaganda directed at an ususpecting citizenry in order to first gain, and then maintain public support for the cause.
The Deep State and (and the shadow government) directing the elected government) are the dark force behind the call for war. War-makers within the Deep State have mastered the art and science of manufacturing pro-war propaganda or “smog”. In the run- up to war and over the course of war, their smog-making public relations machines run full throttle. The goal is to envelop an unsuspecting populace within a thick blanket of informational smog cloaking the unpalatable realities of war from the eyes of the public.
War smog serves multiple purposes. It impairs logic and obscures our moral and ethical markers. Effective campaigns embed a justification for war while camouflaging the identity of the real aggressors and their motives. Properly applied, it also effectively marginalizes dissenters by smearing them as unpatriotic or disloyal to a necessary or even noble cause. With mind-numbing daily repetition, the public acquiesces.
CJ Hopkins provides a further explanation as to why official propaganda continues to work despite is absurdity, including the current “Russian hacking” hysteria.15 Hopkins points to the work of Edward Bernays, the father of modern day public relations whose greatest contribution it was said, was convincing the American public to join the First World War. Bernays was remarkably candid about the goal of PR: the deliberate manipulation of the public mind.
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, and our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of…. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.16
Vijhay Prashad, Professor of International Affairs at Trinity College, Connecticut, explains how wars are dressed up in order to hide the facts. Note: subterfuge is essential.
No Great Power claims to exercise authority for its own interests or for the interests of those businesses that dominate its institutions. They like to speak about humanitarian obligations – whether to protect civilians from other humans or from natural disasters. They put on the cloak of protection to suggest that they are above crass monetary interests, whether theft of resources or control of markets.
… In our liberal age, it is hard to define wars in terms of self-interest. …We are told that they are the bitter medicine for the good of the planet, when in fact they are the use of force – by gun or by pen – for the betterment of very small numbers of people against the collective interest of the working-people of the planet. Our bewilderment comes from the thick cloak of ideology that covers over the real motivations of the powerful. 17
It seems little has changed over the years. War-makers, assisted by their faithful servants in the corporate media have repeatedly sold us regime-change wars over the last 15 years using well-honed, Bernays – inspired PR practices. Journalist, John Pilger describes the critical role played by corporate media and their persuasive star talent in engineering consent in support of war.
Propaganda is most effective when our consent is engineered by those with a fine education – Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Columbia – and with careers on the BBC, the Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post.
These organizations are known as the “liberal media.” They present themselves as enlightened, progressive tribunes of the moral zeitgeist. They are anti-racist, pro-feminist and pro-LGBT. And they love war. While they speak up for feminism, they support rapacious wars that deny the rights of countless women, including the right to life.18
The screw continues to turn as of the researching of this paper in January of 2017. The majority of the public has not yet come to a full understanding of the role of the US, NATO and non-NATO allies in regime-change wars in the Middle East. This is particularly true regarding the latest attempt at regime-change in Syria. Nonetheless, even as the Deep State’s campaign in Syria floundered in 2016, it was diligently fabricating and marketing a new boogeyman.
There’s an argument that this strategy was undertaken because the now 15-year-old terrorist threat was losing its potency. What if it was no longer capable of inducing sufficient fear to mobilize public support for increasing defense department budgets and military campaigns? Perhaps terrorism’s value as a psychological hot button had reached its best-before-date. If so, a dark new villain would be needed. Voila, a new enemy in the form of “resurgent Russia” under Putin was introduced. Accordingly, the dials on the propaganda machines in Washington, London and Brussels were turned up to “high” regarding the Russian threat.
But, there is a problem. The “Russia-phobia” campaign is so blatantly obvious and lacking in credibility that has become something of a joke within the independent alternative media. The Deep State-CIA appears undeterred, however. Joseph Goebbels taught that with sufficient repetition, the public can be persuaded to swallow the biggest of lies. So, give it time. And just in case Russiaphobia isn’t sufficient to grip the public psyche, new provocations are at the ready to be used to cultivate hostility with China and Iran.
Seemingly, an unsuspecting citizenry isn’t equipped to see through the theatre offered by the magicians of war. To understand some of the moves on the geopolitical chessboard, we return to the analysis of Professor Prashad. And, once again, some of Smedley Butler’s sentiments are reflected in his observations.
Those U.S. ships that sail in the South-China Sea are not there to protect Taiwan or South Korea. They are there to protect the Global Commodity Chain. With the emergence of Russia and China – in particular – as regional powers, the US has tried to hem them in.
The tension between the United States and Russia-China is not because the former is benevolent and the latter are malevolent, but because they are in the midst of a geo-strategic battle over whether the United States and its allies should be the only ones to control the supply lines and the commodity chain, as well as how money is moved around (the SWIFT network) and how money is valued (whether the Dollar remains the main currency).19
Pervasive deception is central to effective war-making. It finds expression in sophisticated media propaganda and false flags involving orchestrated theatre on the geopolitical chessboard. It’s sobering to consider, but when the Deep State goes to war, it declares an informational war against its civilian population in addition to any external enemy.
The equipping of citizens for the onslaught must begin long before the propaganda campaign is launched. It requires more than casually listening to “the news” from co-opted corporate media. It means consciously absorbing the instructive experiences of individuals like Major Parmeter’s in his moment of truth in Iraq in 2004. Parmeter recognized the warring predisposition of his country, and recommended that his fellow Americans take a collective look in the mirror.
We are the empire of US military interventions, alien disaster movies and Star Wars.
We Americans, proud denizens of the land of the gun and of the only superpower left standing, don’t, of course, want to think of ourselves as aliens. Who does? We go to movies like Independence Day or Star Wars to identify with the outgunned rebels. Evidence to the contrary, we still think of ourselves as the underdogs, the rebels, the liberators.
We need to take a long hard look at ourselves. Like Pogo, we need to be willing to see the evidence of our own invasive nature. Only then can we begin to become the kind of land we say we want to be. 20
On the occasion of our country’s 150th anniversary, Canadians would be well advised to do the same. Outside the bubble, Canada is described as a vassal of the United States? It is such a long way from a “True North” strong and free. How is such a role consistent in any way with our aspirations to become an island of hope and opportunity in a troubled and often chaotic world? The disconnect from reality is eye- watering.
The disconnects and delusions abound. I recall viewing in 2011, a Canadian TV news segment polishing the country’s military brass for an admirable NATO contribution in Libya. In a similar vein, Salman Rafi Sheikh reports that in 2013, he heard NATO declare that the mission in Libya had been one of the most successful in NATO’s history. Really? Perhaps it’s time we took a closer look and evaluated the fruits of our labours.
A report from the British foreign affairs committee challenges NATO’s positive assessment of its performance. The report acknowledges that the Western intervention in Libya in 2011 was “not only based on false intelligence (sound familiar) but also directly paved the way for an insurgence of Islamist terror groups in the country.” 21 It’s a remarkable indictment, given the humanitarian framing and rosy evaluation of the intervention.
Journalist, John Pilger adds some additional detail regarding the outcome of what he calls the “catastrophe in Libya.”
In 2011, Obama said Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was planning “genocide” against his own people. “We knew … that if we waited one more day, Benghazi, a city the size of Charlotte, could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.”
This was the known lie of Islamist militias facing defeat by Libyan government forces. It became the media story; and NATO – led by Obama and Hillary Clinton – launched 9,700 “strike sorties” against Libya, of which more than a third were aimed at civilian targets. Uranium warheads were used; the cities of Misurata and Sirte were carpet-bombed. The Red Cross identified mass graves, and Unicef reported “most [of the children killed] were under the age of ten.” 22
So, scrape off the self-congratulatory veneer and lies and we’re left with the objective reality that Canada and fellow-NATO members murdered the leader of a non-aggressor nation, created acres of rubble, degraded a highly functioning country in political, social and economic terms and paved the way for encroachment by Islamist terrorists. And, in the process, we also contributed to the chaotic immigrant crisis of the last two to three years and committed war crimes.
The scale of the Libya fiasco can be put into clearer perspective with a capsule description of it before and after the NATO intervention.
In 1967 Colonel Gaddafi inherited one of the poorest nations in Africa; however, by the time he was assassinated, Gaddafi had turned Libya into Africa’s wealthiest nation. Libya had the highest GDP per capita and life expectancy on the continent. Less people lived below the poverty line than in the Netherlands.
After NATO’s intervention in 2011, Libya is now a failed state and its economy is in shambles. As the government’s control slips through their fingers and into to the militia fighters’ hands, oil production has all but stopped.23 You can top it off with Barack Obama’s description of post- Gaddafi Libya as a “shit show”, something he blamed on British PM, David Cameron.24 Libyans have seen the enemy and it is us.
Given the global power shifts underway, there’s no better time than now for a review of Canada’s recent foreign policy and specifically, our role in the WOT. Canada and its leaders really only have two choices and the sand is quickly running out of the glass on the first. Their first option is to step back and take a long, honest look in the mirror and evaluate our role in the WOT. It’s project management 101: Document the lessons learned.
This is likely to unearth some useful lessons and provide a basis for a timely re-think of our foreign policy including the matter of our responsibilities to allies. It could give new meaning to the current Responsibility to Protect (R2P) policy. A popular anti-drunk driving message is: Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. A corollary for a military ally might be, Friends don’t let friends needlessly destroy other countries and their populations while intoxicated with delusions of exceptionalism.
The second choice is an avoidance strategy. It’s one where Canada keeps its head down and tries to run out the clock on any WOT post mortem. It means continuing to seek cover in a frayed terrorism script while hoping the world is soon distracted by the next global threat. Oh yes, Canada would of course have to continue playing along with any the false flag psy ops designed keep the public cowed and compliant. Oh look…it’s a bird, it’s a drone…”it’s a terrorist attack…or is a Russian or a Chinese invasion…?
As tempting as an avoidance strategy might be, it would also be cowardly and shortsighted, limiting Canada’s prospects on several fronts. Here are five reasons why an honest look in the mirror is would be a better choice.
1. It’s important for the nation’s mental health and spiritual well-being. It’s said the confession is good for the soul. As Canada’s complicity in the WOT is fully understood reported and the seriousness of our crimes sinks in, cognitive dissonance is likely. Some will likely have difficulty reconciling our White Hat self image with reality. Other Canadians may experience a form of Macbeth syndrome, a condition that is called Perpetration Induced Traumatic Stress (PITS). Coming clean could be a meaningful part in our collective national therapy.
2. It can be a time of re-visioning a more independent Canada. I’ve noted earlier that Colonel Parmeter has described his country as “the Empire of US military interventions.” Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson has described his country as “Death Merchant of the World.” Canada’s association with and support for the wars led by a nation described by members of its military in these dark terms means they no doubt cloud our future. Can we envision a future free of these weights?
3. The review can inform a move on Canada’s part to repair damaged international relationships and reorienting Canadian foreign policy in a positive direction. Our allegiance to the US and its misguided WOT has skewed our foreign policy and international relationships. Disentangling ourselves would mean more than simply rejecting the premise and duplicity of the WOT and ending our military support for it. We would of necessity also need to bring our self-destructive economic, diplomatic and information wars with other nations to an end and pursue rapprochement.
The implications of the rise of Eurasia and corresponding shift to a multi-polar world invite a more thorough examination unobscured by the distortions of the WOT. This means taking into account the development of new security alliances, trade relationships, infrastructure development, financial institutions and monetary systems. See F. William Engdahl’s article on the rise of Eurasia.25
4. It would naturally segway into a review of our membership in NATO and a review of NATO itself. The following questions might be considered in our review of Canada’s participation in NATO.
In what ways has Canadian participation in foreign conflicts as a NATO member contributed to or exacerbated conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world?
In what ways has Canada as a NATO member with the backing of the military industrial complex, contributed to a more dangerous and less secure world?
Which of our current NATO obligations predispose our acting wither now or in the future in ways at odds with Canadian values and our vision for the future?
It what ways does our participation in NATO undercut our understanding of what is essential for the long-term global good and our desired contribution to it?
Many critics regard NATO as a cold war relic that has outlived its purpose. The criticisms aren’t solely coming from outside NATO membership. President Donald Trump has said it’s obsolete.26 Marine Le Pen has said that if she wins the French presidential election this year, she will take the country out of the EU and NATO. 27And the leader of Germany’s Left is calling for the dissolution and replacement of NATO.27 28
5. Ultimately, Canada’s complicity in the misguided WOT will be fully exposed. It is the Age of Disclosure, and a full airing of our support for and participation in the WOT is coming. Citizen journalism and rise an independent media-led truth movement ensure it.
Consider that with each passing year, more and more Americans are concluding that the official 9/11 narrative isn’t credible. When the 9/11 narrative collapses, it will bring down the entire web of lies and deceptions used to sustain more than 15 years of brutal conflicts. In the process, the full cast of enablers and perpetrators will be exposed. Even now, new witnesses are emerging from the rubble of US-led regime change wars bearing testimony to what they have seen and experienced. The light seeps in and the truth seeps out.
Like Pogo, Major Parmeter, Mike Prysner, Jim Dore, Eva Bartlett and Paul Craig Roberts, and others, I have met the enemy and struggled with its delusions. Our victims have, of course known the identity and dark motives of the real terrorists for some time. Unlike us, they need no awakening. It is we who need to take a critical look at the enemy in the mirror. The only question at that point will be whether we will allow it to continue holding us captive.
© Futurescapes21C, 2017 All rights reserved.
Endnotes
1 War on terrorism, Global Policy Forum, https://www.globalpolicy.org/war-on-terrorism.html#a2011
2 ‘Peace’ president? How Obama came to bomb seven countries in six years, Independent, September 24, 2014, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/peace-president-how-obama-came-to-bomb-seven-countries-in-six-years-9753131.html
3 Syrian wars have cost nearly $5 trillion (and counting): Report, Common Dreams, September 13, 2016. http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/13/post-911-wars-have-cost-nearly-5-trillion-and-counting-report
4 Body count report reveals at least 1.3 million lives lost to the US-led war on terror, Common Dreams, March 26, 2015.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/03/26/body-count-report-reveals-least-13-million-lives-lost-us-led-war-terror
5 Do the math: Global war on terror has killed 4 million Muslims or more, Mint Press News, August 3, 2015. http://www.mintpressnews.com/do-the-math-global-war-on-terror-has-killed-4-million-muslims-or-more/208225/
6 America dropped 26,171 bombs in 2016. What a bloody end to Obama’s reign, The Guardian, January 9, 2017.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/09/america-dropped-26171-bombs-2016-obama-legacy
7 Anthem, Leonard Cohen lyrics. http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/leonardcohen/anthem.html
8 We are the empire: Of US military interventions, aliens disaster movies and “Star Wars”, Veterans Truth Network, July 14, 2016. http://veteranstruthnetwork.com/index.php/2016/07/14/we-are-the-empire-of-us-military-interventions-alien-disaster-movies-and-star-wars/
9 Mike Prysner testimony: The real terrorist was the real terrorism and this occupation, November 2, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uKt9orWlnQ
10 US Senator: “We have never done anything more loathsome that what we’re doing in Syria, Fort Russ, July 9, 2016.
http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/07/us-senator-we-have-never-done-anything.html
11 “The terrorists R us”: Hillary Clinton admits Clinton Foundation Donors Fund ISIS-Daesh. Global Research, October 29, 2016. http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-terrorists-r-us-hillary-admits-clinton-foundation-donors-fund-isis-daesh/5553722
12 President Obama offers hilarious reasons for why we are Syria, Jimmy Dore Show, YouTube, December 22, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiqwqP_iXsc
13 You’re being lied to on Syria/United States the real terrorists, Jimmy Dore Show, YouTube, December 16, 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj7yzpeXWEw
14 Smedley Butler quotes, Brainy Quotes https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/smedley_butler.html
15 Why ridiculous official propaganda still works, Counterpunch, January 13, 2017.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/13/why-ridiculous-official-propaganda-still-works/
16 The manipulation of the American mind – Edward Bernays and the birth of public relations, Phys.Org, July 9, 2015.
https://phys.org/news/2015-07-american-mindedward-bernays-birth.html
17 When will the US confront its role in fueling terror attack across the planet?, Alternet, January 4, 2017.
http://www.alternet.org/world/when-will-us-confront-its-role-fueling-terror-attacks-across-planet
18 Inside the invisible government: War, propaganda, Clinton & Trump, John Pilger.com, October 27, 2016.
http://johnpilger.com/articles/inside-the-invisible-government-war-propaganda-clinton-trump
19 When will the US confront its role in fueling terror attack across the planet?, Alternet, January 4, 2017. http://www.alternet.org/world/when-will-us-confront-its-role-fueling-terror-attacks-across-planet
20 We are the empire: Of US military interventions, aliens disaster movies and “Star Wars”, Veterans Truth Network, July 14, 2016. http://veteranstruthnetwork.com/index.php/2016/07/14/we-are-the-empire-of-us-military-interventions-alien-disaster-movies-and-star-wars/
21 Libya is a complete Western disaster finds a British parliamentary report, New Eastern Outlook, October 28, 2016.
http://journal-neo.org/2016/10/28/libya-is-a-complete-western-disaster-finds-a-british-parliamentary-report/
22 The rise of a ‘democratic fascism, Consortiumnews.com, March 2, 2015.
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/03/02/the-rise-of-a-democratic-fascism/
23 Libya, from Africa’s richest state under Gaddafi, to failed state under NATO intervention, Global Research, September 14, 2016.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/libya-from-africas-richest-state-under-gaddafi-to-failed-state-after-nato-intervention/5408740
24 Barack Obama says David Cameron allowed Libya to become a ‘sh** show’, Independent, March 10, 2016.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/barack-obama-says-david-cameron-allowed-libya-to-become-a-s-show-a6923976.html
25 The Eurasian Century is now unstoppable, New Eastern Outlook, October 4, 2016. http://journal-neo.org/2016/10/04/the-eurasian-century-is-now-unstoppable-2/
26 Donald Trump causing NATO ‘anxiety’ after saying alliance is ‘obsolete’. SkyNews, January 20,2017.http://news.sky.com/story/germany-donald-trump-causing-anxiety-in-nato-after-saying-alliance-obsolete-10730886
27 Frexit: Le Pen promises to take France out of EU and NATO, RT, December 24, 2016. https://www.rt.com/news/371611-frexit-le-pen-promises-nato/
28 Breaking: German opposition leader calls for collective security union with Russia, Dissolution of NATO. Global Research, January 20, 2017.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/breaking-german-opposition-leader-calls-for-security-union-with-russia-dissolution-of-nato/5569929