Deutschlandlied in Sarajevo

I used to enjoy the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concerts. Having been raised in an atheist society, I never stopped to wonder why a traditional concert in the capital of a staunchly Catholic thousand-year empire was held on January 1, rather than, say, Christmas Day. Then I found out the tradition was established in 1938, by none other than Josef Goebbels.

Another revelation came last year: a Bosnian-born journalist tracked down the photograph showing Adolf Hitler gazing at the marble plaque honoring Gavrilo Princip - the Bosnian Serb who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo. A modest monument, funded privately, the plaque had been put up in 1930. Within days of the Nazi occupation in 1941, the plaque was taken down and presented to Hitler as a birthday present. He had it displayed at the same museum as the railway car from Compiegne in which Germany had signed the armistice in 1918 - and where he insisted the French sign their surrender in 1940.

(Heinrich Hoffmann/Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München/Bildarchiv)

In 1914, warmongers in Vienna used the assassination (ironically, it was the Archduke who had kept them in check) to launch a war of extermination against Serbia, which eventually destroyed the Hapsburg empire instead. Attempts have been made to blame the Serbs and Serbia for the Great War ever since.

The latest round of revisionism came as the centenary of the war approached. On June 28, mainstream media throughout the West carried stories about the "Serbian" assassin of the Archduke and his wife (Sophie Chotek was killed accidentally; Princip was aiming at General Potiorek, the hated military governor of Bosnia) and the assassination treated as the actual cause - and beginning - of the war. This fits the current narrative of (Western) European unity - under the Atlantic Empire - fighting the "evil" Russians and "troublemaker" Serbs, but it has little to do with the truth.

Ukraine: Behind the Ceasefire

What's behind the Kiev junta's offer of "ceasefire" and "talks" with the two regions in the East? A genuine effort to achieve peace, or a smokescreen for another attempt to subjugate all of Ukraine to the pro-Imperial, Nazi-dominated regime?

I was one of the guests debating this in today's CrossTalk, with Eric Kraus in Moscow and John B. Quigley in Columbus, Ohio. The embedded video is not yet available, but you can watch the show at the link above.

Between the knowledge that "Ukraine" is about to sign a treaty with the EU (which the EU itself doesn't want, but is being made to sign by guess who), and the fact that events in that country are being directed using the same script created by the West for Yugoslavia, I get the feeling that the ceasefire was a trick. Especially since it didn't hold.

I would not be the slightest bit surprised if the EU put forth a motion to deploy an "international presence" in the East, disarm the rebels (but not the Nazi Guard or oligarchs' militias, as those would become "legal government troops") and buy the Kiev regime some time to get money and weapons from the Empire, in hopes of staging something like "Flash" or "Storm." Sure, Poroshenko and the Nazis aren't thinking long-term, but the people they are taking orders from do. Meanwhile, the media are already claiming Russia has "blinked" and "capitulated" by not sending in the troops - when they aren't lying about Russia having sent troops, that is.

There is something Eric Kraus said that we didn't have time to discuss, but it's very interesting. Namely, the EU treaty would destroy the industry in the East and force Russia to seal the border. While Kraus thinks this will hurt the Ukrainian economy - and he's not wrong - the junta doesn't care about that. It doesn't even care that by strangling the East it's destroying the very tax base that has enabled the west - the stronghold of Banderist and Russophobic "Ukrainianism" - to survive. Had economic considerations been factoring into any of their actions, they wouldn't have staged a coup in February, or started a civil war later.

There is no solidarity among the oligarchs. At best, they prop up one another for short-term gain, but always ready to devour the power and money of whichever one of them falters (e.g. Yanukovich). To me, the EU deal is a tool to bankrupt the East (never mind that the rest of the country would follow) and force it into submission, counting on Russia having to seal off the border to avoid the flood of duty-free EU goods - and then blaming that for the ensuing economic hardship in Kiev-controlled territories.

Problem is, by doing this they've left the people of the East with nothing to lose. Even if Kiev offered them federalization - which it won't - why would they take it? There is nothing for them in a Ukraine that just became a strip-mine colony for the EU. Conversely, independence or union with Russia becomes that much more appealing. 

The Desperate Smearbund

Could it be an indicator of the Empire's desperation that they are now trying to "Serb" Vladimir Putin, resurrecting the Serbophobic propaganda of the 1990s to smear the Russians as "aggressors" while whitewashing the Ukrainian (and Croatian) Nazis?

What else is one to think of this June 19 article in The New Republic, by Vera Mironova and Maria Snegovaya, a combination of gross journalistic incompetence and Holocaust denial?

I have written up a reaction over at the Reiss Institute, which Julia Gorin has reposted and accompanied with further helpful links and research.

Don't let this filth go unanswered.

Screenshot of the TNR article whitewashing the Ukrainian and Croatian Nazis,
while blaming the Russians and the Serbs as "occupiers"

Operation Bagration

On June 22, 1944, three years to the day since Axis forces invaded the Soviet Union, the Red Army launched the biggest counterattack of the war, crushing the German Army Group Center.

The offensive was named after prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration, hero of Borodino.

Failure to Communicate

I attended the US-Russia Forum in Washington, DC earlier this week, and came away with mixed impressions. On one hand, almost everyone involved was trying to improve relations between Russia and the U.S. On the other, entirely too many Americans involved continue to believe that the problem here isn't the Atlantic Empire's abuse, but some phantom Russian intransigence, "revisionism" or "retrenchment."

(inspired by commenter "bearspaw" below; as seen on Facebook)

I've offered up my overview of the conference in a column over at Antiwar.com. To sum it up here, the presenters had a very real diversity of opinion, rather than being "Putin apologists" as presstwats predictably claimed. Leonid Gozman, for example, openly backed the Kiev junta, illustrating the typical position of what passes for "liberals" in Russia (and explaining why their support runs into low single digits). There were speakers blaming the EU (which has shown its utter inability to do anything but obey Washington), or even asserted that Russia's reaction in the Crimea endangered nuclear nonproliferation talks - without stopping to think it's the Imperial pattern of aggression that's compelling countries to seek nuclear insurance in the first place.

For their part, I don't think the Russians fully understand this, either. It's only normal for everyone to interpret the behavior of others through the prism of their own; so Americans always see others as aggressors, invaders, liars, murderers and terrorists. The latest example of this "flipping the script" is a New Republic feature comparing Putin to Milosevic. In reality, it is the West acting towards Russia the same way they acted towards the Serbs two decades ago. I've argued before that Putin is aware of this, though the Russian public and media in general may not be. The Russians tend to see Americans as rational actors, playing the game of politics by the rules. Perhaps they ought to watch (or better yet, read) some Game of Thrones, lest they end up like the Starks to the Anglo Lannisters.

To borrow a movie quote, what we have here is a failure to communicate. And that's not just depressing, but in the present situation, downright dangerous.

Parsing Putin's Popularity

Here is a handy graphic that explains why Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin's approval ratings are north of 80% these days.

"How has Russia changed in 15 years of Vladimir Putin's governance?" (e.g. between 1999 and 2013)

GDP went from $195 billion (1999) to $2,113 billion in 2013.

Per-capita GDP went from $1,320 to $14,800.

Inflation went from 36,5% to 6.5%.

Gold reserves went from $12,6 billion to $511 billion.

Government debt went from 78% of the GDP to 8% of the GDP.

Average monthly pension went from 499 rubles to 10,000 rubles.

Average monthly wage went from 1522 rubles to 29,940 rubles.

Ah, but Putin put an end to the raping and looting of Russia by Western "reformers" and their pet oligarchs, and stood up to the Atlantic Empire's reign of chaos. Can't have that. So the Western media calls him an "autocrat" (though he obeys the letter of the law punctiliously), but lavishes praise on the ruler that shrugs laws off in favor of "a pen and a phone."

No wonder no one has put together a chart like this for the United States. Those numbers must be terrifying... 

FIFA Upholds Sieg-heiling Conviction

In November last year, when Croatia's soccer team managed to win passage to the 2014 World Cup by the skin of their teeth, one of the players sieg-heiled with the crowd in triumph. While Nazi displays in Croatia - from soccer stadiums to symbols of state - have been ignored for over two decades, FIFA couldn't let this one go. "Crazy Joe" Šimunić was fined and suspended for 10 games - starting with the World Cup.

At the end of April, a Croatian web magazine (billing itself as "one of the world’s leading portals") quoted Šimunić's lawyer Davor Prtenjača, who was optimistic that the decision would be overturned on appeal. Citing the speed of the hearing - just a month after the appeal was filed - as cause for hope, Prtenjača added that "FIFA had given up on the assertion that “Za dom – spremni” was purely a fascist salute, but still claim Šimunić had provoked racial hated at Maksimir stadium."

Both the salute and the shield have been symbols of the Croatian Nazis (Ustasha), who committed genocidal atrocities against Serbs and Jews and Roma so vicious, even some Nazis were appalled. Yet the defense is now that the salute - the Croatian equivalent of the German sieg-heil - was "not purely fascist"? Same with the checkerboard shield, which the Croats claim is an ancient symbol of their people. So? The swastika is an ancient Hindu symbol, yet it's been banned throughout much of the world because of its association with Hitler.

But even allowing for all that, for the sake of argument, what explains this?

Široki Brijeg, Herzegovina, November 2010 (source)

This photo is from a November 2010 game in the overwhelmingly Croat Široki Brijeg, in Herzegovina, where fans of the local team waved around both the actual Nazi flag and that of the Vatican - because the Church of Rome was a major backer of the Croatian Nazis, in WW2 and thereafter.

In any case, the "not solely fascist" defense didn't work. Šimunić lost his appeal on May 13, and the only way he will be involved with the World Cup - which begins this afternoon - is as a spectator. 

Western Economy, Explained

And this is why I enjoy reading Karl Denninger's The Market Ticker:

Oh boy, the imagery this conjures up....

"Just when the European recovery story looked played out, the European Central Bank sent out a new mating call to equity investors with a major policy package that included rate cuts."

You're going to get mated with all right.

The problem is that it's going to be in one of the holes that does not offer the prospect of reproduction.

Today's Western economy, in a nutshell.

This is why I think all the recent protestations of power are just a bunch of hot air. 

The Empire of Stupid: Old Map Hoax Taken Seriously

When the tabloid media in Serbia - controlled by foreign conglomerates or oligarchs loyal to whatever quisling government happens to be in charge (since every parliamentary party has been suborned, it doesn't make much difference) - print unverified rumors and fanciful flights of wishful thinking, that's par for the course. A group of satirists even mocked this a few years back, by planting patently false stories written in such a way that they sounded plausible (think The Onion here), but wouldn't hold up to elementary fact-checking. But whether due to laziness or wishful thinking, the press never bothered to check, running the stories because they fit their confirmation bias.

So it says volumes about Foreign Policy - very much a voice of the DC establishment - that it chose to run a serious analysis of a complete and utter hoax, and a stale one at that. On June 4, FP contributor Frank Jacobs wrote about "what Russia could look like in 2035 if Putin gets his wish," referring to a map of Europe allegedly created by "Russian experts."

There is just one tiny little problem: the whole thing is a fabrication. Moreover, it's an old one: the story of it broke in Serbia in January 2013 (here is the state television, taking it at face value), and the map itself appeared in the summer of 2012 in the Russian tabloid "Express Gazeta." But that is not where it originated.

Far from being an actual analysis of the GRU or the KGB or some top-level Moscow institute or even Putin himself (because "everybody knows" Vladimir Vladimirovich is a superhuman mastermind who personally does everything in a country of some 150 million, right?), the map was produced by a Ukrainian web magazine "Obozrevatel", with the author identified as "Pavlo Nikonenko."

Empire's White-Knighting Explained

In an article published in Counterpunch on Friday, Diana Johnstone pulls back the curtain on the Ukraine crisis:

"In September 2013, one of Ukraine’s richest oligarchs, Viktor Pinchuk, paid for an elite strategic conference on Ukraine’s future that was held in the same Palace in Yalta, Crimea, where Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill met to decide the future of Europe in 1945. The Economist, one of the elite media reporting on what it called a “display of fierce diplomacy”, stated that: “The future of Ukraine, a country of 48m people, and of Europe was being decided in real time.” The participants included Bill and Hillary Clinton, former CIA head General David Petraeus, former U.S. Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers, former World Bank head Robert Zoellick, Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt, Shimon Peres, Tony Blair, Gerhard Schröder, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Mario Monti, Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite, and Poland’s influential foreign minister Radek Sikorski. Both President Viktor Yanukovych, deposed five months later, and his recently elected successor Petro Poroshenko were present. Former U.S. energy secretary Bill Richardson was there to talk about the shale-gas revolution which the United States hopes to use to weaken Russia by substituting fracking for Russia’s natural gas reserves." 

Ah yes, the shale gas canard that's physically and mathematically impossible: the U.S. simply does not have the shipping and processing capabilities to meet Europe's gas needs - nor is there nearly as much shale gas in the fracking wells as originally estimated. Doesn't stop the world's biggest conmen from trying, though.

"U.S. policy, already evident at the September 2013 Yalta meeting, was carried out on the ground by Victoria Nuland, former advisor to Dick Cheney, deputy ambassador to NATO, spokeswoman for Hillary Clinton, wife of neocon theorist Robert Kagan. Her leading role in the Ukraine events proves that the neo-con influence in the State Department, established under Bush II, was retained by Obama, whose only visible contribution to foreign policy change has been the presence of a man of African descent in the presidency, calculated to impress the world with U.S. multicultural virtue. Like most other recent presidents, Obama is there as a temporary salesman for policies made and executed by others."

The truth hurts. But it's blindingly obvious.

Seven Decades Hence

"The world is Hades for me now
and all men in it hellish spirits."
- The Mountain Wreath

Seventy years ago, on June 6 1944, the Western Allies launched the largest amphibious operation in history, landing hundreds of thousands of men and tanks onto the beaches of Normandy. Were they fighting and dying for an American Empire, or the world democratic revolution? The Emperor now says so.

Did those men fight so their country could pick up Hitler's torch 50 years later, back his allies, pursue his policies? With the Luftwaffe bombing Belgrade again, German boots on Serbian soil, SS marches in Latvia, and Banderist torchlight parades in Ukraine, Anglo-American boasting of how they won in 1945 are at best hypocritical and hollow. At worst, a cruel jest.

Bandera supporters march in Lwow, January 2013 (via "Kyiv Post")

The "Greatest Generation" is spinning in their graves. Hitler's ghost cackles with glee.

But the East remembers.

Of Quislings and Censorship

An old Serbian folk tale tells of a peasant who served a Turkish judge (qadi) as a cowherd. He had one cow of his own, which he shepherded along with the qadi's herd. One time, the cows got into an altercation, and the peasant's cow gored the qadi's.
So the peasant hastens into town, and tells the qadi: "Effendi, your cow gored mine!"
"Whose fault was it, did someone make them?" asks the qadi.
"No, effendi, they fought among themselves," answers the peasant.
"Well, then. Can't put cattle on trial," says the qadi.
"But effendi, did you hear what I said? My cow gored yours!" the peasant says.
"What? Wait, then, I must look at the law," exclaims the qadi and reaches for the book.
The peasant grabs his arm and says: "By God and God's faith you won't! If you didn't look at the law for mine, you won't look at the law for yours either."

Contrast that to the Roman expression "Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi" - what Jove may, the ox may not. While the Serbian cowherd insists on equality of justice, the Romans enshrine a double standard. One of the greatest accomplishments - perhaps the only one - of the Enlightenment was the notion that "all men are equal" before the law. That is, that a law is the same for rich and poor alike, for both Jove and the ox.

What if the ox is Jove? (source)

A sea of ink would run dry before one could describe all the instances of double standards and gross violations of this principle just in the case of the country that was once Yugoslavia. And this week there was another.

Fear and Loathing at the New York Times

An autocrat

A toxic mixture of arrogance and stupidity haunts the establishment class of the Atlantic Empire. They really believe they can create reality through willpower alone (as Karl Rove told Ron Suskind back in 2004), that America is the "indispensable country" (M. Albright), and that God - or whatever they believe in these days - has given them the world to do with as they please.

I'm not talking about the Emperor's West Point speech, however deluded it may have been, but about the hysterical reaction of the chattering classes to it, best exemplified by the New York Times' "conservative" columnist David Brooks.

Alarmed that His Most Elevated Imperial Majesty may have had a stray thought or two about - gasp! - restraint, Brooks upbraids Barack Obama for insufficient imperialism. Sure, Obama "argued persuasively" for the need to "mobilize democracies", and his UN envoy Samantha Power gave a "great" (i.e. fiery) speech to the new generation of Harvard drones, but let's remember that World War Two was the fault of America failing at its duty to rule the world.

Er, what? No, really. Brooks actually wrote that:

"In the 1920s and ’30s, for example, Americans were in a retrenching mood, like today. The result was a leaderless world, the gradual decay of the world order and eventually World War II."

The Audacity of Delusion

It is one thing when Mad Madeleine Albright declares the U.S. "the indispensable nation", and quite another when Barack "Hope and Change" Obama does so, 15 years after Albright's conceit has been conclusively proven wrong.

As I told Voice of Russia the other day, there is a dangerous combination of arrogance and stupidity in Washington, making the Empire's leadership blind to reality because they've begun to drink their own kool-aid.

In his West Point speech, the Emperor demonstrates the fact of this. It's all hyperbole, outright denial of reality and assertion of virtual facts. Moreover, he admits to it, crediting "our ability to shape world opinion" (!) for the alleged "isolation" and "condemnation" of Russia, even as he describes his camp followers - G-7, EU, OSCE, NATO and the IMF - as "the world."

Jan Oberg of the Transnational Foundation offers an interesting analysis of the West Point speech. I'd like to quote the conclusion here, but I suggest you read all of it:

In its reality-defying arrogance and self-praise it leaves little hope for those of us who have always been fascinated by the American cultural and other creativity and – earlier – leadership while loathed its empire’s arrogance, exceptionalist militarism and insensitivity to the victims of its policies.
The audacity of hope is crushed. Regrettably, with this speech one has to think more in terms of the audacity of fear to begin to perceive the potentially catastrophic combination of militarism, hubris, a decreasing sense of reality and silly self-praise.

Duh-mock-risy

This morning, I was on the newest episode of "CrossTalk" to discuss the farce that is the "presidential election" in Banderastan (formerly the Ukraine). It should air tonight sometime, and I'll try and post it as soon as it is online. (UPDATE: You can watch the show here)

Look at who all was involved: "several US senators," Mad Madeleine Albright and her NDI, the State Department, OSCE... Three cats and a unicycle-riding poodle could have voted, and they'd still call it legitimate. Meanwhile, the exit polls are in. Congratulations, it's an oligarch!

A sharp-eyed Facebook user spotted this attempt at perception management, that best illustrates today's circus:

On the left is a Ukie Twitter feed purporting to show happy voters being democratically democratic (source); on the right, the same photo - taken two weeks ago, in Gorlovka, during the Donetsk referendum on independence (source).

"Oops" doesn't even begin to cover it.

Parsing the Doublespeak on Ukraine

Tomorrow, the people in parts of Ukraine controlled by the Banderist coup regime in Kiev will be given a chance to "vote" in a farce of an election, and pick one of the candidates endorsed by the ruling junta to become "president" of Ukraine - or rather, then Banderastan rump thereof.

No matter how farcical and absurd the "election" turns out to be, it will be declared legitimate, free and fair by the Empire and its stooges. Because - as Phillip Cunliffe observed in 2007, and I keep reminding you here - to them, democracy is whatever they decide it is.

Oleh Yaroslavovych Tyahnybok, Empire's "democratic democrat" (via Novi Standard)

Fellow blogger The Saker has put together a post that cuts through the Imperial doublespeak. I believe it represents the best summation of the events in Ukraine so far, so I am re-posting it here with his permission, just in case someone tries to stop the signal:

Calling things by their proper names in the Ukraine
(Vineyard of the Saker, May 23, 2014)

Life often seems like one long never ending Asch conformity experiment: even when there is overwhelming evidence that something is "A", the media, and those zombified by it, confidently state "non-A". That this kind of doublethink is also applied to the conflict in the Ukraine should surprise nobody, but it is still important to "call a stone and stone" and to give a clear and unambiguous characterization of what has happened so far and what is about to happen this Sunday.

So today I want to re-state the obvious using the most direct and unambiguous language possible. My hope is to contribute to wake up at least one comatose person out there by calling things by their proper names.

Flood testimonial: Doboj

Here is a video-testimonial of the flooding that hit Doboj (Serb Republic, Bosnia-Herzegovina) last Friday, recorded by Ozren Stakić. In just six minutes, the angry river Bosna spills over into the town, drowning a busy intersection.

Here is how high the waters rose - a "before and after" photo of Doboj, found on Facebook:

The waters have receded, but the devastation remains. If you can, please help.

Vignettes from the Deluge

The rains have stopped, but the floodwaters have not receded yet. Reports are coming in like the tide - 1,5 million affected, dozens of dead. Enormous property damage includes crops and livestock, which will have an impact on food supply down the line.

Cataclysms bring out the best and the worst in people. Here are just some tidbits that have reached me over the past couple of days.

First, the good. Tens of thousands have volunteered to shore up the levees and save towns like Šabac from suffering the fate of Obrenovac (now completely underwater). Among them were Serbs from Kosovo, the very same people the current Serbian government renounced and tried to force to become "Kosovians". Reports from Bosnia suggest that Serbs and Muslims have banded together to survive the flooding, while Croats - whose strongholds in the south were unaffected - sent rescue teams to help both. Rescue teams from Croatia proper have lent aid to both Bosnia and Serbia.

Flood Aid for Serbia and Bosnia

Heavy rains over the past several days have resulted in flooding of "Biblical proportions" in much of Serbia and Bosnia.

Obrenovac, Serbia, May 2014

UPDATE: More charities added below

Thanks to a diligent reader, I have been informed that the humanitarian organization "Serbs for Serbs" (Срби за Србе) - which has worked since 2005 to provide assistance to endangered families, especially in Kosovo and among the Krajina refugees - has launched a drive to help those affected by the flooding.

I am passing on this information as a courtesy; for all questions, please contact SZS directly, via email or Facebook.

Here is how to donate:

Bildt's Tweets, Real and Fake

Nils Daniel Carl Bildt is currently the Foreign Minister of Sweden, and a longtime operative for the Transnational Progressivist establishment (e.g. the first Viceroy of Bosnia). He is also on Twitter.

Last week, some online outlets in Serbia reported that Bildt had tweeted: "the biggest mistake of the modern Russian government and Vladimir Putin was the return to Orthodoxy, which is worse than the Islamic terrorism that appears in the east."

Now, anyone even remotely acquainted with Twitter would have realized this could not have been accurate - not because Bildt doesn't dislike Russia or Orthodoxy (more on that in a second), but because the alleged statement is too long for a 140-character tweet. Moreover, a proper Tranzi like Bildt would have never used the phrase "Islamic terrorism" or referred to Islam in anything but properly submissive terms. Especially in Sweden, which has just about criminalized criticism of Islam. But the legacy media - controlled by foreign interests or the puppet government - did not bother to mention any of this, while the blogosphere took 'Bildt's" words and ran with them, because the made-up quote fit in with his other views on Russia and the EU/US policy in the Ukrainian meltdown.

Statism at its "finest"

You can read through volumes of political theory, philosophy and analysis to understand the basic libertarian argument against government - as a tyrannical force routinely initiating aggression against people's lives and property. Or you could take one look at this video, put together by the Danish government, as an inducement to vote in the upcoming European Parliament elections.


Why in the blazes would any government, much less a transnational bunch of busybodies, legislate the amount of cinnamon on a bun? But you're not supposed to ponder that question. Yours is to vote (for whatever's on offer) or else. And by "else" this Danish government-funded video means getting decapitated, roughed up or defenestrated (after a home invasion), by "Voteman."

Forget "civic duty" or "representative government" or "subsidiarity" or any of the fine vestments devises to cover up the force and fraud. This is what they mean by democracy, folks. This is distilled statism. 

Murdering History, Again

Two days ago, as I posted about the meaning of St. George's day and the victory ribbon, news came of this:

So, in addition to murdering or burning alive any Ukrainians who disagree with them, the Banderite regime in Kiev is now butchering history. Where oh where have we seen this before?

What exactly are "European symbols"? The poppy flower is an English thing, traditionally associated with November 11 and the armistice that ended the Great War (1914-18), inspired by the poppies of Flanders. What exactly do Flanders, Britain or WW1 have to do with 1945? Also, why would Ukraine commemorate 1939, when Hitler invaded in 1941?

Unless... in addition to sucking up to the English (and maybe payback for rescuing the Banderites in 1945), the red-and-black poppies could be a wink and a nudge to the Banderite flag (see the "Right Sector" symbols). And the focus on 1939 might be the preparation for claiming that "Ukraine" was "invaded" by the Soviets. Anything to properly "integrate" Banderastan with the West, where Victory Day has already been politically corrected into "Europe Day."

Either way, considering it was the Soviet Union that deserves the overwhelming credit for actually destroying Nazism, the decision to use "European" symbols is a travesty. Worse, it is a deliberate insult to all those murdered by Hitler's hordes. And let's by all means remember - since they seem so proud of it - that among Hitler's allies were the Ukrainian SS and militias, whose heirs now "rule" in Kiev on behalf of the Atlantic Empire.

As I noted on Tuesday, I'll keep flying the Ribbon of Saint George to let them and their sponsors know that they were defeated then, and will be defeated again. Here is that message in Russian - courtesy of KP - so they may understand precisely what I mean:

Когда я надеваю георгиевскую ленточку, я делаю это во имя моих предков, которые веками сражались с турками, завоевывая свою свободу. Я делаю это во имя моего деда, который выжил в лагере для военнопленных. В память о бабушке, которую я не знал; ради многочисленных родственников, погубленных усташами. Я делаю это, чтобы выразить свое презрение нацистами, усташам, сегодняшним бандеровцам. И чтобы напомнить им (и их спонсорам), что мы победили их тогда, и победим снова.
Потому что они и есть дракон, которого убил Георгий Победоносец.
И Восток помнит.

The Sound of Russian Silence

The following essay was written on May 5, 2014, by Roman Nosikov. Its Russian original is here. As my Russian is not equal to the task, I have taken the liberty of translating it from a Serbian version, posted here. Any errors, omissions or infelicities are mine. 

The world is full of calls to Russia. The world calls to Russia and her president to influence the "pro-Russian separatists" in southeast Ukraine. The international community, the Russian intelligentsia, the Ukrainian media clique, all choke on the cries reminding us of our peacefulness, our non-resistance to evil, of Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi.

"Peace! Peace! Peace! Mercy!" is what we hear, 24 hours a day.

But at the same time, those same throats spit out threats: "Sanctions! You shall starve! We shall drive you into huts, into caves! We shall take away everything, select everyone, buy everything! We order you! We condemn you!"

And what answer do we hear? What do our colleagues hear from the Russian president? What do they hear from our people?

Silence.

Heavy, unbearable Russian silence that rests over the world like a calm before the storm.

Saint George's Day

In the Orthodox (Julian) calendar, today is April 23 and the feast of St. George, the fabled dragonslayer and patron saint of many Serbs.

According to the legend, Saint George came upon a kingdom beset by a foul, plague-breathing dragon. To appease the dragon, they began to give it a daily sacrifice of livestock, and later even their children. When the saint came along and killed the dragon, the grateful citizens embraced Christianity.

In Serbian folklore, the feast of Saint George is the beginning of hayduk season - guerrilla resistance to Ottoman overlords that had conquered Serb lands in the 15th century. The season traditionally ended on the feast of Saint Demetrius (Mitrovdan), October 26.

The distinctive orange/black ribbon shown above belongs to the Order of Saint George, the highest military decoration of Imperial Russia. During the Great Fatherland War (1941-45), the Soviets resurrected the ribbon to reward elite and Guards units, as well as individuals decorated for valor. The 1945 victory medal given to all veterans of the war also had the ribbon of Saint George. Starting with the 60th anniversary of the victory, in 2005, the ribbon has become a symbol of Russian patriotism and victory over the Nazis.

While Hitler was defeated in 1945, the Western allies immediately began using the Nazis and their sympathizers as allies in the struggle with "Communism" (i.e. the Soviet Union): from the actual Nazi scientists brought over in Operation Paperclip, to the Croatian Ustasha, Baltic Waffen-SS veterans and the Ukrainian Banderovtsi. Following the Soviet Union's demise in 1991, many of them, and their ideas, made a comeback - to the point where those who once fanatically served Hitler are now the most fanatical allies of NATO.

When I fly the ribbon of Saint George, I do it for my ancestors who fought the Turks for centuries, until they won their freedom. I do it for my grandfather, who survived a German POW camp; the grandmother I never knew; the scores of relatives murdered by the Ustasha. I do it to defy the Nazis, the Ustasha and the Banderovtsi today, to let them (and their sponsors!) know that they were defeated then, and will be defeated again.

Because they are the dragon. And the East remembers.

Remembering the "Blitz"

At 0530 hours on May 1, 1995, some 16,000 Croatian troops attacked the Serb-inhabited portion of Western Slavonia known as Sector West (a UN Protected Area, UNPA).

Following the failure of Croatian militias to conquer this and other Serb-inhabited areas (later united in the Republic of Serbian Krajina - RSK) that rejected Croatia's anti-Serb, neo-Nazi regime in Zagreb. In January 1992, an armistice was signed ("Vance Plan") and a UN force deployed to safeguard the Serb-inhabited areas following the withdrawal of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA).

Operation "Blitz", May 1-2, 1995 (source: CIA, via Wikipedia)

Backed by the United States government, Zagreb launched the May 1 operation as a trial balloon. Within 36 hours, the Croats had expelled the area's 15,000 Serbs, and killed 283 (including 57 women and 9 children). The UN troops charged with protecting the zone did nothing. The so-called "international community" (the Atlantic Empire and its vassals, in practice) did nothing.

Three months later, Croatia launched an all-out assault against the Serb-inhabited areas, with full diplomatic and political support of the United States government, killing 930 (with another 922 missing and presumed dead), while expelling almost all the remaining Serbs from the territories claimed by the Croatian state. By 2001, there were 380,032 fewer Serbs living in Croatia than in 1991, when Zagreb declared independence.

Both "police actions" were named in the true tradition of WW2 Croatia: "Flash" (Blitz, in German) and "Storm" (Sturm).

Croatian map of the "liberation" of Western Slavonia;
Serb-inhabited territories in blue were "liberated" in 1991,
in operation "Hurricane" (Orkan)  

Because Croatia was a proxy of the Atlantic Empire, it got away with this murder. Now the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev, which seized power in the illegal coup of February 22, is expecting to do the same, launching a military attack against the Ukrainians refusing to submit to them. But while they expect May 2014 will be like May 1995, they should remember what happened when someone else tried to replicate August 1995 in August 2008.

God is just, and His justice does not sleep forever.

The East remembers.

It's the Spelling, Stupid

A report that a "French" woman was stopped from visiting the U.S. - allegedly because her name sounded (vaguely) like al-Qaeda - reminded me of the peculiar quandary of Balkans spelling (or lack thereof).

RT reported that Aida Alic, 33, residing in southern France, was turned back from a flight to New York with her husband and two children, and told she had been "blacklisted". No official explanation was given, so Alic speculated to the regional daily Le Dauphiné Libéré that it must have been her name. All passports list surnames first, so hers identified her as "Alic Aida," which she says, when pronounced, may have sounded like "Al-Qaeda" to the Americans.

Except her name is really Aida Alić. The ć is pronounced as "ch", and it is the most common ending to surnames in what used to be Yugoslavia. If the name was Aida's problem (which may or may not be the case; mysterious are the ways of Homeland Security), it could have been resolved simply by knowing how to spell.

One of the first articles I wrote for Antiwar.com, back in 2000, dealt with the problem of Balkans spelling. Because Serbian - and the languages derived from it - is a phonetic language, there is no such thing as "spelling" in it: every letter always sounds the same. While solving the spelling problem, this feature of the mid-19th century linguistic reform also played merry Hell with etymology, grammar, and dialects. But that's another subject for another time.

There are always variations when transliterating names from languages with non-Latin alphabets, such as Russian, Greek, Chinese, Arabic or Hebrew. But there is no transliteration standard for Serbian (or its derivations), which is properly written in Cyrillic. An additional wrinkle is that many modern Serbs (and almost all derivative languages) use the Modified Latin alphabet invented in the early 1800s to replicate the Cyrillic reform for the benefit of Slavs living in Austria-Hungary.

Allow me to illustrate. The last Serbian royal house was named Карађорђевић, after their progenitor, Карађорђе. In Modified Latin, these names would be Karađorđević and Karađorđe, respectively. Properly transliterated, they might look like Karageorgevich and Karageorge. But the lazy, illiterate butchery of language simply erases the modifier marks, turning it into Karadordevic! Even ""Karadjordjevic" would be better, since it at least offers a nod to proper pronunciation of the ђ/đ (like the j in jam). But it still leaves us with a "c" at the end that is pronounced wrong.

Even though modern technology absolutely allows for multiple input alphabets - as demonstrated above - we still get "Alic" and "Vucic" and "Milosevic" and so on. But the problem goes beyond casual usage of lazy illiterates: documents issued in Modified Latin (passports, etc) do not transcribe the names either - so they simply get entered without what the clerks (wrongly) assume are "accent marks." Because of this combination of ignorance and stupidity, most people from the former Yugoslavia emigrating to the West end up with misspelled and unpronounceable names.

Transliteration after the fact is a cumbersome process, and even then, most people don't know how to actually spell their names in English, French, German, Dutch, etc. Previous generations of immigrants have tried, with varying success: Kucinich from Kucinić was a relatively minor change, while Mihajlo Pejić (Михајло Пејић) got turned into Mitchell Paige. Though he was still a hero either way, so there is that.

The Kiev Gambit

In my newest column on Antiwar.com, I argue that "the Atlantic Empire establishment may be looking for a new Cold War as a way to give the Empire meaning." Having failed at imposing the "end of history", the Empire desires to revert to the comfortable state of perpetual war - "in their minds... the best kind of conflict, in which the national security apparatus expanded exponentially, the military-industrial complex grew fat on government contracts, and the eventual victory of the West was foreordained by the superiority of morals and values."

as seen on Facebook

That won't work, of course, but they are too far gone in the world of their own lies to realize this. Which is why the "government" in Kiev - encouraged by the Empire - has launched a crackdown on the east of the country and ratcheted up the propaganda war. Neither effort is really working; Army convoys are being stopped by civilians in a repeat of the Kosovo Serb tactic, while the propaganda gets debunked almost as soon as it appears. See, for example, the case of the "OSCE observers" that weren't, or the anti-Semitic flyer, or the "photo evidence" even the New York Times felt compelled to retract.

Listening to the speech John Kerry made Thursday evening didn't quite make me gag. It did, however, make me feel very happy he was defeated by George W. Bush in 2004 - that's how dire it was. Moon of Alabama does a thorough debunking of Kerry, which I commend to your attention, and The Saker believes it signals desperation:

His statement is a desperate attempt to do what the lawyers call the "last resort rule".  It goes like this: “If you have the law, hammer the law. If you have the facts, hammer the facts. If you have neither the law nor the facts, hammer the table”.  Kerry was hammering the table really very, very strongly... Had the facts or the law been on his side, there would have been no need for table hammering, of course.

As I mentioned before, it is really useful to keep in mind this rule of propaganda: "The propagandist will not accuse his opponent of just anything, but precisely of the deed that the propagandist himself aims to perpetrate." (Ellul)

The Russians do, apparently. They have stopped taking phone calls from Imperial officials. 

Forbidden History: Yugoslavia in WW2

I rarely do advertising here, but today I'll make an exception.

Over the past year, Kragujevac historian Miloslav Samardžić has worked to make a documentary about the untold history of WW2 in Yugoslavia. The first six episodes of the series, "Kingdom of Yugoslavia in WW2", are now available for purchase here.

Proceeds from the first six episodes will go towards the funding of the following six. You can also buy the book on which the series is based.

I had a small part in this endeavor as well, as a pro bono translator/consultant on the series' English subtitles. So while I have no financial stake in this documentary either way, I would like to see it continue out of both professional curiosity and a desire to dig up as many facts as possible about this crucial period in history.

Truly He is Risen

Resurrection of Christ

"Pascha is not some beautiful legend, not some theoretical theology and not a nod towards a popular custom established in the distant past. It is the essence and kernel of Christianity. It is the victory that God has granted to us.

From the time of the apostles and up to the present the Church has preached Christ’s resurrection as the greatest miracle in the history of humanity. She speaks of this miracle not only as a fact of the Gospels, but – and what is especially important – as a moment of destiny for all those who have received the Paschal good news. This feast bears the most direct relationship to us, for Christ’s resurrection, the Lord’s redemption of the fallen world, is the greatest joy which the human person can experience. No matter how difficult our life, no matter what everyday troubles besiege us, no matter what grief and imperfections we have to endure from the world around us – all of this is nothing in comparison to the spiritual joy, to the hope of eternal salvation that God gives us."

(from the Paschal Proclamation of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, of Moscow and All Russia)

Christ is Risen!
Христос воскресе!
Χριστός ἀνέστη!

The Great Betrayer

Urged by their masters, the Maydan junta in Kiev has moved to suppress the pro-Russian regions in the east. According to reports coming in from the field, the "overwhelming military force" has fizzed and failed, due to the junta troops defecting or refusing orders to fire on civilians.

It is perhaps too late for the junta to think about this soberly; they are committed, 100% invested in doing the Empire's bidding, else they will be fed to their own "Right Sector" attack dogs. And even if that were not the case, they would still fear the retribution of ordinary Ukrainians whose livelihoods they have ruined with yet another "color revolution."

They are not the first people to think and act so. Many have served the Empire before, only to find themselves deposed and discarded; Wayne Madsen lists just some examples:

The CIA also virtually ran the intelligence services of Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, Dominican Republic caudillo Rafael Trujillo, Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, and Nicaraguan strongman Anastasio Somoza. However, in what may cause some apprehension among the interim leaders of Kiev, it should be noted that when the CIA grew tired of these dictators, it quickly helped eject them from power. Mobutu died in exile in Morocco after being overthrown by forces aided by the CIA. Trujillo was assassinated in his chauffeured Chevrolet Bel Air by plotters trained by the CIA. Noriega was arrested while seeking asylum in the Vatican embassy in Panama City after a U.S. military invasion; he served prison sentences in Florida and France and is now rotting away in a Panamanian jungle prison; and Somoza was forced to flee Nicaragua after a cut-off in U.S. support; his car was later hit by an anti-tank rocket while he lived in exile in Paraguay.

And just the other day, Justin Raimondo wrote about the Empire's propensity for betrayal, using the example of the failed, false twitter in Cuba (all emphasis mine):

This episode shows that the US government, far from being the champion of liberty in a decidedly un-free world, is actually the main danger to liberty on earth. It systematically betrays those it seeks to "liberate," ruthlessly and cruelly manipulating those who dream of freedom from tyrannical regimes – and then abandoning them at the critical moment, just as they left thousands of ZunZuneo subscribers hanging after luring them in with promises of "free" text messaging.

From Cuba to Crimea, Washington is engaged in a global shell game, luring sincere freedom-loving people into its various front organizations, and using them as pawns in order to pursue its own agenda – one that has little if anything to do with the natural aspirations of oppressed peoples. And they won’t even do it under their own banner – as bloodstained and ragged with abuse as it is. So distrusted and hated are they that they have to sneak around setting up "false flag" operations: they don’t dare do it in their own name.

And that should tell you something.

Pushkov: "PACE betrayed its own principles"

Last Thursday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) - voted to suspend Russia's voting rights in that body, explaining that:

...the military occupation of Ukrainian territory, threat of military force, recognition of the illegal so-called referendum and annexation of Crimea "constitute, beyond any doubt, a grave violation of international law".

The decision was based on a report by Austrian delegate Stefan Schennach.

Following the vote, Alexei Pushkov, head of the foreign affairs committee of Russia's Duma (lower house of parliament), gave a statement to the press. The video below, as well as the full English transcript of the remarks (delivered in Russian), are provided by fellow blogger The Saker, an outstanding source of information and analysis on the Ukraine situation.

Empire: It's Not Repression When We Do It

When the "Maidan" crowd was besieging and occupying government offices in Kiev, Brussels and Washington were cheering them on, and sending stern words of warning to President Yanukovich not to dare use force to re-establish order. Now that Kiev is controlled by their pet regime, however, they are demanding the use of force to suppress dissent. As Moon of Alabama points out:

[EU foreign policy chief] Ashton then:

"I call upon president Yanukovych, the government together with the leaders of the opposition to find an immediate way out of this deepening crisis, and to continue the work to find a way to solve the political crisis through dialogue."

Ashton now:

"The EU commends the Ukrainian authorities for pursuing their law and order operations in a measured way, in order to establish the authority of the state."

As for Washington, it sent CIA director Brennan to Kiev this past weekend. It must be a remarkable coincidence that Ukrainian "president" Turchinov then announced an "anti-terrorist" operation against demonstrators in the East.

Meanwhile, former head of Ukraine's security service (SBU), Alexander Yakimenko, claimed that his successor is a CIA stooge:

"Nalivaychenko was recruited by the US when he was Ukraine's Consul General in Washington [2001-2003]," said Yakimenko [to Russia's Channel One], for whom an arrest warrant has been issued in Kiev since he left the country last month... "The US is currently creating a sort of controlled chaos that is helping to blow up the bridges between Russia and Ukraine." (RT)

So while Moscow denies it wants Ukraine dismembered or destabilized - if it did, it could have done so at any point by now - Washington is feeding the flames. Samantha Power talks about "Russian propaganda" and accuses Moscow of organizing protests in the East. If this were actually the case, surely the all-listening NSA would have produced the Russian equivalent of the Nuland-Pyatt Call by now. But it hasn't. Which suggests such conversations do not actually exist - ergo, neither does the alleged Russian interference.

Moreover, John McCain (who the Hell put that lunatic in charge of foreign policy?) is doing the media circuit clamoring for U.S. weapon deliveries to the coup regime. So, Washington (and the EU), who justified their invasions of places like Serbia and Libya by claiming it was a crime for governments to oppress their own people, are telling (and helping) their puppet regime in Kiev to do just that.

UPDATE April 15, 2014): MoA offers this quote as further proof of Who/Whom in action:

Obama says the U.S. urges Ukraine's military not to get involved in a conflict that must be resolved politically. He's expressing outrage about images of Ukrainian security forces firing automatic guns on Ukrainian people.
Obama says in a statement that Ukraine should respect the right of protest and that protesters must be peaceful. He's calling for dialogue to reduce tensions and address the people's grievances.

Confused? Don't be - this was a statement made on February 20, calling on the Yanukovich government to appease the (pro-Empire) protesters. Now that it's his stooges have taken over in Kiev, the Emperor is all about crushing the (pro-Russia) protesters with overwhelming force.

Ukraine Update

To someone who has only watched the Western media - with its calculated nurturing of the rabid squirrel attention spans - the situation in Ukraine may make no sense beyond the simplistic narrative of "good Ukrainians" facing off the "invading Evilrussians."

One could just look at all the posts here tagged "Ukraine," but alas, my coverage of the crisis has been rather spotty, since I've had to spare some attention to Serbian issues as well.

To remedy this, I've been meaning to put together a brief summary of events in the past four months, but that turned out to be unnecessary: Russian vlog "Goblin News" has already done so. Watch their video here, with English, German or even Ukrainian subtitles (select from the CC menu). Hat tip to The Saker for finding the video.

The Saker has also posted Vladimir Putin's letter to Russia's gas buyers in Europe, and his analysis thereof. Both are worth reading, as is the Saker's coverage of recent unrest in Donetsk, Lugansk, Kharkov, and other regions in the East.

As for the big picture, I have a new piece up on Antiwar.com today, comparing the present situation with the plot of an undeservedly forgotten 1991 sci-fi novel. For all the differences, there are some eerie similarities - the transformation of the USA into a militarized, paranoid police state, and the use of Ukraine to strike at Russia, to name just two. And the author, Norman Spinrad, has a keen eye for understanding and describing what makes people tick.

About the only advice I can give, based on 15 years or so of observing the media, is this. When you read, watch or listen to the coverage of Russia in the West, keep in mind the following observation by Jacques Ellul, in his 1962 book "Propaganda":

"The propagandist will not accuse his opponent of just anything, but precisely of the deed that the propagandist himself aims to perpetrate."

In other words, an extreme form of psychological projection. Observe many examples of it in Frank Furedi's account of Western activists, published in Spiked. So, the next time you hear about Russia "violating international law," or "invading" someone, or being "imperialist", keep in mind that those accusations speak far more about the person or organization making them, than about their target.

If the Shoe Fits

A few days ago, a reader sent in a comment demanding I "stop using sexist remarks against women." (Being sexist against men is OK, then?)

Apparently, my recent use of "harridan" annoyed her, because it's a derogatory term that only applies to women, so my anonymous correspondent demanded I "cut it out."

Not a chance.

As a very American saying goes, "if the shoe fits, wear it." And does "harridan" ever fit the two women I mentioned in the article! Like a bespoke article of clothing. They are, in fact, belligerent, "bossy" women, carrying on in ways that are entirely inappropriate to anyone in their profession, male or female.

There is this thing I endeavor to adhere to here, called precision of language. So long as people like Ambassador Power and "journalist" Amanpour behave like harridans, I will call them that. I may also use shrew, termagant, harpy, gorgon, battle-ax - or any number of other appropriate expressions available in the English language.

And the Thought Police, both official and self-appointed, can go hump a burrow. 

"Kosovian" Suicide Bomber Behind Baghdad Attack

Serbian national television RTS reported earlier today that the March 25 suicide bombing in Baghdad was the work of Blerim Heta, a "Kosovian" Albanian. This, they say, is the first confirmed instance of any Balkans jihadist taking part in a suicide attack; there have been reports of Bosnian Muslims doing so in Iraq, but none could be corroborated.

Screenshot of the RTS report

Heta is a native of Uroševac (called Ferizaj by Albanians), and his family believed he was fighting in Syria. They confirmed his death, with Blerim's father Remzi denouncing religion and claiming his family followed "European values", while his son was "seduced".

RTS further cites a report on the website of the jihadist outfit ISIL, confirming Heta's death and referring to him as "Abu Habbab al-Kosowi".

Yet the most interesting detail of Heta's biography - that he worked for the U.S. military at Camp Bondsteel, the major military base right outside of Uroševac - is mentioned only in passing. When did he work there? What was he doing? Was he fired and then turned to jihad, or the other way around? Or was he recruited there to go to Syria? Questions about, yet RTS offers no answers. Maybe someone else will.

Residual Lies

One of the more ghastly features of Empire's war on reality is to what extent even those that have come to challenge its more recent lies still accept older ones as fact.

A perfect example is the otherwise enjoyable takedown of Mr. Obama's Brussels speech by Gayane Chichakyan on RT the other day. Responding to the Emperor's assertion that "NATO only intervened after the people of Kosovo were systematically brutalized and killed for years," Chichakyan simply said "Good point" and segued into talking about the civilian victims of NATO's 1999 aggression.

Here's the problem: it's not a "good point." It is just another lie.

NATO soldiers inspect a destroyed Serbian church in Prizren, following the March 2004 pogrom;
the graffiti (in gutter Albanian) reads "Death to Serbs" (photo: SrbijaDanas) 

Empire's War on Reality

I sure am glad I wasn't the only one telling the Emperor he had no clothes. The boy in Hans Christian Andersen's tale was lucky; in this day and age, he might have been hauled away for "diversity training".

Perhaps that is why the mainstream media are still silent on the (to put it mildly) Brussels gaffe. The Washington Post even quoted it without comment (!) while spinning Mr. Obama's speech as being a "generous spin" on the Iraq War. Fox News settled for reprinting the article written by two journalists at Breitbart London.

Just in case someone missed it, here is Mr. Obama's behind-the-looking-glass claim, made in the March 26 speech in Brussels:

"Kosovo only left Serbia after a referendum was organized – not outside the boundaries of international law but in careful cooperation with the United Nations, and with Kosovo’s neighbors."

And just to be clear, none of this ever happened. There was no UN-supervised referendum, no "careful cooperation" with anyone (least of all "Kosovo's neighbors", whoever that might be referring to), and no staying within international law. Why else would it have been necessary to bend it?

One possible explanation, as I noted yesterday, was that the Emperor's speechwriter mixed up the (nonexistent) referendum in Kosovo with the 2006 vote in Montenegro - a dirty affair in which the separatists barely scraped up the 55% majority arbitrarily decided upon by the EU. Bad enough when retired diplomats can't tell Kosovo and Bosnia apart, but the Emperor's own speechwriters mixing up his Balkans clients?

Daniel McAdams of the Ron Paul Institute may sound harsh when he calls this a "war on history," but he might actually be too lenient. This isn't just a war on history, but a war on reality. Remember Karl Rove's tirade to Ron Suskind, about the Empire shaping reality? Apparently this kind of delusional thinking is not just the province of Republicans and neocons. The party currently in power in Washington very much believes in the power of conjuring "reality" with words and images: Hope and change. Keep your doctor. Russia is an aggressor. There was a referendum in Kosovo. And so on.

The two experts interviewed by Breitbart reporters expressed expectations that the White House would issue a retraction, or at least an apology. That has not happened. Nor is it likely to happen, as that would undermine Washington's projected aura of infallibility - the only thing still hiding the fact that the Empire has no clothes.

Do Try This at Home

To Doris Pack, MEP:

It has come to my attention that you have praised the so-called "citizen plenums" in Bosnia, calling them a "good idea" and urging people to "take to the streets and take control of their own destiny."

Noble words. But this is what that looks like in practice:

(AP, via Daily Telegraph)

How about this, Doris: you do that, in your native Schiffweiler, first.

Don't bother letting me know how it turns out. I honestly don't give a damn.

WHY? - a RT Documentary

To mark the 15th anniversary of the NATO attack on Yugoslavia, RT has produced a documentary, asking the question in its title: Why?

NATO and its media apologist will give you a long list of excuses and justifications. But that won't be the actual answer. They did it for power, for kicks, because they could. And they will keep doing it, until they can't.

From the film's description:

Fifteen years after NATO’s 78-day bombardment of Yugoslavia, memories of the bombing still haunt present-day Serbia. NATO killed over 2,000 people, hundreds were civilians, 88 were children. Serbs ask ‘why?’ above all. Why did NATO smash their cities, kill their children, bomb hospitals and schools?
When the NATO bomb campaign began (on March 24th 1999) Jelena Milincic was a student at the University of Belgrade, and just 18 years old.
Jelena takes Anissa Naouai on a road trip, to remember the victims, and hear the survivors of NATO’s strike terror.

Watch "WHY?" on RT.

Directed by Pavel Baydikov
Written by Jelena Milincic, Anissa Naouai & Victoria Vorontsova
See RT for broadcast rights.

From Belgrade to Baghdad

Amidst all the activity concerning the Ukraine, I barely managed to set aside some time to commemorate the anniversaries of NATO's 1999 war of aggression and the 2004 pogrom it produced. And somehow I missed March 19, the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq - one of those invasions "on completely trumped up pretext" that, according to John Kerry, no one does anymore.

Except, you know, the Empire.

Just before the invasion began, I wrote about the complete moral bankruptcy of invoking the Balkans precedent, and all the ghastly, appalling "arguments" proffered by both advocates and "critics" of the invasion.

Here was Richard Holbrooke, for example: "one should never underestimate the persuasive power of power itself." And here was Veton Surroi, a "moderate" ethnic Albanian demanding that Iraqis die to justify the American murder of Serbs four years prior: "Change will only come when the bombs begin to fall."

All the "debate" in the West, then as now, has focused on appearances of Imperial interventions. With a handful of notable exceptions such as Ron Paul, few have ever questioned their validity. Until it is recognized that the Empire had no right to initiate the use of force, whether in Serbia in 1999, or in Iraq 2003, comparisons between the different acts of aggression will be mere exercises in justification.

Considering the number of falsehoods per sentence in yesterday's statement by Mr. Obama, however, I wouldn't wager on that recognition coming any time soon.