#NorthAmerica First in #War, Last in #Peace

by Stephen Lendman

All US presidential aspirants make promises they intend breaking if elected - Trump no different than his predecessors.

Straightaway in office, he sold out to Wall Street, war-profiteers and other corporate favorites. Instead of draining the swamp, he filled it with neocon generals and billionaires. 

Hyperbole calling NATO “obsolete” is long forgotten. So is his phony worker friendly trade agenda - protecting investors over consumers, reneging on halting jobs offshored to low-wage countries.

Instead of changing destructive US policies, he’s pursuing them with vigor - notably by escalating wars in multiple theaters, including by attacking Syria’s Shayrat airbase, likely prelude for further aggression, maybe full-scale war risking confrontation with Russia.

Is North Korea on his target list? Will he risk East Asia nuclear war? His South China Sea saber-rattling risks confrontation with China. Threats against Iran and Venezuela risk more trouble.

Does his “America first” hyperbole mean greater war on humanity than already? Does he intend making his administration first in warmaking above everything else?

How many more countries are on his target list? The New York Times criticized his missing voice on Syria since attacking its Shayrat airbase.

His actions speak louder than words, escalating Obama’s wars, featuring Mosul and northern Syria terror-bombing, massacring civilians, others in Afghanistan and Yemen - horrendous war crimes, ignored by media scoundrels.

What country does he plan to attack next? How many more combat troops are planned for US war theaters?

He earlier said “(w)e really have no choice. We have to knock out ISIS. I would listen to the generals, but I’m hearing numbers of 20,000 to 30,000” in Syria. 

McMaster reportedly wants 150,000, a full-scale invasion if ordered either way - for regime change, not combating ISIS Washington created and supports.

A White House statement said “(t)he president retains the option to act in Syria against the Assad regime whenever it is in the national interest…”

In other words, naked US aggression is OK if Trump orders it for any reason - claiming it’s in ‘the national interest.” 

He redefined “America first” - warmaking topping his agenda ahead of other priorities.

#War and #Peace in #Donbass

The Reversal of Kerry’s Ukraine Statement Came from Obama, Not Nuland

By Eric Zuesse

When Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland on May 15th contradicted her boss John Kerry’s statement of three days earlier, in which Kerry had warned Ukraine’s President Petro Petroshenko not to violate the Minsk II agreement, and not to invade Crimea, and not to re-invade Donbass, the source of this reversal was actually U.S. President Barack Obama, and not Victoria Nuland (as the State Department had reported).

When I first noticed the contradiction as I reported on May 21st, Nuland’s statement on May 15th was being quoted by Ukraine’s Interfax News Agency, without any link to its U.S. source. I looked but didn’t right away find its U.S. source, but the official Ukrainian news agency would not quote a U.S. Government official falsely, and so I went with the story on that basis.

Now that I have found the U.S. source in the full May 15th U.S. State Department press briefing in Washington, there can be little doubt that Nuland had actually been instructed by the White House to be quoted there as issuing this reversal of Kerry’s statement.

The press conference, by the Department’s press spokesperson Jeff Rathke, opened with an introductory statement in which he asserted:

Assistant Secretary Nuland’s ongoing visit to Kyiv and her discussions with Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and President Poroshenko reaffirm the United States’ full and unbreakable support for Ukraine’s government, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. We continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Ukraine and reiterate our deep commitment to a single Ukrainian nation, including Crimea, and all the other regions of Ukraine.

That’s all that was reported by Ukraine’s Interfax. Much later in the press conference, however, after

The #Minsk #Peace #Deal is a Set-Up!

#NYTimes: Ukraine’s Latest Peace Plan Inspires Hope and Doubts

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

After marathon negotiations, the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine announced a new cease-fire and a deal to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

THE ANTI-NEW YORK TIMES REBUTTAL

This circle-jerk in Minsk, #Belarus is real high-level grease-ball Mafia stuff. All of the participants, including #Putin and Porky #Poroshenko, know that it's a sick, twisted game that is every bit as phony as the never-ending soap opera known as "The Middle East Peace Talks". But because "public opinion" is an important element of any war, the leaders of #France, #Germany and #Ukraine (all acting under direct orders of the Zionist-Globalist U.S.) and Putin himself all have to show just how hard they are trying to achieve peace before the real war begins. At which time, Russia will rightly blame the West; and the West will falsely accuse "the new Hitler" of breaking the peace. 

How does Putin stand the smell of these vile creatures? Is it me; or does the frumpy fashionless Merkel bear a striking resemblance to another famous monster from Germany?

The cease-fire / peace just agreed to may not even last for a week, and certainly not for a whole month. The question is only one of who it is that will ultimately be blamed for breaking the peace. The fuuny part about this article is that it clearly telegraphs to the discerning reader that we should expect this deal to fail.