Neglect of Education, Death-Squads, and the Deep State Syndrome in Bangladesh

Taj Hashmi 

Education has almost everything to do with changing, modifying, and improving the levels of people’s culture (although “improving the cultural level” is a loaded and controversial expression). To remain politically correct, we may assert that education helps us broaden our world view, liberate ourselves from age-old, prejudicial ideas and practices promoted and nurtured by pre-modern feudalism, colonialism, and stagnating postcolonial states in the Third World, which are still clinging to many feudal and colonial values to the benefit of the postcolonial ruling elites. However, the systemic neglect of education at every level by all the post-Liberation governments in Bangladesh — the allocation for education being one of the lowest in the world, much lower than Sri Lanka’s — has not improved the cultural level of the bulk of the population.

There are three mediums of instruction in the country, Bengali, English, and Islamic or Madrasa, which respectively in general create under-employable, employable, and unemployable graduates. While the lower middle classes send their children to Bengali medium schools and colleges, the upper classes send their children to English medium institutions at home or abroad, and the poor can only afford Madrasa education for their children, who grow up as fatalist, unemployable, angry and frustrated adults. Last but not least, the official policy of promoting only Bengali medium education by almost classifying English-medium education as anti-national and unpatriotic (albeit it is grossly hypocritical and dichotomous to what the elites do with regard to the education of their own children) is mainly responsible for massive unemployment among “educated” and unemployable graduates in the country, their number is in the neighborhood of thirty to forty per cent. The consequential employment of tens of thousands of English-educated Indians in the private sector costs the country very dearly, to the tune of almost three billion dollars per year, remitted to India by the Indians, mostly working illegally in Bangladesh.

The education system that produces semi-educated, and even virtually illiterate people, cannot produce politically conscious citizens to question, let alone resist, autocracy, and extra-judicial killing, which are the building blocks of an overpowering Deep State. Bad education is possibly worse than illiteracy as it destroys traditional values that nurture civility, honesty, mutual love, trust and respect among people without building any better alternatives.

Postcolonial states like Pakistan and Bangladesh — as studied by Hamza Alavi — are glaring examples in this regard. As Alavi has pointed out , in postcolonial Pakistan and Bangladesh over-developed military, bureaucracy, and police run the state where the civil society being under-developed, remain dormant, ineffective, and irrelevant. In recent years, while the situation has substantially improved in Pakistan, Bangladesh has virtually become a police-state run by the over-developed military, bureaucracy, and police. Since January 2007, the Deep State is actually running Bangladesh, where the so-called elected governments are virtually at its service. The Deep State is also known as a state within a state, a clandestine government runs the show. As David de Leon pointed out in 1903, private corporations had been running the United States to the detriment of the best interests of the people [ David de Leon, “Imperialism in Imperio”, Daily People (editorial) June 4, 1903], so do modern scholars point out several deep states, like the CIA in the US, the ISI in Pakistan (its military intelligence outfit) are examples in this regard. The deep state is made of covert networks of power, such as the military, intelligence agencies, police, bureaucrats, and big business, who operate independently of a nation’s political leadership, in pursuit of their own agenda and goals.

In Bangladesh today, the culture of the deep state is more powerful than the collective mass culture of compliance, apathy, and dejection. The slow and steady rise of the deep state was inevitable after the Government in 2004 had introduced the dreadful Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) or death-squads à la Hitler’s Gestapo or secret police, and the Schutzstaffel, or SS troops, and the last Shah’s SAVAK in Iran, initially to get rid of hard-core criminals, which by early 2007 became the fearsome and unaccountable death-squads. Initially, cross sections of Bangladeshis, including educated people, welcomed the RAB as their last hope for restoring order in Bangladesh. It is time to understand people’s unconditional support for extra-judicial killings by the dreadful RAB actually symbolizes people’s diminishing respect for the police and judiciary. This culture of lack of faith in law-enforcers and the judiciary is an age-old tradition of Bengal, developed out of pragmatic reasons, or people’s experience of living under brutal pre-colonial and colonial regimes for centuries, from the Palas to the Senas, and the Mughals to the British. This culture of admiration for the RAB, which is a powerful organ of the deep state is very pertinent to the study of the cultural dimension of underdevelopment, or the absence of democracy, freedom, and human rights in Bangladesh.

Again, thanks to the excesses of the RAB — in a killing spree since 2007 — which has forcibly made hundreds of dissidents and others disappear across the country, the vast majority of Bangladeshis want a way out of the state of fear. In sum, Bangladesh is not only a fractured polity today — which is roughly divided between the Awami Leaguers and Anti-Awami Leaguers — it is also in a state of confusion, fear, and uncertainties. How long the so-called myth of prosperity will keep the underdogs — at least 70 per cent of the population live below the poverty-line drawn at more than $1.90 per capita income per day — is an embarrassingly loaded question. Nobody wants to answer it, economists, development practitioners, human rights activists, let alone the Government!

I end this submission with an old Urdu story, which goes like this: One poor widow invited four maulvis to pray for her dead husband. She prepared a good meal for them as well. Incidentally, all the four so-called maulvis were illiterate, even did not know any prayers. The first one came and while eating halwa and paratha, started murmuring in subdued voice, ” Mai kutch nahi janta” (I don’t know anything). Then came the second maulvi and sat next to the first one. He wanted to follow the first. He was shocked, and started chanting in low voice, “Jaisa tu, waysa mai” (I am like yourself). Then came the third one, and after discovering what was going on there, was very worried and started chanting in low voice,”Yeh kab tak chalega? (How long will this last?). Then came the fourth one, who was illiterate but smart. After listening to all the three maulvis, he just grabbed the bowl of halwa and parathas, and started gulping the food and started chanting, also in low voice: “Jab tak chale chala jaye, halwa-paratha khaya jaye” (Let us all eat halwa-paratha as long as we can!). I think the situation in Bangladesh is very similar to what was going on at the old lady’s house that day, ignorant but powerful people are busy ruining the country with their crude culture, ignorance, and brute force!

Pulwama attack: Politicizing a conflict for electoral gains

George Abraham

Ever since the attack in Pulwama by a suicide bomber killing 42 of India’s security personnel, the country has been on the edge fearing an all-out war with Pakistan.  Any civilized person could see the barbarity of this dastardly terrorist act only with disgust and rage. However, a confrontation between these two nuclear powers is neither in the interest of these two nations nor does it bode well for the future of this turbulent region. Pakistan has been waging a proxy war with India over the Kashmir issue from the time of Independence, and a final solution to this crisis is not within sight.

Some would argue that this is the time of war and everyone should keep their apprehensions about its conduct or any other questions they may have close to their chest.  However, a massive intelligence failure of this magnitude over the Pulwama tragedy should not be missed. How did a young man in his twenties, who was already on the radar of the Security personnel, come to possess, pack & conceal, and then drive 300KG worth of explosives towards a military convoy undetected? Reports from the region suggest that a police advisory was already in effect a week before this, stating that the Central Reserve Police Force deployment would be targeted. Where is the accountability on these massive security lapses?

A recent New York Times report paints a scathing image of India’s vintage military equipment and its impact on military readiness. “India’s armed forces are in alarming shape. If intense warfare broke out tomorrow, India could supply its troops with only 10 days of ammunition according to government estimates. And 68 percent of the army’s equipment is so old. It is officially considered ‘vintage’”.  A swollen bureaucracy together with lack of funding obviously rendered these procurement and training processes anything but cumbersome.

Nevertheless, India was left with no choice but to retaliate. Pakistan has been aiding and abetting Jaesh-e-Mohammed and its leader Masood Azhar despite the pressure from the U.N. and other international bodies. The Air Force was tasked to strike these terror targets in Balakot region: an order that was carried out despite bad weather conditions. The Indian Military has been known for its professionalism and respect for civilian leadership in a democratic setup. Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa refused to give a casualty count saying “”IAF doesn’t count the number of dead” and the “casualty figure in an air strike on Balakot camp will be given by the government,” referring to the air strike it had carried out on February 26, 2019.

However, what we have witnessed following the strike from the Government and the BJP leaders would not only sully the image of India but also the nation’s credibility through overt politicization of this conflict, as the country is preparing itself for a critical election. First, the leaked information from sources to the media put the casualty count at 300 to 350. Western intelligence sources and the International press immediately cast severe doubt on these numbers, and some reports directly from the ground characterized the damages as minimal.

However, in public speeches, Amit Shah, the President of the ruling party BJP, talked about 250 terrorists being wiped out. Other BJP leaders like BS Yeddyurappa said that his party would win 22 seats in Karnataka after the strike. It is as if BJP leaders are relishing these moments of war and salivating about the prospects of riding to victory in the fog of a protracted fight between these nations. It boggles one’s mind to believe that after the Pulwama attack, the terrorists associated with Jaesh-e-Mohammed just gathered together to sleep in one place, making an easy target of themselves for the IAF!

Anyone who questioned the veracity of these BJP leaders’ claims is called an anti-nationalist and accused of doing Pakistan’s bidding. “At a time when our army is engaged in crushing terrorism, inside the country and outside, some people within the country are trying to break their morale, which is cheering our enemy,” Modi said at an election rally. “I want to know from Congress and its partners why they are making statements that are benefiting the enemies”, he added. Modi is apparently absent from the capital in managing the conflict. Instead, he is entirely taking advantage of the ongoing battle on his campaign trail, vilifying the opposition and questioning their patriotism for political advantage.

Another shameful spectacle that is unfolding in India today is the blatant display of jingoism by the media and their networks to propel a wider war.  Instead of bringing together the nation at a time of crisis, some of these news channels are creating divisions, promoting hate and sowing discord. They broadcast manufactured news; shamelessly appropriate nationalism; and designate a segment as enemy allies. Many of them have become vassals of special interests mostly controlled by crony capitalists aligned with the ruling party.

It is also sad to hear that there is an atmosphere of fear and intimidation created for Kashmiri students across the country, as Sangh Parivar forces target them for revenge attacks. “It is no secret that the Bajrang Dal and the student wing of the Sangh were foremost in fomenting trouble against Kashmiri students in various parts of India. This was done keeping in mind the upcoming general election”, Omar Abdulla, former Chief Minister of Kashmir said. “It is obvious that BJP sees an advantage in these types of environments. It helps them paper over Modi’s mistakes like demonetization, joblessness, India’s poor economic growth and the distress faced by the country’s agricultural sector” he added.

We collectively admire the bravery and sacrifice of our armed forces. They are fighting to keep all Indians safe and protect the sovereignty of the nation from terrorists and a country that provides haven to them. Moreover, they are fighting to safeguard our democratic traditions and way of life. As Sashi Kumar, a commentator eloquently put it recently, “they are not fighting for this or that political party; they are not fighting for the electoral gains of the ruling party or of the opposition. However, they are if anything fighting the religious fundamentalism of one kind but not to replace it with the rampant religious fundamentalism of another kind, even of the majoritarian variety”.

The BJP’s strategy appears to be clear and straightforward: playing up Hindu nationalism; linking Kashmiri youth and Jihadi terrorists supported by an enemy, Pakistan; and providing ‘red meat’ to a large segment of the voting public, who are so disappointed with Modi’s failure to deliver his campaign promises. However, this is all at the risk of endangering India’s democratic and pluralistic values, and accelerating animosity between two armed nuclear neighbors, which may even put them on a path to potential disaster!

Syria Accuses U.S. Stole 40+ Tons of Its Gold

Eric Zuesse

The Syrian National News Agency headlined on February 26th, “Gold deal between United States and Daesh” (Daesh is ISIS) and reported that,

Information from local sources said that US army helicopters have already transported the gold bullions under cover of darkness on Sunday [February 24th], before transporting them to the United States.

The sources said that tens of tons that Daesh had been keeping in their last hotbed in al-Baghouz area in Deir Ezzor countryside have been handed to the Americans, adding up to other tons of gold that Americans have found in other hideouts for Daesh, making the total amount of gold taken by the Americans to the US around 50 tons, leaving only scraps for the SDF [Kurdish] militias that serve them [the U.S. operation].

Recently, sources said that the area where Daesh leaders and members have barricaded themselves in, contains around 40 tons of gold and tens of millions of dollars.

Allegedly, “US occupation forces in the Syrian al-Jazeera area made a deal with Daesh terrorists, by which Washington gets tens of tons of gold that the terror organization had stolen, in exchange for providing safe passage for the terrorists and their leaders from the areas in Deir Ezzor where they are located.”

ISIS was financing its operations largely by the theft of oil from the oil wells in the Deir Ezzor area, Syria’s oil-producing region, and they transported and sold this stolen oil via their allied forces, through Turkey, which was one of those U.S. allies trying to overthrow Syria’s secular Government and install a Sunni fundamentalist regime that would be ruled from Riyadh (i.e., controlled by the Saud family). This gold is the property of the Syrian Government, which owns all that oil and the oil wells, which ISIS had captured (stolen), and then sold. Thus, this gold is from sale of that stolen black-market oil, which was Syria’s property.

The U.S. Government claims to be anti-ISIS, but actually didn’t even once bomb ISIS in Syria until Russia started bombing ISIS in Syria on 30 September 2015, and the U.S. had actually been secretly arming ISIS there so as to help ISIS and especially Al Qaeda (and the U.S. was strongly protecting Al Qaeda in Syria) to overthrow Syria’s secular and non-sectarian Government. Thus, whereas Russia started bombing ISIS in Syria on 30 September 2015, America (having become embarrassed) started bombing ISIS in Syria on 16 November 2015. The U.S. Government’s excuse was “This is our first strike against tanker trucks, and to minimize risks to civilians, we conducted a leaflet drop prior to the strike.” They pretended it was out of compassion — not in order to extend for as long as possible ISIS’s success in taking over territory in Syria. (And, under Trump, on the night of 2 March 2019, the U.S. rained down upon ISIS in northeast Syria the excruciating and internationally banned white phosphorous to burn ISIS and its hostages alive, which Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama had routinely done to burn alive the residents in Donetsk and other parts of eastern former Ukraine where voters had voted more than 90% for the democratically elected Ukrainian President whom Obama’s coup in Ukraine had replaced. It was a way to eliminate some of the most-undesired voters — people who must never again be voting in a Ukrainian national election, not even if that region subsequently does become conquered by the post-coup, U.S.-imposed, regime. The land there is wanted; its residents certainly are not wanted by the Obama-imposed regime.) America’s line was: Russia just isn’t as ‘compassionate’ as America. Zero Hedge aptly headlined “’Get Out Of Your Trucks And Run Away’: US Gives ISIS 45 Minute Warning On Oil Tanker Strikes”. Nobody exceeds the United States Government in sheer hypocrisy.

The U.S. Government evidently thinks that the public are fools, idiots. America’s allies seem to be constantly amazed at how successful that approach turns out to be.

Indeed, on 28 November 2012, Syria News headlined “Emir of Qatar & Prime Minister of Turkey Steal Syrian Oil Machinery in Broad Daylight” and presented video allegedly showing it (but unfortunately providing no authentication of the date and locale of that video).

Jihadists were recruited from throughout the world to fight against Syria’s secular Government. Whereas ISIS was funded mainly by black-market sales of oil from conquered areas, the Al-Qaeda-led groups were mainly funded by the Sauds and other Arab royal families and their retinues, the rest of their aristocracy. On 13 December 2013, BBC headlined “Guide to the Syrian rebels” and opened “There are believed to be as many as 1,000 armed opposition groups in Syria, commanding an estimated 100,000 fighters.” Except in the Kurdish areas in Syria’s northeast, almost all of those fighters were being led by Al Qaeda’s Syrian Branch, al-Nusra. Britain’s Center on Religion & Politics headlined on 21 December 2015, “Ideology and Objectives of the Syrian Rebellion” and reported: “If ISIS is defeated, there are at least 65,000 fighters belonging to other Salafi-jihadi groups ready to take its place.” Almost all of those 65,000 were trained and are led by Syria’s Al Qaeda (Nusra), which was protected by the U.S.

In September 2016 a UK official “FINAL REPORT OF THE TASK FORCE ON COMBATING TERRORIST AND FOREIGN FIGHTER TRAVEL” asserted that, “Over 25,000 foreign fighters have traveled to the battlefield to enlist with Islamist terrorist groups, including at least 4,500 Westerners. More than 250 individuals from the United States have also joined.” Even just 25,000 (that official lowest estimate) was a sizable U.S. proxy-army of religious fanatics to overthrow Syria’s Government.

On 26 November 2015, the first of Russia’s videos of Russia’s bombing ISIS oil trucks headed into Turkey was bannered at a U.S. military website “Russia Airstrike on ISIS Oil Tankers”, and exactly a month later, on 26 December 2015, Britain’s Daily Express headlined “WATCH: Russian fighter jets smash ISIS oil tankers after spotting 12,000 at Turkish border”. This article, reporting around twelve thousand ISIS oil-tanker trucks heading into Turkey, opened: “The latest video, released by the Russian defence ministry, shows the tankers bunched together as they make their way along the road. They are then blasted by the fighter jet.” The U.S. military had nothing comparable to offer to its ‘news’-media. Britain’s Financial Times headlined on 14 October 2015, ”Isis Inc: how oil fuels the jihadi terrorists”. Only America’s allies were involved in this commerce with ISIS — no nation that supported Syria’s Government was participating in this black market of stolen Syrian goods. So, it’s now clear that a lot of that stolen oil was sold for gold as Syria’s enemy-nations’ means of buying that oil from ISIS. They’d purchase it from ISIS, but not from Syria’s Government, the actual owner.

On 30 November 2015 Israel’s business-news daily Globes News Service bannered “Israel has become the main buyer for oil from ISIS controlled territory, report”, and reported:

An estimated 20,000-40,000 barrels of oil are produced daily in ISIS controlled territory generating $1-1.5 million daily profit for the terrorist organization. The oil is extracted from Dir A-Zur in Syria and two fields in Iraq and transported to the Kurdish city of Zakhu in a triangle of land near the borders of Syria, Iraq and Turkey. Israeli and Turkish mediators come to the city and when prices are agreed, the oil is smuggled to the Turkish city of Silop marked as originating from Kurdish regions of Iraq and sold for $15-18 per barrel (WTI and Brent Crude currently sell for $41 and $45 per barrel) to the Israeli mediator, a man in his 50s with dual Greek-Israeli citizenship known as Dr. Farid. He transports the oil via several Turkish ports and then onto other ports, with Israel among the main destinations.

After all, Israel too wants to overthrow Syria’s secular, non-sectarian Government, which would be replaced by rulers selected by the Saud family, who are the U.S. Government’s main international ally.

On 9 November 2014, when Turkey was still a crucial U.S. ally trying to overthrow Syria’s secular Government (and this was before the failed 15 July 2016 U.S.-backed coup-attempt to overthrow and replace Turkey’s Government so as to impose an outright U.S. stooge), Turkey was perhaps ISIS’s most crucial international backer. Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s leader, had received no diploma beyond k-12, and all of that schooling was in Sunni schools and based on the Quran. (He pretended, however, to have a university diploma.) On 15 July 2015, AWD News headlined “Turkish President’s daughter heads a covert medical corps to help ISIS injured members”. On 2 December 2015, a Russian news-site headlined “Defense Ministry: Erdogan and his family are involved in the illegal supply of oil”; so, the Erdogan family itself was religiously committed to ISIS’s fighters against Syria, and they were key to the success of the U.S. operation against Syrians — theft from Syrians. The great investigative journalist Christof Lehmann, who was personally acquainted with many of the leading political figures in Africa and the Middle East, headlined on 22 June 2014, “U.S. Embassy in Ankara Headquarter for ISIS War on Iraq – Hariri Insider”, and he reported that the NATO-front the Atlantic Council had held a meeting in Turkey during 22-23 of November 2013 at which high officials of the U.S. and allied governments agreed that they were going to take over Syria’s oil, and that they even were threatening Iraq’s Government for its not complying with their demands to cooperate on overthrowing Syria’s Government. So, behind the scenes, this conquest of Syria was the clear aim by the U.S. and all of its allies.

The U.S. had done the same thing when it took over Ukraine by a brutal coup in February 2014: It grabbed the gold. Iskra News in Russian reported, on 7 March 2014, that “At 2 a.m. this morning … an unmarked transport plane was on the runway at Borosipol Airport” near Kiev in the west, and that, “According to airport staff, before the plane came to the airport, four trucks and two Volkswagen minibuses arrived, all the truck license plates missing.” This was as translated by Michel Chossudovsky at Global Research headlining on 14 March, “Ukraine’s Gold Reserves Secretly Flown Out and Confiscated by the New York Federal Reserve?” in which he noted that, when asked, “A spokesman for the New York Fed said simply, ‘Any inquiry regarding gold accounts should be directed to the account holder.’” The load was said to be “more than 40 heavy boxes.” Chossudovsky noted that, “The National Bank of Ukraine (Central Bank) estimated Ukraine’s gold reserves in February to be worth $1.8 billion dollars.” It was allegedly 36 tons. The U.S., according to Victoria Nuland (Obama’s detail-person overseeing the coup) had invested around $5 billion in the coup. Was her installed Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk cleaning out the nation’s gold reserves in order to strip the nation so that the nation’s steep indebtedness for Russian gas would never be repaid to Russia’s oligarchs? Or was he doing it as a payoff for Nuland’s having installed him? Or both? In any case: Russia was being squeezed by this fascist Ukrainian-American ploy.

On 14 November 2014, a Russian youtube headlined “In Ukraine, there is no more gold and currency reserves” and reported that there is “virtually no gold. There is a small amount of gold bars, but it’s just 1%” of before the coup. Four days later, Zero Hedge bannered “Ukraine Admits Its Gold Is Gone: ‘There Is Almost No Gold Left In The Central Bank Vault’”. From actually 42.3 tons just before the coup, it was now far less than one ton.

The Syria operation was about oil, gold, and guns. However, most of America’s support was to Al-Qaeda-led jihadists, not to ISIS-jihadists. As the great independent investigative journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva reported on 2 July 2017:

“In December of last year while reporting on the battle of Aleppo as a correspondent for Bulgarian media I found and filmed 9 underground warehouses full of heavy weapons with Bulgaria as their country of origin. They were used by Al Nusra Front (Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria designated as a terrorist organization by the UN).”

The U.S. had acquired weapons from around the world, and shipped them (and Gaytandzhieva’s report even displayed the transit-documents) through a network of its embassies, into Syria, for Nusra-led forces inside Syria. Almost certainly, the U.S. Government’s central command center for the entire arms-smuggling operation was the world’s largest embassy, which is America’s embassy in Baghdad.

Furthermore, On 8 March 2013, Richard Spenser of Britain’s Telegraph reported that Croatia’s Jutarnji List newspaper had reported that “3,000 tons of weapons dating back to the former Yugoslavia have been sent in 75 planeloads from Zagreb airport to the rebels, largely via Jordan since November. … The airlift of dated but effective Yugoslav-made weapons meets key concerns of the West, and especially Turkey and the United States, who want the rebels to be better armed to drive out the Assad regime.”

Also, a September 2014 study by Conflict Armaments Research (CAR), titled “Islamic State Weapons in Iraq and Syria”, reported that not only east-European, but even U.S.-made, weapons were being “captured from Islamic State forces” by Kurds who were working for the Americans, and that this was very puzzling and disturbing to those Kurds, who were risking their lives to fight against those jihadists.

In December 2017, CAR headlined “Weapons of the Islamic State” and reported that “this materiel was rapidly captured by IS forces, only to be deployed by the group against international coalition forces.” The assumption made there was that the transfer of weapons to ISIS was all unintentional.

That report ignored contrary evidence, which I summed up on 2 September 2017 headlining “Russian TV Reports U.S. Secretly Backing ISIS in Syria”, and reporting there also from the Turkish Government an admission that the U.S. was working with Turkey to funnel surviving members of Iraq’s ISIS into the Deir Ezzor part of Syria to help defeat Syria’s Government in that crucial oil-producing region. Moreover, at least one member of the ‘rebels’ that the U.S. was training at Al Tanf on Syria’s Jordanian border had quit because his American trainers were secretly diverting some of their weapons to ISIS. Furthermore: why hadn’t the U.S. bombed Syrian ISIS before Russia entered the Syrian war on 30 September 2015? America talked lots about its supposed effort against ISIS, but why did U.S. wait till 16 November 2015 before taking action, “’Get Out Of Your Trucks And Run Away’: US Gives ISIS 45 Minute Warning On Oil Tanker Strikes”?

So, regardless of whether the U.S. Government uses jihadists as its proxy-forces, or uses fascists as its proxy-forces, it grabs the gold — and grabs the oil, and takes whatever else it can.

This is today’s form of imperialism. Grab what you can, and run. And call it ‘fighting for freedom and democracy and human rights and against corruption’. And the imperial regime’s allies watch in amazement, as they take their respective cuts of the loot. That’s the deal, and they call it ‘fighting for freedom and democracy and human rights and against corruption around the world’. That’s the way it works. International gangland. That’s the reality, while most of the public think it’s instead really“fighting for freedom and democracy and human rights and against corruption around the world.” For example, as RT reported on Sunday, March 3rd, about John Bolton’s effort at regime-change in Venezuela, Bolton said: “I’d like to see as broad a coalition as we can put together to replace Maduro, to replace the whole corrupt regime,’ Bolton told CNN’s Jake Tapper.” Trump’s regime wants to bring clean and democratic government to the poor Venezuelans, just like Bush’s did to the Iraqis, and Obama’s did to the Libyans and to the Syrians and to the Ukrainians. And Trump, who pretends to oppose Obama’s regime-change policies, alternately expands them and shrinks them. Though he’s slightly different from Obama on domestic policies, he never, as the U.S. President, condemn’s any of his predecessors’ many coups and invasions, all of which were disasters for everybody except America’s and allies’ billionaires. They’re all in on the take.

The American public were suckered into destroying Iraq in 2003, Libya in 2011, Syria in 2011-now, and so many other countries, and still haven’t learned anything, other than to keep trusting the allegations of this lying and psychopathically vicious and super-aggressive Government and of its stenographic ‘news’-media. When is enough finally enough? Never? If not never, then when? Or do most people never learn? Or maybe they don’t really care. Perhaps that’s the problem.

On March 4th, the Jerusalem Post bannered “IRAN AND TURKEY MEDIA PUSH CONSPIRACY THEORIES ABOUT US, ISIS: Claims pushed by Syrian regime media assert that US gave ISIS safe passage out of Baghuz in return for gold, a conspiracy picked up in Tehran and Ankara”, and simply assumed that it’s false — but provided no evidence to back their speculation up — and they closed by asserting “The conspiracies, which are manufactured in Damascus, are disseminated to Iraq and Turkey, both of whom oppose US policy in eastern Syria.” Why do people even subscribe to such ‘news’-sources as that? The key facts are hidden, the speculation that’s based on their own prejudices replaces whatever facts exist. Do the subscribers, to that, simply want to be deceived? Are most people that stupid?

Back on 21 December 2018, one of the U.S. regime’s top ‘news’-media, the Washington Post, had headlined “Retreating ISIS army smuggled a fortune in cash and gold out of Iraq and Syria” and reported that “the Islamic State is sitting on a mountain of stolen cash and gold that its leaders stashed away to finance terrorist operations.” So, it’s not as if there hadn’t been prior reason to believe that some day some of the gold would be found after America’s defeat in Syria. Maybe they just hadn’t expected this to happen quite so soon. But the regime will find ways to hoodwink its public, in the future, just as it has in the past. Unless the public wises-up (if that’s even possible).

Uganda’s social media tax leads to sharp drop in internet users

Eddie Haywood

Since a crippling levy on social media platforms was imposed in Uganda in July, subscriptions to online platforms have plummeted in the country. According to the Uganda Communications Commission, in the nearly one year since the social media tax was imposed, more than 5 million people in Uganda have stopped participating online altogether.

The tax imposed by the government of President Yoweri Museveni targets 60 social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram, and Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) telephony services, such as Skype, and levies fee of 200 Uganda shillings ($0.05) per day on users.

While Finance Minister David Bahati stated the purpose behind the tax is the generation of revenue necessary to upgrade Uganda’s dilapidated communications infrastructure, as well as other public services, President Museveni stated the tax was a method to “curb online gossip.”

Overall, the tax is a significant expense for many Ugandans, and places a burden on the population, who experience impoverished conditions. According to the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) in 2017, 25 percent of the population lives under the poverty line of $1.25 (UGX 4,500) a day, with over one-third of Ugandans not able to afford three meals a day.

Additionally, many Ugandans use a variety of social media platforms to connect with people in country and around the world, and the tax has threatened to cut them off from this vital communications avenue.

The tax also targets money sending platforms, such as the South African-based Mobile Telephone Networks (MTN) and its money transfer service Mobile Money, which allows Ugandans to send money to family and friends at lower rates, compared to the high cost of banking or wire transfer services.

According to the UK Guardian, mobile money transactions have declined UGX 14.8 trillion ($3.9 billion) in between just June and September. Paul Cise, a sales manager of Nov Mobile Limited in capital city Kampala, told the Guardian, “Customers are not happy about [the tax]. Many have resisted it. It has made business very difficult. I can’t manage to pay employees and pay rent.”

Also speaking with the Guardian, sales agent Florence Acen of Kyaliwajjala reported that she has lost business since the imposition of the tax, and that the levy now takes any extra earnings she formerly received from commissions, causing her to turn away poorer customers that before the tax she provided services for: “It makes us too busy for nothing. We tell them the network is off. I can’t waste my time.”

The tax provoked an immediate and furious outcry from the Ugandan masses, and last July thousands participated in demonstrations in Kampala led by popular Ugandan musician and member of parliament Bobi Wine, real name Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, calling for an immediate end to the levy.

In a brutal response, security forces mobilized to violently quell the protest, beating and detaining scores of protesters. Police also indiscriminately fired tear gas and live rounds to disperse demonstrators.

Notably, Bobi Wine, who had organized the demonstration on Twitter, tweeted a response to the heavy-handed repression, “there's no amount of bullets, teargas or arrests that will stop us. Some of our colleagues have been beaten up and others arrested. They must be freed for they have nothing against the police but rather the terrible tax.”

Underlying the imposition of a tax on platforms designed to facilitate social interactions between people is the ruling elites’ fear of social opposition. The tax on social media must be seen as an assault on the democratic rights of the Ugandan population.

The social media levy comes amid growing opposition within the Ugandan masses towards the government of President Museveni, a thoroughly corrupt regime that has ruled Uganda for more than three decades. Museveni revealed his disdain for the masses with his statement that the tax was a tactic to “curb online gossip.” Translated, what the president really intends is halting criticism of the government.

Museveni described the levy as a tax on “vices”, stating that idle people chatting online are no different than “unproductive” people who drink and smoke cigarettes.

In a verbose and ranting post on his personal blog, the president defended the tax and called social media users idle and unproductive for the Ugandan economy: “Social-media use is definitely a luxury item … using internet to access social media for chatting, recreation, malice, subversion, inciting murder, is definitely a luxury … a luxury that is costly to the country's economy.”

In short, the president called every person who signs onto Facebook or Twitter lazy and unproductive, and a drag on the Ugandan economy. In unvarnished form, Museveni is expressing the ruling elites’ complete contempt for the Ugandan masses.

Notably, the tax proposal coincided with the election to parliament of popular musician and Museveni opponent Bobi Wine in July, who organized his political campaign almost entirely online utilizing Facebook and Twitter.

Museveni and his corrupt ruling clique, like the ruling class worldwide seeking to censor and restrict internet platforms, see such online political interaction as a threat to their rule.

The Museveni government has resorted to antidemocratic and authoritarian methods to crack down on voices critical of his regime. In addition to the completely dictatorial shut down of the internet throughout the country before the 2016 presidential poll, stating it necessary to secure a free and fair vote, the Museveni regime has additionally shut down newspapers critical of the government and has carried out numerous arrests of political opponents. The social media tax is nothing less than blatant attempt by the Museveni regime to crack down on the right of the Ugandan masses to exercise free speech and expression of political views.

In 2016, journalist Joy Doreen Biira was arrested by police for “illegal filming of military raid” when she circulated images on Whatsapp and Instagram of the Ugandan military storming the palace of a regional king near Kasese in Eastern Uganda who had led a paramilitary rebellion against government forces.

The World Socialist Web Site has warned the international working class of the ruling elites’ desire to censor the internet. In January 2018 we called for an international coalition to fight internet censorship, writing: “The United States government, in the closest collaboration with Google, Facebook, Twitter and other powerful information technology corporations, is implementing massive restrictions on Internet access to socialist, antiwar and progressive websites. Similar repressive policies are being enacted by capitalist governments in Europe and throughout the world.”

No doubt that with the imposition of a tax on internet communications platforms, the Museveni government feels emboldened by the efforts taken in the United States and Europe to censor the internet.

Six million UK workers on low pay

Barry Mason

Pay for workers in the UK has declined precipitously over the last decade following the 2008 global financial crash. Successive Labour and Conservative-led governments made the working class pay for the hundreds of billions of pounds handed out to prop up the banks and the super-rich.

A new report issued by the Living Wage Foundation (LWF) shows that more than 6 million workers, including 1.2 million public sector workers, are on low pay. They earn less than the Real Living Wage—a rate set by the Living Wage Foundation and independently assessed to determine the amount people need just to get by.

The low Real Living Wage figure is set higher than the government’s National Living Wage, which establishes the statutory minimum wage rates. The Real Living Wage is currently set at £10.55 an hour in London and £9 in the rest of the UK. The Real Living Wage rate is not legally enforceable and for many workers may as well not exist. Just 4,700 employers, covering 180,000 workers, are signed up to it nationally.

The legally enforceable National Living Wage is £7.38 for under 25s and £7.83 for those older. Those under 21 get paid even less, with apprentices on a minimum rate of £3.70, under 18s on £4.20 and under 21s on £5.90. There is no weighting due to the extra cost of living in London, with a workforce in the capital of over 5.8 million. From April, the national living wage increases to just £7.70 for under 25s and £8.21 for over 25s.

The Living Wage Foundation report notes, “There are around 6 million UK jobs that pay below the Real Living Wage and more than 20 percent of those work in the public sector. According to earlier research conducted by Survation, over a third of working parents on low incomes have regularly skipped meals due to a lack of money, and almost half have fallen behind on household bills.”

The 1.2 million public sector workers on low pay include nearly two-thirds employed in local government, with nearly 400,000 employed directly rather than through subcontractors and agencies. A third of a million National Health Service (NHS) employees are low paid, with around 200,000 directly employed by the NHS.

The LWF report included comments from a public sector cleaner who said, “Life below the Real Living Wage means every month is a struggle to survive. I can’t afford the basics like the internet or a smart phone.”

LWF Campaigns and Communications Manager Lola McEvoy said, “It’s simply wrong that our teaching assistants, cleaners, carers and catering staff—paid on public money—are struggling to keep their heads above water on wages that don’t meet basic living costs.”

Despite the Tory government’s perpetual rhetoric that “work pays,” reality shows being in work is no guarantee of escaping poverty. With nearly half a million workers entering the labour market last year, the number in employment is at a record level of 32.6 million. However, many of these newly added jobs offer no security or job satisfaction.

A Resolution Foundation report issued in January posed the question “has the increase in job quantity come at the cost of job quality? The answer is ‘yes’, particularly in the jobs boom’s initial phase. Two-thirds of the growth in employment since 2008 has been in ‘atypical’ roles such as self-employment, zero-hours contracts or agency work.”

Adam Corlett of the Resolution Foundation said, “The deeper income squeeze for poorer households has been driven by government policy. … Low income households in particular have borne the brunt of a renewed living standards squeeze, driven by the freeze in the value of working-age benefits.”

Another study on poverty, issued last December by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, noted, “In-work poverty is higher than at any time in the last 20 years. The employment rate is at a record high, but this has not delivered lower poverty. The rate of poverty among workers has been rising for five years, having already risen significantly over the previous decade. Since 2004/05 the number of workers in poverty has increased at a faster rate than the total number of people in employment. This has resulted in workers being increasingly likely to find themselves in poverty. There are now almost 4 million workers in poverty in the UK, a rise of over half a million compared with five years ago.”

Holding down wages for most workers has helped fuel growing inequality. An Office for National Statistics report release last month noted, “Income inequality increased slightly in financial year ending … 2018 from 31.4 percent to 32.5 percent, based on estimates from our Living Costs and Food Survey.”

The ONS showed that the incomes of the top 20 percent increased by 4.7 percent, while the bottom 20 percent saw their income fall by 1.6 percent.

Commenting on the LRW study in a Guardian article February 28, Christina McAnea, assistant general secretary of the Unison trade union, noted, “Hundreds of thousands of workers delivering essential public services are on poverty pay. Many have second and even third jobs just to keep the wolf from the door.”

The trade unions are responsible for this dire situation thanks to their suppression of every struggle by the working class.

Research published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) last December showed the average worker had lost £11,800 in real earnings since 2008. The UK and Italy are the only two advanced economies in which real wages are still below their 2008 level. Average wages will not get back to their 2008 level until 2024. This would mean a 16-year-long period of declining pay. The previous longest period of decline in wages was the 24 years from 1798 to 1822, covering the Napoleonic wars and the aftermath and giving rise to a protracted period political radicalisation of the working class including the subsequent birth of Chartism.

With around 3.6 million public sector workers in trade unions, the sector has a union density of just over 50 percent—compared to 2.7 million members in the private sector and a unions density of around 14 percent.

McAnea’s own union, Unison, the largest public sector union with over a million members, has played a crucial role in enforcing low-pay wage settlements. Last March, Unison was among 13 trade unions out of 14 that agreed to a sell-out pay deal of 6.5 percent for the public sector over three years. This was after health workers suffered a 14 percent pay cut over the last eight years under the austerity measures of Tory-led governments. Retail Price Index inflation over the next three years was estimated at 9.6 percent, meaning the deal was in fact a cut in real wages.

The de facto pay cut was sold “as the best deal in eight years” by the unions. But when workers checked their pay packets, they discovered pay “rises” as low as 12 pence. Many received a meagre increase of 1.5 percent, not even the 3 percent promised, with the rest of the first year increase delayed until after the annual incremental date.

This sparked a rebellion among health workers that led to them tabling a vote of no confidence in and removing the leadership of the Royal College of Nursing union.

US “retail apocalypse” expected to exceed annual high with more than 1,100 store closures announced in one day

Trévon Austin

Within the first quarter of this year, the number of retail stores set to be closed already surpasses the total number of closures in 2018. Based on information from Coresight Research, more than 6,300 stores are already set to close in 2019. Coresight counted 5,528 closings in 2018 which included the liquidation of hundreds of Toys“R”Us locations in the US, and Kmart and Sears stores.

According to Coresight’s data the record year for retail closures was 2017 with 8,139 closures, but this could be easily exceeded if the current trend continues.

On Wednesday, Charlotte Russe, Family Dollar, Abercrombie & Fitch and Chico’s all announced store closings within 24 hours of each other, accounting for than more than 1,100 locations. The series of announcements came one week after JCPenney, Gap, Victoria’s Secret and Tesla announced that they would close retail locations, totaling more than 300 stores.

Drew Myers, senior consultant with real-estate data firm CoStar Group, told USA Today that “square footage” or the size of stores is a good indicator when analyzing store closures from a real estate perspective. When taking the size of retail stores into consideration, 2018 was the highest year for store closings during the retail apocalypse, with 155 million square feet of affected retail space. According to Myers, approximately 75 percent of total square footage came from Sears, Kmart, Toys“R”Us and Bon Ton.

Essentially, 2018 was a year marked by closures of larger retail chains with significant numbers of workers made jobless. While this year has only seen 30 million square feet of closures as retailers shutter physically smaller locations it still points to the precipitous trend in retail.

The stores with the largest number of closings planned for this year are as follows:

• Payless ShoeSource plans the closure of all 2,589 of its stores, including 248 Canadian locations and 114 smaller stores in Shopko Hometown locations.

• Gymboree/Crazy 8 announced a total of 729 closings.

• Charlotte Russe’s entire chain of more than 500 stores will close by April 30, but 94 stores from an earlier wave of announcements will be closing first.

• The American mall retailer Things Remembered will shutter 422 locations.

• Ascena Retail will close approximately 400 stores.

• Dollar Tree announced it will close as many as 390 Family Dollar stores and convert about 200 Family Dollar stores into Dollar Tree locations.

• Shopko has announced 251 closures.

• GNC will shut down 233 locations.

• Gap is set to shutter about 230 locations over the next two years.

This process, dubbed the “retail apocalypse,” has devastated North American brick-and-mortar retail stores since 2010. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the retail industry has seen a myriad of buyouts, mergers and acquisitions as large and small retailers are forced into bankruptcy or outright liquidation by financial parasites on Wall Street. Major department stores such as JCPenney, Macy’s, Sears and Kmart, long time mainstays of the American retail market, have closed hundreds of stores, and well-known clothing brands such as J.Crew are unprofitable.

Workers have been particularly affected as retailers have resorted to mass layoffs and downsizings and have shifted jobs to low wage labor-intensive distribution centers to keep up with online retailers such as Amazon and Walmart. Retail stores that have seen some success have resorted to offering more online shopping. E-commerce sales jumped 43 percent at Walmart and 31 percent at Target from the fourth quarter of 2017 to the same period in 2018.

The declining living standards of the working class are feeding directly into the retail apocalypse and mass layoffs of retail workers will only exacerbate the issue. Workers’ wages have seen little to no growth in the last four decades, and any economic growth experienced since 2008 has gone to the wealthiest of the wealthy. The vast majority of jobs created since 2008 have been part-time or temporary, and retailers are closing stores in predominantly poor and working-class areas, robbing residents of employment and depriving them of ready access to food, clothing, medicine and other goods.

Studies show that 15 percent of retailers are currently at risk of shutting down and up to 25 percent of American malls could close by 2020, with tens of thousands of people losing their jobs. Retail jobs are continuously fed into massive corporations like Amazon that employ workers in sweatshop conditions and pay them paltry wages. The ongoing crisis in the retail industry is part of an escalation against the living conditions of workers and only spells disaster for the working class.

Trump signs executive order cementing secrecy over US airstrikes and shadow wars

Jacob Crosse

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday, March 7 rescinding a previously toothless measure introduced by the Obama administration in July 2016 for the reporting of civilian casualties inflicted by US drone strikes.

Unaccountable drone strikes, including targeted assassinations, were a defining feature of the Obama presidency, expanding far beyond what his predecessor George W. Bush had initiated.

Under the original order, signed under the pretext of providing “transparency” to the global assassination program, the US government was to make publicly available an annual report on civilians killed by airstrikes outside of US recognized “conventional” war zones. The annual report, which was not released in 2017, was deemed “superfluous” by the National Security Council in statement released with Trump’s newly signed executive order.

The Security Council statement continued, stating that the previous, “requirements … do not improve government transparency, but rather distract our intelligence professionals from their primary mission.”

The first report issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) following the signing of Barack Obama’s executive order in 2016, drastically under-reported civilian and combat casualties from airstrikes outside of war zones from 2009 to 2015. In that report the DNI only acknowledged 473 strikes outside of “areas of active hostilities.” The report stated that between 2,372 and 2,581 “combatants” were killed and an additional 64-116 “non-combatants” were murdered.

These figures have not been creditably substantiated by any other media, academic or reporting agency. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which has been tracking drone strikes for over a decade, estimated between 258 and 633 civilians had been killed between January 2009 and December 2015 in Pakistan alone.

Meanwhile a June 2017 report provided by the Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic, in conjunction with the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, titled “ Out of the Shadows ,” stated that the US only acknowledged approximately 20 percent of reported drone strikes. The report also alleged that over 400 civilian casualties had occurred in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, approximately four times more than the 116 alleged casualties claimed by the US government.

The definition of what constitutes a war zone is also not clear, and is open to interpretation and revision. Recognized war zones include Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, while parts of Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya have also at times been included in what are deemed “areas of active hostilities.” These “areas” were also excluded from the policy, meaning that casualty figures were neither tracked nor fully accounted for.

The previous policy also did not require the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to report the drone strikes it conducted in remote locations such as on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In addition to relaxing requirements on reporting, the Trump administration has also adjusted limits on acceptable targets. Previous self-imposed constraints, including a May 2013 Obama instruction that individuals targeted for assassination by the military or CIA should be high-level militants with a “near certainty” of being present, have now been changed to target regular or low-level “jihadists” with a “reasonable certainty” of being present.

While Obama began his presidency by setting a deadly precedent, launching 186 drone strikes on Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan in his first two years in office, Trump has eclipsed his predecessor. According to US Central Command (CENTCOM), Trump launched 238 strikes in those same countries during his first two years in office.

It is unlikely that a true accounting of the number of fatalities inflicted by illegal US airstrikes will ever be forthcoming. The US military, as seen in the 2017 “ Mosul Massacre ,” regularly presumes that those it kills are terrorists or jihadists, regardless of the facts. Investigations into civilian casualties are only initiated by the US government after claims by non-government organizations, allied governments, journalists or academics raise concerns. These investigations are slow to release findings and, if fault is found—a rare occurrence—a hush payment of a few thousand dollars is the most victims of US imperialism can hope to receive.

Despite the shrouded, yet deadly, record of civilian casualties inflicted by drone strikes, the Democrats have mounted little opposition to the Trump’s administration escalating use of this so-called “tool.”

Democratic presidential candidates, including the “anti-war” candidates, Tulsi Gabbard and Bernie Sanders, have stated their support for drones and surgical strikes. In an interview with The Intercept in January 2018, Gabbard stated that she still believes that “the right approach [is] to take in these quick-strike forces, surgical strikes in and out … and the very limited use of drones.”

Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders publicly stated in 2015, when asked about the use of drone strikes and special forces troops under a Sanders administration, “All of that and more.” “Surgical strikes” in Yemen have targeted weddings, funerals, school buses, hospitals and street markets.

The use of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles in conjunction with artificial intelligence will continue to increase as US imperialism prepares for “great-power conflicts” with Russia and China. Two weeks ago, Boeing unveiled its “loyal wingman combat drone concept,” which it has been developing locally in Brisbane, Australia, as part of a classified program for the Royal Australian Air Force.

A similar concept vehicle for the US Air Force dubbed the XQ-58A was revealed this week and completed its inaugural flight on March 5. The XQ-58A is a stealthy drone that will be augmented with artificial intelligence targeting capabilities, and is capable of carrying small diameter bombs. With an estimated $3 million dollar cost for each drone, the Air Force expects to purchase a “high volume” of the drone, which can be operated independently or as a cooperative “swarm” under the command of a nearby manned aircraft.

Pentagon escalating buildup on Russia’s borders

Bill Van Auken

The Pentagon’s top military commander in Europe told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that more US troops and more warships must be deployed to the continent to counter what he described as Moscow’s “malign influence” and Russian threats to “the United States’ vital national interests.”

The testimony by Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the head of EUROCOM and NATO’s supreme allied commander, came just one day after Russia formally withdrew from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), following the Trump administration’s unilateral abrogation of the landmark nuclear accord last month.

The scrapping of the treaty heralds a resurgence of a nuclear arms race on a scale not seen since the height of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, threatening humanity with a global conflagration.

Scaparrotti laid out the Pentagon’s agenda of an escalation of the confrontation with Russia, presenting the country as a dangerous aggressor that must be stopped militarily.

“Russia is a long-term, strategic competitor that wants to advance its own objectives at the expense of US prosperity and security and that sees the United States and the NATO Alliance as the principal threat to its geopolitical ambitions,” he told the Senate panel. “In pursuit of its objectives, Moscow seeks to assert its influence over nations along its periphery, undermine NATO solidarity, and fracture the rules-based international order.”

The general’s narrative turned reality on its head. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States and NATO, in violation of an agreement reached between Washington and the Moscow Stalinist bureaucracy, have pushed steadily to the east, absorbing the former Warsaw Pact countries into NATO and deploying hostile military forces on the very borders of Russia.

Scaparrotti went on to indicate Washington’s real concerns and aims, stating: “While the United States maintains global military superiority over Russia, evolving Russian capabilities threaten to erode our competitive military advantage, challenge our ability to operate uncontested in all domains, and diminish our ability to deter Russian aggression.”

US imperialism is determined to confront any power that challenges a “rule-based international order” in which the rules are dictated by Washington, and to assure that both its military as well as its financial and corporate oligarchy are able to “operate uncontested in all domains.” This requires the transformation of Russia into an outright semi-colony.

The government of President Vladimir Putin, representing the interests of the Russian oligarchy, has pursued a bankrupt policy that zig-zags between futile appeals for reason on the part of Washington and an adventurist turn to militarism.

Scaparrotti detailed before the Senate committee the results of what he described as Russia’s “high levels of defense spending”—which amount to less than one-tenth of the US military budget. He cited in particular Moscow’s “nuclear modernization program,” which he said includes “advanced modern road-mobile and silo-based Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), new Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs), and Long Range Strategic Bombers,” as well as the development of “nuclear-armed hypersonic weapons, which could provide them the capability to attack anywhere in the globe with little or no notice.”

The general’s testimony, coming just one day after Moscow formally withdrew from the INF treaty, left no doubt that the Pentagon is actively preparing for nuclear war with both Russia and China.

While Washington has repeatedly charged Moscow with violating the treaty through its deployment of SSC-8 cruise missiles, Russia has insisted that the weapon does not breach the terms of the agreement, which bars weapons with ranges of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. Moscow has in turn charged that the US deployment in Romania and Poland of missile defense systems that have offensive capabilities, as well as the introduction of armed drones in the region, represent violations of the accord.

Central to the US decisions to rip up the INF treaty is the fact that China, which is not a signatory to the agreement, has produced medium-range missiles to counter the US military’s “pivot to Asia” and attempt to encircle the country militarily. Washington wants to deploy similar weapons in the region.

Pressed as to the Pentagon’s strategy in the wake of the abrogation of the treaty, Scaparrotti replied, “I don’t know that we have a plan today. We’re still in a six-month period [until the treaty formally expires] here where we are looking at what our options are.”

This is hardly credible. Having deliberately scuttled the treaty, Washington clearly has plans as to how it will seek military advantage in its aftermath, including through the deployment of nuclear-armed missiles in both Europe and Asia, triggering a new arms race and placing the world on a hair-trigger for nuclear war. The supreme allied commander, who exercises more power than any US legislator or diplomat, did not care to publicly share these plans.

The Pentagon’s European commander also called for an increase in the supply of lethal weapons to the right-wing nationalist regime in Ukraine. Since the far-right coup in Kiev—orchestrated and financed by the European Union and US imperialism—plunged the region into crisis, Washington has provided the Ukrainian military with more than $1 billion in aid, though most of it has been classified as non-lethal.

In April of last year, however, the US provided the Ukrainian military with Javelin anti-armor missiles, which Scaparrotti claimed had served as a “deterrent.”

The general stated that in the wake of last November’s provocation in the Azov Sea, which led to the seizure of three Ukrainian ships that sailed into waters claimed by Russia near Crimea, the US needed “to help them get this Navy back up and begin to supply it.”

The Pentagon has deployed the destroyer U.S.S. Donald Cook in the Black Sea, just south of the Kerch Strait, leading into the Azov Sea, and, according to Bloomberg News, has pressed for Germany and France to send warships through the narrow strait in a bid to provoke Russia.

“They, frankly, don’t like us in the Black Sea,” Scaparrotti told the Senate committee. “It’s international waters—and we should sail and fly there.”

Scaparrotti delivered his testimony in advance of the release of the Pentagon’s 2020 budget request, which is expected next week. His main aim was to press the US Congress for more funding for the US escalation against Russia. Specifically, he called for the addition of two more guided-missile destroyers to the US fleet based in the region, as well as the deployment of additional US troops close to Russia’s borders, including armored units.