With the liberation of the city of Aleppo in northern Syria, it appears that the Syrian government in Damascus is on its way to ending the highly destructive conflict now ongoing for nearly 6 years.
But to assume the Syrian conflict is on the verge of resolution is to assume the Syrian conflict was fought in a geopolitical vacuum, disconnected from regional, even global agendas.
In fact, the proxy war the West waged on Syria was considered for the years before it began, during its planning and preparation stages, as only a prerequisite for war with Iran and a greater global conflict to prevent the reemergence of Russia and the rise of China.
US Hegemony Seeks to Eliminate Rising Superpowers
Revealed in General Clark’s statement is a clear, singular agenda, beginning after the Cold War, and evident with Desert Storm, the conflict in the Balkans, the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, and the US invasion and occupation of Iraq as well as the overall expansion of US military power projection predicated upon the “War on Terror” following the attacks on New York City and Washington DC on September 11, 2001.
America’s “regime change” spree included not only the above mentioned wars, but also a series of so-called “color revolutions” across Eastern Europe. This includes Otpor!’s activities between 1998-2004 in Serbia, the 2003 “Rose Revolution” in Georgia, and the 2004-2005 “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine.
The goal of both direct military intervention and US-engineered “color revolutions” was to fulfill precisely what General Clark claimed US policymakers sought since the end of the Cold War – the elimination of states operating independently that might eventually rival American global hegemony.
US special interests, since the end of the Cold War, have been consumed with confronting and eliminating any threat to their perceived global hegemony. As retired US Army General Wesley Clark warned for years, the US is pursuing a singular agenda since the 1990’s, one indifferent to who is in the White House and what rhetoric is being used to sell the myriad of wars and “color revolutions” required to incrementally achieve and maintain global hegemony.
As Russia and China reintroduce a global balance of power, checking US aggression and rolling back US hegemony to a more proportional, multipolar role upon the world stage, the US has increasingly reacted with direct confrontations with both Moscow and Beijing as well as an increasingly violent campaign of proxy wars and regime change operations worldwide.
The illusion that a presidential election could derail this singular, decades-long agenda is a dangerous one. In reality, the only obstacle between US special interests and achieving global hegemony are competing centers of power. These include nation-states like Russia and China, or grassroots movements like the alternative media, alternative and disruptive economic models, and political movements built on the power and influence such movements achieve. Such alternatives can undermine the unwarranted power and influence currently enjoyed by the US and the corporate-financier monopolies that dominate its political landscape.
Days after needling Taipei by sailing 90 nautical miles south of the island, Beijing’s Liaoning aircraft carrier conducted drills in the South China Sea, exacerbating strained relations between China and Taiwan.
On Monday, the People’s Liberation Army Navy blogged that the J-15 fighter jets on board the Liaoning aircraft carrier conducted flight tests and launched helicopters in "complex sea conditions."
The move follows China’s late-December 2016 announcement that the Liaoning and the rest of the fleet would conduct routine drills in the western Pacific, and is one month after Beijing conducted unprecedented live-fire drills.
China recently intercepted a US underwater drone, and accused Washington of overreacting. "During this process, the US side's unilateral and open hyping up is inappropriate, and is not beneficial to the smooth resolution of this issue. We express regret at this," said Beijing’s Defense Ministry.
On December 26, 2016, Taipei’s Ministry of Defense said that the Chinese aircraft carrier, along with five other ships, passed south of Taiwan, making their way to the South China Sea, eventually docking at Hainan Island, China’s southernmost province.
Japan was on alert as the Chinese fleet passed between the Okinawa and Miyako islands, and a P3C patrol aircraft and a Japanese Maritime Self Defense ship shadowed the flotilla. A helicopter from a Chinese ship flew near Miyako island, and was pursued by Japanese jets.
On Monday, I reported that the land that Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro Sobarkah illegally designated in Nevada for a national monument was near the Bundy Ranch. On New Year's Eve, protesters rallied at Gold Butte to protest the criminal land grab by the Obama administration.
Kevin Jenkins reports at The Spectrum:
As Utah's attorney general works with county, state and federal leaders to craft a lawsuit against President Barack Obama's Wednesday declaration of monument protection for a Four Corners area land tract, Nevadans opposed to the president's similar declaration of a monument south of Mesquite are waging a more uphill battle without high-profile government officials by their side.
A few dozen people, most of whom were family members or friends of Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy, staged a quiet rally Saturday at the state Route 170 access to the Gold Butte land falling under the monument declaration near Bundy's home.
The demonstrators rang out the year under cloudy skies as they held signs that decried Obama's authority to restrict access and called on President-elect Donald Trump for help, but throughout the morning hours they primarily visited with each other while watching an occasional vehicle pass.
Some of those in attendance claimed that there were more than a few dozen at the protest.
Jonathon Skipper Speece posted that there were nearly 100 at one point.
"Who were the aggressors?" Carol Bundy asked rhetorically. "They showed up first with their army – with their guns, with their snipers on the hill with their communication equipment."
"But this isn't even about that," Houston said. "This is about them coming in and thinking that they can just say this is a monument and take all this land away and people won't be using it."
In referencing the land that was just declared a national monument, Mrs. Houston said, "There are a lot of people who come down here and ride."
"These are the people that are using this land," added Carol Bundy. "These are the people that are going to get hurt. They are also the people that aren't here picketing because they don't understand that they won't be able to go where they want to go."
While Mrs. Bundy noted that the monument declaration states "pre-existing rights" will be preserved, she also said that it also says there will be no grazing on the land.
"My rights of pre-eminent rights established way before the BLM, that's a state right that's pre-existing," she argued.
Widow of LaVoy Finicum, Jeanette Finicum, echoed Bundy's sentiments.
The states should be in control of these lands," Finicum said Saturday. "We should not be allowing the federal government to just come in and steal the West, because that's what's happening. … This really stems from the lands not being given back to the state in the West."
It's not even about "allowing" anything. It's about the fact that the Constitution does not permit the central government to engage in this behavior. It's clearly in violation of the US Constitution, which says that in order for the central government to own land outside its 10 square miles in DC, it must obtain the land from state legislatures and that land must be used "for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings" (Article I, Section 8, Clause 17). None of that is taking place concerning this issue.
May God bless the efforts of these protesters to encourage other people to wake up, understand the law and demand that representatives follow the law or be dealt with under the law.
WikiLeaks has promised 2017 will be an even bigger year for leaks than 2016, which saw the whistleblowing site publish thousands of documents exposing US political secrets, covert trade deals and private communications from global leaders.
“If you thought 2016 was a big WikiLeaks year, 2017 will blow you away,” WikiLeaks tweeted on Monday, giving no hints as to what may be in store.
The tweet also included a link to its website’s donation page so people can help the site “prepare for the showdown.”
It proved a very busy 2016 for the whistleblowing site, as it delivered a massive trove of documents over the 12-month period.
The leader of Roman Catholicism, Jorge Bergoglio, also known as “Pope Francis,” observed the feast of “the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God” on New Year’s Day, urging followers to “entrust the new year to Mary.”
“Let us entrust the new year to Mary, Mother of God, so that peace and mercy may grow throughout the world,” he Tweeted on Sunday, generating over 33,000 likes and 11,000 shares.
The feast “coincides with the octave-day of Christmas” on the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar, and was initially the feast of the Circumcision of Christ until being replaced in 1974 by Pope John VI. The “mother of God” concept, however, can be traced back as early as the Council of Ephesus in 431.
“This celebration, assigned to January 1 in conformity with the ancient liturgy of the city of Rome, is meant to commemorate the part played by Mary in this mystery of salvation,” John XI wrote. “It is meant also to exalt the singular dignity which this mystery brings to the ‘holy mother … through whom we were found worthy … to receive the Author of life.'”
“To celebrate Mary as mother of God and our mother at the beginning of the new year means recalling a certainty that will accompany our days: we are a people with a mother; we are not orphans,” he said. “To begin the year by recalling God’s goodness in the maternal face of Mary, in the maternal face of the Church, in the faces of our own mothers, protects us from the corrosive disease of being ‘spiritual orphans.'”
Bergoglio asserted that Jesus gave Mary to the Church when he died upon the cross, and the Church should therefore invite her into their homes and communities, and “meet her maternal gaze.”
“Together let us all confess this truth,” he instructed, as all stood to their feet. “I invite you to acclaim it three times, standing, like the faithful of Ephesus: Holy Mother of God, Holy Mother of God, Holy Mother of God.”
But Mike Gendron of Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries in Plano, Texas, told Christian News Network that such practices are unbiblical and elevate Mary to a position not called for in the Word of God. Gendron is a former Roman Catholic of over 30 years.
“Pope Francis has elevated the ungodly traditions of Mary above Scripture. In doing so, he is doing the same thing the scribes and Pharisees did when they were rebuked by the Lord Jesus. Jesus told them that they were nullifying the Word of God and thus worshipping God in vain (Mark 7:7-13),” he said.
"The four dogmas of Mary’s perpetual virginity, her motherhood of God, her immaculate conception and her bodily assumption into heaven, form the basis of Mariology,” he outlined. “The development of Mariology is ongoing and continues to be shaped by the writings of Catholic mystics, papal statements and apparitions of Mary. Catholics are encouraged to venerate Mary and entrust their lives to her as their advocate and mediatrix of all graces.”
“Since veneration is a form of worship, Catholics who venerate Mary are committing the most serious sin of idolatry. Just as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, Catholics are being led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ (2 Cor. 11:3),” Gendron continued. “Catholics will continue to be led astray into idolatry until they submit to the Word of God as their supreme authority in all matters of faith. ”
Just a thought....how many times do you think the phrase "peace & safety" or "peace & security" will be used during the 1/15 meeting? Seems more interesting since they will be discussing the establishment of a Palestinian state (and by default, dividing up Israel).
ReplyDeleteLance
Forgive me Brother Lance, but the "peace & safety" in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, in context, is referring to "the Day of the Lord", which takes place during the Tribulation, and is not the Rapture :)
ReplyDeletePoint taken....just wishful thinking on my part!
ReplyDeleteWe are starting to hear that verbiage though - a LOT.....Its things to come....As Caver said a while back - the whole "Responsibility to Protect" - will sendup being a driving force behind the things to come....But at the very beginning of the Tribulation - probably as part of the adoration of the AC, people will be saying "peace and safety" when sudden destruction comes....I believe that represents the first judgments of Revelation 6
ReplyDeleteI think the confusion for me comes from 1Thess 4:13-18. Paul uses these verses to describe the rapture, and then chapter 5:1 begins with "Now concerning how and when all of THIS will happen....". The THIS would appear to refer back to Paul's description of the rapture event. Paul then says that the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. He then says "while they are saying peace & security....sudden destruction will come upon them as a women in labor, and they shall not escape. He then says, "BUT, you brethren are not ignorant that the day will overtake you as a thief. Anyway, thanks for the clarification!
ReplyDeleteLance