William J. Astore knows the military. He’s personally seen how the closed loop of the DOD and the commercial defense industries has exponentially grown and now dangerously and disproportionately determines direction of America’s dealings with the rest of the world. Here he offers his informed and rather bleak view of the prospects for peace under the current neocon-infested regime now in power in Washington DC.
William J. Astore is a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel, has taught at the Air Force Academy and Naval Postgraduate School, and now teaches history at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. He’s a senior fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network (EMN), an organization of critical veteran military and national security professionals. He is the author or co-author of three books and numerous articles focusing on military history as well as the history of science, technology, and religion. He is a regular contributor to TomDispatch, and his own website, Bracing Views, likewise contains much of his fascinating and highly-informative political analysis.
World events continue to unfold at a quickening pace. Facing an alarming escalation in tensions around the world, we look to Scott Ritter for his most current thoughts. As I’ve indicated in other interviews, we’re honing in on the realities of the international power struggle unfolding in real time, specifically addressing the role of the U.S. in the tensions, and its capacity to reduce them. We hope to discover paradigm-shift ideas for improving the prospects for peace. Today’s interview focuses on five questions.
Scott Ritter is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and author of SCORPION KING: America’s Suicidal Embrace of Nuclear Weapons from FDR to Trump, and his most current book, Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika: Arms Control and the End of the Soviet Union. He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty, served in General Schwarzkopf’s staff during the Gulf War, and from 1991 to 1998 served as a chief weapons inspector with the UN in Iraq. He is highly regarded for his expertise in international security, military affairs, Russia, and the Middle East, as well as arms control and nonproliferation. After being banned by Twitter, the best way to follow him and benefit from his invaluable insights is https://scottritterextra.com.
Where I live in Japan, winters are quite mild. In fact, in sharp contrast to the blustery cold and mountains of snow in Michigan where I grew up, they are almost identical to winters in Portland, Oregon, my last permanent home in the U.S.
Thus the temperature hovers right around freezing, occasionally dipping as low as -2º or -3º C (26-28º F), practically t-shirt weather back in Detroit. Similarly, it might snow three or four days over the entire season, an inch or two at the most, with the snow typically melting within 24-48 hours.
Well . . . it was not business as usual this past week. I believe that new records were set for Tambasasayama in both departments. The temperature plunged to -13º C (8º F) and it snowed four days in a row. One day we got almost a foot of snow and you can see what the pergola I built a few years ago looked like the next day in the photo at the top.
This might be a major inconvenience for most of the residents — our city has none of the necessary equipment or manpower to deal with this kind of storm, so getting around is very challenging — but I’m not complaining. I loved it! The landscape, which in my view is exceptionally beautiful to begin with, became a ‘winter wonderland”, which just happens to be the motto that appeared on all Michigan vehicular license plates when I was growing up. Thus this week brought back heartwarming — if bone chilling — memories of skating, sledding, snowball fights, snowpersons [note the nod there to political correctness], frozen toes and fingers, runny noses, snowdrift diving, blizzards, ice storms, frozen ponds and lakes, skiing, snow saucers, and everything which arrived with the beautiful brutality of Michigan winters.
I’ll stop sentimentalizing now. Enjoy a few pics I took during a 30 minute walk right after the big snowstorm ended and the skies turned sunny for a couple hours.
Ajamu Baraka is most famously known as the vice-presidential candidate in Jill Stein’s bid for the White House in the 2016 presidential race. But that is far exceeded in importance by his work as a peace activist. This was a very inspiring exchange indeed! Hopefully, it will inspire YOU to spend some time on the Peace Dividend website.
Ajamu Baraka grew up on the South Side of Chicago and served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He has taught political science at various universities and has been a guest lecturer at academic institutions in the U.S. and abroad. As a human rights defender whose experience spans four decades of domestic and international education and activism, Ajamu is a veteran grassroots organizer whose roots are in the Black Liberation Movement and anti-apartheid and Central American solidarity struggles. In 2016, he was the Green Party nominee for Vice President of the United States. He currently serves as the national organizer and spokesperson for the Black Alliance for Peace.You can follow him on Twitter @ajamubaraka.
In parallel with the Peace Dividend Project, I interviewed Dan Kovalik this past November, just before he made a trip to Russia and Donetsk. He went to obtain first-hand knowledge of the situation in that part of the world. Do I have to tell you what’s going on there is NOT AT ALL what we in the U.S. are being told in our propaganda-saturated media?
Dan is a peace activist, and a human rights and labor attorney, with a professorship at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. I found him fascinating and highly informative.
Eight years ago — OMG, has it been that long? — I wrote a song and Masumi, my multi-talented Renaissance wife — who unlike me can actually sing — and I recorded it in my modest home studio.
I played all the instruments but frankly was never happy with the piano performance. I guess I should have used my hands instead of my feet. Anyway a couple months ago, I did some simple repairs to the piano playing and it sounds at least passable to my ears now.
Of course, this meant I had to resync the music to the song video. I did that and took the opportunity to replace a couple of the images which weren’t really appropriate. One was Netanyahu, who when I originally used his pic I honestly didn’t recognize. He hardly fits with the message of peace and harmony I want to convey with this song, so he’s history.
It was interesting listening to the music and lyrics again. Usually when I go back to a song I wrote, there’s always something I want to change. But honestly . . . I wouldn’t change a single word or syllable here. Why? Because it comes from my heart and says exactly what I want to share with others.
It’s New Years Day here in Japan as I write this. The world has another chance at getting it right, 365 days to show respect and love for one another. I know that 99% of us will try to do just that. For our leaders — crazed, sick, power-drunk megalomaniacs — it’s another story. I hope those of us who know the incredible potential there is in the world for peace, fellowship, and acts of kindness can defeat the purveyors of evil, mistrust, division, war — those for whom love is impossible, those who want to make it impossible for the rest of us to experience and share.
It’s like reverence for innocence. Well, yes, kids sure are sweet, unsullied, open, positive, vibrant, curious. They wear their innocence well and we all envy their abandon. But we’re protecting them. So we bear all the risks and potential for endangerment. They play. We watch the playground to make sure there are no perverts, rabid dogs, or kidnappers.
As adults, it’s a different story. ‘Ignorance is bliss’ and ‘What you don’t know won’t hurt you’ work for a while . . . until the axe falls. Or the bill comes due. Or the door is kicked down in the middle of the night. Being stupidly innocent as an adult can bring heartache and tragedy, in fact, typically does. While embracing wholesome open-mindedness and holistic trust, so as to not preclude learning and discovery, we are also well-advised to maintain a wary eye for the sham, the con, the manipulation, the lie, the entire range of possible mischief humans are capable of.
From what I now see reported on the news, such prudence is no longer at all possible. Evidence would suggest that a dam has been breached. A tsunami of misinformation, disinformation, fake news, deep fakes, propaganda, calculated deceptions, accompanied by a bottomless barrel of salacious scandals and mindless trivia, has flooded the once-habitable terrain of public discourse and understanding. We are drowning in bullshit.
It shows. People are becoming confused, erratic, and increasingly desperate. We’re being constantly bombarded with bad news, rendering us numb, dumb, wary and increasingly frightened. It seems that folks are stressed out to the max. We have the firing squad of 24/7 if-it-bleeds-it-leads news coming at us from every direction. We’re surrounded by crises, personal, political, national, international. It’s beyond overwhelming.
This makes us hunger for both relief and anything that will make sense out of the chaos.
Which renders many, if not most people, vulnerable to brainwashing.
I recently saw a compilation of talking heads relentlessly hammering home completely vaporous, frankly ridiculous but engaging, arresting, highly charged, and clearly effective memes. I presume that a majority of citizens, already reeling and punch drunk from years of propaganda, hearts and minds filled with hatred and fear, stumbling about in the house of mirrors that media has become, react to a frightening degree by buying into what these people are saying. Repetition is like kickboxing. Or like kneading dough. It’s just a matter of time before the target succumbs to persistence and becomes a subdued and unresisting lump, next to be carted off on a stretcher or put in the oven. Or in the case of the TV/smart phone-addicted public, put in a coma-like trance, a hypnotic stupor, an obedient oblivion. Cut to KFC commercial or ad for a miracle age spots remedy. Launch the cruise missiles.
Here’s the video (if you can handle epic levels of tedious repetition).
Seriously? We are fine with media messaging that’s like Chinese water torture? To have our brainwaves flat-lined by nonsensical, hyperventilating, Orwellian vapor. This is not news reporting. To think so is like mistaking a metronome for a symphony orchestra.
But that’s where we’re at.
To suggest for even a moment that somehow this state of mental paralysis came about organically, the result of societal entropy or personal devolution — as if random impulse, modernity, complexity, technology, solar flares, pollen, coronavirus, climate change, over-the-counter drugs, 5G, GMOs, aspartame, and ozone depletion, randomly interacted and the default became wholesale stupidity — is both foolhardy and extremely dangerous. It didn’t just happen. It is part of a plan. That plan is about control and oppression, gross manipulation and enslavement.
Let’s give credit where it’s due. Our manipulators, our oppressors, our autocratic puppet masters, are phenomenal at what they do. They’re organized; they’ve got the bucks; they’ve gained a total monopoly over the seats of power and the social/political levers of control; they are unencumbered by ambivalence, morals, common decency; they are merciless, ruthless, focused.
For just a single but highly representative example, read this article about how the lunatic power elite work to shape the entire narrative about the conflict in Ukraine.
Now, take that level of calculated deceit, cold manipulation, audacity, unscrupulousness, ruthlessness, arrogance, pernicious intent, disdain for we the people, and scornful sense of entitlement, then replicate it over the entire spectrum of social/political ills, crises, and dysfunction — the things we whine about and debate constantly: the economy, wealth inequality, corporate welfare, socialism for corporations and Wall Street, our deteriorating education system, our crumbling infrastructure, our fake democracy, the ruling elite-controlled two-party duopoly, Covid-19 “pandemic”, our entire shameful health care system, the destruction of labor unions, the criminalizing of dissent, the marginalization and disempowerment of minorities, the Fed, the CDC, the FDA, the FCC, censorship, citizen surveillance, our two-tier justice system, and perhaps the worst and most egregious of them all, the expanding militarization of our country and its foolhardy, suicidal pursuit of world conquest.
Yes, just imagine all of this contention as the product of sociopaths and power-drunk bullies, who have no sense of duty to country, or responsibility to you and I normal everyday citizens, smug self-anointed sociopathic despots who are incapable of conceiving of, inaugurating, and promoting anything which doesn’t serve the narrow agenda of an ultra-wealthy ruling aristocratic class — truly sinister malefactors who live and breathe to humiliate and subjugate others, abuse their power and privilege, gain advantage and mount incomprehensible piles of money and affluence, regardless of the harm and suffering it causes everyone else.
Yes, imagine that!
But wait! . . . you don’t have to imagine it after all. You just have to look around you.
Because that is exactly what is going on.
This is what we end up with when WE THE PEOPLE lose control of our country.
This is what we end up with when self-serving oligarchs control the narrative.
This is what we end up with when fed a 24/7 diet of lies and propaganda.
Now the question is: What can we do?
The answer couldn’t be simpler. Or more difficult.
This is where improbable teams up with impossible. Because the only way to stop this is through individual responsibility — everyday citizens taking charge, both of their own lives and our government. The existing private and public institutions which have engineered this juggernaut of blind ignorance and social control surely are not going to change. The puppets of the oligarchy we dutifully “elect” to represent we the people know who butters their bread. They and their ruling elite sponsors reap huge rewards from keeping us dumb and misinformed. So if anything is going to reverse this disastrous course, it will be us as individuals, hopefully working collectively to provide support and reinforcement, wielding the power of ‘NO’.
Obviously, this is a very tall order, as epic in scale as apocalyptic it is to be on the present course. We have to be honest. Perhaps it’s impossible. Old habits die hard. For most of our lives, we everyday folks, busy with their personal lives and trusting by nature, have relied on what we thought were worthy, reliable government spokespersons, TV news anchors, elected representatives, thought leaders, even celebrities, for the honest scoop on the specific events going on across our nation, more generally for our broad understanding of the world out there beyond our immediate reach. But slowly, imperceptibly, they turned on us. They increasingly recited from a intentionally faulty script, designed to hide the truth and substitute a fabricated reality. This was calculated — correctly so — to make us easily manipulable, often voting and behaving against our own interests. They fooled us so many times, we lost count and became completely detached from reality. Evidence? Look at what we put up with as citizens. We are treated abysmally, our government no longer works for us, and somehow we maintain pride in a nation which regards us as some necessary evil it needs to patronize with hollow promises and fairy tales about exceptionalism and greatness.
Most Americans now are totally brainwashed. We everyday citizens have no idea that those who we were certain we could trust are now lying to us with every breath they take. Any resemblance between what we are told and reality is a coincidence, or a convenience because it just happens to fit with the web of lies which surrounds it.
That’s hard for anyone to swallow. It’s depressing, demoralizing, unsettling, infuriating. Worse, “staying informed” has always been and still is so convenient. Just flip on the News at 6, read Time or Newsweek or USA Today. Scroll through Yahoo News on a smartphone. These wonderful trusted sources look and feel as they always have. But now they’re all streams of toxic misinformation and propaganda. And most people have no clue.
So quite honestly, I’m not very optimistic.
But of one thing I’m sure. We can stop this. We know what to do.
The only question is: Will we develop the presence of mind and resolve to . . . ?
And while I believe a woman has the right to make decisions about her own body, that’s not what I’m talking about here.
Let me offer a recent and extremely important example.
Back in December of 2021, when Russia notified the US and its allies that it was very concerned about the troops, missiles, bases, and other military assets deployed against its borders, it offered a draft treaty which would cool tensions and promote peace in Europe. The US and NATO refused to even look at the treaty. Were we the people given a choice in the matter? Were we properly and accurately informed about what the treaty contained, its pros and cons? Of course not. Because had citizens looked at it objectively, with complete disclosure as to its intent and effect, they would have most likely thought it was reasonable and constructive, and opted for it. We are now living the nightmare resulting from the snub of the Russian proposal. The entire Ukraine mess didn’t have to happen. But it did because of the choice of a tiny number of short-sighted, war-obsessed policy makers, sans any democratic approval by the vast majority of citizens, who now must deal with the consequences.
Since that war broke out, the U.S. has allocated at least $65 billion — some put the figure at over $100 billion and counting — in military and economic assistance to the regime in Kiev. Were we given a choice in THAT? Did Biden, Blinken or any of the warmongers in Congress ask: “Should we send more weapons to Ukraine to further exacerbate the war, further intimidate Russia, OR should we spend that money on improving our schools, infrastructure, OR MAYBE provide relief to Americans who have been hard hit by the disastrous economy, loss of jobs, the Covid-19 lockdowns?” I don’t remember hearing THAT choice being aired to the public.
I’m pro-choice, alright. In the much broader sense of having choice as a citizen about what is done in my name with the tax dollars and immense resources of the United States.
I’m talking about America’s decisions to go around the world killing people, destroying nations, imposing its imperial agenda on other allegedly sovereign nations. I’m talking about the heavy hand of our government deciding what version of the “truth” citizens get in the news and from their elected officials. I’m talking about critical choices made about America’s place in the world, our relationships with every other nation, who is our friend, who is designated as our enemy; deciding the kind of country we now live in and will hand off to future generations; directing what opportunities and basic services will be available to us; determining what guarantees are in place to make sure our legal system works to the benefit of every citizen equally; writing and enforcing the regulations and laws which prevent the abuse of power by our government officials, those elected and otherwise; determining how our system works to hold those in power accountable, what is done to prevent corruption, graft and cronyism; instituting and maintaining electoral procedures and mechanisms which protect the constitutional voting privileges of every citizen, fully guaranteeing free and fair elections. Yes, I’m talking about the way government functions, how well it functions. How the enormous revenue stream gets allocated, what gets funded, who benefits. I’m talking about free and full access to official communication, information and documentation, full transparency about what goes on in those offices and buildings. After all, we’re paying for all of it. We should have complete disclosure as well as final decision-making power on how our money is being spent.
Finally and certainly most importantly, since our survival on the planet is being seriously threatened by horrible decisions in this arena, WE THE PEOPLE should have final say on putting our nation and economy on a war footing, militarily confronting other countries, and most certainly the ultimate decision — a responsibility that now even our pathetic Congress spinelessly avoids — MAKING THE CHOICE TO GO TO WAR.
All of these decisions are being made — often behind closed doors or a smoke-screen of propaganda, lies and rationalizations — and we as citizens have no say in any of it.
No choice!
So yeah, I’M PRO-CHOICE!
The voice of the people has been totally silenced. We no longer can even ask simple, obvious questions about most critical matters which impact our daily existence, which determine the quality of our lives, which define the kind of country we now and future generations will live in. If we don’t stay inside the safe, approved boundaries of the official narratives, we are marginalized, often ridiculed, if not completely censored. Which might be tolerable if the country was in good shape and on a solid path of improvement and progress. I don’t have to point out how totally screwed up everything is now.
I’m for having a decisive say in the way things run. Recognize, this is hardly a weird or controversial demand. It’s the very essence of SELF-GOVERNMENT — which is what I have always been told is the defining feature of our democracy, the great experiment in self-rule. No kings, no dukes, no emperors, no dictators, no pouty paranoid bureaucrats. Just us, we the people!
This means WE THE PEOPLE taking back the power which has been usurped by a class of self-anointed control freaks, influence peddlers, power brokers, professional politicos who have decided that we regular folks are a bunch of clueless children and they know what’s best for us.
Enough is enough. Tyranny under the smiley-face of fake democracy must be stopped IMMEDIATELY!
This is non-negotiable . . .
WE THE PEOPLE MUST HAVE A CHOICE — the decisive choice — whenever anything of consequence affecting our nation comes up for consideration.
So yes, I can say without qualification or equivocation, I’M PRO-CHOICE!
I’ve always considered myself out on the fringe, cutting edge, pushing the envelope. Life is more interesting that way. But this time I pushed things too far.
A few months ago I jumped feet first into a new music project. Bunny Yō is a Q-pop star, unlike any I’ve ever worked with before, unlike anything out there these days. I won’t try to describe her. Just go to the website and try to figure it out for yourselves.
It has not been going smoothly at all. I love the music. I especially love the attitude, because it’s so weird and irreverent. But apparently no one else gets it, at least so far. Bunny’s first single, Orphan Sex Club, has been banned on TikTok. Most of the song’s YouTube videos have been age restricted, which is ridiculous. There’s nothing obscene about any of it. The censors fail to appreciate that it’s a joke. Orphan Sex Club? Come on! Get a sense of humor!
But that was just for starters.
Let me explain something. Bunny is in no position to do any of the technical stuff, none of the promotion, nothing but what she does. So yours truly has been handling everything. I put together the website, designed all the Bunny Yō accessories — t-shirts, truckers caps, coffee mugs — building everything around the Bunny Yō persona, lyrics, music, imagery, doing my best to capture and be faithful to her vision.
Well . . . this t-shirt was where the real trouble began.
Apparently, it caught the attention of some woke bloke and his indignation and gut rage spread through the woke community like monkeypox. They looked at the entire Bunny Yō project and for some reason thought I was making fun of them.
Let me tell you something. As J. K. Rowling will attest, you don’t want to mess with these people. There’s no reasoning with them. They’re like a mob of rabid witch hunters!
Anyway, here I am. In a jail cell of my own creation, waiting for the verdict.
Things don’t look good. My attorney (pictured on the right) apparently studied law at an auto mechanics trade school in Moldova. She raised no objections when a motion was entered — and approved by the court — to skip the trial and just let the jury decide on my guilt or innocence. I still don’t know what I am charged with. No matter who I ask, they just roll their eyes and sneer at me like I’m a big festering sore on the butt of humanity.
Since August of 2021, to promote the Peace Dividend Project, I’ve been interviewing world-renowned thought leaders, scholars, peace activists, journalists, attorneys and the like, such individuals as Noam Chomsky, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Paul Craig Roberts, Abby Martin, Dan Kovalik, Lee Camp, Scott Ritter, Norman Solomon, Cynthia McKinney, Ajamu Baraka, Coleen Rowley, Lt. Col. William J Astore. Most of these interviews have been written, which are then published in a variety of dissident and alternative media magazines. More recently, however, I’ve been doing video interviews.
The one I’m spotlighting here I did this past October, where I interview Professor Peter Kuznick of American University for his views on the current state of U.S. foreign policy. Peter is best known for his work with Oliver Stone on The Untold History of the United States, which has seen exposure both as a book and movie with millions of folks across the globe. It’s a long interview but rich in historical perspective and keen insights on the reasons America is immersed in such turbulent times.
Watch, listen, enjoy!
Peter Kuznick is currently Professor of History and Director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University. His acclaim and popularity are certainly deserved. In addition to his contributions in academic circles, he is in constant demand as a policy analyst and commentator across the globe. He is author ofBeyond the Laboratory: Scientists As Political Activists in 1930s America, and many other important volumes. Peter is best known by the general public for his highly controversial, landmark documentary created with director Oliver Stone,The Untold History of the United States, which has been distributed and viewed worldwide, receiving enthusiastic reception and generating much needed debate.
William J. Astore Interview (Video): An Objective Look at U.S. Foreign Policy
William J. Astore knows the military. He’s personally seen how the closed loop of the DOD and the commercial defense industries has exponentially grown and now dangerously and disproportionately determines direction of America’s dealings with the rest of the world. Here he offers his informed and rather bleak view of the prospects for peace under the current neocon-infested regime now in power in Washington DC.
William J. Astore is a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel, has taught at the Air Force Academy and Naval Postgraduate School, and now teaches history at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. He’s a senior fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network (EMN), an organization of critical veteran military and national security professionals. He is the author or co-author of three books and numerous articles focusing on military history as well as the history of science, technology, and religion. He is a regular contributor to TomDispatch, and his own website, Bracing Views, likewise contains much of his fascinating and highly-informative political analysis.