With Turkey now removing its objection to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, it is a virtual certainty that the two countries will join this Cold War dinosaur military alliance. In practical terms, that means that the lives of young Americans will now be pledged to come to the automatic defense of Swedes and Finns in the event Russia initiates a war with either of them. Indeed, as a practical matter, it also means that lives of the American people are being pledged to both countries, given the virtual certainty that a war between Russia and the United States would turn nuclear.
Yet, when did the American people, through their elected representatives in Congress, agree to those pledges? Sure, I know that Congress is busy with those January 6 hearings, but is that any reason to refrain from making this monumental decision on behalf of the American people?
The fact is that when it comes to the expansion of NATO membership, the views of Congress are irrelevant. The only views that matter are those of the Pentagon. It is the Pentagon that owns and controls NATO. It is the Pentagon that has decided to invite Sweden and Finland into the military alliance that wields the authority to pledge the lives of the American people.
And why are we having to deal with all this? We’ve come full circle, to a renewed Cold War against China and Russia. The only thing missing is the mention of communism and the need to wage a renewed anti-communist crusade.
But wait a minute! What happened to the much-vaunted Global War on Terror? It feels like just yesterday that we were all getting geared up to fight the terrorists, who, we were told, were coming to get us because of their hatred for our “freedom and values.” I recall getting inundated with emails telling me that the Muslims were waging war on America as part of a centuries-old conspiracy to establish a worldwide caliphate. The fear of being forced to comply with Sharia law in towns and cities across America was everywhere.
Yet, suddenly, no more talk about the terrorists, the Muslims, and the caliphate! What gives with that? Do the terrorists and the Muslims now love us for our freedom and values? When did that happen? How did it happen?
The Cold War was one big, successful racket for the national-security establishment — i.e., the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA — along with its army of voracious “defense” contractors who were getting rich by feeding at the public trough. They convinced the American people that the communists were coming to get us, much like they later convinced Americans that the terrorists and the Muslims were coming to get us. Only an all-powerful military-intelligence establishment, one with omnipotent, totalitarian powers and ever-increasing budgets, could save us from going Red.
In retrospect, it is clear that that the national-security establishment never let go of its Cold War racket. Just ask the Cuban people, who continue to suffer from the old Cold War economic embargo that targets them with death and impoverishment. It is now clear that the much-vaunted Global War on Terror racket was just a temporary interlude until the Cold War racket could be brought back and renewed.
They had thought that their old Cold War racket would go on forever, especially after they got rid of President Kennedy, who decided to bring their Cold War racket to an end. The military-intelligence establishment was not about to let that happen, because they were convinced that Kennedy’s vision for America constituted a grave threat to “national security” and to the ever-growing power and tax-funded largess of the national-security establishment.
Every president since Kennedy has deferred to the majestic power of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA. So has Congress, which is owned lock, stock, and barrel by the military-intelligence establishment. The Supreme Court has also deferred to the omnipotent power of the national-security establishment, which is why the Pentagon and the CIA continue running their disgraceful torture and indefinite-detention camp at Gitmo.
As Tufts University law professor Michael Glennon has detailed so well in his watershed book National Security and Double Government, the unelected bureaucrats at the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA are ultimately in charge of our destiny as a nation. They are the ones running the show. They, not Russia or China, are the biggest threat to our liberty, prosperity, and well-being.
Given the increasing possibility of nuclear war arising out the national-security establishment’s machinations in Ukraine, as part of its renewed Cold War racket, not to mention the massive spending, debt, and inflation that is bankrupting the federal government and impoverishing the American people, this would be a good time for Americans to engage in some serious soul-searching about where we are as a nation, how we got here, and what we need to do to get our nation back on the right track toward liberty, peace, prosperity, and harmony.
People often ask me why I continue to spend time on the Kennedy assassination, as reflected by my new book An Encounter with Evil: The Abraham Zapruder Story. The answer is simple: Understanding the motivation and nature of that particular national-security state regime-change operation points us in the direction we need to go — toward ending the Cold War racket against Russia and China, getting out of NATO, restoring our founding foreign policy of non-interventionism, and dismantling the national-security establishment and a restoring our founding governmental system of a limited-government republic.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jacob G. Hornberger.
Jacob G. Hornberger | Radio Free (2022-07-06T07:52:35+00:00) Coming Full Circle With a Renewed Cold War Racket. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2022/07/06/coming-full-circle-with-a-renewed-cold-war-racket/
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