There’s a story – it may be true – that Nixon (back when he was president) thought it would be a fine idea to make the North Vietnamese and the nuclear-armed Soviets who backed them believe he was irrational and volatile enough to push the button, so as to bluff them into kowtowing.
History repeats because human nature never changes.
Our Nixon seems to also believe it’s a fine idea to convey to the Russians that he just might push the button. Only this time, the Russians might just do it first. Trump’s announced sending of nuclear-missile-armed submarines close to Russia means the Russians would have less warning and less time to react to a first-strike. This no doubt makes the Russians uneasy. It probably makes them more likely to consider a first strike as a preemptive measure – and why not? The United States is run by a cabal that regularly engages in such, though not yet with nuclear weapons and (naturally) not yet against a nuclear-armed nation. The cabal that runs the United States prefers to rain conventional death on nations that can’t do much about it, such as Iran (on behalf of Israel).
But you see the point. Or rather, the hypocrisy. No doubt the Russians see it and tire of it. We – Americans are supposed to not see it and hate the Russians because they see it (and tire of it).
What, exactly, is Trump hoping to accomplish by bellowing demands and authorizing overtly threatening things such as edging our underwater nuclear “deterrent” closer to Russia, the better-to-nuke-them-with? This is something his senile grifter predecessor never did and that’s a measure of just how strange things have become. One of the main reasons people voted for Trump was to end the god-damned wars rather than incite worse ones. Why is he pushing the Russians to push the button? It cannot be Because Democracy, since the Ukrainians are ruled by a dictator who cancelled elections. It isn’t because America is threatened in any way by the Russians hashing things out with a former Russian province. It certainly isn’t because the American people are demanding it. Politically, it is idiotic because it (like the Epstein Business) is alienating people who supported Trump. There is no “upside” that makes any good sense.
So, why?
Well, because war is the health of the state. It not only shuts up those who raise questions about what the state is up to, it places them in the position of being enemies of the state. Herman Goring, the head of the German Luftwaffe and probably one of the smartest of the leadership cabal of the Third Reich, explained it thusly:
Naturally the common people don’t want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
Indeed, it does. Indeed it will.
Trump is in trouble. He needs a diversion, one big enough to shut people up about the Epstein Business as well as other emulsifying shit-storms, including the “fake news” about the jobs that haven’t been created and general enshitification of life in this country for average Americans, who are paying $100 for two plastic bags of groceries and double or triple what they used to pay for insurance and forget buying a new house if you are a first-time buyer.
A war would serve. It worked for The Chimp. It always works. Which is why it’s what they always do whenever it looks like the public is getting tired of the schtick.
This article was originally published on Eric Peters Autos.
