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Highly recommended reading for those who wish to begin building an understanding of Israeli-Palestinian relations, the major root cause of U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and likely soon, Iran. Palestinian Presiden Abbas addresses the U.N. General Assembly upon the occasion of the Palestinian Authority being granted the status of "observer state," which permits the P.A. to join the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court and initiate prosecution of Israeli officials for ware crimes. The resolution upgrading the Palestinians' status to a nonmember observer state at the U.N. was approved by a vote of 138-9, with 41 abstentions, in the 193-member world body. The U.S., Canada, and Czechoslovakia  were the only western nations voting "no." Israel's pariah nation status is now official and U.S. foreign policy is long overdue for overhaul in that regard. With friends like Israel, who needs enemies? 

An accidental find, the full text online of USMC Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler's 1935 book, War Is a Racket. Butler served in the Marine Corps from 1899 to 1931 and at the time of his retirement was the most-decorated Marine in history, for both valor and accomplishments. Following his retirement, he became a vehement anti-war activist and public speaker.  This book is easily his most-cited and most-quoted published work. You can capture the flavor from an article he published in a magazine that included the following lines: "I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler#Lectures  I look forward to reading this book. The book was reprinted in 2003 and is available from the linked web site, together with two bonus titles. 

"WAR IS A RACKET" - free online book CHAPTER ONE WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes. In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows. How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle? Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few - the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill. And what is this bill? This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations. For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds g

On the proposed EU sanctions, from other reports Slovakia and Czechoslovakia are expected to veto them. The major news here is that the turning of the tide in the Ukraine civil war is finally making it into mainstream media, although they continue to include in each article the U.S. propaganda that Russia has invaded, but clearly identified as U.S. "accusations," which hints that MSM is not convinced the U.S. is telling the truth here. The normal journalistic practice is to simply quote a person, add a comma followed by "said," a neutral point of view grammatical construct. "Accuse" is far less neutral, flagging that the reporter is not convinced of the statement's truth.    

Yes, there was that agreement that NATO would not move into the former Soviet Republics, That hasn't been getting any time on U.S. mainstream media though. 

The renowned libertarian socialist historian Noam Chomsky speaks to "American exceptionalism" ("of course it's ludicrous"). Claims of American exceptionalism fall particularly flat in my mind because the U.S. is "the melting pot of humanity." Descended from all breeds of immigrants, how could we be exceptional except in our diversity. But our diversity does not seem to be exceptional. Ask the Afro-American or Latino young man who has just been stopped by the police for driving while black or driving while Latino how they feel about America's respect for diversity. American exceptionalism is nothing but another propaganda theme used to justify unlawful activities. E.g., "we are the world's only superpower; therefore, we must act as the world's police force." But notice in that particular application of the theme, there are neither international law granting our military the power to invade other nations or international norms that make our unilateral invasions of other nations lawful under any circumstance other than responding defensively to another nation's military attack on our own nation. Of course there has been no such attack since the War of 1812 (at the outset of World War II, Hawaii was a mere possession, not a state).

If true, U.S. hegemony and NATO just took another big hit. What if they gave a war and nobody came?

Former Army officer and CIA analyst Ray McGovern informs that the Russian humanitarian aid convoy to Luhansk. It should be noted that "humanitarian intervention" has increasingly been used by the U.S. as grounds for full-fledged regime change military operations that invade other nation's sovereignty. Kosovo and Libya and prime examples, and the U.S. war by proxy against Syria has also been justified only by the humanitarian pretext of saving civilian lives, more than 100,000 of which have been extinguished by the war so far. So an actual humanitarian relief effort that invades the coup government of Ukraine's "sovereignty" seems like small potatoes in comparison. 

Former Army officer and CIA analyst Ray McGovern informs that the Russian humanitarian aid convoy to Luhansk. It should be noted that "humanitarian intervention" has increasingly been used by the U.S. as grounds for full-fledged regime change military operations that invade other nation's sovereignty. Kosovo and Libya and prime examples, and the U.S. war by proxy against Syria has also been justified only by the humanitarian pretext of saving civilian lives, more than 100,000 of which have been extinguished by the war so far. So an actual humanitarian relief effort that invades the coup government of Ukraine's "sovereignty" seems like small potatoes in comparison. 

Paul Craig Roberts wields a pen striking at the very heart of what ails American government.