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Statement of Principle
G20 and the moral relativism of using violence
New book by Van der Pijl puts MH17 in a broader geopolitical context
On the war path (8). Dutch cabinet formation and d...
How the United States is arming the jihadists—in S...
US Strategy in Syria can lead to a major war with ...
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (23) The propaganda war aro...
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (22) The Sovershenno Sekret...
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (21) Explosive revelations ...
Westbloc propaganda tries to influence decisionmak...
Maintaining NATO and EU discipline in France. The ...
Chavista government in Venezuela faces trumpets of...
With missiles Trump crowns himself an emperor
The Supreme War Crime: Unprovoked Attack of a Sove...
NATO as a malignant growth (4). The road through S...
NATO as a malignant growth (3). After victory
NATO as a malignant growth (2). The ‘strategy of t...
And now it turns out the Ukraine referendum too was hacked by the Russians
Kiev tries to drag the NATO war machine into the c...
When the mainstream slips into conspiratorial thin...
Is Trump a maverick facing the US shadow state on ...
The Russian hack story and the campaign to derail ...
Words and deeds. How the Dutch government handles ...
NATO as a malignant growth (1)
The ‘Trump moment’ in a shifting international rel...
The 'revolt of the masses' continues. After Brexit...
The West can't stop pursuing regime change
Will MH17 Be Our 9/11? (20). Back to the Dutch Safety Board's Final Report
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (19). Our visit to the Dutc...
Will MH17 Be Our 9/11? (18) Discussion points for ...
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (17). The DSB and JIT repor...
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (16) The final report of th...
Pentagon allows Syrian base to fall to ISIS
Another Patriot mission for the Netherlands—this t...
After the failed coup in Turkey. Towards a reorder...
Goldman Sachs, Brexit, and the danger of war in Eu...
On the war path (6). From weaklings in 1914 to cri...
Letter to the members of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs concerning the Committee Meeting on 6 July next on the NATO summit in Warsaw
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (15) New revelations concer...
On the war path (5). NATO Summit in Warsaw
Leaked e-mails document US strategy in Ukraine's c...
Fear of promoting Putin infects even the Dutch qua...
Great Britain leaves the European Union—How often ...
One hundred years´ of Rosa Luxemburg´s ´Socialism ...
Among the Russians (through the Cold War looking g...
Letter to the Second Chamber concerning the interpretation of the Referendum result
Issues concerning the Association Agreement (1). S...
Why military cooperation with Ukraine must be scra...
The meaning of the No vote
The campaign over the Ukraine referendum has begun...
A Libyan scenario for Syria after all? The Netherl...
Press release: no bombs on Syria
Chess pieces for the endgame in Syria?
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (14) The Dutch intelligence...
Charlie Hebdo one year on
‘Humanitarian intervention’ in Libya—on the ethics...
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (13). The Dutch government’...
Will the Netherlands too start bombing in Syria?
Russian support for Assad clashes with Western str...
Russian fighter jet downed by Turkey over Syria: N...
Are we starting a big ‘War on Terror’ all over aga...
Is it finally dawning who hides behind the ‘Islami...
Conspiracy or simply Dutch government policy?
The attacks in Paris and the new round of declarat...
Worrisome turn in the ‘fight against ISIS’
Wikileaks on Syria: from insurrection to exodus
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (12). Again the DSB Report—...
Will MH-17 be our 9/11? (11) The final report of t...
Humanitarianism in the refugee crisis
Dutch government seeks to exploit geopolitical instability
What is the source of the ‘safe haven’ plans for S...
‘Peace organisation PAX’ wants another Afghanistan...
On the war path (4). Comparing defence expenditure...
Will MH 17 be our 9/11? (10) Should there be an al...
What if Damascus falls?
Hiroshima and Nagasaki seventy years on
The Kurds and ISIS: Will NATO correct the election...
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (9). Dutch propaganda stepp...
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (8) The speech of Dutch Foreign Secretary Timmermans in the UN Security Council
Is another military coup in Greece possible?
Will Armenia be the next pawn to go?
Let’s prevent a new world war
Distorted Reality
The ‘peace process’ that did succeed—Israel and Sa...
Manifesto against a rise of the Dutch defence budg...
Amsterdam twinning with Tel Aviv—Let’s go for it!
Will MH-17 be our 9/11? (7). An attack with a Sukh...
The end of the football season
Pipeline politics and democracy—machinations conce...
On the war path (3)
On the war path (2)
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (6) The article in Novaya G...
Memorial conference of Russian political scientist...
Is the end of secular Syria near?
On the war path
Ukraine moves further to the right under the NATO ...
Agreement with Iran: new sanctions and threats
The Netherlands as a doormat for provocations agai...
Truce in Ukraine, but not for the oligarchs
The Russian advance in the picture
The assassination of Boris Nemtsov and Ukraine
Dutch armoured vehicles in a demonstrative display...
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (5) Joost Niemöller on the ...
Another Western geopolitical fiasco. Merkel tries ...
Agreement in Minsk, but not everybody is on board,...
Ukraine agreement bad news for NATO and EU
Again close to a solution in Ukraine—and once agai...
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (4) Satellite traffic and M...
Eye witness report from Latakia (Syria)
‘Three minutes’ from a global disaster. US Army to...
Politics as theatre. ‘Je suis Charlie’ once again
Netanyahu in Paris. ‘Je suis Charlie’
From Syria to Paris. Target Charlie Hebdo
Obama’s and Cuba—A new chapter?
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (3) Are governments actuall...
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (2) The method of the Dutch...
Are Nazi’s in power in Ukraine?
Will MH17 be our 9/11?
Putin ‘has nowhere to turn to’—except China, India...
Ashton Carter (continued): Let’s roll and blow up ...
Negotiations in Berlin, violence on the ground, ne...
South Stream discontinued. Economic warfare in ful...
Hedge funds take over the government of Ukraine
The return of national identities and enemy stereo...
Silence before the storm in Ukraine?
‘Save the Children’—You can leave that to Tony Bla...
Israel and Saudi Arabia join hands, and not for th...
A Centre-Left government in Sweden? Time to dispat...
The common enemy is usually one door further away
Will the Netherlands too be drawn into the new Thi...
Does the West have a responsibility in case things...
A safe haven for Christians in Iraq is undesirable...
Announcement demonstration October 4, 2014
The West says goodbye to Ukraine. Just figure it o...
Via ISIS to Damascus and Teheran after all
‘Exterminate’ Islamic State—even if that means, se...
What Israel got out of the Gaza operation
How the Netherlands assisted in the build-up of IS...
A new war against Islam—and once again, an enemy o...
Fantasy and NATO propaganda surrounding Flight MH1...
‘Russsian aggression’ does not seem to abate. New ...
Letter on NATO Summit to the Dutch Parliament
The West the hostage of a situation of its own mak...
New Pentagon boss Ashton Carter ‘unknown’ to Dutch...
Now that the bill for Europe is mounting, negotiat...
Continuing speculation concerning MH17—but the sam...
No preferential treatment, but please don’t ignore...
Europe pays the price for American and NATO policy...
Has the Israeli state forfeited its right to exist...
Malaysia Airlines and NATO
Once again the drama of flight MH17. Are there rea...
Still a spark of hope for a solution in Ukraine?
Ukraine hesitates but not the NATO commanders
The Guns of August
Letter to the Second Chamber of Parliament
Aftermath of the drama of MH17—Further down the pa...
The end of the ‘peace process’
New American sanctions against Russia, support for...
Gaza on the eve of a new round of slaughter?
Will the crisis in Ukraine lead to a total war?
Withdrawing the Patriots again—so what have we ach...
The advance of ISIL in Iraq—final act of the 2003 ...
Will Syria become the new Somalia? If it were a ma...
Kiev and Moscow in talks again—but is that in NATO...
The chocolate king of Ukraine crowned—F-16s to the...
No Dutch F-16s to the Baltic as ‘reassurance’
The European elections and Ukraine
American mercenaries in Ukraine and the parallel w...
Socialist Party MP Harry van Bommel speaking in En...
Ukrainian manoeuvres—Provoking violence, ideally a...
Do we really want war? In that case, let’s continu...
The limit to NATO expansion has been reached
Demonstration ‘Stop Turkish Interference in Syria’...
Swedish Neonazis in Ukraine—on a NATO mission?
Will the Crimea turn into a new Cuba crisis?
In Syria with the jihadists, in Ukraine with the F...
Regime Change in Ukraine openly on the agenda
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (24) Repetition of moves fo...
Russia-gate and Trump. Should we rally behind him?...
How can we make doves of peace out of liberals?
On the war path (8) Acting Dutch government active...
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (25) The authorities, the m...
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (26) The EU and sanctions a...
Escalation tensions between Russia and US in Syrian war
The blanket surveillance law as a step towards a p...
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (27) How The Intercept gets...
Will MH17 be our 9/11? (28) Why the one tenacious ...
Towards an Atlantic Police State? (1) The War on T...
Towards an Atlantic police state? (2) Orwell’s ‘19...
Towards an Atlantic police state? (3) UKUSA, ECHEL...
Towards an Atlantic police state? (4): The Deep St...
Towards an Atlantic police state? (5) How US defic...
Towards an Atlantic police state? (6) The Rise of ...
Towards an Atlantic police state? (7) Tensions bet...
Towards an Atlantic police state? (8) Surveillance...
Towards an Atlantic police state? (9) Population c...
Towards an Atlantic police state? (10) Militarisin...
Towards an Atlantic police state? (11) Via 9/11 to...
Towards an Atlantic police state? (12) Total Infor...
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‘Exterminate’ Islamic State—even if that means, setting fire on the entire Middle East?
Yesterday the Americans bombed targets near Raqqa in Syria, in which the first civilian casualties were made as well, among them three children. More will follow. Yesterday too Israel shot down a Syrian fighter jet over Syrian territory occupied by Israel since 1967. From one you get to the other.
Whilst the letters to the editor boxes overflow with calls to ‘exterminate’ IS(IS), we should better listen to Pope Francis who on a commemoration of the anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, hundred years ago, warned that the world has possibly already slipped into a Third World War.
And the Netherlands? We are joining in with four F-16s, it seems we can’t get enough of it. It does not need a military-strategic genius to understand that the many local conflicts in the Middle East are becoming entangled to an ever greater degree. The pope on several occasions has called for the ending of wars—in the cases of Iraq, Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, and the different armed conflicts in Africa. Now he has underlined the failing to end these conflicts is beginning to add up to one overarching conflict, in fact a new world war that has run out of control. The cause of all these conflicts is first of all the profound economic and social crisis in the world, which is only being aggravated by violent interventions. And since ‘we’, the West led by the United States, dressed up as ‘the international community’, are the only ones entitled to intervention under the banner of ‘responsibility to protect’, R2P (which we invented ourselves), country after country is pushed further into the abyss. In the end it also goes back to the fateful decision to interpret the attacks of 9/11 as a ‘declaration of war’ and start a war without a clear adversary and hence without end—making the wildest dreams of the military-industrial complex come true. That is the context in which the call to root out IS(IS) root and branch, must be judged. In this respect it is a secondary issue that as Patrick Cockburn has explained, we are dealing with Muslim equivalent of the Khmer Rouge—the Khmer Rouge too incidentally came to power after American bombing had brought down king Sihanouk of Cambodia. Neither does it really matter that three hostages have been beheaded in the most cruel way—the US and Great Britain through their invasion of Iraq in 2003 (supported by the Netherlands among others) have caused the deaths of an estimated 700,000 people and made 3 million refugees. Is an American pilot who slaughters a group of strolling journalists from the air, less cruel? (Even disregarding the fact that the soldier who made this public, Bradley/Chelsea Manning, has been locked up for several decades). Or the fact that Israel can murder thousands at will and is torturing Palestinian children? IS(IS) is a creation of the West and its allies in the region—the most reactionary monarchies the Arab world has on offer. The only sensible thing that the West, including our own country, should do, is to try to lower the level of violence and start negotiations to save the people further horrors. Instead Obama is going to spend half a billion dollars to arm and train 5,400 fighters in Saudi Arabia to bring even more violence to Syria, and have them fight both IS(IS) and Assad. So more war, even greater risks—and we are there to participate. Kees van der Pijl
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