WHEN YOU’RE DEEP IN A HOLE, MOST PEOPLE STOP DIGGING

BUT NOT THE AMERICANS

What Holes? Where? Two examples: the Ukraine and West Asia.

Let’s start with the Ukraine.

In September 2014, after five months of savage attacks on its ethnic Russian citizens, the Ukrainian government agreed to end the fighting and withdraw heavy weapons in the Minsk 1 agreement. However, the Ukraine did not do this. In February 2015, Russia, Ukraine, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the leaders of two pro-Russian separatist regions agreed to roughly the same terms as Minsk I. This was Minsk II. The Ukraine also ignored this pact.

Why?

According to Al Mayadeen in 2023, “Ex-German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was in office from 2005 to 2021 said in an interview published in early December that the Minsk accords were signed to “give Ukraine time” to strengthen itself.” In plain speak, she urged the country’s “president”, Vladimir Zelensky, not to observe the Minsk Agreements. Common Dreams, in a 2022 article, noted: “The Ukrainian news outlet Ukrayinska Pravda reported… that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson used his surprise visit to Kyiv [Kiev]…to pressure President Volodymyr Zelenskyy [sic] to cut off peace negotiations with Russia, even after the two sides appeared to have made tenuous progress toward a settlement to end the war.”

Proposed Minsk Territorial Agreement

Pretty big hole, huh? Talk peace and plan war. Winston S. Churchill, the noted British war criminal, murderer, and human rights violator, once remarked “Jaw Jaw is better than War War.” What BoJo (BoJoke?) and Merkel (Ferkel [Pig[) did was the opposite.

The corrupt European Union, most of whose states are NATO members and American puppets, brought about a conflict with the Russian Federation, just as their puppet master, the United States, directed.

To date, there are nearly 27,000 civilian casualties of the U.S.-led NATO/EU war (February 2022-October 2024). The number of dead Ukrainian soldiers is unknown. (Figures are hard to come by because of disinformation but former German Defense Minister and current EU President Ursula von der Leyen stated in 2022 that the Ukrainian army had suffered 100,000 dead.) RT, citing The Economist, noted in late 2024 that “Up to half a million Ukrainian troops have been killed or wounded in the ongoing conflict with Russia…”

And then there is the economic side of the American/NATO/EU conflict.

The EU and the U.S. have given the Ukraine nearly €203 billion. That’s nearly $211 billion.

There are also about 7 million Ukrainian refugees.

Statistics on the collapse of the Ukrainian economy are also flooded with disinformation. However, after the Ukraine’s business and financial sectors buckled in 2022, the World Bank (optimistically) commented “Substantial infrastructure damage and extensive electricity disruptions are likely to slow economic growth to 3.2% in 2024 and 2% in 2025…The country will need at least $486 billion over the next decade to repair and rebuild…”

And the effect on Europe?

According to the European Investment Bank, “The war in Ukraine risks upending Europe’s economic recovery…The conflict and resulting sanctions have disrupted exports from the region for commodities like metals, food, oil and gas, pushing up inflation to levels not seen in decades.”

Yet, the Bank ignored the effects of America’s destruction of the pipelines carrying cheap natural gas from Russia to Europe. Owned by Gazprom, the Russian energy firm, each line had a transport capacity of roughly 27.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas per annum. The construction cost to build Nord Stream 1 was nearly $10 billion and $11 billion for Nord Stream 2. These pipelines and the Turkey Stream supplied about 40% of Europe’s energy needs. The Ukraine, obviously under U.S. direction, recently tried to destroy the Turkey Stream, using drones.

Impact of Ukraine War on Euro Area Energy Markets. European Central Bank

U.S. Efforts to Keep Digging

RT wrote: “Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken contradicted senior US military officials to urge Ukraine to continue to fight Russia rather than pursue peace negotiations in 2022, the New York Times reported on Saturday.”

As the Biden Administration prepared to leave office, it authorized the shipment of more weapons to the Ukraine, valued at$500 million.

And the costs.

RT remarked: Today, Trump’s rhetoric has reinforced a “every nation for itself” mentality among European leaders, pushing them toward national self-interest. Political forces in Germany, Italy, and Hungary are increasingly questioning the unconditional support for Washington’s policies. Western Europeans are becoming less enthusiastic about sanctions and military aid to Kiev, while major EU players are calculating how to ensure their own security and economic stability. Although these sentiments are not yet mainstream among Western elites, voices are growing louder that blame the West for deepening the Ukrainian crisis and advocate for rapprochement with Russia.

Let’s Look at West Asia.

The United States simply does not accept the Zionist invasion and occupation of Palestine. It believes that the occupied country is really” Israel”. Moreover, America doesn’t grasp “Israel’s” constant attacks on its citizens and the destruction of U.S. government property, viz.

· the 1954 Jewish attacks on the American consulate in Alexandria, Egypt as well as the firebombing of U.S. Information Service libraries there

· the 1967 attack on the USS Liberty in international waters, murdering 34 and maliciously wounding another 170 (out of a ship’s complement of roughly 300).

· the 2003 murder of 23-year-old American citizen Rachel Corrie by bulldozer.

· the 2010 attack on the Mavi Marmara and its aid flotilla, murdering nine people, including an American citizen, 19-year-old Furkan Dogan; the Zionists also falsely arrested 600 people, including former U.S. ambassador Ed Peck.

· the blinding of Emily Henochowicz, an American citizen, a Jew and 21-year-old artist by “Israeli” police while protesting the Mavi Marmara attack.

· the 2022 deliberate murder of U.S. journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by “Israeli” soldiers

And the United States continues to dig its hole.

Promoting the lie that “Israel” has a right to defend itself, the American government keeps pumping money and weapons into the Zionist Entity. From 1946 to 2024, the U.S. gave “Israel” more than $300 billion dollars (constant 2022 dollars). Most of this has been military aid. Originally, the Apartheid Entity was to get $3.8 billion annually until 2028. However, thanks to Genocide Joe Biden, the American taxpayer has provided nearly $23 billion in arms to “Israel” since October 7, 2023.

Moreover, the American government continually parrots the Zionist lie that vicious, crazed Palestinians, deliberately and without provocation, attacked and murdered 1,200 innocent concertgoers on October 7, 2023.

Let’s Look at Debtor “Israel”:

Israel’s existence depends on massive U.S. transfers of its citizen’s money, along with tax-free handovers of funds to alleged Zionist charities. This fuels Israel’s war machine. Profits from the sales of Israeli products in the United States often go to colonists occupying Palestinian lands (and using their resources) or to units of the “Israeli” Occupation Force.

Because of this, “Israeli” citizens have Universal Health Care while American citizens don’t.

Here are the highlights:

• “Israel” also receives loan guarantees and free or reduced cost military equipment from the United States. “Israel” gets funding from American Defense Department appropriations for projects such as its Iron Dome missile shield. (The U.S. Congress has forgiven all past loans to “Israel”.)

• U.S. Foreign Military Funding (FMF) provides 25% of “Israel’s” defense budget. (FMF finances procurement of defense articles and services by foreign countries.)

• More than $1.5 billion in private U.S. funds go to “Israel” annually in the form of $1 billion in private tax-deductible donations and $500 million in purchases of Israeli bonds.

• Total U.S. aid to “Israel” is approximately one-third of the American foreign-aid budget, even though Israel comprises just .001 percent of the world’s population and already has one of the world’s higher per capita incomes. With that being about $25,000, “Israel” ranks as the thirteenth wealthiest country in the world; Israelis enjoy a higher per capita income than oil-rich Saudi Arabia and are only slightly less well-off than most Western European countries.

• Buying products like Sabra hummus and SodaStream helps fund “Israel’s” military control over Palestinians. Some companies have factories located in one of the 125 officially recognized colonies in occupied Palestine, which are illegal under international law. Other companies contribute to the maintenance of the occupation through cooperation with the “Israel” Occupation Forces (IOF), whose main goal is to protect illegal “settlements” and exercise dominion over the lives of millions of Palestinians.

• Sabra hummus is partly owned by an “Israeli” company named the Strauss Group. It gives an elite IOF unit, the Golani Brigade, a variety of food products for their training or missions, and provides personal care packages for each soldier. (The Golani Brigade played a key role in the “Israeli” army’s assault on the Gaza Strip in 2008-09 during “Operation Cast Lead”. That action was infamous for its murders, war crimes, and human rights violations against Palestinians.)

• Tribe hummus and Ahava beauty products all have ties to the “Israeli” government. Tribe uses its U.S. profits to help that government strip Palestinians of their land and keep them from leasing it back. Ahava is 37% owned by Hamashbir Holdings, tied to the Orad Group, producing electronic detection systems for use on the West Bank separation barrier.

Summary: In The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, they note that “When Israel was founded, in 1948, U.S. policy makers did not consider it a strategic asset…American policy makers recognized that embracing Israel too closely would undermine the U.S. position elsewhere in the Middle East. President Truman’s decision to support the UN partition plan and to recognize Israel was based [in part] on…an awareness that recognition was backed by many American Jews and would therefore yield domestic political benefits.”

To date, the only benefits yielded in the close relationship between the United States and “Israel” have been to “Israel’s” advantage. It appears as if only detriments have come to the United States, its citizens, and to the Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East.

But what of the future?

Considering the steady rightward drift of the Israeli government, its focus on “Greater Israel”, and its oppression of Palestinians and others, can we consider the ruling elites there to be stable? If they are not, should the United States continue to transfer such large sums of money to them, funding “Israeli” wars and state-sponsored terrorism?

Does America have any responsibility for “Israel’s” actions? If so, whose is it? Our political leadership? The average voter? The Religious Right? The Mainstream Media for only telling part of the story?

Since “Israel” possesses an unknown number of weapons of mass destruction, what happens if one or two “go missing”? Suppose some carefully cultivated fanatics acquire and detonate a stray bomb or two? Will there be a finger-pointing tarantella or general war?

Shouldn’t someone start asking hard questions instead of bankrolling a proven enemy?

--OR should America keep digging?

COMMENT. Hole digging seems aimed at getting the United States to China the hard way. It doesn’t benefit the world’s perception of America.

A 2023 Pew survey, picked up by Roll Call (a Capitol Hill newspaper), noted a disturbing trend. Only a third of the British (35 percent), less than a third of the Germans (31 percent) and only a quarter of the French (25 percent) express faith in future US leadership.. Today, less than half the French, British, Spanish and Italians approve of the president’s record in the…poll… Overwhelmingly, Europeans do not trust American democracy. A 2021 Pew survey found that a median of only 1 in 6 (18 percent) believe that the US is a model democracy.

As the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP, an “Israeli” think tank in D.C.) remarked, “Because of U.S. support for Israel, America's trust and influence among Arabs in the region has reached its lowest point historically, while support for its competitors and strategic opponents—China, Russia, and Iran—has increased.” Those Arabs are, unsurprisingly, located in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and Palestine (although Jordan and Egypt are Uncle Sam’s puppets in the region).

The State Department (Mistake Department?) certainly sees this. One cable from the American Embassy in Rabat, Morocco observed that the United States had become “toxic” because of its support for “Israel” in its war against Palestine. According to ABC News, “Diplomats at other posts in the Middle East have voiced similar concerns, according to an official, who said posts in Muslim-majority countries in other areas of the world, such as Indonesia, have also voiced misgivings.”

The U.S. government appears incapable of looking beyond next week, reflecting a national attitude. Planning, envisioning consequences of stupid actions, or acknowledging others’ rights and interests are beyond administration abilities.

Proud of its empire, despite the costs, the United States doesn’t recognize simple, foreseeable consequences: loss of business; loss of prestige; loss of cooperation; loss of life. Yes, Sammy, if Americans freely murder around the world, won’t the kin of those killed for U.S. “interests”, whatever they might be, exact revenge? You’re a Yankee tourist, a corporate businessman from Iowa, an educator from Harvard on sabbatical. Won’t you be a target? Shouldn’t you think about it?

And the future?

Donald Trump, new U.S. President, has removed sanctions Biden, his predecessor, had imposed on colonists in Occupied Palestine. In the past, he has done “Israel’s” bidding. Yet, with Zionist soldiers required to leave their occupation of Lebanon by Sunday, January 26, The Donald is not receptive to Satanyahu’ s request for an extension, complete with building five military outposts there.

In fact, the Jerusalem Post suggested: “Israel should get ready for the following: supportive steps in full public view and significant pressure behind closed doors.”

As far as the Ukraine goes, Trump has been outspoken about the war. He is credited with saying: "It’s time to MAKE A DEAL. NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!" Moreover, the Kiev Independent wrote “Trump has been often critical of the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine and boasted about good relations with Putin, sparking concerns he might broker a deal unfavorable to Kyiv.”

Let’s hope The Donald takes a firm hold on reality.

J. Michael Springmann is an attorney, author, political commentator, and former diplomat, with postings to Germany, India, and Saudi Arabia. He previously authored, Visas for Al Qaeda: CIA Handouts That Rocked the World: An Insider’s View, recounting how the U.S. created and used Islamic Terrorism. Additionally, he penned Goodbye, Europe? Hello, Chaos? Merkel’s Migrant Bomb, an analysis of the alien wave sweeping the Continent. He currently practices law in the Washington D.C. Area. Internationally recognized as a knowledgeable pundit, he is a frequent commentator on Arab, Iranian, and Russian news programs.

Blacklisted by the US news media, he is also on the Ukraine’s “Enemies List”, having questioned, inter alia, that country’s refusal to honor the Minsk Accords and for stating that its government is Nazified.