The Duran Podcast - Neocons cannot be stopped, they will get war

Episode Date: October 23, 2023

Neocons cannot be stopped, they will get war

All right, Alexander. Let's talk about the escalation towards war in the Middle East and in Ukraine as well from the Biden White House. Maybe Taiwan soon. Maybe China and Taiwan the way things are going. So we have $106 billion package that is all bundled together that Biden wants Congress to approve. Mitch McConnell the other day, he said that he's all for it. He sees a connection in all of these. conflicts so he's he's he's he's approving of a Biden strategy to bundle all these conflicts together we have an article from Axios which gives the impression that this is a Biden white house that that is in over its head as far as all of these conflicts are concerned but it doesn't look like they understand or capable of putting on the brakes to any of these of these conflicts the situation in the Middle East is very dangerous.

It looks like to me that the neocons are looking to widen out this conflict, constantly talking about Iran and Syria. It really gives me the impression that people like Lindsay Graham and McConnell, who said that China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are an axis of evil. An axis of evil, we haven't heard that one before. You know, it really seems like there, how do I afraid? They're not so interested in the actual conflict in Israel, as much as they are interested in widening out the conflict to bring in Iran and Syria.

And obviously, Graham, McConnell, Bolton, people like this have been trying to get at Iran for decades now. And out of the 106 billion, 61 of that 106 billion. billion, we'll be going to Ukraine. So the bulk of the money is going to go to Ukraine. So I think it's a very chaotic picture that we have in front of us. But unfortunately, it looks like the momentum is just pushing us towards either a big regional conflict or perhaps a global conflict. What are your thoughts? I think this is exactly correct. I think it is a very dangerous. and very frightening situation. And I think that the Axios article is telling us that there are people in the White House,

in the National Security Council, in the State Department, across the bureaucracy, who are now beginning to panic, because they're beginning to understand, perhaps fully for the first time, that the captain of the ship is sailing it directly towards the iceberg. and he's saying full steam ahead. And I think this is the moment when people are starting to see that. And you're quite correct.

So we discussed in a program we did when we talked about Biden's address to the American people, that it's absolutely clear that for him, the fixation, the obsession, the obsession remains Ukraine. We've now had the package, and it's $61 billion for Ukraine,

$14 billion for Israel, more money for Ukraine. We see that Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham are absolutely on board with all of this. We see that the neocont generally are fully on board with all of this. What we have is a relatively small group of people at the absolute centre of power who are now in effect in control of the machinery of government and the president is one of them. I think this is something we all need to understand.

The president is fully signed up to this who wants to take on everybody at one and the same time. But their primary focus is not Hamas in Gaza. It is this axis of evil that you were talking about. Russia, China, Iran. They're all being. lumped together and we want to confront them all simultaneously at one and the same time. And the one that's most important for them at the moment remains Russia. So this is what they want to do. And we see other people within the government who are becoming appalled. They sense that the whole thing is spiraling out of control.

They sense that in the Middle East the situation especially is spiraling out of control, that there's dangers that the US military dispersed across the Middle East could find themselves in trouble. They see that the Chinese and the Russians are starting to take counteraction. The Russians are deploying MiG-31 fighter jets to the Black Sea with Kinjal hypersonic missiles and giving warnings that if there's an attack on their troops in Syria, they will respond. The Chinese are now deploying warships of their own to the region to counter American presence there. And these people, the sort of more people who are more connected to reality within the government, the US government, they're starting to panic. And we're hearing reports that people in the State Department are also starting to panic, that congressional staffers are beginning to become worried.

And we see that there's been this concerted approach to Axios from a whole lot of diplomats and officials, all saying that the situation is becoming more dangerous than it has been, well, certainly since the administration took office, that the last week has been chilling. And, of course, last week also we had that article in the Financial Times, which was confirmed that ex-diplom, not ex-diplomats at all. serving diplomats are becoming worried also, by the way, this is all getting out of hand. But all of these words of counsel of advice, of attempts to try to get these people, if not to reverse gear, at least to put their foot on the break, all of this advice is being disregarded.

How? How do you get them to put the foot on the break? I mean, I don't see it. I really do. listening to what Blinken, McConnell, Lindsay Graham, all of these people said over the weekend, listening to Biden's speech at the Oval Office, I mean, you know, Blinken is Biden's guy. He's the Secretary of State. Underneath Blinken, you have the deputy secretary, State of the Under Secretary of State, Victoria Newland. How do you put a stop to this? How do you pause this? Because it doesn't seem like we're moving in anywhere near that, that type of trajectory. It seems like with each passing day, it's getting worse and worse. I mean, we're moving quicker and quicker towards a conflict. And I just want to ask you about this deterrent force that the U.S. is deploying in the region that Lloyd Austin was talking about over the weekend as well. And Lloyd Austin, he expressed his concern about a widening conflict. But he also warned China and Russia and Iran and Hezbollah and all of the

these these these countries and these these actors in the region he warned them don't you dare do anything to uh don't don't you dare do anything in this war in israel don't you dare enter the conflict or else the united states is going to is going to defend itself he said i mean there's that word again i mean what's how do you how do you put a break to this well the only way you can put a break to this is for these people to get what they want which is a war certainly a regional war in the middle east and for them to suffer a bloody nose because that's that's the only way this can stop that i i i don't think that there are that's that's a very i mean i just i i have to stop that's that's that's scary that's terrifying absolutely it is absolutely terrifying but they are not

listening and they will get the conflict that they want. I can't see that there is any political restraint upon them. There are people in Congress who are unhappy about what's happening and we've seen that there have been moves to this effect in the House of Representatives. I don't think there's enough of them. I think, as I said, there's always money for these things and I think that there's some kind of financial package will be put together in the end. But I don't think think that these people can be stopped. It's the same sense I have to say that I had in the run up to the invasion of Iraq back in 2003. Lots of people coming out saying, you know, this isn't going to work. This is a bad idea. Take a step back. Think before you act. But the people in

control are just not listening. They don't want to listen. And if you read the articles of the kind of people that are being written by the kind of people who are close to this group, they are basically saying that anybody who isn't with them is either delusional or a wimp, it's exactly the kind of rhetoric that we heard back in 2003. Yeah, I think the parallels between 2002, 2003 with today are just, I mean, it's incredible when you think about the narratives that are being put out today. I mean, they almost take the wording from 2002, 2003, and they're just, they're just repeating it today. You know, Hamas is al-Qaeda. Yes.

The attack on Israel was 9-11. access of evil today Russia, China, Iran, North Korea. Bush's State of the Union addressed in 2002, access of evil, North Korea, Iraq, and Iran. All diplomacy has been completely cut off. Israel is talking about how Hamas wants to use or has chemical weapons. We will never forget Colin Powell and his UN speech with chemical weapons and anthrax and all of that stuff.

I mean, they're lifting the entire narrative from 2002, 2003, and they're just dropping it into 2020. But, you know, this time around, you have Russia, you have China, you have bricks, you have a much stronger Arab world and a Middle East region in general. Well, this is going to be a disaster for the United States. I don't know. I think it's going to be a disaster for the United States if they continue down this path. Well, they are.

First of all, I mean, you know, George W. Bush's axis of evil was hardly any kind of access at all. I mean, first of all, I mean, that was wildly overstated rhetoric. Iraq and Iran at that time, I mean, they hated each other. They'd fought a war with each other. They were not allies by any consideration. But Iraq was not a powerful country in the way that Russia, China and Iran today are powerful countries. I mean, you cannot compare the axis of evil that George W. Bush was talking about with the global superpowers, the Chinese and the Russians, with their vast fleets, their huge armies, their enormous

arrays of nuclear weapons, their sophisticated technologies with what you know, Iran and Iraq had, you know, to show back in 2003. I mean, Iran today is a much more powerful country militarily than it was then. Just saying this. So already that is a completely different situation than from the situation that we see today. And of course, the United States is nowhere near as powerful. geopolitically or militarily as it was in 2003. 2003, well, we were perhaps starting to move towards the end of the, you know, unipolar moment.

It wasn't obvious at the time, but perhaps we were. But the fact was that in 2003, the United States was far in a way, the most powerful country in the world, to an extent that it isn't now. But the neocons do. Neocons do have something which is working for them, which is that in 2003 there was pushback from Europe. There was Schroeder and there was Berlusconi and there was Shirek, all of them opposed to what was going on. And that played an important role. It meant that, you know, Bush and Blair and the neocons ran into opposition in Europe.

They ran into opposition of the Security Council. They were eventually blocked there. And when they did launch their military operation against Iraq, they did this basically, you know, you remember the coalition of the willing and all of that. And it was hardly any kind of real coalition at all. This time, by contrast, Europe is completely on site. There is no fundamental dissent.

There's a few mumbled words in the background from some European governments. Apparently Ireland isn't happy. Spain isn't happy. But overall, the big countries, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, they're all fully on side. So this makes the situation altogether more dangerous because the internal breaks are not there. They really are not. I mean, you don't have political pressure from Europe. So that gives the neocons more of a runway to move forward with whatever it is that they want to do.

But against that, the ultimate resistance that they face is very, very much greater. There's also another fundamental difference between then and now, which is that in 2003, the US economy was relatively strong. Again, it wasn't obvious at the time that we were moving towards the 2008 financial crisis, but we were, but it wasn't visible. This time, the situation in the US and European economy is much more fragile.

But in the absence of political breaks, that actually makes the situation more dangerous. Because one gets the sense that if things really do begin to go wrong, then the effect on the economy, the global economy, is going to be much more severe than was the case in 2003. And, of course, that in turn might put greater pressure on them and make them even more aggressive. Yeah.

I would say in 2002, 2003, the US at least had some avenues of diplomacy as well opened with various countries around the world. Today, I mean, the Biden White House, they've completely just cut off all avenues of diplomacy with so many countries. I mean, so many nations around the world just don't even want to speak with Biden. We saw in the Middle East, they shunned him.

They didn't want to see him. So, I mean, even the dialogue has been cut off between the United States and so many countries that could be actors. this in this wider war. Do you think this is only about neocon ideology? I mean, there's no doubt that the neocons for decades have been wanting to get at Syria for decades. They've been wanting to destroying Iran, Russia, Newland, Maidan, we know all about that. So obviously there's this neocon ideology where they wanted to, they've always wanted to start wars with these countries. But do you

Do you think there's something more to this? Is this part of the election cycle, perhaps the Biden White House? Jake Sullivan's of the Biden White House have understood that, you know, the only way we can get through the election and give Biden any type of chance to come through this. Or the Democrat Party, for that matter, is to create, you know, this big war distraction. Do you think this could be about the economics of Europe and of the United States? once again, a big war is a big distraction away from the economic collapse that has taken place in the collective West, a distraction from de-dollarization, or perhaps even a distraction from the failure of Project Ukraine. Perhaps there are people in the Biden White House who are saying,

you know, Ukraine has definitely lost this conflict with Russia. There's no chance that Ukraine can can be victorious in this conflict with Russia, but perhaps we can widen out the conflict so that either it distracts away from the collapse of Ukraine or it distracts Russia into getting involved in this region and it gives Ukraine a little bit of hope. I mean, outside of the neo-con ideology, what else do you see going on here? I think there is a great deal of urgency. Now, there is urgency because the events are driving that urgency. I mean, there was that attack by Hamas. It was a violent one. It did result in civilians being targeted and killed. There was a taking of hostages. And we must always remember that that attack would have created a crisis of some kind,

regardless of who was running things in the White House. If it was the most level-headed president, you know, that exists, we would still be in a crisis today. It would be a different kind of crisis, but events are to some extent creating an urgency, because of course the administration does need to produce some kind of result for the election, as you say. But I think that there is an overriding much greater, much deeper urgency, and I'm afraid it is linked to ideology, which is, I think that with the failure of Project Ukraine, with the problems in the US economy, with the even greater problems in Europe, the neocons are starting to worry that they're running out of road, that there's a real risk that Donald Trump will win the election next year,

that there's a real risk that the political situation in the United States is shifting against them, and perhaps conclusively so. that the economics are not looking at all favourable. I should say, you know, people are talking about the growth rates that the United States has achieved over the last year or so that is growing much faster than Europe. Well, we've already discussed how that growth rate is being achieved by running a huge budget deficit.

And we already see that the markets are getting nervous about this. yields on bonds are spiking. That is what is probably more than anything else now, pulling up interest rates. And what people are ignoring is that even as the US economy appears to be gaining speed all the time, industrial output in the United States year on year is falling. So this is a mirage.

So they sense this. They sense that things are not working up, that they're not winning the economic war with the Chinese that they wanted to win. That they're not winning the technological war with the Chinese that they were looking to win. China has been able to produce super fast chips and all of that. So they sense that they're running out of road. This is their last big chance to achieve their objective, to break the axis of evil,

as they see it, to reassert American strategic dominance, to move forward with the NEACON project. And the result is that they're putting their foot on the accelerator, because that's what these people do. And of course, you have the president who comes along, he sent off to the Middle East, he talks, the talk of restraint until he arrives in Washington,

and you see the mask falls. in that address he delivered to the American people. And we see in action what the Chinese President Xi Jinping said directly to his face, you say one thing, you do the opposite, and we see that nobody trusts him. Nobody across the Middle East trusts him. The Egyptians don't want to talk to him, the Jordanians don't want to talk to him, the Saudis don't want to talk to him, because they know, that whatever they think they have agreed with Biden isn't going to stick.

So this is the disaster situation we are in. It's not a case of people having no reverse gear. It's not a case of people not willing to put on the brake. It is a case of people who want to put on the accelerator, because this is their last chance, or so they think. Yeah, a final question going off of the fact that Biden can't be trusted. I think about the attackums that the Biden White House, you know, constantly said that they're not going to send attackums to Ukraine. And they sent attackums.

And I think to myself, you know, you have the Biden White House now in Lloyd Austin saying that all of this military hardware and these warships that are deployed to the Mediterranean, they're a force for deterrence. they're not an offensive force, they're there to send a warning to Iran and Hezbollah, don't you dare get involved in this war. Because here we are. I don't trust the Biden White House. I'm starting to think that the delays that we constantly see, you know, things can't start because of the ground operation, things can't start until the hostages are released. All this military hardware from the United States is descending onto the Mediterranean. a lot of forces are being deployed to Cyprus as well. You know, I'm starting to believe that this is once again another Biden trick, a Biden lie,

in much the same way that the attack comes and all the weapons that they would say are not going to Ukraine or they're going to be sent to Ukraine in three months, but they're already in Ukraine. I mean, I'm starting to believe that this is once again a deception from the Biden White House where they say this is a deterrent force, but eventually this force that's in the region is going to launch an attack on some country or someone, something. I mean, do you get that sense? Absolutely. Can I just say, I mean, the delay, it seems to me, the probable reason for it, I've come to the conclusion is because the U.S., and it is the U.S., and to some extent Israel, of course, also need time to deploy their military. military assets. They need time to send their warships to the region. They need time to deploy

their troops. They need time to deploy the aircraft that they're sending there. So that's what it's all about. And of course, again, you have, you know, the talk about the weapons, you know, that, you know, it's all deterrents. It's not intended to be an offensive. Well, of course we've been there. We've again, been there all, you know, before. I mean, 2003, the invasion of Iraq was justified on the basis of defence. We need to defend ourselves against the threat from Iraq, which is the WMD threat. So that's what they always say. They always justify their offensive moves by pretending that they're acting on the defensive.

because of course that's what they need to do politically in order to win over people in the United States. But their actions tell a completely different story. There's no evidence that any of the great powers in the region, the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians are looking to attack the United States. There's no real sign that they're looking to attack even Israel, actually. Why would they? But the United States is deploying forces to the United States

to the Middle East, which to be clear, look much more powerful than would be justified by just an act of deterrence. And this is why people in the US government are becoming spooked out, because they're seeing all these huge deployments. They're seeing the counter deployments that the Chinese and the Russians are making. They're getting the sense that we're moving towards an all-out regional conflict in the Middle East, which looks potentially as if it could suck in the great powers. It looks as if the great powers, the other great powers, the Chinese and the Russians, are themselves beginning to become increasingly concerned about the situation.

We saw Putin give his warning. Remember, he's warning. Lloyd Austin is also, of course, giving his warning. But when people warn each other, which is what's happening, that is already a very bad sign. And some people in the government, in the US government, are freaking out. But they can't communicate their concern, either directly to the American people because they are not in charge

or to the people who are in charge because those people are not listening. Okay, we'll wrap it up there. I think we're heading towards a war. I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm completely wrong, but the actions, the actions match, like you said, a buildup to something big. And I'm afraid that one day Biden's just going to address the American people and say, we've launched attacks against X, Y, and Z in much the same ways that we woke up one morning and the news came out that the tackums were being launched in Russia.

That's what worries me. Well, exactly. And if I can just return to the attack, it's because that is another story again, by the way, because there's now been a very interesting article by Mark Galliotti, who is a very well-established, very well-known military analyst and writer here. He's very well connected with the British authorities, with the British Defence Ministry. He's somebody to take extremely seriously. And I don't know where he gets his information from, but I suspect he gets. He gets. gets his information from high level sources. He says that 18, up to 18 missiles might have been launched at one at the same time. So this wasn't just sending a few attackers missiles quietly to Ukraine. It was actually a massive military operation that was carried out. 18 missiles apparently launched at one and the same time against Russian. air bases. Now, he also says, or suggests, that he failed, that the Russians managed to shoot

down 15 out of those 18, that only three got through, and they only did a limited amount of damage. But put that aside, focus on the key point that he's making, that this was intended to be a massive missile strike. It miscarried. But, but the intention was to do something very big. It's incredible the amount of restraint from the Putin and government. I mean, it really is. I mean, 18 missiles, 18 attackums? Well, again, that is what... We don't have that on the other side, by the way.

We don't have that restraint on the other side. No, of course not. Well, that is what Mark Galliati says. Now, again, I stress, I don't know where he's getting his information from. but I've always got the assumption that he is a well-informed person. I mean, I say well-informed, not in the way that you and I are well-informed. You know, we read what's there in the open media. We look at what government's say.

I mean that he's well-informed because he's able to talk to people whom we do not have access to. So when he says that up to 18 of these missiles were launched at one and the same time, I take that very seriously. Now, if that is true, as I said, I repeat again, that was a big attack by the standards of the conflict in Ukraine, a massive attack. And we're getting huge numbers of missiles being launched at the Russians in the Black Sea. Again, it's not obvious to people that this is happening

because it seems that the great majority, these missiles are being shot down, but there is clearly an escalation. And then there is something else again. Now, this is all about the conflict in Ukraine at the moment. Now, again, I don't know whether or not this is true, but the Russians are reporting dozens of Ukrainian fighter jets being shot down. I mean, there's certainly been an enormous escalation in Russian claims about, you know, Mi-29 fighters and other Ukrainian aircraft being shot down.

And again, I asked, what has happened? Is it because Russian tactics have become much more aggressive, or could it be that alongside all these missile attacks, Ukraine has been pressed to launch some kind of aerial offensive, which is also miscarried? But if it is the second,

you again see an escalation. there and that is being matched with this huge escalation that we're seeing in the Middle East. Yeah, but a final question, how are these being utilized by the neocons to get a wide war? I mean, you know, McConnell said that everything's connected. That's why he's for the 106 billion apex says that it's all connected. I mean, is this what they're looking to do? Are they looking to coordinate two conflicts to erupt at? the same time. And is this uptick in, in attacks towards Russia? Does this mean that NATO is getting

more actively involved? Because I don't know if Ukraine has the capability to. No, Ukraine does not have the capability of escalation. No, Ukraine does not have the capabilities. In fact, we have seen over the last couple of days an uptick are in Ukrainian attacks on various parts of the front line. But they don't seem to be breaking through or achieving anything. Are these? missile strikes don't seem to be achieving what they were expected to. And if there isn't attempts to deploy more fighter jets, you know, Ukrainian fighter jets, getting them to attack, that isn't working either because if you believe the Russians, then they're being shot down instead. But clearly, I would say that there is an attempt to distract the Russians by increasing the pressure

in Ukraine, whilst this build up in the Middle East is happening. That would be the logical thing behind it. And of course, we have Mitch McConnell talking in that way. We've had Lindsay Graham, by the way, on a tour in the Middle East. He met MBS, incidentally. So, you know, when wonders what he's up to. And, you know, all of these people are fanning out across the Middle East. They're pulling all the wires.

By the way, when Mitch McConnell says that everything is connected, he is of course correct. Everything is connected. The people who are connecting all these conflicts are the neocons. They are actually going out and taking on everybody at one and the same time. And by the way, the other person who once said that everything is connected is Lenin. So there you go. That is the paradox of this, that Mitch McConnell, the neocon, is perhaps

unaware of the fact that he is repeating the same words that Lenin once used and it's not so surprising given that ultimately it seems to me that you know much as Lenin was Lenin intended back in the 90 you know back in 1917 and thereafter to spread his vision of the world revolution across the world the neocons they're not that different in some respects they also want to spread their project at across the world. So for them, everything is connected. Yeah, well, on that note, we'll, uh, who will end to the video, the durand.locals.com. We are on rumble odyssey, bitch shoot,

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