The American Empire, supported by of it's mainstream media propaganda mouthpiece, appears to be supporting both Biden's escalation in Russia and his continuing support for genocide. The American people, still in shock from the recent election of a narcissistic, racist, misogynist, rapist traitor to be the next President, apparently have no ability to change the course of the Empire's wars. To a large extent, mainstream media continues to be relevant, although many Americans are learning how to dig deeper into current events. Is it possible that President Bully Boy Dump could end the madness of the American Empire’s wars? He claims to want to end the wars while he appoints neocons to his cabinet. But maybe?

My view of the conflict in Russia and the genocide in Gaza is different from that of most Americans. It is informed by several great reporters and observers who are mentioned below. It is not informed by the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, or any of the mouthpieces of Empire.

The Empire provokes the war in Ukraine.

Briefly, the American Empire initiated the conflict in Ukraine. It first orchestrated the coup in Ukraine in 2014, viewing Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych as “pro Russia” as he attempted to balance the interests of the American Empire with the interests of neighboring Russia. The 2014 coup, orchestrated by Obama's Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, was the first step in admitting Ukraine into NATO. Ukrainian NATO membership would allow the Empire to build military bases on the border of Russia, and allow American weapons to threaten Russia. Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia were proceeding, until the Empire sent Boris Johnson from the UK for the purpose of telling Ukraine to end the negotiations. Putin then massed troops at the border, while repeatedly telling the West that he would invade rather than allow Ukraine to join NATO. America people were told that Russia attacked Ukraine for no reason, that Russia was bad, Ukraine good. End of story.

Over the past month, an American might read that Ukraine may still “win” the war, but it might be necessary for America to supply more weapons and support. Indeed, after the Biden/Harris election loss, Biden immediately authorized the transfer of long range Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs to Ukraine, at least one of those has been used. Putin's reaction was to change their nuclear weapon doctrine to include use in situations where the enemy did not use nuclear weapons. So Biden has increased danger and the possibility of nuclear war. This despite the expectation that Trump will end this war without demanding Ukraine be admitted to NATO, and likely allowing Russia to keep territory they now control.

John Mearsheimer and others report that Russia is clearly winning the war. In the United Kingdom, the Guardian very recently reported the possibility of the Ukrainian front collapsing prior to Trump's inauguration. Mearsheimer speculates that Biden wants to make it difficult for Trump to end the war, even speculating a tit for tat scenario since Trump made it difficult for Biden to quit the war in Afghanistan. In any case, the people and organizations discussed below tend to agree that Russia is winning, and that the possibility that the west can force Russia back to the pre-invasion boarder is nothing but fantasy.

For this, the American Empire risks nuclear war. A full nuclear exchange easily could exterminate all life on earth and the entire history of mankind. The lives, hopes and dreams of 8.2 billion people, countless mammals and other living things, would be wiped out. If this sounds like an exaggeration, see Anne Jacobson's book “Nuclear War” .

The reason that the West is willing to risk nuclear war is...what? Communism? No, that was 1960. Our own form of government is dysfunctional and broken, so it would seem like being alive is better that living under a form of government potentially or supposedly worse than our own.

An important part of the propaganda effort is convincing Americans that Russia might next invade Poland. But Russia is struggling to advance against out-manned Ukrainian forces, and Putin has repeatedly expressed his objective, which is simply to keep Ukraine neutral and to not allow new weapon systems into Ukraine. Why not simply believe him? Why if he cannot conquer Ukraine would one believe he could take on the power of all NATO countries combined?

Genocide in Gaza

Meanwhile, the state of Israel continues the genocide in Gaza. After a full year of this, the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrest of Prime Minister Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. Israel continues to deny that it is engaged in genocide even while the genocide is easily viewed and is being recorded for posterity.

The Empire's propaganda machine's explanation of the Oct 7 Hamas attack went something like this. First, the history of Gaza began on October 7th, the previous 75 year history of Israeli oppression and colonization, and the previous “wars” against a population held in an open air prison, were erased or ignored. Then, Israel claims it must be allowed to defend itself. It must kill/defeat Hamas even if the entire population must be killed. The excuses are many. Hamas uses civilians for human shields. Every hospital and school is described as a Hamas headquarters. Or tunnels. Or something. After a year of merciless killing, Israel expanded the war to Hezbollah in Lebanon and...guess what...they too use human shields and also hide and store weapons in schools and hospitals. Who still believes this?

Israel invited this attack by provoking Hamas, including but not limited to attacking the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the week prior ot Oct 7. Then, Israel left the Nahal Oz observation base in place, staffed by only females, who were without weapons. Israel was ready with pre-planned propaganda, including 40 beheaded babies, babies baked in ovens, rapes, even rapes with body parts (breasts) removed and used as a football for fun. Of course, all of this was a lie, but it was and still is dutifully reported by western media.

Israel implemented the Hannibal directive, which authorized Israeli soldiers (IDF) to kill Israeli soldiers and civilians in order to prevent them from being taken as hostages. The videos of the Nova festival parking area shows cars that are essentially melted. Hamas does not have the firepower to accomplish this. It was done by IDF Apache helicopters, most of which returned to base to reload and then came back for more destruction. Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram ordered a tank to fire on a home which contained a few Hamas resisters and a thirteen hostages. Only one hostage survived. Most observers believe that the IDF is responsible for about 400 of the 1200 Israeli deaths.

For the most part, the American public believed these lies. Although myself and others understood that Israel would respond by ethnically cleansing the population of Gaza in order to steal the land, few realized how brazen would be the killing fields. Most believed the propaganda, believed that Israel was justified in some way. Massacring most of the population was OK because of human shields, or they voted for Hamas, or whatever lame excuse they could muster.

Hostages? Although Netanyahu authorized the Hannibal directive, Hamas managed to take hostages. About one hundred remain, although many may have been killed by Israeli bombs. Netanyahu played the game of negotiations, but he did not want to end the slaughter and the hostages were a thorn in his side. He has written them off, they are sacrificial lambs. Yet, they are the excuse for the continuing slaughter. It goes something like this: If Gazan's don't want to die, they should release the hostages. The Palestinian position is to agree, they will release the hostages if the World guarantees that Israel will not continue the killing. Israel's response was that they would agree to limited ceasefire, provided that they could continue the killing after a prisoner exchange. Thus no agreement has been reached.

Immediately after 10/7, Israel announced that they would cut off food, water, electricity etc. After one year, they continue the effort to starve everyone in Gaza. They have actively and ruthlessly prevented food and supplies, even trying to paint the entire food relief effort as “Hamas” so that they can kill aid workers just as they kill doctors, journalists, and educators. Evidently Netanyahu forgot the lesson of World War II. The lesson is that a country must construct gas chambers to kill an entire population. Starvation is messy.

After 400 days of this, the cocoon has enveloped the American people to the point to where it no longer matters if everything they have been told is a lie. The population returns to football, shopping, and chaos because nothing can be done to stop the Israel genocide machine. Upon reflection, do some of the people understand now that ethnic cleansing was always the goal, always the plan?

One might be hopeful that the old new President might end the carnage in Ukraine, but to expect him to care about Palestinians is fantasy. He will bow to the Israel lobby (AIPAC) and accept bribes from Netanyahu in order to continue to kill Palestinians so as to take the land. Nor is the West Bank off limits, despite no Hamas presence there.

Ethnic cleansing was the plan from the time that Israel decided not to protect the Nova Music Festival. Why did Israel invite this war.

UN Trade and development reports that oil and natural gas resources in the occupied Palestinian territory could generate hundreds of billions of dollars for development.

Another major factor is that the idea of the Ben Gurion Canal project has been revived. The canal would connect the Gulf of Aqaba (Eilat) in the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea and would pass through Israel and end in or near the Gaza Strip (Ashkelon). It is an Israeli alternative to the Suez Canal that was planned in the 1960s after Nasser’s nationalization of Suez. This canal would have world wide strategic importance.

Israel also covets the land, as explained when Jared Kushner said, at a February talk at Harvard University, Gaza’s waterfront property could be “very valuable” and Israel could “move the people out, and then clean it up.”

Ethnic cleansing has always been the Israel's plan for Gaza. Are Americans able to see clearly now? As I wrote elsewhere recently, We, the population of the world, are destined to watch Israel steal the land that was Gaza by immense force, killing most and displacing the rest. Israel destroyed the entire place. The cost and effort to clean the rubble is estimated in billions, billions more to rebuild. And it will someday be rebuilt, under the flag of Israel. Every single day for the foreseeable future the IDF will drop bombs onto residential buildings in Gaza. American people who protest risk retribution from employers, schools, and law enforcement. They are the people with morals. The bloodshed will continue to fade away from your TV and social media. The world population, in the year 2025, will be able to watch people kill other people with unimaginable violence and cruelty.

And we can't do a damn thing about it.

Here is a brief description of some of the best reporting and analysis on the war in Ukraine and the genocide in Gaza. Wikipedia is quoted in many of the descriptions below.

The Grayzone is an independent news website dedicated to original investigative journalism and analysis on politics and empire, founded by Max Blumenthal , with Aaron Mate and others contributing. The Grayzone reports on extensively on the conflict in Ukraine and the genocide in

Gaza.

John Mearsheimer is an American political scientist and international relations scholar.[3] He is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago and is the author of seven books. Mearsheimer is a critic of both genocide and NATO's attack on Russia.

Jeffrey Sachs is an American economist and public policy analyst who is a professor at Columbia University,[5][6] where he was former director of The Earth Institute. He worked on the topics of sustainable development and economic development.[7] and is a critic of the American Empire.

Abigail Martin is an American journalist, TV presenter, and activist. She hosts “The Empire Files” reporting on war & inequality from the heart of Empire.

Judge Andrew Napolitano is well known for his podcast/youtube “Judging Freedom”. He is an American former jurist and syndicated columnist whose work appears in numerous publications, including The Washington Times and Reason

Phil Giraldi is the Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a role he has held since 2010. He was previously employed as an intelligence officer for the CIA, who was stationed in Turkey for most of his career. As of 2024, he is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

Eric S. Margolis is an American-born journalist and war correspondent. For 27 years, ending in 2010, he was a contributing editor to the Toronto Sun chain of newspapers, writing mainly about the Middle East, South Asia and Islam.

Scott Horton is the editorial director of the non-interventionist news portal Antiwar.com.[2], His podcast The Scott Horton Show has over 5000 interviews to his credit.

Electronic intafada is an independent online news publication and educational resource focusing on Palestine, its people, politics, culture and place in the world for over 20 years, and includes reporting from Asa Winstanley. Jon Elmer, and others. They post video's of the Palestinian resistance to genocide.

Ramzy Baroud is an American-Palestinian journalist and writer. He is the author of several books on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. His blog, The Palestinian Chronicle, became a newspaper of which he remains chief editor

There are more: Mehdi Hasan, Zeteo; Caitlin Johnstone