Is This Microphone On? A Review of The Kissinger Tapes

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/03/13/is-this-microphone-on-a-review-of-the-kissinger-tapes/

Operation Imperial Fury

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/03/05/operation-imperial-fury/

The Demented Empire

 

 

Photo by Edward Michael Keating Sr.Public Domain

Washington is out of control.  It sanctions nations and people, ultimately intimidating the governments of most non-sanctioned nations afraid to raise its anger by ignoring those sanctions.  These governments know US sanctions have no legal standing and that they are merely pronouncements by the US government that it doesn’t agree with another government’s existence or policies.  Yet, they fear the economic repercussions from the United States should they break them. The fact that the western media makes it a point to mention that Washington has sanctioned this person, this oil tanker or this government when action is taken against them only means the media is providing cover—a cover that has no actual meaning outside of the Empire’s imagined reach.

People who ask how the US could have attacked Venezuela and kidnapped Maduro and his wife without someone on the inside forget that they were asking only a few months ago how Israel killed people with pagers. Of course, we don’t know the details of how the kidnapping of Maduro and Flores went, but it’s likely that Washington’s technology shut down early warning systems Venezuela had in place.  Both the pager operation and potentially the kidnapping in Caracas reveal a technofascism that plants its electronics in every government, every shop, every corporation and everyone's pocket. The installation of these instruments is usually a standard commercial transaction. However, every manufacturer of tech hardware and software seems more than willing to share (usually at a price) the info it collects and manipulates with governments and their militaries. Like the Israeli slaughter in Gaza, the kidnapping was a high-tech version of plain old imperialism. In order to fight back, resistance must be asymmetrical and not dependent on the master's tools. Of course, the only dictatorship in Venezuela was/is the dictatorship of US capital and imperialism and, in case one forgets, Trump isn't the only US president who has cozied up to dictators. Every single one of them has throughout history.  That being said, the current situation in Venezuela is difficult to gauge from here in the restive belly of the beast.  Its revolutionary course is caught between a need to survive and provide for its people and a desire to dramatically reject US impositions, thereby risking a vicious and bloody occupation by the US military.

        During the recent protests in Iran, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu revealed that Israeli agents were active in the country. In an interview with Israel’s army radio, Eliyahu discussed Israeli operations in Iran over the past year and claimed that activities are ongoing, according to Israel Hayom newspaper.  As has been the case for a while, many of the folks provoking the situation in Iran are Mossad and CIA assets/agents. Historically speaking, Israel and Washington have never ever hidden the fact that they are intimately involved in trying to make Iran a US puppet government again. The Iranian revolution was short-circuited in 1980-1982 when the US and Israel traded arms for hostages and quietly lent their support to the Khomeinists and the bazaar class during the struggle for power after the Shah was kicked out of the country. At the time, the revolutionary government was a coalition dominated by democratic socialists, some Islamic Marxists and various leftist workers councils. The socially reactionary Khomeinists made a power grab and killed and jailed thousands of people on the left. Then they started a war with Iraq, which provided the Khomeini government with the excuse they needed to clamp down even further on the Left. The current opposition supported (and partially funded by) the US includes those who want to bring the monarchy back under the Shah's son, the MEK (a one-time Islamic Marxist guerrilla organization that now gets much of fits funding from neocons, the CIA and Mossad, and a number of separatist groups who get funding from those sources and other governments. It is these outside funded groups that are most likely responsible for killing many cops and military during the recent protests.

As for any potential attack by Tel Aviv and/or Washington, if Iran learned anything from the last couple of years, they will not be sitting ducks and will not show much mercy to those who attack them. Barring the installment of a client regime in Iran, the aftermath will be a civil war, somewhat like after Washington attacked Iraq in 2003. This is the second choice of the imperial powers in the twenty-first century--if they can't take over a nation, then they'll help destroy it as a nation. The process is often called Balkanization, an approach that breaks larger societies into smaller and often conflicting groups—tribes if you will.  Yugoslavia experienced this in the 1990s, with the various groups opposing the Yugoslav nation as constructed during socialism supported by outside governments; Washington supported those against Serbia while Russia (and others) lent their support to the Serbian government in Belgrade despite its weakened situation after the end of the USSR. Syria experienced a similar situation after the so-called Arab Spring protests broke out in civil war, with Washington, Tel Aviv, Ankara, the Saudis, and other Arab monarchies providing support to various mercenary and religious forces opposing the Damascus government of Assad.

In Europe, most NATO governments are talking about providing the martial law regime in Kyiv with fifteen billion dollars to help in its war with Russia. Meanwhile, Denmark is buying Hellfire missiles to protect Greenland. The US corporation Lockheed-Martin makes those missiles.  As for that fifteen billion to Kyiv, one wonders where the weapons they’ll mostly be used for are coming from.  Given that most of their systems are of US manufacture, it seems safe to assume that they will be US weapons and ammunition.  According to the website of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, the system works like so:

“PURL (Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List) is an initiative launched by the United States and NATO to supply Ukraine with critically needed weapons by funding the delivery of U.S.-manufactured arms and equipment through NATO member states. The mechanism allows partner countries to finance the procurement of such weapons according to a prioritized list of requirements defined by Ukraine and agreed with the United States and NATO.”

 

The current expenses of this program run about one billion dollars a month. That’s around thirty-three million dollars a day, a considerable amount for WMD even after the merchants and government officials take their cuts (legal and otherwise).  Meanwhile, the European nations funding these purchases are, in varying degrees, enforcing austerity measure on their populations. 

            Regarding Europe, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told its rulers at the Munich Security Conference—a meeting of most European rulers that’s sponsored primarily by the war industry—that it’s time to return to the days of colonialism and imperialism that existed before the end of World War Two.  It was a speech that Mark Twain would have lampooned in an anti-imperialist tract if he were alive today; all of the ingredients were there—racism, the superiority of this thing called western civilization and a threat of force.  Of course, he told his audience that it would be the United States that would lead the way in this endeavor.  As the British leftist newspaper Morningstar UK wrote in a February 14, 2026 editorial:

“The United States is the enemy of freedom, sovereignty and people power worldwide. It is public enemy number one….”

            This is where we are now.

 

 

 

             

 

Board of Peace?

Counterpunch has three articles on the trumpist board of peace in this weekend's edition (and Jeffrey St. Clair titles his Roaming Charges Board of Peace, although it's about a lot more than that).  Here's my piece:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/30/board-of-peace/

 

Iran and the US: Then to Now

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/15/iran-and-the-us-then-to-now/

The Centrality of the Global South: A History

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/08/the-centrality-of-the-global-south-a-history/

Trump’s Venezuelan Coup: Criminal Attacks by a Criminal Empire

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/03/trumps-venezuelan-coup-criminal-attacks-by-a-criminal-empire/

Money for War, Wars for Money

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/18/money-for-war-wars-for-money/

Stepping Up the Propaganda for War

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/19/stepping-up-the-propaganda-for-war/

True Crime: Murder on the High Seas

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/27/true-crime-murder-on-the-high-seas/

The War on Drugs as Imperial War

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/25/the-war-on-drugs-as-imperial-war/

Surviving the Selva: The Darien Gap and Migration

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/20/surviving-the-selva-the-darien-gap-and-migration/

Once Again, the Stupidity of War

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/06/17/once-again-the-stupidity-of-war/

 

Killed by the Counterrevolutionary Coup: Chile 1973

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/05/07/killed-by-the-counterrevolutionary-coup-chile-1973/

Trump Carries the Big Stick?

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/01/23/trump-carries-the-big-stick/ 

New Year’s Resolution Number One: Join the Movement Against World War

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/12/31/new-years-resolution-number-one-join-the-movement-against-world-war/

Believe Me, It’s Been Going Downhill for Awhile

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/10/01/believe-me-its-been-going-downhill-for-awhile/

Correction:  Saigon was liberated on April 30, 1975 not May 11th of that year. Below is the corrected version of the piece.

-ron j

On September 8, 1974, Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while president of the United States.  I remember when I first heard the news.  A friend and I had just taken our seats in a lecture hall at the University of Maryland’s main campus in College Park, MD.  The class usually began with a series of announcements from the professor—guest speakers, upcoming tests, book purchases and so on.  That day, the only announcement was that Ford had just pardoned Nixon.  A murmur went through the overflowing lecture hall.  Two hundred students expressed their anger and cynical acceptance.  Those who supported Nixon were either non-existent or very quiet.  As the class continued, whispers about a protest on the green began to circulate.  Maybe they reached the podium, because the professor let class out half an hour early.  A couple dozen of us headed to the mall. There was little going on.  Some people sneaking hits of weed in the bushes and raised voices disparaging the pardon.  People’s cynicism was magnified.  The overwhelming sentiment was confirmed—the powerful always get away with their crimes.  I had to work that evening, so I headed to the IHOP, where I cooked over a grill forty or more hours a week.  Lots of pork products, eggs and pancakes.  Short stacks, if you know what I mean.

That same month the University of Maryland student newspaper had a strange letter regarding a rumor that the university was going to pay the former Israeli military “hero” Moshe Dayan lots of money to speak at the college.  Yes, the eye patch-wearing member of the zionist terror group Haganah was invited to tell Israeli lies for a hefty sum.  I don’t recall whether or not he did come to the campus.  I do remember that a table I was sitting at dispensing left-wing newspapers and books was overturned by a couple of members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL)  because some of the books we had supported the Palestinian Liberation Organization.  Back then, the PLO was a predominantly socialist and communist organization opposed to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.  Washington and Tel Aviv wanted it destroyed as much as they want today’s Palestinian resistance destroyed.  Indeed, it’s easily argued that the destruction of the mostly secular PLO informed the rise of the religiously inspired resistance of Hamas and other such groups.  The JDL was a group founded by the racist, supremacist New York rabbi Meir Kahane.  Its attacks on Soviet installations and cultural events, Black organizations and organizers, and US leftist groups, together with anti-socialist rhetoric, indicated its essential fascism.  The group was illegal in Israel.  Nowadays, individuals who consider Kahane a hero and inspiration are part of the Israeli government.  The JDL’s hate-filled politics are part of the mainstream in Israel. Similarly, although the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) had the JDL on its watchlist for years, many of the ADL’s current positions are distressingly similar to some of Kahane’s numerous statements back in the day.  This is especially true in regard to the movement against Israel’s apartheid regime. Although many zionists in the United States probably never heard of Kahane, too many of their sentiments come straight out of his philosophy.

Meanwhile, Richard Nixon drowned his sorrows in San Clemente, just up the interstate from the neon glow of the San Onofre nuclear power plant.  His buddy Elvis performed at the university’s basketball arena.  A regular hunk of burning love. On April 30, 1975, the Vietnamese liberation forces took Saigon and renamed it Ho Chi Minh City.  Lots of us celebrated. A few days later, Nixon’s replacement, Gerald Ford, ordered an attack on Kampuchea after a US Navy ship was temporarily captured by the Khmer Rouge.  The Khmer Rouge, who were in control of Cambodia thanks in part to Washington’s relentless bombing of the country since 1969 and its replacement of the monarchy with a CIA fascist named Lon Nol, turned back to its killing fields. A few weeks earlier, Marine recruiters set up shop in front of the University of Maryland student union only to be met with a fairly large blockade of their table by students, staff and some faculty.  Right-wing students attacked those of us who encircled the table several rows deep, attempting to break through by pushing people to the ground and punching a few.  Mostly, these big men went after the smallest women.  Campus police eventually intervened and the Marines went inside the Union behind a closed door.  A couple of protesters were able to get into the room and disrupted the recruiting procedures there.  They got arrested.  We took over the office of a university administrator and they released the two arrestees.

Hundreds of students protested cuts to the university staff over the academic year. Faculty in the Women’s Studies and Black Studies departments were the first on the chopping block.  Unionized staff joined us students.  We rallied a few times, held pickets and interrupted classes to get people’s attention.  It didn’t matter.  The next fall we would disrupt a meeting of the Regents while they voted to go ahead with the cuts. Higher education was looking to the future they had decided on and those that ran it were already working on how to cash in.  Neoliberalism was just around the corner and the foundation was being built much quicker than we could tear it down.  Jimmy Carter was down home talking to the young people and hanging out with the Allman Brothers while their manager distributed cocaine.  Gerald Ford didn’t really have a chance in the upcoming election.  His boys talked about getting high in the White House. Something was happening, but it wasn’t what it seemed like, Mr. Jones.  At least nobody in power was making abortion illegal again.

After Carter got elected and began privatizing public services under the guise of reform and retreating somewhat on his amnesty for draft resisters proposal, some of us saw our fears confirmed; the assimilation of the counterculture into the mainstream meant the purging of the politics many of us considered to be part of that culture. There were lots of corpses littering the ground of SE Asia.  Israel was expanding its illegal occupation.  Anti-colonial wars in Africa raged.  Nixon and his fascists almost took down the US government and even though they failed, they made it even worse than it already was.  Marijuana was completely illegal and friends were getting put away for months and even years for possession.

The Democrats were retreating from their McGovern moment and the corporate party leadership was taking the party back while the neocons—who were led by Democrat Henry Scoop Jackson, the senator from Boeing—were working on making war reasonable again.  It would take them a while.  The GOP was watching the Birchers and other right-wing clowns start to groom Reagan for the White House. The lines were being redrawn and the right wing in both parties was doing the drawing.

I still wonder how many of the people I used to get high with in my youth later voted for Ronald Reagan, who once called for a bloodbath of young people on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley and sent in lots of cops to facilitate it.  Likewise, I wonder how many, if any, regret those votes.  After all, the Reagan years are a big reason why the two current mainstream candidates include a raving fascist and a Ronald Reagan in Democrat drag.  Speaking of which, I wonder how many of those who I used to drink and get high with voted for Trump.  Or think Ralph Nader lost the 2000 election for Al Gore and Jill Stein could ruin it for Kamala Harris.

We’re told electoral politics matter in the United States, but the results of each election I live through make me wonder as to the veracity of that truism.  I guess they matter for certain classes and sectors of the US population.  For me, a worker now mostly retired, the only way they matter is how much and in what ways I will be getting shit upon after the polls are closed.  That and how they’ll affect women and children, especially those who don’t have white skin or money.  Some things never seem to change.

Ron Jacobs is the author of several books, including Daydream Sunset: Sixties Counterculture in the Seventies published by CounterPunch Books. His latest book, titled Nowhere Land: Journeys Through a Broken Nation, is now available. He lives in Vermont. He can be reached at: ronj1955@gmail.com

Washington Lies, Palestinians Die, Tel Aviv Gives Everyone the Finger

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/08/05/washington-lies-palestinians-die-tel-aviv-gives-everyone-the-finger/

Palestine, War Profiteers and the Youth

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/30/palestine-war-profiteers-and-the-youth/

Incarceration as Fascism, Incarceration as Imperialism

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/01/26/incarceration-as-fascism-incarceration-as-imperialism/