To all 'the really good ones', and to all in peril on the sea,

Some may recall that I have in the past sung high praises for the work of Colonel and Professor Andrew Bacevich. After having done so, I now feel compelled to comment after reading his stunningly ridiculous propaganda piece in today's Boston Globe, (which people can read here, but the Globe is a pay site).

I am significantly sad to read this from a person for whom I have held such high esteem.

Yea ... Well ... It just goes to show that we're all just poor dumb humans. As we all do, I sure make plenty of mistakes. I try to look for the 'good' in people. I try to reach across ideological barriers. I try to overlook ideological differences in favor of finding common ground to build upon.

I won't yet give up my esteem for this man, but if he expects to retain any degree of respect from politically aware people, he'd better do some serious thinking about what he is doing and saying here, (especially considering by whom his bread is now buttered).

Copied below are the comments I have posted in the Globe, attached to our good citizen Mr. Bacevich's article.

Hope all are well and strong,

R Zwarich (The Caliban Clown)

Bent Birch Farm

63 Webber Rd

Brookfield, MA 01506

774 449-8030

rzwarich@gmail.com 

My comments:

As a person who has developed a considerable degree ofrespect for Colonel (US Army-retired) and Professor Emeritus (Boston U)Bacevich, I am extremely disappointed, (and even significantly saddened), toread this absurdly one-sided and heavily-biased piece from him.

I was keenly interested when I learned the source ofProfessor Bacevich's financial backing, (Charles Koch and George Soros, one anotorious right-winger, and the other a backer of liberal causes), thinkingthat possibly Professor Bacevich was forging new pathways to understandingacross ideologically defined lines of enmity. It now appears possible that thegood professor is no more than just another run-of-the-mill American hackpropagandist.

He certainly does his reputation no favors with this piece.

He writes:

"Americans are not going to tolerate further outsidemeddling in their politics."

and:

"The Mueller report showed conclusively that in therun-up to the 2016 presidential election Russian hackers had done plenty ofmessing."

And never ONCE does he mention, (not so much as ONE word),the extensive, and often decisively controlling, interference of the tinyforeign country of Israel in not merely US elections, but in the ongoing dailyworkings of the US government, (as well as state and local governments in theUS).

Israel is now even conducting vigorously active, highly-organized,and well-financed attempts to erode US citizens' very freedom of speech itself,our most basic and fundamental democratic right.

One would think that a person of Colonel Bacevich'sexperience and stature, (he is described in his Wikipedia bio as a “specialistin international relations and security studies”), would know that ALL nationsthat CAN interfere in the politics of other nations, DO interfere in thepolitics of other nations.

Dr. Bacevich surely must know that no nation on Earthinterferes in the political affairs of other nations on a scale that evenapproaches the extent of US interference in the politics of other nations allover the world.

The American people have no means or ability to preventother nations from advocating for their own self-interests through contactswith people and politicians in nations, the US included, whose actions affecttheir self-interests.

Did Russia do so in 2016? You bet, (or at least almostsurely). Russia has the ability to do so, and like ALL other nations that havethat have that ability, Russia surely exerted whatever influence it could forthe benefit of an American candidate who advocated for peace with Russia.

The other candidate, we might recall, was calling Russia’selected and tremendously popular president “the new Hitler”, and was promotingpolicies, (like a ‘no fly zone’ in Syria), that would very likely result in adirect military conflict between the world’s two foremost nuclear powers. 

Russia, and Putin, constantly advocate for peace between theUS and Russia. It is no surprise that Russia would favor a US candidate forPOTUS who was advocating for peace between our nation and theirs.

There is still, to this very moment, NO credible evidencethat Russia hacked anyone’s computers. No US intelligence agency has ever, (tothis moment), even examined the supposedly hacked Democratic Party computers.

The accusation of hacking was the result of a report, (withnot one scintilla of supporting evidence), of a private company hired and paidfor by the Democratic Party. That company, Crowdstrike, was co-founded by aRussian-born expatriate, Dmitri Alperovitch, (a traitor to his own nativecountry), who hates Russia as an enemy, and hates Putin personally.

Repeat … No US intelligence personnel ever (to this day)even examined the allegedly hacked computers.  

US retired intelligence officers, (such as William Binney,ex-NSA technical director, and Ray McGovern, ex-CIA analyst), have presentedconvincing evidence that there was no hack at all of the Dems’ computers. Theyhave shown that the metadata indelibly attached to the stolen files clearlyshow that the transfer speed of the stolen files was much too fast to havetaken place over the internet as a ‘hack’, but rather exactly matches thetypical transfer speed of a computer USB bus.

The ONLY existing evidence shows that there was no ‘hack’ atall. The theft of files was an inside job by a whistleblower who likely thoughtthe American people should be aware of Hillary Clinton’s abjectly two-facedduplicity. (The stolen files included her infamous speech to her Wall Streetbackers, telling them not to worry about anything they heard her say to voterson the campaign trail, because a candidate must have two positions, one to dupethe rubes, and her REAL position. I’ll always have your back, she told her WallStreet pirate backers).        

All the Mueller report turned up was that a click-bait boilerroom operation, running out of a seedy run-down building in St. Petersburg,purchased about $100k worth of click-bait advertising on Facebook, in a nearly$4 BILLION dollar election, and most of those ads, (over half), did not evenappear on Facebook until after the election.

Yea … sure … Instead of indicting a ham sandwich, Muellergot his grand jury to indict 12 Russian intelligence officers. Putin offered tofully assist in an investigation of those allegations, so long as a Russian advocate(attorney) could cross-examine all witnesses. It was obvious to all but themost naïve that the indictment was a cheap grandstand move, since Mueller wouldnever have to even present any evidence, since Russian intelligence officers wouldnever be brought to trial.

Professor Bacevich never even mentions Israel’s highlyorganized and opulently well-financed efforts that were crucial in influencingthe US into attacking Iraq, (for example), which only benefitted Israel, and asProfessor Bacevich fully well knows is widely regarded as the most disastrousand costly US foreign policy snafu EVER. (Much worse even than Viet Nam).

$6 TRILLION dollars poured down this rat-hole of a stupidwar. 4500 American lives lost, (including that of Professor Bacevich’s own son).32,000 American wounded. Many more than that psychologically devastated, theirlives forever ruined. As many as a million Iraqis killed. The rise of ISIS. Ahalf million dead in Syria. Etc. Etc.

And ALL this took place as a result of Israel’s highly organizedinfluence over US political affairs.

Influence over the 2016 election? Sheldon Adelson, a dualnational Israeli-American, whose own sons served in the Israeli military ratherthan in US armed forces, contributed some $100 million dollars to Trump’s campaign,including a reported $35 million in the campaign’s crucial last days before theelection, to buy advertising in the swing states still in play, which swung theelection to Trump.

Adelson is just one among many wealthy and influentialsupporters of Israel who are very actively organizing and financing Israel’sdirect interference in not just US elections, but in the US government itself.

Professor Bacevich knows ALL this full well. He knows thatIsrael’s interference in US politics is ongoing. He knows about the highlyorganized efforts of Israel, at every level of US governments, (federal, state,and local), to make it illegal to criticize Israel, (to actually take awayAmerican citizens’ freedom of speech).

Professor Bacevich fully well knows ALL those things, andyet still makes the clownishly ridiculous statement about Americans nottolerating foreign influence in our politics, and he writes not ONE word, (notone word!), about Israel’s extensive and well-financed interference in USelections, and in every phase of US governance and American political affairs.

Well … I’m just like all the rest … “I like my sugar sweet”(B Dylan). I’m just a poor dumb human … I’ve been wrong about people plenty …I’m always looking for ways to cross ideological barriers. I’m always lookingfor common ground with people with whom I may disagree about many things.

But I never took this man, Andrew John Bacevich, as a cheappolitical hack and propagandist, as this disgracefully ridiculous propagandapiece suggests that he may be.

Hmm … As all but the most naïve know, “he who pays the pipercalls the tune”. Has Colonel Bacevich now reduced himself to a cheap politicalhack for the billionaire oligarchs that now sign his paychecks?

Yea … Well … I’m hoping not … And I’ll still hope not … Butsurely time will tell … If our good citizen Mr. Bacevich expects to retain anycredibility at ALL, he’d better do some hard-thinking, some serious soulsearching, before he regurgitates more foul smelling drivel like this, if heexpects to be respected as a serious commentator on our lives and times.