WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary….
Baited Ambush by Michael Yon
byVanderleunonMay 21, 2022
18 May 2022 Panama City, Panama Mind Dump, Sans Edit
If you are a Cop or Combat Soldier you know about a baited ambush. Pashtun love to fight and they are good at baited ambush and a lot more.
Baited ambush is one of the endless fighting techniques. US military also makes common use of baited ambush. Amazingly, though we all know the moves, the moves often still work. Like a chokehold. Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you.
Never underestimate your enemy, and never be frozen by fear. When in doubt, attack. When confused, attack. When defending, attack. When outgunned and you have means of escape, run like hell. When you sense ambush, leave the kill zone at once unless the enemy is close — when close, attack.
Our enemies are sowing confusion and tossing chaff.
Notice the UFO squirrel. We’ve had generations and yet they wheel it out now.
The Buffalo shooting is not sticking. We sense another trap. They never stop lying. We ain’t buying their bullshit so they whip out UFO — and Fox runs with UFO. What is Fox up to? If they don’t produce little green things, they are either fooled, fooling, or both.
Authoritarians just ripped the heart out of much of the world with the manufactured pandemic.
Then poison jabs.
And a baited US-Russia war in Ukraine.
Now comes epic energy and food catastrophe set to greatly reduce the world population. All while invading our borders and creating hate crimes around the country principally by fatherless blacks on blacks, and on everyone, and blamed on white folks.
Most of this is a product of the Democrat Party since before the Civil War, and then with their Ku Klux Klan, and on and on and on, targeting and ripping apart black families so they never can get a hold. Democrats have been fixated on controlling blacks since the beginning.
Democrats are responsible for aborting millions of babies in their Democrat eugenics.
Democrats baited the Mexicans and Japanese into wars, and now Russia.
Not that Mexico or Russia were innocent babes that needed much provocation, but the Japanese required severe provocation, and yet even today most Americans seem to think we were just sipping iced tea when Japanese Zeros started rolling in on our fleet. That was all heavily provoked and baited. Japan was backed into a corner. We and our allies cut Japan’s oil, rubber, tin, and more. Japanese were desperate and trying to negotiate. Finally, backed into a corner, Japan attacked.
The dirty warmongering Democrats did similar on 06 January and stole an election. And constantly provoke white folk now to make some bold move that Democrats can use to unleash hell inside America as they have done with Mexico, Japan, Ukraine, and beyond.
Democrats continue to trot out their bait. Such as Dementia-Joe, and Harris the bar-tramp. Now their diversion is some black-gay-something to replace dodo-Psako as the new spokes thing — diversion — which of course Fox chases and diverts from the more serious problems.
Biden is not President. We all see.
And he didn’t win those votes.
Separately, at least millions of Biden’s Twitter followers apparently is just Twitter making up air. Twitter is so fake that their board and leadership all shit plastic turds. Parag Agrawal is so fake she does not even need toilet paper. She just throws her plastic turds out with the recycling.
All this UFO stuff is a diversion from the actual ambush unfolding. Why now? This is a multi-dimensional fight. War is not 4d, but more like 1,000d. This all is as easy as 3x 1.
But there are a few simple combat rules that can help in most situations.
If this were some rando’s rant, I’d call it an overblown conspiracy theory. But this is MICHAEL YON, who’s as reliable as sunrise. Never. Follow. Squirrel.
gwbnycMay 21, 2022, 12:32 PM
-and we’re being fed clumsy, the clumsiest propaganda:
“Now comes epic energy and food catastrophe set to greatly reduce the world population. All while invading our borders and creating hate crimes around the country principally by fatherless blacks on blacks, and on everyone, and blamed on white folks…Most of this is a product of the Democrat Party since before the Civil War.”
Really, Mr. Yon? The Democrats were doing most of these things “since before the Civil War”? That is news to me and certainly is as well to every US Civil War historian who has ever lived.
Yon believes that the US somehow “baited” Japan into Pearl Harbor:
“Japan was backed into a corner. We and our allies cut Japan’s oil, rubber, tin, and more. Japanese were desperate and trying to negotiate. Finally, backed into a corner, Japan attacked.”
Is Hirohito’s ghost paying Mr. Yon for such nonsense? The US ceased exports of raw materials and scrap iron to Japan only after Japan invaded China in 1937, an unprovoked invasion that led to the Nanking Massacre (1937). Upwards of 500,000 Chinese were slaughtered with bayonets, swords, axes and shovels. Even so it took FDR 3 more years before beginning an economic boycott of Japan. Or does Mr. Yon believe that the US should have financed the Japanese practice of genocide?
Does Mr. Yon believe that Japan was “baited” into the Nanking Massacre? Or also “baited” into the tens of millions of Asians slaughtered by Imperial Japan (1937 – 1945)?
So “Japan was desperate and trying to negotiate”? Japan was willing to negotiate only if the US accepted Japan’s conquest of China.
Japan’s planning for her conquests in Asia—the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”—began in the 1920s after she was subsumed in a nightmarish and grotesque totalitarianism that was far greater than anything devised by that Austrian guy, and indeed measures up well when compared with the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976). No negotiating could possibly have pried the Japanese from their extreme and ghastly militarism. It took Hiroshima and Nagasaki to accomplish that.
“Parag Agrawal is so fake she does not even need toilet paper. She just throws her plastic turds out with the recycling.” Agrawal is a male.
Someone should inform Mr. Yon that ignorance and bombast are not ways to go through life.
KCKMay 21, 2022, 6:00 AM
Any student of WWII knows that you can turn Japan’s interwar years into a provocation to make war on the West (wait..both directions. Japan made war first to their near west, then eastward across the Pacific). M Yon did provide a caveat to his Japan argument. He’s only saying that Japan had more provocation to war than the others he’s naming. He calls it severe, but Japan was on the way to a military state no matter what. Anyway, all info is important to bring to the study of a lead-up to a war. I used to, at first, find the entry into WWII boring, and wanted only the fireworks part. As I matured in my studies, I found the geo-politics critical to the study of the war.
Here we are. Yon is making the argument that deception is afoot. I buy that. I am usually averse to “what if” rabbit trails that go backward in history, however simple situational thinking leads me to believe that a Trump administration would be navigating us away from the shoal of a Russian war. It is without a doubt the DemonCrats that are horny for war, and have been my whole life plus going back a hundred years at least. They are the party of self harm.
It’s good to read everyone, including Yon. I know some are pissed at him, but for the life of me, on one cup of coffee, I cannot remember what we’re supposed to be pissed at him about. His ground-pounder analogies do speak to me. My take away is that this current slide into a war that could be avoided with kid gloves and a steady helmsman, is more than just a small mistake. I am possessed by the idea that our enemies saw no one at the wheel, and this presents an opportunity to them to take us down several notches. But, in the event, the guys on the other side of Europe seem to be clowning around.
More coffee. Place it on my desk, and walk slowly from the room (old meme but always find it funny).
Japan indeed made war first toward her west in Formosa (1895) and Korea (1910). She then in the early 1930s turned her guns against the USSR and Manchuria. The greatest and most powerful Japanese provocation toward war was the Japanese militarists themselves—mainly the Army—who had seized control of the nation by 1927. All during this time of Japanese expansion the US continued to send her raw materials.
The Japanese ideology stressed Japanese superiority over any other race, especially what she termed the “mongrel” Americans. She believed that Japan was destined to rule the world. Japan knew that she would one day make war against the US, the only questions being “when” and “how”. The point here being that Japanese expansion to the East required no provocation at all. Thus Yon’s use of the US “baiting” Japan toward war as one foundation of his argument falls apart.
This does not mean that all of Yon’s argument about current affairs is without foundation. I say this as one who has read him off and on for several years. I especially like his idea of “PanFamWar”.
Weakness at the top of any imperial regime invites aggression—whether from the regime itself or from her enemies. The Biden regime is especially impotent at home and abroad, and is known to be so by anyone with eyes and ears. Thus it makes war upon its own citizens and in Ukraine. It seems to be revving up a war with China. It resembles in all particulars the Athenian Empire right before the Peloponnesian War (431 – 404 BC).
The Democrats have always been war mongers. Texas Independence (1836), the Indian Removal Act (1830) and the Trail of Tears (1838), the Mexican War (1846 – 1848), the Civil War (1861 – 1865), World War I and World War II, Korea, the Cold War and Vietnam were all begun under Democrat regimes.
KCKMay 21, 2022, 3:43 PM
Quit true. Also, I concur about Japan.
I more than quibble: America is no empire and so it’s not “imperial”. No farkin way. When was the last time we seized and held onto territory? The Mexican War? Don’t say the Indian Campaigns. Remember, if you seize territory, you’re stuck governing it. I know the Soves would say we “held onto” Western Europe, which is bullshit of the highest order.
“Empire” has always had more than one meaning. The one where a state or nation seizes foreign land and holds it is but one—and it is by far the least seldom used. Rome, Egypt, Assyria, Japan—in fact, most empires in all of History—did not fully abide by your definition.
I compared the US with Imperial Athens. The Athenian Empire comprised perhaps 300 Greek city-states, none of which was occupied by Athens. These states were controlled simply by the knowledge that Athenian triremes could swoop down and put all the male populace to death if any member of the empire did not do the bidding of Athens. The member states as well were forced to use Athenian currency—the drachma—in the same manner that the US forces most nations to price the purchase of oil in dollars (the “petrodollar”).
See the Melian Dialogue (416 BC) to see how Athens maintained her empire. Compare it with the discussions the US had with Saddam Hussein. We did to Iraq exactly what Athens did to Melos. Toss in Syria, Serbia and Afghanistan for good measure.
The US holds her empire by the same methods used by Athens. Not usually by military occupation—though the US possesses 600 foreign bases—but through treaties such as NATO. Think of NATO as a modern Delian League (478 – 404 BC) and the similarities will be perfectly clear. In fact, they will jump at you.
The most violent of all imperial states are democratic ones. As they evolve into greater democracy they begin to force foreign nations to adopt their own ideology. This explains why Athens was constantly at war during her imperial period. It also explains why the US has been constantly at war since 1945.
The US government is not at all shy at shedding the blood of her sons in foreign lands to maintain her empire.
ThisIsNotNutellaMay 21, 2022, 6:31 PM
This.
There are two things which majorly get my goat: autistic definitions of ‘Empire’ and shape-shifting positions on Ethnicity/Culture/Religion depending on which formulation ducks and weaves best in any given situation.
KCKMay 21, 2022, 10:30 PM
How do you force freedom down somebodies throat? Here, take this freedom, asshole.
What did we ask of France, after shedding blood on their soil? For them to play NATO like a tart? What did we ask of Italy? For them to flirt and bed with Socialists, and take our money to become an agricultural giant after being reduced to fliiping zero?
Did we take Iraq’s oil? What does Korea do that we demand of them?
The Philippines? I’d like to know where our Subic Bay base went, and Clark airfield as well.
The dollar is currency based on virility and trust. we don’t “make” anyone use USD.
Equivocate someone who’ll listen. Empire has more meanings, he says. Athens wasn’t a democracy, he says.
You are letting anger cloud your judgement. I have mentioned this to you before.
“How do you force freedom down somebodies throat? ” By defeating them in battle and forcing them to accept military bases upon their soil: Japan and Germany.
“Did we take Iraq’s oil?” Yes; we bought it like everyone else on earth did.
“What does Korea do that we demand of them?” She allows US bases upon her soil.
“Empire has more meanings, he says.” Well yes, it does:
1. a major political unit having a territory of great extent
2. a number of territories or peoples under a single sovereign authority
3. an extensive territory or enterprise under single domination or control
4. imperial sovereignty, rule, or dominion
“Athens wasn’t a democracy, he says.” Actually I said just the opposite, that Athens was constantly at war during her imperial period because she was a democracy. Re-read my penultimate paragraph.
You take things personally. Along with your anger, it ruins your argument. If you do not like what I write, or if you do not agree with what I write, then for Heaven’s sake do not comment on it if it makes you irate or if you believe that I am somehow insulting you.
KCKMay 22, 2022, 7:36 AM
What made me angry was the insult to America. A dispassionate defense of my home is probably worthless, but keeping one’s head is imperative – agreed. I see hate for the USA in your writing, BTW.
The meaning of democracy (think of Ancient Greece and not Biden, Inc.) is the direct antithesis to an emperor (empire – think philology). You are trying to make an analogy of a contradiction. You cannot.
Korea fucking loves our bases in Korea. Are you kidding? They are on a “fight tonight” war footing. Buy oil versus take. Your point is thin; we were entertained with ink in the news about how we were “fighting for oil” in Iraq. That was bullshit of the highest order, since we never “forred” a goddamned thing. We did put our influence and intentions into the MidEast. Think if we hadn’t and see how that computes.
True that we forced surrender upon the Axis powers, but once you allow a constitution you aren’t governing. BTW Rome governed the living shit out of its holdings, except when it became incapable of doing so.
If you walk into a bar with your group of friends, or classmates, or army platoon, and a fight breaks out, whom do you ally with? Russia?
Here’s a guy I like. His approach has always been informed and stands up to scrutiny. Kissinger: https://youtu.be/6b89jcNqgJo
“What made me angry was the insult to America.” I have never in my life insulted America. I have much of my life insulted the US government. The US government is one thing; the American nation something quite different. I am with Mencken: “Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.”
“I see hate for the USA in your writing, BTW.” You see what you want to see. Just so you know: I was fired from my teaching post in Argentina, where I had taught for 10 years, because I supported the USA above every other nation—and also because I was a Republican, a Christian and a Veteran. I refused to stand for the Argentine anthem, for one thing. I explained to my superiors that I had one love in my life, America, and I would not commit adultery by standing for or singing the anthem of a foreign nation. This did not go over well.
“The meaning of democracy (think of Ancient Greece and not Biden, Inc.) is the direct antithesis to an emperor (empire – think philology). You are trying to make an analogy of a contradiction. You cannot.” Athens was both empire and democracy. There has never been a historian of the Ancient World that would state otherwise. You are mixing up the city-state of Athens with her imperial dominions—which, by the way, were all democracies.
“Korea fucking loves our bases in Korea. Are you kidding?” I merely said the obvious, that we have bases in Korea. I said nothing about how the Koreans themselves thought about them. Whatever the Koreans think today about the US presence in their country, they will change their minds in a New York minute if China invades Taiwan.
“…we were entertained with ink in the news about how we were “fighting for oil” in Iraq.” I never once made such a claim; in fact, I wrote the opposite. As it turns out, during Iraq War II I was taking a year off (2003 – 2004) and living in a tent while solo backpacking all around South and Central America. I kept a diary the entire time:
I do not at all expect you to read the thing. I mention it only to show you that your fears of my “hating America” have no basis. Just see the photos on the first page and you will see what I mean. It would be very difficult indeed to find a greater love for America and her military than what I publicly wrote for all the world to see.
“Rome governed the living shit out of its holdings, except when it became incapable of doing so.” Just so you know, my first college degree was a specialty in Ancient History. I want on to teach it for 27 years in 3 nations. When we say “Rome” we can mean several things: Republic (509 – 30 BC), Principate (30 BC – 68 AD), Empire (68 – 476) , and so on. How Rome governed her territories shifted tremendously over all that time.
I have written many times at American Digest about how I will never abandon America, that if she demands my blood, I will give it. “America: Love it or leave it.” Works for me.
FreddoMay 21, 2022, 6:15 AM
Painting Japan as the victim certainly undermines the case he is trying to make. In any case don’t ask me how much sacrifice I’m willing to make to ensure Ukraine or Taiwan are ruled by the western degenerate kleptocracy rather than by Russian/Chinese autocrats. If there needs to be shooting to defend democracy, there is no need to travel to such far-flung destinations.
Agreed. Defending liberty begins and ends right here in the US. I have no desire to waste American blood and treasure defending a foreign people’s freedoms.
Snakepit KansasMay 21, 2022, 7:35 AM
Surprisingly, I find the grainy, black and white or fuzzy videos of UFOs rolled out, quite questionable. Actual video’s? Probably, but not the best quality that I know our Gubmint has capability of. Within the professional environment I work, I have seen what some of our military contractors are capable of with infra red, auto tracking of moving objects and a very high level of video clarity at long distances. The stuff drug out on the news reminds me of the shaky 1970s home video quality of Bigfoot.
VanderleunMay 21, 2022, 8:03 AM
I had something in passing to say about that. I’ll go look.
Boat GuyMay 21, 2022, 8:46 AM
I’ve been reading Mike Yon since “Danger Close”. Haven’t always agreed on every point but I’ve found him more prescient than most.
If you don’t take anything else away read his last four words.
we’ve been at war for 5782 years, maybe more.
not just the Jews “we”, but all of us “we”.
or maybe 200,000 years, if you believe in that kind of thing.
even our ancestors, the first eukaryotes, have always been at war. with Eastasia, apparently.
so what’s the big deal? we should be used to it by now, and welcome it with open arms, or flagella.
nunnya bidnez, jrMay 21, 2022, 11:49 AM
anyways, I’m watching the back and forth between Casey and Mike, each trying to persuade that it was one side or the other that started “it”. like some kids in the schoolyard screaming that the other kid stole the lunch money or sumthing, or cut off steel & oil exports.
But primarily it reminds me of the recent accusations right here in America, with the Dems accusing the Repubs of INSURRECTION!!!, and many commentators on our side accusing the Dems of actual insurrection, and Treason. then the Dems accuse the MAGAs of Treason!.
There’s plenty of blame, or mis-steps, on both sides, there always is in every war going back forever. Everything always escalates.
A better use of our time would be to figure out how to de-escalate, before USA erupts into open civil war.
Any ideas?
as vonnegut said, “so it goes”
gwbnycMay 21, 2022, 2:16 PM
advocating neither yea or nay- what does our future look like without civil war?
“(Bonhoffer) concluded that ‘the ultimate question for a responsible man to ask is not how he is to extricate himself heroically from the affair, but how the coming generation shall continue to live.'”
Almost every year since 1898 the US military has gone overseas to bash foreign heads together. Before World War II this was mainly in the Philippines, Central America and the Caribbean. After World War II the US military ventured further afield. As of today the US military has perhaps 600 bases on foreign soil. Understand that these are all for peaceful reasons.
An expanding empire comes to relish the taste of blood. A collapsing empire sees it as its only sustenance.
TrangBang68May 21, 2022, 10:27 AM
Count on this. When food shortages hit in the fall, the demoniacs in Babylon on the Potomac will prioritize giving food stocks to those of color. I wonder if Farmer Brown will go all Kulak and burn his crop rather than give it to the commie rats
ghostsniperMay 21, 2022, 11:37 AM
“…prioritize giving food stocks to those of color.”
========
You can bet on that.
Just as everything else now, the priority is to the negro’s.
Reparations, see?
Stroll through any gov’t facility now, wall to wall negros.
Other than my own personal property, there is very little to like about this country any more, since the gov’t has turned it into Africa 2.0.
If you are white, you are on your own, and everything and everyone, is against you.
Better figure out NOW how you are going to eat a year from now.
Gordon ScottMay 21, 2022, 12:58 PM
Figuring the causes of wars is very tricky, because people lie. Sometimes they lie to themselves.
If you’re Japan and you realize the U.S. and others will oppose your plans to dominate Asia, then consider war against the U.S. Oh, well, that’s a way Japan will never win. But perhaps we can get the U.S. to quit, if we shock them enough.
It is amazing how much war doctrine is based on that idea, that if we shock them enough, they’ll quit.
There is substantial evidence that Imperial Japan had an advanced nuke development program. So advanced, in fact, that they tested a weapon between August 9 and the announced surrender. The test is said to have happened off the coast of Korea.
There was a large industrial complex in the north of Korea. The Soviets overran it after they declared war. Was this the industrial seed of the Soviet bomb? And why would the Japanese lie about it and say that there was never any serious effort?
Well, if you want to hang the nuclear medal of shame around the U.S. neck, you would lie. Was the geopolitical strategic thinking so advanced, mere weeks after Hiroshima?
And would they lie to Michael Yon, who has spent a lot of time in Japan, and has friends there? Well, sure. Never mind the actions of the sadistic Japanese Army; we attacked because you denied us steel and oil.
After all, many Swedes cooperated fully with the Nazi regieme. One reason was that it was made clear that Hitler was going to have that Swedish steel and other raw materials, even if they had to invade.
Getting an opponent to cease its war making by “shocking” it upon the battlefield was exactly the strategy of Sparta, the US South, Imperial Germany, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan—and so many others. In fact, the US gave this tactic a name, “Shock and Awe”.
Japan believed that by simply “shocking” the US at Pearl Harbor, that the US would go to the negotiating table and allow Japan her conquests in Asia. It didn’t work out that way. Had the US a president in office at the time along the lines of an Obama or a Biden Japan might have succeeded.
james wilsonMay 22, 2022, 9:44 PM
I can’t think of a politician of that era or a previous era that would not have gone to war with Japan. What they wouldn’t have done is declare war on Germany at the same time.
Adlai Stevenson wouldn’t have gone to war with Japan, but he came later.
That was exactly the case. The vote to declare war upon Japan was unanimous save for a single imbecile, one Jeanette Rankin.
When Germany unnecessarily and stupidly declared war upon the US that government signed its own death warrant.
Steve (retired/recovering lawyer)May 21, 2022, 1:13 PM
I was going to say something along the lines of, “You know, Mr. Yon makes a lot of sense, but he needs to do a little more reading on pre-12/07/1941 Japan. Like at least back through 1937 or so.” However, Mr. Austin not only beat me to it, but conducted a master class on Japanese aggression against its neighbors in Asia, especially China. Well done, sir. Nevertheless, I am still persuaded that Mr. Yon is on to something regarding current events.
John HenryMay 21, 2022, 6:52 PM
Ukraine’s annual wheat production is about 26 million tons/yr. Sounds like a lot and it puts Ukraine ahead of Germany but behind Pakistan. 26mm tons is not nothing but it is close. It is about 3% of total world production and less than the normal year to year variability in total world production.
World wheat production, top 10 countries, in tons and percent of world production.
1 China 134,340,630 18%
2 India 98,510,000 13%
3 Russia 85,863,132 11%
4 USA 47,370,880 6%
5 France 36,924,938 5%
6 Australia 31,818,744 4%
7 Canada 29,984,200 4%
8 Pakistan 26,674,000 4%
9 Ukraine 26,208,980 3%
10 Germany 24,481,600 3%
World Total 750,000,000
I don’t doubt that a global famine is coming but it is going to caused, probably on purpose, by politicians. Not by Ukrainian grain or lack thereof.
We don’t take global warming seriously enough? Will a famine that kills 100 million make us believe it is a problem? It is a perfect excuse for the US to suspend the constitution and declare a state of emergency. (But perhaps I am just paranoid. Or not paranoid enough)
And, because the state of emergency will include bans on mis and dis-information, we won’t even be able to ask how increased CO2 and 1 degree warmer temperatures, which would normally increase crop yields, contribute to crop failure and famine.
We won’t be able to ask why, in the face of famine, oil and gas production, from which fertilizer is produced, is being curtailed.
We won’t be able to ask why Warren Buffett’s choo-choos are stopping or delaying fertilizer shipments.
More and more I am coming over to Butler’s view, that “war is a racket”.
John henryMay 21, 2022, 11:34 PM
Over the years I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not we goaded Japan input pearl harbor. I think there’s a fair amount of evidence both ways and I’m not taking a position here.
Germany is a different matter. As late as November 41 polling was 70-80% against the US getting involved in another European war. Fdr had run in 40 on a specific promise of not getting involved.
Germany done nothing to us. Until after pearl harbor when it declared war on us.
But the US had been moving more and more deeply into the war from day 1 in 39. First with money, then armaments, building a British naval base at Roosevelt Roads Puerto Rico, occupying Iceland, supporting British anti-sub activity with Sonar and patrol planes, finally initiating offensive depth charge attacks (uss James & uss Geer) and more. All that before December 41.
Also support of the monstrous Stalin.
We had no dog in the wwii fight. Germany was not a threat to us
But fdr had been trying and failing to end the depression. Getting us into the European war was the last straw he had to clutch at.
We had even less business getting involved in WW1. Another war a demmy president ran on keeping us out of. Then a few months after inauguration, got us into.
60,000 US combat deaths in about 5 months. Shame on Woodrow Wilson.
johnhenryMay 21, 2022, 11:38 PM
And you really don’t want to get me started on LBJ’s Asian fiasco.
Wilson’s “excellent adventure” in Europe (1917 – 1919) was America’s greatest strategic error in all of her history. Many evils and stacks of corpses came from it.
JFK wanted to “break the CIA into pieces and scatter it to the four winds”. Before he could the CIA got him first. Truman had felt the same way. But by that time—the 1950s—the power of the Agency over domestic affairs was too great, as was that of the FBI. Eisenhower bitched and moaned about the “military / industrial complex”—what we call the Deep State—but only at the end of his presidency, and only after he had done a great deal to cement the power of the CIA and the FBI over American internal affairs.
The 3-Letter Agencies today exert more raw power over the Legislative, Judicial and Executive branches of American government than the KGB ever had over the Soviet Politburo.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
If you are a Cop or Combat Soldier you know about a baited ambush. Pashtun love to fight and they are good at baited ambush and a lot more.
Gerard Van der Leun
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If this were some rando’s rant, I’d call it an overblown conspiracy theory. But this is MICHAEL YON, who’s as reliable as sunrise. Never. Follow. Squirrel.
-and we’re being fed clumsy, the clumsiest propaganda:
copy&paste
https://mobile.twitter.com/Newsweek/status/1527851089059528706
“Now comes epic energy and food catastrophe set to greatly reduce the world population. All while invading our borders and creating hate crimes around the country principally by fatherless blacks on blacks, and on everyone, and blamed on white folks…Most of this is a product of the Democrat Party since before the Civil War.”
Really, Mr. Yon? The Democrats were doing most of these things “since before the Civil War”? That is news to me and certainly is as well to every US Civil War historian who has ever lived.
Yon believes that the US somehow “baited” Japan into Pearl Harbor:
“Japan was backed into a corner. We and our allies cut Japan’s oil, rubber, tin, and more. Japanese were desperate and trying to negotiate. Finally, backed into a corner, Japan attacked.”
Is Hirohito’s ghost paying Mr. Yon for such nonsense? The US ceased exports of raw materials and scrap iron to Japan only after Japan invaded China in 1937, an unprovoked invasion that led to the Nanking Massacre (1937). Upwards of 500,000 Chinese were slaughtered with bayonets, swords, axes and shovels. Even so it took FDR 3 more years before beginning an economic boycott of Japan. Or does Mr. Yon believe that the US should have financed the Japanese practice of genocide?
Does Mr. Yon believe that Japan was “baited” into the Nanking Massacre? Or also “baited” into the tens of millions of Asians slaughtered by Imperial Japan (1937 – 1945)?
So “Japan was desperate and trying to negotiate”? Japan was willing to negotiate only if the US accepted Japan’s conquest of China.
Japan’s planning for her conquests in Asia—the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”—began in the 1920s after she was subsumed in a nightmarish and grotesque totalitarianism that was far greater than anything devised by that Austrian guy, and indeed measures up well when compared with the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976). No negotiating could possibly have pried the Japanese from their extreme and ghastly militarism. It took Hiroshima and Nagasaki to accomplish that.
“Parag Agrawal is so fake she does not even need toilet paper. She just throws her plastic turds out with the recycling.” Agrawal is a male.
Someone should inform Mr. Yon that ignorance and bombast are not ways to go through life.
Any student of WWII knows that you can turn Japan’s interwar years into a provocation to make war on the West (wait..both directions. Japan made war first to their near west, then eastward across the Pacific). M Yon did provide a caveat to his Japan argument. He’s only saying that Japan had more provocation to war than the others he’s naming. He calls it severe, but Japan was on the way to a military state no matter what. Anyway, all info is important to bring to the study of a lead-up to a war. I used to, at first, find the entry into WWII boring, and wanted only the fireworks part. As I matured in my studies, I found the geo-politics critical to the study of the war.
Here we are. Yon is making the argument that deception is afoot. I buy that. I am usually averse to “what if” rabbit trails that go backward in history, however simple situational thinking leads me to believe that a Trump administration would be navigating us away from the shoal of a Russian war. It is without a doubt the DemonCrats that are horny for war, and have been my whole life plus going back a hundred years at least. They are the party of self harm.
It’s good to read everyone, including Yon. I know some are pissed at him, but for the life of me, on one cup of coffee, I cannot remember what we’re supposed to be pissed at him about. His ground-pounder analogies do speak to me. My take away is that this current slide into a war that could be avoided with kid gloves and a steady helmsman, is more than just a small mistake. I am possessed by the idea that our enemies saw no one at the wheel, and this presents an opportunity to them to take us down several notches. But, in the event, the guys on the other side of Europe seem to be clowning around.
More coffee. Place it on my desk, and walk slowly from the room (old meme but always find it funny).
Japan indeed made war first toward her west in Formosa (1895) and Korea (1910). She then in the early 1930s turned her guns against the USSR and Manchuria. The greatest and most powerful Japanese provocation toward war was the Japanese militarists themselves—mainly the Army—who had seized control of the nation by 1927. All during this time of Japanese expansion the US continued to send her raw materials.
The Japanese ideology stressed Japanese superiority over any other race, especially what she termed the “mongrel” Americans. She believed that Japan was destined to rule the world. Japan knew that she would one day make war against the US, the only questions being “when” and “how”. The point here being that Japanese expansion to the East required no provocation at all. Thus Yon’s use of the US “baiting” Japan toward war as one foundation of his argument falls apart.
This does not mean that all of Yon’s argument about current affairs is without foundation. I say this as one who has read him off and on for several years. I especially like his idea of “PanFamWar”.
Weakness at the top of any imperial regime invites aggression—whether from the regime itself or from her enemies. The Biden regime is especially impotent at home and abroad, and is known to be so by anyone with eyes and ears. Thus it makes war upon its own citizens and in Ukraine. It seems to be revving up a war with China. It resembles in all particulars the Athenian Empire right before the Peloponnesian War (431 – 404 BC).
The Democrats have always been war mongers. Texas Independence (1836), the Indian Removal Act (1830) and the Trail of Tears (1838), the Mexican War (1846 – 1848), the Civil War (1861 – 1865), World War I and World War II, Korea, the Cold War and Vietnam were all begun under Democrat regimes.
Quit true. Also, I concur about Japan.
I more than quibble: America is no empire and so it’s not “imperial”. No farkin way. When was the last time we seized and held onto territory? The Mexican War? Don’t say the Indian Campaigns. Remember, if you seize territory, you’re stuck governing it. I know the Soves would say we “held onto” Western Europe, which is bullshit of the highest order.
“Empire” has always had more than one meaning. The one where a state or nation seizes foreign land and holds it is but one—and it is by far the least seldom used. Rome, Egypt, Assyria, Japan—in fact, most empires in all of History—did not fully abide by your definition.
I compared the US with Imperial Athens. The Athenian Empire comprised perhaps 300 Greek city-states, none of which was occupied by Athens. These states were controlled simply by the knowledge that Athenian triremes could swoop down and put all the male populace to death if any member of the empire did not do the bidding of Athens. The member states as well were forced to use Athenian currency—the drachma—in the same manner that the US forces most nations to price the purchase of oil in dollars (the “petrodollar”).
See the Melian Dialogue (416 BC) to see how Athens maintained her empire. Compare it with the discussions the US had with Saddam Hussein. We did to Iraq exactly what Athens did to Melos. Toss in Syria, Serbia and Afghanistan for good measure.
The US holds her empire by the same methods used by Athens. Not usually by military occupation—though the US possesses 600 foreign bases—but through treaties such as NATO. Think of NATO as a modern Delian League (478 – 404 BC) and the similarities will be perfectly clear. In fact, they will jump at you.
The most violent of all imperial states are democratic ones. As they evolve into greater democracy they begin to force foreign nations to adopt their own ideology. This explains why Athens was constantly at war during her imperial period. It also explains why the US has been constantly at war since 1945.
The US government is not at all shy at shedding the blood of her sons in foreign lands to maintain her empire.
This.
There are two things which majorly get my goat: autistic definitions of ‘Empire’ and shape-shifting positions on Ethnicity/Culture/Religion depending on which formulation ducks and weaves best in any given situation.
How do you force freedom down somebodies throat? Here, take this freedom, asshole.
What did we ask of France, after shedding blood on their soil? For them to play NATO like a tart? What did we ask of Italy? For them to flirt and bed with Socialists, and take our money to become an agricultural giant after being reduced to fliiping zero?
Did we take Iraq’s oil? What does Korea do that we demand of them?
The Philippines? I’d like to know where our Subic Bay base went, and Clark airfield as well.
The dollar is currency based on virility and trust. we don’t “make” anyone use USD.
Equivocate someone who’ll listen. Empire has more meanings, he says. Athens wasn’t a democracy, he says.
You are letting anger cloud your judgement. I have mentioned this to you before.
“How do you force freedom down somebodies throat? ” By defeating them in battle and forcing them to accept military bases upon their soil: Japan and Germany.
“Did we take Iraq’s oil?” Yes; we bought it like everyone else on earth did.
“What does Korea do that we demand of them?” She allows US bases upon her soil.
“Empire has more meanings, he says.” Well yes, it does:
1. a major political unit having a territory of great extent
2. a number of territories or peoples under a single sovereign authority
3. an extensive territory or enterprise under single domination or control
4. imperial sovereignty, rule, or dominion
“Athens wasn’t a democracy, he says.” Actually I said just the opposite, that Athens was constantly at war during her imperial period because she was a democracy. Re-read my penultimate paragraph.
You take things personally. Along with your anger, it ruins your argument. If you do not like what I write, or if you do not agree with what I write, then for Heaven’s sake do not comment on it if it makes you irate or if you believe that I am somehow insulting you.
What made me angry was the insult to America. A dispassionate defense of my home is probably worthless, but keeping one’s head is imperative – agreed. I see hate for the USA in your writing, BTW.
The meaning of democracy (think of Ancient Greece and not Biden, Inc.) is the direct antithesis to an emperor (empire – think philology). You are trying to make an analogy of a contradiction. You cannot.
Korea fucking loves our bases in Korea. Are you kidding? They are on a “fight tonight” war footing. Buy oil versus take. Your point is thin; we were entertained with ink in the news about how we were “fighting for oil” in Iraq. That was bullshit of the highest order, since we never “forred” a goddamned thing. We did put our influence and intentions into the MidEast. Think if we hadn’t and see how that computes.
True that we forced surrender upon the Axis powers, but once you allow a constitution you aren’t governing. BTW Rome governed the living shit out of its holdings, except when it became incapable of doing so.
If you walk into a bar with your group of friends, or classmates, or army platoon, and a fight breaks out, whom do you ally with? Russia?
Here’s a guy I like. His approach has always been informed and stands up to scrutiny. Kissinger:
https://youtu.be/6b89jcNqgJo
“What made me angry was the insult to America.” I have never in my life insulted America. I have much of my life insulted the US government. The US government is one thing; the American nation something quite different. I am with Mencken: “Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.”
“I see hate for the USA in your writing, BTW.” You see what you want to see. Just so you know: I was fired from my teaching post in Argentina, where I had taught for 10 years, because I supported the USA above every other nation—and also because I was a Republican, a Christian and a Veteran. I refused to stand for the Argentine anthem, for one thing. I explained to my superiors that I had one love in my life, America, and I would not commit adultery by standing for or singing the anthem of a foreign nation. This did not go over well.
“The meaning of democracy (think of Ancient Greece and not Biden, Inc.) is the direct antithesis to an emperor (empire – think philology). You are trying to make an analogy of a contradiction. You cannot.” Athens was both empire and democracy. There has never been a historian of the Ancient World that would state otherwise. You are mixing up the city-state of Athens with her imperial dominions—which, by the way, were all democracies.
“Korea fucking loves our bases in Korea. Are you kidding?” I merely said the obvious, that we have bases in Korea. I said nothing about how the Koreans themselves thought about them. Whatever the Koreans think today about the US presence in their country, they will change their minds in a New York minute if China invades Taiwan.
“…we were entertained with ink in the news about how we were “fighting for oil” in Iraq.” I never once made such a claim; in fact, I wrote the opposite. As it turns out, during Iraq War II I was taking a year off (2003 – 2004) and living in a tent while solo backpacking all around South and Central America. I kept a diary the entire time:
https://mikeaustin.org/current_affairs_and_war1.htm
I do not at all expect you to read the thing. I mention it only to show you that your fears of my “hating America” have no basis. Just see the photos on the first page and you will see what I mean. It would be very difficult indeed to find a greater love for America and her military than what I publicly wrote for all the world to see.
“Rome governed the living shit out of its holdings, except when it became incapable of doing so.” Just so you know, my first college degree was a specialty in Ancient History. I want on to teach it for 27 years in 3 nations. When we say “Rome” we can mean several things: Republic (509 – 30 BC), Principate (30 BC – 68 AD), Empire (68 – 476) , and so on. How Rome governed her territories shifted tremendously over all that time.
I have written many times at American Digest about how I will never abandon America, that if she demands my blood, I will give it. “America: Love it or leave it.” Works for me.
Painting Japan as the victim certainly undermines the case he is trying to make. In any case don’t ask me how much sacrifice I’m willing to make to ensure Ukraine or Taiwan are ruled by the western degenerate kleptocracy rather than by Russian/Chinese autocrats. If there needs to be shooting to defend democracy, there is no need to travel to such far-flung destinations.
Agreed. Defending liberty begins and ends right here in the US. I have no desire to waste American blood and treasure defending a foreign people’s freedoms.
Surprisingly, I find the grainy, black and white or fuzzy videos of UFOs rolled out, quite questionable. Actual video’s? Probably, but not the best quality that I know our Gubmint has capability of. Within the professional environment I work, I have seen what some of our military contractors are capable of with infra red, auto tracking of moving objects and a very high level of video clarity at long distances. The stuff drug out on the news reminds me of the shaky 1970s home video quality of Bigfoot.
I had something in passing to say about that. I’ll go look.
I’ve been reading Mike Yon since “Danger Close”. Haven’t always agreed on every point but I’ve found him more prescient than most.
If you don’t take anything else away read his last four words.
We have been at war since November 22, 1963.
we’ve been at war for 5782 years, maybe more.
not just the Jews “we”, but all of us “we”.
or maybe 200,000 years, if you believe in that kind of thing.
even our ancestors, the first eukaryotes, have always been at war. with Eastasia, apparently.
so what’s the big deal? we should be used to it by now, and welcome it with open arms, or flagella.
anyways, I’m watching the back and forth between Casey and Mike, each trying to persuade that it was one side or the other that started “it”. like some kids in the schoolyard screaming that the other kid stole the lunch money or sumthing, or cut off steel & oil exports.
But primarily it reminds me of the recent accusations right here in America, with the Dems accusing the Repubs of INSURRECTION!!!, and many commentators on our side accusing the Dems of actual insurrection, and Treason. then the Dems accuse the MAGAs of Treason!.
There’s plenty of blame, or mis-steps, on both sides, there always is in every war going back forever. Everything always escalates.
A better use of our time would be to figure out how to de-escalate, before USA erupts into open civil war.
Any ideas?
as vonnegut said, “so it goes”
advocating neither yea or nay- what does our future look like without civil war?
“(Bonhoffer) concluded that ‘the ultimate question for a responsible man to ask is not how he is to extricate himself heroically from the affair, but how the coming generation shall continue to live.'”
Actually, 6026 years if one believes Bishop Ussher.
Actually, 6026 years if one believes Bishop Ussher.
could you repeat that?
Yes. But nope.
I find myself agreeing with much Yon, Austin, KCK, are saying about ’30s -’40s Japan, war mongering and mongered.
Trouble is now I’m realizing since the start of WW II, we haven’t gone a generation without US troops actively fighting on foreign soil.
I understand, we’ve always been the good guys of course, it sez so right there on page three!
Almost every year since 1898 the US military has gone overseas to bash foreign heads together. Before World War II this was mainly in the Philippines, Central America and the Caribbean. After World War II the US military ventured further afield. As of today the US military has perhaps 600 bases on foreign soil. Understand that these are all for peaceful reasons.
An expanding empire comes to relish the taste of blood. A collapsing empire sees it as its only sustenance.
Count on this. When food shortages hit in the fall, the demoniacs in Babylon on the Potomac will prioritize giving food stocks to those of color. I wonder if Farmer Brown will go all Kulak and burn his crop rather than give it to the commie rats
“…prioritize giving food stocks to those of color.”
========
You can bet on that.
Just as everything else now, the priority is to the negro’s.
Reparations, see?
Stroll through any gov’t facility now, wall to wall negros.
Other than my own personal property, there is very little to like about this country any more, since the gov’t has turned it into Africa 2.0.
If you are white, you are on your own, and everything and everyone, is against you.
Better figure out NOW how you are going to eat a year from now.
Figuring the causes of wars is very tricky, because people lie. Sometimes they lie to themselves.
If you’re Japan and you realize the U.S. and others will oppose your plans to dominate Asia, then consider war against the U.S. Oh, well, that’s a way Japan will never win. But perhaps we can get the U.S. to quit, if we shock them enough.
It is amazing how much war doctrine is based on that idea, that if we shock them enough, they’ll quit.
There is substantial evidence that Imperial Japan had an advanced nuke development program. So advanced, in fact, that they tested a weapon between August 9 and the announced surrender. The test is said to have happened off the coast of Korea.
There was a large industrial complex in the north of Korea. The Soviets overran it after they declared war. Was this the industrial seed of the Soviet bomb? And why would the Japanese lie about it and say that there was never any serious effort?
Well, if you want to hang the nuclear medal of shame around the U.S. neck, you would lie. Was the geopolitical strategic thinking so advanced, mere weeks after Hiroshima?
And would they lie to Michael Yon, who has spent a lot of time in Japan, and has friends there? Well, sure. Never mind the actions of the sadistic Japanese Army; we attacked because you denied us steel and oil.
After all, many Swedes cooperated fully with the Nazi regieme. One reason was that it was made clear that Hitler was going to have that Swedish steel and other raw materials, even if they had to invade.
Getting an opponent to cease its war making by “shocking” it upon the battlefield was exactly the strategy of Sparta, the US South, Imperial Germany, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan—and so many others. In fact, the US gave this tactic a name, “Shock and Awe”.
Japan believed that by simply “shocking” the US at Pearl Harbor, that the US would go to the negotiating table and allow Japan her conquests in Asia. It didn’t work out that way. Had the US a president in office at the time along the lines of an Obama or a Biden Japan might have succeeded.
I can’t think of a politician of that era or a previous era that would not have gone to war with Japan. What they wouldn’t have done is declare war on Germany at the same time.
Adlai Stevenson wouldn’t have gone to war with Japan, but he came later.
That was exactly the case. The vote to declare war upon Japan was unanimous save for a single imbecile, one Jeanette Rankin.
When Germany unnecessarily and stupidly declared war upon the US that government signed its own death warrant.
I was going to say something along the lines of, “You know, Mr. Yon makes a lot of sense, but he needs to do a little more reading on pre-12/07/1941 Japan. Like at least back through 1937 or so.” However, Mr. Austin not only beat me to it, but conducted a master class on Japanese aggression against its neighbors in Asia, especially China. Well done, sir. Nevertheless, I am still persuaded that Mr. Yon is on to something regarding current events.
Ukraine’s annual wheat production is about 26 million tons/yr. Sounds like a lot and it puts Ukraine ahead of Germany but behind Pakistan. 26mm tons is not nothing but it is close. It is about 3% of total world production and less than the normal year to year variability in total world production.
World wheat production, top 10 countries, in tons and percent of world production.
1 China 134,340,630 18%
2 India 98,510,000 13%
3 Russia 85,863,132 11%
4 USA 47,370,880 6%
5 France 36,924,938 5%
6 Australia 31,818,744 4%
7 Canada 29,984,200 4%
8 Pakistan 26,674,000 4%
9 Ukraine 26,208,980 3%
10 Germany 24,481,600 3%
World Total 750,000,000
I don’t doubt that a global famine is coming but it is going to caused, probably on purpose, by politicians. Not by Ukrainian grain or lack thereof.
We don’t take global warming seriously enough? Will a famine that kills 100 million make us believe it is a problem? It is a perfect excuse for the US to suspend the constitution and declare a state of emergency. (But perhaps I am just paranoid. Or not paranoid enough)
And, because the state of emergency will include bans on mis and dis-information, we won’t even be able to ask how increased CO2 and 1 degree warmer temperatures, which would normally increase crop yields, contribute to crop failure and famine.
We won’t be able to ask why, in the face of famine, oil and gas production, from which fertilizer is produced, is being curtailed.
We won’t be able to ask why Warren Buffett’s choo-choos are stopping or delaying fertilizer shipments.
Wars are seldom started for reasons stated.
Two words: Smedley Butler. And all of y’all know what he said about war.
More and more I am coming over to Butler’s view, that “war is a racket”.
Over the years I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not we goaded Japan input pearl harbor. I think there’s a fair amount of evidence both ways and I’m not taking a position here.
Germany is a different matter. As late as November 41 polling was 70-80% against the US getting involved in another European war. Fdr had run in 40 on a specific promise of not getting involved.
Germany done nothing to us. Until after pearl harbor when it declared war on us.
But the US had been moving more and more deeply into the war from day 1 in 39. First with money, then armaments, building a British naval base at Roosevelt Roads Puerto Rico, occupying Iceland, supporting British anti-sub activity with Sonar and patrol planes, finally initiating offensive depth charge attacks (uss James & uss Geer) and more. All that before December 41.
Also support of the monstrous Stalin.
We had no dog in the wwii fight. Germany was not a threat to us
But fdr had been trying and failing to end the depression. Getting us into the European war was the last straw he had to clutch at.
We had even less business getting involved in WW1. Another war a demmy president ran on keeping us out of. Then a few months after inauguration, got us into.
60,000 US combat deaths in about 5 months. Shame on Woodrow Wilson.
And you really don’t want to get me started on LBJ’s Asian fiasco.
H/t to jfk too, of course.
Wilson’s “excellent adventure” in Europe (1917 – 1919) was America’s greatest strategic error in all of her history. Many evils and stacks of corpses came from it.
JFK wanted to “break the CIA into pieces and scatter it to the four winds”. Before he could the CIA got him first. Truman had felt the same way. But by that time—the 1950s—the power of the Agency over domestic affairs was too great, as was that of the FBI. Eisenhower bitched and moaned about the “military / industrial complex”—what we call the Deep State—but only at the end of his presidency, and only after he had done a great deal to cement the power of the CIA and the FBI over American internal affairs.
The 3-Letter Agencies today exert more raw power over the Legislative, Judicial and Executive branches of American government than the KGB ever had over the Soviet Politburo.