The Final Countdown – 2/5/24 – Migrant Deal and Budget in Limbo as Congress Remains Deadlocked

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss breaking news domestically and abroad, including the Congressional Budget and the U.S. migrant deal. 

 
Dan Lazare – Independent journalist and author 

Armen Kurdian –  Retired Navy Captain 
Jeremy Kuzmarov – Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine 
 
The show starts with independent journalist and author Dan Lazare, who weighs in on the Congressional Budget debacle, including House GOP’s robust Israel aid bill.  
 
Then, Retired Navy Captain Armen Kurdian shares his perspective on Biden’s win in the South Carolina primary, and the rising discontent over the president among the Left. 
 
The second hour begins with Jeremy Kuzmarov, the managing editor of CovertAction Magazine discussing the U.S. airstrikes on Iraq and Syria. 
 
 

The Final Countdown – 1/31/24 – The Squad Faces Backlash Over Loyalty and Expenses

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss various current events domestically and abroad, including a U.S. congresswoman facing backlash over her expenses. 

Ajay Pallegar – Criminal and civil attorney and political analyst 

Steve Gill –  Attorney and CEO of Gill Media 
Michael Maloof – Former Pentagon official 
Rev. Gregory Seal Livingston – Pastor, Civil rights leader  
 
The show starts with Ajay Pallegar, a criminal and civil attorney, talking about the Fulton County prosecutor, Nathan Wade settling his divorce and dodging his testimony on District Attorney Fani Willis. 
 
Then, attorney Steve Gill discusses the investigation of U.S. Congresswoman Cori Bush on her use of funds. 
 
The second hour begins with former Pentagon official Michael Maloof, who shares his perspective on the ongoing escalation in the Middle East, and if Biden will attack Iran. 
 
The show closes with Rev. Gregory Seal Livingston, a civil rights leader in New York City, who discusses Trump’s civil fraud trial.

The Final Countdown – 1/30/24 – United Airlines Navigates Boeing Woes: Explores Possible Airbus Deal

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss current events worldwide, including United Airlines and its Boeing woes. 

Jamie Finch –  Former Director, National Transportation Safety Board 
Tyler Nixon – Counselor-at-law 
Dr. George Szamuely – Senior Research Fellow, Global Policy Institute
Dan Kovalik – Human Rights Lawyer 
 
The show kicks off with Jamie Finch, the former director of the National Transportation Safety Board, who discusses United Airlines potentially entering a deal with Airbus following Boeing’s Max 9 blunders. 
 
Later, Tyler Nixon, counselor-at-law, weighs in on the IRS contractor getting sentenced to five years in prison following his leak of Trump’s tax documents. 
 
The second hour begins with the hosts talking to Dr. George Szamuely about Hungary accusing the EU of blackmail.  
 
The show closes with human rights lawyer Dan Kovalik, who shares his perspective on the strikes near the Jordanian border and the pressure on Biden to plan a military response. 
 
 

The Final Countdown – 1/26/24 –

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss the latest news domestically and abroad, including Trump’s accusations against Fani Willis. 

Scott Stantis – Cartoonist for The Chicago Tribune
Professor Francis Boyle – Human Rights Lawyer
Ryan Cristián – Founder and editor of The Last American Vagabond
Michael Maloof – Former Pentagon Official
 
The show begins with Cartoonist Scott Stantis weighing in on Trump’s accusations against Fulton County DA Fani Willis for “racial animus,” and the ongoing scandal surrounding the district attorney. 
 
Later, Human Rights Lawyer Prof. Francis Boyle joins the show to discuss the International Court of Justice telling Israel to take measures to prevent the genocide of Palestinians. Prof. Boyle and the hosts also touch on the current conditions in Gaza. 
 
The second hour begins with Ryan Cristián, who shares his perspective on why Americans are becoming disgruntled with the two-party system amid Biden’s plummeting performance in the polls.
 
The show closes with Former Pentagon Official Michael Maloof, who shares his expertise on the U.S. holding negotiations with Iraq. 
 

The Final Countdown – 1/16/24 – Trump Triumphs: A Landslide Victory in the Iowa Caucus

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss news from around the world and domestically, including Trump’s victory at the Iowa Caucuses. 

Steve Hayes– Tax Attorney   
Steve Gill – Attorney 

Jeremy Kuzmarov – Managing Editor of Covert Action Magazine 
Nebojsa Malic – RT Journalist 
 
The show begins with tax attorney Steve Hayes, who weighs in on Trump’s victory in the Iowa Caucuses and Ramaswamy’s endorsement. 
 
Then, attorney Steve Gill shares his perspective on the Fani Willis scandal.  
 
The second hour starts with Jeremy Kuzmarov who discusses the rising tensions in the Middle East, including Iran’s missile strikes against sites in Iraq and Syria, the latest attacks between Yemen’s Houthis, cargo ships, and a U.S. warship in the Red Sea, and the latest out of the Israel-Hamas War. 
 
Lastly, journalist Nebojsa Malic joins the show to share his insights on Zelensky’s Peace Summit. 
 
 

Cut Israel Loose


 

It is useful when you feel stumped to step back and ask yourself: what if I were coming to this person/situation/decision fresh, without precedents or historical baggage?

Inertia is a powerful and insidious force. How many times, working in an office, when you ask why a something is done a certain way, do you get the circular answer that it’s because it’s always been done that way?

About that friend you’ve had since you were both kids: sure, you’ve known each other for decades. If you met the guy now, for the first time, though, would you still want to hang out?

What about your job? It may have been a good fit when you first took it. Is your workplace still better than what’s available now?

If your answer is no, perhaps you’re due for a rethink—and possibly a radical change.

America is long overdue for a rethink of its toxic relationship with Israel.

We’ve been in deep with Israel since its creation. Supporting the creation of the Jewish state helped Harry Truman win a close election in 1948. Israel served as a bulwark against Soviet influence in neighboring Egypt and Syria during the Cold War. But we aren’t afraid of the commies anymore. Israel is no longer pretending to be a democracy.

Why are we still together?

It’s not like we’re getting much out of this romance. We pay Israel $4 billion a year even though they are living better than we are, with national healthcare and subsidized college tuition. They don’t have oil. Every time they murder a Palestinian, the bullet or the bomb is stamped “Made in USA”—which makes us a target for Islamist terrorism. Our relationship with Israel is an alliance, not a marriage, so we never promised “for better, or for worse.” But even if we had, so what? You’re surely allowed to run out the door when your partner is draining your bank account, ruining your reputation and dragging you into fights. If he’s turning violently insane, you should split.

Israel’s war in Gaza makes one thing clear: Israel has lost its mind. It’s time to cut them loose before they suck us down their maelstrom of madness.

According to military historians, the ferocious war Israel is waging against the innocent civilian population of the Gaza Strip is being waged at a scale unheard of in human history. According to the New York Times, Israel has killed more people in Gaza over the past two months than have died in two years of fighting between Russia and Ukraine. And that’s in a tiny space that’s 1/1500th of the area of the Russo-Ukrainian front. Proportionally, the Palestinian death rate in Gaza is 20,000 times higher than in Ukraine.

Casualties are sky high and soaring because Israel, unlike most combatants, refuses to open Gaza’s borders in order to allow refugees to escape the carnage. Israel doesn’t even allow boats to flee via the Mediterranean. Also unique to Israel’s efficiently bloodthirsty assault is its subjecting of a population to both siege warfare and bombing, simultaneously denying food, water, fuel and medical supplies to 2.3 million people at the same time missiles are raining down upon them.

Moreover, the Times reports, Israel is using nukes to kill flies. “Israel’s liberal use of very large weapons in dense urban areas, including U.S.-made 2,000-pound bombs that can flatten an apartment tower, is surprising, some experts say…In fighting during this century, by contrast, U.S. military officials often believed that the most common American aerial bomb—a 500-pound weapon—was far too large [emphasis mine] for most targets when battling the Islamic State in urban areas like Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria.”

A 2000-pound bomb is a devastating weapon. Military experts say that the minimum safe distance away on the ground from the detonation of a standard U.S.-made 2,000-pounder of the kind being used by Israel in Gaza is over half a mile; a plane dropping such ordinance should fly at least 4000 feet in altitude to avoid being damaged by flying debris from the blast. Israel has dropped at least 20,000 bombs, each with a blast radius of 1 square mile, enough to flatten the whole territory more than 100 times over.

“They are using extremely large weapons in extremely densely populated areas,” Brian Castner, a weapons investigator for Amnesty International and a former explosive ordnance disposal officer in the Air Force, told the Times.

Israel has carried out numerous atrocities over the past 50 years, including a bombing campaign and ground invasion of Gaza in 2014. The brutality and scale of the 2023 conflict, coupled with the racist and genocidal rhetoric of Israeli political and military leaders, is so extreme that it’s no longer possible to ignore.

Even the U.N. is disgusted. “We have in a few days in Gaza thousands and thousands of children killed, which means there is also something clearly wrong in the way military operations are being done,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

So are many others, including nations with close relations with Israel. “These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy,” added French President Emmanuel Macron. Jordan, Bahrain, Chad, Turkey, Colombia and Chile have recalled their ambassadors from Israel to protest the bloodshed. South Africa, a long-time ally of Israel dating to the apartheid period, has severed diplomatic relations with Israel.

Israel has nearly exhausted the world’s patience. The amount of time that it can continue to wage war against Gaza without being isolated as a pariah state is measured in months, perhaps weeks. More embassy closings are coming. Sanctions will follow.

The United States should prepare itself for the next step: cutting Israel loose. This means cutting off military aid and logistical assistance, no more blank checks for its actions against Palestine. In just two months, American domestic public opinion has reversed, with a majority of  young Americans now opposed to further assistance to Israel. Older voters are not far behind.

Getting back to the question raised at the beginning of this essay: if we were considering the question anew, free of the burden of history, would we embrace Israel as it looks and acts today? Would we supply them with weapons to bomb Gaza? Of course not.

We may or may not be able to stop Israel from its reckless and murderous carpet-bombing of Gaza. We certainly don’t have to be joined at the hip as they commit war crimes. Our alliance with Israel has outlived its usefulness.

(Ted Rall (Twitter: @tedrall), the political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist, co-hosts the left-vs-right DMZ America podcast with fellow cartoonist Scott Stantis. You can support Ted’s hard-hitting political cartoons and columns and see his work first by sponsoring his work on Patreon.)

The Final Countdown – 10/27/23 – U.S. Launches Heavy Attack on Eastern Syria

On this episode of The Final Countdown, hosts Angie Wong and Ted Rall discuss the top news, including the U.S. striking Syria. 
 

Rory Riley Topping – Legal Analyst at Spectrum News 

Tyler Nixon – Army Infantry Veteran 
Carter Clews – President of Constitutional Rights PAC 
Esteban Carrillo – Editor at The Cradle 
 
The show kicks off with Legal Analyst Rory Riley Topping sharing her legal expertise on the Maine manhunt. 
 
Then, Army Infantry Veteran Tyler Nixon weighs in on Trump’s legal woes, including a judge fining Trump for breaking his gag order in the former President’s fraud trial. Nixon also broke down Special Counsel Jack Smith urging a federal judge to reimpose a partial gag order in the election interference case. 
 
The second hour begins with President of Constitutional Rights PAC Carter Clews sharing his insights on the investigation into Hunter Biden. 
 
The show closes with Editor at The Cradle Esteban Carrilo joining The Final Countdown to talk about the U.S. fighter jets launching airstrikes on two locations in eastern Syria, as well as Israeli troops entering Gaza. 
 
 

How the U.S. Lost the Ukraine War

Russian forces meeting 'strong and wide' Ukraine resistance | Russia-Ukraine  war News | Al Jazeera

The effect of Western sanctions may cause historians of the future to look upon the conflict in Ukraine as a net defeat for Russia. In terms of the military struggle itself, however, Russia is winning.

Watching American and European news coverage, you might ask yourself how can that be? It comes down to war aims. Russia has them. They are achievable.

The United States doesn’t have any.

“As the war in Ukraine grinds through its third month,” the Washington Post reports, “the Biden administration has tried to maintain a set of public objectives that adapt to changes on the battlefield and stress NATO unity, while making it clear that Russia will lose, even as Ukraine decides what constitutes winning. But the contours of a Russian loss remain as murky as a Ukrainian victory.”

War aims are a list of what one side in a military conflict hopes to achieve at its conclusion.

There are two kinds.

The first type of war aim is propaganda for public consumption. An overt war aim can be vague, as when President Woodrow Wilson urged Americans to enter World War I in order to “make the world safe for democracy” (whatever that meant) or specific, like FDR’s demand for the “unconditional surrender” of the Axis powers. A specific, easily measured, metric is better.

            Covert war aims are goals that political and military leaders are really after. A covert war aim must be realistic. For example, contrary to the long-standing belief that he viewed the outbreak of the Korean war as an irritating distraction, Stalin approved of and supported North Korea’s invasion of the South in 1950. He didn’t care if North Korea captured territory. He wanted to drag the United States into a conflict that would diminish its standing in Asia and distract it from the Cold War in Europe. The Soviet ruler died knowing that, whatever the final outcome, he had won.

            A publicly-stated war aim tries to galvanize domestic support, which is especially necessary when fighting a proxy war (Ukraine) or war of choice (Iraq). But you can’t win a war when your military and political leaders are unable to define, even to themselves behind closed doors, what winning looks like.

America’s biggest military debacles occurred after primary objectives metastasized. In Vietnam both the publicly-stated and actual primary war aim was initially to prevent the attempted overthrow of the government of South Vietnam and to prevent the spread of socialism, the so-called Domino Theory. Then the U.S. wanted to make sure that soldiers who had died at the beginning of the war hadn’t died in vain. By the end, the war was about leveraging the safe return of POWs. A recurring theme of accounts by soldiers in the jungle as well as top strategists at the Pentagon is that, before long, no one knew why we were over there.

Again, in Afghanistan after 2002, war aims kept changing. Mission creep expanded from the goal of defeating Al Qaeda to apprehending Osama bin Laden to building infrastructure to establishing democracy to improving security to using the country as a base for airstrikes against neighboring Pakistan. By 2009 the Pentagon couldn’t articulate what it was trying to accomplish. In the end, the U.S. did nothing but stave off the inevitable defeat and collapse of its unpopular Afghan puppet regime.

Clear war aims are essential to winning. Reacting to his experience in Vietnam, the late General Colin Powell led U.S. forces to victory in the first Gulf War with his doctrine that a successful military action enjoys strong domestic political support, is fought by a sufficient number of troops and begins with a clear military and political objective that leads to a quick exit. After Saddam Hussein’s forces were routed from Kuwait, George H.W. Bush ignored advisers who wanted to expand the conflict into Iraq. America’s mission accomplished, there was a tickertape parade down Broadway, the end.

The U.S. too often involves itself in foreign conflicts without declaring clear war aims—or even knowing themselves what they are. In Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, unclear or shifting war aims led to endless escalation followed by fatigue on the home front, declining popular will and defeat. Our involvement in the proxy conflicts in Yemen and Syria also have the character of forever wars, though American voters won’t pay much attention as long as the cost is limited to taxpayer dollars rather than their sons and daughters.

I wrote a piece in 2001 titled “How We Lost Afghanistan.” Given that the U.S. had just overthrown the Taliban, it was cheekily counterintuitive. But I was looking at the Afghan war from the Afghan perspective, which is why I was right and the mainstream media was wrong. I see a similar situation unfolding in Ukraine. We are so misled by our cultural biases that we fail to understand the Russian point of view. The U.S. failure to articulate war aims stems from arrogance. We think we’re so rich and powerful that we can beat anyone, even if our strategy is half-assed and we don’t understand politics on the other side of the planet, where the war is.

President Joe Biden’s approach to Ukraine appears to boil down to: let’s throw more money and weapons into this conflict and hope it helps.

That’s not a strategy. It’s a prayer.

Biden says he wants to preserve Ukraine as a sovereign state and defend its territory. But how much territory? How much sovereignty? Would Biden accept continued autonomy for the breakaway republics in the Dombas? The White House appears unwilling to escalate by supporting an attempt to expel Russian forces from eastern Ukraine, much less Crimea—where they are welcomed by a population dominated by ethnic Russians. Short of a willingness to risk nuclear war, the likely ultimate outcome of the U.S. position will be a Korea-like partition into western and eastern zones. A divided Ukraine would create a disputed border—which would disqualify a rump Ukrainian application to join NATO.

Russia’s primary demand is that Ukraine not join NATO. If America’s goal winds up resolving the main reason President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, why is the U.S. involved? A war aim that neatly aligns with one’s adversary’s is grounds for peace talks, not fighting.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently added a second Ukraine war aim: “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.” Weakened to what extent? Reduced to a failed state? Mildly inconvenienced? Not only is the policy dangerous, it fails to define a clear objective.

Russia, on the other hand, has secured its allies in the autonomous republics and created a buffer zone to protect them. Crimea will remain annexed to Russia. NATO membership for Ukraine, a chimera to begin with, is now a mere fever dream. Unlike the U.S., the Russians declared their objectives and achieved the important ones.

(Ted Rall (Twitter: @tedrall), the political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist, is the author of a new graphic novel about a journalist gone bad, “The Stringer.” Order one today. You can support Ted’s hard-hitting political cartoons and columns and see his work first by sponsoring his work on Patreon.)

Holding Invaders Accountable

The United States doesn’t have much moral high ground to criticize Russia’s incursion into Ukraine considering the fact that it constantly violates the sovereignty of other independent nations with drone attacks, airstrikes, CIA coups and outright invasions and occupations.

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