Historical Perspectives

We have no concept of the history of the countries we attack and coup. This week the Don declared Iran as the most evil country on Earth. Sorry Don, the most evil country is your BFF, Israel, with the US in a close second. We're about to send Israel thousands of 4000 pound bombs to finish destroying Gaza. That's evil. We consider Yemen as a primitive culture, but it is a 5000 year civilization and is the culture which spread Islam around the world. Someone this week defined Hubris as a mix of ignorance and arrogance. That's pretty descriptive of the US.

Not only are we ignorant of Yemen, but also Persia. I think most Americans equate Iranians with Arabs, but they are very different... from the languages they speak to their ancient cultures. When you hear seasoned diplomats like Chas Freeman being assigned to a new country, he starts learning their language and customs. I don't think we have those sorts of diplomats anymore. In fact I wonder if we have ANY diplomats. Currently we use two real estate agents to conduct our negotiations. You can't make it up.

The Persian civilization is thousands of years old.

The Ottoman Empire was more recent...

...and shorter lived.

Matt Bracken uses maps to describe Western Asia. That is right up my alley.

(53 min) AnsarAllah (Houthis) Keep Advancing as the Red Sea Crisis Deepens

Alastair sees a new history of Western Asia developing

(63 min) Alastair Crooke: West Asia Is Incubating a New Era of Revolutions —
“A Decisive and Historic Stage”

Trump tells Axios he's approaching major crossroads in Iran war
"I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate them [the Iranian regime] or do I not? It's a big decision. Anything could happen with me."

Another excellent interview with Alastair where he lays out his historical perspectives.

(59 min) Alastair Crooke: Iran & Yemen's Strikes DEVASTATE Trump, Eilat SHUT – US Oil UNDER SIEGE
Alastair Crooke discusses why Israel is shutting down a key port as Iranian and Yemeni strikes on US military assets trigger an oil shock that is fueling revolutionary changes across the Middle East.
Alastair Crooke is a former British diplomat and the Founder of the Conflicts Forum based in Beirut
Cass summarizes the video :
At the end, Crooke summarizes: it's a reset for the Middle East as it was before the American intervention. My response: to be sure, certain things will be reset. The relationship between the various groups of the Arabian peninsula, those who can survive next summer there, will be reset. But there were intervening groups that will not be coming back:
1) the French and the British. Remember, in the early 1920s they carved up the Fertile Crescent from what used to be the domain of:
2) the Ottomans. To be sure, there is still Turkiye. But Turkiye is not the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans are also not coming back.
Here one recalls another complicating factor, that the Ottoman forces, such as they were, were often forces fighting for their own power independently of any will which the Sultan, whomever he was, might pose on them. The Janissaries, for instance. Or Mehmed Ali, who had a kingdom-within-a-kingdom of his own in Egypt and who was called upon in an attempt to snuff out the Greek Revolution of the 1820s. Those things are not coming back either.
So I'm expecting something different.

US bans Palestinian president from speaking at the UN
US again bars Mahmoud Abbas from UN General Assembly, citing Palestinian efforts to pursue Israel at international courts and win international recognition...
The move again places Washington and Israel at odds with much of the international community over Palestinian diplomatic representation and statehood.
Palestine is recognised by 157 UN member states, more than 80 percent of the organisation’s membership.
The US decision also comes amid escalating Israeli settler violence and displacement in the occupied West Bank. The UN said in August that settler violence had reached “unprecedented levels”, with more than 1,430 incidents documented in 2026 by 10 August.

We refuse to listen to others, and we want to ban voices that don't parrot the accepted narrative.
Long after his death in 2010, the books and speeches of Howard Zinn are frequently targeted by right-wing critics, MAGA book-bans, and even President Trump. Dave Zirin tells us why the right people fear what Zinn has to teach us.

U.S. Confirms Global Empire Ambition
“We must continue to ensure that the United States of America can strike anywhere on the globe at the time and place of our choosing, and sustain that force.“
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine
Air Space Cyber Conference, National Harbor, Md., Sep. 16 2026

Chas Freeman also has an excellent historical perspective. He was ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Iraq wars.

(59 min) Chas Freeman: US Alliances Are Falling Apart — Israel’s Suicide Mission

History in the making...
Next week is Xi's trip to the US. Trump may not like the message...
China Threatened to Cut Off Rare Earths on Trump Weapon China Is Bringing to Xi-Trump Summit

(34 min) Iranian sources tell Transition Protocol that when Xi Jinping meets Donald Trump in Washington next week, he is expected to link China's rare-earth exports to the American naval blockade of Iran.
In this episode:
— What Iranian sources expect Xi to put to Trump at next week's summit, and why rare earths are the lever. Beijing has not confirmed this and, as Pepe says on camera, it never will.
— The message Sanaa sent to the White House through Oman, and the American base named in it.
— How Ansar Allah took the Yemeni coast, Mayun, and control of the Bab al-Mandeb — and what happens at Taiz and Marib next.
— Riyadh's search for allies: Pakistan, Turkey, Britain, and — as widely reported since 15 September — Israel, through US Central Command.
— Why Islamabad cannot join a war against Yemen without paying for it at home.
— The Saudi East–West pipeline, the repair clock, and what three more drones would do to it.
— The argument in Washington over striking Iran before or after the midterms.
— Why the Bab al-Mandeb is closed to some shipping and not to others — a distinction almost nobody else is making.
— Two chokepoints, record diesel prices, and the stagflation warning.
— And to close: mandala multipolarity against what Alexander Dugin calls the Dark Enlightenment.

Larry lived through and experienced the evolution of all our recent wars. In this discussion he recounts those experiences.
The Real History of the Forever Wars | Prof. D. Gibbs & Col. L. Wilkerson

(57 min) Col. Lawrence Wilkerson joins Prof. David Gibbs and Pascal Lottaz to examine major American decisions after the Cold War. Drawing on his work with Colin Powell, Wilkerson recalls the Gulf War, George H. W. Bush’s diplomacy, and proposals to integrate Russia into European security. Gibbs questions the motives behind NATO expansion and intervention in Yugoslavia. Their discussion explores competing interpretations, the rise of neoconservative strategy, institutional rivalries, and the military industry’s influence over the direction of United States foreign policy.
00:00 An oral history of American power
01:51 The Gulf War and April Glaspie’s meeting
05:02 Powell, sanctions, and the decision for war
11:36 Bush’s motives and the United Nations
16:36 Russia, NATO, and a lost security partnership
32:10 Wolfowitz and the strategy of global dominance
43:56 Yugoslavia and European peace efforts
56:02 NATO expansion and the arms industry

This was a fun interview with Neil Oliver. Some of my favorite lines:
If you start with a lie, all you can do is keep lying.
This is a time when hidden things are being seen. (Don't look at the man behind the curtain!)
People are seeing through the lies.

(53 min) Wars Built on Fictional Narratives w/ Neil Oliver
0:00:00 Introduction and welcome to Neil Oliver
00:00:43 The collision between narratives and facts
00:01:14 Three major articles admit the West is losing
00:02:51 Eric Schmidt describes a catastrophic Kiev
00:04:33 Political shockwaves spreading across Europe
00:05:23 Why the wars were built on fictional narratives
00:07:44 How Ukraine, Iran, and Gaza are bleeding together
00:09:32 Foreign policy lies inevitably corrupt domestic policy
00:12:21 How the West's treatment of Russia comes home to roost
00:14:21 Discovering the true history behind the Nakba
00:16:02 Andy Burnham replaces Starmer, but nothing changes
00:17:31 The astonishing speed of political collapse
00:21:33 Merz faces a stunning 78 percent resign demand
00:24:12 Sweden's Social Democrats collapse to historic lows
00:25:33 A Stockholm syndrome relationship with failing leaders
00:29:17 Brussels and the Berlaymont building's threatening banner
00:34:52 Putin warns that troops in Ukraine mean confrontation with Russia
00:40:32 NATO officials still insist Russia can be easily beaten
00:45:33 Rome, archaeology, and buildings that reveal fear
00:51:42 Will change come slowly, or all at once

The Economic War...
One of the consequences of these endless wars is a failing economy. The US has been creating money to pay for ever more war.
Trump’s Lost Iran War is Making Everything More Expensive
Alfred Thayer Mahan, the great U.S. naval theorist of the late 19th century, made this point in his own writing about naval supremacy, and gave examples from the Portuguese Empire, but especially from the British Empire. Of course, the British had Aden in Yemen. They had the mouth of the Red Sea. They controlled the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, at the height of the British Empire. Those were extremely important choke points, or narrows, that underpinned the power of the British Navy and the British economic empire in the world. So my point is that since Trump foolishly launched this unnecessary war of aggression on Iran on February 28th, the United States has lost control of those chokepoints, unlike all of the previous empires, those maritime empires, who had those chokepoints. The U.S. now does not, and cannot control them. There is no prospect of it restoring control. And, of course, things are very different than in Portuguese times, but one of the reasons is that the Iranians and their allies have demonstrated that they can simply sabotage shipping through those straits or narrows. All of the anti drone and anti missile missiles that the United States has in its arsenal can’t stop that sabotage.

A Most Severe Diesel Crunch Will Soon Hit Europe
There is a lack of diesel in the global markets. It is the most important fuel as it is used most land transport services, all agricultural machinery and lots of independent power sources.
...The Saudis have warned European trading partners that they will unable to fulfill their current contracts.
...“Consumers should plan on higher prices for longer,” said Patrick De Haan, a petroleum expert at GasBuddy, which tracks U.S. fuel prices.
De Haan said diesel could hit $6.60 a gallon as early as this weekend. A handful of states have already exceeded that benchmark, including California, where diesel costs an average of $8.35 a gallon, according to AAA.
In addition to consumer goods, elevated diesel prices could also increase Americans’ utility bills, Kloza said. Northeast residents in particular could also be in for an expensive winter, given that around 4 million households rely on heating oil, made from diesel, to keep their homes warm, he said. “They’re looking at prices in the $6 range,” he said. “If you use 1,000 gallons in a winter, that’s $6,000.”
Diesel prices in Europe are already at record heights. Some fuel stations have breached the €3 per liter mark ($11,40/gl). Inflation caused by high fuel prices will soon be out of control. There will be protests and social unrest.
Europe could of course solve the problem by immediately lifting the sanctions against Russia and by pushing Ukraine to stop its U.S. directed campaign against Russian refineries.
That however would require European politicians with their people’s interests at heart.
It has been quite a while since any such people have been around …

As Neil said above, the chickens will come home to roost, and we will pay the price. TPTB (the banksters) have a plan...

They Will Turn Your Money Off! Incoming Stablecoins More Dangerous Than CBDCs - Fitts

(38 min) Catherine Austin Fitts warns that programmable money could fundamentally change financial freedom and explains why stablecoins may pose an even greater threat than CBDCs.
00:00 Fitts: Why She Refused to Stay Silent
08:45 Threatened for Exposing the Truth
18:25 Where Did the $21 Trillion Go?
23:05 The Biggest Financial Bubble Yet?
26:58 Stablecoins More Dangerous Than CBDCs?
32:05 How to Protect Your Money
34:47 Stop Funding the System

I thought it would be fun to end with a return to last week's topic of food.

(2 min) One Way to Deal with Inflation: Eat Local, Eat Real Food, and Cook It Yourself

Don't know any local farmers? Try this site and search your area

GANGSTA GARDENER (17 Minute Short Film)

(17 min) The multi-award-winning short documentary GANGSTA GARDENER follows the legendary artist, activist and urban gardener who turned planting food into an act of resistance—and inspired a movement along the way.
This isn’t just about gardening.
It’s about community. Creativity. Reclaiming space. And planting some shit!

These are interesting times my friends. Riding the decline of US empire will take many years, probably the rest of my life. But we do seem hell bent on accelerating our fall, so who knows how long the crumbling US empire will persist. I hope you have a safe place to experience the collapse, and have plenty of friends to share the pain of the end of empire.

In the comments below please share your insights, stories, and ideas on the news and our possible future. Have a great Sunday!