War on Syria

In an interview with the French TV station LCP, former French minister for Foreign Affairs Roland Dumas said:

‘’ I’m going to tell you something. I was in England two years before the violence in Syria on other business. I met with top British officials, who confessed to me that they were preparing something in Syria.

This was in Britain not in America. Britain was organizing an invasion of rebels into Syria. They even asked me, although I was no longer minister for foreign affairs, if I would like to participate.

Naturally, I refused, I said I’m French, that doesn’t interest me.’’

Dumas went on give the audience a quick lesson on the real reason for the war that has now claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people.

‘’This operation goes way back. It was prepared, preconceived and planned… in the region it is important to know that this Syrian regime has a very anti-Israeli stance.

Consequently, everything that moves in the region- and I have this from the former Israeli prime minister who told me ‘we’ll try to get on with our neighbours but those who don’t agree with us will be destroyed.

It’s a type of politics, a view of history, why not after all. But one should know about it.’’

Dumas is a retired French foreign minister who is obliged to use discretion when revealing secrets which could affect French foreign policy. That is why he made the statement ‘I am French, that doesn’t interest me’.  He could not reveal France’s role in the British plan as he would be exposing himself to prosecution for revealing state secrets.

There have been many disinformation agents in the British and French press, many of them well known ‘leftist’ war correspondents and commentators, who have tried to pretend that Israel secretly supports Assad.  Those who make such arguments are either stupid, ignorant or deliberate disinformation agents of NATO and Israel.

Israel’s support for Al Qaeda militants in Syria has even been admitted by the mainstream press. For example, Germany’s Die Welt newspaper published a report on June 12th on Israel’s medical treatment of the Al Qaeda fighters.

Israel planned this war of annihilation years ago in accordance with the Yinon Plan, which advocates balkanization of all states that pose a threat to Israel. The Zionist entity is using Britain and France to goad the reluctant Obama administration into sending more American troops to their death in Syria on behalf of Tel Aviv.

Of all the aggressor states against Syria, Israel has been the quietest from the start. That is because Laurent Fabius, Francois Holland, William Hague and David Cameron are doing their bidding by attempting to drag Israel’s American Leviathan into another ruinous war so that Israel can get control of the Middle East’s energy reserves, eventually replacing the United States as the ruling state in the world. It has also been necessary for Tel Aviv to remain silent so as not to expose their role in the ‘revolutions’, given the fact that the Jihadist fanatics don’t realize they are fighting for Israel.

This is the ideology of Zionism which cares no more for Jews than it does for its perceived enemies.   The Jewish colony is determined to become a ruling state in the Middle East in the insane delusion that this will enable it to replace the United States as a global hegemon, once the US collapses fighting Israel’s wars.

Israeli Prime Minister once told American talk show host Bill Maher that the reason why Israel always wins short conflicts, while the United States gets bogged down in endless wars. ‘’ The secret is that we have America’’, he said.

But Israel is itself slowly collapsing. If one excludes the enslaved Palestinian population, the Jewish state still has the highest level of poverty in the developed world with more and more Jews choosing to leave the ‘promised’ land, a garrison state led by mad men, an anti-Semitic entity threatening to engulf the world in war and destruction. Israel cares no more about its own working class Jews than any other ethnic community.

In fact, if the Likudnik crooks running the Israeli colony get their way, working class Israelis will be among the first to pay as they are conscripted to fight terrorists created by their own government. With orthodox Jews protesting in the streets of New York against Israel and Haredi Jewish minority opposing Israel’s rampant militarism, Zionism is coming under increased attack from Jewish religious authorities and non-Zionist Jews both inside and outside of the occupied territories.

This is not the first time that Roland Dumas has spoken out against wars of aggression waged by successive French regimes. In 2011 he revealed that he had been asked by the United States when he was foreign minister in the Mitterrand administration to organize the bombing of Libya. On that occasion the French refused to cooperate.  Dumas, a lawyer by profession, offered to defend Colonel Gaddafi, at the International Criminal Court in the event of his arrest by Nato.

Dumas was also vocal in condemning France’s brutal neo-colonial bombing of the Ivory Coast earlier in 2011, were death squads and terrorists similar to those later deployed in Libya and Syria were unleashed upon the Ivoirian population in order to install a IMF puppet dictator Alassane Quattara in power. Gbagbo was described as one of the greatest African leaders of the past 20 years by Jean Ziegler, sociologist and former member of the Advisory Committee of the UN Human Rights Council.

Gbagbo had plans to nationalize banks and wrest control of the country’s currency from the colonial finance institutions in Paris. He also wanted to roll back many of the worst effects of IMF restructuring by nationalizing industries and creating a functioning, universal free health service. All of this threatened the interests of French corporations in the former French colony. So, the Parisian oligarchy went to work to find a suitable replacement as caretaker of their Ivoirian colony.

They sent in armed terrorist gangs, or ‘rebel’s in the doublespeak of imperialism, who murdered all before them while the French media blamed president Gbagbo for the violence that ensued. Gbagbo and Gaddafi had opposed Africom, the Pentagon’s plan to recolonize Africa. That was another reason for the  2011 bombing of their two African countries.

The formula is always the same. Imperialism backs ‘rebels’, whenever its interests are threatened by regimes that love their country more than foreign corporations.  One should not forgot that during the Spanish Civil War of 1936, General Franco and his cronies were also ‘rebels’ and they, like their counterparts in Libya in 2011, were bombed to power by foreign powers, replacing a progressive, republican administration with fascism.

There are pro-Israeli fanatics in France who have used the analogy of the Spanish Civil War as justification for intervention in Libya and Syria. The pseudo-philosopher Henry Bernard Levy is one of them.  Of course, the ignoramus Levy doesn’t realize that the reason France, England and the USA did not officially intervene in the Spanish Civil War is because they were covertly helping the ‘rebels’ from the start. They enabled arms shipments to the Francoist ‘rebels’ while preventing arms deliveries to the Spanish government, who, like Syria today, were helped by Moscow. Anyone who has studied the Spanish Civil War knows that all the imperialist countries wanted Franco as a bulwark against communism.

There is nothing imperialism loves more than a rebel without a cause. What imperialism hates, however, are revolutionaries. That is why the ‘rebels’ which imperialism sends into other countries to colonize them on behalf of foreign banks and corporations, have to be marketed as ‘revolutionaries’ in order to assure the support of the Monty Python brigade of petty-bourgeois, ‘ leftist’ dupes such as Democracy Now! and their ilk.

Dumas is not the only top French official to denounce the New World Order.  Former French ambassador to Syria Michel Raimbaud wrote a book in 2012  entitled ‘Le Soudan dans tous les états’, where he revealed how Israel planned and instigated a civil war in South Sudan in order to balkanize a country led by a pro-Palestinian government. He also exposed the pro-Israeli media groups and ‘human rights’ NGOS who created the ‘humanitarian’ narrative calling for military intervention by the United States in the conflict.

The subject was covered extensively by African investigative journalist Charles Onana in his 2009 book, Al-Bashir & Darfour LA CONTRE ENQUÊTE.

There are many more retired French officials who are speaking out about the ruinous policies of this French government, including the former head of French domestic intelligence Yves Bonnet. There have also been reports of dissent in the French armed forces and intelligence apparatus.

After the assassination of Colonel Gaddafi in October 2011, the former French ambassador to Libya Christian Graeff told French radio station France Culture that it was responsible for the diffusion of lies and war propaganda on behalf of Nato throughout the war.  Graeff also warned the broadcasters that such disinformation could only work on the minds of serfs but not in a country of free minds.

The power of the Israeli lobby in France is a subject rarely discussed in polite circles. In France there is a law against questioning or denial of the holocaust. However, denial of the Korean holocaust, Guatemalan holocaust, Palestinian holocaust, Indonesian holocaust and the dozens of other US/Israeli supported genocides is not only perfectly legal but is the respectable norm.

The same lobby which introduced the Loi Gayssot in 1990, effectively ending freedom of expression in France, would also like to ban any independent investigations of genocides whose narratives they have written, such as the Rwanda genocide, where Israel played a key role in supporting the ‘rebels’ led by Paul Kagame, who invaded Rwanda from Uganda from 1991 to 1994, leading to the genocide of both Tutus and Tutsis. Many serious scholars have written about the Rwandan genocide, which the Israel lobby repeatedly uses as a case study to justify ‘humanitarian’ intervention by Western powers.  The Zionist thought police would like to see such authors prosecuted for ‘negating’ imperialism’s disgusting lies on African conflicts.

Now, the Israeli Lobby is forcing the (their) French government to prosecute twitter messages which the lobby deems ‘anti-Semitic’. This is one further step towards the creation of a totalitarian state where any criticism of imperialism, foreign wars, racism, oppression, perhaps eventually capitalism itself could fall under the rubric of ‘anti-Semitism’.

These people are sick, and those who cow down to them are sicker. Perhaps the etymology of sickness, a word cognate with the German Sicherheit (security) according to dictionary.com, is not a coincidence. For what is particularly sick about our society is the cult of security,  endless surveillance, ubiquitous cameras, the cult of the all seeing eye, the prurient gaze as part of the incessant discourse on terrorism by those who specialize in the training of the very terrorists they claim to be protecting us from.  Whether or not the words security and sickness are linguistically related, they are certainly cognate in a philosophical sense.

Roland Dumas and others like him should be highly commended for having to guts to say what so many others are too morally corrupt, too weak and cowardly to admit.

As the French government and its media agencies drum up hysteria for war on Syria, Roland Dumas, now in the twilight of his years, is warning people of the consequences of not understanding where Israel is leading  the world. Will enough people heed the warning?

Fees should only be charged from gains, not from the portfolio principal

JEFF SOMMER, in the NYTimes article 'For Retirees, a Million-Dollar Illusion,' when discussing our material needs in old age, informs us that 'A MILLION dollars isn’t what it used to be.'




Occupy Government Oakland
This is what 30 years of Republican economic policy have wrought: lower taxes for corporations and the rich, union-busting, 401k plans instead of pensions, serial bubble-busting markets, capped by the great recession. America used to be a rich country. Now we can't afford to pay the help.

Isn't it time to give the country back to the people?


FSB Iowa
The number of responses to this simple factual article indicates the scope of the problem. Some of the responders never earned much, others saved carefully but lost in the collapse of pensions or the markets, others inherited, others had no families willing or able to help, others are relatively prosperous but even that's not enough under present conditions, others are prosperous but they worry anyway. Their responses reveal the fact that most older people in this country worry quite a bit about money, with cause.

The problem is the SYSTEM. I was fortunate to spend some of my teaching life in Denmark and France. Unlike me, my colleagues never worried about their financial future. They worried about their parents' health, their children's careers, or how they wished to spend their leisure time, but fear of the lack of money never entered their minds. They were free! Their reputedly burdensome tax rate was about 10% higher than ours. 10%! Think about it--full health care, child care, disability, unemployment insurance, excellent public transportation, good retirements, and no need to help your neighbor who can't get food stamps. . . .

This they did with less total income than the US and despite the ravages of two continental wars. This shows what a communal system with the will to provide for human needs can accomplish






RC MN

By transferring trillions of tax dollars to the banking industry, the self-serving Fed has suppressed interest on savings, which in turn has inhibited spending, investment, and growth. This massive transfer of wealth to the 1% is responsible for the current recession (the coincident effect on jobs is shown at http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/keeping-up-not-getting-ahead), targets particularly the middle classes and seniors, and is a major factor in the time bomb of failing retirement plans for middle class savers who can't risk the stock market casino, despite the Fed trying to push them into it. Fed policy is also embedded with corollary events designed to transfer wealth to the 1% well into the future (for example fees and long-term interest payments), and has become a long-term structural impediment to middle-class retirement.




ALR NYC
Why all the sour grapes in the comments relating to the retirement income of two civil service retirees? What's the difference in their benefit package and yours? It's likely that the more generous pension plan stemmed from collective bargaining--something that 's dying in this country because younger workers sneer at the concept of unions. Yet, they have a strong sense of entitlement.

Public employees are the most highly unionized segment of the US work force. Maybe that explains the fact that they enjoy superior benefits? Quit your covetous whining and stop forcing this country into a race to the bottom. Demand a defined pension and improved benefits for yourselves instead of carping about the injustice of people who worked hard throughout their careers leading a relatively secure, non-elaborate retirement.

If you want to criticize imbalance and injustice, turn your sights toward the bankers, politicians, and 1%ers who want to render the middle class obsolete by brainwashing you that a civil service pension earned (not bestowed ) after a career if hard work is immoral. Being able to retire at a reasonable age with sufficient assets should not be a luxury.



PH NY
“The bottom line is that people at nearly all levels of the income distribution have undersaved."

I disagree. In order to save one needs to have enough to save. I grew up middle class (one parent was a teacher) yet we saved, went on vacations and had enough to get by.

With the demise of pensions and with the majority of income going more and more to just the uppermost few people have less and less to save - yet need to save even more. Add in a bad economy, harsh times and that's what is seen today. It will only get worse with union bashing and even fewer pensions.

The US is rapidly heading towards a 21st century version of feudalism, with corporate overloards and an ultra-rich oligarchy.




Hipolito Hernanz Portland, OR
The way we compensate investment management firms is totally corrupt. Fees should only be charged from earnings, not from the portfolio principal. They can and do charge fees for the privilege of losing your money.



d. lawton Florida
Most workers do not have "professions", they have jobs. They are not the bosses, they do not make the decisions, they have no say in their hours or working conditions, and the US is a worker abusing country and culture. That's why people in their late seventies and eighties CAN'T continue working, and your ideas are completely unrealistic.



Josey Michigan
So my money was in iras, and group funds, both were wiped out to less than a $3,000. balance. I was downsized, and out of work since 2009, my husband has been on 32 hour weeks at work, and his ira is worth less than $1,000. a year for years worked, as a large chunk of it was lost in 2008.. How can we possibly follow all these saving for retirement suggestions? We are really struggling now to make ends meet. We live simple, no credit. I garden, can food, sew, cook from scratch, very basic life style. The future is bleak and we have no options except to watch it all play out. Trillions of dollars of retirees money was lost in 2008. Yet that is ignored nothing has changed, so how can our kids be sure they won't get ripped off by the banks as well???????



thebigmancat New York, NY
Wow - I never thought of working past 65! Because nobody over the age of 45 can get hired as anything but a greeter at Wal Mart. When will SOMEONE debunk this retire at 70 nonsense?? Unless you are an attorney or a famous writer, you're on the ice floe by 65 at the outside. More like 55. Please NY Times - give me a break already!




Realist New York
I am curious, what planet do these writers live on. I am 59 and even thou all my friends worked hard and did not live it up like myself we don't even come close to having a 1 million in the bank. for us it will be work until we drop dead, no retirement.
So because of 30 years of trickle down wealth we are worse off than our parents even thou we did the right thing. the stock market and banks made sure that we would never make enough off our savings. When i was kid in the 60s i could have a saving account that earned 6% interest and your telling me bonds make 2.2% what a joke. we were robbed.





FunnyAboutMoney Private
Some of us are not crazy about the prospect of working until we drop in the traces.

If you're happy in your job, be our guest!

Oh...btw...baby boomers may be needed, but in the current age-hostile atmosphere in the US, you may be sure we will not be hired. An academic laid off at 64, I tried to land jobs that ranged from "looks like the job description was written with me in mind" to hilariously menial. Finally one dean admitted there was no chance his or any other college would hire someone of may age into a full-time position with a living wage. It would be nice of all us old bats and buzzards could get work, but reality is different from nice. Alas.




Shirley Abbott Tomkievicz New York, NY
I worked ten years past 65.. Had no pension or 410K from my job. Did have IRAs, funded by me. I used Vanguard and Fidelity and followed all the rules for conservative investing, being assured that if I was a good little girl and followed the rules, I could count on 5% safely. Got taken to the cleaners by the bankers in 2008. Pulled out just in time to save a bit. Without social security I would be in real trouble. Now I keep reading ads and getting mailings urging me to trust the same sharks. With what is left. The market is an excuse for picking the pockets of small investors.



GinaB North Carolina
I've been poor my whole life. I am relatively highly educated, having put myself through the University of Michigan for a BA in English and then on with an MFA from Western Michigan University. I am single, childless, and have few family members. Not the most popular gal in the universe or even a room, I might finally be able to buy a house in about three years. That house is all I will have and savings and the 6% that's taken from my pay for a pension and so on. Not a million, nothing close, and alone I will remain (I can tell by now, age 47). The United States isn't my favorite country in the world because I don't come from a normal family or upbringing and therefore I've felt rather unaccepted here my whole life (I've lived in other countries for a try). I've never fit it or felt secure here. More often I have felt judged and alone, still I am educated, hard working, but honest to a fault. And as I write this I realize not one word matters. None of this matters. Slowly we become more invisible until finally we're gone. And like memories this million-not-even-close can't be taken with.



carrobin New York

Having come to New York at age 24 to build a career in the publishing field, I have few savings and a very small pension at age 69. Fortunately, a few years in the editorial side of a financial firm helped to boost my social security in the long run, but only a larger-than-expected inheritance from my father gave me some hope of coping with retirement. I'm now working as a temp at a publishing company and can't afford to stop working without giving up most of the perks of living in Manhattan--but I'm not ready to return to the sultry doldrums of South Carolina, either. I don't know how anybody can afford to "retire" these days.



ed g Warwick, NY
The rule of one is usually the proof that this rule is bogus.

Americans like every other group are moved by the story of the success of one and ignore the fact that many multiples of that one case were failures.

Try to think of it this way: if everyone could be a success at making money, that is we all were millionaires, then the new level of poverty would be having a million.

The answer is not accumulation of wealth beyond any reasonable need but public policy that everyone is deserving, entitled and due a minimum regarding opportunity, resources, housing, employment, jobs, retirement, etc.

And that there is a moral, economic, social and ethical point where those having more than that point (i.e. $5,000,000) must yield it for the common good.

Unrealistic? Unfair? Unchristian?

Of course should you accept the rules of the games defined by sociopaths who are like the mentally directed hoarders seen on TV. Making money, especially excessive amounts of paper with pictures of dead presidents is unethical, undemocratic, poor economics and sinful.

Not sure an alternative is needed? Then justify the condition of the world and most of the six billion or so lost souls crawling around on the surface of this rock called earth.

We don't need royalty via blood or wealth. And we don't need to be forgiven for something called sin. We need equality and respect and a new direction to correct the horrors of powerlessness and poverty.




York ME kittery ME
What a laughable article this is.

Bernanke has utterly destroyed the bond market.....1-3% returns now? "Tapering" is going to destroy the value of bonds out there. Holders will be wiped out.

All done to herd people into stocks....which Bernanke has succeeded in kiting to the moon...great. What happens to these folks when the markets "correct"? Wiped out.

Oh, cash, yeah, great.....the great Bernank has now started a currency war worldwide with the constant printing......what happens when the great Bernank panics and prints more? What happens Ben?

Not to worry tho, right? You and the gang of six big TBTF banks are busy ramming thru floating rates for Money Market funds, and controls on withdrawals when panic sets in.....so you can wipe those folks out as well......

And precious metals.....you guys took care of those with the manipulated smashing of the metals market in early April.....a ton of paper but no metal. Complete farce. But hey, you scared the American public away from this one last safe haven here! And the really wealthy are getting to sock metals away at rock bottom prices.

And that's what counts? Right Ben?

You, Mr. Bernanke, have it absolutely locked for them. So the real interesting article would have been about what you plan to do after you leave the Fed early next year.....back to Princeton, or a lovely corner office somewhere that you have to show up at just once or twice a year.....

NYT....its time to start writing the truth.....