HAS THE U.S. GONE MAD? – YES, IT HAS & THE WHOLE WORLD, ESPECIALLY IRAN WHOM IT ACCUSES OF BEING EXTREMIST, KNOWS IT – ‘THE ONLY WAY TO AVOID WORLD WAR III IS TO START IT,’ SAYS U.S. SENATOR – EVEN AS IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER AYATOLLAH KHAMENEI SHOWS WHO’S THE REAL MASS MURDERER BY PROLONGING UKRAINE WAR – ‘THE POOR PEOPLE IN UKRAINE ARE FACING PROBLEMS, AND WEAPONS MANUFACTURING COMPANIES IN THE U.S. ARE REAPING THE BENEFITS, SO THEY WON’T GO ALONG WITH ENDING THE WAR’ – TIME INDEED FOR THE WORLD TO TURN ON THE U.S. & ARREST BIDEN FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY – ‘35% OF MANKIND WILL NOT SURVIVE WWIII,’ PREDICTS RENOWNED RESEARCHER
The supreme leader accuses Washington of starting the war, saying it benefits US weapons manufacturers.
Tehran, Iran – Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, says the United States is not interested in putting an end to the war in Ukraine, which he maintains the Western military alliance created.
“The US actually started the Ukraine war,” he said during a speech on Tuesday in Mashhad. “The US created the grounds for this war to expand NATO in the east.”
“Now, it is also the US that benefits the most from the Ukraine war,” Khamenei said. “The poor people in Ukraine are facing problems, and weapons manufacturing companies in the US are reaping the benefits, so they won’t go along with ending the war.”
![The supreme leader Ali Khamenei emphasised Tehran’s position that it has had no participation in the war, denying Western claims that Iran has supplied armed drones that have been used by Russia in the deadly conflict [File: AP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/000_Nic141203.jpg?resize=770%2C513&quality=80)
The supreme leader emphasised Tehran’s position that it has had no participation in the war, denying Western claims that Iran has supplied armed drones that Russia has used in the conflict.
Western governments in recent months have imposed many rounds of sanctions on Iranian entities and officials based on allegations of arming Russia.
Khamenei had told Vladimir Putin during a trip to Tehran in July that NATO would have started the war if the Russian president “not taken the initiative”.
As Xi and Putin held a second day of talks, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned China against supplying weapons to Russia.
The US and Europe have expressed scepticism about the Chinese peace plan with US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby saying its call for a ceasefire under the current circumstances is “unacceptable”.
China earlier this month mediated a much-anticipated agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia that is expected to result within weeks in the two rivals restoring their diplomatic relations after seven years. In the process, Beijing has positioned itself as a new political power in the region.
Iran is trying to improve its political and economic relations with both Moscow and Beijing as tensions with the West continue to grow on the back of the Ukraine war, deadlocked talks to restore its 2015 nuclear deal and September’s nationwide anti-government protests.
“Yes, our relations with the Westerners were weakened. We didn’t have relations with the Americans, and our relations with Europe were weakened. But we strengthened our relations with Asia 100 percent, and we will continue like this,” he said. AL JAZEERA
Deficit Hawk Hypocrites And Warmongers Unite, Apparently Hoping To Start WWIII
The WSJ wants to send long-range missiles to Ukraine, Lindsey Graham discusses WWIII, and Republicans want defense spending to rise 5 percent more than inflation…
The WSJ editorial board says the best response Russian drones is to Send Long-Range Missiles to Ukraine.
The Pentagon on Thursday released footage of a Russian fighter jet that harassed, dumped fuel on and then collided this week with an American reconnaissance drone. The provocation warrants a U.S. response, and the right one is giving the Ukrainians the sophisticated and long-range weapons they need to defeat Vladimir Putin’s military.
President Biden now has more reason to do what he could have done long ago: Give Ukraine the weapons needed to win. Priority No. 1 is the Army tactical missile system, which would allow strikes deeper into Russian positions in Ukraine to gain momentum on the ground.
Question One: Oh, I suppose Russia will sit back and let that happen in its backyard just like the US allowed Russian missiles in Cuba. Right?
Lindsey Graham: The Only Way to Avoid World War III Is to Start It
The American Conservative reports Lindsey Graham: The Only Way to Avoid World War III Is to Start It
It’s not atypical for Russian jets to intercept U.S. aircraft flying so close to its airspace. Russian aircraft have intercepted U.S. and allied aircraft over the Black Sea and off the coast of Alaska in years past. These interceptions have become more common as the U.S. and its allies continue to provide Ukraine with military and security assistance in the war against Russia, according to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. Kirby said that almost all of these common interceptions have occurred without incident. The Tuesday incident, however, is drawing the eyes of the Biden administration and others in Washington not only because it resulted in the downing of an unmanned drone but because of the bizarre tactics employed by the Russian pilots, which Kirby called “unsafe and unprofessional.”
Russia’s Ministry of Defense has denied any wrongdoing on the part of its pilots. In a statement, the Ministry said the Russian Air Force scrambled fighter jets to identify the drone, which allegedly had its identifying transponder off.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show last night and said the U.S. should shoot down Russian jets that intercept U.S. aircraft, manned or not.
“We should hold them accountable and say that, ‘If you ever get near another U.S. asset flying in international waters, your airplane will be shot down,’” Graham claimed. Graham went on to employ the tactic that every Republican uses when trying to make a bad idea sound like a good idea: invoking the name of Ronald Reagan. “What would Ronald Reagan do right now? He would start shooting Russian planes down if they were threatening our assets.” Later, addressing Biden, Graham said, “If you don’t change your game and up your game, we’re going to have World War III.”
Graham’s big-brained idea is that the only way to avoid World War III is to start it? To state the obvious, killing Russian pilots would bring the U.S. into direct confrontation with Russia. The United States would effectively be at war with Russia, and when Russia responds, the U.S. will feign surprise and drag the rest of NATO into the conflict. Entangling alliances are back, and so would the great war that follows them.
Graham, the neocons, and the liberal interventionists may claim the foreign policy mantle of Reagan, but their knowledge only goes so far as “peace through strength” and the USSR is an “evil empire.” In reality, Reagan responded to acts much more reckless and violent than the downing of an unmanned drone with restraint. When the Soviet Union shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 on September 1, 1983, killing all 269 people, including sixty-one Americans and one member of Congress, Reagan did not start striking Russian assets or shooting down Russian military planes. Rather, Reagan’s first instinct was, in his own words from a National Security Meeting, “to protect against overreaction. Vengeance isn’t the name of the game.”
“If you don’t change your game and up your game, we’re going to have World War III,” graham said addressing Biden.
Question Two: Would shooting down manned Russian aircraft near the Russian border stop WWIII or help start it?
Deficit Hawk Hypocrites
If you think Republicans really want fiscal constraint, you aren’t thinking.
Biden proposes a defense department increase of 3.2 percent, but the Budget Draws GOP Criticism, Sets Up Spending Clash.
“The president’s defense budget is woefully inadequate and disappointing,” said Sen. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He and other Republican leaders are advocating for military spending to increase at a minimum rate of 5% above inflation.
Fancy that. Republicans want spending 5% above inflation.
Of course, Democrats are ready, willing and able to go along.
Democratic leaders welcomed Mr. Biden’s proposal Thursday as a good starting point, but they said they would insist that any military-budget boost require a corresponding bump in domestic spending.
Question Three: Has everyone gone mad? – ZERO HEDGE
Former Goldman Sachs Analyst: 35% of Mankind Will NOT Survive WWIII
Former Goldman Sachs analyst and economic legend Dr. Charles Nenner joins Man in America to break down economic and cultural macrocycles that determine world wars and market crashes and how this coming confluence of financial and geopolitical crises is laying the groundwork for a global conflict that will wipe out a third of mankind.