THE GREAT GAME OF WAR (Part 2)

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance." Alan Watts

The receptivity of the masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan.
Adolf Hitler

Israeli PM Netanyahu breathes fire June 5, 2024, exclaiming, “We are prepared for a very intense operation in the north. One way or another, we will restore security to the north.” Lebanese Hezbollah has been setting grasslands afire with drones and hit IDF bases in northern Israel.

This is the Danse Macabre in the Great Game of War.

Nowhere has this dance been as successful as in the Middle East. Each side gears up; shoots missiles and drones; recalls their ambassadors; threatens to exterminate the other side; someone’s leaders are murdered; and eventually everything returns to normal with each side periodically lobbing missiles and drones at each other.

The stage action has become so open that now each side announces their plans. The director comes on stage to give the audience direction.

For example, Iran announced that, in retaliation for targeting their Syrian Embassy with consequent deaths, they would send drones to Israel. The drones were “loitering” or slow-mo. Reuters remarked, “Iran launched dozens of drones at Israel on Saturday but they will take hours to reach their targets, Israel's military said….”

Wikipedia describes the activity preceding the launch.

In the weeks following the attack on the consulate, the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom all warned Iran not to attack Israel and escalate the situation. Iran was warned by Israel that such an attack could lead to a direct Israeli military response on Iranian soil. In early April 2024, Iran sent a message via the Swiss embassy (United States Interests Section in Iran) to the United States, threatening to attack the United States' military bases in the region in case of their support of Israel in a possible Iranian attack on Israel. According to Foreign Minister of Iran Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran gave the regional countries hosting US military bases 72 hours notice of the imminent attack, but the parties involved varied in their description of the timing and detail of the warning from Iran. Iran held off on attacking for 12 days and messaged via diplomatic channels that it was not interested in waging a full-scale war.

Let’s dissect the activity.

1. Iran waits 12 days to respond.

2. Iran warns Israel of their plans.

3. Iran sends a message via the Swiss Embassy to the U.S. warning of retaliation on U.S. bases if the U.S. strikes them.

4. Iran gives U.S. military bases a 72-hour notice of their upcoming attack.

5. Iran related through diplomatic channels that they were not planning nor wanted a full-scale war.

6. Iran releases drones which take many hours to arrive in Israel.

I can’t help but wonder if messages sent by back channels are to obtain permission. The head of the beast resides with the U.S. military.

I call this a “Low Boil.” All activity in the region simmers like a stew on a cold winter day.

The intent and execution of the Great Game of War is predicated on unrelenting insignificant kinetic activity interspersed with highly inflammatory rhetoric. The Low Boil’s sole intent involves avoiding full-scale kinetic war.

If you would understand the logic, you must think like a businessman. A Low Boil allows the steady and regulated sale, delivery, and use of weapons and munitions all societies need to engage in war. A full-scale war with missiles and drones raining on the public disturbs this pattern.

The oligarchs, mentioned in Part 1 of this series, are in the business of unendingly supplying weapons, munitions, and paraphernalia for destruction and war. If countries blow up each other, their business is sadly diminished.

The inaction within a Low Boil allows significant events, like Israel’s current genocide in Gaza, to become blasé because, although highly significant, the world is drugged by the Low Boil miasma. As Hitler observed, “The receptivity of the masses is very limited….”

As of June 5, 2024, Alarabiya News reports 36,586 Palestinians dead and 83,074 wounded.

Yet, not one country or nation has stepped up to the plate to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Indeed, Israel now prepares to continue their war into refugee camps. Instead, we see only ragtag Hamas groups, undoubtedly hired mercenaries, using Hezbollah missiles to strike relatively insignificant targets.

Have we not crossed the Rubicon?

The Burning Platform describes the situation well:

No one will win this Israel vs. Hamas war, because no one is meant win this war. Biden is already doling out the 1st $8 billion to Israel, on top of the billions we already dole out to Israel, which they use to bribe U.S. politicians to give them even more money, contracts and influence over our country. No one will win the Syrian war. No one won the Libya civil war. They won’t allow a true end to the Ukraine war. Iraq and Afghanistan are just on the back burner, until they need to ignite those powder kegs again.

War is a racket, always was a racket, and always will be a racket. The Deep State uses all their propaganda power, through control of the regime media, politicians on both sides of the aisle, social media conglomerates, and Wall Street to keep festering anger, discontent, outrage, and hate in order to keep the profits flowing into their coffers. The masses are manipulated into supporting the latest war through sophisticated techniques preying on their emotions and feelings….

Perhaps the principal dynamic in a Low Boil is the steady attrition of people. The oligarchs have unequivocally supported a steady decline in world population.

One avenue opened for population reductionists with the Covid vaccination. The difficulty in determining dead from the Covid vaccination is that numbers and terminology have obfuscated the issue. However, many people have tried looking at excess all-cause mortality, and some have concluded 17-20 million died after injection worldwide.

In a similar vein, calculating the number of people dead in any war-torn area has an extensive list of difficulties. Estimates are tricky. Nicholas J. S. Davies in a Global Research article estimates 6 million have been killed in just Libya, Syria, Somalia and Yemen since “post 9/11 wars” began in the Middle East.

We can only wonder about the number of dead throughout the Middle East since U.S. entered Iraq to topple Sadam Hussein; yet, we need very little imagination to understand how profitable war becomes for those who supply weapons.

Arms sales proves this point.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) provides some stunning statistics on the increase in arms business worldwide in their Trends in World Military Expenditures, 2023. Those who research, develop, manufacture, and sell any item related to war capabilities are enjoying substantial growth.

World military expenditure increased for the ninth consecutive year in 2023, reaching a total of $2443 billion. The 6.8 per cent increase in 2023 was the steepest year-on-year rise since 2009 and pushed global spending to the highest level SIPRI has ever recorded (see figure 1). The world military burden—defined as military spending as a percentage of global gross domestic product (GDP)—increased to 2.3 per cent in 2023.

[Ohhhh. Hide the children under the beds. Head for cover. Russia increased their expenditures by 4.5% while the U.S. increased by 37%. Lawdy, lawdy, lawdy. I’m afraid any moment Russia’s going to hit the U.S. (Yeah…in your dreams, pal.)]

Under “Regional Trends,” SIPRI reports a moderate increase for the Middle East compared to other regions. This table demonstrates the relationship.

Their brief report under “Regional Trends” shows the future.

Military expenditure in the Middle East rose by 9.0 per cent to an estimated $200 billion in 2023. This was the biggest annual increase in the decade 2014–23. Spending went up in the three largest military spenders in the region: Saudi Arabia, Israel and Türkiye. Israel’s military spending grew by 24 per cent to reach $27.5 billion in 2023. The spending increase was mainly driven by Israel’s large-scale offensive in Gaza in response to the attack on southern Israel by Hamas in October 2023. Israel’s monthly military expenditure has risen substantially since the start of the war in Gaza: it went up from an average of $1.8 billion per month before October to $4.7 billion in December 2023. Iran was the fourth largest military spender in the Middle East in 2023. Its spending went up marginally (+0.6 per cent) to $10.3 billion.

I would also point out that, with a mere marginal increase of +0.6% for Iran, we are unlikely to see any conflict in which they participate. The stage is evidently not set for their entry.

Some eerily prophetic statements appear from Netanyahu’s meeting with local council chiefs for those settlements near the Gaza border. The Times of Israel reported January 17, 2024:

1. He “anticipates” the war continuing until 2025. With this substantial increase in his expenditure, I certainly understand his optimism. Isn’t he coming to “talk” to Congress soon? I suppose they’ll ante up another 6 billion while they fall over themselves trying to shake his hand.

2. Israel has allocated $248 million to restore those communities damaged Oct. 7.

3. “The Israel Defense Forces previously assessed that fighting in Gaza will likely last throughout all of 2024, as Israel also prepares for fighting to escalate further on the Lebanon border, where Hezbollah and allied Palestinian terror groups have carried out daily rocket, missile, and drone attacks.”

We’ve come full circle. Netanyahu knew January 17 that Israel would wage war into Lebanon. He said so. He knew their plans for Lebanon from the moment they entered northern Gaza. His fiery rhetoric today simply reveals he not only comprehends but can also implement Hitler’s admonition: “…all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan.”

Israel’s allocation of $248 million for community restoration should be contrasted against the $4.7 billion spent per month on the military by December 2023. We see very little if any attempt to negotiate seriously for the Israeli hostages. We can only conclude that citizens have little value in Israel.

The value of life is cheap in both Israel and Gaza. Unfortunately, in a Low Boil, people suffer. In the Danse Macabre, the living dance with the ghosts of the dead.

Netanyahu falls among those leaders discussed in Part 1 yesterday. Those leaders, as Mr. Georgescu saw, became subverted and worked for the oligarchs rather than for their own nation and people.

The current war conducted by Israel essentially occludes and ends the enormous unrest Israel was experiencing prior to Oct. 7 as explained by New Lines Magazine . The activities were then described as a “severe constitutional crisis” as Netanyahu’s government tried to implement extreme changes in Israeli courts by limiting their powers as a check and balance against their parliament. The Guardian pointed out:

The judicial overhaul project led to months of mass protests that brought Netanyahu’s government under domestic and international pressure. It widened already deep religious, ethnic and class divides in Israel, threw the military into chaos and damaged both its currency – the shekel – and relations with allies.

The Israeli Supreme Court overturned Netanyahu’s judicial reform law in January 2024. What did Netanyahu say?

Netanyahu did not immediately respond to the decision, but his Likud party said it went against a national desire “for unity” during wartime.

“It is unfortunate that the supreme court chose to bring a ruling at the heart of the social dispute in Israel precisely when IDF soldiers on the right and the left are fighting and risking their lives in the campaign,” the party said in a statement.

True…we continually dance the Macabre. We seem destined to dance at the pull of puppet strings. Yet, the Israeli Supreme Court gives testimony to a spirit deeply held within the human heart. They ruled, with all rhetoric and pressure against their position, to defend democratic principles. The Danse Macabre can be transformed. The human spirit is deep enough, strong enough, powerful enough to do so.

(With many thanks to Fesliyan Studios for the use of “Fear” by David Fesliyan.

Thanks and acknowledgement to Miguel Á. Padriñán for video from Pexels.

Many thanks to Pexels photos and these artists: AI Smoke Fire, Anete Lusina, Boris Hamer, cottonbro studio (4 photos), DGSstudios, Dima Valkov, Joy Marino, Mikhail Nilov, TungArt7, and withering_tree.)