Archive for Foreign Policy

War Update: Will the Covert War Against Iran Go Overt?

While we have been distracted by sideshows and clowns domestically, the world has become much more dangerous in the last few weeks.  Topping my list is the mobilization of the Egyptian military to support General Haftar in Libya against the Turkish backed Libyan government.  Also heavily involved are Russia and the United Arab Emirates on behalf of General Haftar.  In addition, there is a growing showdown in Syria involving Israel, Russia, Iran, Kurds, Islamic terrorist groups, and Turkey.  On most Wednesdays, this is sufficiently bad.  However, these are special times.  Armenia backed by Russia and Azerbaijan backed by Turkey are again approaching a breakout into all-out war.  Further east in Asia, India and China are squaring off over disputed territory while the United States is facing down China at sea.  I cannot tell you exactly how this will all play out, but my money is on at least one of these issues breaking out into a full-blown conflict by fall.  My bets are on the conflict in Libya significantly escalating and then spilling back into the Middle East as well as a war with Iran.  However, I want to focus on how Mossad is trying to instigate the war with Iran because it will directly involve the United States.  Mind you, these conflicts all have links, and all have disastrous consequences.  It is just a matter of what issue proves dominant when trying to order how the dominoes will fall.  Let us take a quick look at how this could develop and why it matters to you.  

Since my previous post, another string of explosions has besieged Iran hitting a power plant in particular.  No one…no one, believes these are accidental events.  Barring another state acting covertly, which would likely cause both the United States and Israel to disavow the acts, Israel’s Mossad is the prime suspect.  The Israeli government is keenly aware their alliance with the Trump Administration is as good as they have ever enjoyed and will significantly degrade if Joe Biden is elected President in November.  Netanyahu knows with President Trump; they can face down Iran and be backed up.  They also know that any plans of expansion, annexation, or war with Iran will be supported by President Trump.  However, under a President Biden, everyone of these core issues for Israel will be quashed.  Further, Israel has not forgotten how then Secretary of State Kerry and President Obama sold them out with the “Iran Nuclear Deal” and the unfreezing of billions of dollars for Iran.  Israel believes it cannot afford to take the risk of Biden and his radical socialist agenda taking over.  As such they must act.

To avert the risk of a Biden presidency and an ascendant Iranian threat, Israel has one major hurdle to overcome.  The hurdle is President Trump.  Although President Trump blindly backs Israel, has made it abundantly clear to his policy advisors that he does not want a war with Iran.  Therefore, “by way of deception,” Mossad must initiate a war that President Trump cannot back out of.  Perhaps, better said, a war Iran cannot back out of.  Remember, Iran is not suicidal and does not want a war with the United States.  It is Israel that will bring these two nations to blows in what one may point to biblically as foreseen in the book of Daniel.  For those that are not biblical scholars, writing over two thousand years ago, Daniel knew this would be bad and usher in far worse.  Knowing they must instigate the war, Mossad must covertly create the conditions that force Iran to respond in a way President Trump cannot not respond.   

So, for Israel, it is now or never.  Expect the tempo of attacks against Iran to continue until Iran retaliates, but here is the twist.  This is a no win for Iran.  If Iran does overtly retaliate, Israel will feign innocence and immediately overtly respond in “self-defense.”  Iran will then have to escalate, and the United States will be sucked into the war.  Helping Israel is the Deep State, which has salivated for a war against Iran for years and will rally the United States to join the war.  However, I believe Iran will wait to retaliate covertly to avoid this escalation and Mossad also knows this.  To mitigate an Iranian non-response, Mossad must carry out a spectacular attack on American interests that will be designed to immediately look like Iran conducted the attack.  This will be a false flag, “by way of deception,” and force President Trump to retaliate in a manner that triggers a major war.  In addition, voting for the November election begins in six short weeks.  President Trump is looking extremely vulnerable and will need to take every opportunity he has to control the headlines, look powerful, and rally support beyond his base.  Sadly, he will “need” the Deep State if he has any chance of re-election.  Trump knows this and Israel knows this.  Trump will not be able to look weak when something like one of our destroyers is taken out by a torpedo that conveniently has “made in Iran” stamped on it…even though it was launched from an Israeli submarine.  Make no mistake, Mossad is far more concerned about Israel than the disastrous costs to the United States and will not hesitate to put a plan like this into action.

What does this mean for us?  If you are into hedging your bets that the chaos this year will only increase, you are in luck.  I am warning everyone that we will enter a period of extreme danger in September.  This is about as late as Israel can afford to postpone triggering a war with Iran with any hope of sucking the United States into it deep enough that regardless of who is elected in November, they will have to continue the war against Iran.  This also gives enough lead time for President Trump to leverage it to support his re-election, which is important timing because Netanyahu wants President Trump to win a second term.  If September comes and goes, the next and last window will be the month after the election if Biden wins.  If Israel thinks President Trump could win re-election, they just may hold off, but would have to immediately act if he lost.  This is a dangerous gamble because they would have to trigger a full-scale war before Biden was sworn in and even then, President Biden may opt to not support Israel.  No matter what Israel believes is good for Israel, a war with Iran will be disastrous for the United States.  This will benefit no one and I pray our leaders step back from the brink.  The United States will prevail in a war, but at a cost that leads to a massive geo-political diminishment of American status and a re-ordering of the world’s balance of power.  The costs of this war will be game-over for America as we know it once the dust settles.  I hope I am wrong. After all, there is certainly the possibility that Israel through back channels gets the assurances it needs from the Biden campaign so that it holds its fire.  However, if you were Israel, would you trust Biden (whose healthy is poor) and his radically anti-Semitic allies?  I would not and that is why I assess the danger rising to an “extreme” level by September.  As we move forward through this year of great world turmoil, I will continue to update you, but please do not hesitate to take what I am telling you seriously.  You really need to prepare yourselves for hard times for they are upon us.

By Guiles Hendrik

July 22, 2020

Will the Covert War Against Iran Go Overt?

Being that the media is in lockstep on reporting only a handful of issues (Pandemic, Trump is bad, Social Justice), most have missed the fact that almost daily now, a highly sensitive and/or strategic sites in Iran have mysteriously gone up in flames…or more precisely, in explosions.  The highly coordinated fashion at which these sensitive Iranian sites were attacked has all the hallmarks of state level sponsorship.  Iran no doubt knows this and by this time has identified the sponsors behind the attacks as Israel and the United States.  Even if this was a false flag by a third-party actor, the result will be the same.  Iran must decisively retaliate.  When it does, it very well may trigger the war Israel and their Deep State allies in Washington have sought.  Further, the Trump Administration needs an issue more than ever to refocus the nation from the current domestic issues.  A war with Iran would certainly do it.  Unfortunately, any war with Iran will be disastrous for all parties.  Iran will be smashed, but the cost to the United States doing it will make it a Pyrrhic victory at best. 

A quick summary of sites hit in Iran include the Natanz nuclear facility, a missile facility, a power plant, a medical facility, industrial sites, and now the Port of Bushehr with seven ships aflame.  The incidents happened all within approximately a month timeframe making any argument of random bad luck ludicrous.  This is a deliberate campaign being covertly waged to cripple Iran.  My point is not to justify or condemn the attacks, but rather, to warn that there are always consequences.  In fact, I do not find it coincidental that just days after the USS Bonhomme Richard was engulfed in flames and is currently burning to the water line while at port in San Diego, seven Iranian ships in port at Bushehr went up in flames today.  Through the lens of covert tit-for-tat, this is no coincidence.  In addition, it is only a matter of time before there is a showdown between the United States and Iran over its oil tankers supplying Venezuela.  President Trump has gone so far as to hint that major action against Venezuela, an ally of Iran, will occur soon without elaborating.  My guess is the two issues…Iran and Venezuela, will be jointly addressed in whatever action President Trump orders.   

Now, for the “so what” factor.  I have written a book’s worth of articles on the implications of a major war with Iran (search LastMinuteSurvival.com keyword “Iran”) and the takeaway is all negative.  Iran will suffer massive devastation, the Middle East will explode into greater turmoil, and the costs (lives, money, material, and influence) to America will render it impotent in the region opening a vacuum for China and Russia to exploit.  Further, America will not escape unscathed domestically.  Price spikes, shortages, attacks, and social unrest will all be baked into the consequences.  For those that want to get biblical, yes, there is also reference to this in the Book of Daniel and it is the trigger for what you read in the Book of Revelation.  If that does not reach your “it matters” threshold, it should.  Neither you nor I can stop this (what I believe is a nearly certain major war with Iran), but we can prepare.  If you have not looked at your preps and relocation plans, you should.  As with the stock markets, you cannot call the precise timing, but by paying attention to the fundamentals, you know when a market is poised to crash. 

By Guiles Hendrick,

July 15, 2020

https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/07/15/seven-ships-catch-fire-at-port-near-iranian-nuclear-reactor/

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2020/07/08/Timeline-A-look-back-at-recent-explosions-and-fires-across-Iran

https://distincttoday.net/2020/07/15/fire-rips-through-three-ships-near-irans-only-nuclear-power-plant/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/14/uss-bonhomme-richard-burned-third-day-navy-reports-some-progress/5437070002/

Will Negative Oil Prices Finally End the Petrodollar… and America as We Know It?

Image Source: https://www.sbcgold.com/blog/will-petrodollar-collapse/

Yesterday, the “impossible” happened.  Oil traded below $0.  In fact, not by a little, but by up to $40 dollars.  Not only is oil now cheaper than water, but it is so cheap, producers are having to pay people to take it.  The energy markets are imploding.  Obviously, this isn’t a sustainable situation and horrific for anyone invested in the energy market.  However, while all the talking heads are focused on the immediate problems this creates, a far bigger financial storm is brewing that no one in the mainstream media (MSM) dares to discuss. This financial storm has a very real potential of spiraling out of control and destroying the reserve status of the U.S. Dollar by disrupting, if not destroying, the Petrodollar.  The impact would not be some distant crisis in the Middle East, but would be the destruction of the standard of living every America has come to know and expect.

Many have heard the term “Petrodollar,” but few understand what it represents and how critical it is to America’s global dominance.  Here are two links to help: https://internationalman.com/articles/timing-the-collapse-ron-paul-says-watch-the-petrodollar/; https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/petrodollars.asp The very simplified explanation is that almost all commodities (wheat, hogs, gold, oil, etc.) are traded and settled globally in U.S. Dollars.  This represents the broader application of the term Petrodollar, which was originally used to denote just the purchase of oil.  This means countries must purchase dollars to trade.  This arrangement is critical for the United States and came out of the post-World War II Bretton Woods financial agreement that established the U.S. Dollar as the world’s reserve currency.  At the time, the U.S. controlled most of the gold in the world and the dollar was backed by gold and redeemable for gold.  During the Nixon era, the U.S. announced it no longer would back its dollars with gold, which significantly decreased demand for dollars. To protect the dollar’s reserve status post-Gold Standard, the Petrodollar system was established. The system created a reliable buyer of our debt by Middle Eastern oil producers.  Since then, the U.S. has allowed the dollar’s value to float in order to finance trillions of dollars in subsequent debt spending.  This has led to a steady devaluation of the dollar.  In spite of this, the dollar is still the best bet in town and countries continue to use it as the primary means of settling trade and storing wealth. The Petrodollar arrangement, in effect, has allowed the U.S. to create and spend enormous sums of money without massive inflation since there has been a large and reliable source of buyers for our debt in the form of U.S. Treasury Bonds and users of the U.S. Dollar for trade.  Note that treasury bonds are the biggest category of U.S. debt and are backed by the U.S. government’s ability to tax in order to pay back the debt issued through the bonds.  Up until now, this has generally worked since the demand for dollars has counterbalanced the supply of dollars, which has maintained a reasonable stasis in currency value.  However, we have just experienced the most destabilizing impact in modern history on this relationship.

Specific to the Petrodollar, the U.S. has had a longstanding deal with the major Middle Eastern oil producers to buy their oil in dollars in exchange for them to use our dollars to buy massive amounts of our treasury bonds (our debt).  To maintain this relationship, we have “looked the other way” and provided significant political and military protection to these countries; despite the fact they are brutal totalitarian monarchies and about as un-American as it gets.  Now, as oil demand continues to plummet and global commerce vapor locks, much as predicted in previous articles, this is creating a situation where no one has the ability to buy our treasury bonds (our debt). Simultaneously, the use of U.S. Dollars drops off a cliff.  Compounding that situation is the need for nations holding our treasury bonds (our debt) to cash out their holdings to finance covering the cost of their economic losses incurred as the pandemic spreads across the globe.  This is occurring just as the U.S. is creating massive amounts of additional dollars (more debt), which it needs to sell in the form of treasury bonds to finance its domestic bailouts.  This is creating a perfect storm.

Remember, the purchase of our debt by Middle Eastern oil producers has been a critical cornerstone of the dollar’s survival since the currency was removed from the Gold Standard.  Ultimately, there are only two ways this debt is paid for.  It is either paid back by higher taxes or by creating more money and additional debt, which causes inflation and then hyperinflation if no one is able or willing to buy the debt.  The latter appears to be what is developing as the big buying oil producers go broke and no politician in Washington is ready to roll out a huge tax hike on Americans.  Historically, when presented with this situation, governments have opted for printing cash and obliterating the value of their currency.  This has always led to a currency crisis. Once the stability of a currency is in question, people abandon its use. For the U.S. Dollar, this would mean its use as a reserve currency would end or be heavily diminished. This is why the crisis could be catastrophic and no one from the MSM is willing to touch the subject. 

Make no mistake, we are still early in this crisis.  The global impacts are only just beginning to be felt and much is still unknown.  The crisis this pandemic has initiated (I say initiated since the U.S. economy was already in a massive bubble and primed to collapse) will persist for months and years, not weeks.  The economic consequences may well last decades and lead to a total reset.  In addition, few have attempted to recognize the grim reality for what it is and think through the catastrophic consequences of how the collapse of the Petrodollar could play out.  The dominoes have begun to fall and where they lead is truly scary.

So, what could this domino effect look like?  At minimum, the major oil producing countries in the Middle East are facing a legitimate crisis that is likely to topple some, if not most, of their monarchies if the depressed oil prices persist another six to twelve months.  Remember, these dictatorships have used their oil revenue to maintain power through brutal oppression and paying off their populations by generous welfare systems.  Without oil money, these hated regimes will fall and fall fast, which is one of the few silver linings of this unholy alliance with dictatorships.  With them will fall the Petrodollar.  Without the Petrodollar system, the U.S. will be facing staggering levels of inflation and the dollar’s status as the reserve currency will not only be jeopardized, but most likely lost.  This leads to even higher levels of inflation and a rapid collapse in the standard of living.  At this point, the U.S. government will be incapable of funding social welfare programs and sustaining the massive bureaucracy it created.  This leads to an endgame reset with social unrest and political upheaval.  Let’s hope this chain of events can be stopped, but the reality is at best, with close to $30 trillion in rapidly growing debt, the crisis can be only temporarily interrupted and delayed.  The endgame is now set.

Note: I am far from the first to point out the issues with the Petrodollar or suggest the system is or will collapse. However, I believe that unlike previously, we are in a situation where the reality is more likely than ever before. See: https://peakoil.com/business/the-coming-collapse-of-the-petrodollar-system; https://www.sovereignman.com/podcast/the-petrodollar-is-collapsing-and-its-one-of-the-biggest-opportunities-in-the-world-right-now-14975/; https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/the-last-time-this-happened-the-us-went-to-war-to-defend-its-interests-14979/; https://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-end-the-petrodollar-25002

By Guiles Hendrick

April 19, 2020

Was Trump Right to Pullout from Syria?

President Trump ordered the US military to withdraw from a large part of Syria last week. Since then, he has been attacked repeatedly for the decision. By the amount of criticism being lobbed at the President, one should be safe in assuming this must have been the worst policy decision of the Administration. However, contrary to the purveyors of perpetual war, the decision was sound and long overdue. President Trump’s decision will go a long way to stabilizing the region by allowing Syria to re-exert its sovereignty. As an added benefit, this decision also pits Russia against Turkey and ensures the remaining pockets of radical Islamists are eliminated all while saving American lives and money.

Over the years, I have repeatedly written about Syria and it is no secret I have been a vocal critic. This was a war the US should have never created or been involved with. Nonetheless, the milk was spilt. The US and its coalition covertly built an army of radical terrorists to take down Syria’s President Assad that failed to achieve its goals while causing massive death and destruction in Syria. Further, it led to a massive influx of refugees to Europe and the spread of Islamic terrorism around the world. If not bad enough, it inadvertently strengthened the positions of Russia, China, and Iran in the Middle East while reducing the influence of the US. Literally, nothing good came out of this. Still though, President Trump has been viciously attacked by the apparatchiks of the Deep State for daring to remove our military from Syria.

To establish a framework of understanding, it is worthwhile to lay out some basic information about the US involvement in Syria. Not surprisingly, these facts don’t support an argument for a perpetual occupation of Syria. Predictably, President Trump’s critics intentionally leave out important facts relating to our ever-evolving Syria policy like:
• The US never declared war against Syria.
• Syria is a sovereign nation the US illegally conspired to overthrow and invaded.
• The US has no vital national interests in Syria.
• The combined forces of Syria and Russia were having no problem wiping out ISIS and did not need US support or intervention.
• The US presence in Syria risked sparking World War III with Russia on several occasions.
• Syria was destabilized by a direct US policy to arm-train-equip rebel factions that were aligned with al Qaeda and ISIS (as in we instigated and supported the civil war).
• The US only began “fighting ISIS” as an excuse to invade Syria after its initial covert policy of backing the fighters that became ISIS failed to overthrow President Assad.
• Evidence of the use of chemical weapons by President Assad was at best inconclusive and at worst, demonstrated the Syrian government was setup and falsely accused in order to try and bait the US into a direct conflict with the Syrian government and Russia.
• US presence in Syria and support of rebel factions have prolonged the war in Syria.
• The US policy of supporting Islamic extremists against President Assad created a massive refugee crisis and imposed a balkanization of the state.
• The US under President Obama refused to intervene against ISIS in a meaningful way to protect ethnic Kurds and Christians in both Iraq and Syria when it would have prevented mass slaughter and destruction.
• Only after Kurds and Christians had been slaughtered did US intervention under President Trump begin.
• The US has illegally seized Syrian gas/oil fields depriving both the people and government of Syria of vital resources.
• US occupation continues to prevent a full return of sovereignty to Syria and stabilization.

By removing the US from the equation, the withdraw brings US policy into better accord with international laws and norms, which our presence in Syria violates. You would think the diplomats at the United Nations and State Department would be celebrating this instead of attacking President Trump. The anti-war Democrats and the media should also be ecstatic. However, it is clear the facts don’t matter. Only maintaining the narrative that President Trump can do no right matters to these political zealots. Their mission now seems to be to push the tale that the US is selling out the Kurds. This is rich considering the history of Democrats actually selling out the Kurds in the worst ways. For example, did President Clinton back the Kurds in their uprising against Saddam Hussein. The ensuing slaughter of Shiites and Kurds without the promised US support was horrible. Further, if prevented by then President Clinton, the US could have removed any need to ever invade Iraq in the first place. Let’s also mention that it was President Obama’s policy to support the rebels in Syria that became ISIS, which directly led to the slaughter of thousands of ethnic Kurds in Iraq and Syria. President Obama was fully aware of the ethnic cleansing underway and could have intervened to stop it, but refused. In my humble opinion, these are the real sellouts of the Kurds, but according to the Left and the MSM, these policy disasters are apparently okay and get a pass. What equates to a “sellout” in their not so humble opinion is President Trump’s policy to actually back the Kurds with real military support and crush ISIS preventing further slaughter of the Kurds and then pulling out after the mission was accomplished and the area stabilized. Please also understand that the Kurds have understood from the beginning that US support was a marriage of convenience that would end once ISIS was beaten back. There was never any intention or suggestion that the US would occupy Syria and back the Kurds there for ever and ever. The Kurds knew the pullout of US troops was coming for at least two years and that is why they already had brokered a peace deal with the Syrian government. Any suggestion otherwise is simply ill-informed and/or lies.

In addition, with the US now out of the way, President Assad and Russia can focus on eliminating the remaining pockets of radical Islamists. The US understands that the rebel resistance is controlled by radical Islamic groups bottled up in the city of Idlib and backed by Turkey. These jihadists will use women and children as human shields to try and stop any operation aimed at capturing or killing the remaining fighters. This creates a very messy situation for the US if it were to continue its operations against Islamic terrorist groups in Syria and its NATO “ally” Turkey. By handing off the fight now to Russia and Syria, the US avoids an ugly situation and can conveniently look the other way as the civil war is brought to an end. It also pits Turkey and Russia against each other instead of creating contexts for them to work together against the US as has been the case. Now Turkey’s President Erdogan must broker a deal with Russia…a Russia that has no interest in allowing any jihadists to escape and a Russia that will insist on the return of Syria’s sovereignty. This ultimately saves American lives and money while achieving our “stated” objectives in the region. As I wrote all along, it would be Russia that would check the US globalist agenda in Syria, which was doomed to failure. The US simply did not have the kind of interests in Syria to defend that Russia did and was never willing to go to the levels Russia was willing to defend their respective interests. Read more