The Duran Podcast
Forever wars w/ Aaron Maté
okay we are live with Alexander Mercuris how are you doing Alexander I'll do very well and very delighted and excited that we got Aaron Matte at last on our program very honored we are very honored to have a man who probably doesn't need any introductions because I'm sure everyone that is watching the stream follows Aaron's work Aaron Matte it is a pleasure to have you on the Duran thank you very much for joining us today the honors mind I'm a regular viewer of the Duran and your individual channels so it's a real thrill to be here so thank you for having me Aaron I have your Twitter in the description box down below I have the gray zone I have pushback is there any other places that you would like to let our viewers know to to follow I also co-host a podcast with my friend Katie Halper called useful idiots and that's a useful idiots podcast dot com I have that in the link the description in the description box as well I will have all those links as a pinned comment down below in the live stream ends let me just say a quick hello to everyone that is watching us on locals that was the locals community doing on Odyssey Rockfin and rumble hello to everyone on rumble and hello to everyone on youtube and the big shout out to our moderators everyone is doing well thank you to all our moderators for everything that you do Alexander Aaron we have to talk about forever wars so let's let's get into it absolutely and who better to discuss it with than Aaron because if I can say one of the things I would say about Aaron I've been following his work reading his work following what he's been writing and saying for a long time now many years is that these have been particularly feverish and intense times and it's very difficult to keep a level head through them that's that's what I've found I mean people have got swept along by sort of constant waves of hysteria at various points in the last 20 years Aaron is one of the very few who never has he's managed to keep a level head through it all he's that's one thing that makes him so important it's so valuable and who's he's able to write in an insightful way pointing out the absurdities the illogic that people have lurched into throughout that that period have around 20 plus years and can I say in my opinion this actually began with the forever wars we're talking about a whole series of wars that started at the end of the 1990s but for myself actually the first one was the war the war in Yugoslavia in 1991 but then of course we had 9/11 that then led in extra to the invasion of Afghanistan then we had of course Iraq then we've had more crises in Syria, Libya followed and then of course eventually inevitably the big one and I think it was yourself Aaron that I remember once reading say that with all of these wars we were taking on opponents who were relatively not especially powerful and that was giving us a force in us in the west a false sense of complacency but sooner or later we would take on some particular was too strong and I think that's what's happened now we found that we've taken on an opponent who is much stronger than we ever imagined which is where we've got to with Ukraine but in all that time with all of these forever wars we seem to bait close down we seem attempts to control the media successful attempts to control the media overton window closing people finding it more and more difficult to speak out and something which I personally care about because I used to work in this area we see due process legal protections all starting to wither away as well and more and more astonishing authoritarian legislation coming forward all the time so Aaron where do we where do you want to start I mean because this is a huge topic the forever wars I think one thing I would say is that the most interesting thing about the forever wars is of the people who advocate them are always the same people every all the time you see the same people coming forward and you know they they lead us into one war and then they lead us into the next one and then the next one none of them have turned out very well but those people never go away they're always there and they came to lead us into more wars and now they got us into a really big one and they're talking about even bigger ones still perhaps on the horizon would talk unthinkable once civil war was China but where where do you want to begin with all of this it's a totally huge topic well I think your latter point about this is the same cast of characters is really important and you know for me the personification of this is Victoria Newland look at her background she's worked as both a senior aide to Dick Cheney of the Republican Party and also Hillary Clinton John Kerry famously called her the only member of the Clinton Cheney Alumni Club and that was supposed to be a joke about what a what a crazy thing it is that Victoria Newland's worked for both a prominent Republican and a prominent Democrat but in fact the actual point there is that this is the same club of people and they've had such a hand in all the disasters that you laid out over the last many decades and they're they unbelievably they're always handed a new blank check to continue look which has happened in Congress you had a Republican saying for many months we're not gonna approve any more funding for Ukraine unless we approve more militarization of our border what happened to that demand they just completely caved and dropped it and why what did it take all it took was months of Mike Johnson House Speaker being called a Russian apologist an ally of Putin he received some private briefings or he was made to feel very important he was told about he was given threats basically that you'll go down in history is the person who sold out Ukraine and that was enough I think to get him to cave what did Donald Trump do Trump has sort of been posturing as being anti-deep state and anti-war but Trump gave his blessing to Mike Johnson as well I don't think either of these guys Mike Johnson or Trump are ideologically Neocons like someone like Victoria Newland is but it's just the way Washington works they always get their way and you see that constantly you know in Ukraine you have a situation where what the elected president wants has ultimately not really mattered you can see that in the case of Trump of Obama and I would argue Zelensky as well Obama got cold feet about the proxy war that his administration started back in back in late 2013 early 2014 he didn't want to send weapons to Ukraine he dragged his feet everybody in his administration was against him and I have a new article out for real clear investigations where I go through some of the history right when the men's records were signed you have this meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference at a luxury hotel and there it was reported in the German media at the time and a few journalists in the US including the late Robert Perry a hero of mine picked this up otherwise it was widely ignored but you have a meeting there with Victoria Newland John McCain Mike Pompeo Mike Pompeo is in a US Congress member and they're basically saying we're gonna ignore the men's records and Newland is talking about we're gonna flood Ukraine with more weapons just as Obama has given his blessing to Angela Merkel and a launch and negotiate the Minsk courts Victoria Newland is saying we're gonna basically undermine them and she's and McCain is talking about how Merkel is a essentially Neville Chamberlain and this is you know the Minsk courts are basically their Munich moment and that really has the power and they won Obama just didn't have the whatever the fortitude to stand up to his own his own cabinet and you know as things progress then Trump comes in office Trump talks about wanting to get along with Russia he doesn't want to fight a proxy war in Ukraine in fact on the campaign trail he said we don't want to have a world war over Ukraine but what happens he gets in office the same people who wanted to ask that the proxy war in Ukraine frame him as being a Russian agent and he caves he sends weapons to Ukraine that Obama wouldn't even send and finally when he drags his feet a little bit and he he he freezes those weapons he gets impeached and same with Zelensky Zelensky he's elected on the peace platform he I think you could argue I mean I'd love to hear your thoughts on this I think early on he did take some genuine steps toward implementing minsk although maybe I'm being too generous to him but regardless you have right sector all these ultra nationalist groups saying we're gonna overthrow you we'll do another may don if you implement minsk and he ultimately facing no support from Washington backs down and it's just a lesson that ultimately in all these countries or the Ukraine or Washington it's the it's the people with muscle the the neocons the the entrenched elite the people with who can use coercion intimidation and the case of Victoria Newland and her allies subterfuge who always get their way indeed I mean he asked me about Zelensky I think now down to talk that he wanted to achieve some kind of a piece with the Russians he campaigned on that maybe that's not so important but then he went off to eastern Ukraine he went to the military he spoke to the member to the Azov Brigade he said look we can't go on like this this isn't working it's destroying our country it's impoverishing our people we have to speak these and the commander there a man called Belinsky said if you do that we'll hang you in Croatia it's in Croatia it's extreme in Kiev and that basically was the end of that he had a meeting with Putin also by the way one meeting with Putin didn't go particularly well because he was trying to get Putin to agree to move past minsk in some fashion but initially I don't think as any doubt that that was what he wanted to do that was what he's back us he's original backers people like Kolomoysky the oligarch also wanted him to do because they also wanted stability in Ukraine and then of course the war begins in 2022 what does he do very second day he says let's talk peace apparently he's received a call from the Kremlin a man called Kozak who works for Putin calls calls the presidential office in Ukraine says look let's have some kind of discussion negotiations happen we get an agreement basically sorted out in Istanbul on the 27th of March Zelensky gives a press conference again he says that he wants peace this is by the way after all those events in that suburb in Kiev that we've all heard about the atrocities and all of that and then of course in the meantime he's getting calls from Boris Johnson in London and Boris Johnson turns up in Kiev and tells him you know you've got to scrap this agreement and also of course as we are now gradually coming to understand the United States also was very very strongly against the agreement that had been reached in Istanbul and when we say the United States not just of course Biden but the very same people that you've just been talking about so I do think that Zelensky at various times wanted peace I think he's a unstable volatile character I don't think he's ever been someone who's wanted to be consistent in the line that he's taking well I was I think he's frightened and I think he has been frightened at all times and he's so still and that explains an awful lot about his actions and motivations so yes I think I think that he is another example of somebody who wanted peace but couldn't deliver it and now finds himself in the war so there we go what do we do with all of these people we we have I think a fair idea of who they are in terms of persons but why do they have this power what makes them so strong why are they always in power even when they're not in office as we put it in Britain what makes them so strong what what makes it possible for them to engineer the impeachment of a president and to threaten other presidents and to always get their way that's a great question I wish you the answer there's a line from Alexander Vinman he was one of the you know star witnesses of Trump's impeachment and he said that one of the reasons why he you know raised concerns about Trump's phone call with Zelensky is that Trump was subverting the foreign policy of the United States which such an amazing line because who makes the foreign policy of the United States is it the elected president or is it unelected bureaucrats like Alexander Vinman but these people are so entitled that they do really feel as if they're the ones in charge and they're the ones who decide what happens in the world and what the US government does and even when the elected president decides something differently they feel entitled to undermine him a similar thing happened to Obama in my latest article for real clear investigations I you know I report that John Brennan the CIA chief in mid-April 2014 right before Ukraine announces the ATO the anti-terrorist operation against the Donbass which starts which starts the war in the Donbass the day before John Brennan goes the key he has meetings with his counterparts at the time the Kremlin Yanukovych say that you know why is John Brennan there and is he encouraging an assault on the Donbass Brennan denies this as we you know where we want dialogue we but what I report on my article is that according to a participant in the meeting in that meeting with John Brennan who I interviewed Andre telachenko who was serving as Ukrainian facial at the time Brennan did exactly what the Kremlin accused him of he encouraged an assault on the Donbass and discussed how the US could support it anyway about a week later the near times comes out with this article it's really worth actually rereading for anybody wants to understand the role of the US and Ukraine it's by Peter Baker who's basically he's a stenographer for the Biden Obama team he's still the near times top White House correspondent it's basically a declaration of a coal of a new cold war in Obama's name it says that Obama has decided he cannot have a constructive relationship with Vladimir Putin there will be no more discussion with Vladimir Putin and the only policy now will be to pressure Putin sufficiently and pressure Russia sufficiently so that Putin is overthrown it's obvious that this comes from Victoria Newland because everything in the article tracks exactly with what Victoria Newland was saying at the time that basically we can't have a constructive relationship with Putin the only way is for Russian people to feel the pain of his policies and then then hopefully they'll make a smarter decision and so amazingly the article it declares a cold war in Obama's name but then deep down this the Peter Baker sources complain that Obama is being tepid he's not being confrontational enough with Putin so which is it is Obama declaring a new cold war with Putin saying you won't talk to him or is he tepid like and the answer is what the Peter Baker's White House sources we're doing we're basically saying no matter what Obama wants we're not going to have a constructive relationship with Putin we're going to have a cold war with this guy no matter what the elected president says so you just have huge continuity with these people and they don't care about democracy they're just driven by and you know this is my attempt to get to the your question about how do they have so much power they're just driven by hegemony at all costs that's how they see the world anybody who is a deterrent US hegemony whether it's their own elected leaders or a foreign leader like Putin is an obstacle has to be contained and they managed to find a way to stick around and implement it through it through their think tanks through their you know the revolving door with the media it just works so beautifully for them and it's a you know they really should teach courses on how to you know run a run an organization because they really have the formula down down to a tee can I just have a few things here first of all I'm an I'm Greek and I'm a certain age I can remember just about in the 1960s in Greece we had a security state very much so along behind operating bit behind the facades of democracy and of course what we had then was a opinion very powerful opinion within this security state that they were the guardians of the nation that they knew what the nation's true interests were and the function of the politicians was simply to you know provide the showcase and of course what eventually that led to in 1967 as I well remember because I was caught up right in the middle of it my father fortunately just escaped arrest was of course we had a cool we had an actual in the end a military coup when this group finally felt that they were you know losing control I'm not saying that's going to happen in the US at least in that same kind of way it's a different culture but eventually if people do have this belief that they represent the United States and the elected officials don't and the people who elect them don't do so ultimately either then that is by definition a deeply anti-democratic process it will eventually end democracy as it has existed or has assumed to have existed in America so that's the first thing I wanted to say the other thing is this Aaron I'm going to suggest something else that one of the reasons these people are so powerful is precisely because of the forever wars we've had one war after another going all the way back to the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s but extending even further after 9/11 and that is created within the United States a national security state of a kind that we have never the United States has not actually had before not even during the you know the worst periods of the Cold War and of course they've been able to use the accretion of power that has come their way through this through legislation passed by Congress first and foremost to entrench themselves in the heart of the system and that in a kind of way incentivizes them to keep this tension and these wars going on all the time there's an ideological dimension to it but the last thing they want is peace real peace because if there is peace they are not needed anymore yes and you know it's a human drive to want to have meaningful work for many people not for a little and I think that's what's going on for them is this is their way to derive meaning from life and there's a whole racket in place to feed that need it just happens to result in the deprivation and destruction of the rest of the world but they don't care because they're just blinded by their own narrow ambitions and their own self perception of what is valuable to them and you know along with that so along with funneling all this money to the military into the military industrial complex by putting all this money into wars you're not putting money into your own people and that that creates a sort of underclass and this precarity that makes it very difficult for people to organize against all these wars in their names right now in the US we're seeing a very rare flare-up of dissent against the genocide in Gaza on college campuses but that's not coming from you know a working-class population because working people here are just so understandably consumed with just trying to survive because there's not enough investment in our own society all the money goes into into these wars so the system just works works works so beautifully for people in power and then you have the media as well which is just not permit discussion of countervailing facts so going back to the Istanbul peace negotiations that you were discussing earlier very little information on that whatsoever for a long time in the US media you couldn't even really know that there was the outline of a peace agreement reached in that it was abandoned and when it did get reported there was no effort to find out okay what happened they almost had this peace deal and between Russia and Ukraine in the early weeks of this war that could have stopped all this and it didn't happen what happened next there was no effort there you just couldn't even acknowledge it as far as I'm no I don't think any major US official you know a blink in Biden Jake Sullivan Victorian has ever commented on has ever been asked about what was their role back in these negotiations there's been a few anonymous quotes to a couple of reporters in the Wall Street Journal and elsewhere but nothing on record because the media just knows that they can't go there they can't if they were to acknowledge that there was a chance to end this war very early on the US played a role in sabotaging it that would undermine the entire narrative of Russia being imperialist and this war being unprovoked and all that stuff but it's it's an amazing oath of silence that's really endured and you know what we do know on record is that the US refused to give Ukraine the security guarantees that Ukraine said it needed to end the war that you know Ukraine's request was that okay we're gonna reach a peace deal with Russia will put off basically the status of Crimea we'll leave that to further negotiations but we need security guarantees and the US came out and said we're against that which is odd because the US claims to want to let Ukraine into NATO which is a security guarantee in itself so why not just move that process up quicker and offer the security guarantee now the answer is obvious they don't care about defending Ukraine they they care about using Ukraine for their openly stated goal now of weakening Russia and when Lloyd Austin the defense secretary said early on around the same time as the Istanbul talks collapsed that our goal is to weaken Russia Biden was so upset that he called them and reprimanded him even though privately acknowledging that Austin had admitted the truth and later on it was it was it was openly said one more example a story I've covered extensively I know you guys have mentioned it before is the OPCW scandal this cover-up of a chemical weapons probe in Syria by the world's top chemical weapons watchdog the actual team that went to Syria to investigate this alleged April 2018 chemical attack found no evidence of a chemical attack and if you read what they write they're basically saying that this incident was likely staged by the rebels on the ground their findings were centered I've covered this extensively leak documents show all this it's it's a it's a slam dunk case nobody can refute what I write there I publish this at the gray zone they're all also up on WikiLeaks a few others have written about this to Robert Fisk Jonathan Steele otherwise try to find a mention in the US media of just even the existence of the OPCW whistleblowers they don't exist and my favorite example is there's a Washington Post reporter named Joby Work who wrote a whole book called Red Line it's all about Syria and chemical weapons purportedly about Syria chemical weapons Joby Work ends his book Red Line right at the incident in Duma in April 2018 even though his book came out about two years later he ends the book at Duma in April 2018 he says and later on the OPCW found that Syria was guilty of a chemical attack he makes no mention whatsoever of what happened afterwards was that we got all these leaked documents showing that there was a massive cover-up that the actual investigators who went to Duma went to Syria found no evidence of chemical attack he ends his book very conveniently so he can ignore everything that came afterwards which undermines his entire narrative and when you read about any questioning of the OPCW investigation in the US media what all they say is there's a Russian led disinformation campaign to discredit it not there's whistleblowers from inside this organization veteran inspectors who actually did the investigation it's like they don't exist it's purely out or well and everybody follows that to a T there's this complete media obedience in ignoring the existence of these whistleblowers and as someone who's covered that story very extensively I've never seen anything like it just complete omission because they can't acknowledge their existence because if they did they'd have to acknowledge their evidence and their findings and once you do that you can't refute it so you just have to pretend it doesn't exist this can only happen if the media are on side with this is the media were doing after the job and publishing and reporting facts and this is a huge fact I mean the fact that they were whistle blowers within the OPCW contradicting the official story I seem to remember you could confirm this is right but there were incidents where American officials came to the OPCW and openly putting pressure on them about you know the kind of things that they would say and this is a huge story and yet the media which is supposed to be all about chasing stories finding facts they they are part of the Onmerta which the silent the code of silence about this how is that possible I mean what has happened to the media to make that happen I mean you know more about the media I think than either of us do because I mean you worked in it we haven't but we see it from the outside and I remember you know the old media that I used to be familiar with the Guardian the Washington Post and once upon a time the New York Times those sort of publications what has happened because without without them everything that we've been talking about couldn't wouldn't be possible it's a great question there's just a culture of incentives or everybody just internalizes everyone just everyone is aware that if you don't tow the party line especially on these really pivotal issues of you know Syria the dirty warrants here all the propaganda around that the Ukraine war the proxy were there Russia gate you just there there's no memo saying if you don't tow the line you won't get a job everybody just knows it and everyone's reflexively now conditioned to smear dissenters as conspiracy theorists or as purveyors of Russian disinformation it just it works like that you know look I can speak from personal experience there have been times when I've been duped by some of the propaganda on Syria I didn't get it until wait until way too late I didn't and um you know I there was you know I'm on the political left and I just people around me also bought into it and so just because of also I think a group mentality I didn't occur to me to use my critical thinking skills in the ways that I should have I didn't fully buy into it but I just I didn't fully get it in the way that I do now and so I guess I can say from my own personal experience there is an incentive you want to be a part of a group you people you know you just you don't want to have the trouble that goes like when you do step out of line like they they you know as manufacturing consent by Herman and Chomsky talks about there's a flak mechanism just to keep people in line they enforce it by if you do step out of line you get flak you get called names you get marginalized you know that's not pleasant for people people look at you know people might look at what happened to me when I did my Syria reporting and some phony group called the Institute for Strategic Dialogue which is a you know State Department Pyramidi our funded fake think tank put out this fix study saying that I'm the biggest spreader of conspiracy theories and this information on Syria they didn't give one example of my purported disinformation it didn't matter the Guardian just reprinted that and that gets put in my Wikipedia and everybody wants to discredit me just sites that and that just works it works on people not everyone wants to go through that you know and it works very very well luckily though you know and I think you guys are a major part of this there is this ecosystem of people who refuse to be intimidated they we exist now we found an audience and we're piercing through trust in corporate media is at an all time low that's a wonderful thing because I don't consider these people to be journalists they're stenographers and so I do think we're seeing some progress there but the propaganda is so powerful that it takes a long time and the great the gray zone is another place that does that as well and I agree there is an ecosystem and it's not easy to do what all of us do I think you know I don't I don't have to say that to you and to our audience but nonetheless I will say and of course there's one person whom I don't actually personally know but I know some of the people who are trying to defend him and he's in prison in Bell Marsh at the moment and of course he tried to actually do some some reporting and I was talking about the effect of forever wars and the disastrous effect is had on legal processes and I see them playing out like that in Britain now and and the audience here and Alex in particular knows how utterly dismayed I am by that and I think the same is happening in the United States we're having legal decisions and legal processes working out which once upon a time would not have been possible that by statutes passing through Congress like the new Pfizer extension act which once upon a time would have certainly been resisted or at least commented upon or criticized in a way that they are not anymore anyway that's that's my little thing about where where do we go from here how do we get out of this because we're talking about the forever wars but the forever wars are escalating they're getting more dangerous I think this wall which is a proxy wall between the Russians and the Americans in Ukraine is an extremely dangerous wall Matt crimes again talking about sending troops to Ukraine today he's saying it really depends on the Ukrainians whether they invite us which is almost an invitation to the Ukrainians to invite French troops and European troops into Ukraine which is an absolute disaster but sooner or later I mean it's not just going to be a wars that we cannot win or wars that we might lose it's wars that can end in disaster so how do we get back I mean is is it possible I mean is this a runaway train that we can never you know stop or break or or you know it will will something change you talked about this illusion that exists in the media for example you know all I can do is just continue just to do journalism and hope that it reaches people and I do see things changing I was I'm really inspired by the campus protests in the US where I am people putting themselves on the line to protest our government's complicity in Israel's mass murder campaign and it's that kind of stuff you know the movements properly movements have a history of changing things and I you know that's what I keep my faith in Alexander since you raise Ray's McCrone I do want to ask you about him can you tell like what what happened to that guy he was talking about you know making peace he talked about early on and in the after Russia and Beatty said we have to address Russia's security concerns right before the invasion he was trying to broker a last minute agreement you know he pressured Zelensky to basically declare neutrality Zelensky told him no that was reported in the Wall Street Journal a while ago but now McCrone is talking about sending in troops he's he's embarrassing Olaf Schultz even who's even saying like what the heck are you talking about what is going on with McCrone and and and when Russia hears this like are they laughing like do are they like does McCrone think he's intimidating Russia by threatening to send in his forces because it's my impression that Russia is not very scared at the prospect of fighting French troops oh no so why is Macron doing this Aaron I can't answer that question simply I mean I don't know Macron personally so you know he doesn't explain things to me but you're absolutely right he he swings constantly from taking the most extreme hard-line position to the one way he talks about you know moderation and diplomacy and that kind of thing and it's difficult to know exactly what he's going to say from one day to the other today he's got this extraordinary panicky dark interview that he's done at the Economist the whole of Europe is in crisis everything is falling apart darkness is coming the blitzkrieg is heading in our direction it's it's actually all there it's most astonishing other days when he's in a sort of more you know collected mood he talks more rationally I think a lot of it and I have to say this I think he's down to vanity and I mean you know what doesn't like to talk about psychological explanations for decisions but I think there is this he feels that France has not been given the leadership role in Europe over the course of this crisis that he thinks it deserves it's the most powerful military force within the European Union he thinks France and by extension himself therefore ought to be taking the lead in European action over Ukraine instead he seen the most of the decisions have been made by the Americans of the British outside the European Union and he also is very frustrated by the Germans who seem to be aligning with the Anglo-Americans rather than following what Macron feels ought to be a French led European line so for that reason he does what he has always a tendency to do which is that he overcompensates and overcompensates dangerously by floating these reckless ideas are sending French troops to Ukraine deeply unpopular in France by the way I understand deeply unpopular within the French military with which Macron does not have an easy relationship but that doesn't seem to be holding his him back so that's my best take on it I mean I can't give you a more satisfactory explanation it would need someone to actually sit down and do a proper interview with him and no particular server does and psychiatric assessment and psychiatric assessment yeah and another question I wanted to ask you was why do you think there was such hostility to the Mexican Tories inside Ukraine the like the bargain to me seems pretty fair I mean yes it was negotiated at a time when Ukraine said a military disadvantage they suffered some defeats but still basically the bargain to me was you know give these people some limited rights of autonomy you get to keep control of your own borders and we'll have peace the Russians will withdraw their forces and their weaponry they'll stop back in the rebels you'll get control of your borders all you have to do is let these people elect you know their own judges and have some control over their own affairs in the east and the answer I can come up with is that Ukraine's alternationists actually didn't want these people in eastern Ukraine they didn't want these Russia aligned Ukraine and and of course the US didn't want to grant Russia any kind of influence instead of Ukraine which is what went would have done because you know it would have kept its biggest allies inside the country and therefore they could have vetoed NATO but from a Russian point of view mince seems very fair because you have it comes after a coup where the US backed over the overthrow of a government helped select its leadership and now after February 2014 US was playing a major role inside Ukraine I mean Hunter Biden he gets a very lucrative board seat it's very it's an open secret that US officials are telling Ukraine who to hire who to fire Andrei Telachenko the former Ukrainian officials who I interviewed for my latest article he says this that you know they were telling us that we to vet our candidates with them you know the most famous case is Joe Biden getting Victor Shoken fired so Russia sees all this happening in a country on their doorstep and so they're saying all right well we need something that can guarantee our interests because you know we're we have millions of people inside Ukraine who are aligned with us historically parts of Ukraine were part of our sphere so we want our influence too so mince seems like a really reasonable compromise and but it was just unacceptable to people in Washington and their allies and the ultra nationalist and one more thing too which I write about I didn't really know until recently what a major factor in Russia's buildup that began in 2021 which culminated in the invasion a major factor was Zelensky shutting down these three opposition television networks right after Biden takes office and a Zelensky officials says that this was a welcome gift for Biden to shut down opposition TV networks that were linked to Medvichok who's close with Putin and after that that's when the Russian buildup begins because Medvichok's facing charges his TV networks are being taken off of the air and basically what Zelensky is saying here is we're not gonna let the people of eastern Ukraine even have their own media that's not gonna be permitted inside Ukraine and Medvichok or some ally of his says that you know Russia is gonna get either it's it's influencing Ukraine either by peaceful means or by force and that was a very very early warning but the US and Zelensky just completely ignored that and I think that incident of shutting down these opposition media networks you know imposing sanctions on Medvichok and taking his assets that was a major factor in the Russian buildup and ultimately invasion because what Zelensky was doing there was saying that you know Russia and its allies and the millions of people who who support these parties are not welcome inside our country that's absolutely correct now I think you've partly answered the question because I think that in 2014 and thereafter there was a strong majority of people in Ukraine who probably would have welcomed the implementation of the Minsk agreement when I say a strong majority I mean that I mean 70% which is after all roughly in line with what Zelensky got when he was elected president the problem was not with how Ukrainians in their general majority felt about Minsk bear in mind most Ukrainians before 2014 opposed strongly also Ukraine entering NATO I mean there's there's all these all these the reason that Ninsk was not implemented and was opposing Ukraine is because certain very very powerful groups the ultra nationalists but also others who came to power as a result of the Maidan coup in February 2014 realized that if Minsk was implemented they would be marginalized and would lose power in Ukraine it is as simple as this they would not be able to implement their entire agenda which was to Ukraine ICE Ukraine to make all of Ukraine you know everybody Ukraine speak the Ukrainian language is the first language and basically to extinguish Russian they would not be able to bring Ukraine in to NATO which is what some of them also wanted to do and they would not be able to construct within Ukraine the kind of state that they wanted they too ultimately did not want peace in Ukraine because they were empowered by the political crisis and by the tension which they had been active in creating now given how powerful they were after the events of February 2014 after the Maidan coup the only way I think that their opposition could have been overcome would it have been if the Western powers had supported and insisted on the implementation of Minsk and you know you spoke about where you went wrong on Syria I went wrong badly here on Ukraine because it seemed to me that Germany especially but France also but especially Germany with all its economic links and connections with Russia would very much want to see Minsk implemented which it had partly negotiated and that that would be the policy the German government would follow I never expected and never believed until far too late that the Germans on the contrary having birthed Minsk would actually themselves eventually turn against it and risk peace in Europe and the host structure of Europe which they benefited so much from on the collapse of Minsk that I mean that was something I just could not believe and remember I know Germany quite well I could not believe that that was what they would do and get that is exactly what they in the end do I mean you know we're talking earlier about what happened to Macron I'd love to know what was going in Schultz's head to you know for him to let basically his his economy be sacrificed for a proxy war against Russia why it's fascinating and you know there's some speculation about Merkel like did she ever really intend to fall through with all this because of what she said afterwards about the Minsk cords when she said that the Minsk cords are really just a means to give Ukraine to buy Ukraine time and create your thoughts on this it strikes me that she was just saying that to appease the sort of the jingoism and the war monitoring that engulfed NATO states after February 2022 and that she wasn't being she was trying to basically look tough in their eyes because I you know why go through all that if your aim is just to have a a war in the end and why build Nord Stream unless Nord Stream was just a Ruth - I don't think it was a roost I mean I think that when Merkel negotiated Minsk she wanted to see the matter of a whole crisis end yeah but the thing to understand about Merkel and this is something we talked about many times in our programs is that Merkel is never someone who will contest take take what are ultimately the difficult decisions that political leaders it's their responsibility sometimes to take and say to the United States say to the British you're always very opposed to Minsk you've got it but you know this is this is the in the interests of Europe we will see it done and of course she didn't also want to take on the very powerful Atlanticist sentiment and faction within Germany which has always existed since the end of the Second World War and which I'd always known about but whose power and influence I will stay straight forward I greatly underestimated. Merkel never took on never challenged big power holders she always when faced with difficult decisions always took the course of least resistance and this has been very much the reason why we have this crisis today because on the one hand she created a very managerial system in Germany where choices were avoided problems built up Germany itself didn't evolve very much we used to speak about this Alex and I a kind of immobilism within Germany which has left Germany very vulnerable to change and at the same time because she was always very concerned to maintain her own position and to do so always from you know the centre she always she made sure that alternative political leaders were always sidelined which is why Germany at this particular moment of crisis with her gone just doesn't have any party strong enough and with the authority to take the reins and to make the decisions that needed to be made. So I think I have to say this I think that she was clearly an intelligent leader in many ways but I think that overall her legacy to Germany has been bad I mean you know that's my view that's the one I say Alex knows about this and I think that we're paying the price of it now she would have avoided this she had the skill and the talent to understand the dangers of allowing the crisis in Ukraine in 2021 to get out of control she would have found a way to prevent it but only so long as she herself was there and that's the problem without her the entire system that she had not just in Germany but in Europe is starting to unravel. You know I know we have to rap soon I wanted to read you guys a quote just in case you're not familiar with it because I find it so telling it's it's by Ben Rhodes Ben Rhodes is a former senior aide to Obama and he wrote a memoir about the Obama years. There's some really interesting stuff in there he talks about for example how he he found the US policy in Syria in coherent because the US was putting al-Qaeda in Syria on a sanctions list but also we were arming the opposition that that al-Qaeda led which he was against he didn't want the sanctions on al-Qaeda because he said like why are we sanctioning people who were trying to help it doesn't occur to him that maybe we shouldn't be helping al-Qaeda but anyway then he says there's a part about Ukraine which I just find fascinating because he's always complaining about Putin and how Putin would go on these long-winded tangents that him and Obama they all found so annoying and they just they found Putin to be kind of a drag and he here's one passes race complaining about Putin and his Putin's phone calls with Obama quote Putin would always steer the conversation back to what he saw as the original sin. In his view the protests that overthrew Yanukovych were initiated by the US because some of its leaders received grants from US democracy promotion programs okay so Ben Rose is acknowledging that some of the coup leaders received grants from quote US democracy promotion programs and he can't understand why Putin would somehow be annoyed by that and he can't do the contradiction between giving people funding in the name of democracy promotion and then having them overthrow an elected president I mean that's the hubris of these people and and their and their attachment to hegemony that you know he's acknowledging that we funded people who overthrew an elected government and he can't understand why Putin would possibly complain about that and we did I mean it was the complete lack of logic because we allege that the Russians were funding people in the United States during the 2016 election which they weren't involved in all kinds of collusion with them which they weren't either but of course we were very angry with that and if you live in Europe every day in Britain every day you have all sorts of warnings about you know Russian election meddling and that kind of thing so you know what the Russians are complaining about in Ukraine which actually happened because it's not disputed that it's you know it's obsessive and it's paranoid on their part to be worried about that but what they do or what they're alleged to do to us well that's entirely you know wrong and inappropriate and that's impossible and dangerous election meddling it's difficult I think to discuss these things logically with these people because I could I'm sure he'll agree with me we had Ben Rhodes here and we made that all those points to him that we just made he still wouldn't understand them I mean he would he would reject them outright and he would close down and basically refuse to refuse to recognize them or debate them with us that's that's because he's internalized the values of people in power which is that we have the right to meddle wherever we want overthrow governments you know no one has the right to dare to do anything to us and and we and that's predicated on just not seeing others as as equal the whole point of the world system is to see everyone as partners it should be at least I think but that's not how these hegemonts no matter what party they're in in the US see the world and by the way it becomes election meddling we're still learning about 2016 and the whole Russiagate thing and one of the things I discuss in my latest article at real clear investigation it's also at my sub stack but is that Ukraine played an even bigger role in the whole Russiagate thing than I previously knew which is buried in that recent New York Times article which I know you guys discussed about where the CIA was all of a sudden taking credit for running 12 secret bases inside Ukraine very strange thing to brag about at this point but anyway buried in the article is the acknowledgement that the CIA relied on Ukrainian intelligence to come up with purported evidence that fingered Russia for the hack of the DNC the Ukrainian military intelligence which by the way was heavily controlled by the CIA as that article acknowledges that they played a critical role in handing over some sort of information that the CIA under John Brennan the same guy who backed a coup in Ukraine encouraged assault on the Don boss that all sorts of shady things that he relied on to now accuse Russia of interfering in the US election so Ukraine was heavily involved in interfering in the US election and all the chaos that happens since then Ukraine was critical to the the core allegation of Russiagate which Russia stole those emails and by the way if you look at the phone call between Trump and Zelensky in July 2019 that's the first thing that Trump asked Zelensky about the dominant narrative that Trump was asking Zelensky for help to investigate the Biden's he did ask about that but that's not his top area of concern the first thing Trump asked Zelensky about is can you help me figure out what happened with Ukraine and their role with CrowdStrike because CrowdStrike is the Clinton hired firm that first accused Russia of hacking the DNC and in this New York Times article they say that Ukrainian intelligence was vital in identifying the role of Fancy Bear and Fancy Bear is a purported Russian unit that hacked a DNC and who came up with the name Fancy Bear it was CrowdStrike working for Clinton so Ukraine is heavily implicated in this Clinton campaign scam which has caused you know which engulfed the country it created relations between the US and Russia I think it directly led to the Russian invasion because it made diplomacy the whole Russia gay thing made diplomacy with Russia absolutely impossible and encouraged confrontation indeed Aaron we we we we need I think this is where we it's a good place to stop anyway but we will we we need to discuss all of these things again many times both on the Duran and elsewhere if you wish just say and but in the meantime if I can ask you perhaps to stay a little I think Alex has a few questions for you yeah do you have a ten ten minutes Aaron to answer some questions from Europe viewers great from Lata Maros says dear Duran team thank you for inviting Aaron he is an amazing journalist always good to hear his analysis on world events thank you a lot of that Tisham says love you Aaron with their backs up against the wall isolated from the global south will US Israel ever accept this will the US sorry ever accept this with their backs up against the wall I isolated from the global south will Israel and the US ever accept this I guess the I'm not quite sure Tisham what what I think they welcome I think they welcome having the global south hate them personally personally I think about you use it use Israel the badge of honor they have just so much contempt for everybody else they're in a league of their own right thanks says any thoughts of when the war in Ukraine will end and how I'll defer to Alexander on that well perhaps soon as and then we imagine that we've just under program on this Alex and I today but well we'll see I mean we're looking at a breakthrough it seems by the Russians and alarmed you know along those rigging that's what Macron's interview in the economy ultimately is all about you know that there's you know it could be that everything is going to end very fast unless we step in somehow and risk World War three to stop the Russians advancing very difficult ever to predict the outcome of war and remember that in a war anything unexpected can happen can I just I quickly ask one other question of Aaron going back to the previous question I'm sure you've read that piece from Axios about how Israel is now threatening to to basically choke off the Palestinian Authority if the ICC dares to issue warrants against Israeli leaders I have any thoughts about that very quickly because I should have asked that before but I mean that seemed to me such an astonishing thing and going back to the previous question about you know what what do they feel about being isolated from the global south isn't that going to seal their isolation totally if they do something like that on the latter question I don't think they care you know they see themselves as superior to the rest of the world and they and they delude themselves and thinking that the world is with them I mean look at the rhetoric from the the by demonstration about Ukraine how the world is with them on Ukraine no they're not look at that you know they can't they're actually isolated on Ukraine now so much of the global south is against them but they don't I don't think they see the world is being the actual inhabitants of the world they see the world is themselves that's the that's in their eyes the international communities the US and whoever they can buy off to go along with them so I don't know I just don't think there's their isolation is such a big concern to them turn to the ICC my problem there is the premise of the ICC actually doing something to challenge Israel I just find so hard to believe I don't know you guys take with the ICC but I see them as a tool of the US there's a reason they're called the International Caucasian Court most of the people they try are African leaders occasionally they'll go after you know a US designated adversary Melissa Bitch or Putin but otherwise so I just find these rumors of an ICC case against Israel hard to believe if it does happen then yeah I have no doubt the US and Israel do the familiar tactics of intimidation you know previous US officials have threatened to invade the Hague if anything ever happened to a US official you know John Bolton George W Bush talked about stuff like that so I don't know but it is striking how alarmed Israeli officials seem to be about this case so I hope I'm proven wrong I hope I'm proven wrong that the ICC is is toothless and on the Ukraine war and how it ends up I'm curious do you think the $61 billion just approved by Congress makes any difference and I know that a lot of that money is not even intended for the current battlefield but for the long term that basically all right like we're gonna lose eventually but at least we can lock in this money now so we can have an I don't know an insurgency or a frozen conflict and maybe that maybe could could kick up again what do you thoughts on that $61 billion it's not going to change the outcome of the war what it might do is it might slow the process of the inevitable military defeat that's happening in Ukraine I think the idea was to drag this thing out to the end of the year and I think one of the reasons we're seeing panic starting to take hold now is that they're starting to worry that with the latest Russian advances and with the many problems that apparently are starting to appear within the Ukrainian military it might not be enough to drag this thing on to the end of the year in other words beyond the November election so I don't think it's going to change the outcome I don't think it was ever expected really that he would I think the immediate plan was get beyond November and then plan something else and that's something else I think is exactly what you highlighted the 10 year security agreement trying to perhaps set up a government in exile something of that kind stir up an insurgency who knows what they're thinking of but I'm sure that they're not just going to walk away from this one because these people never walk away from anything that is one of the iron books of near-con behavior the iron rules of neo-con behavior we should make up a list of that Saajevo says I agree with Aaron Maté that change of president is unlikely to change anything in US foreign policy and support for foreign wars Trump did support Mike Johnson in putting forward the bill for funding Ukraine yeah yes he did I'm Valentina says thank you Duran for all you do respect to Aaron Aaron and Alexander have you had a chance to look at the or your thoughts on this HR 60 90 the anti-Semitism awareness act have you had a chance to look at it I know I have not had a chance to look at it I don't know what Aaron and with the Aaron has you know it's just you know I'm Jewish myself and my dad's out of the family you know suffered and the Nazi Holocaust and so it's just from that perspective alone I just find it the cheapening of the memory of the Nazi Holocaust and the weaponization of my face it's so disgraceful you know even and then when you look at what it's being used for to justify a mass murder in Gaza what can you say it's so embarrassing it's so disgraceful and by the way you know on the point about Mike Johnson and Trump and the and the Ukraine measure there was an amazing line in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago where they said that you know Mitch McConnell the leader of the Republicans in the Senate he's happy that that Republican lawmakers who voted to fund Ukraine stood up to their own voters and as if that's a victory for democracy that these lawmakers stood up to their own voters who in the majority opposed more funding for Ukraine and voted to funnel another 61 billion dollars into Joe Biden's work I mean it's such a nice window to how democracy really works is that we're you know our elected leaders our Democratic leaders are happy proud that they stand up to their own voters and ignore their wishes so they can funnel more their money into a terrible war I think says Aaron what are the chances of a civil war in the US you know I I don't like to play prognosticator on on civil war so I couldn't tell you I you know I think that's a long way away but who knows who knows and today says do you see an alternative to the two-party system evolving in the US well there has to be you'd like to think that you know since we live it's just supposedly in a free society that eventually we could break this duopoly every time somebody tries they get everything thrown at them to make it impossible you know Jill Stein I just spoke to as a Green Party candidate to even get on the ballot is just an uphill battle and she's you know she was in Russia gate she was smeared also as a Russian agent she was even investigated by the Senate for colluding with Russia because she went to a dinner put on by RT and sat at a table where Putin was for you know a few moments so it's very difficult but you know maybe I'm naive to still believe that democracy is possible so I'd like to hold that hope I mean says Aaron are we doing enough what more can we do will our efforts compel our tyrants to change forcing their will upon the free are we doing enough you know I think everyone's just responsible for doing what they can within their means and doing their best the book Nook says thank you for having Aaron on do you see the speech laws as successfully shutting down the college protests or will the students prevail well there was a very very harsh crackdown and there was a tolerance of violence against the anti genocide protesters at UCLA the other night Israel supporters launched fireworks at a peaceful encampment they they brought a bag of mice they did all these really horrible things and the police were nowhere to be found they let it happen and then the following night there was a huge police raid on the encampment which broke it up so in terms of tolerating violence there's a tolerance and you know you could argue even encouragement of violence against people who are protesting what Israel is doing and that makes it very difficult for these students to prevail because they're not violent they're not violent people I've been to these protests these are the furthest these people are the furthest from violence you know they're they're sensitive college students who are upset about what's being done in their name and they've gone out there and but you know it's very hard to stand up to you know the forces of the state which you know it is you know meeting up brutality and intimidation and all the tactics that are used to shut people down Greg Dee from Rockfin says for 80 years Israelis have been stealing Palestinian land in the West does nothing to put does nothing but provide billions in weaponry to protect the fevery but when students pitch a tent to oppose genocide stormtroopers are instantly deployed coast to coast yeah yeah and I just I'm in awe of the courage of these young people who across the country who went out there and I think showed some actual moral leadership well said Aaron Matte the fantastic Aaron Matte thank you very much we're joining us thank you for answering the many questions that people had for you Aaron we really appreciate it that was a fantastic live stream and we've got to get Aaron on the show once again thank you very much Aaron there was a real honor great to meet you guys and I look forward to next time thank you Aaron once again you can you could find yeah real quick Alexander before you say just to say thank you yeah go ahead I'll go ahead I wanted to say thank you very much Aaron and we definitely want to see you again Aaron Matte I have his Twitter in the description box down below the sub stack as well in the description box down below the gray zone useful idiot podcast and pushback is there did I get did I get everything Aaron is there anything more that's it thanks so much guys it's great to talk to you thank you Aaron take care take care all right Alexander you with me absolutely I'm Tom here fantastic fantastic show with with Aaron ah oh it's absolutely lovely and it was great that he was asking questions I mean that's what are the best journalists out there yeah absolutely quite yeah without a doubt all right real a real journalist a real job yeah absolutely do you want to knock out the rest of the questions yes I think we should absolutely knock out the questions before before Basca before we a couple of days break we will still get videos up though let's start one sec let's start with Death Dealer 1 3 4 1 Ukraine might be getting F 16 after Orthodox Easter on Sunday May 5th yes we've we've all heard that I mean I don't think we're surprised I mean we harper what Reba Reba by the way says that they already have had them I mean that they've been buzzing backwards and forwards and remain near into Ukraine and they've been circling around and flying back and getting on to airfields and returning he might be rolling with NATO pilots or who knows all right Henry Harper welcome to the drag community the uh she could end welcome to the drag community Tisham says T Rex has tested the fences Iran what's next T T Rex test Iran what's next I'm not sure I understand that one knows if you if you could put in the chat then we'll we'll get to it Vince says hi from Australia death says let's hear the lab never understood the Israel Palestine conflict until I read Israel the subseptopathic nation psychopathic nation I guess is what is met here by Laurent guy not an Israel in Israel Shahak works on this well I haven't read these books the book I've read on the Israel Palestinian conflict which I you know I've read it I've read others since but the first one I read which which informed me was by a British journalist and historian called David Hurst H. I. R. S. T. called the gun and the olive and that's that describes the whole story basically and I mean I think also there's the Israeli historian Pape who's written many books about the origins there especially one famous book about the what happened at the beginning when Israel was founded which is indispensable reading as well Bobby thank you for that super sticker Sanjeva says thanks Duran for all the great work you are doing and for being a very welcoming community thank you Sanjeva let's see we answered the question about how do you create more and how do we think John ski says do you think Zelensky has blackmailed dirt on Biden US or is it just an ignorant or is he just an ignorant part I think he's an ignorant porn I think he's got I mean I think the idea that Zelensky of all people is going to be able to blackmail anybody in Washington is is absurd but other people in Ukraine far more sinister than Zelensky is I think that's a different story entirely but Zelensky himself I mean he's an exhausted clown Chris H says awesome guest Aaron is a true journalistic hero from our proximity how does this all end what the forever wars the forever war that the global the global we we had the band we tried to answer you exactly exactly I mean can I just repeat again what I said the other day in the program we did I did with Jimmy door which I'm sure by the way is not original to myself which is that when change looks impossible it becomes inevitable that is a history come up with that truth I am not sure that I did it was in my mind when I said when I said it say that again that's a great quote when when change looks impossible it becomes inevitable yeah and don't despair you said that last trip absolutely one of the questions yeah absolutely you say that a lot that it's true don't despair we'll get through this thanks says what did we answer that with the chance of civil war we got that one Linda thank you for that super sticker a Sancho delaxo says UK MI6 is a herphidious albatross around the US is next yes actually I've never directly had contact with MI6 but a close friend of mine did when they tried to recruit him at University and I can't tell you everything that he told me but what he said let's put it like this was very uncomplimentary Margarita thank you that super sticker Matthew says given macaron's latest comments in the economist have you changed your stance on NATO not being likely to intervene or is this simply more rhetoric I think it is more than a match rhetoric at the moment coming from macaron but unfortunately what he is doing is he's creating an atmosphere where it might happen and the most dangerous thing that he said by far is that Ukraine would need to request it which is of course an invitation to Ukraine to request it I mean sooner or later it will come and on the basis of what macaron said I mean he basically is trying to maneuver everybody into a situation where when the request of Ukraine comes it it it happens Sanjeeva says when you visit the USA you meet the nicest people then you see the cabal of people at the helm of government so intent on imperialism such a detachment from the ordinary US citizen I completely agree I should say that I have found standards of warmth and friendship and courtesy in the United States which you know are off the scale and that is absolutely my overwhelming experience of American people in the United States especially even more than you know amongst the Americans I meet outside in Europe but the political class the people who are there I mean they are they are astonishing they are in the clouds of their own John ski says does a Lensky actually think he is one of the Western elites and they will protect him you see that's stupid yes Mr. Holmes Robert welcome to the drag community J.H. Scott six says thank you gentlemen as always Bruleham says can you guys invite NEMMA Radevini on your show to have discussion on elite theory and modern history he's the reference he's the reference and the interview is bound to be very interesting his recent books are the populist illusion and the prophets of doom he's familiar with both your works oh yeah that be great we'll contact NEMMA Radevini absolutely Trevelin says three great minds Alex Alexander and Aaron that the black cat big for a super sticker Elsa says you are the best thank you Elsa Robert says what do you think about the confiscation of Russia funds and U.S. dollar and bricks we've discussed this in many programs it's going to happen the Biden administration wants it to happen they always get the Europeans to agree to what they want it will be a disaster for the Eurozone finance for the for the European financial system it will have negative effects on the United States but it's part of the project to keep the Ukraine thing going indefinitely both as an operation to destate to unsettled and destabilize Russia and also to keep the money laundering machine operating at full speed for the next 10 years so that's what they're going to do it got to keep that washing machine moving dirty dangle says end of the last show you said that under under hegemony the U.S. turns rivals into enemies and allies also into enemies I argue the allies of hegemony are turned victims a much more unpredictable status well that's also true that is absolutely true I thought I said vassals actually I think I think that was what I said that they would become but victims of course yes victims is good yeah rich West thank you for that super chat Mike says do the banderites know that whether Ukraine winter loses the U.S. will ensure they're purged from Ukraine I don't know what they think to be honest I mean I I find it I don't really like to enter into the mind of people like that what I am guessing is that they're getting very angry and very very desperate now and you see it in some of the comments that they're making and in the fact that they're starting to criticize the Ukrainian high command and the leadership in Ukraine in increasingly threatening terms if you want me to say I'd say this is a much more dangerous situation for the Ukrainian government this kind of criticism is much more dangerous than anything the Russian government faced from Prigoshan on the eve of the Prigoshan affair lover of the Russian team says great show guys NGS says thank you for your work it is important in itself but also for me personally given how detached from reality MSM is I would have gone mad without it thank you for that NGS Tish M says the Ukraine and his EI project exposed the EU's vassal state yes yeah lover of the Russian teams very true yes lover of the Russian team says I hate all these forever wars it's not right yes of course I mean any any any normal person wants peace there's a famous ancient Greek saying which was taken up by the Romans very popular amongst the Romans is that peace is when sons bury their fathers war is when fathers bury their sons nobody in their right mind should want you know a permanent state of war which is what we have Kyle thank you for a super sticker dirty dangle says viewing MSM is paying someone to gaslight you command across fire says all I am saying is give peace a chance yeah James says failing upwards definition the process of serving private power predominantly while occupying a position of supposed public service for which many have been promoted and rewarded see Washington DC yes true enough again I mean one day someone is going to write a proper book about the real nature of power in today's Washington probably after the system has collapsed but somebody will one day write that book Monica thank you for that super sticker the the book nooks says I think we answered that thank you parent do you see the speech laws as successfully shutting down college protest we answered that yeah look summer 1970 says Alex has the best art thank you said said Bios says 2.6 million in mates survive six months with water cut off how I think it just I think it referenced it got I think it referenced a Gaza 2.6 million inmates always see months with water I know I know I know I know it's the whole thing is is terrible and there's no other I mean it's it's horrible it's not a sufficiently strong word it is hideous it is inhuman it is monstrous lover of the Russian team says say no to war Basil says mr. Demil I'm ready for my close-up glorious one it was one ATO for that Jamila says thank you Duran happy Eastern advance for Sunday all my family and friends and all that celebrate Orthodox Christianity I hope next year Ukraine become Russia yeah Jamila Basil think that's a sticker Vladimir says now you gentlemen need to invite Max Blumenthal as well well yes we're working on it working on it yes absolutely that gun says what is the general Orthodox view on the Caroligians and the HRE the Caroligians the Caroligia Caroligia Carolingians Charlemagne and all that Charlemagne and all that well of course I mean that was he was a secular emperor at a time when this was before the schism and the Byzantine government didn't like the fact that he declared himself emperor and had the Pope crown him without first getting their permission because as far as they were concerned there was only one Roman emperor and that was the one in Constantinople which was legally the position as well but eventually I mean they found ways to work with him and I did think that Orthodoxy has any very you know much to say about Charles Charles Charlemagne or about his family interest what went wrong came after Colorado watch says people can't see a permanent state of war when their perception of events lacks object permanence for that William says hi guys I'm converting to Orthodox Greek church can you guys please have an actual Christian on the show catholic or orthodox to talk about how Christian Zionism is that is so important to reach to Americans in general well it's certainly it's certainly a topic to discuss it's not one that I'm I confess I know very much about but you know I it's certainly an important one I mean I think you mean evangelical Christian Zionism in the United States it's certainly not part of the Orthodox way of thinking at all well we we discussed a bit about religion with Jay oh we we discuss a lot about we do we discuss a lot about religion with Jay no not that specific issue though you know I mean we could probably talk about Jim Chaturas is also would be an address is good absolutely me very good yes the geopolitical knowledge but he also has a lot of the knowledge and I'm sorry I said with orthodoxy as well we all have Jim anyway yeah we need to get Jim on soon yes sleepy Craig says trick question what do you guys do to avoid falling into narratives like your usual subjects I'm not sure I understand I mean we do have we do cover the set similar we do we do cover lots of topics but we have and we have we have certain you know themes and you know they're matters that we consider to be particularly important the war in Ukraine the moment is very important but I mean I don't have any particular rules or protections I'll just follow where events take me basically but we're also just people with time constraints and there's only so much so much news we can cover I mean yeah so we we try to get as much news out as possible but that means it's there's so much going on that it's it's just impossible to get to everything this job thank you for super sticker they all need to think if that's super sticker John Scott says Ukraine freedom won't be stopped thank you for that John Matthew says could it be possible that Macron said Ukraine will have to ask for NATO support knowing that the USA might not allow Ukraine to ever ask well he might have said that but that was not the impression I got from reading the economist I got the impression that on the contrary he's preparing the ground for a request from Ukraine it was the way it read to me was almost like an invitation to Zelensky when things really go bad to ask NATO for that kind of support Nigel says is there any news about Red Sea activity well there's a short there was an article that I saw and I think was zero hedge about the fact that the Houthis have won I mean the Americans have been bombing them and trying to prevent them doing what they've been doing but the is who's is still are able to intercept and destroy commercial shipping at the Red Sea and it's been a humiliation for the US Moon Dragon says Colebo went on a rant about the weapons he gets no no he did he never has enough and that will always be the case by the way however much you give him he'll always ask for more oh gee thank you for that super sticker Stephanie says why don't we hear more about the economist cover a rough guide to hell illustrating October seven years in it October seven years in advance it's proof that many had for knowledge I haven't seen that cover and I didn't know that it existed until now so maybe I should search it out thank you for that Stephanie and from locals Alexander will wrap it up one sec pull it up here sage warrior says when someone tells me there's no chance of winning the good fight I like to say we have two choices lay down and let them roll on over us or continue to fight for what's right we have to fight we have to choose to fight if not for ourselves than for our children and grandchildren you are absolutely right that is exactly my own view and it is the only way to win if you can see the battle for the other side wins if you fight back even if the odds are against you then who knows you might actually win in the case of what we're going through today I believe that we will win I saw by the way the Russian defense ministry quoted this line from this Russian film I was talking about it with an Alex in one of our programs you know about our strengths is in truth yeah that program will be up tomorrow all right that is everything thank you once again to Aaron Matte I have his information in the description box down below and I will add it as a pin comment as well when we end the stream Alexander any final thoughts let me just do one more quick check to make sure we got everything final thoughts and we'll set out I really do believe that the reason we are where we are is because this enormous be powerful national security state is emerging the United States and the near cons have aligned themselves and made themselves useful to it and that there is now being this fusion between them and they have a material incentive quite apart from all the other ideological ones in keeping these wars going and that's why we have forever wars so long as we have the near cons there we will have forever wars even if they lose in Ukraine they will take us into another one as night follows day because that's the only thing they know what to do you agree with that Colorado watch says Joya caught another Durant live show with Aaron Matte at that thank you Colorado watch thank you to everyone that caught this show on Rumble thank you to everyone that watched us on rock fin on Odyssey and a question from Odyssey la at a public Europe in this says a few seconds ago can you convince Alex to more correctly pronounce the names of Xi Jinping and Mark Rutte Mandarin has two ways to pronounce Xi so it uses the X for the other one it does does not have silent vowels this to me probably I think I say she don't I say she yes I believe you correctly it's it's C but anyway what I'm hearing I'm hearing some people say it's she I'm hearing some people say it's C yeah which one I think I think the other thing to say is that China in China you have a lot of different regions and Prince pronunciation in them is not exactly the same so it might be seen some places and she and others I don't pretend to know for a fact I think that Ruta is Ruta right I think Ruta is Ruta exactly this is what I know let me know people we know how to pronounce Ruta's name correctly if that's correct Mark Ruta anyway we do all best Alex is hopeless with foreign languages better than me I think it's not like it's not I don't know about that anyway anyway all right that is the the show to all the victual to all Orthodox people happy Christmas by the way it's good Friday tomorrow obviously a day where we're all together but Easter Sunday is coming Ristos Anesti when it comes and have a good happy peaceful Easter Ristos Anesti Ristos Foscres Zariel thank you for helping us moderate Tish M thank you as well who else very quickly let me just give a big shout out to everyone that helped us moderate I think I think it was just Zariel and Tish M and seeing not seeing anyone else all right if I lift someone out my apologies thank you to our moderators thank you to everyone that watched us on locals on Rumble on Odyssey on rock fame and on YouTube take care thank you