The sense of sacrifice moves us. War can become admirable. Recipe: (1) find a young and likeable hero (2) praise his commitment and his altruistic death (3) claim that he was defending the good guys from the bad guys (4) say nothing about the horrors we have committed. This operation is still working – over and over again.

Operation mind control

by Manlio Dinucci | 3 May 2019

Yesterday in Pisa, approximately 5,000 children and adolescents from 212 classes participated in the « Day of Solidarity » in memory of Major Nicola Ciardelli of the Parachute Regiment (Lightning), who was killed on 27 April 2006 in a « terrible terrorist attack » in Nassirya, Iraq, during the Antica Babilonia « peace mission ». The demonstration is organised every year by the Nicola Ciardelli Association, created by his family with the essential support of the Municipality (first of all directed by the PD, today by the Lega). It has become the laboratory for a huge operation – with the collaboration of a wide range of organisations and associations – for « sensibilising young students to the importance of everyone’s engagement in the construction of a future of Peace and Solidarity ».

The example to follow is « Nicola’s engagement in favour of the populations torn apart by the conflicts – people he had met on the many missions in which he participated », during which he had « touched with his fingers the devastation of war and the agony of those who were forced to suffer them, most importantly the children ».

But no-one said anything to the 5,000 children and adolescents about the true story of the devastating war which was sparked in 2003 by the United States against Iraq, a country already subjected to an embargo which, in the space of ten years, had caused one and a half million deaths, including approximately half a million children.

No-one explained to them that in order to justify the war, « proof » was invented accusing Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction, which was later revealed as false.

No-one told them that in order to eradicate the resistance, Iraq was submitted to fire and brimstone, by all means possible – from phosphorous bombs against the population of Fallujah to torture in the prison of Abu Ghraib.

The Italian contingent Antica Babilonia participated in this war – defined today by the Italian Minister of Defence as « Operation Iraqui Freedom, led by the USA to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s régime in the context of the international war against terrorism ». The political advisor of its commanders, between 2005 and 2006, was the current Minister of Defence Elisabetta Trenta (Five Stars). The 185th Paratroopers Division Folgore was part of this force, tasked with the reconnaissance of target acquisition, a department of the special forces which included officer Nicola Ciardelli.

The Regiment – as documented by the Minister for Defence— « operates by infiltrating operational detachments behind enemy lines for direct actions which include the engagement of targets from a distance and all platforms of ground-based, aerial, and naval armament ». In other words, once the human « target » has been identified, it is directly eliminated by chosen shooters, or indirectly, with laser pointers which guides bombs launched by a fighter aircraft.

This was not explained to the 5,000 children and adolescents who, at the crowning moment of the Day, applauded the paratroopers of the Folgore as they descended from heaven on the Ponte di Mezzo (a bridge on the Arno in the historical centre of Pisa, translator’s note) looking to their eyes like cartoon heros who defend the good guys from the bad guys.

The case of Pisa is not an isolated one. US soldiers from the Sigonella base in Sicily – reports Antonio Mazzeo – are increasingly present in Sicilian schools, where they give lessons in English, gymnastics and other subjects. At Sigonella, a parish priest took the children for an « educational visit », and also, in the bases at Puglia, there are « alternating school/work » courses for school-children. Similar cases have been recorded in other regions.

What is going on here is a real operation of military conquest of the minds of the young generations (and not those alone). Are there any teachers, students and parents available to stand against this invasion, by organising in order to advance, against the culture of war, te culture of peace?

Manlio Dinucci Translation: Pete Kimberley; Source: Il Manifesto (Italy)

“Without disinformation, NATO would crumble”, by Manlio Dinucci

Manlio Dinucci,Voltaire Network, 27 April 2019

Q: What is the result of the Symposium in Florence?

Michel Chossudovsky: The event was a great success, with the participation of speakers from the United States, Europe and Russia. We presented the history of NATO. We identified and carefully documented its crimes against humanity. And at the end of the Symposium, we presented the “Declaration of Florence,” a way of exiting the war system.

Q: In your introduction, you affirmed that the Atlantic Alliance is not a true alliance…

Michel Chossudovsky: On the contrary, under the appearance of a multinational military alliance, it is the Pentagon which dominates the decision-making mechanisms of NATO. The USA controls the command structures of NATO, which are incorporated with those of the United States. The Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (SACEUR) is always a US General nominated by Washington. The Secretary General, currently Jens Stoltenberg, is essentially a bureaucrat who handles public relations. He has no decision-making role.

Q: Another theme you raised was that of the US military bases in Italy and other European countries, including in the East, despite the fact that the Warsaw Pact has not existed since 1991, and despite the promise made to Gorbachev that no extension of NATO towards the East would ever occur. What is the purpose of these bases?

Michel Chossudovsky: NATO’s tacit objective – an important theme in our debate in Florence – is to implement, under a different denomination, the de facto “military occupation” of Western Europe. The United States not only continue to “occupy” the ex-members of the Second World War “Axis countries” (Italy, Germany), but have used the badge of NATO to set up US military bases in all of Western Europe, and, thereafter, in Eastern Europe in the wake of the Cold War, and in the Balkans in the wake of the NATO war against Yugoslavia (Serbia-Montenegro).

Q: What has changed in terms of the possible use of nuclear weapons?

Michel Chossudovsky: Immediately after the Cold War, a new nuclear doctrine was formulated, focused on the preventive use of nuclear weapons, in other words, on a nuclear first strike as a means of self-defence. Within the framework of USA-NATO interventions, presented as peace-keeping measures, a new generation of “low power” and “non-usable” nuclear weapons was created, described as “inoffensive for civilians”. US political leaders consider them to be “bombs for pacification.” The Cold War agreements, which established certain safety measures, have now been abandoned. The concept of “Mutually Assured Destruction,” relative to the use of nuclear weapons, has been replaced by the doctrine of preventive nuclear war.

Q: NATO was “obsolete” at the beginning of the Trump presidency, but now it has been rebooted by the White House. What relation is there between the arms race and the economic crisis?

Michel Chossudovsky: War and globalisation go hand in hand. Militarisation relies on the imposition of macro-economic restructuration in the target countries. It imposes military spending in order to support the war economy to the detriment of civil economy. It leads to economic destabilisation and the loss of the power of national institutions. An example – recently President Trump proposed huge budget cuts in the health and teaching sectors, and in social infrastructures, although he has asked for a massive increase in the budget of the Pentagon. At the beginning of his administration, President Trump confirmed the increase of expenditure in the military nuclear programme, launched by Obama, from 1,000 to 1,200 billions of dollars, claiming that this would serve to make the world safer. All over the European Union, the increase in military spending, coupled with austerity measures, is leading to the demise of what used to be called “the Welfare State.” Now, under US pressure, NATO is engaged in increasing military spending, and Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg declares that this is the correct decision to “guarantee the safety of our population.” The military interventions are coupled with concomitant acts of economic sabotage and financial manipulation. The final objective is the conquest of both human and material resources and of political institutions. The acts of war support a process of total economic conquest. The hegemonic project of the United States is to transform countries and international sovereign institutions into territories which are open for their penetration. One of their instruments is the imposition of heavy penalties on debt-ridden countries. The imposition of lethal macro-economic reforms serves to impoverish vast sectors of the world population.

Q: What is now, and what will become the role of the media?

Michel Chossudovsky: Without the disinformation broadcast, in general, by almost all the media, the military programme of the USA-NATO would collapse like a house of cards. The imminent dangers of a new war with the most modern weapons and the atomic peril are not the sort of news that makes the headlines. War is presented as an act of pacification. War criminals are depicted as pacifiers. War becomes peace. Reality is reversed. When lies become truth, there is no going back.

Manlio Dinucci Source: Il Manifesto (Italy)