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IHR News & Views
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Was Hiroshima Necessary?
Mark Weber
America’s leaders understood Japan’s desperate position: the Japanese were willing to end the war on any terms, as long as the Emperor was not molested. If the US leadership had not insisted on unconditional surrender — that is, if they had made clear a willingness to permit the Emperor to remain in place — the Japanese very likely would have surrendered immediately, thus saving many thousands of lives … General Curtis LeMay, who had pioneered precision bombing of Germany and Japan (and who later headed the Strategic Air Command and served as Air Force chief of staff), put it most succinctly: “The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war.”
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Machinations of the Anti-Defamation League
Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey, Jr.
I was in politics for fifteen years, and I think you should start with the assumption: never trust a politician … When people finally learn the truth, they turn against those who have been lying to them. And I think that if the movement of which you people are the cutting edge can retain dispassion in the face of outrages, setbacks and humiliations, the truth can ultimately prevail. You are doing something worse than criticizing the government of the United States; you’re threatening the security of the state of Israel. And the Jewish community is dedicated to preserve that state, and to destroy those who speak against it. Good luck!
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Stalin's War Against His Own Troops
Yuri Teplyakov
… In August 1941 Hitler permitted a Red Cross delegation to visit the camp for Soviet POWs in Hammerstadt. It is these contacts that resulted in an appeal to the Soviet government, requesting that it should send food parcels for our officers and men. We are prepared to fulfill and comply with the norms of the Geneva convention, Moscow said in its reply, but sending food in the given situation and under fascist control is the same as making presents to the enemy … How great was Stalin’s hatred for those who had found themselves behind enemy lines. It made no difference: who, where, how and why? Even the dead were considered to be criminals.
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… Judaism is not just “another religion.” It’s unique among the world’s major religions. The core values and ethos of Judaism are markedly unlike those of Christianity, Islam, and the other great faiths … A core message of the Hebrew scriptures is that Jews are a divinely “chosen” people — a unique community distinct from the rest of humanity … The seemingly intractable Middle East conflict is more than just a problem of Zionism or politics, or a dispute over land. Israel’s often arrogant policies, and especially its inhumane treatment of non-Jews, have roots in centuries-old attitudes that are laid out in ancient Jewish religious writings.
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The Past Marches On
George Morgenstern (1953)
… Add to these the operations of an organized propaganda capable, apparently, of doping Americans into belief in any myth, and there is formidable reason why public opinion should be so stupefied and stultified that the nation can be led from war to war in pursuit of ever retreating goals. Yet, despite the general numbness, Americans, surveying the results of half a century of intermeddling, dimly perceive that all is not well.
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No figure of modern French history is as honored as Charles de Gaulle … In 1940 he refused to accept his country’s defeat by Germany, and from London he founded and led the pro-Allied “Free French” force during World War II. From 1944 to 1946 he headed the provisional government of France. In 1958 he was called from retirement by popular acclaim to resolve the seemingly unsolvable crisis over Algeria … During the years that he dominated his country’s political life – 1958-1969 – he charted an independent foreign policy, tied neither to the US nor the USSR, and strove to make France the preeminent nation in Europe … It’s impossible to read any lengthy biography of this man without admiration for his audacious self-confidence, courage, determination, and cunning.
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More than once I have come across the view that if British lads of the 1940s could have foreseen the state of their country today, they would never have bothered to fight the Second World War. Few of those who have heard that view may realize that there is empirical evidence to support it … The prevailing tone of their letters is one of bitterness over what had become of the county they once cherished. Of the four or five most often voiced complaints, the most common is over mass migration from other countries and continents, and how that has drastically changed British life, culture and society … “The men who offered their lives have been betrayed and gave their lives in vain. Most of the older people say thank goodness we are ending our lives. It is no longer the Britain that we fought for.”
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Abraham Lincoln and the Issue of Race
Robert Morgan
Many Americans think of Abraham Lincoln, above all, as the president who freed the slaves. Immortalized as the “Great Emancipator,” he is widely regarded as a champion of black freedom who supported social equality of the races, and who fought the American Civil War to free the slaves. While it is true that Lincoln regarded slavery as an evil and harmful institution, it also true, as this paper will show, that he shared the conviction of most Americans of his time, and of many prominent statesmen before and after him, that blacks could not be assimilated into white society. He rejected the notion of social equality of the races, and held to the view that blacks should be resettled abroad.
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The Civil War Concentration Camps
Mark Weber
No aspect of the American Civil War left behind a greater legacy of bitterness and acrimony than the treatment of prisoners of war. “Andersonville” still conjures up images of horror unmatched in American History. And although Northern partisans still invoke the infamous Southern camp to defame the Confederacy, the Union had its share of equally horrific camps. Prison camps on both sides produced scenes of wretched, disease-ridden and emaciated prisoners as repulsive as any to come out of the Second World War … In addition to camps for captured soldiers, the North also established concentration camps for civilian populations considered hostile to the Federal government.
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The Forced War: When Peaceful Revision Failed
David L. Hoggan
In this important, detailed study of the origins of the Second World War, Dr. Hoggan explains why Hitler decided to attack Poland in 1939, and examines the short-sighted policies that made war all but inevitable. The author dismantles the often-repeated charge of sole German responsibility for the war, which for many years has been a centerpiece of the prevailing narrative of twentieth century history. The eminent American historian Harry E. Barnes called this “the first thorough study of the responsibility for the causes of the Second World War in any language … likely to remain the definitive revisionist work on this subject for many years.” With an introduction by Mark Weber, dust jacket, detailed index, source notes, extensive bibliography, map, and 30 photographs. Also available in softcover edition.
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In a remarkable but under-reported address, one of America’s most prominent and influential political figures has acknowledged the “immense” and “outsized” Jewish role in the US mass media and cultural life. Joe Biden – now President of the U.S. – said that this has been the single most important factor in shaping American attitudes over the past century, and in driving major cultural-political changes. “Jewish heritage has shaped who we are – all of us – as much or more than any other factor in the last 223 years. And that’s a fact,” Joe Biden told a gathering of Jewish leaders in Washington, DC … “Behind of all that, I bet you 85 percent of those [major social-political] changes, whether it’s in Hollywood or social media, are a consequence of Jewish leaders in the industry. The influence is immense … And, I might add, it is all to the good,” he went on.
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A Straight Look at the Jewish Lobby
Mark Weber
… Jews wield immense power and influence in the United States. The “Jewish lobby” is a decisive factor in US support for Israel. Jewish-Zionist interests are not identical to American interests. In fact, they often conflict. As long as the “very powerful” Jewish lobby remains entrenched, there will be no end to the Jewish-Zionist grip on the US political system and the American media, the Zionist oppression of Palestinians, and the Israeli threat to peace.
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Liberating America From Israel
Paul Findley
Nine-Eleven would not have occurred if the U.S. government had refused to help Israel humiliate and destroy Palestinian society. Few express this conclusion publicly, but many believe it is the truth. I believe the 9/11 catastrophe could have been prevented if any U.S. president in recent decades had had the courage and wisdom to suspend all U.S. aid until Israel withdrew from the Arab land seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The U.S. lobby for Israel is powerful and intimidating, but any determined president could prevail and win overwhelming public support for the suspension of aid by laying these facts before the American people.
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The Ethics of War: Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Gregory P. Pavlik
Since the last “good war,” a debate has ensued over the moral legitimacy of the use of nuclear weapons, particularly against civilians. The critics hold that it is a crime to incinerate civilians en masse; defenders commonly claim that the bombing was necessary to bring the war to a close, thereby saving countless American lives. Most of those who make this claim do so in earnest. The problem is that this defense is both historically false, and taken to its logical conclusion, extremely dangerous … The U.S. War Department and related agencies that specialized in producing hate propaganda and lies developed specifically racialist attacks on the Japanese.
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… While it’s an artistic achievement and grand entertainment, “Darkest Hour” is badly flawed history … “Darkest Hour” reinforces the widespread belief that Churchill’s speeches played a crucial role in sustaining British morale. A scholar who has carefully looked into the matter has found that this view is largely a myth … “Darkest Hour” reinforces the widely held impression, which Churchill himself encouraged, that an honorable or lasting peace with Hitler was simply not possible. But as he himself later acknowledged, that’s simply not true … The British leader’s famous “We shall never surrender” speech was little more than “sublime nonsense,” says British historian John Charmley.
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Zionism’s Violent Legacy
Donald Neff
… The Irgun was not the only Jewish terrorist group but it was the most active in causing indiscriminate terror in pre-Israel Palestine. Up to the time of the Jaffa attack, its most spectacular feat had been the July 22, 1946, blowing up of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, with the killing of 91 people – 41 Arabs, 28 Britons and 17 Jews. The other major Jewish terrorist group operating in Palestine in the 1940s was the Lohamei Herut Israel – “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel,” Lehi in the Hebrew acronym – also known as the Stern Gang after its fanatical founder Avraham Stern.
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What Christians Don’t Know About Israel
Grace Halsell
American Jews sympathetic to Israel dominate key positions in all areas of our government where decisions are made regarding the Middle East. This being the case, is there any hope of ever changing U.S. policy? … The answer to achieving an even-handed Middle East policy might lie elsewhere — among those who support Israel but don’t really know why. This group is the vast majority of Americans. They are well-meaning, fair-minded Christians who feel bonded to Israel – and Zionism – often from atavistic feelings, in some cases dating from childhood.
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The Origins of the Second World War: A Review
Murray N. Rothbard
It is not often that one is privileged to review a book of monumental import, a truly significant “breakthrough” from obscurantism to historical knowledge and insight. But such a book is the magnificent work by A.J .P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War … The central theme of Taylor is simply this: Germany and Hitler were not uniquely guilty of launching World War II (indeed they were scarcely guilty at all) … Basically, Hitler has no “master plan”; he was a German intent, like all Germans, on revising the intolerable and stupid Versailles-diktat, and on doing so by peaceful means, and in collaboration with the British and French … Not only did Hitler do this with insight, he did it with patience, as Taylor excellently shows …
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Was America’s World War II ‘Crusade’ Worthwhile?
Spencer J. Quinn
… This flagrant betrayal of the principles and goals for which the US fought in World War II, Chamberlin explains [in America’s Second Crusade], was inevitable given Roosevelt’s abiding trust in Soviet dictator Stalin, and his unwillingness to leverage America’s massive military and economic aid to the Soviets to press for a better postwar world … This book … distinguishes itself by challenging the American public to consider that the death, destruction, and trauma of the Second World War may not have been “worth it” in the end. Chamberlin is … not afraid to measure the stated goals of Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill against the objective historical record by which the question he poses might be answered. The arguments for America’s entry into the war, he concludes, ultimately come up wanting.
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YouTube Censors 'Restrict' IHR Videos
Institute for Historical Review
In line with a recent crackdown policy, YouTube has “restricted” a number of independently produced videos of IHR talks and presentations. To watch a “restricted” video, the viewer must first click through a warning screen. Also, comments on the video are not allowed, and the number of views is not given. Even worse, YouTube will never “suggest” a “restricted” video to viewers, which is how many people find our videos. While YouTube claims that its “restriction” policy is aimed at videos with “inflammatory religious or supremacist content,” applying it to IHR videos is absurd. YouTube restricts our voice not because we have violated any objective standards, or because we have done anything wrong or illegal — but because it doesn’t like what we say.
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How accurate is this hallowed portrayal of America’s role in World War II? As we shall see, it does not hold up under close examination … The three Allied leaders accomplished what they accused the Axis leaders of Germany, Italy and Japan of conspiring to achieve: world domination … Presidential deception to justify war did not start with George W. Bush. Americans who express admiration for the US role in World War II, and for Franklin Roosevelt’s presidential leadership, have little moral right to complain when presidents follow his example and lead the country into war by breaking the law, subverting the Constitution, and lying to the people.
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In years when so many politicians and foreign policy experts waxed poetically about their vision of a “rules-based international order” of enduring global harmony, John Mearsheimer persistently warned against the delusions and dangers of this outlook. For years he has been a leading voice for a realist foreign policy, an outlook impressively laid out in his most important work, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics … a hard-nosed examination of international politics rooted not in sentiment or presumed idealism, but in the immutable realities of power politics … While liberals speak of economic interdependence and international norms, and neoconservatives push regime change in the name of “democracy,” Mearsheimer contends that material power, not ideology, drives the foreign policy decision-making of government leaders.
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Our Job in a Time of Crisis
Institute for Historical Review
Mark Weber explains why the work of the IHR in countering the forces of historical deceit, bigotry and cultural distortion is vitally important. An awareness of factual history is essential to an understanding of ourselves and the great issues of our age, says the IHR director in this five-minute video presentation. Unless and until the interests that have gripped our nation are clearly identified and discredited, he says, there will be no change in basic policies or direction.
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Collusion: Franklin Roosevelt, British Intelligence, and the Secret Campaign to Push the US Into War
Mark Weber
Secretive and unlawful collusion by an American leader with a foreign power that subverts the US political process is not new. The most far-reaching and flagrant case was by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1940-41. In the months before the US formally entered the war in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt did everything he could to get America into the global conflict without actually declaring war. The cooperation with British intelligence by the President and other high-ranking US officials during that period was quite illegal. Such collusion by the nominally neutral US to further the war aims of a foreign government was contrary to both US law and universally accepted international norms.
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On the Importance of Revisionism For Our Time
Murray Rothbard
Revisionism as applied to World War II and its origins (as also for previous wars) has the general function of bringing historical truth to an American and a world public that had been drugged by wartime lies and propaganda … Revisionism brings to the artificial frenzy of daily events and day-to-day propaganda, the cool but in the last analysis glorious light of historical truth. Such truth is almost desperately needed in today’s world.
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Tactics of Organized Jewry in Suppressing Free Speech
Prof. Tony Martin – Institute for Historical Review
… I’m going to try to extract from my experience certain basic sort of tactics that I think the Jewish lobby has used over the years pertaining to my particular situation … The first and major tactic that I discovered in their attack on me was their reliance on lies — just straight-up lies. There’s no other way to describe it, just telling lies. Many of the categories that I will enumerate overlap, and many of them could also come under this general rubric of telling lies. But I think that if one had to isolate a single tactic, it was a tactic of telling lies. I think they’ve elevated telling lies to a very high artistic form.
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Suggested Reading: A Study Guide
Mark Weber
In an age when vast amounts of information from a wide range of sources are instantly available online, it can be difficult to sort out what’s reliable, useful, and trustworthy. In response to many inquiries over the years, here are recommended books on five important historical topics: The Second World War, American History, International Relations, Communism, Marxism and the Soviet Union, and, Zionism, US-Israel Relations, and the ‘Jewish Question.’ This listing is neither exhaustive nor final. Additional subject categories and titles are planned, and descriptions may be revised or updated.
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How Hitler Tackled Unemployment
Mark Weber
To deal with the massive unemployment and economic paralysis of the Great Depression, both the US and German governments launched innovative and ambitious programs. Although President Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” measures helped only marginally, the Third Reich’s much more focused and comprehensive policies proved remarkably effective. Within three years unemployment was banished and Germany’s economy was flourishing. And while Roosevelt’s record in dealing with the Depression is pretty well known, the remarkable story of how Hitler tackled the crisis is not widely understood or appreciated.
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Zionism and the Third Reich
Mark Weber
A little-known chapter of history is the wide-ranging collaboration between Zionism and Hitler’s Third Reich. During the 1930s, Jewish Zionists and German National Socialists shared similar views on how to deal with the “Jewish Question.” They agreed that Jews and Germans were distinctly different nationalities, and that Jews did not belong in Germany. During the 1930s no nation did more to substantively further Jewish-Zionist goals than Hitler’s Germany.
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The Spanish Inquisition and the Jewish Question
Brian Chalmers
It is nearly impossible to dig into any chapter of Jewish history without uncovering lessons for our own age. Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries is a particularly striking example. Even today, our view of this period, and particularly of the Spanish Inquisition, colors our attitudes regarding relations between Jews and non-Jews. The Inquisition is considered one of Jewish history’s darkest chapters — and one of Christian history’s most shameful.
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Why I Survived the A-Bomb
Akira Kohchi
Hiroshima native Kohchi was a 16-year-old schoolboy when his city was devastated by the first nuclear attack in history. He tells the dramatic, personal story of how he experienced and survived the bombing, and provides a moving account of his search for his family through the burning rubble of the doomed city. Then Kohchi recalls how, years later, he forced himself to come to grips with his past and uncover the facts about the bombing and the history the led up to it. The author’s frankness and humane spirit make this a first-hand Japanese account of a war crime that dwarfs almost all others. A unique revisionist classic. Praised by the Japan Times newspaper as a “noteworthy” and “authentic” personal account, and by Bookwatch newsletter as a “moving, gripping account.” With full color dust jacket, photos and notes
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The Boer War Remembered
Mark Weber
The Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 was more than the first major military clash of the 20th century. Pitting as it did the might of the globe-girdling British Empire, backed by international finance, against a small pioneering nation of independent-minded farmers, ranchers and merchants in southern Africa who lived by the Bible and the rifle, its legacy continues to resonate today. The Boers’ recourse to irregular warfare, and Britain’s response in herding a hundred thousand women and children into concentration camps foreshadowed the horrors of guerilla warfare and mass detention of innocents that have become emblematic of the 20th century.
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Several months before Japan’s Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt secretly authorized devastating American bombing raids against Japanese cities. A top-secret document declassified in 1970 shows that in July 1941 Roosevelt and his top military advisers approved a daring plan to use American pilots and U.S. war planes – deceitfully flying under the Chinese flag – to bomb Japan’s major cities … An air strike force of 500 Lockheed Hudson bombers was to be organized as “The Second American Volunteer Group” under Chennault’s command. Its mission would be the “pre-emptive” bombing of Japan. The strategic objective of JB 355 was the “destruction of Japanese factories in order to cripple munitions and essential articles for maintenance of economic structure in Japan.”
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Why Germany Attacked the Soviet Union
Institute for Historical Review
As dawn was breaking on Sunday morning, June 22, 1941, military forces of Germany, Finland and Romania suddenly struck against the Soviet Union. The stunning news of this attack was announced to the world by German radio at 5:30 that Sunday morning, when Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels broadcast the text of a proclamation by Adolf Hitler to the German people that laid out his reasons for the historic offensive. Following that was the broadcast of Germany’s declaration of war against the Soviet Union. This was in the form of a diplomatic note to the Soviet government. Because Hitler’s proclamation and the German Foreign Office declaration explain at some length the reasons and motives for the fateful decision to strike against the USSR, these are documents of historic importance. With a foreword by Mark Weber.
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… With the aid of the civilian population, mass graves had been discovered, in which thousands of corpses had been buried. These graves were to be opened and the commission was to establish whom the [Soviet] NKVD had murdered … The exhumations in Vinnytsia began on May 25, 1943, and were carried on in three places. The [local] population was of the opinion that there were around 20,000 victims in the war years … I had been a soldier in the Ukrainian army during the First World War and had seen many men killed in battle, but what I had then seen can in no way be compared with what I witnessed in that park … The horror of Vinnytsia I shall never forget, and it is doubtful whether ever a Dante would be able to portray the agony that had taken place.
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Over the centuries, rage and hostility against Jews has repeatedly erupted in terrible violence. Again and again, Jews have been driven out of countries where they’d been living. Why does anti-Semitism exist? And why has furious hostility toward Jews broken out, again and again, in the most varied nations, eras and cultures? … Anti-Semitism is not a mysterious “disease.” As Herzl and Weizmann suggested, and as history shows, what is often called anti-Semitism is the natural and understandable attitude of people toward a minority with particularist loyalties that wields greatly disproportionate power for its own interests, rather than for the common good.
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Straight Talk About Zionism
Mark Weber
… A Zionist Jew, by definition, owes his primary loyalty to the Jewish community and to Israel. Zionism is not compatible with patriotism to any country or entity other than Israel and the world Jewish community … Zionist Jews and their non-Jewish supporters embrace a blatant double standard. Jewish-Zionist organizations, along with their non-Jewish allies, support one social-political ideology for Israel and the world Jewish community, and a completely different one for the United States and other non-Jewish countries. They insist that ethnic nationalism is evil and bad for non-Jews, while at the same time they vigorously support ethnic nationalism — that is, Zionism — for Jews.
News & Comment
Trump’s Big Bluff on Iran
John J. Mearsheimer
The Trump administration and its supporters – including the Wall Street Journal editorial page – are working overtime these days to spin the news around the Iran war to make it appear that the US is winning and Tehran had better submit to Washington’s demands before it is wrecked, maybe even “annihilated.” … In effect, Trump and his supporters are waging a “maximum pressure campaign” against Iran in the mainstream media. This campaign is sure to fail. If anything, it reflects the Trump administration’s desperation. The president started a war the United States was bound to lose, and there is little he can do now to change that basic fact … There is no evidence that Iran is caving in to American pressure, and there are three reasons to doubt that it will.
Ted Cruz Blasts Tucker Carlson Over Hitler, WWII Remarks
Newsmax
Sen. Ted Cruz delivered a blistering rebuke of Tucker Carlson on Monday’s “Verdict with Ted Cruz” podcast, accusing the conservative commentator of defending Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany following Carlson’s contentious interview with former British Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg. Cruz, joined by co-host Ben Ferguson, devoted a substantial portion of the podcast episode to Carlson’s discussion with Rees-Mogg about Britain, World War II, and Russia — repeatedly arguing that Carlson’s comments reflected a broader pattern of hostility toward America and its Western allies. “Come on, Tucker didn’t go full Nazi, did he?” Cruz said sarcastically before playing audio from Carlson’s interview … The exchange highlighted by Cruz began with Carlson questioning whether Britain had benefited from defeating Nazi Germany.
Poland’s Top Diplomat In U.S. Labels Tucker Carlson An ‘Apologist For Adolf Hitler’
Daily Wire
Poland’s top diplomat in the United States is labeling podcaster Tucker Carlson an “apologist for Adolf Hitler.” Bogdan Klich, the chargé d’affaires of Poland’s Embassy in Washington, is calling on Carlson to publicly retract remarks in which he appeared to justify Nazi Germany’s 1939 invasion of Poland, calling the comments “a colossal insult to the millions of victims of Nazism.” “Mr. Carlson, I am outraged by the false and deeply troubling statements you made regarding the outbreak of the Second World War,” Klich wrote in a Monday letter addressed to the commentator. The remarks came during an hour-long interview with Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a British politician, which aired Friday on The Tucker Carlson Show. The conversation focused initially on Britain’s military preparedness and the threat posed by Russia before turning to the Second World War.
Churchill, Hitler and ‘The Unnecessary War’
Patrick J. Buchanan – Book available from IHR
A carefully researched and persuasive debunking of the widely-accepted “official” story of the origins of World War II, by one of America’s most astute and influential public affairs commentators. In this masterful and provocative book, Buchanan draws on the work of more than a hundred historians to trace the fateful failures of judgment that consigned millions to decades of subjugation under Soviet Communist tyranny, and ended Europe’s central role in world affairs. This is also an important dissident treatment of the origins and consequences of the First and Second World wars, and a devastating critique of the “cult” image of Winston Churchill. Buchanan concludes with timely warnings about US foreign policy today. With 36 photos, source references, bibliography and index.
What Exactly is ‘The West’?
Pax Tube
What exactly is ‘the West’? … The term “the West” is especially popular among militant Zionists … These figures talk about “Western values” when justifying foreign wars … Naturally, many people who hear the term ‘the West’ think that it refers to European peoples and their descendants in the Americas … But ‘the West’ as it’s invoked by Zionists and NATO politicians today is something very different … The term “the West” has been hijacked. There is the real West — the civilizations of Europe. The peoples, art, faith, and history of the continent. And then there is the fake West — a post-1945 geopolitical bloc centered in Washington … These two ‘Wests’ are not the same, and this essay will explain the difference.
Trump’s Other War
Ron Paul
… Contrary to the claims of power-hungry politicians and corporatists seeking protection from overseas competitors, the financial burden of tariffs falls on American businesses and consumers, not foreign exporters. Tariffs are a tax on Americans. President Trump’s tariffs have been estimated to impose an over 800 dollars tax on the average American household this year … President Trump’s tariffs have raised prices for American consumers, increased production costs for many American businesses that rely on imported materials and goods, and hurt farmers and other export-reliant business.
CIA Report Warns Israel Could Head Toward Civil War, Total Collapse
Drop Site News
Israel is at risk of civil war or state collapse, a classified CIA assessment warns, as years of genocide in Gaza and war in Lebanon and Iran deepen political, economic, and social fractures within the country. The August report, titled “Fracture From Within,” was compiled by experts in the CIA’s Red Cell … CIA experts pointed to a volatile mix of pressures converging ahead of Israel’s elections on October 27: economic crisis and soaring military spending; heavily armed veterans returning from prolonged combat, many carrying serious psychological trauma; growing fury over ultra-Orthodox men who are exempt from military service; escalating settler violence in the occupied West Bank; and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fighting to hold onto power and igniting a constitutional crisis.
Huckabee Top Aide Modified and Suppressed US Embassy Reporting Critical of Israel: Report
Middle East Eye
A top aide to US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has repeatedly altered or suppressed embassy reporting that would have been critical of Israeli activities in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to a New York Times investigation. David Milstein, 36, has blocked, rewritten or delayed reports to Washington about illegal Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence, and the killings of nine Palestinian Americans, the NYT reported, citing US officials familiar with his work … The investigation found that Milstein’s interventions raised concerns among embassy staff and Washington officials that information reaching the US government was being distorted. Several officials told the NYT that Milstein’s interventions surpassed those of any recent predecessor.
The American Public Has Turned on Israel. Washington Doesn’t Care.
Nolan Denaro
For decades, American support for Israel was a bipartisan consensus. … Well, after years of Israel conducting a mass slaughter of innocent civilians in Gaza, and after having successfully convinced President Donald Trump to launch a disastrous war in Iran, American public opinion has taken a turn … Yet as the voters slowly become more unified on this issue, those in power dig their heels in deeper. Unrelenting in their support of a foreign nation, they are now embracing the open rejection of their constituent’s wishes. We’ve known for a long time that Washington has its own set of interests, which they consistently prioritize over ours. It is particularly unbearable, however, for Washington elites to proudly boast of putting another nation’s interests at the forefront of their policymaking. At some point, enough is enough.
Goodnight Baghdad: US Troops Leave Iraq After 23 Years
Dan Grazier - Responsible Statecraft
… Had anyone told me while I was dodging IEDs in the summer of 2007 that I would be asked to write a column at the age of 48 about the last American troops leaving Iraq today, I would have rightly questioned what the United States was doing there. I believed at the time that we were fighting terrorists and helping to create a free Iraq. Two decades later, I have no idea why we were really fighting there … A question I wrestle with today is if I had been killed in Iraq, what purpose would my death have served? I don’t have a good answer for that question … As the remaining hundreds of troops depart today under a U.S.-Iraqi agreement, Baghdad is launching four “Sovereignty Days” to commemorate. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and now Iran are all cautionary tales.
The Kallas Effect: World War II as Foundational Myth
Angelica Oung
… When I grew up, World War II wasn’t just history, it was secular gospel. Out of the sacred tragedy of the Holocaust, the Western liberal democracy and the American Rules-based order was resurrected. Our baptism was visiting the concentration camp sites at Auschwitz on school trips. Our High Mass was going to the cinema to watch movies about WWII. Our liturgy was never again. 90s films like Schindler’s List, Life is Beautiful, and Saving Private Ryan were the cinematic high-water mark of Francis Fukuyama’s “End of History.” … Then came Gaza, which made a mockery of Never Again. Instead of providing moral clarity, the holocaust comparison became a discourse battleground … I can feel the world split into two camps: people still invoking the sacred covenants of WWII, and the rest of us rolling our eyes and losing our religion.
The Myth of the Good War
Geoffrey Wheatcroft - The Guardian (Britain)
… The notion that the second world war was finer and nobler than the first is highly dubious in itself, since it sanitises so much, from the slaughter of civilians by Allied bombing to the gang rape of millions of women by our Russian allies at the moment of victory … The glorification of the second world war has had practical and baleful consequences. It has led us to an easier acceptance of “liberal interventionism”, founded on the assumption that we in the west are alone virtuous and qualified to distinguish political right from wrong – and the conviction that our self-evidently virtuous ends must justify whatever means we employ …
A Scholarly Association’s Secretive Washington Playbook
Adam Rzepka - The Chronicle of Higher Education
… In the past, AHA [ American Historical Association ] executives have been quite content to let members pass popular resolutions against such events as the Iraq war, and to make official statements opposing events like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Regarding Palestine, though, they have decided that the AHA cannot take “institutional positions on an active geopolitical conflict,” lest the Trump administration take notice and find some way to revoke its congressional charter. Over the last 20 months or so, they have taken a series of what they have called “unusual steps” to quash every effort by the AHA membership to pass a resolution against the mass atrocities in Gaza, including vetoes of three separate popular resolutions acknowledging those atrocities as a genocide.
Israel’s Grip on American Politics is Finally Being Questioned
P. Weiss – Mondoweiss
… Why has the U.S. gone against its own people’s interest to support Israel endlessly? … The chief reason for nullification of the U.S.’s own policy is factional influence, the Israel lobby, using the lever of money … Obama credited his political rise in Chicago to a “cabal” of generous liberal Zionists … Biden and Harris ignored a genocide for the same reason. The weight of the Jewish community’s contributions to Democratic campaigns is “gigantic” and “shocking,” as a J Street panel stated in 2016 … That’s why Biden and Harris said nothing about a genocide in 2023 and 2024. They feared that the lobby money would go to the other side. Those days are ending. A genocide and an illegal war foisted on the U.S. have exposed Israel’s political reach, and made Israel a pariah nation.
Deutsche Bahn and China Rail: German and Chinese Systems Compared
Hua Bin
… The decline of the German rail efficiency seems to stem from a deeply flawed privatization in 1994 which led to decades of extreme infrastructure underinvestment … In stark contrast, Chinese infrastructure remains firmly in the domain of public ownership. While Europe and the US follow a policy of reactive, austerity-driven, rent-collecting management of their nations’ infrastructure, China has adopted a strategy of anticipatory, supply-led construction – often years ahead of demand … Rather than aiming to achieve profitability and high return for every single line, the Chinese highspeed rail system serves as a public good that generate system-level benefits for the entire economy and the public. Deutsche Bahn and China rail represent two systems that operate on completely opposition philosophies …
Top Haredi Rabbi Denounces Israeli State, Religious Soldiers
Times of Israel
Rabbi Dov Lando, one of the most influential ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Israel, lamented the establishment of the State of Israel and launched a broadside against Zionism, the country and Religious Zionist and secular Jews, according to newly released footage. Lando, 96, the spiritual leader of the Degel HaTorah faction of the United Torah Judaism party, wields significant political influence … Lando said Zionism “made Arabs hate us” and that the ideology brought “physical disasters” upon the Jewish people. He derided the Jewish observance of Religious Zionists and said secular Jews lack a connection to Judaism. He called Zionists “thieves.” … He added, “It’s possible, without a state [of Israel], to live well with the Arabs … To live, to respect the Arabs. It was pretty good when the Arabs were in charge. It was the best situation.”
Eisenhower and Washington Both Spoke Out Against War
Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr.
… Because of these and many other things he said and did, I think a very strong case can be made that Eisenhower was our most antiwar President. Certainly his most famous remarks were given in his farewell address from the White House on Jan. 17, 1961. He talked of the “grave implications” of “an immense military establishment and a large arms industry.” … I think Eisenhower would be shocked at how far we have gone down the road against which he warned, especially since the Pentagon is now wanting a one-year budget of an incomprehensible sum of more than one trillion, four hundred billion … In addition to his inspiring words, Eisenhower ended the Korean War and even went on national television shortly before the 1956 election to refuse Israel’s request (demand) to join a war against Egypt over the Suez Canal.
Reading Scores Near Lowest Point in 25 Years
The Hill
Reading scores in the United States were near their lowest point in 25 years, according to global exam results released Tuesday. American students were outperformed by students in Canada, Singapore and parts of China on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in reading — falling below the average score by more than 30 points. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) evaluation measures how well 15-year-old students apply their knowledge to real-world problems … The scores released this year are the lowest average levels of performance observed in all three subject areas across all OECD countries, not just the U.S., since the test started in 2000. The highest drop-off was in reading, with scores falling by 28 points across OECD countries between 2015 and 2025.
Israel Plummets to Worst-Ever OECD Education Scores in Math, Reading, Science
The Times of Israel
Israel’s scores on a key international test of student comprehension dropped precipitously in the latest 2025 results, with the country scoring below average in reading, math and science and registering its lowest-ever results in those skills. The Programme for International Student Assessment tests, known as PISA, is a measure of 15-year-olds’ aptitude in reading, math and science run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It is carried out once every three years … Israel is now ranked 43rd in the world, down from 38th in the last test in 2022, and 33rd among developed countries, down from 31st. The 2025 score average is Israel’s lowest since it joined the survey in 2000.
England v. Germany in Berlin, 1938
Video – British Movietone
English and German soccer (football) teams square off in the capital of Third Reich Germany. More than 100,000 spectators gathered in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, May 14, 1938, to watch the game, which ended in victory for the visiting team: England 6, Germany 3. This contemporary “British Movietone” newsreel report was shown in cinemas throughout Britain. At the time, and in the years since, many have been surprised that the English team members gave the “Nazi” salute during the pre-game playing of the German national anthem. During this time of often highly politicized sports, it’s worth noting that during the late 1930s the participation of Third Reich Germany in friendly international competition was considered “normal.” Runtime: 1:13 mins.
Trump’s Big Bluff on Iran
John J. Mearsheimer
The Trump administration and its supporters – including the Wall Street Journal editorial page – are working overtime these days to spin the news around the Iran war to make it appear that the US is winning and Tehran had better submit to Washington’s demands before it is wrecked, maybe even “annihilated.” … In effect, Trump and his supporters are waging a “maximum pressure campaign” against Iran in the mainstream media. This campaign is sure to fail. If anything, it reflects the Trump administration’s desperation. The president started a war the United States was bound to lose, and there is little he can do now to change that basic fact … There is no evidence that Iran is caving in to American pressure, and there are three reasons to doubt that it will.
Ted Cruz Blasts Tucker Carlson Over Hitler, WWII Remarks
Newsmax
Sen. Ted Cruz delivered a blistering rebuke of Tucker Carlson on Monday’s “Verdict with Ted Cruz” podcast, accusing the conservative commentator of defending Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany following Carlson’s contentious interview with former British Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg. Cruz, joined by co-host Ben Ferguson, devoted a substantial portion of the podcast episode to Carlson’s discussion with Rees-Mogg about Britain, World War II, and Russia — repeatedly arguing that Carlson’s comments reflected a broader pattern of hostility toward America and its Western allies. “Come on, Tucker didn’t go full Nazi, did he?” Cruz said sarcastically before playing audio from Carlson’s interview … The exchange highlighted by Cruz began with Carlson questioning whether Britain had benefited from defeating Nazi Germany.
Poland’s Top Diplomat In U.S. Labels Tucker Carlson An ‘Apologist For Adolf Hitler’
Daily Wire
Poland’s top diplomat in the United States is labeling podcaster Tucker Carlson an “apologist for Adolf Hitler.” Bogdan Klich, the chargé d’affaires of Poland’s Embassy in Washington, is calling on Carlson to publicly retract remarks in which he appeared to justify Nazi Germany’s 1939 invasion of Poland, calling the comments “a colossal insult to the millions of victims of Nazism.” “Mr. Carlson, I am outraged by the false and deeply troubling statements you made regarding the outbreak of the Second World War,” Klich wrote in a Monday letter addressed to the commentator. The remarks came during an hour-long interview with Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a British politician, which aired Friday on The Tucker Carlson Show. The conversation focused initially on Britain’s military preparedness and the threat posed by Russia before turning to the Second World War.
Churchill, Hitler and ‘The Unnecessary War’
Patrick J. Buchanan – Book available from IHR
A carefully researched and persuasive debunking of the widely-accepted “official” story of the origins of World War II, by one of America’s most astute and influential public affairs commentators. In this masterful and provocative book, Buchanan draws on the work of more than a hundred historians to trace the fateful failures of judgment that consigned millions to decades of subjugation under Soviet Communist tyranny, and ended Europe’s central role in world affairs. This is also an important dissident treatment of the origins and consequences of the First and Second World wars, and a devastating critique of the “cult” image of Winston Churchill. Buchanan concludes with timely warnings about US foreign policy today. With 36 photos, source references, bibliography and index.