via Paul Craig Roberts,

War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we’ll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn’t go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn’t a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its “finger men” to point out enemies, its “muscle men” to destroy enemies, its “brain men” to plan war preparations, and a “Big Boss” Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.

Most American soldiers died fighting foes who posed no threat to the United States. Our soldiers died for secret agendas of which they knew nothing. Capitalists hid their self-interests behind the flag, and our boys died for the One Percent’s bottom line.

Jade Helm, an exercise that pits the US military against the US public, is scheduled to run July 15 through September 15. What is the secret agenda behind Jade Helm?

The Soviet Union was a partial check on capitalist looting in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. However, with the Soviet collapse capitalist looting intensified during the Clinton, Bush, and Obama regimes.

Neoliberal Globalization is now looting its own constituent parts and the planet itself. Americans, Greeks, Irish, British, Italians, Ukrainians, Iraqis, Libyans, Argentinians, the Spanish and Portuguese are being looted of their savings, pensions, social services, and job opportunities, and the planet is being turned into a wasteland by capitalists sucking the last penny out of the environment.

As Claudia von Werlhof writes, predatory capitalism is consuming the globe.

We need a memorial day to commemorate the victims of neoliberal globalization. All of us are its victims, and in the end the capitalists also.

Baghdad (AFP) - The Islamic State group has executed 16 Iraqi traders taking food from the city of Baiji to the government-controlled western city of Haditha, officials said Sunday.

"Daesh executed 16 Haditha traders last night," the mayor of the city, Abdelhakim al-Jughaifi, told AFP by phone.

"The victims were transporting mostly food goods, such as vegetables, from Baiji to Haditha," he said.

Baiji, which lies on the Tigris about 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of Baghdad, is under IS control.

Haditha, which sits on the Euphrates about 130 kilometres (80 miles) southwest, is the last major city in the province of Anbar still under government control.

"They were stopped at a checkpoint and abducted," the mayor said.

"They then executed them, some by shooting them, others by slitting their throats."

He said Haditha residents found the bodies on the road and were able to bring them back.

A police lieutenant colonel confirmed the 16 executions. The victims were buried on Sunday, several sources said.

Abu Maath al-Jughaifi, a tribal fighter from Haditha, said a paper was found on one of the bodies in which IS said the executions were to avenge the deaths of jihadist fighters during a recent battle near Haditha.

According to government sources, at least 23 IS militants were killed in clashes in Khasfa last week, including two French nationals who drove suicide truck bombs.

Haditha is isolated in Anbar, where IS controls the border with Syria to the west and most of the land to the east, including the provincial capital Ramadi, which they seized on May 17.

According to residents, a bag of 50 kilos of flour fetches $900 in Haditha when it only costs $20 to $30 in Baghdad.

IS has allowed some trade to continue between the regions it controls and government areas but drivers generally have to pay a fee.

Moscow (AFP) - The European Union joined the United States on Sunday in condemning a Russian crackdown on "undesirable" NGOs, calling it a "worrying step" that would stifle free speech.

Under the law signed by President Vladimir Putin on Saturday evening, Russian prosecutors will be able to target foreign groups whose "undesirable activities" are deemed to threaten "state security" or the "basic values of the Russian state."

Such groups and their publications risk being banned in Russia, having their bank accounts blocked and violators face fines or prison terms of up to six years.

People cooperating with such entities would also be hit with fines and could be banned from entry to Russia, according to the text, which sailed through the two chambers of Russia's parliament.

The EU called the law a "worrying step in a series of restrictions on civil society, independent media and political opposition" in Russia.

"It will restrict freedom of speech and media as well as pluralism of opinion," a spokesperson for the EU's foreign service said in a statement

US State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said the law illustrated the creeping restrictions on criticism of the Kremlin.

"We are concerned this new power will further restrict the work of civil society in Russia and is a further example of the Russian government's growing crackdown on independent voices and intentional steps to isolate the Russian people from the world," she said in a statement.

"Russians, like people everywhere, deserve a government that supports an open marketplace of ideas, transparent and accountable governance, equal treatment under the law and the ability to exercise their rights without fear of retribution."

- 'Lowering the curtain' -

The "undesirables" law builds upon existing legislation branding groups with foreign funding as "foreign agents," passed shortly after Putin began his third historic term in the Kremlin in 2012, despite massive protests.

Russian officials have accused NATO of trying to undermine the country and views internal criticism as the work of spies and traitors.

The Kremlin's sensitivity to reproval has been accentuated by the West's isolation of Russia -- and levying of sanctions on the country -- over its Crimea annexation and alleged military backing for insurgents in eastern Ukraine.

Critics say the vague wording of the new legislation, and a process that bypasses the court system, means that any group or business could be targeted.

Veteran rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva said groups like New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) and London-based Amnesty International, which have a sizeable Russian presence and regularly issue damning statements on rights violations, would probably be worst affected.

In a joint statement last week Amnesty and HRW blasted the law as "the latest chapter in a crackdown" on NGOs and free speech in the country, where Putin's ratings soared after the Crimea annexation and remain above 80 percent a year later, despite a raft of economic woes.

"This law is another step toward lowering the curtain between our country and the West," Alexeyeva told Interfax news agency.

Britain's Minister for Europe David Lidington said the law was "yet another example of the Russian authorities' harassment of NGOS."

"The new law will directly affect the ability of international organisations to work, promote and protect human rights in Russia and is clearly aimed at undermining the work of Russian civil society," Lidington said in a statement urging the Kremlin "not to interfere in the valuable work of NGOs"

A storm blasting Antarctic weather over New Zealand is currently the biggest storm on earth according to WeatherWatch.

The low stretches from just south of Fiji to Antarctica's ice shelf, but only 20 per cent of the storm is affecting New Zealand.

"The depth of this storm south of New Zealand is up there with some of the biggest hurricanes we've seen. It's a really big storm."