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Today, April 15, a day when American citizens pay taxes, I wanted to talk to you about where the money you pay for taxes actually goes and about the need to create an accountable and transparent system for budgeting and financing of the Federal Government so as to assure that your money goes to efforts that are in your interest, in the national interest.

But, sadly, the threat of world war is so great today that I must address that overwhelming subject first.

The possibility of a world war is so high that we have no choice, for sake of human survival, but to launch a global peace movement that is not merely about opposing war, but also is about organizing people, in every country, people who have the will, the bravery, the vision, and the determination to shut down every aspect of the economy, the culture, the educational system, the media, and of daily life that promotes the current deadly addiction to war.

While we were sleeping the United States economy was so hollowed out by the so-called free trade pushed by the banks, the control of our money so monopolized by the rich, and so many jobs were shipped abroad to enrich the few and impoverish the many, that now war appears to be the only stimulant left that can induce economic vitality.

War is most certainly the best way to give power to bankrupt governments and to give legitimacy to broken ideological systems. In addition, many politicians around the world are secretly thinking to themselves that war is the only thing that can save them from being overthrown and jailed.

The constant attacks of Israel on Iran have drawn the first of what could be numerous attacks by Iran on Israel. Those attacks will be used to justify greater attacks by Israel on Iran, and then attacks on other countries. Those attacks will eventually force the United States into the conflict, and that conflict may merge with the conflict Ukraine, thus bringing in Russia, and perhaps Germany, France, Great Britain, and Turkey.

How much further the conflict would spread beyond that, whether up to nuclear war, or out to China, India, Korea and Japan, we do not know yet.

What we do know is that Israel is inseparable from the financial, technological, military, intelligence, industrial complex that now has near complete control of the media and of policy in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain.

We must not fool ourselves about the gravity of the situation. The fact that Iran’s attack on Israel was smaller than it could have been, or the fact that Israel’s possible response is marketed as a possible “tit-for-tat,” mean nothing.

We must remember the “Phoney War.”

The Phoney War refers to the eight months between the German invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939 and the German invasion of France on May 10th, 1940. Although there was great uncertainly as to what would happen then, and plenty of wishful thinking about some magic solution, the truth was that once United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany following the invasion of Poland, the ball was set in motion.

You see, banks and corporations make enormous fortunes from the build up for war, and they want to encourage crises that demand massive spending on weapons—which translate into massive profits for their owners.

But banks and corporations do not want total war because total war is profoundly destructive, and because if there is such a war, the chain of command will shift from the banks and corporations to the military—which is not in the interests of the bankers.

The problem is that if the banks and corporations push the situation too far, as they have done now, then the chain of command moves over to the hands of the military and the generals follow orders like clockwork—and that is even more true granted the dangerous push to import AI going on everywhere.

It will require a revolution, at every level, to stave off this war. We must question the authority of the rich and powerful to make policy at every turn, and question every decision from the top to the bottom, asking of every single policy, law, or guideline, whether it is constitutional, legal, or moral.

We must not be afraid to say no to those who cloak themselves in Ivy League authority, or to those who wear uniforms, or to those who drive fancy cars, live in luxurious homes, and appear on TV.

If we must build our own journalism, our own communities, our own provisional governments to oppose this illegal and unconstitutional usurpation of authority, then so be it.

Only the pursuit of truth, combined with focused and immediate action, can put us on a road towards peace and away from a war of annihilation.

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This article was originally published on Fear No Evil.

Emanuel Pastreich served as the president of the Asia Institute, a think tank with offices in Washington DC, Seoul, Tokyo and Hanoi. Pastreich also serves as director general of the Institute for Future Urban Environments. Pastreich declared his candidacy for president of the United States as an independent in February, 2020.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

All images in this article are from the author