[Music]
i'm george galloway and i present
kali mahora on al-maidin television here
we are
in london i speak my words freely
either in parliament on television here
on the streets of london
kali mahara means free work that's what
i speak
so kali mahora is a two-way conversation
check it out on al maiden television
welcome to kali mahora with me george
galloway on
almighty television coming to you from
london
but dealing with venezuela iran
the united states and therefore global
politics
and the delicate poise at which we now
stand
between direct united states military
involvement
in venezuela maybe even in
iran and how the world is and should
be reacting to that the proximate cause
of the debate
is the threats made by the united states
government
repeatedly to intervene to stop
the perfectly legal trade between
iran and venezuela in petrochemical and
oil supplies which has absolutely
nothing to do with the united states
but the united states has arrogated to
itself the role
of the world's policeman although they
won't go
into a court at the hague when the icc
begins to investigate alleged war crimes
carried out by united states forces in
afghanistan a policeman that won't go
into court indeed threatens condemned
punishment
against that court and its officials for
daring
to question united states behavior the
whole picture could not more clearly
demonstrate the absolute immorality
of the role of the united states in the
world
an international bully not an
international policeman
but it is still for this moment
at least might not last long the
international
hegemon arrogating to itself the right
to
dictate what sovereign governments do
together or on their own
so i'm joined as always by a group of
distinguished experts i'm just the
enthusiastic amateur in this picture let
me
introduce them to you calvin tucker of
the morning star
newspaper is a significant figure in his
own right
but here as one of 200
international observers at venezuela's
democratic elections
has a particular expertise to bring
together
william mora on my right is a prominent
supporter of the venezuelan government
a prominent supporter of the late
president
hugo chavez that's when i met him
and he flies the flag here in britain
for the bolivarian revolution uh the
theme or the
ideology behind the government in
caracas and on my far right if he'll
forgive me
using that phrase no political pun
intended
is clive menzies businessman
experienced in the finance sector
and across technology clive let me
begin with you these
sanctions that the united states has
levied
against venezuela and against iran
have no international legal validity
so how come the united states gets to
unilaterally impose sanctions
and particularly against two countries
both of them under sanctions but seeking
to trade
perfectly legally together well
i draw a lot of my analysis on the work
we did at critical thinking which was a
collaborative project to try and
understand the way the world works
and when you understand the framework
within which
we all live then you begin to see that
the us of itself is not in control
but is effectively controlled by the
structure of the political economy
and most significantly through money
power
and you talk about the arbitrary
sanctions of the u.s
uh i would also point to the bank of
england
arbitrarily or unilaterally denying
venezuela its goal
sitting on two million dollars worth of
gold which the venezuelans quite
legitimately asked for it to be returned
and that was refused um so what we're
talking about is an overarching power
structure primarily driven through the
power of money
and the u.s is driven by money power or
controlled by money power
it's the structural incentives and
penalties within the political economy
which create these these tensions
so no the the us has no legitimacy it's
quite interesting you
you talk you made the contrast between
the us being the world's policeman and
the
world's bully uh but when we look at
militarization
of police forces generally i would say
there is very very little difference
between good time
i used to regularly be invited to
debates in academic circles uh
with uh if you like bourgeois
thinkers on the subject of the
rules-based order it was a buzz phrase
for
quite some time seems ridiculous now but
a lot of people used to
profess adherence loyalty to a
rules-based
order but what the us is involved in
against iran
and against venezuela is the very
opposite of a rules-based order
they've actually ripped up all the rules
and applied their own unilateral dictat
haven't they
well i i would say that they're working
to a different set of rules
the rules based order is based on the
shock doctrine which is basically to
confiscate
all assets that rightfully belong to the
people and then rent them back to them
and that's how the bolivar
uh the bolivian government of
morales came to power sadly no longer in
existence
and if you look at what's happened
progressively across
latin america the middle east was
something of a distraction from 9 11
onwards because it kept the focus on the
middle east
in that time you saw the genesis of some
real
grass roots i hate to use that work word
because it's
manipulated but from the bottom up under
hugo chavez
you had this this surge of people power
that actually started to control its own
destiny and fostering similar movements
in ecuador
in bolivia and in argentina all that has
now been swept away and venezuela is
is is the last standout if you like as
is iran in the middle east along with
syria where obviously the u.s
hegemony and and uh
imperial ambition has been thwarted but
it hasn't gone away though
it hasn't gone away and i think that
what we're seeing
actually because this has a context of
the global
financial system and that is currently
being deliberately collapsed
and within that context what we're
looking at in terms of america
is it's in its final throes as an empire
and these to some extent are the last
gasps of imperial ambition now whether
whether that will be subsumed into a
world government which is
the primary plan or whether the baton
will be passed to possibly
israel or china who knows but they are
all controlled by money power so that
isn't actually going to change
anything much i'm surprised you think
there's a plan
uh it doesn't look very much like a plan
to me but we'll come back to
that calvin as you look
today at the state of the united states
at the absolute chaos that exists
in the united states does it surprise
even a veteran
anti-imperialist as you that they're
still
getting involved in iran and venezuela
and between the two
well i think if you look at what's
happening
today right across every state within
the u.s
you can see an ideology
of white supremacism or at least the
echoes of white supremacism
rooted way back in the actual formation
of the united states a country that
was put together on the basis of the
extermination of the indigenous
population and was made economically
powerful by the transportation
and enslavement of black people from
africa
so you have at the moment this big
groundswell this upsurge
of global anguish global anger at what
happened to
uh the gentleman in minneapolis george
floyd
george floyd but of course it's not
really about george floyd
um the man what's happened is that
that his killing has resonated with
black people and their allies right
across the world
including in countries in quite
unexpected ways parts of eastern
europe here in britain in rural welsh
villages and towns you have black lives
matter
protesters coming out uh onto the
streets
so the current the current state of u.s
imperialism
is deeply rooted in historical
events and of course it's it's it's
ideological
it's political it's economic and it's
military
i mean the the movement of the iranian
tankers in into venezuela the u.s said
it was going to
stop that from happening it failed it
failed to achieve that
and they really had a bloody nose over
that but i think
the military power of the united states
continues
essentially unabated but within the
context of
a declining economic uh empire who was
previously stated to a very dangerous
situation it is
uh because a wounded animal is uh
famously more dangerous and no one would
look at the united states today and
conclude other than
this is a wounded country you wonder
though
a political class that can't keep order
in its own streets
except by the use of extreme violence
which begets
still more resistance still imagining
that it control
can control the streets of venezuela
well it's quite extraordinary i mean
ever since
the attempt to install one guido as the
president of venezuela about 18 months
ago
18 months on guado does not control a
single
hospital a single civil servant a single
policeman a single
army unit absolutely no aspects of the
venezuelan
state and yet uh that individual is
recognized as the lawful
president of the country by about 50
countries worldwide these countries call
themselves the international
community of course that's ludicrous
there's 200 countries in the world which
means 150 countries
recognize the legitimate elected
president of venezuela
yet that does not stop this absolutely
appalling sanctions regime affecting
every aspect of the venezuelan economy
and people don't know this but those
sanctions
weren't actually brought in by trump
they began in 2015
under obama and it was only later that
trump intensified those sanctions to
cover
um to seize the citgo oil assets in the
united states to prevent venezuela
from trading to attack the
all financial transactions and so forth
let's hear from dr francisco dominguez
he's the head of center for brazilian
and latin american studies
at middlesex university dr
francisco did the uh success of the
iranian flotilla
arriving with the fuel in venezuela pose
a threat to u.s hegemony
not only do you have two countries that
have been heavily sanctioned
by the united states with you know the
intention to asphyxiate them
economically uh with the intention of
making the pariahs of the world
even with constant threats of military
action against them both
in the case of iran as well as in the
case of venezuela
and the government of iran has taken
position
obviously in collaboration with the
venezuelan
government to actually send this
flotilla
um not only the united states
was tested to try to do something about
it and eventually decided not to do it
in fact the united states has deployed a
huge
um war flotilla in the caribbean
with the ostensible intention to stop
drug trafficking from venezuela as they
claim
false view course and which is
called the collaboration of warships
from france
from the netherlands and the uk this
involved warships
helicopters warplanes submarines god
knows what
and they were right in the vicinity and
one after another of these
tankers just went through and more
important that this was revealed by the
venezuelan government itself
the military escort that is caught to
the
various tank is one after another went
outside
this special economic zone of venezuela
that is to say
went into international waters to make
sure that they were ready to offer any
protection where the united states to
attack
and they went in now this doesn't end
the blockade against venezuela
but he massively tends it but more
important that in terms of the specifics
of the blockade itself economically
financially and so on
energetically speaking i think the most
important significance is symbolic
the inability and paralysis of the
united states that the world's most
radical right-wing government ever after
threatening
repeatedly they ended up doing literally
nothing
and i think that's a huge blow and it
offers possibilities for many countries
around the world
it's going to change the world quite
dramatically because it's likely to
happen again
and again and again not necessarily only
between venezuela and iran
i'm sure between venezuela and others
iran and others
and many other countries and others
because it's totally unacceptable
the united states uses extraterritorial
military threat to impose his illegal
will and criminal will on countries that
all the one to do
is trade and collaborate peacefully
william
it's your country uh you must have been
in in terms of your morale greatly
lifted by the failure of the united
states to
stop the legal trade between iran and
venezuela
but they haven't gone away have they
united states soldiers have been
arriving in next door colombia
the sanctions have been intensified the
rhetoric
ramped up how do you see the current
situation
between u.s imperialism and your country
this is a long battle we have with the
united states since the beginning
of the revolution in 1999 at the moment
we announced our constitution
the the shape of the constitution was
challenging the document of united
states the way
how the constitution set establish the
distribution of power
to the people and create the needs to
create
structures at the grassroots to start
taking decisions by their own community
base
president chavez then moved into uh
modifying the the economy system
and recover regain sovereignty on the
oil industry
and that was the nerve that touched the
empire
when we declare that the oil belongs to
venezuela immediately we move
the venezuelan reserve out of the exxon
mobil
exxon mobil books into venezuelans books
exxonmobil used to lend money using
venezuela reserve as their as their own
when we declared that some mobile
declared that they are having losses
and with exxon mobil all the
corporations in inside united states
the rhetoric we are seeing lately it's
just
a projection of the battle that started
in 1999 and then 20
2001 when president chavez announced the
the new laws that
uh enforce the constitution and then
propagate forward the movement the
the the movement of the project
immediately the united states
started having reactions violent
reactions against venezuela
political uh structures they could time
2002
then the military invasion of
mercenaries in 2003
the oil strike in 2003 and then
consecutive
manipulations and using the venezuelan
opposition as a puppet
of the united states interest and
slowly the venezuelan opposition has
been decanted into a very violent
dominant force in the in the venezuelan
spectrum
that silence the moderate voices that
can
protect the protagonism of the democracy
in venezuela
so venezuela has been left with a very
violent opposition
supported financially logistically
politically
and in the media by the united states
and is allies
and and has been carrying up to the
point that we have a puppet
president selected by united states that
has never conquered to the elections of
the mass of the population
has nobody elected him as a president he
has no mandate
to do anything but the mandate has been
instructed to him by the united states
juan guayo is asking for the most
horrendous things against his own
country
without the understanding that he is
naked in front of all of us
everybody will remember him everybody
will not forget what he's doing
right now even he has the backing of
very big bullies
these bullies will not stay there
forever i hope
we will peacefully overcome this
resistance that we're having now
with the venezuelan opposition we
peacefully will get to the next election
and peacefully we will demobilize the
the far-right
uh violent leadership that the united
states has imposed into the venezuelan
opposition
to one side and we will have a moderate
uh constructive opposition that is loyal
to the country and we will be able to
transit to the next stage but now the
the detail is this
the united states is no it's not having
it
is venezuela is in such an a
critical moment that the united states
has to invade venezuela
it's done it's done invaded and is done
if they invaded
so the united states has himself trapped
himself into an impossible position
and i am afraid they will launch the
attack on venezuela
because they need it because it's a
projection of the domestic policy
because
they need to show internally
domestically
that they are strong and they need a
victory somewhere
and they think there will be a easy
victory in venezuela and they will not
so doctor why did the u.s fail on this
occasion to
stop this trade between iran and
venezuela
i wish i knew definitely what the reason
was
but i think there are several reasons
that must come into the picture
for us to understand why they didn't
number one
even though the pentagon you know are
very warm monger
themselves and they're the ones that
implement the
policy of the united states everywhere
they've been doing for decades
i think many of them came to the
conclusion i think there are reasonable
people there who knows what the
realities
of the situation in the world are they
possibly advise against him i mean many
of them
during the time when there was this
deployment of the flotilla in the
caribbean against venezuela
several voices quite high up offices
went public
in magazines such as foreign policy
saying this is not a good idea
and so on so many voices with
independent within the military
establishment
i'm sure that president says saying this
is not a good idea
and we're very reluctant to go for it
they said that publicly many times
but i think that is a second important
factor when the united states you know
in the most
arctic manner prepared the ground
by deceit and ended up assassinating
general solimani
they um never expected the response that
they got from iran
and in the middle east the united states
militarily
politically and economically are quite
fragile quite vulnerable to attacks
i remember reading the response by the
iranian government
which was to attack three u.s military
bases with substantial force
something that never happened before so
in this particular occasion
you know not only the pentagon advice
and the military reluctance in the
united states to go for a significant
conflict
but also um the possible response that
they would have met
out would have been quite substantial
and i think there is a third
but minor development which is possibly
the europeans were
you know very worried about this sort of
thing although
because they're so cowardly they
possibly expressed it very
privately making sure that they run away
back to the position of security before
this was noticed by anybody
anybody so the united states realized
certainly people were thinking there
that would be very isolated
where they are to be a response by iran
um
and therefore they decided to sit sit
tight and do nothing
thank you dr francisco much more of this
coming up after the break stay tuned
[Music]
you're watching kalamahora with me
george galloway on almighty television
coming from london but discussing the us
hegemon and its aggression particularly
against iran and venezuela and even more
when
iran and venezuela begin to cooperate
calvin we've seen this of course before
those of us old enough to remember
the purpose of these sanctions
and economic destabilization is to make
the economy
scream in the country that's being
targeted
or make the people rather scream we saw
it in chile and the
uh the run-up to the overthrow of
president allende
we've seen it in in many places
but it isn't making iran scream and it
isn't yet making venezuela
scream does that then lead in the
direction that william
uh thinks that it might of having to
take direct military action uh
i must say the prospect of this
united states this disunited states
getting involved in a major war uh in
venezuela i don't think they'll dare
uh with iran uh is uh is a pretty
frightening
prospect what do you think i think
you're i think you're quite right
um i mean i think the united states of
germany is breaking down
internally in the u.s we've got the
racial fault lines the regional fault
lines
economic fault lines running across
every part of that
country so i think it's weakening
internally i think it's weakening
economically at least in relative terms
to
china and of course i think that lies
behind why uh
donald trump turned uh the u.s imperial
fire
from russia and concentrated that on
china and there's been some signs from
eu countries that they're now picking up
on the anti-chinese
bandwagon so yes i think this is a
dangerous
uh perhaps a cornered animal might be
going a bit strong but certainly this is
a very dangerous animal that sees
threats
all around it i mean sanctions
work for the united states in in in the
sense
that by destroying or disabling
uh the economies of these countries they
create a level of internal
uh turmoil that can lead to the
demoralization
of ordinary people and of course
ultimately governments are judged by
their ability to
deliver what ordinary people need homes
uh food health education all the things
that william was talking about that the
bolivarian revolution in venezuela
had had such a proud record
until imperialism was able to intervene
both through sanctions and also by
manipulating
the price of oil uh going back uh
well going back for decades but in in
over over recent years that's had a
substantial effect on venezuela's
ability to look after its own people i
mean the economic situation in venezuela
for
ordinary people i think is fair to be
described as
dire um at the moment um i mean
the reason in my view that they're
hanging on
is because they have a government
committed to looking after ordinary
working class and poor people in the
in the barriers the barriers of the
popular districts where working class
and poor people
uh live and they have a distribution
it's monthly i think um of something
called the clap
uh food hamper so this provides basic
rations for ordinary uh venezuelan so
people are being
by and large uh fed um and they've
managed to keep the education
system and the health service uh
functioning but not not functioning to
the levels they were at the height of
the
uh chavez uh presidency these are
functioning on a low level
but the venezuelan people are not going
to give in if they were going to give in
they've had plenty of opportunities to
wave the white flag from
oil executive strike to the 2002
military
coup the series of mini coups we've had
recently
culminating in that absurd kind of
historical reenactment of the bay of
pigs when
uh you know this group of mercenaries
turns up on the on the venezuelan coast
and is apprehended by local
local fishermen so no
the sanctions haven't worked i don't
believe they're going to work in the
sense that they're going to topple the
venezuelan
government but they do prevent it did it
prevent venezuela from functioning
as an ordinary society will the united
states militarily
intervene there's a logic to the
military
militarily intervening but as francisco
dominguez was saying earlier on
look at the complete lack of action when
iran
launched a sustained barrage of missiles
at
us bases in iraq the u.s did absolutely
nothing of course countries can come in
they can the u.s can come in it can bomb
it can attack it can attempt to
subjugate but unless they're prepared to
put
boots on the ground because that is what
will be required
to subjugate the venezuelan people
because my experience of traveling to
the countries there's no way
on earth that the population are going
to
simply fall over and accept u.s military
domination
let's talk about uh iran dr yasmin madar
from
oxford university saint anthony's
college
is iranian a highly experienced
campaigner
on the issues confronting her country dr
yasmin
welcome doctor why do you think the u.s
failed to intervene between the iranians
and the venezuelans
in my opinion there are two elements one
is
the current situation even before the
last weeks which coincided with the
travels
of the flotilla the u.s president was
facing a major crisis already a hundred
thousand people died from corona virgos
of course after that he lost even more
support
because of his attitude towards race but
i think he has
quite a lot of enemies within the united
states
former defense minister mattis so
you see a situation which was unique
probably historically there is in
addition the threats that
iran had replied to by saying
we don't we will not start a war but we
will retaliate
should there be an attack on the
flotilla the combination i think
has meant this policy we have to be
careful the us is
now planning sanctions on all tankers
going to venezuela and tanker companies
associated with the five tankers so we
are at the
beginning of this whole episode in some
way
some see the failure of the united
states successfully to
intervene to mean a real change
in the international environment how far
do you think this shake-up will go
it really depends i think at the current
moment in history the u.s president is
extremely
isolated and he has made himself
isolated both internally and
internationally
and that has given this opportunity
and of course we are going to see a
major
economic crisis that will have long-term
effects on the u.s economy
and global economy global capitalist
economy
and therefore there is talk of the rise
of china and
other international issues having said
all of that
i think the us remains the hegemon power
in the world and we have to see
what happens in november maybe
another u.s president will regain
if you like the support of the
international
communities the ones that trump has lost
and position
himself more within the
sections of both uh congress
but also the military who will back him
more
what will iran do now given that they
are still facing very serious
economic sanctions from the u.s well
iran is in a very difficult
position economically because of the
sanctions
so it would try as any country that
is under such pressures it would try to
continue this
by selling oil to other countries
in either openly or maybe
more secretly but it has to survive
an economy for 80 million iranians
cannot continue without selling oil
and as you know the price of oil has
dropped because of the
crisis and so on so iran would try
and any other country in that position
would have done exactly the same
will try and find ways out of it
having said that i think the scale of
the problems that iran is facing
economically
are tremendous and
these will not necessarily solve
the long-term economic problems
is this the beginning of the end of
united states
hegemony in the world well the u.s has
been in decline
and the decline is showing itself
in the election of trump it shows itself
and there is contradiction
but as i said before i think
economically but also in terms of
military air power the us remains
a powerful country and there will be
time
before maybe decades a couple of decades
before another country can overtake it
dr yasmin thank you uh clive
what options do the u.s have short of
war to uh assert
their hegemony which we're all talking
about
what can they do uh on the level of
this money power that you talked about
well they are undoubtedly still
the king well i think i think if one
looks at the history of
countries that have been sanctioned and
attacked
iraq for example where madeleine
albright
said it was worth half a million iraqi
children
dying for then if we look at what has
happened through the middle east then
that gives us some
indication of what the modus operandi is
if we if we look at most of the world
it's it's in the camp
of anglo-american power or the new world
order whatever you like to call it
the hangouts or holdouts are iran
syria where they failed and i think
there's a question around u.s
military superiority russia
doesn't advertise its military technical
capability
but i think what we've seen through the
syrian conflict is that america doesn't
have it all its own way
to some extent its military superiority
is something of a myth
and if you look at the acceleration of
chinese technology
in the way they build infrastructure and
if they're applying the same sort of
techniques to
weaponry then i don't think it's
necessarily the case that
the u.s has unlimited military
superiority or understanding
not two decades which was yasmin's
estimation
that they have another 20 years no they
have as the
world is currently in a state of great
flux
and i think that we're looking at a
pivotal point
in civilization as we know it
and one of the things that doesn't come
into this argument directly but is very
relevant
is the structure of money and how money
is controlled and the central banks
have effectively been driving the global
economy
they've been bailing out the economy
since 2008.
it's a trick that comes to an end so
what we're talking about
is the collapse of the economic system
but at the same time
there are decentralizing forces so there
is this global cartel
of immune banks but they're under
challenged from other forces which are
seeking to decentralize money power well
china is now beginning to sell american
debt the fed
has threatened promised depending on
your point of view to move into
negative interest territory
the dollar is under challenge in terms
of its global hegemony is it not
well certainly and i would say that goes
for sterling it goes for the euro
it goes for japanese yen if you continue
to issue currency
it's a trick that gives a feel-good
factor in the stock markets not
necessarily for the people
you know since 2008 people have got
progressively poorer and poorer
the middle classes too not just the
working classes
but those at the top the plutocracy
which was described in a report by
citibank in 2006
basically there are two economies so
when you look at averages they're
meaningless
because there is the economy for the
rich luxury goods and all the rest of it
and then there is the economy that the
most people live in
and what is happening at the moment
there is a lack of demand
in the economy so we've got opposing
forces we've got massive deflationary
forces which already began before the
the
the so-called coronavirus um but at the
same time we've got
these central banks such as the federal
reserve which started inflating its
balance sheet its reserves
in in september 2019 and sooner or later
money is all about confidence and when
confidence goes
that's when everything falls apart and
that's why you're hearing
mark ghani carney who's now moved to
responsibility
for climate and money talking about a
digital currency
a global digital currency related to
energy
so the power money power has a plan
which is a global currency but there are
also decentralizing forces
um self-interested forces that are doing
this
out of self-interest that are actually
chipping away at this
this concept of centralized money which
has been with us
for hundreds of years let's uh get a
view from across the
atlantic from wyatt reed who's in
washington dc
he is a dc based journalist who focuses
on latin america but he's also the
producer of by any means necessary
on radio sputnik and a frequent
contributor
to the gray zone wyatt welcome to the
show
how important do you think the export of
iranian fuel to venezuela will turn out
to have been
the venezuelan government has achieved a
number of huge
pr victories um and you know not just
propaganda victories but actual
victories for the working people of
venezuela in the past few months
uh after foiling this bizarre
uh seemingly uh u.s
backed or at le at the very least uh
this
this attempted cue that had that the cia
was aware of if nothing else uh was
aware of and did not did nothing to stop
um as far as we can tell
in addition to this sort of bay of
piglets as it's being described
uh just a few months ago we now have
iran and venezuela cooperating together
to alleviate these tremendous gas
shortages
he recently spoke with venezuelan
foreign minister jorge ariasa
he described this uh campaign
this fight this battle being waged as
tremendously important
to the venezuelan people um and as
really
sort of the the first step in this new
economic order that venezuela
and other non-aligned movement countries
are hoping to lay out
going forward so yes tremendously
important not just for the venezuelan
people
in addition to the gasoline we now have
uh
crucial parts that are going to be able
to repair
venezuela's uh oil refineries and get
that sector back in motion so important
from the perspective of just allowing
mobility within venezuelan society and
also getting that country's economy back
up and running
how is this being portrayed in the u.s
do people know about it what do they
think about it
and might it lead to still more
aggression
by the united states yeah i think we see
frustration really frustration anger uh
impotence was a great word from the
washington post
they are uh not saying
more because there's not much to say
that isn't you know we lost
this is embarrassing uh so you know
we're seeing
a move yesterday this was reported in
bloomberg
um to prepare for the trump
administration
to is preparing sanctions on as many as
50 oil
and fuel tankers as part of an effort to
cut trade between iran and venezuela
according to a person familiar with the
matter so
unclear who exactly that is this is
bloomberg reporting it um and sanctions
again
predictable right uh but but this is
kind of the point of the whole
of the whole struggle that we're
witnessing the sanctions
are their only recourse at this point um
and they've already been proven
really to not be willing to back it up
with the military force that would be
necessary to make this more meaningful
so they they've already exposed
themselves you know as as mao zeitung
as a paper tiger of an imperialist paper
tiger
so you see now that there are certain
actions that they cannot do
and just by failing to
attack venezuela or iran to to aggress
against the militarily
for the supposed sin of daring to
cooperate on matters of trade uh just by
not reacting to that well they are now
opening the door to any country in the
world and there are a lot of them which
face u.s sanctions
now defying those sanctions and knowing
well uh nothing happened to venezuela
nothing happened to iran
they slap more sanctions on us well
they're already sanctioning us you know
what we're just gonna have to keep doing
it
and go forward and let the u.s worry
about itself
william uh uh chairman mao was
definitely premature to say the least in
the 1960s to
describe the united states as a paper
tiger it's eaten a lot of people since
mao said that
if not a paper tiger certainly an
enfeebled one
a cornered one a wounded one
why are you so anxious that they might
fancy
wading ashore in your country
wouldn't that risk another vietnam and
therefore another defeat
they they they are convinced that
venezuela is an easy piece of
food that's what they said about it they
keep they keep telling
everybody that and they keep telling
themselves because they
they keep i don't know where they keep
gathering this ill intelligence
my my concern is based on that
tradition of gambles and mistakes
they will launch another one because
they are convinced they can
quickly done it they think
for a reason they will be welcome with
victories
and they forgot how we treat nixon
when he came to caracas he was
pushed out he wasn't embarrassed he
didn't want to talk about the visit
to caracas president nixon
so why you want
to repeat the same mistake
well look uh many people are puzzled
at the role of this guan uh guido
as calvin mentioned earlier 50 countries
in the world
continue to recognize him
as the president it looked pretty stupid
at the time
it is it looks utterly farcical
now what are the what are the people in
the street in venezuela
think of this man and how come he's
still at liberty
uh to walk around calling for
the invasion of his own country uh we
learn from our own mistakes when we
the position of huawei do was first
occupied by leopoldo lopez
and leopold europe launched this
guarimbas that violent protest
planned well ahead and they pretend to
be spontaneous
but there were logistics arriving to
caracas from miami
money was donated well beforehand before
uh 2014.
he was in 2013 in august doing rallies
in miami gathering money for this
warimbas in
in january february 2014
and he was made prisoner because he
actually
uh organized the killing of 43
venezuelans
he was not a killer but he could
adjuvate to the killing
so he was charged and condemned for this
death he became an international
human rights hero
and then we could understand why the
media the bbc the guardian invest so
much in protecting
a vigilant leopoldo lopez and create the
offend as a political prisoner
no no this guy organized the killing of
venezuelans
he is a criminal so we couldn't detangle
these two
and was impossible to offer more more
evidence that convinced the media to
reverse the situation because was some
a political plot so the same thing is
happening with waido
so why though will be potable again
will became a political asset again he
became a prisoner
so we cannot put him in jail
unfortunately
he has all the records to be in jail
long time ago
but at the moment we put him in jail he
will become
instead of a liability became an asset
again and we don't want to give that to
them
and the other thing he's totally
impotent he cannot do anything
he's a laughable stock so in terms of
legal stuff he he should be in jail i
think he will be in jail eventually
last question for all of you and very
briefly
uh with 2020 vision
if we were to hold this program
again say in two years time
uh will the united states have
prevailed either in iran or
in venezuela calvin it's always a risk
at predicting the future george but i'll
have a go the answer is
no in either case um
i don't believe the us is likely to
launch a military invasion
of iran it may well take some military
action stopping short of an invasion
the same situation applies in venezuela
but unless the u.s is willing to put
boots on the ground in venezuela
it won't succeed because if they kill
maduro and they've tried several times
the drone attack the recent
mercenary excursion if they kill maduro
simply another maduro will take his
place
the venezuelan army is half a million
strong it's united if it was going to
crack
it would have cracked by now ten times
that many civilians are organized in
citizens militias these people are
highly motivated highly politicized
they understand what the issues are and
they'll fight if the u.s goes into
venezuela
there will be a catastrophic bloodbath
but even if they did they still won't
win clive
um i similarly am loathe to make
predictions but i'd say this is a
question relating to the world rather
than specifically venezuela
that the world is in a in a state of
transition
and we're going to go through the
western world something that we've not
experienced
in our lifetimes but our parents
generations experienced
the sort of dislocation that arises from
economic collapse
and internal warfare so i think if
the forces of decentralization prevail
then venezuela and many more countries
will be free all of those that have been
under oppression whether we're talking
about the kurds
across the middle east or any the
palestinians
if the forces of decentralization
prevail
then we're looking in a much better
world for everyone including venezuela
and iran
william last word to you um
we have to embrace for impact the
situation will get
very bad in some point in this year next
year the united states is launching a
massive bailout of 9 trillions into the
economy
and will create a massive inflation
factor with inside united states that's
my
my perception of the crisis so the
foreign policy of united states is a
reflection of the internal policy
domestic policy
the only thing i want to say is in two
years time
only solidarity between nations will
help
us to get through this is a massive
shock wave coming
we have to embrace for impact and we
have to embrace together
so the solidarity that i see between
iran and venezuela i bless it
i bless her heartfully because even in
the most
dramatic circumstances with the most
atrocious penalties
with more punishment in our ways
we help each other and we want to
everybody understand that regardless of
the language the religion the
the pole of the planet you live if we
help each other we will get through this
together
fasten your seat belts embrace for
impact impact it's been marvelous for me
i hope it was for you i've been george
galloway
this is alma dean television and you
have been a wonderful audience thanks
for watching
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you