Episode 8 The Great King – Image and Reality

The Persian Empire 

Dr John W I Lee (2012)

Film Review

Greek philosophers and historians portray Darius I and other Persian kings as tyrannical and decadent despots who treated their subjects like slaves. Lee disputes this view, citing evidence from the sculptured reliefs at the great palace Darius I built at Persopolis. All I can conclude from Lee’s evidence is the great king knew exactly how to project a positive image of himself.

One relief depicts representatives of the 23 nations ruled by Persia bringing tribute to Darius I. They all walk upright (not kneeling, kissing feet or holding up hands in submission as in Egyptian representations of the pharaoh), with some carrying weapons. In Lee’s view this represents voluntary cooperation and support of faithful servants rather than subjugation.

Another relief depicts the enthroned king supported on the fingertips of figures representing the 23 captive nations. This, according to Lee, suggests the subjects of Darius I benefit from his rule.

Lee also cities inscriptions from the tomb of Darius I, proclaiming the moral code embraced by the late ruler: righteousness, truth, protecting the weak against the strong, making careful judgements after listening to all sides.

Other sculpture and cylinder seals depict him as good gardener and planting his own apple, pear, mulberry, pear, olive and quince trees.

In addition to military garrisoned in each of the capitols when the emperor was present, the palace at Persepolis ran a number of state owned industries that raised cattle, grew grain and produced beer, wine and leather to supply a vast staff (who according to “weren’t slaves but weren’t free”).

• secretaries from across the empire, fluent  in Aramaic, Akkadian, Elamite and Greek, who issued passports and handled political and diplomatic correspondence.
• a treasurer who collected taxes in the form of goats oxen and grain and distributed rations of flour and meat to the army garrisoned there and palace staff.
• artisans (mainly metal and leather workers and sculptors) sometimes including women and children.
• a cup bearer (to test the king’s food and drink for poison), a spear bearer, a word bearer, a grand vizier (a kind of prime minister)
• 10,000 imperial guards (armed with spears or bow and arrow) to guard the gates, exterior walls and the citadel on a high terrace above the palace.
• magi to interpret dreams and omen and give political advice, as well as teaching the royal children.
• Greek and Egyptians physicians
• castrated males (eunuchs) to oversee the royal harem.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/15372393/15372395

Episode 7 The Persian Capitals and Palaces

The Persian Empire

Dr John W I Lee (2012)

Film Review

Under Darius I, Persia had five capitols: Pasargardae, Ecbatana, Babylon, Susa and Persepolis

• Pasargardae – located in highland fertile valley (6,000 feet) on important trade route conemporary Fars province of Fars. Built by Cyrus, palace takes up 400 acres, encompassing sacrificial altars, tomb of Cyrus II and tent space for garrison protecting it. Architecture manifests Egyptian, Elamite, Median, Babylonian, Lydian, Ionian influence.
• Ecbatana (former capitol of Media) – on highland fertile plains, enabling Persian control over Silk Road and Mediterranean horse and wheat trade. Several palace buildings had silver roofs, as an effective way of storing precious metal.
• Babylon – located in Mesopotamian plain (at a time when Euphrates river still crossected it. Had 100,000 population and named streets laid out in grid pattern. Darius designated himself king of Babylon and professed allegiance to Babylonian god Marduke.
• Susa (setting for for the Biblical story Esther) – Darius rebuilt the palace in Susa from bricks owing to a shortage of stone. Chosen for its strategic military access to Babylon Persian Gulf (via Persian river network). Expansive tent space for troops when king in residence.
• Persepolis – built by Darius just south of Pasagardae, palace complex reveals strong Egyptian influence

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/15372393/15372448

Donald Trump campaigned on ending endless wars and now boasts that he has resolved eight wars. In reality, this claim is delusional, and his foreign policy is a disaster. The United States remains mired in ongoing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and now Trump is careening blindly into new wars in Latin America.

The dangerous disconnect between Trump’s delusions and the real-world impacts of his policies is on full display in his new National Security Strategy document. But this schism has been exacerbated by putting U.S. foreign policy in the hands of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose neocon worldview and behind-the-scenes maneuvering has consistently undercut Trump’s professed goals of diplomacy, negotiated settlements and “America First” priorities.

The eight wars Trump claims he has ended include non-existent wars between Egypt and Ethiopia, and Serbia and Kosovo, and the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan that ended in 2023, after Azerbaijan invaded and ethnically cleansed the ancient Armenian community of Nagorno-Karabakh. Trump stole credit for peace between Thailand and Cambodia, which was actually mediated by Malaysia, while India insists that it ended its war with Pakistan without help from Trump.

Trump recently invited the presidents of Rwanda and the DRC to Washington to sign a peace deal, but it’s only the latest of many agreements that have failed to end decades of war and proxy war that rage on in the eastern Congo.

Trump even claims to have brought peace to Iran, which was not at war until he and Netanyahu plotted to attack it. Now diplomacy with Iran is dead—torpedoed by Trump’s treacherous use of negotiations as cover for the U.S.-Israeli surprise attack in June, an illegal war right out of Rubio’s neocon playbook.

Rubio has undermined diplomacy with Iran for years. As a senator, he worked to kill the JCPOA nuclear agreement, framed negotiations as appeasement, and repeatedly demanded harsher sanctions or military action. He defended the U.S. and Israeli attacks in June, which confirmed the claims of Iranian hardliners that the United States cannot be trusted. He makes meaningful talks with Iran impossible by insisting that Iran cease all nuclear enrichment and long-range missile development.  By aligning U.S. policy with Israel’s, Rubio closed off the only path that has ever reduced tensions with Iran: sustained, good-faith diplomacy.

Trump’s eighth claimed peace agreement was his Gaza “peace plan,” under which Israel still kills and maims Palestinians every day and allows only 200 truckloads per day of food, water, medicine, and relief supplies into Gaza. With Israeli forces still occupying most of Gaza, no country is sending troops to join Trump’s “stabilization force,” nor will Hamas disarm and leave its people defenseless. Israel still calls the shots, and will only allow rebuilding in Israeli-occupied areas.

As secretary of state, it was Marco Rubio’s job to negotiate peace and an end to the occupation of Palestine. But Rubio’s entire political career has been defined by unwavering support for Israel and corrupted by over a million dollars from pro-Israel donor groups like AIPAC. He refuses to speak to Hamas, insisting on its total isolation and destruction.

Rubio even refuses to negotiate with the weakest, most compromised, but still internationally recognized, Palestinian Authority. In the Senate, he worked to defund and delegitimize the PA, and now he insists it should play no role in Gaza’s future, but he offers no alternative. Contrast this with China, which recently convened 14 Palestinian factions for dialogue. With a U.S. secretary of state who won’t talk to any Palestinian actors, the United States is only supporting endless war and occupation.

Ukraine is not on Trump’s list of “eight wars,” but it is the conflict he most loudly promised to end on day one. Trump took his first steps to resolve the crisis in Ukraine with phone calls with Putin and Zelenskyy on February 12, 2025. War Secretary Pete Hegseth told a meeting of America’s NATO allies in Brussels that the U.S. was taking Ukraine’s long-promised NATO membership off the table, and that “we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective. Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.”

Zelenskyy and his European backers are still trying to persuade Trump that, with his support, they can win back at the negotiating table what Ukraine and its western allies lost by their tragic decision to reject a negotiated peace in April 2022. Russia was ready to withdraw from all the land it had just occupied, but the U.S. and U.K. persuaded NATO and Ukraine to instead embark on this long war of attrition, in which their negotiating position only grows weaker as Ukraine’s losses mount.

On November 21st, Trump unveiled a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine that was built around the policy Trump and Hegseth had announced in February: no NATO membership, and no return to pre-2014 borders. But once Rubio arrived to lead the U.S. negotiating team in talks in Geneva, he let Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and the Europeans put NATO membership and Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders back on the table.

This was a poison pill to deliberately undermine the basic concept of Ukrainian neutrality that Russia insists is the only way to resolve the security dilemma facing both NATO and Russia and ensure a stable and lasting peace. As a European official crowed to Politico, “Things went in the right direction in Geneva. Still a work in progress, but looking much better now… Rubio is a pro who knows his stuff.”

Andriy Yermak, who led Ukraine’s negotiating team in Geneva, has now been fired in a corruption scandal, reportedly at Trump’s behest, as has Trump’s envoy to Kyiv, Keith Kellogg, who apparently leaked Trump’s plan to the press.

Trump is facing a schism in his foreign policy team that echoes his first term, when he appointed a revolving door of neocons, retired generals and arms industry insiders to top jobs. This time, he has already fired his first National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, several NSC staff, and now General Kellogg,

Trump’s team on Ukraine now includes Vice President J.D. Vance, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, Deputy National Security Advisor Andy Baker and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who all seem to be on board with the basic policy that Trump and Hegseth announced in February.

But Rubio is keeping alive European hopes of a ceasefire that postpones negotiations over NATO membership and Ukraine’s borders for a later date, to allow NATO to once again build, arm and train Ukrainian forces to retake its lost territories by force, as it did from 2015 to 2022 under cover of the Minsk Accords.

This raises the questions: Does Rubio, like the Europeans and the neocons in Congress, still back the Biden-era strategy of fighting a long proxy war to the last Ukrainian? And if so, is he now in fact working to undermine Trump’s peace efforts?

Ray McGovern, the founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, thinks so, writing

“…we are at the threshold on Ukraine, at the beginning of a consequential battle between the neocons and Europeans on one side, and Donald Trump and the realists on the other. Will Trump show the fortitude to see this through and overcome his secretary of state?”

But it’s perhaps in Latin America where Rubio is playing the most aggressive role. Rubio has always promoted regime-change policies, economic strangulation, and U.S. interference targeting left-leaning governments in Latin America. Coming from a conservative Cuban family, he has long been one of the most hard-line voices in Washington on Cuba, championing sanctions, opposing any easing of the embargo, and working to reverse Obama-era diplomatic openings.

His position on Venezuela is similar. He was a leading architect of the Trump administration’s failed “maximum pressure” campaign against Venezuela, promoting crippling sanctions that devastated civilians, while openly endorsing failed coups and military threats.

Now Rubio is pushing Trump into a catastrophic, criminal war with Venezuela. In early 2025, Trump’s administration briefly pursued a diplomatic track with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, spearheaded by envoy Richard Grenell. But Marco Rubio’s hard-line, pressure-first approach gradually overtook the negotiation channel: Trump suspended talks in October 2025, and U.S. policy shifted toward intensified sanctions and military posturing.

Rubio’s hostility extends across the region: he has attacked progressive leaders in Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Honduras, and Brazil, while supporting authoritarians aligned with U.S. and Israeli interests. While Trump has warmed to Brazil’s president Lula and craves access to its reserves of rare earth elements, the second largest after China’s, Lula has no illusions about Rubio’s hostility and has refused to even meet with him.

Rubio’s approach is the opposite of diplomacy. He refuses engagement with governments he dislikes, undermines regional institutions, and encourages Washington to isolate and punish rather than negotiate. Instead of supporting peace agreements—such as Colombia’s fragile accords or regional efforts to stabilize Haiti—he treats Latin America as a battleground for ideological crusades.

Rubio’s influence has helped block humanitarian relief, deepen polarization, and shatter openings for regional dialogue. A Secretary of State committed to peace would work with Latin American partners to resolve conflicts, strengthen democracy, and reduce U.S. militarization in the hemisphere. Rubio does the reverse: he inflames tensions, sabotages diplomacy, and pushes U.S. policy back toward the dark era of coups, blockades, proxy wars and death squads.

So why is Trump betraying his most loyal MAGA supporters, who take his promises to “end the era of endless wars” at face value? Why is his administration supporting the same out-of-control American war machine that has run rampant around the world since the rise of neocons like Dick Cheney and Hillary Clinton in the 1990s?

Is Trump simply unable to resist the lure of destructive military power that seduces every American president? Trump’s MAGA true believers would like to think that he and they represent a rejection of American imperialism and a new “America First” policy that prioritizes national sovereignty and shared domestic prosperity. But MAGA leaders like Marjorie Taylor Green can see that is not what Trump is delivering.

U.S. secretaries of state wield considerable power, and Trump is not the first president to be led astray by his secretary of state. President Eisenhower is remembered as a champion of peace, for quickly ending the Korean War – then slashing the military budget – and for two defining speeches at the beginning and end of his presidency: his “Chance for Peace” speech after the death of Soviet premier Josef Stalin in 1953; and his Farewell Address in 1960, in which he warned Americans against the “unwarranted influence” of the “military-industrial complex.”

For most of his presidency though, Eisenhower gave his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, free rein to manage U.S. foreign policy. By the time Eisenhower fully grasped the dangers of Dulles’ brinksmanship with the U.S.S.R. and China, the Cold War arms race was running wild. Then Eisenhower’s belated outreach to the Soviets was interrupted by his own ill-health and the U-2 crisis. Hillary Clinton had a similarly destructive and destabilizing impact on Obama’s first-term foreign policy, in Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Syria and Honduras.

These should be cautionary tales for Trump. If he really wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, not a warmonger, he had better make the necessary personnel changes to his inner circle before it is too late. War with Venezuela is easily avoidable, since the whole world already knows the U.S. pretexts for war are fabricated and false. Rubio has stoked the underlying tensions and led this escalating campaign of lies, threats and murders, so Trump would be wise to replace him before his march to war crosses the point of no return.

This would allow Trump and Rubio’s successor to start rebuilding relations with our neighbors in Latin America and the Caribbean, and to finally change longstanding U.S. policies that keep the Middle East, and now Ukraine, trapped in endless war.

[…]

Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/trump-peace-marco-rubio-go/5908265

Dmitry Orlov

A lot of chattering heads are currently chattering about a great many things, such as:

• Trump said something about holding elections in the former Ukraine. Zelensky said something about that too, but nothing too important. He wants to hold on to his job for as long as possible and will say random things hoping that this will prolong the former Ukraine’s agony.

• Some congresscritter filed a bill for the US to leave NATO, which is 70% US money, 80% US technology and 100% US-controlled, so the word “disband” would be more appropriate. US defense contractors, who would have to approve this bill using their congressional hand puppets, will have none of it, of course, as long as there is any chance of milking that NATO job some more.

• A new National Security Strategy document has been accidentally located on the White House web server, according which Europe is an enemy, Russia is a friend and the US is a pumpkin. Its author seems to have been an AI engine that’s been force-fed Russian political talk shows and Putin’s speeches. Lots of people reacted in shock, as if this is something real. But strategy needs to become policy and that policy then has to be followed, so let’s not hold our breath.

• The EU has a strategy too. It is to wait and to stall. They want to wait until Trump gets impeached or croaks or his term runs out and he’s replaced with the usual sort of globalist warmongering stooge. It’s only a hope but at this point that is all they have.

• In the UK, fake news outlets are once again yammering about the Skripal/Novichok nonsense and trying to scare everyone about Russian spies/drones/whatever in a desperate effort to distract the populace from the fact that the UK is bloody broke, run by idiots and generally falling apart.

• Various EU-critters are still circling frozen Russian funds stuck at Euroclear in Belgium like a pack of hungry hyenas, stupidly oblivious (or pretending to be) that there is no money there, just debt — Europe’s own debt to Russia.

• Off the coast of Venezuela, the US fleet tired of sinking fishing boats (the fish are on drugs, you see!) and have instead resorted to piracy. They hijacked an oil tanker and intend to steal its oil. Americans will pay for that stolen oil through higher prices at the gas pumps, of course.

• The latest bit of fake news is a leaked plan: Americans are considering organizing something called C5: five core nations that include Russia, China, India, Japan and, of course, the United States. Little do they know that there is already an organization of five core nations: BRICS. The US would be the 6th but it won’t be invited.

This is all fake news, of course. And now for some real news:

Servicemen from the 123rd and 6th Guards Separate Motorized Rifle Brigades of the 3rd Combined Arms Army of the “Southern” Group of Forces liberated the town of Seversk, completing the clearing of Ukrainian Armed Forces units from the city’s neighborhoods. Servicemen from the “Southern” Group of Forces unfurled the Russian Federation National Flag near the Seversk City Administration building, the Memorial to the Heroes of the Great Patriotic War, and the monument to the legendary Soviet T-34 tank in Victory Park, as well as on the streets and rooftops of the city, which has come under the control of the Russian Armed Forces.

Why is this important? Because Seversk was the last Ukrainian fortress, built up since 2022, and now it has fallen. It has been a long, hard slog blasting apart a series hardened concrete bunkers using rockets, artillery and air bombardment, but now it is over. For the Russian army, the path is now open to Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, the last two large cities left under Ukrainian occupation in the Donbas. The Russian forces are moving faster than ever and are very much enthused by the idea of an outright victory.

That is all that matters: victory. Victory will bring peace. Everything else is just noise.
change.

[…]

Via https://boosty.to/cluborlov/posts/1b3e6b05-a2ac-4f3b-890a-70c98c49b2d3