Clash of Civilizations

We offer no opinion on the morality of any of the participants in these regime change wars. But US involvement, sin or not, is likely to be a mistake.

Wednesday, June 18th, 2025

Bill Bonner, from Youghal, Ireland

Stephen Kinzer: Mark Twain was an eviscerating anti-imperialist…he used to write that Americans fighting in foreign wars were carrying a polluted musket under a bandit’s flag.

Amy Goodman: Makes me wonder if his books will start to be taken out of libraries around the country.

Yesterday, reporters had a hard time keeping up with the whirlpool illegality, bumph, and bad judgement that is the US president.

First, on the news screens, came this notice:

Trump returning to Washington to handle Iran

French president Emmanuel Macron guessed that he was going to negotiate a ceasefire. But Trump corrected and insulted him almost immediately. Trump:

“Publicity seeking President Emmanuel Macron, of France, mistakenly said that I left the G7 Summit, in Canada, to go back to DC to work on a “cease fire” between Israel and Iran. Wrong!

“He has no idea why I am now on my way to Washington. But it certainly has nothing to do with a Cease Fire. Much bigger than that.

“Whether purposely or not, Emmanuel always gets it wrong.”

Bigger than a cease fire? Uh oh. And he went on to say that all of Tehran should evacuate ‘immediately.’

Yes, the US chief executive told ten million residents of a foreign capital 6,000 miles from Washington, in a country with which the US is not at war…which has no capacity to harm the US neither economically nor militarily…whose language he doesn’t speak…and whose history he doesn’t know…that they must get out of town at once.

Then, he continued. The New York Times:

President Trump declared on Tuesday that “we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran” and called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender” amid mounting evidence that the United States was considering joining Israel’s bombing campaign against the country.

We? On his own say-so, Trump brought 330 million Americans into another grotesque war. What’s it all about, they may have wondered? Maybe it has something to do with Iran’s weapons of mass destruction? Apparently not. Tulsi Gabbard, America’s director of national intelligence, says Iran has no nukes and is not developing them. Trump says: “I don’t care what she thinks.”

You have to wonder why we keep 17 different spook agencies…with Gabbard at the head of them…on the payroll, if the president’s genius makes them unnecessary. But in the year of our Lord 2025, neither real intelligence, the US Constitution, nor saving money matter.

Unusual? Yep. Unprecedented? Maybe not. It may be just the latest in more than 100 different US attempts to undermine, overthrow, or subvert foreign governments since 1949. And not the first time for Iran.

But the ‘regime change’ weed has its roots in far deeper soil. On display today may be a sequel to what the ancient Hebrews did to the Canaanites in approximately 1,300 BC. It was from God Himself that they took their marching orders:

You shall not leave alive anything that breathes. But you shall utterly destroy them.

Then, Joshua bent to his bloody work:

Thus Joshua struck all the land, the hill country and the Negev and the lowland and the slopes and all their kings. He left no survivor, but he utterly destroyed all who breathed, just as the Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded…He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses. (Joshua 10:40, 11:15)

When he was finished, it must have looked like modern-day Gaza.

And Tehran may be next. Iran, of course, has a right to defend itself. What it lacks are the means to do so. Its planes, drones and missiles are no match US/Israeli firepower. And gone now are all the illusions of the Rule of Law. It’s now the ‘Rule of the Jungle’ where Israeli/US might — combined with billions in campaign donations, lobbying, biased media coverage, and Jeffrey Epstein’s blackmail airplane — make all the ‘right’ you need.

“We” control the skies over Tehran, says POTUS. Iran must submit, or else be destroyed. After all, we’re fighting to ‘save Western civilization’ from the evil Muslims and their nuclear weapons.

So far, the Clash of Civilizations (CoC) is going well. We asked Grok 3. It tells us that as many as 125,000 Christians, 4,000 Jews (defenders of Western civilization) and a few non-denominational martyrs have been killed since the beginning of this century. But talk about a good deal!

The death toll among Muslims is estimated at over four million, most of them civilians. Europe now hosts 12.4 million refugees — many of whom are additional victims of the CoC.

We offer no opinion on the morality of any of the participants in these regime change wars. But US involvement, sin or not, is likely to be a mistake. The more foreign nations “we” attack, the more they all feel they need nuclear protection. Bruce Fein:

‘One thing is certain. Israel’s example will awaken every country in the world to the imperative of acquiring nuclear weapons to preserve sovereignty. The Doomsday Clock is nearing midnight.’

The Primary Trend in politics is towards more of it…ultimately expressed in violence. And the more Muslims the defenders of Western Civilization gun down the less ‘civilized’ the West becomes.

Regards,

Bill Bonner

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Source: Financial Times

Research Note, by Dan Denning

Silver is not considered a ‘major’ asset class. That’s why it’s not on the chart above, as the second-best performer of 2025 (silver is up around 27% year-to-date). Along with gold and platinum, the precious metals are leading the pack. What about the second half of 2025, though? Take our poll below and tell us what asset will lead markets in over the next six months (note that I would have included ‘cash’ but only five options are available in the poll software). Paid subscribers can expect more on this discussion later today with Investment Director Tom Dyson’s weekly market note and tomorrow with a special State of the World Private Briefing with Bill.