Links —9 Oct 2021

Moon of Alabama [Taliban are in a good position to play the US off with China and Russia]
The U.S. Wants Back Into Afghanistan

The Grayzone [battle for your brain, reminiscent of brainwashing]
Behind NATO’s ‘cognitive warfare’: ‘Battle for your brain’ waged by Western militaries
Ben Norton

Sputnik International [like USSR putting missiles in Cuba in reaction to US putting missiles in Turkey]

'Playing With Fire': Chinese State Media Claims Deployment of US Troops to Taiwan Might Prompt War

Jacobin [unflagged mercenaries operating without rules]
Canadian Private Security Companies Have Wreaked Havoc in Afghanistan
Yves Engle

Also at Jacobin

Peter Thiel Embodies Silicon Valley’s Conservative Past and Dystopian Future

Paris Marx

Truthout [adding value or gorging at the federal trough?]

Private Equity Is Sucking Up More and More Medicare Cash

David Moore

RT
The US cannot defend Taiwan, and China knows it
Scott Ritter, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and author of 'SCORPION KING: America's Suicidal Embrace of Nuclear Weapons from FDR to Trump.' He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty, in General Schwarzkopf’s staff during the Gulf War, and from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector

China’s Xi calls Taiwan’s independence push ‘serious hidden danger’ & promises ‘peaceful reunification’ with self-governed island

Slate (China's long-term plan is simply to absorb Taiwan but will fight for it in the short-term if pushed)
China’s President Xi Vows “Peaceful Reunification” With Taiwan Amid Heightened Tensions

Daniel Politi