Publisher’s Note: Former New York Times Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges explores what the hell is REALLY going in Syria in this new episode of “On Contact,” with Alternet’s Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton: US efforts to 1) destabilize Assad’s Syrian government, 2) challenge Iran, 3) support ISIS and the Syrian “rebels,” 4) set the Arab World on fire to access oil, resources, and pipelines, 5) put the Russians and Chinese on notice, 6) enrich the corporate US military-industrial complex (Raytheon and Beyond) and 7) unleash a stream of Arab refugees on Europe – all are explored here. Remember – the Obama administration dropped 10,000 bombs on Syria and northern Iraq last year alone – so many, in fact, that they ran out of bombs. Trump’s decision to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles at Syria over chocolate cake with Chinese president Xi Jin Ping  fits into US imperial behavior.

You know you are living in an Empire when your most reliable news comes from US investigative journalists banished to RT and the web, and YouTube comedians like Jimmy Dore. Free Vermont!