A hostile military alliance, now including even Sweden and Finland, is at the very borders of Russia. Chris Wright asks how Russian leaders are supposed to react to this as the NATO summit kicked off in Washington.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday ahead of the NATO summit in Washington this week. (NATO/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
By Chris Wright
Common Dreams
The world is at its most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Back then, however, the fear of total destruction consumed the public; today, few people seem even to be aware of this possibility.
It is easily imaginable that nuclear war could break out between Russia (and perhaps China) and the West, yet politicians continue to escalate tensions, place hundreds of thousands of troops at “high readiness,” and attack military targets inside Russia, even while ordinary citizens blithely go on with their lives.
The situation is without parallel in history.
Consider the following facts. A hostile military alliance, now including even Sweden and Finland, is at the very borders of Russia. How are Russian leaders — whose country was almost destroyed by Western invasion twice in the 20th century — supposed to react to this? How would Washington react if Mexico or Canada belonged to an enormous, expansionist, and highly belligerent anti-U.S. military alliance?
As if expanding NATO to include Eastern Europe wasn’t provocative enough, Washington began to send billions of dollars’ worth of military aid to Ukraine in 2014, to “improve interoperability with NATO,” in the words of the Defense Department.
Why this Western involvement in Ukraine, which, as Barack Obama said while president, is “a core Russian interest but not an American one?”
One reason was given by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in a recent moment of startling televised candor: Ukraine is “sitting on $10 to $12 trillion of critical minerals… I don’t want to give that money and those assets to Putin to share with China.”
As The Washington Post has reported:
“Ukraine harbors some of the world’s largest reserves of titanium and iron ore, fields of untapped lithium, and massive deposits of coal. Collectively, they are worth tens of trillions of dollars.”
Ukraine also has colossal reserves of natural gas and oil, in addition to neon, nickel, beryllium and other critical rare earth metals. For NATO’s leadership, Russia and, in particular, China can’t be permitted access to these resources. The war in Ukraine must, therefore, continue indefinitely, and negotiations with Russia mustn’t be pursued.
Meanwhile, as Ukraine was being de facto integrated into NATO in the years before 2022, the United States put into operation an anti-ballistic-missile site in Romania in 2016.
NATO’s Aegis Ashore Ballistic Missile Defense System (AABMDS) site in Deveselu, Romania in 2019. (U.S. Navy/Amy Forsythe, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
As Benjamin Abelow notes in How the West Brought War to Ukraine, the missile launchers that the ABM system uses can accommodate nuclear-tipped offensive weapons like the Tomahawk cruise missile.
“Tomahawks,” he points out, “have a range of 1,500 miles, can strike Moscow and other targets deep inside Russia, and can carry hydrogen bomb warheads with selectable yields up to 150 kilotons, roughly 10 times that of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.” Poland now boasts a similar ABM site.
American assurances that these anti-missile bases are defensive in nature, to protect against an (incredibly unlikely) attack from Iran, can hardly reassure Russia, given the missile launchers’ capability to launch offensive weapons.
In another bellicose move, the Trump administration in 2019 unilaterally withdrew from the 1987 Treaty on Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces.
[See: SCOTT RITTER: ‘My Life’s Work Melting Before My Eyes’]
Russia responded by proposing that the U.S. declare a moratorium on the deployment of short- and intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe, saying it wouldn’t deploy such missiles as long as NATO members didn’t. Washington dismissed these proposals, which upset some European leaders. “Has the absence of dialogue with Russia,” French President Emmanuel Macron said, “made the European continent any safer? I don’t think so.”
The situation is especially dangerous given what experts call “warhead ambiguity.” As senior Russian military officers have said, “There will be no way to determine if an incoming ballistic missile is fitted with a nuclear or a conventional warhead, and so the military will see it as a nuclear attack” that warrants a nuclear retaliation.
A possible misunderstanding could thus plunge the world into nuclear war.
The “Deckhouse” — command and control center of NATO’s Aegis Ashore Ballistic Missile Defense System (AABMDS) site in Redzikowo, Poland. (U.S. Navy/Amy Forsythe, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
So now we’re more than two years into a proxy war with Russia that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and has seen Ukraine even more closely integrated into the structures of NATO than it was before.
And the West continues to inch ever closer to the nuclear precipice. Ukraine has begun using U.S. missiles to strike Russian territory, including defensive (not only offensive) missile systems.
This summer, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Belgium will begin sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, and Denmark and the Netherlands have said there will be no restrictions on the use of these planes to strike targets in Russia. F-16s are able to deliver nuclear weapons, and Russia has said the planes will be considered a nuclear threat.
Bringing the world even closer to terminal crisis, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg states that 500,000 troops are at “high readiness,” and in the next five years, NATO allies will “acquire thousands of air defense and artillery systems, 850 modern aircraft — mostly fifth-generation F-35s —and also a lot of other high-end capabilities.”
Macron has morphed into one of Europe’s most hawkish leaders, with plans to send military instructors to Ukraine very soon. At the same time, NATO is holding talks about taking more nuclear weapons out of storage and placing them on standby.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Stoltenberg, and U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO Julianne Smith at “NATO Day” on Monday at Washington Nationals’ Park ahead of the summit this week in D.C. (NATO/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Where all this is heading is unclear, but what’s obvious is that Western leaders are acting with reckless disregard for the future of humanity.
Their bet is that Putin will never deploy nuclear weapons, despite his many threats to do so and recent Russian military drills to deploy tactical nuclear weapons. Given that Russian use of nuclear warheads might well precipitate a nuclear response by the West, the fate of humanity hangs on the restraint and rationality of one man, Putin—a figure who is constantly portrayed by Western media and politicians as an irrational, bloodthirsty monster.
So the human species is supposed to place its hope for survival in someone we’re told is a madman, who leads a state that feels besieged by the most powerful military coalition in history, apparently committed to its demise.
Maybe the madmen aren’t in the Russian government but rather in NATO governments?
It is downright puzzling that millions of people aren’t protesting in the streets every day to deescalate the crisis and pull civilization back from the brink. Evidently the mass media have successfully fulfilled their function of manufacturing consent. But unless the Western public wakes up, the current crisis might not end as benignly as did the one in 1962.
Chris Wright has a Ph.D. in U.S. history from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is the author of Worker Cooperatives and Revolution and Popular Radicalism and the Unemployed in Chicago during the Great Depression. Here is his website.
This article is from Common Dreams.
Views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
The power of NATO seems to be largely inflated, whether deliberately or inadvertently. Beyond its military might, one fundamental issue lies in the psychology, in the disparity between the stakes for individuals in NATO member nations, who stand to lose greatly, and those in other parts of the world who may think to gain significantly in a global conflict. For those experiencing poverty, chaos could present an opportunity (at least hope) to reset the course of their fate, to reshuffle the cards.
In the event of war, this discrepancy could have a substantial impact on both the frontline and the formulation of war strategies. Not only are we outnumbered, but we lack the same level of determination to sacrifice our lives and those of our children as do individuals from regions that have suffered and endured exploitation, sanctions, and destruction at the hands of Western powers.
I believe, given these circumstances, in a wartime scenario, our defeat would be inevitable and devastating; thus, nuclear warfare remains a viable option for Western powers who believe (the privileged) they possess sufficient resources to withstand such an eventuality. Beyond the lack of motivation for engaging in war, factors such as individualism and globalism have eroded patriotism and social cohesion when compared to China, Russia, Africa, and Asia – a critical disadvantage on the battlefield, I believe.
While President Macron’s decision to deploy French troops to Ukraine may stem from his desire to demonstrate support for President Zelensky, it could also serve as a means to rally the French populace against Russia; an attempt to restore social cohesion and patriotism that is currently lacking. Confronting the French population with potential French casualties; thousands of returning body bags to La Gaule could help foster unity among the French people. The notion that Macron might entertain such an inhumane and brutal strategy places him on par with historical figures such as Hitler in terms of lacking humanity and displaying antisocial tendencies – an unsettling possibility that cannot be disregarded.
As Jack Matlock has pointed out, NATO’s expansion does not enhance its capabilities but rather it weakens them. Although I concur with this assessment, it is worth noting that each new country joining NATO also serves to keep conflicts further away from U.S. borders and weaken the enemy in the meantime.
Even so, should a conflict arise with Russia, I doubt, the U.S. will be spared.
As someone who understood that Ukraine was being set up in 2004-2005 with its (regime change) Orange Revolution and the ousting of Yanukovych for the first time, I can agree with the direction of the article. However, the statement “whose country was almost destroyed by Western invasion twice in the 20th century” needs to be challenged. As Henry Elmer Barnes proved, decades ago through his research, elements within Russia, colluding with France, were responsible for starting WWI. The Bolshevik Revolution was overwhelmingly led by radical Jews, many from New York, funded by Jewish bankers. As the opening of Soviet archives 35 years ago demonstrated, Germany was entirely correct, there were more than Soviet 200 divisions amassed preparing to invade Europe. Operation Barbarosa was a suicide mission. There is evidence that the US and Britain through lend/lease were arming the USSR as part of that buildup. Germany’s sin was to free demonstrate successful economies could exist without the Bank of International Settlements, which was the same sin as Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution. WWII, as were WWI and the Bolshevik Revolution and the current war in Ukraine, a banker economic war. The bankers are not “Western” and never have been. As the old saying goes, a stable boy may have been born in a stable, but that doesn’t make him a horse.
NATO has never been about “stopping communism” it has always been the attack dog of the International Banking Cartel to create chaos and steal resources of countries. Russia is a target because Putin stopped the complete destruction of Russia by the cartel. Make no mistake, there are still subversives in Russia waiting for their opportunity. Ukraine, since 2004, has been the spear point of the banker attack to re-invade Russia and thwart China’s economic model.
“As the opening of Soviet archives 35 years ago demonstrated, Germany was entirely correct, there were more than Soviet 200 divisions amassed preparing to invade Europe.”
In reality, the Soviet armed forces had been devastated by the purges. 3 out of 5 marshals had been shot. The USSR performed very badly in the war with Finland.
It is very interesting to hear Senator Graham’s comments on the Ukraine.
The truth is usually out there if you know where to look.
Ending the war in the Ukraine must now be one of our top priorities.
With the Free Press in the United States having already been nuked, replaced by a fully owned, fully controlled, fully manipulated, full propagandized mainstream media, nuclear war could have already broken out, and our famously free press is following instructions to not report on it. We wouldn’t know about nuclear war having broken out because mainstream media would refuse to report it. No sense panicking the prisoners. And how would you know if nuclear war had broken out, except by the bright flash of light in the downtown of your city. Nuclear war is local. If Washington, DC were to be nuked, how would you know? Dead people don’t talk. And if you visited Washington, DC you would be dead yourself in short order from radiation poisoning. Besides, there are so many other, much more effective ways, to wipe out the species, and the human race. Nuclear war is an act of rage, an emotional act, an act of chaos.
Nations Advancing Towards Obliteration. NATO
The corporate media have indeed “fulfilled their function”.
We have a pandemic of professional liars. A key feature of the professional is the brazenness of their lies. They say things vast numbers of people know are false. While they act very sincere. Thus they are paid actor salaries e.g. $30 million/yr for the very convincing Rachel Maddow. They have many conclusions and little evidence, if any. They ALWAYS omit important evidence undermining their con. They promote a left-right fight while hiding the tyrannical cabal who pays them.
A clear example is the PBS Newshour. A former donor, I now monitor it to hear the latest oligarchy lies. For example, Nick Schifrin still acts unaware that US/NATO has been provoking Russia for 20 years. He never mentions moving NATO’s border eastward, breaking its promise. Nor the US overthrowing Ukraine’s elected government in 2014, nor the repeated Russian efforts to broker a peace. Instead, he tells brazen lies, such as that Luhansk and Donetzk inviting Russia’s help in their self-defence of was “unprovoked aggression”.
The Newshour staff parrots (professionally) their oligarchy masters on every topic. If I didn’t monitor independent sites I might think Amna Nawaz, Geoff Bennet, Lisa Desjardins, Laura Barron-Lopez, Amy Walter, Tamara Keith, David Brooks, and Jonathan Capehart were honest people. Not to pick on them; they are merely a sample from the pandemic of professional deceivers. But their push for war is particularly odious, and in my view, evil.
Knowing the facts from Consortium News, Judging Freedom, The GrayZone, Glenn Greenwald, The Duran, and other independent news sites, I watch amazed at the criminal cast on the PBS News Theater.
…there is nothing “puzzling” about the lack of protests. These days…that is like pulling out an “anti-fire” sign and marching around your burning kitchen. Perhaps…the best thing to do is to simply stop engaging with the psychopaths. Don’t do business with them, bankrupt the oligarchy, quit using their currency and let their debt overwhelm them. I don’t think that will stop the “Continuity of Government” zealots…and the Globalists from starting WW III…but it will weaken their grip after the devastation. Prepare to survive their idiocy, be prepared to Crush The Globalists
In the beginning there was the policy of strategic interest to have access to resources due to an oil embargo over an Israeli War moving us strategically to the land of B-52 fuel from the land of B-52 fuel use in Vietnam as more important.
Now it has become we want control of all strategic resources for our profit and to have the power to deny them to any other country in the world when we want via economic sanctions. Part of full spectrum world male dominance with all other countries as part of our male
sex herd..
Sex. Lies. $cams. Scandals.
Imo, “we, the people” have been 100% “catfished” by the WH’s feral cat channeling an “Eagle.” One big f/problem, “a bird that is not flying cannot discover where there is harvest.” The miserably aged, perverted “Old Bird,” the “White House resident who thinks he’s president,” is drowning in HIS/HER drama. HIS/HER, $hip of $tate, is BANKRUPT.
The “rub,” …..“The world is at its most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Back then, however, the fear of total destruction consumed the public; today, few people seem even to be aware of this possibility.” Chris Wright.
“More people,” MIGHT CARE when, just how far the decay has gotten, is understood,” imo, 1) Biden’s-Harris’ Board of Executioners & Congress are beyond delinquent; 2) Biden’s-Harris’ Board of Executioners & Congress are 100% derelict in processing POTUS & FLOTUS for permanent pasteurization; 3) Biden’s-Harris’ Board of Executioners & Congress are 100% derelict in permanently relocating POTUS & FLOTUS to the REHABoth compound, by the beach.
……. “Why this Western involvement in Ukraine, which, as Barack Obama said while president, is “a core Russian interest but not an American one?” Barack Obama. Awh, Mon, the fruit is ROTTEN!!! Itsa reign of terror (OhBama-Biden-Harris) w/their war on terra.
”The background to the present crises in Ukraine, arises outta the USG’s 2014 regime change operation, executed by Obama/Biden.”
…another, truth, just before Russia launched its military assault on Ukraine, the USG hit Somalia w/a drone attack. “Joe Biden owns this.”
“Welcome,” to the fkng club! “The global elite have always captured the hearts & minds of the masses. This is how their actions are able to move forward, under the guise of good will.” Chris Hedges
A Resolution, imo, 1) Impeach Comma La Harris, first. Second, Relocate Joseph Robinette Biden, by force, b/c the “feral cat,” is a dementia addled, truth challenged political corpse posing as POTUS, masquerading as Human, a colossal threat to all animal, plant, & human life; AND, 2) “a body of men [and, women] holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not be trusted by anybody.”
Imo, “we, the people” are looking for a Leader who will become a signatory to resolve to Save the Planet, NOT nuke it! Concluding, NATO, NAFTA, SHAFTA “are coming afta,” planet Earth’s plant, animal & human life. FJB.
MSM hint that Biden’s NATO speech was strong, part of the patching up repair job needed, although read off a teleprompter, which dulled the enthusiasm of some members. Still, doubts persist even in Establishment figures. At least it was coherent, if obviously practiced and incredibly out of touch rhetoric. What mostly struck me was that it went beyond pale-faced, feeble hesitations and incoherence to “deluded” and “ignorant of current realities” (quoting Kelley Vlahos).
Biden (via Reuters):
“(Vladimir) Putin wants nothing less, nothing less, than Ukraine’s total subjugation … and to wipe Ukraine off the map,” Biden said in his welcome to NATO member states to the summit, referring to the Russian president. “Ukraine can and will stop Putin.”
Related from Alastair Crooke:
“Nonetheless, at bottom, the 1992 Wolfowitz doctrine which underscored American supremacy at all costs, in a post-Soviet world – together with “stamping out rivals, wherever they may emerge” – still today remains the ‘current doctrine’ framing the ‘inter-agency’ baseline.
“Dysfunction at the heart of a seemingly functioning organization may persist for years without any real public awareness or appreciation of the descent into dysfunctionality. But then suddenly – when a crisis hits, or Presidential debate misfires – ‘poof’ and we see clearly the collapse of the manipulation that has confined discourse to within the various Washington villages.”
hxxps://www.unz.com/article/we-were-deceived-and-gaslit-for-years-all-in-the-name-of-democracy-then-poof-it-collapsed-overnight/
I was so upset by the article. I think Mr. Wright is correct as to why we’re there, I think he’s correct about the complacency of Americans. I do not understand why the population, progressives especially, are totally focused on Donald Trump and Project 2025. I competely agree that he and it are a grave concern, but to the exclusion of what is happening in Ukraine and in Israel? I just don’t get it. I live in a university town, all our friends consider themselves liberals, as do we, but nary a one seems to be concerned with these 2 wars and the possibility of a 3rd with Iran. I wonder if the fact that FB has ceased being a forum for political discussion, and become simply a place for folks to post photos of their kids, grandkids and platitudes, has something to do with it. I posted this article on FB and within mins it was gone. That has happened before and my partner thought I was simply being a conspiracy theorist. I’m ok with art and jokes and platitudes and family photos on FB, but shouldn’t there be room for weightier matters as well? If what Lindsey Graham said is true, then our skin in the game counts on the devastation of Ukraine.
Leftists, not liberals. Liberal implies an openness, a greater tolerance, which leftists do not have. Leftists only have tolerance for those thins which they agree with, and they try to destroy what they disagree with.
My Granddad used to say, “You know, son, two wrongs don’t make a right. But three rights do make a left.” I’ve kept those words of his with me all my life.
The American People are not complacent. They are suffering from information overload, an induced confusion, created on purpose to shut the average person, to put them in a fugue state, and shut them down from being able to respond intelligently. “When in doubt stand still.” This was all done on purpose. The end result is a general attitude of “Don’t trust them. Don’t believe them.”
Few think of North Korea as being a prosperous nation. But it is rich in one regard: mineral resources.
[…]
Below the nation’s mostly mountainous surface are vast mineral reserves, including iron, gold, magnesite, zinc, copper, limestone, molybdenum, graphite, and more—all told about 200 kinds of minerals. Also present are large amounts of rare earth metals, which factories in nearby countries need to make smartphones and other high-tech products.
Estimates as to the value of the nation’s mineral resources have varied greatly over the years, made difficult by secrecy and lack of access. North Korea itself has made what are likely exaggerated claims about them. According to one estimate from a South Korean state-owned mining company, they’re worth over $6 trillion. Another from a South Korean research institute puts the amount closer to $10 trillion.”
Source:
Steve Mollman, “North Korea is Sitting on Trillions of Dollars of Untapped Wealth, and Its Neighbors Want In,” Quartz, June 16, 2017
So wait… You want us to start a proxy war in North Korea too?
I would wager some policymakers and profiteers are incentivized to exacerbate tensions and gin up conflict with North Korea on that basis, but I am not among their number. I am simply laying bare another potential motive for a hypothetical resumption of major hostilities in the technically ongoing Korean War that has not received nearly enough attention even in alternative media circles when compared to, e.g., Lindsey Graham’s comments about rare earth minerals in the Ukraine, or even countries such as Afghanistan, Bolivia, and the Congo as venues for geostrategic competition over rare earth minerals (in my case, geostrategic competition over the “Charcas Heartland” in Bolivia is a significant aspect of my research).
The article would be much stronger with reference to the reason the US was able to build ABM sites in Romania and Poland: its unilateral withdrawal from the ABM Treaty of 1972. Anti-Ballistic Missiles are projected as “defensive” but they are grossly destabilizing because by enabling a nuclear first strike they abrogate the doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction. Also, Trump (the alleged lover of Putin) withdrew from the Open Skies Treaty with Russia (mutual treaty compliance inspections) and the Iran agreements. This, along with the US/NATO/Ukraine laughing at the Maidan accords means the US and its satellites are seen as “not agreement capable.” All trust has been deliberately burned and fully exploited. For these reasons, the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and tensions over Taiwan have a very real possibility of rapidly expanding into a full scale, peer-to-peer conflict that will not be resolved by negotiations… with all the horrible consequences that implies.
at least half of my EU country’s population wants peace.
ya think our f.lawmakes care?
new NATO headquarters is what they prepare, instead.
i’m just dumbfounded to realize: the peace lovers don’t
really seem to care either. they should stage a general strike!
presently, the EU soccer championship distracts them …
in 1962, wassili archipow,
in 1983, stanislav petrow,
soldiers of the soviet/russian army, both,
cool-headed, courageous, unknown and unsung
humble heroes, both, prevented nuclear wars.
this time around, i hardly dare to hope for such
individuals to save us from our crazy madness.
to think of 120 million displaced people on earth,
to think of the many millions homeless, starving,
without any hope for even a slightly decent future:
they are going through hell now, even without any
nuclear threat hanging over them …
on the news today: my EU country of 85 million
has 555,000 millionaires. warren buffet & co.
will probably tell them: ‘we’ll welcome you to the
club as soon as you’ll be bill- or trillionaires.’
We understand. There is only one world – for us and the trouble makers.
it is so ironic that we wont dare mine those precious minerals here in the states; due to “global Warming” but hey, in Ukriane there is minerals so lets let them fight a war down to the last man and then move in and take whats left, damn the environment, Russia, and the people of Ukraine, its all for democracy , which according the the Washington Post ; “dies in darkness”
I would say its getting pretty dark
the policy of the current admin I would compare to if the Insane Cl0wn Posse rap group was running the country, and with Jill and Hunter Biden at the controls, they actually may be that bad . Through in all the Obama and Clinton re treads and we can see we are heading into a burning building.
At this point the only thing we can hope for is that Jesus returns to put an end to this madness because the Americam people are like the Zombies in the walking dead, other than the eating flesh thing, but thats coming with the next round of mRNA shots.
They’re using STAKEHOLDER corporations along with Government corporations to have their public/private partnership to try to make unincorporated Accountable government obsolete.
Its about time to Water the Tree of Liberty, Ain’t it.
If only the Cuntrollers woulda left everyone to their lives instead of Taking Advantage All the Time.
The operartive word is ‘Western.’ We are the enemy. All of us in the West. And the notion that billions of people not of the West will simply roll over and die is absurd. We might be doomed to perish. But they will not.
Ever since Reagan and Gorbachev ended the cold war, signed peace agreements and planned all manner of pie-in-the-sky co-operative agreements, including joint space ventures and military co-existence if not cooperation, the United States has become more deceitful, aggressive, exploitative, imperious and downright tyrannical, while Russia was hard pressed to merely survive in this unfair, one-sided relationship that America force fed to Russia, even going so far as to commandeer their presidential elections to install and maintain puppets, compradors and collaborators, all the while accusing Russia of meddling in US politics!
During this interim, America has clearly transmogrified into an evil empire that grasps constantly and exclusively for every unfair advantage it could possibly accrue from Russia and most third party countries that might want to do any type or level of business with Russia. Countries like Iran or China are demonised incessantly because Russia buys from or sells to them. They are further rewarded with sanctions equal to those constantly imposed upon Russia for trying to plot a future without getting the explicit permission of the United States at every step.
This evil empire has so retreated from real accomplishment or honest competition in the world that it has allowed its entire infrastructure, industrial base, educational and bio-medical services to atrophy while, propped up by its totally contrived reserve currency, the infamous and hollow “petro-dollar, it tries to make an ever more refined parasite of itself in the economic and financial spheres dependent upon the efforts and output of all the other countries it seeks to victimize. It perpetrates downright theft, not just from Russian bank accounts or Russian oligarchs, but from competitor European banks and financial institutions, not for any just and honest reason or purpose, but simply because it is expedient, especially for American banks and other businesses competing in international markets.
America has become the monster that it always used to accuse the old Soviet Union of being–essentially an overindulged, vastly inflated military that thrives by cannibalizing most of the other, much more important societal functions. John McStain always used to run his mouth saying that Russia was nothing more than a gas station with a country. Well, by his standards, the ol’ USA is arguably nothing but a superbly armed street gang… with a country that cannot even control its own borders, and never passes up the opportunity to fight the next totally unnecessary and exorbitantly expensive forever war.
Earlier today, Victor Orban expressed a much more realistic appraisal of Vladimir Putin’s contribution to the fate of this lovely fertile rock floating through space, providing us with everything in our brief lives and asking so little in return. His take-home message was basically (not verbatim–the incendiary phrases are mine) that, counter to the ill-advised smash and grab strategy of American diplomacy and its thuggish leaders, every word that Putin ever has to say about a subject is always logically and thoroughly considered with an essential objective to be fair and just to both sides, both now and over the long term. He never tries to hoodwink, browbeat or fleece the other side. He always offers a fair and reasonable deal, at least until the other side becomes maliciously intractable, which seems to be Ukraine’s and Nato’s modus operandi–more of the old American gangster tactics. (Sadly, even Trump thinks like Michael Corleone did in the relevant movie.)
Our leaders are not human and have not been human for some time.. They are demons who crawled out of Satan’s Ass. How else can you explain their behavior? As far as Lindsey Graham goes, he is a 4 star General in the Chicken Hawk Brigade. He loves sending our kids off to war but always runs for cover when the results of his big mouth get to close for comfort. Americans have guzzled the Kool Aid our worthless, demonic leaders and the MSM serve up on a daily basis. They will still be in denial while they watch the mushroom clouds forming over their cities.
For we struggle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of the dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.
imo, mr putin is not applying the mad-doctrine clear enough. sometimes there are indeed vague threats, but just as often he seems still afraid he might tarnish his legacy and ‘reasonable image’ and states that it is insane to assume that russia would ever use nukes. also, if he feels he needs to threaten, he should threaten the initiator of this nuclear game of chicken, the us (that still hope for the use of ‘tactical’ nukes in europe only).
A Whisp of Imagination?
The As Yet Unanswerable Anthroplogism Question:
Is not Philosophy an Ideology too if all, in the universe that ‘we’ are supposedly aware of, is interconnected and interdependent?
Has anyone, of late, tried to figure out the arbitrarily calibrated parameters of the European continent – the so-called Western world?
The Challenge: to come up with a precise and satisfactory answer for all concerned!
NATO (Nations Armed in Treachery Order) has for the previous 75 years, and ongoing, with even more blind gusto, proving NOT to be the answer!
[Given that, supposedly, in Joe Biden’s case, “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings”, ‘we’ the people of the world are hung out on a limb, while we are expected to sit back and wait, with bated breath, for his demented brain to decompose completely, before actual rigor mortis takes over the running of his saintly soul, and for the remnant of our not at all moral reality to hopefully have the capacity to revivify with more wisdom!]
Europe is, apparently, yet another one of the arbitrary historical constructs of man’s sometimes erroneous, fallacious innate mind-body dualism – ergo prejudicial modes of reasoning.
The same goes for: who are the actual indigenous Africans; who are the actual indigenous peoples of the south western Asian peninsular and Levant?
These are only but two of the currently pressing examples, directly impinging on and deeply concerning to SATO (South Atlantic Treaty Organization) in formation, with multi-nodal BRICS as its base of operations, as this ink touches the paper “in writing”.
With apologies for the indelicacy, although this commenter is not as prescient as someone named Shakespeare, of almost four and a half centuries ago, who forthrightly proclaimed, “all the world’s a tragicomic stage”.]
Before Plato, humans, realizing we were “interconnected and interdependent” lived by the “Charter of the Forest” The idea that we took only what we needed from the land and nothing more. Leaving resources, the plants and animals we didn’t need for our fellow humans, to help insure their survival as well. If there was enough to go around we lived peacefully, if there wasn’t we fought each other and found other places to live.
What is this other than a primitive economic system.
The Cold War was Capitalism vs Socialism. These defined the borders of Western Europe. It wasn’t arbitrary. If you were a Capitalist and you walked too far East, you were shot at. Trace around the outline of your boots with a stick, where the stick went around your big toe (if you hadn’t already turned around), that was the finite Eastern border of Western Europe. And unless you were suicidal, that was a “precise and satisfactory answer”.
And what does mind-body dualism have to do with this other than the courage it takes to stand there and draw an outline around your big toe with a stick while your being shot at.
And what did Plato put above all else? The preservation of the state by prioritizing the Guardians, or the elites. Next were the warriors, lastly were the people who did the work, their opinion didn’t matter.
Same thing we have today.
Plato actually advocated for Socialism for the elites, or Guardians. Because he knew that equality among elites preserved the state. A rift in the elite sector of the population meant an end for the state.
Same thing we see developing today.
Philosophy is the mother of Ideology, both are human constructs. Philosophy is an attempt to answer unanswerable questions. Who are we? Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? Ideologies form when humans get impatient for an answer and make one up. If the person next to you doesn’t agree with it, make up an ism and shoot him.
To relate either one to Anthropology or Humanism, the interdependence of one Human upon another is an affront to Humans. The premise of the question you pose is fundamentally corrupt.
Humans at their core would like to help other Humans insofar as it doesn’t affect their ability to care and feed their own families.
Doctrinally:
Socialism is “The Charter of the Forest” in a modern context.
Capitalism is shooting a two thousand pound buffalo and cutting out it’s tongue.
The Unanswerable question is how do we annihilate Power and Greed without violence.
I don’t like reading Shakespeare, so I don’t know if he (or it, or a group, or whatever he was) came up with one. I am dreading that part of the Western Canon.
Stolen Elections have MASSIVE consequences. Unpunished treason guarantees that the massive consequences WILL happen in full.
It would appear that the combined forces of the West are now apparently on a joyride which will almost certainty result in the end of humanity (probably). From the West’s point of view they are taking a very positive but dangerous view, substantiated but what exactly? But, no matter. ”We will win.” Really? Are the Russians really going for broke? Well, I wouldn’t a bet on it. Moreover, how and why are the Russians likely to throw in the towel.
Moreover the massive preponderance of the global population is not in their favour. Like it or not, today, capitalism has pretty much exhausted its progressive role and can only offer no more than a barbaric downhill slide. This challenges us to think of a world beyond capitalism, and hence has been refuted by a whole history of actually existing capitalism.
We should understand that. The United Nations did not die a natural death: it was murdered in 1990-91 by the decision of the United States, with the support of its triad allies which ended the responsibilities of the organization for the management of polycentrism and the preservation of peace. The UN was murdered when Washington decided to implement its project of spreading the whole Monroe Doctrine to the whole planet.
Thank you for the article. Not a day goes by that I do not pray to God for the failure of my country’s doomed and dangerous project to control the world and for the advent of a true representational democracy in our own sick and troubled nation. There are people who truly know Mr. Putin absent the caricatures that have been foisted on an abysmally ignorant and credulous public, and I will make no judgments as to his true character, but it is manifestly evident from the record that the Russian president is infinitely more rational, thoughtful, prudent and patient than the clowns who run our foreign policy and defense establishment. Thank God for that. I worry what will happen when Mr. Putin is no longer in power. Russia and Russians will always have their legitimate security interests, and it is utter recklessness that fools and sociopaths like Lindsay Graham, John Bolton, Joe Biden and the whole nasty bunch in D.C. have ignored the obvious for so long. How abysmally stupid was it to push Russia into the arms of India, China and North Korea when Russia long expressed the desire to be integrated into the European economic and security apparatus? It just blows one’s mind.
Decades ago historian Barbara Tuchman’s book The March of Folly chronicled how institutions and nations stubbornly pursued a course that was counter to reason and their own interests, resulting in the worst of outcomes. Should Ms. Tuchman be around today she would have volumes of material for endless sequels in the actions of the U.S.alone. If we do not as Americans awaken from this suicidal course and the relentless propaganda that sustains it I have little hope of our salvation, as a nation or a species.
I could not agree more. I am a professional U.S. historian (Emeritus Professor of U.S. History, University of Iowa), and I can honestly say, in the entire history of the United States we have never been so much on the brink of oblivion. NO ONE CAN WIN A NUCLEAR WAR. JFK knew that. That is why he talked continuously to Khrushchev. And those two adroit statesmen managed to avoid nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Now we have people in the Biden administration, as well as in the opposing party who are gambling with all life on Earth. When Reagan had a chance to negotiate with Gorbachev, he took it and we were able to get the INF Treaty, which sharply limited the number of intermediate range missiles that the US and Soviet Union could have. But that was the World War Two generation, mature men who understood the need to avert war and seek peace. This gang of Neocons today, who have infested both parties for a generation, now have us on the verge of nuclear war. Biden or Austen and Blinken need to meet personally with Putin and his people and seek an end to the current mess. We have no good business on the Russian border. The fact that Ukraine has all these valuable natural resources is no reason for the West to go there and try to virtually colonize the country. THIS IS THE RUSSIAN BORDER WE ARE TALKING ABOUT. The more the U.S. and its satraps go there and try to grab what they can while setting up missiles there and in Poland aimed at Russia, the more inevitable WORLD WAR III becomes. This policy is clearly pathological. Putin has warned us about his red lines many times. He is dead serious. He is not some kind of clown or liar And the U.S. and its NATO partners need to begin taking him seriously, or we will reap the whirlwind, nuclear war.
Add to //Folly// David Halberstam’s //The Best and the Brightest// about how those whose elite qualifications and personal sense of superiority produced the war in Vietnam. What I call the Ivy Ds are, it seems, a B & B 2.0. They’re certain they’re right and certain they’re in control. Since I live in a post-Einstein reality of uncertainty and relativity I’m not sure, but I’d bet they haven’t read either book.
As for their attitude toward Putin and Russia, IMHO that mindset goes way back. Recently I was reading an article by Ray McGovern where a comment raised the issue of Operation Unthinkable. Bad enough that it was thought of. And it seems that WWII references were to “Russia,” not the Soviet Union. Hmm.
I’ve wondered for years why western Europe did nothing for the eastern Euro countries oppressed by the Ottoman Empire. I suspected it had to do with being Eastern Orthodox but never confirmed. Then I read a neocon fave, Samuel P. Huntington’s //Clash of Civilizations.// Basically all Others not western Euro and their colonist descendants are bloodthirsty, uncultured, and prone to aggression. So the best strategy often might be to strike first–in the name of self defense of course. Of relevance is that Huntington explicitly categorizes the Eastern Orthodox Christians (eastern and southeastern Europe plus some in the Middle East and north Africa) as among the Others. The biggest Orthodox country is Russia. The equation Russia = Other = bad has a long history.
The youth of Germany and Europe, according to polls, are overwhelmingly unwilling to fight Russia. Stoltenberg and the other NATO sycophants live in a fantasy world. NATO can’t even supply enough artillery shells to their proxy army in Ukraine, yet they think they are a threat to Russia? Has anybody in the US or NATO cracked open a history book FFS? The Netherlands and others sending a few old F-16s is laughable, they are desperate and running out of options. Nuclear “brinkmanship” is all they have to try and intimidate Russia, and it’s backfiring.
I have said for years that it would be great to see serious-but-sarcastic billboards and ads in the EU asking for “volunteers to fight on the Russian Front 2.0”
Macron is not “hawkish”, he is a pathetic, coward who could not fight his way out of a paper bag. (Contrast him with Charles de Gaulle)
He will do as the Anglo-Saxon imperialists tell him, like a good vassal.
Always great comments, Jonny! History books? What’s history? What’s a book? We live in a world ruled not only by psychopaths but by very stupid, uneducated psychopaths.
Thank you Susan,
They have an “education” alright, but it’s indoctrination and conditioning rather than gathering knowledge. I think we might be living in a Twilight Zone simulation or something, things are getting weirder all the time.
Exactly right. Stoltenberg says NATO has “500,000 troops” in “high readiness?” Big deal. What exactly does this mean in today’s military scenarios? Nothing. Half those troops would be destroyed before they even got out of the staging areas. Ask the Ukrainians about that. NATO is a paper tiger, run by simpletons and fools like that jackass Stoltenberg. Macron is on his way out, just like Biden most of the other NATO armchair warriors. I’m not saying things aren’t bad, or that NATO isn’t dangerous to world peace. But it’s important to not get carried away by NATO’s bullshit and bluster.
What if? Putin does just enough to bait NATO . in Europe.. THEN Russia launches a massive attack in Alaska and Canada. America will suddenly recall all tro0ps and material from Europe. NATO will collapse. Russia to Alaska is 54 miles by sea. Less by air.
When nuclear armageddon comes, it will catch everyone by surprise. In the immediate run-up to it, we may even see stories in the media about how tensions have eased. But all it takes is one mistake, one miscalculation, one misinterpretation of an event. History has shown that the question for such misteps is not if, but when? And anyone who thinks the difference between tactical and strategic nukes has any relevance or makes any difference at all to this discussion is, quite frankly, a fool.
We can draw a lot of conclusions from the information given, but war is a very deceptive matter and discerning the truth in a time when the world is a very different place than most assume can be extremely difficult. As in social relationships, it is often difficult to tell who are your friends and who are your enemies.
At age 70 I no longer have any trouble discerning who are friends and who are not (I don’t hold with “enemies”). And discerning the truth is quite simple when you do plenty of homework.
That’s right. I’m 67 and I know where to find the truth about these matters, but frankly most people I know neither know nor care.
I have to chuckle regarding linday’s comment we need to continue supporting israel like we did
during WW II. Since the pseudo state of israel didn’t exist until 1948 and was totally astro-turf’d in
the middle east by banker dealings the same demonic ilk that Jesus whipped & kicked out of the Temple.
We must massively thunderously put a stop to the machinations of these human freaks of the death cult.
All traitors to La Vida….worse than the most vicious, self-serving drug cartels…one trades on “illegal” drugs for the vulnerable the
other trades on testosterone, inflated power complexes, psycho/socio-pathy – psychologically more organized versions of Trump. All living voids where the sacred altar of “right relationship” dwells. They are profoundly twisted, damaged, human beings. Members of the walking dead.
It saddens me to see, how many ‘old farts’ are running our world…aiming to run it into the abyss. No survivors!
All I could think when Genocide Joe said, “I’m not going anywhere” was his master chuckling and rubbing his hands together and saying, “Don’t count on it, Joe.”
Death will come calling, sooner rather than later for Genocide Joe. One can always count on that. Same goes for Trump. And another freak Wil take their place. Unfortunately you can always count on that too.
#WarCriminals are having pep rallies in DC, all month.
Russia must fire first. The western edifice will shatter. Peace will follow.
We are so screwed!
The Russia-Gate hoax was designed to elicit the public response we’re seeing regarding Ukraine, Russia and NATO policy. Mass media owned by the same ruling class that lusts after Ukraine’s and Russia’s natural resources, is responsible for creating mass psychosis. Just try talking to people about this stuff. They think you’re a loon for questioning the current “bipartisan” policy. Anyone who writes a letter to the editor attempting to educate readers is quickly called a Russian dupe. Caitlin Johnstone’s consistent message about overcoming official narrative is 100% correct.
“It’s important to explain to the American public, what NATO actually is. Why is NATO now determined, focused, so focused on China, something that has nothing to do with the North Atlantic. Why did Joe Biden declare in March and then again this month, that Kenya was an important non-NATO member state; Kenya; basically making them a defacto part of the NATO alliance. Because NATO and transatlanticism isn’t about any particular area, it’s about global control. And what happend in Kenya this past week. In Kenya there was close to 30 deaths, 200 injuries, in cities across the country as Kenyans protested IMF [International Monetary Fund] imposed austerity measures being meted out on the public in the form of tax hikes. Regressive tax hikes by Western NATO backed president William Ruto. Who actually announced those tax hikes in a speech that was crafted by AI. Over 90% of his speech was written by AI. And those are the same Kenyan security forces that have been sent as a defacto US proxy to crush the g7 in Haiti, the gangs in Haiti. And to supposedly restore order. The ones that are killing Kenyans in the street on the behalf of the IMF. NATO has made Columblia a NATO partner state. I mean NATO is just a global imperial alliance that is dedicated to preserving war. Not to protecting the security of Western Nations. And it’s, it’s just absolutely a joke that their still trying to prosecute this war in Ukraine. And NATO also, we should also mention, NATO is heavily supportive of Israel. NATO is heavily invested in the Israeli military intelligence complex. so NATO, which also destroyed Libya, plunged North Africa into instability, brought ISIS to Libya, brought slavery back to the African Continent. NATO which tried and failed to suppress the insurgency in Afghanistan, killing hundreds of thousands. NATO has nothing to do with the sovereignty or security of the North Atlantic region.”
-Max Blumenthal
Who knows where the time goes? – The Grayzone live
Chris Wright’s concluding paragraph begins with rhetorical puzzlement but then immediately continues with the obvious answer to it. One might suspect this of being a writing artifice to reach people who even over decades have had difficulty understanding the situation he has already described quite well. But placing our only hope in ‘the Western public waking up’ is not encouraging, especially if the public in question is the public right here in the U.S. which has proven consistently immune over decades to being awakened save occasionally by someone like Bernie Sanders who understands how he can win over large numbers of people who are personally affected by the broadly common subjects that he articulates and is more cautious about subjects (war, say) which the establishment is far too adept at manipulating to give him a pass on.
What other hope do we have? Perhaps the separate publics in the other NATO countries which the U.S. is manipulating into active cooperation in the form of their launching attacks using donated U.S. weapons and aid against Russian activity in Ukraine. As long as we carefully keep from actively fighting against Russia only others whom we convince to do that will be at risk of retaliation and their citizens may decide that they don’t care to be in that position.
As for hoping that Putin will refrain from using all available options to realize Russia’s goals in dealing with the Ukraine fiasco that the U.S. engineered because he has already learned multiple times that the U.S. (and its vassals) are completely unreliable when it comes to agreements. Putin is a realist and if it comes to balancing Russia’s permanent defeat against the cost of a nuclear war arranged by its implacable forever adversary he likely will bear that cost against its disastrous consequences. So the best I can hope for if that happens is that Russia’s military technology can destroy enough of the U.S.’s misguided leadership and weaponry to limit damage both here and across the rest of the world, and the best I can do individually to prevent this from happening is to fight against that U.S. establishment along with like-minded people.
That crazy dog Lindsay Graham let slip what this is all all about, it’s the same as every war that’s ever been: resources.
When you see the cabal controlling the likes of Biden, Blinken and nearly all Western leaders it all makes sense – the untold riches of the Ukraines land is worth going to nuclear annihilation for, especially when these nutcases are awaiting the second coming and end of days…
I watched Threads again not so long ago, it’s still as powerful and a painful a watch as it was back in 1984.
It’s time this was re-released and forced on everyone to watch.
hxxps://archive.org/details/threads_201712
The bottom line is that the US government knows that the US government is the only entity morally sick enough to use nukes first.
It just feels hopeless when everyone around me is gleefully distracted by the trappings of consumer capitalism with their hands over their ears and eyes consuming, consuming, consuming . . . They don’t want to know.
“It just feels hopeless…”
Hopeless (and helpless) is what comes of allowing a country to be controlled by corporations, who have profits, not the good of humanity and the planet, as their primary concern.
My feelings exactly. And Hegesias, I couldn’t agree with you more. The US did once, it is sick enough to do it again. These two responses are obviously linked with the sickness that is America these days. Lindsay Graham and all the other psychos willing to sacrifice all of humanity can’t seem to get it through whatever is so ugly inside them that they will take that risk, that they don’t own the world, it doesn’t belong only to them, but it appears if they can’t have it, nobody will. I’ve never seen anything so psychologically sick except in male/female relationships when the man kills the woman he doesn’t want anyone else to have.
Consumerism is consuming us. WE are Materially rich, but Spiritually poor.
Great comments, all. The willful ignorance is what will undo us. We are all ignorant, but when we are willfully ignorant because it serves us momentarily we are toast.