Exclusive: Just last month, President Obama dispatched Secretary of State Kerry to secure Russian President Putin’s help in addressing the Syrian crisis and other world hotspots but despite Putin’s agreement, Obama has reversed himself and is back hurling insults at the Russians, a troubling development, writes Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
President Barack Obama must know better regarding the crisis in Ukraine, but he insists on reciting the propaganda lines drafted by his neoconservative and “liberal interventionist” advisers blaming everything on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Perhaps, Obama just doesn’t have the nerve to go against Official Washington’s “conventional wisdom” no matter how misguided it is. The last time that Obama went against the grain in a decisive way was when he objected to the Iraq War in 2002, but then, of course, he was just a state senator in Illinois.
President Barack Obama talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G7 Summit at Schloss Elmau in Bavaria, Germany, June 8, 2015. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Watching his behavior in the White House over the past six-plus years, I’ve come to suspect that if he had been a national politician amid the Iraq War fever he would have gotten in line just like ambitious Sens. Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Joe Biden did. Even as President, a position that gives him enormous power to push back against Official Washington’s “group think,” he won’t.
Instead Obama spouts stupid propaganda stuff that is ultimately damaging to the American Republic. At a moment when Obama needs Putin’s help in addressing dangerous crises in the Middle East particularly to deal with advances by Al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front and Al-Qaeda’s hyper-violent spinoff, the Islamic State Obama insists on joining in more misrepresentations about the Ukraine crisis.
At the end of the G-7 summit in Bavaria, Germany, Obama proudly announced that he had gotten the other six industrial powers to continue sanctions on Russia, based on the dubious argument that it is Russia, not the U.S.-backed regime in Ukraine, that requires more pressure to implement last February’s Minsk-2 agreement.
The Minsk-2 deal largely reflected Putin’s ideas regarding negotiations with ethnic Russian rebels in the east and constitutional changes granting the region substantial autonomy. However, after Minsk-2 was signed, hardliners in the Ukrainian government immediately sought to sabotage the political side by inserting a poison pill that required the rebels to essentially surrender before any negotiations could begin.
Since then, the Kiev regime has bulked itself up militarily, including training from 300 U.S. military advisers. In May, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko talked publicly about resuming the war and retaking rebel-held territory in the east, a position that even caused U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to suggest that Poroshenko should “think twice” about such an action.
Kerry made that remark during meetings with Putin and senior Russian officials in Sochi, Russia, in what then appeared to be a realistic shift in Obama’s foreign policy, recognizing the grave dangers from a possible Al-Qaeda victory in Syria and the need for Russian help in averting that disaster. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Obama’s Strategic Shift.”]
However, in the last few weeks, the flip-flopping Obama seems to have flopped back into the hard-liners’ camp of neocon Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland and liberal-interventionist Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power. Not only did Obama press the G-7 allies to renew sanctions on Russia, Obama hurled personal insults at Putin.
Pointing Fingers
In remarks to the news media on Monday in Krun, Germany, Obama said, “there is strong consensus that we need to keep pushing Russia to abide by the terms of the Minsk agreement [and] that until that’s completed, sanctions remain in place. There was discussion about additional steps that we might need to take if Russia, working through separatists, doubled down on aggression inside of Ukraine.
“Ultimately, this is going to be an issue for Mr. Putin. He’s got to make a decision: Does he continue to wreck his country’s economy and continue Russia’s isolation in pursuit of a wrong-headed desire to re-create the glories of the Soviet empire? Or does he recognize that Russia’s greatness does not depend on violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of other countries?
“And as I mentioned earlier, the costs that the Russian people are bearing are severe. That’s being felt. It may not always be understood why they’re suffering, because of state media inside of Russia and propaganda coming out of state media in Russia and to Russian speakers.
“And, ironically, one of the rationales that Mr. Putin provided for his incursions into Ukraine was to protect Russian speakers there. Well, Russian speakers inside of Ukraine are precisely the ones who are bearing the brunt of the fighting. Their economy has collapsed. Their lives are disordered. Many of them are displaced. Their homes may have been destroyed. They’re suffering. And the best way for them to stop suffering is if the Minsk agreement is fully implemented.”
In other words, Obama was doing the Full Monty of Official Washington’s “group think” on the Ukraine crisis that it was all caused by Putin’s “aggression” and his delusions about reestablishing the Soviet or Russian Empire. But Obama knows the real history of the U.S.-supported coup d’etat that ousted Ukraine’s elected President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22, 2014, despite Yanukovych’s political agreement a day earlier with France, Germany and Poland to accept reduced powers and early elections.
Rather than defending that political settlement, the United States and its European allies immediately recognized the coup regime as “legitimate,” although it included neo-Nazis and other violent right-wing extremists who were rabidly hostile to Ukraine’s ethnic Russian minority.
In the face of worsening violence, the people of Crimea where ethnic Russians are a substantial majority voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and rejoin Russia, an action supported by Russian troops who were based at Russia’s historic naval base at Sevastopol in Crimea. Russia accepted Crimea’s request but balked at a similar appeal from ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine.
Then, amid feverish anti-Russian propaganda in the U.S. and European news media, the Kiev authorities designated the ethnic Russian resistance in the east as “terrorists” and mounted a brutal “anti-terrorism operation” against the population with the regime’s neo-Nazi and other extremist militias spearheading the attacks. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Seeing No Neo-Nazi Militias in Ukraine.”]
It was in the face of this ethnic cleansing that Russia moved to assist the defense of the so-called Donbass region. Yet, now Obama places the blame for all the destruction and suffering in eastern Ukraine, where thousands have died, not on the U.S.-backed Ukrainian government and its thuggish militias but on Putin.
And, with no sense of irony, Obama suggests that it is the Russian media that is distorting the story, another favorite theme of the U.S. propaganda campaign on Ukraine pushed by both the Obama administration and the mainstream U.S. media.
There was an up-is-down quality to the way that Obama presented the Ukraine situation which is troubling in one of two ways either he believes his own propaganda or he is a conscious liar. There’s also a third possibility, that he has completely lost his bearings and adopts one position one day and veers in the opposite direction the next depending on who last talked to him.
But whatever the case, Obama cannot expect Putin and the Russians to view his public comments and contradictory behavior in a favorable light and then agree to cooperate with Obama on other hotspots where U.S. interests are much more endangered.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). You also can order Robert Parry’s trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes America’s Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.
It’s not stupid – it’s deliberate. Obama is just promoting his military-industrial complex masters’ wishes.
You think his Ukraine stuff is bad? He’s now promoting the idea of “good Al-Qaeda” in Syria! He’s also sending small groups of US soldiers to Iraq deliberately to get them killed so he can justify dramatically expanding the Iraq war for the benefit of those same military-industrial complex masters in Chicago.
People need to stop thinking of Obama as either smart or stupid. He’s simply a self-absorbed narcissistic puppet who does what he’s told.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article42094.htm
Obama’s constant flip-flopping in his approach to Russian-US relations is as puzzling as it is troubling, especially given the stakes. In fact his approach could best be described as spin-the-bottle diplomacy. The above interview with the Big Bear (Putin) would indicate that Putin himself is as troubled and as puzzled as the rest of us. This especially so after the recent diplomatic rescue mission (or was it a ‘recovery’ mission) undertaken by another infamous flip-flopper John Kerry on behalf of his boss. The mind continues to boggle at the sheer amateurism of it all. Yet whilst Obama’s “approach” may leave a lot to be desired, we might all look forward to his departure from office. “Might” being the operative word here, since anyone likely to replace him is unlikely to bring to the table a more pragmatic rationale to the proceedings.
Thank You all guys, again! Thanks to this resource. And all authors. You are doing very necessary things …
It would be great to meet You here, in Russia. To have a real chat.
I don’t even have any words to add to this article
That’s OK, Alexandr, We’re all on to the truth about Barry Soetoro aka Barrack Obama and his litany of lies; after all, he’s a pathological liar and a narcissist – traits that are dangerous to the average American citizen, but are very useful to the puppet-masters who groomed him in the shadows and brought him from obscurity in the Illinois Senate to the USSA Senate and, finally, into the White House. He was (is) the perfect Manchurian Candidate.
Obama’s constant flip-flopping in his approach to USSA-Russian relations, in many ways, reveals his struggles to following the script his masters have given him, confusing allies and opponents alike; and also raising plenty of distrust. This is just more evidence that his word can never be trusted, as shown by a recent poll that his popularity is now at a mere 45% or less, just in America alone.
Compare this with the popularity of your President, Vladimir Putin, which now stands at 85% or higher. Putin is what Obama isn’t – an honest man who puts his nation’s interests first, and seeks peace across the globe. He means what he says and doesn’t flip-flop, when it comes to world stability.
Democrat Party shills are parroting the Obama-GOP line on Ukraine.
Democrat Party shills are parroting the Obama-GOP line on TPP, H1B, outsourcing,Obama is at war against US workers jobs, anything goes, the gloves are off, he’ll slander us, call us lazy, accuse us of not being interested in math, which proves that if Obama’s strategy of “make the economy scream” doesn’t work, they’ll easily go straight military on us to reduce our wages. Obama hates us.
Being familiar with scorched-earth propaganda tactics which are used against US by Obama and his GOP colleagues, on TPP H1B and outsourcing, is it so incomprehensible that we recognize when those same dishonest propaganda tactics are used against a country that has not attacked us at all.
Obama is at war against US workers jobs, anything goes,
Perhaps we should modify that slightly. Obama and his fellow abusers are primarily interested in accreting power and wealth. If that means abusing the human and civil rights of others, so be it. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to consider that improving the well-being of workers might reward them with more power and wealth.
There wasnt more friendly to America country than Russia in 90-th. How in 25 years USA lost popularity in russian society noone ever try to analyse. American group think believes thats all is russian propaganda and we can do thothing about this when Putin rules Russia. USSR sad thats he dont want anymore play tanks near western borders and dismisses by itself (it wasnt NATO or America “win” in cold war as group think believes). Than NATO started spreading to Russian borders. What the hell, spreading and spreading, noone in Russia cares about it couse Russia believes thats it was peacefull organization. But than happens humanitarian bombing in europe, invasions, another bombing, supporting chechen terrorists, supporting islamic revolutions from Tunis to Syria. And what are Russians hearing now? NATO is peacefull organizatin, great. Well not a single generation required to pass before russian society started believe “west”.
I woke up to the U.S. lies when they and its partners bombed Serbia which was a real act terrorism
Jane,
The greatest danger in Europe is represented by four letters…NATO ….controlled by a country with three letters….USA. One should not think anything else for a second.
It needs desperately to justify its existence and the best way to maintain European support, contributions and military troops, arms, budget, is a need for wars.
And there’s the rub. Ask Libya.
The USA even had their own president of Russia, that was Boris Yeltsin. He had a fair chance to show everyone his wonderful policies.
It took some time, and study to reach this conclusion, but I think Yeltsin was a true Russian patriot. He knew that Russia was in no condition to take on the West, and he bought the time that allowed Russia to recover. The West saw Yeltsin as a compliant buffoon, and that allowed him to protect Russia long enough to set the mechanisms in place that would assure Russia’s future as a free nation. Then old drunken, but very cunning Boris did the unthinkable: He unleashed Vladimir Putin.
The US is now the most perfidious nation in history. Nothing Washington says or promises can be believed and relied upon. The Washington degenerates will miscalculate and plunge the world into a global conflict.
The US economy is not coming back. Only a bunch of unenlightened half wits would transfer the manufacturing base to another country and create a competitor.
Either unenlightened half wits or straight up America-cursing billionaire saboteurs.
Same old Tory bastards, OH. Getting back at the Patriots of 1776, which is just the continuation of Royalist Cavaliers tilting at the Parliamentarian RoundHeads of 1642, and regaining the upper hand in 1660…but the REAL threat to the World came in with Billy Orange in the 1690’s, when The Venetian Party & their Fondi, came in (via The Netherlands), setting up the beginnings of The Bankster Empire (the Anglo-Dutch Empires). The War between republicanism and Empire goes on…but we’re at EndGame now, and The Empire is quickly running out of tricks & breathing their last.
He’s the last “hurrah” for America’s standing in the world. What can you expect of someone who lied the way Obama lied -shamelessly and again and again- to the American people? How can someone with this kind of track record at home be seen on the international scene as anything other than a smoking cow pie?
I’m always surprised to hear people talk today about Obama being a “smart” man as opposed to GWB who was “not so bright,” as if moral functions play no role in factoring intelligence.
Obama is more dangerous than GWB because he is without restraint and completely untrustworthy as he demonstrated to the large constituency who voted him into office in the first place. He promised the world the truth re MH17 — said that a few days after the event, yet it was the US who suddenly sequestered all the evidence and decided that no more would be said. So why would we find that surprising?
The country is on the verge of tumbling down with him at the head — maybe that will be the only thing this first Black president will have done for America. Maybe this was always the intent of the evil cabal (probably all white but we can only guess since we don’t know) that runs the USofA from behind the scenes.
Simplistic bullspit.
It should be noted that it was the unelected triumvirate of Nuland, Ashton and Lagarde that played a leading role in fomenting the coup in Ukraine. And there are very good reasons to suggest they conspired together to bring it about. That is not to say they were alone.
Whether acting as proxies, or on their own behalf, events in Ukraine are just another sign of the bleak future we all face if we don’t wake up and do something about it. Unelected politicians should not be at the forefront of confrontations with any nation, let alone one in possession of nuclear weapons. With that sort power must come democratic accountability.
The fact these three women were at the forefront of negotiations in Kiev has set an extremely dangerous precedent. Without approval stemming from the ballot box, and coming from three separate nations, they weren’t even true representatives of the people in their own countries, let alone the people of Ukraine.
There is something deeply disturbing about three unelected professional politicians from three outside nations forcing ‘democracy’ on an independent nation that already has a democratically elected president.
To revisit the events of 2013 and 2014 from a slightly different perspective go to:
https://bryanhemming.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/double-double-toil-and-trouble-the-cauldron-of-kiev/
How do you measure a military footprint?
http://empire.is/
Obama’s Stupid Propaganda Stuff
Nothing new there. It began with his audition at the Democratic (?) Party convention in Boston in 2004. Only the theme and script have changed. He got the job of pied piper for the party and is just doing his job. According to a recent Rasmussen poll his schtick works with 49 percent of the people. The problem isn’t so much Obama as the American people who support these politicians. In 2016 picking the lesser evil is going to be a real challenge.
Mr. Parry wrote: “There was an up-is-down quality to the way that Obama presented the Ukraine situation which is troubling in one of two ways – either he believes his own propaganda or he is a conscious liar. There’s also a third possibility, that he has completely lost his bearings and adopts one position one day and veers in the opposite direction the next depending on who last talked to him.”
There is a “funny” I tell to people who follow horoscopes. “If you want to influence a Gemini make sure you are the last person in line.” Humor aside (BTW Obama’s sun is Leo [ruling lion] and moon is Gemini), I wage a fourth hypothesis: amalgamate all three.
(Pardon this aside): I began a short essay on Friday last but stopped; I asked the question: How can Mr. Obama show genuine compassion, love and affection to Joe Biden and family of Beau Biden at his funeral, then fly to Bavaria to continue to provoke and incite actions that could result in the most devastating war humanity will face?
Whatever the pathology behind Mr. Obama, the actions of the man have been, are and will reflect puppet masters of the “Deep State”. He was groomed to become their agent; he was chosen as the best person who could neutralize the growing anti-war, anti-Bush Democrats and Progressives (he succeeded); his power of people is a form of – if you don’t mind my word – “mesmerism”.
In 6.5 years, he has enabled and facilitated the rise of the right, far-right and ultra-right and handed what remained to be handed from Bush to them. The Dems/Liberals/Progs populate the “buffer zone” serving as barriers to re-balancing this country and bringing it – at least – to the center. They aren’t budging, and won’t.
It’s “My Obama, right or wrong!”
Truly the man is peculiar pyschologically. Paranoid-schizophrenic? Very self-righteous, nearly everything he says is tonally self-righteous and preachy. He hops and swivels in the best emperor wore no clothes fashion, as though nobody disagrees with him privately, and positions are always justifiable for the good of something, no matter that he contradicts himself from one week to the next. Not psychologically suitable, I think, to be a real leader. Professor probably was his best gig, although he might have run up against argumentative students that made him uncomfortable. It’s hard to imagine Sanders swiveling away from what he’s saying right now–he seems more substantial.
The research group Bellingcat has accused Russia of manipulating satellite images from the MH17 disaster.
But German image forensics expert Jens Kriese has criticized the analysis.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Satellite images are often used as proof of events in the Ukraine crisis, even by NATO. Are they even meaningful?
Kriese: It is easy to claim to amateurs that one can see this or that. But just think about the US images of the alleged poison gas facilities in the Middle East. There’s a similar point at Bellingcat: In one of the photos, a growing spot can be seen. It’s allegedly an oil puddle next to a vehicle. But does one consider that to be plausible? I think it depends on whether a person wants to believe it or not.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What’s your personal conclusion about the satellite images?
Kriese: The first thing to die in war is the truth. Each side likes to throw random smoke bombs. There is no way of knowing if the images show what Moscow is claiming. What one can say, however, is that this “analysis” has achieved nothing besides raising awareness of Bellingcat.
‘Bellingcat Report Doesn’t Prove Anything’:
Expert Criticizes Allegations of Russian MH17 Manipulation
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/expert-criticizes-allegations-of-russian-mh17-manipulation-a-1037125.html
The sound of one lip flapping; the Goebbling FOOL cant help it.
In 2013, Putin said that the US Imperial footprint was unmatched in history: ‘Draw a Map and See’ he said.
This week the US President, speaking at the end of the G7 meeting stated that Russia should decide if it needs to continue its isolation “in pursuit of a wrong-headed desire to re-create the glories of the Soviet empire?”
No other statement by any leader ever is so incredibly deceitful. Russia, the country that lost 27 million people in its fight to stop Hitler and thankfully did so, is totally surrounded by US (NATO) missile bases like no other country in global history.
As Putin said, “Draw a map and see”. Please do so everyone. See the truth of the matter.
http://www.truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/31044-the-us-militarization-of-africa-is-well-underway-and-nothing-good-will-come-of-it
May 29, 2015
The US Militarization of Africa Is Well Underway and Nothing Good Will Come of It
By Nick Turse
Tomorrow’s Battlefield: US Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa
Finding Barack Obama in South Sudan
ltr,
Africa…..
Hard to publish the detailed information, but the amount of Jewish money in South Africa and all those poor states, the world’s#1 shame, oiler decades, is unbelievable.
Low wages, and I mean low, governments (dictators as well) who are amenable to all the things that Zionists are good at…. graft, corruption, bribery and using leverage in every way possible, have made retail, mining, industry in those countries almost the total domain of Zionist and Jewish Banks. They have gladly filled the gap left by the UK who found it all just a bit too costly to develop. Not Israel though. In there, boots and all. The poor locals used as they have been for centuries. Slave labour but with the cameras on the USA’s other areas of military hegemony, the Middle East everywhere, through NATO squeezing Russia with missile bases and soon “pivoting into Asia”, their phrase, the continent of Africa is in another world, an environment in which crimes are committed, daily.
Any trouble as we recently saw in Kenya and in come the Israeli Stormtroopers with little publicity (thanks to government compliance), just to protect the interests of their Israeli carpetbaggers, raping the land and paying almost nothing for the privilege.
Quiet action develops no publicity. But it is real as in other countries as well. Out of the glare of the media which they own as well.
Time will show the spoils of these Israeli-government funded business barbarians.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175981/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_the_u.s._military%27s_battlefield_of_tomorrow/
April 14, 2015
2044 or Bust
Military Missions Reach Record Levels After U.S. Inks Deal to Remain in Africa for Decades
By Nick Turse
I would like to find Nick Turse drawing a map of US and Russian military bases, but I do not expect such a map in the NYTimes or WaPo. US military bases are all over the globe and right now that is very, very scary.
Putin Says US Imperial Footprint Unmatched: ‘Draw a Map and See’
As “Ltr” commented, above, this is what writers and commenters should stress in their discussions with others.
This is the greatest lie ever from a US President and there have been some whoppers; Gulf of Tonkin, USS Liberty, 9/11, JFK, WMD and so many others. It is par for the course.
Surely no one is naive enough to consider that there is anything ethical about a manufactured US President any more, the ultimate in spades, being Bush. But with one party as bad as the other, there is nowhere to go for any relief from lies, wars, unhealthy relationships, deals of convenience et al.
Did I mention lies?
You have one or the other, The devil or the deep blue sea.
So take the time…draw a map and see for yourself. The US and its puppets, the worst being NATO (US in disguise) are surrounding Russia with missile bases and that makes you, OBAMA, history’s biggest liar.
Credibility, ZERO.
Personally, I am a BRICS supporter. Check that one out but don’t be surprised if a search turns up nothing in the US media.
No one pays attention to Harper, our right wing prime minister in Canada. Check it out, he’s being used by the Republican far right to push Canada farther and farther to the right. Since he has been in power we’ve dropped out of Kyoto, moved to align with Israel ,formerly we ardently backed nationhood for Palestine. Harper is trying to ruin all our safety nets including health care. Now he is spouting anti Putin bullshit as if he or we had anything to back it up. It’s convenient for the republicans that he maintains his blowhard status and continues to dis Putin.
Well as a fellow Canadian, I really hope that Harper’s latest actions by passing Bill C-51, along with Canada now illegally bombing in Syria (which violates the UN Charter), along with corruption in the Senate, back to work legislation trying to crush unions, trying to apply “hate speech” laws on people that boycott Israeli products etc. – will spell the last of the Conservative Party being in power in Canada. I really hope that the Provincial election in Alberta will be an omen of what will happen in the October election. I even read an article from former Conservative Prime Minister, Joe Clark, which talks about how dangerous the Harper Conservatives are. I really hope that Canadians send a strong message to the Conservatives in Canada where they receive a minimal amount of seats becoming a small minority in their defeat in the next election.
Read Brooke Jeffrey’s recently published “Dismantling Canada.” Our Tony Blair and/or Yatseniuk. And we didn’t think it could happen in Canada. right! How comfortable we are.
There are a lot of moving parts to this. I suspect Obama is also using this manufactured cold war against Russia (and China) to inflame the emotions of just enough Americans to be able to slip the TPP, TTIP and TISA through Congress without an overwhelming public outcry- allegedly to be used as another weapon against the Russians and Chinese, when the real and lasting impact will be in the form of a coup d’etat by the multinationals against what’s left of our democracy, economy and national sovereignty, and, furthermore something that may impossible to reverse if it is signed and ratified.
It can be reversed by a new seven branch government.
Moscow must have finally realized that the United States will not rest until they get rid of the current government of Vladimir Putin or suffer a crushing defeat. Americans under the pretext of the crisis in Ukraine and Crimea started to weaken Russia and now they want to tear it to pieces. In 1991-92 under Boris Yeltsin’s rule they did not do it, although they could have. They had confidence in the loyalty of that regime, now there is a struggle for the very survival of the Russian Federation as a sovereign state within its present borders. There’s no room left for illusions.
Washington is Targeting Russian Pipelines Yet Again
By Petr Lvov
http://journal-neo.org/2015/05/30/washington-is-targeting-russian-pipelines-yet-again/
I don’t believe I agree with some of the claims in your linked article. It’s true that Erdogan got his panties in a wad about the Armenia Genocide issue, but ti’s also true that the fellow lost the recent election, and rather badly. Presumably other and saner Turks will allow the pipeline to make landfall.
As for the claim that Macedonia is a “must”, I don’t see that either. After exiting Western Turkey, it seems to me that the gas line can take off across Greece. Or in Greek waters. From there it would be available to the rest of Europe if they want to make a connection. If they don’t, they can buy some much more expensive LPG. Or wait for quite a while for the US-preferred line.
Russia and China are carefully planning a long-term strategy of getting out from dependence on the US currency, something that, as the US sanctions last year revealed, make both countries vulnerable to US currency wars of devastating impact.
Russia Gets Very Serious on De-dollarizing
By F. William Engdahl
http://journal-neo.org/2015/06/06/russia-gets-very-serious-on-de-dollarizing/
Ukraine’s President Poroshenko said again, on June 5th, that Ukraine will retake both Crimea and Donbass. He has Obama’s wind to his sails (and not only Nuland’s).
So: the war will continue, as Obama wants, and probably the resistance to it on the part of the EU will continue to be ineffectual and half-hearted.
And the sanctions against Russia, for responding as it must to Obama’s actions, will also continue, which is also part of Obama’s original plan. (What was not part of Obama’s plan, however, was the continued survival of millions of the residents in Donbass, the former region of Ukraine that had voted 90%+ for the man, Viktor Yanukovych, whom Obama overthrew. But Obama evidently has not given up his goal of eliminating them.)
The people who say that Obama doesn’t have a plan are simply ignoring it. The evidence is very clear what the plan is. And it is succeeding: it’s a war-plan against Russia.
The Reversal of Kerry’s Ukraine Statement Came from Obama, Not Nuland
By Eric Zuesse.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/06/the-reversal-of-kerrys-ukraine-statement-came-from-obama-not-nuland.html
I have to say that it makes me cross-eyed when I hear Obama, Kerry, McCain, Clinton or how many US or western politicians constantly berate other countries meanwhile violating human rights and other countries sovereignty themselves. Hearing Obama say, “Or does he recognize that Russia’s greatness does not depend on violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of other countries?”, just reeks of hypocrisy. Obama, and western politicians, would have the world believe that Russia’s annexation of Crimea by a democratic vote, which the overwhelming majority of Crimeans supported (as seen by Gallop, GFK, and Pew Research Polls), is somehow worse than the US “violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty” of Iraq (and Syria) where 1/2 Million to 1 Million people were murdered (violating international law) and the west has been at war for “14 years” now. I believe that currently the US is bombing in 7 countries, has covert operations in 75 countries, has something like 1,000 military bases world-wide, currently occupies Cuban land which they want back, the US and Britain stole the land of the Chagos Islands in 1970’s to build a military base on Diego Garcia, annexed Hawaii in 1893… I could go on and on.
I think though that this is larger than Ukraine and maybe largely about the challenge by China, and the rise of Asia, to the US and western hegemony in the world. Listening to our politicians just seems so childish (good guys and bad guys) and so full of hypocrisy. We need to stop listening to these “people”, for use of a better word, and get them out of power. Wouldn’t it be a better world if instead of a zero sum game, which brings the world war and death, instead we could respect our differences, stop trying to dominate the world, and work together in healthy competition and trade for resources rather than wars for resources.
If we lived in a truly fair world, and not the hypocritical world that we live in, the US and allies would have harsh sanctions levelled against them for the illegal invasion of Iraq, Syria etc. along with our politicians brought before the International Criminal Court. Maybe it will change in the future but our politicians are all talk about “freedom”, “democracy”, and “human rights” meanwhile doing the opposite – pot meet kettle.
I totally agree with you, Joe. Your post is right on target. Russia didn’t orchestrate the illegal and violent coup d’etat in Kiev that, in essence, violated Ukraine’s sovereignty and installed a puppet regime totally beholden to USSA/NATO/EU/Israel. I mentioned Israel; mainly, because Israel was basically giving the orders from the shadows, and the USSA/NATO/EU are merely Israel’s puppets.
You’re also correct in stating that the USSA currently has 1,000 bases (large and small) in 130 countries worldwide, including Guantanamo in Cuba, Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands, etc. The USSA’s currently bombing 7 countries and has 75 covert operations in 75 countries. Neither Russia nor China have all those bases scattered worldwide; nor, are they bombing other nations or conducting covert operations abroad. It’s total stupidity for USSA politicians to pin their own war crimes on Vladimir Putin and Xi Jingping.
And, this Neocon madness isn’t just talk.
Read, and be afraid. Very afraid.
(And also be afraid that this latest aggression is not being covered in the MSM.)
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/b-2-stealth-bombers-appear-in-europe-as-tensions-rise-w-1709943530
Obama is just another right-wing hack who is getting away with this stuff because he sounds like a “liberal”. He can talk the talk, but can’t walk the walk. If he wasn’t the first “minority” president, the so-called liberals would have called him out on the things he has done.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/06/09/putin-says-us-imperial-footprint-unmatched-draw-map-and-see
June 9, 2015
Putin Says US Imperial Footprint Unmatched: ‘Draw a Map and See’
Despite US military dominance, Obama accuses Russian leader of attempting to ‘recreate Soviet empire’
ByLauren McCauley
Watching his behavior in the White House over the past six-plus year, I’ve come to suspect that – if he had been a national politician amid the Iraq War fever – he would have gotten in line just like ambitious Sens. Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Joe Biden did.
That’s how the system works and has almost always worked. Carter tried to buck the system and the system – including the Democratic Party oligarchy – ganged up on him, just as it will gang up on Bernie Sanders in the unlikely event he gets elected president and tries to inject some socialist policies.
The others – Clinton, O’Malley and the gangsters from the GOP – won’t have that problem. They know how the system works and will go along with it.
The only politicians that can be independent and survive are those with the strong support of their constituents.
I was shocked at President Obama’s language at the G7 meeting, but in this way I am still naive. The President is supporting another Cold War, simple as that, and along with Russia might just add China if our wild Secretary of Defense has his way.