Guest Post by Paul Craig Roberts
According to news reports in the British press, Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed Russia’s industries to prepare themselves to be able to make a quick switch to war production. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/vladimir-putin-russia-business-war-production-sochi-military-talks-a8069951.html
Clearly, the Russian government would not make such an announcement unless it was convinced that the prospect of war with the West was real. For some time I have emphasized in my columns that the consequence of years of hostile actions taken by Washington and its European vassals against Russia was leading to war.
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It is easy to understand that the massive US military/security complex needs a convincing enemy in order to justify its enormous budget, that the crazed neoconservatives put their fantasy ideology of US world hegemony above the life of the planet, and that Hillary and the Democratic National Committee will do anything to overturn Trump’s presidential victory. However, it is difficult to understand why the European political leaders are willing to put their countries at risk for Washington’s benefit.
Yet, they do. For example, on November 13 UK PM Theresa May said that Russia was a threat to international security and was interfering in European elections and hacking European governments. There is no more evidence for these claims than there is for “Russiagate.” Yet the allegations continue and multiply. Now the European Union is organizing former provinces of the Soviet Union—Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan—into an “Eastern Partnership” with the European Union. https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/11/27/british-pm-makes-clear-eastern-partnership-created-damage-russia.html
In other words, the West is openly organizing former provinces of Moscow against Russia, declared by Prime Minister May to be a “hostile state.” Russia knows that there is no basis for the allegations against Russia and regards them as identical to the false allegations against Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, and Assad in order to justify military attacks on Iraq, Libya, and Syria. Having convinced Russia that she is being set up for attack, Russia is preparing for war.
Think about this for a moment. The world is being driven to Armageddon simply because a greedy and corrupt US military/security complex needs an enemy to justify its huge budget, because Hillary and the DNC cannot accept a political defeat, and because the neoconservatives have an ideology of American Supremacy. What’s the difference between the detested White Supremacy and the American Supremacy that President Obama himself endorsed? Why is white supremacy terrible and American supremacy God’s gift to the “exceptional” and “indispensable” country?
The Russian government has openly shared its concern that Russia is being set up for military attack. As I, if not CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, have reported, the deputy commander of the Russian military’s Operation Command stated publicly the concern that Washington is preparing a surprise nuclear attack against Russia. President Putin recently called attention to Washington’s collection of Russian DNA for a US Air Force weapons lab, which implies development of a Russian-specific bio-weapon. On many occasions Russia has called attention to US and NATO bases on its borders despite previous assurances from US administrations that no such thing would ever happen.
We have to ask ourselves why it is not the top item of public and political discussion that Washington has convinced Russia, a premier nuclear and military power, that Russia is going to be attacked. Instead, we hear of football players who kneel for the national anthem, fake news about Russiagate, a Las Vegas shooting, and so on.
We also must ask ourselves how much longer Washington is going to permit any of us via the Internet to report the real news instead of the fake news that Washington uses to control explanations. The effort by the Federal Communications Commission chairman to destroy net neutrality and other efforts underway to discredit factual news as Russian propaganda indicate that Washington has concluded that in order to war on Russia Washington must also war on truth. https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-fccs-order-is-out-it-will-end-net-neutrality-and-break-the-internet-weve-read-it-and-heres-what-you-need-to-know/5619857 and https://www.globalresearch.ca/selected-articles-good-bye-to-net-neutrality/5620061
Washington will not survive its war, and neither will the American and European people.
Next up: something even Obama didn’t do… sending advanced arms to the stooge in Kiev!
Trump’s March 2016 AIPAC speech should be enough to scare anyone on both sides of the Atlantic:
Another thing Obama didn’t do: Winning his wars instead of leaving them for someone else to deal with at a later time.
That’s really the point. Russia is already facing a conflict with Ukraine. Now Russia could overrun Ukraine but that would be about it. Not only would such an act cause NATO to mobilize it would severely tax Russia combat capabilities. Ukraine is huge. 1000 miles east to west and it has 40 million people. In relative terms it would be analogous to the US invading Mexico and then having to fight an even bigger war while our army was tied down occupying Mexico.
Russia is NOT facing a conflict with Ukraine. You really need to stop getting your news from CuNNt.
UKRAINE (western) is facing a conflict with Ukraine (eastern)
USA is facing conflict we Ukraine (we backed the wrong horse).
Russia has ZERO desire or intent of invading Ukraine.
IF they did, it would hardly “tax” them at all. They would obliterate Ukraine’s already weakened and pathetic Command&Control capabilities in a week, or less. And from there, it’s a piece of cake.
You consistently say some of the dumbest stuff regarding foreign affairs.
If Knowledge really IS Power, then restricting access to the truth weakens us all (which is where the power proceeds… knowledge of propaganda is worthless. Tell your daughter she is tough enough to face the linemen on the field all you want but if she isn’t smart enough to realize she’s been lied to, she deserves to get squashed.)
I apologize. I really am getting very bad about not finishing my original thought. Maybe it is age, but I really think it is the fact that all of these troubling issues are beginning to MERGE. I see the sequence of events in Russia, much like we were sold a bill of goods with the attack on 9-11 (WARNING: I am not inviting a whodunit discussion on 9-11), as an attempt to gear up a worthy opponent for the home team. Except we aren’t talking about a football game here, are we? We are talking about one of those brinksmanship maneuvers worthy of JFK and Khruschev but perhaps with not quite the positive outcome in store for the USA.
What is it about circuses and gladiators we like so much? Must we be continually at war with someone? I suppose now that the internet and I-phones have taken over all forms of entertainment, there really is no longer need for many circuses. Barnum and Bailey retired. Bring on more war machines.
Because even if we did NOT send a clear message via “channels” to Putin that we were gonna nuke him and soon, then someone will still need to build more defensive weapons (cue those slimy bottomfeeding CongressCritters teasing their military-industrial-corporate citizens with all rights of donating $$$ for re-election about how we might need to build more bombers, more tanks and more drones.)
Net neutrality was first imagined, I believe, in the 90s as a way to force advertising dollars into the troublesome bypass (internet/worldwideweb with NO GATEWAY. The Information Superhighway with NO TOLLROADS) of the control of Mass Media and Communication moguls serving as gatekeepers to information over airways. What would those public opinion shapers do without control over information distribution? Sure, they could advertise, but if no one paid attention to their ads, it wouldn’t reap rewards or draw customers dollars. If, however, they could FORCE internet providers to be like television CABLE providers, forcing people to PAY for the web sites they want to access and enabling the Internet Managing Corporation that ends up serving YOUR area, then they will know what sites you read each day, which ones you access on a pay as you go basis and how many times you logged in.
That, my friends, is some really interesting information about you. (I think of it as Information Redistribution along the lines of Wealth Redistribution). If they can get people used to the idea that they need to PAY a company to restrict their use of something (internet) they used to get for free over the airwaves, then they can kill two birds. Redistribute Wealth AND Limit Information Access all while filtering what types of information everyone has access to view or read.
How can they prevent the alternative media aka HOW CAN THEY PREVENT BLOGS LIKE TBP from waking enough people up to realize the CongressCritters really are that Corrupt. If any of you have ever know someone who ended up being elected into the halls of Congress, then you know how they changed once they got there. And those that did NOT change did NOT stay more than a couple of terms. I ended up sitting at a luncheon with JC Watts one time during the Oklahoma State GOP Convention in 2008. Also chatted a bit with Lankford, Coburn, others not so much worth mentioning. JC Watts was a straight shooter, I think. Others? A bit smarmy with that “be pleasant to the constituent but don’t promise nothing” atmosphere.
I think once you live inside that Washington DC bubble you begin to see the world through lenses adjusted for the “cost of living allowance.” In military jargon, the COLA was sometimes the real MEAT of the assignment. There were some places in Europe where you could be assigned and actually MAKE money by living on the local economy, because the idiots who count and measure beans thought the cost of living so much higher than it really was. So, CongressCritters get to DC and they suddenly are the recipients of a huge COLA that includes attention, fawning, lobbying lunches and all that fundraising they have to do JUST to pay to play. What was it Paul Ryan told the newbies they would need for a good chair? $150,000 to the GOP Caucus. Which, by definition, they were already part of just by being elected? It is very much like telling our children they owe hundreds of thousands in debt the day they were born.
So, CongressCritters and InfoMedia Gatekeepers really are willing to sell out our very rights to think for ourselves, much less speak for ourselves to maintain their over-the-top lifestyles and self-aggrandizing presence in the halls of power. I think they really are that despicable.
And, to top it off? They really are that greedy for more and more and more of the public’s money to build the world they so richly deserve.
Knowledge is power? No. Access to knowledge is power.
Really?
This is why Israel must be destroyed. It is a clear and present danger to all mankind.
yes it is
Also…..Just because one can master the Call of Duty video game,still does not make him a solider. Just because your police departments have all the gear,and look like soldiers,still does not make them soldiers. In the Military I was taught to measure the metal of a man if you were willing to trust your life with him sitting next to you in the foxhole. Ask yourself of the men you meet today.How many could foot that bill.
The sad part is. What the US government is doing has nothing to do about the will of the people. No person in their right mind would want a war with Russia, China or anyone really. We all know what it means. It’s the dickheads with the money and power who want this crap. They won’t have to sacrifice their own ass. Just everyone else’s. If you get the best of the Russians and back them against the wall we loose. If you don’t get them backed up against the wall that means we lost. Then there is the debt. We keep yanking the chain we are going to knock the locks off the chain and unleash the beast from bear country and along with it maybe the beast from the Far East.
I think there should be a country-wide petition stating that if the US goes to war with Russia, we the undersigned will volunteer to fight for Russia.
Let’s see what happens when that little morsel gets delivered to the White House.
I’ll sign it.
That is an absolutely brilliant plan. What could possibly go wrong with publicly stating you’ll take up arms against your own country?
As JQ would say, the stupid, it burns.
I would say that if a few million Americans signed such a petition, the war clouds would dissipate. I would be willing to bet that more than a few million would gladly support Russia vs. nuclear war.
Of course some people lack the balls to do the right thing, even if it means making history.
Don’t worry if millions of Americans signed such a petition, DHS has billions of rounds of ammunition.
Keyboard warriors have the biggest balls of all.
Don’t worry if millions of Americans signed such a petition, DHS has billions of rounds of ammunition.
________________________
If you really think our leaders are capable of such a thing, then you are truly grasping at straws. If he were alive today, I would wager John Hancock would sign such a petition in even larger letters than he did so long ago. Yes there are keyboard warriors, then there are some who are even too timid for that, so you are far from alone.
“Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
18 U.S. Code § 2381 – Treason
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2381
Oh, dear, I just think names got added to the Round-up for re-education list.
Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight. Always has been, always will be.
I’ve noticed as the Trump Administration’s legal troubles intensify, the beating of the war drums gets louder.
Just curious MarshRabbit.
What sort of issues do you see as “real” legal problems for Trump/Administration and what issues do you see as successful propaganda misdirects by a Liberal Media intent on enacting the Deep State Agenda?
To start, in court there is an evidentiary objection known as “assumes a fact not in evidence”. I’ve heard the terms “Liberal Media” and “Deep State Agenda” used, but I’ve yet to see any evidence presented that they exist. They fall into a category I call “Sasquatch Stories”, that is something many people believe despite the lack of evidence.
Real legal problems include: Manafort indictment, Papadopoulos guilty plea, Flynn’s attorney’s cutting off comuniction with Trump legal team,
[To start, in court there is an evidentiary objection known as “assumes a fact not in evidence”. I’ve heard the terms “Liberal Media” and “Deep State Agenda” used, but I’ve yet to see any evidence presented that they exist.]
What kind of evidence would you accept? I’ve never seen an electron, but I know they exist. I’ve never seen a proton, but I know that they exist.
What SUCCESSFUL conspiracy would leave obvious traces of its existence?
On the other hand, evidence of liberal media and corrupt government agencies is OVERWHELMING, so I have to conclude your ideological blinders are perfect. They do not allow you to see what is before your very eyes (and those of various sources, such as Drudge, TBP, etc.