From Energy War to Currency War: America’s Attack on the Russian Ruble
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya wrote:A multi-spectrum war is being waged against Moscow by Washington. If there are any doubts about this, they should be put to rest. Geopolitics, science and technology, speculation, financial markets [including currency warfare], information streams, large business conglomerates, intelligentsia, mass communication, social media, the internet, popular culture, news networks, international institutions, sanctions, audiences, public opinion, nationalism, different governmental bodies and agencies, identity politics, proxy wars, diplomacy, countervailing international alliances, major business agreements, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), human rights, prestige, military personnel, capital, and psychological tactics are all involved in this multi-spectrum war. On a daily basis this struggle can be seen playing out on the airwaves, in the war theaters in Ukraine and the Middle East, through the statements and accusations of diplomats, and in the economic sphere.
The article is a good, short summary of this multi-spectrum US-sponsored war against Russia. It's important, I think to note: "If the crisis in Ukraine did not happen, another pretext would have been found for assaulting Russia." Nazemroaya notes importantly ...
1. Rather than a second Cold War, or a post-Cold War cold war, this war is simply a continuation of a war that never really came to an end. "The mentality of the Cold War never died in the Washington Beltway." After the fall of the Soviet Union, the aim changed to a dismembered Russia and a aggressive NATO expansion right to Russian borders;
1b. The aim is not simply for Russia to change foreign policy but at regime change. Maps of a divided Russia are already being distributed by Radio "Free" Europe. Let us also remember that even US functionary Madeline Albright made reference to the "unfair" territory and resources that Russia was endowed with. Literally, the thinking is, "Give us Siberia or we will nuke you."
2. "Petro-politics have been a major feature of this multi-spectrum war too. Not only have energy prices been a factor in this struggle, but so are financial markets and national currencies." In so doing, the aime was to create a "double whammy" of market manipulation combined with massive price drops in key energy commodities.
3. Key neo-conservatives made clear their aims here, for example, with public statements last May 2014 [from US Assistant-Secretary of State Victoria Nuland — the wife of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) co-founder and neo-conservative advocate for empire Robert Kagan — and US Assistant-Secretary of the Treasury Daniel Glaser] "that the objectives of the US economic sanctions strategy against the Russian Federation was not only to damage the trade ties and business between Russia and the EU, but to also bring about economic instability in Russia and to create currency instability and inflation."
4. The Kremlin has not, however, been goaded into senseless burning their enormous currency reserves but instead chose other methods, including increasing interest rates while providing financial assistance in the form of lending resources, using reserve funds instead for diversification of the national economy and strengthening of the social and public sectors, strategic investments in so-called human capital in Russia (all sorts of wages have been raised rather than the neo-conservative austerity of reducing wages), etc.. There are also other ways to respond to what is called "economic terrorism" by what Argentina has provided an example of: default and refusal of payment to sidestep vulture funds in NYC.
5. The abandonment of South Stream and closer economic ties with Turkey - announced by Russian President Putin while in Ankara in a master stroke - in the form of the new "Turk Stream" has effectively detonated tendencies to blow apart the fragile EU front. A final shot to the head of the EU was Putin's public statement about compensation for the Bulgarians for the lost South Stream. Turk Stream will also likely see improved Turkish-Iranian relations and the possibility of joint political efforts to resolve the Syrian conflict.
6. Russia's long term plans of pivoting to the Asia-Pacific region is now bearing considerable fruit, for example with the Sino-Russian mega gas deal and other Russian projects in east Asia.
7. Key Kremlin advisor Sergei Glaziev has spoken of a "«systemic and comprehensive» response «aimed at exposing and ending US political domination, and, most importantly, at undermining US military-political power based on the printing of dollars as a global currency». His solution includes the creation of «a coalition of sound forces advocating stability — in essence, a global anti-war coalition with a positive plan for rearranging the international financial and economic architecture on the principles of mutual benefit, fairness, and respect for national sovereignty». "
The Eurasian century is at hand. The American century is over.
.
Official US military doctrine:
Not why but how. Why is never questioned. War, war, and more war. Endless war against an abstract noun - a concept so idiotic that even arch-neo-con Z. Brzezinski could not help but ridicule its obvious and intense stupidity ... - and endless war, generally.
Winston Smith: "Imagine the future. It is a boot in your face, forever. That boot belongs to the US military. " ooh rah.
A boot in the face of humanity. Forever.
US Army Europe's Commander Calls Russia Real Threat
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/11/06/384982/us-commander-calls-russi...
"US Army Europe's commander Lt Gen Frederick 'Ben' Hodges has described Russia as a real threat, saying his country is ready to defend its allies in Europe..."
???
As opposed to most armies that have a plan to lose to all adversaries, I guess. So how does this translate into a plot to attack Russia next Wednesday afternoon?
"Get used to ENDLESS War," is how the Atlantic, that obvious Russian mouthpiece, explains US foreign policy going forward.
Pentagon's New Military Doctrine: Endless War
Then again, we can't trust those Roooooooooooosky stories? So let's have a direct link.
from the Horse's Mouth: The Atlantic Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel: Get Used to Endless War
No wonder even neo con Z Brzezinski openly laughed at the US policy of the War on Terror (ie, war on an abstract noun) and noted that such a war ... has no end.
A boot. In the face of humanity. FOREVER.
literally.
1. Paul Craig Roberts - The Prospect of Nuclear War
2. Noam Chomsky - US and its NATO intervention force may trigger nuclear war
3. NY Times - US ramping up major renewal in nuclear arms
ikosmos you need to start preping now for nuclear armagedon. Do you own a gun? You’re going to need it. Nuclear winter could be just around the corner along with an invasion of hords of radioactive zombies from down south. They will kill you and take all your stuff if you can't defend yourself.
Academic James Petras has an interesting piece about Russia's future in the face of US and NATO plans to destroy that country's independence.
To borrow a famous expression from Russian literature and history, What is to be done?
Worth a read.
link at Russia Insider
link at Petras blog
Canada's Prime Minister Spearheads Attack on Russia at G20 Summit
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/11/19/cana-n19.html
"Harper's provocative gesture illustrates Canadian imperialism's ever more aggressive role in global geopolitical conflicts. In Canada, Harper's calculated insult to Putin was universally hailed by the media and opposition parties..."
Pepe Escobar coined a brilliant phrase with his "neoliberal Wahhabism" ... characterizing Harper and other NATO and Anglosphere stooges for the Empire (like Harper and Abbott) . See
G20 in Auz = Buffoons versus the Global South
Incidently, Peter Lavelle's Crosstalk is quite brilliant on the G20 in Auz.
See Koala Summit
The show is worth watching in its entirety but for those without the time I think it is important to note the contrast between the mouthpieces of neoliberal Wahhabism - like Harper and other economic fundamentalists - and the countries of the Global South especially as represented by the BRICS members. The economic Wahhabists get apoplectic over a few things:
"Russia-China trade and investments are increasingly in rubles and yuan instead of USD. For the buffoons, this is worse than the Apocalypse."
AND the lack of structural reforms at the IMF is leading China to create its own independent institutions (through BRICS etc)
"The IMF quota and governance reform package was in fact approved by the IMF’s Board of Governors way back in 2010. One of its key resolutions was to increase the voting power of emerging markets, the BRICS at the forefront. For Republicans in Washington, this is worse than communism."
Indeed, the neoliberal fundamentalists and pathological anticommunists have much in common.
......................
All this is by way of contrasting the mixed economy approach of BRICS and the Global South generally - something that babblers should supports over the neoliberal Wahhabist approach of the Empire - to the neoliberal austerity and antipathy towards ameliorating the most disgusting atrocities of capitalism at its present stage.
The Next Presidential Election Will Move The World Closer To War
What is to be done? Roberts suggests ...
"As the US government now embraces pre-emptive arrest and detention of those who might someday commit a crime, the entire cadre of neocon warmongers should be arrested and indefinitely detained before they destroy humanity."
I'm not a supporter of preventative detention, but perhaps for these warmongers an exception could be made?
Washington Plays Russian Roulette - by Pepe Escobar
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/CEN-01-211114.html
"These are bleak times.
I've been in serious conversations with some deep sources and interlocutors - those who know but don't need to show off, privileging discretion. They are all deeply worried...
'The propaganda attack against Putin equating him with Hitler is so extreme that you have to think that the Russians cannot believe their ears and cannot trust the United States anymore under any circumstances.
I cannot believe how we could have gotten ourselves into this situation to protect the looters in the Ukraine that Putin would have rid the Ukraine of, and even had the gall to place in a leadership role one of the worst of the thieves. But that is history.
So the logic of escalation is on. The economically devastated EU is a joke; the only thing that counts for the US is NATO - and the overwhelming majority of its members are in the bag, sharing the prevailing mood in Washington of treating Putin as if he were Milosevic, Saddam Hussein or Gaddafi..."
Living With Insanity: Harper, Abbott and Cameron at the Brisbane G20 - by John Chuckman
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40268.htm
"A graceless bit of diplomatic crudity from a truly graceless man, Stephen Harper...
It is quite clear that the US is responsible for destabilizing Ukraine. Its CIA funds have been injected into many unsavory projects, perhaps most disturbing is its paying support to a collection of neo-Nazi groups ranging from extremist parties to violent militia forces, some of the very groups who have committed atrocities such as murdering many hundreds of civilians and some of whom actually march under Swastika-like flags.
It does seem more than a bit strange that men like Harper, Abbott, and Cameron implicity support that kind of filthy work while charging Putin with dark acts, dark acts which are stated ambiguously and certainly never proved..."
nevermind a planned nuclear attack, the real threat (as outlined by chomsky) is from an accidental launch, the probability of of which would go up under a cold war style standoff. Apparently it happens quite often, regardless of the political situation.
But it is plausible to see where the US/NATO/ actions are taking us. They've broken all the major security agreements with russia and are showing no sign of letting up on that front. Now they're levelling sanctions etc. next it will be missles on the borders. russia will respond. more proxy wars, etc.
Take into account climate change, military proliferation, technological advances, a couple more economic "corrections" and the right spark/series of events and it's not implausible that major powers will wage conventional war again. If history is any guide, it's a given.
Yes milo204 - and since most people are unaware and unmotivated to learn about these issues, it will all be left to the same politicians that are digging us all into these very dangerous and dark holes on behalf of the small elite that are aware of their interests and manage the information upon which most of the population relies to make any political decisions they do make. It's about as bad as it can be with little light upon the horizon...
Russia Top 'Threat' To NATO: US Troops in Eastern Europe Indefinitely
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2014/11/26/russia-top-threat-to-nato-u-s...
"US Army News Service - ...That NATO agreed to sanctions against Russia and declared its resolve against its aggression is all the more impressive, he said, because not all of the 28 NATO allies agree that Russia is the No. 1 threat the alliance faces.
The other part of the strategy is to pre-position equipment in Eastern Europe, Hodges said. While there are logistical assets already in Germany, the idea is eventually to move a heavy combat team with its tanks and Bradley vehicles to an area further east, such as Poland. Romania or one of the Baltic countries, he added. The Defense and State Departments as well as NATO countries are now discussing the location, he said.
He noted that a few months ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. 'We can be in Vilnius in two days.' 'Well I got here in three hours, coming from Wiesbaden Germany,' Hodges said."
"Ukrainian President Poroshenko replied, "Третьою світовою війною нас лякати не треба. Насправді, розпочинати її ніхто не збирається."Roughly translated meaning "A 3rd World War does not scare us...in fact, nobody is going to start it ..."
Nope. Nothing to see here. Nothing to worry about. And why do the Rooskies have all these military and Naval facilities in the Black Sea? I mean, doesn't that body of water belong to NATO? etc.
EU Official Says War Imminent as NATO Deploys Tanks in Eastern Europe
First off, Saryusz-Wolski was VP 7 years ago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacek_Saryusz-Wolski
He was also one of 14 VPs at the time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice_President_of_the_European_Parliament
And how do you interpret the phrase "in fact nobody is going to start it"?
Defending Dollar Imperialism - by Mike Whitney
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/01/defending-dollar-imperialism/
"If there was a way the United States could achieve its long-term strategic objectives and, at the same time, avoid a war with Russia, it would do so. Unfortunately, that is not an option, which is why there's going to be a clash between the two nuclear-armed adversaries some time in the near future..."
Is It Up to Germany to Save Europe From War? - by Pepe Escobar
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/01/is-it-up-to-germany-to-save-europ...
"Are the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Russia on a mad spiral leading to yet another war in Europe? Is it inevitable?
Washington/Wall Street elites are now deep into nuclear war paranoia..."
Well I for one hope WW3 holds off till after the holiday season. After that well its all...
Dumbest. Thread. Ever.
but then, even the paranoid have enemies sometimes ...
In fact, as the Russian FM pointed out, the US [and its NATO satellites] don't even try to hide that their aim is regime change in Russia. They're trying to overthrow an elected government and they don't much care who knows. That is, in fact a kind of un-declared war and, as we all know, the demonization of political leaders [like the current Western demonization of Russian President V V Putin] invariably PRECEDES invasions, bombings, colour revolutions, and regime change.
This is all so boringly predictable that it surprises me that anyone not on the political right would even bother to challenge it. Then again, we had babblers who sided with the lidless eye in Washington trying to overthrow the wildly popular socialist leader of Venezuela, so perhaps it is no surprise that other babblers side with other targets of the lidless eye ...
US Congress: Green Light to War on Russia?
In other words, "Let's get ready for war with Russia."
Nothing to see here. Move along.
'Facts Don't Matter' - Paul Craig Roberts on US anti-Russian resolution and march to war (audio)
https://soundcloud.com/rttv/propaganda-reps
The non-binding resolution passed.
Putin: Talking to Russia From Position of Strength is Meaningless (and vid)
http://rt.com/news/211383-putin-russia-deterrence-policy/
"Talking to Russia from a position of strength is meaningless,' said Putin in his annual state of the nation address to the Federal Assembly, stressing that the 'deterrence policy' towards Russia is nothing new.
'The deterrence policy was not invented yesterday, it has always been conducted towards our country, for decades, if not centuries,' Putin noted.
Everytime somebody considers Russia is becoming too powerful and independent, such instruments are turned on immediately,' said Putin.
Vladimir Putin spelled out Russia's special bond with Ukraine as being like a 'brother nation' and despite the recent tensions between the two countries, this relationship will not change..."
eng transcript: http://eng.kremlin.ru/news/23341
First Since Cold War: NATO Holds Article 5 War Games
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2014/12/04/first-since-cold-war-nato-hol...
'Allied Land Command takes part in Exercise Trident Lance 2014'
"The exercise which involves close to 4,000 personnel, will test NATO's ability to coordinate and execute a NATO-led Article 5 Collective Defense operation in a multinational environment. It also serves to certify land-based command and control elements for potential NATO operational deployments based on high intensity, war fighting conditions."
NATO, EU Effecting Complete Merger To Confront Russia
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2014/12/04/nato-eu-effecting-complete-me...
'Secretary-General: NATO and the European Union are 'stronger together'
Ron Paul: ‘US provoking war with Russia, could result in total destruction’
Nothing to see here. Move along.
Pepe Escobar: "If it becomes law, the resolution allows the President of the United States to declare war on Russia bypassing the formal permission of Capitol Hill.
The lame duck wouldn’t have the balls. But the Hillarator will."
Read an apologist for the lidless eye of Washington and you get trivialization. Here's to alternative media and speaking the whole truth.
Who calls it a "non-binding resolution"? How about a website owned by the Russian government. Is that good enough for you?
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20141204/1015516951.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-binding_resolution
You'd never know from the article that his son is a powerful U.S. Senator
US Declares War on Russia (Step One)
http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/12/04/us-declares-war-on-russia-step-one/
"Behind the White House's political smokescreen in Ferguson and New York, US lawmakers were busy sliding through a pre-declaration of war against Russia..."
Right wing racist websites are fine-as long as they're pro-Putin
http://21stcenturywire.com/tag/ferguson/
Right wing racist websites are fine-as long as they're pro-Putin
http://21stcenturywire.com/tag/ferguson/
your link not mine.