Thanks to anonymous, here is what Chairman Dempsey had to say in his own words. This sounds a lot better to me than the out-of-context paraphrase of Bloomberg.
Your take?
The Saker
)
Saker Message:
Thanks to anonymous, here is what Chairman Dempsey had to say in his own words. This sounds a lot better to me than the out-of-context paraphrase of Bloomberg.
Your take?
The Saker
)
Hi Saker,
I plan to publicize your blog with some of my friends. Accordingly, I wrote this short letter of introduction. Please let me know if it contains any inaccuracies before I send it out. Thank you in advance.
Regards,
Abraham
__________________
As far as I know, the best website in English regarding the Ukraine/Crimea/Russia situation is “Vineyard of the Saker” (vineyardsaker.blogspot.com). “Saker” is a former European military analyst. His career was ended back in the 1990’s when he opposed the NATO bombing campaigns against the former Yugoslavia. (He is ethnically Russian and a devout Orthodox Christian.)
His analysis and commentary are among the finest in the world. He is especially skilled in his area of specialization, Russia/Europe/U.S. I do not agree with him on everything: for instance, I think he has an overly positive view of Shia Islam. (Personally, I am wary of Islam–both Sunni and Shia–though of course I’m aware of wonderful people who are Muslim.) However, he is very much worth reading and supporting financially. Amazingly, he writes in his spare time … That’s why his articles occasionally contain misspellings and grammatical mistakes. He simply doesn’t have the time to correct them.
As an introduction to his work, I recommend his article, “Maidan snipers: who did or did not know? Everybody knew!” (http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2014/03/maidan-snipers-who-did-or-did-not-know.html) It is an excellent piece regarding the manipulation of the media, from someone who witnessed it first-hand.
Can I use this for the same purpose but with some changes?
Greetings from Singapore:
The interview tells me, between the lines: Obama is taking a step back and is leaving the Ukraine crisis in the hands of Europe. (assume Merkel, since the others are clowns). They (Obama) (via Nato) are there to re-assure Nato associated countries in proximity of Russia. All this in line with my previous comment.
@Abraham: Other than words of praise I hardly deserve, but for which I am thankful, I notice no inaccuracies in your description. I would maybe add one thing – and I mean this sincerely – that this blog is fortunate to have some truly exceptional readers who often post comments which are far more interesting that the original post and who often correct mistakes I make. Also, and that is something I take special pride in, I never censor any comment no matter how offensive it might be. I only block commercial spam, utter nonsense, or posts who insult another commentator (they are welcome to insult me) or break basic etiquette (such as not writing in CAPITAL LETTERS). But that is, of course, your decision as to what to include or not.
As for being pro-Shia – guilty as charged :-)
Over the years I have developed a truly immense respect, admiration and fondness for Shia Islam and Shia Muslims. I see them as natural allies of the Orthodox world, by the way and I never forget that they, more than anybody else, are on the frontline of the struggle against Wahabism which I consider to be a major threat to every single country and nation on earth.
(I also happen to believe that a good case can be made that Shia Islam and the Byzantine culture have influenced each other)
That’s it. Thanks again for your kind words and your support,
The Saker
Well Gen. Demsey isn’t retired Adm. Mullen and he has the talking points down as he has to but is he tough enough to tell his boss the truth, I don’t know. I sure hope so.
The parts I do love is the big bad Russians aren’t allowed to protect their countries interest but those fun loving good guys in Amerika are allowed to create refugees around the world at will.
@jo6pac:Well Gen. Demsey isn’t retired Adm. Mullen
Yes, that is also what I thought listening to him. As for Adm. Mullen – may God bless him for his courage in refusing any attacks on Iran and for telling the Israelis not to try another false flag a la USS Liberty. We all, not only Americans, owe this man a debt of gratitude. I hope Dempsey will try to act like Mullen did.
The Saker
“What we”re trying to tell them [Russia] to not to escalate this thing further into Eastern Ukraine…some kind of resolution in Crimea”
This sounds like “We understand Crimea is gone although we will complain about it till the end of time but don’t dare start with other parts of Ukraine”
Frankly I simply do not see any logic what so ever in Russia’s actions in Ukraine and Crimea which I don’t know way every Russian commentator is cheering it that has to be one of the dumbest geopolitical moves in decades worse than Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait.
Perhaps someone would like to explain how it benefits Russia Putin’s actions and stories about Neo Nazis gangs running amok and attacking Russian speaking citizens by a biased Russian media have been debunked.
Of all the stupid ass policies he has enacted since coming back for a 3rd term this by far the worst.
Greetings from Singapore:
My suggestion: Allow only people to comment with a valid name and which is traceable. Why hide under “anonymous”.This to avoid having “jack” – assess coming in.
@Mario Medjeral:My suggestion: Allow only people to comment with a valid name and which is traceable.
That would be totally hypocritical from me since I also use an alias/pen name :-)
Why hide under “anonymous”.
So you can be free to share your thoughts without having to look over your shoulder. That also avoids centering on personalties. I really love anonymous blogging and posting. The CIA & Co have enough money – why do their job for them anyway?
This to avoid having “jack” – assess coming in.
There will always be “jack”-asses, such is the condition of the fallen human nature. I can handle them and, as long as they behave, I let them post. Why not? Who is to say who is a jackass and who is not? I myself would also be someone else’s jackass. I hate censorship – it deeply offends me. Real freedom always means putting up with jackasses, imnsho.
Cheers!
The Saker
Your arguments are valid. Accepted.
@Mario Medjeral: thanks for your understanding. I, of course, understand why you made the suggestion – jackasses are a pain the butt – but censoring their posts is a “solution” which is infinitely worse than the “problem”. Besides, most jackasses eventually leave because they realize that they are wasting their breath on this blog – nobody is paying any attention to them.
Kind regards,
The Saker
@Mario Medjeral:My suggestion: Allow only people to comment with a valid name and which is traceable.
WHY? Comments are mostly relevant to this blog, with a high degree of useful comments and links. I suggest you make that comment over at zerohedge… have a look at those comments, they don’t even manage to make it to the “analytical depth” of the original articles, which isn’t that hard, coincidentally.
Honk
A point that seemed to be missed in the speech of Dempsey occurs at 2:07.
In the context of NATO obligations towards its allies and of the volatility of a situation in which large minorities live in other countries, he surprisingly refers to the fact that 400,000 Romanians live in Ukraine. “In June 1997 Romania and Ukraine signed a bilateral treaty which included addressing territorial and minority issues. By the terms of the agreement, Ukraine guaranteed the rights of Romanians in Ukraine and Romania guaranteed the rights of Ukrainians in Romania. There are schools teaching Romanian as a primary language, along with newspapers, TV, and radio broadcasting in Romanian”. (Wikipedia)
The cancellation of the language law in Ukraine has raised concerns in Romania, the more that Romanians in Ukraine are Orthodox, scared also by the Uniate fervor of the OUN-ists. There were rumors of appeals to Romania to intervene in their favor.
Romania is a NATO ally.
WizOz
Here words from Mr Neocon.
QUOTE
Brzezinski: If the EU is serious about playing a role in the world, it has to start here. And that means putting up the money to help stabilize Ukraine’s teetering economy. A compromise solution that is acceptable for Russia as well as the West, and that will avoid war and give the Ukrainians some hope of a future, will involve serious economic aid and investment. Since Germany is the most prosperous and strongest economy in the EU, it should take the lead.
UNQUOTE
As I said earlier, seems Obama is passing the shit bucket to Mrs Merkel.
I think they’ve been culling the patriots left in the military, and that placing trust in the JCS is setting oneself up for a fall, but agree they are our best hope for mitigating the damages.
Commenting anonymously on Blogger doesn’t even slow the ability to track who made the comment more than a couple minutes at most, and if not at least signed with a screen name confuse the other commenters frequently.
I value greatly your ability to post news we don’t get in the US and your honesty.
> The cancellation of the language law in Ukraine
Can we clear this language issue up once and for all? Yatsenukists say: “Never heard of it”, Putinists say: “See. First thing they did was abolishing minory rights”.
If I am not mistaken, one of the first laws proposed by the putschist government was to remove official status of all languages except Ukranian. However, the putschist president declined to sign it, in other words, it never went into effect.
Apart from the legal side, there’s however the factual side, and when it comes to this, the putschists are, increasingly successfully, removing the Russian language from official web site – to keep English wtf!?
Also, back to the putsch government, they also seem to have banned all Russian TV channels.
However, isn’t the language law issue obsolete? Except for showing the strong feelings of relevant members of the putschists of course.
Honk
@ Mario Medjeral “Allow only people to comment with a valid name and which is traceable.”
Like I said on the other thread…
On every single “popular” blog, etc, you have Jews and a few others “discussing” things and “creating” or “adjusting” the opinion of the few others.
If the issue has two sides then you have two groups of Jews, one group on each side of the issue.
The side playing false opposition is often marginally anti-Jew.
Anything too anti-Jew is censored, or hidden in some way, often by flooding the comment into obscurity. The Jews receive compensation for their time at the blog-front.
@ Mario Medjeral’s suggestion is made in order to be able to “adequately” censor this blog.
According to the recording, the US feels it has treaty obligations to honour with its NATO allies. Since Ukraine is not a member of NATO, doesn’t that leave them out of those military obligations? At least for the present?
Further to the declaration of bias for Shia Islam, for many years now I have considered, and declared openly on various blogs, that Iran seems to me to be the West’s natural allay in the Central Asian and Middle Eastern theatres.
Itg’s good to read that I am not alone in that.
@ WizOz
Please say more about your thoughts on Romania. You’ve made some very interesting observations (also in your comment on the other story).
@Saker – any insights on Romania? This could be extremely important.
(also Saker, thank you in advance for getting a US post office box number for us- the annual box fees aren’t expensive and you’ll find it well worth it. It’s about the only way I’ll donate to any cause- and I definitely want to help this site.)
@Saker: Thanks for your response! I agree with you that the quality of comments on your blog is very high. However, that can change overnight, due to malicious actors. That’s why I prefer not to recommend the community of commenters on any site. In any event, I imagine that people interested by your articles will start reading the comments out of curiousity. Diligent readers will figure out whom to read and whom to ignore.
Regarding Shia Islam, it does contain more spiritual depth than Sunni Islam, in my opinion. This is because of the Shia emphasis on truth, courage, and sacrifice. However, Shia Muslims are still Muslims (i.e., followers of Muhammad). It should be obvious to everyone that there is not and cannot be an Islam apart from Muhammad. I mean no disrespect to my Muslim friends, but, regarding Muhammad, I think that St. John of Damascus was correct. Regarding Islam and Christianity, I recommend reading this interview with an Orthodox Christian convert from Islam:
(http://www.roadtoemmaus.net/back_issue_articles/RTE_06/Orthodoxy_in_Indonesia.pdf).
– Abraham
It’s all hypocrisy and projection.
@VINEYARDSAKER:
You didn’t actual answer my question that is a basic and fundamental one except resorting to an ad hominine attack that frankly since Putin’s 3rd term that there was never a need for him to run for a 3rd time has seen a further crackdown on any decent.
12-Mar-2014 Russian News Site Editor Removed, Prompting Uproar From Staff
RUSSIA – The article below appeared in today’s English language edition of RIA Novosti.
MOSCOW, March 12 (RIA Novosti) – The editor-in-chief of the popular Russian news website Lenta.ru was relieved of her post Wednesday, prompting staff there to complain that their editorial independence was being stifled.
Galina Timchenko has been replaced with Alexei Goreslavsky, the media holding’s deputy director general of communications, according to a brief statement posted on the publication’s website.
An open letter signed by a group of about 70 Lenta.ru journalists says the replacement is an attempt to put pressure on an independent media outlet in breach of Russian law, “not an ordinary reshuffle.”
Yelizaveta Surganova, an editor at the website’s Internet and Media news section, said many journalists have already decided to resign.
“I know that some have already tendered their resignation, while others have openly stated on social networks that they are not going to work with this new editor-in-chief,” she said.
Goreslavsky has a reputation as a pro-Kremlin figure.
Timchenko had worked for Lenta.ru since it was founded in 1999, and was appointed editor-in-chief about ten years ago.
The decision to replace her was taken by Alexander Mamut, owner of the united company Afisha-Rambler-SUP that owns Lenta.ru, according to the statement.
Published 14:15
http://retwa.com/home.cfm?articleId=16182
So please respond or do a post as to why Russia annexing Ukraine and backing the ousted corrupt President is of any interests to Russia?
@Abraham: I am familiar with the text of Saint John of Damascus but I would caution you about its instrumentalzation in approaching Islam and Muslims today. The type of Islam and the kind of Muslims Saint John dealt with are not the types of Islam and the kind of Muslims we deal with today. We don’t know what Saint John would have said had he met Ayatollah Ali Khamenei or Hassan Nasrallah, nor do we know what his heart would have felt at the sight of Resistance fighters defeating the Israeli attack in 2006. For me a slogan like “every day is Ashura and every land is Kerbala” strikes me as deeply Orthodox Christian in its ethos which beautifully expresses a total commitment to remaining true and faithful to God. I am sure that any saint would recognize the spiritual depth and quality of that kind of piety and faith. I look at what I see from Muslims *today* and my attitude towards them is shaped by what I see from them *today*. Furthermore, I think that once the theological differences between Islam and Christianity are clearly understood and accepted and once the choice between the two religions is clearly left to the conscience of each individual the two religions can live together in peace and, in fact, join forces against the shaitans of this world. Though I will freely admit that I am shocked by, and deeply opposed to, the Islamic notion that somebody abandoning Islam must be executed for that. In fact, I find any theological justification for the death penalty distasteful. I am honest about that and I have told that, when it was appropriate, to my Muslim friends. But I also believe that this is one issues which is best decided upon in the depths of each individual’s conscience. Likewise, as much as I like the symbolic stoning of the Devil, I find the notion of stoning a human being (or even an animal) completely inhuman and barbaric. But, again, this is something that one does feel in his soul or does not. There is nothing I could say to somebody who is comfortable with such practices other than “let each one decide according to his conscience”. All this is to say that I am not naive about the very real issues in Christian-Muslim relations, but I want to believe that there are good and well-meaning people on both sides who can help minimize such problems. When I listen to Nasrallah’s speeches today I find myself in agreement with him on quite literally everything and I think that as an Orthodox Christian I could live happily, safely and freely in a Hezbollah controlled city. I would not feel that way anywhere in the Sunni world, I am said to say, as I strongly feel that the influence of the Wahabi/Takfiri ideology has literally permeated all of the Sunni world. Again, this is what I see today. Hopefully, tomorrow this will change again. But how many Sunni leaders do you know of who would follow the example of Ramzan Kadyrov? Do you know of any?
Cheers,
The Saker
@Sky,
The newspapers say that President Basescu declared that Romania will join “the euro-atlantic efforts to re-establish the legal order in Ukraine”.
His official declarations contradict it. He fully endorses the euro-atlantic lingo: recognizes the new govt as the legitimate one, Russian aggression, independence and sovereignty, territorial integrity, etc. In short it cannot do anything else than to toe the line. Romania is already what Ukraine is ment to become.
WizOz
Thank you for posting the actual interview with Dempsey!
I was quite baffled by the Bloomberg interpretation.
General Dempsey was one of the most instrumental people on the US side for keeping them from invading Syria as well as Iran (and keeping Israel out). The interview shows that he still stands by his principle of avoiding war, especially one escalating from a provocative and hypocritical conflict, started by NATO itself.
It is good to see, that apart from moral an public opinion support, the US does not want to risk starting a “hot” war it cannot win. The American goals in Ukraine are very simple and actually cheap – to create another zone of chaos in the underbelly of Russia.
I do not want to offend any American patriots here – when I say “American interests” – I mean the interests of USA Ltd, the loose confederation of global business interests and political control (Clans), represented by the US Government since Gerald Ford and totally controlling it since Bill Clinton. Repeating the well-honed methods of the East India Company, which kept the profits private while relying on the state-funded Royal Navy.
Their main goal is to complete the arc of instability between Europe and Asia, to keep Eurasia from forming an integrated, independent economic unit of its own and keep them from extending it to Africa.
For if it were to happen, the Clans, which are predominantly Anglo-Saxon, would be marginalized by the emerging Clans of Russia, Germany, France, China, India, Korea and Japan. The latter would also control Africa, which would mean a near total collapse of the Present Global Empire and return to a multipolar world.
Ukrainian chaos serves the same purpose as other events of “Arab Spring” ever since Colour Revolutions started backfiring.
The EU interests were those of economic expansion into Ukrainian markets with their products and services, hoping to revive the union’s stagnant economy by acquiring a new market and its resources, similarly to the US avoiding a systemic crisis at the beginning of 1990s thanks to
conquering the markets, labour force and resources of the former socialist countries.
So unlike the geographically distant US, the EU does not need chaos at its doorstep. let alone a new member that makes Bulgaria and Romania look obscenely rich in comparison. The EU is the one to take the biggest economical blowbacks to their already anaemic economy in case of any sanctions. They are the ones to cough up money for the bills of the Ukrainian Revolutionary Government, but stabilizing the country costs at least twenty times more than was spent by the US destabilizing it.
Nevertheless, they are faithfully barking to the tune, set in Washington.
This theme often comes up:
> America wants to prevent Eurasia from forming a (potentially self-sufficient) integrated entity
I agree, this seems to be the name of the game. However, I wonder if the US isn’t thereby risking the less-likely, though potentially even more potential scenario:
The bear hugging the panda.
It wouldn’t be a love marriage, to be sure, but Putin’s love overtures have been repeatedly disappointed by the one country that matters on the European continent, Germany.
I’d love to get some debate on the broader geopolitical perspective…
Honk
“Your take?”
Dempsey (paraphrase):
“We will do anything we can to advance our zionazi/NWO goals of world dominance, but be assured we wont initiate nuclear war, not just yet, as we cant guarantee no retaliation. Don’t worry, you wont be vapourised in a nuclear exchange, just yet, be happy, keep believing the government is in good hands, despite media hysteria.”
Kabuki theater.
Obviously the zionazis can not go nuclear or seriously envision attacking Russia, as they did in WW2. Dempsey is trying to calm resistance to opposition to the zionazi attack on Ukraine by insisting everything is under control, we wont accelerate this into a nuclear confrontation. Essentially, a strawman being refuted.
The problem is not the zionazi cowards going nuclear, they cant, but that this war on Ukraine is happening in the first place. Dempsey, and the rest of the western establishment make such possible. That they occasionally state the obvious means nothing, especially because when the sods do it, it’s buried in a heap of goebbelsian zionazi propaganda.
The zionazi fall-back is currently:
OK, you outsmarted us in Crimea, and countered our moves involving the Tatars, but if you do it again in Eastern Ukraine, we’ll er…demonise you more with our propaganda instruments and send in the “pot-bellied gay banderas”. Got it? So back off!
вот так
Anonymous said…
@Mario Medjeral:My suggestion: Allow only people to comment with a valid name and which is traceable.
WHY? Comments are mostly relevant to this blog, with a high degree of useful comments and links. I suggest you make that comment over at zerohedge… have a look at those comments, they don’t even manage to make it to the “analytical depth” of the original articles, which isn’t that hard, coincidentally.
Honk
12 March, 2014 19:31
——————————–
When you talk about links
Here on a Croatian forum, somebody has recommended this blog The Vineyard of Saker #5777
http://www.forum.hr/showthread.php?p=49145164#post49145164
The words of truth are spreading.
Anonymous said…
@Mario Medjeral:My suggestion: Allow only people to comment with a valid name and which is traceable.
WHY? Comments are mostly relevant to this blog, with a high degree of useful comments and links. I suggest you make that comment over at zerohedge… have a look at those comments, they don’t even manage to make it to the “analytical depth” of the original articles, which isn’t that hard, coincidentally.
Honk
12 March, 2014 19:31
——————————–
When you talk about links
Here on a Croatian forum, somebody has recommended this blog The Vineyard of Saker #5777
http://www.forum.hr/showthread.php?p=49145164#post49145164
The words of truth are spreading.
jack said…
@VINEYARDSAKER:
RUSSIA – The article below appeared in today’s English language edition of RIA Novosti.
etc…………
Dear Saker I have never asked you before a question because I am aware that it consumes a lot of your time.
Now I will ask, why the Russian government finances this e-newspaper RIA Novosti?
I take the points about the US military being the best hope for reigning in stupid, blind, arrogant, sanctimonious etc etc – take your pick of adjectives – politicos. Fair enough; but there is a far more worrying possibility, enunciated by Professor Francis Boyle recently and it goes like this:
The hidden, Deep-State arbiters of the end-game thrust for a US-UK-NATO dominated globalised fait-accompli KNOW that the West’s military superiority (perhaps already a clear first-strike capability) is never going to be greater than its is right now. They also know that Russia (and Iran, China) have to be dealt with sometime. They have therefore decided that that time is now and the cassus belli is to be Ukraine.
It is difficult to imagine a MORE hypocritical stance than is being taken right now but they seem to be getting away with it A OK – so what’s to stop them other than the possibility that Boyle’s suspected existing first-strike capability is not quite there yet?
ALL the above adjectives do indeed fit most Western politicos; but just like ‘Secretary’ Rassmussen; they are PR men – puppets there to herd a gullible public while the decisions that matter are dictated to them. Those who do the dictating are quite another matter. In my book they are not stupid; they are Machiavellian, with access to the best, brightest and most advanced human/techie information and gaming facilities on the planet.
These really are very scary times for those with eyes to see.
Basically, this guy says, we as militaries should not escalate things. Well escalation is not in the hands of the military obviously, so this statement is just fluff.
If you remove the other fluff statements, like using the hotline, treaty obligations, you can one not fluff statement,
There will be some kind of response to accepting a referendum to cede from any of the eastern provinces.
So it boils down to this…
And the Russia is current verifying operational readiness of their arty units…
@Saker: Thank you for your detailed and interesting response! I know that you are busy now regarding the situation in the Ukraine. I am also busy regarding the upcoming Indian elections (April-May). Accordingly, I will respond later. By the way, I have read through all of your posts about Russia and Islam. I learned a great deal, but I must say that I disagree with you. I have no problem with Orthodox Christians co-existing with their Muslim neighbors as peacefully as possible. However, we must always remember that Muslim communities have a remarkable tendency of drifting back to Islam’s jihadist doctrinal roots. I have witnessed this personally. I’ll be in touch.
Regarding your question, I am aware of good Sunni Muslim leaders. For instance, there is a former president of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam. http://www.abdulkalam.nic.in/profile.html
– Abraham