Both John Mearsheimer and, especially, Stephen Cohen are both extremely smart and knowledgeable academics and it is a crying shame that these two men are so completely ignored by the current US elites. I highly recommend this very good show. Enjoy!
The Saker
Personal note: I want to add something here. Mearsheimer and Cohen are the living proof that the caricature which a lot of non-US people have about Americans being arrogant, ignorant and stupid is fundamentally wrong. During the Cold War an entire generation of very savvy academics and analysts materialized who were refined, well educated and sophisticated thinkers with the ability to truly look ahead in a non-ideological fashion. I have had the pleasure and honor to study with Paul Nitze and I personally knew Admiral Elmo Zumwalt and I can attest that while not necessarily always sinless saints, these men were truly remarkable decision-makers who loved their country and who wanted to do what is right for it. Listening to Mearsheimer and Cohen I had a flashback to my conversation with Nitze who by the end of his life also had reached a certain wisdom and detachment which allowed him to see things from a higher perspective. I also hope that Steven Cohen will impress those who naively believe that all American Jews are sayanim or AIPAC/JINSA/ZOA agents as this is far from being the case. The USA is far more complex than a lot of non-Americans think and it should not be judged by the performance of clowns like Dubya, Obama or Biden.
Thank you for speaking the truth beyond ideology, exclusivity and self-aggrandizement.
Caught it by chance. By far the best Cross Talk I’ve seen. Usually constant interruptions of one another, shouting match, not this time. Also, learned commentators, worth hearing. John Mearsheimer wrote “Tragedy of Great Power Politics”, outstanding analysis of how great powers interact (if a bit tedious: makes and illustrates the same points repeatedly).
May be, may be, but other ‘murikan lunatics nearly advise for nuclear confrontation, look at the insane commenter ‘Serge Kabud’!
Nuclear veterans from various E European nations say Ukr nuclear plants are being fueled by Westinghouse and that this is a dangerous practice because the US fuel rods are incompatible with soviet-built plants. The Westinghouse deal kicked in 2 yrs ago. Accd to this report, this is why that unsavoury nationalist guy was shot recenty in Ukr. He was a whistleblower on this specific deal (which it is claimed is also illegal and involved bribery). Apparently near-misses have occurred recently both in Cz Rep and Ukr
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/04/26/us-to-turn-ukraine-into-second-chernobyl.html
if true… we’re beynd benign hegemons; what will a US crippled economy do to stay afloat?
Unfortunately there was not time for a response to Mr. Mearsheimer’s final argument against comparing the situation to 1917. He said that Russia is not comparable to Germany then, whose aspirations were global. My instinct would have been to reply, not Russia, this country’s leaders are certainly bent on that global ‘mission’.
I agree, excellent program. Thank you, Saker.
thanks for this.
respect all the way from India
hope and wish saner voices prevail (which has seldom been the case with Natoistan Since last 20 years)
regards
respect all the way from India
hope and wish saner voices prevail (which has seldom been the case with Natoistan Since last 20 years)
regards
On my office wall I keep ID tag from the press conference which happened some years ago at major international broadcast event when birth of Russia Today was announced.
The director, then, Andrey if I remember correctly was grilled by MSM sharks with unbeliveable arogance and ignorance. One of them asked question like: We alredy have BBC, CNN, Jazeera, and many other English news channels covering the entire world, what makes you think that you will succeed with another one?
Andrey answered with simple quote: We will be objective!
That was one of these priceless moments to remember. The romm went very quiet for a few moments. I am very pleased that RT exists today.
Guru
While early in his career, Nitze was viewed as a hawk, at the end he got it very right.
NYTimes oped- October 28, 1999
“A Threat Mostly to Ourselves”
“The fact is, I see no compelling reason why we should not unilaterally get rid of our nuclear weapons. To maintain them is costly and adds nothing to our security. “
http://nyti.ms/suQfEK
i agree with your personal note on how much more nuanced it is then the simplistic viewpoint on americans that is expressed. isn’t this always the case though? stereotyping can only go so far.. james in canada
Dear The Saker,
I watched this earlier today and wished it had been a part 1 and 2 as 1/2 an hour wasn’t enough time. You could see how much Pater appreciated them both.
Rgds,
Veritas
p.s. as you say the US has many good people too who don’t get heard or represented enough unfortunately. That’s why this current USG is failing…..
Admiral Elmo Zumwalt
WOW last of the true Warriors who knew combat and later fought everyone to a stand still that wanted to send Amerikas soldiers into harms way for ego. Maybe some day in the future you could expand on that. Thanks for todays updates
Further to Juliania @ 17:13.
I agree that it is refreshing to hear two western academics outline relatively balanced positions on events in Ukraine. However, I have to say that Mearsheimer’s credibility is somewhat undermined in my view by his assertion that the primary responsibility for WWI lay with Germany – The bog-standard Anglo-American victor’s history and official narrative IOW.
In the run-up to the centenary celebrations later this year when we can expect to hear the ON trotted out ad-nauseam, I have made a start on countering it with information about where responsibility REALLY lay. The page contains links to comprehensive lists of the names of those responsible and is based on a recent book, Hidden History which I heartily recommend
Albertde
In Fahrenheit Land, there has always been a small, yet ever decreasing group of people open to the world, highly educated and mostly idealistic with some highly realistic but unfortunately, their voices are drowned out by the rest of the country, who live in a monolingual world, with delusion, suffer from over patriotism / nationalism, think a vacation is driving two or three hours in their RVs.
Canadian says:
Mr Mearsheimer stated that Russia was weak. I am not sure if this categorization was relative to the strength of 1914 Imperial Germany or a comment on 2014 Russia vis a vis the US / NATO.
I do not believe Russia to be weak. I believe any characterization of Russia as weak is the work of a fool.
Leave aside the throw weight and number of MIRVs on each side. Regardless of where the targets are located the atmosphere is shared by us all and the victims will be decided by the prevailing winds.
With regard to Ukraine, Russia has significant force present in theatre adjacent to the border. The US has basically a company of paratroops in each of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, plus six F-16s in Poland and another six in Roumania and a single FFG in the Black Sea.
Russia has the capability to address these threats.
The Ukrainian armed forces are either ineffectual or non-existent.
The NATO members do not have forces immediately available to counter any Russian move. The armoured divisions once present on the IGB have returned home. NATO would require a six month build up to enter a European conflict and any such build up would be visible to Russia. Russia would likely view any such force build-up as an existential threat which needs to be addressed via a preemptive conventional attack. This is a legitimate riposte under the international rules of war.
Finally, the CrossTalk segment was very enlightening with respect to the degree of group think present amoung the Washington power elite, and the degree to which the US press has failed to communicate the issues to the citizenry (though my sense is that many citizens are fully aware of the failure of their elites and their own powerlessness to elect anything other than DemoRepubs. The US voted for hope and change and they got a Bush III who is arguable as bad as, if not worse, then Bush II).
Should there be a conflict even a conventional conflict, I am not convinced the western militaries are prepared to engage an opposing force which is on a near par as regards weapons technology. In a number of areas Russian military tech is arguably better than anything in the western armouries.
NATO has just retreated from ten years of an inconclusive war fighting goatherds equipped with nothing beyond personal small arms. No manpads, no AA to speak of, no operational security, no communications networks, no force structure, no logistics, no counter air, no transport, no heavy armour, no artillery, no GLCM, no warstocks – the list goes on and on. And NATO was battled to a draw.
I suspect that in the event of a conventional conflict the Western militaries will be in for a shock as they will be forced to immediately unlearn all the lessons of the last war. This will not be a pleasant lesson.
The spectre this raises is that of a conventional western force failing to acquit itself against a Russian opponent and turning to non-conventional weapons to retain their place on the battlefield.
The caricature is fair. Ask anyone who moved away and found himself living outside a bubble.
First off, I really want to thank everybody for all the information on North Korea. It sure isn’t easy reading but awfully important for any real understanding of how we work. sigh.
The contrast between Mearsheimer and Cohen and the usual pablum we are fed and/or the putative thinking patterns of official DC would be like night and day. And I say that while still choking that the probably-finally-no-longer-randy war criminal Kissinger was invoked as an eminence grise. (Blessedly the equally nasty Warlock Brzezhinski, often invoked as Obama’s mentor, went unmentioned.)
So here’s my latest batch of somewhat random/somewhat related questions:
1. The two men brought up the current lack of (educated, knowledgeable) “old hands” but where might any newer ones come from? Used to be in this country that middle-upper-crust WASP elites who weren’t necessarily Yalie/Skull and Bones went into the Foreign Service and also various university positions from which provided some decent expertise. I think Cheney-Bush drove most of the first group right out of the State Department, although a lot were nearing retirement anyhow. But also it doesn’t look like, with the exception of Holocaust Studies, we’ve got a working funnel for more of either type — our elites now are simply into MBAs and money and no one else is taken seriously. But even if we did have a group of knowledgeable, experienced people who TPTB could call upon for advice, *who* in the White House or Congress, Republican or Democrat, would have the judgment to select them or listen to their advice? I think Wall Street, AIPAC, the MIC, Big Oil and Big Ag are the only advisors anyone listens to, and their areas of expertise are…
2. Are we going on this war footing simply because our defense contractors have run out of small towns to snooker into buying their crap?
3. The chaos and anarchy in Ukraine would appear to be mirrored by that within the Oval Office and State Department, if not DoD. And that would include Neo-Nazis in Lvov marching in “honor” of the Ukrainian Waffen SS. They look for all the world like a bunch of neo-Confederates hoping for the South To Rise Again (and re-victimize them). http://rt.com/news/155364-ukraine-nazi-division-march/
And of course, the newer sanctions have already backfired, but who didn’t know that would happen? Look what happened last time around: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/visa-mastercard-required-to-pay-38bln-security-deposit-to-work-in-russia/498998.html/
Okay, so here’s the question, and it’s only partly facetious: what if Obama really is running the show? (Mr. Nora did a total-and-complete double take when I posed this, so I really can’t stop giggling, but seriously, what if?)
4. Finally, Kerry is barking out even more orders, into the wind: http://rt.com/news/155244-kerry-israel-apartheid-state/ The question here is, quite simply, why?
“pro-russian” demonstration in …. FRANKFURT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DBLd0B4ahM
Yes, there are a great many Westerners trying to talk sense into the leadership, but if you don’t have good people as leaders, you can talk all day long, and you won’t accomplish squat.
American “leadership”, which is drawn almost exclusively from the Ivy Leagues, is drawn from a selection process that does not favor good people, but narrow minded twits; their minds narrowly focused on themselves to the exclusion of the world at large.
The education they receive at the Ivy League is antiquated, and the primary value of attendance is networking with fellow ambitious twits in the hopes of a sinecure or other access to fiat money after graduation.
Even if we grant the supposition that Obama, Hagel, Dempsey and Kerrey are decent men of good-will, their apparatus of government and surrounding academic-press-money class is debauched. These people will only allow a self-defeating rhetoric out of the West, which puts Obama et al. in the position of having to “fail” in order to avoid bad things. The idea of them having the freedom to actively seek the good is not congruent with reality.
This is a situation quite akin to May 1914, leaving us one black swan away from the real End of History.
it is painful to see those professors having no clue about the capitalist crisis starting in the 80s. what is happening now are just results. did nobody ever read Moshe Postone???
Oligarchical topography of Ukraine. Andrei Fursov
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXLUJpqaQpY
This is a long (70 mins) talk by Andrei Fursov (historian, sociologist) from mid-April via Poznavatelnoe.tv (English subtitles).
There is a LOT of information in this talk.
Make what you will of it … Major topics:
04:30 Overview of the major oligarch clans in Ukraine : Akhmetov (mining & steel), Yanukovych (administration), Kolomoisky (banking), Firtash (energy).
Akhmetov backed Yanukovych, while Kolomoisky backed Yuschenko and Tymoshenko. Firtash works for the Rothschilds. Several more powerful domestic and foreign players in Ukraine. Kolomoisky is said to be the motor behind current events.
12:00 Foreign oligarchs have moved in to control large sectors of Ukraine. At the same time all the big western intelligence agencies have had a free hand since the late 90s (CIA, FBI, MI6, BND, plus one mid-east country), including preparing the Banderite underground for the recent take-over.
24:45 The under-recognized significance of the Lebanese diaspora and Hezbollah in South America and Africa, and how they have gotten in the way of the global hegemon.
28:45 The Banderization of Ukraine is an instrument to conquer Russia and weaken China, lest they become strong enough to challenge the Atlanticist hegemony.
37:30 While the West has been effective for years in steering developments in Ukraine, their Russian counterparts by comparison have been a pathetic failure and need to learn from the West.
43:30 In the last 200-300 years Russia has endured numerous aggressions from the West, while Russia conversely has done virtually nothing against the West. Western expansion is “aggressive” while Russian expansion is “defensive” (buffer).
49:00 The EU intends to bury nuclear waste on the site of Chernobyl, which in a few years will cause massive depopulation of Ukraine (or neighboring Belarus and Russia). The waste train is waiting at the Polish-Ukrainian border. It is speculated that Muzychko was assassinated for knowing too much about this.
53:35 Nato’s genocide of pro-Russian Serbs by dropping uranium and infertility agents. Cancer now widespread.
58:45 A Rubicon has been crossed with the February-March events of 2014. Relations between the West and Russia have passed the point of no return. The gloves are off. Russia’s “era of defeats” is over. The return of Crimea demonstrated that Russia will not only stand up to aggression but unexpectedly take the initiative.
1:00:30 Next steps for Russia: eliminate the fifth column, reconfigure the economic and social framework, leave anti-Russian international structures, take the initiative against the Western aggressor, and, finally, prepare the domestic population to be ready …
“…the caricature which a lot of non-US people have about Americans being arrogant, ignorant and stupid is fundamentally wrong.”
No, it’s not fundamentally wrong. It’s generally true. But of course not absolutely true. You can always find a exception that proves the rule. In no way are these 2 gentlemen representative of the vast majority of the population.
Q: … to see things from a higher perspective…
R: Wise wo/men never see things from a higher perspective.
They see them from a different perspective.
i ahve been saying that world war 3 started by 2003 but Russia ,chian and India kept on deluding themselves and kept sleeping. in fact even during sochi olympics Russia was caught sleeping .
putin did nto help the urkainian poresident in fact to please weterns he asked his ally and friend to virtually subvmit resignation before hgis term expired.
Russia is facing troubles because it failed to create troubles for her enemis and abandoned her allies.
2012,
As Chairman Mao was fond of saying, “If no one causes me harm, I harm no one. But if someone harms me, I’ll be sure to reciprocate.”
shame on russia! theiving english shelter your criminal oligarchs -70%british GDP is money launder
anglos r sharing spy secrets only amosnst themself-so called west is basicallly eupherism 4 anglos.
Russia delusional that its real enemy anglos-aka west-will invite rus to share loot from the world.
so what relationship you expect from anglos who consider you putin as enemy and russia as prize 2get?
when situation is2 confront criminal activities of anglos -then protocol and law must be set aside.
russian request 2interpol2capture english fugitive dismissed within 48 hrs.-rus takes 6wk.abt snow?
treacherous rus-chin betray their allies like Nk, iran,libya to please anglos enemies. rus-chin next victims
us,uk will lure Nk away from chin saying ” look chin betrayed you”-aka maynmbar scneraio where chin lost.
then rus-chin will have no neutral buffer like Nk opposed to usa/uk onslaught.this stupid lavrov did.
stupid lavrov is weakling bootlicker of anglos-real disgrace like medvedev and yeltsin. iran learn lessons of being self depend.
good luck 2russia. has Rus got anything passed by security council which was not preapproved or opposed by anglos?
sergie ivanov the former defence minister must be made Fm or primeminister . kick lavrov and
Medvedev out.
It’s as if the Russians are still unable to grasp the full extent of US/NATO ill-will and duplicity.
The england controlled USA is the criminal mafia with an army. Snowden exposed it. The Saudi-qatar petrodollar finances the mafia.
quote ” Next steps for Russia: eliminate the fifth column, reconfigure the economic and social framework, leave anti-Russian international structures, take the initiative against the Western aggressor, and, finally, prepare the domestic population to be ready …”
yes but will russia wake up and will china be wiser to her real enemies the anglos/?
Hello, everyone.
Is it true that Russia has nuclear weapons in Cuba (possibly other South American countries)? If this is true, it is a very interesting factor to the discussion on Cross Talk.
http://english.pravda.ru/russia/politics/01-08-2012/121804-russia_army_base-0/
@ Wikispooks,
The Commonwealth has been a true gift that keeps on giving, doesn’t it?
Germany was getting to big and strong [like they are today] and the fading empire [Britain] wouldn’t have any of it.
Unfortunately, victors [the ‘good’ guys] write history, the losers have to stand in a corner and have their flag turned upside down [Germany -black at the top? Really?].
Once you learn/understand that most if not all of the history you’ve been taught in various schools is a fresh load of horse manure, the tedious process of sifting through all that shit begins, and, oh boy, what a mess it is.
Afterthought said…
The education they receive at the Ivy League is antiquated, and the primary value of attendance is networking with fellow ambitious twits in the hopes of a sinecure or other access to fiat money after graduation.
Yale posted entire courses from many departments several years ago.
I downloaded several and what I saw was dissappointing but not surprising. Ivy leaguers are taught the correct version of everything — meaning whatever suits the ruling class.
Most of these people are achievers but they are not smart.
“It is a mystery to me why countries such as Russia and China participate in the dollar payments system, as the system is a means of US financial and political imperialism,” the former assistant treasury secretary Paul Craig Roberts said. “No country that operates within Washington’s payments system can have an independent policy.”
He added that “Once important countries cease to use the US dollar as a reserve currency and the means of settling international payments, Washington’s imperial power will decline.”
It is a mystery to me as well since 2008 when I wrote –“IN 2008 Russia and china had the opportunity to destroy IMF and world bank and the american -british system of looting the world ;but foolishly these two countries went on ,prompting from parasite england, recommended IMF and world bank to lead new economic system! How stupid of these countries and that is why they never go up in world because of their stupidity.
Therefore china and russia must prepare for war which is coming their way
“
I just saw something I found quite hilarious. Spiegel has a front page pic of Gerhard Schroeder greeting Putin with such warmth and friendliness, it is just amazing. Meanwhile, everyone else is hating on Putin. They also have a retrospective of pics of the two men, and the warmth of their friendship really jumps out at you, especially in the pic where Schroeder has his arm around Putin’s shoulders. It just makes me wonder, WTF is wrong with the USA? Why can’t they do this with world leaders? Why must they attack,kill,destroy
quote ” NATO would require a six month build up to enter a European conflict and any such build up would be visible to Russia. Russia would likely view any such force build-up as an existential threat which needs to be addressed via a preemptive conventional attack. “
will Russia take the porevcentive measure or be still sloth in taking decision?that is what the west counts on .
the whole point of nukes is to preevtn war even the conventional one because even without disparity the damage to toehr party would eb disproportionate to benefit. that is why Russia msut use nukes in early stage. or atleast let enemis knwo that it will use seriously.
NYT ran an op-ed attacking Cohen
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/29/opinion/sierakowski-putins-useful-idiots.html?_r=0 by “Slawomir Sierakowski is a sociologist, a founder of the Krytyka Polityczna movement and the director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Warsaw”
Cohen wrote, nearly a decade ago, a fundamental article for anyone who wants to understand “western” cum north-american policy towards post-cold war Russia, “The New American Cold War”, where he chillingly described the contours of the “winner takes all” approach the USA took after the Soviet Union’s downfall, all in the midst of the terrible economic and social crisis that marked the liberal 90’s in Russia. Putin “the Saviour” must also be understood in this proper context. Great author.
Re Russian strength:
Van Creveld has repeatedly warned the IDF that fighting rock-throwing teenagers turns it into a force capable of fighting nothing but rock-throwers. Similarly, the US and its vassals haven’t fought a real army since Vietnam.
Re American power:
It’s a philosophical and historical truism that the quest for omnipotence is inherently self-destructive — for such power inevitably turns on itself. Even without a battlefield defeat, the US is destined to collapse.
-Armenian Catholic
Mr. Walsh, respectfully I disagree with this comment:
” In no way are these 2 gentlemen representative of the vast majority of the population.”
In actuality they do represent a vast majority of the population. Proof of this is that Obama won his first race for the presidency overwhelmingly. That was a repudiation of the Bush agenda. In office he proceeded to deliver more of the same, and the Republicans dished up a Bush lookalike in opposition, so it was a case of the devil you know against the one you don’t.
Just because Obama has not governed the way he promised to govern does not mean that his support expected that to happen. Even when it came to his second term, citizens who voted for him could not believe that once into his second term he would not pursue his own agenda. Sadly his own agenda has been worse, worse even than Bush’s.
The vast population of this country in the majority wants no more war, no more hegemony!
Saker, Mearsheimer seems to suggest that Russia is weak.
What do you make of that comment if it refers to 2014?
Most of us aware of pan slavicism and the amorphous nature of Russian identity including Orthodox civilization.
Very few of us, especially in Canada and the US, are aware of similar notions within the Anglosphere and what Europeans usually refer to as continental ‘America.’ Please take a look at the maps I’ve linked to below:
http://www.colinwoodard.com/americannations.html
http://3d4d.deviantart.com/art/The-American-Nations-Today-420259872
I strongly recommend those of you who want a better understanding of US and N. American or Canadian (indirectly) politics pick up the book American Nations by Colin Woodward. Even dedicated America watchers are often baffled by the dizzying array of conflicting identities that mainstream media reduces into a conflict between red state/blue state or some derivative thereof. It is critical to remember that those who wish to control you prefer to limit your ability to understand the nature of your identity so as to coral large groups of people and send them off in one direction or another.
We are living through a moment of awakening consciousness. Elites are well aware of this and seek to control this awakening so as to guide it towards their preferred final destination: Anglo-Zionist globalist hegemony centered on the so-called Five-Eyes nations including the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Israel is sometimes considered a sixth ‘eye.’ It should be obvious to most of the citizens in the Five Eyes nations that such an arrangement will only be good for a very small elite.
World War 1 can in many ways be seen as an extended property dispute between Europe’s ruling families resulting in the death of roughly 9 million people. Everything that came after including World War 2, up to the present day, is directly related to that conflict. Then as now the enemy of the people were those psychopathic rulers who saw no problem in throwing away millions of lives for basically nothing more than a property title or deed.
In order to undermine and defeat this plan and avoid mass global enslavement and destruction of billions of lives we must take back the power to define our own realities for ourselves. We must understand who is the enemy and who is a friend. We must distinguish the Globalists including their social, religious and economic ideologies (free trade, zionism, financialization, property ‘rights’ and so on).
All of us who are abused and exploited by the globalist system, i.e., the mostly sedentary masses of hard working producers who love their countries and their communities and do all the real work but receive a relative piuttance for that labours from this system must take back power starting at the only level of governance where we stand a chance — local and municipal, working our way upwards towards the level of province, state and nation.
Those who think that nationalism is always a destructive force must understand that a national idea, like that of my country Canada, can rally a lot of people to the cause of self defense not against other nations but against a parasitic globalist class.
Before any of this can be done we have to understand who we are and who are our opponents and pick our targets accordingly.
As you mentioned Stephen Cohen as a knowledgeable american jew, I thought of brilliant Norman Finklestein.
He would also be a great guest to Crosstalks.
Daniel Rich,
wrong again, wise people see everything from lots of perspectives.
Seeing anything from a “different” perspective is not wisdom, it is just spatial positioning. Hence the idiocy of “left v “right” politics.
Knowing that the truth of something can only be found in the knowledge of its true nature, and that all perspectives must be considered before that true nature can be discerned, now that is wise, and will allow the gathering of wisdom.
eagle eye
Dear Saker
After meeting Ashton, Vucic told a press conference that Serbia would ask the EU to open negotiations on chapters 23 and 24 of the EU enlargement process that deal with topics such as the judiciary, freedom and security as early as next year.
Do you steel believe that only Russia’s friend is Serbia?
My regards to you Saker. It must be a tremendous burden to go through each and everyone of these comments while still getting somnething done on your own. Maybe you can find some dedicated more or less like minded people to assist you with moderating your blog.
Back to the program…
By focussing on ‘containment’ of Russia, Anglo-Zionist elites are again undermining their own system and effectively strengthening those who are left outside of the globalist Matrix.
Russia is a large nation state with sophisticated capabilities that can at anytime undermine core tenets of the globalist infastructure of absolute control. Attacking copyright law, for example, limits the ability of globalists to tax the people for innocuous activites like downloading and listening to a song without paying for it each and every time.
Anonymous, for example, appears to be a carefully constructed tool for combating Western information dominance. Either that or it has simply been hijacked whenever it is necessary to generate a headline. It has probably worn out its usefulness by now but similar movements, such as Five Star or the Pirate movement are probably tools of the information war. In all cases empowering the local people against their central authorities is now in Russia’s self interest. I hope to see more of it.
Here’s the first post in a weekly series of an analysis of Russia-Syria happenings. It’s quite an astute analysis and objective:
http://russia-eastern-republic.com/2014/04/28/weekly-roundup-416-423-syrian-elections-jordanian-intrigue-and-bigger-bombs/
CS
I read 3 B-2’s are flown to Europe to demonstrate resolve. “Wir feheren gegen Russia” eh.
Been reading a little of Cohen’s stuff in The Nation – he’s been on this for quite a while. The editorial in the Times by Slawomir Sierakowski is a joke – the kid was born in 1979 and knows about the Cold War only from books and is drunk on the post cold war transition in Poland it seems.
Re: Oligarchical topography of Ukraine. Andrei Fursov
I watched the Fursov speech and analysis. It’s definitely worth watching. About 3/4 of the way through it, as he was summing up, he mentioned what appeared to be something out of context, the super volcano in the American Yellowstone park. He elaborated no further on that item, which leads me to wonder if that isn’t a message to the Americans that the Russians may be able to trigger that thing to erupt. I put this link below to get a basic description of that potential volcano below. The park ranger says that if there is a major eruption, it would have minimal effect. On the other hand, I’ve read some experts that estimate it could be a Krakatoa Part II, causing a massive ash egress that would be catastrophic. Anyhow, it’s curious why he offhandedly mentioned this thing. It’s like he almost caught himself and stopped.
http://www.heavy.com/news/2014/04/yellowstone-super-volcano-animals-fleeing-video/
New Insight,
That Fursov lecture may be the best lecture on anything I’ve ever heard, and I’ve sat through a few. Still digesting — can only take it in in fairly small pieces bc he’s got so much crammed in there, but WOW. He. Is. Unsparing. His students are very, very fortunate to have him. Thank you for this — now I’ve got to go back and digest more!
Hi Saker,
I watch RT continually dun own TV, no MSM or PBS to upset me.
Love Abby Martin’s Breaking the Set, more so Peter Levell’s Crosstalk especially today program. However, always skip Thom Hartmann. Tonight watch (few minutes) Thom’s The Big Picture for the first time. Thom blames Bush for the Afghan’s war – America longest wars. Not once did Thom mentioned Obama and the Democrats. Why did RT pick Thom?
Anyone beside Saker wanna comments?
JC
Brothers and sisters —
We are all east Ukrainians now!
Saker, do you really think these guys are so forward-thinking?
Sorry, but I have to call BS on both of Peter’s guests. That Cohen guy even mentioned Henry Kissinger (of all people) as an example of a sane voice! I mean, come on! Kissinger, or Killinger as I prefer to call him, is a Rockefeller-Oligarchy front man, a bonafide war criminal and had his paw in just about every major evil act of the 20th century. And that is who Cohen is lauding? If anything, Kissinger was likely one of the ARCHITECTS of the current Ukraine fiasco, along with the rest of the shadowy elite.
Both guest also talk about the Clinton and Obama administration in the same old establishment, total BS, talking head way:
–They didn’t think their policy through and didn’t know how Russia would react (right)
–The US thinks it’s a benevolent hegemon (yeah, sure they do)
–Congress and the Senate all think the US is the indispensable nation, yada, yada
What a bunch of horse hockey. Anyone who is even mildly awake at this point knows that the Congress, Senate and entire administration are just lackeys for foreign banks (Rothschilds et al) and foreign powers (Israel). You have correctly called this power structure the AngloZionist Empire. What does that have to do with Clintion or Obama? Nothing! They are just sock puppets for the hidden hands.
A real crossfire style talk show would expose the hidden hands. Anything else is at best a half-truth. Or maybe just a quarter-truth.
I understand that RT can’t delve too deep into the true structure of the Gobal Elite, less they get dismissed as conspiracy kooks and lose their general audience. But on your blog, you don’t have to pull any punches, do you? It’s time for serious TRUTH. It’s well beyond the point where all truth speakers need to go big or go home!
I really hate to get my daily dose of truth from the likes of Alex Jones. He’s such an over-the-top fear monger. But at least he goes 95% of the way and constantly draws people’s attention to the banking powers who reside *above nations*
This Ukraine mess and all the moves and counter moves were likely war-gamed extensively by intel agencies for years. They’re not as dumb and incompetent as people think they are. If anything, that very perception is the perfect cover. 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya went down EXACTLY how the empire wanted it to go down. Syria might be the rare exception. But time and time again, they bomb, invade, take over, install a central bank or two and then move on to the next nation. The Powers-That-Be know exactly what they are doing and have things planned down to a T.
first off, thanks saker for pointing us to this episode of crosstalk. i think it’s a great demonstration of how intellectual discourse can thrive on television. chapeau to the crosstalk team for making this possible, and kudos to the two guests for the high quality commentary.
two quibbles i have with what the guests said:
1) stephen cohen claims henry kissinger is an example of self reflection and intellectual honesty. that’s only true in a world where obama won the nobel peace prize: in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. sorry, but kissinger is anything but self reflective;
2) john mearsheimer claims the first world war was due to the german empire’s posturing. that’s a laughable affirmation: it was the british empire that wanted to stop the germans from reaching the mesopotamian oil fields. the germans had been co-operating with the ottoman empire to exploit the oil fields around basra, which is why the british fought their first battle at basra.
it’s also why the ottoman empire had to fall.
Here’s a conspiratorial idea:
I’ve seen several tidbits of carefully planted information about North Korean nukes lately.
Could the Fukushima reactor ‘leak’ have been used to model the path of fallout from a false flag attack blamed on the North?
Sure would be a game changer and quite favourable to the psychopathic gangsters now watching as their power slips away.
Sorry, this is off topic, (or maybe not as they did mention Germany in the show) but I’ve been following up on the thesis – that Hitler’s operation Barborossa was intended to pre-empt a Soviet invasion of Europe – which I’ve mentioned a few times before on this blog. I discovered that the original source of this claim is Viktor Suvorov and is discussed in a book he published: The Chief Culprit: Stalin’s Grand Design to Start World War II.
While I recall that someone made a comment on this blog, claiming he was an MI5 or MI6 agent, I do not know if this is true, but Suvorov’s basic premise as I see it is:
– There was a secret Communist conspiracy in Europe in the 1930’s and early 40’s to enable the Soviet Union to smash it’s way into the West and fulfill its objective of world revolution.
– Stalin had been posturing for an offensive war since 1939, not a defensive one.
– There was massive movement of Red Army troops to the Western border which was completed in June 1941
– Stalin had already broken non-aggressive pacts as evident in his invasion of Finland
– He also believed that Hitler would be pre-occupied by his invasion of the British which would be the perfect time to launch an attack on Europe
I note that Stalin would not have needed assurance from the British at this point as the British were already neutralised at this point.
Suvorov’s book on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Chief-Culprit-Stalins-Design-Jacket/dp/1591148383/
Here’s a one hour revisionist program that discusses Suvorov’s premises in more detail. They conclude (in direct contrast to the mainstream narrative) that the initial victories of Hitler’s pre-emptive strike saved Europe from a total Communist takeover.
http://carolynyeager.net/heretics-hour-hall-fame-who-started-wwii
Paul Nitze was the main architect of the post WWII american world order that we all hate so much.
See:
U.S. foreign policy since 1945, Nitze’s role
https://archive.org/details/PeterGowanInterview2009
New Insight,
I’m still digesting Fursov’s lecture; it was just so chock-full. But where I’m really hung up is in his prescriptions/suggestions for an improved Russian response. Yes, constricting that Fifth Column makes a certain amount of sense but how far do you really want to constrict free speech? Even if you consider funding by outside sources as the red line, what does that really mean/how does it get applied?
Then put this all into the context of goals, strategy, tactics and logistics — in his case, for Russia but expanding that, really for all of us here. We’re people from every part of the globe, I’m guessing from a huge variety of backgrounds, faiths, walks of life, with divergent opinions on all sorts of issues yet brought together by a certain set of fundamental values including honesty, decency and a search for truth. They were beautifully expressed by someone, I forget whom, a while back, and I wish I could do it justice but he said something like we all want the opportunity to love, take care of our own, and live our lives in safety and peace. Others can say it better, add more, but that’s the general idea. On the other hand, does the effort to fight the powers depriving people of all this require similar tactics? More particularly, must Russia adopt objectionable American strategies (NED, black ops, propaganda, etc.) in order to be proactive instead of merely reactive? Looking ahead, the Anglo-Zionist Empire’s Finance Division may be crumbling but that won’t happen overnight and its War Division, both Covert and Overt, is still chugging away, ineptly but still very, very dangerously. What other options are there?
Veritas (28 April, 2014 18:20)
In Firefox one can install the free 1-Click YouTube Video Downloader to download the video. Then, in the free VLC reader you can see it in your own time.
Veritas (28 April, 2014 18:20)
Sorry,
I see now that i misinterpreted your story, but still thinks one can have his/her advance by the tip.
Feng
Mr. Saker, thank you for the writing and the education – you got me started on doing some research – I was never told anything about St. Josaphat, except that the Orthodox didn’t like him. I dug into your archived posts about religion – However, this explains why one of my aunts had an Orthodox cross, handed down through generations. so – Galicians were Orthodox Christians once. Nobody ever told me.
Re US having a very mixed range of people – from the very ignorant to the highly perceptive – yes. However, the trend has been towards less and less education – the writer Robert Heinlein said in his 1980 book “Expanded Universe” that the US was in its 2nd generation of illiteracy – basing this on the quality of fan mail received from people in the US and people outside the US. I do not see the replacements for Prof. Cohen …
I do disagree with Prof. Cohen though, about the likelihood of a WW III – the US never picks on somebody approaching its own size
The sanctions imposed by the US are going to bite the US – and if they impose more of them, they are likely to stop the importing of Russian rocket engines for their Atlases. It would be a real shame for the US to be unable to launch their spy satelites :)
Nice example here of US sanctions against Bolivia benefiting France
http://www.sabinabecker.com/2014/04/did-washington-try-to-prevent-bolivia-from-launching-a-satellite.html
Russia is moving ahead with this plan, to build overseas bases in Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Singapore, the Seychelles, and some other places – and Mr. Saker, if you have time, perhaps you might comment.
http://en.ria.ru/military_news/20140226/187917901/Russia-Seeks-Several-Military-Bases-Abroad–Defense-Minister.html
OT:
Are the zionazis preparing the sort of war against Egypt they are running against Syria?
West Hangs Syrian-Style War Over Egypt’s Future http://journal-neo.org/2014/04/28/west-hangs-syrian-style-war-over-egypt-s-future/
“Al-Akhbar English in an article titled, “Egypt: Free Egyptian Army being formed in Libya,” reported that:
Egyptian security forces continue to chase armed groups active in the country. The confrontation does not seem it will come to end soon, with the information unfolding daily to security agencies about plans by those group to destabilize Egypt.
Security sources revealed to Al-Akhbar that “intelligence and security agencies succeeded in monitoring the movements of terrorist groups and arrested some of them inside the towns and villages of northern Egypt, as well as the eastern, western, and southern borders of Egypt.”
The report would also claim that a “Free Egyptian Army” was being prepared in neighboring Libya along the Libyan-Egyptian border, where the epicenter of heavily armed sectarian extremists from Al Qaeda’s Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) began NATO-backed operations against the Libyan government in 2011. While the Al-Akhbar article only cites unnamed “sources,” recent and escalating violence lends credibility to concern regarding a Syrian-style conflict fueled by foreign interests to destabilize and overthrow the current Egyptian sociopolitical order.
The Syrian Connection
The recent violence spearheaded by supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, particularly his Muslim Brotherhood political party and its network of armed militant affiliates, is a cause of particular concern. It was the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria that began receiving cash and backing by the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel as far back as 2007 in preparation for the ongoing armed conflict now raging across Syria for the past 3 years…”
When 59 million Americans voted Bush to a 2nd term; I thought to myself; America’s finished!
Then 4 years later, 60+ million Americans were duped into thinking Obama would be different when Obama’s pushing us to the brink of perhaps nuclear war. America gave us 11 years of war and counting from Dubya to Obama followed by Obama’s proxy wars in Libya and Syria, continued, unflinching support for a crazy Apartheid State, Israel, itching for war with Iran, and leading to this face-off with Russia. The judgment and reasoning of over 60 million Americans can’t be dismissed as merely, complex.
I value your perception and find your respect for free speech admirable and a breath of fresh air in an increasingly biased and censored internet and I sense I share your your opinion on several issues, more than not, but I must differ with you on this one.
Americans are today’s decaying society, I would say they’re like the Romans of the past; only worse.
Americans are too lazy to think for themselves because their Zionist media does all the thinking for them and they’ve boxed themselves into a two-party system that they’re too chicken or too brainwashed to venture out of. While Americans are distracted with Kardashians, housewives of …, and who knows what and other reality garbage and cable news’ wall-to-wall Zionist propaganda and then working to pay a 17 trillion-dollar debt, banksters and fraudsters on Wall Street are milking the system, filling their coffers; and when the system goes bust from so much greed, it’s up to average working Americans who do real work to foot the billions bailout tab. This is not a society on the rise or one that inspires any kind of hope; this is a society in serious decline.
I can’t understand why Americans continuously work against their best interests. In regards to foreign policy and endless war, Americans have the kind of patriotism that Einstein loathed Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism how passionately I hate them!, and I hate these more. Americans wolfed down their patriotic freedom fries and their leader choked on a pretzel while they sent their kids to war, they burned Dixie Chicks discs to rescue their patriotism and still throw billions yearly at their best ally welfare Apartheid state because they share common values and aspirations or rather, like-minded idealogical insanity.
Americans are totally self-absorbed, selfish, materialistic and have very little wisdom, and unfortunately they’re spreading these vices globally as well as financial tyranny and geo-political control via their banksters,their 2-party political cabal and their military complex.
I don’t pity Americans, I don’t trust their judgment, they’ve become lazy and complacent while their rights have been savaged (despite Snowden’s wake-up call); their irresponsibility is off the charts, but yes, there are among the mass the few rational voices…drowned out in a vast sea of ignorance.
In my view, while it is true that there are exceptions, unfortunately, those are few and far between. The US population, by and large, continues to have an imperial / supremacist mentality. It is an absolute relief for myself to get out of the country, when I can, it is like coming up for oxygen.
What is also true is that a significantly larger segment of the population seems to be waking up, but don’t particularly want to do anything, even when awake. But this awakeness is also very fragile, and these same people can drop off to a coma like deep sleep if there is yet another war…
So, I don’t quite agree with your assessment…
..
the interview is of course, far too short; but the breadth of consideration is far too constricted. Washington is not concerned with containing Russian “power”; Washington is primarily concerned with protecting the petrodollar from competition; that is the threat to it’s “benign hegemony”.
the national security issue is limited to Poland and the Baltics. the imperial issue is saving Anglo-Am capitalism, which Martin Wolf at FT identified as threatening collapse in 2008. that project means saving the Western banking system, now so criminalized by Anglo-American financial racketeering that it requires ever more reckless political and military interventions, and that’s what the rest of world (ROW) sees. what ROW knows is that global co-dependency takes down all participants in a failure of Anglo-American (and more broadly Western) financial engineering; that the NY-Washington axis refuses to reform or share power; that a crash of that inverted pyramid of leveraged financial speculation is less likely than it is imminent.
what Washington knows is that (petro)dollar defection means the end of hegemony and its benign plans for the human race. hence the currency wars, which Washington believes it can win. a wedge btw the EU and the Russia-China energy/economic coalition will defeat the emergence of a Euro-zone connected to the world and the consequent emergence of a competing global reserve currency. (the go-to guy on this is Jim Rickards). what’s wrong with this story is that it’s become entirely one of imperial decline – of power for its own sake; using us and itself up faster than it can build anything; and ROW wants out of the way.
this is where the conversation goes. Ukraine is just a chess piece, as was Syria, but the game may hang on it. courting nuclear war is off the chessboard, but you aren’t hearing this from two national security experts. also, it’s not about “national security”, because it’s Nation vs Empire and Nation has lost.
from a spiritual pov it’s even more clear. what does the world want? what does it need? “everybody gets a chance”. the Anglo-Am agenda is the Grand Inquisitor in the Brothers Karamazov.
yes it’s benign; except for the execution and the enforcement.
..
Leandro Lapa, ‘winner takes all’ has been the ideology of the US ruling elite since 1776. Russia faces the same choice as every state on Earth. Serve the Empire of Eternal Exceptionalism without hesitation, deviation or repetition (oops-wrong game, but you get the drift) or you will be subverted, sanctioned, blockaded and/or attacked, and, as in Iraq, your children will be targeted.
Afterthought, I for one will never grant that Obama,Hagel, Kerry et al are ‘..decent men of good-will’. Forgive me, but in my opinion that idea is preposterous. They and almost the entire caste from which they spring or which they serve are psychopaths, nothing other.
Dear Saker,
John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, both antisemitic. How dare they write against AIPAC in 2007. :)
They are both nothing but outcasts. :)
“The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Israel_Lobby_and_U.S._Foreign_Policy
Best regards,
Mohamed.
P.S. It is first time I have seen John Mearsheimer, but Stephen Walt regularly writes on the foreign policy. Though, on Ukraine he is awfully quiet.
@ New Insight
Thanks for hilighting those topics in Fursov’s talk.
There’s a lot of interesting points there, but I’d like to highlight this for naysayers…everywhere.
Kolomoisky is said to be the motor behind current events.
I wonder how many know this Ukrainian oligarch has dual citizenship?
So this major Ukraine player is a Zionist – just an irrelevant coincidence.
And the following strange development that will no doubt rally Jews arounnd the coup government in Ukraine – totally irrelevant.
<a href=”http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4510688,00.html>Donetsk leaflet: Jews must register or face deportation</a>
I hope I used the html tag correctly. If not:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4510688,00.html
One more irrelevant coincidence: the head of the Israeli NGO that’s been funding Jewish groups in Ukraine just happens to be Natan Sharansky, the Russian dissident who was imprisoned in Russia after being accused of spying for U.S. defense intelligence.
All sarcasm and <i>irrelevance</i> aside: Obviously, I’m not buying Zionist neutrality in this, just as I didn’t buy that Zionists weren’t involved in fabricating a causus belli against Iraq, when in fact they were heavily involved at the Pentagon.
I actually read on another site that Israelis are hedging their bets on the outcome of this showdown. I never read a more ridiculous statement. There are 27times more Jews in the U.S. than in Russia; you bet Zionists are with the U.S. on this! The fake neutrality on Crimea was to cover their ass on the occupation. And as far as former Russians, now Israelis, are concerned; their loyalty is with Israel first and the hand that feeds them, the U.S., second.
Besides Russia isn’t on a hegemonic imperial quest, and for more than one reason including monopolizing energy markets, Zionists have a big stake in that imperial outcome.
For better understanding of Ukrainian mentality.. Some thoughts, ideas and the other stuff from Ukrainian blogosphere:
…Russia today is a real fascist empire. They have their own Fuhrer. All Russians, from children to the elderly, are sick with fascism. They are simply rednecks. We have prepared concentration camps for you, wait for us Moskali (Muscovites).
…Americans are our younger brothers. It’s no secret that the first American constitution was written by Ukrainians, and then handed over to Americans. As well Ukrainians helped Americans to reclaim USA territory. Now they have just responded to our calls and help us. But in fact they are just in debt before us.
…Europeans will soon cancel visas and we will be able to travel to Europe. We will get benefits from the Europeans, and let our miners work like a beaver. Hard work never did anyone any harm. We, Heroes of Maidan, will ride herd on them! Glory to the Heroes!
All of this could be considered like absurd: but it’s not; it is
by far too sad, by far too trying. Poeple’s brains are washed completely.
Dear вот так and Where-Wolf,
Both of you, your posts are right on target. Please keep up the good work! :)
Haven’t seen WizOz in while. Hopefully, he is keeping fine.
Best regards,
Mohamed.
Off-topic comment: Ukrainian oligarchs talking their business. Intercepted& published phone call. It worth to listen:
http://dosye.com.ua/articles/2014-03-19/oligarh-kurchenko-pozhalovalsja-gubernatoru-kolomoiskomu-na-vymogatelstvo-novoi-vlasti-novoe-audio/63810/
New Insight,
I’m still digesting Fursov’s lecture; it was just so chock-full. But where I’m really hung up is in his prescriptions/suggestions for an improved Russian response. Yes, constricting that Fifth Column makes a certain amount of sense but how far do you really want to constrict free speech? Even if you consider funding by outside sources as the red line, what does that really mean/how does it get applied?
Then put this all into the context of goals, strategy, tactics and logistics — in his case, for Russia but expanding that, really for all of us here. We’re people from every part of the globe, I’m guessing from a huge variety of backgrounds, faiths, walks of life, with divergent opinions on all sorts of issues yet brought together by a certain set of fundamental values including honesty, decency and a search for truth. They were beautifully expressed by someone, I forget whom, a while back, and I wish I could do it justice but he said something like we all want the opportunity to love, take care of our own, and live our lives in safety and peace. Others can say it better, add more, but that’s the general idea. On the other hand, does the effort to fight the powers depriving people of all this require similar tactics? More particularly, must Russia adopt objectionable American strategies (NED, black ops, propaganda, etc.) in order to be proactive instead of merely reactive? Looking ahead, the Anglo-Zionist Empire’s Finance Division may be crumbling but that won’t happen overnight and its War Division, both Covert and Overt, is still chugging away, ineptly but still very, very dangerously. What other options are there?
Stratfor’s take on US sanctions –
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/us-opts-ineffective-sanctions-russia?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20140429&utm_term=Gweekly&utm_content=readmore
Stivan
Gennady Kernes, the Kharkov mayor shot in the back, was transported to a Haifa hospital. And speaking of Israel, Kerry groveled for having dared to utter the word “apartheid”. Did he even read that speech before he delivered it? More important, who wrote it, and why? What on earth is in the water in DC? Is there anyone in charge of anything there who’s not an imbecile, lunatic, or both?
I must say I agree with other commentators about that Andrei Fursov video. It is absolutely first rate. I need a transcript complied from those English sub-titles because I really must get that up on Wikispooks. Any ideas anyone?
Very scary analysis, if they correct we in for a rough times ahead. In Russian.
http://ruskline.ru/analitika/2014/04/25/ukrainskij_kapkan/