by Pepe Escobar (cross-posted with the Asia Times by special agreement with the author)
Trump’s solo act can’t compete with the hard rock presidents from the electric east
Those were the days, during the Cold War 1960s and 1970s, when the earth was actually ruled by rock supergroups – from Cream and Led Zeppelin to Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends – and the post-truth geopolitical remix of the supergroup. Meet The Sanctioned; a multinational band starring multi-instrumentalists Vladimir Putin (Russia), Xi Jinping (China), Hassan Rouhani (Iran) and Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Turkey).
As the whole rock universe knows, The Sanctioned run the relentless risk of being outshined – in the form of multi-layered sanctions – by undisputed glitter solo act Donald Trump (US).
The two real virtuosos in the band relish playing in perfect synch. Putin may indulge only the occasional Jimmy Page solo (as in Caspian-launched missiles against Daesh in Syria); he’s more like Keith Emerson invoking the Russian classical composer Mussorgsky. Xi is fond of orchestral Pink Floyd-esque concept albums, in the New Silk Roads mould. Rouhani could be Jack Bruce in Cream – supplying those subtle moments of faultless musicianship. It’s Erdogan who’s irresistibly attracted to summon the back door man’s antics of Robert Plant.
As for Trump, he’s no Dylan – and certainly not Roger Waters; more like Ted Nugent with some Black Sabbath overtones.
So what will The Sanctioned come up next? A doozy like Deep Purple without Gillan and Blackmore or an epic like ELP’s Fanfare for the Common Man?
The Fanfare for the Common Man geoeconomic scenario reads like this.
Putin-Xi – as in the Russia-China strategic partnership – offer Erdogan membership of both the BRICS (as in BRICS Plus) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organizations (SCO). Erdogan, on the record, has already manifested interest in both.
Turkey pulls out of NATO. The Turkish military will squeal, but Erdogan, after the failed 2016 coup – of which he was alerted by Russian intelligence – now controls the military.
Beijing and Moscow offer an array of trade deals; Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has already offered trade in their own currencies. Erdogan for his part said Turkey is ready to begin using local currencies in trade with Russia, China, Iran and the EU.
After Turkey restructures its US dollar debts, China buys up the Turkish lira off foreign exchange markets – an easy play for the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). Ankara is already planning to issue yuan-denominated bonds. China’s ICBC already announced a $3.6 billion loan for energy/transport.
In sharp contrast to the Washington Consensus, Erdogan very well knows that Turkey cannot “rewrite the crisis management playbook for emerging markets” by surrendering to IMF austerity. An answer would be to increasingly rely on the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
Then most of the scenario – SCO, BRICS Plus, AIIB, trade bypassing the US dollar – is replayed with Iran, as in those days when Pink Floyd used to engage in full encores of Dark Side of the Moon.
A new sell-out album
The Sanctioned’s new album (in 180g vinyl plus all formats/platforms), titled Eurasian Integration, is destined for multi-platinum status and to fill multi-purpose arenas from Izmir and Hamadan to Chongqing and Vladivostok.
It features Iran as an even more crucial hub of the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – in conjunction to the new connectivity drive between Russia and Iran signed at the landmark Caspian Sea Convention.
In a parallel track, the China-Kazakhstan-Iran connectivity corridor already features freight trains plying the route all the way to the Iranian Caspian port of Bandar-e Anzali.
Another key track in the new album revolves around the BRICS’s Contingent Reserve Agreement (CRA), decided at their latest summit; a mechanism to de-dollarize economies which will be expanded as the BRICS turn into BRICS Plus.
After signing an interim agreement three months ago, Iran is already on the way to engage, by the start of 2020, into a full free trade deal with the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU). Turkey will follow.
As EU companies leave sanctioned Iran, Chinese and Russian companies go into overdrive. As the US Congress slaps a nyet on Turkey buying F-35 fighter jets because Ankara is buying the Russian S-400 air-defense system, Boeing and Airbus in Iran are bound to lose market share to Russian jets such as the MS-21 or the IL-96-400M.
And as Iran-Turkey trade gets a boost, Turkish Stream – the Russia-Turkey strategic energy partnership – is far from being derailed.
Erdogan knows very well how Turkey is the quintessential East-meets-West strategic connector across Eurasia. And he knows what’s he’s really “guilty” of: buying the S-400s, ditching the “Assad must go” obsession, advancing Turkish Stream and insisting Turkey will continue to buy Iranian oil.
So as he perfects his Robert Plant impersonation – “You need coolin’/ Baby I’m not foolin’/ I’m gonna send ya/ back to schoolin’” – Erdogan is doing the math on how a New Silk Roads partnership among equals, in tandem with a close relationship with the AIIB and the EAEU may be way more profitable than a toxic cocktail of oversized NATO, no EU and IMF neoliberal austerity.
That partly explains Ankara’s whirling dervish dance away from US T-bills, bonds and notes by over 50% since the end of 2017. While, in parallel, Moscow and Beijing (followed at a distance by New Delhi and even Ankara itself) keep piling up gold anticipating the extra bonanza of Eurasian Integration, the hit album.
A very handy thermometer of Erdogan’s popularity may be found in Fatih, a pious, working-class neighborhood on the European shore of Istanbul.
Fatih mirrors Erdogan’s immense popularity all across Anatolia. Whatever his notorious, incandescent illiberal traits, Erdogan’s development program is not only about more mosques and more malls. The AKP over the years did manage to set up a quite decent universal healthcare insurance system – including the upgrading of public hospitals – as well as a pension system.
Now it’s time to deliver again – nationally and globally.
Calling all Eurasian young dudes
Meanwhile, Russia will keep developing a very sophisticated strategy across the Black Sea.
In no time, Putin has already reshaped the Black Sea – geopolitically and geoeconomically. The graphic symbol is the sumptuous Kerch Strait bridge to Crimea – an engineering tour de force inaugurated only three months ago.
Putin’s multi-instrumental riffs are ubiquitous. Erdogan gets S-400s, nuclear power plants and Turkish Stream (which also benefits vast tracts of southern Europe). Rouhani and the Central Asians get a Caspian convention and the prospect of a succession of energy deals. Damascus and Tehran – with Ankara a little far behind – get to see the possible end of the tragic Syria war cycle.
As Erdogan progressively moves Turkey’s reserves to yuan – and gold – benefits can accrue from more interaction with the BRI/EAEU/SCO galaxy in everything from electronics and nuclear technology to advanced weapons. And further connectivity may entail, for instance, Chinese goods transiting through Russian ports in Krasnodar and Crimea to Turkish ports in the Black Sea.
The Black Sea, for all practical purposes, is being configured as a Russo-Turk Mediterranean Sea – much as the Caspian is now configured as a Central Asian, non-NATO, Mediterranean Sea.
In parallel, The Sanctioned is also enjoying a guest performing appearance by the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim al-Thani, instrumental in the offer of a $15 billion loan to Ankara. And this after Qatar restored good relations with Iran, including energy collaboration on the shared South Pars/North Dome – the largest gas field on the planet.
It’s crucial to consider that in the event the Qatar-Turkey Combined Joint Force Command may “disappear”, for some reason, the path would be open for a nasty, joint Saudi/UAE invasion of Doha, with major consequences; the double confiscation of the Qatari sovereign wealth fund and North Dome – to the benefit of salvaging the sinking “Vision 2030” House of Saud.
What’s certain for now is that The Sanctioned face a real threat of having Eurasian Integration – the hit album – dispatched to the bottom of the charts, with the corollary of having new BRI and EAEU connectivity routes to Europe via crossroads Turkey partially blocked or at least seriously disturbed.
As the (real) David Bowie wrote it, for supergroup Mott the Hopple: All the (Eurasian) young dudes, carry the news.
Trump is like Gary Glitter in Rock and Roll part 1&2.
He was later Sanctioned too.
Trump? I vote for Milli Vanilli, lipsyncing along, until people found out. That emperor has no clothes.
The first name that popped into my mind while reading this was Wendy O. Williams.
I doubt that anyone has heard of her. She had her 15 minutes of a bit of fame back nearly 40 years ago. Wendy was a stripper who sang well enough to front a mediocre rock and roll band. She performed as bare as the local Christian fanatics and their laws would allow. That worked well enough to sell some tickets. Certainly did for me back when I was an 18 year old boy! Don’t really remember the music much, but I do remember some little black strips of electrical tape and some shaving cream which made up her ‘costume’. :)
Trump is like Wendy in that he found a routine that would draw in some crowds, for at least a short while, before the world moves on. Oh, and for all I know, Wendy was lip-synching as well. I don’t remember, and I don’t think I was paying much attention to what her lips were doing.
Rockbitches band still do that, buy they are three :D
And i would not even mention some Japanese post-music duos :-D
“That emperor has no clothes.”
And God damn! Is what that exposes oogly.
News about Turkey building a canal from Black Sea to Aegean Sea via Marmara Sea.
This helps Russia enormously move goods and weapons, and relieves the chokepoint the US Navy could easily block.
ANKARA, 18 Aug — RIA Novosti. Turkey is actively preparing for the start of construction of channel Istanbul, which, according to the intention of the Turkish authorities, will become an alternative to the Bosphorus Strait, said the President of the country Tayyip Erdogan.
“The length of the new waterway will be 43 km. On both sides of the canal will be built two new cities. It is the largest project in the history of Turkey’s strategic importance for the country. We are ready for its implementation”, — said Erdogan, speaking at the Congress, headed by the ruling Party of justice and development of Turkey.
For the first time about the possibility of creating a new canal connecting the Black and Marmara seas, Erdogan said in 2011 when he was the Prime Minister of Turkey. The project will allow to dramatically reduce the traffic load on the Bosporus. Channel Istanbul has to be the most ambitious project ahead of the centenary of the establishment of the Turkish Republic to be celebrated in 2023. Earlier the transport Minister of Turkey Ahmet Arslan announced the route of the canal, which will run parallel to the Bosporus and begin to build this year.
@Larchmonter445 ……interesting point regarding a new canal (aka Kanal İstanbul) bypassing the Bosporus. I have never read about this issue until now.
What I am wondering regarding your comment, is how does an extra canal approximately 45 to 50 km west of the Bosporus on the European side of Turkey, connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara, relieves the choke point which I assume is the Bosporus Strait ?
Won’t you just have a second chock point to cover ? …..Besides the Darnadelles Strait is a chocking point out to the Mediterranean Sea after ships have passed the Bosporus.
And while we are on the subject what is issue with the treaties of the Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits or the Treaty of Lusanne…..can Turkey eventually pull out of these treaties ?
I mean we are slowly heading towards the demise of the Western Powers, where they are not abiding by any treaties themselves, let alone UN articles. When will the treaties the West have imposed on a country like Turkey, which was part of a former empire, be torn apart ?
I hope to be alive to see Turkey voluntarily leave NATO and take full control over the Turkish Straits by force (Bosporus, Darnadelles Strait and maybe that extra canal) hopefully forming some kind of an alliance with Russia. The coming years could be some very exciting times lol.
Choke points are where traffic can be easily jammed, delaying crucial deliveries. Already, the Bosphorus has a 2-3 day delay, sometimes going to five or six days. Just so much heavy traffic. Russia’s flow to Syria is nicknamed the Syrian Express. Virtually daily ships supplying the two bases and the war effort.
Our friend Auslander sees this procession from his spot in Sevastopol and has reported on it.
As for the US Navy at both choke points, yes, that’s possible. But, of course, then they have to fish or cut bait. Start a war or back off. Now, with just the one passage, they can jam things up far easier.
This is also why you see Russia and China doing rail projects to expand high speed rail movement of freight. And why Russia and China have fleets of enormous cargo planes.
The Hegemon intends to strangle and contain Eurasian Integration and Belts and Roads Initiatives.
As for past international agreements, laws and conventions that used to be honored, the US is writing all new “Rules” and is coercing the vassals to obey. However, all of Eurasia and nations fighting for sovereignty are an enormous obstacle. They are all, gradually, gravitating toward Russia and/or China.
Turkey sees the future clearly. They have a great windfall coming if they integrate in Eurasia. The flow of pipeline gas, the future of tourism, new markets for its agriculture, and a political solution in Syria and Iraq of the Kurdish issues will be all the positives. Erdogan bet on Islamic terror and has lost. But now he saves wasteful costs of supporting various AQ crazies. Once the Syrian oil trade was stopped, he’s been losing big money. And the millions of refugees going back to Syria in the coming year will save him more money.
All he has to do now is listen to Putin and keep from getting bumped off by the Gulenists (CIA’s front).
ASEAN nations are the key for Russia & China. By nominal GDP ASEAN has the number 5 economy of about 3.5 trillion after Germany and by PPP GDP they have the number 3 global economy at 8.5 trillion. Plus they have excellent GDP growth.
https://statisticstimes.com/economy/countries-by-projected-gdp.php
http://asean.org/asean/asean-member-states/
So it’s critical for Russia & China to have good relations with ASEAN states.
Russia & China are like an economic black hole pulling neighbouring states towards them. It’s helpful that the hegemon uses immoral strategies to maintain hegemony which just result in blowback and defeat.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/08/no_author/msm-finally-concedes-defeat-on-yemen-ceases-blackout-of-coverage/
.
So next up the Sanctioned should do a cover of Queen’s: We are the Champions(of the multipolar world).
Instead of “economic black holes”, “economic magnets” sounds much better. Those with the same/similar vision/goals gather together.
Larchmonter445,
I have it on extremely good authority, that there is absolutely no problem whatsover passing from The Black Sea to the Agean Sea, though there isn’t much wind early in the morning. I also have documented video evidence, that the area is teeming with dolphins.
Why should anyone, want to build “a new canal connecting the Black and Marmara seas”
It would make far more sense to build another M25 motorway around London – or extend it to 10 lanes each in both directions.
The M25 is currently a lorry and car park, most of the time.
The Bosphorus is almost completely clear of traffic most of the time.
Some of the roads in Bulgaria, need a bit of attention though.
Tony
Bulgaria is frozen in 2006. Nothing has changed and none dares take a move before the reshuffling. Same old, same old. The same happened to the build up to WWI and WWII. As well as after the fall of the communists in 1989. I hope TPTB spare the country – paradise on earth IMHO.
I am executing a plan which involves multiple location high in some mountain chains with running water and arable land. Pristine villages, some of them established in 11-12 century. If SHTF I will definetly go for one of those places. I have already established networks with some of the locals and I am giving them some assistance – mostly with medical check-ups and therapies but also with some engineering and machines – PV panels, batteries, some water filters etc.. Best thing is that most of those villages are not accessible by car and I can – locals use horses :)
G,
My son loves the people he met in Bulgaria, and I think they loved him, and his wife and kids. There was a lot of trust there on both sides. It took time, but everything worked out really well. I am amazed at what he did, and is still doing, but he has no fear of people, and is very well travelled, like his Mum and Dad. He’s just a tourist like us, but trying to gain more customers for his International one man business without advertising. You can’t beat word of mouth, and personal recommendation. We all need to make a living, preferably without working for Governments or large monopoly American companies. He has been to the USA, but was not too impressed.
Tony
@Tony_Opmoc
This canal plan wa one of Erdogan’s massive infrastructure projects(along with the new Istanbul airport, now nearing completion) at the last general election before the putsch, when I thought it was a move against Russia to block up the Black Sea fleet.There have been a couple of accidents blocking up the Bosphorus as it is increasingly congested and large container ships and tankers take time and distance to change course.
I am now happily living in Bulgaria , cultivating my garden . Meanwhile ,I often go back to Korea where business is all about personal contactsso shuttling along the Silk Road
Interesting. This was how Troy became such central node in bronze age trade. A canal bypassing the vagaries of wind and weather on the Bosporous.
The rocknroll analysis is well written and it makes se!
Congratulations Pepe!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyM0IM_b_LE
😊
i enjoyed reading that, i posted a link to the best live show ever played imo.
I must object to the article author’s lumping of Black Sabbath with Ted Nugent and Donald Trump. At least Black Sabbath wrote the song “War Pigs” which is an anti-war song, though it originally wasn’t intended to be such.
Readers can see the lyrics at the link below and discover they are as relevant today as they were in 1970 when Black Sabbath released their first album “Paranoid”, on which the song is the first track.
https://genius.com/Black-sabbath-war-pigs-lyrics
I am not a fan of Black Sabbath by the way, though I have heard plenty of bands inspired by their music.
War Pigs wasn’t meant to be against war? I’d never heard that one before. Somehow I don’t get that impression, but hey, who knows? I was once a Black Sabbath fan, back when I was 16. But I’ve long since moved along. I agree that Ted Nugent is a better match for Trump, but I suppose Ozzy Osborne did morph into reality TV just like Trump.
War Pigs
Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerers of death’s construction
In the fields the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
Oh lord yeah!
Loved the comment about Putin rocking the Jimmy Page solo with Kalibr missles, then Emmerson-eskly channeling Mussorsky. For those not familiar with Dave McGowen, I highly recommend his work: https://www.sott.net/article/155794-Inside-The-LC-The-Strange-but-Mostly-True-Story-of-Laurel-Canyon-and-the-Birth-of-the-Hippie-Generation-Part-1
As long as Putin does not react this dangerous game will never end.
UK Foreign Secretary to Urge EU to Expand Sanctions Against Russia.
UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, speaking Tuesday at the US Institute of Peace in Washington DC, will urge the European Union to expand sanctions against Russia over the Salisbury incident, according to excerpts from Hunt’s speech obtained by Sputnik.
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201808211067348533-uk-urges-new-russiasanctions/
war is coming
The bankers on both sides of the Atlantic are very unhappy that their plans did not materialize, seeing Russia destabilized, broken up and plundered. Looks like they are sticking to their old plans, hoping for something. However, they are wasting their time, as Continental Europe is slowly but surely turning towards Russia. Even Austria invited Putin to the wedding of their FM, while Trump was ignored. This gesture says plenty.
Putin is reacting ! Doing all the things Pepe describes is the best reaction – the judoka reaction. Let the Jeremy Hunt of this world flap about to their heart’s content. When the time comes – when The Sanctioned have got it all tied up – the flappers will find themselves falling flat on their face, the ground having moved under their silly feet while they were busy flapping instead of watching what The Sanctioned are doing.
Of course, Putin can always impose some sanctions, but that will be just to keep the flapping going – keep their dull minds off the real adult work.
Pepe, you’ve outdone yourself!
May “Eurasian Integration” be a smash hit and top the charts for the rest of the century, at least.
Katherine
What is it that Casey Cason used to say? Number One with a Bullet.
Fascinating Flashback, Pepe!
Ah, those nostalgic, “heady” days of a half century ago….when the “unsquaring” of the Old Globe was launched to usher in a …..New Age……of Same Old, Same Old Empire of Masters and Slaves….but Global and FINAL, this time.
A Cautionary Tale, however amongst the nostalgic Purple Haze of Pot, Rock Poets and bodies (and “minds”..??.) which so passionately met, but have long since forgotten the names of them. or never bothered with such details:
And the bands, with nearly 0% exception, knowingly or unknowingly, were a part of the “paradigm shifting” “Age of Aquarius” blueprint of exactly WHO?
Did the excited Body of Youth know, then? Did they care?
Seduced by siren songs of peace, “love”, and a “New Age” …..”My Ge-ge-ge-ge-neration” got “Royally” screwed, messed up by the Crown’s assets at the Tavistock Institute and the CIA and tolerated ALL that followed in terms of Imperial wars, looting and the destruction of human potential….on an Epic Scale..
Gripping Flash Forward, Too! I like your protagonists!
I don’t like the idea that the Land of the “Free” MUST BE the “Home of the Brave” New World Disorder…….or global gate receipts may collapse.
“Battle of the Geopolitical Bands! This Saturday Night at the Coloseum! Be there or be square!”
But WHY the perpetual stupidity of opposition to fundamentally outgrowing the “same old, same old” Olympian False Gods versus Confounded Human Slaves………….Epic Tragedy?
Why?
Why do you ask?
It’s SO engrossing! Duh!
Perhaps it is.
But let’s “flash-back”, much, much further back into the mists of Anatolian time to the same pivotal terrain (pivotal today, as well!) so deeply ingrained in the Western Psyche….to the moral lessons conveyed through the Mists of Time….by the Blind See-r ….Homer and see if the “same old, same old” might yet be overcome on the Anatolian Plain Where The Walls of Troy Once Stood Strong…..but were destroyed (along with Greece, in short enough order) by the Same Old, Same Old……. False Gods of Olympus…..the World Oligarchy.
The “Dumb Giant on A British Leash” must oppose forever the broader development aspirations of the preponderance of Mankind???
What if it “wises up” and breaks the leash and no longer obeys the False Gods of Fake One-Eye ( Fed-Petro-Dollar, Euro….Pound) and joins the Resistance to Slave Empire, rather than stupidly opposing That Awakening Resistance???
“Imagine” THAT, JL!!
Oh, I forgot. Y’all were knighted by the Queen for Outstanding Contribution to the Empire.
I do, but I also imagine that such an Awakening would sorely disappoint the Owners of the Same Old, Same Old Show…..and a lot of their tragically pathetic ticket-buying customers………to the Global Showdown Battle of the Geo-political Bands..
The biggest problems are not objective, concrete or seen. They are subjective, psychological and unseen….to date..over the millenia…………but not necessarily forever..
Bro, nowadays the false gods’ names end in -ism.
My guess is that we’ve had the Age of the Father and the Age of the Son, and the Age of Aquarius will be the Age of the Holy Spirit.
Excellently said, Rob.
Phodges, I’ll add that this was the reason why the Greeks from the mainland, got pissed at the greedy Troyans (their brethren), who demanded tolls from the ships going to and fro the Black Sea. Interestingly enough, the Troy was destroyed number of times, while only one was glorified by Homer.
Pepe, yet another excellent article.
I see these developments as great news and terrible news. It is great for Eurasia to be building friendly trade agreements and actively working on all the infrastructure needed. They set the moral example of diplomacy in settling disputes as they work together as equal, independent sovereign nations. This isn’t what the New World Order band had in mind at all. The really bad news is that the orange boys’ band, the world bullies, don’t take kindly to competition. And faced with the success of the Eurasian bands, they will be outraged at not even being invited to the party, but cut off and left to themselves. They are likely to use the only instrument they can roughly play. The war instrument. The Steppenwolf song ‘Monster’ is already blaring.
It’s banana, that for a serious American thinker that the US is going to implode.
The Donald is a man, that could and can have anything money can buy …
Knowingly fighting the dragon is to let him rage – but keep the red button safe.
Mark Twain was a serious American thinker. I think Donald is another one
in a tainted democracy, tainted since 500 years … when Vienna danced the waltz, Black Africa sighed under America and European and Arabian slave-
merchandise.
Deeply tainted is the path of the west. Brainwashed out of any symbolic truth.
Titanicly tainted, and the Donald has a Mercurial hart
knowing superial tricks, to let the superial gangs do their deadfight ‘within’.
The West is the ‘eavening land’ of lie, waltz and slaves, and so moral in the
schoolbooks and the papers
I need my daily dosis of ‘West’ by Dilbert http://dilbert.com
higly recommended in the ‘family’
Wasn’t Dilbert’s author pro-Hillary anti-Trump in his blog?
When the Iranians can have efficient Russian jets, why did they ever opt for US jets — after their poor experience with US sanctions. Did they try to mollify the US deep state?
”So what will The Sanctioned supergroup do?”
I suggest they sing the following to the tune of Daniel Boone’s 1972 hit ”Beautiful Sunday”:
The only part I disagree with is the part where Turkey leaves NATO.
Erdogon loves playing both sides against each other. He’ll stay in NATO as long as he can.
Nothing about joining and setting up trade deals with the BRICS nations sets a requirement to leave NATO. And I suspect Putin might suggest that he stay in so he can pass along a bit of whatever inside info that NATO still shares with Turkey. At some point, perhaps Trump and Boris decide they want to kick Turkey out, but my sense of Erdogon is that he’ll stay until it reaches that point.
@ mundanomaniac
” It’s banana, that for a serious American thinker that the US is going to implode.”
What if someone is not serious nor American thinker ?
After the hot war following the economic one, I don’t know what comes first : the implosion or the explosion ( s ) ?!
optimistic – I hope you’re right – I wish I lived over there. Over here I feel like I’m being crushed by my own country –
The London-based European Leadership Network (ELN) focuses on defense and security issues. Its new report is titled “Preparing for the Worst: Are Russian and NATO Military Exercises Making War in Europe more Likely?”
It warned about war games making a clash between the world’s dominant nuclear powers more likely. “Each exercise is seen as provocative by the other side and feeding a dynamic of distrust and unpredictability,” said ELN’s Ian Kearns.
“Everyone is focusing on the deterrent value of big exercises, but there is a downside and that is the risk factor. Politicians have to show political judgment and restraint about when is the right time to scale down what could be a spiraling sequence of exercises.” More on ELN’s report below.
Washington keeps upping the stakes for direct confrontation. Provocative military exercises near Russia’s borders risk the unthinkable. So does America’s empire of bases in areas where it doesn’t belong – notably encircling Russia and China.
US-dominated NATO threatens world peace. Lunatics in Washington intent on regime change up the stakes for possible nuclear war perhaps like never before.
Orwellian Alliance statements like the following on August 12 conceal what going on, saying:
“NATO military exercises are intended to enhance security and stability in Europe. All NATO military activities are proportionate, defensive, and fully in line with our international commitments.”
False! NATO war games near Russia’s borders are provocative – preparing for offense. Moscow holds its exercises defensively on its own territory – threatening no one.
NATO: The Alliance “has made repeatedly clear that we not seek confrontation with Russia. For over two decades, we have tried to build a cooperative relationship with Russia. But Russia has changed borders by force, continues to support separatists in Ukraine and threatens to base nuclear missiles close to Alliance borders.”
False! Washington makes NATO policy. It imposed multiple rounds of lawless sanctions on Russia. It pressured European nations to impose their own – harming their economies.
Hostile actions by US officials show America seeks confrontation, not cooperation. Russia changed no borders by force. It’s gone all-out to resolve conflict in Ukraine. It intends whatever defensive actions are necessary to counter US aggressiveness.
NATO lied saying it “increased its presence in (Eastern Europe) to enhance collective defense.” US-dominated NATO from inception has been an alliance for offense, not defense.
Its aggressiveness represents the greatest threat to world peace. Russia goes all-out to preserve it. Moscow doesn’t threaten or attack other countries.
America wages endless wars of aggression against invented enemies threatening no one. It prioritizes violence and instability. It spends more on militarism and war-making than the rest of the world combined.
ELN’s report absurdly accuses Russia of instigating “dangerous brinkmanship which has resulted in many serious close military encounters between (its forces) and NATO…over the last 15 months.”
Fact: Provocative NATO exercises near Russia’s borders elevate brinksmanship to a dangerously high level. Washington bears full responsibility for heading things toward possible direct confrontation. Russia responsibly readies defensive measures to implement if necessary.
On the one hand, its top priority is maintaining world peace, avoiding war. On the other, it’ll do whatever is necessary to defend its homeland.
ELN is right saying “Nato is preparing for a possible confrontation with Russia.” It’s wrong implying Moscow wants conflict with Alliance countries.
It wants world peace and stability, cooperation among all nations, and none interfering in the internal affairs of others – a US specialty in blatant violation of international law.
Accusations of Russia saber-rattling are polar opposite hard facts. Claims about its military threat are pure fantasy.
America, in contrast, is a global aggressor, a bully of historic proportions – permanently at war in multiple theaters, planning others to advance its imperium, risking global war, possible nuclear confrontation able to end life on earth.
NATO’s pronunciamentos deserve admiration. They should include a mandatory proclamation to really make the point clear:
”NATO — forever in the service of peace, love, and harmony”
For some elites,lying became part of the breathing process, natural and outside of thinking.
Not all the spies get poisoned in UK,a glimpse of reality :
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-20/former-mi6-spy-alastair-crooke-metaphysics-our-present-global-anguish
” The American millenarian ‘myth’, then and now, was (and is), rooted in the fervent belief in the Manifest Destiny of the United States, ‘the New Jerusalem’, to represent humanity’s best hope for a utopian future. This belief in a special destiny has been reflected in a conviction that the United States must lead – or more properly, has the duty to coerce – mankind toward that future. ”
….
a horrible future ( my note )
Thank you, sherlock, for this link. I have reread it twice already.
I rumimate on two or three issues.
The initial comments are hostile … to extremity, to incoherence. At first, I thought “troll farm”. Then, there appeared a comment about incomprehensible Oxbridge communication. It occured to me that Oxbridgeans is taught to be incomprehensible to the masses. And the masses are taught to incomprehend Oxbridge. Then, the entire internet may be the troll farm. Focus on “taught”.
The article itself focuses on the globalist neo-liberal order’s hostility to difference, individuality, freedom … whatever words you wish to use. “order” is an abstraction, infact misleading. It means “the elite”, another misleading euphemism, for a bunch of wealthy people, their drones, and their more trusted servants.
Furthermore, they are not hostile to difference. They cherish freedom for themselves. although, they probably do not think if it as freedom or difference. They just do whatever they please. And expect the servants will mop the floors and take out the trash, the victims.
They object to difference among the masses … another misleading euphemism, for the slaves. Remember Henry Ford. All workers must be interchangeable like screwdrivers, like peasants, legally slaves.
The essay says “Once the Roman Empire took over Christianity as a ‘westernised’ dissident form of Judaism”. Another euphemism. “western” used with culture is a very modern abstraction, used to obfuscate and ennoble less creditable deeds. The phrase should be “Once the Roman Empire took over Christianity as a ‘Romanised’ form of Judaism”. Rome : in western culture, the worlds first, and most admired, slave-state.
I also, removed “dissident”. Christianity was a Jewish sect, perhaps a heresy, dissident to Judaism; not to Romanism as the text implies.
And the hand waving… Don’t forget the hand waving. All respectable members of the Oxbridge set have mastered the art, which performed correctly, re-positions stars in our universe.
London based.
What more to say ?
The anti-Russian hysteria in the US is actually generated in London where the propaganda pros live. They propped Berezovsky, Khodorkovsky and other Israeli cosmopolitans as Stalin called them.
exactly that is why russia msut target the england and england only to them root out from world politic.
all wars including both world wars were plotted and run by england-germany and russia along with others have been victims of english for a long time
nigel farage is a fraud and british spy or rather english spy who has the same agenda as that of other side of english like terreasa may-they want america to keep fighting germany and russia.
nigel farage wants germanhy to be involved in a fight with others just like enlgnas plotted germany to be involved in war in first and second world wars.
usa msut be careful of nigel farrage.
needless crudeness deleted from comment … mod
https://youtu.be/aVlmT7_vqB4
armata tank
Why do people still say “BRICS”? There’s no B in RICS.
(By the way, Pepe… I would enjoy meeting you the next time you’re in Sampa.)
I have said this many times, before… The Brazil which was part of the BRICS does not exist anymore – the 2016 ‘made in the USA’ coup d’etat removed our honest elected president Dilma Rousseff from the Workers Party and replaced her with a corrupt indecent opportunist who should be hunged. May be, one day…
But I do not agree nor will I say Temer should be h[a]nged because I gotta pick my battles. I’m an immigrant from USA! USA! USA!, and that country’s Stasi Zersetzung squads also attack me here in Sampa, sometimes with rented Brazilian patriots.
The encore will be: United States of Eurasia