US Cold Warriors escalate toward actual war with Russia.
By Stephen F. Cohen for The Nation Magazine
Heedless of the consequences, or perhaps welcoming them, America’s Cold Warriors and their media platforms have recently escalated their rhetoric against Russia, especially in March. Anyone who has lived through or studied the preceding 40-year Cold War will recognize the ominous echoes of its most dangerous periods, when actual war was on the horizon or a policy option. Here are only a few random but representative examples:
§ In a March 8 Washington Post opinion article, two American professors, neither with any apparent substantive knowledge of Russia or Cold War history, warned that the Kremlin is trying “to undermine our trust in the institutions that sustain a strong nation and a strong democracy. The media, science, academia and the electoral process are all regular targets.” Decades ago, J. Edgar Hoover, the policeman of that Cold War, said the same, indeed made it an operational doctrine.
§ Nor is the purported threat to America only. According to (retired) Gen. David Petraeus and sitting Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, also in the Post on the following day, the “world is once again polarized between two competing visions for how to organize society.” For Putin’s Kremlin, “the existence of the United States’ rule-of-law world is intrinsically threatening.” This is an “intensifying worldwide struggle.” So much for those who dismissed post–Soviet Russia as merely a “regional” power, including former President Barack Obama, and for the myopic notion that a new Cold War was not possible.
§ But the preceding Cold War was driven by an intense ideological conflict between Soviet Communism and Western capitalism. Where is the ideological threat today, considering that post–Soviet Russia is also a capitalist country? In a perhaps unprecedented nearly 10,000-word manifesto from March 14 in the front news pages of (again) the Post, Robert Kagan provided the answer: “Today, authoritarianism has emerged as the great challenge facing the liberal democratic world—a profound ideological, as well as strategic, challenge.” That is, “authoritarianism” has replaced Soviet Communism in our times, with Russia again in the forefront.
The substance of Kagan’s “authoritarianism” as “an ideological force” is thin, barely enough for a short opinion article, often inconsistent and rarely empirical. It amounts to a batch of “strongman” leaders (prominently Putin, of course), despite their very different kinds of societies, political cultures, states, and histories, and despite their different nationalisms and ruling styles. Still, credit Kagan’s ambition to be the undisputed ideologist of the new American Cold War, though less the Post for taking the voluminous result so seriously.
The 40-year Cold War often flirted with hot war, and that, too, seems to be on the agenda. Words, as Russians say, are also deeds. They have consequences, especially when uttered by people of standing in influential outlets. Again, consider a few examples that might reasonably be considered warmongering:
§ The journal Foreign Policy found space for disgraced former Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili to declare: “It is not a question of whether [Putin] will attack, but where.” (Saakashvili may be the most discredited “democratic” leader of recent times, having brought the West close to war with Russia in 2008 and since having had to flee his own country and then decamp even from US-backed Ukraine.)
§ NBC News, a reliable source of Cold War frenzy, reported, based on Estonian “intelligence,” an equally persistent source of the same mania, that “Russia is most likely to attack the Baltic States first, but a conflict between Russia and NATO would involve attacks on Western Europe.”
§ Also in March, in The Economist, another retired general, Ben Hodges, onetime commander of the US army in Europe, echoes that apocalyptic perspective: “This is not just about NATO’s eastern front.” (Readers may wish to note that “eastern front” is the designation given by Nazi Germany to its 1941 invasion of Soviet Russia. Russians certainly remember.)
§ Plenty of influential American Cold War zealots seem eager to respond to the bugle charge, among them John E. Herbst, a stalwart at the Atlantic Council (NATO’s agitprop “think tank” in Washington), and the Post’s deputy editorial-page editor, Jackson Diehl. Both want amply armed US and NATO warships sent to what Russians sometimes call their bordering “lakes,” the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. To do so would likely mean the “war” NBC envisages.
Lest readers think all this is merely the “chattering” of opinion-makers, as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once termed it, consider a summary of legislation being prepared by a bipartisan US Senate committee, pointedly titled and with a fearsome acronym, DASKA (the Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act of 2019). Again, Russia is ritualistically accused of “malign influence” and “aggression” around the world, the quality of the committee’s thinking succinctly expressed by one of the Republican senators: “Putin’s Russia is an outlaw regime that is hell-bent on undermining international law and destroying the US-led liberal global order.” There is no evidence for these allegations—Russian policy-makers are constantly citing international law, and the US “liberal global order,” if it ever existed, has done a fine job of undoing itself—but with “an outlaw regime,” there can be no diplomacy, nor do the senators propose any, only war.
A recurring theme of my recently published book War with Russia? is that the new Cold War is more dangerous, more fraught with hot war, than the one we survived. All of the above amply confirms that thesis, but there is more. Histories of the 40-year US-Soviet Cold War tell us that both sides came to understand their mutual responsibility for the conflict, a recognition that created political space for the constant peace-keeping negotiations, including nuclear arms control agreements, often known as détente. But as I also chronicle in the book, today’s American Cold Warriors blame only Russia, specifically “Putin’s Russia,” leaving no room or incentive for rethinking any US policy toward post-Soviet Russia since 1991. (See, for example, Nataliya Bugayova’s recent piece for the Institute for the Study of War.)
Still more, as I have also long pointed out, Moscow closely follows what is said and written in the United States about US-Russian relations. Here too words have consequences. On March 14, Russia’s National Security Council, headed by President Putin, officially raised its perception of American intentions toward Russia from “military dangers” (opasnosti) to direct “military threats” (ugrozy). In short, the Kremlin is preparing for war, however defensive its intention.
Finally, there continues to be no effective, organized American opposition to the new Cold War. This too is a major theme of my book and another reason why this Cold War is more dangerous than was its predecessor. In the 1970s and 1980s, advocates of détente were well-organized, well-funded, and well-represented, from grassroots politics and universities to think tanks, mainstream media, Congress, the State Department, and even the White House. Today there is no such opposition anywhere.
A major factor is, of course, “Russiagate.” As evidenced in the sources I cite above, much of the extreme American Cold War advocacy we witness today is a mindless response to President Trump’s pledge to find ways to “cooperate with Russia” and to the still-unproven allegations generated by it. Certainly, the Democratic Party is not an opposition party in regard to the new Cold War. Nancy Pelosi, the leader of its old guard, needlessly initiated an address to Congress by NATO’s secretary general, in April, which will be viewed in Moscow as a provocation. She also decried as “appalling” Trump’s diplomacy with Russian President Putin, whom she dismissed as a “thug.” Such is the state of statesmanship today in the Democratic Party.
Its shining new pennies seem little different. Beto O’Rourke, now a declared candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, promises to lead our “indispensable country,” an elite conceit that has inspired many US wars and cold wars. Another fledgling would-be Democratic leader, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, seems to have bought into Russiagate’s iconic promotion of US intelligence agencies, tweeting on January 12, “The FBI had to open inquiry on whether the most powerful person in the United States is actually working for Russia.” Evidently, neither she nor O’Rourke understand that growing Cold War is incompatible with progressive policies at home, in America or in Russia.
Among Democrats, there is one exception, Representative Tulsi Gabbard, who is also a declared candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Not surprisingly, for lamenting Russiagate’s contribution to the worsening new Cold War and calling for new approaches to Russia itself, Gabbard was shrilly and misleadingly slurred by NBC News. (For a defense of Gabbard, see Glenn Greenwald in The Intercept.) Herself a veteran of the US military forces, Representative Gabbard soldiers on, the only would-be Democratic president calling for an end to this most dangerous new Cold War.
This commentary is based on Stephen F. Cohen’s most recent weekly discussion with the host of The John Batchelor Show. Now in their fifth year, previous installments are at TheNation.com.
Note by The Saker:
You can order Prof. Cohen’s latest book here:
https://www.amazon.com/War-Russia-Putin-Ukraine-Russiagate/dp/1510745815
I consider this book a “MUST READ” and I highly recommend it to everybody
The Saker
These narcissistic psychopaths are going to start a war, I’m afraid. A very destructive war. I was thinking today that NATO could launch a surprise attack against Russia. And we would be sitting here not realizing this was happening until several minutes later, cities started disappearing in Europe and North America under a mushroom cloud. As Mr. Putin said, they won’t even have time to repent!
US elite journals have been crowing of Thanatopia’s ability to ‘prevail’ in a nuclear ‘exchange’, with Russia or China, for years. It all depends on a sneak, first-strike, attack of course, with ‘missile defence’ used to mop up any ICBMs that escape the first-strike, hence their deployment in the ‘sacrifice zones’ of eastern Europe-to defend against Iran, of course. That, on its own, tells you just how mad, as well as Evil, that these vermin are.
Need I remind you, they will only start this war if we let them.
The people united have far more power than all of those fools combined. But they need to wake up, and soon.
Craig, I fear you may be correct. Several Orthodox Christian elders have prophesied that World War 3 will occur BEFORE coming of anti-Christ.
It makes sense to me given the current crazies controlling the world. We must keep our faith, have hope in God and love each other!
@Iconodule
Hello brother, indeed we are living in the end times, and I agree with those Orthodox Christian elders since Christianity holds similar prophecy about the end times as in Islam. The Islamic prophecy in order, as follow:
1. The Great Last War / Al Malhamah Al Kubro / Armageddon.
2. Conquest of Constantinople (today’s Istanbul) by Muslim army.
3. Appearance of the Anti-Christ / Dajjal in person in Palestine.
4. Appearance of Jesus PBUH in Damascus, Syria.
5. Jesus PBUH killed the Anti-Christ.
6. And so, and so.
So, it is true that we are heading towards The Great War. It could might as well happen tomorrow, next week, or month, but one thing for sure, only The Lord God Knows when it will take place. Also, highly possible it is going to be Nuclear War, because that would liquidate USA and to give Israel a role-play as the ruling state in the world. God Knows Best.
For more reference please see Sheikh Imran Hosein, he teachs this subject, lots of videos on YouTube and you can read his books too for free. Please have a look, I recommend you. Thanks and stay safe.
RR.
Cohen is an excellent Russia analyst, but keep in mind that The Nation is run by his wife. This is a great overview of the US media landscape:
https://swprs.org/media-navigator/
Andrew, great to have it as a chart, but antiwar.com is not liberal. And I would say that Saker is not conservative. In fact I would switch their two positions.
And ZH is not distant from power
“… In fact I would switch their two positions. …”
Not by any stretch.
Just for starters, “antiwar.com” is an outlet run by a group of avowed homosexuals from San Francisco (Justin Raimondo et al.). While Saker, as you should know, is as conservative, decent, traditional old-world pro-family man as one can be.
I wasn’t referring to The Saker or Justin Raimondo as individuals but rather what they write on their websites. Antiwar is libertarian and Saker is leftwing.
Take a look at where Infowars and Zerohedge are on the chart and then you tell me who should be closer to them? Antiwar or Saker?
“… Saker is leftwing …”
!…
You got your sides just a tiny bit confused, haven’t you…
nope, she is quite right :-)
are you serious? Then why do you feature content by Unz, PJW, PCR and other highly conservative folks? If you’re a West coast style liberal, you’re disguising it quite well ;-)
Yes, absolutely!
I just like smart and honest people, I don’t care one bit if they seem themselves (or are seen by others) as conservatives or liberals. I also post articles by Communists (Ramin Mazaheri is a good example), don’t I?
Tell you what: I like both extremes, far Left and far Right. At least they are interesting, even when they are wrong.
What I loathe is what I call the “extreme center”.
Now that I truly hate :-)
Kind regards
The Saker
It is good to be either hot or cold and not lukewarm Center 😀
Saker, your comment on hating the extreme centre is interesting! I’ve been thinking recently about the possibility of embrasing being both left AND right
For example, I figured being a good parent is not being always tough or always lenient but knowing when each is appropriate.
The net result of all the parenting decisions would be somewhere in between (being a sum of the individual choices one way or the other).
I suppose that this digital to analogue processing would also happen on a society-wide scale.
My feeling at the moment is that few individual decisions would benefit from sitting on the fence (extreme centre, in your words) though the desired overall net result may well be centrist.
There, you heard it from the Saker himself. Thanks Saker!
As a reader, from an economic perspective, I find this blog is left of antiwar.com which is anti-state, pro-market.
Great chart. I agree The Saker is reasonably conservative, after all he is a partner of Ron Unz, who is indeed placed right next to the Saker (also there is NEO and Strategic Culture, both overall conservative). Antiwar is left-wing anti-imperialism, no doubt about that. Good to see Soros mouthpieces such as ‘Vice’ being placed on the close-to-power side.
Antiwar ‘Leftwing’??!! Ye Gods and little fishies!!
Antiwar is conservative/libertarian (similar to Ron Paul). The Saker is more difficult to place, probably somewhere inbetween, but clearly anti-imperialism.
correct!
thank you for noticing that.
I even emailed them and asked them what they were smoking :-)
Kind regards
The Saker
Thanks the heavens for that — the alternative is that none of his words would every be published anywhere. One needs to realize how extremely this man has been silenced.
Andrew, for heaven’s sake! Keep in mind The Nation is run by his wife”? What are you driving at with this ‘news’?
– Mrs Cohen writes the articles, not the professor himself?
– Mrs Cohen accepts any nonsense, just because he is her husband?
… or did you intend some other form of smear?
Or have I mistaken your purpose?
so what?!
can we please stay away form ad hominems please?
next we are going to discuss not only spouses, but kids, relatives by marriage or even distant relatives.
this is useless at best.
let’s not do that please!
The Saker
Thx, valuable chart, even discovered some new sites.
Who is driving this? Mi6. As always.
The NeoConDemocrats may want a war with Russia. However, Trump is not going to start one on their behalf. Let’s look at some FACT based examples.
_____
The NeoDems were alarmed about Syria. MAGA Trump is cutting the number of troops to by 80-90%. One could wish for 100%, but the U.S. needs to keep nutso Erdogan on a short leash.
The NeoDems wanted to step up Afghanistan. MAGA Trump is dropping the number of troops, % still TBD.
The NeoDems were sure that a war was going to happen in Venezuela.
MAGA Trump — Number of U.S. boots on the ground…. Still Zero.
The NeoDems wanted to take Iran. MAGA Trump — # of U.S. boots on the ground…. Just Like Venezuela… Zero.
The NeoDems are pushing crazy about Russia, even though the Mueller investigation is about to collapse. MAGA Trump — Number of troops on the ground… You guessed it… Zero.
____
Please. Stop believing in the NeoConDemocrats and their weaponized Fake Stream Media establishment.
Biden is #1 in Democrat polling for their nomination. Guess which NeoDem wants to bail out family members with personal investments in the Ukraine……
For Putin’s Kremlin, “the existence of the United States’ rule-of-law world is intrinsically threatening.”
As soon as any US leader/functionary/agent says ‘rule-of-law’ and asserts that the US actually follows any law, they are clearly insane, lying or incredibly stupid.
The US has never allowed itself to be bound by any rules. Hell, they are threatening the ICC at the moment.
Yes, that ” “the existence of the United States’ rule-of-law world”” quote nearly made me spray coffee all over the floor . .
The threatening of the ICC sewer is quite bizarre as it is the pluperfect stooge operation of the Western overlords. Only Africans and, now, Arabs are persecuted, and Judaic butchers like the Talmudistani thugs who regularly ‘mow the grass’ in Gaza, are ‘preliminarily investigated’ with the alacrity of a semi-crippled Galapagos giant tortoise.
If our “Brenton” was just your run-of-the-mill butcher, charged with terrorism, then the ICC would seem to be the perfect avenue to ensure his continuing comfort.
If he is charged with one or multiple murders, then the NZ courts will deal with it.
The tote is open.
Place your bets.
Except the threat to be bound by rules is enough to start a war based on defective ideology, one which they would prefer war over negotiations. They can afford to lose a war, they can not afford to lose a negotiation.
The sheer, vicious, insanity of the US ‘elites’ almost defies description. As does the TOTALITARIAN inversion of reality, pathopsychological projection, and absolute, unwavering, Groupthink of their rabid discourse. Apparently the ‘rules-based International Order’ (as seen in the utterly illegal annexation of the Golan Heights and one hundred other acts)’Western Moral Values’, ‘Exceptionalism’, ‘Indispensability’, ‘Freedom (and its fries)’ etc, together deliver a unity in utterance and action that would have had Big Brother green with envy.
As Chomsky and Herman noted thirty odd years ago, in supposedly ‘free’ states like the USA, one cannot guarantee the required totality of opinion by pulling out finger-nails. That is reserved for the denizens of the global Empire of Everlasting Goodness, in outposts of ‘Freedom’ like Guatemala, Honduras, Iraq and Occupied Palestine. In the Heimat, the role of propaganda, ie brainwashing, is paramount, and the scum presstitutes of the Free Press deliver-or else. I’ve just endured five minutes of our local Government-owned, but Murdochite staffed and managed, ABC, ‘reporting’ on the illegal seizure of the Golan, with not a syllable about its utter illegality. The area was ‘disputed’, ie standard Zionazi lying propaganda, but cross the Zionazi Israel First, Last and Always Lobby in any way whatsoever, and your career in the propaganda system is OVER, forever.
Which brings us to the crux of the problem. The rule of the Zionazis over the West, the USA in particular, has seen all but slavish grovelers to the Gods Upon the Earth purged from politics and the fakestream media. The truly EVIL campaign of hatred, lies, hypocrisy and sheer thuggery directed at Corbyn and UK Labour is just the latest and most deranged of these hate and intimidation campaigns, working, as ever, with total fakestream media complicity. Meanwhile the Zionazis are rapidly making ANY criticism of any action by Talmudistan and its rabidly psychopathic ruling elites, and ANY support for the Palestinians in the Hell of their unending oppression, illegal on the filthy grounds of fraudulent ‘antisemitism’. The so-called Freedom of Speech and Opinion, and the vaunted First Amendment have all simply been abolished by the moral and financial corruption of the elites of one tiny but endlessly demanding and ambitious community. And the types that THEY, and no-one else, determine are fit for public life, are, as we can see from one end of the Earth to the other, and in the nature and methods of the societies they rule at home, Evil, incompetent, servile to their Masters and rabidly aggressive towards all the untermenschen.
The threat to world peace and the rule of law comes from the US. Arrogance, hubris, self-aggrandisement, bullying, noisy, law-breaking, – well they are world leaders in those traits. They are also self-deluding. If they think for one moment that an attack on Russia will not result in their immediate destruction, they are complete fools.
Agreed that US behavior looks like Arrogance, hubris, self-aggrandizement, bullying, noisy, law-breaking …. It helps to understand why.
For generations, we have been told we are the greatest nation on earth. The proof was the abundance of consumer goods at affordable prices. The Cold War ended all that and I mean we have yet to pay the true costs of which. To out-compete the 2nd world militarily and keep our standard of living, we outsourced production and kept control of the wealth designating schemes, AKA World Bank, Reserve Dollar, etc.
This worked as long as we manufactured much and worked less well as we manufactured little but petroleum was cheap. It no longer works. Without a steady, cheap supply of liquid fuels, the glue that binds our nation, namely readily available gasoline to drive places we do not need to go, readily available consumer goods at prices we cannot manufacture them for, and most importantly, readily available food in our grocery stores including winter time produce from 12,000 miles away which will cease to be available. (period) When that happens, the greatest nation on earth ceases to be a nation.
Trump’s turn-around from wannabe re-industrializer to neo-neocon came about when he finally realized his real mission wasn’t MAGA but rather KAFFA. (Keep America From Falling Apart).
Were I to be a lifeboat ethics minded national security planner, I would already have in place measures to isolate and let starve vast unproductive regions of our country. This includes the biggest cities (NY, Chicago, LA, NO, Atlanta, Detroit) and certain regions of the country with too many retirees and/or too much otherwise unnecessary citizenry: Arizona, Southern California, Nevada and Florida south of St. Augustine.
I tend to think this calculus has already occurred. I tend to think the external policies of the US are geared towards forestalling that day as long as possible. I would not be surprised to learn that VVP, understanding a collapse of international conventions is really unhelpful at this time, is a secret conspirator in keeping the US viable, at least for now. Which begs the question, “How stupid are the neo-cons?” Considering that their number includes the likes of the delusional Douglas “Let’s Bomb Bolivia to show the Arabs we mean business” Feith, the answer is pretty d____d stupid.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Well to employ an old saying which I believe is quite relevant here; “Those whom the gods seek to destroy, they first drive made.” In order to properly understand what is so well described here I must fall back on my Christian heritage and get a glimpse of the “cosmic” aspect of this drama. The tricky bit is translating it into modern consciousness. It goes like this. The cleansing that is so obviously underway has hidden dimensions. The emerging spiritual (Christ) force provokes the rise of its opposite. The Satan force. We are attempting to describe it in modern humanist language. However that makes the “deep’ aspect difficult to articulate. So I can but try.
In the final analysis Satan does the work of God (Christ if you like) and the Devil is finally “duped.” This is the only way I can understand the ego mania of the Neo Con democrats and their Talmudic owners. For me this all fits together congruently, enabling me to maintain my optimism and balance. But like I say, it is tricky translating this ancient wisdom into our modern parlance. The increasingly obvious insanity of this mass mind suggests liberation is well on the way. Good Hegelian dialectics if you like that approach.
I imagine, indeed I am convinced, that the countries of the West, even the USA, still contain huge numbers of decent, humane, compassionate people. However, under the influence of End Stage capitalism, and The Holy Market, where all ‘market power’ is inevitably, and well nigh totally, money power, and where the master manipulators of money power, the hyper-parasites of the financial Moloch, totally control the organs of economic, propaganda and political power, their basic decency counts for NOTHING.
As the Gilens and Page study showed, the political dupes answer only to their rich owners, and ignore the plebs almost entirely. And as Chomsky and Herman showed, the fakestream media system is simply a propaganda machine for the owners of society. And that tiny group of hyper-avaricious parasites control ever more of their societies’ wealth, and rule through ever more sophisticated and targeted psychological manipulation, and a general atmosphere of relentless brainwashing, around the clock, from cradle to grave. In other words, the ‘Free World’ is the most psychologically, spiritually and intellectually enslaved world ever created. The secret to its success was always the ability to simply ignore those who had the audacity to look reality in the face, and, if necessary, make sure they remained anonymous and consigned to some backwater where they could not infect others with their ‘unblindness’. Now, with the Internet and forty years of ever increasing inequality, poverty, debt, military aggression and genocide, ecological carnage and social devastation, the proles are finally waking up, so the Bosses are resorting to tried and tested strategies-the fomenting of fascism and race and class hatred, Divide and Rule through the ‘Identity Politics’ dead-end, and, as in Greece and France, brutal police repression. It gets much worse from here on out, because the psychopaths will destroy humanity if they can no longer rule over it, totally and mercilessly.
@Snow Leopard: “The Devil is duped”.
“The world is a great cathedral where our Lord God sits on high in the organ loft improvising at the keyboard, while the Devil down below helps unwittingly by pumping away at the bellows”. — non-Christian evolutionary theorist, Wolfgang von Goethe, Im Gesprach.
Sounds familiar?
Nothing new here Mr. Cohen we don’t need to know more than the examples of history . The Russian children like their forefathers who were also my Serbian and Slavic forefathers know that once or twice every century the outsiders attempted to kill all of us. They keep trying and the cabbages keep growing bigger and bigger and we all know why.
I had put Prof. Cohen’s book on my Christmas Wish List. My daughter got it for me.
The content is a trip through the making of this moment, the Hybrid War Against Russia, the demonization of Putin, Ukraine Project of the State Dept., Trump, Russophobia, and so much more.
You simply must have this book and consume the contents.
Only Cohen could produce this material. Now it is in very readable form.
Support him. He’s rare, one of a kind, in sea of serpents. The lone rational voice from academe. A treasure.
I have the book but have not read it yet.
For me, it is quite astounding that this evil is so prevelent, so strong, so unrelenting, and so pervasive, so on and on. To be sure, lone voices are out there such as cohen’s which attempt to raise the alarm but in the main they are are overwhelmed, drowned out, by the prostituted media, and the huge, huge money lined up to support this insanity.
One is tempted to despair almost every day when picking up the latest news. We have the political system, if that is what one can call it, which favors the money and the zionists. we have a govt which is almost 100% controlled by zionists, admin and congress. This latest obscenity of golan heights and the AIPAC convention, with the zionists donning their knee pads, led by head zionist trump makes one want to vomit but that no longer works.
But what is the alternative? To roll over to these vermin? Anyone with a brain, an ability to think, cannot roll over-the only alternative is to keep on keeping on, whatever that means. I do know that elections do not matter but someday they might.
God give strength to Putin, Lavrov, Shoygu, et al. They are voices of strength opposing this zionist onslaught and attack. Putin does ,however, need to be ever vigilant as I’m sure he is. Saw a note whereby evil Kudrin is pushing to meet the zionist west “half way.” Despicable!
“the only alternative is to keep on keeping on”.
It has not been easy for anyone this week in NZ.
Music helps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEyYdnS_W4w
I appreciate all the trouble the Saker has taken to debunk the war hype and expose the warhawks.
Personally, I have fallen in love with Russia through the Russian students who I have taught English online. I would like nothing better than for our countries to be on friendly terms instead of in a cold war. I dream of some day visiting the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and roaming around Moscow. And if I were to get the chance to meet Putin, it would mean 1,000x more than meeting Trump, who I have no desire to even be in the same room with.
I am looking for some way to make the paradigm shift happen that would end all wars and conflicts, the greater consciousness and spiritual awareness that would lead to everyone caring more for each other, and sharing with each other as well as sharing stewardship of our planet. I know it’s really reaching when there’s lots of people I really would rather not interact with myself. However, I believe in miracles, and we sure need one here. I’ll be praying and meditating on how we can have friendly relations with Russia.
Prof. Cohen has been on the money about everything in the last decade of worsening conditions between Russia and the US. He’s right about this as well. What we might ask is where the warmongers are going to force Russia into the war it doesn’t want, but, is determined to win and not fight on its territory.
I am reminded of a quote, who I do not remember who came up with it. It was stated in the 1950’s. “In the future, the Soviet Union will become like the United States. And the United States will become like the Soviet Union.”
I think it may have been Huxley. Possibly Szilard.
The two, USSR/USA, existed in paired-couple as dynamic equilibrium. Oscillation. What one does is reflected in the other. When the system fails, war follows. Then an new equilibrium. Hobsbawm also spoke to this – I believe in the late 1980’s.
Let us hope that the new post hoc is not radioactive ruin.
I’d like to point-out that Amazon.com, for which all too many use as the link to available books, is owned by one of the most ardent War Mongers, Jeff Bezos, the owner of the bellicose Washington Post, for whom directing one cent in his direction is beyond foolish and stupid.
Second is the ideological divide that are two tines of the same fork: The Outlaw US Empire’s publicly stated #1 policy goal of obtaining Full Spectrum Dominance over the planet which is coupled with its Zero-sum neoliberal economic philosophy, which is exactly the same as the goal of the Monopoly Board Game–Bankrupt all the other players while amassing all available wealth for yourself–and never sharing one red cent. That philosophy is diametrically opposed by that espoused by China and Russia known as Win-Win, which is a sharing, redistributive ideology aimed at uplifting all members of society and eliminating poverty. It’s also important to note that the above strategy/policy goal was announced during Clinton’s presidency only a few years after GHW Bush declared the beginning of the New World Order Unipolar Era; so, it’s now been in place for 23 years–29 if we begin with Bush’s Diktat.
There’s only One Major Outlaw and that’s the USA, its vassals being merely minor Outlaws. Not only is it in violation of International Law but its entire policy drive is also Unconstitutional since the UN Charter is a part of the US Constitution thanks to its Supremacy Clause. Indeed, the entirety of Cold War 1.0 was Unconstitutional. Thus the reality is that the USA became an International Outlaw AND Domestic Enemy of its own Constitution upon the Senate’s ratification of the UN Charter in August of 1945. The forgoing fact is omitted by all historians when it needs to be broadcast to the world.
Defeat of the Outlaw US Empire will only occur when its inhabitants rise to defend their fundamental law of the land despite its flaws. Both Neocons and Neoliberals are Enemies of the People and must be driven from power and put into prison where they belong. Such an undertaking is quickly becoming an Existential Requirement for the entire world.
@EVERYBODY: LOL, it looks like my personal political ideas are discussed here almost as much as Prof. Cohen’s views. Okay, this time I will join in an try to clarify:
Please check out this post: /submarines-in-the-desert-as-my-deepest-gratitude-to-you/
then scroll down until you see this paragraph:
Personally, I reject the Left-Right reference system and consider myself an Orthodox “People’s Monarchist” (народный монархист) in the tradition of Lev Tikhomirov, Feodor Dostoevsky, Ivan Solonevich and Ivan Ilyin. Just like the Russian philosopher Berdaev, rather than looking left or right, I rather look *up*! I also recognize myself in the notion of “Left of labor, Right of values” (Gauche du travail, droite des valeurs) of Alain Soral. My economics are: laissez-faire capitalism for the family and small business level, socialism for the corporation level and communism for strategic/national level sectors of the economy.
Political Compass (https://www.politicalcompass.org/) scores me as a “Left Libertarian”:
http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The-Saker-is-a-Left-Libertarian0.jpg
I hope that clarifies why I am not a “conservative” and if I HAVE to be squeezed somewhere on the conservative to progressive continuum, then I see myself as much closer to the Left, especially a *real* Left, not the kind of pretend “caviar-Left” embodied in the various liberal, socialist or otherwise pseudo-leftist parties in the West.
HTH.
Cheers,
The Saker
All the labeling of individuals as left, right, or center ignores that some of us are simply free, thinking human beings who do not define ourselves in such limiting categories.
”DASKA (the Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act)”
Haha, these lofty word acrobatics are actually quite beautiful, however rotten their meaning. The ancient Chinese and their renowned sense of Harmony spring to mind immediately, as in Humble Servant’s Garden and Square of Heavenly Peace.
Nussiminen has a few more gems up his sleeve:
ROKTIACA = Rejection Of Kremlin’s Totally Illegal Annexation of Crimea Act
JABTEDAA = Jihadists Are Better Than Evil Dictator Assad Act
RASLOSLA = Russians Are Scum Living On Stolen Land Act
Ideological consolidation and corroboration are a most significant part of any Regimes worth their salt, mind you.
I agree with Professor Cohen that events seem to be moving rapidly towards war. It is now twenty years since the NATO invasion of Kosovo, an act I sensed at the time would have serious consequences for all humanity. Nothing has happened since then to change my view, the world getting more unstable year on year. So I had to seek the answer, which took a number of years, why do we keep setting ourselves up for global war?
My conclusions were:
1. Power (manifested as interest) has been present in every conflict of the past – no exception. It is the underlying motivation for war. Other cultural factors might change, but not power. Interest cuts across all apparently unifying principles: family, kin, nation, religion, ideology, politics – everything. We unite with the enemies of our principles, because that is what serves our interest. It is power, not any of the above concepts, that is the cause of war. World War One – Republican France united with autocratic Russia where to sing “La Marseillaise” was a criminal offence. Similarly, World War Two, the West’s alliance with the USSR was based on common interests, not converging philosophical ideas.
2. History tells us that every nation/civilization eventually gets the war it is trying to avoid. Even the vanquished can be supremely confident of victory. But history always proves them wrong. This applies as much today as any other time in history. For example, Deterrence doctrine, made for the 20th century Cold War is irrelevant in the 21st and will ultimately fail us. It can no longer prevent the scenarios where Mutual Assured Destruction will be resorted to. We will soon face the scenario where (unlike the Cuban missile crisis or Euro missile crisis) one protagonist will not be able to step back from the brink, blindly stumbling into a situation they cannot de-escalate. All that is left is Deterrence’s fall-back position – annihilation.
3. Leaders and decision-makers delude themselves, thinking they can avoid that fateful war, that it can limited in scale or even won – they have always been wrong, ultimately. A dangerous delusion is thinking of the current crisis in terms of the Cold War. The Cold War was the peace, a post-world war environment; we are now in a pre-world war landscape.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-24/russian-troops-aid-arrive-caracas-trump-leaves-military-intervention-venezuela
Time to rethink the boundaries of Russia’s near abroad. It seems Russia views Venuzuela as its back yard. Russia has put its miliatry into Venuzuela. It stands by its allies. Where ever they are on this earth.
Thanks for this warning, Stephen. Too many people I know have fallen for the Russia-gate BS, which smelled like WMD 2.0 to me from the very beginning. I felt like the bright side to the Trump cloud was that it eased tensions with Russia, which Obama was amping up in his final year. There seems to be a core of determined D.C. imperialists who want a war with Russia at any cost, and those of us with even a cursory understanding of the implications of nuclear weapons use realize that if these war-mongers succeed, it will mean the end of human civilization. I have read nuclear scientists who explain that far too many of the clowns in D.C. don’t know how dangerous this game they’re playing really is. The unfortunate truth is that we the people must stop them, or those fools will end it all for everyone. Oh, and I guess I now have a good reason to tell Sen. Whitehouse to unsubscribe me from his email list.