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Around the World in Three Minutes
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of Ricochet! I thought I’d take you on a whirlwind tour of the international news to get your day off to an invigorating start.
Now that Russia’s rearranged the chessboard in Middle East, Russia’s propaganda organs have gone into hyperdrive. All of its international state media organs, from Russia Today and TASS to Sputnik, are screaming so shrilly about the West’s weakness and duplicity that I fear the Internet here in Europe’s going to shatter. What’s particularly galling is their ability to find so many Americans who are so eager to shill for them. Paul Craig Roberts (who by the way served in the Reagan Administration) is cheerfully calling for Americans to be wiped out before they destroy the world:
As readers know, I have emphasized that the declared neoconservative intention of achieving global hegemony has resurrected the threat of nuclear armageddon as Russia and China are most definitely not going to submit, as every European country, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Columbia, and Japan have submitted,to being Washington’s vassals.
The president of Russia and the president of China have made this completely clear. …
Yet, the insane neoconservatives continue to speak as if the world is subordinate to them, a collection of arrogant two-bit punks who could not subdue a few thousand lightly armed Taliban after 14 years of effort and American sacrifice and whose disastrous policies have made, until Vladimir Putin’s intervention, the Islamic State the most potent military force in the Middle East.
The damned neoconservatives have destroyed seven countries, and the bastards and bitches walk around free! …
The neoconservatives should be quickly rounded up, arrested, tried, convicted, and executed for their massive crimes before they destroy the world.
Life hangs in the balance. It is the neocons or us.
Sputnik reveals the terrible pressure we’re placing on small, hapless Belgium:
While Russia is eradicating the terrorist threat in the Middle East, the US and NATO are busy with modernizing their European nuclear arms aimed at some unknown menace and pressuring the EU, particularly Belgium, into spending more on US weaponry, founder of Agora Erasmus movement Karel Vereycken told Sputnik.
It is naïve to believe that the Obama administration, lambasted by both right and left-wing parties in the US for its inconsistent policy in the Middle East, is perplexed or distraught. Undoubtedly, it has a well-thought-out foreign strategy and Europe is one of its targets.
In his earlier interviews to Sputnik, Karel Vereycken, journalist, founder of the Belgian political organization Agora Erasmus and editor-at-large of the French newspaper Nouvelle Solidarité, called attention to the fact that the Pentagon and NATO are pushing ahead with the project of re-nuclearization of Europe. …
Needless to say, US policy-makers and their subservient European allies justify the current military buildup in Europe by an imaginary menace, allegedly posed by Russia.
Vereycken quoted Denise Campbell Bauer, the US Ambassador to Belgium, who wrote in his op-ed published by the Belgian conservative daily La Libre Belgique on September 30: “In the East, Russia has tried to redraw the borders of Europe by force by trying to annex Crimea and via destabilizing actions including Russian troop deployments in Eastern Ukraine.”
Therefore, according to the US Ambassador, Belgium should immediately increase its spending on defense (and fork out for Washington’s extortionately expensive F-35 jets). …
NATO efforts aimed at nuclearization of Europe have prompted a wave of protests in the EU.
Vereycken narrated that the Dutch peace movement PAX, with the backing of the Dutch Red Cross, delivered almost 45,000 signatures to members of Parliament pleading in favor of a total ban on nuclear weapons.
“Shocked into reality,” their headlines screech, “Europeans find themselves caught in US nuclear trap.”
The irony of the situation is that while Germany’s population remains widely opposed to nuclear power, the country is now being forced by Washington to station new nuclear bombs on its territory.
On the other hand, Washington’s recent saber-rattling and muscle-flexing in Europe have attracted the attention of international observers, who consider the moves a sign of the US’ increasing hostility toward Russia.
On July 1, 2015, the US conducted a flight test of a dormant B-61 12 nuclear bomb. The test was carried out as part of the US program aimed at modernizing its nuclear arsenal.
Vereycken quoted Willy Wimmer, a CDU (Christian Democratic Union of Germany) politician, who dubbed the upcoming modernization “a deliberate provocation against [Germany’s] neighbor [Russia].” …
Needless to say, Europe’s consistent nuclearization has sparked fears regarding the potential cold war style nuclear arms race.
“Of course, being afraid is a good start but not enough. As [German political activist] Helga Zepp LaRouche outlines it in her call to the leaders of the world, we should all work together and make the United Nations Jubilee meeting a birthplace of universal enduring peace based on mutual
development and free of the financial dictatorship which is dividing our leaders and our people,” Vereycken emphasized.
You betcha.
By the way, like that sidebar illustration? That’s Sputnik’s take on the defeat of Japan in the Second World War.
Whatever.
Moving right along, L. Todd Wood reports that Moldova is smouldering with civil unrest:
Civil unrest in Moldova is not easing. If anything, it is picking up. Demonstrations in the capital, Chisinau, have exploded over the last few months and are increasing in ferocity and in their intransigence. The discontent stems from the alleged theft of more than $1 billion from government coffers — a full one-fifth of the tiny, poor country’s gross domestic product.
Moldova became one of the first flash points of the post-Soviet era when conflict broke out in its eastern Transdniestria region in the early nineties. The region, which sits along Moldova’s border with Ukraine, proclaims its allegiance to the Russian Federation. Its political status is still unresolved. Currently Transdniestria is seen by the Moldovan authorities as an autonomous, self-governed region of the country. Transdniestria, however, sees itself as a sovereign nation, although one with limited recognition. The conflict itself remains frozen, set in place under a cease-fire agreement, similar to South Ossetia in Georgia and the Donbas region controlled by separatists in Eastern Ukraine. …
One cannot help but wonder if this poor, small state, hopelessly caught in the middle of the tug-of-war between the East and the West, will not become the target of increased Russian intervention in the coming months. Russian President Vladimir Putin is on a roll: He has basically frozen the conflict in East Ukraine, annexed Crimea, and injected Russian power into the Middle East for decades to come. The Obama administration will not stop him. America must wait for new elections for that to happen.
Could little green men show up in Moldova to protect Russia’s interest there? It seems quite possible.
Yes it does.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Syrians have fled their homes south of Aleppo following a Syrian army offensive backed by Hezbollah, Iranian fighters, and Russian airstrikes:
“Around 35,000 people are reported to have been displaced from Hader and Zerbeh on the southwestern outskirts of Aleppo city, following government offensives over last few days,” said OCHA spokeswoman Vanessa Huguenin.
Russia has, by the way, also bombed three Syrian hospitals:
The latest attack, on Tuesday, killed at least 12 people at Sarmin hospital in Idlib Province. At least three of the victims were believed to be medical staff.
At least three hospitals have been bombed by fighter jets in north-western Syria since Russia’s intervention in the war began in late September, doctors and international observers claim.
(We’re perhaps not in the best position to be criticizing, given our recent mishap in Kunduz, but there’s a difference between doing it by accident and doing it as a policy.) Anyway, speaking of Afghanistan, guess who’s back?
In a disturbing echo of its Syria intervention, Russia is stepping up its military and security involvement in Afghanistan following Nato’s withdrawal and subsequent, dramatic advances by the Taliban and Islamic State. …
Moscow has also reportedly agreed to a plea from Abdul Rashid Dostum, the Russian-trained veteran warlord who is now the first vice-president of Afghanistan, to supply Kabul with helicopter gunships and other heavy weapons. Dostum visited Moscow this month, and also met the Putin ally and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in Grozny.
“The Russian side is committed to support Afghanistan in terms of helping its air and military forces,” Dostum’s spokesman, Sultan Faizy, said. “We’re lacking air support, weapons, ammunition. We need a lot of backing and support to fight against terrorism.”
Kadyrov said: “Dostum noted that Isis is trying to make Afghanistan into a bridgehead … In order to prevent this threat, Kabul needs Russia’s support, as in Syria.” …
As in Syria and parts of Iraq, Putin sees a developing power vacuum caused by US disengagement and western political aversion to military intervention.
In this lies another post-Crimea opportunity to boost Russia’s profile as a global player, a key Putin objective. Moscow mocked Barack Obama’s postponement last week of further US troop withdrawals from Afghanistan as proof that Washington’s policy in the country had failed.
In Libya, Reports France24, there’s no hope in sight:
Two governments are battling for power, two rival investment authorities are claiming the oil-rich nation’s revenues, a motley mix of militias are fighting turf wars, the Islamic State group (IS) is widening its Libyan footprint, and human traffickers are sending ever-increasing migrant flows to Europe’s shores.
“Libya is the largest piece of terra nullius in the world. As of today, there is no sovereignty in Libya,” said Jason Pack, president of Libya-Analysis.com. “After Syria and Ukraine, Libya is the third most pressing Western foreign policy crisis because many of the main threats Europe is facing right now – the Islamic State, migration – are symptoms of state implosion in Libya.” …
More than four years after then French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain’s David Cameron led the international effort to support the Libyan uprising against Gaddafi, Libya is being ignored if only because the situation in Syria is dominating international concern.
“The problem is no one has the willpower,” explained Pack. “There is a tragic lack of interest because no one wants to be like [President George W] Bush and [Prime Minister Tony] Blair in Iraq.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who met US President Barack Obama at the White House on Thursday, has rebuffed attempts to limit his country’s use of tactical nuclear weapons, Pakistani officials said.
Pakistan insists smaller weapons would deter a sudden attack by its neighbour India, which is also a nuclear power. But the US worries they may further destabilise an already volatile region because their smaller size makes them more tempting to use in a conventional war.
The Obama administration is nonetheless preparing to sell eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan:
The decision on the jets is aligned with Mr Obama’s decision to extend the US troop presence in Afghanistan.
Congress was notified just days ago about the proposed sale of the additional fighters
But let’s not get distracted: The big spectacle’s in the South China Sea, where we’re hurtling toward a showdown. The U.S. Navy is poised to sail near seven artificial islands China constructed in the Spratly archipelago over the past two years to challenge Chinese sovereignty claims there.
Chinese propaganda organs are likewise in hysterics:
The United States’ provocative attempts to infringe on China’s South China Sea sovereignty are sabotaging regional peace and stability and militarizing the waters. …
Let us not forget that in October 1962, when the Soviet Union was building missile sites in Cuba — not even on U.S. soil — U.S. President Kennedy made it clear in a televised speech that the United States would not “tolerate the existence of the missile sites currently in place.”
What on earth makes the United States think China should and will tolerate it when U.S. surface ships trespass on Chinese territory in the South China Sea?
China will never tolerate any military provocation or infringement on sovereignty from the United States or any other country, just as the United States refused to 53 years ago. …
To destabilize the region and contain China, the United States has deliberately involved non-party nations, such as Japan, in the South China Sea issue and stirred disputes between China and other parties, including the Philippines.
By no means will China let the provocateurs make waves in waters that should be characterized by peace, friendship and cooperation.
Last year, the bilateral trade volume between China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) exceeded 480 billion U.S. dollars.
Concerned nations have no alternative but to jointly deal with disputes in the South China Sea that pose a threat to the development and prosperity of parties in the region. …
Even though enhancing mutual trust and managing disputes through high-level visits and talks still remains the first option for China, the country will, without any doubt, adopt countermeasures against the United States if it doesn’t stop military provocations that infringe upon China.
People with vision in Washington should and must see clearly China’s determination in safeguarding national sovereignty and regional security.
Oh, and by the way, Robert Mugabe has received China’s Confucius peace prize:
The chairman of an award dubbed China’s Nobel peace prize has defended the decision to honour Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean President, for supposedly “injecting fresh energy” into the global quest for harmony.
Mr. Mugabe, who has been accused of using systematic violence and torture to maintain his 35-year grip on power, recently became the latest recipient of China’s Confucius peace prize.
Not making that one up.
Iran — which as you may recall just test-fired a medium-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead in direct violation of United Nations sanctions that have been in place for years — is likewise cranking the agitprop-crazy-factor to eleven. Fars news reports:
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iraqi security and popular forces have caught an Israeli colonel from Golani Brigade along with a number of ISIL terrorists, a commander disclosed on Thursday.
“The security and popular forces have held captive an Israeli colonel,” a commander of Iraq’s popular mobilization forces said on Thursday.
“The Zionist officer is ranked colonel and had participated in the Takfiri ISIL group’s terrorist operations,” he added.
Noting that he was arrested along with a number of ISIL terrorists, the commander said, “The Israeli colonel’s name is Yusi Oulen Shahak and is ranked colonel in Golani Brigade of the Zionist regime’s army with the security and military code of Re34356578765az231434.”
He said that the relevant bodies are now interrogating the Israeli colonel to understand the reasons behind his fighting alongside the ISIL forces and the presence of other Zionist officers among ISIL terrorists.
The Iraqi security forces said the captured colonel has already made shocking confessions.
Several ISIL militants arrested in the last one year had already confessed that Israeli agents from Mossad and other Israeli espionage and intelligence bodies were present in the first wave of ISIL attacks on Iraq and capture of Mosul in Summer 2014, but no ranking Israeli agent had been arrested.
Totally logical.
To judge from Fars, the nuclear deal hasn’t resulted in as much of a warming in our relationship with Iran as one might have hoped:
TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian commander underlined that the resistance forces are now fighting the arrogant powers along their borders, adding that “the frontline is now along the Mediterranean coasts”.
“Today, the frontline of battle against the world arrogance is the Mediterranean coasts and inside the enemy borders,” Lieutenant Commander of the IRGC Saheb al-Zaman Corp in Isfahan province Brigadier General Mojtaba Fada said on Tuesday. …
“The Islamic Revolution is spreading and the Basiji way of thinking has made the arrogant power face with a deadlock and a landmark historical defeat and failure,” he added. …
“The expansion of Iran’s military power has raced up and is now making progress at a high speed, meaning that today, we are able to hit all the vital interests of the enemies at any point in the region,” he added.
(Contributing to this useful discussion at Fars News is one Peter Bohmer, who teaches political economy at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. “We interviewed Prof. Bohmer,” reports Fars coyly, “and asked him to share with us his experience and knowledge of the history of anti-war movements in the United States, the Occupy Wall Street campaign and contemporary social and political dilemmas ahead of the American people.” He was most forthcoming. Where do they find these people?)
Anyway, that’s a short tour. All a bit disturbing, but not to worry, Obama’s got a handle on the gravity of this situation. He’s right on top of it and sending a firm signal of resolution by vetoing our annual defense spending bill.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Some of the language in those stories is interesting. For example:
“On July 1, 2015, the US conducted a flight test of a dormant B-61 12 nuclear bomb.”
Inert. Not dormant, inert. They were flight testing the newest version of a very old weapon – the B-61 was designed in 1963, and the Mod 12 is just the newest upgrade. It’s more accurate, but has a much smaller yield.
Meanwhile, Russia is actually building brand-new nuclear weapons and delivery systems…
So… no cute cat videos this morning?
I’m going to need something stronger than coffee this morning after this…
Me too.
I didn’t read Paul Craig Roberts quote (didn’t read the full story) as calling for Americans to be wiped out. I take that as calling for a very specific group to tried. I don’t know Mr. Roberts politics etc., but the group he is attacking has a track record worthy of attack.
I think he’s genuinely schizophrenic or otherwise mentally ill. 9/11 truther, thinks the attack on Charlie Hebdo was staged by the CIA. Complete and utter loon.
Regrettably, this is not much new. Paul Craig Roberts, et. al. remain at war with neo-cons. Russia and China use propaganda. China is working diligently to cultivate African regimes. Pakistan is a nuclear power. Iran is being Iran.
So what? This is the world and this kind of stuff has been going on daily for years. Maybe today is worse, maybe tomorrow will be better. But, this is kind of a typical day.
Mr. Lenin would have at least asked, “What is to be done?” And answered it.
So other than fret, what is to be done?
Wonderful, after reading this I feel absolutely suicidal.
That sheds additional light on the gentleman. Shame, because some of what he says in the quote you posted isn’t off the reservation.
I’m starting to wonder if it’s time to get into real estate.
And by that, I mean “real estate at least 20 miles outside of any metropolitan area, at least that far away from any military bases, and upwind of probable fallout patterns.”
BB67,
Re Roberts. He is upset over neocons. That is his real nemisis.
So you’re saying “good morning” like Professor Farnsworth says “good news” I see.
It appears to me that the GOP’s political tasks are as follows:
See to it that the American people are made aware of these events. The task is made more complicated by the MSM’s impulse toward radio-silence regarding all information that reflects badly on Democrats and their preferred policies. Life is like that. They have to find some work-around.
Have a surrogate unaffiliated with the GOP–or at least unaffiliated with any GOP candidate–point out to the American people that they endanger their families and themselves by electing Democrat presidents. The GOP needs to influence the voters who voted for Obama to at least not vote for the Democratic nominee or–ideally–to vote for the GOP’s nominee. These voters need to be made to understand that because they screwed-up and contributed to Obama’s election they also voted for a much more threatening world. Of course people will naturally feel insulted after being told in so many words that they chose stupidly. If, say, they are told this by a GOP candidate then they might feel insulted and then the risk is they might avenge this insult by voting for the Democrat candidate again anyway. Consequently this message is ideally delivered to these fools by some third party that can both tell Obama voters the consequences of being too stupid to vote sanely and be the lighting rod that safely discharges their anger.
James Madison:
And Baghdad do whatever she please.
The world is always coming apart, that’s its nature. Without many complex and determined efforts entropy dominates, so we can’t get too upset. Our competitors are taking advantage of everything they can while the Obama Administrations remains in power. They wont believe any push back from Obama and words don’t help from any side, so we might as well keep our cool. However, we must continue to steam around the South China sea and not reduce our presence or our practices in any form because it will be extremely difficult to rewind. Inertia is good in this situation. The same thing is happening domestically by the way.
Step 1: Don’t veto the defense spending bill.
Quite right. Step 2: Stop being “humble and downbeat” and start being well-informed & assertive (not aggressive).
Oh, by the way, thanks for distracting me from the pleasant feelings I had from the Seahawks’ convincing road win last night. :)
Paul Craig Roberts hasn’t been sane since the ’90s.
With all that’s going on in Eurasia, I think it’s worth keeping an eye on the western hemisphere, too.
Brazil: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-21/brazil-impeachment-papers-about-to-drop-as-crisis-hits-new-stage
Argentina: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-34580287
Venezuela: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/guyana-says-venezuela-lays-false-claim-to-gold-mine/
That’s how you’re supposed to feel, but I refuse to give them the satisfaction.
I do think it’s important to be aware just how much these regimes hate us, however. And to take it very seriously.
Agree, perhaps you’d like to write an update about it?
Scorpion’s got to sting the frog, though.
If you want to know why Roberts’ rantings have such a familiar ring, just substitute “neocons” with “Jews”.
Does it qualify as a ‘convincing road win’ considering they played the hapless 49’ers?
I love how the ’49ers have just completely collapsed. Warms the cockles of my heart, it does.
I think that’s probably literally true, as opposed to, “his political opinions became very weird.” It seems as if he developed clinical paranoia or something. The trend that’s very disturbing is that these propaganda outlets used to report what people like him said, but now people like him are their columnists — paid agents, in other words. Part of a very sophistication propaganda war that includes less persuasive figured like him, but much more persuasive ones like Snowden. And they never lost the institutional knowledge about how to undermine the West that they had during the Cold War, or their strategies for doing it. You can see it all coming back to life, now — the same tactics we saw when we finally got to look at the Soviet archives, or when I did:
Agree. The first step is acknowledging who and what the enemy is.
Especially since “neocon” is a code word for “Jews.”
I am confused by the term “neocon.” The online Merriam Webster dictionary gives the following definition: “a conservative who advocates the assertive promotion of democracy and United States national interest in international affairs including through military means.” Wikipedia says they are former Democrats who left the leftward shifting party and hold the international approach of the Merriam Webster definition.
Needless to say, neocons in international affairs differ widely in outlook from libertarian conservatives who tend to prefer a policy of nonintervention.
That said, I was curious about the European screeching about being caught in some sort of US “nuclear trap.” What trap is that exactly? It seems to me that a superpower US has allowed Europe to become militarily weak and complacent on the theory that the US was always available to step in where needed. That allowed Europe to spend more and more on social programs, ignoring its own defensive needs. It seems to me that it is time for Europe to put on its big boy pants and be ready for an aggressive Putinesque Russian.
I guess I am not a neocon. My life is safe from Paul Craig Roberts for now.
Except that it seems only our world is coming apart – theirs seems to be shaping up quite nicely.