We Saw This Coming – American Falls Into Its Own Trap

As long ago as November 2000 ICPS discussed: Indo-Russian Relations: Perspectives

Q: The US is using terrorism to engulf Russia, India and China. It is not keen on cooperation in this field. Hence it is imperative for these three countries to develop cooperation in this field.

R: I don’t think the US is using terrorism as an instrument of manipulation to counter Russia, China and India. There are other instruments of manipulation available like IMF, WTO, and World Bank.

Q: Is Russia looking for any strategic partners? Does India play role here?

R: In the wake of NATO expansion, Russia does see the need for strategic cooperation. However, it is uncertain about whom it can cooperate with. It has listed India and China as its strategic partners. But the triangle is a badly conceived idea. The three together cannot face the threat from the US. The three countries have very little convergence of interests.  Further, they have signed separate bilateral agreements with the West to gain some concessions. Besides, there are contentious issues between India and China which would hinder effective cooperation.

Q: We use the term ‘threat’ in different contexts. What is Russia’s threat perception?

R: Russia’s threat perception is inherited from the Cold War. The Democrats in Russia view US as a force threatening its territorial integrity and thus endangering democracy and the future of its political development. The Communists view NATO expansion as a major threat. They also perceive the US as hindering the Russian State from its revival to extract resources from the region. However, the current levels of threat perception do not extend to a nuclear attack.

BossKitty has seen this coming for over a year and written these OpEds:

America has been the epitome of self-justified consumerism for decades. America must accept that their place on the consumer, self-consumed tree of life is dropping a few branches. China and India are clambering for the top branch. The Sino-Russian alliance is reshuffling world economics. India is its own boom town. The emergence of ‘middle class’ in these countries is toppling the middle class in America. Why? Americans have become soft and impractical. Americans are consumer robots that are mesmerized by ‘image over substance’. That is exactly where America’s marketing geniuses have brought us. Some Americans are waking up to a world known by their grand parents and great grand parents. Frugal is no longer a ‘quaint concept’. Gas prices and their effect on food and necessities is the slap in the face we need to come out of the hypnosis we have been enjoying. … America has been hitting the snooze alarm too long.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For those not paying attention, the baby steps of a serious economic and political alliance within this huge region (Asia and SouthEast Asia) is unfolding. The keystone here is Russia. With the Sino-Russian Treaty that followed the 911 attacks, Russia and China sought to strengthen their geo-political positions out of concern for US reactions. They saw the US opportunity to expand its “sphere of influence” for security reasons. They were correct. This was the impetus for Trans-Siberia Pipeline which includes the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Pipeline. Enter the opportunity to embrace the Iranian economy and promote the IPI pipeline. Russia encourages Ahmadinejad to step up the diplomacy within the region. The Sino-Russia-Iranian empire will naturally include India, Pakistan and dip into the entire South East Asia region. We are looking at an economic alliance that will rival the EU and anything the US may do to unite the Western Hemisphere.

The next President of the United States will have to deal with a very powerful economic force. The rhetoric of attacking Iran because we are “pretty sure” they want nuclear weapons because they hate Israel, threatens more than just Iran. The majority of the world population is not going to allow these threats to materialize without response. Much of this world is hungry and fears for its own future. The US has alienated many of these cultures. The hand of Ahmadinejad offers hope for sustenance in a shifting global economy.

America must choose its next president carefully. The arrogance that America’s way is the ONLY way will be its doom if the rhetoric and posturing continues. We must not forget that the Third World is much larger and more desperate than the First World.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It appears that Russia and China are only compatible when it comes to protecting their interests with Iran. However, mixed signals about this odd couple warrant closer scrutiny. Both countries are definite about opposing western interference in places where they have material interest. This administration has done too much to push these giant countries together. Their differences are shrinking as the US becomes a bigger thorn in their security.

The more America behaves as a proprietary empire, countries will view us as a common menace.  Those countries will put aside their differences to unite in a protective coalition of their own.  As we see happening right now, China and Russia will stand to protect their investments and economic stability. America is creating enemies bigger than we are.  Arrogance is not sustainable.  Paybacks are hell …

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While we were sleeping and having dreams about Middle East Empires, Russia is pissed off. It holds hands with China and agrees that the US is out of control, they decide to ‘buddy up’. North Korea, in the meanwhile, is getting closer to what it wanted all along, RESPECT. Their name is being scratched off the ‘evil nation’ list and Kim will get his favorite booze … The good ole Cold War days, James Bond and I Spy, are returning to a country near you. What a relief this will be. Let those double agents knock each other off in clandestine scenarios instead of trashing whole countries. Oh yeah, Cold War is more doable than what we have now. Watch Putin’s successor very closely, hope he remembers “mutually assured destruction” (the MAD rule) that kept everyone alive and on their guard.

Putin no longer tries to reason with the spoiled bullies running this country. Moscow and Beijing are building a coalition that out-numbers anything the West could ever imagine. While the US sells arms to anyone with a ‘fistful of dollars’, the East is purchasing advanced weapons technology from anywhere they find it. This A-Bomb-A-Nation has squandered its resources on a loosing proposition to corner a market on fossil energy.

The other side of the world is watching the US waste away … when they’re ready, they will pull the plug and sell billions of US Treasury notes to hamstring our economy. Anyone guess at the long term motive? China and Russia see a delicious opportunity, and Eastern businesses are notorious entrepreneurs. What a prize we would be … are we too weary to see the big picture? Are we blind? Do we even care? Political overload and despondency over a Middle East quagmire have created so much infighting that our attention deficit leaves the US vulnerable. Judeo-Christian-Islamic militant extremists are wasting away defensive resources to the point that anyone could just walk in and declare the US as the western province of a greater empire. Oh yes, there would be a lot of blood, most of it ours. Yes, the unthinkable could happen out of desperate frustration. Like a jealous lover who cries ‘if I can’t have you, then no one can’ just as he shoots the very one they love. Problem is that everyone has nukes …

US Attention Deficit Focuses On Wrong Threat, Downplays Sino-Russian Empire 21-Aug-07

Russian bombers launch missiles over Arctic 03-Sep-07

China deals blow to Western efforts to punish Iran 17-Nov-07

From an interview with Scott Horton, who taught Saakashvili at Columbia University, and then hired him to work at his law firm and Paul Saunders, executive director of the Nixon Center, a foreign policy think-tank that has hosted several appearances by Saakashvili. Saunders served in the Bush Administration from 2003 – 2005 as Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs.:

… the immediate issue is how he (Saakashvili ) was stupid enough to get into a war with Russia given the fact that Russia was looking to send a message – particularly after the Kosovo incident where – the Bush continuation of the Clinton policy of breaking Kosovo away from Serbia.

However, Saunders added as to Team Bush:

“The administration absolutely was telling him not to provoke the Russians and to resolve the dispute peacefully. The problem is that Mr. Saakashvili was also getting a number of other mixed messages from the administration. The administration was making it very clear that they were willing to take on the European opposition to bring Georgia into NATO. There was considerable support for the Georgian military, a variety of other steps.

“And then, just a month ago, you had Secretary Rice in Tbilisi standing next to Saakashvili saying, in response to a question from him, ‘Mr. President, we always fight for our friends.’

“And it’s clear that she had something else in mind. She was talking about the dispute with our allies over joining NATO. But this very open-ended statement on her part, I think, cannot but have created some opportunities for misunderstanding, let me put it that way.”

At that point Horton added:

“Well, I want to go back to the question about American — the American voice here. I think he’s absolutely right. America wasn’t speaking with a single, clear voice.

“We had lower-level State Department officials giving a correct message, but it was confused and it was overridden by a louder voice from Washington that came particularly from the neocon community. I think we see tragic consequences from that.”

I also thought it was interesting that Senator McCain by the end of the week was emphasizing that: (i) he did not want to start a new Cold War; (ii) that it was not clear who started what; but (ii) Russia had gone over the top.

US credibility is important for everyone so no mixed messages. While Rice should be canned – indeed Bush is leaving in 5 months – 43 should finally act like a world leader.

While this is risky in suggesting that 43 does this because he could screw it up 0- the track record sucks – it is also time to do more which is to assure stability by reinvoking the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine taking it selectively global coupled with a reminder to Russia that it borders a lot of countries – including the US – and boundaries have to be respected. However, the actual execution of this should be left to Secretary of Defense Bob Gates not Condi Rice.

… the US has been a “front line” state with Russia since 1867. The US has had a front line border with Russia in the form of Alaska, which was purchased from Russia in 1867.

Missile Defense: Washington and Poland just moved the World closer to War by F. William Engdahl  The signing on August 14 of an agreement between the governments of the United States and Poland to deploy on Polish soil US ‘interceptor missiles’ is the most dangerous move towards nuclear war the world has seen since the 1962 Cuba Missile crisis.

Wag the Dog: How to Conceal Massive Economic Collapse by Ellen Brown  “War is show business, that’s why we’re here.” – “Wag the Dog” (1997 film) … the Plunge Protection Team had come to the rescue. Formally known as the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, the PPT was once concealed and its very existence denied as if it were a matter of strict national security. But the PPT has now come out of the closet. What was once a legally questionable “manipulator” of markets has become a sanctioned stabilizer and protector of markets.

“Naval Blockade” or All Out War Against Iran? by Michel Chossudovsky Shortly after this article was released on August 13, US military sources as well as Stratfor (a Strategic Studies Think Tank) stated that the various press reports (UPI, Middle East Times, Kuwait Times, Debka) regarding the naval deployment to the Middle East were incorrect.

According to the press reports (see UPI, August 11, 2008), the war ships involved in the “Operation Brimstone” war games off the US North Atlantic coast, had set sail for the Middle East. This information is apparently incorrect, according to the US Navy and Stratfor.

It is worth noting that the Kuwaiti government had activated emergency procedures based on the information pertaining to a major naval deployment in the Persian Gulf.

War in the Caucasus: Towards a Broader Russia-US Military Confrontation? by Michel Chossudovsky During the night of August 7, coinciding with the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, Georgia’s president Saakashvili ordered an all-out military attack on Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia. … The importance and timing of this military operation must be carefully analyzed. It has far-reaching implications.

Georgia is an outpost of US and NATO forces, on the immediate border of the Russian Federation and within proximity of the Middle East Central Asian war theater. South Ossetia is also at the crossroads of strategic oil and gas pipeline routes. Moscow has accused NATO of “encouraging Georgia”. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underscored the destabilizing impacts of “foreign” military aid to Georgia:

“It all confirms our numerous warnings addressed to the international community that it is necessary to pay attention to massive arms purchasing by Georgia during several years. Now we see how these arms and Georgian special troops who had been trained by foreign specialists are used,” he said.(Moscow accuses NATO of having “encouraged Georgia” to attack South Ossetia, Russia Today, August 9, 2008)  Contrary to what was conveyed by Western media reports, the attacks were anticipated by Moscow. The attacks were timed to coincide with the opening of the Olympics, largely with a view to avoiding frontpage media coverage of the Georgian military operation.
A process of escalation and confrontation between Russia and America is unfolding, reminiscent of the Cold War era.

Are we dealing with an act of provocation, with a view to triggering a broader conflict?  Supported by media propaganda, the Western military alliance is intent on using this incident to confront Russia, as evidenced by recent NATO statements.

Putin’s Winning Hand

So much for predictions.  What I saw last year was a trend that mimicked history, again and again.  I saw America speeding toward the great pothole in the road and felt helpless to stop it.  The best I could do was start preparing for my own survival.  The famous GWOT  (Global War On Terror), lit the fuse to destroy any credibility the United States had left.  By forming alliances that appear to reinforce Bush’s aggressions in other areas,  Bush has made impossible commitments.  This flaw has not gone unnoticed by the Sino-Russian and Indo-Russian alliances.  Even before 9/11, these Asian alliances were positioning themselves to meet the anticipated US policy change.  Blatant aggression to promote economic superiority.  By preaching Democracy while behaving Imperialistically, protective alliances formed against the US.  Western media conveniently reports only those portions of a story that promote the public US position on their allies misbehavior.  The US and NATO have exacerbated misbehavior problems, as witnessed in Georgia-Osstia, by promising to protect president Saakashvili from Russia …  The US is guilty of ignoring history.  The US is guilty of disinformation on the scale of Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s USSR.  The rest of the world has witnessed too much US misbehavior to support US policies, unless coerced.

Obviously, Putin is an excellent Chess Player,  while Bush still looses at Checkers … Unfortunately, these games cost a lot of lives and reek much distruction.  Oil is the “great Satan”  and we are beholden to it’s clutches. We are all M.A.D.