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All You Need to Know About Ukraine

Submitted by Freaking Heck on 03/14/2014 00:18 -0400

By: Chris Tell at http://capitalistexploits.at/

A politician is a material incarnation of the absolute worst of human nature. Look around you, it's self-evident. Basic human nature is to survive. Once that is accomplished and we become comfortable, extremes in behaviour can develop. If you're a typical politician those extremes normally manifest as unchecked ego and unbridled power. A bad combination!

Putin is many things, but stupid isn't one of them. Yes he is dangerous, yes he is power hungry, but show me a politician that is not. Again, politics is where the worst of human nature congregates, like flies to shit.

Russian Pipeline network in Ukraine

Take a look at the map above. It tells you all you need to know about why Ukraine is in the cross-hairs of the world's super powers. It is about the Russian pipeline network that feeds Europe, plain and simple. Ukraine is, as you can see, a pretty damn important piece in the Russian energy distribution network.

This has nothing to do with Russians in Ukraine. "Brother Vlad" would gun those "countrymen" down in a heartbeat if they threatened his pipelines. He'd then return to his morning tea without a second thought. "Pass the toast Alina." Oh, and unless you have been drinking the western media Kool Aid, the Brits and Yanks would do the same. This isn't a cultural issue, it's a matter of ECONOMICS, POWER AND POLITICS.

The 64 million dollar question now is how far will the delusional, intellectually bankrupt "gentlemen" that inhabits the White House push this with Putin..?

Obama's foreign policy is a joke. The decisions coming out of this administration are nothing short of BRAIN DEAD. Imposing sanctions on Russia only serves to push Putin into a corner. If he backs down now he loses credibility, which means he can't, as it would be political suicide.

I cannot fathom what the Obama administration thought they would get out of imposing sanctions, other than further alienating the Russians and endangering millions upon millions of people in the region.

Did they really think Putin would roll over and say "Sorry gee, you know what you're right."?

Did they really think that the Europeans, who by the way Russia has by the balls (via control over the flow of natural gas), would see it in their best interests to follow the US and antagonize the hand that feeds them?

Did they really think that China would back them up on this one?

The US's "allies" and "friends" have not suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. This is the real price of the NSA spying.

The US has the world's largest , most sophisticated military. Spending on its military ($683.7B) alone is greater than the entire GDP of Afghanistan ($33.7B), where they have been unable to suppress the restless locals.

Antagonizing China and Russia is a dangerous game. One misstep and we could have WWIII on our hands, which would be most unfortunate.

- Chris

"If one looks at the map of the world, it's difficult to find Iraq, and one would think it rather easy to subdue such a small country." - Vladimir Putin

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Fri, 03/14/2014 - 12:12 | 4548225 hardcleareye

I have been reading ZH for many years.... the quality of the articles that Tyler has been putting up has decreased over time. I am seeing a higher percentage of poorly cited and researched crap that boarders on propaganda from lame stream media showing up on this site.

I come here to read a divergence of opinions on a subject matter... what I am reading is becoming saturated with lame stream media propaganda....... (case in point the reprinting of a USA Today article the other day...)

I suspect this has to do with the ads you see on the side banners. The Economic Undertow, Jesse's Cafe American and The Burning Platform have written about this issue and the chilling effects these ads had on "free speech"........

The old ZH you enjoyed may be disappear before your lying eyes.....

Sat, 03/15/2014 - 10:56 | 4551707 BeetleBailey

Other than the asinine Phoenix Capital submissions to ZH, I have not seen any watering down of the ZH articles. I've been here over 2 years.

What HAS been watered down are the newer members. Most seem to be complete fucking assholes; commies, fucked up liberal losers and war-mongering no-nothings.

THAT'S what has declined.

Fri, 03/14/2014 - 12:35 | 4548424 falak pema

Its time you contributed to upgrading ZH by posting your pearls of wisdom; like imagery to mind-boggle the uninitiated souls to media boon-doggling and side views of bannered tomfoolery on forex drilling, bitcoin chilling, russian femen tits ogling or philippino chick mouthwatering.

Lying eyes and sighing sirens...what a way to go in fight club when you can show the world the hidden face of the geopolitical moon other than when it moonshines miserably like tea party hokum pokum on Miserly dons of austerian gold buggery.

When excellence in analysis meets mediocrity in synthesis due to party line subservience to a lost cause littered with stale tea party leaves.

Fri, 03/14/2014 - 17:18 | 4549792 The Wedge

"Tell us about the war, man"

"You mean the one in Vietnam"

"The war in Viet-fucking-nam"

"......................................."

"That's all I have to say about that"

Good job Forest!

Fri, 03/14/2014 - 07:46 | 4547039 johnQpublic

so submit something better

Fri, 03/14/2014 - 19:08 | 4550161 Taint Boil

What about the Rwandan Genocide? Oh about 500,000 – 1,000,000 were killed with machetes, etc. Where was the US fucking A for that? What no oil you say …. no pipelines ….. skin not white … well gosh darn it – none our fucking business.

Burn in hell submerged in a vat of steaming diarrhea you war mongering pieces of shit.

How’s that … any better?

Fri, 03/14/2014 - 12:28 | 4548389 WhyWait

Another perspective on what this is about, from the NYTimes, the mouthpiece which the US ruling circles use to share the facts, thoughts and ideas they think the US "1%" need to know:

Titans in Russia Fear New Front in Ukraine Crisis

By ELLEN BARRYMARCH 10, 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/world/europe/russian-oligarchs-on-ukra...

"When Vladimir V. Putin returned to the Russian presidency in 2012, one of the first messages he sent to his political elite, many of them heads of banks and large corporations, was that the times had changed: Owning assets outside Russia makes you too vulnerable to moves by foreign governments, he told them. It is time to bring your wealth home."<snip>

Fri, 03/14/2014 - 16:19 | 4549516 BearOfNH

Pot to kettle: "You're black!"

Fri, 03/14/2014 - 23:01 | 4550936 TheReplacement

Kettle back to pot: "Yeah well, you're only half black!"

Sat, 03/15/2014 - 15:09 | 4552430 New_Meat

tha's haf-racis

Fri, 03/14/2014 - 17:22 | 4549810 WhyWait

Yeah, in a way, but actually no, this suggests the opposite.

It's clear Ellen Barry and her editors don't approve of Putin denying all those billionaires and centi-millionaires (or "our" billionaires and bankers) their freedom, and that seems to be why they see him as dangerous.

She's saying that Putin and his circle, for whatever reason (and however misguided?) really are putting some kind of "interests of Russia" above those of its wealthy and bankers. And the Russian people, for whatever reason (and however deluded?) really are supporting this.

Is this how the insiders in our shadow government really experience Putin? It has a ring of truth to it. She doesn't spell it out, but the logical conclusion? Is this the reason our billionaires and banksters, and the high-class gangsters who run our governments for them, won't make a deal and have targeted Russia for destruction?

And does that mean Putin and his circle are still Communists? Not in the sense of supporting any kind of working class power or even any kind of wealth transfer, but clearly they are willing to make decisions that are not based on what is good for profits or wealth accumulation but rather on what is good for the survival and independence of their state. I'm not sure what the right word for that is, or which groups of people in Russia that serves.

The question for us: if this is the real issue, should we stop our government from preparing to launch World War III to stop them?

Sat, 03/15/2014 - 02:12 | 4551308 Element

Unfortunately the article also fails to note that if this were all about pipeline gas and oil transit, then Russia seems to be 'annexing' the entirely wrong bit of Ukraine.

So what's in Crimea, besides off-shore oil platforms and fairly minor gas/oil pipeline flows? Oh, that's right, the Black Sea Fleet, that very thing which poked NATO and White House in the eye, oh, just last Aug/Sept 2013.

How soon people forget ... if they ever even knew.

But somehow it's all about gas pipelines again?

i.e. "All You Need to Know About Ukraine"

Riiight.

Sorry, but we need to know quite a lot more about Ukraine, and also Russia, than what this article posits if we're to understand the observable dynamics of this situation. If it were about securing pipeline trade Russia would have invaded to Kiev, and then on to the Polish border. But the resulting insurgency and long-term regional destabilization from this could easily lead to constant attacks on the pipelines, thus no reliable gas flow.

So Europe could be flung into genuine Great-Depression collapse.

Then we'd see proper banking system freeze-up and collapse.

(Sorry Chris Tell, but articles which say it's all one thing, or all another thing, are invariably completely inadequate, at best.)

Fri, 03/14/2014 - 23:03 | 4550947 TheReplacement

When I'm President I will keep checking sites like ZH for daily doses of reality, between the trials and executions of course.

Fri, 03/14/2014 - 11:37 | 4547968 WhyWait

It would be most amazing if this confrontation of the US and its vassal states with Russia, risking thermonuclear war, were just about control of some gas pipelines. That kind of issue could be worked out. Yet some powerful people have decided to throw down on the Ukrane crisis, signalling their willingness to at least risk the loss of an uncertain number of their (our) cities and millions or tens of millions of the lives of their subjects (us), and risk the precipitation of a global economic and public health crisis, in order to get their way.

Nor can the willingness of Putin's Russia to pick up the gauntlet be so easily explained. With few allies, a vastly smaller economy and a much smaller and less lavishly funded military, and confronted with the likelihood of devastating losses and destruction in the event of war, if the issue was just pipelines Russia's kleptocracy clearly would be smarter to take the deal. Any deal.

Confronted with the seemingly inexplicable, it's always tempting to grasp for simple formulas to cut through the mystery. It's very difficult for normal people to get inside the minds of sociopathic criminals, fascinated as we may be with them. But try we must, because people's actions are never driven mechanically by simple economic interests. Always, even for the gods on Olympus, their actions are mediated by beliefs and the stories they tell each other.

A different perspective from a broader context, by a former top US diplomat with impeccably conservative credentials:

"Pushing the Ukraine Crisis Closer to War: Germany’s Chancellor Merkel, An Instrument of Washington" By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts http://www.globalresearch.ca/pushing-the-ukraine-crisis-closer-to-war-ge...

Fri, 03/14/2014 - 12:09 | 4548287 hardcleareye

That link is a really good site!! There are other good articles to be found on this subject matter there that I have read and found insightful.

All You Need to Know About Ukraine

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